Remember to justify that, [among worthy men, <a> sophister, that for vaine glory persists to maintaine a manifest errour, can not get so much credit by shewing in it a specimen of the subtilty of his wit, as he must loose by so visibly misuseing it, to the prejudice of the Truth.
Prosecute that passage <in> the account of our Island, where 'tis said that [there is scarse anything more ignominious among <true> philosophers, than out of pride or Vanity to defend a detected Error, because one has once embrac'd it. For <we ought to> thinke that <to be> subject to erre <is> a frailty so incident to humane nature, and the persisting in an Error a disingenuity so blemishing to it that <candid men> are highly offended, with any, who, to avoide confessing an innocent error, that only shews he is but a man, < but> declares by a culpable obstinacy that he is a bad man.
[Remember] to [consider whether some of the particulars there mention'd may be allow'd an internal Principle of motion, whilst others have but an external.
[Remember] to shew how, , <that> all the differing bodys mention'd <&c> are but difering Dresses of their common matter, or rather the same matter in variety of dresses
shew the difference between essential or Hypostatical {mercury}, & that which is really to be found imbodyed with other Terrestrial Substances.
[Remember] to shew that the nature of this consists not in any substantial form, or any such like imaginary entity, but only that 'tis made up (or chiefly abounds with) small parts & so condition'd as to size, shape, & Contexture & (in most cases also) as to motion.
[Remember] the differing channells of pores, to be met with according to several aspects & positions, as the Allyes made by <Trees> dispos'd to quinqunces &c.
[Remember] to shew that the difference betwixt the specific gravity of gold & {spirit of wine} is reducible to Porology
It is often easier to know what <one> ought to believe, than what Aristot did beleeve. For Nature never contradicts herself, but he may in one place contradict what he teaches in an other. And if we have any doubts we can aske nature new questions by purposely devisd experiments, but so we cannot Aristotle.
<Remember that in hot> Regions by the ordinary concurs of the Aire & the sun Ostridges eggs are hatched into birds.
[Remember] for the 19th essay the Comparison that makes mention of growing rich by meerly finding Pearls & of gathering shells upon the Indian shores, without skill or design, which being applyed to Philoponus or Philaretus shews that &c.
[Remember] on the same occasion how the Author there mention'd imitates the order or progress of nature in her productions in his ranking of his writeings.
[Remember] in the same essay to shew how God that is said in the Script. to bring Light out of darknesse makes the vain & curious folly of men a great Instrument of manifesting his wisedom in the Creation, and makes mens Luxurious abuses of his Goodnesse a great discoverer of it and the vices & consequent diseases of the great & the rich &c
[Remember]the double Hypothetic about motion, which ascribes the epicurean Mobility to some parts only of matter &c.
The opinions of men alter not the Conditions of things nor will nature ever violate her own Laws to obey the Dictates of Aristotle, and therefore let a Philosopher in his study speculate and decree what he pleases if he write of things otherwise than nature acts twill be found that she acts otherwise than he had writt and <that she> will as little consult his opinions as he consulted the Course of her Proceedings.
shew in the 15th Essay that things obvious enough may in some cases be ascribed to some proposers as new since thô they were not new things they were new Mediums and a known Proposition or Experiment may then be acknowledg'd for a Truth without being by any thought important & comprehensive enough to be made a foundation.
Shew in the same place that I might well spare my self the Labour of being prolix since I was solicitous only to satisfy Rational & equitable Readers but not to tire such and my self to prevent the cavills of quarrellsom or unreasonable men.
[Remember] in the 17th Essay what is said of following the Authority as a Pilot steers by the needle but if by Celestial observ. he finds it to decline &c.
[Remember] in the 19th Essay to illustrate the general addresse to philosophize upon difficulties pro re nata by the difference there is between an excellent Musitian & one that is only furnish'd with two or three of those Musical boxes, that are set to afford some few & determinate tunes with the turning about a key &c
[Remember] the acidity produc'd in Dowe by <the> fermentation that turns it into Leven
As also the same acidity produc'd in wine turn'd to Vinegar in soured milk, in broath too long kept &c.
[Remember] the volatile salt and spirit produc'd in & dispers'd through urine thô Hermetically seald up.
[Remember] the obvolution of saline spirits by Vinous ones in dulcifyed spirit of Nitre &c
[Remember] in the 16th Essay to enlarge the Comparison of the Drum, that serves to make a noise & calls men together to fight against one another & but has really no solidity.
[Remember] in the 16 Essay to shew, that if Aristotle had reflected but upon his own Opinions he must have discern'd, both that they supposd such Principles, which they flow'd from, and that he must admitt such Consequences which they led to.
[Remember] there also how the Nature of fire may or may not be said to be contain'd or explicated by its Origine, its manner of existence or subsisting, it propertys, and its operations and Effects.
Shew in the same discourse the unreasonablenesse of urgeing men to assign a Cause of that which is the first Cause of all things.
[Remember] the arbitrary division that is made and that differingly in differing Countrys of the progress of a shadow upon a sun dial, and of the motions of the sun & Planets fancied by Astronomers to be made according to certain lines Circles &c. that are but imaginary.
Consider what happens to a string tun'd to an 8th in reference to that which is struck, and what happens to glasses & liquors by vertue of the vibrations of external bodys working on the Air.
[Remember] to defend this Passage of the 17th Essay, tho out of respect to Aristotle I am content to examine those opinions of his, which tho perhaps Erroneous, are somewhat probable; yet I do not thinke my selfe bound to examine those that are <thought> probable <for> nothing else, but because they were his opinions.
Apply to the second Tract the Consideration of Ecchoes that the Articulate & Intelligible Soundes without any understanding, and doe but reverberate sounds not speake words.
[Remember] That the utterings of Determ. words proceeds from a mans will to speake them not from his will to move such Arguments in such a way For as to the Instruments he oftentimes knows not that he has any such and as to the motions he can not by his bare will produce them immediatly in the organs, but they are produc'd according to the Institutions of Nature guided by Custom upon his willing to speake such words.
[Remember] in the 16th Essay, the Comparison of the Musitian that grew deaf and then playd upon his Instrument, which he knew not to be out of tune.
Remember to shew in the 17th Essay that the Historical things there proposed have a differing aspect to two sorts of Theorical things. For in reference to more subordinate & particular Hypotheses the matter of fact is chieffly intended and the discourses but secondarily, as being requisite to <bring in &> connect the Historical things together and make the Discourse more uniform & coherent. But then these matters of fact, when they are subjoind to Principles & grand observations, are not so much set down for their own sake as to illustrate or confirm those grand & pregnant Truths besides the use they may have of increasing the sylva of Natural History
[Remember] in the same Essay how Quailes are deceived by Quaile pipes and other animals are not able to distinguish between artificial songs & the voices as externals of their owne kind.
Remember there also to pursue the Reprehension of those [who, being more solicitous to pass for good Rhetoricians than good Philosophers, had rather injure a Proposition than forbeare adorning it, and wright a thing opposite to Truths than loose an Antithesis, or add to Truth than be wanting to the fullnesse and roundnesse of a Period,
Philosophers ought to profess the manifestation of Truth before the Reputation of received phrases or expressions; and that considering men <,> ought not to disbelieve a Truth or <forbeare to> expresse it fitly; for feare it should be thought that <the> inconsiderate <vulgar have> been mistaken, or have spoken improperly, whether this vulgar be the vulgar of men or the vulgar of Philosophers.
Remember to justify what is said in the 16th Essay that I would follow the Truth either with any Company or without any.
[Remember] in the 17th Essay that when stormy windes blow upon the branches of tall and slender Trees, strong springs are bent by nature herself and that the Agent is a fluid and Invisible body.
[Remember]there also the marine Jewells that may be made perfect by the help of art,
[Remember] in the 19th Essay to shew that those <Agents> that are said to produce such an effect by Accident, doe really operate per se, as well in the produceing of that as any other: but the difference of names springs from the heedlessnesse of men, & indeed consists in this; That some operations of the Agent are far more frequent & familiar than those which it exercises (no less according to the general Laws of nature & its own Qualitys in particular) upon subjects whose peculiar Disposition diversifys its motion < by some peculiar degree or other Circumstance of of the relating Application of the agent.>
[Remember] in the 17th Essay the Application of Columbus's first & second Discoverys, & of sea Cards & Mapps to be both enlarged and made more full and accurate by further Navigations & future Travells.
[Remember] also in the same Essay the allowablenesse & use of makeing pictures & schemes of Constellations, thô we doubt not or at least deny not that better Telescopes may discover more starrs in them.
[Remember] in the 19th Essay to shew against the Peripateticks & Chymists how small a part of natures Phenomena will be explain'd by quiescent Ingredients, in Comparison of those Phen. that require the consideration of structure & motion. And to this discourse apply the slender account that can be given of a Clock by those that will consider only that it consists of so much Brasse, (for the wheels & Dial plate) so much Lead (for the weights) so much Iron (for the Hammer <& perhaps Index)>& so much Copper & Tinn for the Bell. To which may also be applyed the wood, Canvas, Iron & stone of a Windmill.
Consid. the differing account that will be given of dioptrical & Catoptrical Glasses by a person skill'd in opticks, & by one that can only say, that Glasses are made of sand & salt which being colliquated together are afterwards indowed with <some kind or other of those> Accidents the Schools call figures, whose propertys he is not oblig'd to know, but he knows very well the Concave <& convex> specula Metallica are but mixd bodys differingly shaped indeed, but compounded of copper & Tinn
[Remember] in the 16th Essay to shew what things they are which thô the vulgar Philosophers call by other names are indeed but stages of Itinerant or Travelling Nature <as> certain States which a body (or the matter of it) arrives at in its progresse, & exemplify this by Pubertas Adolescentia &c & by Ecclipses of the Celestial bodys.
[Remember] there also to shew how mainedly & imperfectly the vulgar Courses of Philosophy when they treate only of certain Heads of things, which are but Pauses or Results & illustrate this by him that should treate of a windmill only by talking of a Gyrating, & a Commiment faculty &c without describing the structure of a wind <the> mill & the service of <the> motions of its parts. And further illustrate the same by what happens in a watch clock or double horizontal Dial.
[Remember] there also how a birding piece is made of some lesser Engines, as the spring & other parts of the Lock, and of a physical Agent or two as the Powder & bullet.
Those that have but narrow Principles and are acquainted with but few setts of Experiments are not competent Judges of the various wayes whereby the Nature & Qualitys of things may be investigated. As a chymists will not imagine that a Musitian by his viol or Harpsicon could be able to discover whether a metall were good Gold or no, and yet the experiments of Galileo & Marsennus shew that there is a notable difference between the sound of 2 strings that would els be an unison whereof the one is of Gold & the other of Copper <or> some other metall. And so Musitians generally thinke, that the proportion that makes <an eighth> or a fifth, must be found by that of the length of the strings struck together, whereas the newly nam'd Author shews that the length of the strings being invaried, an 1/8 or <a> 1/5 may be struck on them, by stretching them with weights in duplicate proportion to that which makes <an> 1/8 or <a> 1/5.
Apply in the 16th Essay, the windes producible by the Action of Corrosive liquors upon Tripoly, shells Spar &c to the production of subterraneal windes & their effects.
And the experiment of the inflammable Martial Steam of spirit of salt to the production of Subterraneal fires & their effects.
[Remember] the growth of <mineralls in> Mines & the obstructions that may happen thence as also from the swelling and distension of the Earth by frosts, and consider what effects the chokeing of subterraneal passages may have, as to springs, ascending steams &c.
[Remember] in the 19th Essay the Comparison of the several degrees of Light that makes the twilight before the rising Sun.
[Remember] in the same essay how the parts of an impellent body doe therefore not disjoine those of a body, whose solidity depends on rest, because the parts of the impellent doe themselves cohere but on the score of a less degree of rest.
And from thence deduce the indefinite divisibility of fluids
[Remember] there also the solid particles of salts & metalls which doe but swimm in the truly fluid, as particles of mud in water, & of smoake in flame or of salt in the steame or acid spirit of {sulphur}
[Remember] That the Chymists mention'd in the 19th essay may be good Carpenters and not good Architects.
[Remember] to prove there that Arist. Authority may make me weigh his Reasons but not pass for one.
[Remember] there also that Archimedes would scarse have thought of a way of drawing an <Merid.> Line of a Dial when neither Sun nor star could be seene.
[Remember] in the 16th Ess: the way of compareing whole Lines to whole Lines, without supposing them to have actuall but only designable parts.
[Remember] there also the consistence of some kind of Solid Bodies in the torrid Zone, & of others supposd to be translated thence as high as the Sun.
Remember the Confusion of the Four Elements that lasts for some time by the meer locall & shuffling motion of the Ingredients, which afterwards separate & resort like parts to like, only by their Gravity and Texture.
[Remember] as to the Segregation of Bodies by meer locall motion & other Effects, without resorting to Forms or Ingredients, the Instance of the separations made by fanning of the Wheat & Chaffe by the Wind, and of Meal flower & Bran by Shaking;
And of the Oyl from the firmer part of the Almond by pressing and by boyleing, & of Cream from Butter-milk by Concussion or Agitation.
Forget not in the same Essay the possible use of the air, confirmable by the Experiment of the floridness of the superficial parts of Blood.
[Remember] there also the rudiments of Flame made with Fumes of Sp of {nitre} oyle of {vitriol} & metalls &c: by the help of interfused or intermingled air.
[Remember] <there> the wildernesses in barren wasts in reference to philosophy, and what may be hop'd from uncultivated Nations when improved.
[Remember] also the Comparison between the Certainty deducibly from experiments and that of the Conclusion of Syllogisms, which can not be greater than that of the weakest premises.
[Remember] in the 16th Essay the two differing ways of melting metalls with Sulphur; as a liquor & as flame.
[Remember] there likewise the experiment of Reasinous body kept fluid by Alkool of wine, which impregnated spirit is afterwards coagulated into offa alba.
[Remember] also the Possibility of makeing mineralls grow in the midst of an already coagulated stony substance.
[Remember] in the 17th Essay the difficulty of makeing out the weight of {mercury} according to the Chymical Principles of Decomposition.
[Remember] to shew more at large in the same place, how those Principles have their existence and manner of production questionable, How they are not to be found in several bodys. How, in those wherein they are to be found, they doe not afford the primary accounts of the Qualitys & effects ascribd to them. And how there are a multitude of Phenomena, to which they are not at all applicable, & very many others in which their use is inconsiderable.
[Remember] also to shew there that the narrowness & barrenness of their Principle confines those that use them, to lay down general positions that are not generally true, and either to leave many phenomena unexplicated, or to give none but uncertain or very remote & general, or in a word, some or other unsatisfactory Reasons of them.
[Remember] in the 19th Essay that Keyes may doe many things in common (as they are pieces of iron) and others peculiarly, as they are pieces of iron of such a size & shape, that is, as they are such Keyes.
[Remember] there also the Resemblance betwixt oil of {vitriol} & the fumes of {nitre} the smoake of Cotton & the Ammoniac aire &c that it produces, & fire & flame.
[Remember] in the 18 Es. that the Cause there given is at least somwhat less remote from the first & true Cause of the Phenomenon.
[Remember] to shew there also, that [he that will trye nothing but what he thinkes himself will surely succeede, must miss of many things that are desireable & usefull.
[Remember] there to [shew in the comparison between the Philosopher & the Chymist, that the one may be a better Architect, & the other a better Carpenter &c
[Remember] what may be drawne from the confus'd mixture of the 4 elements in a Glass that may be made to unite and separate by agitation & rest, without the help of <a> form.
[Remember] the invisible bubles that may be produc'd by the action of the Corrosive & other solvent liquors.
[Remember] the earth that may probably be produc'd from effatuated {spirit of wine}.
[Remember] the great difference between the Corpuscularian way of explicateing things, & that which referrs them to forms & Facultys & real Qualitys. As to the illustrating or manifestation of the <admirable> Mechanisms of the omniscient Author of things.
Shew that [rarefaction, as such, that is as a naked quality, does nothing, but Matter brought to, or constituted in, the state of rarefaction.
Apply the force that a spring has to fly open and thrust away impediments at both ends, to explicate the commotion that was made in bodys by percustion:
[Remember] the hardening of Coral brought out of the water into the Aire, and the breaking of glass drops immediately after haveing been taken out of the water
[Remember] <in> the paper about Chymical Principles to make out the Distinction betwixt Corpuscles & Ingredients primordial or primary, and secondary, or analogous; and the illustration of the former by Quicksylver, and of the later by compounded Sublimat, Cinabar &c
[Remember] the dispersion of the more Catholic Ingredients through other bodys, & the augmentation that may be made by appropriating & assimilating it; as in the cupellation of Gold & Sylver, Lead &c
[Remember] the effect of a spark, excited by the attrition of wood upon wood it self; and of Leaven upon dough.
And forget not the diffusion of the Magnetical Vertue from the stone to various pieces of Metal.
Shew how < hardn compe firmnesse> may be differingly produc'd in Ice, in oil of Aneseeds, in a metal that loses it fluidity whilst 'tis yet red hot, in oil of Aneseeds & spirit of Nitre, in Colophony made fluid by {spirit of wine}, and other Instances.
[Remember] brittlenesse produc'd in sylver by the mixture of Tin, & by malleation.
[Remember] that [the difference is not visible, betwixt an attracting and an unactive Electric; as also betwixt an excited & an unexcited needle; which shews how slight that kind of Modification is, upon which, in such bodys, occult Qualitys may be exercisd or destroyed.
[Remember] that Diaphaneity is permanently lost in powder'd Colophony, without the addition of anything opacous, & that it may be restor'd by {spirit of wine} without the help of Heat.
Cr. the Effluvia that soure wine after thunder, & by what changes of liquor that production of vinegar must be made.
[Remember] to illustrate some Celest. Infl: by the odd things that excite the sleeping poyson in men bitten by mad dogs.
[Remember] that [a medicine or a Corrupt humor bred in the body, may produce the same symptoms or Phenomena there, that wine, opium, henbane &c is wont to doe.
[Remember] that the casual Constitution of the Aire, or the various Combinations or Coalitions of particles meetings in it may produce the like effects.
[Remember] that contrariety of some bodys to certain Agents, wherein the bodys propos'd defeate not the <usual> operation of the agents, as Hammers or files, but as sheaths &c.
Cr. what may be deduc'd from the stretching of the pores of some bodys by inspiration, or by an interfluent liquor, & the new or differing separations that may thence ensue
[Remember] the Consideration suggested by this, that thô two bodys be made of differing matter, and by different Agents, yet if they agree in the propertys essential & sufficient for the purpose requir'd, it is enough; & they will act, & are to be consider'd, as bodys inducd with such a nature, rather than as Effects of such Causes: which may be illustrated by natural or artificial Winds, by Vinegar, by watches of differing Metalls by the Inflammablenesse of salt peter, brim stone, Camphire &c.
Confirm in the 18th Essay that [in the Subterraneal Laboratorys of Nature there may be both stronger fires & more durable ones & greater variety of materialls, & those better disposed; & unknown menstruums, & cementing powders, & vessells fitter for some uses, & more frequent Cohobations, & more durable digestions & Circulations &c, and in short many <considerable> Circumstances more conducive to some purposes, than in our Common furnaces above ground.
[Remember] there also to illustrate the close of the paper with the comparison drawn from the fig tree & leaves blossoms & fruite of the orange tree.
[Nature as Gods viceregent understands far better than [BP 17, fol. 155v] man the possible variety of Combinations & contrivances of the parts of matter, which we can scarse learne but by experience. Inforce this Consideration by representing that every, primary body, and every primitive Attribute may be look'd upon in the booke of nature as a Letter of the Alphabet &c.
[Remember] the practise of those that, in their bookes & Theorys, doe not so much consult Nature & Experience as suborn her.
[Remember] those that judge of natural bodys as Apothecarys doe of medicines only by the Ingredients whereof they are compounded, not as Chirurgeons or Mechanitians doe of the Instruments & Engines by the size, shape, stifnesse or flexiblenesse &c. & the Connection & contrivance of the parts & by the motions they are apt to receive or produce
[Remember] there to censure those Schoolmen & others, who make it their businesse rather to escape by sophistical Elusions from the objections of their Adversarys, than to hinder truth <or> Nature to escape their Enquirys: and who are much more solicitious to puzzell an adversary than either to instruct or convince him or themselves.
Censure to those that meddle with the works of Nature the three sorts of those that looke upon the starrs, whereof some like children & vulgar beholders only gaze at them, as a fine sight, others like Seamen eye them to be able to steere their Course by some of them, or like Judiciary Astrologers, upon hopes to foretell <some> things & gaine somwhat by them. And lastly others are like Astronomers that contemplate them to observe their motions & other Phenomena & gratify their Curiosity, with their search, if not satisfy their understandings with the knowledge of objects so worthy of their speculation.
It happens in many cases, that when men have never so much stretchd the subtlety of their wits, it yet falls short of the subtlety of nature &c.
I seldome goe out at the roade but to seeke Truth, and never quite leave the company of those that travel in it but to follow Truth.
[Remember] to shew how those fine Terms & pompous words of Formes and occult Qualitys and fuga vacui &c thô commonly admir'd by most that heare them are not understood by those that use them, are not acquiesc'd in by the curious, and are despis'd by the Judicious.
[Remember] that [the gathering of <green> fruite may be excusd if it be presented to a woman that longs for that which is unripe.
[Remember] in the Tract of Specificks, what Medicines must be consider'd, not only according to their positive virtues or active Energys, whereby <they> worke themselves, but according to those dispositions that qualify them to admitt the operation of <a> morbific matters, and thereby disarme or otherwise tame <it>, or at least mitigate its hurtfull efficacy; As may be instanc'd in chalke, water largely drunke, calcin'd hartshorn,spirit of wine &c.
[Remember] to justify the difference between the writers of natural History: one sort of which gives so slight & superficial an Account of Bodys, whereof they shew us only the Varietys, & the obvious appearances; that they may be compard to him that should give an account of the Watchmakers Trade, by <saying that of> the Watches that hang up in his shop, some are round, some oval, some great, some smal, some white, some cas'd with silver, some with Chrystall, some with Gold or silver gilt, some only show the hour, some also strike it &c without giveing all the while any account of the spring, wheel, Ballance &c or the internal frame & structure of the Engine.
Explicate the difference between the skill of a man that tunes a lute and playes a lesson upon it, & him that only bids so many musitians sing that Lesson (which illustrate by the cas'd Guitarr that moves with a Key, & the Images of workeing Tradesmen) which may be [BP 17, fol. 156v] further set forth by him that makes a Windmill to grind his Corn, compard with him that employs a Hand-mill, or rubs <his Corn> to meal between two stones
[Remember] to shew how far a final cause may be employ'd, as to the constitution & configuration of the grand bodys of the universe.
[Remember] to shew, that [the primary affections of the primordial parts of matter ought to be very simple & mechanical, & need be supposd no other.
Examine whether, because of the variety of parts whereof the Atmosphere may consist, divers things may not happen in this or that place as effects of the air which belong not to the air as such, but to some corpuscles abounding in the air of that place, which may have a congruity with pores to which the common particles of the air are not congruous.
Shew how [the Heat of a Region depends not only on the Climate and the commonly observed qualities of the Country, but on the Colour & compactness of the soil.
[Remember] to shew the Indifferency of a moved body, whose motion as such makes it only tend to quit the place it is in, & may be determind to any line by the position of external bodys.
It usually happens that <as in the Creation of the world so> in the Contemplation of it darkenesse preceds Light.
shew the Inconveniencies brought on Learning by this, that the boldnesse or ambitions of some writers makes them over value, and too much boast of what they discover: and the Envy or peevishnesse of others makes them oppose, all that is found by those vaunters; so that betwixt the pride of the one, and the Censoriousnesse of the other, some Truths usually miss of being rightly estimated, & now and then happen to be quite surpress'd.
[Remember] that [Tin makes divers bodys (as Copper sylver & Gold) very brittle, & yet 'twere a great mistake to make a participation of Tin the Cause of brittlenesse in metalls, since whatever other Agent there be that can produce in a metall such a Texture may make it brittle, whether there be any Tin in it or no. And the like may be <said of other Qualitys, pretended by the vulgar chymists to flow from tin or that other element or Principle.>
Cr why if Flame be fuell expanded or rarified, & the most subtle fluid of any here below, the flame of the highliest rectified [sp{superscript t}] of wine burns very blew, & sometimes partly very yellow, & consequently is much less diaphanous than the [sp{superscript t}] of wine it self.
[Remember] to censure those Philosophers, that not only dare not endevour to penetrate into the mysteries of nature, but dare not so much as hope to do it, not to add, nor desire it, but would condemn the wit & Industry of mankind, to be as barren as their Hypothesis.
Name the Liquor that puts the Corpuscles it carrys away, into a kind of motion like that of its owne parts; as the sounding string of a Lute, puts the air it strikes into motions, that follow the Laws or Motions of its owne Vibrations.
[Remember] the difference between our Alphabet, & the Characters of the Chineses, & the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks.
Cr that all Animals, & even Zoophytes, agree in some things wherein they disagree with all plants & other Bodyes, and yet agree not in very many things with one another, in some of which one would much expect a Resemblance. To which is to be applyd the national diseases of Men & Familys dispersd into different Countrys.
Shew that as there are many things that depend upon a more subtle Texture, that may be preserved even in the smallest visible Fragments of some bodys; so there are other qualities that <either> require the intireness of the Body, or at least depend upon the grosser mechanism of it, & cannot well subsist but in portions of some considerable bulk.
[Remember] that [a præcipitation may be sometimes made, when one would not expect it from the nature of the [M{superscript m}:] &c For the præcipitant may, either by adding somewhat <of> its own substance, make a new [M{superscript m},] by a coalition with the particles of the former [M{superscript m}:] or else may, by takeing off some compounding particles of the first [M{superscript m}:] diversify That liquor.
[Remember] the comparison betwixt the Chymical experiments & whimsys on one side, and the Mexican Kings Gold, Jewells, & Crowns of Feathers on the other side.
[Remember] those that enter into the Regions of the Intellectual World, as ambitious Princes into the countreys of the Material, not with Husbandmen, to cultivate & improve them, but with souldiers to conquer and subdue them for themselves &c.
[Remember] the disposition of two Windmills or two Water-mills, the one in order, the other out of order, when there is no stream, either of air or water, to set them agoeing.
[Remember] to illustrate there what is taught about the dimidiateing & fermenting Corpuscles even among Metalls, by what happens in the experiment of the various parts of Nitre; & that of spirit {nitre} & Potashes.
[Remember] what concerns the Peripatetick Exing & Stave.
Repeat in the 18 Ess: the Notion about Solary Effluvia and their Results in reference to the production of Cold, Heat. &c.
Inlarge also on that Instance of the transmutation of Gold into Iron in Chili.
[Remember]in the 12 & in the 16th Ess: what happens to the Nitrous Corpuscles, & in the solution of silver & of copper imploy'd to præcipitate it and the strikeing down of that copper with Zink they pass from one state of condemnation to another without ever remaining free & uningaged.
Explain there how experience may be called the Philosophy of our eyes or of our senses.
[Remember] there also the comparison wherein tis observd that Ostriches & Crocodiles are content to lay their eggs <upon the sand>, nature prompting them to do no more because in warm Climates the sun it selfe that Celestial fire & universal Tostener will have hear enough to hatch them
Shew in the 18th Essay the difference betwixt the Knowledge we may gain of things by our senses, and that which we can have by mediate sensations.
Shew there also against the Paracelsians that some of the things they cry up, are so far from deserving to be received for Principles in nature, that they have not really so much as a Being in nature and sure those ought not to be reputed the primary [BP 17, fol. 158v]and <most> general parts of Natural things, that are not parts of them at all.
When once our senses forsake us because of the remoteness or minuteness of objects what remains (& is invisible) ought to be judgd of not according to the measures of sense (which here are supposd to be improper) but according to the exigencys of the best Hypothesis, or the Dictates and Analogisms of Reason.
Cr in the 19th Ess: the affinity betwixt the fumes of our smoaking substances & flames as to the requisiteness of air to the elevation of the one, as well as the burning of the other
Shew there also that [some Propositions & Opinions that have a great shew (& perhaps some shade) of Truth, are more prejudicial then if they were manifest falsity, or errors, as a piece of brass Coin is a worse counterfeit of the Gold coin it resembles, than if it were of Copper or Lead &c
<Referre to Hypotheses, the> comparison of the various Houses that children make of the same Cards and how easily they are destroyd by a breath of wind, or by pulling away any <one> of the lowermost
[Remember] there also [the Instance of Ropes where the Texture as slight as it is, dos as much gripe or pinch in the several blades or threads of Hemp, as if it were done by a designing mans hand, or by an artificial Instrument or Engine.
[Remember] there to justify that the Adversarys Answer is as unsatisfactory, as twould be to one that desires to know, how Goods are raised out of a ship by a Crane to be told, that tis a man that walkeing in the field turns it: Or to him that being desirous to know how corn is in a wind-mill reducd to meal, should be told that tis the wind that dos it.
[Remember] in the same paper to apply to the sun one of the causes of the shineing of the sea, and of the Cloudy Diamond.
Cr: the Difference betwixt true & counterfeit Emeralds in reference to an occult quality.
The trembling of one string when another is touchd is generally lookd upon as a hidden sympathy, but this Musical Phænomenon does little if at all, more deserve to be lookt upon as an occult quality than divers optical Phænomena, & particularly the apparition of an image cast there by <reflection from> a spherical Concave, & yet all these surprizeing & wonderfull optical Phænomena under which I comprehend those that are Dioptrical or Catoptrical or not explicable <either> by substantial forms real qualitys, the four elements &c nor by salt sulphur <& Mercury but are clearly explicable by Mathematical or (which are reducible to them) Mechanical Principles.>
[Remember] To shew in the 16th Essay that there is no necessity that Decompounded bodys (which are compos'd of parts allready compounded and not irresoluble) should be analyz'd into the same parts for number & kind that they were immediatly compounded of.
Shew there also that [to a true Composition 'tis necessary that the Ingredients doe separatly exist antecedently to their commixture, & that therefore it would not follow that because such substances are obtain'd from a body by the fire it was compounded of them, unlesse their preexistence &c be made to appeare. To which belongs the comparison of Cream, cheese & whay obtainable out of milke, & the consideration of Cream cheese &c.
Shew further there that [if we suppose the universal matter to have been created, (or however to have been at first) at rest (as indeed motion belongs not to the Nature of matter) we must allow that the Elements, of the Tria prima themselves, were by Motion obtain'd from matter, & were not preexistent to compose it; & the like may be, with little variation, said of all the bodys of the world that were made of the Universal matter in the first production of things.
Cr. in the 17 Ess. the lasting Drought of Ciprus that continued without raine for 17 years. And whether that may proceede from the <casual> want of subterraneal Heat. And whether dry seasons may not be accounted for, either by concoagulating steams, that unite with those that would ascend out of the Earth, & fix or clogg them or by Effluvia that meete with vapors in the Aire, & either præcipitates [BP 17, fol. 159v] them into Dew, or subdivide them into parts <too> little to fall, or constitute with their new parts better dispos'd to swimm in the Aire than the vapors were before; as when spirit of urin precipitats sylver out of {aqua fortis} & unites it self with the Copper & the Nitrous particles.
<An> Hypothesis that <has> no naturall History pertinent enough to seeme explicable by it; <is> As if a man should make a key to no lock, &c
Shew there the difference betwixt giving the Cause of the Cause & the Cause of the effect, or the remote or the approximate or immediat Cause.
Declare also how as some volatile bodys by the difference of their parts in point of bulk shape Gravity &c may make up a fixt body so the same matter, by digestions Circulations, or repeated Distillations & Cohobations, may have such a change made in its parts, that some of them shall be like one kind & others like an other kind of those corpuscles by whose Coalition a fixt substance may be constituted.
[Remember] also there what resemblance there may be betwixt melted Metalls & Minerals & other liquors; & how the thinnesse of a metal & Mineral brought to such a degree of fusion may inable it to penetrate Crucibles, as water does, not by a vehement agitation, but by thinnesse of consistence.
Speake there of those Peripateticks, that treating of occult Qualitys & stunning or amazing their Auditors with hard words have the luck to gaine admiration by seeming to explicate those things, which yet deserve as much admiration after their explication as <they did before>
Shew in the next place how a form is not like a spring in a watch a distinct thing, that setts all the rest a worke, but like harmony or a tune in a song, which does not give either nature or &c to the notes whose aggregate & Disposition makes the sound but is a thing only <resulting from the Notes so disposd & related among themselves>
Cr. To the same purpose that, in proportionate figures & numbers, the proportion has no real operation upon the numbers but is something affixt to them by the mind, which takes notice how it results from them, as they are consider'd alltogether, <&> with their Relation to one an other.
Cr. in the 18 Essay the motions of a boate carryed on by the streame, check'd by the wind & toss'd by the waves, whilst the Pilate or Passenger contributes nothing to all this, (unless perhaps by the steering he determine the way of the vessells motion) & these agitations doe not happen because the man is not in the boate, but he therefore perceivs them because they are made by their proper Causes whether he will, or whether he thinke of them or not.
When a pound in one scale is raised by a pound & a quarte in the other scale, no man doubts but that the præponderancy of the pound & a quarte is that which makes the pound move upwards and no man to solve that phænomenon, flys to a positive Levity in the ascending weight.
[Remember] in the 15th Ess: the difference betwixt the Hieroglyphick writeing of the Egyptians & of European Alphabets together with other like resemblances.
[Remember] there that Pump-makers and those that make Wind-mills, & Bellows-makers, tho they are continually conversant about <and> employ the Water & the Air, may yet be as much strangers to their nature as other men.
Cr there the difference, as to propagation, & selfe continuance between the <kind of> fire which may be producd by oyl of vitriol & our ordinary Culinary fires.
[Remember] in the same place to shew that the explication there propos'd cannot be made good independently from our Doctrine.
[Remember] also to shew the dissimilarity of some Bodys that are apparently or seemingly similar.
Shew in the same Discourse, that the degree of Natures subtility in the phænomenon propos'd is to be determind by Inquiry (or Tryal) not supposition.
Shew there also that the Adversary Discourses as if nature is said in makeing her workes to Geometrize, all her workes, even the pieces of her workmanship even the finest are capable of being measured by scales & compasses.
Declare also there how far such men are from haveing attaind to that manumission of their Intellects, that belongs to Optical, Astronomical & Mechanical Philosophisers.
Justify at this close of this discourse , that we do not put off our slavery but only change our masters, and do not revolt from Antiquity to Novelty, but escape from Error to take sanctuary in Truth.
Consider there, that if the world last long enough, our Writeings will be ancient to our remoter Posterity; & yet that Antiquity will give them no real addition of Intrinsick worth (since the writeings will be still but the same:)
And that therefore we ought not to value the dictates of the Ancients as such unless we would be thought guilty of the extravagancy of those Meddalists, that Esteem coins of Copper or Brass because they are old & rusty, above new ones of Gold & Silver.
[Remember] the Honey & Frankincense of the Ancients compar'd with our sugar, our muske & our Ambergriese.
And those Phænomena that can only be observd when they happen, but not procur'd, as Comets new starrs, Earthquakes&c
Cr <how little> he dos directly & immediately that by removeing a piece of wood or of Iron, or digging a little Gap into a bank of Earth: dos in consequence set Wind-mills & Watermills on worke, & grind Corn, forge Blades, hammer Barrs, beat the Materials of Paper, & the Ingredients of Gunpowder &c & perhaps overflow & drown whole Countrys; of which effects the cause is the Efflux of the Water & the structure of the Body it acts upon, the action of the man that let it in being but the occasion.
[Remember]That there may be undiscern'd Suppositions as well in stating of questions & in definitions as in argumentations, & that they <are not> stolen in to these more slily than deceitfully, & dangerously to Truth.
Shew in the 16 Ess. That Peripateticks & Chymists judge of the Nature & the operations of bodys, as Apothecarys doe of purging Medicines by the quantity & Prædominancy of the Ingredients only blended together, but the Corpuscularians judge of them as Mechanitians doe of Engins, where according to the size shape &c of the parts & their contrivance or the manner of their being join'd together, divers Engines to the same purpose may be made of differing materialls & the same materialls variously shap'd, siz'd, & put together may, by their Mechanical affections, constitute very differing Engines, & fit for very differing purposes. As sives when they are made of Haire, Sarcenet, wire, rinds of Trees &c.
When once we are reducd to acknowledge <such> a minuteness as is beyond the discernment of sense (& perhaps too of Imagination) tho we may by argueing infer, that some things may have yet a more admireable minuteness; yet tis bold & difficult, if not rash to take upon us, either to measure or (easily) to stint the degrees of that parvity.
Shew in the 16th Experiment that the Opinion there mention'd will as little gain credit <among those that priz rate things by their intrinsic worth> by haveing been broach'd so many years agoe as a brass coin will become Silver or Gold by haveing been stampd in the dayes of Alexander or Augustus. And not only so, but philosophical Opinions do frequently impair, (as brass coins grow rusty) by length of time, because new Phænomena appear, & new Discoveries are made, which not being thought of when the Opinion was framd, usually comport not well with it
Shew there also, that the <sensibility> ascribd by our Adversary, has no such connexion with the nature of the things as Local motion has, and that tis no <sure> Argument that there is no such motion to be drawn from one not perceiveing it, since to the sensation of a Motion, it is not only requisite that there be Motion, but that there be such a quantity or Insenseness of it, or (if you please) that there be a competent Measure or Degree of it.
Shew in the 17th Essay, that the sound there mention'd is either a certain undulating motion of the Aire, or, at least, is not producd nor does act independently from the motion of the Aire, or the Aire moveing after such a determinate manner.
[Remember] there also the Verticity that a needle excited by the Loadstone acquires or rather manifests, when 'tis pois'd upon a sharp prop, or laid on the surface of the water, whereas, being laid on a table it is unable to discover its Verticity.
Explaine there what is meant by diaphonific & colorific Formes.
Shew also there that by our way of annnexing particular Examples & Instances, we are oblig'd only to shew that Nature may operate as we conjecture she does, since we prove that she actually does operate by such ways in other cases: but in the Adversarys way of writing, which yet is the most usuall, he has two things to make out first that Nature May worke after such a way in general, & then that she May operate after the same way in the particular case under debate.
Of all <undulating> motions mention'd in the last experiment of that paper, there is at length made but one, since there is but one sensible impression made upon the organ by all those motions that act confusedly on it per modum Unius.
Cr. in the 19 Essay the tuffnesse that is acquird by Copper by being hammer'd & wiredrawne, & the loss that is made of this tuffnesse, when it is melted down again into a lump.
Cr. there also how far a chesnut that leaps out of the fire may be said to have an internal Spring or Principle of Motion & how the mater that breaks through transports the wholl body: and make application of those Reflections
Observe there also the Confidence wherewith men Erroneously judge of the figure place & colour of an object by lookeing through a tincted not magnifying but multiplying Glasse, to which belonge the Aerial Images emitted by spherical & Cylindrical Concaves
[Remember] in the 20th Essay to apply to the Hypoth- & suppositions of things too remote or small to be seene the example of what happens at the guessing <of> the structure in clocks of whom we can only see the dial plate, for thô they may be contriv'd after such differing manners, that one cannot certainly determine the particular contrivance, yet any that is probably proposd ought not only not to be peremptorily rejected but should be admitted, at least 'till a better or every way as probable a one bee propos'd
[Remember] the difference betwixt the Reduction to Principles which signifies only that a Phænomenon is explicable by them & that Reduction of a body that signifies its recovery <of> all its former Attributes for at least so many of them as are sufficient to intitle it to its former denomination.
Cr. in the 19 Ess. that we have scarse any adequate diagnostic of the reduciblenesse of irreduciblenesse of the body there spoken of. And 'tis remarkable that if Lead be turn'd into Ceruse, & Ceruss by a further action of the fire into a kind of Mineum, & that perhaps into Glasse, neither of the two last nam'd will be return'd into that which it was immediatly made of, but all three may be reduc'd to a remoter body Lead.
Cr. there in favor of the power of Texture, that thô Charcoale is a body not to be corrupted by moisture nor corroded by very fretting Menstruums, nor scarse any otherwise destroyd but by fire, by which 'tis most easily dissipated: whereas many other bodys that resist the fire far more than Cole are easily destroy'd by those Agents that Coles resist.
Cr. there also the hardness that we feel on the outside of bladders well fill'd with comprest aire or water: whilst within they are very fluid & consequently yielding bodys.
[Remember] there likewise that in <our> Composition of green mention'd in the book of Colors not only a new color is producd or results, but each of the Ingredients loses as to sense its own former colour
Cr. there also wherin the diference consists, as well as what the difference is, between the fums of alkool of wine, whilst it retains the nature of exhalation, & when 'tis actually kindled & when 'tis afterwards caught & condensd into a liquor.
Cr. in the 16 Ess. how the acid particles may be blended with others in common sulphur, <&> be yet <further> compounded in balsam of sulphur made with exprest oils.
Cr. there the Cause why the Instrument there mention'd has effects & Phænomena differing from what may be collected from the pure & abstracted Demonstrations of Geometry, or would to most <meer> Mathematicians be suggested by them.
Cr. How much some qualitys may depend upon the Mechanical affections of matter, may appeare by this, that thô water be accounted the moistest body in the world, yet when the moistening parts whereof alone water is supposd to consist are by glaciation brought to a state of rest or at least kept from that kind of motion that some call diffluence, they doe not at all moisten the bodys they touch, as appears in Ice, which, whilst it continues such has the Nature of a dry body, upon the score of its Mechanical affections, thô it cannot be prov'd that any positively drying Ingredient has been admitted into the water to procure an exciccation.
Shew in the 20th Ess. that to ascribe a distinct faculty to every power of operating in a body & to fancy an occult quality proceeding from a latent forme, whenever vulgar Philosophers Peripatetic or Chymists can not reduce an <odd> effect or Phænomenon to the same Causes with the rest, is as if a man should fancy in a concave Speculum a peculiar faculty by which it reflects the beams of Light [BP 17, fol. 163v] as becoms a specular body: an other by which it greatens the Image beyond the dimentions of the represented body: an other by which it makes the beams it reflects be Convergent, and so increases light near their concourse: and an other by which it kindles & burns combustible matter; & besides these an occult quality or faculty, whereby 'tis able to cast the image of a Candle (for instance) to a <considerable> distance from it self into the Aire.
Their may <perhaps> be no want <neither> in the Mechanical principles nor of knowledge of them, to implicate <in general> the Phenomena of nature <but> we may yet want Mechanical contrivances, to enable us to give large <modells or> patterns of the works of Nature. Archimedes wanted not skill in the Mechanical powers, but yet knew not how to make a watch &c. Nor is it requisite that the king of China should be able in so short a time as the Mech. <Philosophy> has been well cultivated should know how all kinds of <watches> pumps and windmills &c are contriv'd, tho he might know a watch &c to be not an Animal but an Engine.
<Cr.> the difference between Ptoloma's geographical description of the Indies and Linschottens Voyage.
Apply the Alphabet (and its consequence) as 'tis made up of straight and crooked lines, and the reduction of a [past] to a determinat number of small Cylinders.
[Remember] the [instrum{superscript t}], that does direct, unite &c as may be seen in burning glasses &c
Apply what is said of numbers &c whose concinuityes and coincidencies doe not happen to fall so near one another as men are apt to imagine, as may be exemplifyed in the Square and Cube numbers to be met with in a Geometrical progression, as 1, 2, 4, 8, &c.
(And examin the objection that wants nothing but Truth and solidity of which wit and learning can give it but the appearance)
There are those that will never hold their peace, till they have no more to say, and to pass for able men <they> must meet with Readers that are not so.