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 ...

SECT. II. Concerning the Magnitude of Atoms.

MAgnitude and Atoms,* 1.1 though two terms that make a graceful Con∣sonance to ears acquainted with the most charming harmony of Reason, may yet sound harsh and discordant in those of the Vulgar, which is accustomed to accept Magnitude only Comparatively, or as it stands An∣tithetical to Parvity: and therefore it concerns us to provide against mis∣apprehension by an early advertisement; that in our assumption of Mag∣nitude as the first essential Propriety of Atoms, we intend not that they hold any sensible bulk, but that, contrary to Insectiles, or Points Mathe∣matical, they are Entities Quantitive simply, i. e. Realities endowed with certain corporeal Dimensions, though most minute, and consisting in the lowest degree of physical quantity; so that even those of the largest size, or rate, are much below the perception and discernment of the acutest Op∣ticks, and remain commensurable only by the finer digits of rational Conjecture. And somewhat the more requisite may this Praemonition seem, in respect that no meaner an Author then Theodoret hath, through gross inadvertency, stumbled at the same block of ambiguity. For (in Serm. 4. therap••ut.) He positively affirms, that Democritus, Metrodorus, and Epicurus, by their exile Principles, Atoms, meant no other but those small pulverized fragments of bodies, which the beams of the Sun, trans∣mitted through lattice Windows, or chincks, make visible in the aer: when according to their genuine sense, one of those dusty granules, nay, the smallest of all things discernable by the eyes of Linceus, though advantaged by the most exquisite Engyscope, doth consist of Myriads of Myriads of thousands of true Atoms, which are yet corporeal and possess a determi∣nate extension.

To avert the Wonder impendent on this nice assertion,* 1.2 and tune our thoughts to a key high enough to attain the Verisimility thereof; We are first to let them down to a worthy acknowledgment of the exceeding Grossnesse and Dulnesse of our Senses, when compared to the superlative Subtility, and Acuteness of Nature in most of her Operations: for that once done, we shall no longer boast the perspicacity of our Opticks, nor circumscribe our Intellectuals with the narrow line of our sensible discove∣ries, but learn there to set on our Reason to hunt, where our sense is at a loss. Doubtless, the slender Crany of a Pismire contains more distinct Cellules, then that magnificent Fabrick, the Eschurial, doth rooms; which though imperceptible to the eye of the body, are yet obvious to that of the mind: since no man can imagine how, otherwise, the Faculties of sense and voluntary Motion can be maintained, a perpetuall supply of Animal (or, a•• D••. H••rv•••• will have them, Vital) spirits being indispensably necessary to the continuation of those actions; and therefore there must be Elabora∣tories for the praeparation and confection, Treasuries for the conservation, and various Conduits for the emission, and occasional transvection of them

into the Nerves and Muscles of that industrious and provident Animal. The due resentment of which praegnant Instance, is alone sufficient to de∣monstrate the incomputable degrees of distance betwixt the sensible Capa∣city of man, and the curious Mechanicks of Nature: and make the acutest of us all call for a Table-book to enroll this Aphorism; Ubi humana indu∣stria subtilitasque desinit, inde incipit industria subtilitasque Naturae. The wings of our Arrogance being thus clipt, let us display those of our Dis∣coursive Faculty, and try how near we can come to deprehend the Magnitude, i. e. the Parvity of Atoms, by an ingenious Conjecture.

* 1.3Consider we, first, that an exquisite Artist will make the movement of a Watch, indicating the minute of the hour, the hour of the day, the day of the week, moneth, year, together with the age of the Moon, and time of the Seas reciprocation; and all this in so small a compass, as to be decently worn in the pall of a ring: while a bungling Smith can hardly bring down the model of his grosser wheels and balance so low, as freely to perform their motions in the hollow of a Tower. If so; well may we allow the finer fingers of that grand Exemplar to all Artificers, Nature, to distinguish a greater multiplicity of parts in one Grain of Millet seed, then ruder man can in that great Mountain, Caucasus; nay, in the whole Ter∣restrial Globe.

* 1.4Consider we, with Magnenus, that one grain of Frankinsense being fired, doth so largely diffuse it self in fume, as to fill a space in the aer, more then seven hundred millions of times greater then it possessed before com∣bustion. For, to the utmost dispersion of its fume, the space might easily have received of grains of Frankinsense, equal in dimensions to the seed of a Lupine,

according to its Altitude	720
according to its Latitude	900
in the Longitude	1200
in the Superfice of the whole figure	5184000
in the Superfice of the end only	648000
in the Area, or whole enclosure	777600000

Since, therefore, our nostrils ascertation, that in all that space of Aer, there is no one particle which is not impraegnated with the fragrant exhala∣tions of that combust grain of Frankinsense, which, while it was entire might be by a steddy hand, a sharp incision knife, and a good magnifying Glass, or by that shorter way of trituration, divided at least into a thousand sensible particles: it must follow, in spite of Contradiction, that the sensible odo∣rous particles of it do fulfil the number of 777600000000. And, inso∣much as each of these sensible Particles, is mixt, it being lawful and com∣mendable according to the subtile speculations of Archimed (in Arenar.) to assume that the smallest of them is composed of a Million of Elemental Atoms: therefore by the same rule, must there have been in the whole Grain of Elemental Atoms 777600000000000000, at least. If so; we have but one step lower to Insectility, and so may guess at the Exiguity of a single Atome.

Consider we the delicate Contexture of Atoms,* 1.5 in the body of that smallest of Animals, a Handworm. First, if we speculate the outside of that organical tenement of life, a good Engyscope will praesent our eye with not only an oval-head, and therein a mouth, or prominent snout, armed with an appendent proboscis, or trunk consisting of ma∣ny villous filaments contorted into a cone, wherewith it perforates the skin, and sucks up the bloud of our hands; but also many thighs, leggs, feet, toes, laterally ranged on each side; many hairy tufts on the tail, and many asperities, protuberances, and rugosities in the skin. Then our Reason if we contemplate the inside thereof, will discover a great variety of Organs necessary to the several functions of an Animal. For Nutrition, there must be Gullet, Stomach, Intestines, Liver, Heart, Veins; or at least parts in their offices and uses perfectly ana∣logous thereto: For Vitality, there must be Lungs, and Heart for the praeparation and confection, and Arteries for the general diffusion of Spirits; for Locomotion voluntary and sensation, there must be Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, Tendons, Muscles, Ligaments, Articulations; and for the support and firmitude of all these, there must be some more solid stamina, or a kind of Bones and Cartilagineous contextures; in a word, there must be all members requisite to entitle it to Animation, with a double skin for the investiment of the whole Machine. Now, if we at∣tentively compute, how many particles go to the composure of each of those organical parts, and how many Myriads of Atoms go to the con∣texture of each of those particles (for even the Spirits inservient to the motion of one of its toes, are compositions consisting of many thousands of Atoms), as we shall think it no wonder, that the exile and industrious fingers of Nature have distinguished, sequestred, selected, convened, accommodated, coadunated, and with as much aptitude as decorum dis∣posed such an incomprehensible multitude of Parts, in the structure of so minute an Animal; so may we, in some latitude of analogy, conje∣cture the extreme Parvity of Her common Material, Atoms. On this ingenious pin hung the thoughts of Pliny, when (in lib. 11. cap. 1 & 2.) He exclaimed, Nusquam alibi Naturae artificium spectabili∣us est, qu••m in Insectis: in magnis siquidem corporibus, aut cer••è majoribus, facilis officina sequaci materia fuit. In his verò tam parvis, atque tam nullis; que ratio, aut quanta vis, tanquam inextricabilis perfectio? ubi tot sensus collocavit in Culice? & sunt alia dictu mi∣nora. Sed ubi visum in ea praetendit? ubi Gustatum applicavit? ubi odoratum inseruit? ubi truculentam illam, & proportione maximam vo∣cem ingeneravit? Qua subtilitate pennas adnexuit, praelongavit pedum crura, disposuit jejunam caveam, uti alvum, avidam sanguinis, & potissimum humani sitim accendit? Telum verò perfodiendo tergori, quo spiculavit ingenio? atque cùm prae exilitate pene non videatur ita reciproca generavit arte, ut fodiendo acuminatum, pariter sorbendoque fi∣stulosum esset, &c.

Here had we haulted a while, and wondered, how Pliny could,* 1.6 without the assistance of a Magnifying Glass (an Invention, whose Antiquity will hardly rise above the last revolution of Saturn) deprehend so vast a mul∣tiplicity of Parts in the machine of an Insect, of so small circumscrip∣tion, that to commensurate the Base of the visive Cone, by which its slender image is transmitted to the pupil of the eye, would trouble a good

Master in Opticks, and drive him to the Minimus Angulus of Euclid: but that it soon came into our thoughts, that He speculated the same by the sub∣tiler Dioptrick of Reason; which indeed is the best Engyscope of the Mind, and renders many things perspicuous to the Understanding, whose exceeding Exility is their sufficient Darkness.

* 1.7To put more weights into the Scale of Conjecture, let us moreover ob∣serve; how great a quantity of Water may be tinged with one grain of Ver∣million; how many sheets of Paper may be crimsoned with that tincture; how innumerable are the points, by the apex of a needle, designable on each of those sheets: and when 'tis manifest that many particles of Vermillion are found in each of those points; who can longer doubt, that the parti∣cles comprehended in the compass of that grain are indefinable by the ex∣actest Arithmetique.

* 1.8Again, (for we could be content, to let the Almund tree bud, before we take off our cogitations from this pleasant Argument) consider we, how small a portion of oyl is consumed by the flame of a Lamp, in a quarter of an hour; and yet there is no moment passeth, wherein the stock of flame is not wasted and as fast repaired, which if it could be conserved alive all at once, would fill not only whole rooms, but even ample Cities: and if so, what need we any further eviction of the extreme Exiguity of those Parts, of which all Concretions are material'd?

* 1.9Had the Ancients, indeed, been scrupulous in this point; their want of that useful Organ, the Engyscope, might in some part have excused their incredulity: but for us, who enjoy the advantages thereof, and may, as often as the Sun shines out, behold the most laevigated Gra∣nule of dissolved Pearl, therein praesented in the dimensions of a Cher∣ry stone, together with its various faces, planes, asperities, and angles, (such as before inspection we did not imagine) most clear and distinct, longer to dispute the possible Parvity of Component Principles, is a gross disparagement to the Certitude of Sense, when it is exalted above de∣ception, and all possible impediments to its sincere judicature are prae∣vented.

Conclude we therefore, since the Diametre of a granule of Dust, when speculated through a good Engyscope, is almost Centuple to the diametre of the same, when lookt on meerly by the eye, on a sheet of Venice Paper: we may safely affirm, with Archimed (in arenario.) that it is conflated of ten hundred thousand millions of insensible Particles; which is enough to verifie our praesent Assumption.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Art. 1. By the Magni∣tu••e, is meant the Parvity of Atoms.
• * 1.2

  Art. 2. A considerati∣on of the Grossene••s of our senses, and the extreme 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Na∣tu••e, in her o∣perations, pr••∣paratory to our Conjectural apprehension of the Exigu••∣ty of Her Ma∣terials, 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.3

  Art. 3. The incom∣prehensible subtility of Nature, argued from the Art••∣fice of an ex∣quisite Wat••h, contrived in a very narrow room.
• * 1.4

  Art. 4. The vast mul∣titude of sensi∣ble particles, & the vaster of Elemental A∣toms, contain∣ed in one grain of Frankinsense; exactly calcu∣lated.
• * 1.5

  Art. 5. The Dioptri∣cal speculation of a Handworm, discovering the great variety of Or∣ganical Parts therein, and the innumera∣bility of their Component Par∣ticles.
• * 1.6

  Art. 6. A short Digres∣sive Descant upon the Text of Pliny, touching the multiplicity of parts in a Flea; hinting the possible perspicacity of Reason.
• * 1.7

  Art. 7. The Exility of Atoms, conje∣ctural from the great dif∣fusion of one Grain of Ver∣million dissol∣ved in Water.
• * 1.8

  Art. 8. The same, in∣f••rrible from the smal quan∣tity of oil de∣praedated by the Flame of a Lamp, in a quarter of an hour.
• * 1.9

  Art. 9. The Microscope of great use, in the discern∣ment of the minute parti∣cles of Bodies: and so advan∣tageous to our Conjecture, of the exility of Atoms.