_MADAM,_
_Water_, according to your _Authors_ opinion,[1] _is frozen into Snow,
Ice, or Hail, not by Cold, but by its own Gas._ But since I am not able
to conceive what his Gas is, being a term invented by him self, I will
briefly declare my own opinion, which is, That Snow, Ice, and Hail, in
my judgment, are made in the like manner, as Passions or Colours are
made and raised in Man; for a sad discourse, or a cruel object will
make a Man pale and cold, and a fearful object, will make him tremble;
whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot.
But yet these discourses and objects are onely external, occasional,
and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations. Also when a
Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold, or enters
into a cold or hot room, bath, or air, he becomes hot or cold by the
actions of those external agents that work upon him, or rather whose
motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out. The like
for diseases; for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports,
or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body, or by
Infections inwardly or outwardly, and many other ways. Likewise may
Colours be made different ways; And so may Snow, Ice, and Hail; for
all loose, rare, and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change
then close, solid, and dense bodies; and not onely to change from
what they are, but to rechange to what they were. But, _Madam_, many
studious persons study Nature more in her own substance, then in her
various actions, which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of
Natures Works; for the same parts of Matter may act or work several
ways: Like as a Man, or other animal creature, may put one part of his
body into various and several postures, and move it many different
ways. Your _Author_ may say, that although several Creatures may be
changed to our sight or perception, yet they are not really changed in
Nature. I answer, Their Principle, which is a natural matter, of which
all Creatures are made, cannot be changed, because it is one, simple,
and unalterable in its Nature; but the figures of several Creatures
are changed continually by the various motions of this matter; not
from being matter, but onely from such or such a figure into another;
and those figures which do change, in their room are others produced
to keep up the certain kinds of Creatures by a continual successive
alteration. And as there are changes of parts, so there are also
mixtures of several parts, figures and motions in one and the same
Matter; for there are not different kinds in the nature of Matter:
But, although Matter is of several degrees, as partly animate and
partly inanimate, and the animate Matter is partly rational, and partly
sensitive; Nevertheless, in all those degrees it remains the same onely
or meer Matter; that is, it is nothing else but Matter, and the onely
ground in which all changes are made. And therefore I cannot perceive
it to be impossible in Nature, as to your _Author_ it seems, That
_Water should not be transchangeable into Air_; for, that he says,
_The Air would have increased into a huge bulk, and all Water would
have long since failed_: It is no consequence, because there is a
Mutual transmutation of all figures and parts of Nature, as I declared
above; and when one part is transchanged into another, that part is
supplied again by the change of another, so that there can be no total
mutation of kinds or sorts of figures, but onely a mutual change of
the particulars. Neither is it of any consequence, when your _Author_
says, That _if Water should once be turned into Air, it would always
remain Air, because a returning agent is wanting, which may turn Air
again into Water._ For he might as well say, a Man cannot go or turn
backward, being once gone forward. And although he brings a General
Rule, That _every thing, as much as in it lies, doth desire to remain
in it self_; Yet it is impossible to be done, by reason there is no
rest in Nature, she being in a perpetual motion, either working to
the consistance of a figure, or to the uniting of several parts, or
to the dissolving or dividing of several parts, or any other ways. By
dissolving, I do not mean annihilating, but such a dissolving of parts
as is proper for the altering of such a figure into one or many other
figures. But rather then your Author will consent to the transchanging
of Water into Air, he will feign several grounds, soils or pavements
in the Air, which he calls _Peroledes_, and so many Flood-gates and
Folding-dores, and make the Planets their Key-keepers; which are pretty
Fancies, but not able to prove any thing in Natural Philosophy. And so
leaving them to their Author, I rest,
Madam,
_Your humble and_
_faithful Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Of the Gas of Water.