two touching the diuers consideration of this difference according to the diuersity of that subiect vnto which they are incident For in these tearms of length and shortnesse of life we may compare either things of the same kinde as man with man or things of diuers kinds as reasonable creatures with liuelesse sensible things for there are some vnreasonable creatures longer liued then man for so Hesiodus reporteth of the Crow that he liueth out nine mens liues measuring euerie 〈◊〉 to be 100 yeeres the Hart by the same autâ—ors witnesse thrise as many the Rauen trebleth the Harts endurance and thence was that plaint of dying Theophrastus and complaint of natures inequality as it were blindfolded disposition of her benefits especially in this kinde that to Harts and Crowes so thanklesly had giuen so long time of continuance which was denied vnto man that could and would haue better imploied that benefit Which complaint was personally renewed and aggrauated by Bewaldus an old Grammarian for the sticks not in the person of some captious Atheist to expostulate the matter with God why our life in these times is so curtalled that for the many hundreds of yeeres which in the first age of the world men liued wee haue our stint and limits within the compasse of little more than halfe an hundred But Iosephus in his first booke of Antiquties giueth these reasons and first of all the wholesome goodnesse of their nourishment and the outward compassing elements which they inhabited For their corrupted nature was not greedily caried with desire of their corruptions increase as headlongly on the sudden to engulfe it selfe into all extremity but by degrees and lingringly as vpon constraint by little and little descendeth from that top perfection of corruption And as euery thing was neerest vnto that beginning so was it cleerest and lesse tainted with corruption We therfore in the last age and exteremity of the world are in a more extreame degree of corruption by reason of that frequent alteration in the elements when euery mutation addeth somewhat to the begun impurity A second reason was Gods wil bountifulnes the benefit whereof was not bounded in that small compasse and limit of time but extended also vnto vs and to our posterity For God therfore granted them a longer continuance for reuealing of many hidden mysteries especially in Astrologie for the course of many of the celestiall bodies could neuer haue bene learned no not so much as in any mediocrity had not God giuen some of them at least six hundred yeeres to liue in in which time the great yeere as they call it is fulfilled and perfected To which wee may adde the fewnesse of the earths inhabitants in the beginning of the world God preuenting the dispeopling of the new world and prouiding for its store and replenishing And yet if we beleeue Anacroon I know not how credible a witnesse being a Poet within these few ages last past Arganthonius king of the Tartessians liued an hundred and fiftie yeeres Cinyras of Cyprus an hundred and sixtie yeeres Eginus two hundred and as Alexander and Cornelius report there was one in Illyrium called Dodon that liued the full and complet terme of six hundred yeeres and Xenophon writeth of one who in the I le of the Latines liued eight hundred yeeres But I am of opinion with Pliny that it is very vnlikely seeing it may bee that they erred in their computation not knowing how according to diuersitie of nations in former ages there were manifold and sundry measures of the yeares for the old Arcadians made foure yeeres of one of ours allotting vnto euerie yeere three moneths The Egyptians made as many yeeres as moneths according to the Moones finished and renewed course and according vnto this reckoning it will be no strange thing that a man should euen in these daies liue a thousand yeeres But not to prosecute the diuers continuance of things in diuers kindes as also to let passe the farther examination of the decaied estate of mans life lest wee againe reuiue the now quenched fire of godlesse indignation at the shortnesse of our life we wil come to the most pertinent comparison of man with man in this kinde if first we shall onely remember what was Plinies opinion of the shortning our liues namely that God herein did greatly gratifie vs by cutting off these daies of miserie agreeable to which Silemus being demanded what was the greatest happinesse and good that God could doe a man made answer Neuer to be borne and the next vnto that to die quickly But touching the causes of long life wee may thus brieflie dichotomise them for they are either inward or outward the inward causes are such as either we haue naturally ingrafted or els gotten by arte industrie wisdome that of nature is the good temperature and proportionate mixture of the foure first qualities in the body for moderate heat that is vnproportionate to the quantitie of moisture rather hastneth death by the too speedie consumption of its moist food than any way prolongeth life as we see in men of cholericke constitution So also too great colde that is ouerswaying the quantity or vertue of our natural heat shortneth our life and thence it is that old men the neerer they draw vnto their ends haue their bodies ouergrowen with cold whereupon all the Astrologians haue obserued Saturne to be a Planet enemie vnto life as hauing a vertue of cold and drought accordingly as some imagine was he painted with a sithe in his hand cutting downe as it were and killing men with the operation and infusion of these two deadly qualities which may also be said of the excesse of the other two contrarie qualities moisture and drought for too much moisture oppresseth the naturall heat as wee see greene-wood quench an vnequall quantitie of fire and thence it is that willowes and such like whose almost naturall place is the riuers side are of short continuance because their too much too waterish moisture drowneth their heat So that hereby as I take it it is manifest that none of these qualities singly and by themselues are true causes of long life but iointly all in a good and iust proportion Now if any man shall out of Aristotle obiect that the two qualities of life namely heat and moisture are onely causes of long life we may answer that these two by themselues procure not length of life but in a certain measure proportion Now the rebater of the heats too too actiue qualitie is his contrarie cold and the moderatour temperer of the moistures accesse is drought so that in euery man the foure first qualities are requisite yet were two onely mentioned by Aristotle as being those onely which directly cause long life the other two onely inclusiuely set downe as being no otherwise effectually profitable for life than as they temper and abate the excesse of the two principall But because euery moisture is not
properties which the Astrologians mystically and darkly haue propounded as proper and peculiar to euery and all of them to which if we adde the exposition of some few problemes incident to this Treatise wee will presently annex our Epilogue The first doubt is What the reason may be of our crying and lamenting at our very first entrance into the world There are that attribute this mourning vnto a diuining and naturall forefeeling as it were of the calamities to come but I rather thinke it ariseth from those infirmities and griefes which wee presently feele aswell for want of some good thing which we desire as also for some mislike and greeuance of some incumbent miserie as first that violent motion from that before so quietly inioied bedde as it were in the wombe Secondly the straight narrownesse of that passage by which wee enter into the world Thirdly the cold and hungrie intertainment which we haue driuen out of our warme harbour in the close imperceiueable habitation of our mothers wombe and barred of that nourishment which we before had vncessantly ministred vnto vs and thence is it that presently we betake our selues to that dary-house of nature euen by a naturall instinct and direction where when wee haue well battled our selues by the enwrapping in our clothes are armed against the colde aires iniuries our begunne lamentations are pacified and turned into a quiet contentednesse Secondly it may be demanded why children in their sucking age are naturally more giuen vnto sleepe then when they be of more ripe yeeres The reason is natures mother-like prouidence that for the better strengthening and speedier perfection of her of spring vseth this as a meanes to increase the vertue and operation of the heat and for that purpose hath stored their head with moist vapours fitted through their rarity and thinnesse for the braines coole operation vpon them For as vnited forces are strongest either for assault or resistance so the scattering discontinuity of the thin vapours is an occasion of the colds easier impression and so of their thickning better stopping of the passages of the spirits vnto the outward senses Another cause may be the braines coldnesse as hauing in so little time receiued no great annoiance from the stomacks distemperature it selfe also abounding with moistuure fit matter for procuring of sleepe Thirdly the good digestion of that mild milkie substance whence ascendeth into the head the soundest and most pure exhalations And therfore are their sleepes for the most part without any the least painefulnesse and molestation whereas contrarily we see surcharged stomackes breed vnquiet sleepes Thirdly the question may be why the naturall vitall actions as nutrition augmentation and such like are in infants so powerfull and those other of sense so feeble and vneffectuall The answer is that the good performance of those actions of life dependeth principally vpon our naturall heat For our soule the prince of our body hath assigned to our heat the administration and ordering of that prouince no maruell therefore if those duties be well performed in our infancy when the author of them is at that time most powerfull and plentifull Now the reason of the senses weake operation is the fewnesse of spirits deputed to that function for the instrumentall spirits of sense being to be made in the shop or worke-house of the braine by the braine that excellent spirituall artificer the workeman howsoeuer he bee his craftsmaster as hauing beene Natures Apprentice yet by reason of his imbeeillity and weakenesse is not able in so short space to make many or at least not so forceable instruments as may serue for the high function duty of the soule To which we may adde the abundance of moisture wherewith the celles of the braine are in our infancy ouerflowen hindring the actions of the soules sensitiue parts and dulling her thereto ordained faculties Where also wee haue opportunity to resolue a fourth doubt why children haue so slippery and short memories The reason thereof is their braines too great humidity whereby it is disabled to keepe the impressions of the outward senses obiects For there are two especiall annoiances of the braine that hinder our memoratiue faculties immoderate drinesse and too great moisture For the excesse of drought causeth excesse of hardnesse to resist the impressions And therefore it is that old men for the most part haue so bad memories their naturall moisture being by the heats long continued operation almost wasted And Galen in his treatise of the memories failing because of drinesse maketh mention of a Student that through immoderate watching and studiousnesse had so excessiuely dried his braine that he had almost quite lost his remembrance as also of an husbandman that by too much paines in that his painefull vocation and the slendernesse of hungry-fare was in danger of the like forgetting inconuenience And as drinesse by not admitting the impression is an impediment to the memory so is also too much moisture by not preseruing the imprinted species For so see we water howsoeuer most yeelding yet least fit to retaine any figure imprinted Children therefore so moist brained must needes be short remembranced The next question is Whether speech be naturall or wholly from discipline The answer is that it is naturall as vertue and other good habits be nature hauing giuen a disposition and fitnesse together with instruments fit for that purpose But as wax howsoeuer capable of any impression by reason of its pliable nature yet without the putting to of some outward seale hath no actuall print or resemblance of any thing so our nature though as fit to receiue any thing taught as wax is to receiue impression from the seale yet without the helpe of some outward instructer is not actually and fully indowed with any how proper so euer a quality especially such as are auailable for knowledge In the which kind this of speech hath a speciall prerogatiue but lest I should seeme to bee needlessely busied in this question I referre the Reader for his farther satisfaction to that excellent French Poet Du Bartas in his Babylon Englished by master William L'isle A sixt question is Why children in their infancie haue no actuall euident vse of their reason The cause is the abundance of moisture incident to that age whereby the functions of the inward senses as with a cloud are either obscured or els quite hindred whence was that forementioned speech of the learned Plato That there is a little mixture of folly and moisture in men and therefore Galen was woont to say that flegme the most waterish of all bumors was little or nothing profitable for the attainment of learning In the seuenth place it is demanded why children most fretfull are vsually shortest liued the reason is their plentie of heat in comparison of their small store of moisture for therfore are cholericke complexioned men most pettish because their blood is by the fiery heat of that humor so soone inflamed wherupon the
facility of their sciences For as Apelles said well vnto a Painter that bragged of his speedy workmanship when shewing his picture he said This I drew euen now Surely said Apelles though thou hadst saied nothing yet should I easily haue guessed by the workemanship that it was done in haste So may we well say to these quicke-witted mechanicall tradesmen a man that hath but a little insight into their trade may well thinke their craftes are soone learned and I rather maruell as Apelles said that they learned no more in the same quantitie and length of time But it fareth with their grosse phantasie as it doth with our eie-sight in an vnequall distance from the obiect for as being far off we conceiue of the vnmeasurable greatnesse of the most huge hilles to bee but as a point so the infinite excellencies of the heauenly Artes being too farre remooued from their grosse or rather narrow capacity come into their conceite as things of lesse moment which if their dimme or rather weake eie sight were able to beholde in their diuine nature they would soone confesse their surpassing excellency and exceeeding difficulty But to leaue them to their pleasing opinions and to come to our purpose which is in briefe to handle the differences of the Ages of Mans life as also the causes thereof together with the incident qualities to euery of them which being in some sort auaileable to the knowledge of our selues the highest point of knowledge which can be attained vnto by the iudgement of the wise Apollo as also either altogether omitted or very slightly handled by others I hope my small paines and lesse ability shall be accepted in good worth and accounted of rather according to the good intent of the author than the worthinesse of the worke In which hope of acceptation for my good indeuors and fauourable pardon of my manifold errors I come without any longer Preface to the substance of the Treatise THE DIFFERENCES of the Ages of mans Life Together with the originall causes progresse and end thereof MAN the Epitome of the whole world Lord of the creatures in regard of that perfect analogie and resemblance betweene him the great worlds frame is not vnfitly by the Learned both Diuines and Philosophers termed The Lesser world for there is nothing in the vaste compasse of this vniuersall circumference whose likenesse and liuely representation we haue not summarily comprised in man as in a most perfect compendium and abridgement For as the first-moued-sphere carieth with its motion the subiect inferiour circles so the seruile vnderfaculties as the sensuall desire appetite are by nature subdued to the dominion and guidance of the more principall and mistris-power of the soule which wee call reason And as in the middest of heauen there is situated the Sunne that enlightneth all things with his raies and cherisheth the world and the things therein contained with his life-keeping heat so the heart of man the fountaine of life and heat hath assigned to it by nature the middle part of our body for his habitation from whence proceedeth life and heat vnto all the parts of the bodie as it were vnto riuers whereby they be preserued and inabled to performe their naturall and proper functions But not to be infinite in prosecuting the particulars of this well knowen comparison as in other things we see a perfect proportion so also beside the analogie we may obserue a mutuall coexistence For as the world at the beginning was created for man so with man it shall also be abolished for it is an vndeniable principle in Philosophy that God and Nature or rather the God of Nature neither effectually worketh nor permissiuely suffereth any thing but vnto some good end For being infinitely wise nay wisedome it selfe how can we imagine so high a point of folly resident in his Godhead as to allow of vanities things so hatefull and so abhorring from all mediocrity of wisedome Wherefore man hauing a determinate date of endurance which hee cannot passe the world also which is only for mans vse and seruice must of necessity haue an end of being Now because there is as we said a mutuall coexistence of the world and man as the world is not but for man so neither is man but in and by the world For as in Nauigation those that are in the shippe haue rest and motion with the mouing cessation of the ship so we that are tossed in the rough sea of this world in our voiage vnto heauen our safest hauen when our vessell of carriage once perisheth we also perish together For as Aristotle said truely that whatsoeuer hath being hath of necessity being in some place so from thence ariseth this necessary illation that when there is once left no place to be in then shall there remaine no longer being So that intending to shew this truth as very pertinent to our purpose viz. that man hath an appointed time of being which hee cannot passe the Question of the worlds eternity is fitly incident especially seeing as is aforesaid the world is for mans sake and man by meanes of the world Now if any man shall call into question the pertinency of this question for his satisfaction and resolution in that behalfe let him consider how necessarily vpon the variation of our temperature whence the distinction of ages proceedeth a finall destructition by an vnperceiueable lingring decay of purity in our substance doth depend For as in the violent motion of things naturall we see it comes to passe that the virtue or power of mouing imprinted by the vnnaturall mouer by little and little decaying at length by continuance of mouing or rather by the resistance of the bodies about it is cleane extinguished So in the naturall proceeding toward the enemie and end of nature death the preseruing meanes of life either by the toilesomenesse of their neuer-ceasing operation or by the corruption and mixture of impure moisture infecbled and disabled to the sufficient performance of their functions more and more euery day at length of force yeelds to the oppressing violence of their resisting aduersaries not able any longer to maintaine their conquering action so that the discussing of this contronersie is very homogeneous to the series of this treatise For till there be granted an end of mans life the mutation of the temperature by decay of nature may well be doubted of forasmuch as a successiuc impairing alway importeth a finall dissolution First therefore touching the continuance of the world whether as it had a beginning so it shall haue an end or rather whether it euer had beginning or shall haue an end of being Dionysius in his booke de Diuinis nominibus distinguisheth things that are according to the difference of their indurance the distinction is after this sort The whole number of things how many and diuers soeuer may be summarily comprised vnder these three seuerall heads There are some things or rather there is one thing
cause of life nor the best moisture in euery quantity there are one or two requisite conditions annexed first concerning the qualitie that it be not too thinne and fluid such as is the naturall disposition of water but more cleauing and fat such as may resemble the nature of oile for its better preseruation from putrefaction secondly that it haue some competent degree of heat to keepe it from congealing last of all that it be pure not mingled with excrementall superfluities forasmuch as all mixture of superfluities is against nature enemie to good digestion and sound nutrition Those things thus obserued our moisture shall be sufficiently qualified for our liues maintenance Touching the quantitie in a word as is before said it must neither bee excessiue lest the too great quantitie oppresse our heat as wee see infusion of too much oile oftentimes put out the lampe nor yet defectiue lest the deuouring action of our heat too soone consume it but in a competent mediocrity such as the heat may neither ouer-hastily vanquish nor with the violence of excessiue inequalitie too suddenly be extinguished Where briefly wee may see the reason why man is longer liued than other creatures of more vast bodies for though in the large capacitie of their great receiuers they haue a greater quantity of this naturall moisture than is incident vnto mans small body yet haue they it not so well tempered and proportioned to their heat which may well bee gathered by their slowe and seldome breathing So that it is true which the Philosopher hath that the great or little quantitie of the bodie is no sufficient cause of long life And yet this is withall most true that where there is greatest store of humiditie with a competent proportion of heat there is greatest fitnesse naturally for long life And that is the reason why those that in their infancie are most subiect to a languishing diseasednesse are afterward most healthfull and for the most part longest liued For the abundance of their naturall moisture hindreth the too speedy preuailing of the heat by resisting its action and so is it the lesse mingled with forren impurities For as we see the Smiths fire by the moderate sprinckling of water though at first for a time its force is somewhat abated yet it at length hauing ouercome its weake aduersary as in triumph burneth the cleerer and lasteth longer so fareth it in our bodies for our heat not able on the sudden to ouersway our multitude of moisture is the longer hindred from consuming it whence proceedeth long life and after it hath gotten the vpper hand performeth with more facility its naturall functions whence commeth healthfulnesse where wee may also explane that Probleme why children that are too ripe witted in their childhood are for the most part either shortest liued or els toward their old age most sottish according to our Prouerbe Soone ripe soone rotten for hence wee may gather that from the beginning they had but little moisture ouer which their heat soone preuailed for much humiditie is cause of blockishnesse and folly whence is that of Galen that fleame being a cold waterish humour is of no force for ornament of good conditions and Plato doubted not to say that looke how much moisture there is in vs so much also is our folly and thereof it is as the same Plato obserueth that children and women are for the most part most foolish For the glorious light and Sunne-like splendour of the soule is therwith as with a cloud obscured and intercepted which is an euident proofe of the small store of moisture in these quicke witted forward children ouer which the heat so much the sooner obtaining dominion and in processe of time drying the braine the subordinate instrument of vnderstanding either quite destroieth it and so bringeth death or els so corrupts it that it is altogether vnable and vnfit to steed the inner senses in their functions whereon the vnderstanding in this prison of the boby principally dependeth which may no lesse fitly serue for answer vnto that consequent demand why those infants for the most part are soonest able to walke to talke to conceiue to remember and such like the reason is taken from the little quantitie of moisture which may bee gathered by the contrary disposition in the otherwise affected subiects as also by that which we see in daily experience in creatures of other kinds For whereas man by reason of his fluid vnsetled substance hath for the better strengthning of his ioints his bodie swathed and is a long time before he is able to stand or walke or performe any such like his vitall functions we see other creatures almost in the same moment borne and inabled to stand walke and such like for their vnequall quantitie of heat preuailing ouer the little store of moisture soone sitteth them for the performance of vitall actions that being the soules chiefe instrument in the discharge of her duties Now if any man shall aske what this iust proportion is and when they are tempred so as may best be auaileable for long life the answer is that heat and moisture are then well proportioned when neither the moisture with its too great quantity deuoureth the heat nor the ouermuch heat too suddenlie consumes and eateth vp the moisture Yet must the heat haue a kind of dominion ouer the moisture else can it not be able to nourish the bodie For in nutrition the thing nourished by reason of the instrument ordained for that purpose must actually worke vpon that whereby it is nourished And because that euery Agent must be proportioned vnto the patient in the inequality of excesse therefore must the heat being the soules sole actiue instrument of nutrition haue dominion ouer the moisture the subiect matter of that facultie Touching the complexions the question is which of them is best disposed and fitted for length of life To take that for granted which Fernelius doubteth of namely that there are foure if not onely yet chiefely notable complexions we answer that those of a sanguine constitution are by nature capable of the longest life as hauing the two qualities of life best tempred And therefore is compared vnto the aire which is moderatly hot and in the highest degree moist Yet not with that too thinne and fluid watrish moisture but more oily oile it selfe resembling the true nature of the aire Therefore the sanguine complexion is fittest for long life For choler is an humor like vnto fire extreame hot and moderatly drie and so vnsufficient to make supply of moisture to the deuouring operation of that firie heat which is in it In the flegmaticke the copiousnesse of that humour resembling water oppresseth the heat and so hindreth good digestion whence proceed crudities in the stomacke and liuer from whence they are diffused into the veines and so vnto all the parts of the body and at length the body is ouergrowen with corruption Lastly melancholy resembling the earth and its qualities