In _particular_ he intersperses several curious remarks. _E.g._ He teaches how to make _Perspectives_, that magnifie Objects, without Glass; telling us, that when an Object is look't upon through a small hole, it appears much greater than it is; and that therefore, if instead of Glasses one did cast before ones eyes two _Plates_ having little holes in them, it would furnish us with a new kind of _Perspectives_, more commodious than those of Glasses, which spoil the Sight by reason of the refraction of the Rayes, caused thereby. _Again_, He renders the cause of that common, but surprising, effect of Painters, drawing certain Pourtraictures, which seem to look directly upon all their Beholders, on what side soever they place themselves: _Videl._ That in those Pictures, the Nose it a little turned to one side, and the eyes to the other. Whence it comes, that such pictures seem to look to the right side, because the Eyes are indeed turned that way; but they appear also to look to the left, because the point of the Nose is turned that way, and the Table, whereon the Picture is drawn, being flat the Looker on perceives not, that the Eyes are turned th'other way; which he would do, if the Eyes of the Pourtrait were convex: Whence it comes, that no Figure can be made embossed, which looks every way. The art, which he teaches of making _Parsley_ shoot out of the ground in a few hours, is this. Infuse the seed of it in Vinegar; and having sown it in good ground cast on it a good quantity of the Ashes of Bean-Cods, and sprinkle it with Spirit of Wine, and then cover it with some linnen. He mentions also; that if you calcine Earth, and then water it well, it will {327} produce a great variety of different Herbs, and that the Ashes of Corn burnt, being sown, have sometimes produced other Corn. To add that by the by, this Author is not so addicted to _Aristotle_, as to be on his side, when he thinks Truth is not. He hath emancipated himself considerably from the _Scholastick_ way of Philosophing. He dares maintain, that the Vegetative and Sensitive Souls are not _Substantial_ Forms; and that it is with Plants and Animals, as with Artificial things, the Form whereof results from the Union and Disposition of the parts. According to this _Hypothesis_ he explicates all the Operations of Plants and Animals, without having any recourse to the Soul. He avers also, that there are no _Species Intentionales_, and no Habitudes, and that the Animal Spirits, which Philosophers commonly believe to be necessary for all the Operations of Life, are useless. It might also be observed out of this Author, what he discourses of the Generation of Animals by Putrefaction; of the Cause of intermittent _Feavers_, and of the Animal Instinct, and of many other particulars; were it not better to refer the curious to the Book it self.