MADAM,
In my former, when I related your Authors opinion, concerning Earthquakes, I forgot to tell you, that he counts the Doctrine of the Schools absurd, when they say that Air, or any Exhalation, is the cause of them: For, says he, There is no place in the Pavements or soils of the Earth, wherein any airy body may be entertained, whether that body be a wind, or an airy exhalation. But since I promised I would not offer to appoint or assign any natural causes of Earthquakes, I have only taken occasion hence to enquire, whether it may not be probably affirmed, that there is air in the bowels of the Earth: And to my reason it seems very probable; I mean not this Exterior air, flowing about the circumference of the Earth we inhabite; but such an airy matter as is pure, refined, and subtil, there being great difference in the Elements, as well as in all other sorts of Creatures; for what difference is there not between the natural heat of an animal, and the natural heat of the Sun? and what difference is there not between the natural moisture of an Animal, and the natural moisture of Water? And so for the Purity of Air, Dryness of Earth, and the like: Nay, there is great difference also in the production of those Effects: As for example; the heat of the Earth is not produced from the Sun, nor the natural heat in Animals, nor the natural heat in Vegetables; for if it were so, then all Creatures in one Region or place of the Earth would be of one temper. As for example: Poppy, Night-shade, Lettuce, Thyme, Sage, Parsly, &c. would be all of one temper and degree, growing all in one Garden, and upon one patch of Ground, whereon the Sun equally casts his beams, when as yet they are all different in their natural tempers and degrees. And so certainly there is Air, Fire, and Water, in the bowels of the Earth, which were never made by the Sun, the Sea, and this Exterior elemental Air. Wherefore those, in my opinion, are in gross Errors, who imagine that these Interior Effects in the Earth are produced from the mentioned Exterior Elements, or from some other forreign and external Causes; for an external cause can onely produce an external effect, or be an occasion to the production of such or such an effect, but not be the immediate efficient or essential cause of an interior natural effect in another Creature, unless the Interior natures of different Creatures have such an active power and influence upon each other, as to work interiously at a distance, such effects as are proper and essential to their Natures, which is improbable; for though their natures and dispositions may mutually agree and sympathize, yet their powers cannot work upon their Interior Natures so, as to produce internal natural effects and proprieties in them. The truth is, it cannot be; for as the Cause is, so is the Effect; and if the Cause be an exterior Cause, the Effect must prove so too: As for example; the heat of the Sun, and the heat of the Earth, although they may both agree, yet one is not the cause of the other; for the Suns heat cannot pierce into the bowels of the Earth, neither can the heat of the Earth ascend so far as to the Center of the Sun: As for the heat of the Earth, it is certain enough, and needs no proof; but as for the heat of the Sun, our senses will sufficiently inform us, that although his beams are shot forth in direct lines upon the face of the Earth, yet they have not so much force, as to pierce into a low Celler or Vault; Wherefore it is not probable, that the Earth hath its natural heat from the Sun, and so neither its dryness from the Air, nor its moisture from the Sea, but these interior effects in the Earth proceed from some other interior causes. And thus there may be great difference between the heat, cold, moisture, and drought which is in the Elements, and between those which are in Vegetables, Minerals, and Animals, not onely in their General kinds, but also in their Particulars: And not onely a difference in the aforesaid qualities of heat, cold, moisture, and drought, but also in all other motions, as Dilations, Contractions, Rarefactions, Densations, &c. nay, in their Mixtures and Temperaments: As for example; the temper of a Mineral is not the temper of an Animal, or of a Vegetable, neither is the temper of these the temper of the exterior Elements, no more then the temper of the Elements is the temper of them; for every Creature has a temper natural and peculiar to it self, nay, every particular Creature, has not onely different tempers, compositions, or mixtures, but also different productions; or else, if there were no difference in their productions, every Creature would be alike, when as yet there are seldom two that do exactly resemble each other. But I desire you to understand me well, Madam, when I speak of Particular heats, colds, droughts, and moistures; for I do not believe that all Creatures are made out of the four Elements, no more, then that the Elements are produced from other Creatures, for the Matter of all Creatures is but one and the same; but although the Matter is the same, nevertheless, the Tempers, compositions, Productions, Motions, &c. of particular Creatures, may be different, which is the cause of their different exterior figures, or shapes, as also of their different Interiour Natures, Qualities, Properties, and the like. And so, to conclude, there is no impossibility or absurdity in affirming, that there may be Air, Fire, and Water, in the bowels of the Earth proper for those Creatures, which are in her, although not such an Elemental Air, Fire and Water, as is subject here to our senses; but another kind of Air, Fire and Water, different from those. But this being a subject for Learned and Ingenious men to work and contemplate upon, better, perhaps, then I can do, I will leave it to them, and so remain,
Madam,
Your constant Friend,
and faithful Servant.
[X.]
MADAM,
Your Author mentioning in his Works, several Seeds of several Creatures, makes me express my opinion thus in short concerning this Subject: Several Seeds seem to me no otherwise then several Humours, or several Elements, or several other Creatures made of one and the same Matter, that produce one thing out of another, and the barrenness of seeds proceeds either from the irregularity of their natural motions, or from their unaptness or unactivity of producing. But it is to be observed, Madam, that not every thing doth produce always its like, but one and the same thing, or one and the same Creature, hath many various and different productions; for sometimes Vegetables do produce Animals, Animals produce Minerals, Minerals produce Elements, and Elements again Minerals, and so forth: for proof I will bring but a mean and common example. Do not Animals produce Stones, some in one, and some in another part of their bodies, as some in the Heart, some in the Stomack, some in the Head, some in the Gall, some in the Kidnies, and some in the Bladder? I do not say, that this Generation of Stone is made the same way as the natural generation of Animals, as, for example, Man is born of his Parents; but I speak of the generation or production of Creatures in general, for otherwise all Creatures would be alike, if all generations were after one and the same manner and way. Likewise do not Fruits, Roots, Flowers and Herbs, produce Worms? And do not Stones produce Fire? witness the Flint. And doth not Earth produce Metal? 'Tis true, some talk of the seed of Metals, but who with all his diligent observations could find it out as yet? Wherefore it is, in my opinion, not probable, that Minerals are produced by way of seeds. Neither can I perceive that any of the Elements is produced by seed, unless Fire, which seems, to my sense and reason, to encrease numerously by its seed, but not any other of the Elements. And thus productions are almost as various as Creatures, or rather parts of Creatures, are; for we see how many productions there are in one animal body, as the production of flesh, bones, marrow, brains, gristles, veines, sinews, blood, and the like, and all this comes from Food, and Food from some other Creatures, but all have their original from the onely matter, and the various motions of Nature. And thus, in my opinion, all things are made easily, and not by such constrained ways as your Author describes, by Gas, Blas, Ideas, and the like; for I am confident, Nature has more various ways of producing natural things then any Creature is able to conceive. I'le give another example of Vegetables, I pray you but to consider, Madam, how many several ways Vegetables are produced, as some by seeds, some by slips, some by grafts, &c. The graft infuses and commixes with the whole stock and the branches, and these do the like with the graft: As for example; an Apple grafted in Colewort produces Apples; but those Apples will have a taste and sent of the Colewort, which shews that several parts of several Creatures mix, joyn, and act together; and as for seeds, they are transchanged wholly, and every part thereof into the produced fruit, and every part of the seed makes a several production by the help of the co-working parts of the Earth, which is the reason that so many seeds are produced from one single seed; But Producers, that waste not themselves in productions, do not produce so numerously as those that do dissolve; yet all Creatures increase more or less, according to their supplies or assistances; for seeds will encrease and multiply more in manured and fertile then in barren grounds; nay, if the ground be very barren, no production at all will be; which shews, that productions come not barely from the seed, but require of necessity some assistance, and therefore neither Archeus, nor seminal Ideas, nor Gas, nor Blas, would do any good in Vegetables, if the ground did not assist them in their generations or productions, no more then a house would be built without the assistance of labourers or workmen; for let the materials lie never so long, surely they will never joyn together of themselves to the artificial structure of an house. Wherefore since there is so much variety in the production of one kind of Creatures, nay of every particular in every kind, what needs Man to trouble his brain for the manner and way to describe circumstantially every particular production of every Creature by seminal or printing Ideas, or any other far-fetched termes, since it is impossible to be done? And as for those Creatures whose producers are of two different sorts, as a Mule bred of an Asse and a Horse, and another Creature bred of a Cony and a Dormouse; all which your Author thinks[1] do take more after their mother then their father, more after the breeder then the begetter; I will not eagerly affirm the contrary, although it seems to me more probable: But this I can say, that I have observed by experience, that Faunes and Foales have taken more after the Male then after the Female; for amongst many several colour'd Deer, I have seen but one milk white Doe; and she never brought forth a white Faun, when as I have seen a white Buck beget white and speckled Faunes of black and several coloured Does. Also in Foals I have observed, that they have taken more after the Male then after the Female, both in shape and colour. And thus I express no more, but what I have observed my self, others may find out more examples; these are sufficient for me; so I leave them, and rest,
Madam,