_MADAM,_
Having hitherto considered your _Authors_ Elements or Principles of
Natural things, you will give me leave to present you now with a short
view of his Opinions concerning Wind, Vacuum, Rainbows, Thunder,
Lightning, Earth-quakes, and the like; which I will do as briefly as I
can, lest I betray my Ignorance; for I confess my self not to be well
versed in the knowledg of Meteors, nor in those things which properly
belong to the Mathematicks, as in Astrology, Geography, Opticks, and
the like. But your _Author_ says, in the first place,[1] That _Natural
Wind is nothing but a flowing Air, moved by the Blas of the Stars._
Certainly, _Madam_, if this were so, then, in my judgment, when the
Stars blaze, we should have constant Winds, and the more they blaze,
the more violent winds there would be: But I have rather observed
the contrary, that when the Stars blaze most apparently, we have the
calmest weather either in Summer or Winter. Perchance your _Author_
will say, he doth not mean this apparant and visible Blas, but another
invisible Blas. I answer; I know not, nor cannot conceive any other
Blas in the Stars, except I had seen it in a Vision; neither do I
think that Nature her self knows of any other, But your _Author_
doth refer himself upon the Authority of _Hypocrates_, who says,
That _not onely the Wind is a blast, but that all Diseases are from
blasts; and that there is in us a Spirit stirring up all things by
its Blas; which Spirit, by a Microcosmical Analogy, or the proportion
of a little World, he compares to the blasts of the world._ As for
my particular, _Madam_, I dare say, I could never perceive, by my
sense and reason, any such blazing Spirit in me; but I have found by
experience, that when my mind and thoughts have been benighted with
Melancholy, my Imagination hath been more active and subtil, then
when my mind has been clear from dark Melancholy: Also I find that
my thoughts and conceptions are as active, if not more, in the night
then in the day; and though we may sometimes dream of several Lights,
yet I cannot perceive a constant light in us; however Light, Blazes,
and all those effects are no more then other effects of Nature are;
nor can they have more power on other Creatures, then other Creatures
have on them: Neither are they made otherwise then by the corporeal
motions of Natural Matter, and are dissolved and transchanged as other
Creatures, out of one form or figure into another. Next your _Author_
discoursing[2] whether there be any Vacuum in Nature, doth incline to
the affirming party, that there is a Vacuum in the Air; to wit, _There
is in the air something, that is less then a body, which fills up the
emptinesses or little holes and pores in the air, and which is wholly
annihilated by fire; It is actually void of all matter, and is a middle
thing between a body and an Incorporeal Spirit, and almost nothing
in respect of bodies; for it came from Nothing, and so may easily be
reduced to nothing._ All this, _Madam_, surpasses my capacity; for
I can in no ways conceive any thing between something and nothing,
as to be less then something, and more then nothing; for all that is
corporeal in Nature, is to my reason something; that is, some really
existent thing; but what is incorporeal in Nature, is nothing; and if
there be any absolute vacuum in Nature, as your _Author_ endeavours
to prove, then certainly this Vacuum cannot be any thing whatsoever;
for a Vacuum is a pure Nothing. But many ingenious and learned men
have brought as many arguments and reasons against Vacuum, as others
bring for it, and so it is a thing which I leave to them to exercise
their brains withal. The like is the opinion which many maintain
concerning Place, _viz._ that there is a constant succession of Place
and Parts, so that when one part removes, another doth succeed in its
place; the truth and manner whereof I was never able to comprehend:
for, in my opinion, there can be no place without body, nor no body
without place, body and place being all but one thing. But as for
the perpetual Creation and annihilation of your _Authors_ Vacuities,
give me leave to tell you, _Madam_, that it would be a more laborious
work, then to make a new World, or then it was to make this present
World; for God made this World in six days, and rested the seventh
day; but this is a perpetual making of something out of nothing.
Again: concerning Rainbows, your _Author_ says,[3] That _a Rainbow
is not a natural effect of a natural Cause, but a divine Mystery in
its original; and that it has no matter, but yet is in a place, and
has its colours immediately in a place, but in the air mediately, and
that it is of the nature of Light._ This is indeed a great mystery to
my reason; for I cannot conceive, as I said before, a place without a
body, nor how Light and Colours can be bodiless: But as for Rainbows,
I have observed, when as water hath been blown up into the air into
bubles, that by the reflexion of light on the watery bubles, they have
had the like colours of the Rainbow; and I have heard, that there
hath been often seen at the rising and setting of the Sun, Clouds of
divers colours; Wherefore I cannot be perswaded to believe that a
Rainbow should not have a natural cause, and consequently be a natural
effect; For that God has made it a sign of the Covenant between him
and mortal men, is no proof, that it is not a natural effect; Neither
can I believe that it has not been before the Flood, and before it was
made a sign by God, as your _Author_ imagines; for though it was no
sign before the Flood, yet it may nevertheless have had its being and
existence before the Flood. Moreover, as for Thunder and Lightning,
your _Authors_ opinion is; _That although they may have concurring
natural Causes, yet the mover of them is an Incorporeal Spirit, which
is the Devil; who having obtained the Principality of this world, that
he may be a certain executer of the judgments of the chief Monarch, and
so the Umpire and Commissioner of Lightning and Thunder, stirs up a
monstrous and sudden Blas in the Air, yet under Covenanted Conditions;
for unless his power were bridled by divine Goodness, he would shake
the Earth with one stroke so, as to destroy all mortal men: and thus
the cracking noise or voice of Thunder is nothing but a spiritual
Blas of the Evil Spirit._ I will not deny, _Madam_, that Thunder and
Lightning do argue the Power of the most Glorious God, for so do all
the rest of the Creatures; but that this is the onely and immediate
cause, which your _Author_ assigns of Thunder and Lightning, I cannot
believe; for surely, in my opinion, Thunder and Lightning are as much
natural effects as other Creatures in Nature; and are not the Devils
Blas, for I think they may be made without the help of the Devil; nay,
I believe, he may be as much affraid of Thunder, as those Creatures
that live on Earth. But what the causes are, and how Thunder and
Lightning are made, I have elsewhere declared more at large, especially
in my _Philosophical Opinions._ Again your _Author_ speaking[4] of the
_Trembling of the Earth, thinks it is nothing else but the Judgment
of God for the sins of Impenitent men._ For my part, _Madam_, I can
say little to it, either concerning the divine, or the natural cause
of Earthquakes: As for the divine and supernatural Cause, which your
_Author_ gives, if it was so, then I wonder much, why God should
command Earth-quakes in some parts of the World more frequent then
in others. As for example; we here in these parts have very seldom
Earthquakes, and those we have, which is hardly one in many ages, are
not so furious, as to do much harm; and so in many other places of
the World, are as few and as gentle Earth-quakes as here; when as in
others, Earth-quakes are very frequent and dreadful: From whence it
must needs follow, if Earth-quakes be onely a Judgment from God for
the sins of Impenitent Men, and not a natural effect, that then those
places, where the Earth is not so apt to tremble, are the habitations
of the blessed, and that they, which inhabit those parts that are
apt to tremble, are the accursed; when as yet, in those places where
Earthquakes are not usual and frequent, or none at all, People are as
wicked and impious, if not more, then in those where Earthquakes are
common. But the question is, Whether those parts which suffer frequent
and terrible Earthquakes, would not be so shaken or have such trembling
fits, were they uninhabited by Man, or any other animal Creature?
Certainly, in my opinion, they would. But as for the Natural Cause
of Earthquakes, you must pardon me, _Madam_, that I cannot knowingly
discourse thereof, by reason I am not so well skilled in Geography,
as to know the several Soils, Climats, Parts, Regions, or Countries,
nor what disposed matter may be within those parts that are subject
to frequent Earthquakes: Onely this I may say, that I have observed,
that the light of a small Fire or Candle, will dilate it self round
about; or rather that the air round about the Fire or Candle, will
pattern out both its light and its heat. Also I have observed, That a
Man in a raging fit of Madness will have such an unusual strength, as
ten strong men shall hardly be able to encounter or bind him, when as,
this violent fit being past, a single man, nay a youth, may over-master
him: Whence I conclude, that the actions, as the motions of Nature, are
very powerful when they use their force, and that the ordinary actions
of Nature are not so forcible as necessary; but the extraordinary are
more forcible then necessary. Lastly, your _Author_ takes great pains
to prove,[5] That _the Sun with his light rules the Day, and the Moon
with hers the Night; and that the Moon has her own Native light; and
that Bats, Mice, Dormice, Owles, and many others, as also Men, which
rise at night, and walk in their sleep, see by the light and power
of the Moon; also that Plants are more plentifully nourished by the
night._ But lest it might be concluded, that all this is said without
any probability of Truth, by reason the Moon doth not every night
shine upon the Earth, he makes a difference between the Manner of the
Sun's and Moon's enlightning the Earth; to wit, that the Sun strikes
his beams in a right line towards the Earth, but the Moon doth not
respect the Centre of the World, which is the Earth, in a right line;
but her Centre is always excentrical, and she respects the Earth onely
by accident, when she is concentrical with the World; And therefore he
thinks there is another light under the Earth even at Midnight, whereby
many Eyes do see, which owes also its rise to the Moon. This opinion
of your _Author_ I leave to be examined by those that have skill in
Astronomy, and know both the Light and the Course of the Moon: I will
onely say thus much, that when the Moon is concentrical, as he calls
it, with the World, as when it is Full and New Moon, she doth not shine
onely at night, but also in the day, and therefore she may rule the
day as well as the night, and then there will be two lights for the
ruling of the day, or at least there will be a strife betwixt the Sun
and the Moon, which shall rule. But as for Men walking asleep by the
light of the Moon, my opinion is, That blind men may walk as well by
the light of the Sun, as sleeping men by the light of the Moon. Neither
is it probable, that _the Moon or her Blas doth nourish Plants_; for
in a cold Moon-shiny night they will often die; but it is rather the
Regular motions in well tempered matter that cause fruitful productions
and maturity. And so I repose my Pen, lest it trespass too much upon
your Patience, resting,
Madam,
_Your humble and_
_faithful Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Of the Blas of Meteors.
[2] _Ch._ Of Vacuum.
[3] _Ch._ Of an Irregular Meteor.
[4] _Ch._ Of the Earthquake.
[5] _Ch._ Of the Birth or Original of Forms.