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they bring out of the West Indies, hath a peculiar | force to move gravel, and to dissolve the stone: insomuch, as laid but to the wrist, it hath so forcibly sent down gravel, as men have been glad to remove it, it was so violent.

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96. It is received, and confirmed by daily experience, that the soles of the feet have great affinity with the head and the mouth of the stomach; as we see going wet-shod, to those that use it not, affecteth both applications of hot powders to the feet attenuate first, and after dry the rheum: and therefore a physician that would be mystical, prescribeth, for the cure of the rheum, that a man should walk continually upon a camomile-alley; meaning, that he should put camomile within his socks. Likewise pigeons bleeding, applied to the soles of the feet, ease the head: and soporiferous medicines applied unto them, provoke sleep.

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one from the other, than the dense or tangible parts: and they are in all tangible bodies whatsoever, more or less; and they are never almost at rest; and from them, and their motions, principally proceed arefaction, colliquation, concoction, maturation, putrefaction, vivification, and most of the effects of nature: for, as we have figured them in our "Sapientia Veterum," in the fable of Proserpina, you shall in the infernal regiment hear little doings of Pluto, but most of Proserpina: for tangible parts in bodies are stupid things; and the spirits do in effect all. As for the differences of tangible parts in bodies, the industry of the chemists hath given some light, in discerning by their separations the oily, crude, pure, impure, fine, gross parts of bodies, and the like. And the physicians are content to acknowledge, that herbs and drugs have divers parts; as that opium hath a stupefactive part, and a heating part; the one moving sleep, the other a sweat following; and that rhubarb hath purging parts, and astringent parts, &c. But this whole inquisition is weakly and negligently handled. And for the more subtle differences of the minute parts, and the posture of them in the body, which also hath great effects, they are not at all touched; as for the motions of the minute parts of bodies, which do so great effects, they have not been observed at all; because they are invisible, and incur not to the eye; but yet they are to be deprehended by experience as Democritus said well, when they charged him to hold, Of these things we shall speak more, when we that the world was made of such little motes, as were handle the title of sympathy and antipathy in the seen in the sun: "Atomus," saith he, "necessitate proper place. rationis et experientiæ esse convincitur; atomum Experiment solitary touching the secret processes of mult in the parts of solid bodies, when they are enim nemo unquam vidit." And therefore the tu

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97. It seemeth, that as the feet have a sympathy with the head, so the wrists and hands have a sympathy with the heart; we see the affects and passions of the heart and spirits are notably disclosed by the pulse and it is often tried, that juices of stock-gilly-flowers, rose-campian, garlick, and other things, applied to the wrists, and renewed, have cured long agues. And I conceive, that washing with certain liquors the palms of the hands doth much good and they do well in heats of agues, to hold in the hands eggs of alabaster and balls of crystal.

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nature.

98. The knowledge of man hitherto hath been determined by the view or sight; so that whatsoever is invisible, either in respect of the fineness of the body itself, or the smallness of the parts, or of the subtilty of the motion, is little inquired. And yet these be the things that govern nature principally; and without which you cannot make any true analysis and indications of the proceedings of nature. The spirits or pneumaticals, that are in all tangible bodies, are scarce known. Sometimes they take them for vacuum; whereas they are the most active of bodies. Sometimes they take them for air; from which they differ exceedingly, as much as wine from water; and as wood from earth. Sometimes they will have them to be natural heat, or a portion of the element of fire; whereas some of them are crude and cold. And sometimes they will have them to be the virtues and qualities of the tangible parts which they see; whereas they are things by themselves. And then, when they come to plants and living creatures, they call them souls. And such superficial speculations they have; like prospectives, that show things inward, when they are but paintings. Neither is this a question of words, but infinitely material in nature. For spirits are nothing else but a natural body, rarified to a proportion, and included in the tangible parts of bodies, as in an integument. And they be no less differing

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compressed, which is the cause of all flight of bodies through the air, and of other mechanical motions, as hath been partly touched before, and shall be throughly handled in due place, is not seen at all. But nevertheless, if you know it not, or inquire it not attentively and diligently, you shall never be able to discern, and much less to produce, a number of mechanical motions. Again, as to the motions corporal, within the enclosures of bodies, whereby the effects, which were mentioned before, pass between the spirits and the tangible parts, which are arefaction, colliquation, concoction, maturation, &c. they are not at all handled. But they are put off by the names of virtues, and natures, and actions, and passions, and such other logical words.

Experiment solitary touching the power of heat.

99. It is certain, that of all powers in nature heat is the chief; both in the frame of nature, and in the works of art. Certain it is likewise, that the effects of heat are most advanced, when it worketh upon a body without loss or dissipation of the matter; for that ever betrayeth the account, And therefore it is true, that the power of heat is best perceived in distillations, which are performed in close vessels and receptacles. But yet there is a higher degree; for howsoever distillations do keep the body in cells and cloisters, without going abroad, yet they give space unto bodies to turn into vapour; to return

into liquor; and to separate one part from another. So as nature doth expatiate, although it hath not full liberty; whereby the true and ultimate operations of heat are not attained. But if bodies may be altered by heat, and yet no such reciprocation of rarefaction, and of condensation, and of separation, admitted; then it is like that this Proteus of matter, being held by the sleeves, will turn and change into many metamorphoses. Take therefore a square vessel of iron, in form of a cube, and let it have good thick and strong sides. Put into it a cube of wood, that may fill it as close as may be; and let it have a cover of iron, as strong at least as the sides; and let it be well luted, after the manner of the chemists. Then place the vessel within burning coals, kept quick kindled for some few hours' space. Then take the vessel from the fire, and take off the cover, and see what is become of the wood. I conceive, that since all inflammation and evaporation are utterly prohibited, and the body still turned upon itself, that one of these two effects will follow either that the body of the wood will be turned into a kind of amalgama, as the chemists call it; or that the finer part will be turned into air, and the grosser stick as it were baked, and incrustate upon the sides of the vessel, being become of a denser matter than the wood itself crude. And for another trial, take also water, and put it in the like vessel, stopped as before; but use a gentler heat, and remove the vessel sometimes from the fire; and again, after some small time, when it is cold, renew the heating of it; and repeat this alteration some few times and if you can once bring to pass, that the water, which is one of the simplest of bodies, be changed in colour, odour, or taste, after the manner of compound bodies, you may be sure that there is a great work wrought in nature, and a notable entrance made into strange changes of bodies and productions; and also a way made to do that by fire, in small time, which the sun

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and age do in long time. But of the admirable effects of this distillation in close, for so we will call it, which is like the wombs and matrices of living creatures, where nothing expireth nor separateth, we will speak fully, in the due place; not that we aim at the making of Paracelsus's pygmies, or any such prodigious follies; but that we know the effects of heat will be such, as will scarce fall under the conceit of man, if the force of it be altogether kept in. Experiment solitary touching the impossibility of annihilation.

100. There is nothing more certain in nature than that it is impossible for any body to be utterly annihilated; but that as it was the work of the omnipotency of God to make somewhat of nothing, so it requireth the like omnipotency to turn somewhat into nothing. And therefore it is well said by an obscure writer of the sect of the chemists, that there is no such way to effect the strange transmutations of bodies, as to endeavour and urge by all means the reducing of them to nothing. And herein is contained also a great secret of preservation of bodies from change; for if you can prohibit, that they neither turn into air, because no air cometh to them; nor go into the bodies adjacent, because they are utterly heterogeneal; nor make a round and circulation within themselves; they will never change, though they be in their nature never so perishable or mutable. We see how flies, and spiders, and the like, get a sepulchre in amber, more durable than the monument and embalming of the body of any king. And I conceive the like will be of bodies put into quicksilver. But then they must be but thin, as a leaf, or a piece of paper or parchment; for if they have a great crassitude, they will alter in their own body, though they spend not. But of this we shall speak more when we handle the title of conservation of bodies.

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CENTURY II.

Experiments in consort touching Music. MUSIC, in the practice, hath been well pursued, and in good variety; but in the theory, and especially in the yielding of the causes of the practice, very weakly; being reduced into certain mystical subtilties of no use and not much truth. We shall, therefore, after our manner, join the contemplative and active part together.

101. All sounds are either musical sounds, which we call tones; whereunto they may be an harmony; which sounds are eyer equal; as singing, the sounds of stringed and wind instruments, the ringing of bells, &c.; or immusical sounds, which are ever unequal; such as are the voice in speaking, all whisperings, all voices of beasts and birds, except they be singing-birds, all percussions of stones, wood, parchment, skins, as in drums, and infinite others.

102. The sounds that produce tones, are ever from such bodies as are in their parts and pores equal; as well as the sounds themselves are equal; and such are the percussions of metal, as in bells ; of glass, as in the fillipping of a drinking glass; of air, as in men's voices whilst they sing, in pipes, whistles, organs, stringed instruments, &c.; and of water, as in the nightingale pipes of regals, or organs, and other hydraulics; which the ancients had, and Nero did so much esteem, but are now lost. And if any man think, that the string of the bow and the string of the viol are neither of them equal bodies, and yet produce tones, he is in an error. For the sound is not created between the bow or plectrum and the string; but between the string and the air; no more than it is between the finger or quill and the string in other instruments. So there are, in effect, but three percussions that create tones;

percussions of metals, comprehending glass and the | the ancients esteemed, and so do myself and some like, percussions of air, and percussions of water.

103. The diapason or eight in music is the sweetest concord, insomuch as it is in effect an unison: as we see in lutes that are strung in the base strings with two strings, one an eight above another; which make but as one sound. And every eighth note in ascent, as from eight to fifteen, from fifteen to twentytwo, and so in infinitum, are but scales of diapason. The cause is dark, and hath not been rendered by any; and therefore would be better contemplated. It seemeth that air, which is the subject of sounds, in sounds that are not tones, which are all unequal, as hath been said, admitteth much variety; as we see in the voices of living creatures; and likewise in the voices of several men, for we are capable to discern several men by their voices; and in the conjugation of letters, whence articulate sounds proceed; which of all others are most various. But in the sounds which we call tones, that are ever equal, the air is not able to cast itself into any such variety; but is forced to recur into one and the same posture or figure, only differing in greatness and smallness. So we see figures may be made of lines, crooked and straight, in infinite variety, where there is inequality; but circles, or squares, or triangles equilateral, which are all figures of equal lines, can differ but in greater or lesser.

104. It is to be noted, the rather lest any man should think, that there is any thing in this number of eight, to create the diapason, that this computation of eight is a thing rather received, than any true computation. For a true computation ought ever to be by distribution into equal portions. Now there be intervenient in the rise of eight, in tones, two bemolls, or half-notes: so as if you divide the tones equally, the eight is but seven whole and equal notes; and if you subdivide that into halfnotes, as it is in the stops of a lute, it maketh the number of thirteen.

105. Yet this is true, that in the ordinary rises and falls of the voice of man, not measuring the tone by whole notes, and half-notes, which is the equal measure, there fall out to be two bemolls, as hath been said, between the unison and the diapason: and this varying is natural. For if a man would endeavour to raise or fall his voice, still by half-notes, like the stops of a lute; or by whole notes alone without halfs, as far as an eight; he will not be able to frame his voice unto it. Which showeth, that after every three whole notes, nature requireth, for all harmonical use, one half-note to be interposed.

106. It is to be considered, that whatsoever virtue is in numbers, for conducing to concent of notes, is rather to be ascribed to the ante-number, than to the entire number; as namely, that the sound re ́turneth after six or after twelve; so that the seventh or the thirteenth is not the matter, but the sixth or the twelfth; and the seventh and the thirteenth are but the limits and boundaries of the return.

107. The concords in music which are perfect or semi-perfect, between the unison and the diapason, are the fifth, which is the most perfect; the third next; and the sixth, which is more harsh: and, as

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other yet, the fourth which they call diatessaron. As for the tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, and so in infinitum, they be but recurrences of the former, viz. of the third, the fifth, and the sixth; being an eight respectively from them.

108. For discords, the second and the seventh are of all others the most odious, in harmony, to the sense; whereof the one is next above the unison, the other next under the diapason: which may show, that harmony requireth a competent distance of notes.

109. In harmony, if there be not a discord to the base, it doth not disturb the harmony, though there be a discord to the higher parts; so the discord be not of the two that are odious; and therefore the ordinary concent of four parts consisteth of an eight, a fifth, and a third to the base; but that fifth is a fourth to the treble, and the third is a sixth. And the cause is, for that the base striking more air, doth overcome and drown the treble, unless the discord be very odious; and so hideth a small imperfection. For we see, that in one of the lower strings of a lute, there soundeth not the sound of the treble, nor any mixt sound, but only the sound of the base.

110. We have no music of quarter-notes; and it may be they are not capable of harmony for we see the half-notes themselves do but interpose sometimes. Nevertheless we have some slides or relishes of the voice or strings, as it were continued without notes, from one tone to another, rising or falling, which are delightful.

111. The causes of that which is pleasing or ingrate to the hearing, may receive light by that which is pleasing or ingrate to the sight. There be two things pleasing to the sight, leaving pictures and shapes aside, which are but secondary objects; and please or displease but in memory; these two are colours and order. The pleasing of colour symbolizeth with the pleasing of any single tone to the ear; but the pleasing of order doth symbolize with harmony. And therefore we see in garden-knots, and the frets of houses, and all equal and well answering figures, as globes, pyramids, cones, cylinders, &c. how they please; whereas unequal figures are but deformities. And both these pleasures, that of the eye, and that of the ear, are but the effects of equality, good proportion, or correspondence: so that, out of question, equality and correspondence are the causes of harmony. But to find the propor❘tion of that correspondence, is more abstruse; whereof notwithstanding we shall speak somewhat, when we handle tones, in the general inquiry of sounds.

112. Tones are not so apt altogether to procure sleep as some other sounds; as the wind, the purling of water, humming of bees, a sweet voice of one that readeth, &c. The cause whereof is, for that tones, because they are equal and slide not, do more strike and erect the sense than the other. And overmuch attention hindereth sleep.

113. There be in music certain figures or tropes, almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric, and with the affections of the mind, and other senses. First, the division and quavering, which please so

much in music, have an agreement with the glittering of light; as the moon-beams playing upon a wave. Again, the falling from a discord to a concord, which maketh great sweetness in music, hath an agreement with the affections, which are reintegrated to the better, after some dislikes; it agreeth | also with the taste, which is soon glutted with that which is sweet alone. The sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement with the figure in rhetoric, which they call præter expectatum; for there is a pleasure even in being deceived. The reports, and fuges, have an agreement with the figures in rhetoric, of repetition and traduction. The triplas, and changing of times, have an agreement with the changes of motions; as when galliard time, and measure time, are in the medley of one dance. 114. It hath been anciently held and observed, that the sense of hearing, and the kinds of music, have most operation upon manners; as, to encourage men, and make them warlike; to make them soft and effeminate; to make them grave; to make them light; to make them gentle and inclined to pity, &c. The cause is, for that the sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediately than the other senses; and more incorporeally than the smelling; for the sight, taste, and feeling, have their organs not of so present and immediate access to the spirits, as the hearing hath. And as for the smelling, which indeed worketh also immediately upon the spirit, and is forcible while the object remaineth, it is with a communication of the breath or vapour of the object odorate; but harmony entering easily, and mingling not at all, and coming with a manifest motion, doth by custom of often affecting the spirits, and putting them into one kind of posture, alter not a little the nature of the spirits, even when the object is removed. | And therefore we see, that tunes and airs, even in their own nature, have in themselves some affinity with the affections; as there be merry tunes, doleful tunes, solemn tunes; tunes inclining men's minds to pity; warlike tunes, &c. So as it is no marvel if they alter the spirits, considering that tunes have a predisposition to the motion of the spirits in themselves. But yet it hath been noted, that though this variety of tunes doth dispose the spirits to variety of passions, conform unto them, yet generally music feedeth that disposition of the spirits, which it findeth. We see also, that several airs and tunes do please several nations and persons, according to the sympathy they have with their spirits. Experiments in consort touching sounds; and first

touching the nullity and entity of sounds. Perspective hath been with some diligence inquired; and so hath the nature of sounds, in some sort, as far as concerneth music: but the nature of sounds in general hath been superficially observed. It is one of the subtilest pieces of nature. And besides, I practise, as I do advise; which is, after long inquiry of things immersed in matter, to interpose some subject which is immateriate, or less materiate; such as this of sounds; to the end, that the intellect may be rectified, and become not partial.

115. It is first to be considered, what great mo

tions there are in nature, which pass without sound or noise. The heavens turn about in a most rapid motion, without noise to us perceived; though in some dreams they have been said to make an excellent music. So the motions of the comets, and fiery meteors, as stella cadens, &c. yield no noise. And if it be thought, that it is the greatness of distance from us, whereby the sound cannot be heard; we see that lightnings and coruscations, which are near at hand, yield no sound neither: and yet in all these, there is a percussion and division of the air. The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are not perceived below, pass without noise. The lower winds in a plain, except they be strong, make no noise; but amongst trees, the noise of such winds will be perceived. And the winds, generally, when they make a noise, do ever make it unequally, rising and falling, and sometimes, when they are vehement, trembling at the height of their blast. Rain or hail falling, though vehemently, yieldeth no noise in passing through the air, till it fall upon the ground, water, houses, or the like. Water in a river, though a swift stream, is not heard in the channel, but runneth in silence, if it be of any depth; but the very stream upon shallows of gravel, or pebble, will be heard. And waters, when they beat upon the shore, or are straitened, as in the falls of bridges, or are dashed against themselves, by winds, give a roaring noise. Any piece of timber, or hard body, being thrust forwards by another body contiguous, without knocking, giveth no noise. And so bodies in weighing one upon another, though the upper body press the lower body down, make no noise. So the motion in the minute parts of any solid body, which is the principal cause of violent motion, though unobserved, passeth without sound; for that sound that is heard sometimes, is produced only by the breaking of the air; and not by the impulsion of the parts. So it is manifest, that where the anterior body giveth way, as fast as the posterior cometh on, it maketh no noise, be the motion never so great or swift.

116. Air open, and at large, maketh no noise, except it be sharply percussed; as in the sound of a string, where air is percussed by a hard and stiff body, and with a sharp loose: for if the string be not strained, it maketh no noise. But where the air is pent and straitened, there breath or other blowing, which carry but a gentle percussion, suffice to create sound; as in pipes and wind-instruments. But then you must note, that in recorders, which go with a gentle breath, the concave of the pipe, were it not for the fipple that straiteneth the air, much more than the simple concave, would yield no sound. For as for other wind-instruments, they require a forcible breath; as trumpets, cornets, hunters' horns, &c. which appeareth by the blown cheeks of him that windeth them. Organs also are blown with a strong wind by the bellows. And note again, that some kind of wind-instruments are blown at a small hole in the side, which straiteneth the breath at the first entrance; the rather, in respect of their traverse and stop above the hole, which performeth

the fipple's part; as it is seen in flutes and fifes, which will not give sound by a blast at the end, as recorders, &c. do. Likewise in all whistling, you contract the mouth; and to make it more sharp, men sometimes use their finger. But in open air, if you throw a stone or a dart, they give no sound; no more do bullets, except they happen to be a little hollowed in the casting; which hollowness penneth the air: nor yet arrows, except they be ruffled in their feathers, which likewise penneth the air. As for small whistles or shepherds' oaten pipes, they give a sound because of their extreme slenderness, whereby the air is more pent than in a wider pipe. Again, the voices of men and living creatures pass through the throat, which penneth the breath. As for the Jews-harp, it is a sharp percussion; and, besides, hath the advantage of penning the air in the mouth.

117. Solid bodies, if they be very softly percussed, give no sound; as when a man treadeth very softly upon boards. So chests or doors in fair weather, when they open easily, give no sound. And cartwheels squeak not when they are liquored.

118. The flame of tapers or candles, though it be a swift motion and breaketh the air, yet passeth without sound. Air in ovens, though, no doubt, it doth, as it were, boil and dilate itself, and is repercussed; yet it is without noise.

119. Flame percussed by air giveth a noise as in blowing of the fire by bellows; greater than if the bellows should blow upon the air itself. And so likewise flame percussing the air strongly, as when flame suddenly taketh and openeth, giveth a noise; so great flames, while the one impelleth the other, give a bellowing sound.

120. There is a conceit runneth abroad, that there should be a white powder, which will discharge a piece without noise; which is a dangerous experiment if it should be true: for it may cause secret murders. But it seemeth to me impossible; for, if the air pent be driven forth and strike the air open, it will certainly make a noise. As for the white powder, if any such thing be, that may extinguish or dead the noise, it is like to be a mixture of petre and sulphur, without coal. For petre alone will not take fire. And if any man think, that the sound may be extinguished or deaded by discharging the pent air, before it cometh to the mouth of the piece and to the open air, that is not probable; for it will make more divided sounds: as if you should make a cross-barrel hollow through the barrel of a piece, it may be it would give several sounds both at the nose and at the sides. But I conceive, that if it were possible to bring to pass, that there should be no air pent at the mouth of the piece, the bullet might fly with small or no noise.

For first it is certain, there is no noise in the percussion of the flame upon the bullet. Next the bullet, in piercing through the air, maketh no noise; as hath been said. And then, if there be no pent air that striketh upon open air, there is no cause of noise; and yet the flying of the bullet will not be stayed. For that motion, as hath been oft said, is in the parts of the bullet, and not in the

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air. So as trial must be made by taking some small concave of metal, no more than you mean to fill with powder, and laying the bullet in the mouth of it, half out in the open air.

121. I heard it affirmed by a man that was a great dealer in secrets, but he was but vain, that there was a conspiracy, which himself hindered, to have killed queen Mary, sister to queen Elizabeth, by a burning-glass, when she walked in Saint James's park, from the leads of the house. But thus much, no doubt, is true; that if burning-glasses could be brought to a great strength, as they talk generally of burning-glasses that are able to burn a navy, the percussion of the air alone by such a burning-glass, would make no noise; no more than is found in coruscations and lightnings without thunders.

122. I suppose that impression of the air with sounds asketh a time to be conveyed to the sense, as well as the impressing of species visible; or else they will not be heard. And therefore, as the bullet moveth so swift that it is invisible; so the same swiftness of motion maketh it inaudible: for we see, that the apprehension of the eye is quicker than that of the ear.

123. All eruptions of air, though small and slight, give an entity of sound, which we call crackling, puffing, spitting, &c. as in bay-salt, and bay-leaves, cast into the fire; so in chestnuts, when they leap forth of the ashes; so in green wood laid upon the fire, especially roots; so in candles, that spit flame if they be wet; so in rasping, sneezing, &c.; so in a rose leaf gathered together into the fashion of a purse, and broken upon the forehead, or back of the hand, as children use.

Experiments in consort touching production, conservation, and delation of sounds; and the office of the air therein.

124. The cause given of sound, that it should be an elision of the air, whereby, if they mean any thing, they mean a cutting or dividing, or else an attenuating of the air, is but a term of ignorance; and the notion is but a catch of the wit upon a few instances; as the manner is in the philosophy received. And it is common with men, that if they have gotten a pretty expression by a word of art, that expression goeth current; though it be empty of matter. This conceit of elision appeareth most manifestly to be false, in that the sound of a bell, string, or the like, continueth melting some time after the percussion; but ceaseth straightways, if the bell or string be touched and stayed: whereas, if it were the elision of the air that made the sound, it could not be that the touch of the bell or string should extinguish so suddenly that motion caused by the elision of the air. This appeareth yet more manifestly by chiming with a hammer upon the outside of a bell: for the sound will be according to the inward concave of the bell: whereas the elision or attenuation of the air cannot be but only between the hammer and the outside of the bell. So again, if it were an elision, a broad hammer and a bodkin, struck upon metal, would give a diverse tone, as well

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