And the better to clear so weighty a Truth, let us further consider on this occasion, That not onely Aristotle, and those that, mis-led by his Authority, maintain the Eternity of the World, but very many other Philosophers and Physitians, who ascribe so much to Nature, that they will not be reduc’d to acknowledge an Author of it, are wont very much to delude both themselves and others in the account they presume to give us, as satisfactory of the Causes or Reasons of very many Effects: I will not instance in the Magnetick Properties of Things, nor any of those numerous abstrusities of Nature, which ‘tis well known that the Aristoteleans are wont to refer to Sympathy, Antipathy, or Occult Qualities, and strive to put Men off with empty Names, whereby they do not so much lessen our Ignorance, as betray their own.

But I shall instance in those more obvious Phaenomena, of which they suppose they have given us very satisfactory Accounts: If you ask one of those I speak of, whence it comes to pass that if a Man put one end of a long Reed into a Vessel full of Water, and suck at the other end, his Mouth will be immediatly fill’d with that Liquor; he will readily tell you, That the Suction drawing the Air out of the cavity of the Reed, the Water must necessarily succeed in the place deserted by the Air, to prevent a Vacuity abhorr’d by Nature. If you likewise ask such a Man, Why to Women about a certain Age, their Purgationes Menstruae do commonly supervene, he will think he has sufficiently answered you, when he has told you, that about that Age, beginning to beripe for Procreation, Nature has wisely provided that their superfluous Blood should be sent to the Uterine Vessels, partly to dis-burthen the Mass of Blood of an useless load, and partly to contribute Matter, or at least afford Nourishment in case of Conception. But though these Solutions are wont to be acquiesc’d in by such as those that give them, yet I see not how they can satisfie a rigid Reasoner. For not now to mention what may be objected against them out of some Modern Mechanical and Anatomical Observations, let us a little consider, that to say that the ascent of the Water in the first Problem, proceeds from Natures Detestation of a Vacuity, supposes that there is a kinde of Anima Mundi, furnished with various Passions, which watchfully provides for the safety of the Universe; or that a Brute and Inanimate Creature, as Water, not onely has a power to move its heavy Body upwards, contrary (to speak in their Language) to the tendency of its particular Nature, but knows both that Air has been suck’d out of the Reed, and that unless it succeed the attracted Air, there will follow a Vacuum; and that this Water is withal so generous, as by ascending, to act contrary to its particular inclination for the general good of the Universe, like a Noble Patriot, that sacrifices his particular Interests to the publick ones of his Countrey.

But to shew Men by an easie Experiment how little Attraction is perform’d to avoid a Vacuum, I have sometimes done thus; I have taken a slender Pipe of Glass, of about four Foot long, and putting one of the open ends of it into a Vessel full of Quick-silver, I have suck’d as stronly as I could at the other, and caus’d one to watch the ascent of the Quick-silver, and mark where it was at the highest, and I found not that at one suck, I could raise it up much above a Foot; and having caus’d a couple of strong Men, one after another, to suck at the same end of the same Pipe, I found not that either of them could draw it up much higher. Nor did it appear that by repeated Suctions, though the upper end of the Pipe were each time stopp’d, to hinder the relapse of the Quick-silver, it could at all be rais’d above the seven and twenty Digits at which it us’d to subsist in the Torrecellian Experiment De Vacuo: Whereas the same end of that Tube being put into a small Vessel of Water, I could at one suck make the Water swiftly ascend thorow the perpendicularly held Tube into my Mouth, which argues, that the ascension of Liquors upon Suction, rather depends upon the pressure of the Air, and their respective measures of Gravity and Lightness compar’d to that Pressure, then it proceeds from such an abhorrency of a Vacuum as is presum’d.

And so likewise in the other Question propos’d, it is imply’d, that there is in a Female Body something, that knows the rule of Physitians, that of a Plethora, the Cure is the convenient Evacuation of Blood, and that this intelligent Faculty is wise enough also to propose to it self the double end above-mentioned, in this Evacuation, and therefore will not provide a Quantity of Blood great enough to require an Excretion, nor begin it till the Female be come to an Age wherein ‘tis possible for both the Ends to be obtain’d; & that also this presiding Nature is so charitable, as that Man-kinde might not fail, it will make the Female subject to such Monethly Superfluities of Blood, from which Experience informs us, that a whole Set of Diseases peculiar to that Sex, does frequently proceed. And in a word, there is a multitude of Problems, especially such as belong to the use of the Parts of a humane Body, and to the Causes and Cures of the Diseases incident thereunto, in whose Explication those we write of, content themselves to tell us, That Nature does such and such a thing, because it was fit for her so to do; but they endeavor not to make intelligible to us, what they mean by this Nature, and how meer, and consequently bruit, Bodies can act according to Laws, and for determinate Ends, without any knowledge either of the one or of the other. Let them therefore, till they have made out their Hypothesis more intelligibly, either cease to ascribe to irrational Creatures such Actions as in Men are apparently the Productions of Reason and Choice, and sometimes even of Industry and Virtue; or else let them with us acknowledge, that such Actions of Creatures in themselves Irrational, are perform’d under the superintendence and guidance of a Wise and Intelligent Author of Things. But that you may not mistake me, Pyrophilus, it will be requisite for me, to acquaint you in two or three words with some of my present thoughts concerning this subject: That there are some Actions so peculiar to Man, upon the account of his Intellect and Will, that they cannot be satisfactorily explicated after the maner of the Actings of meer corporeal Agents, I am very much inclin’d to believe: And whether or no there may be some Actions of some other Animals, which cannot well be Mechanically explicated, I have not here leisure or opportunity to examine. But for (most of) the other Phaenomena of Nature, methinks we may, without absurdity, conceive, That God, of whom in the Scripture ‘tis affirm’d, That all his Works are known to him from the Beginning; having resolved, (Acts 15.18) before the Creation, to make such a World as this of Ours, did divide (at least if he did not create it incoherent) that Matter which he had provided into an innumerable multitude of very variously figur’d Corpuscles, and both connected those Particles into such Textures or particular Bodies, and plac’d them in such Scituations, and put them into such Motions, that by the assistance of his ordinary preserving Concourse, the Phaenomena, which he intended should appear in the Universe, must as orderly follow, and be exhibited by the Bodies necessarily acting according to those Impressions or Laws, though they understand them not at all, as if each of those Creatures had a Design of Self-preservation, and were furnish’d with Knowledge and Industry to prosecute it; and as if there were diffus’d through the Universe an intelligent Being, watchful over the publick Good of it, and careful to Administer all things wisely for the good of the particular Parts of it, but so far forth as is consistent with the Good of the whole, and the preservation of the Primitive and Catholick Laws established by the Supreme Cause. As in the formerly mention’d Clock of Strasburg, the several Pieces making up that curious Engine, are so fram’d and adapted, and are put into such a motion, that though the numerous Wheels, and other parts of it, move several ways, and that without any thing either of Knowledge or Design; yet each performs its part in order to the various Ends for which it was contriv’d, as regularly and uniformly as if it knew and were concern’d to do its Duty; and the various Motions of the Wheels, and other parts concur to exhibit the Phaenomena design’d by the Artificer in the Engine, as exactly as if they were animated by a common Principle, which makes them knowingly conspire to do so, and might, to a rude Indian, seem to be more intelligent then Cunradus Dasypodius himself, that published a Description of it, wherein he tells the World, That he contrived it, who could not tell the hours and measure time so accuratly as his Clock. And according to this Notion, if you be pleas’d to bear it in your memory, Pyrophilus, you may easily apprehend in what sense I use many common Phrases, which custom hath so authorized, that we can scarce write of Physiological subjects without employing either them, or frequent and tedious Circumlocutions in their stead: Thus when I say, that a stone endeavors to descend towards the Centre of the Earth, or that being put into a Vessel of Water, it affects the lowest place: I mean that not such a Mathematical Point as the Centre of the Earth, hath power to attract all heavy Bodies, the least of which, it being a point, it cannot harbor; or that a Stone does really aim at that unknown and unattainable Centre; but that, as we say, that a Man strives or endeavors to go to any place, at which he would quickly arrive, if he were not forcibly hindered by some Body that holds him fast where he is, and will not let him go: So a Stone may be said to strive to descend, when either by the Magnetical Steams of the Earth, or the pressure of some subtle Matter incumbent on it, or by what ever else may be the cause of Gravity, the Stone is so determined to tend downwards, that if all Impediments, interpos’d by the Neighboring Bodies, were removed, it would certainly and directly fall to the ground; or being put into a Vessel with Water, or any other Liquor much less heavy then it self (for on Quick-silver, which is heavier, Stones will swim) the same Gravity will make it subside to the bottom of the Vessel, and consequently thrust away its bulk of Water, which though heavy in it self, yet because it is less ponderous then the Stone, seems to be light. And so in our late instance in the Clock, if it be said that the Hand that points at the Hours affects a circular motion, because it constantly moves round the Centre of the Dial-plate, ‘tis evident that the inanimate piece of Metal affects not that motion more then any other, but onely that the impression it receives from the Wheels, and the adaptation of the rest of the Engine, determine it to move after that manner. And although if a Man should with his Finger stop that Index from proceeding in its course, it may be said, in some sense, that it strives or endeavors to prosecute its former Circular Motion; yet that will signifie no more, then that by virtue of the Contrivance of the Engine, the Index is so impell’d, that, if the Obstacle, put by the Finger of him that stops it, were taken away, the Index would move onwards, from that part of the Circle where it was stopt, towards the mark of the next Hour. Nor do I by this, Pyrophilus, deny that it may in a right sense be said, as it is wont to be in the Schools, that Opus Naturae est opus Intelligentiae: Neither do I reject such common Expressions as Nature always affects and intends that which is best, and Nature doth nothing in vain. For since I must, according to the above-mention’d Notion, refer many of the actions of irrational Creatures to a most wise Disposer of Things, it can scarce seem strange to me, that in those particulars in which the Author intended, and it was requisite that irrational Creatures should operate so and so for their own Preservation, or the Propagation of their Species, or the publick good of the Universe, their Actions being ordered by a Reason transcending Ours, should not onely oftentimes resemble the Actings of Reason in Us, but sometimes even surpass them. As in effect we see that Silk-worms and Spiders can, without being taught, spin much more curiously their Balls and Webs, then our best Spinsters could; and that several Birds can build and fasten their Nests more Artificially then many a Man, or perhaps any Man could frame and fasten such little and elaborate Buildings. And the Industries of Foxes, Bees, and divers other Beasts, are such, that ‘tis not much to be wondered at that those Creatures should have Reasons ascrib’d to them by divers Learned Men, who yet perhaps would be less confident, if they considered how much may be said for the Immortality of all rational Souls. And that the subtle Actings of these Beasts are determined to some few Particulars requisite for their own Preservation, or that of their Species; whereas on all other occasions, they seem to betray their want of Reason, and by their Voice and Gestures seem to express nothing, but the Natural Passions, and not any Rational or Logical Conceptions. And therefore, as when (to resume our former comparison) I see in a curious Clock, how orderly every Wheel and other part performs its own Motions, and with what seeming Unanimity they conspire to shew the Hour, and accomplish the other Designs of the Artificer, I do not imagine that any of the Wheels, &c. or the Engine it self is endowed with Reason, but commend that of the Workman who fram’d it so Artificially. So when I contemplate the Actions of those several Creatures that make up the World, I do not conclude, the inanimate Pieces, at least, that ‘tis made up of, or the vast Engine it self, to act with Reason or Design, but admire and praise the most wise Author, who by his admirable Contrivance can so regularly produce Effects, to which so great a number of successive and conspiring Causes are requir’d.

And thus much, Pyrophilus, having been represented concerning those, that rejecting from the Production and Preservation of Things, all but Nature, yet imbrace the Principles of the vulgar Philosphy, you will perhaps think it more then enough: but Object, That what is not to be expected from the barren Principles of the Schools, may yet be perform’d by those Atomical ones which we our selves have within not very many Pages seem’d to acknowledge Ingenious. And I know indeed, that the modern Admirers of Epicurus confidently enough pretend, that he and his Expositors have already, without being beholding to a Deity, clearly made out, at least the Origine of the World, and of the principal Bodies ‘tis made up of: But I confess, I am so far from being convinc’d of this, that I have been confirm’d rather, then unsetled in my Opinion, of the difficulty of making out the Original of the World, and of the Creatures, especially the living Ones that compose it, by considering the accounts which are given us of the Nativity (if I may so speak) of the Universe, and of the Animals, by those great Denyers of Creation and Providence, Epicurus, and his Parapharst Lucretius: Whose having shown themselves (as I freely confess they have) very subtile Philosophers in explicating divers Mysteries of Nature, ought not so much to recommend to us their impious Errors, about the Original of Things, as to let us see the necessity of ascribing it to an Intelligent Cause. This then is the account of this matter, which is given us by Epicurus himself, in that Epistle of his to Herodotus, which we finde in Diogenes Laertius: Quod ad Meteora attinet existimari non oportet, aut motum, aut conversionem, aut Ecclipsin, aut ortum occasumvè, aut alia hujuscemodi ideo fieri quod sit Praefectus aliquis, qui sic disponat, disposuerituè ac simul beatitudinem immortalitatemque possideat: And having interposed some Lines, to prove that the Providence of God is not consistent with his Felicity, he addes, Quare opinandum est, tum cum Mundus procreatus est, factos fuisse eos circumplexus convolventium se Atomorum, ut nata fuerit haec necessitas, quâ circuitus tales obierint: And elsewhere in the same Epistle, Infiniti (says he) sunt mundi, alii similes isti, alii vero dissimiles. Quippe Atomi cum sint infinitae, ut non multo ante demonstratum est per infinitatem spatiorum, & alibi aliae, ac procul ab hoc ad fabrefactionem Mundorum infinitorum variè concurrunt. And least this Epicurean Explication of the Worlds Original should seem to owe all its unsatisfactoriness to its obscure brevity, we shall not scruple to give you that elegant Paraphrase and Exposition of it, which Lucretius has delivered in his 5th Book, De Rerum Natura: Sed quibus ille modis, conjectus, materiai Fundarit Coelum, ac Terram Pontique profunda Solis, Lunai cursus ex ordine ponam, Nam certe, neque conciliis primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locarunt, Nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profectò: Sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum Ex infinito jam tempore percita plagis, Ponderibusque suis, consuerunt concita ferri, Omnimodisque coire, atque omnia pertentare, Quaecunque inter se possent congressa creare; Propterea fit, ut magnum volgata per aeuum, Omnigenos coetus & motus experiundo, Tandem conveniant: ea quae conjuncta repentè Magnarum rerum fiant exordia soepè Terrai maris, & coeli generisque animantum.

The Hypothesis express’d in these Verses (which please our Author so well, that he has almost the same Lines in several other places of his Poem) he prosecutes and applies to some particular parts of the Universe in the same 5th Book: But whilst he thus refuseth to allow God an Interest in the Worlds production, his Hypothesis requires that we should allow him several things, which he doth assume, not prove: As First, That Matter is Eternal. 2. That from Eternity it was actually divided, and that into such insensibly small parts, as may deserve the name of Atoms; whereas it may be suppos’d, that Matter, though Eternal, was at first one coherent Mass, it belonging to Matter to be divisible, but not so of necessity, to be actually divided. 3. That the number of these Atoms is really infinite. 4. That these Atoms have an inane Infinitum (as the Epicureans speak) to move in. 5. That these Atoms are endowed with an almost infinite variety of determinate Figures, some being round, others cubical, others hooked, others conical, &c. whereas not to mention beforehand what we may elsewhere object, besides against this Assumption, he shews not why, nor how this Atome came to be Spherical rather then Conical, and another Hooked rather then Pyramidal: But these Assumptions I insist not on, because of two others much more considerable, which our Author is fain to take for granted in his Hypothesis: For 6ly, He supposes his Eternal Atoms to have from Eternity been their own Movers, whereas it is plain that Motion is no way necessary to the Essence of Matter, which seems to consist in extension: For Matter is no less Matter, when it rests, then when it is in motion; and we daily see many parcels of Matter pass from the state of motion to that of rest, and from this to that, communicating their motion to Matter that lay still before, and thereby loosing it themselves. Nor has any Man, that I know, satisfactorily made out how Matter can move it self: And indeed, in the Bodies which we here below converse withal, we scarce finde that any thing is mov’d but by something else; and even in these motions of Animals that seem spontaneous, the Will or Appetite doth not produce the motion of the Animal, but guide and determine that of the Spirits, which by the Nerves move the Muscles, and so the whole Body, as may appear by the weariness and unweildiness of Animals, when by much motion the Spirits are spent. And accordingly I finde that Anaxagoras, though he believed, as Aristotle did after him, that Matter was Eternal, yet he discern’d that the notion of Matter not necessarily including motion, there was a necessity of taking in a Mens, as he stiles God, to set this sluggish Matter a moving. And I remember Aristotle himself, in one place of his Metaphysicks,² disputing against some of the antienter Philosophers, askes, Quonamque modo movebuntur si nulla erit actu causa? non enim ipsa materia seipsam movebit ἀλλὰ τεχνίτης rerum opifex Virtus: But though elsewhere I have met with Passages of his near of kin to this, yet he seems not to express his Opinion uniformly and clearly enough to engage me to define it or make a Weapon of it: And therefore I shall rather proceed to take notice, That according to the Epicurean Hypothesis, not onely the motion, but the determination of that motion is supposed. For Epicurus will have his Atoms move downwards, and that not in paralel Lines, lest they should never meet to constitute the World, but according to Lines somewhat inclining towards one another; so that there must be not onely motion, but gravity in Atoms, before there be any Centre of gravity for them to move towards; and they must move rather downwards then upwards, or side-ways, and in such Lines as nothing is produc’d capable of confining them to. Which are Assumptions so bold and precarious, that I finde some, even of his Admirers, to be asham’d of them: Which will save me the labor of arguing against them, and allow me to take notice in the 7th place, That this Epicurean Doctrine supposes that a sufficient number of Atoms, and their motion downwards being granted, there will need nothing but their fortuitous concourse in their fall, to give a Being to all those Bodys that make up the World. Indeed, that the various coalitions of Atoms, or at least small Particles of Matter, might have constituted the World, had not been perhaps a very absurd Opinion for a Philosopher, if he had, as Reason requires, suppos’d that the great Mass of lazy Matter was Created by God at the Beginning, and by Him put into a swift and various motion, whereby it was actually divided into small Parts of several Sizes and Figures, whose motion and crossings of each other were so guided by God, as to constitute, by their occursions and coalitions, the great inanimate parts of the Universe, and the seminal Principles of animated Concretions. And therefore I wonder not much that the Milesian Thales (the first of the Grecian Philosophers (as Cicero informs us) that inquir’d into these matters) should hold that Opinion which Tully expresses in these Words:³ Aquam dixit esse initium rerum, Deum autem eam Mentem quae ex aqua cuncta finxerat: And that of Anaxagoras, the same Author should give us this account,⁴ Omnium rerum descriptionem & modum mentis infinitae vi ac ratione ratione designari & confici voluit: For though these great Men exceedingly err’d, in thinking it necessary that God should be provided of a pre-existent, and by him not created Matter to make the World of, yet at least they discern’d and acknowledg’d the necessity of a Wise and Powerful Agent to dispose and fashion this rude Matter, and contrive it into so goodly a Structure, as we behold, without imagining with Epicurus, that chance should turn a Chaos into a World. And really it is much more unlikely, that so many admirable Creatures that constitute this one exquisite and stupendous Fabrick of the World should be made by the casual confluence of falling Atoms, justling or knocking one another in the immense vacuity, then that in a Printers Working-house a multitude of small Letters, being thrown upon the Ground, should fall dispos’d into such an order, as clearly to exhibit the History of the Creation of the World, describ’d in the 3 or 4 first Chapters of Genesis, of which History, it may be doubted whether chance may ever be able to dispose the fallen Letters into the Words of one Line. I ignore not that sometimes odde Figures, and almost Pictures may be met with, and may seem casually produc’d in Stones, and divers other inanimate Bodies: And I am so far from denying this, that I may elsewhere have opportunity to shew You, that I have been no carelesse Observer of such Varieties.

But first, even in divers Minerals, as we may see in Nitre, Chrystal, and several others, the Figures that are admired are not produc’d by chance, but by something analogous to seminal Principles, as may appear by their uniform regularity in the same sort of Concretions, and by the practice of some of the skilfullest of the Salt-peter Men, who when they have drawn as much Nitre as they can out of the Nitrous Earth, cast not the Earth away, but preserve it in heaps for six or seven Years; at the end of which time, they finde it impregnated with new Salt-peter, produced chiefly by the seminal Principle of Nitre implanted in that Earth. To prove that Metalline Bodies were not all made at the beginning of the World, but have some of them a Power, though slowly to propagate their Nature when they meet with a disposed Matter; you may finde many notable Testimonies and Relations in a little Book of Physico-Chymical Questions, Written by Jo: Conradus Gerhardus, a Germane Doctor, and most of them recited (together with some of his own) by the Learned Sennertus: But lest you should suspect the Narratives of these Authors, as somewhat partial to their Fellow Chymists Opinions, I shall here annex that memorable Relation which I finde Recorded by Linschoten, and Garcias ab Horto, a pair of unsuspected Writers in this case concerning Diamonds, whereby it may appear that the seminal Principles of those precious Stones, as of Plants, are lodg’d in the Bowels of the Mine they grow in: Diamonds (says the first, in that Chapter of his Travels where he treats of those Jewels) are digg’d like Gold out of Mines, where they digg’d one year the length of a Man into the Ground, within three or four years after there are found Diamonds again in the same place, which grow there; sometimes they finde Diamonds of 400 or 800 Grains.⁵ Adamantes (says the latter) qui altissimè in terrae visceribus, multisque annis perfici debebant in summo fere solo generantur & duorum aut trium annorum spatio perficiuntur: Nam si in ipsa fodina hoc anno ad cubiti altitudinem fodias Adamantes reperies. Post biennium rursus illic excavato ibidem, invenies Adamantes. And next, how inconsiderable, alass, are these supposed Productions of Chance, in comparison of the elaborate Contrivances of Nature in Animals? since in the Body of Man, for instance, of so many hundred Parts it is made up of, there is scarce any that can be either left out, or made otherwise then as it is, or plac’d elsewhere then where it is, without an apparent detriment to that curious Engine; some of whose parts, as the Eye, and the valves of the Veins, would be so unfit for any thing else, and are so fitted for the uses that are made of them, that ‘tis so far from being likely that such skilful Contrivances should be made by any Being not intelligent, that they require a more then ordinary Intelligence to comprehend how skilfully they are made.

As for the account that Lucretius, out of Epicurus, gives us of the first Production of Men, in I know not what Wombs adhering to the Ground, and which much more becomes him as a Poet, then as a Philosopher, I shall not here waste time to manifest its unlikelyness, that witty Father⁶ Lactantius having already done that copiously for me. And indeed it seems so pure a Fiction, that were it not that the Hypothesis he took upon him to maintain, could scarce afford him any less extravagant account of the Original of Animals, The unsuitableness of this Romance, to those excellent Notions with which he has enriched divers other parts of his Works, would make me apt to suspect, that when he writ this part of his Poem, he was in one of the Fits of that Phrensie, which some, even of his Admirers, suppose him to have been put into by a Philtre given him by his either Wife, or Mrs Lucillia; in the Intervals of which, they say, that he writ his Books.

And here let us further consider, That as confidently as many Atomists, and other Naturalists, presume to know the true and genuine Causes of the Things they attempt to explicate, yet very often the utmost they can attain to in their Explications, is, That the explicated Phaenomena May be produc’d after such a Manner as they deliver, but not that they really Are so: For as an Artificer can set all the Wheels of a Clock a going, as well with Springs as with Weights, and may with violence discharge a Bullet out of the Barrel of a Gun, not onely by means of Gunpowder, but of compress’d Air, and even of a Spring. So the same Effects may be produc’d by divers Causes different from one another; and it will oftentimes be very difficult, if not impossible for our dim Reasons to discern surely which of those several ways, whereby it is possible for Nature to produce the same Phaenomena she has really made use of to exhibit them. And sure, he that in a skilful Watch-makers Shop shall observe how many several ways Watches and Clocks may be contriv’d, and yet all of them shew the same things, and shall consider how apt an ordinary Man, that had never seen the inside but of one sort of Watches, would be, to think that all these are contriv’d after the same manner, as that whose Fabrick he has already taken notice of; such a Person, I say, will scarce be backward to think that so admirable an Engineer as Nature, by many pieces of her Workmanship, appears to be, can, by very various and differing Contrivances, perform the same things; and that it is a very easie mistake for Men to conclude, that because an Effect may be produc’d by such determinate Causes, it must be so, or actually is so. And as confident as those we speak of use to be, of knowing the true and adequate Causes of Things, yet Epicurus himself, as appears by ancient Testimony, and by his own Writings, was more modest, not onely contenting himself, on many occasions, to propose several possible ways whereby a Phaenomenon may be accounted for, but sometimes seeming to dislike the so pitching upon any one Explication, as to exclude and reject all others: And some Modern Philosophers that much favor his Doctrine, do likewise imitate his Example, in pretending to assign not precisely the true, but possible Causes of the Phaenomenon they endeavor to explain. And I remember, that Aristotle himself (what ever confidence he sometimes seems to express) does in his first Book of Meteors ingeniously confess, that concerning many of Natures Phaenomena, he thinks it sufficient that they May be so perform’d as he explicates them. But granting that we did never so certainly know in the general that these Phaenomena of Nature must proceed from the Magnitudes, Figures, Motions, and thence resulting Qualities of Atoms, yet we may be very much to seek as to the particular Causes of this or that particular Effect or Event: For it is one thing to be able to shew it possible for such and such Effects to proceed from the Various Magnitudes, Shapes, Motions, and Concretions of Atoms, and another thing to be able to declare what precise, and determinate Figures, Sizes, and Motions of Atoms, will suffice to make out the propos’d Phaenomena, without incongruity to any others to be met with in Nature: As it is one thing for a Man ignorant of the Mechanicks to make it plausible, that the motions of the fam’d Clock at Strasburge are perform’d by the means of certain Wheels, Springs, and Weights, &c. and another to be able to describe distinctly, the Magnitude, Figures, Proportions, Motions, and (in short) the whole Contrivance either of that admirable Engine, or some other capable to perform the same things.

Nay, a Lover of disputing would proceed farther, and question that way of reasoning, which even the eminentest Atomists are wont to employ to demonstrate that they explicate things aright.

For the grand Argument by which they use to confirm the truth of their Explications, is, That either the Phaenomenon must be explicated after the manner by them specified, or else it cannot at all be explicated intelligibly: In what sense we disallow not, but rather approve this kinde of Ratiocination, we may elsewhere tell you. But that which is in this place more fit to be represented, is, That this way of arguing seems not in our present case so Cogent, as they that are wont to imploy it think it to be: For besides that, it is bold to affirm and hard to prove that, what they cannot yet explicate by their Principles, cannot possibly be explicated by any other Men, or any other Philosophy; besides this, I say, that which they would reduce their Adversaries to, as an Absurdity, seems not to deserve that name: For supposing the Argument to be conclusive, That either the propos’d Explication must be allow’d, or Men can give none at all that is intelligible, I see not what absurdity it were to admit of the consequence: For who has demonstrated to us, That Men must be able to explicate all Natures Phaenomena, especially since divers of them are so abstruse, that even the Learned’st Atomists scruple not to acknowledge their being unable to give an account of them. And how will it be prov’d that the Omniscient God, or that admirable Contriver, Nature, can exhibit Phaenomena by no wayes, but such as are explicable by the dim Reason of Man? I say, Explicable rather then Intelligible; because there may be things, which though we might understand well enough, if God, or some more intelligent Being then our own, did make it his Work to inform us of them, yet we should never of our selves finde out those Truths. As an ordinary Watch-maker may be able to understand the curiousest Contrivance of the skilfullest Artificer, if this Man take care to explain his Engine to him, but would never have understood it if he had not been taught. Whereas to explicate the Nature and Causes of the Phaenomena we are speaking of, we must not onely be able to understand, but to investigate them.

And whereas it is peremptorily insisted on by some Epicureans, who thereby pretend to demonstrate the excellency and certainty of their Explications, that according to them, Nature is declar’d to produce things in the way that is most facile and agreeable to our Reason: It may be replyed, That what we are to enquire after, is, how Things have been, or are really produced, not whether or no the manner of their Production be such, as may the most easily be understood by us: For if all things were, as those we reason withal maintain, casually produced, there is no reason to imagine that Chance considered what manner of their Production would be the most easily intelligible to us. And if God be allowed to be, as indeed he is, the Author of the Universe, how will it appear that He, whose Knowledge infinitely transcends ours, and who may be suppos’d to operate according to the Dictates of his own immense Wisdom, should, in his Creating of things, have respect to the measure and ease of Humane Understandings, and not rather, if of any, of Angelical Intellects, so that whether it be to God, or to Chance, that we ascribe the Production of things, that way may often be fittest or likelyest for Nature to work by, which is not easiest for us to understand.

And as for the way of arguing, so often imploy’d (especially against the Truth we now contend for) and so much rely’d on by many Modern Philosophers, namely, That they cannot clearly conceive such or such a thing propos’d, and therefore think it fit to be rejected; I shall readily agree with them in the not being forward to assent to any thing, especially in Philosophy, that cannot well be conceiv’d by knowing and considering Men: But there is so much difference among Men, as to their faculty of framing distinct Notions of things, and through Mens partiality or lazyness, many a particular Person is so much more apt, then these Men seem to be aware of, to think, or at least, to pretend, that he cannot conceive, what he has no minde to assent to, that a Man had need be wary how he rejects Opinions, that are impugn’d onely by this way of Ratiocination, by which, I hope, it will not be expected that we should be more prevail’d with, then that Sect of Philosophers that imploys it most. And among those that resolve the Phaenomena of Nature into the Mechanical Powers of Things, or the various Figures, Sizes and Motions of the parts of Matter; I meet with some, as the Epicureans, who tell us, They cannot frame a Notion of an Incorporeal Substance or Spirit, nor conceive how, if the Soul were such, it could act upon the Body: And yet others that seem no less speculative, seriously and solemnly professe, That they can conceive a clear and distinct Notion of a Spirit, which they believe the humane Soul, that regulates at least, if not produces divers Motions of the Body, to be; denying on the other side, That it can be clearly conceiv’d, either that any thing that is onely material can think, or that there can possibly be any Vacuum (that is, Place without any Body) in the Universe; both which the Epicureans profess themselves not onely to conceive as Possible, but to believe as True.

And thus much, Pyrophilus, it may suffice to have said in relation to those who would reject God from having any thing to do, either in the Production or Government of the World, upon this ground, that they, if you will believe them, can explicate the Original and Phaenomena of it without him; but ‘tis not all, nor the greatest part of the Favorers of the Atomical Philosophy, that presume so much of themselves, and derogate so much from God: To say therefore something to the more moderate and judicious of that Perswasion, we will candidly propose on their behalf the most plausible Objection we can foresee against the Truth we have been all this while pleading for. They may then thus argue against us, That though the Atomists cannot sufficiently demonstrate from what Natural Causes every particular Effect proceeds, and satisfactorily explicate after what determinate manner each particular Phaenomenon is produc’d; yet it may suffice to take away the necessity of having recourse to a Deity, that they can make out in general, That all the things that appear in the World, may, and must be perform’d by meerly corporeal Agents; or if you please, That all Natures Phaenomena may be produc’d by the parcels of the great Mass of Universal Matter, variously shap’d, connected, and mov’d. As a Man that sees a screw’d Gun shot off, though he may not be able to describe the number, bigness, shape and coaptation of all the Pieces of the Lock, Stock, and Barrel, yet he may readily conceive that the Effects of the Gun, how wonderful soever they may seem, may be perform’d by certain pieces of Steel or Iron, and some parcels of Wood, of Gun powder, and of Lead, all fashion’d and put together according to the exigency of the Engine, and will not doubt, but that they are produc’d by the power of some such Mechanical Contrivance of things purely Corporeal, without the assistance of spiritual or supernatural Agents.

In answer to this Objection, I must first profess to you, That I make a great doubt whether there be not some Phaenomena in Nature, which the Atomists cannot satisfactorily explain by any Figuration, Motion, or Connection of material Particles whatsoever: For some Faculties and Operations of the reasonable Soul in Man, are of so peculiar and transcendent a kinde, that as I have not yet found them solidly explicated by corporeal Principles, so I expect not to see them in haste made out by such. And if a spiritual Substance be admitted to enter the Composition of a Man, and to act by and upon his Body; besides that, one of the chief and fundamental Doctrines of the Epicureans (namely, That there is nothing in the Universe but Corpus and Inane) will thereby be subverted; it will appear that an Incorporeal and Intelligent Being may work upon Matter, which would argue, at least a possibility that there may be a spiritual Deity, and that he may intermeddle with, and have an influence upon the Operations of things Corporeal: But to insist no longer on this, let us give a further and direct Answer to the propos’d Objection, by representing, That although as things are now established in the World, an Atomist were able to explain the Phaenomena we meet with, by supposing the parts of Matter to be of such Sizes, and such Shapes, and to be mov’d after such a manner as is agreeable to the Nature of the particular Phaenomenon to be thereby exhibited, yet it would not thence necessarily follow, That at the first production of the World, there was no need of a most powerful and intelligent Being to dispose that Chaos, or confus’d heap of numberless Atoms into the World, to establish the universal and conspiring Harmonie of things; and especially to connect those Atoms into those various seminal Contextures, upon which most of the more abstruse Operations, and elaborate Productions of Nature appear to depend: For many things may be perform’d by Matter variously figur’d and mov’d, which yet would never be perform’d by it, if it had been still left to it self without being, at first at least, fashion’d after such a manner, and put into such a Motion by an Intelligent Agent. As the Quill that a Philosopher writes with, being dipt in Ink, and then mov’d after such and such a manner upon White Paper, all which are Corporeal things, may very well trace an excellent and rational Discourse; but the Quill would never have been mov’d after the requisite manner upon the Paper, had not its motion been guided and regulated by the Understanding of the Writer: Or rather, yet once more to resume our former Example of the Strasbourgh Clock, though a skilful Artist, admitted to examine and consider it, both without and within, may very well discern that such Wheels, Springs, Weights, and other Pieces of which the Engine consists, being set together in such a coaptation, are sufficient to produce such and such Motions, and such other Effects as that Clock is celebrated for, yet the more he discerns the aptness and sufficiency of the parts to produce the Effects emergent from them, the less he will be apt to suspect that so curious an Engine was produc’d by any casual concurrence of the Parts it consists of, and not rather by the skill of an intelligent and ingenious Contriver; or that the Wheels, and other parts, were of this or that Size, or this or that determinate Shape, for any other reason, then because it pleas’d the Artificer to make them so; though the reason that mov’d the Artificer to employ such Figures and Quantities, sooner then others, may well be suppos’d to have been, that the Nature of his Design made him think them very proper and commodious for its accomplishment, if not better then any other suited to the several Exigencies of it.

If an Epicurean should be told, that a Man, after having been for some days really dead, became alive again, I think it will not be doubted, but that he would reject such a Relation as impossible, and therefore too manifestly false to be believed by any Man in his Wits: And yet, according to his Principles, the Man, as well Soul as Body, consisted onely of divers Particles of the Universal Matter, by various Motions brought together, and dispos’d after a certain manner: And consequently, he must ground his perswasion that ‘tis impossible to redintegrate the Engine once spoil’d by death, upon this, That as Chance cannot with the least probablity be presum’d to have produc’d such a strange Effect; so according to him, there can be no Cause assign’d, knowing and powerful enough, to rally and bring together again the disbanded and scattered parcels of Matter (or substitute other equivalent ones) that together with the remaining Carcase, compos’d the dead Man, so to reunite them to the rest; and lastly, so to place and put into Motion both the one and the other, as were requisite to make a living Man once more result from them. I know that this Example reaches not all the Circumstances of the Controversie we have been debating; but yet, if I mistake not, it will serve the turn for which I propose it: For, not now to insist upon this inference from it, That a considering Man may confidently reject a thing that is not absolutely impossible, provided it be highly incredible; not to insist on this, I say, the thing I aim at in the mention of it, is onely to shew, That such things may possibly be effected by Matter and Motion, as no wise Man will believe to have been produc’d by a bare Agitation of the Particles of Matter, not guided by the superintendency of a Powerful and Knowing Director.

Now that the Atoms, or Particles of Matter of which the World consists, made no agreement with each other to convene and settle in the manner requisite to constitute the Universe, Lucretius does not so properly confess, as affirm, in that fore-cited Passage where he judiciously tells us, That — Certè neque consiliis Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque, atque sagaci mente locarunt: Nec quos quaeque darent Motus pepigêre profecto.

And the thing it self is manifest enough, from the Nature of Atoms confessedly inanimate and devoid of understanding.

So that although we should grant, Pyrophilus, the possible Emergency of the innumerable Effects we admire in the World, from the various Properties and Coalitions of Atoms, yet still you see the formerly mention’d difficulty (touching the Resulting of All things from Matter left to it self) would recur; and it would as well be incredible that an innumerable multitude of insensible Particles, as that a lesser number of bigger Parcels of Matter, should either conspire to constitute, or fortuitously justle themselves into so admirable and harmonious a Fabrick as the Universe, or as the Body of Man; and consequently it is not credible that they should constitute either, unless as their motions were (at least, in order to their seminal Contextures and primary Coalitions) regulated and guided by an intelligent Contriver and Orderer of things. And I should so littte think it a Disparagement to have but so much said of any Hypothesis of mine, that I suppose I may affirm it, without offending either the most sober, or the generality of the Atomical Philosophers, to whom, and to their Doctrine, my Writings will manifest me to be no otherwise affected then I ought.

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Footnotes

1. Physiologo qui veritatem contemplatur ultimarum causarum cognitio non finis est, sed initium ad primas supremasque causas proficiscendi. Plutarch: lib. de primo Frigido. Τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον ἐν τῇ εὑρέσει ἔσχατον. Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. lib. 3. cap. 8. ↩

2. Aristot: Metaphys: lib. 12. cap. 6. ↩

3. De Nat: Deorum, lib. 10. ↩

4. Idem ibidem. ↩

5. Simpl: in India nascenti. lib. 1. cap. 47. ↩

6. Tanta ergo qui videat, & talia potest existimare nullo affecta esse consilio, nulla providentia, nulla ratione divinâ, sed ex atomis subtilibus exiguis concreta esse tanta miracula· Nonne prodigio simile est, aut natum esse hominem qui haec diceret, ut Lucippum, aut extitisse qui crederet, ut Democritum, qui auditor ejus fuit, vel Epicurum in quem vanitas omnis de Lucippi fonte profluxit. lib. 2. cap. 11 ↩