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taphyfical rigor and truth, a passion or mere effect, yet, in phyfics, paffeth for an action. And by this action all effects are fuppofed to be produced. Hence the various communications, determinations, accelerations of motion conftitute the laws of nature.

162. The pure æther or invifible fire contains parts of different kinds, that are impreffed with different forces, or fubjected to different laws of motion, attraction, repulfion and expansion, and endued with divers diftinct habitudes towards other bodies. These feem to conftitute the many various qualities (e), virtues, flavours, odours, and colours, which diftinguish natural productions. The different modes of cohæfion, attraction, repulfion and motion, appear to be the fource from whence the specific properties are derived, rather than different shapes or figures. This, as hath been already obferved, feems confirmed by the experiment of fixed falts operating one way, notwithstanding the difference of their angles. The original particles. productive of odours, flavours, and other properties, as well as of colours, are, one may fufpect, all contained and blended together in that universal and original feminary of pure elementary fire; from which they are diverfly feparated and attracted, by the various fubjects of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; which thereby become claffed into kinds, and endued with thofe diftinct proper-. ties, which continue till their feveral forms, or fpecific proportions of fire return into the common mass. 163. As the foul acts immediately on pure fire, fo pure fire operates immediately on air, That is, the abrafions of all terreftrial things being rendered volatile and elastic by fire (f) and at the fame time Jeffening the volatility and expanfive force of the (f) 149, 150, 152

(e) 37, 40, 44.

fire, whofe particles they attract and adhere to (k), there is produced a new fluid, more volatile than water or earth, and more fixed than fire. Therefore the virtues and operations imputed to air must be ultimately attributed to fire, as that which imparts activity to air itself.

164. The element of æthereal fire or light feems to comprehend, in a mixed ftate, the feeds, the natural caufes and forms (g) of all fublunary things. The groffer bodies feparate, attract, and repel the feveral conftituent particles of that heterogeneous element; which, being parted from the common mass, make distinct effences, producing and combining together fuch qualities and properties, as are peculiar to the feveral subjects, and thence often extracted in effential oils or odoriferous waters, from whence they exhale into the open air, and return into their original element.

165. Blue, red, yellow, and other colours, have been discovered by Sir Ifaac Newton to depend on the parted rays or particles of light. And in like manner, a particular odour or flavour, feemeth to depend on peculiar particles of light or fire (b); as appears from heat's being neceffary to all vegetation whatsoever, and from the extreme minuteness and volatility of thofe vegetable fouls or forms, flying off from the fubjects without any fenfible diminution of their weight. Thefe particles, blended in one common ocean, fhould feem to conceal the distinct forms, but, parted and attracted by proper fubjects, difclofe or produce them. As the particles of light, which, when feparated, form diftinct colours, being blended are loft in one uniform appearance.

(k) 147.

(g) 43K 2

(b) 40.

166. A

166. Agreeably thereto, an ethereal fubftance or fire was fuppofed by Heraclitus to be the feed of the generation of all things, or that from which all things drew their original. The Stoics also taught, that all fubftance was originally fire, and fhould return to fire: that an active fubtile fire was diffufed or expanded throughout the whole univerfe; the feveral parts whereof were produced, sustained, and held together by it's force. And it was the opinion of the Pythagoræans, as Laertius informs us, that heat or fire was the principle of life animating the whole fyftem, and penetrating all the elements (a). The Platonifts too, as well as the Pythagoræans, held fire to be the immediate natural agent, or animal fpirit; to cherish, to warm, to heat, to enlighten, to vegetate, to produce the digestions, circulations, fecretions, and organical motions in all living bodies, vegetable or animal, being effects of that element, which, as it actuates the macrocosm, so it animates the microcofm. In the Timæus of Plato, there is fuppofed fomething like a net of fire, and rays of fire in a human body. Doth not this feem to mean the animal fpirit, flowing, or rather darting thro' the nerves?

167. According to the Peripatetics, the form of heaven, or the fiery æthereal fubftance, contains the forms of all inferior beings (b). It may be faid to teem with forms, and impart them to fubjects fitted to receive them. The vital force thereof in the Peripatetic fenfe is vital to all, but diverfly received according to the diverfity of the fubjects. So all colours are virtually contained in the light; but their actual diftinctions of blue, red, yellow, and the reft, depend on the difference of the objects which it illuftrates. Aristotle in the book De

(a) 152, 153.

(b) 43.

mundo,

mundo, fuppofeth a certain fifth effence, an æthereal nature unchangeable and impaffive; and next in order a fubtile, flaming fubftance, lighted up, or fet on fire by that ethereal and divine nature. He fuppofeth, indeed, that God is in heaven, but that his power, or a force derived from him, doth actuate and pervade the univerfe.

168. If we may credit Plutarch, Empedocles thought æther or heat to be Jupiter. Æther by the ancient philofophers was ufed to fignify promifcuously fometimes fire and fometimes air. For they diftinguished two forts of air. Plato in the Timæus fpeaking of air, faith there are two kinds, the one more fine and fubtile, called æther; the other more grofs and replete with vapours. This æther or purer medium, feems to have been the air or principle, from which all things according to Anaximenes derived their birth, and into which they were back again refolved at their death. Hippocrates, in his treatife De diæta, fpeaketh of a fire pure and invifible; and this fire, according to him, is that which, ftirring and giving movement to all things, caufes them to appear, or, as he ftyles it, come into evidence, that is to exift, every one in it's time, and according to its destiny.

169. This pure fire, æther, or fubftance of light, was accounted in itself invifible and imperceptible to all our fenfes, being perceived only by it's effects, fuch as heat, flame, and rarefaction, To which we may add, that the moderns pretend farther to have perceived it by weight, inasmuch as the aromatic oils which most abound with fire, as being the most readily and vehemently enflamed, are above all others the heavieft. And by an experiment of Mr. Homberg's, four ounces of regulus of antimony, being calcined by a burning glafs

for

for an hour together, were found to have imbibed and fixed feven drams of the fubftance of light.

170. Such is the rarefying and expanfive force of this element, as to produce in an instant of time the greatest and most stupendous effects: a fufficient proof, not only of the power of fire, but also of the wisdom with which it is managed, and withheld from bursting forth every moment to the utter ravage and deftruction of all things. And it is very remarkable, that this fame element, fo fierce and destructive, fhould yet be fo variously tempered and applied, as to be withal the falutary warmth, the genial, cherishing, and vital flame of all living creatures. It is not therefore to be wondered that Ariftotle thought, the heat of a living body to be fomewhat divine and celeftial, derived from that pure æther to which he fuppofed the incorporeal deity (xwgisov sidos) to be immediately united, or on which he supposed it immediately to act.

171. The Platonifts held their intellect refided in foul, and foul in an ethereal vehicle. And that as the foul was a middle nature reconciling intellect with æther; fo æther was another middle nature, which reconciled and connected the foul with groffer bodies (d). Galen likewife taught, that, admitting the foul to be incorporeal, it hath for it's immediate tegument or vehicle a body of æther or fire, by the intervention whereof it moveth other bodies and is mutually affected by them. This interior clothing was fuppofed to remain upon the foul, not only after death, but after the moft perfect purgation, which in length of time according to the followers of Plato and Pythagoras cleanfed the foul, -purumque reliquit Æthereum fenfum atque auraï fimplicis ignem.

(d) 152, 154.

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