or through a colour'd glass or neer some other lively colour Are any colours fairer then those of the Rain-bow and yet they are no more real then those of the Clouds The whiteness which we behold in the milky way ariseth only from the light of many small Stars The necks of Pigeons seem of a thousand more colours then they have The Heavens the Air and the Water have none but what we phancy or what their depth and the weakness of our sight gives them The scales of Fish some small worms and certain kinds of rotten wood shining in the night seem to us to be colour'd And Pictures are apprehended well or ill drawn according to their situation The Second said The object of Vision is colour the Organ the Eye the medium is a Diaphanous body illuminated Provided these three be rightly dispos'd the Organ and the medium free from all colours and the object at a convenient distance all men will necessarily behold colours as they are and always alike which would not be so if they were imaginary or fortuitous Besides being the object of the sight the surest of all Senses they ought to have a real existence as all the objects of the other Senses have For the object of the outward sense must be real otherwise it cannot act upon the Organ and the Agent and the Patient ought to agree in the same genus The Third said Colours as all other second qualities have a real existence since they arise from the commixtion of moist and dry caus'd by heat and determin'd by cold The first thing that happens in this mixtion is that the humidity is thickned by the accession of some dry substance and of this co-agulation is made a green colour which therefore is the first of colours as may be observ'd in water the grosser parts of which become green moss and in Plants when they first spring out of the earth But if heat exceed in the mixtion then ariseth the Red Purple and other lively and bright colours which according as they degenerate attain at length to Black which is made by adustion But when mixtions take a contrary course by cold then arise all dead colours which terminate in black too by a contrary cause namely the total extinction of heat as 't is seen in old men and dead persons who are of a leaden and blackish colour As therefore green is the first so Black is the last of colours yea 't is properly no colour especially when the humidity is already all consum'd as in coals or is separated from the dry parts as in things become black by putrefaction as the gangrenous parts of an animal Neither is white a colour but a mean between colour and light The rest are true colours The Fourth said Colours cannot proceed from the temperament or mixture of the four first qualities because mixt bodies of different temperature have the same colour Sugar Arsenic and all Salts are white the Crow and Raven are black and on the contrary one and the same mixt body of the same temperature in all its parts is nevertheless of several colours which it changes without mutation of its temper Ebeny is black in its surface and grey within Marble Jasper and Porphyry delight the sight chiefly by the variety of their colours yellow Wax grows white and white becomes black in the Sun Nor can any one say that the part of a Tulip which differs in colour from all the rest is therefore distinct in quality Wherefore since colours proceed not from the first elementary qualities they are no more real then the intentional species of the sight yea they are the very same thing for the visible species are nothing else but qualities streaming from every terminated body which alter the medium filling the same with their images which they diffuse even into the Organ Now colours are the same being qualities which actually change and alter the Diaphanous and illuminated body The Fifth said This argues that we are ignorant of the reason of the mixtion of every body and why such a body hath such a colour but not that colours are not true and real Yet with this distinction that the colours alone which are seen with the conditions requisite to sensation are real that is to say exist really and not in the Imagination For if it were not so we should see them as well by night as by day and with our eyes shut as open as that foolish Antiphon did who thought he always saw his own image before him And a sensible faculty ought to have a real and sensible object since the object must be of the same nature with the faculty But there are colours which are not really in the surface of bodies though they appear so to us by reason of the divers reception of light or of some other extrinsecal colour of a transparent diaphanous body or some other external cause which hinders the eye from discerning the true colour of the mixt body which colour though appearing otherwise then it is yet really exists but is hidden under another apparent one which continues as long as its external causes And colour'd bodies are no less so by night then by day but because vision cannot be made unless the medium be illuminated 't is only through the want of light that we see them not in the night For although we perceive in the dark the eyes of Cats Toad-stools Worms certain horns and rotten wood yet 't is not their true colour but a certain splendor different from colour which proceedeth either from their igneous spirits or because they approach neer simplicity There is therefore reality in colour but it is consider'd two ways either as a quality resulting from the mixture of the four Elementary qualities in which sence 't is defin'd by Aristotle the extremity of a perspicuum terminated or as being simply visible and is defin'd by the same Philosopher a motive quality of a body actually diaphanous In the first signification the colours seen in the Rainbow or the yellow colour cast upon a white wall by the Sun-beams passing through a glass or other medium of the same colour are no more real and true colours of those subjects then the blackness upon Paper by reason of the ink hiding its natural whiteness But in the latter signification every colour whatsoever is real since the one is as well visible as the other The Sixth said Colour differs not from light saving that colour is the light of mixt and light is the colour of simple bodies which the more simple they are they are also more luminous But if they communicate not their light 't is for want of density which is the sole cause of all activity The parts of Heaven are equally luminous and yet only the more dense and thick as the Stars can diffuse their light to us If this light grows weak it degenerates into a white colour as we see in the Moon and Stars if it be
the Stoicks call a god others a divine member and the Luminary of the little World Theophrastus Beauty because it resides principally in the Eyes the most charming part of a handsome face Their colour twinkling fixedness and other dispositions serve the Physiognomists for certain indications of the inclinations of the soul which all antiquity believ'd to have its seat in the eyes in which you read pride humility anger mildness joy sadness love hatred and the other humane affections And as the inclinations and actions of men are more various then those of other creatures so their eyes alone are variously colour'd whereas the eyes of all beasts of the same species are alike Yea the eyes are no less eloquent then the tongue since they express our conceptions by a dumb but very emphatical language and a twinkle of the eye many times moves more to obedience then speech Plato being unable to conceive the admirable effects of the Sight without somewhat of divinity believ'd there was a celestial light in the eye which issuing forth to receive the outward light brought the same to the soul to be judg'd of which nevertheless we perceive not in the dark because then the internal streaming forth into the obscure air which is unlike to it self is alter'd and corrupted by it Indeed if it be true that there is a natural implanted sound in the ear why may there not be a natural light in the eye considering too that the Organs ought to have a similitude and agreement with their objects And hence it is that the eyes sometimes flash like lightning in the night as Cardan saith his did and Suetonious relates the same of Tiberius and that those that are in a Phrensy imagine that they see lightning For it seems to me more rational to refer this Phaenomenon to the lucid and igneous spirits of the sight which being unable to penetrate the crystalline or vitreous humour by reason of some gross vapours reflect back into the eye and make those flashes then to the smoothness of the eye or to attrition of the spirits or as Galen holds to an exhalation caus'd by the blood which is carri'd to the head though this latter may sometimes be a joynt cause The Third said The Eye is compos'd of six Muscles as many Tunicles three Humours two pair of Nerves and abundance of small Veins and Arteries its object is every thing that is visible as colour light and splendor light in the Celestial Bodies wherein the object and the medium are the same thing since the light of the Sun is seen by it self colour in inferiour bodies where the object and the medium are two for colour cannot be seen without light splendor in the scales of Fishes rotten wood the eyes of some animals Gloe-worms and the like for it is different from their natural colour It s Organ is the Eye so regarded by Nature that she hath fortifi'd it on all sides for its safety with the bone of the Forehead the Eye-brows the Eye-lids the hair thereof the Nose the rising of the Cheeks and the Hands to ward off outward injuries and if Galen may be believ'd the Brain it self the noblest part of the body was made only for the eyes whence Anaxagoras conceiv'd that men were created only to see or contemplate The Eyes are dearer to us then any other part because saith Aristotle they are the instruments of most exact knowledge and so serve not only for the body but the soul whose food is the knowledge which the eye supplies call'd for this reason the Sense of Invention as the Ear is that of discipline 'T is of an aqueous nature because it was requisite that it should be diaphanous to receive the visible species and light for if it had been of a terrestrial matter it would have been opake and dark if aerious or igneous it could not have long retain'd the species air and fire being thin diaphanous bodies which receive well but retain not for though the air be full of the species of objects which move through it from all parts yet they are not visible in it by reason of its rarity It was fit therefore that the Eye should be of a pellucid and dense substance that it might both receive and retain the visible species which kind of substance is proper to water as appears by the images which it represents Moreover the Eye being neer and conjoyn'd to the Brain by the Nerves of the first and second conjugation and to the membranes thereof by its Tunicles could not be of an igneous nature perfectly contrary to that of the Brain as Plato held it to be because of its agility lucidity and orbicular figure like that of fire as he said and because the Eye is never tense or stiff as all the other parts all which he conceiv'd could not be but from fire For the Eyes agility or nimbleness of motion is from its Muscles and its lubricity its brightness from the external light its round figure rather denotes water whose least particles are so then fire whose figure is pyramidal 'T is never stiff because of the fat wherewith it is stuff'd and because it is destitute of flesh II. Of Painting Upon the second Point it was said That Painting is a sort of writing by which many times that is express'd which cannot be spoken witness the story of Progne and Philomel and as the latter represents things by letters so doth the former by their natural figure so perfectly that it is understood by the most ignorant because it exhibits in their proper colour bigness proportion and other natural accidents whereas Writing makes use of characters and figures which have no affinity with the things denoted by them but only signifie the same by the institution of men who therefore differ in Writing but all agree in painting Both the one and the other like all Arts whose scope is imitation as Oratory Statuary Sculpture Architecture and many others depend upon the strength of the Imagination and that Painter succeeds bests who hath in his mind the most perfect idea of his work And because a Painter is to imitate every thing 't is requir'd to his being a Master that he be ignorant of nothing particularly he must know both the natural and artificial proportions and agreements of things with their several modes and uses And where there are three ways of representing the first in surfaces by flat painting the other in bodies themselves which belongs to Statuary and the Plastick Art the third between both as Graving and Carving Painting is the most difficult and consequently the most noble For it must so deceive the sight as to make cavities folds and bosses appear in a flat surface by the help of shadows which although a meer nothing because but a privation of light yet they gave all the gracefulness and value to Pictures For the way of painting without shadows us'd in China being nothing but a simple delineation without hatchment
as it is very excellent so 't is exceeding rare and being not us'd amongst us cannot come into comparison with the rest Whereas Sculpture and Statuary consisting only in paring away the overplus of matter or if the matter be fusible in casting it into a mould made from the original as the moulds of Plaster are from the faces of persons newly deceas'd need less industry The Second said Although Painting be sensible and visible yet it belongs to very few persons to judge well of it witness Alexander who going to see Appelles and offering to talk concerning Painting he spoke so ill that the Apprentices of that Artist could not forbear laughing Indeed Painting is one of the noblest parts of the Mechanicks and ought as well to be rank'd amongst the Mathematicks as Astronomy For if the reason of the Celestial motions gave cause for accounting this Science amongst the Mathematicks more justly may the reason of the motions and proportions of mans body the object of Painting more admirable and of which more certain and real knowledge may be had then of those remote bodies deserves to be of that rank considering that it makes use of the same Mathematical Rules Proportions whose Rules are so infallible that seven excellent Statuaries very distant one from the other being employ'd to make a brazen Colossus perform'd their tasks by the precepts of their Art and the parts which each of them made severally being put together represented a well proportion'd man According to which proportion a mans body must be eight lengths of his head from the less corner of the eye to the tip of the Ear is to be twice the length of the Eye the Feet and Hands stretch'd forth equally distant from the Navil and such other remarks The Third said The reason of the measures and proportions observ'd in Painting consists principally in four points viz. in the form and figure of the thing represented which is taken from the visual rays in the shadow which is to be taken from the rays of light in colour which is to imitate the natural and in the handsome posture or situation of the thing painted For Painting is the imitation of the affections of bodies with reference to the light made upon a solid Plane Hence a face is otherwise represented under the water then bare distant then neer in the Sun-shine then in the shadow by Candle-light or Moon-light And though the Painter represents also the dispositions of the soul as anger or sadness yet he doth it always by the features and qualities of the body The Fourth said They who blame Painting and Statuary because they represent unfitting objects and gave occasion to the Idolatry of antiquity may as justly blame beauty because 't is sometimes the occasion of sinning Painting hath this preeminence above all Arts that it imitates God more perfectly then they for God was the first Painter when he made man the goodliest piece of the world after his own image and likeness and all the bless'd spirits are but contracted copies of so perfect an original 'T is that which frees the body from the tombe and like a second table after shipwrack preserves the memory of virtuous men renders present those who are absent and makes almost as strong impressions upon our Soul as the thing it self witnesse the friendships of the greatest personages of the world contracted by its means And as if the desire of pourtraying it self were natural to all things there is no body but incessantly produces its own image which flies and wanders in the Air till it meet with some solid and smooth body whereon to represent it self as we see in Looking-glasses and polish'd marble where the images are much more exact then those which Art draws with a pencil yea then their own originals of whose corporeal matter they are wholly divested And as the beginning of all Arts are rude this of Painting is attributed to the Daughter of Belus who observing her Fathers shadow upon a wall delineated it with a coal For Pourtraiture invented by Philocles the Aegyptian is ancienter then Painting invented either by Gyges the Lydian in Aegypt according to Pliny or by Pyrhus Cousin to Daedalus according to Aristotle The Fifth said That in Painting as in other disciplines Ignorance of the principles is the cause that so few succeed well in it These principles are the methodical proportion of Mans Body Perspective the reason of shadows Natural Colours Designing and History all which must be found in a good Piece and the defect of some of them as it frequently happens causes us to wonder though we know not the reason that there is commonly something in all draughts that does not satisfie our Minds For oftentimes when all the rest is good Perspective hath not been well observ'd or the Design is nought or the History ill follow'd But as things are the more to be esteem'd which are the most simple so there is more of wonder in Painting to the life with a coal as Appelles did before Ptolomy to denote a person to him whom he could not name then with colours the least part of Painting which consists properly onely in proportion and this being the most divine action of Understanding 't is no wonder if there be so few good Painters For they are mistaken who place the excellence of painting in the smallness of the strokes because they fancy that Appelles was discover'd to Protogenes by having made a smaller line then he For on the contrary the most excellent strokes of Masters are many times the grossest and that this proportion may be exact it must imitate not onely particular subjects but generally the species of every thing Which Michel Caravague neglecting to do about 90. years since and instead of following Durer's excellent Rules addicting himself to draw onely after the life hath lead the way to all his successors who care not for his Rules but give themselves onely to imitation and this is the cause of the defects of painting at this day CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. I. Of Light I Conceive with a learned Physitian of the most worthy Chancellor that France ever had in his Treatise of this subject that Light is of two sorts one radical and essential which is found perfectly in the Stars the fire and some other subjects but imperfectly in colour'd bodies because Colour is a species of Light The other secondary and derivative which is found in bodies illuminated by the Light Both are made in Transparent Bodies those of the Stars in the Heaven and that of flame and bodies ignited in the fire whiteness in the Air and blackness in the Water But these transparent bodies must be condens'd that those Lights and Colours may appear and therefore the principle of Light is in transparence alone whereof neither purity rarity tenuity nor equality of surfaces are the causes but they all proceed from the quantity of matter some bodies having more matter then others
not by rarity alone or local extension but by formal extension or internal quantity and consequently that a little matter under a great internal quantity is the principle cause of tenuity rarity and transparence to which the evenness of surfaces is also requisite in gross bodies So that Light consists in a proportion between the quantity and the matter of its subject and Light is great when the matter is little under a great quantity as in the Heavens on the contrary the body is dark when a very small quantity is joyn'd to a great deal of matter as is seen in the Earth To prove this you must observe that all simple bodies are luminous excepting the Earth which is opake and we find Light in sundry animated bodies as in the Eyes of Cats and of those Indian Snailes which shine like torches and in our Gloe-wormes whose Light proceeds from their Spirits which being of a middle nature between the Body and the Soul are the least material thing in the world Whence it follows that Light is a form with the most of essence amongst sensible formes as obscurity hath the least The Second said The wonder of Marsilius Ficinus was with reason how 't was possible that nothing should be so obscure as Light For if Transparence be the subject of it why doth Crystal heated red hot in the fire come forth more luminous and less transparent then it was The same may be said of Rarity for we see that Air and Aqua Vitae are well rarify'd by the fire which inflames them but cease to be transparent as soon as they are made more rare and luminous which is an evident sign that rarity and transparence are not causes nor yet conditions of Light So the whole remainder of Heaven is lucid but onely the less rare parts and such as you might call vapours in respect of the pure Air. And the light which proceeds from the Sun the most luminous of all those celestial bodies would never be visible but be depriv'd of all its effects which are heating and enlightning if it were not reflected by some solid body Then it not onely appears but exerts its activity And if things be produc'd by the same causes which preserve and multiply them the solidity of burning mirrors made of Steel the hardest of all metals which make the Sun-beams do more then their own nature empowers them to shews sufficiently that their Light cannot arise from a rare and diaphanous cause Nor may the Light of rotten wood be assign'd to its rarity alone since many other bodies of greater rarity shine not at all nor that of Gloe-worms and Cats Eyes to their spirits since the flesh of some animals shines after their death as 't is affirm'd of Oxen that have frequently eaten a sort of Moon-wort and not onely the scales of divers fishes shine after separation from their bodies but sparkles of fire issue from the hair of some persons in great droughts whereunto the spirits contribute nothing Which would perswade me to believe that Light is a Form to the introduction whereof several conditions are requisite according to the diversity of subjects just as we see the Souls of some irrational creatures need great dispositions for their reception a Brain a Heart and a Liver with their dependances whereas others as Insects require lesse and are contented with something that may supply this defect some are generated in an instant without any apparent preparation as Frogs in a summer showre and therefore to assign the cause of Light is to seek the reason of Formes which is unknown to us Which similitude the vulgar speech confirmes for the people say The Candle is dead when it is extinguish'd presupposing that it had life before as an Animal hath so long as its form is conjoyn'd with its body Moreover Fire hath a Locall Motion as Animals have to obtain its food The Third said Light is a substance for it was created by God but 't is a Sixth Essence more subtile then that of Heaven which is call'd a Quintessence in respect of the Four Elements A substance which subsisted before the Sun having been created three dayes before it and nothing hinders but it may be communicated in a moment from Heaven to Earth since the intentional species of visible things is so Indeed whereunto shall we attribute the effect of Light which heats at distance and blinds being too great which colours and gives ornament to the Universe if it be not a substance And the Penetration of Dimension objected hereunto is salv'd by saying that it hath no more place here then when an Iron is red hot with the Fire which yet none will affirm to be an accident and neverthelesse it enters into the whole substance of the Iron and Light with it for 't is transparent and luminous at its centre when 't is throughly heated in the Fire The Fourth said The excellence of Light appears in that nothing hath greater resemblance with the Deity Which made some Heathen Philosophers say that Light is Gods Body and Truth his Soul Moreover the Scripture teaches us that God dwells in inaccessible Light And the blessed Spirits are stil'd Angels of Light as Daemons Spirits of darknesse Light enlivens and animates all things it rejoyces all Creatures by its presence Birds begin to sing and even flowers to display their beauties at its arrival And because Nothing gives what it hath not therefore some have conceiv'd that Light the enlivener of all the world is it self indu'd with life and that 't is the Universal Spirit and the Soul of the whole world Whence Plato in his timaeus brings no other argument to prove that Fire is an Animal but that it is luminous And in the sixth Book of his Common-wealth he makes the Sun who is the known Father of all living things the son of Light without which Pythagoras forbad to do any thing Moreover it hath no contrary Darkness being oppos'd to it onely privatively For its being is so excellent that Nature found not her self so able to make any thing that might be equall'd with it that might alter and corrupt it as the nature of Contraries require whereas all Qualities have each their particular enemy And 't is upon this very reason that Light acts in an instant because having no contrary quality to expel from its subject it needs no time or successive motion which is necessary to other qualities as to heat to warm cold water The Fifth said Light is a real form produc'd in the medium by a luminous body Aristotle calls it the act of the Perspicuum as it is Perspicuum This Form is accidental and falls under the head of Patible Qualities because 't is sensible by it self which is the property of accidents alone whereas substance is not sensible that is falls not under the perception of sense but by means of accidents and as it is the principle of action which belongs onely to a Quality For it cannot
That every thing that disturbs the publick quiet is to be repress'd concludes that the Seditious are to be punish'd So 't is not enough for a Mathematician to know that equal things added to equal things are likewise equal unless he apply this universal principle to particular lines surfaces and bodies Which is done either by the Synthetical or by the Analytical way which nevertheless must be follow'd by the Synthetical Now 't is in the application of these general rules to particulars that errour is committed even in the most certain Sciences The Seventh said That there are few Sciences because there are few Principles and Proposition's demonstrable as the contingent and the absolute are not Whence it is that the future is not demonstrable and hence follows the incertainty of Politicks Wherefore only necessary Propositions whereof the truth is permanent and eternal are demonstrable and all these are necessarily demonstrable because they have infallible principles yet only such of these whose principles are known by men are demonstrable by men So 't is certain that the Inundation of Nilus and the flux and reflux of the Sea are not demonstrable because men know not the principles are not known Whereby it appears how ridiculous they are who undertake to demonstrate every thing CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body THe extream variety of men's actions and manners cannot proceed from the diversity of their souls which are accounted all equal but from that of the bodies wherein according to the various tempers thereof the soul produces that variety of manners And as in natural and animal actions one and the same Soul digests in the stomack makes blood in the Liver and Veins sees by the Eyes and reasons in the Brain so likewise it is sometimes sad when the melancholy humour predominates in the body sometimes cheerful when blood abounds and sometimes also froward or angry when the choler is agitated The Second said That the soul being the form as the body is the matter it must be the cause of all humane actions not the body which receives them since the soul informs and perfectionates the body and begets in it the habit which produces the manners and actions As the horse governs not the rider but the contrary and 't is to the rider that the honour or blame of the course is to be imputed And were the soul but a quality as the most prophane have ventur'd to affirm yet the same priviledge must be reserv'd to it which is allow'd to the predominant quality in every compound which gives it not only the denomination but also the action as in compound medicaments the most active simple carries the credit from the rest Besides if the body and the humours thereof were the author and cause of manners an ignorant person could never become learned and a single Lecture of Xenocrates had never made a Drunkard cast off his chaplet of flowers and turn a Philosopher The examples of many grand personages sufficiently ill furnish'd with graces of the body evidence what certainty there is in arguing from the out-side of the corporeal structure to the furniture of the soul and that the signs of malice remark'd in some as in Zoilus from his having a red beard a black mouth and being lame and one-ey'd of Thersites and Irus from their having sharp heads rather shew the malice or ignorance of such as make these remarks then prove that these dispositions of body are the true cause of malice we see people of the same temper hair stature features and other circumstances very different in their manners and inclinations And the same is observ'd in horses For since the Stars the most powerful agents do not constrain but only incline certainly the humours cannot do more True it is their inclination is so strong that no less grace of Heaven is needful to resist the same then strength to retain a man that is rolling down the declivity of a hill Yet Socrates remaining unmov'd by the embraces of a Curtezan whom his Scholars contriv'd into his bed to try him although he was naturally very prone to vice justifies that how hard soever it be to stop the slipping foot when it is once going yet 't is not impossible and therefore the manners of the soul do not always follow the constitution of the body Not considering the power which the fear of God hath over our wills the effects whereof I here meddle not with as being supernatural since they have sometimes destroy'd all the maximes of nature witness those that give themselves to be burnt for the faith The Third said That the body must needs contribute to the soul's actions as being its instrument But it contributes only what it hath namely its temperament and other proprieties Therefore 't is from this temperament that the same are diversifi'd The soul sees no longer when the eyes are shut or blinded 't is wise in a well temper'd brain not only in a dry as Plato in his Timaeus conceiv'd because he saw children grow more prudent as their brain was desiccated 't is stupid in a too moist brain and foolish or furious in one inflam'd as in deliration or madness 'T is also forc'd to leave its body when a violent Fever hath so deprav'd the humours thereof that there remains not the temper necessary to its reception Therefore it follows the temper of the humours Thus because we see fire introduc'd into any combustible subject and extinguish'd when the same is consum'd we say fire follows combustible matter and becomes of the same nature quantity and other qualities Moreover Hippocrates saith Nations are warlike or cowardly laborious or not of good or bad nature according to the diversity of climates and soils they inhabit which render them diversly temper'd Hence in Asia where the air is temperate and less subject to changes then Europe and Africa men are more healthy and handsome their manners more equal and laudable on the contrary in Countries more cold or hot the inhabitants are either more cruel or more boisterous more hardy or more timerous and Mountaineers are more industrious as on the contrary those who live in a fertile soil are commonly more slothful Hence amongst the Greeks the Thebans and all the Baeotians whose Country was rich and the air very thick were very dull and the Athenians very subtle which was the cause that 't was said people were born Philosophers at Athens on the contrary 't was a prodigious thing to see one wise Anacharsis among the Scythians Hippocrates addes the seasons too according to the change whereof men's manners are also found divers But all these cannot act upon the soul but by the organ of the body changing its humours and introducing new qualities into the parts thereof The Fourth said Even sucking children give some tokens to what their
take thence a charme which the Spirit left there or to invoke the same Spirit signifies that you must go and take from under a stone agreed upon the cypher'd letter and decipher it by the same alphabet upon which it was cypher'd Vigenarius spends half his Book in speaking of the Cabala of the Jews and the Caldeans and the other half in many Alphabets of all sorts with Key and without he hath indeed abundance of Cyphers which seem undecypherable which he makes to depend on three differences 1. On the form of Characters which comprehends several figures lines and colours 2. On their order and situation but changing the Alphabet almost infinite ways 3. On their value and power giving such signification to one letter or character as you please All which are easily known for cyphers The second condition of a cypher and which follows that of secresie being not to appear such the least suspicion causing the stopping of the paper and so rendring it unprofitable to the writer which has given occasion to some to cover characters drawn in oyl with something that might be wash'd off besides other such inventions to take away suspicion such as that of having two Books of the same impression and under pretext of sending Tables of Astrology or Merchants Bills to design by cyphers the letter of the Book which you mean to express the first cypher signifying the fourth page the second the fourth line and the third the fourth letter of that line which you would denote CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs I. Of Ignes fatui 'T Is a question whether 't would be more advantageous to mans contentment to be ignorant of nothing since then he would admire nothing which is one of his greatest pleasures Hence a Peasant beholding a flake of fire following him or going before him in the night time will be otherwise ravish'd with it then a Philosopher who knows or thinks he knows the cause of it there being little difference herein as to our satisfaction They conceive it to be an unctuous exhalation apt to be inflam'd like the fatty steam of a Candle newly put out which instantly conveighs down the neighbouring light to seek its aliment But the same example shews us that fire very suddenly devours its aliment when it is subtile and thin So that if a fire of straw which is much more material then an exhalation vanishes so quickly that we express the most transient momentary things thereby how can a far thinner exhalation keep this foolish fire so long which besides burns not as appears by its sticking innoxiously upon the hair of men and manes of horses and yet Aqua-vitae never so well rectified will singe the hair as was sometimes verified to the great prejudice of one of our Kings which would make me think that as all fire is not luminous as a hot dunghil burns your finger and fire excited by motion burns much more without blazing so there are some lights which are not igneous as in Heaven the Stars and in Earth some rotten woods certain fishes worms eyes flesh of animals and other more such subjects which cannot be more susceptible of those lights which burn not then the Air which is the prime diaphanous body and consequently most capable of receiving them although possibly we cannot truly know what temper the Air must acquire to become luminous no more then what is fit for it in other subjects For to attribute the cause thereof to purity or simplicity signifies little for earth and ashes are more simple then the flesh or other part dead or living of an Animal and yet this shines and those not The Second said That these fires may be referr'd to four sorts The first resemble falling Stars or lighted Torches which Plutarch saith were seen to fall upon Pompey's Camp the eve before the Battle of Pharsalia The second is that kind of flame which has appear'd upon the heads of some as of Ascanius in Virgil and of Servius Hostilius which was an omen to them of Royalty The third are those which appear at Sea about the Masts and Shrouds of the Ships named by the Ancient Castor and Pollux when they are two and when but one Helena and by the Moderns the fire of S. Elme The last are those which are seen in the Country in the night time and are thought to drive or draw Travellers into precipices As for the first 't is certain that the same exhalation which makes Comets in the highest Region of the Air and Thunders in the middlemost is also the matter of these falling Stars and being rais'd in small quantity from the earth is condens'd by the cold of the middle Region where finding no cloud strong enough to uphold it 't is inflam'd by the antiperistasis of its contrary or the swift motion of its fall by reason of its great heat and siccity And as they proceed from the same cause as dry winds do so they presage winds and drought especially in that quarter from whence they fall But as for the other sorts I conceive they are only lights and not fires For the Air being transparent and the first subject of Whiteness as Aristotle saith hath likewise in it self some radical light which is sustein'd by that of the Stars which shine in the night And this whiteness of the Air is prov'd by the appearance of it when t is enclos'd in moist bodies as in froth snow and crystal which whitness is very symbolical to light which it preserves and congregates as is seen by the same snow in a very dark night Yea to speak plainly whiteness is nothing else but light extinct luminous bodies appearing white neer a greater light and white luminous in darkness So 't is possible that the thinner parts of the Air being inclos'd in these unctuous vapours they appear enlightned and shining as well by reason of the condensation of its body as the inequality of its surfaces like a diamond cut into several facets or as the Stars appear luminous only by being the denser parts of their Orbs. And this kind of light has been seen upon the heads of children whose moister brain exhal'd a vapour proper for it such also as that is which forms the Will-i'th'-Wisp which may also proceed from the reflection of the Star-light from the Sea or Rocks For That two of these fires bode good to Seamen and one ill is but one of the superstitions of Antiquity unless you think that the greater number of fires argues greater purity of the Air and consequently less fear of tempest The Third said He accounted the common opinion more solid which teacheth two material principles of all Meteors Vapour and Exhalation but one and the same efficient the heat of the Sun which lifts the thinner parts of the water in a vapour and those of the earth in an exhalation the former hot and moist the latter hot and dry borrowing their heat from an extraneous heat but
we approach or go farther from the Poles we see the same more or less elevated 4. Because the Sun is seen daily to rise and set sooner in one place then in another Lastly it is prov'd by the conveniency of habitation For as of all Isoperimeter Figures the Circle is most capacious so the Sphere containeth more then any other Body and therefore if the Earth were not round every part of it would not have its Antipodes So that I wonder at the opinion of Lactantius and Saint Augustine who denyed them For as for that story that in the year 745. by the relation of Aventinus Virgilius a German Bishop was deprived of his Bishoprick and condemned as an Heretick by Pope Zachary it was not onely for maintaining this truth which experience hath since confirm'd but because he drew conclusions from it prejudicial to Religion Now whereas it may be doubted whether as there are uneven parts in the Earth some higher then other so there be not also Seas some of whose waters too are more elevated then the rest I affirm that since all the Seas except the Caspian have communication amongst themselves they are all level and no higher one then another And had they no such communication yet the Water being of its Nature fluid and heavy flowing into the lowest place would equal its surface with the rest and so make a perfect Sphere Whence it follows that they were mistaken who disswaded Sesostris King of Aegypt from joyning the Red Sea with the Mediterranean for fear lest the former which they judg'd the higher should come to drown Greece and part of Asia For want of which demonstration several Learned Men have been mistaken and no less then the Angelical Doctor The Second said That the Earth is very dry not for that it dispelleth moisture as Fire doth but for that it receiveth and imbibeth it into it self But it cannot be cold of its own Nature if it were it could produce nothing It is cold onely by the Air as 't is sometimes moist by the Water and hot by the Fire which insinuateth into its cavities It is also very heavy since it holdeth the lowest place in the world and hath its motion from the circumference to the Centre which is the progression that Aristotle attributeth to heavy Bodies Whence for being the lowest stage it is called the Foot-stool of God But this heaviness seemeth to me not to proceed from humidity as was urged For though the Water and Earth joyn'd together seem to weigh more then Earth alone 't is not that they weigh more indeed but this Earth which was imagined to be alone is fill'd with a quantity of Air and the Water coming to succeed in its place it appeareth more heavy For Earth and Water joyn'd together weigh more then Earth and Air so joyn'd in like quantity because Water is heavier then Air. And to justifie that Earth is heavier then Water a bucket fill'd with sand weighes more then an other fill'd with Water For that sand is Water congealed is as hard to prove as that Earth is Water The Third said That Earth composeth a Mixt Body by a double action viz. from its coldness and of its driness As for the former it secondeth the Water compacting by its coldness the parts which are to be mix'd and which moisture hath united For the Second it giveth hardness and consistence imbibing and sucking up the superfluous moisture after the due union of the parts made thereby It cannot but be cold for as good Polititians willingly reconcile two great Families at Enmity by their mutual alliances so all the strength of the mixture consisting onely in the union of Dry and Moist and its destruction coming from their disunion and the Dry and Moist being wholly Enemies and contraries in the highest degree Nature reconciles them together and brings them into union by the mediation of Water For this being ally'd to Air by the moisture which it hath in a remiss degree and Earth being ally'd to Water by the coldness which it hath in a less degree it becometh ally'd to the Air and its humidity Since according to the maxime Things which agree in the same third agree among themselves Thus you see coldness is necessary to the Earth to cause a lasting composition amongst them Earth hath also this advantage by its siccity that as the same is less active then heat and yieldeth thereunto in vigour of action so heat yieldeth to it in resistance For the dryness inducing hardness resisteth division more powerfully and consequently better preserveth the mixt Body in being resisting the Agents which are contrary to it Whereto its gravity serveth not a little it rendring the Earth less managable by the agitations of the agents its Enemies So that gravity by this means assisteth the hardness and consistence of the dryness like two Kinsmen uniting together to keep off the affronts of their Enemies The Fourth said That the gravity of the Earth and of every other Body yea that of Gold too the heaviest of all mixt Bodies dependeth onely upon its Figure since not onely a Vessel convex on the side toward the Water sinketh not but also a single leaf of Gold swimeth upon it Which is seen likewise in Tera Lemnia or Sigillata which sinketh not in the Water so that there is no probility in that decuple proportion of the Elements according to which Earth ought to weigh ten times more then Water and Water onely ten times more then Air and supposing one were in the Region of Fire and there weigh'd the Air as we do here the Water he would find it likewise ten times heavier then the Fire This is more certain that the proportion of the weight of Earth to that of Sea-water is as 93. to 90 that of Sea-water to fresh as 92. to 74. But that which makes more for those who hold Water more heavy then Earth is that the proportion of Earth to Salt is found to be as 92. to 106. In fine It was remark'd that though the Earth is consider'd by Astronomers but as a point in respect of the vast extent of the Coelestial Orbs yet no Man encompas'd it round before the year 1420. when Jean de Betancourt a Norman Gentleman by the discovery of the Canaries trac'd out the way to the Spaniards who attributed the honour thereof to themselves though they began not till above fourscore years after Moreover it is 15000. leagues in circumference of which there is not much less Land uncover'd then there is cover'd by the Water But if you compare their greatness together there is far less Earth then Water For 't is held that there is no Sea that hath a league in depth there is little without bottom many to which the Anchors reach yea several places not capable of great vessels for want of Water On the other side There are Mountains upon which you still ascend upwards for many dayes journey others inaccessible even to the sight
as big which greatness seemes to proceed from an Oedema or Inflation occasion'd by the posture of his head which is alwayes pendulous and supine and this defluxion of humours joyn'd with his Brother's negligence hath caus'd some sores upon him He hath the countenance of a Man but a most dreadful one by the disproportion of all its parts He is deaf blind dumb having great teeth in his mouth by which he casts forth spittle and breathes very strongly rather then by the nose which is close stop'd within His mouth is otherwise useless having never drunk nor eaten nor hath he any place for evacuation of excrements His eyes are alwayes shut and there appears no pupil in them He hath but one thigh one leg and one foot extremely ill shap'd and not reaching to the knee of the other But he hath two armes very lean and disproportionate to the rest of the body and at the end of each of them instead of hands a thumb and two fingers very deformed too At the bottome of his belly there is a little membranous appendix without a passage His pulse is manifest in either arm as also the beating of his heart though the external figure of his breast and the divarication of his jugular veines have very little of the ordinary structure and situation Whereby it appears that each of them hath a brain heart and lungs distinct but they have both but one liver one stomack and one set of Intestines For one of them sleepes sometimes while the other is awake one hath been sick while the other hath been in health The greater hath been blooded above twenty times in three grievous diseases but no Physitian hath ventur'd to purge him lest the purgative medicament passing through those unusual windings should produce unusual effects to his prejudice He lives after the common manner exercising all his rational vital and natural faculties in perfection And they who have been to see him in this City as almost every one runs to see this Wonder of Nature may judge of his management and conduct of his affairs Yet the negligence of the greater in supporting the less and holding him in a convenient posture is not to be pass'd over without notice for though he breathes as I said above yet he alwayes keeps his head cover'd with a double linnen cloth and his cloak and although by his great weight he continually stretches the skin of his belly yet he endeavours not to ease either his Brother or himself Yea the custome of carrying this load hath render'd it so light to him that he performes all ordinary exercises and playes at Tennis like another Man All which consider'd it seemes this Monster is one of the most notable Errours of Nature that hath appear'd in this Age and perhaps in any preceding Besides the causes alledg'd above some extraordinary conjunction of the Stars happening at the time of his conception may have had some influence in this irregular production Moreover it appears that the less draweth nourishment from the greater by the Anastomosis or Insertion of his Vessels with those of his Brother as the Child sucks the Maternal Blood by the Vmbilical Vein there being in both but one principle of sanguification But it is otherwise as to Life Motion and Feeling which being distinct in them cannot proceed from one and the same principle The Fourth said That it may be doubted whether this be a Monster or no their union being not sufficient for that denomination For we frequently see two trees grow together in the middle and otherwise separate Nor is the deficiency of parts in the one any more monstrous then if one single man should be born without Armes and Legs Moreover he inherited the same from his Father which doth not come to pass in Monsters The Fifth said That according to Plato the case is the same with Nature as with Virtue All that exceeds their ordinary rules is called monstrous As deformity of the Mind is Vice so is also that of Nature That the cause of this instance is like that of an Egg with a double yelk out of which the pellicles being broken that separated them are produc'd two Chickens joyn'd together or else one with four wings four feet or other such irregularities So these Twins having been divided in the Womb at the place where they co-here either by the acrimony of humours or some other violent cause Nature which loves nothing so much as Union forthwith assembled its spirits and humours to unite that which was separated Which design of Nature is apparent in the cure of wounds and burnes the fingers and other parts uniting together one to the other contrary to its first intention the figure and use of the same parts But the difficulty is whether there be two Souls in these two Bodies For my part considering that they have two Brains wherein the Soul is held to reside and the external humane shape they may be rightly call'd two Men who consequently have two Souls Now if that which is in the less doth not exercise its functions the reason is because the Organs are not fitly dispos'd and proportion'd no more then those of little Children Ideots and Mad men and through this Nature's having been hinder'd by the rebellion of the Matter to receive such dispositions from the Agents which are Heat and the Spirits which also being too languishing have not been able to impart to their subject all the degrees of necessary perfection The Sixth said That he compar'd the framing of this Monster to the Workmanship of a piece of Tapistry upon which two persons are imploy'd The more diligent of the two finishes his task first the more slothful finding all the material spent is constrain'd to leave his business imperfect and fasten it to the other as well as he can So the spirits being in too great abundance to attend the fabricating of one single Child undertook two and began each from the Head The more vigorous had done first and the other finding no more stuff made but half a Man who by reason of the continuity of the Matter became connected to the first Now whereas it may be said that the Definition of Monsters brought by the Civilians doth not appertain to it the answer is That the same thing may be a Monster Physically inasmuch as it deflecteth from the Laws of Nature as this doth though it be not one Politically in that it is capable to make a Will Inherit Contract and to do all other Actions civil The Hour of Inventions was spent in Replies and Comparisons of other Monsters particularly that of mention'd by Buchanan in the fifteenth Book of his History born in Northumberland with two heads four armes two breasts and onely two leggs It was instructed in Musick so that each head sung its part melodiously and discours'd together pertinently They dy'd one fifteen dayes before the other the latter by the putrefaction of his inseparable Companion At length
in the Tuilleries justifies him Yet Art finds a greater facility in this matter near Lakes Hills and Woods naturally dispos'd for such a re-percussion But which increases the wonder of the Echo is its reduplication which is multiply'd in some places seven times and more the reason whereof seemes to be the same with that of multiplication of Images in Mirrors For as there are Mirrors which not onely receive the species on their surface so plainly as our Eye beholds but cannot see the same in the Air though they are no less there then in the Mirror so there are some that cast forth the species into the Air so that stretching out your arm you see another arm as it were coming out of the Mirror to meet yours In like manner it is with the voice And as a second and a third Mirror rightly situated double and trebble the same species so other Angles and Concavities opposite to the first cause the voice to bound and by their sending it from one to another multiply it as many times as there are several Angles but indeed weaker in the end then in the beginning because all Reaction is less then the First Action CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred I. How Spirits act upon Bodies IT is requisite to understand the Nature of ordinary and sensible actions that we may judge of others as in all Sciences a known Term is laid down to serve for a rule to those which are inquir'd So Architects have a Level and a Square whereby to discern perpendicular Lines and Angles Now in Natural Actions between two Bodies there is an Agent a Patient a Contact either Physical or Mathematical or compounded of both a Proportion of Nature and Place and a Reaction Moreover Action is onely between Contraries so that Substances and Bodies having no contraries act not one against the other saving by their qualities Which nevertheless inhering in the subjects which support them cause Philosophers to say that Actions proceed from Supposita Now that which causeth the difficulty in the Question is not that which results from the Agent for the Spirit is not onely a perpetual Agent but also a pure Act nor that which proceedeth from the Patient for Matter which predominates in Bodies is of its own Nature purely Passive But 't is from the want of Contact For it seemeth not possible for a Physical Contact to be between any but two complete substances And if we speak of the Soul which informes the Body it is not complete because it hath an essence ordinated and relative to the Body If we speak of Angels or Daemons there is no proportion of Nature between them and Bodies and much less resemblance as to the manner of being in a place For Angels are in a place onely definitively and Bodies are circumscrib'd with the internal surface of their place How then can they act one upon the other Nor can there be reaction between them For Spirits cannot part from Bodies But on the other side since Action is onely between Contraries and Contraries are under the same next Genus and Substance is divided into Spiritual and Corporeal there ought to be no more true Action then between the Soul and the Body both Contraries not onely according to the acception of Divines who constantly oppose the Body to the Spirit and make them fight one with the other but speaking naturally it is evident that the proprieties of the one being diametrically opposite to those of the other cause a perpetual conflict with them which is the same that we call Action Contact is no more necessary between the Soul and the Body to infer their action then it is between the Iron and the Load-stone which attracts it What Proportion can be found greater then between Act and Power the Form and the Matter the Soul and the Body which are in the same place As for Reaction supposing it to be necessary whereof yet we see no effect in the Sun nor the other Coelestial Bodies which no Man will say suffer any thing from our Eye upon which nevertheless they act making themselves seen by us And Lovers are not wholly without reason when they say a subject makes them suffer remaining it self unmoveable It is certain that our Soul suffers little less then our Body as is seen in griefs and corporal maladies which alter the free functions of the Mind caus'd by the influence of the Soul upon the Body through Anger Fear Hope and the other Passions The Soul then acts upon the Body over which it is accustom'd to exercise Dominion from the time of our Formation in our Mothers womb it governs and inures it to obey in the same manner as a good Rider doth a Horse whom he hath manag'd from his youth and rides upon every day Their common contentment facilitates this obedience the instruments the Soul makes use of are the Spirits which are of a middle nature between it and the Body Not that I fancy them half spiritual and half corporeal as some would suppose but by reason they are of so subtile a Nature that they vanish together with the Soul So that the Arteries Ventricles and other parts which contain them are found wholly empty immediately after death The Second said That if we would judge aright what ways the Soul takes to act upon the Body we need onely seek what the Body takes to act upon the Soul For the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal to those from the circumference to the centre Now the course which it holds towards the Soul is thus The Objects imprint their species in the Organ of the outward Sense this carries the same to the Common Sense and this to the Phancy The Memory at the same time presents to the Judgement the fore-past Experiences which she hath kept in her Treasury The Judgement by comparing them with the knowledge newly arriv'd to it by its Phantasmes together with its natural habit of first principles draws from the same a conclusion which the Will approves as soon as Reason acquiesseth therein According to the same order the Will consignes the Phantasmes in the Memory and the Phancy this to the Common Sense and this to the Organs of the Senses For Example as soon as my Judgement hath approv'd the discourse which I make to you and my Will hath agreed thereunto she consign'd the species to my Memory that it might remember to reduce them into this order according to which my Memory distributed them to my Imagination this to my Common Sense this to the Nerves appointed for the Motion of my Tongue and the other Organs of Speech to recite the same and now into those of my hand to write them down to you The Third said That the clearing of the Question propounded depended upon two others First what link or union there may be between a Spiritual and a Corporeal thing Secondly supposing
the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd
us On the contrary Prodigality ruines and perverts the Laws of Nature leading a Man to the destruction of his relatives and the undoing of himself like Saturn and Time it devours its own issue and consumes it self to the damage of the Common-wealth whose interest it is that every Man use well what belongs to him Therefore all Laws have enacted penalties against Prodigals depriving them of the administration of their own Estates and the most Sacred Edicts of our Kings aim at the correcting of the Luxury of Prodigality But never were any Laws Punishments or inflictions ordained against Covetousness because Prodigality causeth the down-fall and destruction of the most Illustrious Houses which cannot be attributed to Covetousness for this seemes rather to have built them The Second said That according to Aristotle amongst all the virtuous none wins more Love then the Liberal because there is alwayes something to be gotten by him as amongst all the vicious none is more hated and shun'd by all the world then the covetous who doth not onely not give any thing but draws to himself the most he can from every one and from the publick in which he accounts himself so little concern'd that he considers it no farther then how he may make his profit of it He is so loath to part with his treasures when he dyes that he would gladly be his own Heir as Hermocrates appointed himself by his Testament or else he would swallow down his Crowns as that other Miser did whom Athenaeus mentions But the Prodigal free from that self-interest which causes so great troubles in the world gives all to the publick and keeps nothing for himself Whence according to Aristotle the Prodigal is not so remote from Virtue as the Covetous it being easier to make the former Liberal then the latter The Third said These two Vices are equally oppos'd to Liberality and consequently one as distant from it as the other For as the Covetous is Vicious in that he receives too much and gives nothing so is the Prodigal in that he gives too much and receives nothing at all or receives onely to give But Covetousness hath this priviledge that it finds a Virtue from which it is very little distant namely Frugality or Parsimony to which Prodigality is diametrically oppos'd Nor is it of little advantage to it that it is ordinarily found in Old Men whom we account wiser then others for having learn't by the experience of many years that all friends have fail'd them in time of need and that their surest refuge hath been their own Purse they do not willingly part with what they have taken pains to gather together which is another reason in favour of Covetousness For Virtue and Difficulty seem in a manner reciprocal But Prodigality is very easie and usual to foolish Youth which thinking never to find the bottome of the barrel draws forth incessantly and gives so freely that being over-taken with necessity it is constraind to have recourse to Covetousness which sets it upon its leggs again Nor ever was there a Father that counsel'd his Son to be prodigal but rather to be thrifty and close-handed And yet the Gospel and Experience shew that Fathers give and advise what is most expedient to their Children The Fourth said As Rashness is much less blameable then Cowardice so is Prodigality then Avarice For the Prodigal holding it ignominious to receive and glorious alwayes to give likes rather to deprive and devest himself of his goods then to deny any one whatsoever On the other side the Covetous doth nothing but receive on all hands and never gives any thing but with hope to receive more Now it is much more noble to give then to receive for Giving supposes Having The Prodigal knowing well that goods and riches are given by God onely to serve for necessary instruments to the living more commodiously and that they are not riches if they be not made use of employes them and accommodates himself and others therewith but the Covetous doth not so much as make use of them for himself and so destroyes their end The Fifth said If the Question did not oblige us to compare these two Vices together I should follow Demosthenes's sentence which he gave in the quarrel of two Thieves that accus'd one another which was that the one should be banish'd Athens and the other should run after him I should no less drive out of a well-policy'd State the Covetous and the Prodigal The first is Aesop's Dogg who keeps the Ox from eating the hay whereof himself tasts not like the Bears who hinder Men from approaching Mines of Gold and yet make no use thereof The other is like those Fruit-trees which grow in Precipices of which onely Crows and Birds of prey eat the Fruit vicious persons alone ordinarily get benefit by them But yet this latter Vice seemes to me more pernicious then the other For whether you consider them in particular The Covetous raises an Estate which many times serves to educate and support better Men then himself But Prodigality is the certain ruine of their Fortunes who are addicted to it and carries them further to all other Vices to which Necessity serves more truly for a cause then reasonably for an excuse or whether you consider them in general 't is the most ordinary overthrow of States And possibly he that should seek the true cause of publick Inconveniences would sooner find it in Luxury and Prodigality then in any thing else Therefore Solons's Law declar'd Prodigals infamous and gave power to their Creditors to dis-member them and cut them in pieces Our Ordinances in imitation of the Roman Law which ranks them under the predicament of Mad-men forbids and deprives them of the administration of their own goods as not knowing how to use them The Sixth said Avarice is like those Gulfes that swallow up Ships and never disgorge them again and Prodigality like a Rock that causes shipwracks the ruines whereof are cast upon the coasts of Barbarians and therefore both of them ought to be banish'd and I have no Vote for either Yet Prodigality seemes to me more fair and Covetousness more severe CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory I. Of Physiognomy THeophrastus accusing Nature for not having made a window to the Heart perhaps meant to the Soul For though the Heart were seen naked yet would not the intentions be visible they reside in another apartment The Countenance and amongst its other parts the Eye seemes to be the most faithfull messenger thereof It doth not onely intimate sickness and health it shews also hatred and love anger and fear joy and sadness In short 't is the true mirror of the Body and the Soul unless when the Visage puts on the mask of Hypocrisie against which we read indeed some experiences as when Vlysses discover'd the dissimulation of Achilles disguis'd in the dress of a Damsel by the gracefullness wherewith he saw him wield
Memory to make it better then to procure a good Judgement in him which wants it The Fifth saith He conceiv'd it no less difficult to remember the Places Images and odd precepts of this Art and apply them to the subject then to learn by heart at first the things themselves or their words which also when learnt by this Art are soon lost as being found upon chimeraes of which the Mind cannot alwayes so thorowly clear it self but there will be left some Idea thereof more apt to trouble the Memory then to assist it alwayes However I had rather learn a little labouronsly with the profit and impression ordinarily accompanying my pains then feed upon those vain pictures Wherefore I am prone to think that either there is no Art of Memory or else that it is unprofitable or mischievous and as such to be rejected by all the world The Sixth said Since where ever there is defect there is need of some Art to correct the same and remove from the Faculties the obstacles which they meet with in the exercise of their Offices why should Memory alone be destitute of this succour Considering it hath wayes so various that not onely words which signifie something but those which signifie nothing are of use to the Memory Therefore Aristotle saith He who would remember must make barbarismes And to six a name or word in the Mind a Man will utter many which come near it But as this Art is not to be despis'd so neither is it alwayes to be made use of much less in things which have some order of themselves as Anatomy Geography Chronology and History or in which a good natural Memory can contrive any They who have this Faculty vigorous from their birth or made it such by exercise wrong themselves in employing the precepts of this Art for that purpose as a Man of five and twenty years old should do if he made use of spectacles having no need thereof But it is onely fit for those who having a weak Memory would remember many barbarous names or some coats and numbers the variety whereof many times breeds confusion for the recollecting of which this Art teaches to remember certain shapes figures or species sometimes the most uncouth that can be excogitated to the end the Phancy may be more effectually moved by the same CONFERENCE XXIV I. Which of the Five Senses is the most noble II. Of Laughter I. Which of the five Senses is the most Noble AS he who hath the present sense of any Disease accounts that the greatest so they who exercise some one of their Senses more then the rest who get profit by it or are delighted in it willingly award the preceedence to the same Take the judgement of a Perfumer he values nothing but Odors and the smell which judgeth thereof He will tell you that if we had the perfect knowledge of Aromatical Compositions they would ravish all our Senses that Perfume must needs have something Divine in it because God so lov'd it that he particularly reserv'd it to himself and forbad all others to use a certain Composition under pain of death The same is also argu'd from the offence we take at the evil scent of any stinking thing that so the very name of it passing onely through our ears displeases us in such sort as to disparage the truth of the Proverb that Words do not stink as on the contrary the name alone of the Rose Violet and Jasmin seemes to recreate the smelling by the Ear. Poets and Lovers will be for the Eyes and the Touch. They who understand Opticks will hold that 't is the seeing which affordeth the greatest wonders Whence Comical Representations move so powerfully and Sight hath more influence upon us then Hear-say If you will take the judgement of Musitians the Hearing shall carry the Bell from the other senses and this Position is back'd with the experience of Melody Perswasion and the Art of Oratory which caus'd Antiquity to feign two sorts of Hercules the one who subdu'd monsters with the blows of his club and the other who captivated his Auditors with chains of Gold reaching from his Tongue to their Ears Philoxenus who wish'd a Crane's neck and they who live onely to drink and eat whereas we drink and eat to live will give the preheminence to the Taste Wherefore in my Opinion this Question is hard to be decided because it requires impartial Judges whose number is very small The Second said That for the right judging of the Cause all parties ought to be heard As for the Sight the fabrick of its Organ so artificially compos'd of Humours and Tunicles and guarded with Eye-lids and Brows as so many ramparts for its preservation sufficiently plead its excellence But that of the six Couple of Nerves for so many onely there are in the Brain the first and the second are peculiarly destinated to the Eyes this shews how highly Nature tenders them above all other parts Moreover Vision is perform'd in an Instant and makes present to us those things which are as remote from us as Heaven is from Earth and this by spiritual qualities for the Actions of Bodies are not expedited but in Time this is an other argument of its Excellence Further since nothing is more goodly then Light it seemes to follow that nothing is more excellent then the Sight whose Object it is Whence some Philosophers conceiv'd the Soul to have chosen the Eyes for its Mansion Next then for Hearing this Sense seemes to feed the Soul or rather to give it birth For if the Soul be consider'd naturally its food and life is to understand reason and discourse to which purposes the Hearing alone is serviceable being for this cause term'd the Sense of Discipline If the Soul be consider'd as it enjoyes a life more noble then the natural namely that of Grace the Sense of Hearing seemes the Author of this Life For the Just lives by Faith saith the Holy Scripture Now this Faith comes from Hearing as the Apostle testifies and not from Seeing For it is the evidence of things not seen and where we see there is no longer Faith As for the Smelling indeed good Odors recreate the Brain repair the Animal Spirits purifie and fit them to assist the Soul when it exerciseth its most noble operations but the weak Title of this Sense seemes to need a better Advocate then all the rest The Senses of Tasting and Touching remain but both in the same degree because one proceeds from the other Gustation being a sort of Contact In considering of these two Senses me-thinks I hear them complain of the ingratitude of Men for placing them in the lowest form notwithstanding their great service in the birth of Mankind by Generation which is a kind of Touching and in the subsequent preservation thereof incessantly by the Sense of Tasting And yet since all the commendation of an Instrument is to be measur'd by its end and benefit as the
it where it lists and then returns it to its former place Witness the man mention'd by Levinus Lemnius who walk'd with his feet against the Rafters and his head downward in his sleep the cause of which cannot with likelihood be attributed to our spirits how light and aerial soever they may be II. Which is the most excellent Moral Virtue Upon the Second Point it was said That they who speak best in all professions do not act alwayes so saying and doing seem to be so balanc'd that the one cannot be lifted high without depressing the other Which was the cause that the Architect who spoke wonders was pass'd by and he chosen who onely said that he would do what the other had spoken Hence it is we so often desire that things could speak of themselves Justice would come in another garb then as she is painted blind-fold with her scales and sword Fortitude would display other effects then that pillar which she is made to carry upon her shoulder and Temperance other examples then that of pouring Water into her Wine Prudence would have other attire and allurements then those which her Looking-glasse represents In brief the whole train and Court of the four Cardinal Virtues Magnificence Liberality Patience Humility Obedience Friendship and all the other Moral Virtues would set forth all their attractives and make it confess'd that they are all charming and so link'd together that who so would be happy must be possess'd of them all But since I am oblig'd to give the preheminence to one I shall prefer Liberality which wears the Epithete of Royal and is the aptest to win the hearts of all the world The Second said All the Virtues here in question touching their preheminences accepting you for Judges of their Controversie in hope you will do them Justice seem already to condemn themselves by giving their voice implicitely to Justice whom they implore as their Sovereign Moreover in the Scripture the name alone of Justice comprehends all the other Virtues and he is term'd Just who is possess'd of them all Aristotle stiles it All Virtue and saith with his Master Plato that 't is more bright and admirable then the Day-star T is the more excellent for that it especially considers the good of others and not its own particular For 't is defin'd and a constant stedfast will of rendring to every one that which belongs to him not that 't is the Will which is a Faculty and being capable of contraries can do well and ill but because 't is the noblest habit of this Faculty therefore it retains its name So the most excellent habit of the Understanding whereby to know the first Principles is call'd Intellect Pythagoras compares Justice to the number of Eight For as this is the most perfect number and hath most equality all its parts being equal so Justice is the perfectest of all Virtues because it gives them their equality and measure in which their perfection consists And like as the most perfect state of our Health consists in the perfect equality of our Humours which for this reason is call'd the temperament according to Justice so the most perfect state of the Soul consists in this habit which gives equality and mediocrity to all our virtuous actions But though Justice be the ornament of Virtues yet it is particularly so of Kings and therefore ours among all the Virtues whereof he hath taken possession ha's particularly reserv'd to himself the title of JVST The Third said I account Prudence not onely the most excellent but the sole Virtue yea the condition without which all other Virtues lose their name The Philosophers were not contented to establish it for one of the Cardinal Virtues they make it the salt which preserves and gives taste to all the rest without which they would be disagreeable yea odious to all the world For too exact Justice carries the name of highest Injustice Fortitude becomes Violence and Temperance applies it self ill without Prudence Hence it hath chosen for its Object Reason alone which it divides to the other Virtues So that a Man who do's all his actions having Reason alone for his guide shall be call'd prudent but other Virtues do not regard reason further then as it leads them to a particular thing Now when Reason renders to every one what pertains to him this Prudence is call'd Justice When the same Reason moderates the Passions this Prudence is called Temperance and when it passes above all dangers 't is called Fortitude So that the Objects of the three other Virtues being good onely as they partake of that of Prudence this must be without comparison the most excellent The Ancients for this purpose represented it by an Eye to shew that this Virtue hath the same preheminence over the rest which the Eye hath among the parts of the Body The Fourth said If place makes any thing for the nobleness of Virtues Prudence will have the advantage since it resides in the noblest Faculty of Man the Understanding But if we regard the end of Moral Virtues which is civil felicity and from whence alone their nobleness is to be measur'd as the means by their end t is certain that an honest Friendship founded upon Virtue is the most noble because more proper then any other to procure that felicity yea alone sufficient to obtain it For if all were perfect Friends Justice would not be needful none denying to another what belong'd to him and if all were just there would be no necessity of using force Moreover of all the Virtues there 's none but Amity alone which hath no Excess this shews that it is wholly excellent How much ought we to love infinitely if it be possible Justice hath an excess which is severity but because it follows it in dignity 't is no Vice Prudence Temperance and the other Virtues which come after have their vicious excesses This Virtue of Friendship is the most rare being found onely amongst good people who are so few that all Antiquity scarce affords ten couple of perfect Friends A scarcity which attests its value For we must beware of comprizing under the name of this Friendship the Passion of Love or profitable and delightful Friendship which have nothing of it besides the name Because true Friendship considers onely another but the other virtues have onely self-reflections though they make shew otherwise CONFERENCE XXXIV I. Of Lycanthropy II. Of the way to acquire Nobility I. Of Lycanthropy THere is a sort of Wolves call'd by the Greeks Monolyci and by Aristotle Monopiri that is to say solitary never preying but alone great lovers of Man's Blood we call them Garoux possibly because they wander and roame about the fields as the Greeks name those Lycanthropi who are possess'd with that kind of Madness which makes them do the same as if they were Wolves indeed Such is that people of Livonia which as Olaus in his Northern History relates change themselves into Wolves and on
person the latter being oftimes more profitable for them then the former which as a Lacedemonian told Diogenes frequently do's hurt in stead of good for the giving to a stout Beggar encourages him to accustomed laziness But on the other side being Charity is not suspicious it seems that it ought to be little material to the giver of an Alms whether the receiver be worthy of it or no provided he give it with a good intention according to his power and without vanity so highly blamed by our Saviour The Fourth said That the poor ought to be left as they are and 't is enough for us that we relieve them with our Alms according to our ability Experience shews that it has been a fruitless attempt in our days to confine and discipline them whatever care could be us'd by such as were intrusted therein But since Poverty is no vice why should it be punish'd with imprisonment Besides our Lord having told us that we shall always have the poor with us implies that there will always be poor Zea were the thing possible yet it ought not to be put in execution since charity will become extinguish'd by losing its object For present objects have most power upon us in all cases and 't is not credible that he who scarce feels himself touch'd with compassion at the sight of a wretch languish at his door would think of the poor when they no longer occurr'd to his view The Fifth said That although we are always to have the poor with us yet 't is not thence to be inferr'd that Begging ought not to be restrain'd should the one include the other as it doth not no more then 't is a good consequence that because scandal must necessarily come to pass therefore 't is not lawful to hinder it or that because the good designs of pious persons which have labour'd in this godly work have not succeeded in one time therefore they cannot at another But to shew how easie it is to take order for the regulation of the poor 't is manifest that almost all forreign Countries have made provision therein many whereof when they come to fetch away our corn justly wonder how we suffer such a multitude of Beggars considering what order they take with them in their publick penury Yea the City of Lyons whose territory is none of the most fertile of France and by its example divers other Cities have already made provision for them I conceive therefore that 't is easie not only for this populous City of Paris but for this whole Kingdom to do the same Now that may be apply'd to this regulation which Aesop said to those with whom Xanthus laid a wager that he would drink up the whole Sea namely that he could not do it unless they first stop'd the course of all the rivers which empty themselves thereinto so neither is it possible ever to regulate the flux and reflux of poor which come by shoals from all parts of France into this gulph or rather Parision sea without prohibiting them entrance into the same which cannot be done Christianly nor indeed politickly without taking care for redress of their miseries in those places which they abandon To effect which we must imitate Physitians asswage the most urgent symptomes and remove the concomitant cause yet not forgetting the antecedent nor the general remedies since as Aristotle saith he that would purge the eye must purge the head The robust poor must every one be sent to the place of his birth if he knows it or will tell it by which means the burden will become lighter being divided there they must be distinguish'd according to sex age conditions ability of body and mind capacity and industry that so they may be distributed into the several imployments whereof they shall be found capable with absolute prohibition not to beg or wander from one place to another without permission in writing from him who hath the charge of them under the penalty of the whip as also the people being forbidden under a fine to give Alms elsewhere then at the places appointed for that purpose The children of either sex must be put out for some certain number of years to Masters and Mistresses that will take charge of them Likewise such fellows as understand any Mystery or Craft shall be dispos'd of to Masters to whom upon that account and to all those who shall have the care of such poor shall be granted the most priviledges and immunities both Royal and Civil and of Communities that the rest of the inhabitants of the place can allow Out of the body of which inhabitants shall be chosen from time to time the most considerable persons to govern them who shall not be admitted to the highest Offices without having first pass'd through this Such as are able to do nothing else shall be imploy'd in publick works repairing of Bridges Banks Causeys or Buildings at the charge of the Proprietors And to the end that all these poor may find a livelihood they shall buy all their Victuals one of another and have certain Counters instead of money peculiarly current amongst themselves Aged persons incapable of labour shall have the care of the little children Such as are fit to travel shall be sent to the Plantations of New France But all this with such restrictions and modifications as the circumstances of each place shall require This design will be much further'd by new inventions by working at Mills by combing old wool and stuffs by cleansing the streets by night and many other occupations CONFERENCE XXXVI I. Of the tying of the Point II. Which is the greatest of all Vices I. Of the tying of the Point THis obstacle proceeding from the jealousie of Corrivals or Covetousness of Parents is a Ligature by which with certain words pronounc'd during the nuptial benediction a man becomes incapable of rendring to his wife the legitimate duty of Marriage This kind of enchantment is as all others of the Devil's invention who bearing an irreconcilable hatred to man endeavours all he can to hinder the fruit of generation and of the Sacrament of marriage by which man acquires that immortality in his species and his successors which that evil spirit caus'd him to lose in his individual 'T is one of his old impostures Virgil speaks of it in his eighth Eclogue where he makes mention of three knots made with three ribbands of different colours and of certain words of enchantment S. Augustine in the second Book and twentieth Chapter of Christian Doctrine declaims against these Sorceries Our Salick Law tit 22. sect 4. makes mention of some Sorcerers who hinder issue by ligatures In our time this kind of Maleficium hath been so common that it would be ridiculous to call the experience of it in question But since the author of it is the spirit of darkness 't is no wonder that we see not a whit in the inquiry of its causes The Second said That he could
also instanc'd to comprehend all Vices as Justice contains in it self all Virtues For he who is proud covetous prodigal or a Murtherer would not be so if he were not unjust whilst he attributes more to himself and less to others then is due And for conclusion it was said That as of the diseases of the Body those are term'd the greatest which invade the most noble part or have the most dangerous symptomes as the prick of a pin in the heart is more mortal then the cutting off of an arm and the same puncture is more perillous when Convulsions thereupon befall the whole body then a wound with a sword in some fleshy part without any accidents so Ignorance and Imprudence are the greatest vices because they possess the most noble Faculty of man the Understanding and produce all the rest At the hour of Inventions a Proposition was reported to draw Smith's-coal out of the lands of this Kingdom and in so doing to cut channels for the draining of Marshes and making rivers Navigable in order to the conveniency of transportation sacilitation of commerce feeding of Cattel and preservation of Forests This Invention besides the advantage it will bring to the meaner sort of people in reference to their domestick fuel is of much benefit for the making of Brick Tile and Lime as much of which may be made thereby in three days as is made in eight or nine with wood which is the ordinary fashion It will be a matter of great saving to the whole Kingdom especially to the abovesaid Artists who are here in great number and are forc'd to buy such Coal from England at dear rates The Proposer offer'd to continue the experience which he had made thereof at his own charges for satisfaction of the curious CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the truth ought always to be spoken I. Of the Cabala THat which hath hapned to many other words as Tyrant and Magician which at their first institution were taken in a good sense but have abusively degenerated into odious significations is found likewise in the word Cabala which according to its genuine importance signifies nothing else but Tradition and comes from the Verb Cabal denoting with the Hebrews to give or receive 'T is a mystical doctrine concerning God and the creatures which the Jews receiv'd by tradition from Father to Son If we may give credit to them it Began in Adam who had a perfect knowledge not only of the whole nature and property of things corporeal but also of the Divine nature of the mysteries of Religion and of the redemption of mankind which his Angel Raziel assur'd him was to come to pass by means of a just man whose name should consist of four letters which is the cause say they that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language wherein the vowels are no letters Adam taught these mysteries to his children they to their successors until Abraham and the Patriarchs But they say Moses learn'd it anew from the mouth of God during the forty days that he was in the Mount where he receiv'd two Laws one written with the hand of God compriz'd in the two Tables of stone the other not written and more mysterious the former for all in general the latter for the learned and skill'd in mysteries of Religion which is that which Moses taught the seventy Elders of the People chosen by himself according to the counsel of Jethro his Father-in-law and they transfer'd the same to the Prophets Doctors of the Law Scribes Pharisees Rabbines and Cabalists The Second said That in order to judge of the Cabala 't is requisite to know what the Philosophy of the Jews was as the Stoicks Peripateticks Pyrrhonians and other Philosophers had their peculiar Sects 'T is divided commonly into that of things and that of words or names The first is call'd by the Rabbines Bereschit the second Mercana That which treats of things by the Cabalists call'd Sephiroch that is to say numbers or knowledges for with them to number and to know are almost synonymous is either Philosophical or Theological The Philosophical comprehends their Logick Physicks Metaphysicks and Astronomy In Logick they treat of the ten lesser Sephiroth which are so many steps or degrees for attaining to the knowledge of all things by means of Sense Knowledge or Faith and they are divided into three Regions In the lowest which is made by the sense are 1 the Object 2 the Medium or Diaphanum 3 the External sense In the second and middle region are 4 the Internal or common Sense 5 the Imagination or Phancie 6 the Estimative Faculty or inferior Judgement In the third and supream 7 the Superior and Humane Judgement 8 Reason 9 The Intellect 10 and lastly the Understanding or Mens which performs the same office to the Soul that the Eye doth to the Body whom it enlightens For example when I hear a Cannon discharg'd the sound comes to my ears by the medium of the air then the Common Sense receiving this species of the sound transmits the same to the Imagination and the Estimative Faculty judges thereof simply as beasts would do afterwards the Judgement apprehends the essence of the sound Reason searches the causes thereof and the Intellect considers them but lastly the Understanding or Mens call'd by the Cabalists Ceter that is a Crown by way of excellence receiving light from on high irradiates the Intellect and this all the other Faculties And these are the degrees of Cabalistical knowledge In the other parts of their Philosophy they treat of the fifty gates of light Whereof the 1. is the Divine Essence the Symbol of which is the Tetragrammaton and ineffable name of God The 2. gate is the Archetypal World the knowledge of which two gates they say was hid even to Moses The 3. is the Earth 4. Matter 5. Vacuum or Privation 6. The Abysse 7. The Fire 8. The Air 9. The Water 10. The Light 11. The Day 12. Accidents 13. The Night 14. The Evening 15. The Morning And after many other things they constitute Man for the 50th gate To arrive to the knowledge of these 50 gates they have invented 32 Flambeaux or Torches to guide them into the secrets contained therein which they call the paths of Wisdom namely the Intelligence miraculous or occult Intelligence sanctifying resplendent pure dispositive eternal corporeal c. The Theological Cabala treats of God and Angles Of God by expounding the names of 12 and 42 letters yea they attribute seven hundred several ones to him and particularly the ten Divine Attributes which they term the grand Sephiroth namely Infinity Wisdom Intelligence Clemency or Goodness Severity Ornament Triumph Confession of praise Foundation and Royalty whereby God governs all things by weight number and measure Of Angels namely of the 32 abovesaid Intelligences call'd by them the paths of wisdom for they make them so many Angels and of seventy two other
would mingle it self with the substance of the Heavens which by this means would be no longer pure and free from corruption nor consequently eternal yea it might happen that such Meteors as should be form'd in the Heavens would disorder the motions of the Planets which we behold so regular And besides 't is not possible that the Stars of the Firmament should not have come nearer one another in these 6000. years and the Planets have been so exact in their wandrings unless the Heavens were solid The Third said That because the weakness of our reasoning cannot conceive how the creatures obey the Creator otherwise then by such wayes as Artificers use who fasten nails in wheels to make their motion regular therefore Men phancy the like in Heaven As if it had not been as easiy to God to have appointed a Law to the Stars to move regulary in a liquid space as fishes do in the water yea in a Vacuum if there were any in Nature as to have riveted and fix'd them to some solid body For 't is true we cannot make a durable Sphere but of solid matter But if Children make aiery spheres or balls with water and soap could not God who is an infinitely more excellent work-man make some of a more subtile matter Moreover The supposition of liquid Heavens serves better to interpret these openings of Heaven mention'd in the Scripture then if they be suppos'd solid The melted brass to which Job compares the Heavens proves the contrary to what is usually inferr'd from it for immediately after this comparison made by one of Job's friends God reproves him and taxes his discourse of ignorance Whereas it is said that Heaven is God's throne which is stable and which God hath established in the Heavens and also that it is called a Firmament the same construction is to be made of these expressions as of that in the beginning of Genesis where the Sun and the Moon are styl'd the two great Lights of Heaven not because they are so in reality but because they appear so But that which to me seemes most conclusive for the liquidity of the Heavens is That Comets have been oftentimes observ'd above some Planets which could not be were the Heavens solid Besides that all the Elements are terminated by themselves and need no vessel to be contain'd in The Fourth said If the matter of the Heavens were as firm as glass or crystal or onely as water our sight could no more perceive the Stars then it doth things in the bottome of a deep water how clear soever it be for the visual rayes or species of things cannot penetrate so thick a medium But although the Stars are exceedingly remote from us yet our eyes discern their different magnitudes colours and motions and distinguish such as twinckle from others Besides those who should behold the same Star from different places would perceive it of different magnitudes as it happens to those who look upon the same body through water or glass in regard of the diversity of the medium which is thicker in one place then in another Nor is it harder to conceive how the Stars hang in the Air then to imagine the same of the Terr-aqueous Globe The Fifth said Liquid is defin'd that which is hardly contain'd within its own bounds and easily in those of another which is the true definition of Liquid and not of Humid since Quick-silver Lead and all metals melted are difficultly contain'd in their own bounds and easily in those of another yet are not humid the Heaven must be solid and not liquid for it is contain'd within its own bounds yea according to the Scripture it upholds the Supercelestial Waters The Sixth said The great diversity found in the motions of the Celestial Bodies and especially in the Planets makes very much for the Fluidity of the Heavens For Astronomers observing that the Planets not onely go from East to West by their diurnal motion common to all the celestial bodies but have a particular one of their own after a sort contrary to the former which makes them stray from their situation whereunto they return onely at a certain time therefore they will have them to be turn'd about by a Heaven term'd by them Primum Mobile but add that each of the Planets hath a sphere of its own which is the cause of its second motion Moreover observing the Planets to be sometimes nearer and sometimes further off from the Earth therefore they assign'd them another sphere call'd an Excentrick But what needs this multiplication of spheres when as it may reasonably be affirm'd that God hath appointed to every Star the course which it is to observe as he hath assign'd to every thing its action what ever variety be found in Planetary bodies there being more in other Bodies If it be said That the wonder lies in their Regularity I answer There is nothing here below but ha's and keeps a rule Whence Monsters are so much wonder'd at Nor is there less wonder in the natural instincts of things and all their various operations which they alwayes inviolably observe then in Uniformity which hath much more ease in it as it is a more facile thing for a stone to move alwayes downwards then for an Animal to move according to all the diversities of place and exercise so many several actions The Seventh said The matter of the Heavens if they have any is according to Empedocles a most pure and subtile Air and that of the Stars is Light Wherefore they cannot be either solid or liquid Moreover the Centre of the World is most compact and it grows more and more subtile still towards the Circumference which therefore must be immaterial as Light is Now the Stars are onely the thicker parts of their Orbes like the knots in a Tree which density renders them visible to us multiplying and fortifying the degrees of Light by this union as on the contrary the rarity of the intermediate space between the Stars doth not terminate or bound our sight either because the species which it sends forth are not strong enough to act upon the Eye and cause perception which is the reason why we see not the Elementary Fire though we see the same Fire when it comes to be united and condensed into an igneous meteor or into our culinary flames The Heavens therefore may be more or less dense but not solid in that sence as we attribute solidity to Crystal Diamonds or other hard bodies which resist the touch But indeed we may call them so if we take the word solid for that which is fill'd with it self and not with any other intermix'd thing all whose parts are of the same nature according to which signification not onely the Water but the Air yea the Light it self if it be material may be said to be solid II. Whether is it easier to get or to keep Upon the Second Point it was said That the difficulty of acquiring and preserving is
melancholy the latter least of all in regard of the solidity and dryness of their brain and the thickness of their blood Although there is a sort of melancholy not-natural much abounding in serosities and for that reason styl'd Aqueous by Hippocrates Now weeping is caus'd in this manner A sad subject seising upon the Heart the Arteries carry the fuliginous vapours thereof to the brain which discharging the same into the sink call'd the Infundibulum or Tunnel they seek issue at the next passages which are the mouth the nose and the eyes at the great angle or Canthus where the Glandula Lachrymalis or Weeping Kernel is seated which hath a hole like the point of a needle This Glandule is made very small whereas the Spleen which causeth Laughter and the Liver which causeth Love are very large because Man might possibly want subjects for the two former and consequently ought to be provided for but not matter of sadness The Second said As amongst Animals Man hath the greatest brain so he needs the most Aliment and consequently makes more excrements then any other these are collected in the anterior Ventricles and between the membranes where they remain till the Expulsive Faculty incommoded by their too great quantity or pungent quality expells them by the usual passages and thus they supply wax to the Eares mucosity to the Nose and tears to the Eyes Whereby it appears that tears are not alwayes signes of Pusillanimity since they proceed from causes which no body can avoid Moreover Joy as well as Sorrow expresses tears though by means wholly contrary For Joy dilating and opening the passages by its heat causes those humidities to issue forth and Grief compressing the passages forces the same out as a spunge yields forth the water which it had imbib'd if you either dilate it or squeeze it Their saltness bitterness and acrimony is common to them with all the serosities of the body which they acquire by their continuance they make in the brain as their heat by the spirits which accompany them For the tears both of Joy and Sadness are hot or rather tepid though those shed in Joy seem cold because the cheeks are warme in Joy which draws the heat and spirits from the centre to the circumference and in Sadness they appear hot because they drop upon the cheeks which are cold through the absence of the heat and spirits caus'd by sadness to retire inward But those Tears which proceed from a disease as from a defluxion or distillation are really cold because they are caus'd by the crudity of the humours The Third said That Tears of sorrow come not from compression for we cannot weep in a great sadness but from a particular virtue which grief hath to send them forth For Nature being willing to drive away the cause of Grief sends the heat and spirits towards it which heating the external parts attract the humours thither Hence it is Onyons lancinating the Eyes by their sharp spirits cause weeping as smoke likewise doth and the steadfast beholding of an object and too radiant a light by the pain which they cause to the sight Nor do's this hold good onely in pain but in grief particularly in compassion which is a grief we resent for anothers misery For the consideration of a sad object setting the humours in motion and attenuating them causeth them to distill forth by the Eyes mouth and nose This is also the reason why those who run impetuously on horse-back or afoot sometimes drop rears for the heat excited by this motion draws sweat forth over all the body and tears to the Eyes being of the same nature with sweat Unless you rather think that this may be caus'd by the coldness of the new Air which condenses and presses forth these humidities Wherefore we cannot absolutely pronounce that tears are Symptomes of Pusillanimity seeing 't is not in our power to restrain them what ever courage we have and oftentimes example no less invites us then duty obliges us to let this torrent take its course The Fourth said If it be true that the most couragious are of the hottest constitution 't will follow that tears are rather a sign of Magnanimity then of Cowardice since they are most frequent to such as abound in heat and moisture For as water issues out of green wood heated by the fire so tears are forc'd out of the Eyes by the internal heat excited by Joy Grief Anger or other disorderly motion For through the immoderateness of this heat the coldness of the Brain is increas'd by Antiperistasis and endeavours to with-stand it for which purpose it collects together abundance of cold vapours which the heat over-powering causes that cloud of humour condens'd by cold to distill by the Eyes in a showre of tears Yet if this be done too often then the same happens to the man as doth to a stick or cudgel which being too much bow'd one way and the other is at length broken In like manner a couragious person often provok'd so farr as to weep at last becomes relax'd and softned through the loss and consumption of his spirits which are the instruments of Courage Therefore to weep too often is a sign of Pusillanimity and softness never to weep is stupidity to weep sometimes for the miserable estate whereinto this valley of tears reduces us 't is necessity Indeed Our Lord wept often Saint Peter so courageous that he struck the onely blow mention'd in the Gospel wept bitterly And Alexander wept for the death of Darius as his own Triumphs caus'd Caesar to weep in whom it was accounted Humanity that he wept at the sight of Pompey's head as David did for the death of Saul The Fifth said That as griefs are diminish'd by weeping so it may seem that tears should soften the courage which proceeds from anger as most doth And as pity is opposite to revenge so tears seem contrary to valour since they are so both to revenge and choler which are the effects of magnanimity Add hereunto that we live by example and therefore seeing tears more frequent to weak and effeminate persons then to others we easily draw a general consequence although the same admit many exceptions CONFERENCE L. I. Whether Colours are real II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well I. Whether Colours are real THe knowledge of men is never compleat what they know in one manner they are ignorant of in another Nothing is so manifest to the sense as colour nothing so obscure to the Understanding which doubts whether it hath a real existence or whether it only appears such to us according as bodies variously receive the light Indeed Green and Blew seem all one by a candle and the same colour seems different from what it was by day-light which again makes the species vary according to its diversity for we judge of them otherwise in the twilight in the Sun and in the shadow otherwise beholding them slopingly directly
obstruction hinders the afflux of the spirits to it as in a Gutta Serena there is no vision made An Evidence that seeing is an action of both and consequently the Senses are as many as the several Organs which determine and specificate the same But the Taste being comprehended under the Touch by the Philosophers definition must be a species thereof and therefore there are but four Senses as four Elements the Taste and the Touch which it comprehends being exercis'd in the earth gross as themselves the Sight in Water in which its Organ swims and of which it almost wholly consists the Smelling by the Fire which awakens odours and reduces them out of power into act and the Hearing in the Air which is found naturally implanted in the Ear and is the sole medium of this sense according to Aristotle the hearing of Fishes being particular to them in the Water and very obscure The Third said He was of Scaliger's mind who reckons Titillation for the sixth sense For if the Taste though comprehended under the Touching as was said constitutes a distinct sense why not Titillation which is a species of Touching too considering that it represents things otherwise then the ordinary Touch doth and hath its particular Organs as the soles of the Feet the palmes of the Hands the Flanks the Arm-pits and some other places Yea Touching may be accounted the Genus of the Senses since all partake thereof The Fourth said That those actions which some Animals perform more perfectly then we as the Dog exceeds us in Smelling the Spider in Touching the Eagle in Seeing and many in presaging the seasons and weather seem'd to be the effects of 6 7 or 8 Senses there being no proportion between such great extraordinary effects and their Organes the structure whereof is the same with those of other Animals which come not near the same Yea that 't is by some supernumerary sense found in each Animal that they have knowledge of what is serviceable or hurtful to them in particular For example who teaches the Dog the virtue of Grass the Hart of Dittany their ordinary Senses cannot Nor is it likely that so many occult properties have been produc'd by Nature to remain unknown But they cannot be understood unless by some Sense which is not vulgar considering that all the Senses together understand not their substance The Fifth said There are five external Senses neither more nor less because there needs so many and no more to perceive and apprehend all external objects And as when one of our Senses is deprav'd or abolish'd another cannot repair it nor succeed it in all its functions so if there were more then five the over-plus would be useless there being no accident but falls under the cognisance of these five Senses And although each of them is not sufficient thereunto severally yet they serve well enough all together as in the perception of motion rest number magnitude and figure which are common objects to divers Senses Now if there were need of more then five Senses 't would be to judge of objects wherein the others fail So that the supernumeraries being unprofitable 't is not necessary to establish more then five And as for substance 't is not consistent with its Nature to be known by the external Senses The Sixth said Man being compos'd of three Pieces a Soul a Body and Spirits of a middle Nature between both the five Senses suffice to the perfection and support of these three parts Knowledge which is the sole Good of the Soul is acquir'd by invention and discipline for which we have Eyes and Ears Good Odours recreate and repair the Spirits The Touch and Taste are the Bodie 's guards the first by preserving it from hurtfull qualities which invade it from without and the second from such as enter and are taken in by the mouth And therefore 't is in vain to establish more The Seventh said Since according to the Philosophers Sense is a passive quality and Sensation is made when the Organ is alter'd by the object there must be as many several Senses as there are different objects which variously alter the Organs Now amongst Colours Odours and other sensible objects there are many different species and the qualities perceiv'd by the Touch are almost infinite Nor is it material to say that they all proceed from the first qualities since Colors Odours and Tasts are likewise second qualities arising from those first and nevertheless make different Senses The Eighth said Although it be true that Faculties are determin'd by objects yet must not these Faculties be therefore multiply'd according to the multitude of objects So though White and Black are different nevertheless because they both act after the same manner namely by sending their intentional species through the same medium to the same Organ the Sight alone sufficeth for judging of their difference The Ninth said Since four things are requisite to Sensation to wit the Faculty the Organ the Medium and the Object 't is by them that the number of Senses is determin'd The Object cannot do it otherwise there would not be five Senses but infinitely more Nor can the Faculty do it being inseparable from the Soul or rather the Soul it self and consequently but one and to say that there is but one Sense is erroneously to make an external Sense of the Common Sense Much less can the Medium do it since one and the same Medium serves to many Senses and one and the same Sense is exercis'd in several Mediums as the Sight in the Air and the Water It remains therefore that the diversity proceed from that of the Organs which being but five make the like number of Senses II. Whether is better to be silent or to speak Upon the Second Point it was said 'T is a greater difficulty and consequently more a virtue to hold one's peace then to speak the latter being natural to Man and very easie when he has once got the habit of it but the former is a constrain'd Action and to practise which handsomely the Mind must be disciplin'd to do violence to the itch of declaring it self every one conceiving it his interest that the truth be known And there are fewer examples of those that have sav'd themselves by speaking then of those that have lost themselves by not keeping Secrecie justly term'd the Soul of the State and of affairs which once vented of easie become impossible Whence arose the name of Secretaries for principal Ministers and Officers of States and great Houses and indeed 't is at this day a title affected by the meanest Clerks testifying thereby in what esteem they have Silence And the unworthiest of all Vices Treachery ordinarily takes advantage of this defect of Secrecie which renders Men full of chinks and like a sieve so that many can more easily keep a coal in their mouths then a secret On the contrary Silence is so much reverenc'd that the wisest persons when they are
Sion and how agreeable is this Church to its Spouse to those that behold it in this estate and to it self On the contrary in Schism and Heresie when every one abounds in his own sence and will not depend upon any other how unpleasing is this division even to those that foment it In the State when a just Monarch well counsell'd holds the Sovereignty the Church the Nobility and the third Estate the other parts nothing is impossible to him either within or without He may do every thing that he will because he will do nothing but what is just On the contrary represent to your self the horrible Tragedies of a Faction revolted against its Prince or of a furious Triumvirate and you will see the difference between harmony and discord whereof the difference and power is so notable as to all our actions that he shall speak truth who shall establish it for the cause of all that is either pleasing to us or disagreeable So the same materials of two buildings differently set together will render one beautiful the other deformed Of two countenances compos'd of the same parts the proportion of the one will invite love while there is nothing but hatred and aversion for the other Yea this Harmony extends its jurisdiction even to things incorporeal An injust action displeases though it do not concern us and the most peaceable man in the world can hardly forbear to interess himself when he sees a great scoundrel outrage some poor little child The disproportion which appears in the attire of another offends us as when we see a Porter's wife better cloth'd then a Counsellours of which the reason seems to me that our soul being a harmony is not pleas'd but with what resembles it self The Fourth said Effects the surest evidences of their causes so apparently speak the power of Harmony that Orpheus by the relation of the Poets recover'd his Euridice out of Hell by it Timotheus made Alexander leave his feast and betake himself to his Arms but changing his tune return'd him again to the Table Orators made use of it to regulate their gestures and voices and at this day not only the harmonious sound of Organs serves to enflame our zeal but that of Bells is successfully employ'd to drive away the Daemons of the air when they raise tempests in it CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting I. Of the Sight AN ignorant Philosopher was he who pull'd out his eyes that he might the better Philosophize since on the contrary 't is by the sight that we have cognition of all the goodly objects of the world the ornament and agreeable variety of which seem purposely made to gratifie this Sense whose excellence and priviledge appears in that 't is free from the condition requisite to all the other Senses viz. that their objects be at a moderate distance for it discerns as far as the Stars of the Firmament knows more things then they there being nothing but has some light and colour which are its objects and that most exactly distinguishing even their least differences yea it hath this of divinity that it acteth in an instant being no more confin'd to time then place and much more certain then any of the other Senses And as if it alone were left in the free enjoyment of its own rights there 's none besides it that hath the power to exercise or not exercise its function as it lists the muscles of the eye-lids serving to open or close the curtain when it pleaseth whereas all the rest are constrain'd to do their offices when their objects are present Moreover man's noblest faculty the Understanding is call'd the Eye of the Soul because it performs the same office to it that the Eye doth to the Body which guides and governs And therefore in the dark which hinders the use of this sense the most daring are not without some fear which cannot proceed from the black colour as some hold but from our being destitute of our guide and conductor which serves for a sentinel to us to discover such things as are hurtful for in the same darkness we are pretty confident in case we be in the company of persons that can conduct us and supply the use of our own eyes The Second said Were it not for custom which renders all things common there would be nothing so admir'd as the Eye which as small as it is gives reception to all corporeal things of what magnitude soever yea every one is represented there in its own natural proportion though the species of an Elephant be no bigger in mine Eye then that of a Flye and nevertheless the Senses judge of their objects by the species streaming from them And the convex fabrick of the eye representing a mirror seems to argue that we do not behold objects in their true magnitude but very much smaller then they are For we see things so as they are receiv'd in the eye But they are receiv'd there as the visible species are in Looking-glasses which if plain represent the same in their true magnitude if spherical as the eye is render them much smaller And nevertheless we see things in their just proportion Whence 't is to be concluded that our Sight which is the most certain of all the Senses is in a perpetuall yea a general errour which consequently is no longer an errour since to erre is to deviate from rule which is a general law Moreover this too is wonderful in the Sight that all the other Organs make several reports to the Senses one accounts that hot which another judges cold or tepid one taste seems fresh to one which another thinks too salt they are of one opinion in odours and sounds and these are of another though their Organs be rightly dispos'd But that which appears black to one seems so likewise to every body else And if the Sight happen to be deceiv'd as when we judge the Moon greater in the Horizon by reason of the vapours of the earth then when she is in the Meridian or when a straight stick seems crooked in the water the same eye which is deceiv'd finds its own errour by comparison of other objects Hence ariseth the doctrine of the Parallaxes and the rules of Opticks Catoptricks and Dioptricks which are practis'd by the sight So that as he doth not perfectly delire who knows that he is in a delirium so the sense cannot be said altogether faculty when it discerns its fault Which the other senses do not The Third said The excellence of the Sight will be better understood by considering its contrary Blindness and the misery of the Blind their life being an image of death whilst they pass it in perpetual darkness Therefore the Civilians exclude them from publick Offices because say they they cannot perceive nor consequently esteem the badges and ensigns of their Magistracy Moreover the Egyptians thought nothing fitter to represent their Deity then the figure of the Eye which
them by the underminings of the wicked and envious who are the greatest number then obtain new by performing as much good as he will either because they who are able to reward him are not always well inform'd thereof or because they want both the means and the will to do it Therefore although God would have us hope for Paradise yet he requires that we serve him in fear and draw neer to him with trembling So that the thing we most hope for eternal life mixing our hope with fear 't is not credible that any other thing is exempt from it Yet there are some fears without any hope Now the passion which acts powerfully alone is stronger then that which acts onely in the company of another The Second said That if the greatness of causes is to be judg'd by that of their effects that Passion must be strongest which leads us to the greatest attempts And so Hope will carry it above Fear since 't is that which makes a Souldier run up a breach and which hath induc'd so many illustrious men both ancient and modern to generous actions whereas Fear by its coldness chilling the spirits and penning them within renders them incapable of any action For all our actions depending on the dispositions of the spirits the instruments of all motions both Internal and External if these spirits be heated active and nimble as they are render'd by Hope then the Mind is boldly carry'd to the most difficult actions On the contrary if they be cool'd and fix'd by Fear then the soul finding her self enfeebled can do nothing but what is mean and pusillanimous The Third said To examine the power of Hope and Fear aright we must look upon them as two Champions who are to encounter But Fear already shews by the paleness of its Countenance that it wants Heart and yields to Hope which animates it self to the pursuite of the good it aims at by driving away all sort of Fear which would cause apprehension of obstacles and crosses opposing the enjoyment of that good Moreover Fear is contemptible and not found but in abject spirits whereas Hope resides in sublime souls where it produces actions worthy of its grandeur and original which is Heaven towards which men naturally lift their eyes in their adversities as Fear derives its original from below towards which it depresses the bodies and minds of those whom it possesses So that to compare Hope with Fear is to put Heaven in parallel with Earth The Fourth said That both these Passions belong to the Irascible Appetite both of them look to the future and are employ'd to surmount the difficulties which are presented to the Concupiscible Appetite Hope is the expectation of a good hard to be obtain'd yet apprehended possible It is found most frequently in young men because they live onely upon the future and 't is the Anchor of all unfortunate persons none of which are out of Hope of being deliver'd from their miseries 'T is Physick to all our evils never abandoning the most desperately sick so long as they breathe Yea 't is the refuge of all man-kind of what sex age or condition soever herein the more miserable in that being destitute of real good there remains no more for them but imaginary and phantastick Hence the Hebrews denote Hope and Folly by the same word Chesel The truth is as if the evils that oppress us were not numerous enough our souls frame and phancy infinite more through Fear which dreads as well that which is not as that which is being properly the Expectation of an approaching evil which gives horrour to our senses and cannot easily be avoided For men fear not the greatest evils but those which are most contrary to their nature Whence it is that they more apprehend the halter the gallies or infamy then falling into vices or losing the Grace of God For although these be the greatest evils of the world yet men do not acknowledge them such but by a reflection of the Understanding Hence also the wicked fear the wheel more then Hell because Gods punishments of sin are accounted slow and those of men speedy But to judge of the strength of Hope and Fear by their proper essence we must consider that Good being much less delightful to Nature then Evil is painful and sensible because Good onely gives a better being Evil absolutely destroyes being Fear which is the expectation of this Evil is much more powerful then Hope which is the expectation of that Good Which appears further by its effects far more violent then those of Hope for it makes the Hair stand an end and hath sometimes turn'd it white in one night it makes the Countenance pale the whole body quake and tremble the Heart beat and not onely alters the whole habit of it but perverts Reason abolishes Reason and Memory intercepts the use of Speech and of all the Senses so that it hath caus'd sudden death to divers persons But Hope never gave life to any Fear adds wings wherewith to avoid an Evil Hope barely excites to move towards Good In a word Fear needs sometimes the whole strength of all the Virtues to repress its violence and check its disorders CONFERENCE LXV I. Of the Intellect II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humour I. Of the Intellect THe Intellect is a Faculty of the Soul whereby we understand For of the Faculties some are without knowledge as the natural common to man and inanimate bodies and the vegetative which he hath in common with plants namely the powers of Nutrition Accretion and Generation others are with the knowledge And these again are either exercis'd without the use of Reason as the Internal and External Senses or else stand in need of Reason as the Intellect and the Rational Appetite which is the Will the former to distinguish true from false the latter good from evil Now as the Understanding acquires its notions from the inferior powers so it imitates their manner of perception and as sensible perception is passion so is intellectual and the intelligible species are receiv'd in the Intellect after the same manner that the sensible are in the organs of the outward senses For as their organs must be free from all the qualities whereof they are to judge so must the Understanding which is to judge of every thing be from all intelligible species yea more then the organs of the Senses For the Crystalline humour of the Eye hath tangible qualities the hand visible because the former is not destinated to touch withall nor the latter to see But the Intellect being to understand every thing because every thing is intelligible must be wholly clear of all Anticipations contrary to Plato's opinion who admitting a Transmigration of souls conceiv'd that entring into other bodies they carryed with them the species of things which they had known before but darkn'd and veil'd with the clouds and humidities of the bodies which recloth'd them
foal'd whence it must be taken betimes else the Mare bites it off and if she be deceiv'd of it never affects the foal afterwards and therefore 't is call'd by Virgil Matri praereptus Amor. The same effect is attributed to the seed of Mares to a plant call'd Hippomanes and by Pliny to the hair of a Wolfs tail the fish Remora the brain of a Cat and a Lizard and by Wierus to Swallows starv'd to death in an earthen pot the bones of a green Frog excarnated by Pismires the right parts of which he saith conciliate Love and the left hatred But to shew the vanity and impurity of these inventions most Philtres are taken from Animals generated of corruption excrements and other filthy and abominable things and commonly all rather excite Fury then Love as appears by many to whom Cantharides have been given and Caligula who was render'd mad by a drink of his wife Cesonia one Frederick of Austria and the Poet Lucretius by a Philtre given him by his Wife Lucilia Love is free and fixes not by constraint 't is not taken in at the mouth but the eyes the graces of the body being the most powerful charm as Olympia Wife of Philip of Macedon acknowledg'd when being jealous that her Husband lov'd a young Lady that was said to have given him amorous potions the Queen sent for her and having beheld her great Beauty said that she had those Philtres in her self Now if these gifts of the body be accompany'd with those of the mind and the party endu'd therewith testifie Love to another 't is impossible but the affection will become mutual Love being the parent of Love whence the Poets feign'd two Cupids Eros and Anteros and Ovid an intelligent person in this matter knew no surer course then this Vt ameris amabilis esto The Fourth said Love is a spiritual thing and consequently produc'd by means of the same nature Hence an ill report which is a thing not onely incorporeal but commonly phantastical and imaginary extinguishes all Love for a person otherwise lovely as to the graces of the body And the choice between equal Beauties shews that Love is not founded upon the outside Wherefore they take the wisest course to get themselves lov'd who use inductions and perswasions which are the common means to make marriages By all which it appears that Amorous Madness is a distemper of the mind and as such to be cur'd CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason APpetite is an inclination of every thing to what is good for it self There are three sorts in Man First the Natural which is in plants who attract their nourishment and also in some inanimate things as the Load-stone and Iron yea in the Elements as the dry earth covets water and all heavy bodies tend to their centre 'T is without Knowledge and Will even in Man for all natural actions are perform'd best in sleep Secondly the Sensitive common to Man and Beast which some erroneously deny to be a humane faculty because 't is the seat of the Passions the enemies of Reason which constitutes Man But the encounter of it with Reason argues their distinction Thirdly the Rational call'd the Will which is Mistress of the former two and besides makes use of Reason for the knowing of one or more things And because desire cannot be without knowledge therefore the Sensitive Appetite presupposes the knowledge of the Imagination and the Will that of the Understanding but the Natural Appetite depends on that of a First Cause which directs every natural form to its particular good though it know not the same Now 't is demanded how the Mistresse comes to obey the Servants notwithstanding the Maxime That the Will tends to nothing but what is good which cannot be without truth and this is not such unless it be approv'd by the Intellect It seems to me improper to say that the Sensitive Appetite prevails over Reason but rather hinders it by its disturbance from pronouncing sentence as a brawling Lawyer doth a Judge by his noise The Second said That Reason is alwayes Mistress For Men govern themselves according to Nature the universal rule of all things and this nature being rational they cannot be guided otherwise then the motions of Reason But some find Reason where other finds none The Thief accounts riches ill divided and therefore he may justly possess himself of what he wants and however he sees evil in the action yet he conceives more in his necessity which his Reason makes him account the greatest of all evils So that comparing them together he concludes the less evil to be good and wittingly attempts the crime not owning it for such whilst he commits it The same may be said of all other sins wherein the present sweetness exceeds the fear of future punishment If Conscience interpose they either extinguish it or else wholly forbear the action Unless the Mind happen to be balanc'd and then they are in confusion like the Ass which dy'd of hunger between two measures of corn not knowing which to go to For 't is impossible for the Will to be carry'd to one thing rather then another unless it find the one better and more convenient The Third said 'T is congruous to nature for the Inferior to receive Law from the Superior So Man commands over beasts and amongst Men some are born Masters and others slaves the Male hath dominion over the Female the Father over his Children the Prince over his Subjects the Body receives Law from the Soul the Matter from its Form the Angels of Inferior Hierarchies receive their intelligence from the Superior and the lower Heavens the rule of their motions from the higher the Elements are subject to the influences of those celestial bodies and in all mixts one quality predominates over the rest Since therefore the Sensitive Appetite is as much below Reason as a beast below a Man and the Imagination below the Intellect according to the same order establish'd in Nature Reason ought alwayes to have the command over it because having more knowledge 't is capable to direct it to its end But through the perversity of our Nature we more willingly follow the dictates of Sense then Reason of the Flesh then the Spirit because the former being more familiar and ordinary touch us nearer then Reason whose wholsome counsels move not our Will so much which being Mistress of all the faculties according to its natural liberty may sometimes command a virtuous action of whose goodnesse Reason hath inform'd it sometimes a vitious one by the suggestion of the Sensitive Appetite which makes it taste the present sweetness and delight whose attraction is greater then that of future rewards promis'd by virtue to her followers Hence the Law of the members so prevails over the law of the mind as sometimes wholly to eclipse the
of Art which we learn'd from them for the most part but they have also virtues as Chastity Simplicity Prudence Piety On the contrary God as the Philosopher teaches exercises neither virtues nor any external actions but contemplation is his sole employment and consequently the most divine of all though it were not calm agreeable permanent sufficient proper to man and independent of others which are the tokens of beatitude and the chief good The Third said since 't is true which Plato saith that while we are in this world we do nothing but behold by the favour of a glimmering light the phantasms and shadows of things which custom makes us to take for truths and bodies they who amuse themselves in contemplation in this life cannot be said contented unless after the manner of Tantalus who could not drink in the midst of the water because they cannot satisfie that general inclination of nature who suffers nothing idle in all her precincts to reduce powers into act and dead notions into living actions If they receive any pleasure in the knowledge of some truths 't is much less then that which is afforded by action and the exercise of the moral virtues of the active life the more excellent in that they are profitable to many since the most excellent good is the most communicable Moreover all men have given the pre-eminence to civil Prudence and active life by proposing rewards and honours thereunto but they have punish'd the ingratitude and pride of speculative persons abandoning them to contempt poverty and all incommodities of life And since the Vice which is opposite to active life is worse then ignorance which is oppos'd to the contemplative by the reason of contraries action must be better then contemplation and the rather because virtuous action without contemplation is always laudable and many times meritorious for its simplicity on the contrary contemplation without virtuous acts is more criminal and pernicious In fine if it be true that he who withdraws himself from active life to intend contemplation is either a god or a beast as Aristotle saith 't is more likely that he is the latter since man can hardly become like to God The Fourth said That to separate active life from contemplative is to cut off the stream from the fountain the fruit from the tree and the effect from its cause as likewise contemplation without the vertues of the active life is impossible rest and tranquillity which are not found in vice being necessary to contemplate and know Wherefore as the active life is most necessary during this life so the contemplative is more noble and divine if this present life be consider'd as the end and not as the means and way to attain to the other life in which actions not contemplations shall be put to account Contemplation is the Sun Action the Moon of this little World receiving its directions from contemplation as the Moon of the great World borrows its light from the Sun the former presides in the day of contemplative life the second which is neerer to us as the Moon is presides in the darkness of our passions Both of them represented in Pallas the Goddess of Wisdom and War being joyn'd together make the double-fronted Janus or Hermaphrodite of Plato square of all sides compos'd of Contemplation which is the Male and Action which is the Female CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun THere is nothing perfect in the world spots being observ'd in the brightest bodies of Nature And not to speak of those in the Sun which seem to proceed from the same cause with those observ'd in our flame according as 't is condens'd or rarifi'd we may well give account of those in the Moon by saying with the Pythagoreans and some later excellent Mathematicians that the Moon is an earthly habitable Globe as the eminences and inequalities observ'd therein by the Telescope the great communications of the Moon with our earth depriving one another of the Sun by the opacity rotundity and solidty of both and the cold and moist qualities which it transmits hither like those of this terr-aqueous Globe since the same apparences and illumination of the Earth would be seen from the Heaven of the Moon if a man were carri'd thither And because solid massie bodies as wood and stone reflect light most strongly therefore the brightest parts of the Moon answer the terrestrial dense parts and the dark the water which being rarer and liker the air is also more transparent and consequently less apt to stop and reflect light This we experience in the prospect of high Mountains very remote or the points of Rocks in the open Sea which reflect a light and have a colour like that of the Moon when the Sun is still above the Horizon with her whereas the Sea and great Lakes being less capable of remitting this light seem dark and like clouds So that were this Globe of Ocean and Earth seen from far it would appear illuminated and spotted like the Moon For the opinion of Plurality of Worlds which can be no way dangerous of it self but only in the consequences the weakness of humane wit would draw from it much less is it contrary to the faith as some imagine is rather an argument of Gods Omnipotence and more abundant communication of his goodness in the production of more creatures whereas his immense goodness seems to be restrain'd in the creation of but one world and of but one kind Nor is it impossible but that as we see about some Planets namely Jupiter and Saturn some other Stars which move in Epicycles and in respect of their stations and those Planets seem like Moons to them and are of the same substance so that which shines to us here below may be of the same substance with our earth and plac'd as a bound to this elementary Globe The Second said That the spots of the Sun and Moon cannot be explicated without some Optical presuppositions And first 't is to be known that Vision is perform'd three ways directly by reflection and by refraction Direct Vision which is the most ordinary is when an object sends its species to the eye by a direct way that is when all the points of one and the same object make themselves seen by so many right lines Reflective Vision is when the species of an object falling upon the surface of an opake body is remitted back to the sight as 't is in our Looking-glasses Vision by refraction is when the species of an object having pass'd through a medium diaphanous to a certain degree enters obliquely into another medium more or less diaphanous for then 't is broken and continues not its way directly but with this diversity that coming from a thicker medium into a thinner as from water into air the species in breaking
the terrestrial mass and the dark the water or the contrary it will be necessary that this earth also have its Heaven that its stars and so to infinity The Fourth said That they who have imagin'd spots in the Sun had them in their Eyes it being improbable that there is any defect of light in that Star which is the fountain of it but they are produc'd by the vapours between the Sun and the Eye and therefore appear not at full noon and change with the vapours and clouds As for those which appear in the Moon 's face there is great diversity of opinions as of the Rabbines and Mahometans of the ancient Philosophers reported by Plutarch in his treatise thereof and of the moderns The first are ridiculous in believing that Lucifer by his fall and the beating of his wings struck down part of the light of this great Luminary or that the same was taken away to frame the Spirits of the Prophets Those Philosophers who attributed the cause to the violence of the Sun-beams reflected from the Moon to our Eyes would conclude well if the like spots appear'd in the Sun as do in the Moon because the rayes coming directly from the Sun to the Eyes have more brightness and dazle more then those reflected by the Moon Nor can these spots be the Images of the Sea and its Streights for the Ocean surrounding the Terrestrial Globe that part of it which remains in the lower part of the Globe cannot send its species so far as the Moon whilst she enlightens the upper part the Moon being able to receive onely the species of that part which she enlightens according to the principles of Theodosius who teaches us that from the Zenith of one Hemisphere right lines cannot be drawn to the other Hemisphere by reason of the solidity of the Globe the caliginous fire the wind the condensation of the Air and the like opinions of the Stoicks and other ancient Philosophers though erroneous yet seem to me more probable then those of some Moderns who will have the Moon inhabited not considering that 't is too small to make an habitable earth her body being the fortieth part of the Terrestrial Globe and its surface the thirteenth of that of the Earth or thereabouts besides that she comes too near the Sun whose Eclipse her interposition causeth They who make the Moon and the Earth to move about the Sun may indeed with Copernicus explicate the most signal motions and phaenomena But the stability of the Pole and the Stars about it requires a fix'd point in the Earth with which the inequality of the dayes and seasons could not consist if the Sun were stable and in one place Moreover the difference of dayes proceeds from the obliquity of the Ecliptick which is the cause that the parallels of the Solstice are nearer one to another and the dayes then less unequal then at the Equinoxes which cannot hold good in this Scheme But 't is less reasonable to say that the hollow places in the Moon seem dark for by the rules of perspective they should remit the Sun's rayes redoubled by their reflection by reason of the cone which is form'd in hollow parts nor can they be eminences which appear obscure because in this case the spots should not appear so great or not come at all to us being surpass'd by the dilatation of the rayes redoubled by the conical figure of the cavities of the Moon 'T is therefore more probable that as a Star is the thicker part of its Orbe so the Moon hath some dense then others which are the most luminous as those which are more diaphanous letting those beams of the Sun pass through them which they are not able to reflect for want of sufficient density seem more obscure and make the spots The fifth said The spots of the Sun cannot be from the same causes with those of the Moon which experience shews us changes place and figure those of the Sun remaining always alike and in the same figure whereby we may also understand the validity of what is alledg'd by some That the Sun moving upon his own Centre carries his spots about with him For granting this motion yet if these spots interr'd in the Sun they would always appear in the same manner and at regular times by reason of the Sun 's equal and uniform revolution Nevertheless the most diligent observers find that some of them are generated and disappear at the same time in the Solar face Which would incline me to their opinion who hold those spots to be generated out of the body of the Sun in the same manner that exhalations are out of the bosom of the earth did not this derogate from the receiv'd incorruptibility of the Heavens For it cannot be any defect of our sight mistaking the vapours between the eye and the Sun for spots inherent in his body since they are seen by all almost in the same number and figure which should alter with the medium if this were the cause of them and 't is impossible that vapours should follow the Sun in his course for so many days together as one of these spots appears for it must move above 6000 leagues a day though it were not much elevated above the earth Nor do our Telescopes deceive us since without them we behold these spots in a Basin of water or upon a white paper in a close Chamber whereinto the Sun is admitted only by a small hole Nor Lastly are they small Stars call'd by some Borboneae and Mediceae because we perceive both their nativity and their end II. Whether 't is best to use â—â—verity or gentleness towards our dependents Upon the second Point 't was said That he who said a man hath as many domestick enemies as servants imply'd that we are to use them as such converse with them as in an Enemy-Country and according to the Counsel of good Captains build some Fort therein for our security Which Fort is severity and its Bastions the reasons obliging us to this rigour The first of which is drawn from the contempt ensuing upon gentleness and familiarity and from the respect arising from severity and gravity especially in low and servile souls which being ill educated would easily fall into vice to which men are more inclin'd then to vertue if they be not restrain'd by fear of punishment which makes deeper impression upon their minds then the sweetness and love of virtue wherewith they are not acquainted Besides that servants are apt to grow slack and luke-warm in their duties unless they be spurr'd up by severity And 't is a great disorder when a servant becomes equal to his master as it happens by mildness nor was Paganism ever more ridiculous then in the Saturnalia when the servants play'd the masters It must likewise be confess'd that severity hath a certain majesty which exacts such honour and service as gentleness cannot obtain By this virtue Germanicus became so considerable and was
it It is wholly necessary to Merchants for their selling Upon which score possibly Mercury was made the Patron of Negotiators For perswasion which is the end of it needs not alwayes an Oration complete in all its members the greatest pitch of an Orator is to contract himself according to time place and persons A General of an Army animates his Souldiers more with three words as he is going to charge the Enemy then a Preacher doth his Auditors in a whole Lent Even Gestures are sometimes eloquent so the Curtesan Phryne carry'd her law-suit by discovering her fair bosome as also did a Captain by shewing his scars to their Judges who intended to condemn them Whereby it appears how great the power and extent of Eloquence is The Second said Since some were so hardy the last Conference as by speaking ill of Poets to disparage the language of the gods let us examine that of men that Pallas may not complain of the same treatment that was shew'd to the Muses For not to strike the same string twice the lasciviousnesse imputed to them seems more justly to belong to Orators and Poets since Meroury the god of thieves as well as of Eloquence and not Apollo was the messenger of the amours of the gods Now 't is hard for the Disciples not to retain some thing of their Master Moreover Socrates and Plato define Eloquence the art of deceiving or flattering and this latter banishes Orators out of the excellent Common-wealth which he took so much pains to contrive But other real States have done them more evil driving them effectively out of their territories rightly judging with Aeschylus that nothing is more pernicious and prejudicial then an affected language embellish'd with the graces of Eloquence which the more florid it is the more poyson it hides under its flowers which have nothing but appearance Therefore the Romans the wisest Politicians in the world drave them so often out of their Common-wealth as during the Consulship of Fannius Strabo and Valerius Messala when Cneus Domitius and Q. Licinius were Censors and under the Emperor Domitian And 't is one of the surest foundations of the Turkish Empire and by which they have found most advantage their forbidding the having by this means instead of an Army of talkers good for nothing but to multiply noises and divisions by disguising the Truth innumerable stout fellows of their hands who have learn'd no other lesson but Obedience By which from a small beginning they have subdu'd a great part of the world particularly Greece which alwayes made profession of this talkativenesse Yea in Athens it self the cradel of Eloquence the Orators were forbidden the Court the Palace and other publick Assemblies because they perverted Right and Timagoras was there condemn'd to death for having made Complements to Darius according to the mode of the Persians The ancient Republick of Crete and that of Lacedaemon the School of Virtue were not unmindfull to provide against these Sophisters the latter opposing their design by the brevity of its Laconick stile and having banish'd Ctesiphon for boasting that he could discourse a whole day upon what ever subject were propounded to him What then would it have done to Demosthenes who commonly brag'd that he could turn the balance of Justice on which side he pleas'd Is not Eloquence therefore more to be fear'd then the musick of the Syrens or the potions of the inchantresse Circe being able to involve innocence in punishment and procure rewards to crimes Moreover 't is a Womans Virtue to talk And therefore Caesar disdain'd this present which Nature had given him and few people value it but such as have nothing else to recommend them Volaterranus observ'd few persons both virtuous and eloquent nor do we find famous Orators in Macedon which gave birth to Alexander and so many other great Captains 'T was with this Eloquence that Demosthenes incens'd Philip against his own City of Athens that Cicero animated Marcus Antonius against that of Rome that of Cato was one of the causes that incited Caesar against the liberty of his Country and yet Cato hated this art of Oratory so much that he once caus'd audience to be deny'd to Carneades and his companions Critelaus and Diogenes Ambassadors from Athens to Rome upon no other reason but because they were too Eloquent And not to speak of the vanity of Orators a vice more incident to them then to Poets witnesse the boastings of Cicero their art is altogether unprofitable since it serves onely to paint and deck the truth which hath no need of ornaments and ought to be plain pure simple and without artifice In a word to represent truth adorn'd with flowers of Rhetorick is to lay Fucus upon a fair Complexion to paint Gilly-flowers and Anemonies and to perfume Roses and Violets But what may it not falsifie since it disguises it self covering its figures with the hard words of Metonymy Synecdoche and other barbarismes to make them admir'd by the ignorant The Third said That there being nothinb but is lyable to be abus'd both they speak true who commend Eloquence and they who decry it When this faculty of speaking well undertakes to make great things little and the contrary it frustrates their wish who would have things themselves speak Nor is there any lover of eloquent discourses but prefers before elegant speaking the plainesse of a good counsel when some serious matter is in debate either touching health businesse or the good of the Soul And therefore I conclude that Eloquence is indeed more graceful but simplicity and plainesse more excellent and desirable CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony I. Of the Hearing THe Hearing is the Sense of Disciplines the inlet of Faith which the Apostle saith comes by Hearing the judge of sounds and their differences the cognition whereof is the more difficult for that they are the least material qualities of all considering that they are neither the First as the Tangible nor the Second as Colours Odours and Sapours depending upon the various mixture of the first but of another kind of qualities which have scarce any thing of the grossnesse of matter The little corporeity they have not proceeding from that but from the Air which enters with it into the Eear Neverthelesse sound is not wholly spiritual for it presupposes in the bodies collided together hardnesse smoothnesse and such other second qualities without which the collision of two bodies is not audible But the chief cause of the difficult cognition of sounds is that they are produc'd of nothing namely of Local Motion which by the testimony of the Philosophers is a pure Nothing Motion being rather a way to being then a true being Not that Motion produces something that is real of it self since Nothing cannot produce any thing but onely by accident and by another So by friction attenuating the parts it generates heat and by the meeting of two bodies it makes sound which lasts as long
as its cause and ceases when this fails contrary to other qualities which have a fix'd and permanent existence in Nature For the tingling of a bell which continues some while after the stroke is not one single sound but many the parts of the bell being put into a trembling motion by the blow and communicating the same to the parts of the Air contain'd in the cavity of the bell which Air is so long clash'd together till all the insensible parts of the bell be return'd to their first rest and therefore the laying of the hand upon it hinders this motion and consequently stops the sound And 't is for this reason that it resounds more when it hangs freely then when it is held in the hand and some bells have been seen to fly in pieces upon the application of a piece of Iron to them whilst they were trembling The cause whereof is this if while all the parts of the bell tremble and equally move from their place one part be check'd it becomes immoveable and so not following the agitation of the rest is separated from them The Second said Though sound the object of the Hearing containing under it Voice and Speech is oftentimes accompany'd with three things the body striking the body struck and the Medium resounding yet these three do not alwayes meet in all sort of sounds as we see in that which is made by our bellows the noise of a Petar Salt Chestnuts and other aerious and flatuous bodies cast into the fire because these flatuosities being rarifi'd require an outlet and therefore impetuously break forth out of their restraint which eruption striking the neighbouring Air produces a sound The same is seen also in the Voice which is form'd by collision of the Air in the Lungs against the Larynx the palate and the teeth So that the proximate cause of sound is not the shock of two bodies but the breaking of the Air when its motion is hindred A piece of cloth makes a noise in the tearing but not in the cutting because of the sudden separation of the parts of the Air which on the other side for fear of Vacuum are impetuously carry'd towards the place of their separation and the wind whistles by reason of the violent motion which it causeth in the Air sometimes driving the same before it sometimes pressing and wracking it or because it meets some other wind or body that opposes its natural motion The Third said A perfect sound cannot be made without the encountring of two bodies and Air between them for want of which there would be local motion but no sound in a Vacuum and the motion of those great celestial orbes is not audible Now these bodies must be hard and solid either of their own Nature as Copper and Silver or by the union and construction of their parts which makes them act and resist as if they were solid such are the Air and Water agitated Moreover that this sound be perfect 't is requisite that the bodies be large and smooth for if they be rough and scabrous the Air which is compress'd finds means to expand it self in the interstices of the higher parts if they be acute and pointed they cut and divide but do not break it So a needle striking the point of another needle makes no noise because it onely cuts the Air but do's not compresse it If these solid bodies be hollow and dry the sound is made the better and yet more if they be aerious Hence among metals Brass Silver and Gold resound more then Lead and Iron which are of a terrene nature Among Trees the Sallow and the Fig-tree have a sound and the leaves of Laurel crackle in the fire by reason of their aerious parts Lastly the bodies must be friable that is to say divisible at the same time into very small particles as Air Glass and Ice or in case they break not at least they must tremble in all their parts as bells do Therefore Water not being friable by reason of its tenacious humidity which keeps the particles together cannot be the subject of sounds that of running Water being made by the occurse of the Air upon its surface not in the Water it self in which no sound can be made although it may be somewhat confus'dly transmitted as 't is to fishes whom the noise makes to abandon the shore The Fourth said Hearing was given to Man to satisfie his natural inclination to understand the thoughts of his species by the utterance of words which would be useless to conversation if they were not receiv'd by this faculty whose dignity appears chiefly in the structure of its Organ the Ear both external and internal which is destinated to the reception of sounds Therefore the Philosopher derides Alcmaeon for saying that Goats respire at the ears The external is Cartilaginous and tortuous unmoveable in man alone always open on each side the head to receive sounds from all parts which are carri'd upwards in an orbicular figure The internal situate in the os petrosum or bone of the Temples hath four passages viz. the auditory meatus clos'd with a membrane call'd the Drum behind which is a cord fastned to the stirrup the anvil and hammer small bones as dry and big in children as in old men 2. That which incloseth the natural and immoveable Air the principal Organ of hearing 3. The Labyrinth 4. The Cochle or Shell-work But the passage which goes from the Ear to the Palate and the orifice of the Wind-pipe is most remarkable by which the inspir'd air doth not only refresh the Lungs but also the natural implanted air in the ear Hence ariseth that sympathy of the Palate and the Ears and to hear well we sometimes hold our breath for fear of disordering the species of sounds and those that gape or yawn hear little or not at all because the vaporous spirit which causeth oscitation so puts up the drum of the ear that it cannot well receive sounds and for the same reason they that yawn dare not pick their ears at that time for fear of hurting the inflated Drum which if it come to be touch'd the yawning ceaseth those that scratch their ears put themselves into a hawking or coughing And lastly 't is for this reason that such as are born deaf are also dumb because of the straight connexion of the auditory Nerve being of the fifth conjugation with the seventh which is at the root of the Tongue The Fifth said Sounds are carri'd to the ear in the same manner as they are produc'd namely by a fraction of the air adjoyning which hath a sphere of activity and is like that which is caus'd in the water by casting a stone into it but without any intentional species Otherwise sounds would be heard at the same time and in the same manner by those that are neer and those that are far off in regard the intentional species being spiritual is carri'd in an instant being caus'd by