it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence
and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
having at the declining of the day rais'd many aqueous and consequently supreamly cold and the heat whereby they were rais'd abandoning them upon his absence the natural cold of those vapours becomes predominant and returns them by degrees into their first state Which refrigerating the Air makes the night the colder the further the vapours are from their extraneous heat that is to say the nearer day approacheth CONFERENCE CLIV. Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds THe first attributed the cause thereof to the desiccation of water for experience shews in all sublunary Bodies that dryness whitens as Sea-water becomes white when dry'd to Salt the stalks of Corn Pulse and the leaves of all other Plants wax white as they wither and dry The same happens to the Bones of Animals and grey Hairs on no other cause but siccity since the extremity expos'd to the Air is white but not the root Hence water by its transparence already partaking much of light but which its rarity reflects not to our view is no sooner desiccated into Ice Hail or Snow but it acquires this pure whiteness which humidity again destroys So the high ways white with dust grow black upon rain a wet cloth appears darker then a dry and that some things become black by drying as Coal is because there was heat enough to draw the humidity which was at its Centre to the Circumference but not enough wholly to dry it up as appears in that the same heat continu'd reduces the coal to white ashes which would be as perfectly white as Snow did not the Tincture imprinted thereon by the Salts withstand it for if you urge them further by fire you will make them of a perfect whiteness as appears in Chalks which are made not only of grey and black stones but even of Metals as Ceruse is made of Lead The Second said Whiteness is not a real Colour since it appears in all bodies depriv'd of preceding Colours of all which 't is indifferently susceptible But 't is otherwise with real Colours a subject imbu'd with one of which is not apt to receive all others but some only as Nature hath fram'd the Organs of Sense naked of all sensible objects to the end they might be susceptible of the same Wooll dy'd into a sadder colour cannot receive a lighter and black Wooll admits none at all but white being natural to every subject that hath no colour is capable of receiving all So when you wash off the blew or dirty colour of a Band it becomes white Whereby it appears that Whiteness hath the same reference to Colours that Unity hath to Numbers whereof 't is the beginning but is none it self And as 't is the Emblem of Innocence and Purity so also it proceeds from them The Air which is the purest of our Elements for Fire is only in Mixts and water refin'd into vapours which follows the Air in purity hapning to acquire visibility by condensation into Snow cannot represent the same under any other out-side but Whiteness Now that Whiteness is an effect of purity is manifest by the Stars which are represented to us only under the species of Whiteness and cannot be painted but with white in their light which de-albating what it irradiates and leaving the same elsewhere black shews that 't is as the purest so also the whitest thing in the world Likewise Metals are whiter according to their purity Lead is worse then Tin and this then Silver only upon account of their impurity the sole perfect mixture of the yellow incombustible Sulphur of Gold not permitting it to be alter'd and spoil'd of its yellow colour which nearest approacheth whiteness Wherefore Snow being a most pure Body compounded only of two colour-less elements namely Air and Water 't was necessary either that it should have no colour or if any whereby to become visible the principle and origin of all Colours namely White in the perfection with which Nature makes all her Works The Third said That the same difference which appears between the Stars and their Orbs is found between Water and Snow arising only from Density and Rarity As the Star appears white and the rest of the Heaven darker by reason of its rarity so likewise Water seems obscure upon account of its rarity and Snow white upon that of its density The Fourth said If that reason were good then Ice should be whiter then Snow because 't is more solid and yet the contrary appears Besides Snow is so far from being more dense and solid then Water that on the contrary there is less Air in Water then in Ice which is more close and compact then Snow the swimming of Ice upon the Water arguing some aerious parts included in it at the time of its congelation which is not and cannot be made without air Wherefore Snow differs from Water only by its figure or accidental form which reduceth it into flocks congealed by cold in a cloud not as it is resolv'd into Rain for then 't would prove Hail but whilst yet a vapour in the region of the Air. So then in this figure alone is the reason of the whiteness of Snow to be sought which is not found in water partly by reason of its transparence and partly because its smooth surface gives no hold to the visual ray Which is the reason why Water is pictur'd with a blew and darkish colour Thus burnish'd Silver as that of Looking-glasses seems dark if compar'd to rough Silver which doth not dissipate our visual Spirits as that former doth Hence Ice is much whiter then water as being less smooth The Fifth said That 't is proper to cold to whiten as 't is to heat to blacken Thus Southern People are either black or tawney Northern white and the Hair of both grows white with old age by reason of the coldness thereof All the cold parts of our Body are white as the Brain Bones Cartilages Membranes Fat and Skin Linen and Wax are whitened by the coldness of the night For the same reason not only Snow but Hail Frost Ice Rime and all other cold Meteors are of the same colour The Sixth said That though the whiteness of Snow was disputed by Anaxagoras and Armenia produces red by mixture of the exhalations of Vermillion with the ordinary vapors which the Sun raises from the water yet this whiteness is as manifest as the causes are hid no less then those of light which is the colour of Celestial Bodies as colours are the light of Terrestrial However this whiteness seems to proceed from a mixture of Air and Water as appears in froth whose consistence is like that of Snow the whiteness whereof possibly is increas'd by the Spirits wherewith Snow abounds which are luminous Bodies whereof the fertility caus'd by Snow is an Argument to which Spirits which Frost hath not may be ascrib'd what Galen affirms namely that Fish cover'd with Snow become more delicious for to the Moon it can with no more reason be
the Sea drive the Clouds over the Land where being less agitated they resolve into Rain But to continue my reasoning with the same Poets I shall say that having plac'd Aeolus's Palace in the caverns near the sea they have sufficiently proved why the Sea is more troubled with them than the Land For these Winds visibly issue from deep Caverns frequent on the Coasts of the Sea whose continually agitated waves incessantly stir them up 'T is no wonder then if they display their violences on that side which is freest to them Which is experienc'd in great Lakes adjacent to high Mountains as in that of Comum and de la Garde in Italy whose waves and roarings resemble those of the Sea and also in that of Geneva which is troubled extraordinarily Not but that Winds are generated in other Subterraneous places too none of which is exempt from them as appears in Wells and the mouths of Caves But the openings of such places being commonly strait upwards the Wind that come out of them is not so perceptible as that which issues out laterally from high Caverns upon the Sea-shore and they differ in that the Sea Wind is dryer and less corrupting possibly by reason of the saltness of the water upon which it passes The Second said That the difference in Question proceeds from the vast extent of the Sea which gives the Air once agitated more liberty to continue its motion which on the contrary is straitned and repress'd on Land by the occurse of Mountains Trees Houses and other obstacles By the same reason that the waves of a Pool or little Lake are much less than those of the Ocean besides that one and the same Wind hath much greater effect in a smooth and liquid plain which yields to it than upon a rough solid Body upon which burdens are not mov'd but with more force than there needs upon the water as they experience who endeavour to draw a stranded Ship on the Land which they saw move almost of it self whilst it was upon the water The Mechanical Reason whereof is that the water breaking into infinite points scarce makes any resistance to its Agent but the Earth press'd with the same load resists it in infinite points The Third said He that defin'd Wind to be Agitated Air rather spoke its Effect than Cause which is some middle thing between a Vapor and an Exhalation driven violently according to all the differences of place For an Exhalation which always mounts upwards and the Vapor which refrigerated descends downwards cannot separately be the matter of Wind. Hence as soon as the Vapor of a Cloud is resolv'd into Rain the Wind ceaseth the Exhalations not being sufficient to produce it alone as neither the Vapor is Otherwise Winds should be greatest in hot weather when Exhalations are most plentiful Wherefore the Sea having in its Four Qualities the materials of these two Meteors and being otherwise more capable of emitting them through its liquid substance than the Earth is through its hard and solid surface though both be equally heated as well by the Sun as by Subterraneous Fires Evaporations and Exhalations are sooner and oftner made at Sea than at Land The Fourth said That the thickest Air being oftimes the calmest and the clearest the most windy 't is doubtful whether Vapors and Exhalations produce Winds which besides presupposeth actual heat in the Sea which yet is never felt there but onely on Land It seems therefore that the Element of Air being very symbolical to that of the Air by their agreement and moisture they follow the motions one of the other Hence the Air contiguous to the Sea is agitated by it whence ariseth a Wind which again agitates the Sea it being well known that when there are no Waves there is no Wind. On the contrary when the Wind is to change the billows turn first And ordinarily the Winds change with the Tides The Fifth said There are two sorts of Winds upon the Sea Particular which reign in our Seas blowing indifferently from all Coasts and General which blow continually from the same quarter without giving place to their Contraries Such is the Oriental Wind in the Torrid Zone which was call'd by the Latins Subsolanus and by Mariners at this day South-East For it conducts Ships so constantly over the whole extent of Mer du Nord du Sud that without discontinuing Day or Night it exempts the Sea-men from touching their sails especially when they are near the Aequinoctial Indeed in the East Indies this Rule alters for this Wind holds there but six moneths leaving the other six free to its Antagonist The Cause whereof is ascrib'd to the repercussion of the capes and coasts of those Seas as that first Wind is to the motion of the Primum Mobile which together with the inferior Spheres draws the Air along with it in this place where the circumference of its motion is largest There is another general Wind which blows between the Tropick or twenty fourth Degree on this side the Line and the thirty fifth becoming Occidental with the like constancy that the abovesaid Oriental doth This some attribute to a contrary motion which all things have when those nearest them are hurri'd violently as the stream of water running impetuously in the midst makes that near the shores recoil backwards The Sixth said That as Vapours make Mists and Fogs and Sulphureous Exhalations make igneous Meteors so the Nitrous make Wind which keeps the air from corruption as the Earth is kept from it by Nitre and the Sea by Salt Moreover both the Wind and Nitre dry and are the causes of fecundity as is prov'd on the behalf of Nitre by the Nitrous sand of Nilus whose greater or lesser overflow promises to the Egyptians a year proportionably fruitful which is also said of the Rhosne abounding with Nitre And as for the Wind besides that all flatuous Meats provoke lust 't is said that the Mares of Andalusia conceive by the West-wind alone which also is styl'd the Father of Flowers In Brief if Wind be impetuous the effects of Nitre in Gun-powder and Aurum fulminans manifest that Nitre is no less Now Nitre being mix'd with the Air where it is volatile with the Earth where it is fix'd and with the Sea where it is barely dissolv'd no wonder if it exhale more easily from the Sea then from the Land and consequently if more winds be there Whence the reason may be drawn not only of the Sea-winds but also of the tempests and commotions of that vast Element a Tempest being nothing but the rarefaction of the Sea Nitre and the inflation of the Waters at Full Moon in March and September only the fermentation of the same Nitre in the season proper for generation As for that inflation hapning at the time of the Dog-star when the Etesian winds reign it proceeds from the heat of the Air then inflam'd by the rays of the Sun like the ebullition of Honey
and diminish upon the appearing of the Tumour Some have held it to be Blood alone others Melancholy some Bile in regard of its mobility and activity many following the authority of Fernelius that 't is a cold phlegmatick and serous humour and that every Gowt is cold Mercurialis observing that Blood could not cause such great pains that Melancholy was too heavy and thick to be active Bile too subtile to descend and Phlegm too cold to excite such pungent pains and sudden motions which cannot proceed from a cold cause conceiv'd it was Phlegm mingled with Bile the latter serving as a Vehicle to the former and that former to precipitate and make this latter descend Some others confessing their ignorance acknowledg Qu' on n' y void goutte that they see not a jot in this Matter referring this Disease to occult and malignant causes acting by an unknown property as contagious and venemous diseases do I conceive it to be a salt humour subtile and picquant partaking of the nature of Salts which are all corrosive which acrimony and mordacity of this humour is caus'd by the Salt or Tartar contain'd in its substance or deriv'd to the Aliments whereof the humours are produc'd from the Earth which is full of such Salt Nitrous or Tartareous Spirits without which it would be unfruitful and barren as is seen in Earth whence Saltpeter is extracted which can never produce any thing This Nitrous Spirit being all drawn out of the Earth by the Plants which serve us for food and not being tameable by our heat much less convertible into our substance for an Animal is nourish'd with what is sweet and hath had life wherewith these Mineral Spirits were never provided if the natural Faculty be strong it expells them with the other unprofitable Excrements of the first concoction and Urine and Sweat and sometimes forms the Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or other Parts But if it happens either through the weakness of the expulsive Faculty or the quality of the Matter or some other defect that this Tartareous Spirit is not expell'd then it is carry'd with the Blood into the Parts and being unfit for nutrition transpires by the Pores if it be subtil enough or else in case it be thick and cannot be resolv'd flows back into the great Vessels and thence into the Joynts where sometimes it is coagulated into knots and grits and turn'd into a hard matter like chalk or plaister which shews that the four Humours are not the matter thereof since the same do not suppurate rendering then the Gowt incurable and the Reproach of Physians because they find no Cure for it no more than for that of old Men those who have a dry Belly and who live disorderly But 't is curable saith Hippocrates in young people in such as have no gritts or hardnesses form'd in the Joints those who are laborious obedient and to whom some great Evacuations arrive many having been cur'd of it by a Dysenterie As for the Place where it is form'd and the Way whereby the Matter which causes this Evil descends most with Fernelius conceive 't is the Head not the internal part of the Brain whose Excrements are easily voided outwardly by the Nostrils or inwardly by the Infundibulum or Tunnel and other Cavities but the outward part between the skull and the skin which being too thick and compact to give issue to the phlegmatick and serous humours there collected being begotten of the Excrements of the Jugular Veins which are expanded over all these Parts those serous and thin humours glide down between the Skin and other Feguments into the Joints But the Place of this Nitrous Matter above-mentioned are the Viscera of the Liver and Spleen which generate this Matter two ways 1. By the vitiosity of Aliments impregnated with this Nitrous Spirit which they plentifully attracted from the Earth whence it is that Wine which hath more of this Spirit and Tartar then any other Aliment is by consent of all very hurtful to the Gowt 2. By their proper vitiosity namely a hot and dry Intemperies whereby instead of concocting they adure the Blood and so fix that salt serosity which is the Salt or Tartar extracted out of its substance Unless you had rather say That as in the Kidneys of Persons subject to the Stone there is a certain arenaceous or lapidifick constitution proper for producing the Stone so in the Viscera of those who are subject to the Gowt there is a particular arthritical disposition apt to beget that tartareous matter which produces it The Way whereby this Matter is expell'd is the Veins and Arteries these Vessels manifestly swelling when the fits of the Gowt begin Moreover as this Disease unexpectedly invades by a sudden afflux of the Matter so it suddenly changes place especially by means of Refrigerants and Repercussives which drive the Gowt from one Foot to the other or into the Hand and other Parts which cannot be done but by the Veins and Arteries Lastly The Parts upon which this Matter falls and which are about the articulations are membranous and sensible because the Membranes being the first subject of Touch ought to be also of Pain a Symptom thereof The Third said That the greatest difficulty was Why this matter rather falls upon the Joints than other Parts which are not incommoded therewith neither the Nerves nor the Veins through which it passes no more than the Membranes and sensible Parts besides those which are about the Joints The cause whereof may be That as in health the Parts by a strange property attract such humours as are fit for their nutrition the Lungs bilious Blood the Spleen melancholy Blood the Kidneys serous the other carnous Parts temperate Blood so in sickness and ill constitution of the Body some of these Parts attract from all the rest certain humours wherewith they have most affinity So in the new Disease call'd Plica Polonica the viscous and glutinous humour which produceth it is chiefly carri'd to the hair which it knotteth and intaâ—gleth together and to the nails of the Hands and Feet which it makes hard and black And in the cure of Fracture of Bones the Stone call'd Osteocolla taken inwardly is carried towards the broken Bones and causes them to re-unite In like manner the Humour producing the Gowt hath some affinity with the Bones of the Joints especially with their Epiphyses The Fourth said That the Gowty have wherewith to comfort themselves not so much for that they foretel the changes of the Air and Seasons as for that this Disease is a token of health and an evidence of the strength and vigour of Nature which from the noble Parts drives the vicious humours upon the Joints But amongst its antecedent causes the Air is not to be forgotten especially the hot and moist Air of the Spring thawing the Humours lately congeal'd by the Winter to the vitiosity of which Air is that popular Gowt to be referr'd of which Athenaeus speaks in
one by frequent respiration of a hot and dry Air which she attracted as she put her bread into the Oven and took it out again The leaves roasted under the ashes and apply'd hot with their ashes to the Navil are good for the Wind-collick and other obstructions of the Bowels proceeding from the abovesaid causes especially for crudities of the Stomach The Indian women make use of it to kill worms making their children take a very little quantity of it with Sugar but more safely by applying the leafs to the Navil and adding a very little of the juice in lotions The same apply'd helps the Stone-Collick and is highly advantageous in strangulations of the womb being laid likewise upon the Navil and if Women have their usual swoonings the smoak puff'd into their nostrils fetches them again They also ease the pains of swoln limbs and cold Gowts Scurf Itch Child-blanes and clefts of the heels proceeding from cold are cur'd by being rub'd therewith as also venomous wounds and bitings Whereof the Spaniards bear witness who seizing upon a part of the Indies the Cannibals assaulted them with envenom'd Arrows the wounds whereof they cur'd by sprinkling them with prepar'd Sublimate all their stock whereof being spent the wounded dy'd till it was found that the juice of Tobacco apply'd wrought the same effect Moreover the leaves stop the blood of fresh wounds and agglutinate them The juice heals old Ulcers and prevents Gangreens The Indian Priests observing all these virtues transferr'd them to the Mysteries of their Religion For being interrogated concerning the events of War they suck the smoak of this Herb with long Canes then suffer themselves to fall down and being afterwards awakened relate wonders to their hearers giving them to understand that they have had divine Dreams They make use of it likewise to recover weariness and support hunger burning certain shells and powdering them with equal quantity of these leaves of which they make pills which they lay between the lower lip and the teeth continually sucking their liquor which if it nourish not at least it takes away the sense of the inconveniences of hunger and thirst which is an admirable secret whereby they travel two or three days together Possibly by their example our Sailers and Souldiers who have been at Sea take Tobacco with so much pleasure that since they have once gotten a habit of it they cannot be broken from it by the severest Laws For to alledg the prejudice of excessive taking Tobacco is of no more moment than what should be said against Wine for its abuse it having been said by many That those things must be excellent which are capable of being abus'd and this may always be inferr'd from that immutable practice of Tobacco That there is a great familiarity between it and our Nature since the Grand Signior cannot hinder his Turks from the use of it who nevertheless abstain from Wine The Third said That if ever Pliny's condemning and decrying Drugs and forreign Roots was reasonable it was chiefly at the time when the Trade of the Indies transmitted them to us in Europe and with their use new and unknown Diseases Amongst which Medicaments Tobacco as 't is the most common so 't is the more dangerous in that a false opinion of health and purgation gives it credit although its temperament hot and dry in a high degree renders it not only contrary to young and cholerick people and to the stomach which it provokes to vomiting but by a peculiar malignity 't is an enemy to the Brain causing Stupefaction Vertigo Lethargy and a dulness of all its Powers and by a violent desiccation spoling its natural constitution For 't is so far from dis-inebriating that on the contrary by its sharp and biting vapours it fills the head and intoxicates much more like Opium the herb of which it resembles neither of them serving for any thing but to trouble the Reason upon which account Tobacco is a sworn enemy to Hellebore which every one knows is the remedy for Folly and promotes the good constitution of the Brain As for the evacuation of phlegm for which it is esteem'd besides that 't is a dangerous thing to purge such as are in perfect health as most takers of Tobacco are 't is certain that all sort of smoak is bad for the Brain which it clouds and dulls by stirring the animal Spirits and filling the cavities of its Ventricles which it also infects by its smell and pricks its Membranes by its Acrimony inseparable from every kind of fume it being found that men have had black scirrhous spots in the Meninges produc'd by the vapours of Tobacco they were accustom'd to take which Custom also enuring Nature in that manner to evacuate the pituitous excrements whereof the Brain is never destitute if the use thereof be at any time interrupted great accidents happen by that defluxion which had gotten a long course that way and turn'd the Custom of it into Necessity which use besides being shameful and proper only to Rogues and Robbers whom our Arrests comprise under the name of Takers of Tobacco it seems that the name and effects of this Herb are of as bad an odour as its smoak The Fourth said That the Brain being the source not only of all cold maladies but also of most affections of the Lungs whose scituation and spongy substance makes them the Emunctory of all the superiour Parts whence the Asthma Peripneumonia Empyema Phtisick Cough Orthopnaea and other affections of the Breast caus'd by defluxion of humidity falling from the Brain upon the Lungs Physick hath invented three sorts of Remedies to divert the course of those Excrements namely Errhines Ptarmicks and Apophlegmatisms Errhines compos'd of Rue Gentian Celandine Origanum and other detersive Simples attract the phlegm adhering to the Membranes of the Brain and evacuate it by the Nose Ptarmicks or Sternutatories which are made of the above-mention'd things powder'd or of Pepper and white Hellebore Euphorbium Castoreum and Pyrethrum by their acrimony stimulating the expulsive faculty of the Brain to excretion of the pituitous Excrements which are in its Ventricles Apophlegmatisms us'd either in Masticatories or Gargarisms or by rubbing the palate of the Mouth are made of Mastick roasted Raisins Hyssop Origanum bark of Caper-roots Mustard Turbith and such other things as melt and attenuate phlegm and make it distil down the Palate of the Mouth Now Tobacco may serve for these three Uses being taken either by the Nose or in the Mouth as a Masticatory but not in smoak which is an enemy to the Brain and Spirits Upon the Second Point it was said That Nature having given wild Beasts Horns Claws or Teeth for their defence has yet produc'd Man wholly naked and without any other Arms but those of Reason to shew that being a Reasonable Animal he needed no other arms to decide his Quarrels with his like but Justice and right Reason Nevertheless Necessity having oblig'd him to
and Evil and consequently an inclination to the one and an aversion to the other she hath also given them means of attaining thereunto to wit Local Motion to go thither of themselves and a Voice to seek of others that Good they want and deliverance from the Evil which presses them The Second said That only such perfect Animals as have Lungs have the gift of Voice others destitute either of Lungs as Fishes or of Blood as most Insects having little heat of which Blood is the foundation have no need of Air which is inspir'd only to cool and temper the excess of Natural Heat and so for want of Air which is the matter of Voice are almost all mute except the Dolphin whose Voice is like that of Man Grass-hoppers Flies Bees and other Insects make a noise and sound indeed by the collision of the Air and their Wings but have no Voice which is defin'd A significative sound made by the mouth of an Animal and by Aristotle The stroak of the Air attracted by respiration and emitted by the Lungs against the Larynx to express something So that the Efficient Cause of Voice is the Soul the Matter Air the Form Sound or the collision of two solid Bodies the End to signifie something And so Animals cry to signifie the grief they resent But why they testifie this grief by so different tones and accents is as difficult to understand as the last differences in which Philosophers have plac'd that diversity as Howling Barking Bellowing Braving Roaring Neighing and such other accents of Beasts the cause whereof is hitherto unknown The Third said Such Animals cry soonest and longest who have the strongest Imagination the most exquisite touch the least ability to suffer and the least conscience because most susceptible of apprehension and pain and their Spirits being diffus'd in a less bulk are aptest to be mov'd and gather'd together about the Heart which by this means being unusually oppress'd communicate the sense thereof to the Lungs which suffering by sympathy and being instruments for the hearts eventilation perform their functions then with more speed and violence by an irregular motion forc'd by the present Necessity and the pain which presses them and so the Air which was contain'd in their spongy substance issues forth impetuously and by collision with the Epiglottis and other opposing parts forms loud and resounding clamours Whence we may judg That the secret intention of Nature who disposes these Organs in such sort that the Cry is a kind of interpreter of the Grief was to give some refreshment or ventilation to the Spirits thronged about the Heart and also intelligible tokens of the Evil suffer'd by the Animal either to move the injurer to compassion or else to invoke the help of its own Species or by unknown instinct that of the Author of Nature For we see that Animals by the motives of natural instinct run to the cries of those of their own kind And since the Holy Scripture tells us That not only Birds and all other Animals but also insensible things praise God 't is credible that in their anguishes they are lead by the same Principle to cry to him to help and preserve the Work of his own Hand Which is so true that the wicked'st Persons are forc'd by the interior motions of a hidden power to lift up their hands to Heaven in their Afflictions and implore Succour and Assistance from on High The Fourth said That the Sense of Touch is both more universal and natural to Animals than any other being the first they have and the last they lose The dolour thereof is express'd with Cries to which Man having the most exquisite Touch and consequently being most sensible of pain is also more subject than other Creatures And if that Ancient said true That Tears are mute execrations of the Sorrows of Life which we begin and end with them Cries may be said the more manifest and earnest since they pierce the clouds and see into ascend to the the Throne of God to demand succour of him when none is found upon Earth 'T is an impetuous sound utter'd by an Animal unable to resist present or imminent Grief For 't is proportional to the violence of the Passion Love which is the gentlest renders it smooth and soft Choler the violentest makes it more vehement And Grief the most pressing of all and tending to the destruction of Being which is equally abhor'd by all Creatures ariseth it to the highest tone of which 't is capable Whence even Speech which being artificially divided into syllables and cadences is peculiar to man yet in the precipitateness of Grief keeps not its measures but breaks into an inarticulate sound like that of Animals For explication whereof it must be known that the Cuticle the chief seat of the Touch and consequently of Pain is the expansion of the Nerves the conduits of the Animal Spirits which in Pain either shrink inwards and so cause stupefaction or being irritated and sent by Nature to the aid of the hurt part by Sympathy move the Diaphragma and other nervous and membranous Parts For as of two Lute-strings set at the same pitch the one sounds upon the touching of the other so in the Harmony of the whole Body there may be the same sympathy between the Spirits and the Parts an evidence whereof is seen in Tickling and Laughter which is caus'd by the contraction of the Diaphragm which is the reason that the aspect of such as Laugh and Weep is much alike And because in Grief the coarcted Spirits hinder respiration and free motion of the Heart ttherefore Nature to ease her self drives them outwards with violence and with them moist vapours which partly transpire by the pores and are partly condens'd in the Brain whence they flow through the eyes in streams of Tears which by this means greatly alleviate Grief as the want of Them and Cries argues its vehemence Besides that they may serve Animals to terrifie their Enemies or else to implore the assistance of their Fellows as we read of Elephants that falling into a Ditch they call other Elephants to their aid Upon the Second Point 't was said That 't is proper to a wise man by God's Example to draw Good out of Evil and benefit from the most pernicious things So Physitians turn the strongest Poysons into wholesom Remedies Men use the spoils of the fiercest Beasts for nourishment cloathing and other purposes of Life And many great Personages have taken occasion from bodily Diseases Shipwracks Losses Banishments and other such unkindnesses of Fortune to give up themselves wholly to Virtue and the Knowledg of Things Since then Enmity is the greatest of all Evils as Unity is the most excellent of all Goods and the noblest of all Virtues as having no Vicious Extremity but being perfect by being boundless 't is a Point of great Wisedom to be able to draw some benefit from ones Enemies whereof the principal is
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
the Womb where she wraps it up in two membranes which receive the Urine Sweat and other Excrements of sanguification as the Intestines do the grosser excrements but assoon as it is born she expells its immundicities by blisters scurfs scabs tumors of the head and other purgations which Hippocrates saith preserve from diseases especially from the falling sickness Nor can the Malignity of the Air be the Cause as Fernelius holds alledging that the difficulty of respiration heaviness of the head inflammation of the face and such other concomitant symptoms seem to be caus'd by the viciousness of the air which infects the heart and by that means hurts the other Functions For then the Small Pox would be as Epidemical as the Pestilence or any other contagious maladies and seize upon all men indifferently not excepting such as have once had them Wherefore the matter of this disease is a serosity accompanied with the humours which make the Pox appear of several colours sometimes Red Yellow Black or White according as the Blood Choler Melancholy or Flegm flow thither Wind or Water only cause bladders or blisters Nevertheless it must be confessed that this serosity acquires some particular malignity as appears by the deformity caused by the pustules which not only pit the skin and flesh but sometimes even corrode and rot the bones The Fifth said That the Small Pox is a new and hereditary disease and that as all other new maladies of these last ages have always had their causes but only wanted fitting dispositions without which nothing is produced so the causes of the Small Pox have always been existent but the particular dispositions of bodies not lighting upon the point requisite for its production it hath not appeared till these late times whether through the influence of Heaven or through the Malignity of the Air or the intemperance of men the most apparent cause of most diseases formerly unknown or else through contagion and contact by which way the great Pox is communicated For the Small is likewise contagious and which is remarkable more amongst Kindred than Strangers because they being issued of the same blood have greater affinity of dispositions than Strangers CONFERENCE CXXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples AS there is nothing so hard as to judg of the worth of things so it is the highest point of prudence to understand the goodness of the means that may conduce to some end Precepts and Examples are the two Means to attain Vertue 't is demanded which is the best and most proper At first view Example seems to have the same advantage over Precept that the Whole hath over the Part for a Good Example besides being of its own nature a vertuous action holds the place of a Moral Rule but a Precept is only a General Maxim not necessarily follow'd by a particular Action whence it follows that Precept regards only the Understanding whereto it affords some light but Example makes impression upon both Faculties together the Understanding and the Will by an order necessary in civil life which is regulated by the example of others Therefore Great Persons are oblig'd to good Example which derives its dignity from that of the giver Moreover Moral Propositions are so reasonable and conformable to the instinct we have of good that all the World assents to them as consider'd in the General There is no body but acknowledges that what belongs to each man ought to be render'd to him that we ought not to do that to another which we would not have done to our selves yet in the circumstances and particular cases we do not always apply those precepts because then they appear clog'd with difficulties to which our passion or interest give birth Wherefore Example beng Particular is more considerable in Morality wherein people are govern'd more by opinion then reason but Precept is Universal and affects the mind only at a distance our actions being oftentimes contrary to the secret dictates of the Understanding In Example we feel the force and application of a precept in a particular subject and know not only that which ought to be done but how it ought to be done by seeing it practis'd Experience it self shew us that Doctrine alone is weak and little perswasive unless it be animated by the examples of a good life whose silence is more eloquent than all precepts Moreover we are like those with whom we live and the maladies of the body are not so contagious as those of the mind which notwithstanding may as well profit by bad examples as good the Understanding being able to turn bad food into good nourishment And as a brave Action excites good Motions in us by its beauty resulting from its conformity to Reason so a bad Action by its deformity and contrariety to Reason gives us aversion against it and an inclination to its opposite Socrates judg'd no Lesson so fit to moderate Anger as for a Man to behold himself in a glass when he is agitated with that Passion Which cannot be said of a bad Precept for this being a bad seed can never produce any fruit but of the same Nature On the other side Men are such Lovers of Pleasures that Virtue separated from Delight stumbles them and seemes too severe But Precept is a pure Rule of Duty without any attractive whereas Example which appears to our Eyes and is an Action cloth'd with circumstances perswades us more sweetly because we are naturally prone to Imitation whence it comes to pass that Comedies are so charming And Example is the subject of Imitation but Precept cannot be so for it is general of it self and all Moral Actions are singular The Second said That if it be true as the Stoicks say that Virtue is nothing else but a Science then Precepts must be the foundations as of Science so also of Virtute which indeed being a habit of a reasonable Faculty must be more promoted by Precepts which are infallible verities and supply light to that Power than Examples which have no force to convince a strong Mind They who follow Virtue by Example and not by Reason have more of the Ape than of the Man and all the power Example hath is onely to move the Will to admire and desire Virtue but not to teach the way of attaining it as Precept doth which besides being invariable and always alike to its self is more easie to be applyed than Example which puts on a new face according to the circumstances of times places and persons there being no Actions how contrary soever but have Examples to countenance their goodness Moreover they are either of the time past and so move us not much or of the present in which there are few of Virtue besides that they are of less duration than Precepts which are eternal If vicious Examples attract more powerfully to Vice than vicious Precepts the same cannot be said of the practice of Virtues since these have not all the External
't is the multitude of persons excelling in all sort of Arts and especially in the Sciences whereof never were so many Doctors Regents and Professors seen in one single Age as in this that makes us less esteem the ingenious that are now living for 't is onely rarity that gives price to things and that made him pass for a great Clerk a few Ages ago who could but write and read he that spoke Latine was a Prodigy though now 't is a Tongue almost as universal and common as the Native Now Admiration being the Daughter of Ignorance the esteem had of most of the admired in former Ages is rather an Argument of the Rudeness and Ignorance of the Times than of the excellence of their Witts Nor were they better than we in their Manners but onely more simple and yet culpable of as many Crimes But were we the more wicked this were no Argument of want of Witt which is the matter in question And if there have been sometimes a Ceres a Bacchus a Pallas a Vulcan and others advanc'd to Deities for finding out the way to sow Wheat plant Vine-yards spin Wool and forge Iron we have had in these last Ages the Inventors of the Compass the Gun Printing the Tubes of Galileo and a thousand other Inventions both more difficult and excellent the easiest having been first discover'd The Modesty of those that govern us who no less hate the vanity of praise than they know how to exercise Actions deserving it permits me not to shew you that all pass'd Ages have nothing that comes near the grandeur of their Souls and that their conduct is the more to be admir'd in that their business is both to keep themselves up with Friends and give reason to Enemies who also help to verifie that there are greater States-men and Captains in this Age than in any of the preceding CONFERENCE CXLV Of the Serene which is a hurtful Dew falling in Summer Evenings AS Painters find it harder to represent a calm smooth Sea than the rampant foaming billows of a storm which require more variety of Colours and afford the Pencil more liberty and as a History of Peace is harder to write and less pleasant to read than the Troubles and Commotions of Warr So I think it less difficult to describe the several impressions of Tempests than those of a calm Air which nevertheless at certain times produces pernicious Effects so much more remarkable in that they proceed from a very simple Cause no-wise malignant of it self to wit from a clear and serene Air free from Clouds and Vapours which in the Evening being cool'd by the reason of the Sun's Elongation acquires a certain Refrigerating and Catarrhous quality call'd by the vulgar The Serene because it happens either in the Evening or more commonly in fair weather when the Air is serene than when it is pluvious and full of Vapours Which quality some ascribe to the Influence of the Stars especially to the Moon term'd for that reason by the Psalmist Infrigidans which hath indeed a notable dominion over all Humid Bodies particularly those of Men who find sensible alterations in themselves according to the several faces of that Planet But because the Heavens diffuse their Influences upon those that are under covert as well as upon those that are in the open Air where onely the Serene is felt I should rather pitch upon the alterations of the refrigerated Air which acts but so far as it is near us and 't is always more proper to attribute Effects here below to proximate Causes than to recur to the Heaven which is but an equivocal Cause thereof The Second said If Cold were the Cause of the Serene the same should happen where-ever it were cold and be more hurtful according to the vehemency of that quality as towards Midnight or Morning and likewise in Winter Yet the Serene is never spoken of but in the temperate Seasons of Spring and Autumn and some little portion of the Seasons bordering upon them Besides in Summer the air of our cold Caves should be capable of producing it at mid-noon Wherefore I cannot think the Serene an effect of bare cold but of the vapors wherewith the air howsoever apparently pure is always charg'd whence proceeds the diversity of refractions In the Planets especially at Sun-rise and Sun-set which is never without some clouds which vapours being destitute of the diurnal heat and so coming to be condens'd fall down upon our heads just as Dew doth which is produc'd after the same manner but of a matter somwhat thicker and more copious And as there is no Dew so there is no Serene but in temperate Seasons and Regions never in Winter or the midst of Summer for violent cold congeals these vapours into Frost and Ice and vehement heat dissipates and consumes them The practice of our Ladies who use to remain in the Serene thereby to whiten their complexion and soften their flesh shows that this evening-air having a cleansing and levigating vertue must be impregnated with a quality like Dew which is detersive by reason of the salt which it drew from the earth by means whereof it not only whitens Linen and Wax but also purgeth Animals as appears by the fluxes hapning to Sheep driven out to grass before the Sun has consum'd the Dew and by Manna which is nothing but a condens'd dew and hath a purgative vertue The Third said Mans body being subject to the injuries of all external Agents receives so much greater from the impressions of the Air as the same is more necessary to life capable of subsisting for some time without other things but not a moment without Air which is continually attracted into our Bodies not only by respiration but also by insensible transpiration through the Pores of the Body which is pierc'd with holes like a Sieve for admission of air which is taken in by the Arteries in their motion of Diastole or Dilatation And being most agile and subtle it easily penetrates our Bodies altering them by the four first qualities wherewith it is variously impregnated according to the vicinity of the Bodies environing it which make the four Seasons of the Year wherein it variously disposes the bodies upon which it acts changing even their natural temperament And because the parts of a natural day have some proportion with those of a year upon account of the several changes caus'd by the common and proper revolutions of the Sun hence the Morning is like the Spring hot and moist or rather temperate and the Blood then predominates Noon resembles Summer hot and dry at which time Choler is in motion the following part is cold and dry Melancholy and correspondent to Autumn the Evening and whole Night by its coldness and humidity which puts Phlegm in motion is a little Winter the coldness whereof proceeds not from the vapors which are always accompani'd with some extraneous heat whereby they are retain'd in the Air and kept
from falling but from the bare privation of the heat of the Sun who as by his presence he actually causes heat in the Air so by his absence he causes coldness in the same which penetrating our Bodies calefi'd by the diurnal heat easily therein condenses the vapors which are not yet setled or laid and squeesing them out of the Brain and all the parts just as we do water out of a wet spunge they fall upon the weakest parts where they cause a fluxion and pain The Fourth said That the Air being of it self very temperate can never do any mischief unless it be mix'd with some extraneous substances as Vapors and Exhalations which continually infect the first Region wherein we reside And because those subtle parts of Earth and Water exhal'd into it are imperceptible 't is not strange if they produce such sudden and unexpected effects as we see the Serene doth which is caus'd by vapors rais'd after Sun-set by the force of the heat remaining upon the surface of the Earth like those arising from heated water after it is taken off the fire So that the Serene is that vapour whilst it mounts upwards not when it falls downwards for it cannot descend till it be render'd heavier by condensation into Water Clouds or Mists which make the Air nubilous and not serene as in this effect it uses to be But at their first elevation they are more volatile rare subtle and invisible The Fifth said That the chief cause of this hurtful accident is the change of one contrary into another without medium which is always incommodious to Nature who for that reason conjoyns all extreams by some mediums which serve for dispositions to pass from the one to the other without difficulty And as the alteration of the body from cold to hot is painful witness those who hold their cold hands to the fire after handling of Ice in like sort that from hot to cold is very incommodious whence the hotter the preceding day hath been the more dangerous is the serene because the pores of the Body being open'd and all the humors disorder'd and mov'd by the diurnal heat the cold insinuates into and works upon the same with more liberty just as heated water is soonest frozen by reason its parts are more open'd by the heat and consequently more capable of receiving the impressions of Agents Which is also the reason why the first cold hurts us rather then the greatest frosts namely because it finds the body more open then ensuing hard weather doth So though in Winter the air be colder yet because 't is almost continually the same it makes less impression in the evening upon our bodies already accustomed to its rigor and though the air is colder at midnight then at Sun-set yet the serene is only at the beginning of the night when our bodies more sensibly receive alteration from the same Wherefore 't is only the sudden change of the air which makes the serene whereof our bodies are the more sensible according to the openness of the pores and of the futures of the head and the softness of the flesh which renders the body obnoxious to external causes as hardness which secures it from them makes it subject to internal causes through want of transpiration Hence Peasants Souldiers and all such as are hardned by labour and are of a firm and constant constitution feel no inconvenience from the Serene although they breathe an air more subtle and consequently more capable of being impregnated in the evening with qualities noxious to the body CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are Light and Inconstant and why THere is no more perfect Mirror of Inconstancy then Man as appears by the pleasure his body takes in the change of Pasture his mind in that of Objects and both in that of Condition Hence men look not upon present honours but as so many steps whereby to ascend to new the possession of present goods bringing no other satisfaction then that of their Stomack that is till a second Appetite be excited by new Meats Whereunto the nimbleness of their volatile Spirits the fluidity and mobility of their humours which constitute the temperament too notoriously furnish the efficient and material cause to inquire elsewhere for them for which reason the melancholick are less subject to this defect this earthy humour being less susceptible of change whence they prove more wise But amongst all Nations there is none to whom the vice of Levity is more imputed then to the French Caesar who had long convers'd with them frequently objects the same to them and experience sufficiently shews by what is pass'd that they are very far from the constancy of other Nations as not only their Statutes and Edicts which they cannot long observe but all their Modes and Customs and their desire of novelty abundantly testifie The causes whereof are either from the Climate or the Soil For 't is observ'd that where the Heaven is always in the same posture as toward the Poles or where the Sun heats almost in the same degree as near the Equator which makes the days and nights equal the Manners and Inclinations of the People are also equal on the contrary those that by the several remotions and approaches of the Sun have different constitutions of Air receive sutable impressions from the same which are afterwards manifested in their actions And because what is below is the same with what is on high the Earth consequently partakes of the same alterations which the Heaven produces in the Air and retains them longer Thus our Soul being heated and cooled moistned and dry'd in one and the same day suffering contrary changes in a very little time 't is no wonder if the Aliments it affords make the parts humors and spirits like it self that is to say flitting inconstant and mutable which parts being communicated from Father to Son can no more be chang'd by us even by Travels and Alteration of Soil than the Moor can change his skin which the temper of his native climate hath in like manner given him Add hereunto that the French Courtesie receiving all strangers more civilly than any Nation of the World is also more easily lead by their perswasions and examples And whereas the roughness and rusticity of many other people thinks shame and scorn to change as implying preceding Ignorance the sincerity and frankness of the French is such that he easily alters his Mind and way as soon as another seems better to him than his own other Nations what-ever Pride they take in being always constant and equal to themselves and especially more patient than we in our Adversities surpassing us onely in this particular that they better know how to dissemble their discontents The Second said Lightness of Minds is like that of Bodies respective onely not absolute And as Air is term'd Light in respect of Water and Earth so dull people those of the North and such others as would have gravity alone
in words gestures and actions pass for Wisdom call the French light because they are more nimble and active then themselves and being really what others are onely in appearance affect not that false mask of Wisdom whereof they possess the solidity and Body whilst these content themselves with enjoying its shadow and ghost For 't is not the change of habits or modes that argues that of the Mind but in great Matters as Religion and State in maintaining whereof the French may be affirm'd more constant than any Nation 'T is not an Age yet since France bad reason to glory as well as in Saint Jerom's time of never having produc'd Monsters but of planting the Faith well amongst all its Neighbors whose rigorous Inquisition is less a testimony of the Constancy than of the lightness or baseness of their Spirits since they are kept in their Religion by fear of the Wheel and the Gallows Then as for the State the French Monarchy is the ancientest in the world and hath been always maintain'd amidst the ruines and downfalls of other States by the exact observation of its fundamental Laws which is an eminent Argument of the Constancy of the French the Nations who have most charg'd them with this Vice shewing themselves the most inconstant whilst this puissant body of France remains always like it self which it could not do if the members which compose it were light and inconstant the greatest Vice where-with they can asperse us For since according to Seneca Wisdom is always to will and not-will the same things Inconstance and Irresolution in willing sometimes one thing sometimes another is a certain testimony of Folly Imprudence and weakness of Mind which coming to change intimates either that it took not its measures aright nor apprehended the fit means of attaining to the proposed end or that it had not Courage and Resolution enough to go through with its designes And not onely he who hath an inconstant and flitting Spirit is incapable of Wisdom which requires a settled Mind not mutable like that of the Fool who as the Scripture saith changes like the Moon but also of all sort of Virtue which consisting in a mediocrity is not attainable but by Prudence which prescribes its Bounds and Rules and by Stability and Constance which arms the Mind against all difficulties occurring in the way of Virtue in which as well as in the Sciences and Arts the French having more share than any other Nation 't is injurious to accuse them of Inconstancy The Third said 'T is not more vanity to believe one's self perfect in all things than temerity in going about upon blind passion for his Country to exempt it from a Vice whereof all strangers who know us better than we do our selves are universally agreed Let us confess therefore that we are inconstant since in comparison of the Vices of other Neighbouring Nations this will not onely appear light but make it doubtful whether it be a Vice since 't is grounded upon Nature which is in perpetual change whereby she appears more beautiful and agreeable than in identity and rest which is not found even in the prime Bodies and universal Causes which as well as others are in a continual mobility and change which is no-wise contrary to Wisdom which requires that we accommodate our selves to the circumstances of places persons and times which alter incessantly and that we consequently alter our Conclusions according thereunto besides that change of Opinion is a testimony of a free and ingenuous Spirit as that of the French is and it may be attributed to the power of example in a people environ'd with sundry Nations extreamly different and consisting of Spirits which are imbu'd with the qualities of them all For this Country lying under the forty third degree and the forty eighth the mixture of these people which partake a little of the Southern and a little of the Northern Neighbours sometimes conforms to the modes of one sometimes to those of the other And as in the change of Colours the difference is not seen but in the two extreamities those of the middle appearing changeable and diversifi'd so France situated between the Germans Italians and Spaniards mixing and tempering in it self the qualities of those Nations which are in its extreamities appears to them changeable and uncertain The Fourth said Though the French are not more inconstant than others yet their boyling and impetuous humor and the quickness of all their Actions having made them be esteemed such by all their Neighbors I shall rather refer the Cause thereof to their abundance of Spirits which are the sole Motors and Principles of all Actions produc'd by the purity of their Air and the variety of their Aliments than to the Aspects of Heaven or such other Causes since Nations under the same parallel with France as Podolia Hungary Tartary and many others should be subject to the same Vice which was sometimes imputed to the Grecians the most fickle and inconstant of all people without referring the Cause to the Winds as Cardan held that such as are most expos'd thereunto to have volatile Spirits otherwise the French and other Nations subject to Winds should quit their levity when they came into Climates less windy CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers NOthing ravishes us more than the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Automata or Bodies moving by Artifice having in the beginning made Idolaters who were undeceived when they came to know the Springs of them But above all the Motions of the Sea seem the more marvellous in that they are very different and contrary And they are of two sorts One Internal and common to all heavy Bodies whereby the Water descends downwards the agitated Sea becomes calm by returning to its level and Rivers follow the declivity of the Lands through which they pass The other violent which is either irregular render'd so by the irregularity of the Winds or regular which again is of two sorts namely that of reciprocation in the flux and reflux of the Sea and that which depends upon the several parts of the World being either from East to West or from North to South 'T is true Water being naturally fluid and moveable and not to be contain'd within its own bounds it were more strange if this great Body were immoveable than to see it move as it was necessary it should for Navigation and to avoid corruption The wonder onely is to see in one sole Body so great a diversity of Motions whereof onely the first is natural to it the others arise from some extrinsick Causes amongst which none acting more sensibly upon the Elements than the Celestial Bodies 't is to the diversity of their Motions that those of the Sea must be imputed but particularly that of its flux and reflux which being regular and always alike in one and the same Sea cannot proceed but from as regular a Cause such as the Heaven is and chiefly the
Day 's Heat which tempering the Cold occasion'd by the Sun's absence renders the same less perceptible during the thickness of the Nocturnal Air less subtile than that of the Day when the Light coming to dissipate those Clouds subtilizes the Air by its insinuating beams whence the Cold thereof more easily insinuates into our Pores by the help of that weak Light which is not strong enough to heat the Air. Just as Vinegar though hot and biting of its own Nature yet mix'd with much water cooles the part whereunto 't is apply'd more than water alone doth The Second said That possibly the comparison of the Heat of our beds out of which we arise in the Morning with the cold of the outward Air makes us guilty of a mistake unless you had rather refer this Effect to the Oblique Aspect where-with the other Celestial Bodies of our Hemisphere are regarded by the Sun at his rising For at mid-night when he is directly under the Horizon the little bulk of the Earth hinders not but he directly darts his Rayes upon those Stars which are above us the Pyramid of the Earth's shadow not passing beyond the Moon so that then the vast and incredible magnitude of all those Celestial Bodies perpendicularly reflects upon us the Heat and Light of the Sun which thus reflected may calefie the Air as the Sun doth in the same posture but not at all at Sun-rise in their Oblique Aspects Whence though the Sun be nearer us in Winter yet he warms us less If it be excepted that the Evening when the same Oblique Aspects return is not so cold as the Night 't is answer'd that this difference proceeds from the Heat of the foregoing Day remaining in the Earth Water and Air which conserve the same till by the absence of the Sun the supervening Night wholly dissipate them The Third said That the Matutinal coolness proceeded from the approaching Suns driving the Clouds before him which agitation raiseth a wind as there is always one at day-break whereby the same coolness is effected in the Air that a Fan causeth to a Lady For all things here below having their motion from East to West 't is reasonable that the Air be so mov'd too and acquire the consequent of its agitation namely coldness That all things come from the East sundry instances manifest Mankind was from thence diffus'd into the other Quarters of the World Rivers run generally Eastward And the greater speed of Navigation from East to West than contrarily argnes the Sea to have the same motion as is chiefly observ'd under the Equinoctial the greatness of which Circle renders that motion more manifest This rule the Winds keep when not diverted to a contrary course by Exhalations And as for the Heavens experience shews us that their ordinary and best-known course is from East to West So that 't is no wonder if they hurry the neighbouring Air with them and by a Mathematical contact and natural consecution all the other Elements I speak not of Sciences Arts Policy and other things which the more curious may find to have been deriv'd from the East It suffices that the Sun taking this road drives the Air befor him the wind proceeding from which motion causeth the coolness we feel chiefly at day-break when the vapours between us and the Sun being by his heat violently driven as the water of the Aeolipila is turn'd into wind and driven forth by the subjacent fire the coolness is more unacceptable in that it succeeds and multiplies instead of diminishing that of the night as the diurnal heat in likelihood ought to do The Fourth said He attributed the increase of cold at day-break to the ordinary action of all natural Agents which is strongest when they arrive at the period or utmost point of their declination So a Candle just upon extinguishing casts forth a smarter flame the violence of a Disease is greatest at its crisis when 't is towards ending a Stone moves swiftest as it approacheth its Centre And to compare the Year to the Day the cold is commonly greater and more insupportable in February the last Moneth of Winter than in the beginning thereof though in reason it might seem rather to be so at the end of December when the Sun is further from us and that the custom of the two first months cold should render this last more tolerable as on the contrary the heat is greater also in the dog-days and afterwards than at the Summer Solstice when the Sun is elevated highest above our heads So also in Summer 't is hotter two hours after noon than at noon it self not so much through any disposition already received in the Air and Earth as by reason of that Rule That Natural Actions are stronger at the end than the beginning whereas violent actions as the motion of a Stone upwards is swifter in the beginning than the end The Fifth referr'd this effect to the Antiperistasis of heat and cold For as fire seems more scorching upon the approach of a great frost so by a contrary reason cold must become more vehement at the approach of the Sun's heat Moreover the like combat is observ'd between the thickness of the darkness of the night and the rarity of the day when the Sun 's light rendring the illuminated Air more subtle what was gross in the dark Air cannot be expell'd in an instant without some conflict and motion of the part condens'd by darkness with the rarefi'd by light from which agitation ariseth a wind commonly at day-break which is probably the cause of the cold at that time Now of that tenebrous part condens'd is made the Dew and Frost in our Climate and the Manna in Southern Countries as the cold which we feel redoubled in Winter in the space between a neighbouring fire but out of its Sphere of Activity and the rest of the Air is a familiar example of this Antiperistasis of heat and cold redoubled upon the approach one of the other For as 't is much colder then elsewhere between that fire which is too distant to warm us and the Air left in its natural frigidity so at day-break our Air being too far off from the Sun to be heated by it augments its coldness upon his approach The Sixth said Air hath no natural quality but supream humidity whereby 't is supple movable and pliant heat and cold being impress'd upon it by outward agents Otherwise being the general medium and mediator of motions local natural vital and animal for the Spirits are of an aerious nature and the Factor of all Agents by whose intervention they communicate their influences it would act against the qualities impress'd upon it sometimes hot and sometimes cold and destroy them by its own Which indeed its humidity doth but to the profit of animated bodies dryness being their enemy Hence cold and dry Saturn hath under him hot and moist Jupiter who tempers his hurtfulness and sutes him to living things Now the Sun
colours CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. THe common Opinion attributes the coldness of the middle Region to the Antiperistasis of the heat of the upper and lower Regions which streightning the cold on either side leave it no other place but the middle whither the vapors rais'd by the Sun-beams ascending and no higher by reason of their weight and the thinness of the air there it comes to pass that the neighbourhood of these vapors returning to their natural cold encreases that of the middle Region But many inconveniences invalidate this Opinion First if this Element were hot and moist as is suppos'd it would shew some effects thereof but 't is quite contrary For he were a fool that should go into the Air to warm himself and the Air hath so little humidity that it dries all Bodies Secondly many Mountains surpassing the middle Region of the Air and retaining figures describ'd in the ashes of a Sacrifice for a whole year which shew that in all that time no Wind or Rain was rais'd there to deface them it would follow that such Mountains reflecting the Sun-beams by their solidity should cause heat in the middle Region of the Air and yet they are commonly cover'd with Snow Lastly this Antiperistasis being only in Summer not in Winter when the cold of the lower Region symbolises with that of the middle this reason should then cease and yet 't is in Winter-time that cold Meteors manifest themselves Wherefore we must recur to some other cause which Cardan takes to be the natural coldness of the Air not regarding the combination of the four first qualities For if cold be natural to the Air it will be easie to conclude that it must be coldest in the middle which is less alter'd by the contrary quality of heat being most distant from the Element of Fire if there be any and from the heat which necessarily follows the motion of the heavenly Sphears The Second said That Cold being no positive Quality but a bare negation it follows that Bodies destitute of Heat are necessarily cold Now the Air cannot have heat or any other quality because 't is to serve for a medium not only to all sublunary Bodies but also to the heavenly influences whose nature would be perverted and alter'd by the qualities of the Air as a colour'd medium imparts its colours to objects It happens therefore that vapours cool not but are cooled by the Air so that they become colder in the middle Region then whilst they were in their natural seats Yea they are so far from rendring the Air cold that they abate its sharpness which is never greater then in clear weather cloudy and misty weather being always more warm and accompany'd with less piercing cold For being rais'd rather by the subterraneous heat then by that of the Sun they warm our air which reaches not above a league from the Earth then being gradually deserted by the heat which carry'd them up they meet in those higher spaces which are void of all heat and begin immediately to condense and congeal them What people talk of the higher Region of the Air is very doubtful because the Element of Fire being but an Opinion cannot counter-balance the report of Acosta who affirms that divers Spaniards were kill'd by the cold in their passage upon the Mountains of Peru which he judges the highest of the World and within the upper region The Third said That if we were to be try'd by experience alone the Earth which in Winter is hot at the Centre and in Summer on its Surface would not be judg'd cold and dry as it is no more then the Water always cold and moist since the Sun's heat warms it and the saltness of the Sea renders it heating and drying But accidental qualities must be carefully distinguish'd from essential because these latter are hard to be discern'd when any impediment interposes As the sight cannot judge of the straitness of the stick in the water but by having recourse to reason which teaches us that all light Elements are also hot Now the lightness of the air is indisputable and its heat is prov'd by its subtlety whereby it penetrates bodies unpassable by light it self Yet this heat is easily turn'd into cold because the air being a tenuious body and not compact retains its qualities no longer then they are maintain'd therein by their ordinary causes So that 't is no wonder if not being hot in the highest degree as Fire is but in a remiss and inferior degree it easily becomes susceptible of a more powerful contrary quality For the Sun-beams which some hold to be the true Element of Fire heat not unless they be united by reflection and this reflection being limited cannot reach beyond our first Region the higher Regions must necessarily remain cold unless upon further inquiry it be thought that the motion of the air carry'd about with the Sphear of the Moon and the Element of Fire plac'd under the same are capable to heat it The Fourth said That if we may judge of those higher Regions of the Air by those of the Earth and Water which we frequent each of these Elements hath three sensible differences its Surface Middle and Centre Those that frequent Mines tell us that the heat which succeeds the exterior cold of our earth penetrates not above a quarter of a league in depth about the end of which space cold begins to be felt again and encreases more and more towards the Centre In like manner 't is probable that the Water follows the qualities as well as the declivity of the Earth That it is hot at the bottom whither therefore the Fish retire in Winter proceeds from the nearness of that middle Region of the Earth So that it being proper to these Elements to have different qualities in their middle from those of their extremities the same may be true also of the Air possibly because a perfect identity of temperature would not have been convenient for the generation of Mixts to which end all the Elements were destinated And it being the property of cold to close and re-unite the looseness and dissipation of the Air it was therefore highly necessary to be predominant in the middle Region thereof CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females DIstinction of Sex is not essential but consists only in the parts serving to Generation Nevertheless Aristotle makes Male and Female differ as Perfect and Imperfect and saith That Nature's intention is always to make a Male and that only upon the default of some requisite condition she produces a Female whom therefore he calls a Mistake of Nature or a Monster Galen likewise acknowledging no other difference styles Man a Woman turn'd outwards because Woman hath the same Organs with Man only wants heat and strength to put them forth Now indeed this heat and strength is manifestly greater in Males then Females even from the first conception for the
The Third said That there are four colours answering to the Elements viz. Black to Earth White to Water Yellow to Air and Red to Fire For discovering the Causes of whose diversities the ancient Philosophers prepar'd a Matter which by the degrees of fire they pass'd through all the colours of Nature and perceiv'd sometimes in their vessel what they call'd the Peacock's tail representing all colours in one single Matter whence they concluded the variety of colours to proceed from that of External Fire moving the Matter less in one part than in another Thus Antimony which is at first Black is rais'd into White Yellow Red and mixt Flowers according as they are sublim'd more or less But you can draw no consequence from hence to the Colours of Plants since redness which in works of Art argues perfect Digestion and Fire predominant doth not so in Simples CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why IT may seem superfluous to make this a Question since by the enumeration of all sorts of Affairs it appears that we are Moles yea perfectly blind in the Judgement we make of our selves and more clear-sighted than the Lynx in those we make of others Which also the Gospel testifies by the comparison of a mote which we espy in the Eye of a Neighbour not seeing the beam which is in our own for according to the direction of the Lawyers who are to be believed in point of affairs in the first place in reference to persons every one understands himself much less either in Mind or Body than he doth another most esteeming themselves more capable and worthy of praise for Witt than they are and as the Eye sees not it self but every other visible thing so he that hath any perfection or imperfection cannot consider the same in its true Latitude but easily adds something to the first or diminishes from the second whilst the various bent of our Passions always exalts and depresses the balance and keeps it from that aequilibrium which is necessary to a right Judgement Hence Physicians although they ought to know themselves better than they can be known by others yet when sick permit themselves to be treated by their Companions and never succeed so well in the Cure of themselves or their domesticks as they do abroad elsewhere In the second place we are less quick-sighted in things that concern our selves than in those of others whence commonly the greatest Lawyers leave the affairs of their own Houses more imbroiled than others Which was the cause that the Wife of Pacius the famous Lawyer of our time sent to him to ask his Advice concerning his own affairs under fancied names making him pay a Solicitor with his own Money In the third place Actions are in a very evill hand when they are to be managed or defended by their Authors either Modesty on the one hand extenuating them or Thrasonical pride dilating them and adding thereunto more than is fit Lastly the Laws shew sufficiently what hath been the opinion of Legislators upon this matter when they forbid Advocates and Procurators to plead and practise in their own Cause and when they injoyn Judges to forbear not only their own but also from all those wherein their kinred or alliances may have any interest Thus much for the first Head of the Question The Reason which is the second ariseth hence That the Eye as well as all other Organs of External and Internal Senses such as the Judgement is must be serene and not prepossessed by any tincture or Prejudice Now to require this serenity and indifferency in our own affairs is to demand an impossibility The Cause whereof may come from the pureness and subtilty of the Humane Spirit above that of other Animals compared to the Elements of Earth and Water which contracting themselves round about their own Centre move not but in quest of their food others more ayerious rise a little higher but yet have a bounded Region such are the spirits of Women whose Knowledg and Curiosity is limited to the affairs of their houswifrie or at most to those of their neighbourhood But the Mind of Man resembling Fire which hath no other bound but Heaven penetrates even to the Centre of the Earth carries its point every where and is like flame in a perpetual agitation oftentimes resembling our natural heat in Summer which abandons the Internal parts to carry it self to the extremities The Second said There is as great diversity of Judgements and Witts as there is of Eyes amongst Men. As there are some blind other Eyes from which the Objects must be set at distance to become visible some also to which they must be approached and lastly others which require a moderate distance between the Visible Object and the Organ Iin like manner there are some Judgements absolutely blind others which judge not things too near but require to have them removed or set at a middle distance there are others also which judge them better near hand than a far off and this truly is the custom of the best Judgements and of such as least suffer themselves to be prepossess'd Indeed what is more absurd than for us to remove far from Objects in order to judging of them after the manner of old men and of those that are short-sighted and if the saying of Aristotle be true The Species of the thing to be known must be not only introduced into but also made like the Mind Is the divesting our selves of it away to know it well By this reckoning we shall never see clear in any affair not in our own because 't is ours nor in those others in regard of the Envy Men bear to the prosperity of their Neighbours which makes them think that their Vines are more fruitful and their afflictions less severe If some Physicians resign themselves to the cure of others of the same profession 't is because they believe them as able as themselves or perhaps because their own Judgement is disturbed by the disease otherwise since the particular Knowledge of every one's Temper is the condition most requisite to a good Physician for curing his Patient and every one knowing his own better than another can in along time none can be a better Physician of another than of himself and if domestick cures be effected with less notice yet they are not less sure and remarkable to him that would consider them That Lawyers are not admitted to plead in their own Case is rather from their too much than too little Knowledge the Court foreseeing that they would be too prolix and hot in the prosecution thereof besides the greater temptation to dishonesty in disguising their own actions Nor is exception against Judges in the case of their kinred allowed because they see not clear enough into the affair in question but because interest which is inseparably fixed in humane minds might lead them to relieve their Relations to
attraction made by the Centre the Question is To which of those three Causes that Motion is to be referr'd If it be attributed to the weight it will follow that the heaviest Body shall descend soonest if to the impulsion the celerity or slowness of the Agent shall accordingly render that Motion swift or slow but if only the attraction made by the Centre be the Cause of it the lesser weight shall descend as fast nay faster than the greater upon the same account as that the same piece of Loadstone more easily draws a small needle than it does a great key Nor can Experience always assist us in this case in regard the different composure and form of heavy Bodies as also the diversity of the means and the variety of the Agents whereby they are thrust forwards will not permit us to make an allowable Comparison between them Thus a ball of Cork which descended as fast in the Air as one of Lead shall not do the like in the water to the bottom whereof the Lead shall fall but not the Cork And again the same Lead being put into the form of a Gondola or other hollow vessel shall swim on the water which it could not before A Cloak folded close together into a bundle shall have a speedy descent in both Air and Water but let a Man fasten the same Cloak under the arm-pit so as that it may spread into a circle it shall so sustain him the Air that he shall fall very gently and receive no hurt by his fall Hence it also comes that many Women have been sav'd when falling into the Water their Clothes were spread all abroad The same thing may also be observ'd in those frames beset with Feathers or cover'd with Paper which Children call Kites and sustain in the Air and suffer to be carryed away with the Wind giving them ever and anon little checks or jerks by drawing the pack-thread to them whereby they are held imitating in that action the beating of the wings in Birds In fine the different manner of giving the first shock to weighty Bodies does accordingly diversifie their Motion towards the Centre For as the impulsion made downwards hastens its bent towards the Centre so when it is forc'd circularly it is retarded Whence it comes that a glass so cast down that it hath certain turns by the way does sometimes fall to the ground without breaking But to speak absolutely all conditions being suppos'd equal it should seem that the more weighty a Body is the sooner it falls to the Centre And this is made good by daily Experiences as may be seen in the weighing of Gold and Silver in the balance which hath a speedier and shorter cast when the piece is much weightier or lighter than it hath when there is but half a grain difference between both the scales The Second said That the Nature of weight or heaviness was to be number'd among the occult things Aristotle defines it to be a Quality inclining Bodies downwards and towards the Centre Others would have it to be an Effect of density which proceeds from the great quantity of Substance and Matter comprehended and contracted in a small room There are yet others who would have it to be an impulsion or fastning of one Body upon another in order to Motion downwards But to come nearer the business it is only the relation or report there is between a Body and its mean and its comparison with another Body According to this account of it the same piece of Gold is said to be light in respect of one weight and heavy in respect of another Wood is heavy in the Air and light in the Water Tin is light in comparison of Gold though very weighty in respect of Wood. Whence it follows that weight hath only a respective being and such as depends on some other thing and not on it self The Cause of it therefore is not to be sought in it self but else-where as must be that of the recoiling of a Tennis-ball which is not in the Ball nor in the arm of him that playes nor yet in the walls of the Tennis-Court but resulting from all these three together And whereas Experience seems to decide the Question propos'd 't is fit we should refer our selves to it Now it is certain that of two Bodies of unequal weight and of the same Figure and Matter equally forc'd or suffer'd to fall the one will as soon come to its Centre as the other as those may see who shall let fall at the same time from the top of a Tower two leaden bullets one of two pounds and the other of a quarter of a pound both which will come to the ground at the same instant the reason whereof is That the stronger impulsion in the bullet of two pounds meets with a stronger resistance of the Air to break through as it falls than that of quarter of a pound Whence we are to make a distinction between the greater impulsion which the weightier Body makes upon another Body and the celerity or slowness of the Motion wherewith it descends a hundred weight being heavier on the shoulders of a Porter than one pound but not coming sooner to the ground than it In like manner a stone descending so much the more swiftly the nearer it comes to its Centre clearly shews that it derives the force of its Motion from the Centre as its principle as we conclude that the strength of a bullet is spent and the Motion of it grows fainter the further it is at a distance from the arm and gun from which it came and which we hold to have been the cause and principle of it The Third said That the weightiest Bodies make the more haste to their Centre the nearer they approach it for their weight is increas'd by their approaching of it gravity in the scent of weighty Bodies increasing by the continuance of Motion quite contrary to violent Motion which admits of remission thereby artifice it seems in this point giving place to Nature so as that the latter never grows weary nay is infallible in all her Motions and that such a propension of weight to the centre is the only certain rule to draw direct lines to that centre and which is yet the more certain the greater the weight is And whereas the Mind of Man judges the better of things when they are oppos'd one to the other behold one of those little Atomes which dance up and down in the beams of the Sun striking in at a window it is a Body sustain'd in the Air only by its smalness and requires a long time to make an impression in that part of the Air which is under it which thing cannot be said of a Musket-bullet It is therefore deducible thence that the heaviest Bodies descend fastest to the Centre The Fourth said That we are not to seek for any other reason for the speedier descent of heavy Bodies than there is in all the other
which is in Caves and places under ground where it continues in its own nature is not frozen Nor yet that which lies expos'd to the influence of a cold air especially when it may easily insinuate it self into it Whence it comes that to cause water to freeze in a short time it must be warm'd before it be expos'd to the Air which finding its pores open by the heat so much the more speedily insinuates it self into it For as to what is maintain'd by some Physicians to wit that the Air is hot and moist seems to have been advanc'd by them rather to make a correspondence of the four possible combinations of qualities to so many Elements than for any convictive reason since the Air is never hot if it be not warm'd by some other heat then it hath in it self such as is that of Fire or the Sun-beams and these too must be reflected by the Earth On the contrary when it continues in its own nature as it does in the night-time during the absence of the Sun it is actually cold nay even in the greatest heats of Summer it keeps its coolness provided there be no application made to a hot body as may be seen in our Ladie 's Fanns who forcing away the Air from their hot faces are refresh'd by its coolness which then cannot proceed from any other principle than the proper nature of Air inasmuch as motion would be more likely to imprint heat on them then cold And this is further confirm'd by the Air we breathe the reciprocation whereof cools our Lungs whereas it should warm them if it were hot as the Peripateticks would have it It happens therefore that the Air for that reason call'd by some Philosophers primum frigidum the first cold insinuating it self into the Water produces therein the effect which Aristotle attributes to it to wit that of congregating all things as well of the same as of several kinds And whereas our common water what simplicity soever there may be in it consists of all the Elements especially Earth and Air the Air joyning it self to what it meets withal of its own Nature does in the first place render that cold and being by that means united to the other parts viz. to the Earth unperceivably intermixt with the Water and to the Water it self contracts and compresses them so as that they take up less space then they did before as may be seen in a Bottle fill'd with water and frozen up which though it had been full is nevertheless found to contain air in its upper part And yet this compression cannot be so well made but that there remain several particles of Air enclos'd in the Spaces of the Ice which were it not for that air would be vacuous and this by reason the surface as was said before freezing up first it from thenceforward hinders from making their way out those parts of air which either were got in before or caus'd by the avoiding of vacuity when the Center and other parts of the Water are forc'd by the Cold to take up less place then they did before We conclude therefore and say that though the Ice be dense and hard by reason of that compression of all its parts yet is lighter than Water because there is air enclos'd within it which cannot return to its sphere as that does which gets into the Water which by reason of its liquidity makes way for it So that it is no more to be wondred at why Ice is lighter than Water then that cork being harder is lighter than the same water Otherwise had the Ice no Air inclos'd within it as it happens to that engendred in Mines which in process of time comes to be Crystall it would fall to the bottom of the water as the other does The same thing may be instanc'd in porous wood which swims upon the water whereas Ebony by reason of its solidity and want of pores will sink The Second said That whether the Air be granted to be light or not or that it pass only for a body less weighty than the water as this latter is less heavy than the earth certain it is that the intermixt Air not that comprehended within the concavities but that diffus'd through the least parts of the Ice is that which makes it lighter inasmuch as it augments its sinnuosities as may be observ'd in a bottle fill'd with water which breaks when the water is congeal'd in regard that being converted into Ice the bottle cannot contain it So that as Snow is lighter than Hail so this latter is lighter than Ice and this last is lighter than water in regard it contains less matter in an equal space Accordingly it is the Air that freezes the water yet dos it not follow thence that it should be the primum frigidum as the Iron which is red hot burnes more vehemently than the elementary fire yet is not that red hot Iron the primum calidum that distinction proceeding from the difference of matter which as it must be the more compact in order to a greater burning so the cold for its better insinuation into all the parts of the water requires the conveyance of the Air. As to the lightness of Ice it seems to be the more strange upon this consideration that Physicians explicate lightness by heat as they do heaviness by cold But the fiery vapors which are in the water as may be said of that which hath been warm'd contribute very much to that lightness it being not incompatible that these contrary qualities should be lodg'd in the same Subject considering the inequality of the one in respect of the other and it is not to be thought a thing more strange that there should be potentially hot Exhalations in the water than that the Nile should abound in Nitre which is of an igneous nature Now from what matter soever the cold proceeds 't is evident by its action that it is not a privation of heat as some Philosophers would have maintain'd since that which is not as privation cannot have any effect But those who have referr'd freezing as well as thawing to the Constellations seem to have come near the mark in as much as those making certain impressions in the Air which serves for a mean to unite the Influences of the celestial bodies to the inferior diversly affect them one while contracting another dilating them according to the diversity of matter there being some not susceptible of congelation as the Spirit of Wine and Quintessences either upon the account of their heat or simplicity The Third said That if the first qualities of cold and heat were the Causes of freezing and thawing they would always happen accordingly the former when it is most cold and the other when the cold diminishes Now many times we find the contrary there being some dayes without any frost on which thaws we are more sensible of cold and sometimes we perceive it yet without any perceivable remission of the
excess whether that evaporation be caus'd by the quality of the Earth or Waters or proceed from the Metals Minerals and other Fossile Bodies contained within their entrails For if it be acknowledg'd that the waters passing through them derive certain particular qualities Why may not as well those vapours do the like nay haply in a greater measure and consequently work those extraordinary effects Nay upon consideration they will not be found more miraculous than what is related of an Exhalation which issues out of a Cave near Hieropolis which as it is affirm'd is fatal only to Men and not to those who have not lost their Virginity nor yet than the water of a Fountain in Boeotia which causes Mares to run mad as that which was in the Temple of Bacchus at Andros had the taste of Wine that of Delphi lighted those Torches which were within a certain distance of it and extinguish'd those which were thrust into it Now such qualities as these are depending on the properties of the places it may be as easily conceiv'd that those where such Answers of the false Gods were given had the like and thence it is to be imagin'd that those having ceas'd by the ordinary vicissitude of all things the said Oracles accordingly receiv'd also their period CONFERENCE CCXXVIII Of the Tingling of the Ears AS the Ear is the Instrument of that Sense which is called the Sense of the Disciple and is more serviceable to us in order to Instruction than all the rest put together so is it not to be wondred the Ancients should be of Opinion that it contributed so highly thereto that the most inconsiderable motions of it advertise us of things which seem to be farthest from our knowledge Thence it came that they deduc'd certain conjectures of things to come from the tingling of the Ears which they held to signifie good luck when it was on the right side and the contrary when it happen'd on the left Ear which is to represent enemies as the former does friends yet with this provision that nothing contributed thereto from without as for example noise might do or some other agitation of the air stirr'd by some external cause but the tingling must proceed from within sonitu suopte tinniunt aures without which condition it signifies neither good nor bad luck that is nothing at all And what seems somewhat to confirm this observation is that it hath not been cast out among all the other rubbish of superstitious Antiquity but reigns even in the present Age wherein not only many among the Vulgar commonly say that they are well or ill-spoken of when their ears glow or tingle but also some of the better sort are also of the same perswasion They ground this belief on the Sympathy or Antipathy there is between Friends and Enemies which are such that not being confin'd by the distance of places which yet according to their opinion ought not to be too great they force the species of voice and words towards the organs of Hearing which are thereby excited through the communication of those Magnetick Vertues and these are not less sensible then those which the objects direct towards the same instruments in ordinary sensation though they be more delicate and subtile As the Lynx the Eagle and other sharp-sighted Animals see the species of visible objects far beyond their reach who are shorter-sighted and the Birds of prey smell carcasses though they are very far from them The Second said That it was a little too far fetcht to attribute those Effects to Sympathy which being as abstruse as what some pretend to deduce from it amounts to as much as if one would prove one obscure thing by another which is yet more obscure As therefore there is no action done beyond the limits appointed to every Agent which comprehend the sphere of their activity so can there not be any such between the sonorous Species and the Hearing of him who feels this Tingling unless it be within the reach of his ear which since it cannot be when for example we are spoken of in our absence it is impossible the Hearing should receive the impression of the voice pronounc'd in a place at too great a distance to be conveyd to it inasmuch as it is necessary in all sensation that besides the good disposition of the sensitive Faculty and the Mean there should be a proportionate distance between the sensible object and the organ ere it can judge well of it So that those who imagine they hear what is said of them afar off upon no other reason then that their ears tingle have not their Hearing more sensibly but on the contrary worse qualifi'd then others through the disturbance caus'd therein by gross humours which occasion the same disorder in the Ear as suffusions do in the eye when it sees the Objects in the same colour and figure as the vapours or humours whereby it is clouded though they be not effectually so In like manner the sound or noise heard by those whose ears tingle though it makes them conceive the species of such a sound proceeding from without is only illusory and caus'd by the disorder of the ill-affected organ but it communicates its irregularity to the Imagination when it frames to it self favourable consequences from such a humming in the right Ear and some misfortune from the like in the left there being not any reason by which so fantastick and chimerical an opinion can be maintain'd The Third said That it is injuriously done to deny Man that advantage which we find by experience that some not only brute Beasts but also Plants have to wit that of having a previous feeling of the good or evil which are to happen to them by a property bestow'd on them by Nature for their conservation Thus we find Rats forsake the house which will soon after fall down Lice take leave of one that is dying Birds of prey come from far distant places to their food the Swallow comes to give us a visit in the Spring and spends that delightful season with us which once past she goes to find out other Springs in unknown Countries The Ox gives us notice of an approaching shower when having lifted up his head very high and breath'd withall he immediately falls a licking his thighs The Cat makes the same Prognostication when she combs her self as it were with her paws The same thing is done by the Water-fowl called the Ducker and the ordinary Drake when they settle their feathers with their beaks The Frogs do the same by their importunate croaking The Ants by the extraordinary earnestness they express in hoarding up their corn and the Earth-worms when they appear above ground Nay the poor Trefoyl will close it self upon the approach of a Tempest as do also most Plants in foul weather which being over they spread abroad their leaves and flowers and seem newly blown as it were to congratulate the return of the Sun as is