The Cohesion of Things

60. Even hardness, and the restoration of tense things, can be sought from:

• the gravity of the atmosphere and
• the elater [elastic power] of aether

Let us return to chemical principles and our “bubbles”.

By Van Helmont, Tachenius, and others, besides acid and alkali, an Archaeus or Rector is added, which excites those two instruments of nature to reaction: and indeed we perceive that expressed must [unfermented wine] does not ferment immediately, but when it has rested for some time, it begins to ferment, excited of its own accord.

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This Archaeus is nothing other than the interspersed aether; the mode by which it acts is nothing other than the universal circulation of aether, by which even the digestion of things is promoted, but only by an extrinsic excitation of fermenting things.

By this, all things, but liquids especially, are in perpetual internal motion; heavy things subside, heterogeneous things are separated, and the intervening wall of phlegm and earth—dividing the alkali from the acid—is broken through, and action follows. Add to this the above Section 18.

However, that aether must not be thought to be altogether free and dissolved, since hardly anything of that kind exists in things, and in the smallest atoms a variety of innumerable species lies hidden; for the most part, therefore, it will be collected into its own bubbles—now liquid, now veiled in a dry form—that is, the most volatile or “mercurial” part of sensible things. It is active by perpetual insensible explosions (for every bubble is more full of aether than of air).

Hence, as in Glass Tears [Prince Rupert’s Drops] where fire or the acid of water is consumed and the alkali extinguished, a great vacuum remains in the glass—or rather a collection of alkali or aether—this is Helmont’s Archaeus.

Tachenius calls it the Rector, others the Spirit of the World, and some call it the third mercurial principle. They attribute to it that most noble formative or plastic power, such as is in seeds, in common salt, and especially in Mercury, provided it can be separated; whence Mercury in an amalgam with metals grows into that elegant [tree-like] excrescence…

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…it even becomes arborescent. This ethereal liquor, this celestial salt, if it can be grasped—believing Van Helmont—is credible to exercise such great virtues as are in his alcahest or alkali; he is revered, of whom let the judgment of experience be the judge. Just as also if to this most volatile alkali another most volatile acid, or a most mercurial one responding in perfection and virtue, is opposed; let it be fixed to him by reaction, analogous to innate heat, just as that is to radical moisture; proportional to fire, as the alcahest of water; son of the sun, as that of the moon; the essence of nitre (for although the superficial constitution of nitre is alkalized, its interior or central parts are usually contrary to the exterior ones) as that of common salt is opposed, add above Section 5, 50.

Section 53. For even if a progress of degrees into infinity in subtlety and virtue were possible, the highest sensible degrees are given, so that what is beyond is not even by virtue, while it does not reach us in a sensible form; therefore, in this limit, the Philosopher as well as the Empiricist must stand.

CONCLUSION

I suppose the gyration of the mundane globes about their own axes, and the rectilinear action of one sun outside itself in our great sphere, and that of the others only insofar as they reflect light from the sun. From these primary motions…

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…I deduce the Copernican system in the world, and the circulation of aether, with light in the earth and around the earth. From this arise the motions of the sea and winds, the verticity of the magnet, and finally, those things on which the rest of nature’s machinery depends: Gravity and the Elater [Elastic Power]. For since aether is a denser thing than is fitting for it to discuss all things by its most forceful motion, when it can (as when they consist only of an ill-united heap of those things which it cannot discuss), it shakes them apart; hence the Elastic or restorative force belongs not only to compressed things, but also consequently to dilated things, because every dilation of one is the compression of another; when it cannot (when they are contained by their own vessels in a firm separated circulation), it casts them down; hence Gravity.

Specifically, from the rectilinear motion from the sun and the curved motion from the earth, there arise the gyrations of certain things of our globe around a particular center, or bubbles, and sometimes even rings, tubes, and other vessels pertaining to the matter, from which the consistency of things and the variety of species arise. From the varying fullness of the vessels, with the circulation of aether added, there arises in things a diversity of weight: whence now all the phenomena of Weights, likewise Hydrostatics and Aerostatics. From broken bubbles, and the circulation of aether transfused into others: likewise (in a sealed vessel) from pistons drawn or repelled, there arises the Elastic Force of Aether, or the effort of restoring itself to the degree of rarity or density of the present ethereal sphere….

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…the structure of parts congruent to the thing, whence arise impetus, repercussions, reflections, refractions, vibrations, sounds, solutions, precipitations, fermentations, chemical principles, sympathies and antipathies, attractions, the motion of muscles, the power of fire, gunpowder, poison, and tincture, if there be any; indeed, all actions that are more vehement than the mass of the agent would suggest, and whatever extraordinary physics demonstrates to us as natural miracles.

And indeed, this hypothesis seems to me to join together and reconcile the various hypotheses of others; to supply where they are deficient; to advance where they stand still; and to explain where they are obscure and unproven, rendering them intelligible. This is done not so much as a new general hypothesis, but as a particular and distinct application to phenomena, which should be elicited more and more by the industry of both the learned and mechanics alike. Finally, these should be referred to the treasury of a solid and fruitful Philosophy, and the inventions translated into the use of life, for increasing the power and happiness of the human race, which seems to be the only purpose of philosophizing.

Otherwise, I hope for pardon if, at least from the effort to delineate such a thing, the discourse—composed of unlabored and therefore somewhat obscure words, and appearing in an order that is confused (as usually happens in first attempts where new ideas entering the memory are interpolated everywhere and do not cohere sufficiently)—has explained the matters themselves but little in such a forest of things to be treated.

FINIS.