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motion of the lesser congregation, yet, if it operate to great distances, and upon large masses of matter, it deserves a separate enquiry, especially if it neither, like most other motions, begins with contact, nor comes to that at last, as all the motions of congregation do, but only raises bodies, or makes them swell, without any farther effect. For if the moon raises the waters, or makes moist things swell; or if the sphere of the fixed stars attracts the planets, towards their apogees; or if the sun attracts Venus and Mercury, and keeps them always near its body, these motions seem not justly to fall under those of the greater or less congregation, but to be certain middle and imperfect motions of assemblage, that should therefore constitute a particular species.

Let the tenth motion be the motion of avoidance, which is a motion contrary to that of the lesser congregation, and makes bodies, by antipathy*, fly from and keep off others that are disagreeable to them, or separate themselves therefrom, or refuse to mix therewith. For although this motion may seem, in some cases, to be only

Let it always be remembered, that the Author constantly, chuses the old words, where he may use them so as to convey his own meaning with any tolerable advantage. This is the more necessary to be remarked, because men are extremely apt to take particular disgusts, as well as particular likings, to words and phrases.

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an accidental, or a consequential thing, with respect to the motion of the lesser congregation, as homogeneous bodies cannot come together, till such as are heterogeneous be excluded and removed; yet it should be particularly mentioned, and made a species, because in many things the appetite of repulsion seems more capital than the appetite of attraction.

This motion appears remarkably in the excretions of animals, and no less in the objects odious to some of the senses, particularly to the smell and taste; for a fetid odour is so repulsed by the organ of smell, that it even causes a motion of expulsion, by consent, in the mouth of the stomach*. A bitter and horrid taste is so repulsed by the palate and throat, as to cause, by consent, a particular shake, or shuddering of the head.

This motion of avoidance has also place in other things, for it appears in some kinds of anti-, peristasis. Thus the cold in the middle region of the air, seems to be a repulsion of the cold from the confines of the celestial bodies, as those great heats and burnings, found in subterraneous places, seem to be a repulsion of heat from the inner parts of the earth. For heat and cold destroy each other when their degrees are small;

* Viz. A retching.

but when collected into large masses, or, as it were, into full armies, they violently repel, and displace each other in the conflict.

It is also reported, that cinnamon, and other odoriferous bodies, suspended in a jakes, or other fetid place, retain their scent longer, as thus keeping themselves within, and refusing to mix with matters of an ill odour. And quicksilver, which of itself unites into a continued mass, is, by grinding with a little spittle, turpentine, &c. kept asunder, so that its parts unite not again, by reason of the aversion they have to the bodies employed, from which, as every way mixed in among them, they shrink, and shut themselves up, their appetite of avoiding these particles interposed being greater than their appetite of uniting with their own similar parts; and this is what they call the killing of quicksilver.

So again, the reason that oil will not mix with water is not so much owing to their difference of gravity, as to their want of consent, which appears from hence, that spirit of wine, though lighter than oil, yet mixes with water. But the motion of avoidance is most remarkable in nitre, and the like crude bodies, which fly from flame, as we find in gunpowder, quicksilver, and gold *.

Viz. Quicksilver confined and heated, and in the Aurum Fulminans.

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Let the eleventh motion be the motion of assi milation, motion of self-multiplication, or motion of simple generation. By simple generation we do not understand the generation of entire bodies, such as plants and animals, but of similar bodies, so that by this motion bodies convert other bodies related to them, or at least such as are well disposed and prepared to be converted into their own substance and nature.

Thus flame multiplies itself upon unctuous exhalations and oily bodies, and generates new flame; air multiplies itself upon water, and produces new air; and the vegetable and animal spirit multiplies itself, or feeds upon the soft, aqueous, and oleaginous parts, and begets new spirit; the solid parts of plants and living creatures, as the leaves, the flowers, the flesh the bones, &c. are all assimilated from the juices of the aliment, and thus beget new matter, and new substance upon themselves successively *. For let no one dream, with Paracelsus, (who appears as if blinded by his distillations,) that nutrition is performed merely by separation; and that the eyes, the nose, the brain, the liver, &c. lies concealed in bread or food; or that the roots, the leaves, and flowers of vegetables, are lodged

See the History of Life and Death, the History of Winds, and the Sylva Sylvarum.

in the juice of the earth; for he asserts, that as the workman, by separating and paring off what is superfluous from a rude block of stone or wood, educes out of it a leaf, a flower, an eye, or a nose; so the Archæus, that internal operator of his, produces all the different limbs and parts out of the aliment, by separation and rejection.

But to leave such trifling; it is certain, that all the parts, as well similar as organical, in vegetables and animals, first attract with some election or choice, nearly the same common, or not very different juices, for their aliment, and afterwards assimilate or convert them into their own nature*.

Nor is this assimilation, or simple generation, performed only in animate bodies, but inanimate bodies also partake thereof; as was formerly observed of flame and airt. And even the languid spirit contained in all tangible inanimate bodies constantly endeavours to digest the grosser parts, and turn them into spirit to be afterwards discharged; whence proceeds diminution of weight and dryness, as was formerly observed ‡.

Nor must we, in the business of assimilation, reject that accretion commonly distinguished

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See the Sylva Sylvarum, under the article Vegetation. † See above, Aph. 42.

See above, Aph. 40.

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