and jet burnt whence the Ancients being about to buy a slave made him snuff up smoak of brimstone to try whether he were not subject to this disease so many Antepileptical remedies cure it but that which proceeds by sympathie from the stomack or other parts more easily then that which is idiopathical and radicated in the brain As the shavings of man's skull not buried drunk with water of Teile-tre and Paeony so contrary to this evil that it cures the same by being hung about the neck II. Whether there be any Art of Divination Upon the Second Point 't was said That Man who alone understands the nature and difference of Time is more solicitous about the future then about the present which is but a moment or the past which concerns him only historically Hence arises his ardent desire of presaging to satisfie which he makes use of every thing in the world Which is an infallible argument of the vanity of this Art of Divination because effects cannot be fore-told by all sorts of causes but onely by those wherewith they have connexion and wherein they are potentially contain'd as leaves and fruits are in the seeds and 't is receiv'd a Maxime that when an effect may be produc'd by sundry causes none of them is the true cause since we cannot from such an effect proceed to the knowledge of its cause Now Divination is not taken here as Hippocrates speaks of it in his Prognosticks when he saith that nothing is makes Physitians more resemble Gods then the foretelling of what will befall and hath already befallen their Patients For there he speaks of the predictions of Physick but here to divine is to affirm an event whereof we see not any cause or probable sign For if by seeing a Rain-bow I prognosticate rain or that a tree will bear fruit when it is well blossom'd or that a sick person that rests ill the night before the seventh day will have a Crisis this is not Divination But if not knowing a prisoner nor his affairs I fore-tell that he will be set at liberty or not that an unknown person will be married and how many Children he will have or such other things which have no necessary nor yet contingent causes known to me this is properly to Divine Whereby it appears that there is no Art of Divination Art being a body of precepts tending to some profitable end whereas were Divination certain it would cause nothing but either despair or negligence and precepts being of things hapning necessarily or most commonly that whose cause we know not cannot be known by precepts And therefore all your Soothsayers Augurs Sorcerers Fortune-tellers and the like are but so many Impostors The Second said That Divination which is a prediction of future things remote from our knowledge is of three sorts Either from God as Prophecy from Devils as Conjuring or from causes purely natural which is Prognostication or Conjecture Prophecy is a divine inspiration whereby one fore-sees and declares remote things infallibly 'T was exercis'd at first by the Priests of the Law with the Vrim and Thummim which were twelve precious stones in the high Priests Ephod and afterwards by the Prophets instructed in dreams or visions whence they were call'd seers Diabolical Divination depends upon some compact either tacite or express with the Devil who being able to declare such things as have appear'd by some outward act as the authors of robberies things lost or such futurities as depend on natural and necessary causes but not such as proceed from causes purely free or contingent the Soothsayers his servants can know no more concerning the same then their Master This Divination is of two sorts The first is call'd Daemonomancy when the Devils themselves give answers out of Caves or Images sometimes by beasts men or most frequently by women rendring oracles by their mouths stomacks or bellies but for the most part ambiguous and doubtful for fear of being mistaken The other is call'd Mangania or Goetia the most detestable species of which is Necromancy which draws answers from the mouths of the dead Others more remarkable are 1. Hydromancy or Divination by water into which they pour drops of oyle or cast three little stones observing the sections of the circles which they describe 2. Lecanomancy by a basin of water at the bottom of which the answers are heard after casting thereinto some plates of Gold and Silver and precious stones engraven with certain characters 3. Gastromancy by glass bottles full of water in which a big-belly'd woman or an innocent child beholds images 4. Catoptromancy by Looking-glasses 5. Crystallomancy by crystal cylinders 6. Dactylomancy by enchanted Rings like that of Gyges 7. Onychomancy by anointing the nail of a child with oyle or tallow and holding it towards the Sun they see in it what they demand 8. Aeromancy by conjurations of the Air. 9. Coscinomancy by a sieve and sizzars All which species of Divination presume either an express or tacite compact with the Devil But there were three without compact 1. Aruspices who drew conjectures from the entrails and motions of beasts sacrificed from the figures made by melted wax cast into water call'd Ceromantie or Daphnomancy from the crackling of burning Lawrel Omphalomancy when by the knots and adhering to the navil and secundines the Mid-wives fore-tell how many Children the new deliver'd woman shall have afterwards Amniomancy foretelling the Childs fortune from the red or livid colour of the coat Amnios Parthenomancy to discover Virginity by measuring the neck or drinking powder'd Agat which she that is no Virgin vomits up again 2. Augures or Auspices who divin'd from birds beasts prodigies and accidents as Pliny reports of the Servilii that they had a piece of brass money which they fed with Gold and Silver and it increas'd when any good was to befall their Family and diminish'd upon some approaching evil 3. Unlawful Lots are Cleromancy which comprehends Homer and Virgil's Lots Alectriomancy by a Cock eating corns of wheat lay'd upon the Letters of the Alphabet Oniomancy by names Arithmancy by numbers Lastly Natural Divination which is Conjecture either taken from the Stars as Judiciary Astrology the Air and its several dispositions the Sea and Trees as when a Plague is fore-told by the flourishing of Roses or Violets in Autumn Animals also supply some presages as Mice running away from an house presignifie its downfall or burning and Sparrows delinquishing a Country denote the Pestilence and infection of the Air. The Third said That the Soul being immortal is also capable of knowing things after the manner of eternity which being a total and simultaneous possession of endless life knows all things at once things future and past as present which knowledge is like that of a man who beholds a whole Army at the same time from the top of a Mountain and that of time in which things are seen successively is like that of him who through a hole sees every
these two points were chosen First Of the Hairy Girl seen in this City Secondly Whether it be more difficult to resist Pleasure then Pain CONFERENCE XI I. Of the little Hairy Girl lately seen in this City II. Whether it is more easie to resist Pleasure then Pain I. Of the Hairy Girl THe First said That this German Girl born at Ausperg called Barbara Vrsine the Name and Sir-name very well suting to the person if they were not invented purposely is no Monster For a Monster is desin'd a Natural Effect degenerating from the right and usual frame or perfection essential to its species But the same holdeth not in this person who is onely an extraordinary effect of Nature whereof two causes may be assign'd First the prevalence of internal heat which more powerfully drives outwards the steames or exhalations that serve for the matter of Hair and is also the cause that Children are sometimes born with Teeth Whence it comes to pass that Hair grows in more places and more plentifully in those which are hot and dry In like manner it hath been observ'd that some notable Warriours and Pirats have had their Hearts hairy The Second Cause is the strong Imagination of the Mother during her conceiving or in the dayes near it when the Embryo being like soft wax is capable of every impression never so little proportionate to its subject yea sometimes it is so extravagant that the effect cannot be attributed to any other cause Such was that young Girl mention'd by Marcus Damascenus and presented to the Emperour Charles IV. which besides that she was all hairy like this had the feet of a Camel her Mother having too wistly consider'd the Image of Saint John Baptist clothed in Camel's hair And this consideration satisfi'd the Father who at first disown'd her The same was the Opinion of Hippocrates when he sav'd the Honour and Life of a Princess who had brought forth an Aethiopian through the too attentive minding of the picture of a Moor hanging at her beds-feet Which mov'd Galen to advise such Ladies as would have fair Children to behold those that are such frequently at least in picture The Second said That this Hair being an Effect against the Intention as well of Vniversal Nature which could not design any profit from a bearded Woman as of the particular Agents which designed to produce an Individual like to one of themselves according to the ordinary course it follows that the Girl must be termed a Monster The Cause whereof cannot be the indisposition of the Matter nor its too great quantity or deficience since all the parts of this Child being well proportioned and her colour native conclude and argue the same as to the humours of her Body Yet it may well proceed from some exorbitance in quality not caus'd by the formative virtue but by the Imagination of the Mother For that of the Father contributes nothing hereunto That the Formative Virtue doth not the business is prov'd because the Hair is a fuliginous vapour arising from the more dry and earthy parts of the residue and excrement of the third Concoction which is made in the parts and the Expulsive Faculty casteth forth as useless and unsutable the same arriving at the skin is imprison'd thereby the Cuticle And Nature which hath no further need of it hinders its return Now this Matter is forc'd to abide thus till it make it self way through the Pores fram'd by its heat rarifying the skin During its stay there it is concocted incrassated hardened and puts on the figure of the Pore through which it issueth As the soft Matter of Glass is incrassated by the heat and takes the form of the mould in which it is formed Hence it is that they whose skin is tender have very soft Hair For their skin being by reason of its great rarity unable to resist the least heat easily opens its Pores which thereby become very small to give the vapour passage which vapour because it stay'd not long enough to be concocted and hardned produceth very soft gentle and loose Hair On the other side in those whose skin is hard and dry the resistance of the same causeth the inclosed heat to act more vehemently and consequently to make greater Pores through the which those vapours passing after a longer inclosure produce a Hair thicker dryer and harder as having been more parched and adur'd For the vapour is by this means thickned and hardned like the smoak which is condens'd into soot in the Chimney Now the Formative Virtue cannot be the cause of this production of Hair in all parts of the Body of this person First because heat the cause efficient is at that time too weak through defect of which we see that a dozen or fifteen years after the birth Hair is not produc'd even in Males Secondly the Matter of this little Body is too soft to furnish stuff dry enough for the making of that fuliginous vapour It remaineth therefore that it be ascrib'd to the Imagination of the Mother who being a Superior Agent many times hinders the Formative Virtue from doing what it designeth That she is Superior it is true For the Formative Virtue belongeth to the Vegetative Life Man begetting onely as he is Vegetative God alone begetteth by the Vnderstanding but the Imagination is a Faculty of the Sensitive Life and so subjecteth the less to it self as the Agent which operateth by the Understanding makes use of that which operateth by Nature So the Smith though a mean Artisan yet makes use of Fire the most noble Elementary Agent as a Slave Now the Imagination acteth in this manner It presents to the Woman some pleasing object this object excites her Appetite the Appetite by its dominion and command moves the Motive Faculty the performer of its pleasure This Motive Faculty discharging its Office by the Spirits which it sets in Motion and sends forth as it lists And these Spirits having their Source and Original in the Brain upon which the Phantasmes of the Imagination are imprinted it comes to pass that when a Child-bearing Woman hath a lively representation or Imagination of the thing which she desires those Spirits upon which the Image is imprinted coming to be sent forth by the Motive Faculty and separating from the rest of their troop which is in the Brain carry along with them the said Image or Effigies The same hapning in the Brain that doth in a Looking-glass which being intire sheweth but one Object but broken into a hundred pieces every piece representeth the same whole For the Nature of Species is of it self indivisible and is not divided but because of the subject in which they are So the Phantasme being in the Brain representeth but one and the same thing but a part of the Spirits upon which it is engraven separating from thence carry the same along with them And arriving with the blood and humours at the faetus which incessantly draws them from the Mothers
before-hand of things to come nor admonish us thereof but by the representation of certain Images which we have some resemblance and agreement with those Accidents These Images are different in all Men according to their several Sympathies and Antipathies Aversions and Complacencies or according to the different beliefs which we have taken up by a strong Imagination or by hear-say that such or such Figures represented in a Dream signifie such or such things For in this case the Soul conjecturing by those impressions which are found in our Temper is constrain'd to represent the same to us by the Images which our Imagination first admitted and apprehended either as unfortunate or lucky and of good Augury But if there be any Dreams which presage to us Accidents purely fortuitous and wholly remote from our Temper Manners and Actions they depend upon another Cause The Sixth said That as during sleep the Animal and inferior part of Man performs its office best concocting the nourishment more succesfully so his superior part being then according as Trismegistus saith more loose and unlinked from the Body acts more perfectly then during the time we are awake For being freed and loosned from the senses and corporeal affections it hath more particular converse with God and Angels and receives from all parts intelligence of things in agitation And according to Anaxagoras all things bear the Image one of another whence if there be any effect in Nature which is known in its cause as a tempest in the Sea a Murder in the Woods a Robbery or other accident upon the High-way the Power which is to be the original thereof sends a Copy and Image of the same into the Soul The Seventh said That he as little believ'd that the Species and Images of things come to the Soul as that the Soul goes forth to seek them during sleep roving and wandring about the world as it is reported of the Soul of Hermotimus the Clazomenian Aristotle indeed saith that there are some subtile natures which seem to have some pre-science of what is to come but I think it surpasseth the reach of the Humane Soul which being unable to know why a Tree produceth rather such a Fruit then another can much less know why those species are determin'd rather to signifie one thing then another The Eighth said He could not commend the superstitious curiosity of those who seek the explication of Dreams since God forbids expresly in the Law to observe them and the Wise-man assures us that they have caus'd many to stumble and fall And why should the things which we fancy in the right have more signification then if we imagin'd them in the day For Example If one dream in the night that he flyes is there any more reason to conjecture from thence that he shall arise to greatness then if the thought of flying had come into his Mind in the day time with which in the dayes of our Fathers an Italian had so ill success having broken his neck by attempting to flie from the top of the Tower De Nesse in this City a fair Example not to mount so high II. Why Men are rather inclin'd to Vice then to Virtue Upon the Second Point it was said That our Inclinations tend rather to Vice then to Virtue because Delight is alwayes concomitant to Vice as Honesty is to Virtue Now Delight being more facile and honesty more laborious therefore we follow rather the former then the latter Moreover the Present hath more power to move our Inclinations because it is nearer then the Future which as yet is nothing Now Delight is accounted as present in a Vicious Action and the reward of Virtue is look'd upon as a far off and in futurity Whence Vice bears a greater stroke with us then Virtue If it be objected that a Virtuous Action hath alwayes its reward inseparable because Virtue is a Recompence to it self I answer that this is not found true but by a reflection and ratiocination of the Mind which hath little correspondence with our gross senses and therefore this recompence which is onely in the Mind doth not gratifie us so much as the pleasures of the Body which have a perfect correspondence with our corporeal senses by whom the same are gusted in their full latitude But why doth Vice seem so agreeable to us being of its own nature so deformed I answer that it was necessary that it should be accompani'd and sweetned with Pleasure otherwise the eschewing of Evil ond the pursuing of Virtue would not have been meritorious because there would have been no difficulty therein Moreover Nature hath been forc'd to season the Actions of Life with Pleasure lest they should become indifferent and neglected by us Now Vice is onely an Excessive or Exorbitant exercising of the Actions of Life which are agreeable to us And Virtues are the Rules and Moderators of the same Actions But why are not we contented with a Mediocrity of those Actions 'T is because Life consists in Action which is the more such when it is extended to the whole length and breadth of its activity and ownes no bounds to restrain its liberty The Second said All would be more inclin'd to Virtue then to Vice were it considerd in it self there being no Man so deprav'd but desires to be virtuous The covetous had rather be virtuous and have wealth then be rich without Virtue But its difficulty the companion of all excellent things is the cause that we decline it And we judge this difficulty the greater for that our Passions carry the natural and laudable inclinations of our Soul to Vice which is much more familiar and facile to them then Virtue Wherefore Aristotle saith all Men admit this General Proposition That Virtue ought to be follow'd But they fail altogether in the particulars of it Besides Man is able to do nothing without the Ministry of his Senses and when in spight of difficulties he raises himself to some Virtuous Action presently the Sensitive Appetite repugnes against it and as many inferior Faculties as he hath they are so many rebellious and mutinous Subjects who refuse to obey the Command of their Sovereign This Intestine Warr was brought upon Man as a punishment for his first sin ever since which Reason which absolutely rul'd over the Sensitive Appetite hath been counter-check'd and mast'red by it The Third said As there are a thousand wayes of straying and erring from the mark and but one and that a strait line to attain it so it is possible to exceed or be deficient in Virtue infinite wayes but there is onely one point to acquire its Mediocrity The Fourth affirmed That the way of Vice being more spacious then that of Virtue yea Evil according to Pythagoras infinite and Good bounded it follows that there are infinitely more Vices then Virtues and therefore is not to be wondered if there be more vicious persons then virtuous The Fifth said We are not to seek the cause of
tyr'd with one season because another soon succeeds it On the contrary we see variety of Food raiseth the languishing Appetite the diversity of Odors which succeed one another delight the Smelling Nothing is more acceptable to the Sight then a Meadow checker'd with several colours or a garden variegated with Tulips and other Flowers of all sorts and hues which the Spring discloses Harmony proceeds from the variety of Notes and the Orator who would move his Auditors must not speak too long upon the same thing in the same words he must alter his gesture and voice and the pauses which distinguish his action are very serviceable to that purpose But as there is nothing more swift then the Sight so no Sense is sooner weary with the semblance of its objects The reason whereof is this being a most active sense its operation doth not make it self perceiv'd by the Eye but by the changing of the object So that when it beholds alwayes the same thing it seemes to it self as if it beheld nothing Look upon the Earth all cover'd with Snow or a Chamber wholly hung with Black or some other single colour the Sight is offended therewith If Green offends us less it is because it is compounded of Yellow and Blew and the best blended of all the Colours and as such reunites the visual rayes between its two extremes yet it affordeth nothing near the delightfulness that ariseth from the variety of Tapistry I conceive therefore that the chief end of the diversity of Countenances is Distinction and lest the same thing should betide Women that did Alcmena in Plautus who suffer'd Jupiter to quarter with her because she took him for her Husband Amphitryo But the subordinate end is the Contentment which Man finds in this variety As for other causes the Efficient indeed doth something for Children commonly resemble their Fathers and Mothers But the Material contributes very much hereunto so that they who for example are begotten of a Masculine and Feminine Geniture wherein the sanguine temper is equally prevalent resemble one another and have a ruddy and well shap'd Countenance But because 't is next to impossible that the said temper should be equally found in two different subjects thence ariseth the variety of Complexions and Lineaments The Second said There is as great variety in all natural things as in Faces though it be not so remarkable to us For we see Birds and Beasts distinguish one another very well Now the Final Cause of this Diversity seemes to me to be the ornament of the World which otherwise would have nothing less then the importance of its name Musick and Painting receive graces from things which in reality are nothing namely Pauses which are onely privations of Notes and shadows which are defects of light This diversity of Visages which ariseth from that of the persons and their inclinations is as well contributary to the splendour and beauty of a state as of nature For if all things were alike there would be a confus'd identity and general disorder not much different from the ancient Chaos Nothing would be acted in Nature for action is not between things like but between things contrary Nor would there be Beauty in the Countenance if there were not diversity in the parts but all the Face were Eye or Nose For Beauty ariseth from Proportion and this from the correspondence of many different parts Very little would there be amongst Men if all were alike there being no Beauty when there is no deformity whereunto it may be compar'd and who so takes away Beauty takes away Love of which it is the foundation This divine link of humane society would be destroy'd for Love is a desire to obtain what we want and another possesseth and therefore it cannot exist but between persons unlike Nor could a State consist longer because all Men being externally alike would be so internally too all would be of the same profession and no longer seek to supply one anothers mutual necessities Now this diversity of persons proceeds from the divers mixture of the four Humours which being never found twice temper'd in the same sort each one having his peculiar constitution which the Physitians call Idiosyncrasie they never produce the same person twice nor consequently one and the same surface or external shape alike If the Matter design'd to constitute and nourish the bones be in too great quantity the Man is born robust large and bony if it be defective he becomes a dwarf and a weakling Again this Matter according as it carried to every bone in particular gives a differing conformation to the same which is also derived to the Muscles spread over those bones from which they borrow the external figure which they communicate to the skin The Third said He found two Causes of the Diversity of Countenances One in Heaven The other in the Heads of Women namely in their Imaginations Heaven is never found twice in the same posture by reason of the manifold Motions and Conjunctions of the Planets and yet 't is the Sun and Man that generate a Man and what is said of the Sun ought likewise to be understood of the other Coelestial Bodies It is necessary then that this variety in the Cause produce also variety in the Effect Hence it is that Twins have so great resemblance together as having been conceiv'd and born under the same Constellation As for the Imagination 't is certain that of the Mother which intervenes at the time of Conception more powerfully determines the shape and colour of the Foetus then any other Cause as appears by the marks which Infants bring with them from their Mothers Womb who well remember that such things were in their Phancy and that they had a vehement apprehension of the same So that as many different Imaginations as Women have when they conceive make so many Countenances and other parts of the Body different II. Whether is the more noble Man or Woman Upon the Second Point it was said That in times of old there was found at Rome a Widower that had buried two and twenty Wives and at the same time a Widow that survived her two and twentieth Husband these two the people of Rome constrain'd to marry together after which both Men and Women awaited which of the two would dye first at length the Woman dy'd first and all the Men even to the little Boyes went to her interment every one with a branch of Lawrel in his Hand as having obtaind the victory over that Sex This Question of the nobleness and dignity of the one above the other is of greater consequence then that other in which not onely Women very frequently get the better there being more old women then old men through the sundry dangers whereunto men are expos'd and from which women are exempted but also Stags and Ravens which live hundreds of years much surpass either of them But one of the greatest difficulties arising in the
in the acquisition This pleasure herein resembling all other sorts which consist only in action and not in acquiescence or satisfaction But may not it also be thus because our soul being a Number always desires and aimes to perfectionate it self And as no number can be assign'd so great but that some others may be added to it even to infinity so our soul is capable of receiving new light and new notions to infinity Or else as every thing tends to its natural place so our soul being of celestial original aspire to the infinite knowledge of God by that of finite things The Fourth said That the reason why both young and old desire to know is because of the extream pleasure which they take in knowing things But if some be not inclin'd thereunto 't is in regard of the difficulties which abate indeed but cannot wholly extinguish their natural ardour This pleasure is apparent in that we take delight to know not only true things but such as we are conscious to be notoriously false yea sometimes we are more delighted with the latter then the former provided they have some pretty conceits as with Stories Fables and Romances For there is nothing so small and inconsiderable in nature wherein the mind finds not incomparable divertisement and delight The Gods saith Aristotle are as well in the least insects as in the most bulky animals and to despise little things is in his judgement to do like children For on the contrary as in Art the less place a Picture takes up the more it is esteem'd and the Iliads of Homer were sometimes the more admir'd for that they were compriz'd in a Nut-shel so in Nature the less volumn things are in the more worthy they are of admiration Now if there be so much pleasure in seeing the figures and representations of natural things because we observe the work-man's industry in them there is much more contentment in clearly beholding those things themselves and remarking in their essence proprieties and vertues the power and wisdom of Nature far transcending that of Art But if the knowledge of natural things affords us such great delight that of supernatural ravishes us in a higher measure and 't is also much more difficult because they are remote from our senses which are the ordinary conveyances of knowledge Wherefore there being pleasure in knowing both great things and small natural and supernatural 't is no wonder if man who usually follows delectable Good takes delight in knowing The Fifth said The Philosopher in the beginning of his Metaphysicks proves this Proposition 1. By Induction from the senses which are respectively delighted in their operations whence we love the sense of Seeing above all the rest because it supplies us with more knowledge then any one of the rest 2. Because Man being mindful of the place of his original desires to raise himself above Plants and the other Animals By Sense he advances himself above Plants by Memory above certain Animals who have none by Experience above them all but by the use of Reason from which proceedeth Science Men excel one another For there are Animals which have some shadow of Prudence but not any hath Science And as Seneca saith men are all equal in their beginning and their end that is as to life and death not differing but in their interval whereof Science is the fairest Ornament The cause of this desire of knowing proceeds then from the natural inclination which every thing hath to follow its own good Now the good of Man as Man is to know For as a thing exists not but so far forth as it acts the Rational Soul the better part of us cannot be term'd such saving inasmuch as it knows yea Action being the measure not only of being but also of the perfection of being whence God who is most perfect never ceases to act and the First Matter which is the most imperfect of all entities acts either little or nothing at all therefore the Reasonable Soul being the most noble and perfect of all formes desires to act and employ it self incessantly in its action which is the knowledge of things Indeed every thing strives after its own operation As soon as the Plant is issu'd out of the earth it thrusts forward till it be come to its just bigness The Eye cannot without pain be hindred from seeing Silence causes sadness And as we see the Boar and the Bull by an admirable instinct of Nature the one oppose its forehead the other its mouth against such as provoke them though the former as yet wanteth teeth and the latter horns so the reason and desire of knowing appears very early in children even before they are capable of much The Sixth said That the Intellect becometh each thing which it understands Hence Man the most inconstant of all creatures is carri'd so ardently to the knowledge of all things which finding not worthy of him he relinquishes till he be arriv'd at the knowledge of his Creator to whom conforming himself he desires to know nothing more but acquiesces contemplating in him as in a mirror all other things of the World The Seventh said All things were made for the use and behoof of man and therefore he has reason to desire to know every thing to the end he may make use of it The Eighth said We have the seeds and treasures of Knowledge hidden in our selves which longing to be exerted and reduc'd from power into act incessantly sollicite us to put them forth Hence comes the desire of knowing or rather awakning these species which are perfected in us by use and in time wholly display'd In which respect Teachers are with good reason compar'd to Mid-wives who do not produce the Infant in the Mother's womb but lend a helping hand to its coming forth For Teachers do not infuse knowledge into the children whom they instruct but only assist them to produce it out of folds and recesses of the mind in which otherwise it would remain unprofitable and like matter without form as the Steel doth not give fire to the Flint but elicits the same of it So those natural lights and notices being at first invelop'd with clouds when their veil is taken away and they are loosned as the Platonists speak from the contagion of the senses they extreamly delight those who bore them inclosed in their breast and needed help to exclude them II. Whether exchange be more convenient then buying and selling Upon the second Point it was said As Unity is the beginning of Numbers in Arithmetick and of causes in nature so community of goods was no doubt at first amongst men But because 't is the occasion of negligence and cannot continue long in regard some are better husbands more easie to be contented and need less then others hence arose the words of Mine and Thine which are more efficacious then Ours and Yours since even Monasticks take it for a mortification and children cry when any thing proper
this charge comes to may be taken for profit upon the Pawn and added to the principal but the remainder restor'd to the owner And nothing above this is to be suffer'd CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly I. How Minerals grow UNder Minerals are comprehended Metals Stones and all sorts of Fossilia or things dig'd out of the earth The causes of their growing or augmentation are here inquir'd All the world agrees that they grow excepting those who hold that God created them at the beginning together with the earth But they who have kept a stone in water for a long time and find the same increas'd in bigness will confute that opinion by this experiment as also the experience of Miners doth who having exhausted a Mine of its Metal find more in it after some years and when they discover Mines as yet imperfect they cover the same again with earth and after some space of time find them fit to be wrought upon and as it were arriv'd to their maturity This is also verifi'd by that Chymical operation call'd vegetable Gold and pieces of Cinnabar or Quick-silver mingled with Sulphur melted and put amongst the filings of Silver being set over a furnace in a well luted Vessel produceth pure Silver though of less profit then curiosity For this visible artifice seems to prove the invisible one of nature according to the opinion of Philosophers who hold that all Metals are made of Quick-silver and Sulphur So that we must not seek other causes of their generation and increasing then a new accession of that matter either gliding along the veins of the earth or reduc'd first into vapour by heat and then condens'd by cold The Second said That he was of Cardan's opinion who assigns a particular vegetative soul to all Minerals as well as to all Plants whereunto they have great resemblance not only in that they have some virtues and faculties alike yea far more excellent which cannot come but from a principle of life since action is the indication of life but also because they grow according to all their dimensions as Plants do have a conformation and configuration which is common to Plants with them attract retain and concoct the nourishment which they receive from the earth by their veins and passages and have also an expulsive faculty which is not in Plants casting forth their dross and exhaling their superfluous vapours They have also roots and barks as Trees have their substance is of parts organical and really dissimilar though in appearance some of them seem to be similar and homogeneous and Lead out of which are extracted Salt or Sugar Quick-silver and Sulphur is no more a similar body then Ebeny Box and Milk out of which such different substances are drawn The Third said That before we can know whether Minerals live we must first understand how life is caus'd in man who is to be as the rule of all living things It consists but in one sole action to wit that of Heat upon Humidity which it rarefies and subtilizes causing the same to ascend by little and little out of the intestines through the Mesentery to the Liver Heart and Brain in each of which it casting off its excrementitious parts it acquires a new perfection the utmost in the Brain where it becomes a very thin spirit capable of receiving any form even that of light as appears by the internal splendor of our sight and that brightness which is sometimes seen outwardly upon some Bodies In Plants are found the like cavities destinated to receive and prepare their nourishment which heat attracts into them and their knots are so many repositories wherein that heat is re-united and takes new strength till being arriv'd at the top of the Plant according to the rectitude of the fibres it circulates the matter so carried up that it spreads into branches leaves and fruit For as humidity is of it self immoveable and incapable of any action so being accompani'd with heat it moves every way and there is no need of admitting an attractive faculty in each part since it is carried thereunto sufficiently of it self Natural heat indeed drives it upwards but all unusual heat makes it break out collaterally as is seen in sweat for no eruption of humidity is caus'd but by the excess of some strange heat not proper or natural Now we may observe these tokens of life in the production of Minerals their vaporous matter being first sublim'd and purifi'd by heat and then incorporated with themselves But because all Natures works are occult and the instrument she uses to wit natural heat is imperceptible 't is no wonder if it be hard to know truly how Minerals hid in the earth grow since we are ignorant how the accretion of Plants expos'd to our view is made we perceive them to have grown but not to grow as the shadow on on the Dyal is observ'd to have gone its round yet appears not to move at all Nevertheless the Arborists would have us except the Plant of Aloes out of this number whose flower and trunk at a certain time shoot forth so high and so speedily that the motion thereof is perceptible to the eye The Fourth said That the generation of some Minerals is effected by heat and of others by cold the former by coction and the latter by concretion or co-agulation which two agents are discover'd by the dissolution of Metals For such as are made by cold are melted by its contrary Heat as Lead Silver and other Metals and those which are made by heat dissolve in water as all Salts provided neither the one nor the other be so compact and close that they admit not the qualities of their contraries for which reason Glass which is concocted by fire is not dissolv'd in water and the Diamond Marble and some other stones congealed by cold are not melted by fire But their accretion is not made by any vital principle but only by a new apposition of matter Moreover they have no sign of inward life as nutrition equal and uniform augmentation in all their parts which should be distinct and organiz'd certain constant terms and limits of magnitude and resemblance of figure and conformation both internal and external between all individuals of the same species For Minerals having no cavities cannot receive aliment inwardly They grow as long as matter is supply'd to them and that inequally Their figure is indeterminate and various according to the casual application of their matter in the veins of the earth and their parts are all alike The barks roots and veins attributed to them have nothing but the shape of those things not the use no more then the paps of men Nor do they bear flowers fruits or seeds nor produce or multiply themselves any other way as Plants do The Fifth said We give appellations or names to things from their external form because
their internal is unknown to us Now divers Minerals have the same proportion that Trees have and the cause why Mines are larger is because they are not agitated by winds nor in danger of falling as Trees are to whose magnitude for that reason Nature hath been constrain'd to set bounds and although Minerals grow much more then they yet it do's not follow that they have not certain terms prefix'd to their quantity If they bear neither flowers nor fruits 't is so too with some Plants upon which the Sun shines not as the Capillary Herbs which grow in the bottom of Wells and some others also as Fern. And the case is the same with this common Mother the Earth as with Nurses for as when they become with child the infant whom they suckle dyes so where there are Mines under the Earth nothing grows upon the surface The decaying and old age of stones is also a sign of their being vital as appears by the Load-stone which loseth its strength in time and needs filings of Iron to preserve its life All which being joyn'd to what Scaliger relates that in Hungary there are threds of gold issuing out the earth after the manner of Plants perswades me that Minerals have a particular soul besides that universal spirit which informs the world and its parts but this soul is as much inferior to that of Plants as the vegetative is below the sensitive II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing perfectly Upon the second Point it was said Sciences are the goods of the mind and the riches of the soul. And as 't is not sufficient to happiness to have riches but the possesser must be able to preserve and enjoy them so 't is not enough to have a great stock of notions but they must be brought into the light and put in practice Now this is done better by him who understands but one single thing perfectly then by him who knows a little of all ordinarily with confusion which is the mother of ignorance This is what they call knowing a little of every thing and of all nothing For being our mind is terminated the object of its knowledge ought to be so too whence it is that we cannot think of two thing at the same time Thus of all the world mine eye and my mind can see but one thing at one time one single Tree in a Forest one Branch in a whole Tree yea perfectly but one single Leaf in a whole Branch the exception of the mind like that of the eye being made by a direct line which hath but one sole point of incidence And the least thing yea the least part is sufficient to afford employment to the humane soul. Hence the consideration of a Fly detain'd Lucian so long that of a Pismire exercis'd the wit of a Philosopher three and forty years That of the Ass sufficiently busi'd Apuleius Chrysippus the Physitian writ an entire volumn of the Colewort Marcion and Diocles of the Turnep and Rape Phanias of the Nettle King Juba of Euphorbium Democritus of the number of Four and Messala made a volumn upon each Letter Even the Flea hath afforded more matter to sundry good wits of this age then they found how to dispose of How then can man who is ignorant of the vilest things be sufficient to know all The Second said If the word knowledge be taken strictly for a true knowledge by the proper causes 't is better to know a little of every thing then one thing alone If for a superficial knowledge 't is better to know one thing solidly then all superficially that is a little well then all badly For 't is not barely by action that the Faculty is perfected but by the goodness of the action One shot directly in the mark is better then a hundred thousand beside it one single Science which produces truth is more valuable then all others which afford onely likelihoods and all conjectural knowledge is no more wherewith nevertheless almost all our Sciences overflow out of which were all that is superfluous extracted it would be hard to find in each of them enough to make a good Chapter as appears by the small number of Demonstrations which can be made in any Science yet those are the onely instruments of knowledge Hence it is that he who applyes himself to many Sciences never succeeds well in them but loses himself in their Labyrinth for the Understanding can do but one thing well no more then the Will can Friendship divided is less as a River which hath more then one Channel is less rapid and he that hunts two hares catches none Of this we have many instances in Nature which ennables the Organs to perform but one action the Eye to see and the Ear to hear and one tree brings forth but one kind of fruit In well govern'd Families each officer discharges but one employment In States well order'd no Artificer exercises above one Trade whereas in Villages one work-man undertakes five or six Mysteries and performes none well like the knife or sword of Delphos spoken of by Aristotle which serv'd to all uses but was good for none The Third said The Understanding being a most subtile fire a Spirit alwayes indefatigably moving and which hath receiv'd all things for its portion 't is too great injustice to retrench its inheritance to clip its wings and confine it to one object as they would do who would apply it but to one single thing not considering that the more fewel you supply to this fire the more it encreases is able to devour Moreover it hath a natural desire to know every thing to go about to confine it to one were to limit the conquests of Alexander to an acre of Land And as every Faculty knows its object in its whole latitude and according to all its species and differences the Eye perceives not onely green and blew but all visible colour'd and luminous things the Touch feels cold hot soft hard things and all the tactile qualities the Phancy is carry'd to every sensible good the Will loves all that is good and convenient In like manner the Understanding which is the principal Faculty of Man and though it be most simple yet comprehends all things as the Triangle the first and simplest of all figures containes them all in it self since they may be resolv'd into and proved by it ought not to be in worse condition then the others its inferiors but must be carry'd towards its object in the whole extent thereof that is know it If sundry things cannot be conceiv'd at a time that hinders not but they may successively Besides that the variety of objects recreates the Faculties as much as the repetition of one and the same thing tires enervates and dulls it The Fourth said All things desire good but not all goods So though Men be naturally desirous of knowing yet they have a particular inclination to know
the subtilest sense to wit the Sight The Fifth said That the nobleness of the Touch appears principally in that 't is the most infallible of all the senses as the most honourable persons are accounted most worthy of credit Therefore our Lord being to convince S. Thomas at that time incredulous caus'd him to feel his side and manifest things are call'd palpable because the Touch is the last sense that is deceiv'd Whence they who dream do not frequently find their errour till putting forth their hands to the phantasin they begin to be convinc'd that it is nothing but air The Sixth said That as 't is a common vice to all the Senses to be deceiv'd so that of Touch is not more exempt from it then the rest and the less because it judges of the quality of its objects only by comparison according to the diversity of which one and the same thing diversly affects it and is sometimes apprehended one way sometimes another A man that comes out of a hot Bath shivers in the same air which he accounted warm before he enter'd into the water and when he that learns to dance puts off his leaden soles he thinks his feet lighter then he did before he put them on The Seventh said The Touch is an external sense terrestrial and gross it perceives hot and cold dry and moist heavy and light hard and soft smooth and rough or unequal acide viscous or slippery thick and thin tough and friable or brittle and other such tactile and earthy qualities For as there are five simple Bodies in Nature namely the Heaven and the Elements so each of the five external Senses corresponds to one of them the Sight to Heaven in regard of its transparence and lucidity the other four to the Elements of which the Earth symbolizeth with the Touch because every thing that is felt must have some solidity and consistence which proceeds from the Earth otherwise it could not make it self felt by it self but only by some predominant quality as we feel not the air when it touches us unless it be extreamly cold or hot The Organ of Feeling is inward skin which incompasses the whole body of a creature by reason of its so perfect and equal temperature that it is neither hot nor cold dry moist but equally partakes of all these qualities a requisite condition in the Organs of the senses which must be unprovided of all the qualities whereof they are to judge So the Crystalline humour is without colour the tongue without sapour the nostrils without scent the ears without any sound And the skin is neither hard like the bones nor soft like the flesh but of a temper between both being therefore call'd a Nervous flesh and a fleshy Nerve which skin never so little touch'd feels perfectly which would not come to pass if it were not the Organ of the Touch. 'T is therefore woven of infinite nerves terminated in it and bringing the animal spirits to it which are the efficient causes of the Touch as well as of all the other Senses For what the Philosopher saith That a sensible object apply'd upon the Organ is not perceiv'd must be understood only of the three Senses which are for the convenience of an animal to wit the Sight Hearing and Smelling not of the other two which are for its absolute necessity upon which consideration Nature hath appointed them to judge more neerly exercising these two Senses by a medium internal and inseparable from the Organ II. Of Fortune Upon the second Point it was said Fortune is a cause by accident in things which are done for some end by an Agent that makes use of Reason So 't is fortune when one walking for his health or divertisement finds a Purse but chance hazard or adventure is in things which act for some end without election as brutes mad people and children who are not fortunate or unfortunate unless in hope The difficulty of understanding the nature of Fortune ariseth from the infinite abundance of things which may be causes of things which befall men And as 't is proper to man to admire what he understands not upon the observation of the many strange and unforeseen accidents in the world some say that they come to pass by a fatal destiny necessarily guiding every cause to its effect others that they fall out by chance to which the ancient Philosophers ascrib'd so much that Empedocles accounted the situation of the Elements fortuitous Democritus and Leucippus thought the production of all things was effected by the casual concourse of their atomes flying in the vacuum insomuch that out of a blind superstition they erected Temples and Altars to Fortune For indeed there is nothing divine in Fortune since there is not any cause by it self but may be a cause by accident and consequently Fortune Nor is it the Divine Providence since that which is foreseen cannot be call'd fortuitous But we give the appellation of Fortune to any cause which missing of its proper effect produceth another which it intended not The Second said 'T was the ignorance of men that invented Fortune which hath no other existence but in their imagination For every thing that is hath a certain cause determined to its effect But Fortune and Chance are uncertain and indeterminate therefore not causes And although the proximate cause of every thing be unknown to us yet 't is not the less certain for all that in respect of God who ignores nothing Therefore if there be a fortune in respect of us 't is an effect of our ignorance The Third said We must establish in Nature either Destiny or Fortune The former seems to fasten man to Ixion's wheel which permits him not to do any thing of himself and takes from him the commendation of good and blame of evil rendring him by this means guiltless of whatever he do's and laying all upon universal causes whatever distinction may be made of God's will in general and particular it not being conceivable that two contrary wills can at the same time proceed from the same source The second is more correspondent with the daily events which produce effects whereof no necessary cause can be found Indeed if effects are to be divided according to their causes 't is certain that some are necessary and some contingent whereof the latter being fortuitous cannot be referr'd to any thing but to Fortune Yea of the things which come to pass in the world some always arrive in the same manner as day and night when the Sun rises and sets others fall out ordinarily but not always as that a child is born with five fingers on a hand there being some that have six and others on the contrary arrive very rarely as Monsters But if this variety of causes and effects hath place in natural things 't is found much oftner in humane actions whose constancy is unconstancy it self there being not any whose effect is certain For what man can promise himself
themselves Amongst Lawyers nothing is so powerful as Custome which makes us patiently endure things contrary to the equity and nature it self such is the exclusion of the younger Children from a share of the inheritance which amongst the Gentry of most Nations descends to the eldest The variety of Custome makes some Nations prefer a supercilious gravity others familiarity and courtesie Some are commendable for sobriety others are notorious for drunkennesse Some people as the Albanians accounted it impious to speak of the dead and amongst us 't is impiety not to think of them Amongst the first Egyptians women went to the Tavern and men spun at home as amongst the Amazons the women alone were Souldiers The Lacedemonians permitted Theft provided it were committed dextrously The Arrians on the contrary ston'd the most pety Thieves Amongst the Babylonian Ladies she was held the most vertuous who prostituted her honour to most people whereas nothing is so tenderly regarded among all other Nations In brief we are civil or uncivil good or bad foolish or wise or any thing else according to custom which Erasmus calls the Monosyllable Tyrant because 't is term'd Mos in Latine a Tyrant to whom he is so distastful that doth not dress himself make his reverences and do every thing to obey it that he passes for a fool in all the rest of his actions The Second said Custom bears such a sway over all the actions of men that it renders all things familiar to them The Understanding commonly embraces the falshoods which it first imbib'd and rejects the truth its proper object whereunto it is not accustomed The cause of which is for that what the Intellect apprehends it so familiarizes to it self as to become conformable thereunto and by the pattern thereof judges of all the rest thenceforward yea of it self which being become like to the thing apprehended cannot approve the contrary every thing being pleas'd with its like The Will although free in all its actions yet undergoes some sort of constraint when it finds it self more inclin'd to persons of acquaintance then to unknown though more accomplish'd Moreover we love rather by custom then by reason Hence Mothers more tenderly affect their Children with whom they commonly converse more then Fathers do and Nurses more then some Mothers As the Memory decays through want of being exercis'd so experience shews us that the most certain Art of it is to cultivate it Custom hath such a power over the Imagination that those who think frequently of any thing dream of it likewise when they are asleep Amongst the outward Senses is not the Sight dazled when we come out of the dark into a bright place as on the other side we see not a jot when we go out of the Sun into a very shady place yet our eyes perform their office being accustom'd to both Those who live neer the Cataracts of Nile the Artificers whose noise displeases us so much and who dwell in Mills and Forges are not disgusted with those clatters and rest as sweetly without silence as others do with it Neat-herds accustomed to breathe in Stables swoon at the smell of perfumes The mischief arising to Infants by changing their milk as well as the manner of living to all ages and the diversity of tolerating pains according as people are hardned to them or not justifie the power of custom over all our Senses So that it is justly stil'd the Mistress of Man stronger then Nature which it alters and destroys and is so powerful that it cannot be destroy'd but by it self The Third said That Custom is less strong then Nature being difficult to change only because 't is some-ways like Nature Hence 't is easier to reclaim one that is vicious by custom then by nature for this custom being a habit the same actions which gave it being by their frequent repetition destroy it likewise by their interruption But Nature being radicated within us may indeed be encounter'd but always holds out yea according to the Proverb it returns although you drive it away with a fork The melancholy person cannot so well play the Greek and be jovial in company as not to discover some token of that sad humour amidst his greatest rejoycing On the contrary you will see sanguine humours which cannot counterfeit sadness even in matters that require it most The cholerick sometimes governs his passion well by reason but he can never suppress the first motions of it because they are not in our power and therefore Philosophy rather masks then amends nature In fine the Phlegmatick always appears slow and stupid in his most violent motions on the contrary custom is easily alter'd by a good resolution as we see in abundance of holy and penitent souls who forsaking the world in an instant divest themselves of all their evil habits and put on those of piety And Socrates could by the precepts of Philosophy change his evil habits not his natural inclinations but that there appear'd sufficient tokens thereof in his countenance to justifie the judgement of Zopyrus the Physiognomer The Fourth said We are beholden to custom that every one abides in his own condition 'T is that which makes Seamen prefer the tempests at sea before rest at land and the laborer despise the treasures of the East for his cart It made Caesar go bare-headed although bald in all the ardours of Africk and the coldest climates of the North. It arms the beggar to encounter with hunger cold and the other incommodities of the air 'T is from hence that we see slaves sell their liberty after they have receiv'd it from their Masters they are so accustom'd to live in chains 'T is this and not nature which lays shame upon the parts most necessary for conservation of the species witness the punishment of some Indians upon such as have abus'd them for they condemn them to cover them whereas others wholly discover them and these criminals account not themselves less punish'd hereby then those that here are pillory'd or carted which also is not ignominious amongst us but by custom It likewise exercises dominion over ceremonies and civilities most whereof are so contrary to health and seemliness It keeps the Mint where honour is coin'd and that which is not register'd there passes for errour and clownishness 'T is this which causes men to kiss one another when they salute whereas thirty years ago they retir'd backward with many reverences which denoted respect yea it bears such an absolute rule over mens minds that as the Greeks and Romans stil'd all Barbarians who follow'd not their laws and fashions all the world nâ—w do's the like still judging ancient or forreign modes and usages ridiculous We blame the manners of the Aethiopians and Chineses as they do ours the visages of the people which most frighten us are best lik'd by them and we phancy deformity with the same lineaments and colours wherewith they paint beauty Those Americans who kill their old
hunt for profit and by the contentment of possessing what they sought besides the consideration of the subtilty of the Fox and Wolf the trouble which the Hare gives her displeas'd pursuers The Second said 'T is the only pleasure which does wrong to no person but delivers Countries from the injuries and depredations of beasts And though 't is the most laborious of all pleasures yet 't is least follow'd by repentance and instead of wearying those that are once addicted to it makes them love it in excess for which reason 't is prohibited to the meaner sort of people All the Heroes are represented under the form of Hunters as Perseus who first hunted the wild Goat Castor who taught the management of the horse before wild to chase the Stag Pollux who first trac'd beasts with Lime-hounds Meleager who invented the Spears to assault the Boar Hyppolytus Toyles Hayes and Nets Orion Kennels and Leashes which were so admir'd in his age that the Poets translated him into Heaven where he makes a glorious sign as they put Castor and Pollux among the Gods and feign'd a Diana the Goddess of Hunters Moreover the holy Scripture gives Nimrod the first King in the world no greater title then that of Mighty Hunter And the good man Isaac would not give his blessing to his son Esau till after he had brought him of his Venison The Third said That Man being since the loss of his dominion over the beasts by his sin oblig'd to defend himself against their invasion this gave rise to hunting which is consequently as ancient as the world There are three sorts of it according to the three sorts of animals which it pursues in the air on the earth and in the waters namely Hawking Hunting properly so call'd and Fishing Hawking is the pursuit of Birds by Birds and it s of divers kinds according to the diversity of Hawks and quarries Hunting is the chase of four-footed beasts which are either great as Lyons Bears Stags Boars or small as Wolves Foxes Badgers and Hares Both the one and the other is perform'd by Dogs of which there are good of all sizes and colours and some peculiar to one sort of Game Fishing is the venation of Fishes whereof Plato makes two kinds one by the Line and the other by Nets the more recommendable in that 't was practis'd by the Apostles and our Lord himself who was figur'd by the first Christians under the Hieroglyphicks of a Fish with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they explicated thus by the first Letters of that Language Jesus Christ God our Saviour The Fourth said That Hunting being as various as men's conditions its variety makes it as agreeable as necessary gunning which is the least instructs the Souldier to shoot exactly to be patient and fits him for war especially the hunting of the Badger who makes head in his entries then fights from trench to trench and at length retreats to his last fort where he practises all the sleights of war usual in besieg'd Cities till he be taken by the undermining of the Pioneers For Pythagoras his prohibition to kill animals is no less light then his Metempsychosis or his reason to forbear fishing or eating of fish out of respect to their silence The objection that God permitted our first Parents to eat the fruits of the earth not the flesh of animals and that during two thousand years none was eaten concludes nothing from a Negative Authority and Abel spar'd not the life of the Lamb of his flock which he offer'd to God then God had done that of the beasts of whose skins he made Coats for Adam and Eve And God's prohibition to the Jews to eat any thing taken by a beast as Dogs or Birds being abolish'd together with other ceremonies Moreover all animals being made for man they have no reason to complain if they be apply'd to that end but especially the hunting of mischievous beasts is profitable II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Upon the second Point 't was said That in this Question to justifie weeping we have the example of our Lord whom we read not ever to have been seen laughing not even at the marriage feast whereat he was present but he lamented the death of Lazarus though he knew that himself was going to raise him up again And he compares the entrance into Paradise to the gate of a Judge which a good woman cannot get open nor move the Judge to do her justice but by many complaints and tears and he pronounceth the house of mourning blessed saying that GOD abides there on the contrary laughter and rejoycing not onely were the forerunners of the Deluge but at present occasion a thousand offences against God our Neighbour and our Selves Moreover all the Exhortations and Sermons of Preachers tend only to move tears of contrition and some observe in the trial of Witches and Conjurers that they never weep which is a certain argument of an ill nature especially in women and children And Dido speaking of the ingrateful Aeneas more resents his not weeping when he bid her adieu then all the rest For we are naturally inclin'd to weeping as being the most humid of all animals and nature seems to have made the brain only for the eyes which being always moist have also a glandule in the greater corner call'd from its office Lachrymalis which is a spungy flesh full of little holes serving to attract the moisture of the brain which furnishes the matter of tears and disperses it drop by drop lest falling too much together the brain should be left dry which is a temper contrary to its natural one Now as for objects without us 't is evident there is more cause of weeping then of laughter For if we look under our feet there the ground presents it self which sooner then every one hopes is to bury every on 's ambition and afford him but six foot of earth if on each side of us there appear so many miseries that the Spaniards who are accustom'd thereunto say proverbially that they who are afflicted with the miseries of others bear the whole world upon their shoulders If upwards what a cause of sadness is it to see that so great and vast a Kingdom is at this day in less esteem then the meanest part of this valley of tears the earth and to see God dishonour'd so many ways Come we down to our selves the infirmities of the body the afflictions of the mind all the passions of the soul and the crosses of fortune have made those that have most tasted the pleasures of this life acknowledge that it is nothing but thorns and miseries and with the wise man nothing but vanity of which not to speak a word were to be insensible to laugh impiety and to imitate Aesop's Snails who laugh'd at their cost It remains therefore that 't is wisdom to bewail them The Second said There is a time
so And therefore there are more fools then wise happy For the latter discerning the meaness and vanity of the goods of the world account it no happiness to possess them but strain their wits to find others more solid which they will never find in this world whereas the former live contented and happy in the quiet enjoyment of their present goods beyond which they wish no others Moreover our happiness and contentment depends upon our selves that is upon our own imagination as appears in the Hospitals of fools who are so far from resenting the horror and misery wherein they really are that on the contrary they flatter themselves with their agreeable phancies of being Kings Emperors and very gods from which they take more pleasure then they give to others As also in that Athenian who imagining all the ships in the Piraean Haven to be his rejoyc'd for their return and su'd his friends at Law for curing him of this agreeable folly In fine according to the meer sentiments of nature the people of the world addicting themselves to all sorts of pleasures are more happy then those who deny the same to themselves in obedience to the counsels of the Gospel and yet in the judgement of God who is the rule of true wisdom these are wise and the other fools Lastly the Law is favorable to fools in the perpetration of great crimes their defect of will being their security For which reason we call them Innocents The Third said This Question is the harder to be determin'd because there is no judge but is a party But if we refer our selves to the wise as it belongs to them to determine things they will judge it to their own advantage And indeed to place felicity of the mind in the total alienation of the mind or in the several degrees of the same is no less preposterous then to place the pleasure of the body in pain or diseases For man's felicity or chief good consists not in opinion otherwise it were not true but only imaginary and so man alone amongst all the creatures could not be truly happy But this beatitude of man consists in his end this end is his action the action of man as man is that which renders him like to God by contemplation and vertue the two most perfect operations of the understanding and the will proceeding from principles to conclusions in the theory and from the means to the end in the practice of moral vertues which are not without prudence and reason because they consist in mediocrity which cannot be understood but by the comparison of the two extreams which is an action of the understanding Since therefore folly is a Laesion of the rational faculty whether this Reason be abolish'd deprav'd or diminish'd which are the several degrees of folly fools cannot be happy because they cannot live according to right reason in which the essence of this life's felicity consists As they are exempt from vices so they are incapable of vertues And if it be true that no man is happy but he that is contented and that contentment consists in the satisfaction we have in the enjoyment of some good which gives us rest fools cannot be happy since satisfaction of mind proceeds from its reflexion upon the excellence or goodnes of the thing which we possess Now reflexion is a most perfect act of the Intellect which returns upon its objects and it self So that what Civilians say of slaves that they cannot be happy in this world because they are not their own nor counted for any thing but reputed in the number of the dead the same may with much more reason be affirm'd of fools CONFERENCE XCII I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness THe Philosopher Thales had reason in affirming water to be the principle of all things whether he had learn'd out of the books of Moses that in the beginning the Spirit of God mov'd upon the face of the waters and so the water appear'd first of the Elements or else had observ'd in nature that no sublunary forms can subsist without moisture which Chymistry teaches us to extract out of the most acid bodies which neither can subsist without humidity tying and uniting their parts otherwise likely to fall into dust as it also serves to all generations those of Plants and Animals beginning always by humidity which is the cause why the Sea is more fruitful in Fish which likewise are more sound then the earth in its Animals of less bulk then the Marine For humidity is the food of their natural heat it also causes Leaves Flowers and Fruits to grow forth in Plants upon the earth and in the entrals thereof it forms Minerals the noblest of which are the most ductile and fusible which is a sign of their abundant humidity as the dryest and most earthy are the worst The dews of Heaven fertilize the earth whence God threatens his people to give them a heaven of brass and an earth of iron and when he promises great blessings he saith he will give dew in abundance which also was the blessing which Isaac gave his son Esau. The inundation of Nilus fattens the possessions of Egypt The Spring the most healthful and agreeable of all Seasons is moist Autumn on the contrary is the producer of diseases by reason of its drynesse Pearls are generated in the humidity of the Sea wherein also Venus was born Moisture is also the cause of plumpness and beauty which is never found in a lean face and a dry body and it hath so great an influence in our nature that we call a good one a good or pleasing humour The Moon governs all things by moisture upon which she hath a particular influence and the Planets are more benigne in moist Signs then in dry amongst which that of Virgo spoils the earth of all its beauties and of the Planets Mars and Saturn are the destroyers of nature by their drynesse In sine Humidity renders the Seasons Winds Places Ages more agreeable and Women more beautiful then Men. As Children who abound in humidity are more agreeable then dry old men And there 's no person but had rather live in a climate temper'd with humidity as between 40 and 50 degrees then in the sands and desarts of Libia more proper for the generation of Monsters then the habitation of men The Second said Although dry weather being the fairest and pleasantest hath more patrons then moist yet 't is more unhealthy The temperate Zones are pluvious and that Autumn which is commonly rainey is yet most unhealthy this proceeds from the inequality of its temperature and some other extraneous causes as the abundance of fruits which fill our bodies with crudities The Spring whose temperature is hot and moist is according to Hippocrates most healthy not subject to great diseases the matter whereof is evacuated
likewise by contrary qualities Besides the Spirits being igneous cannot be corrupted and the corruption observ'd sometimes in the humors is not essential to the Pestilence but onely accidental and however but an antecedent cause For if putrefaction were the conjunct cause then putrid Fevers and the Gangrene which is a total putrefaction should be contagious Wherefore it appears that the cause of this diseases are as occult as its effects are sensible and that 't is chiefly in this kind of malady that 't is to be inquir'd as Hippocrates speaks whether there be not something divine Which we are not to understand as he doth concerning what proceeds from the Air seeing God threatens in Ezechiel to cause the third part of his people to dye of the Pestilence as in one night he caus'd all the first born of Egypt to perish and in three dayes under David seventy thousand Israelites The Fifth said That to attribute the cause of the Pestilence to putrefaction without assigning the degree of it is to say nothing more then to recur to the properties of substance and less then to seek it in the divine Divine Justice these terms manifesting our ignorance rather then the thing inquir'd Moreover the signes of this malady are all equivocal and common to other diseases yea oftentimes contrary one to another in some a pulse is violent bleeding at the nose thirst the tongue dry and black delirations purple spots and buboes in others a small pulse vomiting tongue yellow livid and sleepiness And some sick are cur'd by remedies which kill others as by Vomits Purges and bleeding Even of Sudorificks the most sutable to this disease some are temperate and others hor. So that 't is no wonder if a disease so irregular being known to us onely by the relation of people oftimes ignorant the skilful being unwilling to venture themselves makes such havock since the small pox and other diseases would make no less though possibly in longer time if they were as little understood II. Of the wayes of occult writing Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Ancients deservedly reckon'd secrecie amongst their fabulous Deities under the name of Harpocrates the God of silence since 't is not onely as the Poet saith the God of the master of Gods that is Love but the Governour of the mysteries of Religion the Guardian of Civil Society and as the Philosopher speaks the God of the publick and private Fortune which is maintain'd by secrecie the Soul of the state and business whence cyphers and occult ways of writing took their birth The Hebrews were the first that practis'd cyphers of which they had six sorts L'Etbah by transposition of Letters Themurah by their commutation Ziruph by combination and changing of their power Ghilgal by changing of their numeral quotitié Notariaszon putting one Letter or one Syllable for a word and Gematry which is an equivalence of measures and proportions But these sorts of cyphers have been found too troublesome and equivocal and besides more recreative then solid The truncheon encompassed with a thong which was the Laconick Scytale the cypher of the Lacedaemonians that of Julius Caesar who put D for A and E for B and so of the other Letters and the odd figures given by others to the twenty four Letters are too gross to be well conceal'd The Dactylogie of Beda is pretty whereby we speak as nimbly with the fingers as with the tongue taking the five fingers of one hand for Vowels and the several positions of the other for Consonants But it can be us'd onely in presence They talk also of the same way by bells trumpets arquebuses fires torches and other such means but because they depend on the sight and the hearing which act at a certain distance they cannot be useful in all cases The transmission of thoughts and spirits contriv'd by Trithemius and Agrippa and that invention of quadrants whereby some have phancy'd it possible to speak at any distance by help of a Load-stone are as ridiculous as that of Pythagoras to write with blood on a Looking-glass and reflect the same upon the face of the Moon For besides that the Moon is not alwayes in a fit position could a fit glass be found the writing would not be secret because that Luminary is expos'd to the Eyes of all the world No cypher is comparable to that of writing when 't is well contriv'd to which purpose they make use of keys to cypher upon the Alphabets which are infinite depending upon every one's phancy being sometimes either one Letter or one word or altering in the same discourse and at every word Sometimes they divide the discourse and one half serves for a key to the other sometimes they put key upon key and cypher the key it self with other keys They put Naughts at the end of words to distinguish them or every where amongst the Letters to deceive the Decypherer and under these they cypher another hidden sense by other keys yea they insert other Naughts amongst them for a third sense or to cause more difficulty Some make use of numbers abridge or multiply the Alphabet and prepare tables wherein they put three Letters for one In fine humane wit hath left nothing unattempted for the concealment of thoughts under the veil of cyphers of which the most perfect are those which seem not to be such hiding under a known sense and an intelligible discourse an other sense unknown to all others besides the correspondents such is that of Trithemius by those three hundred seventy five Alphabets of significative words each expressing one single Letter The Second said All the several wayes of occult writing depend either upon the matter or the form To the first belong the sending of Swallows Pigeons or other birds as also the inventions of writing with Salt Armoniack Alumn Camphire and Onyon which appear onely at the fire The formal depends upon cyphers which are fram'd either by the fiction of Characters or by their commutation using three or four Letters to write every thing with some dashes or aspirations which yet may be easily decypher'd by reason of the frequent repetition of the Vowels and those which are thought impossible to be discover'd are commonly subject to great ambiguities and so are dangerous The Third said Of the three Authors which have writ concerning this matter Baptista Porta teaches rather to decypher then to cypher and all his inventions are little secrets as to write with Alumn Those of Trithemius are very gross of which nevertheless he hath compos'd three Books the two first intelligible enough but the third so obscure and promising so many miracles that Bellarmine and many others thought it full of Sorceries which yet are nothing but the same secrets mention'd in the two foregoing Books but hid under more suspicious words amongst which that of the Spirit which is very frequent signifies the Alphabet or the Key of the Secret and to look under a stone and