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book_n	day_n	read_v	write_v	2,752	5	5.2488	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35559	A letter of Meric Casaubon D.D. &c to Peter du Moulin D.D. and prebendarie of the same church concerning natural experimental philosophie, and some books lately set out about it.; Letter of Meric Casaubon to Peter du Moulin concerning natural experimental philosophie	Casaubon, Meric, 1599-1671.; Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1669 (1669)	Wing C805; ESTC R17546	22,974	40

the Ancients and what they are which happily might deserve as much respect so much at least as not to be passed in silence Many such things besides what is collected by Pancirollus in a Treatise of that Argument have been observed by more then one Physicians and others all which I cannot call to mind suddenly One thing may be cutting for the stone in the kidneys which in Hippocrates time was practised I have read it in more then one with good success but now and ever since Galens time for which some blame him lost and forgotten To this divers other things are added by learned Physicians as that which they call dissectio in Empyematibus exustio in jecoris humoribus cranii perforatio in aqua cerebri sectio supra oculum in suffusionibus extractio aquae intercutis which last though some venture upon in these days also yet it is observed that few or none escape for want of the right way To these I make no question but many more might be added and I am sure I have met with more in their books which I do not at this time remember Whether Galen had any knowledge of the venae lacteae and the like I know not but I am confident he had that knowledge of all the muscles sinews arteries fibers and the like and their proper use in every part of the body as doth appear by those admirable books he hath written of that subject as I think few Physicians have at this day of which knowledge what use he made may appear by one story which I remember to have read in him A young boy belonging to a great man in Rome had received some hurt in his body by a fall out of a Coach or Chariot such as they had in those days The boy was very dear to his Master who spared no cost to have him perfectly cured Many Physicians and Chirurgeons were employed but for all they could do two fingers of one of his hands continued as it were dead Galen happened to come to Rome about that time and was invited by the great man to see the boy he did and being well informed of all particulars of his fall he presently took away all that he found applied to the sick fingers and applied somewhat to one of the bones of his back whereupon the fingers immediately or soon after recovered their former use strength Yet I know Vesalius made it his business to contradict Galen as much as he could but other later Anatomists have defended him and Vesalius though generally acknowledged an excellent Anatomist hath found some who have taken as much pains to contradict him It is my opinion that there is scarce any art or faculty wherein we do not come short of the Ancients Indeed their industry much provoked by the greatness of rewards was greater generally that cannot be denied Painting Carving the Statuaria are in a manner lost in comparison of what they had attained to So is the Art of Coyning of money as used in the best times of the Roman Empire best Writers and Artificers of these days acknowledge it So is Musick Ludovicus Vives besides Pancirollus before named was of that opinion I am sure and there is so much to be said that it is so that I do not see how it can be doubted or denied by any man The secret of those eternal Lamps as we may call them found in divers ancient graves though so much by more then one hath been written of them continues a secret to this day and I doubt whether modern Chymistry so much admired by some men afford any thing that deserves more admiration Doth any body pretend in these days to understand the Mathematicks as Archimedes did What would not men Kings and Princes give for one of his inventions But I have said more of him very lately Hitherto nothing hath been said to impair the credit or usefulness of Natural or Experimental Philosophy but that we would not allow it to usurp upon all other learning as not considerable in comparison Now I crave leave to tell you that it is as all good things more or less very apt to be abused and to degenerate into Atheism Men that are much fixed upon matter and secundary causes and sensual objects if great care be not taken may in time there be many examples and by degrees forget that there be such things in the world as Spirits substances really existing and of great power though not visible or palpable by their nature forget I say and consequently discredit supernatural operations and at last that there is a God and that their souls are immortal This is a great precipice and the contempt of all other learning an ill presage I cannot tell what should make the Metaphysicks that noble science so despicable unto them them I mean who have declared themselves and their opinion of it Indeed they have nothing to do with the senses and may be called Notional but real though and the more abstracted from the senses therefore the more divine What a coil hath been kept with Cartesius's Ego cogito to prove the immortality of the soul thereby How much more effectually may it be proved by the capacity men have of Metaphysical contemplations or the consideration of Ens quatenus Ens so abstracted from all that is sensual and material For my part I profess next the mysteries of our faith I never have been more sensible of the immortality of humane souls then when I had the happiness to be conversant with that noble Science To me truly it is no good signe that this secondary kind of Theology or Divinity and so called by many you know is so out of request But Natural Philosophy I grant is more taking and bewitching generally there is a plain reason for it and though cryed up for the onely useful knowledge yet if well considered it may be found sometimes to have much more of pleasure and curiosity in it then use and profit even in that sense for what is truly useful and profitable or most useful and profitable is another question which they intend Yet Give me leave I pray to tell you this pretty story by the way if we must or may beleeve every thing that is written by men addicted to this way we may find wonderful effects of it even to moralize men which indeed is the best use of any worldly thing which can be made Gassendus in the life of Peyreskius a right worthy man and great Patron of all kind of learning hath this story of him Dicebat verò nihil sibi unquam animi regendi persuasionem aequè fecisse c. Give me leave to tell it you in English though I know you a great Master of the Latin Tongue Peyreskius it seems had shut in a microscope a louse and a flie together how they fell out Gassendus doth not tell us but it seems they were not long together but they began to quarrel and to fight and

now further explain my self I observed there Practical useful learning appropriated to the way now in use by experiments and those that go any other way and follow other studies which have been formerly in request styled men of the Notional way By Practical useful learning Chymistry and the Mathematicks as the Author doth explain himself are also comprehended whatsoever is besides so far as I can understand by the book is proscribed as useless notional and unprofitable I had observed it before in another book written by a learned man a great admirer and abetter of Experimental Philosophy who speaks of the Ancients and ancient learning with a shew of much more respect and moderation but in effect to the same purpose to cry down all other studies and learning ordinarily comprehended under the title of humane learning to be but umbratick things verbal things of little or no use since this new light of true real Knowledge especially Now what other arguments need they either to advance the credit of their way and of that way they commend to us or to cry down any other way that hath hitherto been in request then to make the world beleeve that it is of no use You know what judgement was pass'd against the fig-tree that bare no fruit And that earth or ground which instead of herbs meet for the use of men beareth nothing but thorns and bryers disputing and wrangling in their phrase is pronounced by St Paul accursed and worthy to be burned But I ask what is it that these account useful and useless For if nothing must be accounted useful as some seem to determine but what doth afford some use for the necessities or conveniencies of this present life I do not know but that a Brewer or a Baker a skilful Horse-leech or a Smith or the like may contest in point of true worth or desert with many who for their learning as then thought have been reputed generally the great Lights and Ornaments of their age though such as never medled in their writings with experimental philosophy They that beleeve that man doth consist of two chief parts the body and a soul whereof the soul the more noble and more considerable part as even Heathens most of them have determined it natural reason will oblige them to beleeve that a greater share of care and provision doth belong to that which is immortal from the right ordering of which all true happiness present or future doth depend then to that which is mortal and naturally brutish and of little continuance Those men therefore who have applied themselves by their writings to promote vertue and godliness in their kind that is so far as God was known to them were generally thought to have deserved of mankind as well if not better as the most renowned inventours or promoters of useful Arts or Trades Had Aristotle never written any thing but his Ethicks that incomparable piece he deserved the thanks of all ages and I make no question but in all ages even since Christianity many thousands have reaped the fruit of that incomparable work which alone is sufficient where it meets with right palats to speak its worth but compared with others that have written of that argument since and have not troden in his paths becomes more illustrious I might say the same of those Aurea Carmina which are attributed to Pythagoras and which Galen that excellent both Philosopher and Physician had in such esteem that he did not onely commend them to others as a sovereign antidote against the diseases of the mind but himself doth profess of himself that he was wont first to read but afterwards to repeat them once or twice every day for the benefit he reaped by them So of Cebes his Table of Cicero's Offices and not to name others of Epictetus his Enchiridion though much later then some of the rest yet not inferiour unto any And here by the way both by him and some others that have written upon him we may find this very point excellently well handled Whether those men who make it their work to reclaim men from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or close adherence of the mind to the body and senses which most men are naturally prone to to the care and culture of their souls ought in reason to be accounted unprofitable to the Common-wealth or rather of all Professions the most useful and necessary I wish some of our Mechanicks who are so highly conceited of their way laying aside prejudice and preengagement if they can would take the pains to read those admirable discourses it may be they would find that the sway of the times more then any weight of right reason hath led them hitherto into this opinion But alas poor Aristotle your Author will not allow of above three books of his to be worth the reading and his Ethicks is none of them And elsewhere he doth question whether those works generally ascribedto Aristotle were or are his indeed whereby we may guess though he have written against him he saith how well he was read in Aristotle Else the style of Aristotle so constant to it self every where and in a manner unimitable but much more the matter so solid and rational every where almost would easily have convinced him But certainly the light account he makes of him all along reproaching his adversary so often for his love to and esteem of Aristotle would make a man admire what account he made of himself I think he had done well before he had taken such a task upon himself to have made it appear the easier task of the two as I conceive that all men that have been famous in former ages for their judgement wit and learning were no such thing really as they appeared unto the world but meer Idols and Phantasms not true rational men such as this latter age hath produced and their judgement therefore not at all to be regarded Then indeed we might with more patience and equanimity hear what he hath to say against Aristotle for sound and solid reason and for all manner of knowledge attainable by meer man without divine revelation the wonder of all ages hitherto But not to insist on former ages I will name but one man of very fresh memory What do you think that Julius Caesar Scaliger for learning and judgement may be put in the balance to be weighed with your Author Vir propter excellentem omnium disciplinarum eruditionem admirandus So Pererius that learned and judicious Jesuite of him and so so many others that a man out of all kind of writers might easily swell a book into a great volume of testimonies concerning that admirable man He had read Aristotle to the purpose it seems again and again by the use that he makes of him upon every occasion but seldom names him without some intimation of highest admiration and veneration that can without Idolatry be deferred unto man And what think you of meer Naturalists