do readily subscribe unto it; but when he speaks of those _things, which are produced without life_, my reason cannot find out, what, or where they should be; for certainly, in Nature they are not, Nature being Life and Soul her self, and all her parts being enlivened and soulified, so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life. Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning, when he says, That the _Seeds of things, and the Spirits, as the Dispensers thereof, are divided from the Material Cause_: For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed, and the material Cause, but they are all one thing, it being undeniable, that the seed is the matter of that which is produced. But your _Author_ was pleased to say heretofore, that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things, and now he makes so many more; for, says he, Of _Efficient and Seminal Causes, some are efficiently effecting, and others effectively effecting_: which nice distinctions, in my opinion, do but make a confusion in natural knowledg, setting a mans brain on the rack; for who is able to conceive all those _Chymæras_ and Fancies of the _Archeus, Ferment,_ various _Ideas, Blas, Gas,_ and many more, which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature, but betwixt both, except a man have the same Fancies, Visions and Dreams, your _Author_ had? Nature is easie to be understood, and without any difficulty, so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names, able to fright any body. Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings, but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed, which cause is corporeal Nature, or natural self-moving Matter, which forms and produces all natural things; and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions, which are the various motions in Nature; some whereof are Regular, some Irregular: I mean Irregular, as to particular Creatures, not as to Nature her self, for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed, or else all would run into confusion; Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures, not Infinite Nature; and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts, as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others: And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power, they cause either Peace or War, Sickness or Health, Delight and Pleasure, or Grief and Pain, Life or Death, to particular Creatures or parts of Nature; but all these various actions are but various Effects, and not prime Causes; which is well to be observed, lest we confound Causes with Effects. And so leaving this discourse for the present, I rest, Madam, _Your Faithful Friend_ _and Servant._ [1] Van Helm, _in his Book intituled_, Physick Refined, _ch._ 4. _of the Causes and beginning of natural things._ II. _MADAM,_