fixed on the Ground a Rosary in their Hands an outward Appearance of Demureness and Sanctity and a Neglect of the World a Book of Hadis in their Breast and if any seem to mind them they tune their Pipes to the Uncertainty of Riches the Frailty of Human Nature that all things are vain and fleeting that our Minds ought to be fix'd on our End with all the Train of Hypocrisy well personated The Parish-Priests are maintain'd in the Country by Collections How they are maintain'd in great Towns or Cities by the King or Cauns Besides these those who are called Hodges are such strict Puritans that if they meet a Christian Jew or Banyan and by chance his Garment brush against them they hye them home shift and wash as if they had been defiled with some unclean thing a Dog or Hog undervaluing all but their own Sect as if there were no Holier Creatures in the World And now having dispatch'd this Crew moulded up in dull Clay let us mix with those of more liberty in their own Language allowing them at the same time to be kept in Bounds by the rigid Compressures of their Taskmasters in Religion so that all the Strain of their Wit must biass that way And first Poets They have some though few set up for Admirers of the Muses and value themselves in being call'd the Wits of the Age and these are their Poets who confine themselves to Rhime and Numbers and sometimes to Quantity inferring their Verses with Comparisons Exaggerations Flights of Ingenuity and Fictions which they repeat with Gestures both of Hands and Body and Mouth contorted animating them with suitable Tones and Articulations proclaiming them dead without such Information They have Romances of Famous Heroes and their Deeds among which are pleasant Rancounters Huntings Love-Intrigues Banquetings descriptions of Flowers and delightful Groves Limners emphatically set down with Cuts and Pictures represented lively enough would their Colours endure for which Skill otherwise than for hitting the Life their Limners are to be reckon'd defective not knowing how to mix their Colours The exactest History they have to brag on Historians is Rouze el Saphet a Book of Three or Four Volumes in Folio which gives an account from the first Habitation of Men upon Earth till the Two last Centuries They are but bad at Chronology making nothing of a Thousand Years confounded together Had they the Aera of Augustus or the Julian Period or a faithful State of Time there might be some likelihood of Truth in their Histories but they being Convicted of inadvertency in these Points the whole Superstructure must fall which to defend even in their very Alcoran they are forced to Forge Aspersions to confront the lameness of its Stories whereby they endeavour thus to come off A Wicked Emperor having obtained the Rule of the World got the Sacred Writs together by force and burnt them after which what occurred to the Memory of the Christians were committed to Paper just as every one could recollect or fancy and hence arose the several Mistakes and Differences Others pretending to a farther reach follow our Saviour to the Fourth Heaven where they affirm he now is whither he carried the Gospel with him from the unworthy Nations excited by the same Zeal Moses was when he brake the Two Tables of the Decalogue With such Artifices as these they studiously bespatter the Christians and their Religion to uphold their own Dogmatical Tenents Sed magna est Veritas praevalebit A Book like our Aesop's Fables called Emuel Sohaly is preferred before all others written in the Persian Language yet their Superstition is such that they dare hardly give it House-room or afford it a place in their Libraries lest it should bring ill luck At the same time this was Translated out of Indostan into the Persian Speech there was Cotemporary another Persian who had composed a Book of his own but of a far inferior Stile and being sensible his Work would be Postponed thereby he industriously took care to spread a rumour among the Vulgar that this Book of Emuel Sohaly was an ill thing because it introduced Creatures irrational Talking one to another alledging for proof some Texts of the Alcoran and at that juncture laying hold of an Accident which happened to a Youth sleeping while he was reading this Piece that fell down from the Upper-Room to the Ground whereby he brake his Skull and his Thighs confirmed the Mobile in the New-broached Opinion of this Book it ever since bearing an ill Name because they looked on this as an Exemplary Judgment wherewith their Prophet was pleased to sorewarn others and denounce his Anger against such as should attempt the reading of it Alchymy has bewitched some of them to spend both their Time and Money without any other benefit than to supply them with a peculiar Cant Alchymy and affected Terms of their Teachers which those who seized with that Itch not only infect themselves but others with vain hopes which at last together with the Consumption of all their Substance vanish in Smoak These are such as cry up the Transmutation of Metals till they have refined them to be the most Excellent in Nature's Cabinet whereby they would arrive to that degree of Midas's Wish that whatever they touched should become Gold a sottish and imprudent thirst of Wealth as if it were in the power of Art to outdo the design of the Creation wherein every thing was formed good in it's kind by which these Dabblers cast a scandal on the Noble Profession of Chymistry to which is owing the true Knowledge of Physick by an Analytical Separation of the Parts of the Compound from the gross Dregs of the mixture whereout may be sucked such Particles as are applicable for the Remedies of Human Infirmities while they depart not from the nature first impressed on them Here are many good Writers in this Honourable Science but are at present unskilful and unprovided with their Instruments or Furnaces such as we find the Learned Sons of this Art use in their Laboratories elsewhere Mathematicks being the Foundation of all Arts Mathematicks should have preceded but Treating of an indigested Nation I deliver you them conformable to their own method they understand Euclid's Elements and Coelestial Phoenomenas though they want the Citations and Adjuncts in the Demonstration of their Propositions They have the Theodosian and Autolican Doctrine of the Spheres some Fragments of Archimedes but have not the Contracted Proclivity Practical Geometry is common with them Arithmetick in intire Numbers and Fractions they Exercise performing their Multiplication and Division in Transverse Lines The Ancient Algebra a Calculation by Geometrical Progressions is not hid from them though they have no specious Invention Trigonometry of streight Lines and Spherical is their own with the Canons of Signs and Tangents yet without Secants The Staff of 60 Parts with so many Fractions by a Prolix reckoning they bring to
their Church Their Funerals The Burial of Self-murderers Their Antiquity The Georgians of a different Temper from the Armenians The way of Salute Nunneries at Jelfa CHAP. VII Gives us a Sight of the Palace and Rarities there Our Entertainment by the French Artizans in the Emperor's Service The Diversions of the Place and its Product And the Close of the Year with its Seasons THE greaâ— Garden at the end of the Charbaâ—g Wild Beasts for the Emperor's Diversion The Rhinoceros not the Indian Onager The Abassin Ass mistaken for the Sabean The Flower of Ispahaun meet a-nights in the Walk belonging to the Palace The French Artizans divert us River-Fishes The Hedghog Water-Fowl Muscovia-Hawks Greyhounds No Woods or Forests about Spahaun An Eclypse of the Sun The Suburbs A Third Bridge We were two days in compassing Spahaun Change of Weather Catalogue of Plants growing at Spahaun Sharp Winters here Use of Stoves in Persia A pure Air without Soil The Death of the President The Agent succeeds at Surat Artifices of the Dutch CHAP. VIII Brings us to Gombroon in the midst of Winter The Caun's Pranks there The Hot Baths at Genoe The Aequinox and Seasons attending Some Parallel betwixt this Coast and the Indian A New Agent arrives VAllies filled with Snow We defend our selves with Furs At Chuldâ—star a Camel mad with Lust Obedah a Town of Vinyards Conacaraw and Dehid Conacurgu and Mushat The cold Weather makes our Indian Servants useless We begin to lose the Winter The Air grows thick Our English Mastiffs master their Lions We returned to Gombroon The English President affronted by the Caun The Banyans fly his Tyranny Going to Asseen we visit the Hot Baths of Genoe Their Virtues Two Hospitals built at the Charge of two Banyans All Waters partake of the Conditions of the Earth through which they pass Mineral Waters Their differences The Medical Benefits of these Baths Noe-Rose The Air moist Indian Plants grow here The Portugal Fleet and our new Agent arrive CHAP. IX We go up in the Spring with our New Agent to Ispahaun Two Irish Greyhounds sent as a Present to the Emperor We leave the Agent there and return in the Fall THE hasty Removal of the Agent the Cause of his Sickness and his Followers A notable Robbery Diary Fevers Colocynthis The Tarantula Pains in the Joints and putrid Fevers occasion'd as well by the Water as Air. Drinking in Ice a destructive Custom The Agent leaves Siras I fall sick On my Recovery I set forward for Spahaun Polygore and Aubgurrum Imaum Zadah Want of Rain Heste Behest Paradise upon Earth Murmuring against the Government The King's Steward restored to Favour The Physician hanged Irish Greyhounds a Present for the Emperor Colums the Forerunner of the Winter Crows of several Colours Monuments of Robbers The Air as well as Food the Cause of Birds keeping one place The Old and New Moon visible in twelve hours time in hot Countries to the North. The Years centre in our Winter CHAP. X. A Voyage to Congo for Pearl A Discourse of their Generation Departure from Persia and Return to India WE come to Congo A Dearth in the Water as well as on Land We come again to Bunder Abassee The Pearl The Adulteration Its Names The kinds of Pearl Cheripo or Seed-Pearl Chanquo or Mother of Pearl Scallop Its Properties It s Dignity and Value The Prices and Sizes We undergo difficulties in our passage back to India through Negligence of the Pilots The Present State of PERSIA CHAP. XI Gives the various Names Situation c. ITS Names Situation and Bounds Temper of the Air. High Mountains Their Four-footed Beasts Wild-Fowl Fishes The Valleys made fruitful by the Snow from the Hills Plants Tobacco Manufactories Persian Pearls the best Gombroon Earthen Ware the best next to the China Lapis Lazuli Tutiae Manatae Bole. Marble Naptha Minerals Rivers Springs Little Rain Showers of Sand. Dew turn'd to Manna Cities Houses Spahaun proposed as a Patern of their Politicks Shaw Abas well advised in the choice of it for the Imperial City The Cauns Etimundoulet or Chancellor A Janiseen Deputy Caun The Droger The Calenture The Cadi or Cazy Spahaun the chief Empory The Citizens humbled Courtiers and Soldiers great Their Caravans No Priority at Church Bath or Caravan The Gelabdars not so esteemed in Persia as the Caphala Bashee in Turâ—y Their Temples Colleges Hummums or Balneo's The Coffee-houses CHAP. XII Of the present Inhabitants c. THE present Persians Scythians Jews here ever since the Captivity On the Death of the Emperor the new one causes his Brothers and near Relations Eyes to be put out Nobles by Birth among the Persians The Government Hierarchical Whereon is grounded the Emperor's Security His Wealth His Course of Life His Name and Genealogy The Suffees introduced from whom Spahaun is called Suffahaun Oppositions made by the Turkish Sect. The English sack Ormus by Surprize Articles of Agreement between the English and the Persians Vengeance pursues the Enterprizers Shaw Abas kills his Son Mirza The present Emperor given up to Debauchery The way of receiving Ambassadors The Procession of the Seraglio or Haram The Cruelty of the Black Eunuchs The Cavalry Their Arms and manner of fighting The Suffees Church-Militants Their Order created to check the Saieds Their Habit and the Persians Standard White and Red. Their Privileges Other Knights The Watchmen The Navy CHAP. XIII Of their Book-men and Books Of their Religion and Religious Worship Of their Notions in Philosophy Of Heaven and Hell Their Astronomers Physicians and Lawyers A Learned Clerk rare The School-Language Their Books written with a Pen not printed Pens made of Reeds Education of Youth Preposterous way of learning Emulation in gaining Disciples Logick Their Physicks Metaphysicks Books in esteem Mahomet's Revelations Assisted by Sergius the Monk His blasphemous Opinions Friday his Sabbath Polygamy The Mufti His Revenue His Authority The Talman or Mullah Their Funerals more pompous than the Turkish Sects are Their Tribes clarified by Pilgrimage Their Names given by the Parents No Garb to distinguish their Clerks How they are maintained Their Limners Historians Alchymy Mathematicks Necromancy Astrologers Astronomy A Pithonissa Several sorts of Daemons Longitude and Latitude Dialling Musick Medicks Anatomy rejected The Suffees Death required of his Physician Their Prescripts What Purges approved What Authors in esteem They are unskilful in Chyrurgery Endemial Diseases Large quantities of Opium eaten at a time Their Lawyers The Cadi A Corrupt Judge Lex Talionis Drubbing on the Soles of the Feet They buy their Wives Are often divorced All Contracts made before the Cadi Usury forbid by Mahomet Yet his Disciples are cruel Extortioners The Cheik The Codre Guilty of Bribery and Injustice Their Paradise Their Hell The Progress of their Religion The Souls of Men superior to Brutes Cannot embrace a Carnal Religion but an Holy Pure and Spiritual which is no where to be found but in Christianity Success no Argument CHAP. XIV The
Army here Below this we passed over a fine Meadow checquered with Purling Brooks and three Villages much about an equal distance one from another And now the broken Ribs of these lofty Mountains seen so far off at Sea all along from Cape Comory as if founded for an Ascent unto the Skies begin to be discovered by our near approach when Night interposing her black Vail between our Eyes and them they became vested with a more benighted Darkness than hung over us which served as a sable Cloud to direct us to Dehir by Eleven a Clock at Night nine Course from our last Stage seated at the end of a large Plain at the foot of that Chain of Hills supposed to cross the Taurus trending through the Continent North and South as that does East and West it is by most Geographers concluded to be Mount Sephir here called the Gaot We found them all in Arms Come to Dehir a Garison'd Town of Seva Gi 's at the foot of the Gaot not suffering their Women to stir out of the Town Unguarded to fetch Water being accustomed to continual Alarms which cautiousness obliged them to usher me into the Market-place by a small Party which lighted on me in their Rounds when I sent my Gulleon Peon one of our Guides with his Masters Chitty or Pass to the Governor who received it kindly and gave me leave to be my own Quartermaster little Complements being expected from Soldiers My Company Awakes a Fakier Drunk with Bang as well as my self being Tired and now stiff with a little Rest allowed them till the return of the Peon we were not willing to be at more pains to seek for a better Inn than what a Fakier had taken up before us but we rouzed a Lion who had just been lain asleep with Bang who opened with such a Clamour that I was afraid it would have brought all the Watch about us had they not been in the same tune calling on one another as Children when the Light is out do for fear beating their Drums and sounding their Trumpets Shriller than the Moors and more Tuneable all Night long by which means and my Quarrelsome Inmate I could compose my self to no Quiet though for the latter at length I thought of an Expedient plying him with Arack till his Tongue resolved its self in Silence which was much more grateful than his Bawling The next Morning when Day had cleared our Eyesight I saw the Idol this Drunken Priest Adored hard by me it was thick and short Carved in Stone of a Monstrous Visage whisking his Tail over his Head the upper Parts to the Waste were Painted with Red it insulted over another ugly Creature it trod on it was of a Sooty Colour and Swam in streams of Oil yet it called in a great many Devotes who came to pay their Salams I sent to the Havaldar The Advantage taken of a Discomposed Countenance shewn anon p. 127. Seva Gi 's Horses kept here to know when he would Pass us up the Gaot word was brought he was not awake having been up all Night in the interim therefore I Walked about the Town which is Crowded with People but miserably Poor and of no Note were it not that Seva Gi Stables his choicest Horses here for the conveniency of this Plain to supply them with Hay and Corn which causes them to have the greater Force and makes it the Residence of an Havaldar who is a kind of petty General Changing the Town for the open Fields I was led to a Grove of Mangoes and Thamarinds at the end of which was a Mosque and a great many Tombs of excellent Stone Demolished one of which they remember with Respect by the Name of Melech-Bury a great Warrior however that which pleased me most of all was a sudden surprize when they brought me to the wrong side of a pretty Square Tank or Well with a Wall of Stone Breast high where expecting to find it covered with Water looking down five Fathom deep I saw a clutter of Women very Handsome waiting the distilling of the Water from its dewy sides which they catch in Jarrs and constantly carrying it away leave it only weeping It is cut out of a firm Black Marble Rock up almost to the Top with broad Steps to go down Now we could not only see their Forts but hear also the Watchmen from their Garisons aloft some Five hundred some more some fewer Men Seva Gi 's Forts all about to and again among the Hills the main strength of this Prince consisting in these coming back I found my troublesome Comrade very Merry and packing up his Housholdstuff his Bang-bowl and Hubble Bubble to go along with me before I had gotten leave from the Havaldar who had newly sent word he was ready to receive me I made him not tarry long following the Messenger who brought me into the middle of a ragged Regiment distinguishable from the Mogul's on that score but more peculiarly by their Hair appearing on both Ears under their Puckeries their Weapons are much alike though to me they give more cause of Laughter than Terror considering the awkwardness of their wearing them notwithstanding they are the Instruments of Death When I came before the Governor State of the Havaldar I found him in State though under an Hovel where were many Brachmins with accompt-Accompt-Books writing at some distance nearer his Privy-Council with whom he seemed to Advise I was placed on his Left hand and desired my Interpreter to acquaint him my Errand withal intreating his Favour for my secure passing the Hill He made it a piece of difficulty and told me I must return to Bimly for Orders to whose Havaldar he was accountable not to him of Gulleon which was within half a days Journy from whence I set forth Hearing this I bore my self as sedately as I could having been informed of the advantage they take of a disturbed Countenance and sweetned him with his own Authority being sufficient telling him of his Master's Kindness to the English and their Friendship towards him which worked him to a yielding Temper yet he scrupled my Canister or Trunk might be lined with Pearl my Horse sold to the Enemy hoping to suck somewhat out of me I replying What I had brought were at his liberty to search and that I went only on an amicable account to Cure a Sick Person and should be as ready to serve him if required his Fury was quite pawled but perceiving an hungry look to hang on them all and suspecting lest they should serve me some Dog-trick I made a small Present and he signing the Pass dismissed me with a Bundle of Pawn the usual Ceremony at Parting Being clear Got clear of Dehir I could not so readily shake off my Fakier he would march with me when we were not gone above two Course or three Miles the Liquor working out by his Walking he began to grow weary and called out for the Horse
of Nereus The Navy or the Seamen these in the Persian Gulph are either Fishermen or such as brush the Ocean to get a Penny by Freight What are in the Caspian Sea I cannot be positive in my Relation but I never heard them boast of more hardy ones In the Persian Bay they have at Ormus Bunder-Abassee Larack and Kismash some few Gallies laid up but unprovided either of Men or Tackle and if at any time they are launched they fill them out of the Provincial Auxiliaries under the Caun of Bunder Thus have we run through this kind of Warlike Men from Top to Bottom CHAP. XIII Of their Bookmen and Books of their Religion and Religious Worship of their Notions in Philosophy of Heaven and Hell Their Astronomers Physicians and Lawyers AFter These come the Academicks A Learned Clerk rare for such is the Civility of these Regions that Arms take place of the Gown Letters being of small Esteem among them for the Incitements to Study are but few the Toil and Labours are many whereby it is no wonder that slenderness of Profit and Assiduity should be alike irksome when on the contrary a Military Condition slights these Inconveniences and Austerities and lives more at large taking Pleasure and commanding all where they come and are in a continual Prospect of Advancement On which score a Learned or a Noble Clerk in these Parts is as rare as a Black Swan they being raised to that Station out of the Dregs of the People The School-Language among the Persians is Arabick The School-Language as Latin is held so among us in which not only the Mysteries of their Alcoran but of all their Sciences are written They have their Grammars Their Books written with a Pen not Printed Dictionaries and Vocabulaes in which are the Roots of the Arabick Tongue which with other Books are all written with the Pen by great Industry and Pains Chap. XIII not committed to the Press wherefore they are chargeable and less free from Errors to correct which they compare with others more correct one reading with a loud Voice while the other takes notice of the Faults They reckon Fifty Letters to a Verse and for a Thousand Verses of ordinary Writing they give Two Abcees from Five to Ten and upward for that which is more exquisite after this rate are their Books for Sale valued An Account of the Character being stated they numerate the Verses of any one Page and multiplying the other Pages thereby the Price of the Book is produced If there be Lines of Gold Silver Oker or the like surrounding the Margin for Ornament as is their Custom they reckon nothing for them but bestow them gratis on the first Buyer and only pass as a better Grace to set off the Book they being mightily taken with a fair Hand and good Writing This agrees with the Custom of the Ancient Romans Candida nec nigrâ cornua fronte geras Nec titulus minio nec cedro charta notetur Ovid. Et Frontis gemino decens honore Et Cocco rubens superbus index Martial They use Indian Ink Pens made of Reeds being a midling sort betwixt our common Ink and that made use of in Printing Instead of a Pen they make use of a Reed as in India The Children of Nobles Education of Youth or other Rich Men are brought up at home not stirring out of their Houses without a Train of Eunuchs and Servants for fear of Sodomy so much practised among the pestilent Sect of Mahometans Other Children of Inferior Rank are taught in their Publick Schools for a small matter Their Childhood being passed Preposterous way of Learning and they beginning to write Man they frequent the Schools and Colleges and every one chuses a Master where he pleases and having chose him after a few Months leaves him at his own Will and goes over to another For such a strange Itch is here of Learning that before they are half way instructed in one Book they are desirous to be perfected in another and before they have read Philosophy Morality or any other Science to qualify them they leap into the Alcoran for here are neither Publick Professors to examine or Publick Acts to be kept either in Divinity Law or Physick They are constituted by the Primate of their cursed Fabulous Doctrine without formal Disputation or other Approbation than the Popular Fame Interest of Friends and a false Appearance of a Pious Life and are introduced by these means into the Pensions and Benefices of their Wealthiest Mosques Whence it comes to pass that they are so inclinable to read to all Comers Emulation in gaining Disciples for he whose Lectures are most frequented stands fairest in the Noisy Applause of the Town and seldom misses of Promotion though it is known many of them consume their Patrimony in purchasing Disciples and after all reap nothing but Poverty for their Pains Which kind of Philosophers are always attended with Envy and Ambition nor care they who they defame may they but extol themselves And after a long Invective both of Master and Scholar against whomever they think fit to bespatter or they are in danger of being outdone by insulting in the mean while over them as the greatest Dunces and Asses in Nature at length out of kindness to themselves having stretched their own Worth to the highest pitch lest the swoln Bladder should burst by too much Wind they feign an humble self-reprehension which because nothing is more practised I will use their own Phrase Ezked tacrit goufton ai behest amma hemme kess me donet It is indecent for a Man to speak his own Praise but were I silent this is a Justice you would do me it being nothing but what you know Whereby it is visible if they abate of their own Tumour it is likely to be very little to the favour of him they declaim against Notwithstanding these Tricks and disingenuous Insinuations yet this scabby Herd increases so that they are at their Wits ends how to live Some find Mecoenas's among the Noblemen and content themselves to live slavishly according to their Humours for a Morsel of Bread Others by saving what they have scraped up from the poor Trade of Scribes and teaching School hire an House purchase an Horse and a Servant to run before them it being a sign of the greatest Poverty to foot it through the City and if by good Luck they get a Name and are reputed Men of Note for Learning they then enlarge their Stock and Family And these are they that pride themselves in being the greatest Doctors among them and so set up for Academies of their own and teach Aristotle's Dialect and the Four Figures of Syllogism though the Question being propounded they bind not themselves up to the strict Rules thereof but they beg the Premise by way of Interrogation as a Truth granted and from thence draw their Conclusions The Terms of Negation and
Concession are exotic among the Persians Logick contending that Distinctions and Laconical Evasions on which the Stress of the Aristotelian Doctrine seems to be laid are not to be held for the true Solution of the Argument but by a long Harangue and Affluence of Speech the Auditors are brought both to admire them and be of their side whereupon the greater the Convention of Auditors is the more earnest will their Contention be for to yield in such Assemblies is not at all to be expected unless he that holds his Tongue first intends to lose both his Credit and his Cause Universals Their Physicks Catagories and their depending Questions they often reject concerning the nature of a Body Place Vacuum Corruption Quantities and Qualities they inform their Students after the Aristotelian way being unacquainted with the Resolution of Causes of Sublunary Beings by Atoms according to our modern Cartesian Disciples revived in honour of Epicurus whom they suppose they have sufficiently Confuted by the Name of Zimorat with some vain and boyish Instances against Composition without Interruption and infinite Particles preaching up a Vacuum whereby they believe the Absurdity to be demonstrated In their Theology after the Contemplation of One Eternal Divinity after its Unity and Attributes which they maintain to be all one with its Essence they hold the World to be from Eternity and such a Treatise of the Soul and Passions with the other precisions of the Intellect which is no where to be found in Metaphysicks In these as in their other Speculations they cleave so pertinaciously to their Books and undoubted Authors as if it were piacular to depart from their Traditions They fancy to themselves a Chimerical Creation of the World by Ten Intelligencies which by the same inexpugnable Reason passes into their Creed and being freight with this Notion they say from one most simple Cause can proceed no more than one Effect and therefore God framed the first Intelligence and that mediating the First Heaven and so in their subaltern order to the Tenth That the World was many Ages before Adam and Eve Metaphysicks our first Parents Eduction out of the Earth Inhabited by Devils and that the Possession thereof was so long entrusted in their Hands till they had extirminated the true Worship of God which at first they applied themselves Religiously to observe and gave themselves up to Uncleanness and Prophaneness when Man was Created in their room and they cast out of any farther Possession and Men took their Places That Souls were from all Eternity and commanded by God on the actual Exigency of any Body to enter a Relation or a certain dependency with them not an Information or real Presence tota in toto tota in quâlibet parte corporis vitam habentis being all in all and all in every part where Life does exist from this foolish Conception of theirs they attribute Place and Circumscription to the Soul therefore they Object not a Spiritual but a Corporal Substance to be inferred They acknowledge Four kinds of Causes viz. Material Formal Efficient and Final they allow not of an exemplary but admit of a total Cause by which they understand such an one as no condition is defective to put it into Act and on these Foundations they suppose the World's Creation from Eternity to be enough proved The Books of greatest vogue Books in Esteem are those of Corge Nessir Tussi of the City Tuss in the Province of Korasam wrote Five hundred years ago he as it is credible understood the Greek Language as well as others from whence he has explained some Ancient Authors as Euclid Pâ—olomy's Alguma and Opticks and has reduced them into a Compendium as also the Works of Plato Some Expositors they have of their Law with Rules of Justice and Morality which they admire and extol to the Skies and rest implicitly on the ipse dixit of their Prophet never enquiring farther If any thing happen to oppose common Sense they protract the meaning Mysteriously or Anagogically not to the disquisition of the Truth but to defend their Fopperies Among which they have in the first esteem the Written Letter of their Prophet as immediately prescribed by him and these are Oracular In the Second place those who are since published by the Mahometan Sectators and these are look'd upon as Human any whereof if they appear foolish yet they doubt not but their Prophet uttered them that he might bring himself to the Capacities of his Hearers and of the Arabians to whom he was sent to call them from Idolatry to the Worship of the only One God for which the Persians make this Answer Should a Doctor talk to a Rustick and speak as if he were discoursing with a Professor and not conform himself to the apprehension of the Countryman How should he be understood Which course say they Mahomet took for the better Information of his Proselytes Who leaving Natural Causes declares these Secrets were Revealed to him That The Winds were raised by an Angel's moving his Wings Mahomet's Revelations The Flux and Reflux of the Sea was caused by an Angel's putting his Foot on the middle of the Ocean and compressing the Waves the Waters ran to the Shores which being removed they retired to their proper station Falling Stars are the Firebrands wherewith the Good Angels drive away the Bad when they are too sawcily inquisitive and approach too near the Empyreum the Virge of the Heavens to hearken to and eves-drop the Secrets there Thunder is nothing else but the Cracking of an Angel's Whip while he slashes the dull Clouds to such and such a place where Rains are wanting to make the Earth fertile and remedy its Driness Eclipses he delivers happen not by the mutual Interjection of the Heavenly Bodies but that the Sun and Moon are shut in a Pipe a Cupboard as well and turned up and down and that from each Pipe is a Window by which they enlighten the World but when God is angry at the Inhabitants thereof for their Transgressions he bids an Angel clap to the Window and turn the Lights towards Heaven from the Earth then the Light is taken away from the unworthy Miscreants and an Eclipse is made for which occasion he has left them Forms of Prayers to be used by the Mahometans that God would be pleased to avert his Judgments and restore Light to the World In an Eclipse of the Moon they beat Pots and Pans or any other brazen Instrument as in time of Idolatry it was a prevailing Custom even in Europe as well as here and in India which still some ignorant Old Women and the dregs of the People are ready enough to continue for the Tradition was handed down to them wherewith they were seduced of Yore that the Moon might be Inchanted and unless it were roused up by this Noise would certainly fall down dead asleep upon the Earth from Heaven Juvenal in his Satyrs Comments pleasantly