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
Sophistication generally being derived from the Scriptures as learned men anciently and the most learned of this latter age have thought and thereupon taken great pains some of them to trace it to its first original supposing that the Scriptures among the learned and judicious would receive no small confirmation by their labours herein how can it now be dismissed or casheered without some wrong to the Scriptures which never more in this visible sad increase of Atheism every where wanted all kind of confirmation But much more did I wonder at another passage of the same Author in a more considerable subject then Poetry is It is where he treats of the Schoolmen favourably enough I must confess as when he saith If they would be content with any thing less then an Empire in learning we would grant them very much I think they are much to blame if no less will content them and they as much who uphold them upon that score All the rest that follows this is very moderate and reasonable But the conclusion And yet I should not doubt if it were not somewhat improper to the present discourse to prove that even in Divinity it self they are not so necessary as they are reputed to be and that all or most of our religious controversies may be as well decided by plain reason and by considerations which may be fetched from the religion of mankind the nature of government and humane society and Scripture it self as by the multitude of Authorities and subtilties of Disputes which have been heretofore in use this I do not understand According to ordinary construction the sense is obvious enough but a sense so amazing that it is not credible It is well known that before the late troubles a Noble-man of this Realm wrote a book intituled De Veritate the end and drift whereof was out of the Religions of mankind to extract a Religion that should need no Christ And though they that licensed it did not apprehend it so it seems I did at first sight yet himself afterwards during the troubles in his Epistola ad Sacerdotes printed with the rest of his works did pretty well unmask himself and openly shewed what opinion he had of Christianity Since him it is well known that some body hath taken some pains to attemperate Christianity to the laws of every Countrey and commands of Supreme Powers and this he doth ground or endeavour to ground not as the other who did scorn them upon divers passages of Scripture What can this import in ordinary construction but a new Religion Especially when it is said that the controversies of it may be decided by plain reason as well as by the multitude of Authorities and subtilties of Disputes which have been heretofore in use For the controversies of Christianity every body knows began in the Apostles time as doth appear by their writings a great part of which is spent on that argument and being prosecuted and increased in succeeding ages according to old Simeons prophecy concerning Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 2.34 the effect of which prophesie as also of St Pauls Oportet haereses esse will continue to the worlds end by an host of Hereticks and Schismaticks who have been happily repressed and repelled by those blessed Fathers and authority of general Councils and Provincial which every age afforded whose excellent works by a singular providence of God are yet for the most part extant who can expect or imagine that any other course can be available to the maintenance of true Christianity And certainly when and where men whether through force or want of good learning shall be made uncapable to uphold their faith with sound reasoning and disputing which they call wrangling what will be the issue or who will get by it any man may guess Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae I shall say no more I profess sincerely that I can make no other sense of the words I say therefore I do not understand them Yet I must acknowledge that the same Author doth elsewhere speak of Christian Religion and the chief mysteries of it very reverently and zealously much abhorring or professing to abhor all innovations in it or that it should suffer in any thing by Experimental Philosophie yet even there he doth not onely fetch the first establishment of it which to me sounds but odly to say no more from Experiments calling miracles Divine Experiments but also doth commend unto us men of honesty trade and business such as deal in Experiments he doth mean certainly as the best upholders or testifiers of it rather then men of craft and speculation alleadging to that end the example of the Apostles who indeed most of them by their profession at first and such chosen then of purpose by a singular providence were no better then illiterate tradesmen and labourers but which he doth not tell us were not onely long taught by Christ their Master but also immediately and miraculously inspired besides the power of miracles given them by God before they began to preach the Gospel unto men none of which things I think belong to the modern professors of Experimental philosophie By men of craft and speculation by the drift and tenor of his discourse he can intend no other then ancient Fathers and Schoolmen and late learned Writers of Controversies Now such an assertion I conceive not onely prejudicial but very destructive to true Religion and Christianity These things how to be reconciled I profess I know not To speak therefore as moderately as I can I said and say again I do not understand him If you do I shall be beholding to you to help me But I have not yet done with our School-Reformer Whence followeth saith he that the curious study of Criticisms and observation of styles in Authors c. And where have we a Commentator almost either upon the Scripture besides those lately collected and set out in many volumes under the name of Criticks or upon any good Author Greek or Latin that is not put to his criticisms sometimes and observation of styles which in very deed observation of styles is as considerable a study for the preservation and vindication of all kind of truth whether sacred all truth is more or less or civil wherein whole kingdoms and Commonweals are much concerned sometimes as any study can be And what think you of Longinus whose treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or de sublimi dicendi genere not many years ago set out by a very learned and worthy man Dr Langbaine Provost of Qucens Colledge in Oxford hath been so much commended and admired by learned men when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so diametrically opposite God bless the Universities and University-Libraries from such Reformers I now return to your Book where I meet with an Objection against old learning and Aristotle particularly which is made by more then one but by your Author as he doth not want words to set
Peyreskius was a spectator of the combat where he observed that the louse the more passionate of the two it seems was so distracted and vexed that after reiterated goings to and fro whether as a coward to run away or for the advantage of fresh onsets he doth not tell us all the bloud of his head was sunk into his tail the effect he saith of a great passion he was striving for his life a very natural passion this and very prejudicial to the state of the body By this sight Gassendus tells us Peyreskius profited more to rule his passions in the rest of his life then he had done by any thing he had heard or read before This is the story which when I consider the Worth and Nobleness of the man of whom it is written I could wish that Gassendus had left out What Peyreskius so learned so wise a man to profit more by the sight of such a combat and the demeanour of the louse in it in a thing of such consequence to a mans life then he had done by the reading of so many Philosophers who have written so excellently of that subject and among other things have not omitted this very particular the ghastly countenance and deformity of a man in passion and the diseases and dismal accidents it doth expose him to or the precepts and perswasions of the Word of God always divine but in this Argument even to humane reason most excellent and singular Galen indeed I remember hath a story how by some chance being an eye-witness to the impatience of a man who because when he knocked at a door was answered The party was not at home fell into such a rage and fury both in words and actions as no mad man could out do it made such impression in him that he was the better for it all his life after This is somewhat like as the sight of a drunken man may work upon an ingenuous youth to make him abhor drunkenness for ever But that the sight of the bloud of a louse passing from the head to the tail which perchance is no such extraordinary thing in a louse should be of such force with so brave a man as Peyreskius was above all that he had ever read or observed upon that subject and that he should as it were in thankfulness to the louse make an acknowledgement of it to his friends I have not faith enough to beleeve Gassendus in this but rather beleeve or suspect that Gassendus made this pretty story either upon occasion of somewhat that Peyreskius had told him of a louse or a flie but not to that purpose or of purpose to gratifie some friends who would be glad to hear what use can be made even in point of life and manners of a microscope But you will say perchance doth not wise Solomon say Go to the Ant thou sluggard c. Yes he doth indeed but to the sluggard pigro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of great weight as elsewhere I have shewed not to such a man as Peyreskius was nor as if Ants by their example could teach men what their own reason and the good instructions of other men beside the Scripture could not but to make such wretches more sensible of their degenerating into brutishness when they see such acts of reason performed by those creatures by meer instinct of nature which neither their own reason nor the reason good instruction of other men can perswade them to Besides he sends them to what will not require the labour or curiosity of much observation or inquisition but to that which is very obvious to all men Add that Ants certainly are more noble creatures then Lice because they live in common and have a form of government among themselves which doth presuppose some kind of reason or somewhat answerable to reason in men To this purpose I remember I have read the description of a City made I cannot say built by Ants the Author whereof is no less a man then a learned Bishop as by the elegancy of his style I guess him to have been Learned Gillius I am sure is not more accurate in the description of Constantinople then he is for the bigness of it for I would not have you think that it is any thing near so big as Constantinople in the description of this city of Ants. He hath the dimensions of the longitude and latitude of every street in it and the particulars of some publick places belonging to it with much accurateness He writes it in good earnest and for my part I beleeve him though if you do not I shall not account you an Infidel for it Yet I do not deny but some good may come even in matters of life by the observation of some actions in brutes but as good so evil also when men not knowing or forgetting whose image they bare are more apt so the greater number to prostitute their reason to meer nature then to rectifie nature by right reason We read in Herodotus of a people who thought carnal copulation lawful enough in their Temples because they observed that beasts that were brought to and kept in Temples for sacrifices made no conscience of it So Pontus Houterus of Delph in Holland grounding especially upon the custom of brute beasts would infer the lawfulness of incest among men Non illa natura matrem agnoscit non sororem c. which is very horrible And I could name some body else who doth not say much less but for the reputation he hath in the world I will spare his name And what will you say to him who out of his study he saith not very busie then certainly having observed the carriage of a Sparrow the most lascivious of all creatures as is observed by some Naturalists towards its mate vicies repetito coitu indè ex languore ad terram decidente began to quarrel with God Almighty en sortem iniquam hoc passeribus datum negatum hominibus that he had made him a man and not a Sparrow It were to be wished that they that are destined to the study of Nature were such as have attained by their years to ordinary discretion and are well grounded in Religion I know not what we may expect of wanton Boyes whom some would have trained up in those studies be times But another danger is may not a man go too far in this study and overvalue his progress so far as to think nothing out of his reach It was a noble attempt as to man of them that built or would have built the tower of Babel whose top might reach to Heaven It is not likely they could be so simple as to think really they should reach to Heaven by it they might think they should be somewhat nearer perchance and however get a name among men in after ages that they that built such a tower were somewhat above men But confusion was their reward I have no reason to be against the Art of flying if discoverable by humane industry I have reaped the pleasures of it in my dreams more then once and I thought no pleasure comparable to it though but in a dream Yet I doubt it may have somewhat of the Babylonish presumption in the eyes of God and that such high curiosities are so far from being useful that they may be dangerous Alas aut expectare aut sperare intemperantis naturae suae conditionem ignorantis animi est is Gassendus his judgement upon the matter which I hope will excuse me Yet I must confess I think there is less offence in the conceit of Artificial flying then in the conceit of Urim and Thummim being an Artificial Chymical preparation whoever was the Author of it which I think deserved to be censured as impious and if such liberty be taken or allowed I know not how far it may proceed or how soon Robert Flud his blasphemies which Gassendus hath censured and confuted may be received for useful truths or learning But I have done What I had to except against the book you brought me I have told you I must now thank you for it For in very truth his Divinity at the end which is somewhat mystical I hope I do not understand it and those two particulars his contempt of Aristotle and his censuring all other learning besides Experimental Philosophy and what tendeth to it as useless and meer wrangling and disputing excepted I have read the rest wherein he doth give us an exact account of late discoveries with much pleasure For though I think many ages may pass before the use of many of those particulars is known yet Aristotle hath taught me and he proves it excellently that nothing can be in nature so mean or so vile but deserves to be taken notice of and will afford to an ingenious speculative man matter of pleasure and delight Sr I know your relations to some of eminent worth and piety in that Honourable Society whom though we have not the happiness to know otherwise then by the fame of their writings yet we honour their worth as much as you do I hope you do not think any thing I have written can reflect upon any such No nor upon any others farther then in those particulars I have mentioned You know my condition and Judge I hope so charitably that I would not go out of the World but in perfect love and charity with all men As long as I live continue unto me I pray the comfort of your love and good opinion who am Your affectionate Brother and humble Servant MERIC CASAUBON