Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana: or a fabrick of science natural, upon the hypothesis of atoms / Founded by Epicvrvs, repaired [by] Petrvs Gassendvs, augmented [by] Walter Charleton ... The first part.

  • Charleton, Walter, 1620-1707.
Date:
1654
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana: or a fabrick of science natural, upon the hypothesis of atoms / Founded by Epicvrvs, repaired [by] Petrvs Gassendvs, augmented [by] Walter Charleton ... The first part. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (1) 7he Dijjent of the Kyincients about the number of Elements cannot Art. 4. be unknown to any, who hath revolved their monuments and taken a lift The diflent of their feveral opinions ^ their own, or their Scholiafts volumes lying cJtttboutlhe open to record, that of thofe who fixe upon the four Vulgar Elements, number of L* Fire^Aer^ Earth^Water^^ox univerfal Principles, fome conftituted on- ly one Tingle firft Principle, from which by Conuderation and Rarefadion, the other three did proceed, and from them all Elementated Concretions: among which are whofeleded Fire^ Anaximenes^ who pitch¬ ed upon Aer ^ Thales Milefius^ who ptc^ferred Water •, and Pher€cydes^\v\{0 was for Earth. Others fuppofed only primary, from which likewife, by Condenfation and Rarefadion the other two fecondary were produced: os Xenophanes would have Earth and Water-, Parmenides contended for Fire and Earth ^ Oenopides Chius for Fire and Aer*, and Hippo Rheginus for Fire and Water. Others advanced one ftep higher, and there acquieT ced in Three t, as Onemacritus and his Profelytes affirmed Fire, Water, and Earth. And fome made out Qmternian^ and fuperadded alfo Aer 5 the Principal of which was Empedocles. Now, to him who remembers, that there can be but one Truth ^ and thereupon juftly inferrs, that of many difagreeing opinions concerning one and the fame fubjed, either all, or all except one muft be frlfe *, and that it is not eafie which to prefer, when they are all made equally plaufible by a parity of fpecious Arguments: it cannot appear either a deled of judgment, or an affedation of fingularity in D?- tnocritus and Epicurus to have fufpeded them all of incertitude, and founded their Phyfiology on an Hypothefis of one fingle Principle, Atoms, from the various tranfpontion, configuration, motion, and quiefcence ofwhofe infen* fible Particles, all the four generally admitted Elements may be derived, and into which they may, at the term of Exfolubility, revert Without the leaft hazard of Abfurdity or Impolfibility •, as will fall to our ample enun¬ ciation in our fubfeqijent Enquiries into the Originals of Qualities, and the Caufesof Generation and Corruption. (2) That one of the four Elements cannot fngly fuffice to theproduHion of any Compound Nature *, needs no other evidion but that Argument of Hip‘ No one of the pDerates {de Natur. Hominis) ^opaHo, cimunumexifiat^generabitali- Elements cyuid^ nift cum aliquo mifeeatur ^ Inftance we in Heraclitus Proto-Element, th?pr*iJduSi. Fire ^ from which nothing but Fire can be educed; though it run through o of cither all the degrees of thofe fertile Modifications of Denfefcence and Rarefcence. °* (2) Tofuppofe Rarefrdion and Condenfation, without the more or lefs of any Com- ofInanity intercepted*, as they do: is to ufurpthe concelfionof an Im- PO“«^n«ure. poffibility. (3) Tisabfurd, to conceive Fire transformable, by Extindion^ into any other Element: becaufe a fimple fubftance cannot be fubjed to cffential tranfmutation. So that, if after its extindion any thing of Fire re¬ main, as muft till Adnihilation be admitted *, its furviving part muft be the Common Matter, fuch as Atoms, which according to the various and re* fpedive addition, detradion, tranfpofition, agitation, or quiet of them, now put on the form of Fire, then of Aer, anon of Water, and laftly ofEarthj fince, in their original fimplicity, they have no adual, but a potential De¬ termination to the forms ©fall, indiferiminately. And, what is here urged, to evince the impolfibility of Fires being the foie Catholique Element, car* rieth the Came proportion ot reafon and evidence, (the two pathognomick charaders of Verity) tofubvert the fuppofition of any of the other three for the fubftantial Principle of the reft. Q ) That