Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed by Andrew Paschall, to John Ray by whom it has been annotated, constituting an extraordinarily wide-ranging discussion of subjects preoccupying philosophers old and new, alluding to topics such as human thought, transcendental notions, being, nothing, space, body and matter, spirit, God, the world, the solar body, the ether, comets, planets, the oceans, vegetables, stones, metal, plants, animals, man, and "that hypothesis for which I have professed to have a Kindness; That I may be better able to discern whether it can supply with anything of a Mechanicall account concerning, Tides at sea & at land, gravity, Magnetism; the Varietyes of the Weather as to Wind, Rain, Snow &c, & Heat & cold &c. The life & Health of Animals, And all this with more, according to the True system, which I take to be the Heliocenter"; concluding with a seven-point summary in reply to the letter just received from Ray midway through writing ("...1. I willingly admitt & agree with you in your notion of gravity...") and allusion to "The Hermetic Philosophy...& the Apocalyptic prophecy"; annotated by Ray with a schema headed by the immaterial (God etc.) and the material body (celestial and terrestrial); docketed by Ray's editor William Derham and with all but a paragraph discussing dependents of poor clergymen deleted in red crayon as not fit for publication, 3 pages, address panel ("To Mr John Ray/ in Black Notley/ these present..."), seal, slight creasing at the edges, folio, 20 August 1694