THe Subject up­on which you have command­ed me now to discourse unto you (most honoured Presi­dent, and most worthy Aca­demists) is of so large an ex­tent, and of so abstruse a [...] [Page 4] they may continue the same individuation, and be again the same identicall body, af­ter so many strange chan­ges, and after having put on so many different habits and shapes, as we daily see in the course of Nature. To ayme at performing all this, would be as fond a thought, as to put to Sea in a pair of Oars, with design to circle the whole Earth, and visit both the Poles. Yet since upon Mr. Surveyours motion to you, (upon occasion of what was just now, so ingeniously delivered by our acute, lear­ned, and judicious Associate D ^r. Goddard about the grow­ing of Trees) you have [Page 5] thought good to command me to entertain you with my reflections upon this subject, I will in obedience thereunto give you such hints as may stir up others, by following them, to make a complete and polished piece of that whereof I shall set before you only a rough draught; yet it shall be composed of such naturall and assured stroaks, as may perswade you that there is no insuperable difficulty, nor inscrutable darkness in all this so admired progress.

But let us look upon it, step by step; and consider at every joynt or change, what new shape ought in [Page 6] reason appear next, and what new product is likely from time to time to arise out of the immediately pre­ceding composition, so tempered, so qualified, and so accompanyed with all its Concomitant accidents; and we shall presently conclude, that it would have been impossible any other thing imaginable should have re­sulted out of these principles and circumstances, then what hath been thus born out of Natures fertile womb: And be the seed never so remote from any appearing affinity with the Plant or Tree that at the last groweth out of it; yet by this [Page 7] heedfull survey it will be evident unto us, that as long as water performeth the action of wetting, fire that of burning, the Earth that of constipating and giving con­sistence to fluid bodies, and the aire that of mellowing and ripening what is expo­sed to his embraces; in a word, that as long as nature proceedeth in her regular course to perform these fa­miliar actions which we are daily witnesses of, and which we find no difficulty to un­derstand; so long (I say) it is impossible, that any other thing in the World should grow (for example) out of a little shrunk Akehorne, [Page 8] then a spread vast Oake; or out of a single Bean, then that tall, green, tender Plant so furnished with stalk, leaves, flowers, buds, seeds, (all in their severall seasons) which appeareth so differing from that dry, hard grain first thrown into the Earth. Let us date the beginning of our observation from thence. This dry shrunk compacted substance, being buryed slightly in the moist ground, at a season when the approaching Sun (the great Archeus and fire of nature) beginning to dilate and sub­lime up to the Superficies of the Earth, that volatile and balsamick salt which his [Page 9] remotenesse during the Winter had suffered to be shrunk up together, and condensed and sunk deeper towards the Center; must of necessity receive into its substance, that saline humi­dity which environeth it, is contiguous to it, and on all hands presseth upon it. The immediate effect of this hu­mecting of the Bean or Akehorne, must necessarily be that it swelleth and grow­eth bigger: for the substance of the water getting into the very substance of the grain that lyeth soaking in it; those two substances cannot choose but take up a larger room then formerly did be­long [Page 10] long to only one of them single. And from thence it will follow, that the skin which wrappeth up and containeth the substance of the Bean, must needs crack and tear to afford way and liberty to the dilatation of the swelled body: which having thus obtained room for it self to perform such actions as in those circum­stances are naturall and ne­cessary to it (whereas, be­fore it was shut up and fet­tered in a cold, dry, and hard outside) it followeth pre­sently its own swing; and in that little naturall body, we may read the fate which hangeth over political ones▪ [Page 11] when the inferiour Mem­bers that should study no­thing but obedience, have gotten the power into their hands: for then every one of them following their im­petuous inclinations, the whole is brought into con­fusion; and that is destroy­ed which every one in their tumultuary way aimed to gain the Mastery of; un­lesse a superiour Architect, as in the present case of our bleeding Nation, ‘everso missus succurere seclo,’ do come to draw light and order, out of that dark­nesse and confusion. It will [Page 12] happen then to this swollen Bean, now broken prison, that the fiery parts of it will work to gain dominion of the watry ones; and they calling the cold and dry ones to their several aides, will make a violent agitation through the whole masse, working and kneading the one into the other. This in­testine motion, will cause a greater dilatation of the bo­dy so in combustion, then the first humecting of it did. For, the naturall action of fire being to stream out from its Center on all hands in a continued floud of ex­treamly rarifyed atomes; and they carrying along [Page 13] with them as continued a sequel of moist and viscous ones; it will necessarily fol­low, that they must have a larger field then originally they had to play their game in. Thus far of this work belongeth to fermentation, which if it grow so violent that the fiery and spirituall parts do get quite loose from the viscous ones; then that which followeth, is a totall Putrefaction, Disso­lution, and Destruction of the compound: But if it be kept within its due limits, then the body in which it was wrought, is raised to a nobler pitch, and the Ethe­reall spirits of it are actua­ted, [Page 14] and put in possession of their native vertue; and the feculent, insipide, earthy ones are cast out from having any Society with them. But you do not expect from me (my honoured hearers) that I should discuss the Doctrine of fermentation to the utmost scope and ex­tent of it; which as it is one of the noblest and ex­cellentest works of nature, and indeed the key to enter into the knowledge of all the actions and changes that are wrought under the Sun; so it requireth a particular treatise entirely to it self, and will take up a whole man to draw a complete Map of [Page 15] its Empire. He will find that there is no disease in mans body, but springeth from fermentation; which when it groweth so violent and unruly, that the fermen­ted humours can no longer be contained within their oppressed vessels, or that it is continued so long, that the spirits fly quite away, and thereby deliver over the remaining Mass to Putre­faction and Rottenness; Death, which is an essentiall dissolution of the whole compound, must necessarily follow. He will find that the cures of all diseases do proceed from sometimes raising fermentaton to a due [Page 16] pitch, that it may cast off what is hurtfull to the whole compound; and otherwhiles precipitating it, so that all the tumultuary motions of it may be composed, and a perfect calm may be indu­ced in place of it. And lastly, (not to trouble you with too many particulars, arising out of a digression) he will find that when ever nature intendeth the betterment of any body, she beginneth with dissolving and fermen­ting it in its due liquor; that so each essential part may be severed from his fellow, and refined to a nobler state then it enjoyed be­fore; and then joyned a­gain [Page 17] in a much perfecter so­ciety with his equally enno­bled companions, after the incorrigible faeces are thrown from their harmony and u­nion. Thus plain Clay with water from Heaven, may be brought to a christaline puri­ty and permanence; and Gold to one of those gems, which in the Apocalips we are told serve for the Pavement of the heaven­ly Jerusalem. Find but a menstruum of its own nature, in which it may be radically dissolved and fermented; and the rest of the work will be easie. But to make our Bean grow, we need not so great curiosity; and yet [Page 18] give me leave to say, the linear way of the one, is not more plain and easie than that of the other, to him that knoweth them. But be this how it will: As to the Bean, although the swelling and bursting forth of the fie­ry and viscous parts of it, will be towards all sides, ac­cording to the nature of fire, which streameth out from the center every way to the circumference, yet it will be most efficacious up­wards towards the air, be­cause it meeteth with lesse resistance that way, than any other: For downwards the Earth lyeth more compact­ed than it doth over the [Page 19] grain, it having been stirred and broken to make the Mould loose and porous; and besides, there is a great quantity of it, which the further you go downwards, groweth the more difficultly penetrable; whereas, from the grain to the superficies of the Earth, and to the free air, the journey is very small, and no obstacles in the way, by reason the Sun, Air, Dew and Rain do still work upon it to make it light and spungy. Up­wards then, and towards the air must be the speediest and the greatest concourse of these hot and viscous streams; which coming in­to [Page 20] the cold air, and being in­vaded by it on every hand, they contract themselves into such a figure, as is fit­test to resist the assaults of such an enemy; which is the circular one: for (to speak physically) the ambient air pressing these streams on all sides, reduceth them into the narrowest room possible to serve them: and the cir­cular figure being the most capacious of all others what­soever, the cold air conden­seth them into it, that so most matter may be contai­ned in least space. In the mean time, the streams out of the cracked skin of the Bean downwards and side­wards, [Page 21] are not altogether inefficacious, though not so vigorous as those that as­cend upwards towards the air. There will be this dif­ference between the ascend­ing and the descending or spreading parts, which flow out of the fermenting mass; that the first will be hot, moist, aiery, and conse­quently green and tender ones; the others will be more dry, cold, earthy; and therefore rough, hard and white; whose hardnesse and roughnesse will also be en­creased by the Earths pres­sing upon it. Thus then the root is formed, which drawing continually new [Page 22] juyce to it from the moist Earth that environeth it, and abounding with heat that still digesteth and sub­limeth up the moisture it sucketh in; and the out­ward agents (that is, the Sun and Aire) performing also their parts; it fol­loweth that new digested and spiritual juyce is conti­nually sublimed up into that round, green, tender part, which was sprung up out of the Earth into the aire; and that now we may call the stalk. Thus both the in­nate and the extern heat, do concur to enlarge this plant, by filling both the root and the stalk of it with continual [Page 23] new moisture: whereof the one being exposed to the Sun and Winde, must needs grow rough and hard on the out-side; to defend from outward injuries of wea­ther, the inner-part that re­maineth tender and juicy, and would else be soon nip­ped in its ascending; and the other thrusteth down conti­nually hard parts deeper in­to the Earth, whereby it re­maineth firm and able to re­sist the agitations of the wind, without being easily eradicated. Now it fareth with the plant, as with a kindled fire of wood; the more fewell is applyed to feed it, the more groweth [Page 24] the heat: so here, the daily and hourly accrewing of new balsamick juyce, en­creaseth the heat that is within the plant; and con­sequently there is conti­nually more and more juyce sent upwards. Thus the stalk groweth higher. But the further that this ascending juice goeth from the maine Center of it that sublimed it up, the weaker and fain­ter it becometh, and the less able to resist the invasions of the cold ambient aire. So that, when it can creep up no higher, it settleth there: Yet continually the innate heat sublimeth up more and more juicy, which not being [Page 25] able to pierce the skin that it meeteth with at its journys end, it swelleth there into a button, that groweth con­tinually bigger and bigger, till at length the skin that enwrappeth this subliming and daily more digested juyce, not being able any longer to contain the quan­tity and activity of it, break­eth; and from that cloven button or knot, new juyce ascendeth in the same man­ner and progress as before; till at a just distance, pro­portioned to the causes that produce it, a new knot is made; And so from one to another, every one less then the other, till at length [Page 26] there wanteth juyce to drive the Plant any higher; and withall, the subliming heat groweth fainter at so great a distance; and the Sun be­ginneth to grow less active upon it; And in a word, the whole oeconomy of nature conspireth to set here a pe­riod to the extension of the Plant. Some plants do use to shoot only upwards; but in others, when the but­ton is forced asunder by the ascending juyce; that juyce pusheth out as well to the sides as upwards; and so a branch is made, break­ing out of the main stock: And it hapneth that there do break out so many such [Page 27] branches, as there are con­current circumstances and accidents (such as we have here mentioned) to form them. But when nature hath set a period to the ex­tent of her growing Plant, and is as it were wea­ry of teeming any longer with such strong and ner­vous issues (that is to say, that the innate heat, the juyce, and the Sun, do begin to flag in their operations, (for the reasons I have touched) and yet never consenting to be idle and sit still, she beta­keth her self to works of less robustuous force; and refi­ning still more and more by gentle sublimations and de­purations, [Page 28] the juyce she hath brought up thus high, she continually maketh it cast off the grosser parts, which stick by the way as not be­ing nimble enough to rise higher, nor subtill enough to pass through those streight channels which af­ford the refined spirits an easie course. Yet are not these gross parts without employment (I call them grosse, only in respect of the purer spirit; for other­wise they are much more subtill and concocted, then those which remain in the stalk, trunk, or bark of the plant) it is true, they are not able to go along with the [Page 29] aethereal spirit, which ta­keth a higher flight, as you shall by and by hear. And they are continually encrea­sed with hourly supplies of like gross or subtill parts as you will please to call them: for indeed they are either, or both; subtill in respect of the grosser juyce they are sublimed from, and that re­maineth below in the body and trunk of the plant; And gross in respect of the ar­dent spirit and balsamick oyle that is rectifyed from them. This perpetuall new concourse of fresh mat­ter to the branches, which grow too full to contain it, is the cause of their cleaving [Page 30] in several places where this juyce pusheth to get out. If it be very viscous and unctuous, and have been long concocted by the Sun with­out and the innate heat within, before it breaketh out; it showeth it self in a gummy substance, that re­taineth in it the nature of the whole Plant; as I shall hereafter convince experi­mentally, besides the evi­dence of the reason that concludeth it must be so. But if nothing have interve­ned to hinder or alter the ordinary course; then, this more watry then unctuous juyce, making its way into the aire through the tender [Page 31] skin of the branch or st [...]lk, suffereth all the like actions upon it as were formerly wrought upon the first juyce that broke out of the ori­ginal Bean or Akehorne; and so it beginneth to be formed there into a new Plant, of a shape, figure, and nature proportioned to the great one it shooteth from. First, a thridde shooteth out in a direct line, that we may fitly call the stalk of this new little Plant; and at a distance adequate to the heat that sublimeth and pusheth it out, and to the cold aire that nippeth and shrinketh it into a button, [...]he first knot is formed in [Page 32] this little stalk: from whence new streames or thredds are pushed out, both forwards and side-wayes, as we have formerly explica­ted in the first grosse for­ming of the bulky plant. These thredds that are thus spun out every way one from another, do grow to be so near one another, that the steams which necessarily must accompany them (for wheresoever heat driveth out store of moisture, there cannot choose but be an atmosphere of emanations environing and besieging, as I may say the main stream) do easily mingle with one another; and being of a [Page 33] viscous and adhaesive nature (as all such moist and hot emanations must necessarily be) they fill up with their glewy matter the intervalls between the main threds. Which we may compare, not improperly to a curious Work-womans filling up of Flanders-lace with fine thred: in the doing where­of, she interweaveth so cun­ningly the thred she bringeth, with those stan­derds of threds (as I may call them) that she already findeth in her work before her, that whiles she filleth up all the vacuities, she still leaveth those main threds so discernable, that your [Page 34] eye can after all distinguish the work of the Pattern as clearly as if there had been nothing done to it. And so in this filling up the inter­stices of the new little Plant, you see plainly all the si­news and threds of it after the viscous steames which hang about them are plaited and wrought into a conti­nuate substance, that is jag­ged or dentelated according as the main threds are push­ed forth to be longer or shorter, which dependeth upon the heat that carryeth the viscous parts with it. And thus the leaf, a second Plant is formed out of the branches and twigs of the [Page 35] first, retaining the shape, fi­gure, and other qualities of it. Now all the while that this is doing with the gros­ser parts, which the rectify­ed spirit casteth off; The heat which rectifyeth and sublimeth it, pusheth forth this elaborate juyce into more tender substances, more abounding with vi­gour and spirits; Especially at the extremity of the branches, where the solid­est part of the abounding humour groweth (as before in the rising of it in the stalk of the Bean, or in the body of the Oak) into a button; but the more volatile and lesse substantial part of this [Page 36] highly rectifyed juyce or ra­ther new spirit, is spread round about it in thin sheets; which being full of the aereal and sulphureous parts of this rectifyed spirit (which here by the iterated rectifications, becometh like an ardent water) de­lighteth the eyes with varie­ty of colours, and the nose with pleasantnesse of smell (for sulphur is the universal great painter and perfumer of the world) but being of so volatile a nature as the much refining and often re­ctifying it, reduceth it to be of; these flowers are not of long durance, but soon fade and fall away, as also their [Page 37] beautifull and odorous spi­rits exhale from their dead and withered habitations. But all this while that this aethereal or wild spirit re­createth himself thus in these transitory flowers; a more solid and substantiall one, and that endureth a more vigorous concoction, (as in distillations, where the balsamick oyle cometh last) filleth and swelleth the button that hath by this time lost his gay companions, the faded flowers. And as it groweth bigger, it grow­eth also softer and tenderer in the whole bulk of it. For, the Sun still draweth to the outside, the subtilest, the [Page 38] most jucy, and the most aereall parts of it: and therefore all that substance must be soft, mellow, and tender; only the extremity and the last superficies of the outside, must needs have contracted some hard­nesse and roughnesse, from the coldnesse of the aire, and the biting sharpnesse of the wind, which maketh the skin of a Pear, or Apple, or Walnut, rougher and har­der then the pulpy tender substance next adjoyning to it. Yet out of the course here set down, it will fol­low that towards the center of this tender substance there must needs be some [Page 39] hard, dry, and rough mat­ter. For, seeing that the Sunne from without at­tracteth to the superficies of the fruit the most spirit­full and aery parts of the ascending juyce; and that on the other side the innate heat from within driveth it out, and extendeth it from the Center to the superfi­cies: It is impossible but that about the middle from whence all this attraction and expulsion of tender juyce is made, there must remain store of Earthy parts deprived of moisture, and baked into a hard nucleous substance, containing much of fire; though little of aire [Page 40] and water in it. For it is the nature of fire to incor­porate it self with the sub­stance it baketh and calci­neth; as you have a sensible experience in the calcining of Antimony by a burning-glasse, when the calcined body encreaseth much in weight, though at the same time the fire driveth away a wonderfull quantity of the moist and volatile parts of the smoaking mass. This button, thus dilated and brought to this pass, we call the fruit of the plant: whose harder part, encloseth oftentimes ano­ther that is not so hard as it is dry. And the reason of [Page 41] this is, that the outside or superficies of this Earthy substance, is become so exceeding hard by the con­curring causes which make it so, that no moisture (or at least in no conside­rable quantity) can soak through it. And then, the action of heat being conti­nually prevalent upon what ha [...]h no supply of moisture, it must necessarily follow that all the substance which is enclosed within that hard superficies, must needs grow dryer and dryer; till at length it becometh like fine subtile dust compact­ed together; which shew­eth it self to be so, asoon [Page 42] as it is bruised out of the husk that containeth it: as we daily see in Corn ground at a Mill; and it is as evident in the ker­nells or little seeds of Peares, Apples, Orenges, Almonds, and the like; if you work in like manner upon them, after they are throughly dryed. Yet this drynesse is not to such a degree, as when in Calci­nation by violence of fire the moist and volatile Es­sentiall parts of a body are entirely driven away. For here the agents being gentle and naturall ones, and the ambient moisture and cold defending the [Page 43] seed from excesse of drought and heat, and the whole course of this progresse tending rather to Fixation then to Cal­cination; It happe­neth that in every par­parcell of this compacted dust, the nature of the whole Plant resideth per­fectly and entirely; as it were, contracted into a small quantity. For, the juyce which was first in the button, (that is now be­come the fruit) and had passed from the root through the manifold va­rieties of the divers parts of the Plant, and had suffe­red much concoction and [Page 44] depuration, partly from the Sun and partly from the inward heat impriso­sed in that harder stony part about the middle of the fruit; is by these passages, strainings, concoctions, and sublimations, become at length to be of the nature of a tincture extracted out of the whole plant; and is at last dryed up into a kind of Magistery, full of Fire and of Salt. This is that which we call the Seed; which be­ing buryed in the Earth, and soaked with fitting humidi­ty, in such sort as we have here at large declared, set­teth on foot this work a­new, and repeateth over [Page 45] again all that we have hi­therther observed in this long progresse: in which the steadinesse of the Su­preme Architects hand that steereth and governeth it, is never enough to he ad­mired; who hath set on foot such an exact concur­rence of divers and most distinct causes, to conspire all to one and the same end, that still in generall nature ariveth to her desti­ned period without be­ing frustrated of the scope she levelleth at. Where­as a man that should stay his consideration at every joynt of this long carreer, and should reflect how ea­sily [Page 46] some little circum­stance in so vast a multi­plicity of them might be turned awry (as when an atome of dust falleth a­mong the wheeles of a nice clock) or rather, how dif­ficult it must needs be for one single governour to keep them all in their due aequilibrity; might be apt to conclude that not one of ten thousand should prove as it doth. And he that should look bare­ly upon the two extreme terms, the beginning and the completing of a plant, might think there were a perpetuall miracle in the production of vegetables, [Page 47] and might be excused for having recourse to a vis formatrix, and such other insignificant terms. But another that considereth the whole course of na­ture set on foot by God Almighty for this admi­rable work; and fixeth his foot at every particular joynt, not stirring it from thence till he have fully examined and discussed what must necessarily fol­low out of such or such matter, in such or such circumstances, so and so tem­pered, and so and so wrought upon; will evident [...]y dis­cern that it is throughout impossible, any thing should [Page 48] happen in it otherwise then just what and how it doth. And it is want of conside­ration and of judgement, which maketh men fly to occult and imaginary quali [...]ies, to shroud their ignorance under incon­ceiveable termes: Where­as nature in her self is pervious and open to hu­mane discovery, if a due course be taken to dissect and survay her.

Out of what I have dis­coursed of the progresse of Nature in the growth of Trees, and of all manner of Plants, it will be easie to sa­tisfie such Questions and Doubts concerning them, [Page 49] as at the first sight may seem full of difficulty. As for example; why the grain of a tree should affect such or such a situation and tendence in respect of the great Universe, which some shallow Clerkes will have passe among the recondite Mysteries of Nature, shut up to mor­tall eyes; further then that they will have a se­cret instinct and sympa­thy to be between Plants and the polar Star. All which is nothing but this, that the tender plant at its first pushing forth, being check­ed by the ambient aire, and warmed by the en­livening [Page 50] Sunne; is most streightned by the cold Earthy atomes which are drawn by the Sunne from the Poles to the Ae­quator. For there be­ing a constant perpetu­all course of them that way (as I have shewed in my Book of Bodies) such things as lie in their Channell must necessarily be affected with their con­tinually repeated stroaks. And that side of them which is exposed to their immediate blowes, must be most sensible of them. On the other side the Sunne with his warme and moist Regiment of [Page 51] atomes, embracing the opposite part of the plant, must needs work a con­trary effect to the other. And thus you see a plain and evident reason, why one side of the plant cannot fail of being close, hard, and heavy in re­spect of the other, and tending to some acute­nesse rather then per­fect round. The other will be spungy, tender, light, and dilated; ha­ving its Figure enlarged beyond roundnesse. Now this first impression ser­ving for a Rule to what afterwards shall follow, and the outward case of [Page 52] the plant, being as it were a mould to cast the suc­ceeding juyce in; it will follow that at every Year, or Moneth, or Week, (according to the nature of the plant) when new juyce is sublimed up in­to the hardned case, and that this new juyce dis­cendeth the case to make room for it self, it will take such ply and Figure, acuminated on the one side and obtuse on the other, as the case alrea­dy hath, and is apt to give. This will be re­peated every year in Trees and in such plants as count their livelihood by years. [Page 53] And by these circles of the grain, you shall not onely know how the Tree grew, where it was plan­ted in regard of North and South; but also how old it is. And if you will transplant it to another place, you must have a care to set it in the same Situation it first grew in; for otherwise, exposing the tender, mellow, South-side of the Tree, to the sharp, hard wedges of the Northern aire, they will so cleave and batter it, that in a little while it will exhale its spirits and dye. And the same reason obli­ligeth [Page 54] also, that every piece of wood, even af­ter it is dead and hew­ed out, be Magneticall and have respective Poles to the Universe. For, the constant course of one sort of atomes run­ning one way through it, must needs have bored and wrought such figu­red Channells as are pro­portionate to admit such figured and qualified a­tomes as they are, and to reject and repell others of a different nature and formation: In such sort as I have at large dis­coursed in my above men­tioned Treatise, where [Page 55] I set down the whole Doctrine of the Load­stone and its Phoenomens, and do give the reasons of them. From the same cause it will follow, that if you turn a piece of wood into a Sphere, or Cylinder, or other Re­gular Figure, and put it into the water, one pre­cise side of it will always sink, and the other swim out of the water. And out of what I have said, the reason is evi­dent, why after much drought in a hot Sum­mer, Trees and Plants will languish, wither and look as though they were [Page 56] dead, till some Rain do fall to cure their sicknesse; and then all Vegetables take a new green habit, as though a second Spring were come to animate them. All which is no­thing else but that the long continued scorching Beames of the Sunne had Exhausted all Humidity from the Plants: And then, fresh moisture co­ming to the Rootes, it is sublimed thence into the stalkes, and maketh a new Germination and Leaves in the manner I have declared.

Many other such con­sequencies would irrefra­gably [Page 57] follow out of the premised principles, which would be too long to pursue further here. It is enough to have given the hint of thus much; after which any ordinary reflection will retrive in­numerable other conclu­sions. But I think it will not appeare tedious to you that I touch a little upon what course may repaire a decaying Plant; or exceedingly augment the vertue of a prospe­rous one; since not one­ly the Philosophy of it is pleasing and conside­rable; but also the pra­ctise of it may be profita­fitable [Page 58] to the Common­wealth, and usefull (with due Analogy) even to humane bodyes. The Sicknesse, and in the end the Death of a Plant, in its naturall course, pro­ceedeth from want of that balsamick Saline juyce which I have said ma­keth it Swell, Germi­nate, and Augment it self. This want may pro­ceed, either from a De­stitution of it in the place where the Plant groweth, as when it is in a barren soyle or bad aire; or from a defect in the Plant it self, that hath not vigour suffi­cient [Page 59] to attract it though it be within the sphere of it, as when the Root is become so hard, ob­structed and cold, as that it hath lost its Vegeta­tive Functions. Now both these may be re­medyed in a great mea­sure, by one and the same Physick. It is not every humidity that is of a prolifike nature. If water have not her fire in her, she will availe little to make Plants fructifie. The watering of soyle with cold hungry springs, doth little good. Whereas muddy Saline waters brought to over­flow [Page 60] a piece of ground, do enrich it much. Gen­tle showers, especially in the Aequinox Seasons, are very fruitfull. But above all, well digested Dew, maketh all Plants luxuriat and prosper most. Now what may it be that endeweth these Li­quors with such proli­fike vertue? The meer water which is common to them all, cannot be it. There must be some­thing else enclosed with­in it, unto which the wa­ter serveth but for a Ve­hicle. Examine it by the Spagyrick Art, and you will find it is nothing [Page 61] else but a nitrous salt which is dilated in the water. It is this Salt which giveth foecundi­ty to all things. And from this Salt (rightly understood) not onely all Vegetables, but also all Mineralls draw their ori­gine.

Here, it were not from the purpose to put you in minde how the Ancient Poets (who comprised their deepest wisdome in familiar Fa­bles) tell us long sto­ries of their Salt-begot­ten Goddesse, and ad­umbrated their best know­ledge of nature under [Page 62] Saline veiles. But I should be too prolixe if I hun­ted too far every chace that riseth before me in this copious Forrest. I will come back to my own and o­thers plain experiences. By the help of plain Salt-Peter, dilated in wa­ter and mingled with some other fit Earthy substance that may fa­miliarize it a little with the corn into which I en­deavoured to introduce it, I have made the barrenest ground farre out-goe the richest in gi­ving a prodigiously plen­tifull harvest. I have [Page 63] seen hemp-seed soaked in this Liquor, that hath in the due time made such Plants arise, as for the tallnesse and hardnesse of them, seemed rather to be Coppice wood of fourteen yeares growth at least, then plain hemp. The Fathers of the Chri­stian Doctrine at Paris, doe still keep by them for a Monument (and indeed it is an admira­ble one) a Plant of Bar­ley consisting of 249. stalkes, Springing from one Root or Grain of Barley, in which they counted above 18000. Grains or seeds of Barley. But [Page 64] doe you think that it is barely the Salt-Peter imbibed into the Seed or Root, which causeth this Fertility? no; that would be soon exhau­sted, and could not fur­nish matter to so vast a progeny. The Salt-Peter there, is like a Magnes which attracteth a like Salt that Foecun­dateth the Aire, and that gave cause to the Cos­mopolite to say, there is in the Aire a hidden food of life. Such Aires as are most impregnated with this benigne fire, are healthfull to live in. O­thers, which abound with [Page 65] Earthy exhalations or Marishy vapours, and have little balsamick Salt in them, are as unsound. This is the food of the Lungs, and the nourish­ment of the Spirits. Cor­nelius Drebell, having con­tracted a great quantity of this into a narrow room, could recreate and revive his languishing guests in his strait house un­der water, when they had fed upon all the balsome that was in the Aire shut up with them; by opening a Fiole that dilated it self with fresh Spirits into that stale depredated and exhau­sted [Page 66] Aire. This spirit then that is in the Aire, is drawn (as it were by a Loadstone) by the Sa­line Liquor that is im­b [...]bed into the Seed which is full of it. My own eyes are witnesses of the wonderfull cor­porifying of it. I have seen it grow in a strange proportion; In a Villa at Rome, I sowed some Bar­ley thus prepared; And what with the Dew, what with the Aire, and what with the Sun, I should in the mornings, by then the Sun-beames had dryed up the super­fluous moisture, see sprout­ings [Page 67] up of pure Salt-Peter of a prodigious height all about and over the Seeds that lay slightly covered with the loose mould. They would be above an inch, nay two inches long, of the pu­r [...]st Christaline Salt-Pe- that could be seen. And it is upon this principle that the Pope in his State, and the old Duke of Bavaria in his, did first make and then nourish, M [...]nes of Salt-Peter; whose Roots and Quarries are quite different from o­ther Mineralls: For, they are under-foot in the Earth; and these over our [Page 68] heads, in the Aire: This is the Earth flying over mens heads, which a late subtill Philosopher pre­scribeth to be taken for his great work. Now in this Salt are enclosed the Seminary vertues of all things. For, what is it, but a pure extract drawn by the Suns-beames from all the bodies that he darteth his Rayes upon, and sublimed up to such a height of place as leaveth all feculence be­hind it, and is there in that exalted R [...]g [...]on of the Limbeck baked and incorporated with those very beames themselves [Page 69] which refined this extract out of its drossie Oar? Therefore I wonder not to see any sort of hearbe grow upon the highest Towers, where it is cer­tain no man ever came to sow that Plant. And the Loadstone or Magnes of a like substance (though no­thing near so pure) that is in the Earth, the creeping toad there, sucketh and pulleth down this flying Dragon to it; and both of them do become one bo­dy. And thus you see plainly and familiarly ex­plicated the great Apho­risme of the Smaragdine Table; That what is above, [Page 70] is like what is below. The Sun is the Father, the Moon is the Mother; the Earth is the Matrix wherein this pro­duct is hatched; and the Aire conveyed it thither. This Universall Spirit then being Homogeneall to all things, and being in ef­fect the Spirit of Life, not onely to Plants, but to A­nimals also: were it not worth the labour to ren­der it as usefull to mens bodyes, as to the repara­tions of Plants? Albertus Magnus purchased the re­putation of a Magician, for making all sorts of Fruit grow plentifully and perfect­ly, in the depth of a hard [Page 71] Winter in Germany, by meanes of this aethereall balsome. If it were made proportionable to mens bo­dyes, there is no doubt, but it would work alike effect upon them. Gold is of the same Nature as this aethereall Spirit; or rather, it is nothing but it, first corporifyed in a pure place, and then ba­ked to a perfect Fixation. Raymund Lully in his ex­cellent Treatise de inten­tione operanti [...]m, describeth admirably well the Ge­nealogie of it. If then this perfect body (I mean Gold) could be rendered fami­liar and disgestible to ours, [Page 72] there is no doubt but it would prove a kinde of Tree of Life to us. It is of it self too firmly com­posed for any Agent upon Earth to dissolve it. But peradventure the Mother that bore him, may rein­crudate him and reduce him back into his first volatile principles.

Enough, if not too much is said of these Curiosities by way of digression, and to entertain you (Noble Auditors) with pleasing variety; Let us come back to our Plant, and en­quire if it be not possible to render it perpetuall, or ra­ther to convert it into a [Page 73] permanent substance and state, no longer subject to the Vicissitudes of time; and outward Agents, that destroy all things: So to bring it to a kind of glo­rifyed body, such as we hope ours will be after the Resurrection. Quercetanus the famous Physician of King Henry the fourth telleth us a wonderfull sto­ry of a Polonian Doctor that shewed him a do­zen glasses Hermetically Sealed, in each of which was a different Plant; for example, a Rose in one, a Tulip in another, a Clove-Gilly-flower in a third; adso of the rest. When [Page 74] he offered these Glasses to your first view, you saw nothing in them but a heap of Ashes in the bottom. As soon as he held some gentle heate under any of them, presently there a­rose out of the Ashes, the Idaea of a Flower; the Flower and the Stalk be­longing to those Ashes; and it would shoot up and spread abroad to the due height and just dimensi­ons of such a Flower; and had perfect Colour, Shape, Magnitude, and all other accidents, as if it were really that very Flower. But when ever you drew the heate from it, as the [Page 75] Glasse and the enclosed Aire and matter within it grew to cool by de­grees, so would this Flow­er sink down by little and little, till at length it would bury it self in its bed of Ashes. And thus it would doe as often as you exposed it to mode­rate heate, or withdrew it from it. I confesse it would be no small delight to me to see this experiment, with all the circumstances that Quercetan setteth down. Athanasius Kircherus at Rome assured me he had done it; and gave me the proc [...]sse of it. But no in­dustry of mine could effect [Page 76] it. Another I did, by in­structions from the for­mer Author; and I found it exactly true as he recoun­teth it. It is worth your knowing. I calcined a good quantity of Nettles, Roots, Stalks, Leaves, Flowers; in a word the whole Plant. He produceth the exam­ple in this very Plant; and I would not vary in the least circumstance from what he taught. With fair water I made a lye of these Ashes; which I filtred from the insipide Earth. This lye was exposed by me in the due season to have the Frost congeale it. I per­formed the whole work [Page 77] in this very house where I have now the honour to discourse to you. I cal­cined them in the fair and large Laboratory, that I had erected under the Lodgings of the Divini­ty Reader: And I exposed the lye to congeale in the Window of my Library, among my Lodgings at the end of your Great Gal­lery. Hans Hunneades the Hungarian, was my ope­rator. And it is most true, that when the water was congealed into ice, there appeared to be a­bundance of Nettles fro­zen in the ice. They had not the colour of Nettles. No [Page 78] greennesse accompanyed them. They were white. But otherwise, it is impos­sible for any Painter to delineate a throng of Net­tles more exactly, then they were designed in the water. As soon as the wa­ter was melted, all these Idaeall shapes vanished: but as soon as it was congeal­ed again, they presently appeared afresh. And this game I had severall times with them, and brought Doctor Mayerne to see it; who I remember was as much delighted with it as my selfe. What could be the reason of this Phoe­nomen? There is no doubt [Page 79] but that a main part of the Essentiall substance of a Plant is contained in his fixed Salt. This will admit no change into ano­ther Nature; but will al­wayes be full of the qua­lities and vertues of the Plant it is derived from; but for want of the vola­tile Armoniacall and Sul­phureall parts, it is depri­ved of colour. If all the Essentiall parts could be preserved, in the severing and purifying of them, I see no reason but at the reunion of them, the entire Plant might appeare in its com­plete perfection, so one could finde a fit medium [Page 80] to dilate it in. Were not this then a true Palingene­sis of the originall Plant? I doubt it would not be so. For speaking rigorously, I cannot allow Plants to have Life. They are not Se Moventia, They have not a principle of motion within them. It is the operation of outward A­gents upon them, that set­eth on foot all the dance we have above so heed­fully observed, and which so near imitateth the mo­tions of Life. And if it be not a living thing, then it is all of it in perpetuall Fluxe and Change, with­out having any part of it [Page 81] enjoy a fixed and perma­nent Being, for the least moments space; and con­sequently, there can be no Resurrection of it after once it is destroyed, since it ne­ver was at any time a deter­minate It, or Thing; But as Coales are made of wood by the action of Fire upon it; and Ashes again of them, and Glasse of A­shes; each of them a quite different substance from what the precedent was: So, I conceive that a new aereall body and thing is made out of the Plant that furnished matter for this new substance, and whose substantiall form is [Page 82] totally destroyed, and a new one produced into the World; which is accom­panyed with many acci­dents like unto many of those that belonged to the precedent substance. I remember another pret­ty experiment that Do­ctor Davisson shewed me in his Laboratory at Pa­ris. He had been draw­ing the Oyle and Spirit of a certain kind of resi­nous Gumme: And it so happened that the Glasse along which it rose; was all covered over on the inside with Portraitures of Firre-Trees (from whence that resin distilled) so ex­actly [Page 83] done that no Pain­ter in the World could have drawn their shapes more compleatly. The like hap­pened to me once in di­stilling the Gumme of Cherry-Trees. But none of these Idaeas doe come so neare unto the reall Pa­lingenesis, as what I have done more then once up­on Cray-Fishes. Wash them clean from any Ear­thinesse; and boyle them very throughly (at least two houres space) in sufficient quantity of faire water. Keep this decoction, and put Crevisses into a Glasse-Limbeck, and distill all the Liquor that will arise [Page 84] from them; which keep by it self. Then calcine the Fishes in a reverbera­tory Furnace, and extract their Salt with your first decoction; which filter, and then evaporate the humidity. Upon the re­maining Salt poure your distilled Liquor, and set i [...] in a moist place to putri­fie; and in a few dayes you shall find little animals mo­ving there, about the big­nesse of Milet Seeds. These you must feed with bloud of an Oxe, till they be as big as pretty large but­tons, then put them into a wooden paile of River­water and Oxe bloud, [Page 85] changing the water and bloud every third day; and so you may bring them on to what bignesse you please.

All this leadeth me to speak something of the Resurrection of humane bodyes. There we may find some firm and solid footing. Hitherto we have wandered up and down in the Mazes of Fleeting mat­ter, quae nunquam in eodem statu permanet. And with great truth did Job apply that expression to the State of men living in this World. But as soon as we shall have put off our frail Mortality, we shall be in a state of per­manence [Page 86] and immutabili­ty. Not onely whiles the Soul is seperated from her Earthy Companion, but when she shall be cloath­ed again, that new flesh will partake of the con­stancy of her glorious Mate. But why doe I call it new flesh? I may be pardoned for doing so, when I con­sider the new qualities and endowments it shall have put on. But otherwise, in substance and reality, it is the same, the very same, that (for example) accom­panyed me in this long and tedious Pilgrimage upon Earth. How is this? If a Caniball should feed up­on [Page 87] my body, and convert it into the substance of his, can both of us rise again with the same bodyes we enjoyed here? Yes, with­out doubt we may. And I conceive, that the taking away of this difficulty, which hath so highly per­plexed even the best Chri­stians, will be so welcome a performance to them who yet have not met with it; that for its sake you will pardon the tediousnesse and coursenesse of all I have hitherto said. And with that, I will cease further troubling you. But let us first rightly understand one another. I doe not under­take [Page 88] to shew here how this great work is wrought: nor much lesse to deter­mine that it will follow out of the force of nature, after the great dayes Con­flagration hath calcined the whole Masse of Matter in­to a formlesse heap of Ashes: So disposing it, by excluding and destroying all particular formes, to ad­mit the action of subsistent ones upon it. But my un­dertaking is, to convince that there is no impossibi­lity nor contradiction in nature, against this great and amazing Mystery. If there were contradiction in it, it could not be true; [Page 89] it were not the subject of a Miracle. But if I prove that there is no repugnance against the feasibility of it, I am confident I shall not misse of hearty thanks from those sincere believers who have nothing to shake the firmnesse of their Faith, but the suspected impossi­bility of the Mystery. Thus then. I shall begin with enquiring what it is that maketh a body continue still the same. All bo­dyes are composed of mat­ter and form. In saying of which I doe not mean that there are two distinct enti­ties, which being put toge­ther like meal and water [Page 90] doe concurre joyntly to compose a body, as they make bread. But they are notions which are ground­ed upon a reall Foundati­on in the object from whence they arise. In the object there is that, which correspondeth adaequatly to the notions we frame of these two principles. We see that this which is now Coal, was larely wood, somewhat must be com­mon to both these distinct substances; else, we must allow the first to have been anihilated by the change, and that nothing remain­eth of it after the action of fire: And consequently [Page 91] that the second is abso­lutely created, without a­ny praeexistent matter to serve for a Basis to this pro­duction. This obligeth us to have recourse to some­what that is common to both these things. This that is thus common to both, is of it self neither the one nor the other: But is that, which may be ei­ther the one or the other. So that truly it is not this nor that nor any determi­nate thing: But it is a Ca­pacity to be this or that or any thing whatsoever. And this capacity, is called in the Schooles, Matter. Now that which filleth and [Page 92] actuateth this capacity, and maketh it be a determinate thing, is that which they call the Form. So that the Form, is the compleating and perfecting of a body, and maketh it to be this or that, and fixeth it in the State of Being: whereas the matter abstracted from the Form, hath no deter­minate being, no individua­tion, is in effect and actual­ly nothing; but hath, or rather is a capacity to be any thing. It must not then be on the side of Mat­ter, that we must look for the individuation and Iden­tification of our bodyes af­ter the Resurrection. All [Page 93] mat­ter is indifferent to every Form. There is no this or that in matter; other­wise then as the Form en­grosseth it to it self; and thereby maketh it this or that. And consequent­ly as long as the Form re­maineth the same, the thing is the same, and the matter is the same. Were it not for this, how could any body under Hea­ven remain the same e­ven but for a short Mo­ments space? All sublu­nary things are in a perpe­tuall Flux. The contrast of the Elements among themselves, within every body; and other bodyes [Page 94] without it, working also perpetually upon it, are causes that out of every body there are continuall emanations, and that there are continuall supplyes ad­venient to it. Every thing is like a River that is in a perpetuall course. Which though we account it the same River to day as it was yesterday; yet in truth there is not one drop of water in it to day that was in it yesterday. But because it is filled out of the same common Ma­gazine of (in it self) undi­stinguished water which filled it yesterday and a hundred yeares agone; and [Page 95] that it is comprised in the same Channell; It is still esteemed to be the same River. I remember to have seen in the King of Frances Garden at Saint Germain, very curious Grottos; whereof one was adorned with a cast of water, so contrived, that as fast as the water fell down into the reserve or Basin which was at the bottom of the Pipe that cast it up with force a pret­ty height, the water was still conveyed up again in­to that casting Pipe; and so made a kind of perpe­tuall motion. The Gar­diner to entertain his Spe­ctators▪ [Page 96] did use to put sundry hollow instruments of diffe­rent shapes and Figures upon the mouth of the Pipe that did cast up the water, so that the coarcted stream would spread it selfe a­broad as soon as the in­struments afforded it liber­ty, sometimes like a Bell, sometimes like a Crown, otherwhiles like a Flower de Luce, and the like, ac­cording to the Form of the Instrument that compri­sed and governed the course of the water. There were severall Bells and severall Crownes, with peculiar differences belonging to them; and so of the rest [Page 97] of the Machines. If now af­ter I had seen two or three differently appearing Bells, or Crownes; I should de­sire to see again that Bell, or that Crown, which the Gardiner shewed we first, and he should put on that Machine which he did put on the first time; should I not have reason to say it were the same Bell or Crown I saw first? The water that furnisheth mat­ter to all these varieties and games, is still the same. As long as it is in its great bulk, there is no this or that part of it: all of it is one Masse, that hath no this or that di­stinguished [Page 98] any where in it. But if you take never so few drops of it in a particular vessel, that divideth it from the rest; then, there is this glass-full (for example) di­stinct from the rest of the common Magazine. And so, whiles the first Engine or Pipe to represent a Bell, is put on a second time; it denominateth truly that Bell to be the same that it was at first; and while it is in continuall fl [...]x of new parts of water succeeding those which run down into the Basin, and that rise again to continue that figure; it is still the same Bell. Much more rigorously is it true [Page 99] that my eyes, my ears, my whole body, now after near 60. years durance in nature, are the same, the very same, they were, when I lay a weak Embryon in my Mothers womb. The continual floud of transpiration, and the con­tinual supply of augmenta­tion, do nothing hinder the Identity of this body of mine, as long as the Form which maketh it to be what it is, remaineth still the same. If then the Form of Man, which is his soul, re­maineth the same after its separation from the body▪ as it was whiles it was co-partner with the body; what difficulty is there to allow [Page 100] her to have the same body she had in this World, if she be built up again to a whole Man, out of the generall Magazine of matter which furnished her with a body before; and which hath no this or that belonging to her, otherwise then as some form engrossing her maketh her to be this or that body? There is nothing more clear, nothing more evi­dent, nothing▪ more rigo­rously true.