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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46233	An history of the constancy of nature wherein by comparing the latter age with the former, it is maintained that the world doth not decay universally in respect of it self, or the heavens, elements, mixt bodies, meteors, minerals, plants, animals, nor man in his age, stature, strength, or faculties of his minde, as relating to all arts and science / by John Jonston of Poland.; Naturae constantia. English	Jonstonus, Joannes, 1603-1675.; Rowland, John, M.D.	1657 (1657)	Wing J1016; ESTC R11015	93,469	200

fist I grant it is so written Nor do I speak as boldly as Becanus who writes I beleeve not that in Pliny concerning Orion though L. Flaccus and Metellus who said they went to see it should swear it by their heads We must so deal with our Ancestours as we would have our posterity deal with us But what doth all this make against us I. It is apparent that Many things were not rightly understood then many things were added that were Hyperbolically spoken when as the very antient writers did not beleeve what was reported There might be some Money found in the Indies was presently added that Augustus his image was upon it II. These monstrous Figures may be ascribed to Naturall or Artificiall causes or to both joyntly Also great Princes might make these things of ambition or Skilfull Artificers of curiosity or Infernall Devils of Malice and deceit Truly that mad building neer Amsbury which the Ancients call the Gyants dance seems to proceed originally from thence What strange bodies a thousand Artificers do often present us with may be collected from the history of two Maids that were taken away in whose places other bodies were layd III. I know not whether it be wholly impossible for Nature to make such bodies in the very bowels of the Earth For it is without doubt that many bodies have been found that represented the parts of Limbs and others that were like entire living creatures In the Dioces of Trevirs when caement was dug forth to repair buildings they dug up black stones like womens privities Diphyes represents the Genitals of both Sexes with a line to distinguish them At Salfelda in Thuringia a stone was dug up out of a Pit that was twenty fathom deep that was like a firme brest a foot a half long three hands broad on the fore part where the ribs ended it was six fingers thick and three where the whirlebands on the hinder part were pierced in the middle The back bone was empty of that should represent the marrow Also Goropius Becanus saw in England a Stone cut out of the top of a Mountain that was exactly like to a Perch and not the least line wanted for its perfection I will say nothing now of a Turnep neer Harlem that was dug up in the yeer 1583. It was like a Mans hand with nails and all the distinctions of fingers and the lineaments I saw the picture of it at Lyons with CL. D. Baudarcius my Patron I will say nothing also of that of Agricola we saw a small stature of a Man that carried a Childe on his shouders made of silver by nature And if these things seem onely to be understood of the outward forms described and the matter to be wholly different let I beseech you Fossill flesh answer that exception which was reported to be found sometimes and of which in the fifth Classis of our Thaumatographia we spake some things out of Libavius IV Lastly D. Hawkwill thinks that such vast bodies may be ascribed to the Divels copulation with women And truly saith S. Augustine it is a most frequent report and many say they have tried it or heard it of others of undeniable credit that the Sylvani and Fauni which they commonly call Incubi have commonly committed wicked actions with Women and have desired and obtained to lie with them and some Devils which the French call Dusii do daily attempt and effect this uncleannesse and many such men affirm it that it were great impudence to deny it Also Tostatus writes that of such monstrous copulations proceed the strongest and tallest Men. Valesius and Delrio agree with him It is no doubt but if any such things have hapned it happened in the time of Heathenisme especially when the Devil had most power but not so after Christ was come For that the Oracles ceased and great Pan was dead not onely Plutarch writes in a particular Book but the History of Epitersis shewes the Proclaiming of his death about Paxa D. Hawkwell rests in this opinion But to speak truth and to confesse ingenuously I scarse dare agree with him For though it were granted that the Divels should lye with Women yet it followes not that they should conceive and that for the unfitnesse of the prolifique matter The Divels are spirits and cannot have it of themselves First therefore they must be Succubi and steal it and then Incubi and inject it And in the mean while the Seed is spoiled of its inward heat and spiritall as being easily dispersed whence it is that some Witches say they felt it cold Further that seems to be a work of Imperfection For if Gyants exceed so much in magnitude that it hinders any actions they are to be called Monsters And truly Bartholinus calls him a Monster whose grinding Tooth Augustine saith he saw In the interim every man may think what he pleases He that desires to know more exactly of the Divels copulation with Women let him read Ambrose Pareus and Caspar Bauhinus concerning Hermaphrodites As for the second Objection it is no more forcible then the former for neither did the latter times yeeld to them nor do our times fall short of them Tribellius Pollio speaks the same of C. Marius Capitolinus of Maximinus Vopiscus of Aurelianus Barletus of Scanderbeg and Fazellus of Galeotus Bardesinus a Noble Man of Cathay and others of Tamberlane and Ziska c. Georg. le Fuer writes that Anno. 1569. there lived at Misni● Nicolaus Klunherus the President of the Cathedrall Church who without any help lifted a Tun of Wine out of a Cellar Majolus saith that at Asta in the presence of the Marques of Pescaria a man played with a pillar of three foot long and one foot diameter as another would play with a ball He reports also that one of Mantua called Rodomant of a mean stature would break a rope as big as a Mans arm like a thread Ernaudus Burg a Spaniard Servant of the Earl Faux as Frostardus relates carried an Asse loaded with wood up 24 staires into a Chamber upon his back Lobelius a Polander writes in describing the things were done Anno. 1582 at the Circumcision of Mahomet son to Amurat that one man took up a piece of wood so great as twelve men could hardly carry it and he laid upon his brest a stone that ten men could not bear Forsbergius with his middle finger of his right hand could thrust any Man out of his place Pothowa Captain of the Cossakes sath Leunclavius broak an iron Spurr as a man would tear paper Johannes Romanus in England could carry an Ox. Lastly Anno. 1575 there was a Man kild of vast Magnitude by James Niazahilovius a Polander Scythian His forehead was twenty four fingers broad and the rest of his body was so great that his carcase lying on the ground would reach as high as a Mans navell when he stood The

observes that Birds fell down with the infection and birds of prey would not touch the carkases In the government of Vibius Gallus and Volutianus as Pomponius Laetus and Zonara testifie the plague continued without intermission fifteen yeers and at Alexandria no house was clear and those that remained were not more than there were old men in former dayes Lipsius saith He never read of a greater plague for continuance in any part of the Earth In Justinians dayes at Constantinople sometimes 10000 have died In Numidia sometimes as Orosius reports 800000 In the time of Petrarch at Florence between March and July a hundred thousand died And it was so violent in Italy that of a thousand men scarce ren remained In the yeer 1348 the Plague destroyed so many at London in twelve Moneths that in one Church yard 50000 were buried Between January and July there died 57374 What shall I say of the English Sweat which thrice passed over the whole Island the last was in the yeer 1551. Nor must we think that the Pox is now more violent than it was formerly This very disease saith Fracastorius will dy and be extinct and again it will revive in our Posterity as it is credible it was seen by our Ancestours of which there are no small tokens yet remaining But as for the Scurvey which is nothing else than a Melancholique and Malignant Cachexie of the body and some suppose it to be proper to the inhabitants of the North and the Sea Coast It proceeds from obstruction of the Milt by Melancholique dregs corrupted by some secret malignant quality with weaknesse of the Attractive and the expulsive faculties and is not without some great hurt of the rest of the bowels of the belly whence ariseth an itchy rednesse of the gums flagging corruption and stinking falling out of the teeth or weaknesse of the Legs resolution wannesse and exceeding wearinesse from a very small cause That the Ancients were ignorant of this is most false For Hippocrates as Langius writes doth describe it under the name of the ●liac passion or Volvulus Haematites in lib. de intern affssect and also under great milts in the same book And lib. 2. Prorrhetic he confirms it Galen in lib. Definit describes the Scurvie That it is a kinde of Palsie that if men be affected with it they cannot walk straight forward but sometimes they reel from the right hand to the left and they bring about their left foot against their right and they are forced to knock their right foot against their left and when they go forward ●hey lift up their leg Some again out of Galen would call it the Black Morphew But true 〈◊〉 is that a great Plague this time ten yeers spread in England Italie France and other places but what doth this make for a universall declining of Air to a worse condition The violence of Fires underground seem to have respect to this which were very raging in former times as we know for certain When Titus Vespasian and Flavius Domitian were Consuls the Mountain Vesuvius in Campania burned and first breaking up the top of it it cast forth stones after such vast flames that it set two towns on fire Herculaneum Pompeys towns and the smoke was so thick that it obscured the Suns light Lastly it sent forth such abundance of Ashes that they covered the neighbour countrey as if they were snow which by the force of the winds were said to be carried into Egypt Africa and Syria The City Julianum they are the words of the most prudent Historian being joyned to us was afflicted with an unexpected mischief For fires breaking forth of the Earth laid bold of Farms Fields Villages in many places and they flew to the very walls of Col●n newly built nor could they be extinguished by the falling of rain or by river waters or any other moysture untill for want of remedy and for anger at the losse some countrey men did cast stones on a far off and as the flames gave way they went neerer and with strokes of clubs and other things they frighted them away as men do wilde beasts Last of all they took off their clothes from their bodies and threw upon them the worse they were and defiled with wearing the better they served to put out the Fire That also was wonderfull that fell out in the Kingdom of Naples neer to Puteoli in the yeer 1538 the 29 of September The Sea retreated 200 paces and a Mountain at two of the clock at night riss up with a huge noise and casting forth of burning stones and with such a belching forth of ashes that not onely almost all the houses were thrown down but also the famous hot Baths at Tripergula The mighty Fires of Aetna and of some other Mountains in India are to be seen in my Book of the Wonders of Nature Let every man consider whether the like hath hapned in latter times Concerning that which is newly written of the mountain of Coles in the Countrey of Misena or of Modernus in Italy that Agricola speaks of or that which is written of Hecla by Bleshaenius or of S. Michaels Island which is one of the Azores seems not to be compared with them Article III. The Element of water is decayed in nothing WEe see at this day a threefold tide a daily monethly and yeerly Tide that Posidonius ascribes to the Sea That it is Salt as formerly is discerned by the taste It sends forth rivers from it and receives them again upon their return If waters are seen now where they never were before on the contrary waters do fail from the places where they formerly were It is manifest that in the yeer 1460 a Ship was found in the Alps with Anchors in a Mine where they digged Metals And Hierome writes that after the death of Julian Ships were brought to the Clifts of Mountains and hung there And Though no Fountains last for aye But all rivulets still decay Yet the great Rivers Indus and Ganges Danubius the Rhien and Nilus have not at all changed their courses as is to be seen in the Geographicall Descriptions Especially the constant course of Nilus for so many Ages seems to be one of the wonders of the World For it keeps its time so exactly that if you take any of the earth about it and neither moysten it nor dry it it will keep alwaies the same weight untill the 17 of June From thence is the weight increased as the river augments and gives an infallible testimony of the ensuing Flood It is known that some Mineral Baths have perished but it is no question but others are risen in their rooms Necham writes most truly of the Baths of England For to releive old age decaid ther 's none Before our English Baths were ever known If men he be bruis'd or broke or fainting lie Sick from a cold cause her'e 's the remedy

Apocalyps was then powred forth To this contempt was joyned a wonderful ignorance of Tongues To understand Greek was suspected and Hebrew was almost Heresy Remigius being ignorant of those Languages in his Comment upon those words 1 Thes. 1. 8 From you sounded out the word saith that Paul spake something improperly for he should have said divulged being ignorant that S. Paul writ in Greek In a part of Germa●y as appears out of the Rescript of Pope Zacharie to Boniface Bishop of Germany One Baptized in this maner Ego baptizote in Nomine Patria Filia Spiritua Sancta King Alfred in the Pastoral Preface prefixed to St. Gregory writes that in his dayes there was noe Priest in the Southpart of Humber who understood the Sacred Office written in Latine or could interpret it And Clemangus They came not from their Studies or Schooles but from the Plough tail and baser arts almost every where to take charge of Parishes who understood little more Latine than Arabick and they could not read and it is a shame to speak it they could scarce distinguish Alpha from Bets and if they had a little learning their manners were naught forasmuch as they were bred without learning in idlenesse and followed nothing but ribaldry playes eating and drinking and vain controversies I shall here set down the example of Du Prat a Bishop and Chancellour of France wh● when he met with these words in the Letters of Henry the eighth King of England written to Francis the First King of France Mitto tibi duodecim Molossos He thought he m●●nt Mules by Molossos and afterward observing his mistake he mended the matter well taking Molossos for Muletis and so doubled his ignorance But all men will excuse themselves with that saying of Saint Gregory The words of the Heavenly Oracle must not be subject to the Rules of Donatus He that would know more herein let him read Henricus Stephanus in his Apologie on Herodotus VII Lastly it is beyond all doubt that no longer than about two hundred yeers did Greek and Hebrew begin to revive And as St. Augustine said before Pelagius arose the Fathers spake more carelesly and that may be said also of the times that preceded Luther I need not speak much of the knowledge of the Imperiall Lawes He that shall compare Baldus Bartho Jason Accursius with Cujacius Alciat Ho●toman Duarenus French men he shall see the phrase more polite in these and the method more exact and the sense of the Law more quick For Cujacius said as Thuan testifies that Govianus of all the Interpreters of Justinian his Law as many as are or were is the onely Civilian to whom the Garland must be ascribed if the question were made concerning the best Yea Pithaeus in his Epitaph made upon him calls the same Man the first and last Interpreter of the Romane Lawes from the first founders Massonius writes thus of him Jacob Cujacius dug up the Romane Lawes by the Roots and brought them to the light with so great care that others before him may seem to be ignorant of them he alone after many men seems to have sought them out more diligently and more neerly to have discovered them But if we enquire concerning the practick from the decisions and judgements that now are at Rome Naples Florence Genoa Bononia Mantua at Perussium in Italy Spires in Germany at Paris Burdeaux Gratianapolis in France we shal easily perceive to whether the Goal must be delivered We acknowledge that Physick flourished in the dayes of Hippocrates and was renewed as it were by Galen but that it is now come to the top point may be demonstrated by most firm Arguments And I. Anatomy or artificiall Dissection of bodies was scarce known to the Antients For the Aegyptians Dissected and Annoynted bodies to preserve them from corrupting The Greeks burn'd them witnesse Herodotus and Thucidides Plutarch intimates that the custome was to burn one Womans body with ten Mens as being fatter and Hippocrates speaks nothing of these things Democritus was found by him dissecting many Animals and when he asked him the reason of it he answered I dissect these Animals you see not that I hate Gods works but to search out the nature of the Gall and of Choler Amongst the Jewes the custome was either to burn Malefactours or to stone them if they were hanged they were buried the same day It was sin to touch the bodies of the dead Amongst the Romanes also bodies were burnt The place where was called Puticulae or Culina and the vessels their ashes were put into Urnae And though Cicero writes that Sylla was the first who amongst the Senators of the Cornelii would be burnt with fire Yet Ovid writes of Remus The limbs must burn he did annoint And Numa who was addicted to the Sect of Pythagoras forbad men to burn his body Tully himself saith that the Lawes of the twelve Tables forbad to bury a dead body in the City or to burn it And these were given in the 300. V. C. yeer Lastly Vignerius shewes out of the eighth Book of Livie that the body of the Son of Manlius the Consull was burned in the fields and that was done in the yeer V. C. CCCC XII Before Syllas death CCLXX. It was not lawfull for them to behold the Entralls of man This custome began to be antiquated after the Antonini Macrobius saith it began to fail in his dayes Yet fifty yeers after the bodies of Pertinax and Severus were burnt as Dion and Herodian testifie Then lived Galen who as some write did dissect many Apes and Monkeys no bodies of Men unlesse perhaps he did One. Whilst Laurentius writes that he did that often he saith onely it is probable that he did so As for the Primitive Church Tertullian calls Herophilus a Butcher rather then a Physitian who hated man that he might know him And Augustine Though the diligence of some Physitians be cruelty yet those men call'd Anatomists do butcher the bodies of the dead Boniface threatens those with Excommunication who should take out mens bowels Which is not onely saith he made very odious in the sight of the Majesty of God but ought also as being obvious to the eyes of men to be exceedingly abhorred Therefore in our and our predecessours dayes that Science began to be adorned and it was adorned by Vesalius who was the restorer of it Valerius Sylvius Fallopius Columbus Riolanus Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapedente Remmelinus Spigelius Casserius and others II. The knowledge of Plants though it were first known to Theophrastus after that to Pliny and most of all to Dioscorides yet in the Age newly past this also is brought to greater perfection And this is not onely apparent by the peregrinations of Ravilius L●on●ardus Fuchsius Clusius and Americus by the Discovery of the New World and by Navigations into both the Indies which amongst the rest have brought

Nilus are neer the Mountains of the Moon not far from the Promontory of Good-hope IV. Of the Antipodes Lactantiu● of old speaks thus What doe they say that think the Antipodes to be Men whose feet walk against ours do they say any thing Or is any Man so foolish to think there be men whose feet are higher than their heads or that their weights ly against the places ours do turne the contrary way That Corn and Trees grow downward that Rain Snow Hail fall upwards upon the earth And Virgilius Bishop of Salisbury was condemned for this of Heresie by Pope Zachary Yet now adayes we are sure there are such I can speak no otherwise of Astronomy For I. The Ephemerides were not known to Ptolomy Purbachius was the first that brought them forth II. Many Instruments within these few yeers have been found out by Tycho Brahe Galileus and o●hers whereby new Stars have been discovered and Milkie wayes which reason of Meteors was hid from Aristotle and the Antients III. The Quadrature of the Circle was a thing to be known in Aristotle his days b●t it was not known Scaliger writes that he first found it out Yet Pancirollus saith not above thirty yeers since was that art invented which contains in it some wonderfull secret IV. Lastly the most learned Brigs late Professour of Geometry in the Famous Universitie of Oxford saith that the Antients knew not these things so well Copernicus Astronomy which teacheth us that the Earth is the Centre of the Globe of the Moon and that the Sun is the Centre of all the other Planets which may be discerned by our sight by help of an Optick Glasse lately invented in Venus and Mercury when they are in the lower part of their Orbs. He sheweth also by the Diurnall Motion of the Earth the Rising and Setting of all the Stars and by the Annuall Motion of thesame in its great Orb to finde out far more easily the motions and distances of all the Planets and their progresses in the Heavens their Stations and Retrogradations than we can by the Epicycles or other Hypetheses of Ptolomy or of any of the Antients The four Stars which Galilaeus Galilaei the Florentine calles Medicea who first found them out by his tuba Optica are alwaies carried about the Star of Jupiter and when they fall within the shadow of him they are Eclipsed Jupiter intercepting the Sun beams as the Earth doth when the Moon is Eclipsed To find out the value of Algebraic Aequations of all things if it be rationall and if it be not yet to expresse it next unto that in Numbers absolute and that as accurately as we can do any side of a surd number or the length of any Irrationall Line Any Subtendent Line being given in a Circle to finde out the Subtendent of the third part of the Circumference given whc Theos in his comment upon Ptolomy thought to be impossible and not onely of a third part but of any part be it even or odde The very Subtendent line is found of an odde part but the very subtendent of an even part is not found at one operation but onely the Square of Subtendent and the greater the number of parts be so much harder it will be to finde out the subtendent The Canons of right lines Tangents and Secants to the circle were not known to any of the Antients Erasmus Reinoldus first framed them and the Canon of Sines that is far more commodious than the Canon of Subtendents in Ptolomie was first discovered by Johannes Regiomontanus and afterwards was most accurately calculated by many men The totall doctrine of Logarithms was first invented by John Napier Baron of Merchiston a Scotchman whereof none of the Antients ever so much as dreamt of whereby many Problems in Astronomy Arithmetick and Geometry are resolved with very little bour which otherwise were thought to be impossible or else to be exceeding hard and not to be unfolded but with much toil and losse of time Thomas Hariottus a most skilful Geometrician was the first who taught men to find out the Arpha of a Sphaericall Triangle or the quantity of a Solid Angle no man before him attained this The ignorance of this proposition deceived Aristotle in his L. 3. de caelo C. 8. supposing that a solid place could be completed by a Pyramis And Petrus Ramus committed the same errour 16. 4. lib. of his Geometrie who affims the same thing may be done also by an Octaedron He teacheth also to finde out the proportion of a Segment of a Circle by that way which for Subtill and Accurate truth is equal to Archimedes way prop. 31. and 33 lib. de Conoidib and for easinesse is far beyond it Thus far Brigs to these we might adde those things that the most Famous Gulielmus Avianus Rector of the Colledge Thoman at Lipsia my honoured friend of his own invention hath inserted in his Universall Directory Part. IIII. Nothing is wanting in practicall Philosophy and History PRacticall Philosophy without all doubt is in the same condition For should we read the Books written upon this subject by Lipsius Guazzus Althusus Thomas Henricus Timpler Keckerman Donaldson c. who writ in Latine or Verulam Montanus the most Reverend Hall Robinson Feltham Gentius Wright who writ in French or English and should adde thereunto what Verulam hath written in his Augmentations of Learning we shall finde that Seneca Epictetus Plutarch and others of the Antients fell short of them many degrees As for the Military art which is part of Politicks the Romanes surpassed the Greeks therein and Raughleigh is reported to have shewed that the Romanes were surpassed by the English in Edward the third and Henry the fifth his dayes It is a question whether the Low-Countries fall short of Antiquity Hunniades Temincharius Scanderbeg Ziska Polislaus of Poland Henricus M. King of France Frederick or Nassau c. nay be compared with Julius Cesar. For he fought fourty seven battels with successe and was never put to the worst except in the Russian war by the running away of one of the Palatinate But of the other compared to Alexander the great Pytheus writes thus Which of you two the Garland first should have The warlike World long strove at last it gave The same to thee Henry by death thou wast So made at once the first Captain and last Who of the Antiens better knew the Art of Fortification than the Dutch and Italians do Who used more Noble Stratagems than the Low Countries in taking Breda and Zutphane than the Spaniard did in the interceptions of Amboina and the English in the conquering of the thundring Navy And as for Fights at Sea not despising other Nations the Dutch confederates have the preeminence given to them in many mens judgements They would sail to Heaven with their ships if men could sail thither History is three fold Naturall Ecclesiasticall and Civill Of that we spake

this strife Scriverius seems to demonstrate by many Arguments that Laurentius Johannis surnamed Edituus was the inventor of it And t is true that the Author of the Chronicle of Colen in their Native Tongue set forth Anno 1499 saith that the first Prints were found in Holland and that the Inhabitants of Mentzs from Donatus that was Printed there in the yeer 1450 framed them to that forme we use them now adayes But the words of Mariangelus Accursius are these Donatus was first of all Printed here Anno 1450 Indeed Johannes Faust a Citizen of Ments who first invented this art in Copper prints had his Instructions from Donatus printed before in Holland in a print of Wood. But Palmerius in Chronicis Guilandinus Vignerius Bibliander Munster contend for Guttenbergius If this contest can be decided we may say that at Harlem were the first grounds of it laid and Guttenbergius whom Polidor Virgil makes the Author of it did bring it to greater perfection But Faustus was the first Man that first used the art as we do now Petrus Ramus had Tullies Offices in print with this Inscription This present most famous work of Marcus Tully was happily ended by me John Faust a Citizen of Ments not with Inke and Pen or quills or brasse but by a very gallant Art by the labour of my servant Peter de Gerneshem It was finished Anno. 1466. the fourth day of February Yet whatsoever this may be Germany will never endure to lose the praise of it Beroa●dus O Germany that dist finde And art usefull for mankinde To write in print a Mans minde What is spoken of China if it be true yet every man must acknowledge that all was worse and more rude not so neat and well trimmed nor adorned with so comely variety of Leters as Lem●ius saith I doubt not but he would have said much more had he seen the Prints of the Dutch Italians and others now adayes Every man may easily collect the great profit ariseth by this Invention Polydore Virgil annexeth this to his Oration de Bibliothec. Veterum That was a very great blessing given to Mankind but it is no way comparable to that we have obtained now since we found out a new way of Writing For one man will print as much in one day as Many can hardly write in a whole yeer All men know that Books are now made chea●er more common and more correct than they were in former times For to let goe the price I spake of in another place I will speak this one thing truly and boldly they are Erasmus words I suppose that Hierom's Books making cost him lesse than they do us in restoring them And in the Preface to Augustines Works The rashnesse of idle people hath scarce dealt so ill with any other as with the Books of this Sacred Dr. At length Warlike Guns were invented An. 1380 as Magius wil have it or An. 1400 as Ramus saith by one Bartholdus S●wartz a Monk of Colen or as Salmuth writes by Constantine Anklitzen of Friburg It is collected from Platina in the Life of Vrban the fourth that they were first used in the wars of the Venetians against the Genoes But that seems to be an untruth which some write that the Indians or Salmoneus or Archimedes were the Inventors of them Virgil writes of Salmoneus thus I saw Salmoneus cruelly tormented Because he ●oves Thundering Flames invented Through Greece and Elis Sreets in pompe he rode Requiring to be honor'd as a God In his Coach with four Horses be did fly Shaking a burning Lamp to mock the Skie Mad fool to think that Clouds and Thunder can Be made with Ayre and Horses by a Man But this seems to be nothing but to make men afraid with the noise And either Plutarch or Livie or Aegidius Romanus who in the Reign of Philip the fair writ of Warlike Instruments Anno 1285. would have spoken something of Archimedes Nor would Mahomet have omitted this in his siege of Constantinople who for the managing of one Instrument to beat down the walls was constrained to employ fifty yoke of Oxen and 2000 men as Chalcondyla witnesseth Yet we cannot deny but that in the Reign of Richard the Second King of England in the battering of the Castle at Outwitch the French had great Cannon whereby the walls and houses of the Castle were cloven and broken in many places But whether those engines were such as we use now is uncertain The Marriners Compasse was not known of old time as Blondus Bodinus Cardan Bellonius Acosta Turnebus Pancirolla testifie Had it been found in Solmons dayes he needed not to have consumed three yeers in going and coming nor was he so wise as to know all things The Compasse by Plautus called Versovia alleadged by Lemnius and called the Compasse is supposed to be the Helm that turns the Ship or a rope that turns the Sail as Turnebus explains it Flavius Melphitanus is thought to be the first Inventor of it though Gilbertus saith that Paulus Venetus brought it from China and Osorius saith the Portingalls took it from some Barbarian Pyrates neer the Cape of Good hope Also that secret of the Lodastone whereby friends may communicate their secret thoughts one to another at the greatest distance is reported to be an Invention of our times But because Famianus Strada hath described it at large in the style and vein of Lucretius I will for the Readers benefit set it down in his own words The Load-stone is a stone in Nature strong For many needles toucht there with will change And turn themselves to that Star full right That next the Pole above us doth give light Conspiring in their motion far asunder All move one way at once t is a wonder For if at Rome one stir the rest are guided By the same course nere so far divided If then you would unto your friend endite Your minde to whom you know not how to write Make a plain Circle large enough and set On the Circumference the Alphabet Then let the needle in the middle play Toucht with the Load-stone that it easly may Point to the Letters and to this again Prepare another for a Counterpain The needle must be touched with the same Stone as the former was to fit your frame Your Friend that Travells must one Compasse take And you must keep the other for his sake But on the day and hour first consent Whereon you mean to shew your close intent This done observe the time prefixed and As one so will the other move or stand Move then your needle at that time when you Would have your Friend to know the thing you do And let the Needles point mark ea●h Letter Softly that he may understand the better The words they make of this you may be sure Your Needles motion will the same procure In your friends needle use your Instrument Thus till you have