Cavendish 1666

"if I am condemned, I shall be annihilated to nothing: but my ambition is such, as I would either be a world, or nothing" -- in Poems, "To Naturall Philosophers", qtd on pg. xxxvi

men consider the exterior when using microscopes and instruments; they should, however, be inquiring into the causes (the interior) of things (99-100; 128; 226)

feminizing of nature merges with her argument in interesting ways; see e.g. 105: "for, Nature being a wise and provident lady, governs her parts very wisely, methodically, and orderly: Also, she is very industrious, and hates to be idle, which makes her employ her time as a good housewife does, in brewing, baking, churning, spinning, sowing, etc." (105) -- natural philosophy should be useful the way housewife's are; see also 109

residue of Renaissance resemblance arguments, pg. 123 -- discussing whether the figures of herbs appear in their frozen decoctions

no vacuum in nature (127, 128)

against atomism (129)

every bit of matter has some form of perception; animal/mineral perceptions just aren't accesibly to us: "so that a mineral or vegetable that perceives the figure of an animal, has no more the perception of an animal, than an animal which perceives or patterns out the figure of a mineral or veetable, has the perceptions of those creatures" (142); see also 197, 207

X Of a Butterfly

• describes a creature that "appeared partly a vegetable, animal and mineral" (61)

XIV Of Natural Productions

• "I cannot wonder with those, who admire that a creature which inhabits the air, doth yet produce a creature, that for some time lives in the water as a fish, and afterward becomes an inhabitant of the air for this is but a production of one animal from another: but, what is more, I observe that there are productions of and from creatures of quite different kinds; as for example, that vegetables can and do breed animals, and animals, minerals and vegetables, and so forth" (66)

XXII Of Wood Petrified

• clay, dirt, etc., often turn to stone -- they are of a uniform nature, and therefore can transform uniformly
• animals cannot, "for as animals have different parts, so these parts are of different figures, not only exteriorly, but interiorly" (90) -- several sorts of flesh; "all which would puzzle and withstand the power of Ovid's metamorphosing of gods and goddesses" (91)
• "For, if all creatures could or should be metamorphosed into one sort of figure, then this whole world would perhaps come to be one stone, which would be a hard world." (91)