II. PLACITA PHILOSOPHICA Guarini. The chief subject of this Treatise is Natural Philosophy; upon many important questions whereof it enlargeth, as those of the Motion of the Cœlestial Bodies, of Light, of Meteors, and of the vital and animal functions; leaving sometimes the common opinions, and delighting in the defence of Paradoxes.
E. G. That the material substantial Form, is nothing but mera potentia, and subsists not by it self: by which means the Author judges, he can free himself from many great difficulties touching Generation and Corruption, which do perplex the other Philosophers.
He holds Epicycles to be impossible, and Excentricks, not sufficient to explicate the motion of the Stars; but that all the irregularities of this motion may be salved by the means of certain Spiral Lines; largely proving this Hypothesis, and particularly explicating the motion of each Planet.
He denies the middle Region of the Air to be cold; and believes that cold is not necessary to condense the vapours into Water.
He admits not that received Axiome, That the generation of one Body is the corruption of another; maintaining that there are Generations, to which no corruption ever preceded; and that it may happen, that one Animal without dying may be changed into another Animal.
He alledges several reasons to evince, that the Air breathed in, enters not only into the whole capacity of the Chest, but also into the lower belly.
He is of opinion that the Air, which is commonly believed to corrupt easily, is incorruptible; alledging among other reasons, this for one, that experience shews, that if a Bottle be exactly stop'd, there is never any mixt Body form'd in it; wherefore, saith he, the Air is not corrupted there.
He maintains, that 'tis not the Magnet that draws the Iron, but rather the Iron that attracts the Magnet. To explain which he affirms, that the Load-stone spreads abroad out of it self many corpuscles, which the substance of the Iron imbibes, and that, as dry things attract those that are moist, by the same reason Iron drawn the Loadstone.
He rejects the species intentionales, Vital and Animal Spirits, and holds many other uncommon opinions, touching Light, the Iris, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, &c.