Sacred and Truly Christian Philosophy, or Cosmic Meteorology

On the Primary Principles of Meteors. 5

derived or exhaled from the lower regions, refined by celestial action, and raised to one of the three regions of the air. Those who proposed that a general smoke was the matter of such impressions claimed it arose from water or earth; for this reason, they conceived of two kinds of smoke: namely, Vapor and Exhalation. They described the former as a warm and moist smoke, watery and non-flammable, arising from earth and water; the latter they described as a warm and dry smoke, terrestrial, flammable, and drawn out from the earth. Therefore, they called earth and water the "remote material causes," while vapor and exhalation were the "proximate causes."

But indeed, as we come to the opinions of the philosophers concerning the efficient causes of meteors, we shall find no small discrepancy among them. Some have been of the opinion that the efficient causes of these impressions are heat and cold. They made this heat twofold: namely, that of the place and that of the sun. Furthermore, they distinguished the heat of the sun into that which "calls forth," which draws out and elevates the smokes extracted from the earth or water, and that which is "scorching," which burns the elevated smokes according to the direct or indirect path of the solar rays. They also imagined cold to be of two conditions: namely, that of the place and that which is external. Again, they made the external cold either "constricting" or "prohibiting." By constricting, they mean the pores and surface of the earth are tightened so that the solar rays approaching from afar cannot extract smokes; they assert this is the reason why there are few fiery meteors in the winter time, but many more and more abundant watery ones (such as rain and snow). Others, making no mention of cold, proposed that the heavens, the light of the sun and the other stars—and especially the hidden influences of the planets—were the efficient causes of meteors. They argued that according to their various positions, relationships, and conjunctions, they produce different and diverse impressions in a hidden manner. Some supposed a hidden warmth of the air worked together with that celestial heat to produce such "imperfect mixtures" original: "mista imperfecta," a standard term for atmospheric phenomena which were seen as less stable than minerals or animals. Thus, various men have produced various efficient causes of meteors according to their differing fantasies. We shall bring the opinions of all these to the Lydian stone original: "examen Lydium," a touchstone used to test the purity of gold or to a trial by fire, with the assistance of the divine power, in its proper place.

They recognized the formal cause of these impressions—by which some are adorned with different shapes and others with different ones—to be varied according to the diversity of the place, the motion of the matter, and the acting heat.

Even in their opinions regarding the final cause The "final cause" refers to the ultimate purpose or end goal of a thing's existence. of meteors, those well-versed in natural philosophy are quite anxious and uncertain. Nevertheless, all of them, taught by outcome and experience, recognize a twofold effect of meteors in nature: namely, the good and healthy, and the evil and unhealthy. For they have learned by observation that the final effect of these tends toward the universal health of living plants and other bodies, as well as the convenience of each particular thing. They confess themselves to have experienced that every one of them has its own manifest and hidden virtue; for instance, the office of rain is to irrigate and fatten the earth, while the office of Comets is to consume the corrupt and poisonous smokes of the air, and so on. That they sometimes result in the worst and most mournful effects is taught to us not only by the more skilled Astrologers but also by those immersed in the mud of common philosophy. Daily practice has instructed them on how heavy floods are produced by immoderate rains, and how much terror of war, famine, and plague a Comet portends—which must also be judged of the other meteors, both watery and fiery, according to the disposition of their mass and quality. Indeed, on the testimony of Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy, the 2nd-century astronomer and geographer whose works were foundational to Renaissance science., meteors have more obscure significations regarding both the benefit and the harm of the lower world and its creatures than the stars themselves; nonetheless, he confesses that these can be soberly observed and judged in some way by men endowed with prudence.

Such, therefore, are the opinions of the Philosophers, both ancient and modern, regarding the general Being and existence of Meteors. If we compare these with the sense of the Sacred Page original: "sacræ paginæ," referring to the Bible through diligent observation, we shall clearly perceive—or it will be very easily brought into the light—whether there is any relationship between that Scripture and these opinions or not. For whatever is seen to be out of harmony with the fountain of all truth is false and deceptive.

CHAPTER II.
On the principles of Nature in general, according to...