the melancholick besides very nimble and dextrous through the plenty of spirits and as 't is easily disorder'd so likewise 't is restor'd in a little time its maladies being the shortest Moreover its vivacity is much more desirable then the heaviness and lumpishness attending the Melancholy and making the Vulgar think them Sage and prudent though they are only so in appearance whereas the Cholerick are Industrious and Courageous accomplishing whatever they attempt and as amongst Beasts and Birds the noble Lyon and Eagle are of this complexion and according to some our first Parent Adam which signifies Red was in hair and temper bilious whence perhaps also Man is call'd in the same language Ish which signifies Fire whereof choler partakes The Fifth said That indeed his readiness to obey his Wife was an effect of that Temper of which he seems rather to have been then of that laudable and perfectly temperate one which our Saviour enjoy'd But indeed Tempers being the principles of all our functions which must be different in every individual are desirable according to the Places Seasons Employments Age Sex and Inclinations of every one in particular CONFERENCE CXXXV Of Happiness and Vnhappiness and whether men are Happy or Vnhappy because they really are so or because they think themselves so THree sorts of effects are observ'd in Nature Some arise always necessarily as the vicissitudes of Days Nights and Seasons which depend upon the motion of the Stars no more alterable without a miracle then the other effects of Universal Nature Others come to pass often but not always the particular nature which produces them being sometimes hindred by some accident which makes it bring forth Monsters The last happen neither always nor often but seldom as all those which depend upon contingent causes which are of two sorts The first act by a necessity of nature without any election The second by a principle of liberty without choice or deliberation Both when they produce an effect contrary to their intention and primary design are called fortuitous causes And as those which act by natural necessity produce a casualty as when a Stone falls upon the head of any one so when those which operate by election and design produce another thing then what they had propounded to themselves they make fortune or good and ill-luck according to the good or evil arising thence by ways and springs by us unforeseen for in case the cause or motives be known the effects are no longer fortuitous and contingent because they have their manifest and certain cause So when industry labour favour or friendship procure Riches the effect is not to be ascrib'd to Fortune no more then the losses which follow upon the luxury and profusions of a disorderly life but Riches and Honours are fortuitous when they happen to persons altogether incapable thereof as also poverty infamy and contempt also to brave men whose constancy and resolution in undergoing all those disgraces hath made it be commonly said That a wise man is above fortune because he slights her stroaks by the strength of his reason which being alone capable to render us happy since Beasts destitute thereof have neither any share in good-luck or bad-luck I conceive that both the one and the other depends intirely upon our fansie and the reflection we make upon the condition of the thing possessed which appearing sometimes good and sometimes bad makes us accordingly judge our selves happy or unhappy The Second said Diversity is no where more apparent than in humane Actions the incertainty and inconstancy whereof is such that men rarely arrive at their proposed end but oftentimes behold themselves either exalted to an unhoped degree of Felicity or overwhelmed with the Misery which there was no ground to apprehend Which diversity of accidents induced Superstitious Antiquity to set up a blind and flitting Deity constant onely in her inconstancy whom they held the cause of all such effects thus betaking themselves to an imaginary canse in regard they could not or would not acknowledg the true which I attribute to every ones temperament by means of which is produced in the Soul a certain natural motion and impetuosity for obtaining some particular thing without Reasons contributing thereunto and according as a Man follows or resists these instincts and inclinations so he proves either happy or unhappy Thus he who finds himself disposed to Arms if he embrace them thrives better than in a soft and sedentary life whereunto the Melaneholly person is more addicted and prospers better herein Now because dull spirits fools and thick-skull'd fellows easily suffer themselves to be guided by those motions therefore they commonly prove more fortunate than the wise whose Prudence and Discretion causing them to make abundance of reflections upon what they undertake causes them also to lose opportunities which never return For I am not of their Opinion who hold That as there are Spirits which make the Celestial Orbes move and according to Averroes an Intelligence presiding over natural Generations so there is a particular one for the various events of life which it makes to happen according to the different intentions of the First Mover Since without recurring to such obscure and remote causes we carry in our selves those of our Felicity and Infelicity whereof we are the true Artificers which to place in the Phansie alone and not in reality is to say good is not Good since goodness being an essential affection of real entity is inseparable from it and consequently true not barely imaginary The Third said That Good being such onely upon account of its conveniency or sutableness to the Possessor there is not in this world any Absolute Good or Happiness but onely Relative and by Comparison seeing what sutes well with one doth not so with another Riches wherein most Men place their Felicity were cast into the Sea by a Philosopher that he might the better attend Contemplation Honors and Pleasures charms which most powerfully inveigle most of Man-kind are crosses and torments to some others Imprisonment one of the hardest trials of Patience is nevertheless sought by some who prefer Solitude and perpetual Restraint before the vanities of the world To have no Friends is the greatest of infelicities yet Timon made it his prime Pleasure Life the foundation of all goods hath been so tedious to some that to be deliver'd from it they have kill'd themselves and the pains afflictions and diseases leading to death are in the Stoicks account but imaginary Evils making no impression upon the wise The Fourth said Since Happiness and Unhappiness seem to be the Elements composing the Political Life of Men and the two Poles of that Globe upon which the Antients plac'd Fortune their Consideration may be taken two ways either in their Cause or in their Effect As for the first the Stoicks who establisht a Fate governing All by a Series of necessary and determinate Events were as impious as Democritus and Leucippus who on the
and diminish upon the appearing of the Tumour Some have held it to be Blood alone others Melancholy some Bile in regard of its mobility and activity many following the authority of Fernelius that 't is a cold phlegmatick and serous humour and that every Gowt is cold Mercurialis observing that Blood could not cause such great pains that Melancholy was too heavy and thick to be active Bile too subtile to descend and Phlegm too cold to excite such pungent pains and sudden motions which cannot proceed from a cold cause conceiv'd it was Phlegm mingled with Bile the latter serving as a Vehicle to the former and that former to precipitate and make this latter descend Some others confessing their ignorance acknowledg Qu' on n' y void goutte that they see not a jot in this Matter referring this Disease to occult and malignant causes acting by an unknown property as contagious and venemous diseases do I conceive it to be a salt humour subtile and picquant partaking of the nature of Salts which are all corrosive which acrimony and mordacity of this humour is caus'd by the Salt or Tartar contain'd in its substance or deriv'd to the Aliments whereof the humours are produc'd from the Earth which is full of such Salt Nitrous or Tartareous Spirits without which it would be unfruitful and barren as is seen in Earth whence Saltpeter is extracted which can never produce any thing This Nitrous Spirit being all drawn out of the Earth by the Plants which serve us for food and not being tameable by our heat much less convertible into our substance for an Animal is nourish'd with what is sweet and hath had life wherewith these Mineral Spirits were never provided if the natural Faculty be strong it expells them with the other unprofitable Excrements of the first concoction and Urine and Sweat and sometimes forms the Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or other Parts But if it happens either through the weakness of the expulsive Faculty or the quality of the Matter or some other defect that this Tartareous Spirit is not expell'd then it is carry'd with the Blood into the Parts and being unfit for nutrition transpires by the Pores if it be subtil enough or else in case it be thick and cannot be resolv'd flows back into the great Vessels and thence into the Joynts where sometimes it is coagulated into knots and grits and turn'd into a hard matter like chalk or plaister which shews that the four Humours are not the matter thereof since the same do not suppurate rendering then the Gowt incurable and the Reproach of Physians because they find no Cure for it no more than for that of old Men those who have a dry Belly and who live disorderly But 't is curable saith Hippocrates in young people in such as have no gritts or hardnesses form'd in the Joints those who are laborious obedient and to whom some great Evacuations arrive many having been cur'd of it by a Dysenterie As for the Place where it is form'd and the Way whereby the Matter which causes this Evil descends most with Fernelius conceive 't is the Head not the internal part of the Brain whose Excrements are easily voided outwardly by the Nostrils or inwardly by the Infundibulum or Tunnel and other Cavities but the outward part between the skull and the skin which being too thick and compact to give issue to the phlegmatick and serous humours there collected being begotten of the Excrements of the Jugular Veins which are expanded over all these Parts those serous and thin humours glide down between the Skin and other Feguments into the Joints But the Place of this Nitrous Matter above-mentioned are the Viscera of the Liver and Spleen which generate this Matter two ways 1. By the vitiosity of Aliments impregnated with this Nitrous Spirit which they plentifully attracted from the Earth whence it is that Wine which hath more of this Spirit and Tartar then any other Aliment is by consent of all very hurtful to the Gowt 2. By their proper vitiosity namely a hot and dry Intemperies whereby instead of concocting they adure the Blood and so fix that salt serosity which is the Salt or Tartar extracted out of its substance Unless you had rather say That as in the Kidneys of Persons subject to the Stone there is a certain arenaceous or lapidifick constitution proper for producing the Stone so in the Viscera of those who are subject to the Gowt there is a particular arthritical disposition apt to beget that tartareous matter which produces it The Way whereby this Matter is expell'd is the Veins and Arteries these Vessels manifestly swelling when the fits of the Gowt begin Moreover as this Disease unexpectedly invades by a sudden afflux of the Matter so it suddenly changes place especially by means of Refrigerants and Repercussives which drive the Gowt from one Foot to the other or into the Hand and other Parts which cannot be done but by the Veins and Arteries Lastly The Parts upon which this Matter falls and which are about the articulations are membranous and sensible because the Membranes being the first subject of Touch ought to be also of Pain a Symptom thereof The Third said That the greatest difficulty was Why this matter rather falls upon the Joints than other Parts which are not incommoded therewith neither the Nerves nor the Veins through which it passes no more than the Membranes and sensible Parts besides those which are about the Joints The cause whereof may be That as in health the Parts by a strange property attract such humours as are fit for their nutrition the Lungs bilious Blood the Spleen melancholy Blood the Kidneys serous the other carnous Parts temperate Blood so in sickness and ill constitution of the Body some of these Parts attract from all the rest certain humours wherewith they have most affinity So in the new Disease call'd Plica Polonica the viscous and glutinous humour which produceth it is chiefly carri'd to the hair which it knotteth and intaâ—gleth together and to the nails of the Hands and Feet which it makes hard and black And in the cure of Fracture of Bones the Stone call'd Osteocolla taken inwardly is carried towards the broken Bones and causes them to re-unite In like manner the Humour producing the Gowt hath some affinity with the Bones of the Joints especially with their Epiphyses The Fourth said That the Gowty have wherewith to comfort themselves not so much for that they foretel the changes of the Air and Seasons as for that this Disease is a token of health and an evidence of the strength and vigour of Nature which from the noble Parts drives the vicious humours upon the Joints But amongst its antecedent causes the Air is not to be forgotten especially the hot and moist Air of the Spring thawing the Humours lately congeal'd by the Winter to the vitiosity of which Air is that popular Gowt to be referr'd of which Athenaeus speaks in
Chymical Remedies are prepar'd with a moderate heat as that of a Dunghill Ashes Balneum Mariae which cannot give them such Empyreuma And should they all have it yet being but an extraneous and adventitious heat 't is easily separated from them either of it self in time or speedily by ablutions wherewith even Precipitate Mercury is render'd very gentle and Antimony void of all malignity What is objected of the violence wherewith Mineral and Metallick Medicines act by reason of their disproportion to our Nature is as little considerable since Hippocrates and the ancient Physitians us'd Euphorbium Hellebore Scammony Turbith Colocynthis and such other most violent Remedies which are still in use and Galen employ'd Steel Sandarach burnt Brass and the like Medicines taken from Minerals wholly crude and without preparation which was unknown in his time Rondeletius uses crude Mercury in his Pills against the Venereous Disease whereof this Mineral is the true Panacaea Cardan and Matthiolus crude Antimony Gesner Vitriol Fallopius Crocus Martis against the Jaundies almost all Physitians Sulphur against the Diseases of the Lungs and such Patients as cannot be cur'd by ordinary Remedies they send to Mineral Waters And since not only Garlick Onyons and Mustard which we use in our Diet but also the Juices of Lemmons Citrons Berberries and Cantharides although corrosive are still in use why should we not use Chymical Medicines in small quantity purg'd from their corrosion and taken with convenient Waters and Vehicles The Fifth said There is in all natural things a certain fix'd Spirit the sole principle of their Virtues and Operations which being separated from them they remain only Carcasses without Souls As is seen in Earth render'd barren by extraction of its nitrous Salt in Wine dead or sowre and in the insipid phlegm of the same Wine separated from its Spirit by Chymical distillation which separates the good from the bad the pure from the impure the subtil from the gross the form from its more crass matter in a word the Spirit from its Body which being impregnated with the virtue of the whole Mixt reduc'd into a very narrow Volume is very active and proper not only to serve for Aliment to an Animal which is nourish'd with this Spirit the rest being unprofitable and as such converted into Excrements but also principally for the curing of Diseases by repairing and strengthning the fix'd Spirits which are the true feats of Diseases as well as of Health a Disease being nothing but the laesion of the Functions whereof the Spirits are the Principles whereas ordinary Physitians instead of separating the virtues of each Mixt to oppose the same as Specifical Remedies to all Diseases as the Chymists do stifle and destroy them by the confus'd mixture of abundance of Simples and Drugs whereof their Medicaments are compounded which by this means acquire a new temperament and particular virtue resulting from the ingredients whose qualities and properties are abated or rather extinguish'd in like manner as of the Elements united together is made a Compound wholly different from its principles Wherefore we may justly retort against such Remedies what they charge upon those of Chymistry namely That they are taken from dead Ingredients corrupted and depriv'd by the Fire of their Radical Humidity wherein consisted their prime purgative virtue which is not so easily dissipated since when a Nurse takes a Purge the strength of the Physick is convey'd by her Milk to the Child and we feed she-Goats and Pullen with Purgatives to render the Milk of the one and the Flesh of the other such However since there are so many incurable Diseases whose causes are sufficiently known but to which no Specifical Remedies are found Chymistry which opens the means thereunto by the solution of all Bodies ought to be cherish'd and not condemn'd as it is by the ignorant or malicious who must at least acknowledg it one of the members of Physick as belonging to Pharmacy which consists in the choice and preparation of Medicaments and is part of the Therapeutical Division But we say rather That the three parts of Medicine or its three ancient Sects are the three parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa and Chymistry is that new World lately discover'd not less rare and admirable than the others provided it be as carefully cultivated and rescu'd out of the hands of Barbarians Upon the Second Point it was said That Truth is not the most powerful thing in the World since oftentimes Fables and Romances have more attractives and no fewer followers than Histories as the Poets meant to signifie by the Fable of Pigmalion who fell in Love with a Statue For Romances which are nothing else but the Images of a phantastick Beauty are nevertheless lov'd and idolatris'd by abundance of Persons not only for the Eloquence whose fairest lines are seen in those fabulous Books but for the Gracefulness and Gallantry of the actions of their Personages which may serve for a perfect model of Virtue which having never been found compleat in all points in any Illustrious Man whose Life is always blemish'd with some spot History cannot give us a perfect example to imitate unless it be assisted by Romances without which Narrations purely Historical describing a naked fact are but excarnated Sceletons and like the first lines of a Picture grosly trac'd with a Crayon and consequently disagreeable if artifice give them not colour and shadows Thus Xenophon and in our times Don Guevara aiming to draw the Model of a perfect Prince one in the Person of Cyrus the other of Marcus Aurelius have heap'd together so many contrarieties to Truth that they have made rather Romances of them than Histories Thus Achilles's exploits appear far otherwise in Homer than in Dictys Cretensis those of Charlemain in Eginard and Ariosto than in the Annals 'T is to Romances that they owe half their Glory and if their Example hath given any excitation to the Readers Spirits 't is what the Romances aim'd at not the Histories The Romancer is the Master and Contriver of his Subject the Historian is the Slave of it And as by refraction of the visual rays variously reflected in a triangular Glass is form'd an Iris of colours which although not real yet cease not to please so by the variety of those accidents variously interwoven with the mixtures of Truth and Fiction is form'd so agreeable a Medley that it delights more in its Inventions than the Body of an uniform History from which Romances borrowing the most memorable accidents may be term'd the Essence and Abridgment of the same re-uniting all the Beauty Pleasure and Profit which they afford For these Books serve not only for delight but profit the one never being without the other since Fair which is the object of Delight and Good of Profit are reciprocal and inseparable And the pleasure we take in any thing is an infallible mark of its goodness and utility which is so much the greater in
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
fasten their first threds and casting out of their mouths a kind of coarse sleeve silk and afterwards that which is finer and more perfect in one continu'd thread accompany'd by a gum which makes it stick one to another so that the worm does encompass it self with that silk which is commonly yellow very seldom greenish or white and being come to the end of the clue hath only so much room as it takes up Then for the space of fifteen days it remains immoveable and is cover'd with a skin or film like that which covers the fruit of the Pine-tree under itâ— shell and which appears not till after that is broken But these fifteen days being over of which those will abate some who are desirous to make advantage of the Silk and trouble themselves not what becomes of the grain the Silkworm though it seem'd to have been dead breaks through its web and comes out in the form of a white and horned Butterfly bearing a certain image of the Resurrection then coming together the Male which is smaller coupling with the Female that is bigger the latter sheds her seed upon a clean paper spread under her for the reception of it The seed being carefully put into a box is either kept for the next year or sold by the ounce they commonly keep as much as comes from a hundred Males and so many Females the grain or seed whereof before their copulation is barren Now if they be desirous to get silk out of it which is the principal advantage in order to which the Worms are kept about fifteen days after they are compleated these webs are cast into water somewhat better than luke-warm and the Women and Children employ'd about that work stir the water with an handful of Birch till they have fasten'd on seven or eight ends of silk which having done they wind it up into skains and that is the raw silk The Second said That it is to be imagin'd the use of Silk was absolutely unknown to the Jews especially when we consider that in the works of that magnificent Temple of Solomon wherein they spar'd not any thing of what they thought most precious there is no mention made of Silk instead whereof they made use of Goats-hair and other precious Fleeces But it was no strange commodity to the Greeks and Romans not to the former since that Parisatis the Mother of Cyrus was commonly wont to say that Kings were always to be spoken to in silken words nor yet to the latter inasmuch as they had some garments all of Silk which they call'd Vestes holosericas Which is the more creditable in regard that the Inhabitants of China who made use of it above a thousand years before us have very ancient Books whereof the paper is made of Silk In the interim through the revolution of times which makes that unknown in one age which was familiar in another it hath happen'd that Pliny never having seen any relates strange stories of it calling the Silk-worm a Fly though it be not transform'd into a Fly as was said before till after it hath finish'd its working of Silk He further affirms that this worm makes its nest in dirt or clay and that so hard that instruments of iron cannot penetrate it that in the said nest it makes more wax then Bees do and leavs in it a Worm bigger than the other Flyes Afterwards not being satisfi'd with himself he brings in a discourse which shews indeed that he had heard some talk of our Silk-worm but that he had never seen any nor met with any certain account thereof when he says That Silk came from a Worm that had two horns which worm brings forth certain Caterpillars which engender that which is call'd Bombylius out of which comes the Worm which produces that which makes the Silk and all these productions and the making of the Silk perform'd in six Months the last Worms saith he making a web of silk like that of a Spider and that the first who ever found out the invention of unweaving and unravelling that web that so some use might be made of the Silk was Pamphila the Daughter of Latona of the Island Coos In fine to make the story yet more fabulous he says that in the Island of Lango the Silkworms are engendred of the Flowers which the Rain causes to fall from Turpentine-trees Ashes Oaks and Cypress Trees enliven'd by the vapours which exhale out of the earth being at first little naked Butterflies which afterwards get a little hairiness to sesecure them from the cold and their feet are so rough that they fasten on all the Cotten they meet upon the leaves of Trees and make their silk of it then they break it with their feet card it with their claws and having reduc'd it to silk hang it up between the boughs of Trees where they comb it to make it the finer and that done they wind themselves within it as within a botom of silk and then are they dispos'd into earthen pots to be kept warm and are nourish'd with noise till they are renew'd again and re-assume their wings as they were before they had done their work So pitiful a thing is a deviation from Truth and so hard is it for a man to meet with her when he is once got out of her own path CONFERENCE CCXVII Why Ice being harder than Water is yet lighter IN this Question there are several others comprehended the first Why Ice is harder than Water the second Why it is lighter inasmuch as lightness is an inseparable accident of softness as this latter is an inseparable accident of lightness On the contrary density hardness and compaction is a sign or rather a cause of weightiness as it is observable in Meal Ashes and other Bodies of the like Nature which weigh heavier when they are close thrust together in the Bushel Nay further this Question comprehends in it self the Efficient Causes of Ice which is the coldness of the Earth the Water or the Air. It is not the first because if it were Rivers and Lakes would be frozen at the botom which on the contrary is most temperate and serves for a retreat to the Fish while the surface of the Water is frozen up which freezing if it be so violent as to reach the Center it is communicated by degrees from the surface Now that Rivers begin to freez on the sides does proceed hence that the Water there moves more slowly the channel or current of the Water which is rougher in the midst being interrupted by the inequality of its course For motion prevents congelation not upon the account that it warms inasmuch as that effect happens not to it otherwise then by the collision of two or more solid bodies but because there is no change made but upon some solid foundation which cannot be imagin'd in Water as long as it is in motion Nor is the Water congeal'd by that Cold which is Nature to it self for that
Meteors where the greatest difficulty is to know whether that effect is produc'd by the expulsive or by the attractive and retentive vertue That we should affirm it proceeds from the expulsive vertue cannot with any probability be done inasmuch as expulsion is to be wrought by somewhat that is more powerful and more subtile Now there is not any likelyhood that Iron should be more powerful and more subtile than Air inasmuch as the Iron is of a more weighty matter passive earthy and hath somewhat of the nature of that Passive Element We may therefore rather affirm that this effect is wrought by the attractive and retentive vertue which opinion is prov'd in regard there is but one humid matter which the central fire forces from the deepest part of the Earth and of the more unctuous and weighty part of this matter Metals are made of the less weighty Minerals and Salts from the subtiler part Vegetables and Animals derive their nourishment of the most subtile are produc'd the Winds Thunder and all the Meteors which participate of Heat and Drought which make several combinations in the Air. Now whereas it is from the most imperfect part of this unctuous matter that Iron is made of an earthy and impure Sulphur it is deducible thence that there is a Sympathy between Iron and the gross vapours of Thunder and Lightning To make which out a little more clearly we find that the places through which Thunder hath pass'd smell of Sulphur nay there is fram'd in the Air that which is commonly called the Thunderbolt which somewhat resembles Steel as it were to shew the correspondence there is between Iron and Thunder So that the Air being impregnate by those noisome terrestrial vapours which are of the same nature with Iron meeting with some piece of it laid on a vessel is joyn'd to the Iron by Sympathy makes a sudden stop there and puts a period to its operation and the Iron by its attractive vertue receives them as by its retentive it retains them and by that means prevents their effect The Third said That though that opinion were probable yet doth it require a more ample discussion and we are to examine how this attractive vertue operates Now there are four Natural Vertues which govern all the operations of Nature and Art the Attractive which is now under consideration acts by heat and a temperate drought the Retentive by drought and cold the Expulsive by moisture and heat the Digestive by heat and a temperate moisture The Iron then which is said to attract these vapours hath indeed those qualities of heat and drought yet can it not be easily conceiv'd that a little piece of that mettal can check the malice and infection of a great quantity of Air spread all over a spacious place besides that it is also necessary that the Iron should send forth out of it self the effects of its qualities that so the attraction might be made the marks whereof are neither seen on the Iron nor the effects of the qualities out of the Subject inasmuch as mettals being quench'd in cold Water are not evaporated but by a violent fire So that it may as well be said that the attraction is wrought by some occult vertue which draws yet so as that neither the attraction nor the manner of it can be observ'd The Fourth said That the operations of Nature are not like those of Art her ways and contrivances are more obscure and the causes of things are occult as for example the Load-stone draws Iron yet so as that there cannot be any thing perceiv'd of any body of air and smoak issuing out of the Loadstone And the magnetical Balsom or Weapon-salve cures a wounded person though at a great distance having only some part of his Cloths yet can there not any thing be observ'd on the Subject which receives the Plaister so secret and silent is Nature in her Operations On the contrary the designs and contrivances of Art may easily be discover'd as those of a Clock or Watch. But the reason of this diversity of operations between Art and Nature is that Art goes to work publickly and before the Senses and Nature does her business within doors and secretly the latter works in the Centre the other in the Circumference one produces the seed of the combination of the Elements whereof she keeps an exact account of the weights and proportions and the other can neither make nor produce any thing as being only in a capacity of making use of the substance and materials of Nature in order to their joyning together after she had prepar'd and purify'd them But on the other side Art hath this advantage that her works are much more perfect inasmuch as she makes use of purify'd essences and the other of accidents and superfluities having not instruments fit for the purifying of her Materials So that there are some who doubt of the reality of the effect now under consideration And therefore ere we proceed any further to the finding out of the causes and reasons thereof it were requisite a strict enquiry should be made whether it be certain that Iron prevents the effects of thunder by preserving Wine and Eggs under a Hen that sits from receiving in any prejudice The Fifth said That what was confirm'd by general experience was not any longer to be question'd and that whoever stood upon the Negative betray'd his own ignorance that for us to think to find solutions for all the possibilities of nature were an attempt somewhat like that of exhausting the Sea That there are certain secrets in Nature of things dreadful to humane Reason incredible according to the principles of Art and of our Knowledge That Nature is the great Circe the grand Sorceress That the Load-stone draws Iron to it That there is a certain Stone called Pantarbe which draws gold to it That dead Arse-smart being laid under a Stone cures the wound on which it shall be rubb'd sooner or later according as the Herb putrifies That the hair or wool of a mangy beast being thrust in for a certain time under the bark of an Aspen-tree cures the beast of vermine That the Menstrua of Women trouble Springs spoyl Looking-glasses and Powdering-tubs And if there be some things that corrupt them it is not to be imagin'd that Nature is so cruel a Step-mother but that there may be others whereby they are preserv'd and so the Remedies may come from the same hand as caus'd the disease That the Hazel-tree discovers hidden Treasures and Mines That Talismans are made against Serpents and Insects nay against some Diseases That there is a mutual friendship between the Olive-tree and the Myrtle whereof it would be as hard a matter to give any reason as it would be to give any of the enmity between the Vine and the Laurel and the inclination which the Male-palm hath towards the Female That the crowing of the Cock frightens Lyons and that that Bird should be so exact