To give the Curious a taste of the Contents of this Volume, and thereby to excite them to a farther search into the recesses of Nature, for the composure of a good Natural History; they may first take notice, That the Author, having given an account in the Preface, what encouragement he received, for writing this Book, from the opportunity of Travelling with the Cardinal of Hassia into Sicily (in which Voyage, he saith, He met with, as it were, an Epitome of what may be observable in the Subterraneous parts of the Earth; and in particular, with an Earth-quake of 14 daies duration, very instructive to him concerning several great Secrets of Nature:) having I say, thus Prefaced, he divided his Work into 12 Books, wherein he affirms not only to have explicated the Divine Structure of the under-ground World, and the wondrous distribution of the Work-houses of Nature, and her Majesty and Riches therein; but also to have opened the Causes of her Effects and Productions; whence, by the Marriage of Nature and Art, a happy Issue may follow for the use and benefit of Humane Life.
In the First Book, he considers the nature of the Centre of the Earth, where he delivers several Paradoxes touching the same, and Discourses of the Motion of heavy Bodies, of Pendulems, of Projectils.
In the second he treats of the Fabrick of the Terrestrial Globe, of the Influences it receives from the Cœlestial Bodies, especially the Sun and Moon, of both which Luminaries he gives a Scheme; of the proportion of the Earth to the Sun and Moon; of the external conformation of the Earth, its Mountains, and their concatenations, decrease and increase, together with the strange transformation thereof. Further, of the Waters encompassing the Earth, and their various Communications by hidden Passages; as also the heighth of Mountains, and of the depth of Seas; the dimension of the Sicilian Straights; the Magnetical Constitution of the Earth, its Heterogeneous Nature, Interior Frame, Laboratories, Caves, Channels, &c.
In the third: Of the Nature of the Ocean, and the diversity of its Motions; of its general Motion from the East to West, Currents; Reciprocations, Gulfs, Whirle-pools, Saltness, &c.
In the fourth: Of the Nature of the Subterraneous Fire, its necessity, diffusiveness, food, prodigious Effects through ignivomous Mountains; as also of the Nature of Air, and Winds, their power and variety; of the general Wind, how and whence generated; of Periodical and Anniversary Winds, and their Causes; as also of the production of Artificial Winds, for refreshment and other advantages. To which he subjoyns a Discourse, tending to prove, That all Meteors owe their Nativity to the Fiers of the Subterraneous World.
In the fifth: Of the Original of Springs, Rivers, Lakes; various differences and qualities of Waters, and the marks where they are to be met with under Ground; of Waters Medical, hot Baths, and their Differences, Causes, Virtues; together with the Wonderful Qualities and Proprieties of some Springs, as to their Colour, Taste, Smell, Weight, Salubrity, Flux and reflux, Petrifying power, &c.
In the sixth: Of the Earth it self, and the great variety contained in the Womb thereof; of the manifold Productions
made therein, by the virtue of Salt and its Auxiliaries, the differences whereof are largly discoursed of, together with the way of extracting the same. In particular of Saltpetre, its Generation, Nature, Virtues; of the way of making Gunpowder, and the various uses thereof, as also the Nature, Qualities, Preparation, Medicinal and other uses of Alume and Vitriol.
In the Seventh: Of some Fossils, as Sand, Gravel, Earths, and their various Differences, Qualities, uses Economical, Chymical, Medical: together with the strange varieties & changes happening in the Earth, and their causes; as also the requisits to Agriculture.