air. It is sufficiently clear, then, that the motion ing, and reverberated by the interposition of lands, is not confined within the limits of heaven. Then follows in order the second inquisition: whether the waters move regularly from east to west. Now, when we speak of waters, we mean those accumulations or masses of waters which are such large portions of nature as to have a relation of harmony to the fabric and system of the universe. And we are fully of opinion that the same motion is natural to, and inherent in, the body of waters, but is slower than in the air; though, on account of the grossness of the body, it is more palpable and manifest. Of this we shall content ourselves with three selected from many experimental proofs, but these weighty and marked ones, which prove that this is so. The first is, that there is found a manifest motion and flow of waters from the Indian Ocean, even to the Atlantic, and that more swift and strong towards the Straits of Magellan, when an outlet is opened to them westwards; and a great current also on the other side of the world from the Northern Ocean to the British Sea. And these currents of waters manifestly roll from east to west; in which fact we must note in the first place, that in those two places alone the seas find thoroughfares, and can describe in flowing a complete circle: whereas, on the contrary, at the central regions of the globe, by the two ramparts of the old and new world, they are thrown off and driven (as it were into the estuaries of rivers) into the basins of the Atlantic and Pacific, the two oceans extending between the south and north, and open to the motion of a current from east to west. So that the true course of the waters is most safely inferred from the extremities of the globe, as we have stated, where they meet with no impediment, but sweep round in full circuit. And the first experiment is thus, the second is the following. Let us suppose that the tide takes place at the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar at any given bour: it is certain that the tide sets in at Cape St. Vincent later in the day than at the mouth of the Straits-at Cape Finisterre later than at Cape St. Vincent,-at King's Island later than at Cape Finisterre, at the Island Heek later than at King's Island, at the entrance of the English channel later than at Heek,-at the shore of Normandy later than at the entrance of the channel. Thus far in regular order: but at Graveling, as if by an entire inversion of the order, and that with a great leap, as it were, at the same hour, with a velocity like that which it has at the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar. This second observation we apply to, and compare with the first. For we think, as has already been said, that in the Indian and northern oceans the true currents of the waters, that is, from the east to the west, are open and unimpeded, but in the channels of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans imprisoned and cross which extend both ways longitudinally from south to north; and nowhere but toward their extremities afford a free canal to the waters. But that strong direction of the waters, which is caused by the Indian Ocean towards the north, and in the opposite direction from the North Sea towards the South, differ infinitely in the extent of sea, affected on account of the different force and quantity of waters. But that this should take place is unavoidable. For the two great islands of the old and new world have the same figures, and are so stretched out as to broaden to the north, and taper to the south. The seas, therefore, on the contrary, towards the south occupy a vast space, but to the north a small one, at the back of Asia, Africa, and America; consequently, that great mass of waters which is discharged from the Indian Ocean, and is refracted into the Atlantic, is capable of forcing or propelling the course of the waters in a continued movement nearly to the British Sea, which is a part of the line described northwards. But that much smaller portion of the waters which issues from the north sea, and which has also a free passage westwards at the back of America, is not strong enough to turn the course of the waters southwards, except towards that point which we mentioned, namely, about the British Sea. Now, in these opposite currents, there must be some goal where they meet and contend, and where within short space the order of advance is suddenly changed, as we have said occurs about Graveling-the focus of the currents from the Indian and Northern Oceans, and that a certain ocean stream is formed by op posite currents on the coast of Holland has been noted by numbers, not only from the inversion of the hour of the tide, which we have stated, but also from the peculiar visible effect. Now, if this is so, we return to the position, that it must needs be, that in proportion as the parts and shores of the Atlantic extend southwards and approach the Indian Sea, in the same proportion the tide is prior, and early in the order of approach, and in proportion as you go northwards, (as far as their common goal,) where they are forced back by the antagonist stream of the Northern Ocean, they are backward and late. Now, that this is the case, the observation of the progression from the Straits of Gibraltar to the British Sea manifestly proves. Wherefore we think that the tide about the shores of Africa is at an earlier hour than that of the Straits of Gibraltar, and, in reversed order, the tide about Norway earlier than the tide about Swedenbut this we have not ascertained by experiment or testimony. A third experiment is the following: The seas confined by land on one side, which we call bays, if they stretch out with any inclination from east to west, which is in the same line of impetus with the true motion of the waters, have heavy is, not that they move towards the poles, but are pointed and turned towards the poles. For since every revolving sphere, which has fixed poles, participates of the nature of movable and fixed; after, by its consistency or self-determining nature, the rotatory force is bound up, still the force and tendency to direct itself remains, is augmented and gathered into one; so that direction and verticity to the poles in hard bodies is the same with the revolution on their poles in fluids. and powerful tides; but if in the opposite direc- | fixed bodies can agree with liquid and fluid that tion, weak and scarcely perceptible. For the Red Sea hath a considerable tide; and the Persian Gulf, with a yet more entire westward direction, a still stronger. But the Mediterranean, the greatest of all gulfs, and its parts, the Tuscan, Pontic, and Propontic Seas, and in like manner the Baltic, all which tend eastward, are almost destitute of tide, or have only languid ones. But this difference is most conspicuous in certain parts of the Mediterranean, which, so long as they tend eastwards or turn towards the north, as in the Tuscan Sea and the others we have mentioned, The third inquiry remains. Whence and how are pacific and without much tide. But, after ariseth that reciprocal action of the tides, once in getting a westerly direction, which takes place in six hours, which coincides with a quarter of the the Adriatic, it requires a remarkably large tide. diurnal motion, with that difference to which we To which we may also add this, that in the Medi- have adverted. To understand this, let us supterranean the slight reflux which is found begins pose that the whole globe was covered with from the ocean, the flow from the opposite direc-water, as in the general deluge; we conceive the tion, so that the water follows rather a course waters, as forming a complete and unbroken from the east than the natural refluence of the globe, would always roll in a progression from ocean. The three instances only we shall use for east to west each day to a certain extent: not the present, in reference to this second inquiry. certainly a great space, on account of the remis sion and deliberation of that motion as it ap proaches the earth, seeing the waters were no where obstructed or confined. Let us suppose, again, that the whole land was an island, and that it extended longitudinally between south and north, which confirmation and position most restrain and obstruct the motion from east to west; we think that the waters would keep on in their direct and natural course for a certain time, but. reverberated by the shores of that island, would roll back in equal intervals; that there would be, therefore, only one influx of the sea a day, and in like manner only one reflux, and that to each of these about twelve hours would be apportioned. And let us now suppose what is true and matterof-fact, that the land is divided into two islands, those, namely, of the new and old world; for Australia, by its position, does not much alter the effect; as neither does Greenland nor Nova Zethbla, and that these two islands extend through nearly three zones of the world, between which two oceans, the Atlantic and Southern, flow, and these nowhere find a thoroughfare, except towards the poles; we think it necessarily follows, that these two ramparts impart and communicate the character or double reaction to the entire mass of waters. Whence arises that motion in the quar ter of a day,-so that the waters being cooped in on both sides, the ebb and flow of the sea would become visible twice a day, since there is a double advance, and also a double recoil. Now, if these two islands were extended through the waters like cylinders or columns, of equal dimensions, and with rectilinear shores, that motion might be easily perceptible, and might be pointed out to any one, which now seems to be perplexed and obscured by so great a variety of position of land and sea. For it is not difficult to form some There may be added to these another species of proof, agreeing with those already advanced, but of a more difficult nature. It is this: that an argument may be sought for proof of this motion from east to west, not only from the consenting motion of the heavens, of which we have already spoken,-where this motion is, as it were, in full flower and strength,-but also from the earth when it seems wholly to cease; so that it is really a direction of the universe, and pervades all things from the zenith to the interior parts of the earth. Now, we apprehend that this conversion takes place from east to west (as in reality it is found to do) upon the south and north poles. And Gilbertus has, with great care and accuracy, accomplished for us this discovery, that the whole earth and nature, so far as we call it terrestrial, have an inclination or popularity not softened down, but rigid, and, as Gilbertus himself calls it, robust, latent, but betraying itself in many nice experiments towards the north and south. And this observation we thus modify and correct, that this ought to be asserted only of the exterior formation about the surface of the earth, and ought not to be extended to the bowels of the earth; for that the earth is a magnet was at one time conceived,—a light imagination,-for it can not be that the inward parts of the earth resemble any substance which the eye of man hath seen: since all the substances among which we live are loosened, subdued, or broken up by the sun and heavenly bodies, so that they cannot possibly agree with those which have had their seat in a place where the influence of the heavenly bodies does not penetrate;-but, which is our present subject, the more superficial crusts or formations of the earth appear to agree with the conversions of the sun. air. and waters, as far as solid and and with the hour of reflux on the coast of Africa and Florida? Let it be inquired, how far the hour of tide on the coast of Peru differs from the hour of tide at the coast of New Spain; and particularly what are the differences of the hour of tide at either shore of the Isthmus of Darien, in America; again, how far the hour of tide on the coast of Peru corresponds with the hour of tide on the coast of China? conjecture what degree of velocity it is proper to ascribe to that motion of the waters, and what distances it may describe in one day. For, if there be selected, in order to form a judgment of this matter, some of those coasts which are less mountainous, or low lying, and which are contiguous to the open sea, and then the measure of the space of the globe interjacent between the extreme points of the flux and reflux, and that space be quadrupled on account of the four movements of the tide each day, and that number again doubled on account of the tides at the opposite shores of the same ocean; and to this number there be something added over and above on ac-ness of tides is generally caused by the deprescount of the height of the shores, which always rise to a certain elevation above the channel of the sea; that calculation will give the space which this sphere of water, were it free from obstruction, and moving in progression round the enveloped globe of earth, would describe in one day, which certainly would not be great. Now, with respect to that difference which coincides with the measure of the moon's motion, and forms the period of a lunar month; we think that the explanation is this, that the period of six hours is not the exact measure of this reaction, just as the diurnal motion of any of the planets is not accomplished in twenty-four hours precisely, and least of all that of the moon. Wherefore, the measure of the ebb and flow of the tide is not a quarter of the motion of the fixed stars, which is twenty-four hours, but a quarter of the diurnal motion of the moon. DIRECTIONS. Let it be inquired, whether the hour of the tide on the coast of Africa be before the hour of tide about the Straits of Gibraltar. Let it be inquired whether the hour of the tide about Norway is before the hour of the tide about Sweden, and that, in like manner, before the hour of the tide at Graveling? Let it be inquired, whether the hour of the tide on the coast of Brazil be before the hour of the tide on the coast of New Spain and Florida? Let it be inquired, whether the hour of the tide at the shores of China is not found nearly the same with the hour of tide on the coast of Peru, Let it be inquired respecting the largeness of the tides on different coasts, not merely respecting their periods or hours. For, although the large sions of the shores, yet, notwithstanding, they are closely connected with the true principle of the motion of the sea, according as it is favourable or adverse. Let inquiry be made with respect to the Caspian sea, which is formed by considerable bodies of water locked up, without any outlet into the ocean, if they are subject to ebb and flow, and what? our conjecture being that the waters of the Caspian Sea may have one tide a day, not two, and such that the eastern shores of it are deserted by the sea, while the western are over. flowed. And let inquiry be made, whether the increase of the tide at new and full moons and at the equinoxes, takes place at the same time in different parts of the world, (and when we say at the same time, we do not mean at the same hour, for the hours vary, according to the rapidity of the waters' motion towards the shores, as we have said,) but in the same day. Limits. The inquiry is not extended to a full explanation of the harmony of the monthly motion of the sea with the moon's motion, whether that takes place from a subordinate or a joint cause. Relations. The present inquiry is connected with the inquiry whether the earth revolves with the diurnal motion of the heavens. For if the tide is, so to speak, the last stage of the gradual diminution of the diurnal motion, it will follow, that the globe of the earth is immovable, or at least that its motion is slower by far than that of the water. W. G. G VOL. III.-67 2 Y TRANSLATION OF THE ABECEDARIUM NATURÆ, BY ARCHBISHOP TENNISON. PUBLISHED IN THE BACONIANA, 1679. THE SAME IN ENGLISH BY THE PUBLISHER. A Fragment of a Book written by the Lord Verulam, and entitled, The Alphabet of Nature. SEEING SO many things are produced by the | negatives subjoined to affirmatives, conduce much earth and waters; so many things pass through to the information of the understanding: it is fit the air, and are received by it; so many things that an inquisition be made concerning being, and are changed and dissolved by fire; other inquisi- not being. That is the seventy-third in order, tions would be less perspicuous, unless the nature and reckoned the fourfold Alpha. of those masses which so often occur, were well known and explained. To these we add inquisitions concerning celestial bodies, and meteors, seeing they are some of greater masses, and of the number of catholic bodies.* Greater Masses. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Alpha; or, concerning being, and not being. Now, possible and impossible, are nothing else but conditions potential to being, or not potential to being. Of this the seventy-fourth inquisition consists, and is accounted the fourfold Beta. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Beta; or, The sixty-seventh inquisition. The threefold concerning possible and impossible. Tau, or concerning the earth. The sixty-eighth inquisition. Upsilon, or concerning the water. The sixty-ninth inquisition. The threefold Phi, or concerning the air. Also, much, little; rare, ordinary; are conditions potential to being in quantity. Of them let the seventy-fifth inquisition consist, and be accounted the fourfold Gamma. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Gamma; or, The seventieth inquisition. The threefold Chi, concerning much and little. or concerning the fire. Durable and transitory, eternal and momentary, The seventy-first inquisition. The threefold are potential to being in duration. Of these let Psi, or concerning celestial bodies. the seventy-sixth inquisition consist, and be called The seventy-second inquisition. The threefold the fourfold Delta. Omega, or concerning meteors. Conditions of Entities. There yet remain, as subjects of our inquiry, in our alphabet, the conditions of beings, which seem, as it were, transcendentals, and such as touch very little of the body of nature. Yet, by that manner of inquisition which we use, they will considerably illustrate the other objects. First, therefore; seeing (as Democritus excellently observed) the nature of things is in the plenty of matter, and variety of individuals large, and (as he affirmeth) infinite; but in its coitions and species so finite, that it may seem narrow and poor; seeing so few species are found, either in actual being or impossibility, that they scarce make up a muster of a thousand; and seeing See the distribution, in 1. 2, c. 3, de Augm. Scient. p. 134, 135, 136. Ed. Lugd. Bat. 1. 3, c. 4, p. 231. And c. 4. Globi Intellect. p. 88, 89. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Delta; or, concerning durable and transitory. Natural and monstrous, are potential to being, either by the course of nature, or by its deviations from it. Of these let the seventy-seventh inquisi tion consist, which is accounted the fourfold Epsilon. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Epsilon; or, concerning what is natural or monstrous. Natural and artificial, are potential to being, either with or without the operation of man. Of these let the seventy-eighth inquisition consist, and be accounted the fourfold Zeta. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Zeta; or, of that which is natural and artificial. We have not subjoined examples in the explice tion of the order of this our alphabet: for the inquisitions themselves contain the whole array of examples. It is by no means intended, that the titles, ac cording to which the order of this alphabet is disposed, should have so much authority given to them, as to be taken for true and fixed partitions of things. That were to profess we already knew the things after which we inquire; for no man does truly dispose of things into their several classes, who does not beforehand very well understand the nature of them. It is sufficient, if these titles be conveniently adapted to the order of inquiry; the thing which is at present designed. The Rule or Form of the Alphabet. After this manner we compose and dispose our alphabet: We begin solely with history and experiments. These, if they exhibit an enumeration and series of particular things, are disposed into tables; otherwise, they are taken separately and by themselves. But, seeing we are often at a loss for history and experiments, especially such as are luciferous, or instructive, and, as we call them, instances of the cross; by which the understanding might be helped in the knowledge of the true causes of things: we propose the task of making new experiments. These may serve as a history in design. For what else is to be done by us who are but breaking the ice? For the mode of any more abstruse experiment, we explain it, lest any mistake arise about it; and to the intent, also, that we may excite others to excogitate better methods. Also, we interspect certain admonitions and cautions concerning such fallacies of things, and errors in invention, as we meet with in our way. We subjoin our observations upon history and experiments, that the interpretation of nature may be the more in readiness and at hand. Likewise, we lay down canons (but not such as are fixed and determined) and axioms which are, as it were, in embryo: such as offer them See Nov. Organ., 1. 2., Aph. 36. selves to us in the quality of inquirers, and not of judges. Such canons and axioms are profitable, though they appear not yet manifest, and upon all accounts true. Lastly: we meditate sometimes certain essays of interpretation, though such as are low and of small advance, and by no means to be honoured (in our opinion) with the very name of interpretation. For, what need have we of arrogance or imposture, seeing we have so often professed that we have not such a supply of history and experiments as is needful; and that, without these, the interpretation of nature cannot be brought to perfection. Wherefore, it is enough for us if we are not wanting to the beginning of things. Now, for the sake of perspicuity and order, we prepare our way by avenues, which are a kind of prefaces to our inquisitions. Likewise, we interpose bonds of connection, that our inquisitions may not seem abrupt and disjointed. Also, we suggest for use some hints of practice. Furthermore, we propose wishes of such things as are hitherto only desired and not had, together with those things which border on them, for the exciting the industry of man's mind. Neither are we ignorant that those inquisitions are sometimes mutually entangled; so that some things of which we inquire, even the same things belong to several titles. But we will observe such measure, that (as far as may be) we may shun both the nauseousness of repetition, and the trouble of rejection, submitting, notwithstanding, to either of these, when, in an argument so obscure, there is necessity of so doing, in order to the more intelligible teaching of it. This is the form and rule of our alphabet. May God, the creator, preserver, and renewer of the universe, protect and govern this work, both in its ascent to his glory, and in its descent to the good of mankind, for the sake of his mercy and good will to men, through his only Son, Immanuel, God with us. |