which he wrought by Vespasian, when by the touch of his foot he restored a lame man, and by the stroke of his hand another that was blind, but the intention hereof drived at his own advantage; for hereby he not only confirmed the opinion of his power with the people, but his integrity with princes, in whose power he knew it lay to overthrow his oracles, and silence the practice of his delusions.

But of such a diffused nature, and so large is the empire of truth, that it hath place within the walls of hell, and the devils themselves are daily forced to practise it; not only as being true themselves, in a metaphysical verity, that is, as having their essence comformable unto the intellect of their maker, but making use of moral and logical verities, that is, whether in the conformity of words unto things, or things unto their own conceptions, they practise truth in common among themselves. For, although without speech they intuitively conceive each other, yet do their apprehensions proceed through realities; and they conceive each other by species, which carry the true and proper notions of things conceived. And so also in moral verities, although they deceive us, they lie not unto each other, as well understanding that all community is continued by truth, and that of hell cannot consist without it.

To come yet nearer the point, and draw into a sharper angle: they do not only speak and practise truth, but may be said well-wishers hereunto, and, in some sense, do really desire its enlargement. For many things which in themselves are false, they do desire were true. He cannot but wish he were as he professeth, that he had the knowledge of future events; were it in his power, the Jews should be in the right, and the Messias yet to come. Could his desires effect it, the opinion of Aristotle should be true, the world should have no end,2 but be as immortal as himself. For thereby he might evade the accomplishment of those afflictions he now but gradually endureth; for comparatively unto those flames, he is but in balneo, then begins his ignis rota,

2 the world should have no end.] Aristotle unquestionably held this doctrine, as appears from the entire argument of his treatise On the Heavens.-Br.

3 he is but yet in balneo, then begins his ignis rotæ.] These terms are derived from the technical language of the old chemists. In balneo refers

and terrible fire, which will determine its disputed subtilty, and even hazard his immortality.

But to speak strictly he is in these wishes no promoter of verity, but, if considered, some ways injurious unto truth; for (besides that if things were true, which now are false, it were but an exchange of their natures, and things must then be false, which now are true) the settled and determined order of the world would be perverted, and that course of things disturbed which seemed best unto the immutable contriver. For whilst they murmur against the present disposure of things, regulating determined realities unto their private optations, they rest not in their established natures, but unwishing their unalterable verities, do tacitly desire in them a difformity from the primitive rule, and the idea of that mind that formed all things best. And thus he offendeth truth even in his first attempt; for, not content with his created nature, and thinking it too low to be the highest creature of God, he offended the ordainer, not only in the attempt, but in the wish and simple volition thereof.

to the gentle or comparatively low heat obtained by immersing the vessel containing the substance to be heated in a bath of heated water, oil, sand, or other convenient medium; whence the water bath and sand bath, or sand heat of modern chemistry. The ignis rote was a naked fire disposed in a circle round a crucible, in which ignition or calcination, operations requiring an intense heat were to be performed. Thus understood, the meaning of our author's application of these terms is obvious.-Br.

THE SECOND BOOK,

BEGINNING THE PARTICULAR PART.

OF POPULAR AND RECEIVED TENETS CONCERNING MINERAL AND VEGETABLE BODIES.

CHAPTER I.

That Crystal is nothing else but Ice strongly congealed.

HEREOF the common opinion hath been, and still remaineth amongst us, that crystal is nothing else but ice or snow concreted, and, by duration of time, congealed beyond liquation. Of which assertion, if prescription of time, and numerosity of assertors were a sufficient demonstration, we might sit down herein, as an unquestionable truth, nor should there need ulterior disquisition; for few opinions there are which have found so many friends, or been so popularly received, through all professions and ages. Pliny is positive in this opinion; Crystallus fit gelu vehementius concreto: the same is followed by Seneca, elegantly described by Claudian, not denied by Scaliger, some way affirmed by Albertus, Brassavolus, and directly by many others.2 The venerable fathers of the church have also assented hereto; as Basil, in his Hexameron, Isidore, in his Etymologies, and not only Austin, a Latine father, but Gregory the Great, and Jerom upon occasion of that term expressed in the first of Ezekiel.

1 Crystallus fit gelu, &c.] This opinion is given by Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvii. cap. 2.—Br.

2

by many others.] Thucydides clearly uses the word кρúσraλλoç in the sense of ice; See Hist. iii. 23.-4to. vol. 1, p. 438.

All which notwithstanding, upon a strict enquiry, we find the matter controvertible, and with much more reason denied, than is as yet affirmed. For though many have passed it over with easy affirmatives, yet there are also many authors that deny it, and the exactest mineralogists have rejected it. Diodorus, in his eleventh book, denieth it (if crystal be there taken in its proper acception, as Rhodiginus hath used it, and not for a diamond, as Salmasius hath expounded it), for in that place he affirmeth, crystallum esse lapidem ex aqua pura concretum, non tamen frigore sed divini caloris vi. Solinus, who transcribed Pliny, and, therefore, in almost all subscribed unto him, hath in this point dissented from him. Putant quidam glaciem coire, et in crystallum corporari, sed frustra. Matthiolus, in his comment upon Dioscorides, hath with confidence rejected it.3 The same hath been performed by Agricola, De natura fossilium, by Cardan, Boëtius de Boot, Casius Bernardus, Sennertus, and many more.

Now, besides authority against it, there may be many reasons, deduced from their several differences, which seem to overthrow it. And first a difference is probable in their concretion. For, if crystal be a stone (as in the number thereof it is confessedly received),4 it is not immediately concreted by the efficacy of cold, but rather by a mineral spirit and lapidifical principles of its own; and, therefore, while it lay in solutis principiis, and remained in a fluid body, it was a subject very unapt for proper conglaciation; for mineral spirits do generally resist, and scarce submit thereto. So we observe that many waters and springs will never freeze, and many parts in rivers and lakes, where

3 with confidence rejected it.] "With confidence, and not without reason, rejected it."-Ed. 1646.

4 as in the number thereof it is, &c.] i. e. in the number whereof it is, &c.

Ross, with his usual wrong-headedness, argues stoutly for the ancient opinion. "The cold of some waters," he observes, "metamorphose sticks, leaves, and trees, pieces of leather, nutshells, and such like stuff into stones; why then may not cold convert ice into a higher degree of hardness, and prepare it for reception of a new form, which gives it the essence and name of crystal ?"-Arcana, p. 189.

5

many waters and springs will never freeze.] Our author is mistaken in ascribing this phenomenon to the mineral contents of the water ex

there are mineral eruptions, will still persist without co gelation as we also observe in aqua fortis, or any miner solution, either of vitriol, alum, saltpetre, ammoniac, or ta tar, which, although to some degree exhaled, and placed cold conservatories, will crystallize and shoot into white ar glacious bodies: yet is not this a congelation primari effected by cold, but an intrinsical induration from them selves; and a retreat into their proper solidities, which wer absorbed by the liquor, and lost in a full imbibition there before. And so, also, when wood and many other bodies d petrify, either by the sea, other waters, or earths abounding in such spirits, we do not usually ascribe their induration to cold, but rather unto salinous spirits, concretive juices and causes circumjacent, which do assimilate all bodies no indisposed for their impressions.

But ice is only water congealed by the frigidity of the air whereby it acquireth no new form, but rather a consistence or determination of its diffluency, and amitteth not its essence, but condition of fluidity. Neither doth there any thing properly conglaciate but water, or watery humidity; for the determination of quicksilver is properly fixation, that

hibiting it: no springs are so strongly impregnated with mineral substances as to have their freezing points affected by it in any considerable degree. The true cause of the phenomenon is, in the case of springs and lakes, their depth, and in that of rivers, their depth in conjunction with the rapidity with which they flow. For, owing to the mobility of the particles of water, and to the circumstance that, like all other bodies, it becomes heavier, in consequence of its contraction in bulk, in proportion as its temperature is reduced (with a particular exception, which it is unnecessary now to mention), when the surface or upper portion of the water gives out its heat to the atmosphere, on account of the temperature of that medium becoming inferior to its own, the portion of water so cooled down, becoming heavier than the subjacent portion, sinks towards the bottom, and an uncooled portion takes its place, which, in its turn, is cooled, and rendered heavier by the same process. Until, therefore, the whole of the water has been reduced to the freezing point by the continuance of this operation, no ice can form upon it; for, until then, the temperature of that portion which is in contact with the atmosphere will be above the freezing point. In the case of deep wells and lakes, this occupies so long time, that, in temperate climates, the cold season has passed away, and the temperature of the atmosphere has ceased to be inferior to that of the upper portion of the water, before the whole has been reduced to the freezing point.-Br.