nothing but Water rarifi'd and subtiliz'd by heat as also when they are reduc'd into Water by condensation this Water is nothing but Air condens'd And so Air and Water differ not but by Rarefaction and Condensation which are but Accident and consequently cannot make different species of Element Both the one and the other may be seen in the Aeolipila of Vitruvius out of which the heat of Fire causeth the Water which is therein to issue in the form of Air and an impetuous wind which is the very Image of that which Nature ordinarily doth I conceive also that the Air is neither hot nor moist nor light as Philosophers commonly hold For as to the First the Air is much more cold then hot and for one torrid Zone there are two cold Besides Heat is but Accidental to it being caus'd by the incidence and reflections of the rayes of the Sun So that this cause failing in the night when the Sun shines not or in Winter when its rayes are very oblique and their reflection weak or in the Middle Region whether the Reflection reacheth not the Air becometh cold and consequently in its natural quality since there is no External Cause that produceth that coldness As for the Second The Air dryeth more then it moistneth and if it moistneth it is when it is cold and condensed and consequently mix'd with many particles of Water and when it dryeth it is by its own heat For the Definition which Aristotle giveth of Humid and Moist is onely proper to every thing which is fluid and not stable and in this respect agrees to the Air which is fluid and gives way to all sorts of Bodies As for the Last which is its levity the harmony of the world by which all things conspire to union and so to one common Centre seemeth to contradict it For if the Air hath its Motion from the Centre the parts of the world might be disunited For the Air would escape away there being no restraint upon it by any External Surface Moreover if we judge the Air light because we see it mount above water we must also say that Wax and Oyle are light since we observe the same in them But that which they do is not mounting above the Water but being repell'd by the Water And so the principal of Motion being External the same is violent and not natural Whereas when the Air descends into the Well it descends thither naturally there being no External Cause of that descent For Vacuum not existing in Nature cannot produce this Effect Since according to the received Maxime Of a Thing which is not there can be no Actions Besides it would be it self-cause of its own destruction and do contrary to its own intention preserving Nature by this Action whereas it is an Enemy to it and seeketh the ruine thereof Lastly Since many Particles of Air being condens'd and press'd together give ponderosity to a thing as is seen in a Baloon or foot-ball it must needs be ponderous it self for many light Bodies joyn'd together are more light The Second said That the difference between Water and Air is as clear as either of those Elements For that the Vapours which arise from the Water by means of the Suns heat and the wind which issueth out of the abovesaid Vessel full of Water and placed upon the Fire cannot be call'd Air saving abusively But they are mixts actually compos'd of Water and Fire For the rayes of the Sun entring into the Water raise it into Vapour And the Fire infinuating it self by the Pores of the Vessel into the Water which it containeth causeth the same to come forth in the form of wind which is compos'd of Fire and Water Of Fire because the property of Fire being to mount on high it lifts up that subtiliz'd Water with it self Of Water because this Vapour hath some coldness and humidity whence meeting with a solid Body it is resolv'd into Water because the Fire alone passeth through the Pores of that Body Besides Water being moist and Air on the contrary dry as the precedent opinion importeth they cannot be the same thing And since all Alteration is made between two different things Water and Air transmuting one into another as it hath been said cannot be the same Lastly as there are two Elements whereof one is absolutely light as the Fire the other absolutely heavy as the Earth So there are two which are such but in comparison with the rest The Water compar'd with the Earth is light because it floateth above it The Air in comparison of the Water is light too because it is above it So that when it descendeth lower then the Water into the Caverns of the Earth 't is Nature that obligeth it to renounce its proper and particular interest for preserving the general one which is destroy'd by the Vacuum not that the Vacuum is the Cause thereof for it hath no existence And the Air wherewith the Baloon is fill'd rendreth the same more heavy because it is impure and mixt with gross Vapours Which it would not do were it pure and Elementary such as is that of which we are speaking which is not to be found in our Region The Common Opinion hath also more probability which holdeth that the Air is hot and moist Hot because it is rare and light which are effects of heat Moist because it is difficultly contain'd within its own bounds and easily within those of another Thence it is that the more Bodies partake of Air the more they have of those qualities As we see in Oyl which is hot being easily set on flame And Moist in that it greatly humecteth and easily expandeth it self on all sides But if the Air seemes sometimes to be cold 't is by accident by reason of the cold vapours wherewith it is fill'd at that time The Third said That he conceiv'd that contrarily the Air is cold and dry 1. Because it freezeth the Earth and Water in Winter and therefore is colder in either of them 2. Because it refresheth the Lungs and by its coolness tempereth the extreme heat of the Heart and of the other parts which it could not do if it were hot 3. Inasmuch as hot things expos'd to the Air are cooled which they would not be but at least preserve their heat being in a place of the same Nature 4. The more it is agitated the more it refresheth as we see by Fans because then the unessential things being seperated from it it is more close and united quite contrary to the other Elements which grow hot by being agitated 5. In the night time the more pure and serene and void of mixtures the Air is the colder it is 6. Thence it is that flame burnes less then boyling water or hot Iron because in flame there is a great deal of Air which being colder then Water and Iron represseth more the strength of the Fire Lastly since according to Aristotle Air doth not putrifie what is
that two Spheres may be so contiguous as the Celestial are that there can be no air between them yet they might nevertheless be mov'd and heated yea much more then if there were air interpos'd between them The Third said As a form cannot be receiv'd into any subject without previous dispositions so when they are present they suddenly snatch the form to themselves Those of fire are rarity lightness and dryness of which the more bodies partake the more they will be susceptible of the nature of fire Therefore what is capable of being heated by motion must be dry not moist whence fire is never produced by water any more then of air agitated by reason of their excessive humidity perfectly contrary to the dryness of fire But that which is extreamly dry is half fire needing no more but to become hot as happens necessarily when it is rarefi'd and attenuated by motion and consequently inflam'd every substance extreamly tenuious and dry being igneous since in the order of nature all matter necessarily receives the form whereof it hath all the dispositions For there being a separation and divulsion of parts made in every sort of motion as is seen in water when it falls from on high it follows that they are render'd more rare and capable of being converted into fire The Fourth said That motion rarity and heat ordinarily follow and are the causes one of another Thus the Heavens by their rapid motion excite heat in all sublunary bodies and this heat as 't is its property opening the parts rarefies the whole Water receiving the rayes of the Sun is mov'd and agitated by them this motion produces rarity this heat which makes the subtilest parts ascend upwards as on the contrary heat being the most active quality is the cause of motion this of rarity by collision attenuating the mov'd parts So that motion is not more the cause of heat then this is of motion The Fifth said That heat and fire which is only an excess of heat are produc'd four ways by propagation union putrefaction and motion In the first way one way generates another fire a thing common to it with all other bodies in nature which is so fruitful that even the least things produce their like In the second manner when the Sun-beams are reflected by bellow glasses they burn in the point of union provided the matter be not white because whitenesse takes away the reason upon which they burn which is their uniting whereas white disunites and disgregates the rayes To which manner that of antiperistasis is also to be referr'd when external cold causes such a union of the degrees of heat that it becomes inflam'd The third cause of heat is putrefaction proceeding from disunion of the Elements amongst which fire being the most active becomes becomes also more sensible to us The last is motion by which bodies rub'd or clash'd one against another take fire by reason of the Sulphur contain'd in them which alone is inflamable as we see Marble and Free-stone yield not fire as Flints do whose smell after the blew seems sulphureous For if only the air be fir'd whence comes it that in striking the steel the sparkles of fire fall downwards contrary to the nature of fire which ascends besides the air would be turn'd into flames not into sparkles and two stones rub'd one against the other would cause as much fire as steel and the flint or other stones out of whose substance these igneous particles are struck Whence according to their differences they make different sparkles If the stones be hard and struck strongly they render a sprightly fire if soft they either render none at all or such as is less vigorous Moreover the observations of fire issuing forth upon the rubbing of a Lyon's bones as also Laurel and Ivy and Crystal with Chalcedon and that which comes from stroking the back of a Cat in the dark and from the casting a drop of rectifi'd oyl of Vitriol into cold water evidence that this fire is produc'd out of the bosom of the matter which is more dispos'd thereunto then any other not from the encompassing air But that which serves most to shew that 't is from the matter this fire of motion comes is the duration of the Heavens which being in all probability solid would have been set on fire were it not that they are not of a combustible matter nor apt to conceive fire for how little soever that heat were there would be more neer the Sphere of the Moon then at the Centre of the Earth and nevertheless the air is frozen while heat causes corruptions and generations upon the earth and at the centre of it and this heat having been always encreasing as is that of the motion would be insupportable II. Of Chastity Upon the second Point it was said That Reason regulates the inclinations of the appetite by the vertues amongst which temperance serves to moderate that of eating by abstinence and of drinking by sobriety as also the concupiscence of the flesh by chastity which is more excellent then the two former in that its business lies with more powerful adversaries which assail it without as well as within by so many avenues as there are senses amongst which the hearing and sight receiving the poyson of glances and words cause chastity to stagger and languish but it receives the deadly blow when the touch surrenders it self to the inchantment of kisses and the other delights which follow them Moreover the necessity of natural actions being the standard of pleasure and generation which concerns the general being more necessary then nutrition which relates only to the particular it hath also more pleasure and consequently being more hard to withstand chastity which surmounts it not only deserves Palmes and Triumphs in the other world but also in this hath been rewarded by God with the gift of Prophecy in the Sibyls and is honour'd by all even the most wicked for its rarity which made the Poet say that there was none in his time chaste but she that had not been tempted Now Chastity is of three sorts Virgineal Conjugal and that of Widows to which the Fathers attribute what is said of the grains of Corn which brought forth one a hundred other thirty and other sixty For Virgineal Chastity in either sex consisting in integrity of body and purity of soul and in a firm purpose to abstain from all sort of carnal pleasures the better to attend divine service is more worthy then the other two and prefer'd before any other condition by S. Paul who counsels every one to desire to be like him in this point Hence the Church hath chosen it and is so immutably affected to it to the end souls freed from worldly care might be more at leisure for divine things from which Matrimony extreamly diverts The chastity of Widows hath for pattern the Turtle and the Raven who having lost their mates live nine ages of men without coupling with
same manner were the Crown and the Iris produc'd for they were form'd by a reflection and refraction of the Solar rayes and consequently at the intersection of the Iris and the Crown there was a double reflection and refraction Whence at the the said intersection appear'd two false Suns sufficiently bright by the new reflection of which upon the same circumference of the Iris were formed two other Suns of less brightness The Third said That this plurality of Suns ought to be attributed to a reflection of the species of the true Sun receiv'd in some Stars so oppos'd to him that they send back his light and species and the concurse of those reflected rayes causes those masses of light to appear in the centres of concave bodies that reflect them which cannot be Clouds because they are neither smooth nor opake nor void of colour the three accidents necessary for reflection Moreover the Clouds cannot receive his species upon their uppermost surface for then they could not reflect it nor upon their lowermost or interior surface for this cannot receive it unless it be reflected from the Water and then we should not see those Suns in the Air but in the Water Nor lastly upon one side because then the Spectator must not be upon the Earth but in a line perpendicular to the diametre of the side of the Cloud according to the doctrine of the Catoptricks The Fourth said That the Clouds being polite or smooth when they are turn'd into Water and their profundity serving instead of opacity as we see in deep Waters which our sight is unable to penetrate they remit the species presented to them And the same may happen in the Air when it is condens'd Whence as Aristotle reports many have seen their own Images in the Air and some affirm that they have seen whole Cities so particularly Avignon The Fifth said That the Viscosity into which the aqueousness of those Clouds had degenerated when those four Parhelij appear'd at Rome was the cause not onely of their appearance but also of their subsistence at mid-day To the which also more concocted and condens'd must those three Suns ascrib'd which were observ'd in Spain Anno 753. for the space of three years and the three others that appear'd over the City of Theodosia on the twenty ninth of October 1596. from Sun-rise to Sun-set The Sixt said That all these difficulties inclin'd him to attribute Parhelij to one or more Clouds round and resplendent like the Sun For what unlikelihood is there that an unctuous exhalation may be elevated in the Air in a round figure which being inflam'd on all sides equally may represent by its light that of the Sun seeing Nature is much more ingenious then Art which represents him at pleasure by artificial fires and we behold even from the surface of the Earth up to the Orbes of the Planets igneous bodies of all figures and colours and those of very long continuance II. Whether any Love be without self interest Upon the Second Point the First said That 't is not without a mystery that Plato in his Convivium makes two Cupids one the Son of Venus Coelestial the other the Son of the common or Terrestrial Venus intimating thereby that there are two sorts of Love one vile and abject which is that of Concupiscence whereby a Man loves that which is agreeable to him for his own interest the other divine and perfect wherewith we love a thing for it self which kind is very rare And therefore Hesiod makes it to be born of the Chaos and the Earth to intimate that it is difficult to meet any that is pure and without any interest The Ancients have also made two Loves one of Plenty Abundance by which the Perfect loves the Imperfect to communicate thereunto what it wanteth the other of Indigence which the Defective hath towards the Perfect that it may be made perfect by it The former is that of God towards his Creatures the latter that of Creatures towards God And as for that which is found between Creatures it is more or less excellent according as it partaketh of the one or the other But to speak generally it is more noble to be lov'd then to love as it is more excellent to be sought to then to seek to another to give then to receive The Second said That there are two sorts of Love the one of Friendship the other of Desire The former causeth us to love things because they are worthy of it the latter because they are convenient for us The first is not onely possible but more natural then the second For the Love of Friendship is direct that of Concupiscence is onely by reflection Now that which is direct is in the date of Nature before the reflected the stroke is before the rebound the voice before the Echo and the Ray before the reverberation For Reflection is a re-plication or re-doubling of a thing That the Love of Desire is such I manifest It is with our Knowledge as with our Love A Man knows himself less easily then he doth others because he knows all things else by a direct action and himself by reflection He sees every thing directly but he cannot see himself saving in a Looking-glass And for that nothing enters into him but passeth through the Senses it is requisite that that which is in him come forth to re-enter again by the Senses and pass into the Mind For all Knowledge is by Assimilation as that I may see the pupil of my Eye must have the Image of the thing which I would see and so become like to it Now all resemblance is between things that are distinct So that if the Mind of Man is to know any thing of it self that thing must be abstracted and sever'd from him that it may be made like to him and consequently cannot enter into his Knowledge but by reflection in which the species loseth of its virtue as we see in the Echo which is never so natural as the voice which it imitates nor the Object in the Looking-glass as the first Object The case is the same in Love For by it we love things before we desire them Which is evident both in respect to the Object and also to the Act of Love Its Object Good includeth two things First its Nature of Good which is an Entity consider'd in it as conducing to the perfection of the thing wherein it is And Secondly its communicability or relation to other things capable of receiving its diffusion The former is the foundation and efficient emanative cause of the other which is onely a Propriety and consequently less natural because posterior and subservient to the former Moreover Love taken as an act of the Will hath the same effect according to which it is defin'd an adequateness conformity and correspondence of our heart to the thing and an approbation and complacency in the goodness which is in the Object which our Mind judging good
fast that he might be accustom'd to abstinence betimes that Age being no more capable of a Habit then of Discipline Do Children use more solid food Hippocrates saith they bear fasting more uneasily then grown Men and these then Old Men because they abound more with natural heat especially they saith he who have the best Wits Moreover Tempers Seasons Countries different exercises diversity of Food Custome and the disposition of Health and the Organs make a notable difference herein Of Tempers the Cholcrick is the most impatient of fasting They cannot sleep unless their Belly be full and by its mild vapours temper the acrimonious exhalations of their Choler which otherwise causeth the exasperated Spirits to move in the Arteries and in the Organs of the Senses instead of filling them with the benigne vapours which cause sleep Hence the Proverb Choler and Hunger make a Man fretful and the Hungry Belly hath no Ears Likewise the Sanguine is not very fit for long abstinence The Melancholy bears it better but above all the pituitous and Flegmatick To these one day's fasting is no more trouble then to the others to want a Break-fast Yea should no other consideration lead them to fasting they would be sick unless they sometimes debar'd themselves from a meal or two a day Examples of fasting are afforded by Bears Sea-calves Dormice Snailes Serpents and other Insects which remain for several Moneths hid in their Cavernes using rest instead of food their natural heat being then so weak that the fat or viscous flegme wherewith they are provided suffices to support them all that time Of the Seasons Winter causes such as fast to think the dayes longer then the Sun makes them because the natural is then most vigorous Next Winter Autumne is least proper for the same reason and because the Spirits need reparation of the loss caus'd to them by the Summer The Spring is more fit in regard of the plenty of Blood which then boyles in us But Summer most of all because there needs less fewel for a less fire as our internal heat is at that time Of Regions the cold and Northern are less compatible with abstinence the hot and Southern more but the temperate most of all Whence we see that the Orientals fast more easily for many dayes together then we one single day Of Exerises as the more violent disturb the digestions as we see in those that ride post the moderate promote them and make room for Aliments so they who use little or none at all need the less food Solid Victnals are longer before they be subdu'd in the Stomack then liquid the fat and of oiley afford most nourishment Therefore Bread hath a great stroke in digestion as being all Oyle As is seen in the correction of some Medicaments which is done with burnt Bread for a piece of Bread as big as ones thumb being set on flame will burn as long as the same weight of Oyl Whence Abstinence is more supportable after such kind of food then after broth or potch'd eggs But Custome is so considerable in this matter that those who are us'd to make four meals a day are no less troubled with intermitting them then others are one of their two ordinary repasts And experience shews that if you take up an ill custome of drinking at bed-time without necessity you must use violence to your self to break it off Yet the disposition of the Body is the main matter whether we consider the diversity of Organs destinated for nutrition whence those that have large stomacks and Livers sooner yield to hunger or whether we divide Bodies into such as are healthy which dispense with less eating and such as are distemper'd with diseases the actions whereof are depraved Amongst which we should speed ill if we look'd for abstinence in those who have a Boulimie or Canine Hunger proceeding either from the too great suction of the Mesaraick Veins of which the Stomack is made sensible by the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation or because the Melancholy humour design'd to stimulate the stomack and provoke Appetite by its acrimony continually flows thither and not after the concoction is perfected The cure of which Malady consists in eating and chiefly in drinking pure Wine which is distributed more speedily then any nourishment But when those Mesaraick Veins suck no more Chyle either because their passages are stop'd or for that the above mentioned acide liquor is diverted elsewhere then ariseth a disease call'd Anorexie or Nausea whereunto the abstinence of those must be referr'd who have continu'd some weeks yea moneths and years without eating and drinking For we may well wonder at that Hydropick Person to whom his Physitian having forbidden drink he went to him at the years end to ask him whether it were time to drink But we may wonder more at what we find in Histories even of our own time which are full of relations of persons of either sex that lived some years without taking any Aliment M. Cytoys Physitian to the Cardinal Duke of Richelieu a Learned Man and who needs no other Elogium but the choice of such a Master publish'd a very ingenious treatise above twenty years since concerning a young Maid of Confoulans in Poictou which liv'd many years in that manner And lately there was such another in the Province of Berry Some have conceiv'd such persons to be nourish'd with thick Air by the Lungs taking that for a Maxime which is not agreed upon That Inanimate things and much less the Elements can nourish Some ascribe the cause to the relaxation of the Nerves which hinders the stomack from being sensible of the suction of the Mesaraick Veins But in my conceit the reason is because their Bodies are almost indissoluble and so compact that nothing exhales from them Whereunto adding a viscous and tenacious flegme a very small heat and no exercise the case will be the same as 't is in a fire-brand of Juniper So we see fire lasts not so long in fifty faggots of straw as in an Arm-full of Match Yea not to detract from Miracles whereby God so reserves to himself the doing what he pleaseth that he doth not forbid our inquiring into Natural Causes since it is held that there have been found sempiternal lamps and other lights the oily humidity not exhaling out of the vessel the same may seem more possible in the proportion of our natural heat with its radical moisture For besides those Examples we have that of some Animals and Butter-flies flie engender and live a long time without nourishment Which is also seen more particularly in Silk-worms the most exquisite Emblem of the Resurrection that is in Nature From which disproportion which appears so great between those who cannot bear one day's fasting and others who pass years without eating we may easily conclude to the end where I began that there is no limited time as to the question propos'd For though it be ordinarily bounded within seven days yet
and imperfect and so is a second in Musick Three is the first Male and the first degree of perfection hence a Third is agreeable to the Ear. The Fourth is so likewise because it makes up the Ten. Add 1 2 3 and 4 and you have the grand Number of Ten the Father of all others Also a Fifth pleases the Ear wonderfully because it is an Abridgement of the grand Number and the marriage of the Male and the first Female The other Numbers are useless except the Eighth because Musitians call it Identity or Unity which is a Divine Number or rather no Number nor is the Eighth as delightful as it is accounted by Musitians amongst their Concords The Fourth said That the Reason why some Notes are agreeable and other unpleasing in Musick is because the former move the Faculty of the Soul after a manner sutable to it and the latter do not as we see an Example of it in Ballads and Dances where when the Violin or Minstrel hath sounded a braul which goes well to the cadence not onely the Members of the Dancers comply therewith and follow the same readily but also the Souls seemes to dance with the Bodies so great Sympathy have they with that Harmony But if on the contrary the power of the Soul be otherwise agitated at the same time that Harmony how regular soever will displease us Witness the displeasure taken at cheerful aires by those who are in Mourning to whom doleful notes better agree which on the other side are disagreeable to such as are merrily dispos'd Add hereunto the humour of the Phancy which hath an aversion to some sounds as well as to some smells For as for Discords janglings and other troublesome sounds no other cause of their general inacceptableness ought to be sought then that disproportion and deformity which is sound in things Natural and Artificial the former being more intollerable then the latter because the Eye is not struck with the visible species as the Ear is with sound and can turn away from the Object which displeaseth it which the Ear cannot and is clos'd with much more difficulty CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition I. Of the Original of Winds THere is more resemblance then one would imagine between these two poynts The Wind of the Air and that of Ambition to which the discontent of Men with their condition is commonly ascribed As for the First Some have held that all Wind even that which blows upon the Sea comes from the Earth and that the first conjecture which was entertain'd of the Region of the West Indies was taken from the Wind perceiv'd to come from that quarter But the History of Christopher Columbus attributing the discovery to Chance thereof cannot consist with that opinion There is no Meteor whose effects have more of Miracle which is defin'd An Effect whereof no Natural Cause is seen For even the Lightning is seen by the brightness of the fire which accompanies it But the effects of this aim at the highest things which it overthrows and you neither see the Agent nor understand it Yet the Sagacity of Humane Wit is admirable Sins have serv'd to clear Cases of Conscience Arsenick Sublimate and other poysons are converted by Physick into Cauteries and other profitable remedies The Civil Law hath by occasion of evil manners receiv'd addition of good Laws The Winds which drown Ships are so managed by the Art of Navigation which divides them first into four principal North East South West and then into eight by the addition of four half points and hath at length subdivided them into 32. that by their help Men sail upon the main Sea and provide forreign remedies for Physick Sugar and spices for Kitchins and employments for many other professions The Second said That though many causes may agitate the Air yet all of them are not sufficient to raise a Wind but the Air must be agitated by some Fume which is raised either from the Earth and is called an Exhalation or from the Water and is called a Vapour either of which partakes of the Nature of the Element from whence it proceeds A Vapour is moist an Exhalation dry An extrinsecal Heat which predominates in them gives them all their motions and makes them mount on high And because it is the property of Heat alwayes to move and act therefore these Fumes are so long in action as the Heat lasts They arise in company together and are carry'd upwards but are presently separated For the moisture of the Vapour quencheth the Heat which animated it so that the sole absence of the Sun or the occurse of the least Cold depriving the Vapour of the little Heat which was left in it and made it still ascend upwards it becomes more condens'd and falls down in Rain But an Exhalation hath a greater degree of Heat which is render'd more active by the driness and tenacity of the matter Therefore it ascends till it meets with the Air of the Middle Region which is thick and congeal'd by which being hinder'd â—o pass further it seeks a passage on one side or the other Many times when it strives to rise higher it becomes engag'd among Clouds which inclose it on all sides Being thus inclos'd and straitned it becomes united together and thereupon being inflam'd breaks the Clouds and causes Thunder or if it â—ind less resistance towards the Earth it descends with violence to the place from whence it arose and makes Whirl-winds But if such Exhalation have not time enough to mount as far as the Middle Region as it happens most frequently but as soon as it is drawn up be hinder'd and inclos'd by the Vapour turn'd into thick and cold Air in the Lower Region of the Air then Winds are produc'd in this manner This Exhalation being unable to mount upwards because the whole Region is full of thick Air which resists it it must go either on one side or other wherefore it tends that way where it meets least resistance And whereas there are certain seasons wherein the Air is sometimes less thick towards the South others wherein it is so towards the North and the other quarters of Heaven thence it is that the Winds blow there most usually Moreover the reason why the Wind hath a kind of whistling is because the Exhalation clasheth with violence against that thick Air. Hence also it is that Winds are more ordinary in the Night and about Evening because in those times the Vapour looseth its Heat through the Suns absence and so being become a thick Air better incloseth the Exhalation and resisteth the same with more force But as the Air which issueth out of our Lungs is hot yet if it be sent forth with some little violence it becometh cold So though the Exhalation which causeth Wind be never without Heat yet we never feel the Wind hot Not that the Air loseth its Heat by motion
as Cardan conceiveth For on the contrary all things become Hot by motion the Lead upon Arrows is melted and the Wood fired Water becomes thinner and hotter But the cause thereof is for that a strong Wind or Hot Air driven violently draws all the neighbouring Air after it which Air is Cold and we feel the coldness thereof Whence all strong Winds are alwayes cold The Third said We ought not to seek other causes of Natural Winds then those we find in Artificial Wind because Art imitates Nature Artificial Winds such as those of our Bellows the most common instruments thereof are caus'd by a compression of the Air made by two more solid Bodies then themselves which thrust the same thorow a narrower place then that of their residence For the Bellows having suck'd in a great quantity of Air when it s two sides draw together they drive out the same again with violence And this is that which they call Wind. In like manner I conceive two or more Clouds falling upon and pressing one another impetuously drive away the Air which is between them So we blow with our Mouths by pressing the Air inclos'd in the Palate and shutting the Lips to streighten its eruption Hereunto they agree who desine Wind to be Air stirr'd mov'd or agitated But if it be objected that the Clouds are not solid enough to make such a compression the contrary appears by the noise they make in Thunder-claps The Fourth alledg'd That Winds are produc'd in the World as they are in Man namely by a Heat sufficient to elevate but too weak to dissipate Exhalations whether that Heat proceedeth from Coelestial Bodies or from Subterranean Fires Wherefore as Hot Medicaments dissipate flatuosities so the great Heat of the Sun dissipates Winds The Fifth added It is hard to determine the Original of Winds after what our Lord hath said thereof That we know not whence they come nor whither they go and what David affirmeth That the Lord draweth them out of his Treasures NevertheIess I conceive that different causes ought to be assign'd of them according to their different kinds For although Winds borrow the qualities of the places through which they pass whence the Southern and Eastern are moist and contagious because of the great quantity of Vapours wherewith they are laden by coming over the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean yet some Winds are of their own Nature Hot and Dry making the Air pure and serene being caus'd by an Exhalation of the like qualities Others are so moist that they darken the Air because they are produc'd of Vapours Some places situated near Mountains and Rivers have particular Winds But as for those which blow at certain Periods either every year or every second year or every fourth year as one that blows in Provence I refer them to the Conjunction of certain Plants which reign at that time The Sixth said That Air hath a natural motion of its own as the Heavens have otherwise it would corrupt but meeting some streights and finding it self pen'd up it rallies and reunites its forces to get forth as it doth with violence and set it self at Liberty And this with so much the more vehemence as the places through which it passeth are streighter Whence it is that we alwayes perceive a Wind near a Door or Window half open or the mouth of a Cave which ceaseth when they are set wide open The Seventh continu'd That which is most difficult to conceive in reference to the Wind is its violence which I hold to proceed from the Rarefaction of a matter formerly condens'd and from the opposition of a contrary For the place of the Generation of Wind being either the Cavernes of the Earth or the Clouds the vaporous matter becoming rarifi'd so suddenly that it cannot find room enough to lodge in breaks forth impetuously as we see the Bullet is by the same reason violently driven forth by the Air enflamed in the Cannon Some think that Winds arise also from the Sea because a Wave is alwayes seen upon the changing of the Wind to rise on that side from whence it is next to blow The Eighth said That their motion is a direct line because it is the shortest way but not from below upwards by reason of the resistance they meet with in the coldness and thickness of the Middle Region of the Air whence the same thing happens to them that doth to smoak or flame which arriving at a ceiling or vault is constrain'd by the resistance it finds thereby to decline on one side Also their violence is increas'd by the adjunction of new Exhalations as Rivers augment theirs by the access of new streams II. Why none are contenteà with their own condition Upon the Second Point it was said That since the inferior World follows the course of the superior and Coelestial it is not to be wonder'd if the latter being in continual motion and agitation the former whereof Man makes the noblest part cannot be at rest For the Starrs according to their several Positions Aspects or Conjunctions move and carry us to desire sometimes one thing sometimes another The Ambition and Ignorance of Man are of the party too The former makes him alwayes desire to have the advantage above others to pursue Honours and Dignities and to think that to acknowledge a greater then himself is to own fetters and servility The latter represents things to him otherwise then they are and so causes him to desire them the more by how much he less understands their imperfections Whence many times by changing he becomes in as ill a case as Aesop's Ass who was never contented with his condition But the true Cause in my opinion is because we cannot find in this World a supreme temporal Good whereunto a concurrence of all outward and inward goods is requisite and were a Man possess'd thereof yet he could have no assurance that he shall enjoy it to the end of his Life whence living in fear of losing it we should be prone to desire something that might confirm it The Dignity of the Soul furnisheth me with another reason of our discontentment For she being deriv'd from Heaven and knowing that this is not her abiding City she may taste of terrene things but findeth them not season'd to her gust as knowing that frail and mortal things are not worthy of her nor sutable to her eternity And as a sick person that turns himself first on one side then on the other to take rest so the Soul finds her repose in motion And as morsels swallow'd down have no more savour so the present goods which our Soul possesseth give her no pleasure but like a Hunter she quits the game which she hath taken to pursue another The Second said Though by a wise Providence of Nature every one loves his own condition as much or more then another doth yet there being alwayes some evil mix'd with and adhering to the most happy state in the world
into Water but this moist Air is full of damp vapours which are nothing but Water rarifi'd and which meeting with those cold and solid Bodies are condens'd and return'd to their first Nature Wherefore the Air is so far from being the cause of so many Springs and Rivers which water the Earth that on the contrary all the Air in the world provided it be not mixt with Water cannot make so much as one drop It is more probable that in the beginning of the world when God divided the Elements and the Waters from the Waters which cover'd the whole surface of the Earth he gather'd the grossest and most unprofitable water into one mass which he called Sea and dispersed through the rest of the Earth the fresh Water more clear and pure to serve for the necessities of the Earth Plants and living Creatures Moreover the Scripture makes mention of four great Rivers issuing out of the terrestrial Paradise and a Fountain in the middle of it which water'd the whole surface of the Earth from the Creation In not being possible that Air resolv'd into Water could make so great a quantity of waters in so little time The Fifth added That those Waters would soon be dry'd up without a new production for which Nature hath provided by Rain which falling upon the Earth is gather'd together in Subterraneous Cavernes which are as so many Reservers for Springs according to Seneca's opinion This is prov'd 1. Because in places where it rains not as in the Desarts of Arabia and Aethiopia there is scarce any Springs on the other side they are very frequent in Europe which aboundeth with rain 2. Waters are very low in Summer when it rains but little and in Winter so high that they overflow their banks because the season is pluvious 3. Hence it is that most Rivers and Springs break forth at the foot of Mountains as being but the rain water descended thither from their tops The Sixth said That it is true that Rivers are increased by Rain but yet have not their original from it For were it so then in great droughts our Rivers would be dry'd up as well as the Brooks As for Springs they are not so much as increas'd by Rain for we see by experience that it goes no deeper into the earth then seven or eight feet On the contrary the deeper you dig the more Springs you meet with Nor is the Air in my judgement the cause thereof there being no probability that there is under the earth cavernes so spacious and full of Air sufficient to make so great a quantity of Water since there needs ten times as much Air as Water to produce it Neither can the Sea be the cause of Springs since according to the Maxime of Hydraulick Water cannot ascend higher the place of its original but if Springs were from the Sea then they could not be higher then the level thereof and we should see none upon the tops of Mountains Now that the Sea lies lower then Springs and Rivers is apparent because they descend all thitherwards The Seventh said That Waters coming from the Sea and gliding in the bowels of the Earth meet with Subterranean Fires which are there in great quantity whereby they are heated and resolv'd into Vapours These Vapours compos'd of Water and Fire mounting upwards meet some Rocks or other solid Bodies against which they stick and are return'd into Water the Fire which was in them escaping through the Pores of those Bodies the Water trickles forth by the clefts and crevisses of the Rocks or other sloping places The Eighth said That as Art can draw forth Water by Destillation Expression and other wayes taught by Chymistrie so by stronger reason Nature cannot want wayes to do the same and possibly in divers sorts according to the various disposition of places and of the matter which she employes to that use II. Whether there is any Ambition commendable Upon the Second Subject it was said That there is some correspondence between the two Questions for as Water serves for a Medium of Union in natural Composition so Ambition serves to familiarise pains and dangers in great enterprizes For it makes Children strive to get credit in little exercises and Men think nothing so high but may be soar'd to by the wings of Ambitior Juvenal indeed gives Wings to necessity when he saith A Hungry Greek will fly up to Heaven if they command him and Virgil saith Fear adds Wings to the heels of the terrifi'd but those of Ambition are much more frequent in our Language 'T is true Ambition may many times beat and stretch forth its Wings but can no more exalt it self into the Air then the Estrich Sometimes it soars too high as Icarus did and so near the light that it is burnt therein like Flyes For the ambitious usually mounts up with might and main but thinks not how he shall come down again This Passion is so envious that it makes those possess'd therewith hate all like themselves and justle them to put them behind Yea it is so eager that it meets few obstacles which yield not to its exorbitant pertinacy insomuch that it causeth Men to do contrary to do what they pretend and shamefully to obey some that they may get the command over others The importunateness of Ambition is proof against all check or denyal and the ambitious is like the Clot-burr which once fastned upon the clothes is not easily shaken off When he is once near the Court neither affronts nor other rubs can readily repell him thence And because his Essence consists in appearance he many times wears his Lands upon his back and if he cannot at once pride himself in his Table his Clothes and his Train yet he will rather shew the body of a Spaniard then the belly of a Swiss At his coming abroad he oftentimes picks his teeth while his gutts grumble he feeds upon aiery viands When he ha's been so lucky as to snap some office before he ha's warm'd the place his desires are gaping after another He looks upon the first but as a step to a second and thinks himself still to low if he be not upon the highest round of the ladder where he needs a good Brain lest he lose his judgement and where it is as hard to stand as 't is impossible to ascend and shameful to descend Others observing That Honour is like a shadow which flyes from its pursuers and follows those that flie it have indeed no less Ambition then the former for I know no condition how private soever that is free from it but they artificially conceal it like those who carry a dark Lanthorn in the night they have no less fire then others but they hide it better They are like Thieves that shooe their Horses the wrong way that they may seem by their steps to come from the place whither they are going or else like those who hunt the Hyena This Beast loves the voice
also instanc'd to comprehend all Vices as Justice contains in it self all Virtues For he who is proud covetous prodigal or a Murtherer would not be so if he were not unjust whilst he attributes more to himself and less to others then is due And for conclusion it was said That as of the diseases of the Body those are term'd the greatest which invade the most noble part or have the most dangerous symptomes as the prick of a pin in the heart is more mortal then the cutting off of an arm and the same puncture is more perillous when Convulsions thereupon befall the whole body then a wound with a sword in some fleshy part without any accidents so Ignorance and Imprudence are the greatest vices because they possess the most noble Faculty of man the Understanding and produce all the rest At the hour of Inventions a Proposition was reported to draw Smith's-coal out of the lands of this Kingdom and in so doing to cut channels for the draining of Marshes and making rivers Navigable in order to the conveniency of transportation sacilitation of commerce feeding of Cattel and preservation of Forests This Invention besides the advantage it will bring to the meaner sort of people in reference to their domestick fuel is of much benefit for the making of Brick Tile and Lime as much of which may be made thereby in three days as is made in eight or nine with wood which is the ordinary fashion It will be a matter of great saving to the whole Kingdom especially to the abovesaid Artists who are here in great number and are forc'd to buy such Coal from England at dear rates The Proposer offer'd to continue the experience which he had made thereof at his own charges for satisfaction of the curious CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the truth ought always to be spoken I. Of the Cabala THat which hath hapned to many other words as Tyrant and Magician which at their first institution were taken in a good sense but have abusively degenerated into odious significations is found likewise in the word Cabala which according to its genuine importance signifies nothing else but Tradition and comes from the Verb Cabal denoting with the Hebrews to give or receive 'T is a mystical doctrine concerning God and the creatures which the Jews receiv'd by tradition from Father to Son If we may give credit to them it Began in Adam who had a perfect knowledge not only of the whole nature and property of things corporeal but also of the Divine nature of the mysteries of Religion and of the redemption of mankind which his Angel Raziel assur'd him was to come to pass by means of a just man whose name should consist of four letters which is the cause say they that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language wherein the vowels are no letters Adam taught these mysteries to his children they to their successors until Abraham and the Patriarchs But they say Moses learn'd it anew from the mouth of God during the forty days that he was in the Mount where he receiv'd two Laws one written with the hand of God compriz'd in the two Tables of stone the other not written and more mysterious the former for all in general the latter for the learned and skill'd in mysteries of Religion which is that which Moses taught the seventy Elders of the People chosen by himself according to the counsel of Jethro his Father-in-law and they transfer'd the same to the Prophets Doctors of the Law Scribes Pharisees Rabbines and Cabalists The Second said That in order to judge of the Cabala 't is requisite to know what the Philosophy of the Jews was as the Stoicks Peripateticks Pyrrhonians and other Philosophers had their peculiar Sects 'T is divided commonly into that of things and that of words or names The first is call'd by the Rabbines Bereschit the second Mercana That which treats of things by the Cabalists call'd Sephiroch that is to say numbers or knowledges for with them to number and to know are almost synonymous is either Philosophical or Theological The Philosophical comprehends their Logick Physicks Metaphysicks and Astronomy In Logick they treat of the ten lesser Sephiroth which are so many steps or degrees for attaining to the knowledge of all things by means of Sense Knowledge or Faith and they are divided into three Regions In the lowest which is made by the sense are 1 the Object 2 the Medium or Diaphanum 3 the External sense In the second and middle region are 4 the Internal or common Sense 5 the Imagination or Phancie 6 the Estimative Faculty or inferior Judgement In the third and supream 7 the Superior and Humane Judgement 8 Reason 9 The Intellect 10 and lastly the Understanding or Mens which performs the same office to the Soul that the Eye doth to the Body whom it enlightens For example when I hear a Cannon discharg'd the sound comes to my ears by the medium of the air then the Common Sense receiving this species of the sound transmits the same to the Imagination and the Estimative Faculty judges thereof simply as beasts would do afterwards the Judgement apprehends the essence of the sound Reason searches the causes thereof and the Intellect considers them but lastly the Understanding or Mens call'd by the Cabalists Ceter that is a Crown by way of excellence receiving light from on high irradiates the Intellect and this all the other Faculties And these are the degrees of Cabalistical knowledge In the other parts of their Philosophy they treat of the fifty gates of light Whereof the 1. is the Divine Essence the Symbol of which is the Tetragrammaton and ineffable name of God The 2. gate is the Archetypal World the knowledge of which two gates they say was hid even to Moses The 3. is the Earth 4. Matter 5. Vacuum or Privation 6. The Abysse 7. The Fire 8. The Air 9. The Water 10. The Light 11. The Day 12. Accidents 13. The Night 14. The Evening 15. The Morning And after many other things they constitute Man for the 50th gate To arrive to the knowledge of these 50 gates they have invented 32 Flambeaux or Torches to guide them into the secrets contained therein which they call the paths of Wisdom namely the Intelligence miraculous or occult Intelligence sanctifying resplendent pure dispositive eternal corporeal c. The Theological Cabala treats of God and Angles Of God by expounding the names of 12 and 42 letters yea they attribute seven hundred several ones to him and particularly the ten Divine Attributes which they term the grand Sephiroth namely Infinity Wisdom Intelligence Clemency or Goodness Severity Ornament Triumph Confession of praise Foundation and Royalty whereby God governs all things by weight number and measure Of Angels namely of the 32 abovesaid Intelligences call'd by them the paths of wisdom for they make them so many Angels and of seventy two other
spares nothing to attain the same To this end he employs not only the four Elements but makes a distinct art of the ways of Prediction by each of them He makes use of all mixt bodies too and searches even the bowels of living creatures yea the very Sepulchres of the dead in quest of Presages of the future And although speaking absolutely such inventions are more capable to attract the admiration and consequently the money of credulous persons then to instruct them unless perhaps in prudence to take care of being so easily deceiv'd afterwards yet there seems to be a correspondence and connexion between present and future things as there is between the pass'd and the present for as he who perceives the corruption of unburied bodies after a Battle to have infected the air and begotten the Pestilence may certainly refer the cause of such Contagion to the War so he that shall behold a furious War in which great Battles are fought may conjecture an approaching Pestilence Possibly if we were as careful to contemplate the changes of all other bodies Minerals and Vegetables we should remark therein Presages as much more infallible then those of animals as their actions being more simple are likewise more certain as may be instanc'd in the Mulberry-tree which buds not till all the cold weather be pass'd but because the Local Motion which is proper to animals affects us more thence it becomes also more remarkable The Second said That man must not be forgotten in this Disquisition For not to speak of Prognostication in his diseases by means whereof the Physitian gets the esteem of a God we see old men and other persons so regular in the constitution of their bodies that they will tell you beforehand better then any Almanack by a Tooth-ach a Megrim or a Sciatica what weather is approaching whether rain frost or snow or fair This is commonly attributed to the rarefaction or condensation of the peccant humours in their bodies the same discharging themselves upon what part they find weakest as the weakest are commonly the most oppress'd and there making themselves felt by their acrimony but the parties are no longer sensible thereof then that intemperate weather continues a new disposition of the air causing a new motion and alteration in the humours When Cats comb themselves as we speak 't is a sign of rain because the moisture which is in the air before the rain insinuating it self into the fur of this animal moves her to smooth the same and cover her body wherewith that so she may the less feel the inconvenience of Winter as on the contrary she opens her fur in Summer that she may the better receive the refreshing of the moist season The crying of Cats Osprey's Raven's and other Birds upon the tops of houses in the night-time are observ'd by the vulgar to pre-signifie death to the sick and those creatures are thought to know the approach thereof by their cadaverous scent which appears not to us till after their death by reason of the dulness of our senses it being no less admirable that such carrion Birds smell better then we then 't is to see a dog distinguish by his smelling the traces of a Hare which are imperceptible to us But it may as well be that these Birds cry by chance upon the first house where they light and are heard onely by such as watch in attendance upon persons dangerously sick they being likewise Birds of but a weak sight and therefore flying abroad most commonly in the dark As for the fore-sight of fertility by the Honeton and of a calm by the Halcyon or Kings-fisher these ought to be referr'd to the same instinct of Nature which guideth the Spider to weave her nets and the Swallow to build her neast The Third said There is a close connexion between the superior and inferior bodies the chain whereof is to us imperceptible though their consecution be infallible This was signifi'd by Trismegistus when he pronounc'd that that which is below is like that which is on high and therefore 't is not to be wonder'd if one be the sign of the other The Fourth said Certain Animals are found under the domination of one and the same Starr of which subjection they have some character either external or internal And 't is credible that all bodies especially Plants have figures or characters of their virtues either within or without Thus they say those Plants which are prickly and whose leaves have the shape of a spears poynt or other offensive armes are vulnerary those which have the spots or speckles of a Serpent are noted to be good against poysons and all are serviceable for the conservation of such parts and cure of such diseases as they resemble in figure In like manner 't is probable that the Cock hath a certain internal character which particularly rank him under the dominion of the Sun and that this is the cause that he crows when his predominant planet possesses one of the three cardinal points of Heaven in which the same hath most power namely in the East when the light thereof is returning towards him in the South at which time he rejoyces to see it at the highest pitch of strength and at mid-night because he feels that it is then beginning again to approach to our Hemisphere But he crows not at sun-set being sad then for its departure and for that he is deprived of its light And for this reason in my opinion the Romans chiefly made use of young Chickens from which to collect their auguries because they conceiv'd that being Animals of the Sun and more susceptible of its impressions by reason of their tenderness they were more easily sensible and consequently afforded more remarkable tokens by their motions and particular constitution of the various dispositions of the Sun in reference to the several Aspects of good and bad Planets especially of Saturn their opposite Whence judging by the dulness and sadness of the Chickens that the Sun was afflicted by a bad Aspect of Mars or Saturn they drew a consequence that since this Luminary which besides its universal power was the Disposer of their fortune with Mars was found ill dispos'd when they were projecting any design therefore they could not have a good issue of it Thus people prognostice a great Famine or Mortality when great flocks of Jayes or Crows forsake the woods because these melancholy birds bearing the characters of Saturn the author of famine and mortality have a very early perception of the bad disposition of that Planet The Fifth said Thence also it is that if a flie be found in an Oak-apple 't is believ'd that the year insuing will be troubled with wars because that Insect being alwayes in motion and troublesome is attributed to Mars If a spider be found in the said Excrescence then a Pestilence is feared because this Insect hath the characters of malignant Saturn if a small worm be seen in it then this
it It is wholly necessary to Merchants for their selling Upon which score possibly Mercury was made the Patron of Negotiators For perswasion which is the end of it needs not alwayes an Oration complete in all its members the greatest pitch of an Orator is to contract himself according to time place and persons A General of an Army animates his Souldiers more with three words as he is going to charge the Enemy then a Preacher doth his Auditors in a whole Lent Even Gestures are sometimes eloquent so the Curtesan Phryne carry'd her law-suit by discovering her fair bosome as also did a Captain by shewing his scars to their Judges who intended to condemn them Whereby it appears how great the power and extent of Eloquence is The Second said Since some were so hardy the last Conference as by speaking ill of Poets to disparage the language of the gods let us examine that of men that Pallas may not complain of the same treatment that was shew'd to the Muses For not to strike the same string twice the lasciviousnesse imputed to them seems more justly to belong to Orators and Poets since Meroury the god of thieves as well as of Eloquence and not Apollo was the messenger of the amours of the gods Now 't is hard for the Disciples not to retain some thing of their Master Moreover Socrates and Plato define Eloquence the art of deceiving or flattering and this latter banishes Orators out of the excellent Common-wealth which he took so much pains to contrive But other real States have done them more evil driving them effectively out of their territories rightly judging with Aeschylus that nothing is more pernicious and prejudicial then an affected language embellish'd with the graces of Eloquence which the more florid it is the more poyson it hides under its flowers which have nothing but appearance Therefore the Romans the wisest Politicians in the world drave them so often out of their Common-wealth as during the Consulship of Fannius Strabo and Valerius Messala when Cneus Domitius and Q. Licinius were Censors and under the Emperor Domitian And 't is one of the surest foundations of the Turkish Empire and by which they have found most advantage their forbidding the having by this means instead of an Army of talkers good for nothing but to multiply noises and divisions by disguising the Truth innumerable stout fellows of their hands who have learn'd no other lesson but Obedience By which from a small beginning they have subdu'd a great part of the world particularly Greece which alwayes made profession of this talkativenesse Yea in Athens it self the cradel of Eloquence the Orators were forbidden the Court the Palace and other publick Assemblies because they perverted Right and Timagoras was there condemn'd to death for having made Complements to Darius according to the mode of the Persians The ancient Republick of Crete and that of Lacedaemon the School of Virtue were not unmindfull to provide against these Sophisters the latter opposing their design by the brevity of its Laconick stile and having banish'd Ctesiphon for boasting that he could discourse a whole day upon what ever subject were propounded to him What then would it have done to Demosthenes who commonly brag'd that he could turn the balance of Justice on which side he pleas'd Is not Eloquence therefore more to be fear'd then the musick of the Syrens or the potions of the inchantresse Circe being able to involve innocence in punishment and procure rewards to crimes Moreover 't is a Womans Virtue to talk And therefore Caesar disdain'd this present which Nature had given him and few people value it but such as have nothing else to recommend them Volaterranus observ'd few persons both virtuous and eloquent nor do we find famous Orators in Macedon which gave birth to Alexander and so many other great Captains 'T was with this Eloquence that Demosthenes incens'd Philip against his own City of Athens that Cicero animated Marcus Antonius against that of Rome that of Cato was one of the causes that incited Caesar against the liberty of his Country and yet Cato hated this art of Oratory so much that he once caus'd audience to be deny'd to Carneades and his companions Critelaus and Diogenes Ambassadors from Athens to Rome upon no other reason but because they were too Eloquent And not to speak of the vanity of Orators a vice more incident to them then to Poets witnesse the boastings of Cicero their art is altogether unprofitable since it serves onely to paint and deck the truth which hath no need of ornaments and ought to be plain pure simple and without artifice In a word to represent truth adorn'd with flowers of Rhetorick is to lay Fucus upon a fair Complexion to paint Gilly-flowers and Anemonies and to perfume Roses and Violets But what may it not falsifie since it disguises it self covering its figures with the hard words of Metonymy Synecdoche and other barbarismes to make them admir'd by the ignorant The Third said That there being nothinb but is lyable to be abus'd both they speak true who commend Eloquence and they who decry it When this faculty of speaking well undertakes to make great things little and the contrary it frustrates their wish who would have things themselves speak Nor is there any lover of eloquent discourses but prefers before elegant speaking the plainesse of a good counsel when some serious matter is in debate either touching health businesse or the good of the Soul And therefore I conclude that Eloquence is indeed more graceful but simplicity and plainesse more excellent and desirable CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony I. Of the Hearing THe Hearing is the Sense of Disciplines the inlet of Faith which the Apostle saith comes by Hearing the judge of sounds and their differences the cognition whereof is the more difficult for that they are the least material qualities of all considering that they are neither the First as the Tangible nor the Second as Colours Odours and Sapours depending upon the various mixture of the first but of another kind of qualities which have scarce any thing of the grossnesse of matter The little corporeity they have not proceeding from that but from the Air which enters with it into the Eear Neverthelesse sound is not wholly spiritual for it presupposes in the bodies collided together hardnesse smoothnesse and such other second qualities without which the collision of two bodies is not audible But the chief cause of the difficult cognition of sounds is that they are produc'd of nothing namely of Local Motion which by the testimony of the Philosophers is a pure Nothing Motion being rather a way to being then a true being Not that Motion produces something that is real of it self since Nothing cannot produce any thing but onely by accident and by another So by friction attenuating the parts it generates heat and by the meeting of two bodies it makes sound which lasts as long
as its cause and ceases when this fails contrary to other qualities which have a fix'd and permanent existence in Nature For the tingling of a bell which continues some while after the stroke is not one single sound but many the parts of the bell being put into a trembling motion by the blow and communicating the same to the parts of the Air contain'd in the cavity of the bell which Air is so long clash'd together till all the insensible parts of the bell be return'd to their first rest and therefore the laying of the hand upon it hinders this motion and consequently stops the sound And 't is for this reason that it resounds more when it hangs freely then when it is held in the hand and some bells have been seen to fly in pieces upon the application of a piece of Iron to them whilst they were trembling The cause whereof is this if while all the parts of the bell tremble and equally move from their place one part be check'd it becomes immoveable and so not following the agitation of the rest is separated from them The Second said Though sound the object of the Hearing containing under it Voice and Speech is oftentimes accompany'd with three things the body striking the body struck and the Medium resounding yet these three do not alwayes meet in all sort of sounds as we see in that which is made by our bellows the noise of a Petar Salt Chestnuts and other aerious and flatuous bodies cast into the fire because these flatuosities being rarifi'd require an outlet and therefore impetuously break forth out of their restraint which eruption striking the neighbouring Air produces a sound The same is seen also in the Voice which is form'd by collision of the Air in the Lungs against the Larynx the palate and the teeth So that the proximate cause of sound is not the shock of two bodies but the breaking of the Air when its motion is hindred A piece of cloth makes a noise in the tearing but not in the cutting because of the sudden separation of the parts of the Air which on the other side for fear of Vacuum are impetuously carry'd towards the place of their separation and the wind whistles by reason of the violent motion which it causeth in the Air sometimes driving the same before it sometimes pressing and wracking it or because it meets some other wind or body that opposes its natural motion The Third said A perfect sound cannot be made without the encountring of two bodies and Air between them for want of which there would be local motion but no sound in a Vacuum and the motion of those great celestial orbes is not audible Now these bodies must be hard and solid either of their own Nature as Copper and Silver or by the union and construction of their parts which makes them act and resist as if they were solid such are the Air and Water agitated Moreover that this sound be perfect 't is requisite that the bodies be large and smooth for if they be rough and scabrous the Air which is compress'd finds means to expand it self in the interstices of the higher parts if they be acute and pointed they cut and divide but do not break it So a needle striking the point of another needle makes no noise because it onely cuts the Air but do's not compresse it If these solid bodies be hollow and dry the sound is made the better and yet more if they be aerious Hence among metals Brass Silver and Gold resound more then Lead and Iron which are of a terrene nature Among Trees the Sallow and the Fig-tree have a sound and the leaves of Laurel crackle in the fire by reason of their aerious parts Lastly the bodies must be friable that is to say divisible at the same time into very small particles as Air Glass and Ice or in case they break not at least they must tremble in all their parts as bells do Therefore Water not being friable by reason of its tenacious humidity which keeps the particles together cannot be the subject of sounds that of running Water being made by the occurse of the Air upon its surface not in the Water it self in which no sound can be made although it may be somewhat confus'dly transmitted as 't is to fishes whom the noise makes to abandon the shore The Fourth said Hearing was given to Man to satisfie his natural inclination to understand the thoughts of his species by the utterance of words which would be useless to conversation if they were not receiv'd by this faculty whose dignity appears chiefly in the structure of its Organ the Ear both external and internal which is destinated to the reception of sounds Therefore the Philosopher derides Alcmaeon for saying that Goats respire at the ears The external is Cartilaginous and tortuous unmoveable in man alone always open on each side the head to receive sounds from all parts which are carri'd upwards in an orbicular figure The internal situate in the os petrosum or bone of the Temples hath four passages viz. the auditory meatus clos'd with a membrane call'd the Drum behind which is a cord fastned to the stirrup the anvil and hammer small bones as dry and big in children as in old men 2. That which incloseth the natural and immoveable Air the principal Organ of hearing 3. The Labyrinth 4. The Cochle or Shell-work But the passage which goes from the Ear to the Palate and the orifice of the Wind-pipe is most remarkable by which the inspir'd air doth not only refresh the Lungs but also the natural implanted air in the ear Hence ariseth that sympathy of the Palate and the Ears and to hear well we sometimes hold our breath for fear of disordering the species of sounds and those that gape or yawn hear little or not at all because the vaporous spirit which causeth oscitation so puts up the drum of the ear that it cannot well receive sounds and for the same reason they that yawn dare not pick their ears at that time for fear of hurting the inflated Drum which if it come to be touch'd the yawning ceaseth those that scratch their ears put themselves into a hawking or coughing And lastly 't is for this reason that such as are born deaf are also dumb because of the straight connexion of the auditory Nerve being of the fifth conjugation with the seventh which is at the root of the Tongue The Fifth said Sounds are carri'd to the ear in the same manner as they are produc'd namely by a fraction of the air adjoyning which hath a sphere of activity and is like that which is caus'd in the water by casting a stone into it but without any intentional species Otherwise sounds would be heard at the same time and in the same manner by those that are neer and those that are far off in regard the intentional species being spiritual is carri'd in an instant being caus'd by
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
as it is very excellent so 't is exceeding rare and being not us'd amongst us cannot come into comparison with the rest Whereas Sculpture and Statuary consisting only in paring away the overplus of matter or if the matter be fusible in casting it into a mould made from the original as the moulds of Plaster are from the faces of persons newly deceas'd need less industry The Second said Although Painting be sensible and visible yet it belongs to very few persons to judge well of it witness Alexander who going to see Appelles and offering to talk concerning Painting he spoke so ill that the Apprentices of that Artist could not forbear laughing Indeed Painting is one of the noblest parts of the Mechanicks and ought as well to be rank'd amongst the Mathematicks as Astronomy For if the reason of the Celestial motions gave cause for accounting this Science amongst the Mathematicks more justly may the reason of the motions and proportions of mans body the object of Painting more admirable and of which more certain and real knowledge may be had then of those remote bodies deserves to be of that rank considering that it makes use of the same Mathematical Rules Proportions whose Rules are so infallible that seven excellent Statuaries very distant one from the other being employ'd to make a brazen Colossus perform'd their tasks by the precepts of their Art and the parts which each of them made severally being put together represented a well proportion'd man According to which proportion a mans body must be eight lengths of his head from the less corner of the eye to the tip of the Ear is to be twice the length of the Eye the Feet and Hands stretch'd forth equally distant from the Navil and such other remarks The Third said The reason of the measures and proportions observ'd in Painting consists principally in four points viz. in the form and figure of the thing represented which is taken from the visual rays in the shadow which is to be taken from the rays of light in colour which is to imitate the natural and in the handsome posture or situation of the thing painted For Painting is the imitation of the affections of bodies with reference to the light made upon a solid Plane Hence a face is otherwise represented under the water then bare distant then neer in the Sun-shine then in the shadow by Candle-light or Moon-light And though the Painter represents also the dispositions of the soul as anger or sadness yet he doth it always by the features and qualities of the body The Fourth said They who blame Painting and Statuary because they represent unfitting objects and gave occasion to the Idolatry of antiquity may as justly blame beauty because 't is sometimes the occasion of sinning Painting hath this preeminence above all Arts that it imitates God more perfectly then they for God was the first Painter when he made man the goodliest piece of the world after his own image and likeness and all the bless'd spirits are but contracted copies of so perfect an original 'T is that which frees the body from the tombe and like a second table after shipwrack preserves the memory of virtuous men renders present those who are absent and makes almost as strong impressions upon our Soul as the thing it self witnesse the friendships of the greatest personages of the world contracted by its means And as if the desire of pourtraying it self were natural to all things there is no body but incessantly produces its own image which flies and wanders in the Air till it meet with some solid and smooth body whereon to represent it self as we see in Looking-glasses and polish'd marble where the images are much more exact then those which Art draws with a pencil yea then their own originals of whose corporeal matter they are wholly divested And as the beginning of all Arts are rude this of Painting is attributed to the Daughter of Belus who observing her Fathers shadow upon a wall delineated it with a coal For Pourtraiture invented by Philocles the Aegyptian is ancienter then Painting invented either by Gyges the Lydian in Aegypt according to Pliny or by Pyrhus Cousin to Daedalus according to Aristotle The Fifth said That in Painting as in other disciplines Ignorance of the principles is the cause that so few succeed well in it These principles are the methodical proportion of Mans Body Perspective the reason of shadows Natural Colours Designing and History all which must be found in a good Piece and the defect of some of them as it frequently happens causes us to wonder though we know not the reason that there is commonly something in all draughts that does not satisfie our Minds For oftentimes when all the rest is good Perspective hath not been well observ'd or the Design is nought or the History ill follow'd But as things are the more to be esteem'd which are the most simple so there is more of wonder in Painting to the life with a coal as Appelles did before Ptolomy to denote a person to him whom he could not name then with colours the least part of Painting which consists properly onely in proportion and this being the most divine action of Understanding 't is no wonder if there be so few good Painters For they are mistaken who place the excellence of painting in the smallness of the strokes because they fancy that Appelles was discover'd to Protogenes by having made a smaller line then he For on the contrary the most excellent strokes of Masters are many times the grossest and that this proportion may be exact it must imitate not onely particular subjects but generally the species of every thing Which Michel Caravague neglecting to do about 90. years since and instead of following Durer's excellent Rules addicting himself to draw onely after the life hath lead the way to all his successors who care not for his Rules but give themselves onely to imitation and this is the cause of the defects of painting at this day CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. I. Of Light I Conceive with a learned Physitian of the most worthy Chancellor that France ever had in his Treatise of this subject that Light is of two sorts one radical and essential which is found perfectly in the Stars the fire and some other subjects but imperfectly in colour'd bodies because Colour is a species of Light The other secondary and derivative which is found in bodies illuminated by the Light Both are made in Transparent Bodies those of the Stars in the Heaven and that of flame and bodies ignited in the fire whiteness in the Air and blackness in the Water But these transparent bodies must be condens'd that those Lights and Colours may appear and therefore the principle of Light is in transparence alone whereof neither purity rarity tenuity nor equality of surfaces are the causes but they all proceed from the quantity of matter some bodies having more matter then others
not by rarity alone or local extension but by formal extension or internal quantity and consequently that a little matter under a great internal quantity is the principle cause of tenuity rarity and transparence to which the evenness of surfaces is also requisite in gross bodies So that Light consists in a proportion between the quantity and the matter of its subject and Light is great when the matter is little under a great quantity as in the Heavens on the contrary the body is dark when a very small quantity is joyn'd to a great deal of matter as is seen in the Earth To prove this you must observe that all simple bodies are luminous excepting the Earth which is opake and we find Light in sundry animated bodies as in the Eyes of Cats and of those Indian Snailes which shine like torches and in our Gloe-wormes whose Light proceeds from their Spirits which being of a middle nature between the Body and the Soul are the least material thing in the world Whence it follows that Light is a form with the most of essence amongst sensible formes as obscurity hath the least The Second said The wonder of Marsilius Ficinus was with reason how 't was possible that nothing should be so obscure as Light For if Transparence be the subject of it why doth Crystal heated red hot in the fire come forth more luminous and less transparent then it was The same may be said of Rarity for we see that Air and Aqua Vitae are well rarify'd by the fire which inflames them but cease to be transparent as soon as they are made more rare and luminous which is an evident sign that rarity and transparence are not causes nor yet conditions of Light So the whole remainder of Heaven is lucid but onely the less rare parts and such as you might call vapours in respect of the pure Air. And the light which proceeds from the Sun the most luminous of all those celestial bodies would never be visible but be depriv'd of all its effects which are heating and enlightning if it were not reflected by some solid body Then it not onely appears but exerts its activity And if things be produc'd by the same causes which preserve and multiply them the solidity of burning mirrors made of Steel the hardest of all metals which make the Sun-beams do more then their own nature empowers them to shews sufficiently that their Light cannot arise from a rare and diaphanous cause Nor may the Light of rotten wood be assign'd to its rarity alone since many other bodies of greater rarity shine not at all nor that of Gloe-worms and Cats Eyes to their spirits since the flesh of some animals shines after their death as 't is affirm'd of Oxen that have frequently eaten a sort of Moon-wort and not onely the scales of divers fishes shine after separation from their bodies but sparkles of fire issue from the hair of some persons in great droughts whereunto the spirits contribute nothing Which would perswade me to believe that Light is a Form to the introduction whereof several conditions are requisite according to the diversity of subjects just as we see the Souls of some irrational creatures need great dispositions for their reception a Brain a Heart and a Liver with their dependances whereas others as Insects require lesse and are contented with something that may supply this defect some are generated in an instant without any apparent preparation as Frogs in a summer showre and therefore to assign the cause of Light is to seek the reason of Formes which is unknown to us Which similitude the vulgar speech confirmes for the people say The Candle is dead when it is extinguish'd presupposing that it had life before as an Animal hath so long as its form is conjoyn'd with its body Moreover Fire hath a Locall Motion as Animals have to obtain its food The Third said Light is a substance for it was created by God but 't is a Sixth Essence more subtile then that of Heaven which is call'd a Quintessence in respect of the Four Elements A substance which subsisted before the Sun having been created three dayes before it and nothing hinders but it may be communicated in a moment from Heaven to Earth since the intentional species of visible things is so Indeed whereunto shall we attribute the effect of Light which heats at distance and blinds being too great which colours and gives ornament to the Universe if it be not a substance And the Penetration of Dimension objected hereunto is salv'd by saying that it hath no more place here then when an Iron is red hot with the Fire which yet none will affirm to be an accident and neverthelesse it enters into the whole substance of the Iron and Light with it for 't is transparent and luminous at its centre when 't is throughly heated in the Fire The Fourth said The excellence of Light appears in that nothing hath greater resemblance with the Deity Which made some Heathen Philosophers say that Light is Gods Body and Truth his Soul Moreover the Scripture teaches us that God dwells in inaccessible Light And the blessed Spirits are stil'd Angels of Light as Daemons Spirits of darknesse Light enlivens and animates all things it rejoyces all Creatures by its presence Birds begin to sing and even flowers to display their beauties at its arrival And because Nothing gives what it hath not therefore some have conceiv'd that Light the enlivener of all the world is it self indu'd with life and that 't is the Universal Spirit and the Soul of the whole world Whence Plato in his timaeus brings no other argument to prove that Fire is an Animal but that it is luminous And in the sixth Book of his Common-wealth he makes the Sun who is the known Father of all living things the son of Light without which Pythagoras forbad to do any thing Moreover it hath no contrary Darkness being oppos'd to it onely privatively For its being is so excellent that Nature found not her self so able to make any thing that might be equall'd with it that might alter and corrupt it as the nature of Contraries require whereas all Qualities have each their particular enemy And 't is upon this very reason that Light acts in an instant because having no contrary quality to expel from its subject it needs no time or successive motion which is necessary to other qualities as to heat to warm cold water The Fifth said Light is a real form produc'd in the medium by a luminous body Aristotle calls it the act of the Perspicuum as it is Perspicuum This Form is accidental and falls under the head of Patible Qualities because 't is sensible by it self which is the property of accidents alone whereas substance is not sensible that is falls not under the perception of sense but by means of accidents and as it is the principle of action which belongs onely to a Quality For it cannot
as soon as they receive those for companions over whom they are to command The Fourth said That Reward and Punishment being the two Supports of all our actions but especially in War where there is not time to make all the inductions requisite to a good ratiocination neither of them can be well administer'd without the presence of the Chieftain who alone can judge of the merit of his Souldiers free from all passions especially envy and jealousie which are found amongst equals for want of which both the one and the other sometimes complain with good reason the meaner of not being seen and the great persons of not seeing but by the eyes of others And therefore the presence of the King hath been always of more value then twenty thousand men The Fifth said That in this as in all other moral Questions 't is impossible to give a definitive judgement because things of this nature depend not upon certain and infallible causes as natural things do but upon free causes which borrow their commendation or blame from the diversity of the circumstances of things of time place persons and other accidents which being infinite and consequently impossible to be known have no other rule but that of Prudence assisted by experience So that it cannot be determin'd absolutely whether the Chieftain of an Army ought to fight or not but we must distinguish the different occasions which oblige him thereunto or not When he understands himself weaker then his enemy and sees the courage of his Souldiers low if he cannot avoid giving battel he must animate his Souldiers by his own example as also when he is oblig'd by some notable surprizal to lay all at stake or when he undertakes such great matters that otherwise he can never accomplish them as when Alexander conquer'd the whole World his Father Philip all Greece and Caesar the Roman Empire In every other case 't is imprudence temerity and injustice in a head of an Army to esteem his own life no more then that of a common Souldier Yea 't is greater courage to render himself inflexible in the exact and rigorous maintaining of his orders then to engage himself in fight In doing which he notoriously argues his conduct of weakness since it hath suffer'd things to come to so ill a pass that he is reduc'd to this extremity of hazarding the loss of his victory which ordinarily follows the death of the General and is much more prejudical to his Army then the example is profitable which he gives to those few that are about him who are not always induc'd to imitate it Like those Empiricks who employ extream remedies to common diseases instead of reserving them only for the desperate CONFERENCE LXII I. Of Time II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise I. Of Time EVery thing that hath existence hath a duration If this duration hath neither beginning nor end such as that of God is 't is call'd Eternity if it hath a beginning but no end as that of the Heavens Angels and rational Souls 't is call'd by the Latines Aevum if it hath both beginning and end as the duration of all material and sublunary things 't is call'd Time which although in the mouth of every one is nevertheless difficult to understand the Vulgar improperly attributing this name to the Heaven or the Air saying 'T is a fair Time or Weather when the Air and Heaven are serene and clear For although Time be inseparable from Heaven yet 't is as different from it as the effect is from its cause And Pythagoras was deceiv'd when he thought that Time was the Celestial Sphere as well as Plato who held it to be the conversion of that Sphere and Democritus the motion of every thing Nevertheless Heaven and Time may be conceiv'd distinctly and a sunder because Time is the duration of the World the noblest part whereof is Heaven and the effects of Time are not known to us but by the motion of the Heavens and the Stars which make the Seasons Years Weeks Days and Hours with the difference of day and night The Second said That Time is a pure creature of our Phancy and hath no real existence in Nature since it hath no parts For time pass'd is no more the future is not yet the present is but a moment which cannot be part of time since 't is common to every part that being taken several times it composes and compleats its total which agrees not to a moment a hundred thousand moments added together making but one moment and therefore cannot make the least part of time no more then an infinite number of points can make the least line because it is not compos'd of points as time is not compos'd of moments For if you say Time is the flux of a moment as a line is the flux of a point this argues not the existence of Time because a point leaves something behind it as it moves but a moment doth not Yea if we believe Aristotle a moment is not in Time For either 't is one moment or many If one it will follow that what is done at present and what a thousand years ago were done at the same time because in the same moment If there be many moments in time they must succed one another one perishing as the next arises just as of the parts of time the pass'd perishes to give birth to the future But a moment cannot perish For it must perish either in time or in an instant Not in time for this is divisible but an instant indivisible Nor yet in an instant For either that instant would be it self and so it should be and not be together or it would be the instant before it which will not hold because whilst that preceding instant exists this other is not yet in being or lastly 't would be the instant after it and then this instant would be gone before Wherefore either Time is nothing at all or else but an imaginary thing And indeed it seems consentaneously call'd Number and Measure because neither of these hath other existence then in the mind For if you say with some that time is essential to things you may as well say that the Ell is of the essence of the cloath which it measures and number essential to the things numbred so that by this reckoning Measure and Number should be of all sorts of Natures because they are apply'd to all things The Third said That amongst real things some are momentary being made and perishing in one and the same instant which is the measure of their existence others are perdurable amongst which as there is something that hath always been and shall always be others that have not always been yet shall always be so there are some that have not been sometimes and sometimes shall be no more Again of these latter some have all their parts together others have them one after another The first are continuous
Jeremy Constantine saw S. Peter and S. Paul and according to the opinion of many Samuel appear'd to Saul and foretold him of things which were to befall him though others conceive 't was a corporeal apparition which also is much more certain because souls either appear with their true bodies although this is very rare too yea and unbecoming happy souls to rejoyn themselves to putrifi'd carcases or most commonly assume bodies of air The cause of which apparitions is ascrib'd to the union which is between the soul of the dead person and that of the surviving to whom it appears whether the same proceed from consanguinity or identity of manners great familiarity and friendship which seems to make but one soul of those of two friends so that the soul finding it self in pain either through present or future evils especially when it sees it self oblig'd to the performance of some vow neglected during life God for his own glory the ease of his creature and the conversion of sinners permits it to manifest it self by ways most convenient CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness THe vulgar Maxime is not always true That a disease throughly known is half cur'd For this disease though known to the most ignorant is of very difficult cure and therefore was call'd by antiquity the Herculean disease that is to say unconquerable the Sacred disease because of its dreadful symptoms and Lunatick because those who are born either in the Full or New Moon or during its Eclipse are troubled with this malady which hath great correspondence with the motions of the Planet 't was also call'd Morbus caducus or Falling Sickness by reason that it makes the person fall to the ground and Comitialis because it interrupted Assemblies lastly 't is call'd Epilepsie because it intercepts the functions of the mind and senses 'T is defin'd the cessation of the principal actions and of sense and voluntary motion with convulsion which is not continual but by internals The true and proximate cause of it is either a vapour or an humour pricking the membranes of the brain which endeavouring to discharge the same contracts it self attracts the nerves to it these the muscles and parts into which they are implanted causing hereby those convulsive and violent agitations of the Epilepticks Sneezing and the hickcock have some resemblance of it the latter being caus'd by a sharp vapour sent from the stomack or other place by sympathy to its upper orifice which it goadeth with its acrimony and thereby forces it to contract it self in order to expell the same the former call'd by Avicenna the lesser Epilepsie differing not from the greater saving in duration is also caus'd by some vapours pricking the former part of the brain which contracts it self to expell the same by the nostrils The Second said That the unexpectedness of this malady and the Patient 's quick recovery may justifie the vulgar for thinking that there is something divine in it Since nothing amazes us more then sudden uncomprehended alterations Therefore in Hippocrates days they us'd to make expiations and incantations for this disease which he derides saying that the bad Physitians promoted this false conceit that they might get the more honour for the cure or be more excusable for not effecting the same The Third said That the Epilepsie and Apoplexie differ onely in degree both having the same cause namely abundance of gross humours either phlegmatick or melancholy which if it wholly fills the brains ventricles and makes a total obstruction so that the Animal Spirits the instruments of voluntary motion and sense be obstructed it causes an apoplexie which is a total abolition of sense and motion in the whole body with laesion of the rational faculty The Heart continues its pulse for some time till the consumption of what Animal Spirits were in the Nerves serving to the Muscles for respiration But if the obstruction be not perfect and the crass humour over-loads the ventricles then they contract themselves and all the Nerves which depend upon them whence comes that universal contraction of the limbs as one cover'd in bed with too many clothes pulls up his legs bends and lifts up his knees to have more air and room under the load which presses him The Fourth said That as the brain is the moistest of all the parts so it abounds most in excrements the thinnest of which transpire by the sutures pores but the grosser meeting in great quantity in the brain melt its substance into water which coming to stop the Veins and Arteries hinder the commerce of the spirits whether this pituitous matter be deriv'd from the paternal or maternal geniture or whether the part of seed which makes the brain happen not to be well purg'd in the womb where the rudiments of this malady are first laid or whether the brain purge not it self afterwards sufficiently by its emunctories and the scabs usual to Children Hippocrates saith this malady cannot begin after twenty years of age when the constitution of body is become more hot and dry and many Children are cur'd of it onely by the desiccation caus'd by the alteration of age seasons and manner of dyet The Fifth said That a gross humour cannot be the cause of those quick and violent motions of the Epilepsie nor be collected and dissipated in so short a time as the duration of a Paroxisme Therefore the cause of it must be some biting and very subtile matter for no such gross obstructive matter is found in the brain of those that dye of this malady but onely some traces or signes of some malignant vapour or acrimonious humour as black spots a swarthy frothy liquor an Impostume in the brain some portion of the Meninx putrifi'd corrosion of the bone and such other things evidencing rather the pricking of the brain then stopping of its passages The Sixth said That were the Epilepsie produc'd by obstruction it would follow that as a total one in an Apoplexie abolishes all sense and motion so the incomplete one of the Epilepsie should onely diminish not deprave motion as it doth So that the Epilepsie should be a symptom like the Palsie or Lethargy from which nevertheless 't is wholly different Nor can it be simply the mordacity or malignity of an humour since malignant and pestilential Fevers hot and dry Aliments as spices mustard salt garlick onyons and the lke biting things cause not this Evil. The truth is there is a specifical occult quality of the humours particularly disposing to this disease the Chymists call it a Mercurial Vapour that is an acid penetrating and subtile spirit a Vitriolike Spirit a biting and corrosive salt which makes not men onely but Quailes Dogs Sheep and Goats subject to it And as some things beget this malady by an occult Epileptical quality as Smallage Parsly a goats liver roasted and stinking smells as horn pitch
That every thing that disturbs the publick quiet is to be repress'd concludes that the Seditious are to be punish'd So 't is not enough for a Mathematician to know that equal things added to equal things are likewise equal unless he apply this universal principle to particular lines surfaces and bodies Which is done either by the Synthetical or by the Analytical way which nevertheless must be follow'd by the Synthetical Now 't is in the application of these general rules to particulars that errour is committed even in the most certain Sciences The Seventh said That there are few Sciences because there are few Principles and Proposition's demonstrable as the contingent and the absolute are not Whence it is that the future is not demonstrable and hence follows the incertainty of Politicks Wherefore only necessary Propositions whereof the truth is permanent and eternal are demonstrable and all these are necessarily demonstrable because they have infallible principles yet only such of these whose principles are known by men are demonstrable by men So 't is certain that the Inundation of Nilus and the flux and reflux of the Sea are not demonstrable because men know not the principles are not known Whereby it appears how ridiculous they are who undertake to demonstrate every thing CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body THe extream variety of men's actions and manners cannot proceed from the diversity of their souls which are accounted all equal but from that of the bodies wherein according to the various tempers thereof the soul produces that variety of manners And as in natural and animal actions one and the same Soul digests in the stomack makes blood in the Liver and Veins sees by the Eyes and reasons in the Brain so likewise it is sometimes sad when the melancholy humour predominates in the body sometimes cheerful when blood abounds and sometimes also froward or angry when the choler is agitated The Second said That the soul being the form as the body is the matter it must be the cause of all humane actions not the body which receives them since the soul informs and perfectionates the body and begets in it the habit which produces the manners and actions As the horse governs not the rider but the contrary and 't is to the rider that the honour or blame of the course is to be imputed And were the soul but a quality as the most prophane have ventur'd to affirm yet the same priviledge must be reserv'd to it which is allow'd to the predominant quality in every compound which gives it not only the denomination but also the action as in compound medicaments the most active simple carries the credit from the rest Besides if the body and the humours thereof were the author and cause of manners an ignorant person could never become learned and a single Lecture of Xenocrates had never made a Drunkard cast off his chaplet of flowers and turn a Philosopher The examples of many grand personages sufficiently ill furnish'd with graces of the body evidence what certainty there is in arguing from the out-side of the corporeal structure to the furniture of the soul and that the signs of malice remark'd in some as in Zoilus from his having a red beard a black mouth and being lame and one-ey'd of Thersites and Irus from their having sharp heads rather shew the malice or ignorance of such as make these remarks then prove that these dispositions of body are the true cause of malice we see people of the same temper hair stature features and other circumstances very different in their manners and inclinations And the same is observ'd in horses For since the Stars the most powerful agents do not constrain but only incline certainly the humours cannot do more True it is their inclination is so strong that no less grace of Heaven is needful to resist the same then strength to retain a man that is rolling down the declivity of a hill Yet Socrates remaining unmov'd by the embraces of a Curtezan whom his Scholars contriv'd into his bed to try him although he was naturally very prone to vice justifies that how hard soever it be to stop the slipping foot when it is once going yet 't is not impossible and therefore the manners of the soul do not always follow the constitution of the body Not considering the power which the fear of God hath over our wills the effects whereof I here meddle not with as being supernatural since they have sometimes destroy'd all the maximes of nature witness those that give themselves to be burnt for the faith The Third said That the body must needs contribute to the soul's actions as being its instrument But it contributes only what it hath namely its temperament and other proprieties Therefore 't is from this temperament that the same are diversifi'd The soul sees no longer when the eyes are shut or blinded 't is wise in a well temper'd brain not only in a dry as Plato in his Timaeus conceiv'd because he saw children grow more prudent as their brain was desiccated 't is stupid in a too moist brain and foolish or furious in one inflam'd as in deliration or madness 'T is also forc'd to leave its body when a violent Fever hath so deprav'd the humours thereof that there remains not the temper necessary to its reception Therefore it follows the temper of the humours Thus because we see fire introduc'd into any combustible subject and extinguish'd when the same is consum'd we say fire follows combustible matter and becomes of the same nature quantity and other qualities Moreover Hippocrates saith Nations are warlike or cowardly laborious or not of good or bad nature according to the diversity of climates and soils they inhabit which render them diversly temper'd Hence in Asia where the air is temperate and less subject to changes then Europe and Africa men are more healthy and handsome their manners more equal and laudable on the contrary in Countries more cold or hot the inhabitants are either more cruel or more boisterous more hardy or more timerous and Mountaineers are more industrious as on the contrary those who live in a fertile soil are commonly more slothful Hence amongst the Greeks the Thebans and all the Baeotians whose Country was rich and the air very thick were very dull and the Athenians very subtle which was the cause that 't was said people were born Philosophers at Athens on the contrary 't was a prodigious thing to see one wise Anacharsis among the Scythians Hippocrates addes the seasons too according to the change whereof men's manners are also found divers But all these cannot act upon the soul but by the organ of the body changing its humours and introducing new qualities into the parts thereof The Fourth said Even sucking children give some tokens to what their
which makes water ascend in the Pneumaticks whereof Hero writ a Treatise rendring the same melodious and resembling the singing of birds in the Hydraulicks It makes use of the four Elements which are the causes of the motions of engines as of Fire in Granadoes Air in Artificial Fountains both Fire and Air by their compression which water not admitting since we see a vessel full of water can contain nothing more its violence consists in its gravity when it descends from high places The Earth is also the cause of motion by its gravity when 't is out of Aequilibrium as also of rest when 't is equally poiz'd as is seen in weights The Second said The wit of Man could never preserve the dominion given him by God over other creatures without help of the Mechanicks but by this art he hath brought the most savage and rebellious Animals to his service Moreover by help of mechanical inventions the four Elements are his slaves and as it were at his pay to do his works Thus we see by means of the Hydraulicks or engines moving by water wheels and pumps are set continually at work the Wind is made to turn a Mill manag'd by the admirable Art of Navigation or employ'd to other uses by Aealipila's Fire the noblest of all Elements becomes the vassal of the meanest Artisans or serves to delight the sight by the pleasant inventions of some Ingineer or employes its violence to arm our thunders more powerfully then the ancient machines of Demetrius The Earth is the Theatre of all these inventions and Archimedes boasted he could move that too had he place where to fix his engine By its means the Sun descends to the Earth and by the artificial union of his rayes is enabled to effect more then he can do in his own sphere The curiosity of man hath carry'd him even to Heaven by his Astrological Instrumens so that nothing is now done in that republick of the stars but what he knows and keeps in record The Third said That since Arts need Instruments to perform their works they owe all they can do to the Mechanicks which supply them with utensils and inventions 'T was the Mechanicks which furnish'd the Smith with a hammer and an anvil the Carpenter with a saw and a wedge the Architect with a rule the Mason with a square the Geometrician with a compass the Astronomer with an astrolabe the Souldier with sword and musket in brief they have in a manner given man other hands Hence came paper writing printing the mariner's box the gun in these latter ages and in the preceding the Helepoles or takecities flying bridges ambulatory towers rams and other engines of war which gives law to the world Hence Archimedes easily drew a ship to him which all the strength of Sicily could not stir fram'd a heaven of glass in which all the celestial motions were to be seen according to which model the representation of the sphere remains to us at this day Hence he burnt the Roman ships even in their harbour defended the City of Syracuse for a long time against the Roman Army conducted by the brave Marcellus And indeed I wonder not that this great Archimedes was in so high in Reputaion For if men be valued according to their strength is it not a miracle that one single man by help of mechanicks could lift as much as ten a hundred yea a thousand others And his pretension to move the whole Earth were a poynt given him out of it where to stand will not seem presumptuous though the supposition be impossible to such as know his screw without-end or of wheels plac'd one above another for by addition of new wheels the strength of the same might be so multiply'd that no humane power could resist it yea a child might by this means displace the whole City of Paris and France it self were it upon a moveable plane But the greatest wonder is the simplicity of the means employ'd by this Queen of Arts to produce such excellent effects For Aristotle who writ a book of mechanicks assignes no other principles thereof but the Lever its Hypomoclion or Support and a balance it being certain that of these three multiply'd proceed all Machines both Automata and such as are mov'd by force of wind fire water or animals as wind-mills water-mills horse-mills a turn-broch by smoak and as many other inventions as things in the world CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenuous Man I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons NAtural Philosophy considers natural bodies as they are subject to alteration and treats not of the Soul but so far as it informes the Body and either partakes or is the cause of such alteration And therefore they are injust who require this Science to prove supernatural things as the Soul's Immortality is Although its admirable effects the vast extent of its thoughts even beyond the imaginary spaces its manner of acting and vigor in old age the terrors of future judgement the satisfaction or remorse of Conscience and Gods Justice which not punishing all sins in this life presupposes another are sufficiently valid testimonies thereof should not the universal consent of heathens themselves some of which have hastned their deaths to enjoy this immortality and man 's particular external shape infer the particular excellence of his internal form So that by the Philosophical Maxime which requires that there be contraries in every species of things if the souls of beasts joyn'd to bodies die there must be others joyn'd to other bodies free from death when separated from the same And the Harmony of the world which permits not things to pass from on extreme to another without some mean requires as that there are pure spirits and intelligences which are immortal and substances corporeal and mortal so there be a middle nature between these two Man call'd by the Platonists upon this account the horizon of the Universe because he serves for a link and medium uniting the hemisphere of the Angelical Nature with the inferior hemisphere of corporeal nature But there is difference between that which is and that which may be demonstrated by Humane Reason which falls short in proving the most sensible things as the specifical proprieties of things and much less can it prove what it sees not or demonstrate the attribute of a subject which it sees not For to prove the Immortality of the Soul 't is requisite at least to know the two termes of this proportion The Soul is immortal But neither of them is known to natural reason not immortality for it denotes a thing which shall never have end but infinitie surpasses the reach of humane wit which is finite And the term Soul is so obscure that no Philosophy hath yet been able to determine truly whether it be a Spirit or something corporeal a substance or an accident single
oblig'd by right of their birth to pay to it but in requital for the same they have a Proverb against them That a rolling stone gathers no moss they little improve their fortunes The Third said Every Nation produces not every thing and all climates have inhabitants excelling in some particulars Since therefore there 's no such learning as by examples and travels afford the most it follows that it 's necessary for an ingenuous man to survey foreign manners institutions customs laws religions and such other things upon which moral prudence is superstructed Whence Homer calls his wise Vlysses the Traveller and Visiter of Cities Moreover 't was practis'd in all ages not only by our ancient Nobility under the name of Knights errant but also by the greatest personages of antiquity Pythagoras Socrates Plato Pliny Hippocrates and we ow to the Voyages of Columbus Vesputius Magellane and some others the discovery of America and other new Lands formerly unknown and abundance of Drugs and Medicaments especially Gold and Silver before so rare not to mention the commodities of commerce which cannot be had without Voyages The Fourth said That for seven vagabond errant Stars all the rest of the firmament are fix'd and stable sending no malignant influence upon the earth as the Planets do And the Scripture represents Satan to us as a Traveller when he answers God in Job to the question whence he came I come from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it The Fifth said We must distinguish persons places times and other circumstances pertaining to voyages For if you except Embassies in which the good of the State drowns all other considerations those that would travel must be young and strong rich and well born to get any good by their travels otherwise they will be but like sick persons who receive no ease but rather inconvenience by tumbling and stirring the injudicious and imprudent returning commonly worse then they went because they distract their minds here and there Of which one troubled with the same disease of travelling asking Socrates the reason he answer'd him that 't was because he did not leave himself behind when he chang'd place and that he ought to change his mind and not the air in order to become wise it being impossible but he that is a fool in one Country can become wise by passing Seas and running from one Province to another As for places 't is certain that before the voyages of Italy and some other climates the disease of Naples and other worse things were not only not so much as heard but most contagious diseases have by this means been transfer'd into the remotest Countries So that if ever it were reasonable for a man to be wise at another's cost 't is in the matter of travels in which those that have perform'd most commonly bring home no other fruit but a troublesome talkativeness wherewith they tire peoples ears and a sad remembrance of what they have suffer'd CONFERENCE LXXXVIII I. Which is the best sect of Philosophers II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names I. Which is the best Sect of Philosophers ONe of the greatest signs of the defects of the humane mind is that he seldom accomplishes his designs and often mistakes false for true Hence ariseth the incertainty and variety in his judgements For as there is but one straight line from one point to another so if our judgements were certain they would be always alike because Truth is one and conformable to it self whereas on the contrary Error is always various This variety is of two sorts one of the thing the other of the way to attain it For men were no sooner secur'd from the injuries of the air and provided for the most urgent necessities of the body but they divided themselves into two bands Some following outward sense contented themselves with the present Others would seek the causes of effects which they admir'd that is to say Philosophize But in this inquisition they became of different judgements some conceiving the truth already found others thinking it could never be found and others labouring in search of it who seem to have most right to the name of Philosophers The diversity of the way to arrive to this truth is no less For according as any one was prone to vice or vertue humility or pride the probable cause of diversity of Sects he establish'd one sutable to his own inclination to judge well of which a man must be of no party or at least must love the interest of truth most of all But the question is which is Truth no doubt that which comes neerest the Judge's sentiment and has gain'd his favour as Venus did the good will of Paris And because the goodness of a thing consists in its sutableness the contemplative man will judge Plato's Philosophy better then that of Socrates which one delighted with action and the exercise of vertues will prefer before all others the indifferent will give the preeminence to that of the Peripateticks who have conjoyn'd contemplation with action And yet speaking absolutely 't is impossible to resolve which is the best of all For as we cannot know which is the greatest of two lines but by comparing them to some known magnitude So neither can we judge which is the best Sect of Philosophers unless it be agreed wherein the goodness of Philosophy consider'd absolutely consists Now 't is hard to know what this goodness is unless we will say 't is God himself who as he is the measure of all beings so he is the rule of their goodness So that the best Philosophy will be that which comes neerest that Supream Goodness as Christian Philosophy doth which consists in the knowledge of one's self and the solid practice of vertues which also was that of S. Paul who desir'd to nothing but Jesus and him crucifi'd which he calls the highest wisdom although it appear folly in the eyes of men The Second said That the first and ancientest Philosophy is that of the Hebrews call'd Cabala which they divided into that of Names or Schemot and of things call'd by them Sephiroth Whose excellency Josephus against Appion proves because all other Philosophies have had Sects but this always remain'd the same and would lose its name if it were not transmitted from Father to Son in its integrity 'T was from this Cabala that Pythagoras and Plato sirnamed Moses Atticus took their Philosophy which they brought into Greece as 't was from the Indian Brachmans and Gymnosophists that Pythagoras took his Metempsychosis and abstinence from women and animals and learn'd weights and measures formerly unknown in Greece Some of these Indian Philosophers use to stand upon one foot all day beholding the Sun and had so great respect for every thing indu'd with a soul that they bought birds and other animals and if any were sick kept them in hospitals till they were cur'd and then set them free The Persians
Third said That the heat which preserves our lives is natural gentle and agreeable not extraneous as that meant in the question is Therefore external cold must be compar'd with heat likewise external and extraneous not with the vital heat which is of a more sublime order then these elementary qualities Now 't is certain external heat is more powerful and active then external cold since it consumes and dissolves Metals which cold cannot and is more hurtful because it dries up humidity which is the foundation of life 'T is also less tolerable for we can bear the touch of the coldest body in the world namely Ice yea eat it without harm but none could ever resist flames Whence fire is the cruellest of punishments not cold from which besides we may more easily defend our selves then from excessive heat which may be abated a little by winds shadows or other artifices but not wholly as cold is by help of fire clothes and motion The Fourth said If it be true which Cardan saith that cold is nothing but a privation of heat Nature which dreads nothing so much as non-entity must abhor it most nor can it be any way active since that which exists not cannot act But I will suppose as 't is most probable that both the one and the other are positive entities since cold enters into the composition of bodies as well as heat the bones membranes skin nerves and all but the fleshy parts being cold as also the brain the noblest part of man And I conceive that heat and cold consider'd either as internal principles of a living body or as two external agents enemies of life cold is always more hurtful then heat On the one side hot distempers alter the functions but cold abolish them depriving us of sense motion and life as in the Lethargy Apoplexie Epilepsie and other cold diseases And on the other external heat indeed draws forth part of our spirits and thereby weakens us whence come faintings after too hot a bath or too great a fire but it never wholly quenches and destroys them as the light of the Sun drowns that of a Candle at noon but do's not extinguish it The Fifth said Because as Hippocrates saith in his Aphorisms some natures are best in Winter others in Summer as old men are not much inconvenienc'd by the most vehement heats whereas cold kills them on the contrary young people of hot tempers endure heat more impatiently then cold and there is no temperament ad pondus or exact Reason must be call'd to the aid of our senses not only to judge of moist and dry as Galen thinks but also of hot and cold which being absolutely consider'd in their own nature without respect to us I conceive heat much more active then cold and consequently less supportable because the more a thing hath of form and less of matter 't is the more active the one of these principles being purely active and the cause of all natural actions the other simply passive Thus the earth and water are dull and heavy elements in comparison of the air and fire which are less dense and material Heaven the universal cause of all sublunary things is a form without matter as Averroës affirms Now heat rarifies and dilates its subject and seems to make it more spiritual and so is more active then cold which condenses and stops all the pores and passages Which also appears in that the hottest diseases are the most acute and if cold diseases kill sometimes they charm and dull the senses and so render death more gentle and supportable On the contrary the cruellest deaths great pains and the most violent diseases are ordinarily caus'd by some hot humour Hence it is that no person dyes without a Fever and Hippocrates affirms that the same heat which generates us kills us In fine God who is the prime Reason hath judg'd heat more active and less supportable then cold since he appoints fire to torment the devils and damned souls II. Who are most happy in this world Wise Men or Fools Upon the second Point 't was said As there is but one right line and infinite crooked so there is but one wisdom and one way to attain it namely to follow right reason but follies are of all sorts and of as many fashions as there are different minds which conceive things under divers apparences of goodness So that the number of fools being greater then that of wise men these will always lose their cause Moreover if happiness be well defin'd by contentment who is there but accounts fools more happy then the wise Witness he who otherwise intelligent enough was a fool in this only point that he would diligently repair alone to the Theatre and phancy that he saw and heard the Actors and applauded them although no body was there besides himself but being cur'd of his folly he complain'd of his friends in stead of thanking them for having been too careful to render him miserable being a happy man before Besides folly hath this priviledge that we bear with that truth from the mouth of a fool which would be odious in another and the tribe of fools is indeed exceeding great since we are born such for a child is agreeable upon no other account but its simplicity which is nothing else but folly by which many faults are excusable in youth which are not to be endur'd in other ages And those whom we account happiest and that dye of old age end thus and are therefore call'd twice children and folly serves to take away the sense of all the discontents and incommodities of old age Yea he that more neerly considers the course of our life will find more of folly in it then of wisdom For if self-conceit play love and the other passions be so many follies who is free from it The Second said That wise men alone are happy is justly accounted a Stoical Paradox since 't is contrary to true natural sentiments which shew us that the happiness of this life consists only in two points namely in the privation of grief and the possession of good As for the first not to speak of bodily pains from which the wise are no more exempt then fools the strongest minds are more intelligent by their more vigorous reasoning and consequently more susceptible of inward grief and affliction of hope fear desire and as other passions besides that they are ordinary of a melancholy temper and more fix'd upon their objects then fools who are more inconstant to say nothing of the scruples of conscience which many times rack their spirits of the points of honour of civilities nor of the knotty questions in the Sciences As for the latter the possession of good fools have a better share then the wise because there is no absolute but onely relative good in this world whence proceeded the many different opinions touching the chief good and the saying that none is truly happy unless he thinks himself
a Gorgon's head a Crane a Dragon a Serpent a fish call'd Scarus or the Gilt-head a Mulberry-tree a Hiacynth Royalty by the reins of a bridle an Elephant and a Dog Wisdom by the breast or the wand of Pallas Concord by a Crow a Caduceus or Mercurius's rod a Peacock a Bee and a Lute Fear by waves a Dove a Hart a Hare and a Wolf All which figures signifi'd other things besides yea oftentimes contraries as the Ass is the Hieroglyphick of wisdom with the Cabalists and with us of stupidity and the same wisdom was denoted among the Egyptians by a sieve which with us is the emblem of a loose-tongu'd person that can retain nothing In fine this Hieroglyphical invention is good for nothing but to make the ignorant admire what they must reverence without knowing it For that which secures all professions from contempt is the use of terms not understood by the vulgar CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity II. Of Coat-Armour I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity THe World is Man's Palace whereof God is the Architect sustaining the same with the three fingers of his Power Goodness and Wisdom And the Scripture saith He hath hung the Earth in the midst of the Air and ordained all things in number weight and Measure which are the three pillars of this stately Edifice Number is the cause of Beauty Measure of Goodness and Weight of Order which is not found but in the place towards which bodies are carry'd by their Gravity A quality depending upon the four first which by their rarefaction or condensation of things cause more or less ponderosity For light signifies nothing but less heavy it being certain that as the Earth gravitates in the Water and this in the Air so would the Air in the sphere of Fire Fire in the Heaven of the Moon this in the mixt and so forwards till you come to nothing which hath no weight because it hath no corporeity The Second said That gravity and the descent of natural bodies to the centre cannot proceed from the predominance of terrestrial parts in mixts since Gold the heaviest of metals and Mercury which is next it have more humidity then siccity that is to say more Water then Earth in comparison of other metallick bodies God being the most ductile and Mercury the most fluid So also Salt which is heavier then wood or stone is nothing but water cogeal'd and dissolving again in a moist place Wherefore Gravity seems rather to proceed from these three things namely place comparison and figure Place is so considerable herein that bodies gravitate not in their proper places but onely when they are remov'd from the same and more or less proportionally to their distance Comparison makes us judge a body light because 't is less heavy then an other On the contrary Figure makes heavy bodies light causing Leaf-gold to swim which in the same quantity reduc'd into a Globe would sink and an expanded body weighs less in a balance then when it is in a less volumn Which is also observ'd of the thinner parts of the Air which being of a more moveable figure are seen to play therein when the Sun shines clear The Third said That the cause why a broader figure swims or is upheld in the Air more easily then if it were in a Globe or other closer figure is not for that figure makes a thing lighter but from the resistance of the medium which hath more hold in one then in the other Nor do's gravity proceed from the inclination of a thing to its Centre since the Centre is but a Point wherein nothing can lodge And if the Centre of the world were the Centre of heavy things the stars which are the denser and solider parts of their orbs and consequently have more gravity which necessarily follows the density of corporeal matter especially the Moon which is demonstrated to be solid and massie because it reflects the light of the Sun should not remain suspended above the Air which is lighter but descend to this Centre of the Universe For to believe with some that the Moon is kept up like a stone in a sling by the rapid motion of the First Mover is to hold the Stars the greatest and noblest part of the Universe in a violent state onely to give rest and a natural state to the least and meanest which is the Earth Wherefore the descent of bodies is not because of themselves they affect the Centre of the Earth but for that they are upon a body lighter then themselves order obliging every thing to take its own place and till it be so every body being necessitated to move it self the heaviest downwards and the less heavy upwards Hence water gravitates not in its channel although it be not in its Centre because the upper part of the water is not heavier then the lower The Fourth said That Gravity is a certain quality which carries all bodies towards a common point continuing the union of the parts of the world hindring Vacuity by the concentration of all bodies which press one another the heavy having more matter in less quantity For when we see Air mount above Water and Fire above Air they yield and give place to heavier bodies as Oyle being in the bottom of Water ascends to the top not by its lightness but by the weight of the water which thrusts it up So Lead and all other metals except Gold swim in Mercury to which they yield in gravity For in equal quantities Gold weighs 19 Mercury 13 Lead 11 and ½ Silver 10 and ⅓ Copper 9 Iron 8 and Tin 7 and ½ As for the cause of this gravity which some say is in heavy bodies others in their Centre to which they attribute a magnetical virtue I conceive it consists in a reciprocal attraction of the same bodies which draw and are drawn and others are drawn to the inferiour body which attracts with all its parts so that bodies are carry'd towards the Earth and the Earth attracts them reciprocally as the Load-stone attracts Iron and is attracted by it For 't is evident that the Load-stone draws Iron and to prove that 't is drawn by Iron lay a Load-stone in one scale and in the other an equal weight to it If you apply Iron to the bottom of the scale where the Load-stone is this scale will raise up the other the Iron attracting the Load-stone to it self On the contrary if you approach with the Iron over the Load-stone the scale wherein it is will ascend towards the Iron which attracts it For whereas 't is objected that if the Earth attracted things with all its parts then it would follow that things let down in some hollow of the Earth being attracted by the parts above and those below would not descend by reason of contrary attractions I answer that those bodies being out of their Centres the greatest and strongest part of the Earth which is towards
crowned Or. Holland Or a Lyon gules Bavaria fuselé argent and azure of twenty one pieces placed bendwise Ireland gules a Harp Or. CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing I. Of the causes of Contagion DIseases being accidents must be divided as other accidents by their first subjects which are the solid parts the humours and the spirits and by their several causes some of which are manifest others unknown the malignity of the causes which produce them and the manner whereby they act being inexplicable Which diversity of causes depends upon those of mixtions which are of two sorts one of the qualities of the elements which makes the difference of temperaments the other of the elementary forms which being contrary only upon the account of their qualities when these put off their contrariety by alteration the forms easily become united and as amongst qualities so amongst forms one becomes predominant the actions whereof are said to proceed from an occult property because the form which produces them is unknown to us So Arsenick and Hemlock besides the power which the first hath to heat and the second to refrigerate have a particular virtue of assaulting the heart and killing speedily by a property hitherto unknown Such also are contagious and venomous diseases some whereof are caus'd by the inspir'd air as the Pestilence because air being absolutely necessary to the support of our natural heat if when it is infected with malignant and mortal vapours it be attracted by the mouth or the pores of the skin it corrupts the mass of the spirits as a crum of bread or other extraneous bodies makes milk or wine become sowre Others infect by bodily contact as the Itch the Pox the Measles and the Leprosie A third sort proceed from a venomous matter either communicated outwardly as by poyson and the biting of venomous beasts or generated in the body as it may happen to the blood black choler and the other humours being extravasated The Second said That diseases proceed either from the corruption and vitiosity of particular bodies some of which are dispos'd to the Pleurisie others to the Flux others to the Colick call'd therefore sporadical or dispers'd and promiscuous diseases or else from some common vitiosity as of the air aliments waters winds or other such common cause whereby many come to be seiz'd upon by the same disease at the same time so after Famines bad nourishment gives a great disposition to the Pestilence These maladies are fix'd to a certain Country seldom extending beyond it as the Leprosie to the Jews the Kings Evil to the Spaniards Burstenness to Narbon the Colick to Poitou the Phthisick to the Portugals the Pox to the Indians call'd by them Apua and brought by the Spaniards into Europe and such other diseases familiar to some particular Country and call'd Endemial Or else they are Epidemical and not ty'd to a certain region but produc'd by other external causes as pestilential and contagious diseases which again are either extraordinary as the Sweating-sickness of England the Coqueluche which was a sort of destillation or ordinary which manifest themselves by purple spots carbuncles and buboes But as the causes of the Small-pox and Measles are chiefly born within us being produc'd of the maternal blood attracted in the womb and cast forth by nature when become more strong so though the seeds of contagious diseases may come from without yet they are commonly within our selves The Third said That Contagion is the communication of a disease from one body to another the most violent so communicable is the Pestilence which is defin'd a most acute contagious venomous and mortal Fever accompani'd with purple spots Buboes and Carbuncles 'T is properly a species of a Fever being a venomous and contra-natural heat kindled in the heart manifesting it self by a high frequent and unequal pulse except when nature yields at first to the violence and malignity of the disease and then the pulse is slow small and languishing but always unequal and irregular Oftentimes it kills the first or second day scarce passes to the seventh if it be simple and legitimate but when 't is accompani'd with putrefaction it reaches sometimes to the fourteenth It s malignity appears in its not yielding to ordinary remedies which operate by their first qualities but only to medicaments which act by occult properties an argument that the cause of these diseases is so too Now four things are here to be consider'd 1. That which is communicated 2. The body which communicates the same 3. That to which it is communicated 4. The medium through which the same is done A thing communicated against nature is either the disease or the cause of the disease or the symptom Here 't is the cause of the disease which is either corporeal or incorporeal The incorporeal in my opinion are the malignant influences of the Stars as of Mars and Saturn and during Comets and Eclipses For since their benigne influences preserve motion and life in all things of the world by the reason of contraries the malignity of the same aspects may be the cause of the diseases and irregularities which we behold in it The corporeal cause must be moveable an humour a vapour or a spirit which malignant evaporations kill oftentimes without any sign of putrefaction or if there be any it proceeds not from the corruption of the humours but from the oppression and suffocation of the natural heat by those malignant vapours and then the humours being destitute of the natural heat and of that of the spirits which preserv'd them turn into poyson There must be some proportion between the body which communicates this vapour and that which receives it but the same is unknown to us and this proportion is the cause that some Contagions seise only upon some animals as Horses Dogs and Cattle others upon Men alone Children Women old Men Women with Child and their burthens others seize only upon certain parts as the Itch is communicated only to the skin the Phthisick to the Lungs the Ophthalmia to the eyes and not to the other parts The medium of this communication is the air which being rare and spongy is very susceptible of such qualities which it easily transmits by its mobility And these qualities happen to it either extrinsecally as from faetid and venomous vapours and fumes exhal'd from carrion marshes impurities and openings of the ground by Earth-quakes which are frequently follow'd by the Pestilence or else they arise in the Air it self in which vapours may acquire a pestilential malignity of which a hot and moist intemperature is very susceptible The Fourth said That the Pestilence is found indifferently in all seasons climates sexes ages and persons which argues that its proximate cause is not the corruption of the humors and intemperature of the first qualities Otherwise the Pestilence should be as other diseases whereof some are hot others cold and be cur'd
likewise by contrary qualities Besides the Spirits being igneous cannot be corrupted and the corruption observ'd sometimes in the humors is not essential to the Pestilence but onely accidental and however but an antecedent cause For if putrefaction were the conjunct cause then putrid Fevers and the Gangrene which is a total putrefaction should be contagious Wherefore it appears that the cause of this diseases are as occult as its effects are sensible and that 't is chiefly in this kind of malady that 't is to be inquir'd as Hippocrates speaks whether there be not something divine Which we are not to understand as he doth concerning what proceeds from the Air seeing God threatens in Ezechiel to cause the third part of his people to dye of the Pestilence as in one night he caus'd all the first born of Egypt to perish and in three dayes under David seventy thousand Israelites The Fifth said That to attribute the cause of the Pestilence to putrefaction without assigning the degree of it is to say nothing more then to recur to the properties of substance and less then to seek it in the divine Divine Justice these terms manifesting our ignorance rather then the thing inquir'd Moreover the signes of this malady are all equivocal and common to other diseases yea oftentimes contrary one to another in some a pulse is violent bleeding at the nose thirst the tongue dry and black delirations purple spots and buboes in others a small pulse vomiting tongue yellow livid and sleepiness And some sick are cur'd by remedies which kill others as by Vomits Purges and bleeding Even of Sudorificks the most sutable to this disease some are temperate and others hor. So that 't is no wonder if a disease so irregular being known to us onely by the relation of people oftimes ignorant the skilful being unwilling to venture themselves makes such havock since the small pox and other diseases would make no less though possibly in longer time if they were as little understood II. Of the wayes of occult writing Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Ancients deservedly reckon'd secrecie amongst their fabulous Deities under the name of Harpocrates the God of silence since 't is not onely as the Poet saith the God of the master of Gods that is Love but the Governour of the mysteries of Religion the Guardian of Civil Society and as the Philosopher speaks the God of the publick and private Fortune which is maintain'd by secrecie the Soul of the state and business whence cyphers and occult ways of writing took their birth The Hebrews were the first that practis'd cyphers of which they had six sorts L'Etbah by transposition of Letters Themurah by their commutation Ziruph by combination and changing of their power Ghilgal by changing of their numeral quotitié Notariaszon putting one Letter or one Syllable for a word and Gematry which is an equivalence of measures and proportions But these sorts of cyphers have been found too troublesome and equivocal and besides more recreative then solid The truncheon encompassed with a thong which was the Laconick Scytale the cypher of the Lacedaemonians that of Julius Caesar who put D for A and E for B and so of the other Letters and the odd figures given by others to the twenty four Letters are too gross to be well conceal'd The Dactylogie of Beda is pretty whereby we speak as nimbly with the fingers as with the tongue taking the five fingers of one hand for Vowels and the several positions of the other for Consonants But it can be us'd onely in presence They talk also of the same way by bells trumpets arquebuses fires torches and other such means but because they depend on the sight and the hearing which act at a certain distance they cannot be useful in all cases The transmission of thoughts and spirits contriv'd by Trithemius and Agrippa and that invention of quadrants whereby some have phancy'd it possible to speak at any distance by help of a Load-stone are as ridiculous as that of Pythagoras to write with blood on a Looking-glass and reflect the same upon the face of the Moon For besides that the Moon is not alwayes in a fit position could a fit glass be found the writing would not be secret because that Luminary is expos'd to the Eyes of all the world No cypher is comparable to that of writing when 't is well contriv'd to which purpose they make use of keys to cypher upon the Alphabets which are infinite depending upon every one's phancy being sometimes either one Letter or one word or altering in the same discourse and at every word Sometimes they divide the discourse and one half serves for a key to the other sometimes they put key upon key and cypher the key it self with other keys They put Naughts at the end of words to distinguish them or every where amongst the Letters to deceive the Decypherer and under these they cypher another hidden sense by other keys yea they insert other Naughts amongst them for a third sense or to cause more difficulty Some make use of numbers abridge or multiply the Alphabet and prepare tables wherein they put three Letters for one In fine humane wit hath left nothing unattempted for the concealment of thoughts under the veil of cyphers of which the most perfect are those which seem not to be such hiding under a known sense and an intelligible discourse an other sense unknown to all others besides the correspondents such is that of Trithemius by those three hundred seventy five Alphabets of significative words each expressing one single Letter The Second said All the several wayes of occult writing depend either upon the matter or the form To the first belong the sending of Swallows Pigeons or other birds as also the inventions of writing with Salt Armoniack Alumn Camphire and Onyon which appear onely at the fire The formal depends upon cyphers which are fram'd either by the fiction of Characters or by their commutation using three or four Letters to write every thing with some dashes or aspirations which yet may be easily decypher'd by reason of the frequent repetition of the Vowels and those which are thought impossible to be discover'd are commonly subject to great ambiguities and so are dangerous The Third said Of the three Authors which have writ concerning this matter Baptista Porta teaches rather to decypher then to cypher and all his inventions are little secrets as to write with Alumn Those of Trithemius are very gross of which nevertheless he hath compos'd three Books the two first intelligible enough but the third so obscure and promising so many miracles that Bellarmine and many others thought it full of Sorceries which yet are nothing but the same secrets mention'd in the two foregoing Books but hid under more suspicious words amongst which that of the Spirit which is very frequent signifies the Alphabet or the Key of the Secret and to look under a stone and
take thence a charme which the Spirit left there or to invoke the same Spirit signifies that you must go and take from under a stone agreed upon the cypher'd letter and decipher it by the same alphabet upon which it was cypher'd Vigenarius spends half his Book in speaking of the Cabala of the Jews and the Caldeans and the other half in many Alphabets of all sorts with Key and without he hath indeed abundance of Cyphers which seem undecypherable which he makes to depend on three differences 1. On the form of Characters which comprehends several figures lines and colours 2. On their order and situation but changing the Alphabet almost infinite ways 3. On their value and power giving such signification to one letter or character as you please All which are easily known for cyphers The second condition of a cypher and which follows that of secresie being not to appear such the least suspicion causing the stopping of the paper and so rendring it unprofitable to the writer which has given occasion to some to cover characters drawn in oyl with something that might be wash'd off besides other such inventions to take away suspicion such as that of having two Books of the same impression and under pretext of sending Tables of Astrology or Merchants Bills to design by cyphers the letter of the Book which you mean to express the first cypher signifying the fourth page the second the fourth line and the third the fourth letter of that line which you would denote CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs I. Of Ignes fatui 'T Is a question whether 't would be more advantageous to mans contentment to be ignorant of nothing since then he would admire nothing which is one of his greatest pleasures Hence a Peasant beholding a flake of fire following him or going before him in the night time will be otherwise ravish'd with it then a Philosopher who knows or thinks he knows the cause of it there being little difference herein as to our satisfaction They conceive it to be an unctuous exhalation apt to be inflam'd like the fatty steam of a Candle newly put out which instantly conveighs down the neighbouring light to seek its aliment But the same example shews us that fire very suddenly devours its aliment when it is subtile and thin So that if a fire of straw which is much more material then an exhalation vanishes so quickly that we express the most transient momentary things thereby how can a far thinner exhalation keep this foolish fire so long which besides burns not as appears by its sticking innoxiously upon the hair of men and manes of horses and yet Aqua-vitae never so well rectified will singe the hair as was sometimes verified to the great prejudice of one of our Kings which would make me think that as all fire is not luminous as a hot dunghil burns your finger and fire excited by motion burns much more without blazing so there are some lights which are not igneous as in Heaven the Stars and in Earth some rotten woods certain fishes worms eyes flesh of animals and other more such subjects which cannot be more susceptible of those lights which burn not then the Air which is the prime diaphanous body and consequently most capable of receiving them although possibly we cannot truly know what temper the Air must acquire to become luminous no more then what is fit for it in other subjects For to attribute the cause thereof to purity or simplicity signifies little for earth and ashes are more simple then the flesh or other part dead or living of an Animal and yet this shines and those not The Second said That these fires may be referr'd to four sorts The first resemble falling Stars or lighted Torches which Plutarch saith were seen to fall upon Pompey's Camp the eve before the Battle of Pharsalia The second is that kind of flame which has appear'd upon the heads of some as of Ascanius in Virgil and of Servius Hostilius which was an omen to them of Royalty The third are those which appear at Sea about the Masts and Shrouds of the Ships named by the Ancient Castor and Pollux when they are two and when but one Helena and by the Moderns the fire of S. Elme The last are those which are seen in the Country in the night time and are thought to drive or draw Travellers into precipices As for the first 't is certain that the same exhalation which makes Comets in the highest Region of the Air and Thunders in the middlemost is also the matter of these falling Stars and being rais'd in small quantity from the earth is condens'd by the cold of the middle Region where finding no cloud strong enough to uphold it 't is inflam'd by the antiperistasis of its contrary or the swift motion of its fall by reason of its great heat and siccity And as they proceed from the same cause as dry winds do so they presage winds and drought especially in that quarter from whence they fall But as for the other sorts I conceive they are only lights and not fires For the Air being transparent and the first subject of Whiteness as Aristotle saith hath likewise in it self some radical light which is sustein'd by that of the Stars which shine in the night And this whiteness of the Air is prov'd by the appearance of it when t is enclos'd in moist bodies as in froth snow and crystal which whitness is very symbolical to light which it preserves and congregates as is seen by the same snow in a very dark night Yea to speak plainly whiteness is nothing else but light extinct luminous bodies appearing white neer a greater light and white luminous in darkness So 't is possible that the thinner parts of the Air being inclos'd in these unctuous vapours they appear enlightned and shining as well by reason of the condensation of its body as the inequality of its surfaces like a diamond cut into several facets or as the Stars appear luminous only by being the denser parts of their Orbs. And this kind of light has been seen upon the heads of children whose moister brain exhal'd a vapour proper for it such also as that is which forms the Will-i'th'-Wisp which may also proceed from the reflection of the Star-light from the Sea or Rocks For That two of these fires bode good to Seamen and one ill is but one of the superstitions of Antiquity unless you think that the greater number of fires argues greater purity of the Air and consequently less fear of tempest The Third said He accounted the common opinion more solid which teacheth two material principles of all Meteors Vapour and Exhalation but one and the same efficient the heat of the Sun which lifts the thinner parts of the water in a vapour and those of the earth in an exhalation the former hot and moist the latter hot and dry borrowing their heat from an extraneous heat but
countenance Yet besides this change of the natural colour which is red it hath divers other symptomes whereof the chief are a perverse appetite call'd Malacia or Pica Nauseousness Tension of the Hypochondres faintings and palpitations of the heart difficulty of breathing sadness fear languishing weakness and heaviness of all the members an oedematous humour or bloatiness of the feet and the whole face of which accidents those of the alteration of colour being the most perceptible and the pathognomonical signes of this disease have with the vulgar given the denomination to it This malady is not to be sleighted as people imagine being sometimes so violent that the peccant humours being carri'd to the head render the Maidens distracted and mad yea sometimes they dye suddenly of it the heart and its vital faculty being stifled and oppress'd by it For this symptome hurts not only the functions of one part or faculty but invades the whole oeconomy causing an evil habit which degenerates into a Dropsie especially that which the Physitians call Leucophlegmatia or Anasarca when the flesh like a spunge imbibes and attracts all the aqueous and excrementitious humidities The antecedent and prime cause of this malady is the suppression of the menstrual blood the conjunct and proximate is the collection of crude and vicious humours in all the parts of the body which they discolour Now when the blood which serves in women for the principle of generation becomes burdensom to nature either by its quantity or its quality which happens commonly at the age of puberty she expells it by the vessels of the womb which if they be stop'd that blood mingled for the most part with many other excrementitious humours which it carries along with it as torrents do mud returns the same into the trunk of the hollow Vein from thence into the Liver Spleen Mesentery and other Entrails whose natural heat it impairs and hinders their natural functions as concoction and sanguification and so is the cause of the generating of crude humours which being carried into all the parts of the body are nevertheless assimilated and so change their natural colour Of which causes which beget those obstructions in the Vessels of the Matrix the chief are a phlegmatick and viscous blood commonly produc'd by bad food as Lime Chalk Ashes Coals Vinegar Corn and Earth which young Girles purposely eat to procure that complexion out of a false perswasion that it makes them handsomer Yet this malady may happen too from a natural conformation the smalness and closeness of the aforesaid Vessels whence the fat and phlegmatick as the pale are are more subject to it then the lean and brown The Second said 'T is an opinion so universally receiv'd that the Green-sickess comes from Love that those who fight under his Standards affect this colour as his liveries But 't is most appropriate to Maidens as if nature meant to write in their faces what they so artificially conceal and supply for their bashfulness by this dumb language Whereunto their natural Constitution conduecs much being much colder then that of men which is the cause that they beget abundance of superfluous blood which easily corrupts either by the mixture of some humour or for want of free motion like standing waters and inclos'd air and infects the skin the universal Emunctory of all the parts but especially that of the face by reason of its thinness and softness And as obstructions are the cause so opening things are the remedies of this malady as the filings of Steel prepar'd Sena Aloes Myrrhe Safron Cinamon roots of Bryony and Birth-worth Hysope wild Mecury the leaves and flowers of Marigold Broom flowers Capers c. The Third said That the vulgar opinion that all Green-sickness is from Love is a vulgar errour For though the Poet writes that every Lover is pale yet hatred causes paleness too and the consequence cannot be well made from a passion to a habit Besides little Girles of seven and eight years old are troubled with this disease and you cannot think them capable of love no more then that 't is through want of natural purgation in others after the age of puberty for women above fifty yeers old when that purgation ceases have something of this malady Yea men too have some spices of it sometimes and yet the structure of their parts being wholly different from that of females allows not the assigning of the same cause in both Yea did the common conceit hold good that those who have small vessels and as such capable of obstruction are most subject to it yet the contrary will follow to what is inferr'd to their prejudice For they will be the less amorous because the lesser vessels have the lesser blood which is the material cause of Love to which we see sanguine complexions are most inclin'd II. Of Hermaphrodites Upon the second Point 't was said That if Arguments taken from the name of the thing be of good augury Hermaphrodites must have great advantage from theirs as being compounded of the two most agreeable Deities of Antiquity Mercury or Hermes the Courtier of the Gods and Venus or Aphrodite the Goddess of Love to signifie the perfection of both sexes united in one subject And though 't is a fiction of the Poets that the Son begotten of the Adultery of Mercury and Venus was both male and female as well as that of the Nymph Salmacis who embrac'd a young man who was bathing with her so closely that they became one body yet we see in Nature some truth under the veil of these Fables For the greatest part of insects and many perfect animals have the use of either sex As the Hyaena by the report of Appian one year do's the office of a male and the next of a female as the Serpent also doth by the testimony of Aelian and as Aristotle saith the Fish nam'd Trochus and 't is commonly said that the Hare impregnates it self Pliny mentions some Nations who are born Hermaphrodites having the right breast of a Man and the left of a Woman Plato saith that Mankind began by Hermaphrodites our first Parents being both Male and Female and that having then nothing to desire out of themselves the Gods became jealous of them and divided them into two which is the reason that they seek their first union so passionately and that the sacred tye of Marriage was first instituted All which Plato undoubtedly learn'd out of Genesis For he had read where 't is said before Eves formation or separation from Adam is mention'd That God created Man and that he created Male and Female The Second said That Natural Reason admits not Hermaphrodites for we consider not those who have onely the appearances of genital parts which Nature may give them as to Monsters two Heads four Arms and so of the other parts through the copiousness of matter but those who have the use and perfection of the same which consists in Generation For Nature having
the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd