Philosophical Letters: or, modest Reflections upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy

I cannot in reason give my consent to your _Authors_ opinion,[1] That _Fishes do by the force or vertue of an inbred Seed transchange simple water into fat, bones, and their own...

I am reading now the works of that Famous and most Renowned _Author, Des Cartes,_ out of which I intend to pick out onely those discourses which I like best, and not to examine...

Your desire is to know, since I say Nature is Wise, Whether all her parts must be wise also? To which, I answer; That (by your favour) all her parts are not fools: but yet it is...

Your new _Author_ endeavours to prove, that Water in its own proper nature is thicker then Earth; which, to my sense and reason, seems not probable; for although water is less p...

Lastly, I perceive you cannot believe that all bodies have weight; by reason, if this were so, the Sun, and the Stars would have long since cover'd the Earth. In answer to this...

I have taken several questions out of your new _Author_, which I intend to answer in this present Letter according to the conceptions of my own sense and reason, and to submit t...

I perceive you are desirous to know the cause, _Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning, and is a longer time recovering health, then loosing...

Yesterday I received a visit from the Lady _N. M._ who you know hath a quick wit, rational opinions, and subtil conceptions; all which she is ready and free to divulge in her di...

Concerning Sympathy and Antipathy, and attractive or magnetick Inclinations, which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars, others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover, other...

_Sensation in corporeal motion is first, and Perception follows_, sayes your _Author_:[1] to which opinion I give no assent, but do believe that Perception and Sensation are don...

That all other animals, besides man, want reason, your _Author_ endeavours to prove in his _discourse of method_, where his chief argument is, That other animals cannot express...

In my former, when I related your _Authors_ opinion, concerning Earthquakes, I forgot to tell you, that he counts the Doctrine of the Schools absurd, when they say that Air, or...

Your _Author_ in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man, demonstrating, that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body, but that s...

Your Authour going on in his discourse of Imagination, says,[1] _That, as we have no Imagination, whereof we have not formerly had sense, in whole or in parts; so we have not Tr...

In the Works of that most famous Philosopher and Mathematician of our age _Gal._ which you thought worth my reading, I find, he discourses much of upwards and downwards, backwar...

Your _Author_ having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter, I desire to know, how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts...

That Matter is uncapable of Sense, your _Author_ proves by the example of dead Carcasses;[1] _For,_ says he, _Motion and Sense being really one and the same thing, it must needs...

I am not of your _Authors_[1] opinion, That _Time hath no relation to Motion, but that Time and Motion are as unlike and different from each other as Finite from Infinite, and t...

Two sorts of motions, I find your _Author_[1] doth attribute to Animals, _viz. Vital and Animal, the Vital motions_, says he, _are begun in Generation, and continued without Int...

I perceive you are not fully satisfied with my former Letter concerning Eccho, and a figure presented in a Looking-glass; for you say, how is it possible, if Eccho consists in t...

I find your _Author_ to be as great an enemy to Issues, Cauteries, Clysters, and the like, as he is to Blood-letting and Purging; especially to Issues, which he counts to be bla...

Concerning those parts and chapters of your _Authors_ Works, which treat of Physick; before I begin to examine them, I beg leave of you in this present, to make some reflections...

Passing by those Chapters of your _Authors_, that treat of _Power and Act, Identy and Difference, Analogisme, Angle and Figure, Figures deficient, dimension of Circles_, and sev...

I will not dispute your _Authors_ opinion concerning the Plague of Men, which he says,[1] _doth not infect Beasts, neither doth the plague of Beasts infect Men_; but rather beli...

I received your questions in your last: the first was, _Whether there be more body compact together in a heavy then in a light thing?_ I answer, That purity, rarity, little quan...

It is no wonder, your _Author_ has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy, since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions, Apparitions, and Dreams, but are built u...

Having made some mention in my former Letter of the Receiving of Food, and discharging of Excrements, as also of Respiration, which consists in the sucking in of air, and sendin...

Your _Authors_ comparison[1] of the Sun, with the immaterial or divine Soul in Man, makes me almost of opinion, that the Sun is the Soul of this World we inhabit, and that the f...

First of all, _Madam_, there is no such thing as All in Infinite, nor any such thing as All the Place, for Infinite is not circumscribed nor limited: Next, as for that one Infin...

Since your _Worthy_ and _Learned Author_ is pleased to mention,[1] That an _ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our Understanding_, I have taken occasion hence...

I am of your _Authors_ mind, That _heat is not the cause of digestion_; but I dissent from him, when he says, That it is _the Ferment of the stomach that doth cause it_: For, in...

Your fourth question is, _Whether an Animal Creature is perfectly shaped or formed at the first Conception?_ I answer: If the Creature be composed of many and different parts, m...

_'Tis Supernatural, nay 'tis Divine, To write whole Volumes ere I can a line. I 'mplor'd the Lady Muses, those fine things, But they have broken all their Fidle-strings And cann...

The Generation of sound, according to your worthy _Authors_ opinion, is as follows: _As Vision,_ says he,[1] _so hearing is Generated by the medium, but not in the same manner;...

I do not approve of your _Authors_ Doctrine, forbidding Phlebotomy or blood-letting in Fevers, opposite to the received Practice of the Schools; his reason is, that he believes...

Although your _Author_[1] is of the opinion of _Plato_, in making _Three sorts of Atheists: One that believes no Gods; Another, which indeed admits of Gods, yet such as are unca...

I have chosen, in the first place, the Work of that famous Philosopher _Hobbs_ called _Leviathan_, wherein I find he sayes,[1] _That the cause of sense or sensitive perception i...

Your _Authors_ opinion is,[1] That _Matter being once actually divided as far as possibly it can, it is a perfect contradiction it should be divided any further._ I answer, Thou...

If you desire my opinion concerning Witches, whereof your Learned _Author_ hath many Discourses and Stories:[1] I will tell you really, that in my sense and reason, I do not bel...

The Art of Fire, as I perceive, is in greater esteem and respect with your _Author_, then Nature her self: For he says,[1] That _some things can be done by Art, which Nature can...

When I say, _A thing is forced_, I do not mean that the forced body receives strength without Matter; but that some Corporeal Motions joyn with other Corporeal Motions, and so d...