Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana, or, A fabrick of science natural, upon the hypothesis of atoms founded by Epicurus repaired [by] Petrus Gassendus ; augmented [by] Walter Charleton ...

BOOK the FIRST. (Book 1)

CHAP. I. All Modern Philosophers reduced to four general Orders; and the principal causes of their Dissention.

SECT. I.

IF we look back into the Monuments or Remains of Antiquitie,* 1.1 we shall observe as many several SECTS of Philosophers, as were the Olym∣piads in which Greece wore the Imperial Diadem of Letters; nay, perhaps, as many as she contained Academies, and publike Professors of Arts and Sciences: Each Ma∣ster affecting to be reputed the principal Secretary of Nature; and his Disciples (their minds be∣ing deeply imbued with his princi∣ples) admiring him as the Grand Oracle of Divinitie, and the infallible Dictator of Scientifical Maxims. The chiefest, most diffused, and most memorable of these Sects, were the Pythagorean, the Stoick, the Platonist, the Academick, the Peripate∣tick, the Epicurean, and what, derided all the rest, the Pyrrhonian, or Sceptick; which feircely contended for the Laurel, by subtle disputati∣ons on the side of absolute Ignorance, and aspired to the Monarchy of Wisdom, by detecting the vanitie and incertitude of all Natural Sci∣ence. As for the Megarick, Eretrick, Cyreniack, Annicerian Theodorian, Cynick, Eliack, Dialectick, and others less famous; Diogenes Laertius, (de vita Philosophor.) hath preserved not only a faithful Catalogue of them, but hath also recorded their originals, declinations, periods, opinions.

* 1.2If we enquire into the Modern state of Learning, down even to our present age, we cannot but find not only the same Sects revived, but al∣so many more New ones sprung up: as if Opinion were what mysterious Poets intended by their imaginary Hydra; no sooner hath the sword of Time cut off one head, but there grows up two in the place of it; or, as if the vicissitudes of Corruption and Generation were in common as well to Philosophy, as the subject of it, Nature. Insomuch as that Adage, which was principally accommodated and restrained to express the infinite dissention of Vulgar and Unexamining Heads, Tot sententiae quot homines; may now justly be extended also to the Scholiarchs and professed enquirers into the Unitie of Truth. To enumerate all these Modern dissenting Doctors (the most modest of all which hath not blushed to hear his pedantique Disciples salute him with the magni∣ficent Attributes of a Despot in Physiologie, and the only Cynosure by which the benighted reason of man may hope to be conducted over the vertiginous Ocean of Error, to the Cape of Veritie) is neither useful to our Reader, nor advantageous or pertinent to our present Design. But, to reduce them to four General Orders, or range them into four principal Classes; as it may in some latitude of interest, concern the satisfaction of those who are less conversant among Books: so can it in no wise affront the patience of those, whose studies have already acquainted them with the several kinds of Philosophy now in esteem.

* 1.31 Some there are (and those not a few) who in the minority of their Understandings, and while their judgments are yet flexible by the weak fingers of meer Plausibilitie, and their memories like Virgin wax, apt to retain the impression of any opinion that is presented under the specious disguise of Verisimilitie only; become constant admirers of the first Au∣thor, that pleaseth them, and will never after suffer themselves to be di∣vorced from his principles, or to be made Proselytes to Truth; but make it the most serious business of their lives to propugne their Tutors authoritie, defend even his very errors, and excogitate specious subter∣fuges against those, who have with solid Arguments and Apodic••ical reasons, clearly refuted him. These stifle their own native habilities for disquisition, believe all, examine nothing; and, as if the Lamp of their own Reason were lent them by their Creator for no use at all, resign up their judgments to the implicite manuduction of some other; and all the perfection they aim at, is to be able to compose unnecessary, and perhaps erroneous Commentaries upon their Masters text. This easie Sect may, without much either of incongruitie or scandal, be named Secta 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the FEMAL Sect; because as women constantly retain their best affections for those who untied their Virgin Zone; so these will ne∣ver be alienated from immoderately affecting those Authors who had the Maiden▪ head of their minds. The chiefest Chair in this Classis ought to be consigned to our Iunior Aristoteleans, who villifie and despise all doctrine, but that of the Stagirite, and confidently measure all mens deviations from truth, by their recessions from his dictates. This we say not to derogate from the honour due to so great a Clerk; for we hold it our duty to pay him as large a tribute of Veneration, as any man that ever read his excellent Writings, without prejudice, and esteem him as 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the greatest and brightest stars in the sphere of Learning; nay we dare assert, that He was the Centre in which all the choicest spe∣culations

and observations of his Praedecessors were united, to make up as complete abody of Natural Science, as the brain of any one single person, wanting the illumination of Sacred Writ, seems capable of, in this life of obscuritie: and that He hath won the Garland from all, who have laboured to invent and praescribe a general Method for the regu∣lation and conduct of mens Cogitations and Conceptions. But, that I am not yet convicted, that his judgment was superior to mistake; that his Writings, in many places more then obscure, can well be interpreted by those who have never perused the Moniments of other Ancients; nor, that it can consist with Ingenuity to institute a Sacrament in Philosophy, (i. e.) to vow implicite vassalage to the Authoritie of any man, whose maxims were desumed from no other Oracle, but that of Natural Reason only; and to arrest all Curiositie, Disquisition, or Dubitation, with a meer 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

Hither may we refer also the patient Interpreters of Scotus; the vain Ido∣laters of Raimund Lully; but, above all, the stupid admirers of that Fana∣tick Drunkard, Paracelsus. In whose whole life, the only Rarities any so∣ber man can discover were his Fortune, and his Impudence. His Fortune, in that he being an absolute bankrupt in merit, could be trusted with so large a stock of Fame: his Impudence, in that, being wholly illiterate (for in stead of refining, He much corrupted his mother-tongue) He should praetend to subvert the Fundamentals of Aristotle and Galen, to reform the Common-weal of Learning, consummate the Arts and Sciences, write Commentaries on the Evangelists, and enrich the world with Pansophy in Aphorisms.

(2) Others there are (and those too few) whose brests being filled with true Promethean fire, and their minds of a more generous temper,* 1.4 scorn to submit to the dishonourable tyranny of that Usurper, Autority, and will admit of no Monarchy in Philosophy, besides that of Truth. These ponder the Reasons of all, but the Reputation of none; and then conform their assent, when the Arguments are nervous and convincing; not when they are urged by one, whose Name is inscribed in Golden Characters in the Legend of Fame. This Order well deserves the Epithite, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and therefore we shall Christen it, The Order of the ASSER∣TORS OF PHILOSOPHICAL LIBERTY; in re∣gard, they vindicate the native privilege of our Intellectuals, from the base villenage of Praescription. Of this Order, Gratitude it self doth ob∣lige us to account the Heroical Tycho Brahe, the subtle Kepler, the most acute Galilaeus, the profound Scheinerus, the miraculous because universal∣ly learned Kircherus, the most perspicacious Harvey, and the Epitome of all, Des Cartes. In honour of each of these Hero's, we could wish (if the con∣stitution of our Times would bear it) a Colossus of Gold were erected at the publick charge of Students; and under each this inscription:

Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, magis amica veritas.

(3) The third Classis is possessed by such, who,* 1.5 without either totally neglecting or undervaluing the Inventions and Augmentations of the Mo∣dern; addict themselves principally to research the Moniments of the Ancients, and dig for truth in the rubbish of the Grecian Patriarchs. These are the noblest sort of Chymists, who labour to reform those once-excellent Flowers out of their Ashes: worthy Geometricians, that give us the true

dimensions of those Giant Wits, by the measure of their Feet: and ge∣nuine ••ons of Aesculapius, who can revive those, whom the fleet chariot of Time hath dragg'd to pieces, and recompose their scattered fragments into large and complete bodies of Physiologie. The Course of these Worthies in their studies doth denominate them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, RENOVATORS.

For, being of opinion, that Philosophy as well as Nature doth conti∣nually decline, that this is the Dotage of the World, and that the minds of men do suffer a sensible decay of clarity and simplicity; they reflect their thoughts upon the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Epoche of Physical Writings, ransack the urns of Athens to find out the medal of some grave Philosopher, and then with invincible industry polish off the rust, which the vitriolate dampness of Time had superinduced; that so they may render him to the greedy eyes of Po∣sterity in his primitive splendor and integrity. The uppermost seats in this infinitely-deserving Classis justly belong to Marcilius Ficinus, who from many mouldy and worm-eaten Transcripts hath collected, and interpreted the semidivine Labors of Plato: to Copernicus, who hath rescued from the jawes of oblivion, the almost extinct Astrology of Samius Aristarchus: to Lucretius, who hath retrived the lost Physiologie of Empedocles: to Magne∣nus, who hath lately raised up the reverend Ghost of Democritus: to Mersen∣nus, who hath not only explained many Problems of Archimed; but reno∣vated the obsolete Magick of Numbers, and charmed the most judicious ears of Musitians, with chiming Pythagoras Hammers, in an Arithmetick Harmony: and to the greatest Antiquary among them, the immortal Gas∣sendus; who, out of a few obscure and immethodical pieces of him, scattered upon the rhapsodies of Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius, hath built up the despised Epicurus again, into one of the most profound, temperate, and voluminous among Philosophers.

Our Fourth Classis is to be made up of those, who indeed adore no Au∣thority,* 1.6 pay a reverend esteem, but no implicite Adherence to Antiquity, nor erect any Fabrick of Natural Science upon Foundations of their own laying: but, reading all with the same constant Indifference, and aequani∣mity, select out of each of the other Sects, whatever of Method, Princi∣ples, Positions, Maxims, Examples, &c. seems in their impartial judg∣ments, most consentaneous to Verity; and on the contrary, refuse, and, as occasion requires, elenchically refute what will not endure the Test of either right Reason, or faithful Experiment. This Sect we may call (as Potamon Alexandrinus, quoted by Diogenes Laertius, long before us) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the ELECTING, because they cull and select out of all others, what they most approve.

Herein are Chairs provided for those Worthies, Fernelius, Sennertus, and most of the junior Patriots and Advancers of our Art. And the low∣est room, we ask leave to reserve for our selves. For▪ we profess our selves to be of his perswasion, who saith; Ego quidem arbitror, re diu perpensâ, nullius unquam scientiam fore absolutam, quin Empedoclem, Platonem, Ari∣stotelem, Anaxagoram, Democritum adjungat Recentioribus, & ab un••quoque quod verum est, rejectis falsis, eligat. His enim Principibus peculi••ri ratione Coeleste Lumen affulsit: & quamvis Corporis imbecilitate multa corruperint; plurima tamen, quae Fidei lumine discernimus, scripsêre verissima He can never make a good Chymist, who is not already an excellent Galenist, is proverbial among us Physicians: and as worthy the reputation of a Pro∣verb is it among Professors in Universities▪ He can never clearly understand

the Moderns, who remains ignorant of the doctrines of the Antients. Here to declare our selves of this Order, though it be no dishonour, may yet be censured as superfluous: since not only those Exercises of our Pen, which have formerly dispersed themselves into the hands of the Learned, have already proclaimed as much; but even this praesent Tractate must soon discover it.

SECT. II.

TO explore the Cheif Grounds, or Reasons of this great Varietie of Sects in Philosophy; we need search no further, then the exceed∣ing Obscurity of Nature, the Dimness and imperfection of our Understanding, the Irregularity of our Curiosity.

Of the First, they only can doubt, who are too stupid to enquire.* 1.7 For, Nature is an immense Ocean, wherein are no Shallows, but all Depths: and those ingenious Persons, who have but once attempted her with the sounding line of Reason, will soon confess their despair of pro∣founding her, and with the judicious Sanchez sadly exclaim; Una Scien∣tia sufficit toti orbi: nec tamen totus hic ei sufficit. Mihi vel minima mun∣di res totius vitae contemplationi sat est superque: nec tamen tandem eam spero me nosse posse: nor can they dislike the opinion of the Academicks and Pyrrhonicks, that all things are Incomprehensible.

And (as for the second) if Nature were not invelloped in so dense a Cloud of Abstrusity, but should unveil her self,* 1.8 and expose all her beuteous parts naked to our speculation: yet are not the Opticks of our Mind either clear or strong enough to discern them. Men in∣deed fancy themselves to be Eagles; but really are grovelling Moles, uncessantly labouring for light: which at ••irst glimpse perstringeth their eyes, and all they discover thereby, is their own native Blindness. Naturae mysteria etiamsi ••ille facibus revelentur, arbitrantium oculis numquam tota excipientur: restabit semper quod quaeras; & quo plus scies, eo plura à te ignorari miraberis. This meditation, we confess, hath frequently stooped our ambitious thoughts, dejected us even to a contempt of our own na∣ture, and put us to a stand in the midst of our most eager pursuit of Sci∣ence: insomuch that had not the inhaerent Curiosity of our Genius sharply spurred us on again, we had totally desisted, and sate down in this resolution; for the future to admire, and perhaps envy the happy serenity of their Condition, who never disquiet and perplex their minds with fruitless scrutiny, but think themselves wise enough, while they acquiesce in the single satisfaction of their Senses. Nor do we look ever to have our Studies wholly free from this Damp: but expect to be surprised with many a cold fit, even then when our Cogitations shall be most ardent and pleasing. And to acknowledge our pensive sense of this Discouragement, is it that we have chosen this for our Motto:

Quo magis quaerimus▪ magis dubitamus.

But lest this our despair prove contagious, and infect our Reader, and He either shut up our Book, or smilingly demand of us, to what

purpose we wrote it; if (as we confess) Insatisfaction be the End of study, and (as we intimate) our Phisiology at most but ingenious Con∣jecture: we must divert him with the novelty of a Paradox, viz. that the Irregularity of our Curiosity is one Cause of the Dissent of Philoso∣phers.

* 1.9That our desire of Truth should be a grand Occasion of our Error; and that our First Parents were deluded more by the instigation of their own essential CURIOSITY, than by either the allurement of their Sen∣sual Appetite or the subtle Fallacies of the Serpent: is a conceit not alto∣gether destitute of thesupport and warrantry of Reason. For, the Human Soul (the only Creature, that understands the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or transcendent Dig∣nity of its Original, by reflecting upon the superlative Idea, which it holds of its Creator) from the moment of its immersion into the cloud or opa∣city, of flesh labours with an insatiable Appetence of Knowledge; as the only means, that seems to conduce to the satisfaction of its congenial Ambition of still aspiring to Greater and Better things: and therefore hath no Affection either so Essential, or Violent, as the Desire of Science; and consequently, lyeth not so open to the deception of any Objects, as of those which seem to promise a satisfaction to that desire. And obvious it is from the words of the Text; that the Argument which turned the s••ales, i. e. determined the Intellect, and successively the Will of our Grandmother Eve, from its indifferencie, or aequilibration, to an Appe∣tition, and so to the actual Degustation of the Forbidden Fruit, was this: Desiderabilis est arboris fructu•• ad habendam scientiam. Besides, though we shall not exclude the Beauty of the fruit, transmitted by the sight to the judicatory Faculty, and so allecting the Sensual Appetite, from having a finger in the Delusion: yet can we allow it to have had no more then a finger; and are perswaded, that in the syndrome or conspiracy of Causes, the most ponderous and praevalent was the Hope of an accession or augmen∣tation of Knowledge. Since ••t cannot but highly disparage the primitive or innocent state of man, to admit, that his Intellect was so imperfect, as not to discern a very great Evil, through the thin Apparence of Good, when the utmost that Apparence could promise, was no more, than the momentany pleasure of his Palate or Gust: Or, that the express and poenal Interdiction of God, yet sounding in his ears, could be over-balan∣ced by the light species of an object, which must be lost in the Frui∣tion.

Nor is this Curiositie to be accused only of the First Defection from Truth, but being an inseparable Annex to our Nature, and so derived by traduction to all Adams posteritie, hath proved the procatarctick Cause of many (some contemplative Clerks would have adventured to say of All) the Errors of our judgments. And, though we have long cast about, yet can we not particular any one Vicious inclination, or action, whose Scope or End may not, either directly or obliquely, proximly or remotely, seem to promise an encrease of Knowledge in some kind or other. To instance in one, which appears to be determined in the Body, to have no interest be∣yond the Sense, and so to exclude all probabilitie of extending to the Mind, as to the augmentation of its Science. Whoever loves a beutiful Woman, whom the right of Marriage hath appropriated to another, ar∣dently desires to enjoy her bed; why, not only for the satisfaction of his sensual App••tite, because that might be acquired by the act of carnali••y

with some other less beutiful, and Beuty is properly the object of the Mind: but because that Image of Beuty, which his eye hath transmitted to his mind, being praesented in the species or apparition of Good and A∣miab••e, seems to contain some Excellence, or comparitively more Good, then what He hath, formerly understood. If it be objected, that if so, one enjoyment must satisfie that Desire; and consequently, no man could love what He hath once enjoyed, since Fruition determineth Desire: We An∣swer, that there is no such necessitie justly inferrible, when Experience assures, that many times Love is so far from languishing, that it grows more strong and violent by the possession of its Object. The Reason is, because the passionate Lover, apprehending no fruition total▪ or possession entire, supposeth some more Good still in the object, then what his former enjoyment made him acquainted withall. And if it be replyed, that the Lover doth, in the perseverance of his Affection, propose to himself meerly the Continuation of that Good, which He hath formerly enjoy∣ed: we are provided of a sufficient Rejoynder, viz. that whoso wisheth the Continuation of a Good, considers it not as a thing praesent, but to come; and consequently as a thing which yet He doth not know: for, no man can know what is not.

Other Instances the Reader may be pleased to select from among the Passions; tracing them up to their first Exciting Cause, in order to his more ample satisfaction: it being digressive and only collateral to our Scope. Good thus being the only proper Object of our Affections (for Evil exhibited naked, i. e. as Evil, never Attracts, but ever Averts our Will, or Rational Appetite: as we have clearly proved in our Dis∣course of the Liberty Elective of mans Will.) if we mistake a real evil prae∣sented under the disguise of a Good: this mistake is to be charged upon the account of our Rational or judicatory Faculty, which not suffici∣ently examining the Reality of the species, judgeth it to be good, accor∣ding to the external Apparence only; and so misguideth the Will in its Election. Now, a••ong the Causes of the Intellects erroneous judica∣ture (we have formerly touched upon its own Native Imperfection, or Coecity, and Praejudice,) the chiefest and most general is the Impatience, Praecipitancy, or Inconsiderateness of the Mind; when, not enduring the serious, profound, and strict examen of the species, nor pondering all the moments of Reason, whi••h are on the Averting part of the Object, with that impartiali••y requisite to a right judgment; but suffering it self, at the first occursion or praesentation thereof, to be determined, by the mo∣ments of Reason apparent on the Attracting part, to an Approbation thereof: it misinformeth the Will, and ingageth it in an Election and pro∣secution of a Falsity, or Evil, couched under the specious semblance of a positive Truth, or Good.

Now, to accommodate all this to the interest of our Paradox; if Good, real or apparent, be the proper and adaequate object of the Intel∣lect; and the chief reason of Good doth consist in that of Science, as the principal end of all our Affections: then, most certainly, must our praecedent assertion stand firm, viz. that our understanding lyeth most open to the delusion of such objects, which by their Apparence promise the most of satis∣faction to our Desire of Science; and, upon consequence, by how much the more we are spurred on by our Curiosity, or Appe••ence of Knowledge, by so much the more is our mind impatient of their strict examen, and aequitable perpension. All which we dayly observe experimented in our

selves. For, when our thoughts are violent and eager in the pursuit of some reason for such or such an operation in Nature; if either the discourse, or writings of some Person, in great esteem for Learning or Sagacity, or our own meditations furnish us with one, plausible and verisimilous, such as seems to solve our Doubt: how greedily do we embrace it, and with∣out further perpension of its solidity and verity, immediately judge it to be true, and so set up our rest therein? Now, it being incontroverti∣ble, that Truth consists in a Point, or Unity; it remains as incontroverti∣ble, that all those judgements, which concur not in that Point, must be erroneous: and consequently that we ought ever to suspect a multiplicity of dissenting j••dgments, and to suppose that Phaenomenon in Nature to be yet in the dark, i. e. uncomprehended, or not understood, con∣cerning whose solution the most various opinions have been e∣rected.

And thus have we made it out; that our Curiosity is the most frequent Cause of our Minds Impatience or Praecipitancy: that Praecipitancy the most frequent Cause of our Erroneous jdugments, concerning the Verity or Falsity of Objects: those Erroneous judgments alwayes the Cause of the Diversity of Opinions: and the Diversity of Opinions alwayes the Cause of the Variety of Sects among Philosophers.

CHAP. II. That this World is the Vniverse.

SECT. I.

AMong those Fragments of Antiquity, which History hath gathered up from the table of sated Oblivion,* 1.10 we find two worthy the entertainment of our Readers memory, though, perhaps, not easie to be digested by his Belief. The one that Alexander the Great grew me∣lancholy at the lecture of Anaxarchus his discourse of an Infinity of Worlds, and with tears lamented the con∣finement of his Ambition to the Conquest of One: when yet, in truth, the wings of his Victory had not flown over so much as a third part of the Terrestrial Globe; and there remained Nations more then enough to have devoured his numerous Armies at a breakfast, to have learned him the unconstancy of Fortune, the instability of Empire, and the vanitie of Pride, by the experiment of his own overthrow, and captivity in a narrow prison. The Other, that there were whole Schools of Phi∣losophers, who fiercely contended for a Plurality of Worlds, and affected the honour of invincible Wits, by extending their disquisitions beyond the Extrems or Confines of this adspectable World to a multitude of others without it, as vast, as glorious, as rich in variety of Forms: when, indeed, their Understandings came so much short of conquering all the obvious Difficulties of this one, that even the grass they trod on, and the smal∣lest of Insects, a Handworm, must put their Curiosity to a stand, re∣duce them to an humble acknowledgment of their Ignorance, and make them sigh out the Scepticks Motto, Nihil Scitur, for a Palinodia. Whether His or Their Ambition were the greater, is not easie to deter∣mine; nor can we find more wildness of Phansy, or more insolent Rho∣damontadoes in Camps, than Academies, nay if we go to Absurdities, Cedunt Arma Togae, the Sword must give place to the Gown. But, that his Error was more venial then theirs, is manifest from hence; that He had conquered all of the World that he knew: but they could not but find themselves foiled and conquered by eve••y the most minute and sensible part of the world, which they had attempted to know.* 1.11

This Genus of Philosophers doth naturally divide it self into two distinct species. The First of which doth consist of those, who assert only a Plura∣lity of Worlds: the Second of those, who have been so bold as to ascend even to an Infinity. Those who assert only a Plurality may be again

subdistinguished into two subordinate divisions: (1 Such as held a Plu∣rality of Worlds Co••xis••ent; among whom the most eminent was Plutarch, who (in lib. de Oracul. defect.) affirms, that to have many Worlds at once, was consistent with the maje••••y of the Divine Nature, and consonant to Human Reason; and (in 1. placit. 5.) earnestly labours to dissolve the contrary Arguments of Plato and Aristotle for the Unity of the World. No•• were th••se all of one Sect; for some opinioned that there were many other Worlds synchronical in the Imaginary space, or on the outside of this: and others would admit of nothing, beyond Trismegistus Circle, or without the convex part of the Empyraeum; but conceived that every Planet, nay, every Star, contained in this, was an intire and distinct World. Among these the Principal were Heraclides, the Pythagoreans, and all the Sectators of Orphe••s: as they are enumerated by Plutarch (2 Placit. 13.)

(2) Such as held a Plurality of worlds, not coexistent or synchronical, but successive▪ i. e. that this praesent world, Phoenix-like, sprung up from the ruines of another praecedent; and that the Ashes of this s••all produce a Third, the Cinders of that a Fourth, &c. of this perswasion were Plato, Heraclitus, and all the Stoicks.

The Second species is made up of those, who dreamt of an Infinity of Worlds coexistent in an infinite space: and the chief seats in this Classis belong to Epicurus and Metrodorus, upon the last of which this peremptory saying is commonly fathered; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Tam absurdum esse in Universo infinito unum fieri mundum, quàm in magno agro unam nasci spicam. And below them shall sit Anaximander, Anaximenes, Archelaus, Xenophon, Diogenes, Leu∣cippus, Democritus, and Zeno Eleates, as may be collected from the records of Stobaeus (Ecl. Physic. l. 9.) That Epicurus was a grand Patron of this Error, is con••est by himself (in Epist. ad Herodotum, apud Laertium) in these words: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Caeterum in universitate, seu natura rerum, infiniti sunt mundi, alij quidem si∣miles isti quem nos incolimus, alij verò dissimiles.

The Reasons, or rather the Apparences of Reason, which seduced the Understandings of so many and great Philosophers into a judgment,* 1.12 that there was an Infinity of Worlds; are comprehended under these Two.

(1) Quod Caussae sunt infinitae. Nam si hic quidem mundus sit, fi••itus Caussae verò, ex quibus est, fuêre omnino infinitae: necesse est mundi etiam sint infiniti. Prorsus enim, ubi sunt Caussae, Effectus quoque ibi sunt. That Worlds there are infinite in multitude, is manifest from hence, that there are infinite Cau∣ses for Worlds: for, since this World is finite, and the Causes of which it was made, were infinite; necessary it is that there be in••••nite Worlds. Insomuch as where are Causes, there also must be Effects. This Epicurus more then intimated, when He argued thus: Quippe Atomi, cum sint in∣finitae, per insinitatem spatiorum feruntur▪ & alibi aliae, ac pr••cu•• ab hoc ad fa∣bricationem mundorum infinitorum variè concurrunt. Consule Plutarc hum, (1. Placit. 5.) & Lucretium. (lib. 2.)

(2) Quod nulla sit specialis res, cui non suo sub genere sint singularia multa similia: That there is no one thing special, to which under that kind, ma∣ny ••ingulars are not alike. Upon this sand was it that Plutarch erected his feeble structure of a Plurality of Worlds; for (in defect. Oracul.) he ex∣presseth

it at large, in these words, Videmus naturam ipsis generibus, specie∣busque, quasi quibusdam vasculis aut involucris seminum, res singulares con∣tinere. Neque enim res ulla est numero una, cujus non sit communis ratio, neque ulla certam denominationem nanciscitur, quae singularis cum sit, non eti∣am com••unem qualitatem habeat. Quare & hic mundus, ita singularitèr di∣citur, ut communem tamen rationem, qualitatemque mundi obtineat: singula∣ris autem conditionis sit, ex differentia ab alijs quae ejusdem Generis sunt. Et certè non unicus Homo, non unicus Equus, non unicum Astrum, non unicus Deus, non unicus Daemon in rerum natura est: quid prohibit, quo ••inus plures, non unicum mundum Natura contineat, &c.

SECT. II. The Redargution.

THat our Redargution of this vain Error may obtain the more both of Perspicuity and Credit,* 1.13 we are to advertise that the Quaestion is not concerning the Possibility, but the real or actual Existence of an Infinity of Worlds. For, of the Possibility, no man, imbued with the principles of Phy∣siology, or Theology, can doubt.

(1) Because,* 1.14 to the most profound and nice Enquirers into that ab¦struse point, no Argument, whether simple or complex, hath appeared weighty enough to disswade them from admitting an immense Tohu, or in∣finite Vacuum, without the extremities of this World. For, not a few, nor the least judicious part of even our Christian Doctors have asserted those Extramundane spaces calling them IMAGINARY; because we can ima∣gine the same Dimensions of Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity, to be in them, as are in those real Spaces, wherein Bodies are included in this world: and since all men, acknowledging the Omnipotence of God, con∣clude, that He might, had He so pleased, have created this World larger and larger even to infinity; necessary it is, that they also admit a larger and larger space or Continent, for the Reception of that enlarged World. Which may with equal Truth be accommodated also to an Infinity of Worlds; insomuch as all, who acknowledge Gods Omnipotence, readily condescend, that He could, had it seemed good in the eye of his Wisdom, have created more and more Worlds, even to Infinity: necessary it is, that they understand those Worlds must be received in proportionate spaces, which ought to be over and above that space, which this World possesseth. For, whereas some have conceived▪ that if God would create more Worlds besides this, He must also create more spaces to contain them: undoubtedly they entangle themselves in that inextricable Difficulty which is objected upon them, concerning the space interjected between any two Worlds; since that space may be brought under the laws of Mathematical Com∣mensuration, and clearly explained by a greater or less Distance.

(2) Because, it is found no 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.15 or desperate Difficulty to defend a Possible Infinity of Bodies. For the Fathers of our Church have delivered it as Canonical, that God might have created any thing Actually Infi∣nite

not only in Magnitude, but also in Multitude. Only they reserve the infinity of Essence; which since it can be competent to none but the Di∣vine Essence, and comprehends all perfections whatever in a most transcen∣dent or Eminent manner: it is as absolutely impossible that any thing should be Created Actually Infinite in Essence, as that God should be cre∣ated. Which we conceive to be the ground of that Truth; that to ima∣gine God to be able to create any thing equal to Himself: is to suppose an Im∣perfection in his Nature. Nor have They, without good Cause, deserted the conduct of Plato and Aristotle, when they would seduce them into an opinion, that Infinity is only Potential, not Actual, i. e. that nothing in Re∣rum Natura can be infinite in Actu, but only in Potentia; insomuch as though a Continuum may be either divided▪ or Augmented even to Infini∣ty: yet cannot that Continuum either by Division, or Augmentation, ever become Actually infinite. For, since even Aristotle himself describes an Infinite to be, non cujus extra nihil est, sed ex quo accipientibus semper a∣liquid accipiendum restat, that f••om which though nere so much be abstra∣cted, yet still there shall more remain undeducted; which is, in the sum or importance, to say that the Essence of Infinity is Inexhauribility: it seems possible to admit not only many, but even infinite infinities in an Infinite. Thus we say, and truly, that in an infinite Number are comprehended not only infinite Unities, but also infinite Binaries, infinite Ternaries, infinite De∣naries, Centenaries, &c. which is the reason of that Axiom, That all the parts of an Infinite are infinite.

Now though to be able, by perfect Demonstration, to evince that there are no more Worlds but this one,* 1.16 which we inhabit, is that of which to despair can be no dishonour to the most acute and Mathematical Wit in the world; since none ought to doubt, but God might have created, and may yet at his pleasure create others innumerable, because neither can His Infinite Power ever be exhausted, nor that Abyss of Nothing, out of which the Energie of his Word instantly educed this World, not afford or space or matter for them: yet notwithstanding to affirm, that because 'tis possible therefore there are many other Worlds actually coexistent; is a manifest inartificial Argument, and a Conclusion repugnant to all the in∣ducements of Persuasion.

For, albeit we readily concede, that there is an Infinite Inanity or Ul∣tramundan Space, yet can it not follow of necessity, that there are Infinite Atoms contained in that Ultramundane Space; as Democritus and Epicu∣rus praeposterously infer: insomuch as it sounds much more concordant to reason, that there are no more Atoms, then those of which this single World was compacted.

And when they Argue thus; Since the vacuity or ultramundane Space is infinite in Magnitude or Capacity,* 1.17 necessary it is that the Abyss of Atoms included therein be also Infinite in Extent; because otherwise they could ne∣ver have convened, and coalesced in that Form, which the World now holds: we admit their Induction for natural and legitimate, but detest their sup∣position as absurd and impossible. For, They take it for granted, that the Chaos of Atoms was not only eternal and Increate, but also that it disposed, and compacted it self into that Form, which constitutes the World, by the spontaneous motion inhaerent in Atoms, and their fortui∣tous coalescenc•• in such and such respective Figures: when to a sober

judgment it appears the highest Impossibility imaginable, that either the Chaos of Atoms could be eternal, self-principate, or increate, or dis∣pose and fix it self into so vast, so splendid, so symmetrical, so universally harmonical, or Analogical a structure, as this of the World. For, as the Disposition or Dispensation of the Chaos of Atoms into so excellent a form, can be ascribed to no other Cause, but an Infinite Wisdom: so neither can the Production or Creation of the same Chaos be ascribed to any other Cause, but an Infinite Power, as we have formerly demonstrated in our Darkness of Atheism, cap. 2.

And therefore, since it is most probable that Atoms were the Ma∣teria Prima, or material Principle of the World; as we shall clearly enun∣ciate in a singular Chapter subsequent: we may adventure to affirm, that God created exactly such a proportion of Atoms, as might be sufficient to the making up of so vast a Bulk, as this of the World, and that there remained no one superfluous. 'Tis unworthy a Philoso∣pher to acknowledge any superfluity in Nature: and consequently a dan∣gerous soloecism to say the God of Nature knowing not how to propor∣tion the quantity of his materials to the model or platform of his stru∣cture, created more Atoms, then were necessary, and left an infinite Residue to be perpetually hurried too and fro in the ultramundane space. If they shall urge upon us, that no man was privy to the Councel of God at the Creation, and consequently no can know, whether He created either more Atoms then were requisite to the amassment of this World, or more Worlds then this one: we may justly retort the Argument upon them, and conclude, that since no man was privy to the Councel of God, they have no reason to pretend to know, that God created either more matter, or more Worlds; and so the whole substance of the Dis∣pute must be reduced only to this: That they have no more Reason for the support of their opinion of a Plurality of Worlds then we have fo•• ours of the Unity of the World▪ Nay the greatest weight of Reason hangs on our end of the scale; for, we ground our Opinion upon that stable Criterion, our sense, and asserting the singularity of the world, discourse of what our sight apprehends: but They found theirs upon the fragil reed of wild Imagination, and affirming a Plurality discourse of what neither the information of their sense, nor solid reason, nor judicious Authority, hath learned them enough to warrant even Conjecture.

And, as to their second Argument, viz.* 1.18 That there is in Nature no one Thing special, to which under the same kind, there are not many singulars alike: we Answer, that All those singulars, which we observe to be multiplied un∣der one and the same kind, are such which perish in the Individual, and therefore cannot but be lost, if not conserved by the multitude of Succes∣sors; and not such as are not obnoxious to destruction by Corruptibility, for they, constantly existing in the ••ndividual, need not Multiplicity to their conservation. For which cause, one Sun, and one Moon are sufficient, and in al probability of this sort is the World; for though it be conceived obnoxious to corruption, and shall once confess a Period: yet is this no valid reason to justifie the necessity of a multitude of worlds, since the Dissolution of the World shal be synchronical to the Dissolution of Nature, when Sun, Moon, and all other kinds of Creatures, as well single as numerous shall be blended together in one common ruine; and then the same Infinite Cause which hath destroyed them, can, with as much facility as he first Created them, repair

their ruines, educe them out of their second Chaos, and redintegrate them into what Form His Wisdom shall design.

* 1.19Nor is this opinion of a Plurality of Worlds only destitute of, but even è diametro repugnant to the principal Inducements of Belief. For, if we con∣sider Authority Divine; in Moses inaestimable Diary or Narrative of the Creation can be found no mention at all of a Multitude of Worlds, but on the contrary a positive assertion of one world; and the express declarement of the manner how the Fiat of Omnipotence educed the several Parts there∣of successively out of the Chaos, disposed them into subordinate Piles, and endowed them with exquisite configurations respective to their distinct de∣stinations, motions and uses: and in all the other Books of Sacred Writ, whatever concerns the Providence of God, the Condition of man, the my∣steries of his Redemption, means of salvation, &c. doth more then inti∣mate the singularity of the World; nor is there any one word, if rightly interpreted, which can be produced as an excuse for the opposite Error.

* 1.20If Humane Authority; we may soon perceive, that those Ancient Philo∣sophers, who have declared on our side, for the Unity of the World, do very much exceed those Pluralists nominated in our praecedent Catalogue, both in Number and Dignity. For, Thales, Milesius, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Ecphantus, Parmenides, Melissus, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno the Sto••ck, attended on by all their sober Disciples, have unanimously rejected and derided the Conceit of many Worlds, not only as vain and weak, but as extremly Hypochondriack, and worthy a whole acre of Helle∣bor. Nor, indeed, are we persuaded, that so great Wits as those of Demo∣critus and Epicurus, did apprehend it as real; but only Imaginary, propo∣sing it as a necessary Hypothesis, whereon to erect their main Physical Pil∣lar, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Vniversum esse ortus interitusque ex∣pers, That the Universe is nonprincipiate and indissoluble. For, having me∣diated thus; Whatever is Finite, is circumscribed by an External Space, from which a cause may come and invading destroy it, and into which the matter thereof, a••ter the dissolution of its Form, may be received: now this World, being Finite, must be environed by a circumambient space, from which a Cause may invade and destroy it; and into which the mat∣ter thereof, after the dissolution of its Form, may be received; must of necessity therefore be dissoluble: They inferred, that, unless they would concede the Universe to be dissoluble, which could never consist with their Principles▪ they must affirm it to be Infinite, i. e. without which no space can be, from whence any Cause might invade it, and into which the matter thereof after the destruction of its Form, might be received: and there∣upon concluded to suppose an Infinity of Worlds Coexistent.

Which seems to be the Reason also that induced Epicurus and Metrodorus to opinion, that the Vniverse was not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Immutable, but also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Immoveable: as may be collected from these words of Plutarch quoted by Eusebius (1. praepa. Evang. 5.) concerning Metrodorus, Is inter caetera non moveri universum dixit quoniam non est quò migrare possit;* 1.21 nam si posset quidem, vel in plenum, vel in vacuum; atqui universum continet quic∣quid hujusmodi est, quia si non contineret, minime foret Vniversum.

Having thus amply refuted the Dream of a Plurality of Worlds, both by detecting the exceeding invalidity of those two Cardinal Reasons, on

which the Authors and Abettors of it had rashly fixed their Assent; and by convicting it of manifest Repugnancy to Authority Divine and Human: we may safely praesume, the understanding of our Reader is sufficiently praepared to determine his judgment to an Approbation of our Thesis, the Argument and Title of this Chapter, viz. That this Adspectable world is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Omne, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Vniversum, the All in Rerum Natura, the large Magazine wherein all the wealth and treasure of Nature is included; and that there is Nothing Quantitative, but meerly Local, beyond the Convex extremity, or (as Arist.) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, substan∣tiam quae est in ultima Coeli conversione; the outside of the Empyraeum. Thus much Aristotle, though upon the conviction of other Arguments, seems fully to have both understood and embraced, when in positive terms He affirmed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Extra coelum neque est quicquam Corpus, neque esse omninò potest (de coelo l. 1. c. 9.) As also whensoever He used those two words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Vniversum & Mundus, as perfect synonymaes, indifferently signifying one and the same thing: which was most frequent not only to him, but to Plato also, and most of the most judicious sort of Philosophers.

If any Curiosity be so immoderate, as to transgress the Limits of this All,* 1.22 break out of Trismegistus Circle, and adventure into the Imaginary Abyss of Nothing, vulgarly called the Extramundan Inanity; in the Infinity (or, rather, Indefinity) of which many long-winged VVits have, like seel'd Doves, flown to an absolute and total loss: the most promising Remedy we can praescribe for the reclaiming of such wildness; is to advertise; that a serious Diversion of thought to the speculation of any the most obvious and sensible of sublunary Natures, will prove more advantagious to the ac∣quisition of Science, then the most acute metaphysical Discourse, that can be hoped from the groveling and limited Reason of man, concerning that impervestigable Abstrusity; of which the more is said, the less is under∣stood; and that the most inquisitive may find Difficulties more then e∣nough within the Little VVorld of their own Nature, not only to exer∣cise, but empuzle them. To which may be annexed that judicious Corre∣ctive of Pliny, (l. 2. Nat. Hist. c. 1.) Furor est, profectò furor est egredi ex hoc mundo, & tanquam interna ejus cuncta planè jam sint nota, ita scrutari Extera. Quasi verò mensuram ullius possit agere, qui sui nesciat: aut mens Hominis videre, quae mundus ipse non capiat. And that facete scoff of the most in∣genious Mr. White (in Dialog. 1. de mundo.) That the Extramundan Space is inhabited by Chymaera's which there feed, and thrive to Giants upon the dew of Second Intentions.

CHAP. III. Corporiety and Inanity.

SECT. I.

THE Universe, or this adspectable World (hence∣forth Synonymaes) doth,* 1.23 in the general, consist of only two Parts, viz. Something and Nothing, or Body and Inanity. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Naturam rerum esse Corpora & Inane, was the Fundamental position of Epicurus (apud Plutarch. advers. Colot.) which his faithful Disciple Lucretius hath ingenuosly rendred in this Distich:

Omnis, ut est igitur per se, Natura duabus Consistit rebus; quae Corpora sunt, & Inane.

The All of Nature in two Parts doth lye, That is, in Bodies and Inanity.

* 1.24Concerning the nature or essence of a BODIE, we find more then one Notion among Philosophers.

(1) Some understanding the root of Corporiety to be fixt in Tangibility: as Epicurus (apud Empericum advers. Physic.) saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: intell••gi Corpus ex congerie figurae magnitudinis, resistentiae (seu soliditatis ac impenetrabilitatis mutuae & gravitatis; that by Bodie is to be understood a congeries of fi∣gure, magnitude, resistence (or solidity and impenetrability mutual) and gravity.

To which Aristotle seems to allude (in 4. Physic. 7.) where He saith of those who assert a Vacuum, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 they conceive all Bodies to be Tangible: and Lucretius, Tangere enim & tangi sine Corpore nulla potest res. Here we are, per transennam, to hint; that the Authors of this Notion, do not restrain the Tangibility of Bodies only to the Sense of Touching proper to Animals; but extend it to a more ge∣neral importance, viz. the Contact of two Bodies reciprocally occurring each to other secundum superficies; or what Epicurus blended under the word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Resistence mutual arising from Impenetra∣bility.

(2) Others placing the Essential Propriety of a Body in its Extension into the three Dimensions of Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity. Thus Aristotle (Nat. Auscult. 4. cap. 3.) strictly enquiring into the Quiddity of Place, saith most profoundly; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: Sanè Dimensiones tres habet, longitudinem, latitudinem, & altitudinem, quibus omne Cor∣pus definitur. And thus Des Cartes (princip. Philos. Part. 2. Sect. 4.) Naturam materiae, sive Corporis 〈◊〉〈◊〉 universum spectati, non consistere in eo quod sit res dura, vel ponderosa, vel colorata, vel aliquo alio modo sensus afficiens; sed tantum in eo, quòd sit res extensa in longum latum & profundum: that the Essence of matter, or a Body considered in the Ge∣neral doth not consist in its hardness, weight, colour, or any other rela∣tion to the senses; but only in its Extension into the three Dimen∣sions.

And (3) Others, by an excessive acuteness of Wit, dividing the Substance of a Body from the Quantity thereof, and distinguishing Quan∣tity from Extension. Of this immoderately subtle Sect are all those, who conceived that most Bodies might be so rarified and condensed, as that by Rarefaction they may acquire more, and by Condensation less of Extension, then what they have before in their native dimensions. We say immoderately subtle, because whoever shall with due attention of mind profound the nature of Rarefaction and Condensation, must soon perceive; that by those motions a Body doth suffer no more then a meer Mutation of Figure, but its Quantity admits of neither Augmentation, nor Diminution. So as those Bodies may be said to be Rare, betwixt whose parts many Intervals or Interstices, repleted with no Bodies, are in∣terspersed; and those Bodies affirmed to be Dense, whose parts mutu∣ally approaching each to other, either diminish, or totally exclude all the Intervals or intercedent Distances. And when it eveneth, that the Intervals betwixt the distant parts of a Body, are totally excluded by the mutual access, convention and contact of its parts: that Body must become so absolutely, or (rather) superlatively Dense, as to imagine a possibility of greater Density, is manifestly absurd. But yet notwithstanding, is not that Body thus extremly Dense, of less Extension, then when having its parts more remote each from other, it possessed a larger space: in respect, that whatever of Exten∣sion is found in the Pores, or Intervals made by the mutually rece∣ing parts, ought not to be ascribed to the Body rarified, but to those small Inanities that are intercepted among the dissociated particles. For instance; when we observe a Sponge dipt in Liquor to become turgent and swell into a greater bulke; we cannot justly conceive, that the Sponge is made more Extense in all its parts, then when it was dry or compressed: but only, that it hath its pores more dilated or open, and is therefore diffused through a greater space. But we may not digress into a full examen of the nature of Rarefaction and Condensation; especially since the Syntax of our Physical Speculations will lead us hereafter into a full and proper considerati∣on thereof.* 1.25

Of the nature of the other ingredient of the Universe, INANITY, there are several Descriptions:

(1) Epicurus names it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Region, or Space, and a Nature that cannot be touched: thereby intimating the di∣rect Contrariety betwixt the essential notion of Corporiety and Inanity; which Antithesis Lucretius plainly expresseth in that Verse, Tactus copori∣bus cunctis intactus Inani.

(2) Cleomedes describes a Vacuum to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ex sua natura incorporeum: adding for furrher explanation, siquidem est in∣corporeum, tactumque fugit, & neque figuram habet ullam, neque recipit, & ne∣que patitur quicquam, neque agit, sed praebet solummodo liberum per seipsum corporibus motum; it is incorporeal, because it cannot be touched, hath no figure of its own, nor is capable of any from others, neither suffers nor acts any thing, but only affords free space for the motion of other bodies through it.

(3) Empiricus (2. advers Physic.) descanting upon Epicurus description of Inanity, saith; Natura eadem corpore destituta, appellatur Inane; occu∣pata verò à corpore, Locus dicitur, pervadentibus ipsam corporibus evadit Re∣gio: the same Nature devoid of all body, is called a Vacuum, if possessed by a body, 'tis called a Place, and when bodies pervade it, it becomes a Region.

And (4) Aristotle (3. Physic. 7.) defines a Vacuum to be Locus in quo nihil est, a Place wherein no body is contained.

* 1.26Now if we faithfully extract the importance of all these several Descriptions of Inanity, we shall find them to concurr in this com∣mon Notion. As according to vulgar sense, a Vessel is said to be empty, when it being capable of any, doth yet actually contain no bo∣dy: so, ••ccording to the sense of Physiology, that Place, that Region, or that Space, which being capable of bodies, doth yet actually re∣ceive or contain none, is said to be a Vacuum or Emptiness. Such would any Vessel be if upon remove of that body, whereby its capacity was filled, no other body, the Aer, nor ought else, should succeed to possess it: or such would that Space be, which this Book, that Man, or any other Body whatever doth now actually replenish, if after the remove of that Tenent, neither the circumstant Aer, nor ought else should succeed in possession, but it should be left on every side as it were limited by the same concave superficies of the circum∣ambient, wherein the body, while a Tenent, was circumscribed and in∣cluded.

Of the Existence of Bodies in the World, no man can doubt, but He who dares indubitate the testimony of that first and grand Criteri∣on,* 1.27 SENSE, is regard that all Natural Concretions fall under the perception of some one of the Senses: and to stagger the Certitude of Sense, is to cause an Earthquake in the Mind, and upon conse∣quence to subvert the Fundamentals of all Physical Science. Nor is Physiology, indeed, more then the larger Descant of Reason upon the short Text of Sense: or all our Metaphysical speculations (those only excluded, which concern the Existence and Attributes of the Supreme Being, the Rational Soul of man, and Spirits: the Cognition of the two former being desumed from proleptical or congenial impressi∣ons

implantate in, or coessential to our mind; and the belief of the last be∣ing founded upon Revelation supernatural) other then Commentaries upon the Hints given by some one of our External senses. Which Consideration caused Epicurus to erect these two Canons, as the Base of Logical Judicature.

(1) Opinio illa vera est, cui vel suffragatur, vel non refraga∣tur sensus evidentia. (2) Opinio illa falsa est, cui vel refragatur vel non suffraga∣tur sensus evidentia.

That Opinion is true, to which the Evidence of Sense doth either assent, or not dissent: and that false, to which the evidence of Sense doth either not assent, or dissent.

By the suffragation or Assent of the Evidence of Sense, is meant an Assu∣rance that our Apprehension or Judgment of any Object occuring to our sense, is exactly concordant to the reality thereof; or, that the Object is truly such, as we, upon the perception of it by our sense, did judge or opinion it to be. Thus Plato walking far off towards us, and we seeing him conjecture or opinion, as confidently as the great distance will admit, that it is Plato, whom we see coming toward us: but when, by his nearer approach, the great impediment of Certitude, Distance is removed; then doth the evidence of sense make an Attestation or suffra∣gation of the verity of our opinion, and confirm it to be Plato, whom we saw.

The Non-refragation of Sense, intends the Consequution of some Ine∣vident thing, which we suppose or praesume to be, with reflection upon something sensibly evident, or apparent. As when we affirm that the••e is a Vacuum; which taken singly, or speculated▪ in its own obscure na∣ture, is wholly inevident, but may be demonstrated by another thing sufficiently evident, viz. Motion: for if no Vacuum, no Motion; since the Body to be moved must want a Place, wherein to be received, if all Places be already full and crouded. Hence comes it that the thing Evident doth not Refragari to the Inevident. And thus the Suffraga∣tion and Nonrefragation of the Evidence of sense, ought to be under∣stood as one Criterion, whereby any Position may be evicted to be true.

Hither also may be referred that Tetrastick of Lucretius, (lib. 1.)

Corpus enim per se communis deliquat ess•• Sensus: quo nisi prima fides fundata valebit, Haud erit, occultis de rebus, quò referentes Confirmare Animi quicquam ratione queamus.

That Bodies in the World existent are, Our Senses undeniably declare: Whose Certitude once quaestion'd; we can find No judge to solve nice scruples of the Mind.

It remains therefore only that we prove (1) That there is a Vacuum in Nature. (2) That there is in the Universe no Third Nature besides that of Body and Inanity.

CHAP. IV. A Vacuum in Nature.

SECT. I.

IN order to our more prosperous Evacuation of that Epidemick Opinion, Vacuum non dari in rerum na∣tura, that there is no Vacuity or Emptiness in the World; it is very requisite, that we praemise, as a convenient Praeparative, this short advertisement.

Among the speculations of many Ancient Phy∣siologists,* 1.28 and especially of Aristotle (4. Physic. 6) we find a Vacuum distinguished into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Secundum naturam, & Eternaturam, a Vacuum consistent with, and a Vacuum to∣tally repugnant to the fundamental constitutions of Nature. According to which proper distinction, we may consider a Vacuum (1) as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Disseminatum, Interspersed, or of so large diffusion as variously to interrupt the Continuity of the parts of the World. 2 As 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Co∣acervatum, Coacervate or separate from all parts of the World, such as the Ultramundan Space is conceived to be. Now, if we respect the First consideration or acception of a Vacuum, the Quaestion must be, An detur vacuum Disseminatum? Whether there be any small Vacuity in nature, or more plainly, Whether among the incontinued particles of Bodies there be any minute insensible Spaces intermixed, which are absolutely empty, or unpossessed by any thing whatever? If the second; then the doubt is to be stated thus: An detur vacuum intra mundanum Coacervatum? Whe∣ther within the World (for of the extramundane Inanity, the difficulty is not great, as may be collected from the contents of our Second Chapter praecedent) there can be any great or sensible Vacuity, such as we may imagine possible, if many of the small or interspersed V••cuities should convene and remain in one entire coacervate Inanity.

Concerning the First Problem,* 1.29 we cannot state the Doubt more intelli∣gibly, then by proposing it under the analogy of this Example. Let a man intrude his hand into a heap of Corn, and his hand shall possess a cer∣tain sensible space among the separated Grains: his hand again with∣drawn, that space doth not remain empty, but is immediately repossessed by the mutuall confluent grains, whose Confluxibility, not impeded, cau∣seth

their instant convention. And yet betwixt the Grains mutually con∣vened there remaine many intercepted or interposed Spaces or Intervalls, unpossessed by them; because the Grains cannot touch each other so se∣cundum totas superficies, according to all parts of their superficies, as to be contiguous in all points. Exactly thus, when any Body is intruded into Aer, Water, or any such rare and porous nature, betwixt whose inconti∣nued parts there are many Interstices variously disseminated, it doth possess a certain sensible space proportionate to its dimensions: and when that Body is withdrawne, the space cannot remain empty, because the insensible or atomical particles of the Aer, Water, &c. agitated by their own native Con••luxibility, instantly convene and repossess it. And yet, betwixt the convened particles, of which the Aer, and Water, and also all porous Bodies are composed, there remain many empty spaces (analogous to those Intervalls betwixt the incontingent Grains of Corn) so minute or exiguous, as to be below the perception and commensuration of sense. Which is the very Difficulty, concerning which there are so many Con∣troversies extant, as their very Lecture would be a Curse to the greatest Patience. However, we conceive our selves sufficiently armed with Argu∣ments to become the Assertors of a Vacuum Disseminatum; or empty Intervals betwixt the particles of Rare, Porous, or Incontinued Bo∣dies.

* 1.30Our First Argument is that Reason given for a Vacuum by Epicurus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Nisi esset Inane, non haberent Corpora neque uti essent, neque quo motus suos obirent, cùm moveri ea quidem manifestum sit: Unless there were a Vacuum, Bodies could have neither where to consist, nor whither to be moved; and manifest it is, that they are moved. Which solid Reason, though seemingly perspicuous, hath in it so many recesses of obscurity, as may not only excuse, but efflagitate a cursory paraphrase. First, we are to observe that, in the theory of Epicurus, the Notions of Inanity and Locality are one and the same essentially, but not respectively: i. e. that the same space when replenished with a Body, is a Place, but when devoid or destitute of any Tenent whatever, then it is a Vacuum. Second∣ly, that Aristotle did not sufficiently profound the Quiddity of Place, when He taught, that the Concave superficies of the Circumambient did constitute the Essence thereof. For, when it is generally conceded that the Locus must be adaequate to the Locatum; it is truly praesumed, that the internal superficies of the Circumambient or Place, ought to be adaequate to the ex∣ternal superficies of the Locatum or Placed; but not to its Profundity, or Internal Dimensions. And, since it is of the formal reason of Place, that it be Immoveable, or uncapable of Translation; for, otherwise any thing might, at one and the same time, be immote and yet change place: it is evident, that the superficies of the Circumambient is not Immoveable, since it may both be moved, the Locatum remaining unmoved, and è contrà, persist unmoved, when the Locatum is removed. And, therefore, the Concave superficies of the Circumambient may, indeed, obtain the reason of a Vessel, but not of a Place. And, upon consequence, we conclude, that the Space comprehended within the superficies of the Circumambient, is really and essentially what is to be understood by Place Since that Space is adaequated perfectly to its Locatum in all its internal Dimensions, and is also truly Immoveable; in regard that upon the remove of the Locatum,

it remains fixt, unchanged, unmoved; in the same state as before its occu∣pation, it persevers after its desertion. And when the Body removed possesseth a new Space: the old Space is instantly possessed by a new Bo∣dy. Thirdly, that this argument desumed from the Evidence of Motion, was proposed by Empiricus, (advers. Geometr.) more Syllogistically, thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Si Motus est, Inane est; atqui Motus est, est ergo Inane. If there be Motion, there must be ••••anity; but Motion there is, therefore there is a Vacuum.

That there is Motion, is manifest from sense.* 1.31 And as for that me∣morable Argument of Zeno against Motion, though we judge that he affected it more for the singularity, then solidity thereof, and only pro∣posed it as a new Paradox to gain some credit to Scepticism, of which he was a fierce Assertor; and that no man did ever admit it to a compe∣tition with the Authority of his Sense: yet, since many have reputed it indissoluble, we conceive the solution thereof must become this place.

Motus non potest fieri per spatium quodvis, nisi pri••s mobile pertranseat minus, quam majus; sed quamcunque assignes partem, alia est minor, & alia minor in infinitum: Ergo non potest fieri motus, numquam enim incipiet. No Motion can be made through any space whatever, unless the Moveable first pass through a less, before a greater space; but, what part of space soever you shall please to assign, still there will be another less part, and another less then that, and so up to in∣finity: therefore can there be no motion at all, since it can never begin at a space so little as that no less can remain.

Solution.

The Fallacie lyeth in the Minor, which we concede to be true ratione Mathematica, in the Mathematical acceptation thereof; and so no solution can be satisfactory to the Argument, unless we admit an infinite Divisibi∣lity in the parts of a Continuum: But deny it ratione Physica, in the proper Physical acceptation, and so we may solve the riddle by proving the parts of a Continuum not to be divisible ad infinitum, and Motion is to be con∣sidered penes realem rerum existentiam. Now, that Space is divisible ad infinitum only Extrinsecè and Mathematicè, not Physicè, may be thus evin∣c••••. If Motion be divisible in infinitum, the parts of a slow Motion will be as many as the parts of a swift Motion: but 'tis indubitate, that two parts of a swift motion are coexistent to one of a slow: therefore either that one part must be permanent, since it existeth in two times, or all Motions are equall in velocity and tardity, which is repugnant to ex∣perience. And Motion, Space, and Time, are perfectly Analogous, i. e. Pro∣portional: for there is no part of Motion, to which there may not be assigned a Part of Space and Time fully respondent. Besides, should we allow the Argument to be too close for the teeth of Reason; yet no man can affirm it to be too hard for the sword of Sense, and therefore it ought not to be reputed inextricable: since those objects which fall under the sin∣cere judicature of the sense, need no other Criterion to testifie their Ve∣rity. Upon which the judicious Magnenus happily reflected (p. 162.

Democriti reviviscent.) when He layed down this for a firm Principle: Sensibilia per sensus sunt judicanda, nam illius potentiae est judicare de re, per quam res cognoscitur; neque fides omnis sensibus deneganda.

* 1.32This short Excursion ended, we revert to our Fourth observable, viz. the Consequution or Inference of Epicurus, in his argument for a Vacuum: If no Vacuum, no Motion. Which seems both natural and evident; for what is full, cannot admit a second tenent: otherwise nothing could prohibit the synthesis or Coexistence of many Bodies in one and the same place; which to imagine, is the extremest Absurdity imagi∣nable.

For Illustration, let us Imagine, that the Uuniverse (having nothing of Inanity interspersed among its parts) is one Continued Mass of Bodies so closely crouded, ramm'd, and wedged together, that it cannot receive any the least thing imaginable more: and keeping to this Hypothesis, we shall soon deprehend, whether any one Body among those many disposed within this compact or closely crouded Mass may be removed out of its own to invade the place of another. Certainly, if all places be full, it must extrude another body out of its place, or become joint-tenant with it and possess one and the same place. Extrude a body out of its possession it cannot, because the Extruded must want a room to be received into; nor can the Extruded dispossess a third, that third expel a fourth, that fourth eject a fifth, &c. Since the difficulty sits equally heavy on all: and there∣fore, if the invaded doth not resign to the invading, there can be no be∣ginning of Motion, and consequently no one Atome in the Universe can be moved. And, as for its becoming synthetical or joint-tenant, that is manifestly impossible: because a Collocat••on of two Bodies in one and the same place, imports a reciprocal Penetration of Dimensions, then which nothing can be more repugnant to the tenor of Nature: and therefore it remains, that every part of the Universe would be so firmly bound up and compacted by other parts, that to move those Cochles, Snails, or Insects, which are found in the ferruminated womb of Rocks, and incorporated to the heart of Flints, would be a far more modest attempt, then to move the least atome therein.

* 1.33Nor can the Dissenting evade the compulsion of this Dilemma, by prae∣tending, that in the Universe are Bodies of rare, porous, and fluxible Con∣stitutions, such as are more adapted to Lococession, or giving place upon their invasion by other Bodies, then are Rocks or Flints. Because, unless their Rarity, Porosity, Fluxibility, or yeeldingness be supposed to proceed from Inanity disseminate; or, that all the particles of those Bodies are con∣tiguous, or munually contingent secundum totas superficies▪ doubtless, they must be so Continued, as that it can make no difference, whether you call them Bodies of Flint or Aer. For, neither shall the Aer possess a place less absolutely then a Flint: because how many particles soever of place you shall suppose, no one of them can remain unpossessed; it being of the Essence of Place, that it be adaequate to its Tenent in all its internal Di∣mensions, i. e. in the number and proportion of Particles: nor a Flint more perfectly then Aer, whose insensible Particles are praesumed to be reci∣procally contingent in all points, and so to exclude all Interspersed Inanity.

We said, without Inanity interspersed,* 1.34 there can be no Beginning of Motion. Which to explain, let us suppose that a Body, being to be mo∣ved through the Aer, doth in the first degree of motion propel the con∣tiguous aer, the space of a hairs bredth, Now, the Universe being ab∣solutely full, that small space of a hairs bredth must be praepossessed, and so the Body cannot be placed therein, untill it hath thence depelled the in∣cumbent Aer. Nor can the contiguous Aer possessing that space of a hairs bredth be depelled per latera to a place behind: because that place also is replete with Aer. Insomuch, therefore, as the body to be moved, cannot progress through so small a space, as that of an hairs bredth, because of the defect of place for the reception of the Aer replenishing that space: it must of necessity remain bound up immoveably in that place, wherein it was first situate. But if we conceive the Aer to have small Inane Vacu∣olas, or Spaces (holding an analogy to those spaces interceding betwixt the Grains of a Heap of Corn or Sand) variously interposed among its minute insensible particles: then may we also conceive, how the Motion of a Body through the Aer is both begun and continued: viz. that the Body moved, doth by its superfice protrude the particles of the contigu∣ous Aer, those protruded particles being received into the adjacent empty interstices, press upon the next vicine particles of aer, and likewise protrude them, which received also into other adjacent empty spaces become contiguous to, and urgent upon other next particles of Aer, and so forward untill, upon the successive continuation of the Compression by protrusion, and the consequent dereliction of a place behind, the la∣teral particles of the Aer, compressed by the anterior parts dissilient, are effused into it: and so, how much of Aer is compressed and impelled forward, so much recurrs backward per latera, and is dilated. The same also may be accommodated to the Lococession of the Parts of Water; allowing it this praerogative, that being propelled by a Body movent, it doth by its particles more easily propel the contiguous particles of the Aer, then its own; because the empty minute spaces of the aer incumbent upon the Water, are larger, which may be the reason, why water propelled for∣wards, becomes tumid and swelleth somewhat upwards in its superfice, and is depressed proportionately backward. Now according to this the∣ory, ought we to understand the Reason of Epicurus for a Vacuum, desu∣med from the necessity of motion.

SECT. II.

AS the nature of Motion considered in the General,* 1.35 hath afforded us our First Argument, for the comprobation of a Vacuity Disse∣minate: so likewise doth the nature of Rarefaction and Condensation, which is a species of Local Motion, speculated in particular, readily furnish us with a Second. Examine we therefore, with requisite scru∣tiny, some of the most eminent Apparences belonging to the Expansion and Compression of Aer and Water: that so we may explore, whe∣ther they can be salved more fully by our hypothesis of a Dissemi∣nate Vacuity, then by any other, relating to an Universal Pleni∣tude.

* 1.36Take we a Pneumatique or Wind-Gun, and let that part of the Tube, wherein the Aer to be compressed is included, be four inches long (the diameter of the bore or Cavity being supposed proportionate:) now if among the particles of that aer contained in the four inched space of the Tube, there be no empty Intervals, or minute Inanities; then of necessity must the mass of Aer included be exactly adaequate to the capacity or space of four inches, so as there cannot be the least particle of place, wherein is not a particle of aer aequal in di∣mensions to it, i. e. the number of the particles of aer is equal to the number of the particles of the Cavity. Suppose we then the number of particles common to both, to be 10000. This done, let the aer, by the Rammer artificially intruded, be compressed to the half of the space (not that the compression may not exceed that rate, for Mersennus (in praef. ad Hydraulicam Pneumaticam Ar∣tem.) hath by a most ingenious demonstration taught, that Aer is capable of Compression even to the tenth part of that space, which it possessed in the natural disposition, or open order of its insensible particles:) and then we demand, how that half space, viz. two inches, can receive the double proportion of Aer, since the particles of that half space are but 5000. Either we must grant that, before compression, each single particle of Aer possessed two particles of space, which is manifestly absurd: or, that after Compression, each single parti∣cle of space doth contain two of aer, which is also absurd, since two bodies cannot at once possess the same place: or else, that there were various In∣tervals Inane disseminate among the particles of Aer, and then solve the Phaenomenon thus. As the Grains of Corn, or Granules of Sand, being powred into a vessel up to the brim, seem wholly to fill it▪ and yet by suc∣cussion of the vessel, or depression of the grains upon the imposition of a great weight, may be reduced into a far less space; because from a more la•• and rare, they are brought to a more close and constipate con∣geries, or because they are reduced from an open, to a close or∣der, their points and sides being more adapted for reciprocal con∣tact quoad totas superficies, nor leaving such large Intervals betwixt them as before succussion or depression. So likewise are the par∣ticles of aer included in the four-inched space of the Tube, by Compression or Coangustation reduced downe to the impletion of onely the hal•• of that space; because from a more lax or rare Con∣texture they are contracted into a more dense or close, their an∣gles and sid•••• being by that force more disposed for reciprocal Con∣tingence, and leaving less Intervals, or empty spaces betwixt them then before.

* 1.37Our Second Experiment is that familiar one of an Aeolipile which having one half of its Concavity replete with Water, and the other with Aer, and placed in a right position near the fire: if you will not allow any of ••he spaces within it to be empty, pray, when the Water by incalescen•••• rarefied into vapours, issues out with thundering impetuo∣sity through the slender perforation or exile outlet of its rostrum, succes∣sively for many hours together, how can the same Capacity still re∣main full? For, if before incalefaction the particles of Water and Aer were equal to the number of the particles of space con∣tained therein▪ Pray, when so many parts both of Water and Aer,

consociated in the form of a vapour, are evacuated through the Orifice, must not each of their remaining parts possess more parts of the capacity, and so be in many places at once? If not so, were there not, before the incalescence, many parts of Water and Aer crouded into one and the same part of space, and so a manifest penetration of real dimensions? Remains it not therefore more verisimilous, that, as an heap of dust dispersed by the W••nd, is rarefied into a kind of cloud and possesseth a far larger space then before its dispersion; because the disgregated Granules of Dust intercept wider spaces of the ambient aer: so the remaining parts of Water and Aer in the cavity of the Aeolipile possess all those Spaces left by the exhaled parts; because they intercept more ample empty Spaces, being disposed into a more lax and open contexture. And that this is caused by the particles of Fire, which intruding into, and with rapid impetuosity agitated every way betwixt the sides of the Aeolipile, suffer not the parts of Aer and Water to quiesce, but disperse and impel them variously: so that the whole space seems constantly full by reason of the rapidity of the Motion.

The Third Mechanick Experiment,* 1.38 which may justifie the sub∣mission of our assent to this Paradox, is this. Having praepared a short Tapor of Wax and Sulphur grosly powdered, light and suspend it by a small Wier in a Glass Vial of proportionate reception, wherein is clean Fountain Water sufficient to possess a fifth part, or thereabout, of its capacity: and then with a Cork fitted exactly to the Orifice, stop the mouth of the Vial so closely, that the erup∣tion of the most subtle Atom may be prevented. On this you shall perceive the flame and fume of the Sulphur and Wax instant∣ly to diffuse and in a manner totally possess the room of the Aer, and so the fire to be extinguished: yet not that there doth suc∣ceed either any diminution of the Aer, since that is imprison∣ed, and all possibility of evasion praecluded; or any ascent of the Water, by an obscure motion in vulgar Physiology called Suction, since here is required no suction to supply a vacuity upon the destituti∣on of aer. But if you open the orifice, and enlarge the imprisoned Aer, you shall then indeed manifestly observe a kind of obscure suction, and thereupon a gradual ascention of the Water: not that the flame doth immediately elevate the water, as well because it is extinct, and the water doth continue elevated for many hours after its extinction, as that, if the flame were continued, can it be imagined that it would with so much tenacity adhaere to the tapor, as is requisite to the elevation of so great a weight of water; but rather, that upon the Coangustation or compression of the aer reduced to a very close order in the mutual con∣tact of its insensible particles, the empty spaces formerly intercepted be∣twixt them being replenished with the exhalations of the tapor; when the orifice is deobturated, there sensibly succeeds a gradual expiration of the atoms of Fire, as the most agile, volatile and prepared for motion, and then the aer, impelled by its own native Fluxibility, re-expands or dilates it self by degrees. But since the narrowness of the Evaporato∣ry, or ori••ice prohibits the so speedy reflexion or return of the com∣pressed particles of the aer to their naturall contexture or open or∣der, as the renitency of their fluxibility requireth, so long as there

remain any of the atoms of Fire in possession of their Vacuities, as long continues the reexpansion of the Aer; and that reexpansion pressing upon the sides of the water, causeth it to ascend, and continue elevated. And no longer, for so soon as the aer is returned to its native contexture, the water by degrees subsideth to the bottom, as before the accension of the Tapor: and so that motion commonly called a Suction in avoidance of Va∣cuity, is more properly a Protrusion, caused by the expanding particles of aer compressed.

* 1.39If any praecipitous Curiosity shall recur to this Sanctuary, that in the Substance of the Aer is contained Aliquid Combustibile, some combustible matter, which the hungry activity of the flame of the Tapor doth prey upon, consume and adnihilate: He runs upon a double absurdity; (1) That in Nature is a substance, which upon the accidental admotion of Fire, is subject to absolute Adnihilation, which to suppose, smels of so great a wild∣ness of Imagination as must justifie their sentence, who shall consign the Author of it to seven years diet on the roots of White Hellebor, nor durst any man but that Elias Artium Helmont, adventure on the publique Pa∣tronage of it. (2) That the Aer is the Pabulum, or Fewel of Fire: which though no private opinion, but passant even among the otherwise venerable Sectators of Aristotle (who unjustly refer the Extinction of flame imprison∣ed, to the Defection of Aer: as intimating that the destruction of Fire, like that of Animals doth proceed from the destitution of Aliment) is yet open∣ly inconsistent to Reason and Experiment. To Reason, because the Aer, considered sincerely as Aer, without the admixture of vapours and exha∣lations, is a pure, simple and Homogeneous substance, whose parts are consimilar: not a composition of heterogeneous and dissimilar, whereof some should submit to the consumptive energie of Fire, and other some (of the invincible temper of Salamandes Wool, or Muscovy Glass,) con∣••erve their originary integrity inviolable in the highest fury of the flames. Again, Themselves unanimously approve that Definition of Galen lib. 1. de Element. cap. 1.) Elementa sunt natura prima & simplicissima corpora, quaeque in alia non amplius dissolvi queant: that it is one of the essential Proprieties of an Element as to be ingenerable, so also Indissoluble: and as unanimously constitute the Aer to be an Element. To Experiment, be∣cause had the Fire found (and yet it is exceedingly inquisitive, especially when directed by Appetite, according to their supposition) any part of the Aer i••flamable; the whole Element of aer had been long since kindled into an unive••sal and inextinguable conflagration, upon the accension of the first focal ••••re: nor could a flash of Lightning or Gunpowder▪ be so soon extinct if the flame found any maintenance or sustentaculum in the Aer, but would enlarge it self into a Combustion more prodigious and de∣structive then that caused by the wild ambition of Phaeton. Most true it is, that Fire deprived of aer, doth suffer immediate extinction: yet not in respect of Aliment denyed (for Nutrition and Vitality are ever converti∣ble) but of the want of room sufficient to contain its igneous and fuliginous Exhalations, which therefore recoiling back upon the flame, coarctate, suffocate, and so extinguish it. For upon the excessive and impetuous sud∣dain afflation of aer, Flame doth instantly perish, though not imprisoned in a glass: the cause is, that the flame, not with tenacity sufficient adhaering to the body of the tapor, or lamp, is easily blown off, and being thus dis∣lodged hath no longer subsistence in the aer. And Heat, beating upon

the outside or convex part of a Glass, seems sensibly to dilate the Aer im∣prisoned within; as is manifest upon the testimonie of all Thermometres, or Weather-Glasses, those only which contain Chrysulca, or Aqua Fortis in stead of Water, at least if the experiment be true, excepted: but Fire in the Concave or inside of the Glass violently compresseth the aer, by rea∣son of its fuliginous Emissions, which wanting vacuities enough in the aer for their reception, recoil and suffocate the fire.

The Fourth, this. Being in an intense frost at Droitwich in Worcestershire,* 1.40 and feeding my Curiosity with enquiring into the Mechanick operations of the Wallers (so the Salt-boylers are there called) I occasionally took no∣tice of Yce, of considerable thickness, in a hole of the earth, at the mouth of a Furnace very great and charged with a Reverberatory fire, or Ignis rotae. Consulting with my Phylosophy, how so firm a congelation of Water could be made by Cold at the very nose of so great a fire; I could light on no determination, wherein my reason thought it safe to acquiesce, but this. That the ambient Aer, surcharged with too great a cloud of exhalations from the fire, was forced to a violent recession or retreat, and a fresh supply of aer as violently came on to give place to the receding, and maintain the reception of fresh exhalations; and so a third, fourth and continued relief succeeded: and that by this continued and impetuous afflux, or stream of new aer, loaden with cold Atoms, the activity of the cold could not but be by so much the more intense at the mouth of the furnace, then abroad in the open aer, by how much the more violent the stream of cold aer was there then elsewhere. To complete and assure the Experiment, I caused two dishes, of equal capacity, to be filled with river Water; placed one at the mouth of the furnace, the other sub Dio: and found that near the fur∣nace so nimbly creamed over with Yce, as if that visibly-freezing Tra∣montane Wind, which the Italian calls Chirocco, had blown there, and much sooner perfectly frozen then the other. And this I conceive to be also the reason of that impetuous suction of a stream of aer, and with it o∣ther light and spongy bodies, through the holes or pipes made in many Chimneys, to praevent the repercursion of smoke.

From these observations equitably perpended and collated, our medi∣tations adventured to infer

(1) That the Aer;* 1.41 as to its principal and most universal Destination was created to be the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or common RECEPTARY of Ex∣halations: and that for the satisfaction of this End, it doth of necessity contain a Vacuum Desseminatum in those minute and insensible Incontigui∣ties or Intervals betwixt its atomical Particles; since Nature never knew such gross improvidence, as to ordain an End, without the codestination of the Means requisite to that End. To praevent the danger of miscon∣struction in this particular, we find our selves obliged to in••imate; that in our assignation of this Function or Action to the Aer, we do not restrain the aer to this use alone: since Ignorance it self cannot but observe it ne∣cessarily inservient to the Conservation of Animals endowed with the or∣gans of Respiration, to the transvection of Light, the convoy of odours, sounds, and all Species and Aporrhaeas, &c. but that, in allusion to that Distinction of Anatomists betwixt the Action and Use of a Part, we intend; that the grand and most General Action of the Aer, is the Reception or

entertainment of Vapours and Exhalations emitted from bodies situate in or near the Terraqueous Globe. And in this acception, allowing the Aer to be constituted the General Host to admit; we insinuate that it hath rooms wherein to lodge the arriving Exhalations: insomuch as the neces∣sity of the one, doth import as absolute a necessity of the other; the exi∣stence of the Final ever attesting the existence of the Conductive, or Medi∣atory Cause.

* 1.42(2) That, though the Aer be variously interspersed with empty In∣terstices, or minute Incontiguities, for the reception of Exhalations: yet doth it receive them at a just Rate, Tax, or determinate Proportion, conform to its own Capacity, or Extensibility; which cannot without Reluctancy and Violence be exceeded. For when the Vacuities, or Holds have taken in their just portage, and equal fraught, the compressed aer hoyseth sail, bears off, and surrenders the Scene to the next advenient or vicine aer, which acteth the like part successively to the continuation of the motion. This may be exemplified in the experiment of the Furnace and Chimneys new∣ly mentioned, but more manifestly in that of the Sulphurate Tapor in the Vial: where the Aer, being overburthened with too great a conflux of fu∣liginous Exhalations, and its recession impeded by the stopping of the Vial, it immediately recontracteth it self, and in that renitency extinguish∣eth by suffocation the rude Flame, which oppressed it with too copious an afflux. As also in those of Canons and Mines; which could not produce such portentous effects, as are dayly observed in Wars, if it were not in this respect, that the Receptaries in the Aer suffer a ra••k or extension be∣yond their due Capacities. For, when the Powder fired in them is, in the smallest subdivision of time, so much subtiliated, as to yeeld a Flame (according to the compute of M••rsennus) of 10000 parts larger in extensi∣on, then it self, while its Atoms remained in the close order and compact form of Powder; and the Aer▪ by reason of its imprisonment, is not able to recede, and bear off so speedily, as the velocity of the motion requires: for avoidance of a mutual Penetration of Dimensions among the minute particles of the Fire, smoke, and its own, it makes an eruption with so pro∣digious an impetuosity, as to shatter and evert all solid bodies situate with∣in the orb of impediment.

* 1.43For the further Confirmation of our First Thesis, viz. That the Aer is interspersed with various Porosities, or Vacuities, by reason of the Incon∣tiguity of its insensible Particles; and that these serve to the reception of all Exhalations: we shall superadd these two considerable Arguments. (1) If this Vacuum Disseminatum of the Aer be submoved, and an absolute Plenitude in the Universe from a Continuity of all its parts supposed; then must every the smallest motion, with dangerous violence run through the whole Engine of the World, by reason of that Continuity. (2) If the Aer were not endowed with such Porosities, other Bodies could never suf∣fer the dilatation or rarefaction of themselves; since, upon the subtiliation or dilatation of their minute particles, i e. the remove of their Atoms from a close to an open contexture, they possess 1000 times larger Capacities: and so there would be no room to entertain the continual Effluviums, expi∣ring from all bodies passing their natural vicissitudes and degenerations.

SECT. III.

TO these Four eminent Experiments,* 1.44 we might have annexed others numerous enough to have swelled this Chapter into a Volume; but conceiving them satisfactory to any moderate Curiosity, and that it can be no difficulty to a Physiological Meditation, to salve any Apparence of the same nature, by this Hypothesis of a Vacuum Disseminatum in the Aer, as the Caussa sine qua non of its Rarefaction and Condensation: we judged it more necessary to address to the discharge of the residue of our duty, vi••. to praesent it as verisimilous; that in the Water also are various∣ly dispersed the like Vacuola, or empty spaces, such as we have not unfitly compared to those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Intervals betwixt the Granules of Sand in a heap, in those parts where their superficies are not contiguous, in respect of the ineptitude of their Figures for mutual contact in all points. And this seems to us so illustrious a Verity, as to require neither more atte∣station, nor explanation, then what this one singular Experiment im∣ports.

'Tis generally known,* 1.45 that Water doth not dissolve Salt in an indefinite quantity, but ad certam taxam, to a certain determinate proportion; so as being once sated with the Tincture thereof, it leaves the overplus entire and undissolved. After a long and anxious scrutiny for a full solution of this Phaenomenon, our thoughts happily fixed upon this: That, the Salt being in dissolution reduced (Analysi ret. ograda) into its most minute or Atomical Particles, there ought to be in the Water Consimilar or adaequate Spa∣ces for their Reception; and that those Spaces being once replenished, the Dissolution (because the Reception) ceaseth. Not unlike to a full sto∣mach, which eructates and disgorges all meats and drinks superingested: or full vessels, which admit no liquor affused above their brim. Here∣upon, having first reflected upon this, that the Atomical Particles of com∣mon Salt are Cubical; and thereupon inferred, that, since the Locus must be perfectly adaequate to the Locatum, they could only fill those empty spaces in the water, which were also Cubical: we concluded it probable, that in the water there ought to be other empty spaces Octohedrical, Sexangular, Sphaerical, and of other Figures, which might receive the minute particles of other Salts, such as Alum, Sal Ammoniac, Halinitre, Sugar, &c. after their dissolution in the same Water. Nor did Experiment falsifie our Conjecture. For, injecting Alum parcel after parcel, for many dayes to∣gether, into a vessel of Water formerly sated with the tincture of common Salt; we then, not without a pleasant admiration, observed that the Water dissolved the Alum as speedily, and in as great quantity, as if it altogether wanted the tincture of Salt; nor that alone, for it likewise dissolved no small quantities of other Salts also. Which is no obscure nor contempti∣ble Evidence, that water doth contain various insensible Loculaments, Chambers, or Receptaries of different Figures: and that this variety of those Figures doth accommodate it to extract the Tinctures of several Bodies in••ected and infused therein▪ So as it is exceedingly difficult, to evince by Experiment that any Liquor is so sated with precedent Tinctures, as no••

to be capable of others also: especially while we cannot arrive at the ex∣act knowledge of the Figure of the Atomical Particles of the body to be infused, nor of the Figures of those minute spaces in the liquor, which re∣main unpossessed by the former dissolutions.

* 1.46Upon which reason, we are bold to suspect the truth of the Lord S. Al∣bans assertion; Centur. 1 Nat. Hist.) that by repeating the infusion of Rhu∣barb several times, letting each dose thereof remain in maceration but a small time (in regard to the Fineness and volatility of its Spirits, or Emanations) a medicament may be made as strongly Catharctical or Purgative, as a simple infusion of S••amony in the like weight. For (1) when the empty spaces in the Menstruum, or Liquor, which respond in Figure to the Figure of the Atomical particles of the Rhubarb, are replenished with its Tincture; they can admit no greater fraught, but the Imbibition of Virtue ceaseth: and that two or three infusions, at most, suffice to the repletion of those re∣spective spaces, may be collected from hence, that the Rhubarb of the fourth infusion loseth nothing of its Purgative Faculty thereby, but being taken out and singly infused in a proportionate quantity of the like liquor, it worketh as effectually as if it had never been infused before. (2) Ex∣perience testi••ieth the Contrary, viz. that a Drachm of Scamony singly in∣fused in an ounce and half of White wine, doth operate (caeteris paribus) by 15 parts of 20, more smartly then 5 drachms of Rhubarb successively infused in the like quantity of the same or any other convenient Liquor.

* 1.47Here also is the most probable Cause, why two Drachms of Antimony crude, or Crocus Metallorum, give as powerful a Vomitory impraegnation to a Pint of Sa••••, or White wine, as two ounces: viz. because the menstruum hath no more Vacuities of the same Figure with the Atomical Ef••luviums of the Antimony, then what suffice to the imbibition or admission of the two Drachms. For the Certitude of this, we appeal to the experience of a Lady in Cheshire, who seduced by an irregular Charity, and an opinion of her own skill, doth praetend to the cure of the sick, and to that purpose praepares her Catholique Vomitory, consisting of four Drachms and an half of crude stibium infused all night in 3 or 4 ounces of White wine, and usually gives it (without respect to the individual temperament of the Assument for one dose to the sick▪ and yet, as our selves have more then once observed, the infusion doth work with no greater violence, in some persons, then as much of our common Emetique Infusion praescribed in the reformed Dispensatory of our Venerable College. Nay more then this, our selves have often reduced the Dose of the same Emetique Infusion down only to 4 Scruples, and yet found its operation come not much short of the usual Dose of an ounce.

* 1.48Hence also may be desumed a satisfactory reason for the impraegnation of one and the same Menstruum with various Tinctures: for Example, Why an Infusion of Rhubarb, sated with its tincture, doth afterward extract the tinctures of Agarick, Senna, the Cordial Flowers, Cremor Tartari, &c. injected according to the praescript of the judicious Physician, in order to his confection of a Compound Medicament requisite to the satisfaction of a Complex Scope or Intention.

SECT. IV.

A Third Argument, for the comprobation of a Vacuum Disseminatum,* 1.49 may be adferred from the Cause of the Difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity, respective to their Density or Rarity, (i. e.) according to the greater or less Inane Spaces interspersed among their insensible Par∣ticles. And a Fourth likewise from the reason of the Calefaction of Bo∣dies by the subingress or penetration of the Atoms of Fire into the emp∣ty Intervals variously disseminate among their minute particles. But, in respect that we conceive our Thesis sufficiently evinced by the Praecedent Reasons; and that the consideration of the Causes of Gravity and Calefa∣ction, doth, according to the propriety of Method, belong to our succeed∣ing Theory of Qualities: we may not in this place insist upon them.

And as for those many Experiments of Water-hour-glasses, Syringes,* 1.50 Glass Fountains, Cuppinglasses, &c. by the inconvincible Assertors of the Peripa∣tetick Physiology commonly objected to a Vacuity: we may expede them altogether in a word. We confess, those experiments do, indeed, demon∣strate that Nature doth abhort a Vacuum Coacervatum; as an heap of Sand abhors to admit an Empty Cavity great as a mans hand extracted from it: but not that it doth abhor that Vacuum Disseminatum, of which we have discoursed; nay, they rather demonstrate that Nature cannot well consist without these small empty Spaces interspersed among the insensible Par∣ticles of Bodies, as an heap of Sand cannot consist without those small In∣terstices betwixt its Granules, whose Figures prohibit their mutual con∣tact in all points. So that our Assertion ought not to be condemned as a Kaenodox inconsistent to the laws of Nature, while it imports no more then this; that, as the Granules of a heap of Sand mutually flow toge∣ther to replenish that great Cavity, which the hand of a man by intrusion had made▪ and by extraction left, by reason of the Confluxibility of their Nature: so also do the Granules, or Atomical Particles of Aer, Water, and other Bodies of that Rare condition, flow together, by reason of the Fluidity or Confluxibility of their Nature, to praevent the creation and re∣manence of any considerable, or Coacervate Vacuum betwixt them. To instance in one of the Experiments objected. Water doth not distil from the upper into the lower part of a Clepsydra, or Water-hour-glass, so long as the Orifice above remains stopped; because all places both above and be∣low are ful, nor can it descend until, upon unstopping the hole, the aer below can give place, as being then admitted to succeed into the room of the la∣teral aer, which also succeeds into the room of that which en••ered above at the orifice as that succeeds into the room of the Water descending by drops, and so the motion is made by succession,* 1.51 and continued by a kind of Circulation. The same also may be accommodated to those Vessels, which Gardners use for the irrigation of their Plants, by opening the hole in the upper part thereof, making the water issue forth below in artificial rain.

It only remains, therefore, that we endeavour to solve that Giant Diffi∣culty, proposed in defiance of our Vacuum Disseminatum, by the mighty

Mersennus (in Phaenomen. Pneumatic. propos. 31.) thus. Quomodo Vacuola, solitò majora in rarefactione, desinant, aut minora facta in condensatione cres∣cant iterum: quaenam enim Elateria cogunt aerem ad sui restitutionem? How do those Vacuities minute in the aer, when enlarged by rarefaction, recover their primitive exility; and when diminished by condensation, re∣expand themselves to their former dimensions: What Elaters or Springs are in the aer, which may cause its suddain restitution to its natural consti∣tution of insensible particles?

We Answer; that, as it is the most catholique Law of Nature, for every thing, so much as in it lies, to endeavour the conservation of its originary state; so, in particular, it is the essential quality of the Aer, that its mi∣nute particles conserve their natural Contexture, and when forced in Rare∣faction to a more open order, or in Condensation to a more close order, immediately upon the cessation of that expanding, or contracting violence, to reflect or restore themselves to their due and natural contexture. Nor need the Aer have any Principle or Efficient of this Reflection, other then the Fluidity or Confluxibility of its Atomical Parts: the essence or Quiddi∣ty of which Quality, we must reserve for its proper place, in our ensuing theory of Qualities.

CHAP. V. A Vacuum Praeternatural.

SECT. I.

BEsides a Natural,* 1.52 or Disseminate Vacuity frequently in∣tercepted betwixt the incontiguous Particles of Bodies (the Argument of our immediately precedent Chapter) not a few of the highest form in the school of Democri∣tus have adventured to affirm not only the possibility, but frequent introduction of a Praeternatural or Coacer∣vate Inanity: such as may familiarly be conceived, if we imagine many of those minute inane spaces congrega∣ted into one sensible void space. To assist this Paradox, the autoptical testimony of many Experiments hath been pleaded; especially of that Glass Fountain invented by Hero (praef. in Spirit.) and fully described by the learned and industrious Turnebus (in lib. de calore) and of that Brass Cylindre, whose concave carries an Embolus, or sucker of wood, concern∣ing which the subtle Galilaeo hath no sparing discourse in the first of his Dialogues: but, above all, of that most eminent and generally ventilated one of a Glass Cylindre, or Tube filled with Quicksilver, and inverted;* 1.53 concerning which not long after the invention thereof by that worthy Geometrician, Torricellius, at Florence, have many excellent Physicoma∣thematical Discourses been written by Monsieur Petit, Dr. Paschal Mer∣senn••s, Gassendus, Stephanus Natalis. Who, being all French, seemed unanimously to catch at the experiment, as a welcom opportunity to chal∣lenge all the Wits of Europe to an aemulous combat for the honour of per∣spicacity. Now albeit we are not yet fully convinced▪ that the chief Phaenomenon in this illustrious Experiment doth clearly demonstrate the existence of a Coacervate Vacuity, such as is thereupon by many conce••ed, and with all possible subtlety defended by that miracle of natural Science, the incomparable Mersennus (in reflexionib. Physicomathemat.) yet, inso∣much as it affords occasion of many rare and sublime speculations, where∣of some cannot be solved either so fully, or perspicuously by any Hypo∣thesis, as that of a Vacuum Disseminatum among the insensible particles of Aer and Water; and most promise the pleasure of Novelty, if not the profit of satisfaction to the worthy considerer; we judge it no unpardon∣able Digression, here to present to our judicious Reader, a faithful Tran∣script of the Experiment, together with the most rational solutions of all

the admirable Apparences observed therein, first by Torricellius and the rest beyond Sea, and since more then once by our selves.

The Experiment.

* 1.54Having praepared a Glass Tube (whose longitude is 4 feet, and the diameter of its concavity equal to that of a mans middle finger) and stopped up one of its extremities, or ends, with a seal Hermetical: fill it with Quicksilver, and stop the other extreme with your middle finger. Then, ha••ing with a most slow and gentle motion (lest otherwise the great weight of the Quicksilver break it) inverted the Tube, immerge the extreme stopt by your finger into a Vessel filled with equal parts of Quicksilver and Water, not withdrawing your finger untill the end of the Tube be at least 3 or 4 inches deep in the subjacent Quick∣silver: for, so you praevent all insinuation or intrusion of Aer. This done, and the Tube fixed in an erect or perpendicular position; upon the subduction of your finger from the lower orifice, you may observe part of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube to descend speedily into the restagnant or subjacent Quicksilver, leaving a certain space in the superior part of the Tube, accord∣ing to apparence at least, absolutely Void or Empty: and part thereof (after some Reciprocations or Vibrations) to remain still in the Tube, and possess its cavity to a certain proportion, or altitude of 27 digits, or 2 feet, 3 digits and an half (proximè) constantly. Further, if you recline, with a gentle motion also, the upper extreme of the Tube, untill the lower, formerly immersed in the Quicksilver, arise up into the region of the Water incumbent on the surface of the Quicksilver: you may perceive the Quicksilver remaining in the Tube to ascend by sensible degrees up to the superior extreme thereof, together with part of the Water; both those liquors to be confounded together; and, at length, the Quicksilver wholly to distill down in parcels, surrendring the cavity of the Tube to the possession of the Water. Likewise, if you recline the superior ex∣treme of the Tube, untill its altitude respond to that of 27 digits, still retain∣ing the opposite extreme in the region of the subjacent Quicksilver in the ves∣sel: then will the Quicksilver be sensibly impelled up again into the Tube, un∣till that space formerly vacated be replenished. Finally, if, when t••e Quick∣silver hath fallen down to the altitude of 27 digits, the Tube be suddainly educed out of the subjacent Quicksilver and Water, so as to arrive at the con∣fines of the Aer; then doth the Aer rush into the Tube below, with such impe∣tuosity, as to elevate the Quicksilver and Water contained in the Tube, to the top; nay, to blow up the sealed end thereof, and drive out the liquors 4 or 5 feet perpendicular up in the aer; not without some terror, though not much danger to the Experimentator, especially if he do not expect it.

Now though it be here praescribed, that the Tube ought to be 4 feet in length, and the amplitude of its Cavity equal to that of an ordinary mans finger: yet is neither of these necessary; For, whatever be the longitude, and whatever the amplitude of the Tube, still doth the Quick∣silver, after various reciprocations, acquiesce and subsist at the same stan∣dard of 27 digits; as Dr Paschal junior found by experience in his Tube 15 feet long, which he bound to a spear of the same length, so to prevent the fraction thereof, when it was erected perpendicularly, replete with Quicksilver, in libro cui titulus, Experiences Novelles touchant le Vuide.)

Among those many (Natalis reckons up no less then 20) stupendious Magnalities, or rare Effects,* 1.55 which this eminent Experiment exhibits to observation; the least whereof seems to require a second Oedipus more perspicacious then the first, for the accommodation thereof though but to plausible and verisimilous Causes, and might had Aristotle known it, have been reputed the ground of his despair, with more credit then that petty Problem of the frequent and irregular Reciprocation of Euripus: we have selected only six, as the most considerable, and such whose solution may serve as a bright tapor to illuminate the reason of the Curious, who desire to look into the dark and abstruce Dihoties of the rest.

SECT. II. The First Capital Difficulty.

WHether that Space in the Tube,* 1.56 betwixt the upper extreme thereof and the Quicksilver delapsed to the altitude only of 27 digits, be really an entire and absolute Vacuity?

Concerning this, some there are who confidently affirm the space be∣tween the superfice of the Quicksilver defluxed and the superior extreme of the Tube, to be an absolute COACERVATE VACUITIE: such as may be conceived, if we imagine some certain space in the world to be, by Divine or miraculous means, so exhausted of all matter or body, as to pro∣hibit any corporeal transflux through the same. And the Reasons, upon which they erect their opinion, are these subsequent.

This space, if possessed by any Tenent,* 1.57 must be replenished either with common Aer, or with a more pure and subtle substance called Aether, which some have imagined to be the Universal Caement or common Elater, by which a general Continuity is maintained through all parts of the Universe, and by which any Vacuity is praevented: or by some exhalation from the mass of Quicksilver included in the Tube.

First, that it is not possessed by Aer, is manifest from several strong and convincing reasons.

(1) Because the inferior end of the Tube, D, is so immersed into the sub∣jacent mass of Quicksilver below the line EF, that no particle of aer can enter thereat.

(2) Because, if there were aer in the Tube filling the deserted space CK, then would not the circumambient or extrinsecal aer, when the Tube is educed out of the restagnant Quicksilver, and Water, rush in with that violence, as to elevate the remainder of the Quicksilver in the Tube, from K to D, up to the top C, and break it open, as is observed: in regard, that could not happen without a penetration of bodies. So that, if we suppose any portion of aer to have slipped into the Tube below, at the subduction of the finger that closed the orifice: then would not the Mercury reascending (upon

the inclination of the Tube down to the horizontal line KM,) rise up quite to the top C, but subsist at OP. But the contrary is found upon the experiment.

(3) When the Tube, after the deflux of the Mercury to K, is reclined so as the extreme C, be of the same horizontal altitude with the point K, as is visible in the Tube LM: then doth the Mercury in the sub∣ject vessel reascend into the same, and again possess the desert Space KC, or NM. This being so, Whither can the aer, if any the least portion of it were resident in the space NM, retreat, since the ex∣treme M, is hermetically closed, and so no way for its egression can be praetended. * 1.58

[illustration]

• AB, A Tube of Glass, replete with Quicksilver.
• A, The lower extreme thereof, her∣metically sealed.
• B, The upper extreme thereof; open.
• DC, The same Tube inverted, and perpendicularly erected in a vessel full of Quicksilver: so as the ori∣fice D, be not unstopped, untill it be immersed in the subjacent Quick∣silver.
• HGI, A vessel filled up to the line EF, with Quicksilver: and thence up to the brim HI, with Water.
• CK, The Vacuum, or Space deserted by the Quicksilver descended
• OCP, The quantity of Aer suppo∣sed to have insinuated it self at the subduction of the finger from the inferior orifice D.
• KM, A Line parallel to the Hori∣zon.
• LM, The same Tube again filled with Quicksilver, and reclined untill the upper extreme thereof become pa∣rallel to the same horizontal alti∣tude with K.
• N, The distance of 27 inches from L, as K from D.

(4) If any portion of Aer chance to intrude into the cavity of the Tube, which may come to pass either if, when the superior orifice of the Tube is inverted, it be not exactly obturated by the finger of the Experimentator; or, if at the extraction of his finger the lower e••treme be not immersed deep enough in the subjacent Mer∣cury, to prevent the subingress of some aer; or, if the orifice of the

Tube educed out of the region of the subjacent Mercury and Wa∣ter▪ be not wholly deobturated at once, but so as there is only some slender inlet of Aer: We say, if in any of these Cases it happen, that some small portion of aer be admitted into the cavity of the Tube; we have the evidence of our sense, and the most infallible one too, that the aer so admitted doth not ascend to the top C, but remaine visible in certain small Bubbles (such as usually mount up to the surface of seething water) immediately upon the superfice of the Mercury at the altitude of 27 digits K. As if, indeed, the aer were attracted, and in a manner chained down by the Magnetical Effluviums of the earth, together with the pendent Quicksilver: which having more Ansulae or Fastnings, whereon the small Hooks of the Magnetical Chains exhaling from the Globe of the Earth, may be accommodately fixed, is therefore attracted downward more forcibly, and, in that respect, is reputed to have the greater proportion of Gravity. Again, If upon the inclination of the Tube, and the succeeding repletion of the same by the regurgitating Mer∣cury, that portion of aer formerly entered be propelled up to the top of the Tube, C; and then the Tube again reduced to its perpendicular, so as the Quicksilver again deflux to K: in this case the aer doth not re∣main at C, but sinks down as formerly to K also, and there remains incumbent upon the face of the Quicksilver. Which Descent of the aer cannot be more probably referred to any Cause, then the Attra∣ction of the Magnetick streams of the Earth.

(5) Having admitted some few Bubbles of aer to slide up by the mar∣gine of the Mercury into the desert Space KC; and then reclined the Tube to the altitude of the horizontal line KM: you may per∣ceive the delapsed Quicksilver not to be repelled up again quite to the top, as before the irreption of aer, but to make a stand when it arrives at the confines of the included aer at OP, leaving so much space, as is requisite for the reception of it. Nor can it do other∣wise, without a penetration of Dimensions, by the location of two Bodies in one and the same place.

(6) Moreover, after the acquiescence of the Quicksilver at K, if you stop the inferior extreme D, with your finger, while it remains im∣mersed in the restagnant Quicksilver EF, so as to praeclude the ir∣reption of any more aer; and then invert the Tube again: the Scene of the Desert Capacity CK, will be changed to the contrary extreme stopt by your finger, and yet without the least sign of aer pervading the mass of Quicksilver in a kind of small stream of Bub∣bles, contrary to what evene's, when aer is admitted into the Tube in a small quantity, for in that case, upon the inversion of the Tube, you may plainly behold an intersection between the descending Quicksilver and the ascending aer, which mounts up through it in a small stream or thread of Bubbles.

(7) To those, who conceive that a certain portion of the Circumstant Aer, being forced by the compression of the restagnant Mercury in the Vessel, rising higher, upon the deflux of the Mercury contain∣ed in the Tube, doth penetrate the sides of the Tube, and so replenish the desert Capacity therein: we answer; that though we deny not but aer may penetrate the pores or Incontiguities of Glass, since that is demonstrable in Weather Glasses, and in the experiment of

Sr. Kenelm Digby, of making a sensible transudation of Mercury mixt with Aqua Fortis in a Bolt-head, through the sides thereof, if gently confricated with a Hares-foot on the outside; yet cannot it be made out, that therefore the Desert Capacity in the Tube is pos∣sessed with Aer, for two inoppugnable reasons. (1) Because though the Tube be made of Brass, Steel, or any other Metal, whose con∣te••ture is so close, as to exclude the subtlest aer, yet shall the Ex∣periment hold the same in all Apparences, and particularly in this of the deflux of the Quicksilver to the altitude of 27 digits. (2) Be∣cause, if the desert Cavity were replete with aer; the incumbent aer could not rush in to the Tube, at the eduction of its lower end D, out of the restagnant Mercury and Water, with such violence; since no other cause can be assigned for its impetuous rushing into the Tube, but the regression of the compressed parts of the ambi∣ent aer to their natural laxity, and to the repletion of the violent or forced Vacuity. Since, if the whole Space in the Tube were pos∣sessed, i. e. if there were as many particles of Body, as Space there∣in: doubtless, no part of place could remain for the reception of the irruent aer.

* 1.59Secondly, As for that most subtile and generally penetatrive substance, AETHER, or pure Elementary Fire which some have imagined universally diffused through the vast Body of Nature principally for the maintenance of a Continuity betwixt the parts thereof▪ and so the avoidance of any Va∣cuity, though ne're so exile and minute; we do not find our selves any way obliged to admit, that the Desert Space in the Tube is repleted with the same, untill the Propugnators of that opinion shall have abandoned their Fallacy, Petitio principii, a praecarious assumption of what remains dubious and worthy a serious dispute, viz. That Nature d••th irreconcileably abhor all vacuity, per se. For, until they have evinced beyond controversie, that Nature doth not endure any Emptiness or solution of Continuity, quatenus an Emptiness, and not meerly ex Accidenti, upon some other sinister and re∣mote respect: their Position, that she provided that subtile substance, Aether, chiefly to prevent any Emptiness, is rashly and boldly anticipated, and depends on the favour of Credulity for a toleration. Nor is it so soon demonstrated, as affirmed, that all Vacuity is repugnant to the funda∣mental constitution of Nature.

* 1.60Naturam abhorrere Vacuum, is indeed, a maxim, and a true one: but not to be understood in any other then a metaphorical sense. For, as every A∣nimal, by the instinct of self-conservation, abhors the solution of Conti∣nuity in his skin, caused by any puncture, wound, or laceration; though it be no offence to him to have his skin pinkt or perfo∣rated all over with insensible pores: so also by the indulgence of a Metaphor, may Nature be said to abhor any great or sensible vacuity, or solution of Continuity, such as is imagined in the Desert Space of the Tube; though it be familiar, nay useful and grateful to her, to admit those insen∣sible inanities, or minute porosities, which constitute a Vacuum Dissemina∣tum. We say, by the indulgence of a Metaphor; because we import a kind of sense in Nature, analogous to that of Animals. And, tollerating this Metaphorical Speech, that Nature hath a kind of sense like that of Ani∣mals; yet, if we allow for the vastity of her Body can it be conceived no

greater trouble or offence to her, to admit such a solution of Continuity, or Emptiness, as this supposed in the Desert space of the Tube, then to an Animal, to have any one pore in his skin more then ordinarily relaxed and expanded for the transudation of a drop of sweat. This perpended, it can seem no Antiaxiomatisme, to affirm, that nature doth not abhor Vacuity, per se, but onely ex Accidenti: i. e. upon this respect, that in Nature is somewhat, for whose sake she doth not, without some reluctany, admit a Coacervate or sensible Vacuity. Now that somewhat existent in Nature per se, in relation to which, she seems to oppose and decline any sensible Vacuity, can be no other then the Fluxility of her Atomical Particles, es∣pecially those of Fire, Air, and Water. And, for ought we poor Haggard Mortals do, or can, by the Light of Nature, know to the contrary, all those vast spaces from the margent of the Atmosphere, whose altitude ex∣ceeds not 40 miles (according to Mersennus and Cassendus) perpendicu∣lar, up to the Region of the fixed Stars; are not only Fluid, but Inane; abating only those points, which are pervaded by the rayes of the Sun and other Celestial Bodies. But, why should we lead the thoughts of our Rea∣der up to remote objects, whose sublimity proclaims their incertitude; when from hence only, that the Aer is a Fluid substance: it is a manifest, direct and unstrained consequence, that the immediate cause of its avoidance of any sensible or coacervate Vacuity, is the Confluxibility of its Atomical particles; which being in their natural contexture contiguous in some, though not all points of their superficies, must of necessity press or bear each upon other, and so mutually compel each other, that no one particle can be removed out of its place, but instantly another succeeds and possesses it; and so there can be no place left empty, as hath been frequently explained by the simile of a heap of Sand? Now, if the Confluxibility of the insensible particles of the aer, be the immediate and per se Cause of its avoidance of any aggregate sensible solution of Continuity: we need no farther justifi∣cation of our position, that Nature doth oppose vacuity sensible not per se, but only in order to the affection of Confluxibility, i. e. ex Acci∣denti

Again, should we swallow this praecarious supposition of the Aether,* 1.61 with no less pertinacity, then ingenuity asserted by many Moderns, but professedly by Natalis, in both his Treatises (Physica Vetus & Nova, & Plenum experimentis novis confirmatum) and admit, that Nature provided that most tenuious and fluid substance chiefly to praevent Vacuity: yet cannot the Appetite of our Curiosity be satisfied, that the Desert space in the tube is replenished with the same, prenetrating through the glass; untill they have solved that Apparence of the violent irruption of the ambient Aer into the orifice of the tube, so soon as it is educed out of the subjacent liquors, the Quicksilver and Water, by the same Hypothesis. Which whether they have done, so as to demonstrate, that the sole cause of the Aers impetuous rushing into the canale of the Tube, and prodigiously elevating the ponderous bodies of Quicksilver and Water residuous therein, is not the Reflux of the incum∣bent aer, by the ascention of the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel, com∣pressed to too deep and diffused a subingression of its insensible Particles, to recover its natural laxity, by regaining those spaces, from which it was expelled and secluded; and to supply the defect of this reason, by substi∣tuting some other syntaxical to their hypothesis of the Aether, which shall

be more verisimilous and plausible: this we ought to refer to the judgment of those, who have attentively and aequitably perused their Writings.

* 1.62Lastly, as for the third thing supposed to replenish the Desert space in the Tube, viz. A certain spiritual Efflux, or Halitus, in this exigent, educed out of the Mass of Quicksilver, by a secret force of Nature, which makes any shift to avoyd that horrid enemy of hers, Inanity; we deny not the possibility of extracting or exhaling a spiritual substance from Quicksilver, fine enough to possess such a space, without obnubilating it: but cannot conceive in this case, what should be the efficient of that Extraction; for who can acquiess in that General, a secret Force of Nature? (2) What be∣comes of that Exhalation, when the Tube, meerly upon its reclination to the altitude of the Horizontal line, K. M. is repossessed with Mercury; for, to admit its reduction to what it was before separation, is to suppose a second secret force in Nature syncritical, or Conjunctive, Antagonist to the former Diacritical or Separative, which operateth without Heat, as the other without Cold: and to admit, its expiration through the pores or incontiguities of the Glass, is either to suppose the same portion of Quicksil∣ver rich enough in spirit to replenish that Desert space a thousand times suc∣cessively, in case the Tube be so often elevated and reclined; for if all the spiritual substance be once exhausted, then must that Fox, Nature, recur to another expedient, or else tollerate a vacuity Coacervate; or to suppose that the same exhalation doth again return into the Glass, by the same slender ways it expired, which is a Fancy worthy the smile of Heraclitus. (3) How this Halitus, in respect it is praesumed more rare and subtile, then the aer admittible by the orifice of the Tube, upon its reseration, can consist without Inanity Disseminate: which implicateth an Universal Pleni∣tude.

And these are the Reasons, which at first inclined our judgement to de∣termine on their part, who opinion the Desert space in the Tube to be an absolute Coacervate Vacuity.

But, it was not long, before our second and more circumspect cogitati∣ons,* 1.63 assisted by time, which insensibly delivered our mind from that plea∣sant enchantment of novel conceptions, and reduced it to that just temper of indifferency, requisite to sincere discernment and aequitable arbitration; perpending also the Arguments impugning the former perswasion of a Coacervate Vacuity, and diminishing it down onely to a Disseminate one in the Desert space of the Tube: found them, by incomparable excesses, to preponderate the former, and with many more grains or moments of Verisimilty to counterpoyse our judgement to their end of the balance. And the Arguments Negative, are these.

1) Manifest it is even to the most critical of our senses, that LIGH Tpe∣netrating the sides of the Glass Tube,* 1.64 doth totally pervade the Desert Space: therefore it cannot be an absolute sensible Vacuum. Now, that Light is a Body, or that the rayes of Light are certain▪ Corporeal, though most minute Effluviums transmitted from the luminous Body, or Focus; is a Truth so universally embraced by all Knowing men, and upon such apodictical commendations, that here to demonstrate it, would not only be an unseasonable Digression, but a criminal Parergy.

(2) Though the Tube might be made of some metal, or other material,* 1.65 whose contexture of Atomical Particles is so dense and compact, as not to permit the trajection of the beams of Light; and though the Experiment would be the same, in all Apparences, if made in the dark: yet may the Desert Space be possessed by the subtle Atoms of Heat, or Cold, proceed∣ing from the ambient aer, and insinuating themselves through the inconti∣guities of the Tube. That the Atoms of Heat and Cold ordinarily trans∣fix Glass, is evident from the Experience of Weather-glasses: in which the cause of the descent of the Water included, is the Rarefaction of the aer therein by the Heat, and the cause of the ascent of the water in cold Wea∣ther, is the Condensation of the same aer by Cold; neither of which were possible, if the subingression of Cold and Hot Atoms through the Glass were excluded. And, that the aer incarcerated in a Thermometre, or Tem∣peramental organ of Silver, Coper, or Brass, is subject to the same mutati∣ons of qualities, upon the same vicissitude of Causes: hath been so frequent∣ly experimented, as to cut off all praetext of diffidence. Which is also a sufficient manifest, that the Atoms of Heat and Cold are more exile and penetrative, then those of the common Aer of use to Animals in Respirati∣on: insomuch as they insinuate themselves through such bodies, whose almost continued parts interdict the intrusion of the grosser particles of Aer, which cannot permeate through ordinary Glass. (1) Because, if you shut your self in a closet, or chamber, that hath but one small window consisting of one entire pane of Glass, and that so caemented into Lead, as that no chinke is left between; and whose cranies as well in the door, as elsewhere are all damm'd up: you cannot hear the voice of another per∣son, though speaking very loud and near the Glass on the outside, not∣withstanding you lay your ear close thereunto. Now, since a Sound (at least the Vehicle of a sound) can be nought else, but a subtle portion of the aer modified; as shall be professedly commonstrated, when time hath brought us so far on our praesent journey, as the proper place for our En∣quiry into the Nature of Sounds: and yet this so subtle and fine a portion of the aer cannot penetrate Glass of an ordinary thickness: we have the auctority of no weak nor obscure Reason, to countenance this our Con∣jecture, that the Atoms of Cold and Heat, are more exile and searching, then the common Aer. (2) If you include small Fishes in a large vial of the thinnest Glass, filled with River water; they may live therein for ma∣ny months, provided the orifice of the Glass remain open and free to the aer: but, if you once stop it, so as to exclude the aer, they shall expire in few moments. Whence we may conclude, that however Fishes seem to have an obscure kind of Respiration, such as may be satisfied with that small portion of Aer, which is commixt with Water: yet is not that thin and subtile aer, supposed to penetrate Glass, the same they (or any other Animal) use in Respiration. Which had those grand Masters of mysterious Disquisitions, Mersennus and Robervallius animadverted; they might have soon divined, what would be the event of their intended Experi∣ment, of including some small Animal, as a Mouse or Grashopper, in a Glass of sufficient capacity, and luting on the same on the top of the Tube, where the Desert Space useth to be, in the Experiment of Mercury, so to try whether the vital organs thereof could keep on their motions in a place devoid of aer: insomuch as that purer substance dimanant from the region of the circumjacent Aer, is not corporeal enough to serve the necessity of Respiration in any Animal, though ne're so minute. The manner of

making this Experiment, is, by Mersennus (p. 50. reflect. physicomathemat.) praescript, thus: Porro, operae praetium foret aliquam muscam admodum ve∣getam & robustam, v. c. Crabronem, aut Vespam, in tubo includere, prius∣quam Mercurio impleretur, ut post depletionem ad altitudinem 27 digit. proxi∣mè, videretur n••m in eo Vacuo, aut, si mavis, aethere viveret, ambularet, vo∣laret, & num Bombus à volante produceretur.

(3) Deducting the possibility of both these, there yet remains a Third substance,* 1.66 which may well be conceived to praevent a Coacervate Vacui∣ty in the forsaken space of the Tube: and that's the MAGNETICAL EFFLUX of the Earth. For (1) that the Terraqueous Globe is one great Magnet, from all points of whose superfice are uncessantly deradia∣ted continued Threads or beams of subtle insensible Aporrhaea's, by the inter∣cession whereof all Bodies, whose Descent is commonly adscribed to Gra∣vity, are attracted towards its Centre; in like manner as there are continually expired from the body of the Loadstone invisible Chains, by the inter∣cession whereof Iron is nimbly allected unto it: is so generally conceded a position among the Moderns, and with so solid reasons evicted by Gilbert, Kircher, Cartesius, Gassendus and others, who have professedly made disquisi∣tions and discourses on that subject; that we need not here retard our course, by insisting on the probation thereof.

(2) That, as the Magnetical expirations of the Loadstone, are so sub∣tle and penetrative, as in an instant to transfix and shoot through the most solid and compact bodies, as Marble, Iron, &c. without impediment; as is demonstrable to sense, the interposition of what solid body soever, situate within the orb of energy, in no wise impeding the vertical or polory im∣pregnation of a steel Needle by a Magnet loricated, or armed: so also the Magnetical Effluvias of the Globe of Earth do pervade and pass through the mass of Quicksilver contained both in the Tube, and the Ves∣sel beneath it, and fixing their Uncinulae or hamous points, on the Ansulae, or Fastnings of the Quicksilver therein, attract it downward perpendicular∣ly toward the Centre: is deduceable from hence, that if any Bubbles of aer chance to be admitted into the Tube together with the Quicksilver, that aer doth not ascend to the top of the Tube, but remains incumbent im∣mediately upon the summity of the Quicksilver, as being, in respect of its cognation to the Earth, attracted and as it were chained down by the Mag∣netical, Emanations of the Earth transmitted through al interjacent bodies, and hooked upon it. For we shall not incur the attribute of arrogance, if we dare any man to assign the incumbence of the aer upon the Mercury, to any more probable Cause. It being, therefore most Verisimilous, that the Earth doth perpetually exhale insensible bodies from all points of its sur∣face, which tending upward in direct lines, penetrate all bodies situate within the region of vapors, or Atmosphere without resistence; and par∣ticularly the masses of Quicksilver in the Tube and subjacent vessel: we can discover no shelf, that can disswade us from casting anchor in this se∣rene Haven; That the magnetical Exhalations of the Earth, do possess the Desert space in the Tube, so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity.

* 1.67We said, so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity, thereby intimating that it is no part of our conception, that either the Rayes of Light, or the Atoms of Heat and Cold, or the Magnetical Effluvia••s of the Earth, or all com∣bined together, do so enter and possess the Desert ••pace, as to cause an ab∣solute

Plenitude therein. For, doubtless, were all those subtle Effluxions coadunated into one dense and solid mass; it would not arise to a magni∣tude equal so much as to the 10^th, nay the 40^th part of the capacity aban∣doned by the delapsed Mercury. But fill it to that proportion, as to leave only a Vacuity Disseminate: such as is introduced into an Aeolipile, when by the Atoms of fire entered into, and variously discurrent through its Concavity, the insensible Particles of Aer and Water therein contained, are reduced to a more lax and open order, and so the inane Incontiguities betwixt them ampliated. And this we judge sufficient concerning the so∣lution of the First Difficulty.

SECT. III. The Second Capital Difficulty.

WHat is the immediate Remora, or Impediment, whereby the Aer,* 1.68 which in respect of the natural Confluxibility of its insensible par∣ticles, so strongly and expeditely praeventeth any excessive vacuity, in all other cases, is forced to suffer it in this of the Experiment?

The Solution.

Insomuch as the Fluidity,* 1.69 or Confluxibility of the Atomical or insensible particles of the Aer, is the proxime and sole Cause of Natures abhorrence of all sensible Vacuity; as hath been proved in the praecedent Section: Manifest it is, that whosoever will admit a Vacuity excessive, or against the rite of Nature, must, in order to the introduction or Creation thereof, admit also two distinct Bodies; (1) One, which being moved out of its place, must propel the contiguous aer forward. (2) Another, which in∣terposed, must hinder the parts of the circumstant aer, propulsed by the parts of the aer impelled by the first movent, from obeying the Confluxi∣bility of their Figure, and succeeding into the place deserted by the body first moved.

Which is the very scope, that the profound Galilaeo proposed to himself,* 1.70 when He invented a wooden Cylindre, as an Embolus or Sucker to be in∣truded into another concave Cylindre of Brass, imperviously stopped be∣low; that by the force of weights appended to the outward extreme, or handle thereof, the sucker might be gradually retracted from the bottom of the Concave, and so leave all that space, which it forsaketh, an entire and coacervate Vacuum. Upon which design Torricellius long after me∣ditating, and casting about for other means more conveniently satis∣factory to the same intention; He most happily lighted upon the praesent Experiment: wherein the Quicksilver became an accommodate substitute to Galilaeo's wooden sucker, and the Glass Tube to the Brass concave Cylindre.

* 1.71The remaining part of the Difficulty, therefore, is only this relative Scru∣ple; How the Aer can be propelled by the wooden sucker, downward, or by the restagnant Quicksilver in the Vessel, upward, when externally there is pro∣vided no void space for its reception▪ For, indeed in the ordinary Translation of bodies through the aer, it is no wonder that the adjacent aer is propelled by them; since they leave as much room behind them, as the aer propelled before them formerly possessed, whereinto it may and doth recur: but in this case of the Experiment, the condition is far otherwise, there being, we con∣fess, a place left behind, but such as the aer propelled before cannot retreat into it, in regard of the interposition of another dense solid & impervious bo∣dy. Upon which consideration, we formerly and pertinently reflected when reciting some of those Experiments vulgarly objected to a Vacuum Dissemi∣natum, we insisted particularly upon that of a Garden Irrigatory: shewing, that the Reason of the Waters subsistence, or pendency therein, so long as the orifice in the Neb remains stopped, is the defect of room for the aer pres∣sed upon by the basis of the Water to recur into upon its resignation of place; because all places being full, there can be none whereinto the infe∣rior aer may recede, until upon deobstruction of the hole above, the cir∣cumjacent aer enters into the cavity of the Vessel, and resignes to the aer pressed upon below, and so the motion begins and continues by a succes∣sive surrender of places. For, though the aer contiguous to the bottom of the Irrigatory, be not sufficient to resist the compressure of so great a weight of water, by the single renitency of the Confluxibility of its atomi∣cal particles; yet the next contiguous aer, possessing the vicine spaces, and likewise wanting room to recede into, when compelled by the first aer, ag∣gravates the resistence: which becomes so much the greater, by how much the farther the pressure is extended among the parts of the circumjacent aer; and by so much the farther, is the pressure of the circumjacent aer extended, by how much the greater is the pressure of the next contiguous aer; and that pressure is proportionate to the degrees of Gravity and ve∣locity in the body descendent. Which is manifestly the reason, why the water doth not descend through the perforated bottom of the Vessel, viz. because the Gravity thereof is not sufficient to counterpoyse so diffused, prolix, and continued resistence, as is made and maintained by the con∣fluxibility of the parts of the circumambient aer successively uniting their forces.

* 1.72Notwithstanding this seeming plenitude, we may absolve our reason from the intricacy of the scruple, by returning: that, though all places about the Tube are filled with aer, yet not without some Laxity. So, though there be, indeed, no sensible or coacervate space, wherein there are not some parts of the aer: yet are there many insensible or disseminate spaces, or ••oculaments variously interspersed among the incontiguous (in all points) particles of the aer, which are unpossessed by any Tenent at all. For the familiarizing of this Nicety, let us have recourse once a∣gain to our so frequently mentioned example of a heap of Corne.

* 1.73When we have poured Corne into a Bushel up to the brim thereof; the capacity seems wholly possessed by the Graines of Corne, nor is there therein any space, which sensibly contains not some Graines: yet if we shake the bushel, or depress the Corne, the Graines sink down in a closer posture, and leave a sensible space in the upper part of the bushel, capable

of a considerable access or addition. The reason is, that the Grains, at their first infusion, in respect of the ineptitude of their Figures for mutual contact, in all points of their super••icies, intercept many empty spaces be∣twixt them; which dispersed minute inane spaces are reduced to one great and coacervate or sensible space, in the superior part of the Conti∣nent, when, by the succussion of the vessel, the Grains are disposed into a closer posture, i. e. are more accommodated for mutual contingency in their ends and sides. Thus also may aer be so compressed, as the Granules, or insensible particles of it, being reduced to a more close or dense order, by the s••bingression of some particles of the aer nearest to the body Com∣pressing, into the incontiguities of the next neighbouring aer; may possess much less of space, then before compression; and consequently surrender to the body propelling or compressing, leaving behind a certain space ab∣solutely devoid of aer, at least, such as doth appear to contain no aer.

But this Difficulty, Hydra-like,* 1.74 sends out two new Heads in the room of one cut off. For, Curiosity may justly thus expostul••te.

(1) Have you not formerly affirmed, that no body can be moved, but it must compel the aer forward, to suffer a certain subingression of its insen∣sible particles into the pores, or Loculaments of the next contiguous aer, such as is requisite to the leaving of a space behind it for the admission of the body moved? And, if so; how comes it, that when most bodies are moved through the aer, with so much facility, and therefore cause the parts thereof before them to intrude themselves into the incontiguities of the next vicine aer, with a force so small, as that it is altogether insensible: yet in this case of the Experiment, is required so great a force to effect the subingression and mutual Coaptation of the parts of the aer?

The Cause seems to be this.* 1.75 In all common motions of bodies through the liberal aer, there is left a Space behind, into which the parts of the aer may instantly circulate, and deliver themselves from compression; and so there is a subingression and Coaptation of only a few parts necessary, and consequently the motion is tolerated without any sensible Resistence: but in this Case of the Experiment, in regard there is no place left behind by the Propellent, into which the compressed parts of the aer may be ef∣fused; necessary it is that the parts of aer immediately contiguous to the body Propellent, in their retrocession and subingression compress the parts of the next contiguous aer; which though they make some resistence (proportionate to their measure of Confluxibility) do yet yeild, retrocede, and intrude themselves into the incontiguities of the next contiguous aer; and those making also some resistence, likewise yeild, retrocede, and insinu∣ate themselves into the Loculaments of the next, which acts the like part up∣on the next, and so successively. So that a greater force then ordinary is re∣quired to subdue this gradually multiplied resistence successively made and maintained by the many circumfused parts of the aer; and to effect,* 1.76 that the retrocession, subingression and coaptation of the parts of the aer be pro∣pagated farther and farther, untill convenient room be made, for the recep∣tion of the body Propellent.

(2) Whence do you derive this Resistence of the Aer?

From its Gravity. For, the Aer of its own nature is Heavy, and can be

said to be Light only comparatively, or as it is less ponderous then Water and Earth: nor can there be given any more creditable reason of the Aers ten∣dency upward here below near the convexity of the Earth, then this; that being in some degree ponderous in all its particles, they descend down∣wards from the upper region of the Atmosphere, and in their descent bear upon and mutually compel each other, untill they touch upon the surface of the Earth, and are by reason of the solidity and hardness thereof reper∣cussed or rebounded up again to some distance: so that the motion of the Aer upwards near the face of the Earth, is properly Resilition, and no natu∣ral, but a violent one. Now, insomuch as the Aer seems to be no other, but a common Miscelany of minute bodies, exhaled from Earth and Wa∣ter and other concretious sublunary, and proportionately to their Crassi∣tude or Exility, emergent to a greater or less altitude: it can be no illegal process for us to infer, that all parts thereof are naturally endowed with more or less Gravity proportionate to their particular bulk; whether that Gravity be understood to be (as common Physiology will have it) a Qua∣lity congenial and inhaerent, or (as Verisimility) their conformity to the magnetick Attraction of the Earth. And, insomuch as this Gravity is the cause of the mutual Depression among the particles of aer in their ten∣dency from the upper region of the Atmosphere down to the surface of the Earth: we may well conceive, that the Depression of the inferior parts of the aer by the superior incumbent upon them, is the origine immediate from whence that Reluctancy or Resistence, observed in the Experiment, up∣on the induction of a praeternatural Inanity between the Parts thereof. But a farther prosecution and illustration of this particular, depends on the solution of the next Problem.

SECT. IV. The Third Capital Difficulty.

WHat is the Cause of the Quicksilvers not descending below that deter∣minate Altitude,* 1.77 or Standard of 27 digits?

Solution.

* 1.78The Resistence of the parts of the aer, which endures no compression, or subingress of its insensible particles, beyond that certain proportion, or de∣terminate rate.* 1.79

To profound this mystery of Nature to the bottom, we are to request our Reader to endure the short recognition of some passages in our prae∣cedent discourses. (1) That upon the ordinary translation of bodies through the Aer, the resistence of its insensible parts is so small, as not to be discoverable by the sense; because the subingression of its contiguous parts into the loculaments of the next vicine aer, is only perexile, or su∣perficial: and that we may safely imagine this superficial subingression not to be extended beyond the thickness of a single hair; nay, in some

cases, perhaps, not to the hundreth part thereof. So stupendiously subtle are the fingers of Nature in many of her operations. But, that the resistence observed in the present Experiment, for the enforcing of a praeternatural Vacuum, is therefore deprehensible by the sense, because in respect of a defect of place behind the body propellent, into which the parts of the aer compelled forward may circulate, the subingression must be more pro∣found; and so the resistence being propagated farther and farther by de∣grees, must grow multiplied, and consequently sensible. (2) That the Force of the body propellent is greater, then the force of the next conti∣guous aer protruding the next, and the force of the third protruded wave of the aer (for a kind of Undulation may be ascribed to aer) greater on the Fourth, then that of the Fourth upon the Fifth, and so progressionally to the extrem of its diffusion or extension: so that the Force becomes so much the weaker and more oppugnable, by how much the farther it is ex∣tended; and dwindles or languishes by degrees into a total cessation. (3) That, as upon the succussion, or shock of a Bushel apparently full of Corn, is left a certain sensible space above, unpossessed by any part or Grain thereof; which coacervate empty space responds in proportion to those many Disseminate Vacuola, or Loculaments intercepted among the incontingent sides of the Grains, before their reduction to a more close or∣der by the succussion of the Bushel: so likewise, upon the impulse of the aer by a convenient body, is left behind a sensible space absolutely empty, as to any part of aer; which Coacervate empty space must respond in proportion to those many Disseminate spaces intercepted among the in∣contiguous parts, or Granules of the aer, before their reduction to a more close order, or mutual subingression and coaptation of sides and points, by the body compressing.

These Notions recogitated,* 1.80 our speculations may progress with more advantage to explore the proxime and proper Cause of the Mercuries con∣stant subsistence at the altitude of 27 digits, in the Tube perpendicularly erected. For, upon the credit of their importance, we may justly assume; that upon the compression of the circumambient Aer by a small quantity of Quicksilver (suppose only of two or three inches) impendent in the con∣cave of the tube, can be caused, indeed, some small subingression of the particles thereof; but such, as is only superficial and insensible: in respect the weight of so small a proportion of Quicksilver is not of force sufficient to propel the parts of the aer to so great a crassitude that the space de∣tracted from the Aggregate of Disseminate Vacuities should amount to that largness, as to become visible above the Quicksilver in the Tube; since the quantity of the Quicksilver being supposed little, the force of Reluctan∣cy, or Resistence in the parts of the aer, arising from their inhaerent Fluidi∣ty, must be greater then the force of compression arising from Gravity; and therefore there succeeds no sensible Deflux of the Quicksilver. But, being that a greater and greater mass of Quicksilver may be successively infused into the Tube, and so the compressive force of its Gravity be re∣spectively augmented; and thereupon the aer become less and less able suc∣cessively to make resistence: 'tis difficult not to observe, that the pro∣portion of Compression from Gravity in the Quicksilver, may be so equa∣lized to the Resistence from Gravity in the Aer, as that both may remain in statu quo, without any sensible yeilding on either side. Hence comes it, that at the aequipondium of these two Antagonists, the space in the

Tube detracted from the Aggregate of minute Inanities disseminate in the aer, is so small as not to be commensurated by sense: and at the cessation of the Aequilibrium, or succeding superiority of the encreased weight of the Quicksilver, the parts of the Aer being compelled thereby to a farther retrocession and subingression; the space detracted from the Aggre∣gate of disseminate Vacuities in the aer, becomes larger, and conse∣quently sensible, above the Quicksilver in the upper region of the Tube.

* 1.81This may be most adaequately illustrated, by the simile of a strong man, standing on a plane pedestal, in a very high wind. For, as He by a small afflation or gust of wind, is in some degree urged or prest upon, though not so much as to cause him to give back; because the force of his resi∣stence is yet superior to that of the Wind assaulting and impelling him; nor, when the force of the Wind grows upon him even to an Aequilibrium, is He driven from his station, because his resistence is yet equal to the im∣pulse of the wind; but when the force of the Wind advances to that height, as to transcend the Aequilibrium, then must the man be compelled above the rate of his resistence, and so be abduced from the place of his station: so likewise, while there is only a small quantity of Quicksilver contained in the Tube, though, by the intervention or mediation of the Quicksilver restagnant in the subjacent vessel, it press upon the parts of the incumbent aer, in some degree; yet is not the aer thereby urged so, as to be compel∣led to retrocede, and permit the restagnant Quicksilver to ascend higher in the vessel; and therefore the Quicksilver impendent in the Tube cannot descend, because the restagnant wants room to ascend. But, when the quantity, and so the Gravity of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube is so augmented, as to exceed the Resistence of the aer; then is the aer com∣pelled or driven back, by the restagnant Quicksilver rising upwards, to a sensible subingression of its atomical particles, and the Quicksilver in the Tube instantly defluxeth into the place resigned by the restagnant, until it arriveth at that point of altitude, or standard, where the resistence of the aer becomes again equal to the force compressing it, and there subsisteth, after various reciprocations up and down in the Tube.* 1.82

Now concerning the remaining, and, indeed, the most knotty part of the Difficulty, viz. Why the Aequilibrium of these two opposite Forces, is constant to the certain praecise altitude of 27 digits? of this admirable Mag∣nale no other cause seems worthily assignable, but this; that such is the na∣ture of aer, in respect both of the atomical particles of which it is composed, and of the disseminate vacuities variously interspersed among them, as that it doth resist compression at such a determinate rate, or definite proportion, as ex∣actly responds to the altitude of 27 digits. Should it be demanded of us, Why He,* 1.83 who stands on a plane, doth resist the impulse of a mighty wind to such a determinate rate or height, but not farther: we conceive our An∣swer would be satisfactory to the ingenious, if we returned only, that such is the exact proportion of his strength, resulting from the individual tem∣perament of his body.

We are Men, i. e. Moles; whose weak and narrow Opticks are ac∣commodated only to the inspection of the exterior and low parts of Nature, not perspicacious enough to penetrate and transfix her interior and abstruse Excellencies: nor can we speculate her glorious beauties in the direct and

incident line of Essences and Formal Causes, but in the refracted and reflected one of Effects; nor that, without so much of obscurity, as leaves a mani∣fest incertitude in our Apprehensions, and restrains our ambition of inti∣mate and apodictical Science, to the humble and darksome region of mere superficial Conjecture. Such being the condition of our imperfect Intel∣lectuals; when we cannot explore the profound recesses, and call forth the Formal Proprieties of some Natures, but find our disquisitive Faculties ter∣minated in the some Apparences, or Effects of them: it can be no deroga∣tion to the dignity of Humanity, for us to rest contented, nay thankful to the Bounty of our Creator, that we are able to erect verisimilous Conje∣ctures concerning their causation, and to establish such rational Appre∣hensions or Notions thereupon, as may, without any incongruity, be laudably accommodated to the probable solution of other consimilar Effects, when we are required to yeild an account of the manner of their arise from their proper originals. Thus, from our observation of other things of the like condition, having extracted a rational Conjecture, that this so great Gravity of the Quicksilver doth depend upon the very Con∣texture of its insensible particles, or minute bodies, whereof it doth con∣sist, by which they are so closely and contiguously accommodated each to other in the superficies of their points and sides, as no body whatever (Gold only excepted) doth contain more parts in so small a bulk, nor con∣sequently more Ansulae, or Fastnings, whereon the Magnetique Hooks of the Earth are fixable, in order to its attraction downward: and on the contrary, that the so little Gravity of the Aer, depends on a quite dissi∣milar Contexture of its insensible particles, of which it is composed, by which they are far less closely and contiguously adapted each to other, and so incomparably fewer of them are contained in the like space, and consequently have incomparably fewer Ansulae or Fastnings, whereon the Hooks of the Magnetick Chains of the Earth may be fixed: having, we said, made this probable conjecture, what can be required more at our hands, then to arrest Curiosity with this solution; that the Aer is of such a Nature, i. e. consisteth of such insensible particles, and such Inane Spaces interspersed among them, as that it is an essential propriety of it, to resist compression, to such a determinate rate, and not beyond? Had we bin born such Lyncei, as to have had a clear and perspect Knowledge of the Atoms of Aer, of their Figure, magnitude, the dimensions of the Inane spaces intercepted among them, of the facility or difficulty of their reciprocal adaptation, of the measure of their Attraction, the manner and velocity of their Tendency, &c. then, indeed, might we, without any complex cir∣cumambage of Discourse, have rendered the express and proper Reason, why the Aer doth yeild praecisely so much, and no more to the Gra∣vity of the Quicksilver compressing it. Since we were not, it may be reputed both honour and satisfaction, to say; that it is essential to the Na∣tures of Mercury and Aer, thus and thus opposed, to produce such and only such an Effect.* 1.84

However, that we may not dismiss our Reader absolutely jejune, who came hither with so great an Appetite; we observe to him, that the con∣stant subsistence of the Mercury at the altitude of 27 digits, doth seem ra∣ther to proceed from the manifest Resistence of the Aer, then from any se∣cret Quality in the Mercury, unless its proportion of Gravity be so con∣ceived. This may be collected from hence; that Water infused into the

Tube doth also descend to the point of Aequipondium, and stops at the al∣titude of 32 Feet, nor more, nor less; and in that altitude becomes aequi∣ponderant to the Mercury of 27 digits. So that it is manifest, that with what Liquor soever the Tube be filled, still will the Aer resist its deflux at a certain measure: provided only, that the Tube be long enough to receive so much of it, as the weight thereof may equal that of the Mercury at 27 digits, or the Water at 32 feet.

* 1.85Here we meet an opportunity also of observing to Him, by how admi∣rable an Analogy this respective Aequality of the weights of Quicksilver and Water, in these so different altitudes, doth consent with the absolute weight of each. When, as the weight of Quicksilver carries the same proportion to the weight of Water, of the same measure or quantity, as 14 to 1: so reciprocally doth the Altitude of 32 feet, carry the same pro∣portion to 27 digits, as 14 to 1. And hence comes it, that, if Water be s••peraffused upon the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel under the Tube; the Quicksilver doth instantly ascend above the standard of 27 digits, higher by a 14^••. part of the water superaffused. Which truly, is no im∣manifest argument, that the Aer, according to the measure of its weight, or the praecise rate of its resistence, becomes aequilibrated to the Mercury at the altitude of 27 dig. since the superaffused Water doth no more then advance the Aequilibrium according to the rate of its weight, or propor∣tion of resistence. Besides, it is farther observable, that because the Tube is replenished by a 14^th part in 27 dig. of the altitude, above the first Ae∣quilibrium (a proportionate access to the Mercury in the Tube, being made by a like part of that in the subject vessel, impelled into it) therefore is the Vacuum above the Mercury in the Tube, diminished also by one 14^th. part; and the compression of the Aer, impendent on the surface of the restagnant Mercury, relaxed and diminished also by a 14^th part. So that if the vessel underneath the Tube be large enough to admit an addition of Water suc∣cessively affused, until so much of the restagnant Mercury, as formerly de∣scended, shall be again propelled up into the Tube: then must the whole Tube be replenished, and so the whole Vacuity disappear, for then all Compression of the incumbent aer ceaseth, and so much space as was possessed before the Experiment, both without and within the Tube, by the Mercury, Water, Aer, is again repleted.

* 1.86If you shall still insist, and urge us to a praecise and definite account of the weight of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube to the altitude of 27 digits, and of the Water of 32 feet; which makes the Aequilibrium with the opposite weight of the circumstant Aer: our Answer is, that the exact weight of neither can be determined, unless the just Diameter or Ampli∣tude of the Tube be first agreed upon. For albeit neither the Longitude nor the Amplitude of the Tube makes any sensible difference in this Phae∣nomenon of the Experiment, the Aequilibrium being still constant to the same altitude of 27 digits, for the Mercury, and 32 feet for Water: yet, according as the Cavity of the Tube is either smaller, or greater, must the weight of the Liquors contained therein be either less, or more. Since therefore, we are to explore the definite weight of the Liquor contained, by the determinate Amplitude of the Tube containing; suppose we the Diametre of the cavity of the Tube to be one third part of a * 1.87 Digit, and we shall find the weight of the Quicksilver, from the base to the altitude

of 27 digits, to be near upon two pound, Paris weight: and upon conse∣quence the weight of Water in the same Tube, of 32 feet in altitude, to be the same; and the weight of the Cylindre of Aer, from its base incum∣bent on the surface of the restagnant Quicksilver, up to its top at the sum∣mity of the Atmosphere, to be also the same; otherwise there could be no Aequilibrium. Here, as a Corollary, we may add, that insomuch as the force of a body Attrahent may be aequiparated to the weight of another body spontaneously descending or attracted magnetically by the Earth: thereupon we may conclude, that the like proportion of weight appended to the handle of the wooden Sucker, may suffice to the introduction of an equal vacuum, in Galilaeo's Brass Cylindre.

But, perhaps, you'l object;* 1.88 that this seems rather to entangle then dis∣solve the Riddle. Since by how much the larger the cavity of the Tube, by so much the greater the quantity, and so the weight of the Quicksilver contained: and by how much the greater the weight, or force of the De∣priment, by so much the more must the Depressed yeild, and consequently, so much the lower must the Aequilibrium be stated.

To extricate you from this Labyrinth, we retort; that the cause of the Aequilibriums constancy to the point of 27 digits, whatever be the quantity of the Mercury contained in the Tube, is the same with that, which makes the descent of two bodies of the same matter, but different weights, to be Aequally Swift: for a bullet of Lead of an ounce,* 1.89 falls down as swiftly as one of 100 pound. For, in respect, that a Cylindre of Quicksilver contained in a Tube of a large diametre, doth not descend more swiftly, then a Cylindre of Quicksilver contained in a Tube of a narrow diametre: therefore is it, that the one doth not press the bottom, upon which as its Base, it doth impend, more violently then the other doth press upon its Base; and consequently, the restagnant Quicksilver about the larger Cylindre doth not, in its elevation or rising upward, more compress the Basis of the impendent Cylindre of Aer, then what is restagnant about the lesser Cylindre. Whereupon we may conclude, that a great Cylindre of Aer resisting a great Cylindre of Quicksilver, no less then a small doth resist a small: therefore ought the Aequilibrium be∣twixt the depressure of the Quicksilver, and the resistence of the circum∣stant Aer, to be constant to the altitude of 27 digits, aswell in a large, as a narrow Tube. Which reason may also be accommodated to Water and all other Liquors.

SECT. V. The Fourth Capital Difficulty.

* 1.90WHy is the deflux of the Quicksilver alwayes stinted at the altitude of 27 digits, though in Tubes of different longitudes? when it seems more reasonable, that according to the encrease or enlargement of the Inanity in the upper part of the Tube, which holds proportion to the Longitude thereof; the Compression, and so the Resistence of the Aer circumpendent, ought also to be encreased proportionately: and consequently, that the Aequilibrium ought to be so much the higher in the Tube, by how much the greater Resistence the Aer makes without; because, by how much a larger Space is detracted from the Aer, by so much more diffused and profound must the subingression of its Atomical Particles be, and so the greater its resistence.

Solution.

* 1.91Certain it is, aswel upon the evidence of sense, as the conviction of seve∣ral demonstrations excogitated chiefly by Mersennus (in Phaenom▪ Hy∣draulic.) that a Cylindre of any Liquor doth with so much the more force or Gravity impend upon its Base, or bottom, by how much the higher its perpendicular reacheth, or, by how much the longer it is: and consequent∣ly, having obtained a vent, or liberty of Exsilition below at its Base, issues forth with so much the more rapidity of motion. And this secret reveals what we explore. For, according to the same scale of Proportions, we may warrantably conceive; that, by how much the higher the Cylindre of Quicksilver is in the Tube, by so much the more forcibly it impendeth upon its Base, in the Restagnant Quicksilver; and so having obtained a vent below, falleth with so much the more rapidity of motion or exsilition thereupon: and upon consequence, by so much the more violently is the incumbent Aer compressed by the restagnant Quicksilver ascending, its resistence overcome, and the subingression of its insensible particles into the inane Loculaments of the vicine aer, propagated or extended the far∣ther; and the space detracted from the Aggregate of Disseminate Inani∣ties, so much the larger, and consequently the Coacervate Vacuum appa∣rent in the superior region of the Tube, becomes so much the greater. And, because the Resistence made against the subingression, dilating or distend∣ing it self, is in the instant overcome, by reason of a greater impulse caused by the Cylindre of Mercury descending from a greater altitude; and that resistence remains,* 1.92 which could not be overcome, by the remnant of the Mercury in the Tube, at the height of 27 digits: therefore, is this Remain∣ing Degree of resistence, the manifest Cause, why the Mercury is Aequili∣brated here at the point of 27 digits, aswell when it falls from a high as a low perpendicular.

This may receive a degree of perspicuity more, from the transitory ob∣servation of those frequent Reciprocations of the Quicksilver, at the first

deflux of it into the restagnant, before it acquiesce and fix at the point of Aequiponderancy: no otherwise then a Ball bounds and rebounds many times upon a pavement, and is by successive subsultations uncessantly agi∣tated up and down, untill they gradually diminish and determine in a cessa∣tion or quiet. The Cause of which can be no other then this; that the extreme or remotest subingression of the insensible particles of the Aer, is (we confess) propagated somewhat farther, then the necessity of the Aequipondi••m requireth, by reason of a new access of Gravity in the Quick∣silver; but, instantly the insensible particles of the Aer, being so violently and beyond the rate of subingressibility prest upon, and made as it were more powerful by their necessary Reflexion, then the re••idue of Quicksil∣ver remaining in the Tube; result back to their former station of liberty, with that vehemency, as they not only praevent any further subingression, and reduce the even-now-superior and conquering force of the Quicksilver to an equality; but also repell the Quicksilver delapsed up again into the Tube above the point of the Aequipondium: and again, when the Quick∣silver defluxeth, but not from so great an altitude, as at first; then is the Aer again compelled to double her files in a countermarch, and recede from the restagnant Quicksilver, though not so far, as at first charge. And thus the force of each being by reciprocal conquests gradually decreased, they come to that Equality, as that the Quicksilver subsists in that point of altitude, wherein the A••quilibrium is.

SECT. VI. The Fifth Capital Difficulty.

WHat Force that is, whereby the Aer,* 1.93 admitted into the lower ori∣fice of the Tube, at the total eduction thereof out of the restagnant Quicksilver and Water; is impelled so violently, as sufficeth not only to the ele∣vation of the remaining Liquors in the Tube, but even to the discharge of them through the sealed extreme, to a considerable height in the Aer?

Solution.

The immediate Cause of this impetuous motion,* 1.94 appears to be only the Reflux, or Resilition of the so much compressed Basis of the Cylindre of Aer, impendent on the surface of the Restagnant Liquors, Quicksilver and Water, to the natural Laxity of its insensible particles upon the cessation of the force Compressive: the Principle, and manner of which Restorative or Re••lexive Motion, may be perspicuously deprehended, upon a serious re∣cognition of the Contents of the last Article in the praecedent Chapter of a Disseminate Vacuum; and most accommodately Exemplified in the dis∣charge or explosion of a bullet from a Wind-Gun. For, as the insensible particles of the Aer included in the Tube of a Wind-Gun, being, by the Embolus or Rammer, from a more lax and rare contexture, or order, re∣duced to a more dense and close (which is effected, when they are made more contiguous in the points of their superfice, and so compelled to di∣minish

the inane spaces interjacent betwixt them, by subingression) are, in a manner so many Springs or Elaters, each whereof, so soon as the external Force, that compressed them, ceaseth (which is at the remove of the Diaphragme or Partition plate in the chamber of the Tube) re∣flecteth, or is at least reflected by the impulse of another contiguous parti∣cle: therefore is it, that while they are all at one and the same instant executing that Restorative Motion, they impel the Bullet, gaged in the canale of the Tube, before them with so much violence, as enables it to transfix a plank of two or three digits thickness. So also do the insensi∣ble Particles of the Base of the Cylindre of Aer incumbent on the surface of the Restagnant Liquors, remain exceedingly compressed by them, as so many Springs bent by external Force: and so soon as that Force ceas∣eth (the Quicksilver in the Tube, after its eduction, no longer pressing the Restagnant Mass of Quicksilver underneath, and so that by his tumefaction no longer pressing the impendent Aer) they with united forces reflect themselves into their natural rare and liberal contexture, and in that Resto∣rative motion drive up the remainder of Quicksilver in the canale of the Tube to the upper extreme thereof with such violence, as sufficeth to ex∣plode all impediments, and shiver the glass.

* 1.95For, in this case, we are to conceive the Aer to be aequally distressed betwixt two opposite Forces; on one side by the Gravity of the long Cy∣lindre of Aer from the summity of the Atmosphere down to the Base im∣pendent on the superfice of the Restagnant Liquors; on the other, by the ascendent Liquors in the subjacent vessel, which are impelled by the Cy∣lindre of Quicksilver in the tube, descending by reason of its Gravity: and consequently, that so soon as the obex, Barricade, or impediment of the Restagnant Quicksilver, is removed, the distressed Aer instantly con∣verteth that resistent force, which is inferior to the Gravity of the incum∣bent aereal Cylindre, upon the remainder of the Quicksilver in the Tube, as the now more superable Opponent of the two; and so countervailing its Gravity by the motion of Reflexion or Restoration, hoyseth it up with so rapid a violence,* 1.96 as the easily frangible body of the Glass cannot sustain.

Which Reason doth also satisfie another Collateral Scruple, viz. Why Water, superaffused upon the Restagnant Quicksilver, doth intrude it self as it were creeping up the side of the Tube, and replenish the Desert Space therein; so soon as the inferior orifice of the Tube is educed out of the Re∣stagnant Quicksilver, into the region of Water. For, it is impelled by the Base of the Aereal Cylindre exceedingly compressed, and relaxing it self: the resistence of it, which was not potent enough to praevail upon the greater Gravity of the Quicksilver in the Tube, so as to impel it above the point of Aequiponderancy; being yet potent enough to elevate the Water,* 1.97 as that whose Gravity is by 13 parts of 14 less then that of the Quicksilver.

Here the Inquisitive may bid us stand, and observe a second subordi∣nate Doubt, so considerable, as the omission of it together with a rational solution, must have rendred this whole Discourse not only imperfect, but a more absolute Vacuum, i. e. containing less of matter, then the Desert Space in the Tube; and that is: How it comes, that during the Aequi∣librium

betwixt the ••eight of the Quicksilver in the Tube on the one hand, and the long Cy••lindre of Aer on the other, even then when the Base of the Cylindre of Aer is compressed to the term of subingression; we find the aer as Fluxile, soft, and yeilding, (for, if you move your hand trans∣versly over the Restagnant Quicksilver, you can deprehend none the least Tensity, Rigidity, or Urgency thereabout) as any other part of the Region of Aer not altered from the Laxity of its natural con∣texture?

We reply,* 1.98 that though nothing occurr in the whole Experiment more worthy our absolution; yet nothing occurrs less worthy our admiration then this. For, if my hand, when moved toward the region of the compressed Aer, did leave the space, which it posses∣sed before motion, absolutely Empty, so as the aer impelled and dis∣lodged by it could not circulate into the same; in that case, indeed, might I perceive, by a resistence obvening a manifest Tensity or Ri∣gidity in the compressed aer: but, insomuch as when my hand leaves the region of the lax aer, and enters that of the compressed, there is as much of space lest in the lax aer for the compressed to re∣curr into, as that which my hand possesseth in the region of the compressed; and when it hath passed through the region of the compress'd, and again enters the confines of the lax, there is just so much of the lax aer propelled into the space left in the compres∣sed, as responds in proportion to the space possessed by it in the lax: therefore doth my hand deprehend no sensible difference of Fluxility in either, and yet is the Urgency or Contention of the Base of the Cy∣lindre of aer impendent upon the restagnant Quicksilver, constantly e∣qual, though it may be conceived to suffer an Undulation or Wavering motion by the traversing of my hand to and again, by reason of the pro∣pulse and repulse.

This may be enforced by the Example of the Flame of a Can∣dle;* 1.99 which though ascending constantly with extreme pernicity, or ra∣pidity of motion, and made more crass and tense by the admixture of its own ••uliginous Exhalations: doth yet admit the traversing of your finger to and fro through it so easily, as you can deprehend no diffe∣rence of Fluxility between the parts of the Flame and those of the cir∣cumvironing Aer; the cause whereof must be identical with the for∣mer.

Secondly, by the Experience of Urinators or Divers;* 1.100 who find the Ex∣tension and contraction of their arms and legs as free and easie at the depth of 20 fathoms▪ as within a foot of the surface of the Water; not∣withstanding that water comes many degrees short of Aer, in the point of * 1.101 Fluidity.

* 1.102Thirdly, by the Beams of the Sun; For, when these insinuate themselves through some slender hole or crany into a chamber, their stream or Thread of Solary Atoms appears like a white shining wand (by reason of those small Dusty bodies, whose many faces, or superficies making innumerable re∣fractions and reflections of the rayes of Light towards the Eye) and con∣stantly maintains that figure, though the wind blow strongly transverse, and carry off those small dusty bodies, or though with a fan you totally dispel them: why? Because fresh Particles of Dust succeeding into the rooms of those dispelled, and aequally refracting and reflecting the incident radii of light toward the Eye, conserve the Apparence still the same. So though the wind blow off the first Cylindre of comprest aer, yet doth a se∣cond, a third, &c. instantly succeed into the same Space, so as that region, wherein the Base thereof is situated, doth constantly remain comprest: be∣cause the compression of the insensible Particles of the Aer and Wind, du∣ring their Continuation in that region, continues as great as was that of the particles formerly propulsed and abduced.

* 1.103And Fourthly, by the Rainbow; which persisteth the same both in the extent of its Arch, and the orderly-confused variety of Colours: though the Sun, rapt on in his diurnal tract, shifts the angle of incidence from one part of the confronting Cloud to another, every moment; and the Wind change the Scene of the Aer, and adduce consimilar small bodies, whose various superficies making the like manifold Refractions and Reflexions of the incident lines of Light, dispose them into the same colours, and prae∣sent the eye with the same delightful Apparition.

* 1.104Which had the Hairbrain'd and Contentious Helmont in the least mea∣sure understood; he must have blush't at his own most ridiculous whimsy, that the Rainbow, is a supernatural Meteor, or Ens extempore created by Di∣vinity, as a sensible symbol of his Promise no more to destroy the inhabi∣tants of the Earth by Water, having no dependence at all on Natural Cau∣ses: especially when the strongest Argument He could excogitate, whereby to impugn the common Theory of the Schools, concerning the producti∣on thereof, by the refraction and reflection of the rayes of the Sun incident upon the variously figured parts of a thin and rorid Cloud in opposition diametrical; was only this. Oculis, manibus, & pedidus cognovi istius fig∣menti falsitatem. Cùm ne quidem simplex Nubes esset in loco Iridis. Neque enim, etsi manu Iridem finderem, eamque per colores Iridis ducerem, sensi quid∣piam, quod non ubique circumquaque in aere vicino: imo non proin Colores ••ridis turbabantur, aut confufionem tollerabant. (in Meteor on Anomalon.)

SECT. VII. The Sixth and last Capital Difficulty.

* 1.105UPon the eduction of the lower extreme of the Tube out of the region of the Restagnant Quicksilver, into that of Water superaffused; wherefore doth the Water instantly intrude into the Tube, and the Quicksilver residuous therein by sensible degrees deflux, until it hath totally surrendred unto it?

Solution.

This Phaenomenon can have for its Cause no other but the great Dis∣parity of weight betwixt those two Liquors. For,* 1.106 insomuch as the subsi∣stence of the Quicksilver in the erected Tube, at the altitude of 27 di∣gits, justly belongs to the Aequipondium betwixt it and the circum∣pendent Cylindre of Aer; and the proportion of Weight which Quick∣silver holds to Water, is the same that 14 holds to 1: it must as ma∣nifestly, as inevitably follow, that the Water, being by so much less able, in regard of its so much minority of Weight, to sustain the impulse of the Aer uncessantly contending to deliver it self from that immoderate Compression, must yeild to the descending Base of the aereal Cylindre, and so ascend by degrees, and possess the whole Space; every part of Quicksilver that delapseth, admitting 13 parts of Water into the Tube.

Here occurrs to us a fair opportunity of erecting,* 1.107 upon the praemised foundation, a rational Conjecture concerning the perpendicular Extent of the Region of Aer from the face of the Terraqueous Globe. For, if Aer be 10••0 times (according to the compute of the great Mersennus (reflect. physicomath. pag. 104) who exceedingly differs from the opinion of Galilaeo (Dialog. al. moviment. pag. 81.) and Marinus Ghetaldus (in Archimed. promot.) both which demonstrate Aer to be only 400 times) lighter then Water, and Water 14 times lighter then Quicksilver: hence we may con∣clude (1) That Aer is 14000 times lighter then Quicksilver; (2) That the Cylindre of Aer aequiponderant to the Cylindre of Quicksilver of the altitude of 27 digits, is 14000 times higher; and (3) That the altitude of the Cylindre of Aer amounts to 21 Leucae, or Leagues. Since 14000 times 27 digits (i. e. 378000 digits) divided by 180000 digits (so many amounting to a French League, that consisteth of 15000 feet) the Quo∣tient will be 21.

From the so much discrepant opinions of these so excellent Mathema∣titians, and most strict Votaries of Truth, Galilaeo and Mersennus;* 1.108 each of which conceived his way for the exploration of the exact proportions of Gravity betwixt Aer and Water, absolutely Apodictical: we cannot omit the opportunity of observing; how insuperable a difficulty it is, to conciliate Aristotle to Euclid, to accommodate those Axioms, w^ch concern Quantity abstract from Matter, to Matter united in one notion to Quantity, to erect a solid fabrick of Physiology on Foundations Mathematical. Which Difficulty the ingenious Magnenus well resenting, made this a chief praepa∣ratory Axiom to his second Disputation concerning the Verisimility of Democritus Hypothesis of Atoms: Non sunt expendendae Actiones Physicae regulis Geometricis; subnecting this ponderous Reason, Cum Demon∣strationes Geometricae procedant ab Hypothesi, quam probare non est Mathema∣tici, sed alterius Facultatis, quae eam refellit; id eo lineis Mathematicis, re∣gulisque strictè Geometricis, Actiones Physicae non sunt expendendae. (Demo∣crit. Reviviscent. p. 318.)

* 1.109And now at length having run over these six stages, in as direct a course, and with as much celerity, as the intricacy and roughness of the way would tolerate; hath our Pen attained to the end of our Digression: wherein, whether we have gratified our Reader with so much either of sa∣tisfaction, or Delight, as may compensate his time and patience; we may not praesume to determine. However, this praesumption we dare be guilty of, and own; that no Hypothesis hitherto communicated, can be a better Clue to extricate our reason from the mysterious Labyrinth of this Experiment, by solving all its stupendious Apparences, with more verisi∣mility, then this of a Disseminate Vacuity, to which we have adhaered. But, before we revert into the straight tract of our Physiological journey, the praecaution of a small scruple deduceable from that we have consigned a Cylindrical Figure to the portion of Aer impendent on the surface of the Restagnant Liquors; adviseth us to make a short stand, while we advertise; That though we confess the Diametre of the Sphere of Aer to be very much larger then that of the Terraqueous Globe, and so, that the Aer, from the Convex to the Concave thereof incumbent on the surface of the Restagnant Liquors in the vessel placed on the Convex of the Earth, doth make out the Section or Frustum of a Cone, whose Basis is in the summity of the Atmosphere; and point at the Centre of the Earth (as this Diagram exhibiteth.)

[illustration]

• CIK, The Terraqueous Globe.
• B, The Centre thereof.
• CDG, A vessel situate on the su∣perfice thereof.
• C, The lower region of the vessel, filled with Quicksilver.
• G, The upper region possessed by Water.
• FED, The Tube perpendicularly ere••ted in the Vessel.
• E, The point of Aequilibrium, at 27 dig. to which the Cylindre of Quicksilver hath descended.
• ABH, A Cone extending from the Centre of the Earth to the con∣vex superfice of the region of Aer
• ADGH, A Frustum, or part of that Cone extending from the Convex to the Concave of the Aer, impendent on the surface of the Restagnant Liquors in the vessel DCC.

Note that neither Earth, Aer, Vessel, nor Tube, are delineated according to their due proportions: since so, the Earth would have appeared too great, and the rest too small, for requisite inspection.

Yet, insomuch as the Aer is Aequiponderant to the Cylindre of Quick∣silver contained in the Tube (the only requisite to our praesent purpose) no less in the Figure of a Cone, then in that of a Cylindre; and since both Mersennus and Gassendus (to either of which we are not worthy to have been a meer Amanuensis) have waved that nicety, and declared themselves our Praecedents, in this particular: we have thought our selves excusable for being constant to the most usual Apprehension, when the main interest of Truth was therein unconcerned.

CHAP. VI. OF PLACE.

SECT. I.

THat Inanity and Locality bear one and the same Notion,* 1.110 Essentially, and cannot be rightly apprehended un∣der different conceptions, but Re∣spectively; or, more expresly, that the same Space, when possessed by a Body, is a Place, but when left de∣stitute of any corporeal Tenent whatever, then it is a Vacuum: we have formerly insinuated, in the third Article, Sect. 1. of our Chap. concerning a Vacuum in Nature. Which essential Identy, or only re∣lative Alterity of a Vacuum and Place, is manifestly the Reason, why we thus subnect our praesent Enquiry into the Nature or Formality of Place, immediately to our praecedent Discourse of a Vacuum: we conceiving it the duty of a Physiolo∣gist, to derive his Method from Nature, and not to separate those Things in his Speculation, which she hath constituted of so near Affi∣nity in Essence.

* 1.111Among those numerous and importune Altercations, concerning the Quiddity or formal reason of Place, in which the too contentious Schools usually lose their Time, their breath, their wits, and their Auditors at∣tention; we shall select only one Quaestion, of so much, and so general im∣portance, that, if rightly stated, calmly and aequitably debated, and judi∣ciously determined, it must singly suffice to imbue the mind of any the most Curious Explorator, with the perspicuous and adaequate Notion thereof.

Epicurus (in Epist. ad Herodot••) understands Place to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Intervallum illud, quod privatum Corpore, dicitur INANE, & oppletum

corpore, LOCUS: That Interval, or Space, which being destitute of any body, is called, a Vacuum, and possessed by a body, is called Place.

And Aristotle (in 3. Auscult. Natur. cap. 6.) thinks He hath hit the white, when He defines Place to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Circumdantis Corporis extremum immobile primum; Concava nempe, seu proxima immediataque, & ipsum locatum contingens corporis ambientis super∣ficies: the concave, proxime, immediate superfice of the body circumam∣bient, touching the Locatum.

Now the Difficulty in Quaestion, is only this: Whether this Definition of Aristotle, or that modest Description of Epicurus, doth with the greater measure of verisimility and perspicuity respond to the nature of what we ought to understand, in propriety of conception, signified by the word, Place.

In order to our impartial perpension of the moments of reason on each side, requisite it is, that we first strictly ponder the Hypothesis, or Ground,* 1.112 on which Aristotle erected his assertion, which is this; Praeter dimensiones Corporis locati, & ipsam ambientis superficiem, nullas alias dari (in 4. Phy∣sic. 1.) that in nature are none but Corporeal Dimensions: for, if we can discover any other Dimensions, abstruct from Corporiety, such wherein the formal reason of Space may best and most intelligibly be radicated; it can no longer remain in the suspence of controversie, how unsafe it is for the Schools to recurr to that superstructure, as a Sanctuary impraegnable, whose Foundation is only sand, and depends for support upon no other but a praecarious supposition.

Imagine we, therefore,* 1.113 that God should please to adnihilate the whole stock or mass of Elements, and all Concretions resulting there-from, i. e. all Corporeal Substances now contained within the ambite, or concave of the lowest Heaven, or Lunar Sphere: and having thus imagined, can we conceive that all the vast Space, or Region circumscri∣bed by the concave superfice of the Lunar Sphere, would not remain the same, in all its Dimensions, after as before the reduction of all bodies in∣cluded therein to nothing? Undoubtedly, that conceipt cannot en∣dure the test of Reason, which admits, that this sublunary Space can suffer any other alteration, but only a privation of all Bodies that pos∣sessed it. Now, that it can be no Difficulty to God, at pleasure, to adnihilate all things comprehended within it; and yet at the same time to conserve the Sphere of the Moon entire and unaltered: cannot be doubt∣ed by any, but those inhumane Ideots, who dare controvert his Omnipo∣tence.

Nor can it advantage our Dissenting Brother, the Peripatetick to plead;* 1.114 that we suppose, what ought not to be supposed, an absolute Impossibility, as to the Firm and fundamental Constitutions of Nature, which knows no such thing, as Adnihilation of Elements: since, though we allow it impos∣sible to Nature, yet can no man be so steeled with impudence, as to deny it facile to the Author and Governour of Nature; and should we conced it impossible to Him also, yet doth not the impossibility of any Effect inter∣dict the supposition thereof as possible, in order to the appropinquation of a remote, and explanation of an obscure verity, nor invalidate that Illation or assumption, which by genuine cohaerence depends thereupon.

Besides, 'tis no Novelty, nor singularity in us, upon the same conside∣ration, to suppose Natural Impossibilities: insomuch as nothing is more usual, nor laudable amongst the noblest order of Philosophers, then to take the like course, where the abstruse condition of the subject puts them upon it; and even Aristotle Himself hath been more then once our Praecedent and Exemplar therein. For, when He had demonstrated the Necessity of the motion or circumgyration of the Coelestial Orbs; He yet requires of us, that we suppose them to quiesce constantly: that so we may the more satisfactorily apprehend the truth of that position, at which his whole dis∣course was collineated; viz. that the Cause of the Earths Quiet is not, as some dreamed, the rapid motion of the Heavens; for, having cleared the eye of his Readers mind from all the dust of praesumption, with this suppo∣sition He th••n with advantage demands of him, Ubinam terra moraretur? (2 de Caelo.) Nay, even concerning this our Argument, need we not want the Authority of Aristotle to justifie the lawfulness of this our supposition: for, attempting to enforce, that in a large imagined Vacuum, in part where∣of a Cube of Wood is conceived to be situate, there can be no Dimensi∣ons but those of the Cube; He admits them conceiveable as clearly ab∣stracted from the mass or bulk of wood, and devested of all corporeal Ac∣cidents; wh••••ein (under favour) He more then seems to incurr an open Contradict•••••• of his own dear Tenet, that it is absurd to imagine any Di∣mensions Incorporeal. Nor is the Facility of our supposition less manifest then the Lawfulness thereof: since we dare our Opponents to produce any contemplat••ve Person, who shall conscientiously attest, that He could not, when He fixed his thoughts thereupon, clearly and easily imagine the same; What therefore can remain to impede our progress to the Use, or scope of this our supposition?

* 1.115Having, therefore, imagined the whole sublunary Region to be one continued and entire Vacuum: we cannot but also imagine, that from any one point designed in the concave superfice of the Lunar Sphere, to another point •• diametro opposite in the same, there must be a certain Distance, or Intercedent Space. If so; must not that Distance import a Longitude, or more expresly an incorporeal and invisible Line? (2) If so; must not the medium of that Line be the Central point of the empty Space, the same which stood for Centre to the Terraqueous Globe, before its adnihilation? (3) If so; may we not conceive How much of that voyd Region was for∣merly possessed by the mass of Elements: and with mental Geometry commensurate how much of that Space did once respond to the superfice, how much to the profundity of each of those Bodies? (4) If so; must we not allow the Dimensions of Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity imaginable therein? undoubtedly, 〈◊〉〈◊〉: since we can no where conceive a Distance, or intercedent Space, but we must there al∣so conceive a Quantum; and Quantity imports Dimensions, nor is there any Distance, but of determinate extent, and so commensu∣rable.

* 1.116From the pressure of this Socraticism, hath our Peripatetick retreated to that ruinous sanctuary of the Term, Nothing: retarding our pursuit, with this Sophism. When you suppose the sublunary Region to be an abso∣lute Vacuum, you expresly concede, that Nothing is contained therein; and upon consequence, that those Dimensions by you imagined therein, are

Nothing, and so that therein are no Dimensions at all. Why; because Dimensions consist essentially and so inseparably in Quantity: and all Quantity is inseparable from Corporiety. Wherefore, supposing no Body existent in that Empty Space: you implicitely exclude all Quantity, and consequently all Dimensions from thence.

This Evasion, we confess, is plausible;* 1.117 nor hath it imposed only upon young and paedantique Praetenders to Science, such as having once read over some Epitome of the Commentaries upon Aristotles Physicks, and learned to cant in Scholastick Terms▪ though they under∣stand nought of the Nature of the Things signified, believe themselves wise enough to rival Solomon: but even many grey and sage Enquirers, such who most sedulously digged for the jewel of Knowledge in the Mine of Nature, and emancipated their intellectuals betimes from the slavery of Books. For, among the most celebrated of our Modern Physiolo∣gists, we can hardly find two, who have judged it safer to abide the seeming rigour of this Difficulty, then to run upon the point of this Para∣dox; that, if all Bodies included in the ambite of the Lunar Heaven, were adnihilated, then would there be no Distance at all betwixt the opposite sides of the same: and the Reason they depend upon, is this; Necessary it is that those points should not be distant each from other, but be contiguous, betwixt which Nothing doth intercede. Nay, even Des Cartes himself cannot be exempted: since, 'tis confest by him in Princip. Philosoph. articul. 18.) that He subscribed the same com∣mon Mistake, in these Words: si quaeratur, quid fiet, si Deus auferat omne corpus, quod in aliquo vase continetur, & nullum aliud in abluti lo∣cum subire permittat? Respondendum est vasis latera hoc ipso fore conti∣gua. Cum enim inter duo corpora nihil interjacet, necesse est, ut se mutuò tangant; ac manifestè repugnat, ut distent, & tamen ut distantia illa sit Nihil: quia omnis Distantia est modus Extensionis, & ideo sine substantia extensa esse non potest. To him also may we associate Mr. White (in Dialog. 1. de Mundo.)

The most direct and shortest way to the Redargution of this Epi∣demick Errour,* 1.118 lyes in the detection of its grand and procatarctick Cause; which is the Praeoccupation of most Scholers minds by the Peripatetick Institutions, that limit our Notions to their imperfect Categories, and explode those Conceptions as Poetical and extrava∣gant, that transcend their classical Distinction of all Entities into Sub∣stance and Accident. For, first, insomuch as in the Dialect of the Schools, those three Capital Terms, Ens, Res, Aliquid, are mere Syno∣nyma's, and so used indiscriminately; it is generally concluded, that whatever is comprehensible under their signification, must be referred either to the Classis of Substances, or that of Accidents: and upon illation, that what is neither Substance, nor Accident, can praetend to no Reality, but must be damned to the praedicament of Chimaera's, or be excluded from Being. Again, having constituted one Categorie of all Substances, they mince and cantle out poor thin Accident into Nine, accounting the first of them Quantity▪ and subdividing that also into (1) Permanent, i. e. the Dimensions of Longitude, Latitude, Profundity; and so make Place to consist if not in all three, yet at least in one of them, viz. Latitude

or the superficies of a Body: (2) Successive, i. e. Time and Motion, but especially Time, which may be otherwise expressed by the Term, Durati∣on. Hereupon, when they deliver it as oraculous, that Quantity is a Cor∣poreal Accident: they confidently inferr, that if any Quantity, or Perma∣nent, or Successive, be objected, that is not or separately, or conjunctly Corporeal, it ought to be exploded, as not Real, or an absolute No∣thing.

Now this their Scheme is defective. (1) Because it fails in the General Distribution of Ens, or Res, into Substance and Accident: in regard, that to those two Members of the Division there ought to be superadded other two, more general then those; viz. Place and Time, Things most unreducible to the Categories of Substance and Accident. We say, more General then those Two; because as well all Substances as Accidents whatever, have both their Existence in some Place, and their Duration in some Time; and both Place and Time are, even by those who dispute whether they are Accidents, or not, willingly granted to persever constantly and invariately the same.

(2) Because it offends Truth in the confinement of all Quantity, or Dimension, and so of that of Place and Time, to the Category of Ac∣cidents, nay even of Corporeal ones: when there wants not a species of Quantity, or Extension having Dimensions, that is not Corporeal; for, nor Place, nor Time, are Corporeal. Entities, being no less congruous to Incorporeal, then Corporeal Beings. Upon which consideration, 'tis a genuine and warrantable Inference; that albeit Place and Time are not pertinent to the Classis either of sub∣stances, or Accidents: yet are they notwithstanding Realities, Things, or not-Nothings; insomuch as no substance can be concei∣ved existent without Place and Time. Wherefore, when any Cho∣lerick Bravo of the Stagirites Faction, shall draw upon us with this Argument; Whatever is neither Substance, nor Accident, is a downright Nothing, &c. we need no other buckler then to except Place and Time.

* 1.119To authenticate this our Schism, and assert our Affirmation; we must now evince, that Place is neither Accident, nor substance: which to effect, we need not borrow many moments of its Twin-brother, Time, to hunt for Arguments in. For (1) though it be objected, that Place is capable of Accession to, and sejunction from the Locatum, without the impairment, or destruction thereof; and in that relation seems to be a mere Accident: yet cannot that justifie the consignation of Place to the Category of Accidents; because Place is uncapable of Access and Recess, and 'tis the Locatum to which in right we ought to ad∣scribe Mobility. So that when various Bodies may be successively situate in one and the same Place, without causing any the least mutation there∣in: we must allow the force of this Argument, to bring it nearest to the propriety of a substance. (2) A substance it cannot be; because the Term, Substance imports something, that doth not only exist per se, but also,* 1.120 and principally, what is Corporeal, and either Active or Pas∣sive: and neither Corporiety, nor Activeness, nor Passiveness, are At∣tributes competent to Place: Ergo.

Now, to leave our roving, and shoot level at the mark; the Extract

of these praemised Considerations, will easily and totally cure the despe∣rate Difficulty objected. For, when it is urged, that betwixt the opposite sides of a vessel supposed to be absolutely devoyd of any Body whatever, nothing doth intercede, and consequently that they are Contiguous; we need no other solution but this: that (indeed) nothing Corporeal doth interced, betwixt the diametrally opposite sides of a voyd concave, that is either Substance, or Accident; but yet there doth intercede something Incorporeal, such as we understand by Spatium, Intercape∣do, Distantia, Intervallum, Dimensio, which is neither Substance nor Accident. But, alas! that Thing you call Space is, according to your own supposition, an absolute Vacuum: What though? it must not therefore be Nothing, unless in the sense of the Peripatetick: because it hath a Being (suo modo) and so is something.

The same also concerns those Dimensions, which we conceive,* 1.121 and the Schools deny to be in our imaginary Vacuum: For of them it may be likewise truly said, that they are Nihil Corporeum, but not that they are Nihil Incorporeum, or more emphatically, Nihil SPATIALE, Nothing Spatial. Hence, according to the distin∣ction of Things into Corporeal, and Incorporeal; we may, on the de∣sign of Perspicuity, discriminate Dimensions also into (1) Corpo∣real, such as are competent to a 'Body, wherein we understand Lon∣gitude, Latitude, Profundity: (2) Spatial, such as are congruous to Space, wherein we may likewise conceive Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity. And so we may conclude, that those Dimensions, which must remain in that supposed Inane Region circumscribed by the concave of the Lunar Orb, in case God should adnihilate the whole mass of Ele∣ments, and all their off springs, included therein; are, in truth, not Cor∣poreal, but Spatial.

Let us skrew our supposition one pin higher, and farther imagine,* 1.122 that God, after the Adnihilation of this vast machine, the Universe, should create another, in all respects consimilar to this, and in the same part of Space, wherein this now consisteth: and then shall our thoughts be tuned to a fit key for the speculation, nay the comprehension of Three notorious Abstrusities, viz.

(1) That as the Spaces were Immense,* 1.123 before God created the World; so also must they eternally persist of infinite Extent, if He shall please at any time to destroy it: that He, according to the counsel of his own Beneplacit, elected this determinate Region in the infinite Spaces, wherein to erect or suspend this huge Fabrick of the World; leaving the residue which we call Extramundan Spaces, abso∣lutely voyd: and that as the whole of this determinate Region of Space is adaequately competent to the whole of the World; so al∣so is each part thereof adaequately competent to each part of the World; i. e. there is no part of the World, Great or Small, to which there is not a part of Space exactly respondent in all dimen∣sions.

(2) That these immense Spaces are absolutely Immoveable. And therefore should God remove the World into another determinate region

of them, yet would not this Space wherein it now persisteth; accompany it, but remain immote, as now. In like manner, when any part of the World is translated from one place to another; it leaves the part of Space, which it formerly possessed, constant and immote, and the Spaces through which it passeth, and wherein it acquiesceth, continue also immote.

(••) That, in respect the Dimensions of these Spaces are Immoveable, and Incorporeal: therefore are they every where Coexistent, and Compa∣tient (we speak in the dialect of the Schools) with Corporeal Dimensions, without reciprocal repugnancy; so as in what part soever of Space any Body is lodged, the Dimensions of that part of Space, are in all points re∣spondent to the Corporeal Dimensions thereof. In this case, therefore, 'tis far from an Absurdity, to affirm, that Nature doth not abhor a Penetra∣tion of Dimensions. To bring up the rear of these advantages resulting from our supposition, we may from thence deprehend, Why Aristotle hath not cleft a hair in his position, that there is in the Universe no Interval, nor Dimensions, but what are Corporeal.

* 1.124To discriminate the Incorporiety of these Dimensions Spatial, from that adscribed to the Divine Nature, Intelligences Angelical, the Mind of Man, and other (if there be any) Incorporeal substances; we advertise, that the term Incorporeal bears a double importance. (1) It intends not only a simple Negation of Corporiety, and so of corporeal Dimensions; but also a true and germane substance, to which certain Faculties and Operations essentially belong; and in that sense it is adscriptive properly to God, An∣gels, the Souls of men, &c. spiritual Essences. (2) It signifies a mere Ne∣gation of Corporiety, and so of corporeal Dimensions, and not any positive Nature capable of Faculties and Operations; and in this sense only is it congruous to the Dimensions of Space, which we have formerly intimated to be neither Active, nor Passive, but to have only a general Non-repug∣nancy, or Admissive Capacity, whereby it receives Bodies either permanen∣tèr, or transeunt••r.

* 1.125Here we discover our selves in danger of a nice scruple, deductive from this our Description of Space, viz. that, according to the tenor of our Conceptions, Space must be unproduced by, and independent upon the origi∣nal of all Things, God. Which to praevent, we observe, that from the very word Spatial Dimensions, it is sufficiently evident, that we understand no other Spaces in the World, then what most of our Ecclesiastical Do∣ctors allow to be on the outside thereof, and denominate Imaginary: not that they are meerly Phantastical, as Chimaera's; but that our Imagina∣tion can and doth apprehend them to have Dimensions, which hold an analogy to the Dimensions of Corporeal substances, that fall under the perception and commensuration of the sense. And, in that respect, though we concede them to be improduct by, and independent upon God; yet can∣not our Adversaries therefore impeach us of impiety, or distort it to the disparagement of our theory: since we consider these Spaces, and their Dimensions to be Nihil Positivum, i. e. nor Substance, nor Accident, under which two Categories all works of the Creation are comprehended. Be∣sides, this sounds much less harsh in the ears of the Church, then that which not a few of her Chair-men have adventured to patronize; viz. that the Essences of Things are Non-principiate, Improduct, and Independent:

insomuch as the Essence being the noblest, constitutive, and denominative part of any Thing, Substance or Accident; to hold it uncreat and inde∣pendent, is obliquely to infer God to be no more then an Adopted Father to Nature, a Titular Creator, and Author of only the material, grosser and unactive part of the World.

SECT. II.

BY the discovery of Dimensions independent upon Corporiety,* 1.126 such wherein the Formal reason of Space appears most intelligibly to consist, have we fully detected the weakness of Aristotles Basis, praeter di∣mensiones Corporis locati, & ipsam ambientis superficiem, nullas alias dari: it remains only, that we demolish his thereupon-erected Definition of Place, in which his legions of Sectators have ingarrisoned their judgments, as most impraegnable.

That Place is not the immediate and contiguous superfice of the body invironing the Locatum, may by the single force of this Demonstration be fully evicted. Immobility is essential to Place, as Aristotle well acknow∣ledged; for if Place were moveable, then would it follow of inevitable necessity, that a body might be translated without mutation of place, and è converso, the place of any thing might be changed, while the thing it self continues immote; both which are Absurdities so manifest, as no mist of Sophistry can conceal them even from the purblind multitude: Now the superfice of the Circumambient can in no wise praetend to this proprie∣ty of place, Immobility; as may be most conveniently argued from the example of a Tower; for that space, which a Tower possesseth, was there before the structure, and must remain there the same in all dimensions after the ruine thereof; but the superfice of the contiguous Aer, the immediate Circumambient, is removed, and changed every moment, the whole mass of Aer being uncessantly agitated more or less, by winds and other vio∣lences: Ergo. So numerous are the shifts and subterfuges of the di∣stressed Disciples of Aristotle, whereby they have endeavoured to Fix this Volatile superfice of the Circumambient: that should we insist upon only the commemoration of them all; we might justly despair of finding any Charity great enough, to pardon so criminal an abuse of leasure.

Besides, from Epicurus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Space,* 1.127 we may extract Salvo's for all those Scruples, which are commonly met with by all, who worthily en∣quire into the nature of Place. For, when it is questioned (1) How a body can persist invariately in the same place, though the circumambient be frequently, nay infinitely varied? (2) How a body can change place, though the Circumambient accompany it in its remove? (3) Why one body can be said to be thus or thus far, more or less distant from another? we may easily satisfie all with this one obvious Answer, that all mobility is on the part of the Locatum, all Space continuing constant and immote. Fur∣ther, hence come we to understand, in what respect Place is commonly conceived to be exactly adaequate to the Locatum: for, the Dimensions of all Space possessed, are in all points respondent to those of the body posses∣sing

there being no part of the body, profound or superficial, to which there is not a part of Space respondent in aequal extent; which can never be made out from the mere superfice of the Circumambient, in which no one of the Profound or Internal parts of the Locatum, but only the superficial are resident. Moreover, hence also may we understand, How Incorporeal substances, as God, Angels, and the Souls of men, may be affir∣med to be in loco. For, when God, who is infinite, and therefore uncapa∣ble of Circumscription, is said to be in Place; we instantly cogitate an infinite Space: which is more then we can do of Place, if accepted in Ari∣stotles Notion, which imports either that God cannot be in any place, or else He must be circumscribed by the contiguous superfice thereof: which how ridiculous, we need not observe. For Angels likewise, who dares affirm an Angel to be in a place, that considers his Incorporiety, and the necessity of his circumsciption by the superfice of the Circumambient, if Aristotles Definition of Place be tolerable? To excuse it with a distinction, and say, that an Angel may be conceived to be in a determinate place, not Circumscriptivè, but definitivè, i. e. So Here, as no where else: is impli∣citely and upon inference, to confess the truth of our assertion; Since that Here, designs a certain part of Space, not the superfice of any circumam∣bient. For, though you reply, that an Angel, being an incorporeal sub∣stance, wants as well internal and profound Dimensions, by which his sub∣stance may respond to Space, as those superficial ones, that respond to Place: yet cannot that suffice to an evasion, since if his substance hath any Diffusion in place, as is generally allowed; and though it be constituted in puncto, as is also generally conceived: nevertheless, doth that Diffusion as necessarily respond to a certain aequal part of Space, as a point is a deter∣minate part of space. This perhaps, is somewhat abstruse, and therefore let us conceive an Angel to be resident in some one point of that Inane Re∣gion circumscribed by the concave of the Lunar orb, formerly imagined: and then we may without any shadow of obscurity understand, How his substance may respond to a certain part, or point of the Inane Space, so as He may be said to be Here, not There, in this but no other place: but im∣possible it is, to make it out, How the substance of an Angel constituted in puncto of an empty space, can respond to the superfice of a Body Circum∣ambient, because all Bodies formerly included in that sublunary Region are praesupposed to be adnihilated. Lastly, by the Incorporiety of Space we are praeserved from that Contradiction, which Aristotle endeavouring to praevent, praecipitated himself upon no small Absurdity, viz. that the supreme Heaven, or Primum mobile is in no Place. For, if we adhere to his opinion, that place is the superfice of a body circumambient; the Primum mobile being the extreme or bounds of the World, we deny any thing of Corporiety beyond it, and so exempt it from Locality: but if we accept space to be the same without and within the world, we admit the Primum mobile, the noblest, largest, and most useful of all Bodies in the World, to enjoy a Place proportionate to its dimensions, and motion, as adaequately as any other. The necessity of which concession, Thales Milesius well in∣timated, when interrogated, What Thing was greatest? He answered, Place: because, as the World contains all other Bodies, so Place contains the World.

* 1.128Reduced to these straights, Aristotle, among sundry other Sophisms, entrusteth the last part of his Defence, to this slight Objection; If Place

were a certain Space, constant in three dimensions; then would it inevitably follow, that the Locatuus and the Locus must reciprocally penetrate each others dimensions, and so the parts of each be infinitely divided: which is manifestly absurd, since Nature knows nor penetration of Dimensions, nor infinity of cor∣poreal division.

To this Induction we could not refuse the attribute of Probability,* 1.129 no more then we do now of Plausibility, had we not frequently praevented it, and openly by our Distinction of Dimensions into Corporeal and Incorpo∣real, and appropriating the last to Space. For, indeed, the Fundamental Constitutions of Nature most irrevocably prohibite the substance of one Body to penetrate the substance of another, through all its Dimensions: but, alas! Place is (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) properly and altogether Incorporeal; and therefore may its dimensions Incorporeal be Coexistent, or Compatient with the Corporeal Dimensions of any Body, without mutual repugnancy, the Spatial Dimensions not excluding the Corporeal, nor those extruding the spatial. This cannot be a diaphanous, or aenigmatical to those, who concede Angels to be Incorporeal, and therefore to penetrate the Dimensi∣ons of any the most solid Bodies, so that the whole substance of an Angel may be simul & semel, altogether and at once in the same place with that of a stone, a wall, the hand of a man, or any other body whatever, without any necessity of mutual Repugnancy. Nor to those, who observe the Syn∣thesis, or Collocation of Whiteness, Sweetness, and Qualities in the sub∣stance of Milk: for as those are conceived to pervade the whole substance of Milk, without any reciprocal repugnancy of Dimensions, so are we to conceive that the Dimensions of Space are totally pervaded by the whole Body of the Locatum, without Renitency.

CHAP. VII. OF TIME AND ETERNITY.

SECT. I.

SOme Texts there are in the Book of Nature,* 1.130 that are best interpreted by the sense of the Vulgar, and become so much the more aenigmatical, by how much the more they are com∣mented upon by the subtile discour∣ses of the Schools: their over-curi∣ous Descants frequently rendring that Notion ambiguous, complex and difficult, which accepted in its own genuine simplicity, stands fair and open to the discernment of the unpraejudicate, at the first conversi∣on of the a••••es of the Mind thereup∣on. Among these we have just cause to account TIME; since if we keep to the popular and familiar use of the word, nothing can be more easily understood: but if we range abroad to those vast Wildernesses, the Dia∣lectical Paraphrases of Philosophers thereupon, and hunt after an adaequate Definition, bea••••ng its peculiar Genus, and essential Difference; nothing can be more obscure and controversial. This the sacred Doctor (Au••ust. 11. Confess. 14.) both ingenuously confessed, and most emphatically expressed, in his, Si nemo 〈◊〉〈◊〉 me quaerat, quid sit Tempus, scio; si quaerenti explicare ve∣lim, nescio: intimating that the Mind may, indeed, at first glance specu∣late the nature of Time by a proper Idea; but so pale and fine a one, as

〈…〉〈…〉 a lively representation thereof. 〈…〉〈…〉 bold to list it among the most despe∣•••••••• 〈…〉〈…〉 Generalitèr. To which we may annex 〈…〉〈…〉 quoted by Stobaeus (Eccl. Phys. 11.) Tempus esse 〈…〉〈…〉 non re, sed cogitatione constans. As also 〈…〉〈…〉 who not only injoyns, that we discourse of Time in a certain key of thought far different from that wherein we use to consider things, which have a real inhaerence in subjecto; as if Time had no other subject of inhaerence but the Mind, were only a mere Ens Rationis, extrin∣secal Denomination, and could expect no exacter a description, then His Numerus, qui absque ratione numerante est nullus: but adviseth, if any shall demand, what Time is, to afford him no other but Democritus An∣swer; Tempus esse 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quale spatium diei noctisque apparet.

If we research profoundly into the Original of this Difficulty,* 1.131 of acquir∣ing a clear and perspect theory of the Quiddity of Time, from the Lecture of those prolix Treatises, whose plausible Titles promise satisfaction con∣cerning it: we shall soon find the chief Cause to be this; that most Philo∣sophers have praesupposed Time to be some Corporeal Ens, or at least some certain Accident inexistent in and dependent on Corporeal Subjects; when (in verity) if it be any thing at all it seems to be the Twin-brother of Space, devoyd of all relation to Corporiety, and absolutely independent on the Existence of any Nature whatever. For, to Him, who shall, in abstract and attentive meditation, sequestre Time from all Bodies, from their mo∣tions, successive alternations, and contingent vicissitudes insequent upon those motions; i. e. all Years, Months, Weeks, Dayes, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and all Accidents or Events contingent therein: it will soon ap∣pear most evident, that Time (in suo esse) owes no respect at all to Moti∣on, its constancy, variety, or measure; since the understanding must de∣prehend Time to continue to be what it ever was and is, whether there be any Motion or Mutation in the World, or not, nay, whether there be any World or not. For, examining what is meant by the term Dura∣tion, and what by the term Motion, in their single importances apart: we discover, that Motion holds no relation to Duration, nor è converso, Duration to Motion, but what is purely Accidental, and Mental, i. e. imagined by man, in order to his commensuration of the one by the other.

Another Cause of this Difficulty,* 1.132 may be the irreconcileable Discrepan∣cy of judgments concerning it, even among the most Venerable of the An∣cients. For (1) Epicurus hath a complex and periphrastical Description of the Essence of Time, when He concludes it to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an Accident of Accidents, or Event of Events, conse∣quent to dayes and nights, and hours to passions and indolency, motion and quiet. The reason of which Empiricus (2. advers. Physic.) by way of explanation, thus renders: Days and Nights are Accidents supervenient up∣on the ambient Aer, the one being caused by the praesence, the other by the absence of the Sun; Hours are also accidents, as being parts of day or night; but Time is coextended to each day, night & hour, & therefore we say, that this day is long, this night short, while our thoughts are constantly pointing

at Time in that respect supervenient; Passions likewise and Indolences, or Dolours and Pleasures, are Accidents not without Time evenient; last∣ly, Motion and Quiet are Accidents contingent in Time, and therefore by it we commensurate the Celerity and Tardity of Motion, the long or short duration of Quiet: therefore is Time the Accident of Accidents. And Lucretius alluding to the same opinion of Epicurus, translates his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Tempus esse incorporeum, into Tempus item per se non est, &c. lib. 1.

(2) Zeno, Chrysippus, Apollodorus, Posidonius, and their Sectator Phi∣lo,* 1.133 define Time to be, Motus coelestis, sive mundani intervallum, understand∣ing as well all particular Conversions, as the Generality of Motion from the beginning to the end of the World. Whereupon Philo would inferr, that Time was coaevous to the World, i. e. before the World there was no Time, nor should be any after: though the Stoicks unanimously defend the Infinity of Time, in regard they affirmed an infinitie of Worlds succes∣sive, the second springing up, Phaenix-like, from the ashes of the first, the the third from the second, &c. (3) Pythagoras, according to the Re∣cords of Plutarch (in quaestion. Platonic.) to one interrogating him concer∣ning the Essence of Time, calls it Animam Coeli, the soul of Heaven. To which Plotinus (En. 3. lib. 7. cap. 10.) seems to have alluded, when interpreting Plato's saying, that Time was the Image of Eternity (in Ti∣maeo) He make ••ternity to be the very soul of the World, as considered in se, in its own simple essence; and Time to be the same soul of the world, considered, prout varias mutationes suscipit, as it admits various mu∣tations.

(4) And Aristotle, as every Paedagogue hath heard, after a long and anxious scrutiny,* 1.134 positively and magisterially determines Time to be, Numerum Motus (coelestis ac primi) secundum prius & posterius, the Number of the first Coelestial Motion, according to former and later, i. e. insomuch as in Motion we may observe parts Antecedent and Consequent by a perpetual succession. At the first word of this emi∣nent Definition, some superficial Criticks have sawcely nibbled, urg∣ing (forsooth) that it sounds soloecistical, because Number is Quan∣tity Discrete, but Time Continued; and therefore that the Word Mea∣sure ought to be its substitute: but alas! had they read His whole discourse of the nature of Time, they could not have been ignorant, that Aristotle intended nothing less, then that Time should be repu∣ted a Quantity Discrete; when both in his praecedent and subsequent lines He expresly teacheth, that Motion is continued, in respect of Mag∣nitude, and Time in respect of Motion. Had They Excepted against the whole, indeed, their Quarrel had bin justifiable, and our selves might safely have espoused it; because, if Time be the Measure of Coelestial Motion, then must it follow, that if there were a Plurality of Worlds, or Prima Mo∣bilia's; there would also be a Plurality of Times, because a Plurality of Motions. To those of His Disciples, who reply, that in case there were many First Moveables, and consequently many distinct Motions; yet would there be but one Measure of them all: we rejoyn, if it be supposed that some of the many Motions are swifter then others, then of necessity must they have many Prior and Posterior Parts; and if so,

how can all those, more or less discrepant in velocity and tardity, fall un∣der one and the same measure? or, what sober man can admit, that there would be but one Time, where must be many distinct subjects of Mo∣tion, and so of Time? Nor can it more avail them to distinguish Time INTERNAL from EXTERNAL, assigning to each particular Primum Mobile a proper or Internal Time within its ambite, and one General or External Time to them all in common: because it is a manifest Adynaton, that there should be a General Time, without a General Motion, whose parts being prior and posterior, in respect of perpetual succession, must be the common Norma, or Rule of observation to all the rest; nor, indeed, can we admit, that a Flux of ten hours at once, or together, is possible, where ten Spheres are in one hour moved. And, therefore, though Aristotle seems to have had some Hint of the true nature of Time, in his Objection against those, who opinioned it to be Coelestial Motion: yet he lost it again, when He defined it to be the Measure of Coelestial Motion. For, Reason atte∣steth the contrary, it being evident that the Coelestial Motion is rather the Measure of Time: insomuch as the measure ought to be more known then the thing measured; and Time is a certain Flux no less independent upon Motion then Quiet. Which those Worthies well understood, who con∣fest Time to be IMAGINARY, such as flowed infinitely in duration be∣fore the Creation, and shall continue its flux infinitely after the Dissoluti∣on of the World.

SECT. II.

FAiling of satisfaction concerning the Nature of Time, from the Defini∣tions of others: it remains only,* 1.135 that we sedulously imploy our own Cogitations in quest of some competent Description of it. Seneca (in Epist. 58.) descanting upon Plato's General Distinction of all Entities into six Classes, saith thus; Sextum Genus est eorum, quae quasi sunt, tanquam Inane & Tempus, the sixth Genus contains only those things, which have as it were a being, as INANITY and TIME: which we thus expound, Space and Time are things more General then to be comprehended under the Categories of Substance and Accident. With this Text we had not long exercised our thoughts, before we conceived, that the most hopeful way for exploring the mysterious Quiddity of Time, lay in the strict examen of the Affinity or Analogy betwixt it and the subject of our immediately prae∣cedent Chapter, Space. Nor did our Conjecture prove abortive; for, having confronted their proprieties in all points, we soon found their Na∣tures fully correspondent: so as the Notion of one seems involved in that of the other; as is manifest in this Paralellism.

(1) As Place, or Space, in the total, is illimitate and immense:* 1.136 so is Time, in its totality, non-principiate and interminable. (2) As every Mo∣ment of Time is the same in all places: so is every canton or part of Place the same in all times. (3) As Place, whether any, or no Body be collocated therein, doth still persist the same immoveable and invariately: so doth unconcerned Time flow on eternally in the same calm and

equal tenor, whether any or nothing hath duration therein, whether any thing be moved or remain quiet. (4) As Place is uncapable of expansion, interrup∣tion or discontinuity, by any Cause whatever: so is Time uncapable of accele∣ration, retardation, or suspension; it moving on no less, when the Sun was ar∣rested in the midst of its race in the dayes of Ioshua, when the Hebrews van∣quished & pursued the Amorrhites, then at any time before, or since. (5) As God was pleased, out of the Infinite Space to elect a certain determinate Region for the situation: so hath He, out of Infinite Time, elected a deter∣minate part for the Duration of the World. (6) And therefore, as every Body, or Thing, in respect to its HERE or THERE, enjoyes a proporti∣onate part of the Mundane Space: So likewise doth it, according to its NOW, or THEN of Existence, enjoy a proportionate part of the Mun∣dane Duration. (7) As, in relation to Place, we say, Everywhere, and Somewhere •• so, in relation to Time, we say, Alwayes, and Some∣times. Hence, as it is competent to the Creature to be only somewhere, in respect of Place, and sometimes, in respect of Time: so is it the praero∣gative of the Creator, to be Everywhere as to place, and Forever, as to time. And therefore those two illustrious Attributes, Immensity, whereby He is praesent in all places, and Aeternity, whereby He is existent at all Times, are proper only to God. (8) As Place hath Dimensions Perma∣nent, whereby it responds to the Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity of Bodies: so hath Time Dimensions successive, to which the Motions of Bodies may be adaequated. Hence comes it, that as by the Longitude, of any standing measure (V.G.) of an Ell, we commensurate the longitude of Place: so by the flux of an Horologe do we commensurate the flux of Time. And, insomuch as no motion is more General, Constant and Ob∣served, then that of the Sun: therefore do we assume its motion for a General Horodix, by it regulate all our computations, and confide in it as an universal Directory, in our Mensuration of the flux of Time. Not that the Feet of Time are chained to the Chariot of the Sun, so as the Ac∣celeration or Retardation of the motion of that should cause an equal Ve∣locity, or Tardity in the progress of this: but that Custom hath so prae∣vailed, as we compute the flux of Time by the diurnal and annual revolu∣tion of the Sun. For, in case the motion of the Sun were doubly swifter, then now it is, that of Time would not therefore be doubly swifter also; but only the space of two dayes would then be equal to the space of one, as now during the praesence of the Sun to our Hemisphere: nor, on the con∣trary, if the motion of the Sun were doubly slower, would the pace of Time be likewise doubly slower; but only the Space of one day, would be equal to that of two. And, therefore, He that will defend Empedocles conceit, that in the beginning of the World, the length of the dayes did by six parts in seven exceed that of our dayes: must demonstrate that the urnal Arch of the Sun was then by six of seven larger then now, or its mo∣tion so much slower.

* 1.137From this Paralellism 'tis difficult not to conclude, that Time is infinitely elder then Motion, and consequently independent upon it: as also, that Time is only indicated by Motion, as the Mensuratum by the Mensura. For, insomuch as it had been otherwise impossible for Man to have known how much of Time He had spent either in action, or rest; therefore did He fix his observation upon the Coelestial motion, and compute the quan∣tity of Time pr••••terlapsed by the Degrees of the Suns motion in the Hea∣vens.

And because the observation of the Suns motion was easie and fa∣miliar; therefore did the Ancients invent several instruments, as Water and Sand Hour-glasses, and Sun-dials, and the Neotoricks Trochiliack Ho∣rodixes, circumgyrated by internal springs, or external weights appensed; and so artificially adaequated them to the motion of the Sun, that defines the day by its praesence, and might by its absence, as having subdivided their horary motions into equal smaller parts, at last they descended to the designation of each step in the progress of Time, i. e. to the computation even of Minutes and Seconds.

If any yet doubt (which we cannot suppose,* 1.138 without implicite scandal) of the Independence of Time on Coelestial Motion; or, that old Chronos must stand still, in case the Orbs should make a Halt: we advise him seri∣ously to perpend that supernatural Detension of the Sun in the day of battle betwixt the Israelite and the Amorrhite; assuring our selves that his thoughts will soon light upon this Apodictical Argument. Either there was no Time during the Cessation of the Suns motion on that day; or else Time kept on its constant flux: for one of these positions must be true. That the First is false, is manifest from the extraordinary Duration of the day, the Text positively expressing, that no day was ere, nor should be so long as that; and the word Long undeniably importing a Continued flux of time: Ergo, the second must be most true; and upon Consequence, though the Detention of the Sun was miraculous, yet was the Duration of the day Natural, because Time hath no dependence on Coelestial Motion.

Nor do they at all infirm the news of this Dilemma, who object;* 1.139 that there was then no Time, because there were no Hours: since Hours are no more Essential to Time then Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, which are only successive mutations of the temperament of Aer, convenient to the conservation and promotion of seminalities; and as for Dayes, they likewise are absolute Aliens to Time, since while our Hemisphere enjoyes the illumination of the Sun, the subterraneous one wants it, and so our day is night to the Antipodes inhabiting the opposite part of the Globe Terrestrial; but Time is constantly the same through the Universe. Be∣sides, there were Hours during the arrest of Don Phaebus; in this respect, that the space of Time, in which he stood still, was designable by the flux of Hour-glasses, or any other Temporary Machine: nor ought we to say, there are no hours but those which we commensurate. And there∣fore, we incur no Soloecism when we say, that God, had it seemed good in the eye of his Wisdom, might have created the World many thousands of millions of years sooner then He did: because such was the praecedent Flux of Time as might be computed by Spaces of Duration in longitude re∣spondent to that determinate space of Time, which the Sun in its pro∣gress through the Zodiack annually doth fulfill; not that before the Cre∣ation, there were real years, distinct and defined by the repeated Conversi∣ons of the Sun.

Further, As Time hath no Dependence on,* 1.140 so can it receive no Mutation from Motion. Aristotle, indeed, accuseth it of Mutability, merely because we use to connect that Time in which we fall asleep,

to that in which we awake, losing that of which the cessation of our senses operation makes us insensible: but alas! this looks like too weak a conceit to be the mature issue of so strong a brain as His; insomuch as albeit we concede some Mutations to be necessary, as to our perception of the flux of Time, yet doth it not follow, that therefore those Mutations are necessary; as to the Flux of Time it self. True it is also, that we use to measure various Mutations by Time: but if we examine the matter profoundly, we shall ani∣madvert, that the Time, during which those Mutations last, is ra∣ther measured by Motion then the contrary; for though that moti∣on be not observed in the Heavens, yet may it be aequivalent indi∣cated by Hour-Glasses, or any other Chronodix. Which Ari∣stotle himself seems to acknowledge (in 12. de Coelo) when He affirms, that as Motion may be measured by Time, so may time by Motion.

SECT. III.

* 1.141IF Time be, as our Description imports, Non-principiate and In∣finite: how can we Discriminate it from Aeternity? Should we resolve, that Aeternity, in the ears of an unpraejudicate understand∣ing, sounds no more then PERPETUAL DURATION, or Time that never knew beginning, nor can ever know an end: we are instantly assaulted with this Difficulty; that Time hath Di∣mensions successive, comprehends Priority and Posteriority of parts, and essentially consisteth in a certain perpetual Flux; but Eternity is radicated in one permanent point, falls under none but the Prae∣sent Tense, and is only a certain constant 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or intransible NOW; or, as Booetius defines it, Interminabilis vitae tota simul & perfecta possessio, an interminable and perfect possession of life altogether, i. e. without praeterite and future, or, Forever at once. To extricate our selves from this seeming Confusion of two things, whose Natures appear so irreconcileably disparate; we are to begin at two praevious Con∣siderables.

(1) That Plato (out of whose Timaeus that eminent Definition of Booetius was extracted,* 1.142 which hath received the approbation and prai∣ses of most of our Ecclesiastick Patriarchs) asserting his opinion, that Immutable and Eternal Natures are not subject to Time, to which A∣ristotle also assented; doth not intend the word, Aeternity, abstractly and praecisely, to signifie a species of Duration: but Concretely, for something whose Duration is Eternal, viz. the Divine Substance, which He otherwise calls, the Soul of the World. This may be, without violence or sinister perversion, collected from hence, that He dislikes the incongruous conference of both and either of those Tenses, Fuit and Erit, as well upon Eternity or interminable Duration, abstractly considered; as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, upon the Eternal Substance. And Plotinus (En. 3. lib. 7. cap. 1.) more then once expresly declares as much: and most ingeniously insinuates the same both when He derives the

word Aeternity, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ab eo quod semper est; and when he excludes all real Alterity, or difference from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quod est, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quod semper est, importing that Is and Eternity are Iden∣tical.

(2) That when Plato denieth the Congruity of Praeterite and Fu∣ture, but allowes that of the Praesent Tense, or Est, to the Eternal Sub∣stance; He only aims at this, that, saying of the Eternal Substance, Fuit, it hath been, we do not understand it the same with Non ampli∣us est, it is no more; and also when we say of it, Erit, it shall be, we do not understand it as Nondum est, it is not yet: but not that Fuit is incompetent to the Eternal Substance, provided we in∣tend that it doth now continue to be the same it ever hath been; nor Erit, while we conceive it shall be to all Eternity the same, that it ever hath been, and now is. It being manifest from the Syn∣tax and purport of all his Dialogue, that his cardinal scope was on∣ly to praevent the dangerous adscription of those temporary Mutations to the Eternal Being, which are properly incident to Generable and Corruptible Natures: and to demonstrate, that we ought to conceive God, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, neque seniorem, neque juniorem. In a word, Plato doth judge, that the Tense Est is proper only to the Divine Nature, because it is ever the same, or invariably possesseth the same perfections, nor is there any moment in the vast am∣plitude of Eternity, wherein it can be justly said, Now it hath some Attribute, which it had not formerly, or which it shall not have in the future: since the progress of Time can neither add any thing unto, nor detract any thing from it, as it doth to other Natures, that are obnoxious to mutation; so that God may well be called, in Plato's Phrase, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Habens se immobi∣litèr.

These remora's of ambiguity removed,* 1.143 we may uninterruptedly advance to inference, and without further haesitancy determine, (1) That when Aeternity is said to be, Quidpiam totum simul, some∣thing wanting succession or flux of parts, as in the memorable Defi∣nition of Booetius; then is it to be accepted, not abstractly for Dura∣tion, but Concretely for the Divine Substance, whose Duration is sem∣piternal. (2) That Time and Eternity differ each from other, in no other respect, then that Eternity is an infinite Duration, and Time (according to the Vulgar intent of the word) a certain part of that infinite Duration, commensing at the Creation, and determining at the Dissolution of the World.

This Cicero rightly apprehended, and emphatically expressed, in his sentence, Tempus est pars quaedam Aeternitatis, cum alicujus annui, menstrui, diurni, nocturnive spatii certa significatione. In this respect, Eternity is said to be Duration Non-principiate and Interminable; which is proper only to God: and Time is said to be Duration Principiate and Terminable; which is competent to all Caduce, Mutable, and Cor∣ruptible Natures: as also that part of Eternity, which the Neotericks by a special idiome name ••••vum, is Duration Principiate, but Inter∣minable, which is adscriptive to Angelical or Intellectual Natures, and

to the Rational Soul of man; for thus we understand that frequent Bipar∣tition of Eternity into à parte ante, & à parte post, invented by the Schoolmen.

* 1.144These Positions being indisputable, the remaining subject of our praesent Disquisition, is only Whether the Platonicks spake rationally and intelligi∣bly, when they defined Eternity to be one everlasting NOW, or a Duration void of succession, or flux of parts?

Concerning this grand Doubt, we profess, would Truth have con∣nived, we could most willingly have past it by untoucht; because most of our Christian Doctors have fully assented unto them in this particular: but, since the convulsion of this their opinion doth stag∣ger no Principle of Faith, or Canonical Document made sacred and established by the Authority of the Church; we shall not de∣serve Excommunication, nor suffer the expurgatory Spunge of Rome, if we quaestion the Congruity of that Definition, and affirm that No man can understand it. For, what Wit is so acute and sub∣lime, as to conceive, that a thing can have Duration, and that Duration can be as a point without Fusion and Continuation from one moment to another, by intervenient or mediate moments? Ea∣sie enough, we confess, it is to conceive, that the Res durans is al∣together at once, or doth retain the sameness of its Nature, without mutation, diminution, or amission of any Perfection: but that, in this Perseveration, there is not many Nows, or many Instants, of which, compared among themselves, some are Antecedent, and others Consequent; is to us absolutely incomprehensible.

Nor can we understand, why it may not be good Christian Phrase, to say; God WAS in the time of the First Man, and SHALL be in the time of the Last: or why it is not more Grammatical and proper for us to say, God Created the World HERETOFORE, and will both destroy and renovate the World HEREAF∣TER; then, that God doth NOW Create, destroy and reno∣vate.

* 1.145To this the Common Answer is, that the Reason why these Anthropopathical Phrases are tolerable, is because Eternity is Coexi∣stent to our Time▪ but this is Ignotum explanare per ignotius; for the manner of that supposed Coexistence hath been never explained, and seemeth ••aid by till the advent of Elias. That an Instant, i. e. what wants succession, can be Coexistent to a successive thing; is as ma∣nifest an impossibility, as that a Point, i. e. what wants Longitude, can be Coexistent or Coextensive to a Line. Indeed, They have en∣deavoured to wave the Difficulty, by subnecting, that the Instant of Eternity is of such peculiar Eminency, as that it is Aequivolent to Time though Successive: But as to the Formal Reason, and manner of this peculiar Eminency, they have left it wholly to our Enqui∣ry also. Nor did they bestow one serious thought upon the con∣sideration of it; for had they, doubtless they must have found their Wit at a loss in the Labyrinth of Fancy, and perceived themselves re∣duced to this Exigent: either that they had fooled themselves in

trifling with words not well understood; or that they had praecariously usurped the Quaestion; or that the same Instants are in Eternity, that are in our Time, but with such Eminency, that infinitely more are contained in Eternity, then in our Time. How much better were it said, that we are Coexistent with God; or, that we are existent in a small part of that Duration, in which God infinitely existeth? For, while we are, certainly, we cannot imagine Two distinct Durations; but one, which in respct to our Nature, that is principiate, mutable, and terminable, doth contain designable Terms; and in respect of the Di∣vine Nature, which is nonprincipiate, immutable, interminable, hath its Diffusion or Extension infinitely long before, and as long after us. This may receive ample justification from that speech of the Hebrew Poet, whose Inspirer was the Holy Ghost, (Psal. 101.) Thou shalt Change them and they shall be changed; but thou, O God! art the same forever, and thy years shall not fail. For here YEARS are attri∣buted to God, but not any mutation of Substance: so that when our years are exhausted, in a short, or span-like flux of Time, the Glass of His Duration is alwayes full. And, therefore, the Expression is only Tropological, when it is said, that the years of our life make but a Day in the Almanack of Divinity: for the life of the Hemerobii compared to ours of threescore years and ten, holds some propor∣tion; but the life of Methusalem, compared to the Duration of the Life of our lives, the Divine Essence, holds none at all. Upon this consideration, it was more then a Heathen observation of Plu∣tarch (in Consolat. ad Apollon.) that there is no difference be∣twixt a long and a brief time, in respect of Eternity: since, as Simonides, a thousand, nay a million of years make but a point, nor so much as the least part of a point in the line of infinite Du∣ration.

Convicted thus by Reason, our Doctors convert to Scripture,* 1.146 urging that God (Exod. 3.) indicates his Beeing only in the Prae∣sent Tense, as peculiar to his Eternity, saying, I am, that I am, and I am hath sent thee to Moses. But this Objection ad∣mits of a threefold evasion. (1) The Hebrew Text doth not, in that place, use the Praesent, but the Future Tense, I shall be, what I shall be, and I shall be hath sent thee. (2) We can oppose many other Texts, which adscribe to God as well Praeterite and Future, as Praesent time; and most eminently in the Revelation, He is described, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He that is, and was, and is to come. (3) God Himself doth frequently enunciate many actions, not that He now doth, but that He hath formerly done, and will do in the future, in that moment of opportunity, which His Wisdom hath praedetermined. Hence also expulsed, They fly to their last fortress, viz.

If Eternity be not one permanet Now,* 1.147 then cannot all things be praesent to God, objectively. But vain is their hope of security in this also. For, many things, if we respect the when of their ex∣istence, have already been, and as many are not yet; but, because the Omniscience of God pervades as well the darkness of past, as of

praesent Time, and alwayes speculates all things most clearly and distinct∣ly therefore do we say, that all things are objects to His Opticks, or, that all things are praesent to His Cognition; not that He knows, all things to be praesent at once altogether, but that He hath before Him at once all the diversities of Times, and as perfectly contemplates them Future and Prae∣terite, as Praesent. For, the Divine Intellect doth not apprehend Objects, as the Humane, one after another, or in a successive and syntactical series; but grasps all things together in one entire act of Cognition, and compre∣hends in one simple intuition whatever hath been, or may be known. And, therefore, our opinion is not at all impugned by that sacred sentence; All things are open and naked to His eyes, and He calls upon those things, that are not, as if they were Hereupon some have, with unpardonable temerity and incogitancy, inferred; that ONCE there was no Time; for in this their very denial, they openly confess, that Time hath ever been: it being all one as if they had said, There was a Time when there was no Time.

* 1.148Lastly, as the Omniscience of God cannot be indubitated by our persuasion of the Identity of Eternity and Time, so neither can His Im∣mutability, as Aristotle would have it, only for this Reason (forsooth) that Time, or that Duration, which hath successive, and so prior and po∣sterior parts, is the General Cause of Corruption. For, our praecedent Dis∣course hath left no room for the intrusion of that futile Objection; inso∣much as it rather commonstrateth the Divine Nature to be so Constant and Perfect, that in the eternal flux of Time it can know nothing of Innovation or Corruption. Besides, Time, or the succession of Duration, is not the Cause, that induceth Corruption: but the Native Imbecillity of compound Natures, invaded and subdued by some Contrary Agent; and God is a Pure, Simple, Homogeneous substance, and so not subject to the invasion of any Contrary. Evident it is, therefore, that Aristotle, when He urged this Sophism, spoke more like a Poet, then a Philosopher; since Poets only use to give Time the Epithite of Edax rerum: nor could He be so absurd, as to dream, that Time was a vast Animal, with sharp teeth, an insatiate appetite, and a belly inexplebile, or an old man armed with a Sithe, as the Poets describe Saturn, making 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Sa∣turn and Time one and the same thing. For, Time really doth neither Eat nor Mow down any thing; and the Dissolution of all Create compound Natures can be imputed to no other Cause, but the Domestick Hostility of their Heterogenieties, or the uncessant intestine warr of their Elements, from whose commixture their Compositions, or Concretions did first result. With this qualification, therefore, we are not angry at that of Pe∣riander, in Stobaeus, Tempus est Causa omnium rerum: because in the pro∣cess of Time all things have their origin, state, and declination. In this restrained sense we also tolerate the saying of Thales Milesius, quoted by Laertius, Tempus est sapientissimum: since Time produceth Experience, and Experience Prudence. And that Antitheton of Pharon the Pythago∣rean, recited by Aristotle; Tempus est Ineruditissimum: because in pro∣cess of Time the Memory of all things is obliterated, and so oblivion may well be called the Hand-maid of Time, that perpetually follows at the heels of her Mistriss.

Our Clue of thoughts concerning Time is now wholly unravelled;* 1.149 and though we may not praesume, that we have therewith led the mind of our Reader through all the mysteries of its Nature: yet may we hope, that it may serve as a conduct to those, who have a more ample stock of Learning and Perspicacity for the support and encouragement of their Curiosity; at least that the Attentive and Judicious may easily collect from thence, that we have, upon no Interest but that main one of Ve∣rity, withdrawn our assent from the common Doctrine of the Schools, that Eternity is one permanent Now, without Succession, or Priority and Posteriority of Moments.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Art. 1. The principal Sects of the ancient Greci∣an Philoso∣phers, only e∣numerated.
• * 1.2

  Art. 2. The same re∣vived among the Moderns, with en••rease.
• * 1.3

  Art 3. Who are re∣duced either to the Pedan∣tique or Fe∣male Sect.
• * 1.4

  Art. 4. Or, to the As∣sertors of Philo∣so••hical Liberty▪
• * 1.5

  Art. 5. Or, to the Renov••tors.
• * 1.6

  Art. 6. Or to the Electors.
• * 1.7

  Art. 1. The principal causes of the Diversity of Philosophical Sects; and the chiefest among them, the Ob∣scurity of Nature
• * 1.8

  Art. 2. The Imperfe∣ction of our Vn∣derstanding.
• * 1.9

  Art. 3. The Irregulari∣ty of our Curi••∣s••t••. A paradox.
• * 1.10

  Art. 1. The Ambition of Alexander in affecting the Conquest, less vain then that of many anci∣ent Philosophers in affecting the Knowledge of a Multitude of Worlds.
• * 1.11

  Art. 2. A reduction of those Philos••∣phers to four distinct Sect••; respective to their distinct persuasion▪ and the H••ads o•• each Sect no∣minated.
• * 1.12

  Art. 3. The two main pillars on which the ••pi∣nion of a Plu∣rality of Worlds was anciently erect∣ed.
• * 1.13

  Art. 1. The Question stated to be concerning the real Existence, not the possibi∣lity of an Infi∣nity of Worlds
• * 1.14

  Art. 2. Because the supposed Infini∣ty of the Extra∣mundan Spaces, is no imposs••∣bility.
• * 1.15

  Art 3. Because an I••∣finity of Bodies is also possible: as to the Omn••∣potence of God.
• * 1.16

  Art. 4. The Error of concluding the Esse, from the Posse of an Inf••∣nity of Wo••lds
• * 1.17

  Art. 5. The first main Pillar of a Plu∣rality of Worlds sub∣verted.
• * 1.18

  Art. 6. The seco••d Pil∣lar found so∣phisticate, and demolished.
• * 1.19

  Art. 7. A Plurality of Worlds mani∣f••stly r••pug¦nant to Autho∣rity Divine,
• * 1.20

  Art. 8. An•• Human.
• * 1.21

  Art. 9. The result of all; the De∣monstrati••n of the Authors Thesis, That this World is thy Vniverse.
• * 1.22

  Art. 10. Extramundane Curiosity, a high degree of Madness.
• * 1.23

  Art. 1. Body and Inani∣ty, the two ge∣neral Parts of the Universe.
• * 1.24

  Art. 2. Three the most memorable De∣finitions of Corporiety ex∣tant among Physiologists, recounted and examined.
• * 1.25

  Art. 3. Four Descrip∣tions of the nature of Ina∣nity, by Epicu∣rus, Cleomedes, Empiricus, Aristotle.
• * 1.26

  Art. 4. Their impor∣tance extra••t∣ed: and what is the f••rmal or proper notion of a Vacuum.
• * 1.27

  Art. 5. The Existence of Bodies in the World, mani∣fest by Sense: whose Evidence is perfect De∣monstration.
• * 1.28

  Art. 1. The Distincti∣on of a Vacuum into (1) Natu∣ral, and

  (2) Praeterna∣tural: and the one called Dis∣seminate, the other Coacer••vate.
• * 1.29

  Art. 2. The nature of a Disseminate Vacuity, ex∣plained by the Analogy of a heap of Corn.
• * 1.30

  Art 3. The first Argu∣ment of a Disse∣minate Vacuity, desumed from the evidence of Motion, in General: and Aristotles error concerning the Essence of Place, concisely detected, and corrected.
• * 1.31

  Art. 4. Motion de∣monstrated by Sense: and Ze∣no's aenigmati∣cal Argument, for an Univer∣sal Quiet, dissol∣ved.
• * 1.32

  Art. 5. The Consequuti∣on of the Argu∣ment (if no Va∣cuum, no Moti∣on) illustrated.
• * 1.33

  Art. 6. An Ob••ecti••n, that the Loco¦cessi••n of some Bodies, d••p••nds on their Rarity or Por••sity; no•• on a Dissemi∣nate Vacuity: praevented.
• * 1.34

  Art. 7. No beginning of Mo••ion, without Ina∣ni••y inter••per∣sed.
• * 1.35

  Art. 1. A second Ar∣gument of a Vacuity Disse∣minate, col∣lected from t••e reason of R••refaction and Condensation.
• * 1.36

  Art. 2. The eminent Phaenomen••n of an Aero••••l••∣pe••, or Wind-Gun, so••ved by a Vacuity Dis∣••eminate a∣mong the in∣contiguous (quoad totas superfi••ies) parts of aer.
• * 1.37

  Art. 3. Experiment of an Ae••lipile, or Hermetical B••llow••, atte∣sting a Vacuity 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.38

  Art. 4. Experiment of a Sulphu••a••e Tapor▪ included in a Glass Vi∣al, partly filled with Water▪ of the same importa••ce.
• * 1.39

  Art 5. No C••mbu••t••••le in Aer: and so the opinion of the Ari••••ot••le∣ans, that the Extincti••n of Flame impri∣s••ned, is to be charged on the Defect of Aer, for its sustenta••ti••n; grosly er∣roneous.
• * 1.40

  Art. 6. A fourth sin∣gular and me∣morable Expe∣riment of the Authors, of Yce at the nose of a large Reverberatory Furnace, charged with Ignis rotae; evi∣dencing a Va∣cuity inter spersed in the Aer.
• * 1.41

  Art. 7. An Inference from that Ex∣periment; that Aer, as to its General Desti∣nation, is the Common Recep∣ta••y of Exhala∣tions.
• * 1.42

  Art. 8. A second ••lla∣tion, that the Aer doth receive Exhalations at a certain rate, or definite▪ proportion; which cannot be transcended without pro∣digious vio∣lence.
• * 1.43

  Art. 9. The Existence of Inane Incon∣tiguities in the Aer, confirm∣ed by two considerable A••guments.
• * 1.44

  Art. 1. That Water al∣so contains Vacuola, empty Spaces; demon∣strated.
• * 1.45

  Art. 2. From the Ex∣periment of the Dissolution of Alum, Halinitre, Sal Ammoniac, and Sugar, in Water former∣ly sated with the Tincture of Common Salt
• * 1.46

  Art. 3. The verity of the Lord 〈…〉〈…〉, that a repeated 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not Rhu••barb 〈…〉〈…〉 a virtue 〈…〉〈…〉 a simp••e 〈…〉〈…〉, in equal quanti∣ty: and why.
• * 1.47

  Art. 4. Why two Drachms of Antimony im∣pragna••e a pint of Wine, with so strong a vomitory Faculty, as two ounces.
• * 1.48

  Art. 5. Why one and the same Men∣struum ••ay be enriched wi••h v••rious Tin∣ctures.
• * 1.49

  Art. 1. Two other Ar∣guments of a Vacuity Diss••∣minate inferri∣ble from (1) the difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity: (2) the Calefaction of Bodies by the penetrati∣on of igneous Atoms into them.
• * 1.50

  Art. 2. The Experi∣ments vulgarly adduced to prove no va∣cuity in na∣ture, so far from denying, that they con∣fess a Dissemi∣nate one.
• * 1.51

  Art. 3. The g••and Difficulty of the C••u••e of the Aers restituti∣on of it self to i••s natural ••on∣texture, after ra••efaction and condensation, ••atisfied in brief.
• * 1.52

  Art. 1. What is con∣ceived by a Co∣acervate Vacuity: and who was the Inventor of the famous Ex∣periment of Quicksilver in a Glass Tube, up∣on which ma∣ny modern Physiologists have erected their perswasi∣on of the poss••∣bility of in∣troducing it.
• * 1.53

  Experientiam apponam, cusus inven••ionem etsi 〈◊〉〈◊〉 qui alii ambitiosi••s 〈…〉〈…〉 tamen mihi con∣••••at, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 à Torricellio, 〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.54

  Art. 2. A 〈◊〉〈◊〉 de∣scription of the Exp••riment, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 rate 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.55

  Art. 3. The Authors reason, for his selection of on∣ly six of the most consider∣able Phaenomenae to explore the Causes of them.
• * 1.56

  Art. 1. The First Car∣dinal Difficul∣ty.
• * 1.57

  Art. 3. The Desert space in the Tube argued to be an abso∣lute Vacuum co∣acervate, from the impossibi∣lity of its re∣pletion with Aer.
• * 1.58

  Art. 4. The Experi∣ment praesent∣ed in Iconism.
• * 1.59

  Art. 5. The Vacuity in the Desert Space, not praevented by the insinuation of Aether.
• * 1.60

  Art. 6. A Parad••••, ••hat Nature doth not abhor all vacuity, per se▪ but only ••x Ac∣cidenti, or in respect to Fluxility.
• * 1.61

  Art. 7. A second Ar∣gument against the repletion of the Desert space by Aether
• * 1.62

  Art. 8. The Vacuity of the Desert space, not prae∣vented by an Halitus, or Spi∣ritual Efflux from the Mer∣cury: for three convincing reasons.
• * 1.63

  Art. 9. The Auth••rs Apostacy from the opinion of an absolute Coacervate Va∣cuity in the desert space: in regard of
• * 1.64

  Art. 10. The possibili•• of the subin∣gression of light.
• * 1.65

  Art. 2. Of the Atoms or insensible bodies of Heat and Cold: which are much more exile and pe∣netrative then common Aer.
• * 1.66

  Art. 12. Of the Magne∣tical Efflux of the Earth: to which opini∣on the Author resigns his Assent.
• * 1.67

  Art. 13. No absolute plenitude, nor absolute Vacu∣i••y, in the De∣sert Space: but only a Dissemi∣nate Vacuity.
• * 1.68

  Art 1. The second Difficulty sta∣ted.
• * 1.69

  Art. 2. Two things necessary to the creation of an excessive, or praeternatural Vacuity.
• * 1.70

  Art. 3. The occasion of Galilaeos in∣vention of a Brass Cylindre charged with a wooden Em∣bol, or Sucker: and of Torri∣cellius inventi∣on of the prae∣sent Experi∣ment.
• * 1.71

  Art. 4. The marrow of the Difficul∣ty, viz. How the Aer can be impelled up∣ward, by the Restagnant Quicksilver, when there externally wants a fit space for it to circulate into.
• * 1.72

  Art. 5. The solution of the same, by the Laxity of the Contex∣ture of the Aer
• * 1.73

  Art. 6. The same illu∣strated, by the adaequate simi∣le of Corne in∣fused into a Bus••el.
• * 1.74

  Art. 7. A subordinate scruple, why most bodies are moved through the Aer, with so little resi∣stence, as is imperceptible by sense?
• * 1.75

  Art 8. The same Ex∣peded.
• * 1.76

  Art. 9. A second de∣pendent scru∣ple concerning the Cause of the sensible resi∣stence of the Aer, in this case of the Ex∣periment: to∣gether with the satisfaction thereof, by the Gravity of Aer
• * 1.77

  Art. 1. The State of the Third Dif∣ficulty.
• * 1.78

  Art. 2. The Solution thereof in a Word.
• * 1.79

  Art. 3. Three praece∣dent positions briefly recog∣nised, in or∣der to the worthy pro∣founding of the mystery, of t••e Aers resist∣ing Compres∣sion beyond a certain rate, or determinate proportion.
• * 1.80

  Art. 4. The Aequipon∣derancy of the External Aer, pendent upon the surface of the Restagnant Mercury, in the vessel, to the Cylindre of Mercury re∣siduous in the Tube, at the altitude of 27 digits: the cause of the Mercuries constant sub∣sistence at that point.
• * 1.81

  Art 5. A convenient 〈◊〉〈◊〉, illustra∣ting and en∣forcing the same.
• * 1.82

  Art. 6. The Remain∣der of the Difficulty, viz. Why the Ae∣quilibrium of these two oppo∣site weights, the Mercury and the Aer, is con∣stant to the prae∣cise altitude of 27 d••g••t••: re∣m••ved.
• * 1.83

  Art. 7. Huma••e Per∣spicacity termi∣nated in the exterior parts of Nature, or simple Appa∣ritions: which eluding our Cognition, fre∣quently fall under no o∣ther compre∣hension, but that of ratio∣nal Conjecture.
• * 1.84

  Art. 8. The constant subsistence of the Mercury at 27 d••gits, ad∣scriptive ra∣ther to the Resistence of the Aer, then to any occult Quality in the Mercury.
• * 1.85

  Art 9. The Anal••gy betwixt the Absolute and Respective Ae∣quality of weigh••s, of Quicksilver and Water, in the different altitudes of 27 d••gits and 32 feet.
• * 1.86

  Art. 10. The definite weights of the Mercury at 27 d••gits, and Water at 32 feet, in a Tube of the third part of a digit in diametre; ••••und to be near upon two pou••d, Paris wei••ht.
• * 1.87

  Consul••ndus Mersennus, in tract. de Mensu∣ris & ponderi∣bus, cap 1. & 〈◊〉〈◊〉 physi∣comathemat. p. 229.
• * 1.88

  Art. 11. Quaere, Why the Ae∣quilibrium is constant to the same point of altitude in a Tube of a large concave, as well as in one of a small; when the force of the Depri∣ment must be greater in the one, then the other.
• * 1.89

  Art. 12. The solution thereof by the appropriation of the same Cause, which makes the de∣scent of two b••∣dies, of different weights, aequi∣velox.
• * 1.90

  Art. 1. The Fourth Capital Diffi∣culty propo∣sed.
• * 1.91

  Art. 2. The full solu∣tion thereof, by demonstra∣tion.
• * 1.92

  Art. 3. The same con∣firmed, by the theory of the Cause of the Mercuries fre∣quent Recipro∣cations, before it acquiesce at the point of Aequipondi∣um.
• * 1.93

  Art. 1. The Fifth Principal Dif∣ficulty.
• * 1.94

  Art. 2. Solved, by the Motion of Re∣stauration na••u∣ral to each in∣sensible parti∣cle of Aer.
• * 1.95

  Art. 3. The incum∣bent Aer, in this case, e∣qually distres∣sed, by two contrary For∣ces.
• * 1.96

  Art. 4. The motion of Restaurati••n in the Aer, ex∣tended to the satisfaction of another consi∣milar Doubt, concerning the subintrusi∣on of VVater into the Tube; if superaffused upon the re∣stagnant Mer∣cury.
• * 1.97

  Art. 5. A Third most important Doubt, concer∣ning the non∣apparence of any Tensity, or Rigidity in the region of Aer incum∣bent upon the Restagnant Liquors.
• * 1.98

  Art. 6. The solati••n thereof, by the necessary re∣liction of a space in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 regi••n of Lax aer, e∣qual to that, which the Hand commo∣ved possesseth in the region of the Com∣prest.
• * 1.99

  Art. 7. A confi••ma••i∣on of the same Reason, by the adaequate Ex∣ample of the Flame of a Ta∣pour.
• * 1.100

  Art. 8. 2 By the Ex∣periment of Vrination.
• * 1.101

  Quam ob caussam, corpus h••m••nus ad 〈…〉〈…〉 nullum incumbentis aquae p••ndus sentiat, lector 〈…〉〈…〉 Hyd••aul••••. 〈…〉〈…〉 p. ••05.
• * 1.102

  Art. 9. 3 By the Beams of the Sun, entring a room, through some slender crany, in the appearance of a white shining VVand, and constantly maintaining that Figure, notwithstand∣ing the agita∣tion of the aer, by wind, &c.
• * 1.103

  Art. 10. 4 By the con∣stancy of the Rainbow, to its Figure, not∣withstanding the change of position and place of the cloud & con∣tiguous aer.
• * 1.104

  Art. 11. Helmonts Dell∣rium, that the Rainbow is a supernatural Meteor; obser∣ved.
• * 1.105

  Art. 1. The sixth and last considera∣ble Difficulty.
• * 1.106

  Art. 2. The clear solu∣tion thereof, by the great disproportion of weight be∣twixt Quicksil∣ver and VVater.
• * 1.107

  Art. 3. A Corollary; the Altitude of the Atmosphere conjectured.
• * 1.108

  Art. 4. A second Co∣rollary; the desperate•• Dif∣ficulty of con∣ciliating Phy∣siology to the Mathematicks: instanced in the much dis∣crepant opini∣ons of Galilaeo and Mersennus, concerning the proporti∣o•• of Gravity that Aer and VVater hold each to other.
• * 1.109

  Art. 5. The Conclusion of this Digres∣sion: and the reasons, why the Author ad∣scribes a Cylin∣drical Figure to the portion of Aer impen∣dent on the Restagnant Liquors, in the Experiment.
• * 1.110

  Art. 1. The Identy Essential of a Vacuum and Place, the cause of the praesent En∣quiry into the Nature of Place.
• * 1.111

  Art. 2. Among all the Quaeries, about the Hoti of Place; the most important is, Whether Epi∣curus, or Ari∣stotles Defini∣tion of it, be most adae∣quate.
• * 1.112

  Art. 3. The Hypothe∣thesis of Ari∣stotles Definiti∣on.
• * 1.113

  Art. 4. A convenient supposition in∣ferring the ne∣cessity of Di∣mensions In∣corporeal.
• * 1.114

  Art. 5. The Legality of that suppositi∣on.
• * 1.115

  Art. 6. The Dimensi∣ons of Longi∣tude, Lati∣tude, and Pro∣fundity, imagi∣nable in a Va∣cuum▪
• * 1.116

  Art. 7. The G••and 〈◊〉〈◊〉, ob∣jecti••n, that Nothing is in a Vacuum; ergo 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Dimensions
• * 1.117

  Art. 8. Des Cartes, and Mr. VVhite se∣duced by the plausibility of the same.
• * 1.118

  Art. 9. The Peripa••••∣ticks reducti∣on of Time and Place to the General Cate∣gories of Su••∣stances and Ac∣cidents, the Cause of this Epidemick mistake.
• * 1.119

  Art. 10. Place, neither Accident nor Substance.
• * 1.120

  Art. 11. The praece∣dent Giant-Objection, that Nothing is in a Vacuum; s••abb••d, at a blow.
• * 1.121

  Art. 12. Dimensions Corporeal and Incorporeal, or Spatial.
• * 1.122

  Art. 13. The former supposition re∣assumed and enlarged.
• * 1.123

  Art. 14. The scope and advantage thereof; viz. the compre∣hension of three eminent Abstrusities concerning the Nature of Place.
• * 1.124

  Art. 15. The Inc••rpor••e∣ty of Dimensi∣ons S••atial, Discriminated from that of the Divine Essence, and other Su••stan∣ces Incorporeal.
• * 1.125

  Art. 16. This persuasi∣on▪ of the Im∣production and Independency of Place; praeser∣ved from the suspition of Impiety.
• * 1.126

  Art. 1. Place, not the immediate su∣perfice of the Body invironing the Locatum; contrary to A∣ristotle.
• * 1.127

  Art. 2. Salvo's for all the Difficult Scruples, touch¦ing the nature of Place; ge∣nuinely ex••••a∣cted from Epi∣curus his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.128

  Art. 3. Aristotles ulti∣mate Refuge.
• * 1.129

  Art. 4. The Invalidi∣ty thereof: and the Coexistibi∣lity, or Compa∣tibility of Di∣mensions Cor∣poreal and Spa∣tial.
• * 1.130

  Art. 1. The Hoti of Time more easily concei∣vable by the Simple Notion of the Vulgar, then by the complex Defini∣tions of Philos••∣phers.
• * 1.131

  Art. 2. The Generall praesumption that Time is Corporeal, or an Accident de∣pendent on Corporeal Subjects; the chief Cause of that Difficulty
• * 1.132

  Art. 3. The variety of opinions, concer¦ning it: ano∣ther Cause of the Difficulty: and Epicurus Description of its Essence, re∣cited and ex∣plained.
• * 1.133

  Art. 4. Time de••ined to be 〈…〉〈…〉 by Z••∣no, 〈◊〉〈◊〉, &c. and there∣upon affirmed, by Philo, to be only 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to the VVo••ld.
• * 1.134

  Art. 5. Aristotles so much magni∣fied Definition of Time, to be the Measure of Motion Coele∣stial, &c. per∣pended and found too light.
• * 1.135

  Art. 1. Time, nor sub∣stance, nor Ac∣cident: but an Ens more Ge∣neral, and the Twin-brother of Space.
• * 1.136

  Art. 2. A Paralellism betwixt Spa•••• and Time.
• * 1.137

  Art. 3. Time, Senior unto, and in∣dependent upon Motion: and only acciden∣tally indicated by Motion, as the Mensura∣tum by the Mensura.
• * 1.138

  Art. 4. A demonstration of the inde∣pendence of Time upon Motion, from the miraculous Detention of the Sun, above the Horison, in the days of Ioshua.
• * 1.139

  Art. 5. An Objection, that, during the arrest of the Sun, there was no Time, because no Hours; satisfi∣ed.
• * 1.140

  Art. 6. The Immutabi∣lity of Time also asserted, against Aristo∣tle.
• * 1.141

  Art. 1. The Grand Quaestion, con∣cerning the Disparity of Time and Eter∣nity; stated.
• * 1.142

  Art. 2. Two praepara∣tory Conside∣rations, touch∣ant the aequivo¦cal use of the word Aeterni∣ty; requisite to the clear solu∣tion thereof.
• * 1.143

  Art. 3. Two decisive Positions, there∣up••n in••erred, and establish∣ed.
• * 1.144

  Art. 4. The Platoni••ks Definition of Eternity, to be one Everlasting New; not in∣telligible, and therefore col∣lusive.
• * 1.145

  Art. 5. Their Assertors subterfuge, that Eternity is Coexistent to Time; also un∣intelligible.
• * 1.146

  Art. 6. Our Ecclesia∣stick Doctors, taking San∣ctuary in the 3 Exod. for the authorizing of their doctrine, that the Prae∣sent Tense is only compe∣tent to God, and so that E∣ternity is one permanent In∣stant, without Fusion or Suc∣cession: not ••••cure from the rigour of our Demon∣stra••ion.
• * 1.147

  Art. 7. The Objective Praesence of all things at once, to the Divine In e••••ect, no wayes impug∣ned by our contradiction 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Doctors theory.
• * 1.148

  Art. 8. No•• the Immu∣tability of the Divine Nature; against Aristo∣tle.
• * 1.149

  Art. 9. Coronis.