as often of apprehension as they thought of that sad fate Which fear ended with the Swine's meat and the Ship 's arrival at a safe Port where it appear'd that that vile Animal had felt none of that trouble which the Tempest had caus'd in the more unhappy men and consequently that their Imagination was the sole cause of it The like may be said of all other afflictions which men give themselves call'd therefore deservedly by the Wise-man Vanity and vexations of spirit For most of the inductions and consequences which the Mind draws from events prove false and nevertheless they give us real sorrows we see frequently that a great Estate left by a Father to his Children makes them debauch'd and worthless and degenerate from the vertue of their Parent who having receiv'd no inheritance from his own was constrain'd to labour and by that means attain'd Riches and Honour Whence it appears that the trouble of a Father leaving a small Estate to his Children at his death hath no foundation in the thing but only in his abus'd Imagination and consequently cannot be a real Evil and yet this is the most general Evil of all with the Vulgar Thus two men lodging under the same roof lost both their Wives not long ago one of them was so afflicted therewith that he dy'd of sorrow the other receiving the consolatory visits of his friends could not so well dissemble his joy but that it was perceiv'd and yet their loss was equal So that the sadness of the one and the joy of the other depended only upon the different reflection they made upon this accident Thus also the same affront that made one of Socrates's Disciples draw his sword made the Philosopher himself laugh at the sottishness of his enemy and every thing which the Vulgar calls Good or Evil Pain excepted is a Medal which hath its right side and its reverse CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether Man be the most diseas'd of all Creatures and why A Disease being a preternatural disposition hurting the Functions every living Body capable of action may become sick by some cause impeding its actions Hence not only Men but also Animals and even Plants have their Diseases which Theophrastus diligently describes Amongst Beasts though some are subject to particular Diseases as the Dog to Madness the Swine to Leprosie the Goat and Lyon to Fevers yet there is none so invaded with all sorts of Maladies as Man who is not exempt from any the least of his similary parts that is nourish'd being subject to twelve sorts of Diseases namely when they attract their aliment either not at all or but weakly or otherwise then they should or when they are defective either in retaining or concocting it or in voiding superfluities But if such part have sense too it may have fifteen if motion also eighteen And if it not only be nourish'd it self but labours also for the publick 't is lyable to twelve more according to the three ways that its Functions may be offended in attraction retention concoction and expulsion The Eye alone is subject to almost 200 infirmities and as if there were not ancient Diseases enough we see daily new ones unknown to former Ages Now the reason hereof lyes in the nature of Man who being the most perfectly temper'd and best compounded of all Animals because design'd to the greatest actions is therefore apt upon the least occasion to lose that evenness of proportion which as it requires a great train and concurrence of many things so also there needs but a little thing to subvert it by defect of the least of those requisites Indeed there are but two causes of Diseases to wit Internal and External and man is alike subject to both to the former by reason of his hot and moist temper which is prone to putrefaction and the more upon account of his variety of Food whereas other Animals never change their Diet which is the most probable cause of their health and good constitution For diversity of aliments incommodes Nature weakens the natural heat produces Crudities the Sources of most Diseases which also are frequently caus'd in Men by the internal Passions of Anger Fear and Joy The most ordinary external causes are the evil qualities of the Air pestilential vapours and malignant influences whereof Man's body is the more susceptible by reason of the tenderness of his Flesh and the porosity of his skin which on the contrary in other Animals is hard and cover'd with Hair Feathers and Scales and renders them less subject to the impressions of external bodies as also to Wounds Contusions Fractures and other solutions of continuity The Second said That such perfections or defects of things as we know most exactly seem to us the greatest as the excellences and defects of Pictures are not well observ'd but by those that are skill'd therein and he that is unacquainted with some certain Nation cannot know its Vices so as they that converse with it do Now Beasts being unable to signifie to us the differences of their pains and the other circumstances of their diseases hence we judge them to have fewer although the contrary appears in the Horse in whom observant Farriers remark a great number of Diseases to which we are not subject So that other Animals may have as many or more than Men who being less concern'd therein less understand them 'T is true the parts of Animals resemble ours saving what serve to distinguish their outward shape as appears by the Dissection of Apes whereby Galen learnt Anatomy and no difference is found between the Ventricles of a Man's and a Calfe's brain If their blood and other humors differ so do those of one Man from those of another Moreover Beasts have the same inward Causes Fear Anger and the other Passions in short all the other Non-natural things and not at their discretion as Man hath If a Dog hath the harder skin yet man is less lyable to blows and the injury of the Air. In fine who knows but it may be with these Animals as 't is with rusticks who though Men as well as we and subject to the same inconveniences yet all their Diseases are reduc'd to a few Heads since the true and spurious Pleurisie the Asthma the Cough the Palsie and other Maladies whereof we make so many branches are all reckon'd by them only for a hot or a cold Rheume The Third said The nearer Nature promotes Bodies to their utmost perfection the more frail she renders them And as in Mixts Glass which is her utmost atchievement is weaker and brittler than Stones so in Animals Man the most excellent and perfect is the most frail and weak by reason of the part wherein he abounds more than they and which advances him to wit the Brain the root of most Diseases And as the most noxious Meteors are form'd in the coldest Region of the Air so those that have a moist Brain are soft and less vigorous as Women and
remov'd from the place the very next day a great Fire happened in the same City For if every thing below is as that which is above and the effects of inferiour things proceed from the various configuration of the Celestial Bodies as of the different combinations of the Letters of the Alphabet are compos'd infinite Books there may be some proportion and correspondence between those Celestial Figures and such as are made upon fit and suitable materials the knowledg of which sympathetical Correspondences is the true Magick which is by the testimony of J. Picus Mirandula the highest point of humane Knowledg marrying Heaven with Earth as black Magick is detestable shameful and ridiculous The Fifth said That every thing acts in the World by the first or second Qualities or by its Substance whence proceed occult Properties and Sympathies But Talismanical Figures cannot act by any of these ways for 't is certain that they act neither by heat cold hardness softness or such other first or second Quality no more than by their Substance which is different in Talismans of Copper Iron Stone c. Although the Authors of this Art ascribe the same virtue to all provided they be graven with the same Figures and under the same Constellations and Aspects of the Starrs from whom alone they make them derive their strange virtues alledging as a Principle That there is nothing in the World but hath both its Contrary and its Like as well in Heaven as on Earth where we see not only the Marigold and the Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun the Selenotrope that of the Moon the Cock proclaims the approach of the Sun As also on the contrary Dogs commonly run mad in the Dog-days and Lions under the Sign Leo But also some Persons beheld with an evil eye by some Planets others being propitious So to cure hot and dry Diseases they engrave their Talismans under a Constellation contrary to the Evil as cold and moist having regard to the Signs whereunto every Malady and diseas'd Part is referr'd which is an Invention of Paracelsus who fancies Poles a Zenith a Nadir an Equator a Zodiack and other phantastical Figures in our Bodies answering to those of Heaven without the least proof of his sayings Upon the Second Point it was said Since Man is compos'd of Body and Soul the best Life he can lead is that which is most proper for the perfection and good of both Such is the Country-life being accompanied with the Goods of the Body Fortune and the Mind Those of the Body as Health and Strength are possess'd with advantage by Rusticks who know not so much as the Names of Diseases the cause whereof is their Exercise and Labour which dissipates and resolves the humours that produce most Diseases as also the purity of the Air they breathe which is the more healthful in that it hath free motion and is less confin'd for which reason Physitians send their recovering Patients to confirm their Health in the Air of the Country Which also supplies the Goods of Fortune the true and natural Riches to wit the Fruits of the Earth and the Spoils of Animals Gold Silver and other artificial Goods being but imaginary and useless without those first whereunto they are subservient But above all the Goods of the Mind which consist in Knowledg and Virtue the two Ornaments of its two chief Faculties the Understanding and the Will may be acquir'd much more easily in a Country-life in regard of the purer Air which begets like Spirits as these frame purer Species and Phantasms on which depend the actions of the Understanding which besides cannot meditate nor improve without rest and silence scarce found in a civil and tumultuary Life as that in Cities is which hold our Minds as well as Bodies in captivity depriving us of the free aspect of Heaven the rising and setting of the Sun and Stars and of the means of considering the Wonders of God in the production of Flowers Fruits and Plants Hence the Poets feign'd the Muses the Goddesses of the Sciences living in the Mountains of Helicon and in Woods not in the inclosure of Cities where Virtues are also more difficultly practis'd than the Sciences nothing of them being left there but shadows and phantasms which under veils of Dissimulation Hypocrisie Complements and other testimonies of Virtue cover Injustices Sacriledges Impieties and other Crimes unknown in the Country where Simplicity and Innocence are sure tokens of true Virtue which is also better retain'd amongst the Thorns and Sweats of the Country than in the Luxury and Idleness of Cities And if things may be judg'd of by their beginnings the Sacred History tells That Cain the first Murtherer was the first that built a City named Henoch after the Name of his Son as a little after did the first Tyrant of the World Nimrod who built Niniveh On the contrary all holy Personages have lead a Country-life Adam was a Husband-man and so was Cain as long as he continu'd in the state of Innocence which as soon as he lost he desir'd to become a Burgess Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs his Sons were Shepherds as also the Kings Saul and David and the Prophets Amos Elisha and many others in imitating whose example we cannot erre The Second said That Man being a sociable and political Animal the habitation of Cities is as consentaneous to his Nature as the Country-life is repugnant to the same And therefore Men had no sooner discover'd the inconveniences of the Rustick-life but they unanimously conspir'd to build Cities to the end to supply one anothers Necessities and defend themselves from wild Beasts and their Enemies to whose fury they were expos'd before they liv'd in some Town which is a Sacred Society or Unity of Citizens all aspiring to the conservation of the State to the maintaining of the Laws and Justice and to the publick Ornament and Glory making Arts and Disciplines flourish and procuring Safety to all People by the distribution of Rewards to Virtue and Punishment to Vices which have not their effect but in publick For our Lives would not differ from those of Brutes if we were oblig'd to dwell in Dens or wander up and down Woods as the Barbarians of the new World do whose Brutality Irreligion Cruelty Ignorance and Misery compar'd with the Politeness Devotion Humanity Knowledg and Happiness of others sufficiently manifest what difference there is between a City and a Country-life CONFERENCE CIX I. Of Volcano's or Subterranean Fires II. Which Age is most desirable THe effects of Volcano's and Subterranean Fires are no less manifest than their cause is unknown although the desire of teaching us the same occasion'd the death of Pliny by haying too neer approach'd the Fires of Mont Gibel or Aetna and made Empedocles cast himself head-long into them But the former did not attain it and the latter left us nothing but his Pantofles The Artifice of Man hath indeed excavated the
Senses of their party as Vices have The Third said That sensible and palpable things as examples are have more power upon us than bare words which cannot so well perswade a Truth but that they alwayes leave some doubting in us whereas Examples being sensible give us a more entire and perfect Knowledge yea they have influence even upon brute beasts who learn not by Precepts but by Examples which is an evidence of their certainty for a thing is the more certain the more common it is to us with more Hence Plato affirmes That Examples are necessary to perswade high and lofty matters Precepts indeed dispose but Examples animate the Soul to Virtue those admonish these stimulate and guide as in the resolution of doing well Instructions shew the way but Examples drive us with the point of Honour and the force of Emulation Nor do Precepts include Examples but the contrary and every Example comprehends a Document When we see a Good Man square his Life out to his Duty we find I know not what satisfaction and contentment in the admimiration of his Virtue and this pleasure makes us conceive yea strongly perswades us that all Virtues are amiable Even Vicious Examples sometimes make Vice appear to us so deform'd that we detest instead of pursuing it Hence the Lacedemonians setting aside the Precepts of Temperature were wont to make their Slaves drunk that the ill-favour'd spectacle might make their Children abhor that Vice Lastly Our Saviour whose Life was a continued Example of Virtue did more Works to teach us then he gave Words and Precepts most of which are comprehended under Examples and Parables Yea the Devil well knowing that Adam's mind was too strong to be prevail'd upon by Reasons first gain'd that of his Wife which was more weak that he might allure him to sin by her Example The Fourth said The end is not onely more noble but also more effectual than the means for 't is to that alone that they aim and terminate Now the end of all Examples is to deduce Precepts from them which Precepts are general Notions grounded upon many Experiences or Examples either of others or our own but these being wholly particular can have no power upon the Understanding which frames its conclusions onely upon things universally true as Maximes and Precepts are and that more than Examples for these are never perfect but full of a thousand defects those sure and infallible Moreover Precepts move the Understanding which is the noblest of all the Faculties whereas Examples make impression onely upon the outward senses and dull wits The Fifth said That as the Sight and the Hearing know how to put a difference between Colours and Sounds without Learning and all the Faculties can naturally discern their own Objects So the Understanding knows naturally the first Principles and clearly beholds those first Verities The Will hath also in it self the Principles and Seeds of Virtues as the Synteresis and remorse of Conscience in the most wicked sufficiently prove and is of it self carryed to Virtuous Actions without needing either Preecepts or Examples equally unprofitable to the bad who amend not thereby and to the good who want them not The Sixth said That the Question is to be decided by distinguishing of the Minds of Men. Those that excel in Judgement attribute more to Reason than to Examples which being more sensible affect the Imagination of duller heads who are not capable of Reasons So that though Precepts and Arguments be without comparison more perfect than Examples yet because very few are capable of them because the generality of the World is stupid and dull therefore they are not generally so proper to teach as Examples which nevertheless being of no power but serving onely to clear an obscure Truth ought not to have any ascendant over a Mind that is reasonable and furnish'd with Knowledge CONFERENCE CXXVIII Of Incubi and Succubae and whether Devils can generate TWo sorts of people err in this matter the superstitious and ignorant vulgar who attribute every thing to Miracles and account the same done either by Saints or Devils and the Atheists and Libertines who believe neither the one nor the other Physitians take the middle way distinguishing what is fit to be attributed to Nature and her ordinary motions from what is supernatural to which last Head 't is not reasonable to referr diseases and indispositions as the Incubus is call'd by the Greeks Ephialtes and by the vulgar the Night-mare 'T is defin'd An impediment of Respiration Speech and Motion with oppression of the Body whereby we feel in our sleep as 't were some weight upon the Stomack The Cause of it is a gross Vapor obstructing principally the hinder part of the Brain and hindring the egress of the Animal Spirits destinated to the motion of the parts which Vapor is more easily dissipable than the humor which causeth the Lethargy Apoplexy and other Symptoms which are therefore of longer duration than this which ceases as soon as the said Vapor is dissipated Now whereas the Passions of the Mind and Body commonly supply the matter of Dreams as those that are hungry or amorous will think they eat or see what they love those that have pain in some part dream that some body hurts the same hence when Respiration the most necessary of all the animal functions is impeded we presently imagine we have a load lying on our Breasts and hindring the dilatation of the same And because the Brain is employ'd in the Incubus therefore all the animal functions are hurt the Imagination deprav'd the Sensation obtunded Motion impeded Hence those whom this evil seizes endeavor to awake but can neither move nor speak till after a good while And though the Cause of this disorder be within our selves nevertheless the distemper'd person believes that some body is going about to strangle him by outward violence which the depraved Imagination rather thinks upon than Internal Causes that being more sensible and common This has given occasion to the error of the Vulgar who charge these Effects upon Evil Spirits instead of imputing them to the Malignity of a Vapor or some phlegmatick and gross humor oppressing the Stomack the coldness and weakness whereof arising from want of Spirits and Heat which keeps all the parts in due order are the most manifest Causes Much unlikely it is to be caused by Generation which being an Effect of the Natural Faculty as this of the Vegetative Soul cannot belong to the Devil who is a pure Spirit The Second said As 't is too gross to recurr to supernatural Causes when Natural are evident so 't is too sensual to seek the Reason of every thing in Nature and to ascribe to meer Phlegm and the distempered Phant'sie the Coitions of Daemons with Men which we cannot deny without giving the lye to infinite of persons of all Ages Sexes and Conditions to whom the same have happened nor without accusing the Sentences of Judicial Courts
said Reason having been given Man to correct the Inclinations of the Sensitive Appetite 't is that alone must judge whether it be expedient for him to live long not Sense which makes us judge like beasts That nothing is dearer than Life But Reason illuminated either by Faith or by Philosophy teaches us that this World is the place of our banishment the Body the Soul's Prison which she alwayes carryes about with her Life a continual suffering and War and therefore he fights against Natural Light who maintaines it expedient to prolong so miserable a State For besides the incommodities attending a long Life which after 70. years as David testifies is onely labour and sorrow long Life is equally unprofitable towards attaining Knowlege and Virtue He that lives long can learn nothing new in the World which is but a Revolution and Repetition of the same Effects produc'd alwayes by the same Causes not onely in Nature whose course and changes may be seen in the Revolution of the Four Seasons of the Year but even in Affairs of State and Private Matters wherein nothing is said or done but what hath been practis'd before And as for Virtue the further we are from Childhod the less Innocence and Sanctity we have and Vices ordinarily increase with years The long Life of the first Men having according to some been the probable Cause of the depravation of those Ages CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy AS the Brain is the most eminent and noble of all the parts being the Seat of the Understanding and the Throne of the Reasonable Soul so its diseases are very considerable and the more in that they do not attaque that alone but are communicated to all the other parts which have a notable interest in the offence of their Chief ceasing to diffuse its Animal Spirits destinated to Motion Sense and the Function of the Inferior Members Which Functions are hurt by the Lethargy which deprives a Man of every other Inclination but that to sleep and renders him so forgetful and slothful whence it took its Greek name which signifies sluggish oblivion that he remembers nothing at all being possess'd with such contumacious sleepiness that she shuts his Eyes as soon as he ha's open'd them besides that his Phansie and Reasoning is hurt with a continual gentle Fever Which differences this Symptom from both the sleeping and waking Coma call'd Typhomania the former of which commonly begins in the Fits of Fevers and ends or diminishes at their declination but the Lethargick sleeps soundly and being wak'd by force presently falls a sleep again The latter makes the Patient inclin'd to sleep but he cannot by reason of the variety of Species represented to him in his Phansie The signes of this Malady are deliration heaviness of the Head and pain of the Neck after waking the Matter taking its course along the spine of the back frequent oscitation trembling of the Hands and Head a palish Complexion Eyes and Face pufft up sweatings troubled Urine like that of Cattle a great Pulse languishing and fluctuating Respiration rare with sighing and so great forgetfulness as sometimes not to remember to shut their Mouths after they have open'd nor even to take breath were they not forc'd to it by the danger of suffocation The Conjunct and next Cause of this Malady is a putrid Phlegm whose natural coldness moistens and refrigerates the Brain whilst it s put refactive heat kindles a Fever by the vapors carry'd from the Brain to the Heart and from thence about the whole Now this Phlegmatick Humor is not detained in the Ventricles of the Brain for then it would cause an Apoplexy if the obstruction were total and if partial an Epilepsie wherein the Nerves contract themselves towards their original for discharging of that Matter But 't is onely in the sinuosities and folds of the Brain which imbibing that excessive humidity acquires a cold and moist intemperature from whence proceeds dulness and listelesness to all Actions For as Heat is the Principle of Motion especially when quickned by Dryness so is Cold the Cause of stupidity and sluggishness especially when accompanied with humidity which relaxes the parts and chills their Action In like manner Heat or Dryness inflaming our Spirits the Tunicles of the Brain produce the irregular Motions of Frenzy which is quite contrary to the Lethargy although it produce the same sometimes namely when the Brain after great evacuations acquires a cold and moist intemperature in which case the Lethargy is incurable because it testifies Lesion of the Faculty and abolition of strength But on the contrary a Frensie after a Lethargy is a good sign resolving by its Heat and dissipating the cold humors which produce the same The Second said That coldness being contrary to put refaction Phlegm the coldest of all humors cannot easily putrifie in the Brain which is cold too of its own nature much less acquire a Heat sufficient to communicate it self to the Heart and there excite a Fever it being more likely for such adventitious Heat to cause in the Brain rather the impetuous motions of a Frenzy than the dulness and languor of a Lethargy Nor is it less then absurd to place two enemy-qualities in the same Subject to wit Cold and Heat whereof the one causes sleep the other a Fever which I conceive to precede not to follow the Lethargy and which having raised from the Hypochondres to the Brain a Phlegmatick blood mixt with gross vapors there causeth that obscuration of Reason and sluggishness of the whole Body but especially the abolition of the Memory the sutable temperament for which is totally destroyed by excessive humidity Indeed the troubled Urine liquid Digestions Tumors and pains of the Neck bloated Flesh and other such signs accompanying this disease argue that its matter is more in the rest of the Body than in the Brain which suffers onely by Sympathie The Third said If it be true that sleep is the Brother of Death then the Lethargy which is a continual drowsiness with a Fever and Delirium seemes to be a middle Estate between Life and Death which is known by the cessation of Actions most of which fail in those afflicted with this Evil which nevertheless is less then the Carus wherein the sleep is so profound that the Patient feels not when he is prickt or call'd by name but is depriv'd of all Sense and Motion saving that of Respiration which scarce appears in the Catoche or Catalepsie a stranger symptom than any of the former wherein the Eyes remain wide open the whole Body stiff and in the same state and posture wherein it hapned to be when it first seiz'd the same The Cause whereof most say is a cold and moist humor obstructing the hinder part of the Brain but I rather ascribe it to a sudden Congelation of the Animal Spirits as I do the Lethargy to narcotick and somniferous vapors which are the sole Causes of Inclination to sleep which cannot
her throat and without whom she would dash against the shore by the Pike which keeps company with the Tench whose sliminess serves to close his wounds by the Tunnies who always set their good eye toward the shore and move well order'd in a cubick squadron by the Sea-Urchins which presaging a tempest lade themselves with stones for fear of being carry'd away by the waves and by all Fishes in general which swim against the wind lest it should open their scales excepting one whose scales are set the contrary way CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases CRisis if you consider its derivation from a word which signifies either to judge or to separate or to encounter agrees in some sort to every of those significations for a Disease is judg'd by it it separates the good humors from the bad and that after a combat between Nature and the Disease But 't is commonly defin'd a mutation of a Disease either to Health or Death for better or for worse We must first consider in it the term of its commencement which is the Augmentation of the Malady whence acute ones have their Crisis sooner then Chronical the very acute being sometimes judg'd in four days in which time very malignant Fevers sweep men away but commonly within seven days acute Diseases are judg'd by the 14th or 20th day and sometimes not before the 40th Chronical Diseases extend to the 120th after which term they count no longer by days but by moneths and years The term it ends at is either Health or Death or the change of one Disease into another The term through which it passes is the space of time employ'd by Nature in the coction separation and excretion of the peccant Humours The Agent or Motor is Nature which must be assisted in imperfect Crises not in such as are perfectly made Lastly we must consider what is mov'd namely the Humors for Crisis hath place only in humoral Diseases A perfect Crisis judges the Malady perfect either to Health or Death and hath had its indices of coction the fourth day for the Crisis on the seventh the eleventh for that on the fourteenth and the seventeenth for that on the twentieth it must also be manifest either by evacuation or abscess for those that mend without apparent cause relapse and fall upon critical days without any dangerous symptom and after such evacuation the Patient must be manifestly better especially if it be universal and sutable to his Nature Age and Malady Long Diseases are judg'd by Abscesses acute by Evacuation In young persons Fevers are judg'd commonly by Haemorrhage or some flux of blood in old men by that of the belly Now besides those Critical and Indicative days there are others call'd Intercidents which judge imperfectly and others also Medicinal because in them purgatives may be adminished which days are sometimes Critical but always unfaithful and commonly mischievous which will better appear by this general application The first day is reckon'd from the hour of the first invasion felt by the Patient in acute Diseases and from the time of his decumbiture in Chronical Yet in women newly deliver'd we begin not to reckon from the time of parturition unless it were precipitated but from the time of the Fever and this first day judges no other Disease but a Febris Ephemera or one-day Fever The second day is vacant and without effect The third is Intercident call'd by some Provocant because it irritates and provokes Nature to make excretions before the time for being odd it causes some motion in the morbifick matter but imperfectly as not following the order of Nature mention'd hereafter neverthess t is Critical in very acute Maladies and such as disorder the Laws of Nature The fourth is an index of the seventh and shews what is to be expected that day by either the Concoction or Crudity of the Urin and other excrements no laudable Crisis hapning without Concoction precedent Which holds good not only in continual Fevers but also in the fits or accessions of Intermitting ones for the fourth day being the middlemost between the first and the seventh it foreshews the design and strength or weakness of Nature and what she is able to do on the seventh The fifth resembles the third being likewise provocatory in Diseases wherein Nature hath made an unprofitable attempt on the third which she then endeavours to repair but unsuccessfully too this Crisis being most commonly imperfect The sixth is also Intercident but ordinarily very badly critical Whence Galen compares it to a cruel and faithless tyrant which precipitates the Patient into evident danger of life if it do not kill him It hath place chiefly in cholerick Diseases for in sanguine ones salutiferous Crises happen on this day which is even the Blood being observ'd to move on even days On the contrary the seventh resembles a just and gentle King or Magistrate for neither precipitating nor deferring too long the judgment of the Patient it gives him time of consideration judging him after its Indices fully and perfectly safely manifestly and without danger 'T is call'd Radical as being the root and foundation of all the other Critical Days and the end of the first week The eighth is of kin to the sixth but not quite so dangerous The ninth is the greatest Intercident and comes nearest to the nature of the Critical though it be not of their number The cause whereof is its being compos'd of odd numbers wherein we have said that morbifick humors are commonly mov'd or else because 't is equally distant from 7 and 11. The tenth resembles the eighth in danger and other circumstances The eleventh is an index of the fourteenth to which it hath the same reference that the fourth hath to the seventh saving that the second week is less active then the first and the third then the second The twelfth is not of any consideration and Galen saith he never observ'd any Crisis good or bad on it The like of the thirteenth The fourteenth follows the seventh in dignity and judges those Diseases which the seventh did not being the end of the second week and in this consideration odd The fifteenth and sixteenth are not any-wise remarkable The seventeenth is an index of the twentieth till which the intervening are insignificant and this twentieth is taken by Physicians for the end of the third week because they make the same begin from the fourteenth inclusively From the 20th to the 40th which is the end of Crisis in acute diseases every seventh day is critical But after the 40th Diseases are call'd Chronical and have their Crisis every 20th day to 120 so much the more obscure as they are distant from the beginning Of all which changes the Moon seems rather to be the cause then the other Planets or the vertue of Numbers as being more active by reason of her proximity and various apparitions The Second said That the reason upon which Astrologers
and divorce of them asunder Diseases of bare Intemperature which is either simple or with matter the Imagination may produce by moving the Spirits and Humors which it hath power to do For the Spirits being aerious and naturally very hot when they are sent by a strong Imagination into some part they may so heat it as by the excess of their heat to destroy the temper of such part as Anger sometimes heats the Body into a Fever And as the too great concourse of these Spirits makes hot intemperatures so their absence from other parts causes cold Diseases as crudities and indigestions familiar to such as addict themselves to Study and Meditation after Meat the Spirits which should serve for Concoction being carry'd from the Stomack to the Brain In like manner the Imagination having dominion over the Humors which it moves by mediation of the Spirits as Joy Shame and Anger bring blood and heat into the Face and outward parts and Fear and Sadness give them a contrary motion it appears that it hath power to produce Maladies of Intemperies with matter by the fluxion or congestion of the Humors into some part and out of their natural seat But if the Phansie can disorder the work of Conformation in another body then it s own as that of an Infant whose marks and defects wherewith he is born are effects of his Mothers Phansie much more may it cause the same disorder in its own Body whereunto it is more nearly conjoyn'd Wherefore since it can destroy the temper of the Similar parts and the harmony of the Organs it may also cause Diseases and by the same means cure them too for if contraries be cur'd by their contraries then it may cure a cold distemper by producing a hot one and if it hath power to cause by motion of the humors an obstruction in some part it may by the same means return them to their natural place and cure such obstruction 'T was to the Phansie that the cure of those Splenetick persons is to be attributed who were cur'd by the touch of the great Toe of Pyrrhus's left Foot and we see many Cures wrought by Amulets Periapts and other like Remedies which having no vertue in themselves to produce such an effect the same must be referr'd to some other cause Now none hath more empire then the Imagination over the Spirits and other Humours wherein almost all Diseases consist The Second said That the Imagination being a simple Cognoscitive Power cannot of it self produce the effects that are ascrib'd to it For all Cognition is Passion and to know is to suffer and receive the Species of the thing that is to be known whose impression made upon the Organs of Sense is by them carry'd to the Imagination which judges thereof upon their report Moreover there is this notable difference between the Sensitive or Cognoscitive Powers and the Vegetative or Motive which are destitute of all Cognition that the latter are active out of themselves and operate upon the Members which the Motive Faculty moves with full power and upon the aliments which the Vegetative Faculties as the Nutritive and Auctive alter and turn into the nature of the parts But the Sensitive Faculties and all other Cogniscitive Powers have no real sensible action They are active indeed so far as they are powers issuing from very perfect Forms but their actions are immanent and produce nothing beyond themselves and consequently can have no influence abroad So that the Imagination cannot immediately and of its own nature produce either a Disease or Health in the Body but only by means of the Motive Power or Sensitive Appetite the Passions whereof are acknowledg'd by Physitians to be the external causes of Diseases If the Phansie could produce any thing it should be by help of the Species it is impregnated withall which being extracted from things some think that they eminently contain the vertues of the objects from whence they issue and whereof they are Pictures and that hence it is that the Teeth are set on edge upon the hearing of grating sounds that the sight of a Potion purges many and that of salt things makes the Stomack rise in others and that the thought of the Plague oftentimes propagates it more then the corruption of the Air. Nevertheless these effects proceed only from the various motion of Heat and the Spirits caus'd by the Appetite and the Motive Power which are distinct from the Imagination For if the Species had the same power with the objects from which they issue they would not be perfective but destructive of their Organs the Species of Heat would burn the Brain that of Cold would cool it both would destroy it which is contrary to experience For though Heat and Cold are contraries in Nature yet they are not so in the Understanding but rather friendly the one contributing to the knowledg of the other and the end of Intentional Species is not to alter but onely to represent the objects whereof they are copies The Third said That Aristotle hath built his Physiognomy upon the great connection and sympathy of the Soul with the Body which is such that the one causeth considerable changes in the other To which purpose the Soul employes no other more effectual instrument then the Imagination Which power of the Soul upon the Body is evinc'd by the mighty effects of the Passions especially of Fear Love and Anger Fear having kill'd many as particularly St. Valier before the stroke of the Executioner On which account it is also that Mirth is commended for one of the best preservatives from the Plague And we see that Fear and Sadness are no less the causes then the infallible signs of the Disease call'd Melancholy The same is further verified by the strange Histories of those who being become sick by Fancy could not be cur'd but by curing the Fancy first the Remedy being to be of the same kinde with the Disease Thus he who fancy'd he had no head could not be restor'd to his right sense till the Physician clapping a leaden Cap upon him left him to complain a while of the Head-ache And another who having study'd Physick a little and took up a conceit that he had a prodigious excrescence in his Intestinum Rectum could not be cur'd till the Chirurgeon had made semblance of cauterizing it Another Gentleman who durst not piss for fear of causing an universal Deluge was cur'd of his conceit by the Countrey peoples crying out Fire and desiring him to quench it In like manner another believing himself dead would not eat and had dy'd in good earnest had not his Nephew who was reported dead come into his Chamber in a winding Sheet and fallen to eat before his Uncle who thereupon did the like And to go no further the tying of the Codpiece-point is accounted an effect of the Fancy and is cur'd by curing the Fancy alone So likewise a Lord of Quality falling sick accidentally in a
regard no other Creature besides becomes weary in its Operations For all Animals even the lowest degree of Insects sleep although such who have hard eyes and scales sleep more obscurely then the rest and Birds more lightly then four-footed Beasts which suck because they have a less and dryer Brain and consequently less need sleep whose use is to moisten and refresh that part Hence Man having of all Animals the largest Brain hath also need of the longest sleep which ought to be about seven hours Wherefore I cannot but wonder that Plato in his first Book of Laws would have his Citizens rise in the night to fall to their ordinary employments for this disturbing of their rest were the way to make a Common-wealth of Fools the Brain by watchings acquiring a hot and dry intemperature which begets igneous spirits whose mobility not permitting the Mind to consider the species impress'd upon them is the cause of unsteady and impetuous sallies of the Mind as on the contrary sleep too excessive fills the ventricles of the Brain wherein the Soul exercises her Faculties with abundance of vapours and humidities which offuscating and troubling the species the Mind thereby becomes slothful and dull The second said That Privations are understood by their Habits and therefore Sleep which is a privation of Sense cannot be better known than by the functions of the outward Senses which so long as an Animal exercises it is said to be awake and to sleep when it ceases to employ the same And being Sensation is perform'd by means of the animal Spirits refin'd out of the natural and vital and sent from the Brain into the Sensories which Spirits receive the species of the sensible object and carry it to the Inward Sense the common Arbiter and Judg of all external objects hence when those Spirits happen to fail or the Common Sense is bound up the other external Senses cannot discharge their offices Upon which account the Philosophers have defin'd Sleep The ligation of the First Sense or The rest of the Spirits and Blood And the Physitians The cessation of all outward Senses for the health and repose of an Animal hereby distinguishing it from the cessation of the outward Senses in Swoonings Falling-sickness Apoplexie Lethargy Carus Coma and such sorts of morbifick and praeternatural sleep produc'd by causes acting rather by an occult and somniferous property then by excess of cold or moisture otherwise Winter Ice and the coldest things should cause sleep Wine Annis Opium Henbane and abundance of hot Medicaments should not be Narcotick as experience evinces them to be But natural sleep is produc'd by vapours elevated from the aliments into the brain which moreover performing in us the office of a Ventose or Cupping-glass draws to it self those humid vapours condenses them by its coldness and resolves them into a gentle dew which falling upon the rise or beginning of the Nerves obstructs the passage to the animal Spirits the instruments of Sensation and voluntary Motion which it hinders though not Motion so much as Sensation because the Nerves of the hinder part of the Brain destinated to Motion being harder do not so easily imbibe those vapours as those of the fore-part destinated to Sensation But when the Heat and Spirits whereof there had been an absumption are again sufficiently repair'd they move anew toward the Brain where they resolve those dews which stopp'd the passage and hindred the commerce of the vital Spirits with the animal whereupon we naturally and without violence awake So likewise the violence of an extrinsecal object importunately striking the external Senses obliges the Soul to send other Spirits to the assistance of the few remaining therein and which before this supply apprehend objects only confusedly The Third said Sleep is not the Quiescence of the animal Spirits for these are active and form Dreams whilst we sleep nor of the vital which have no relaxation or rest so long as the Animal hath life much less of the natural Nutrition being perform'd best during sleep which is the cause why sleeping fattens Neither is the Brain 's humidity the cause of sleep as 't is commonly held but the defect of vital heat in the Heart in a sufficient degree for performing the functions of the outward Senses Moreover the sudden seizing and abruption of sleep which we observe cannot be produc'd but by a very movable cause such as the gross vapour of aliments is not but the vital heat is being carried into all parts of the body in an instant Whence it is that we observe the same to be more pale during sleep as having less of the said heat than during Evigilation The Fourth said That indeed the adequate cause of sleep is not a vapour arising from the aliments since it is procur'd by abundance of other causes which produce no evaporation as Weariness Musique Silence and Darkness Neither is it the above-mentioned deficience of Viâ—â—l Heat which indeed is necessary to the Organs inasmuch as they are endu'd with life but not to make them capable of sense there being sufficient in them even during sleep when the parts are found hot enough for Sensation if heat were the cause thereof as it is not But the right cause consists in the Animal Spirits for which as being the noblest instruments of the Body I conceive there is a particular faculty in the Brain which administers and governs them sending them to the Organs when there is need of them and causing them to return back in order to be restor'd and suppli'd As there is a particular faculty in the Heart over-ruling and moving the Vital Spirits as it pleases sometimes diffusing them outwards in Joy Anger and Shame sometimes causing them to retreat in order to succour the Heart in Sadness Grief and Fear The Fifth said The Empire of Sleep whom Orpheus calls King of Gods and Men is so sweet that Not to be of its party is to be an enemy to Nature 'T is the charm of all griefs both of body and mind and was given to man not only for the refreshment of both but chiefly for the liberty of the Soul because it makes both the Master and the Slave the poor and the rich equal 'T is a sign of health in young people and causes a good constitution of Brain strengthning the same and rendring all the functions of the mind more vigorous whence came the saying That the Night gives counsels because then the Mind is freed from the tyranny of the Senses it reasons more solidly and its operations are so much the more perfect as they are more independent on matter and 't was during the repose of sleep that most of the Extasies and prophetical Visions happened to the Saints Moreover frequent sleep is a sign of a very good nature For being conciliated only by the benignity of a temper moderately hot and moist the Sanguine and Phlegmatick whose humour is most agreeable are more inclined thereunto than the Bilious and
produce either of an honest profitable or delightful Good this Opinion and Imagination must be the strongest of all moral agents Amongst the actions of the Imagination which are the Passions that of Love is the strongest because it serves for a foundation to all the rest it being true that we fear desire and hate nothing but so far as we love some other thing so that he who can be free from this Passion would be exempt from all others Amongst Transcendents Truth is strongest not that which is ill defin'd The conformity of our Vnderstanding with the thing known since there are things above us which surpass the reach of our capacity and yet cease not to be true But this Truth is a property and affection of Entity wherewith it is convertible and consequently cannot be truly defin'd no more then the other Transcendents since a Definition requires a Genus which being superiour and more common cannot be assign'd to Entity or Truth which is the same with Entity otherwise there should be something more general then Entity which is absurd And although the nature of this Truth is not distinctly known nevertheless the virtue of its effects is very sensible for it acts every where and in all yea above the strongest things in the world whose actions depend upon the verity of their Essence which they suppose And as this Verity is the Principle of the actions of all Agents so it is the End and First Mover which gives rise to all their inclinations whereby they all tend towards one Good which is nothing else but Truth which gives weight and value to Goodness But the force of Verity appears principally in that it acts upon the most excellent thing in the World to wit the Understanding which it convinces by its light wherewith it extorts consent and this so much the more as the Understanding is perfect as we see in the Understandings of the Wise and Learned who more easily suffer themselves to be overcome by Truth than the Vulgar and in those of Angels and Intelligences who likewise yield to Truth And because Verity and Entity are the same thing therefore God who possesses Entity Originally is also the Prime Verity which our Lord attributes to himself in the Gospel when he saith That he is the Truth and the Life For whereas Truth is oft-times altered and clouded in the world and frequently produces Hatred the most infamous of all Passions 't is a defect not found but in dissolute Spirits who cannot support the brightness of it and hate its light because it discovers their faults Yea even when men contradict the Truth and follow the deprav'd motions of their most disorderly Passions 't is allways under an appearance of Goodness and Truth But if the shadow and appearance alone of Truth hath so great an Empire over our minds as is seen in the most erroneous Opinions which never want followers with more just reason must it self when known be invincible and the strongest thing in the World In conclusion were propos'd amongst the strongest things Time which consumes all Death which overthrows all the Powers of the Earth Place which embraces all in it self and Necessity so potent that it is not subject to any Law but gives the same to all other things which cannot avoid its Empire insomuch that the Ancients esteem'd the Gods themselves not exempted from it but subject to the necessity of a Destiny CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom Riches or Poverty THe Gowt called Arthritis or Morbus Articularis is the general name of all aches of the Joynts caus'd by fluxion which gave it the name of Gowt and is different according to the divers connexions of the Bones and the Parts which it afflicts being term'd Podagra in the Feet Chiragra in the Hand and the Ischiatick ach by the vulgar Schiatica in the Hip. Nevertheless every Articular Pain is not the Gowt as appears by Contusions Luxations Wounds and the Pains of Women after Child-birth in Virgins after their Evacuation and in Bodies infected with the French Disease But 't is a Grief of the Parts indu'd with sense which are about the Joynts accompanied sometimes with swelling and caus'd by the fluxion of a sharp and serous humour transmitted out of the Veins and Arteries into those Parts whose motion it hinders and because the Feet are most remote from the source of heat therefore Nature commonly drives thither the matter of this Malady whereunto they are more dispos'd then other Parts as well by reason of their composition of Nerves Tendons Veins Arteries Membranes and Ligaments spermatick and cold parts as of their continual motion which gives occasion to the fluxion Hence the Gowt begins usually at the Feet especially at the great Toe whose motion is greatest which hinders not but that it begins too in the Hand Knee and Hip and sometimes in the Sides and if the matter abound sometimes it seizes upon the Joynts with such violence as would make Nature succumbe were the fits continual and not periodical as they are giving to some an interval of a year to others of six months or less according as there needs time for collecting the humour in those parts The cause of this vehement pain is the acrimony of the corrosive and mordicant humour which makes a solution of the parts whose coldness renders this evil almost incurable and makes it last fourty days the pain not being appeasable saving when the cause which produces it is resolv'd whereunto the coldness of its subject is not proper The Second said That in the Gowt as in all sorts of Fluxions four things are to be consider'd the Matter which flows the Place whence it comes the Way by which it passes and the Parts upon which it falls As for the first the Gowt hath some Matter not being as some hold a simple Intemperies which could not subsist so long nor cause such pungent pains much less a tumour as it happens sometimes in the part afflicted which cannot proceed but from the affluence of Matter This Matter some affirm to be Wind or Flatuosity with as little reason for then it might easily be resolv'd and would cause only a pain of distension Most hold that 't is the four Humours arguing from the diversity of Symptomes of this Disease and the various manner of curing some being eas'd by hot Aliments and Medicaments others by cold And lastly from the different colour of the tumours appearing sometimes red white or of some other colour by reason of the blood phlegm or other humours which produc'd them But though a very acute pain may in this malady as it doth in all others attract the humours which abound in the body and so cause a tumour yet this humour which makes the inflation cannot be the cause of the Gowt since at the beginning and before the parts are inflated the pains are very great but cease
and not finding the same in the Cannon issues forth to seek it by the same reason that an Exhalation inflam'd in the middle Region of the Air disengages it self from its prison by breaking the Cloud which holds it inclos'd in its belly thereby forming the Lightnings and Thunders whereof the shots of the Cannon are true Images upon Earth where nothing comes nearer Thunder and consequently the Power of God who oftentimes imploys those Arms to punish the crimes of men Whence Pagan Antiquity assign'd indeed severally a Trident a Sythe a Bow a Helmet a Lance a Club a Sword and such other Instruments to their false Deities but all attributed Thunder to the mightiest of the Gods CONFERENCE CV I. Of Blood-letting II. Which is the most Excellent of the Soul 's three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment BLood-letting whose invention is fabulously attributed to the Sea-horse who finding himself too full of Blood rubs himself against the sharp points of Reeds or Canes and afterwards stops the wound with mud is celebrated either in the Arteries and is call'd Arteriotomie or in the Veins and is term'd Phlebotomie which Physitians by good right hold with Galen in the Book which he writ thereof against Erasistratus for a singular remedy and one of the readiest for all sorts of Diseases especially Inflammations Fevers Revulsions or Derivations griefs of the Eyes difficulties of Urine Pleurisie Peripneumonie Squinancy Epilepsie Fractures Luxations and all acute Pains and Diseases And as there are two general and most frequent causes of Diseases namely Plethora or Repletion and Cacochymia or depravation of the Humours Blood-letting is the remedy of the former and Purgation of the latter But Blood-letting is the best and safest causing less agitation and disturbance in the Oeconomy of the Body than Purgatives which are ordinarily violent and enemies of Nature yea it serves not only to evacuate the juices which abound in excess but sometimes remedies their depravation by correcting the hot and dry Intemperies of the Bowels which is the cause of Cacochymie because Bleeding of its own Nature evacuates and makes revulsion but by accident refrigerates and takes away obstructions Therefore Avicenna and all his followers enemies of Blood-letting are ridiculous alledging That the Blood being Fraenum Bitis the bridle of choler this becomes exasperated and enflam'd the less Blood there is to restrain it For if there be any Humour that keeps Choler in order it must be Phlegm which is contrary thereto and not Blood which symbolises with it by heat But Blood-letting checks the impetuous motions of Choler which it evacuates with the Blood if it be in the greater Vessels and if out of them as about the cavities of the Liver it tempers them correcting the ardent constitution of the Liver which produces it The Second said That by reason of Contraries affections against Nature as well as Health have their seat in the Parts Spirits and Humours The Parts are the seat of Maladies the Spirits of Symptoms and laesion of Functions and the Humours of the Morbifick causes either antecedent or conjunct And as these humours which are the source and leven of most Diseases being in a natural state are in their proper place in the quantity and quality requisite to their Nature so in a state against Nature they are out of their due place and offend either in quantity or quality To these three defects Physick opposes Revulsion Alteration and Evacuation this latter is done either by evacuating only the bad by convenient ways in Purgation or the good with the bad Blood-letting which is defin'd an Evacuation of all the humours of the Body by section of the Vessels For though the Blood be the Treasure of Life the Source of all Passion and if we believe Galen the Seat of the Soul nevertheless its corruption as that of the best things of the World being so much the more dangerous as it is the most perfect and temperate of all the Humours it must be presently evacuated out of the Body not only in plenitude where Nature requires nothing but to be discharg'd but also in depravation of the Blood by mixture of the other Humours corrupted of which the less there is the more easily they are subdu'd by Nature which wants not strength to re-produce more laudable Blood than that from which she was unburden'd But regard must chiefly be had to the distinction of Veins according to the diversity of Diseases So the most apparent Veins of the arms are open'd when the Body is plethorick without affection of any Part If it be so by suppression of the Moneths or Hemorrhoids the Vein of the Foot must be open'd If it be by Choler then that of the right arm If by Melancholy then that of the left arm in regard of the situation of the Liver and Spleen as for the various communication of the Vessels the Cephalick Basilick or Median are chosen Hippocrates opens the Vein of the Forehead call'd Praeparata in pains of the Hinder part of the head that of the Occiput in fluxions of the Eyes the Hypoglottides or Veins under the Tongue in the Squinancy for derivation that of the tip of the Nose or great Canthus of the Eye in its Inflammations the Jugulares and Salvatella those of the Temples and in brief all others are open'd according to the sundry intentions of the Physitian The Third said That Blood-letting is the greatest of Remedies there being none sooner communicated to all the Parts which having need of nourishment which is carried to them by the Veins you cannot evacuate any one sensibly but that motion will be communicated with all the Blood in the other Veins that is to say over all the Body It s use was anciently so rare that Galen and the Greeks made conscience of letting Children blood before fourteen years of Age and Avenzoar was accounted too ventrous in Phlebotomising his own Son at seven Hippocrates appoints it in four cases in Inflammation Metastasis Repletion and Obstruction 'T is above all necessary when the Body is too replete evidenced oft-times by spontaneous evacuations at the Nose and Hemorroids whether this Repletion respect the Vessels which are too full and in danger of breaking or the natural strength oppress'd under the weight of the humours But it seems to me impertinent and unprofitable in case of Cacochymie without Repletion which requires Purgatives to purifie the sanguinary mass and not this bleeding Remedy For there being three principal seats of Cacochymie to wit the First Region the Veins and the Habit of the Body Blood-letting is alike unprofitable to them all As for the First Region which is the sink and channel of the humours Blood-letting cannot reach thither without emptying all the Blood of the Body and should it penetrate thither it would draw those excrementitious humours into the Veins where they would corrupt the laudable Blood But Cacochymie residing in the Region of the Veins Purgation which only eliminates the
it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence
natural things might prejudice the honesty and modesty of that Sex know not that the cognition of bad things as well as of false is always honest and laudable and that the Understanding is no more soil'd therewith than the Sun by shining upon dunghils For though the Will receive tincture of goodness and evil from the objects to which it tends yet the Understanding is not corrupted by the most impure and abominable things which fall under its notice Yea since Knowledg depends upon purity and simplicity which makes Divines say That Angels and separated Intelligences are more perfect in their cognitions than Men it seems the safest course Women can take for securing their purity and Chastity their only Treasure is to make provision of Learning and Knowledg Moreover 't is a thing unheard of to this day that a Woman was Learned and not Chaste and Continent which the Ancients meant to represent by Minerva the Goddess of Sciences and the Nine Muses all Virgins CONFERENCE CVII I. Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies II. Whether the Reading of Romances be profitable ALL Sublunary Bodies having been created for the health of Man who is the Rule of their Temperature and the Judg and Arbiter of their Goodness Physick considers them either as Aliments or Medicaments or Poysons Aliments preserve Nature which assimilates them Poysons destroy and corrupt it by communicating their malignant qualities Medicaments are between both neither being converted into our substance as Aliments nor corrupting it as Poysons but either evacuating the peccant humours or altering Nature to restore it to its natural temper when they are rightly administred and not otherwise the former are call'd Purgative the latter Alterative Remedies All these Remedies were first found out by Experience which gave place to the most ancient Sect of Physitians call'd Emperica invented by Acron and afterwards supported by the two general Maxims of the Methodists of whom Thessalus was Authour which were To loosen constipated Bodies and To stop the fluxions of others Lastly They have been authoriz'd by Reason joyn'd to Experience which hath given place to the most authentique Sect call'd the Dogmatists or Rationalists and Galenists from their Author proceeding upon Hippocrates's Principle who cur'd Contraries by their Contraries whereas the Chymists call'd also Hermeticks from Hermes Trismegistus and Spagyricks from the business of their Art which is to separate and conjoyn Bodies cure like Maladies by like Medicaments which they say act by a propriety of their whole substance against Diseases not by their temperament or various mixture of contrary qualities which nevertheless are alone active for no action can be between things perfectly alike in regard one thing acts upon another only in order to assimilate the same so that if it be already like there will not be any action Moreover by the reason of Contraries since Health is preserv'd by things of resembling Nature it follows That Diseases must be cur'd by their Contraries And as Health consists in Mediocrity so Sickness either in Excess or Defect On which account Physick is defin'd Detraction and Addition because it retrenches what is superfluous and supplies what is deficient Now both Excess and Defect are increas'd by use of things alike Wherefore the Chymical Principle being overthrown all the Remedies founded thereupon ought to be suspected The Second said That those two Principles which seem contrary one to the other are not so if rightly understood For when the Chymists say That Similia curantur similibus they speak not of Diseases as the Galenists do with whom they agree That the same are augmented by use of resembling things but of the part diseas'd which being the Seat of Affections against Nature can alone be said to be cur'd and not the Diseases which being only a privation errour or disorder of the Body cannot be capable of sanation but only the parts of the Body which the Dogmatists as well as the Chymists cure by Remedies like in substance to the Nature of those Parts which they strengthen For whatever is a Friend to Nature call'd by Hippocrates Morborum Medicatrix is also an Enemy to that which is against Nature The Third said Since Remedies are the more excellent by how much the neerer they come to our Nature it follows That Minerals Metals and all Fossiles prescrib'd us by Chymistry having malignant and venomous qualities are much more dangerous than the ordinary Remedies taken from Animals and Plants which have life as well as we However prepar'd they always leave an evil tincture in the noble Parts and whole Body against which they act with violence which they have not only of their own Nature altogether remote from ours but also from the Fire which gives them an extraneous heat contrary and destructive to ours any dry heat being an enemy to the natural which is humid and benign and although they make use of Medicines extracted from Vegetables yet 't is with as little success since their purgative virtue depends on their temperament which is wholly destroy'd by their Distillations and Extractions Besides that being all hot they are unprofitable to all acute Diseases ordinarily hot and always the most dangerous and noxious in Fevers which are generally complicated with most Diseases Moreover all Remedies acting by the first second and third Qualities which depend on a Matter temper'd after a particular Matter therefore Mixts separated from rheir Matter which serves for a base and foundation to the actions of the Form lose their former force and virtue which is more efficacious and sensible in a material and gross subject as that of ordinary Remedies is prepar'd by decoction or infusion in Bolus Powder Opiate Conserve Lozenges or such other solid Body than in an Essence Spirit or the like subtil and tenuious Body which freed from its grosser parts which serv'd to check it flies like lightning into the Parts of the Body wherein the Morbifick cause resides which it can never subdue or eradicate though its virtue should not presently vanish but be preserv'd in the Body which besides being accustom'd to material things because they conserve and compose it it oftentimes receives great dammage from too subtil things on which account the Air of the Supreme Region cannot be attracted by the Lungs The Fourth said That the Characteristical of a Good Medicament being to Cure Speedily Certainly and Pleasantly the Chymical being such ought to be not only employ'd but also preferr'd above others The speediness of their Effect is from their Forms which alone are active especially when depurated and loosned from Matter a Principle purely passive and incapable of action They are also agreeable and sure as being depriv'd of their impurities malignant qualities bad smells and tastes by means of the various degrees of Fire whieh if it communicate an Empyreuma or Burntness to these Medicines so it doth not only to vulgar Remedies prepar'd by Fire but also to all our Meats and Aliments Besides many of these
and melancholy of Old-people than the sight of Children and the memory of things done or learnt in their minority which partakes the more of its source the Deity the less 't is remov'd from it The Fourth said Youth hath too many extravagances to be accounted happy and 't would be against the order of Nature if the Extreams Infancy and Old-age contain'd more perfection than that which holds the Middle wherein she hath establish'd the Virtue of all things The weakness of the first shews that it hath not wherewith to content it self but needs support from others and is therefore an object of Compassion which never arises but from Misery It s Innocence proceeding only from impotence and imperfection of the Soul's operations hath nothing commendable and 't is as much unable to will as do good But true Innocence consists in the acting of difficult good If Child-hood fear not the Future it receives a present Evil with more pain and is as sensible of the least discontents as incapable of consolation or prudence to avoid them nor can it by hope anticipate or prolong the enjoyment of a future good In short He cannot be happy who is not conscious of his happiness as Children cannot be Then for Old-age 't is a second Childhood and more to be pitied in that it always grows worse partakes all the defects of Nonage and hath this worse that its desires awaken'd by the memory of past contentments upbraid its impotence and the thirst of getting is at perpetual jar with the fear of leaving Aches the forerunners of Death dayly attaque its patience and there remains no cure of its Evils but the extremity of all Evils To be no more Infancy is therefore like the Spring which hath only Flowers and expects Fruits hereafter so that 't is an Age of Hope without Enjoyment Youth hath only Summer-fruits of little lasting Old-age is a Winter without either Flowers or Fruits possessing only Evils present and oblig'd to fear all and lose all But Man-hood betwixt these two resembles Autumn denoted by the Horn of Plenty possesses the felicity of Life enjoys the Goods acquired and by hope anticipates those to come it hath a Soul commonly accordant with the Body the Faculties of that making a sweet harmony with the Actions of this On the contrary the Soul in Child-hood seems not to be well in tune with the Body in Adolescence 't is always at discord with the Appetites of Sense and in Old-age it jars with it self and by a speedy separation endeavours wholly to break the Consort and have its part by it self CONFERENCE CX I. Of Mineral Waters II. Whether it be better to give than to receive AS the goodness of Common Waters is judg'd by their having neither colour nor smell nor taste and the least weight that may be wanting all other virtues besides to cool and moisten so that of Mineral or Medicinal Waters depends upon the qualities of the Minerals wherewith they are impregnated and by means whereof they purge and alter the Body Humidity being easily susceptible of extraneous qualities and preserving the same best in a dense and gross subject as Water is These Waters are either cold or hot the former are drunk and the latter serve for Bathing as that of Aix in Germany of Plombieres in Lorrain of Bourbon in Bourbonnois of Bagnieres and Barege in Gascony of Balleruc and Barbotan in Languedoc of Acqs and Tersis neer Bayonne and abundance of other hot Baths caus'd by Subterraneous Fires Of cold Waters some are acid and pungent to the taste as the Vitriolate such as those of Spa in the Country of Liege and of Ponges in Nivernois Others are sharp and rough as those Springs of Forges and Montdor neer Rheimes not long since found by Sieur de la Framboisiere those of Chasteau Thierri of la Herse neer Bélesme whose acidity likewise argues something of Vitriol and divers others discover'd daily by experience Some are found heavy stinking fat and impure other leight pure clear and sweet Some are salt or brackish of colour reddish green black and otherwise different according as these Waters are variously mix'd wherein Minerals are contain'd either in substance and their grosser parts or else only their Spirits and subtiler parts so well blended as that there appears no extraneous Body at all which mixtion depends on the Nature of Minerals some whereof are never perfectly mix'd with Water by reason of their hardness others though soft and liquid mix only confusedly as oyly Bodies Others mix easily as Spirits in regard of their tenuity and Salts which melt in the Water The Second said That in this matter Experience is rather to be consulted than Reason which falls short in the examen of many Waters of which Histories are full as of those of Nile in Aegypt which make Women fruitful of a Fountain in Arcadia which prevents Abortion of the River Styx in the same place and of Leontini in Sicily which presently kill such as drink thereof of Cydnus in Cilicia which cures the Gowt Such also is Fountain of de Jouvence in the Isle Bonica which makes old men young again that of Ise-land which hinders gray hairs the two of Baeotia whereof one strengthens the others abolishes the Memory two others of the Fortunate Islands one of which causes Sardonian and mortal Laughter unless the other be presently drunk of and those of Thessaly and Macedon one whereof makes the Sheep that drink of it to have black Wooll which the other makes white and both mix'd together make it of several colours that of the Isle of Andros and another a league distant from Coblentz which inebriate having the taste of Wine which the first retained but for seven days and quitted when carried out of sight of a Temple of that Island dedicated to Bacchus the oylie Fountains of Zant the red Spring of Aethiopia which causes loss of Judgment as the Mad Lake in John's Country also doth which thrice a day and as often in the night becomes blackish and sharp and returns as often to its own sweetness the Sabbatical River mention'd by Josephus which dries up every Sabbath-day render'd credible by that of Varins neer Saumur which hath its flux and reflux as the Sea the Water of the Babylonian Lake which continues red eleven days in Summer the Fountain of Dodona so famous among the Poets at which they lighted extinct Torches like to another neer Grenoble which at the same stream sends forth Waters and Flames and many others which convert Wood and immers'd Bodies into Stone the true causes whereof are altogether unknown The Third said That Mineral Waters though humid to the touch are desiccative as appears partly from their composition of Mineral detersive and desiccative Spirits and partly from their effects which are to heal Ulcers dry up Scabs and Pustules and correct the moist intemperies of the Stomach and other lower Parts Some argue them all hot from their acrimony
virtues of penetrating inciding opening attenuating provoking Urine and Sweat cleansing the Reins and Bladder all ffects of heat Others account them cold because being drunk they cause shivering at Midsummer correct the heat of the Liver and Reins cure hot Diseases prejudice cold and generally hurt the Nervous Parts to which according to the Aphorism Heat is friendly and Cold hurtful But though actually cold yet they have some have some heat in power and being compos'd of several unlike parts produce different and sometimes contrary effects So Aloes and Rhubarb both loosen and bind All which effects may nevertheless be referr'd to three principal namely Refrigerating Deoppilating or opening and Strengthning They refrigerate by their actual coldness and the acidity of Vitriol which also by vellicating the stomach causes the great appetite we have during the the use of these Waters They deoppilate not so much by their quantity which hath made some erroneously say that the same proportion of common Water would work the same effect as these Medicinal Waters as by their tenuity which they have from the metalline Spirits which make them penetrate and pass speedily over the whole Body Lastly they strengthen by their astringency for all Astringents corroborate which the Chymists attribute to their volatil Spirits which as they say joyn themselves to the fix'd Spirits of our Bodies The Fourth said That the three conditions of a good Medicament are To Cure Speedily Safely and Pleasantly as Mineral Waters do They are familiar to us by their nature of Water Medicaments by their composition which is discover'd either by letting them settle or by evaporating or by distilling them as also by the smell taste and colour which becoming black by the infusion of Galls shews that there is Vitriol in them And whereas the longest and most difficult Maladies proceed from obstruction and cold the hot or acute being speedily terminated these Waters are the most effectual Remedy of both for they penetrate and like a torrent open not the great passages only but also the small veins of the Mesentery and heat by their Spirits and Sulphur which hath a heat very benign and friendly to the principal parts especially to the Lungs whereunto it is a Balsom and Specifical Above all they are admirable in curing Gravel not only vacuating the gross and viscous humours which are the matter of the Stone but sometimes breaking and dissolving the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder which amongst others those of Spà perform by reason of their abounding in Vitriol whose acidity and acrimony produces the same effect upon Stones in the Body as that of Vinegar doth upon Egg-shells Pearls and Corals The Fifth said That the use of Natural Baths whether hot or cold may be easily practised in sundry Diseases but 't is important to discern the occasions of taking them by the mouth and their differences For besides that their great quantity the Italians prescribing above 200 ounces a day others 25 pound sometimes overcomes the strength and extinguishes the natural heat some have malignant Qualities and Enemies to the principles of Life not so much by reason of their Metalline Spirits disproportionate to our Bodies as of the mixture of Mercury Plaster and other Earths entring into their Composition whence many die by taking the Waters or come back from them more infirm by accidents following upon them as Gowts weakness of Stomach Imbecillity Lassitude Livid Complexion Dropsie and other more dangerous Evils than that for which they were recurr'd to The sixth said To the end the use of these waters may prove healthful regard is to be had to the Persons the Diseases and the Nature of the waters As for the first Children old Men breeding Women and fat People must not take them without great necessity For the second Most waters are unprofitable and sometimes contrary to the disease as to the infirmities of the Breast Fluxions Ulcers of the Lungs Epilepsie Apoplexie Convulsions cold Maladies and all others of the Brain and nervous Parts If there happen a complication of Diseases some of which require others reject the use of the Waters regard must be had to the most urgent and dangerous They have not always the same effect either because they are corrupted by Rain or vehement Heat consumes their subtilest Spirits in which their chief virtue resides which likewise depend on the Quality Quantity Time Place and Manner wherein they are to be us'd For they must be taken in the Morning fasting in a hot and dry Season as well because they are then purest and leightest as because the Body better supports that quantity of cold Water which relieves its natural Faculties languishing in great heat and if it may be they must be taken at the Spring the Spirits being easily dissipated by transportation The Quantity and Time of taking them are not to be measur'd by the number of Glasses or Days but proportionated to the Disease and its Causes the diseas'd Parts the Age Temper Custom and other Signs from which Physitians take their Indications Which Conditions being well observ'd it may be said God hath not given Men any thing more profitable than these Medicinal Waters temper'd by Nature her self who makes us a free present of them their disproportion with our Bodies being the cause of their action upon them otherwise we should turn them into our substance as we do Plants and Animals the bad successes which happen by them being much more rare than those of any other Medicaments although the most rebellious Diseases are commonly remitted to them Upon the Second Point it was said That the straight connexion between all the parts of the Universe makes this Question hard to be judg'd since they give nothing but what they receiv'd before For our common Mother the Earth receives her fruitfulness from the impressions of the Air the Air from the influence of the Stars these their light and power from the Sun and he his from his Maker Which the Platonists represent to us by the mutual embraces of Porus and Penia the one the God of Plenty which is the original of Gifts the other the Goddess of Necessity which is the cause of Receiving to shew that they necessarily follow one the other And as in Nature the attenuated and rarifi'd Parts strongly attract the next for hindring vacuity and the full reject what is superfluous so in Morality we may say That Giving and Receiving are equally good and natural not differing but in certain terms and respects otherwise a Man might be said more or less excellent or happy than himself there being no Person but hath need to Receive and power to Give at the same time out of the Plenty or Necessity which he hath of something For should he be stor'd with whatever he could wish Might not we ask him as S. Paul doth What hast thou that thou hast not receiv'd So then 't is Reception that hath put him into this happy state and if there be
same be poison to Men some of whom do receive no hurt by poisons as 't is reported of Mithridates whose body was so prepar'd by his Antidote compos'd of Rue Nuts and Figs that he could not kill himself by poison of the Wench presented to Alexander who was fed with Napellus or Monks-hood of the old Woman in Sextus Empiricus who swallow'd 30 drachms of Hemlock without harm of Athenagoras the Argian who was not hurt by Scorpions wherewith the Aethiopians dwelling neer the River Hydaspes are fed as well as with Snakes which Avicenna saith another man kill'd by being bitten with them possibly having his body full of a humour like fasting spittle which Galen saith kills Serpents and other Insects These Poisons and Antidotes are either Natural or Artificial those more frequent in Southern then in Northern Countries are communicated by Potions Powders Juices Vapours Touches and other detestable means The Natural differ either in Matter or in Quantity or in Quality or in Operation The Matter of Poysons which is found almost every where is either within us as the Seed and the Blood which by corruption oftentimes acquire a venomous quality such as also is that of the matter of the Epilepsie and Suffocation of the Womb Or else without us in the Air Water and Earth Fire alone being contrary to Poyson and putrefaction which easily happens to the Air and Water through their great humidity But the Earth by its excrements and impurities supplies most Matter to Poysons which are drawn either from Minerals from Plants or from Animals Arsenic Orpiment Vitriol Plastre Lime Sublimate Borax Verdegrease Quicksilver Cinabar Ceruse and Red-lead are of the first order To the second belong Aconite or Woolf-bane Chamalea or Widow-wayle Yew Spurge-lawrel Thapsia or scorching Fennel Tithymals Hellebores Vomiting Nut Opium Nightshade and many other Plants some of which have only venomous Flowers as certain white Violets others only their Fruits as the Apples of Mandrake or only the juice as Lettice and Poppies or the Seeds as Henbane and Spurge or the Roots as Aconite and Hellebore To the third belong Lepus Marinus the Salamander the Flie call'd Buprestis the Scorpion Viper Asp Adder Toad Tarantula Shrew-mouse and divers others which are venomous either in all their parts as Cantharides and Spiders or only in some as Vipers in the Tail and Head the Hart and Fork-fish in the extremities of their Tails the Wivern in one of its Claws Or in their Excrements as the Gall of the Leopard the Urine of a Mouse the Foam of a Mad-dog the Sweat of an enraged Horse and the Blood of a Bull. As for the Quantity although all Poysons act in a little volume yet some require less Matter as Opium acts in less quantity than Hemlock this than the juice of Leeks and this than the juice of Lettice According to Quality some are hot and either inflame as Euphorbium or corrode as the Lepus Marinus which particularly invades the Lungs the Asp the Liver Nightshade and Henbane the Brain Cantharides the Bladder Others are cold fixing the Spirits and natural heat or hindring their free motion as Opium and the Salt of Lead Others are dry as Lime Vitriol and Arsenic which consume the Radical Humidity For Humidity being a quality purely passive and of it self incapable of causing pain there are no Poysons simply humid They differ also in their manner of acting the cold kill by consopiting or stifling the Heat Hellebore by vehement attraction of the Humours Some corrode the Substance others alter resolve or putrifie it And because all Poisons chiefly attaque the natural Heat and the Heart as the Swoonings Palpitations and Weaknesses accompanying them witness The Antidotes must be Cardiacal or friends to the Heart strengthening it and joyning forces with it to expel or subdue the malignity of the Poyson The Third said Physick opposes Poyson either by Preservatives before 't is taken or Remedies afterwards Preservation depends on the administration of the six Not-natural things as the avoiding of Air and Places infected perfuming them by burning of Wild-Thyme Mountain-Majoran Southernwood Kings Spear or Cedar annointing the Body with Rose-oyl which is an Enemy to Serpents and venomous Creatures and eating in Vessels of Porcellane and the like which discover Poisons Simple Preservatives are either appli'd outwardly as the Topaz Emerald and other Amulets worn next the skin or inwardly as Bezoar-stone Bole-Armenick Lemnian or Seal'd Earth Vincetoxicum Turnep Dittany Garlick Rue Citron Pomegranate c. Of Compounds the most famous is Theriaca or Treacle made of above a hundred Ingredients When Poyson is already introduc'd into the Body whether by biting stinging breathing foam or by the sight as that of the Basilisk or by the touch as that of the Torpedo or by the mouth regard must be had to three things 1. To strengthen the Natural Heat that it yield not but may resist the Poyson and to corroborate the Entrails for fear they receive any malignant impression 2. To destroy the force of the Poyson 3. To evacuate it speedily either by attraction as by Sucking or Cupping or by Incision and Ustion if the Poyson was receiv'd extrinsecally but if 't was taken by the mouth it must be evacuated by Sweat Urine Siege and Vomit which is the speediest and safest provided it be provok'd by familiar Medicaments as Butter Oyl Milk or the like unctuous things These Antidotes are either general resisting all sorts of Poysons strengthning the Heart and Spirits or else peculiar to some certain Poyson General are Blessed Thistle Angelica Valerian Dittany Scabious Devils-bit Pimpernel Tormentil Rue Scordium Wood-sorrel Wormwood Plantane Marigold Fluellin Gentian Juniper-berries Bezoar Treacle Armenian and Lemnian Earths the Horns of Hart and Rhinoceros and Ivory Of Particular Mummy is good against Tithymals the Weesel and Man's Ordure against envenom'd Wounds the Root of Dog-rose against the biting of a Mad-dog the Flower of Water-Lilly against Hellebore Cucumbers against Pharao's Figs Wormwood Garlick and Mustard against Toad-stools Long Birth-wort against Aconites Vipers Flesh and all Precious Stones against Menstrual Blood Baulm and Endive against Spiders S. Katherine's Flower and Dancing against the Tarantula Sea-Crab against Night-shade Citron-pill against Vomiting Nut Origanum or Wild-Majoran against Mezaereon the Seeds of Winter-Cherry against Cantharides and the Salamander's foam a roasted Fox and Oisters against the Sea-Hare Pigeons-dung and Parsley-seed against Mercury Treacle against the Viper Oyl of Scorpions and Wasps against their Stingings by sympathy drawing out the venomous Spirits and rejoyning them to their first Body Of all which effects 't is more expedient to admire than unprofitably search the Cause which hath been hitherto unknown to the greatest Wits and depends upon that of Sympathies and Antipathies The Fourth said There are two sorts of Mistions in Nature one of Qualities the other of Substantial Forms In the first the Qualities being rebated by their mutual encounter an agreeable harmony or temper results in which
and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
vertues which serve only as ornaments to his Being But as every virtue consists in a mediocrity and so hath two vicious extremities Excess and Defect so this is plac'd between two vices which may be said equally blamable since between the two extremities and the middle the distance is equal otherwise it were not the middle that is not a vertue and a point in which this vertue consists hath no latitude And though rashness which oftimes borrows the mask of generosity and valour seems to approach neerer it then Cowardice since being only an excess of Valour it may be more easily reduc'd to mediocrity then the other which partakes not thereof at all as diseases arising from repletion are easier to be cur'd then those which proceed from inanition Nevertheless to speak absolutely Cowardice is not so vicious as Temerity for if the one hath a false appearance of Valour the other hath a semblance of prudence and wisdom which is the rule and measure of all virtues And indeed we see most wise men are a little cowardly either their knowledg of things rendring them circumspect or experience of Fortune's blindness and inconstancy making them more distrustful of her dealing which they know is commonly unkindest to persons of merit or else the value they put upon Being encreasing their fear of Annihilation although this fear is common to all Animals and hath its foundation in Nature and so is more excusable then the madness of Temerity the usual vice of fools and lunaticks directly repugnant to our natural sentiments In a political consideration though both are punishable yet Cowardice least of the two and is most commonly excus'd as in Demosthenes yea sometimes recompensed as in that Roman Consul to whom the Senate gave publick thanks for having fled at the defeat of Cannae Where the temerity of young Manlius though successful cost him his head by the sentence of his own Father The Second said That Cowardice and Temerity must not be compar'd together if we would judge which is worse for on the one side the rash person compar'd to the poltron seems courageous and on the other the poltron appears prudent and well advis'd But they must be compar'd with Valour of which that of the two which partakes least is the most vicious Now Valour consists in two points to attempt and endure The rash person is bold in the onset but gives ground at the brunt The poltron do's neither He dares neither attempt nor bear up and so is further from true fortitude then the Rash and though they seem totally opposite yet the rash is oftentimes timerous and Necessity or Despair sometimes renders the veryest coward bold The Third said If the Stoicks say true that Nature is the surest guide we can follow in all our actions and that to live well and vertuously is to live conformably to Nature then Temerity which subverts the sentiments of Nature by whom nothing is sought so much as self-preservation seems much more vicious then Cowardice whose fault is only too much indulgence and inclining to natural sentiments in preference of self-preservation above all honours invented by men as incitements to contempt of death and the means leading thereunto The Fourth said As right Reason is the square of Prudence Equity of Justice and Moderation of Temperance so firmness and constancy of mind in attempting and enduring is the sign of Fortitude and Courage which is a vertue residing in the Irascible appetite moderating fear and rashness and consisting chiefly in not fearing dangers more then is fit especially those of War or which happen unexpectedly For two kinds of things cause fear some are above us and inevitable as Tempests Thunders Earth-quakes which a man may and ought to fear sometimes unless we be insensible or senseless others are ordinary vincible and not to be fear'd by the courageous To whom three sorts of people are contrary namely the furious who fear nothing at all the rash who venture at all casting themselves inconsiderately into all dangers and the poltrons who never venture upon any These tremble before and in the danger those seem at first to have a good heart but when the danger appears begin to tremble and bleed at the nose whereas he who is truly courageous attempts no danger inconsiderately but avoids it as much as he can handsomely but once engag'd loses his life therein if he cannot come out of it with his honour And though this vertue be generally esteem'd by all men because most serviceable for defence of States and hath more splendor and shew then any other yet 't is less known and the rarest of all not many possessing it free from the interest of gain or vanity anger fear of infamy constraint and other considerations besides that of honesty which alone gives name and value to all vertuous actions Rashness passes among the vulgar for true Valour though 't is further from it then Cowardice which being the daughter of knowledg and prudence as rashness is of ignorance and brutality and oftentimes of vanity seems to come neerer that virtue then Temerity which otherwise is incompatible with all other virtues as being destitute of Prudence which alone makes them what they are The Fifth said 'T is impossible to determine of these two Vices which are equally opposite to their middle vertue whatever false appearance Temerity may have of the contrary But the praise and blame of men proceeding commonly though unjustly from Success 't is that also which makes our actions approv'd and discommended So that the same action will be accounted courageous and as such applauded in a young stout Captain who gets the better of his enemies prosperous Rashness being rarely punish'd and again term'd temerarious in the same person if he happens to be worsted Yea men esteem and admire that most which they least expected as most remote from reason without which the Vertuous acts nothing Which teaches him to be contented with himself and not to make much account of blame and praise which are not integral parts of vertue but only serve to its ornament as our Hair and Nails do to our persons CONFERENCE CXVI Which Climate is most proper for Long-life The second Question is remitted to the next Conference and 't is Resolved for divers Reasons that hereafter but one be handled at a time BEcause amongst all Phaenomena or Apparences caus'd by the Celestial Bodies the diversity of artificial Days is most sensible and known to the most ignorant therefore Astronomers make use thereof to distinguish the several habitations of Mankind This diversity of Days depends upon two Causes the obliquity of the Ecliptick to the Equator and the inclination of the Horizon or the Sphere to the same Equator For the obliquity of the Ecliptick makes the diurnal Parallels which are Circles parallel to the Equinoctial describ'd by the Sun as he is carri'd about the Earth by the motion of the First Mover the number of which is equal to that
of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
contrary namely Unite the Four Humours in the Veins though different in nature instead of segregating them for in this Case Heat acts not with full authority but as the Soul's Officer following her intentions And the reason is because these four Humours being ingredients into the Nativity of Man they must necessarily pass into his nourishment which they cannot do without being mingled together But when the Blood is out of the Veins then the Heat disengag'd from the Soul's jurisdiction disgregates and separates all four making the Choler float uppermost the Phlegm next then the Blood and lowest of all Melancholy as the dregs Amongst Souls there is the same order of Superiority The Sensitive makes the Vegetative obey it as appears by this that if after meat the Imagination attend much to an object the Concoction of the Food is retarded because all the Faculties of the Soul being united in their Root and Essence of the Soul when she sets her self much upon one object she leaves the other inferiour powers idle they not being able to work but as the Soul their principle employs them Now this premis'd I say when a breeding Woman hath a longing for any thing this desir'd thing is imprinted strongly in the Phancy and this imprinting being made in the Brain the Spirits which flow from thence carry a copy thereof with them For as an intire Looking-glass represents but one Image but every piece of a broaken one hath its whole Pourtrait because the Intentional Species or Images of things though divisible by reason of their subject are yet in themselves formally indivisible being Forms without Matter and consequently indivisible Division proceeding from Quantity a concomitant of Matter So those Spirits which stream from the Brain though they leave there the image of the desir'd thing yet withall they carry the same image with them as being portions of the substance wherein it is engraven and running to the place where the Foetus is form'd by reason of the union of its Umbilical Vessels with those of the Mother they arrive at the Infant and imprint the Characters they bring upon it the Vegetative and Plastick or Formative Vertue suffering it self to be over-rul'd by the Sensitive as this is by the Imaginative and this again by the other superiour powers When the teeming Woman touching her self in any part the Spirits run thither from the Brain either by reason of the touch or the motion both depending upon the Animal Spirits but finding the Mother's flesh too hard and disproportinate to their effect and missing their blow they go to give it upon the tenderer flesh of the Child And as in Generation the Spirits of all the parts of the Body accur to the place where the Seed is receiv'd there to engrave the Characters of the parts whence they flow which afterwards serve for the Formative Vertue every one having his task to make the part from which it issu'd so the Mother's Spirits keep the same course and rule towards the Embryo so that those which serv'd to the Mother's touch go to find that same place in the Child's Body there to mark the Image which they brought from the Brain Nature finding ways for her Intention where none appear The Second said The impotence of that Sex and their weakness of Mind evidenc'd by the violence of all their Passions which know no mediocrity is one of the principal causes of the impetuosity of their desires Now the Species of the thing desir'd being in the Imagination it excites the Appetite which desir'd it this the motive Faculty which employs the Animal Spirits to execute the commands of the Faculties by whom it is set on work And as the Vertues and Images of things generated here below by the heat and influence of the Stars are receiv'd in the Air which consigns them to the Earth so those Spirits receive the Species and Images whereof the brain is full and being directed by the Imagination to the Womb which hath great communication with the Brain by means of the nerves of the sixt Pair as appears by the effects of Odors upon that part there they retrace and imprint upon the Child the Images wherewith they are laden For if it be true that the Imagination can act beyond its Subject as Estriches and Tortoises are said to hatch their Eggs with their Eyes and that Hens hatch Chickens of the colour of such cloths as are laid before them whilest they are sitting much more may the Imagination of a Woman represent upon the tender Fruit in her womb the Images of things which she passionately desires and this is no more strange than the common observation of People falling sick and recovering again meerly by Fancy The Third said That the images of things desired are in the Spirits just as those of sensible objects are in the Air which is full of them But as these that they may be seen must be terminated by a smooth and opake body so that those which are in the spirits may be express'd they must be terminated by a soft tender and capable body as a child's is in the first months of his conformation during which alone he is susceptible of these impressions which are only of things edible and potable being the Child then endu'd only with sensitive Life cannot be affected but by things serving to the Animal Life as aliments are which besides are ordinarily and most ardently desir'd by breeding Women those that long for chalk coals and other impurities being unhealthy and distemper'd Now to give account why the Grapes Mulberries Strawberries Goose-berries and other Fruits delineated upon our bodies ripen and change colour at the same time as the true fruits upon the earth do I shall not recurr to the Stars or Talismanical Figures but more probably to that Universal Spirit which causeth the same fermentation in the spirits of our bodies as in Wine and the Vine when it is in its sap and flower and in Pork or Venison when Hogs and Deer are salt mezled or go to rut The fourth said That some of these Marks adhere to particular Families So the family of Seleucus had an Anchor upon the thigh in Greece some were distinguish'd by a Lance a Crevish a Star c. which marks as Warts and Moles proceed from the Formative Vertue in the seed which containing the Idea of all the parts expresses them to the life in the child Other sorts of Marks are not ordinary but fortuitous and depend upon the Imagination alone which employs the spirits which are common both to the Mother and Child by the Umbilical Vessels and have the same motions so that when the Woman scratches her self in any part of her body the spirits having a like motion are carri'd towards that part and at the same time towards that correspondent part in the child's body whose tenderness is alone susceptible of the image wherewith they are impregnated and which is never to be removed as being from the first
which are turn'd into the substance of Animals whose bodies are again reduc'd into Earth The fifth maintain'd the opinion of Albert the Great who is for the Generation of things which the preceding opinion over throws holding nothing to be new generated He said that Forms are indeed in the Matter yet not entire and perfect but only by halves and begun according to their essence not according to their existence which they acquire by the Agents which educe things out of their causes The Sixth said If it were so then there would be no substantial Generation because Existence is nothing but a Manner of Being adding nothing to Essence nor really distinguish'd from it Wherefore I embrace Aristotle's opinion that Forms are in the Matter but only potentially and as the Matter is capable of them just as Wax is potentially Caesar's Statue because capable of receiving that form This he calls to be drawn and educ'd out of the power or bosom of the Matter which is not to be receiv'd in it or to depend of its dispositions since this belongs also to the Rational soul which is not receiv'd in the body till the previous dispositions necessary for its reception be introduc'd therein but the Matter it self concurrs though in a passive way not only to dispose it self but also to produce the Form and consequently to preserve it Which is not applicable to the Rational soul whose Being depends not anywise upon the Matter The Seventh said Matter being a Principle purely passive and incapable of all action cannot produce any thing much less Forms the noblest Entities in the world 'T is the principle of impotence and imperfection and consequently the ugliness deformity contrary to the Form whereof it should partake if it contain'd the same in power as Wine and Pepper do Heat which becomes actual and sensible when reduc'd into act by our Natural Heat which loosens it from the parts which confin'd it Wherefore Forms come from without namely from Heaven and its noblest part the Sun the Father of Forms which are nothing but Beams of light deriv'd from him as their Fountain whose heat and influences give motion and life which is the abode of Heat in Humidity not Elementary Heat for then Arsenic Sulphur and other Mixts abounding with this Heat should have life but Serpents Salamanders Fishes Hemlock Poppies and other excessively cold Plants and Animals should not Moreover in whatever manner the Elements and their Qualities be mix'd they are still Elements and can produce nothing above their own Nature which is to calefie refrigerate attenuate rarefie condense but not the internal and external senses the various motions and other actions of life which can proceed only from a Celestial Heat such as that is which preserves a Plant amidst the rigours of Winter whose coldness would soon destroy the Plant's heat if it were of the same nature Hence Vegetative and Sensitive Souls having no Contraries because Contraries are plac'd under the same Genus but the Celestial matter whereof these souls are constituted and the Elements are not therefore they are not corruptible after the manner of other Mixts but like light cease to exist upon the cessation of the dispositions which maintain'd them For such is the order of Nature that when a Subject is possest of all the dispositions requisite for introduction of a Form the Author of Nature or according to Plato the Idea or that Soul of the World which Avicenna held to be an Intelligence destinated to the generation of substantial Forms concurrs to the production of the Form as also this concourse ceases when those dispositions are abolisht CONFERENCE CXXIII Whether Lean people are more healthy and long-liv'd then Fat THe Immortality of our souls having an absolute disposition to length of Life it depends only upon that of the Body that we do not live Ages as our first Fathers did For 't is from some defect in these bodies that the differences of life even in Animals and Plants proceed whence some less perfect souls as those of Oaks are yet more long-liv'd then those of Beasts The signs of long and short life are either simply such or also causes and effects Such is the conformation of the parts of our body A great number of Teeth is held a sign of longaevity as well because 't is an effect of the strength of the Formative Faculty and Natural Heat as that thereby the food is better masticated and prepar'd and the other concoctions and functions more perfectly perform'd whence comes health and long life So also the Habit of the body is not simply a sign but likewise an effect of health and cause of long life namely when the same is moderate that is neither fat nor lean which two though comprisable within the latitude of health which admits a a great latitude are yet so much less perfect as they decline from that laudable disposition which is the rule and square of all others Now to make a just comparison we must consider the Fat and the Lean in the same degree of excess or defect from this Mediocrity and compare Philetas the Poet who was so dry and lean that he was fain to fasten leaden soles to his shoos for fear the wind should carry him away with Dionysius of Heraclea who was choakt with fat unless his body were continually beset with Leeches Or else we must observe in both an equality of Vigour in the Principles of Life to wit the Radical Heat and Moisture in the same proportion the same age under the same climate regiment and exercises otherwise the comparison will be unequal and lastly we must distinguish the fleshy great-limb'd and musculous from the fat This premis'd I am of Hippocrates's Opinion Aph. 44. Sect. 2. that such as are gross and fat naturally die sooner then the lean and slender because the Vessels of the latter especially the Veins are larger and consequently fuller of Blood and Spirits which are the Architects and principal Organs of Life on the contrary the Fat have smaller Vessels by reason of their coldness which constringes them as is seen in Women Eunuchs and Children whose voices are therefore more shrill and who have also less health and life The Second said Nature hath furnisht Animals with Fat to the end to preserve them from external injuries and therefore the Lean who are unprovided thereof must be of shorter life for not many besides decrepit old people die of a natural death that is proceeding from causes within whereas most diseases arise from external causes wherewith the Fat are less incommoded especially with cold the sworn enemy of life the smallness of their pores and the fat which environs them excluding all qualities contrary to life and withall hindring the dissipation of the Natural Heat which becomes more vigorous by the confinement just as the Bowels are hotter in Winter because the cold air hinders the efflux of the heat and spirits caus'd in Summer and in lean bodies whose
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
of vacuity And Wine and Fruits lose their tast upon the loss of their spirits when they are frozen which spirits not being able to transpire in Cabbages and other Viscous Plants digest their crudities and by that means render the same Plants more tender CONFERENCE CXXVI Of the Causes of the Small Pox. THe variety wherewith this Malady afflicts or that which it causes in the body hath given it the name of Variolae Variolles or Vairolles as its resemblance to the blisters and to the manner wherewith the Venereous Disease invades the Indians to whom the same is Epidemical being caused by the corruption of the air causes it to be called the Small Pox. These are efflorescences or pustules appearing upon the body especially those of Children by reason of the softness of their skin with a Feaver pain scabbiness and purulent matter This malady comprizes three sorts of Diseases Namely Intemperature in its feaver and inflammation Bad conformation in the little Eminencies and solution of continuity in the Ulcers It s precedent signs are commonly hoarsness of the voice pain of the head inflammation of the whole face yawnings distentions trembling of the whole body sneezings and stitches It s concomitant essential and pathognomonical signs are Deliration frightful Dreams pains of the Breast and Throat difficulty of Respiration and a Continual Feaver which is sometimes putrid sometimes not All which signs proceed from the violent ebulition and agitation of the humours the conjunct cause of this Malady an effect of the natural heat which being irritated by their Malignity drives them outwards to the surface where they raise those little Tumours which if red and less high make the Meazles and when more eminent the Small Pox the Pimples whereof at first appear very small afterwards in time wax red and grow bigger from day to day till they become white then they suppurate and dry and lastly falling off commonly leave marks behind them not to be got away because they have consumed the skin which is never generated anew The second said A common effect must have a common cause Now the Small Pox and Meazles which differ only in that the former is produc'd of thinner and the latter of thicker blood are diseases not only common to many but so few escape them that a general rule here scarce admits any exceptions Two Causes there are the Material or the Efficient The former is the impurity of the Menstrual blood which serves for nourishing the foetus in the womb where at first it attracts the purest and sweetest blood but when grown bigger the gross together with the thin So that as Horses once in their lives cast the Strangles so men must also once purge and void that menstrual impurity which being equally dispers'd over all the body and in small quantity hinders not its functions The efficient Cause common likewise to all men is the Natural Heat which drives these impurities outwards and so they come to appear upon the skin which is the Universal Emunctory of the whole body but especially upon the face by reason of its tenderness and because being the place where all the Organs of Sense terminate 't is fuller of spirits then any other and consequently there is a greater attraction thither of those malignant Vapors Now that it seizes some in their childhood others in their youth some very few in old age and all after a different manner this depends upon our particular Constitutions either natural or acquisititious by custom and a long use of the things not natural For according as the humours reign in the body they give occasion to the eruption of that Venemous quality which before lay hid as Madness and Leprosie sometimes appear not till after divers years Our diet also contributes thereunto for when it symboliseth with that malignant humour it encreases the quantity thereof as on the contrary it corrects the same and retards its motion if it be of a laudable temper or exceed in contrary qualities The Third said What Original Sin is to the state of the Soul that the Small Pox seems to be to the state of the Body for this Disease commonly invades children who never committed any fault in their course of living and whose nature should be so much healthier by how much 't is more vigorous and nearer the principles of their Nativity wherefore it seems rather to proceed from the vitiosity of the Parents And as many hereditary diseases come from the bad disposition of the seed so from the impurity of the blood the material principle of our bodies some may also arise as Tettars Kibes Corns and other deformities of the skin which happen to children very like this Moreover this disease usually breaks forth in the seventh and ninth which are the first climacterical years when Nature endeavours the perfection of her work by purging and cleansing it of all impurities And as New Wine when it comes to work casts forth all the heterogeneous impurities in it's body so doth the natural heat attempt the like by causing an ebullition of the blood and spirits whether this Fermentation happens by the universal spirit of the world as those in other natural bodies or whether as 't is most probable it proceeds from the very strength of nature whose motions although regular and certain are yet unknown to any other besides it self which produces them according to the dispositions of the Subject wherein it resides The Fourth said That being our bodies were always form'd of the maternal blood and indu'd with one and the same natural heat which two are held the material and efficient causes of the Small Pox this Disease should have been in all times and places and yet it was unknown before the Arabians in whose time it began to appear For the little red round pustules and those other like flea-bitings mention'd by Hippocrates Aetius and some other Ancients are nothing less then the Small Pox to which not only Women during their Suppressions but even brute Beasts which have also their purgations as among others the Bitch the Mare and the Shee-Ass ought to be subject On the contrary such as have burning Feavers should be free from it if it be true that the seed and leven of this malady is dissipated by the ebullition of the blood which is vehement in a Feaver But 't is impossible to conceive how a venemous and pernicious matter as that impure part of the blood is said to be can be preserv'd for many years in its Mass for being the blood serves for continual aliment to all the parts these ought to resent something of that malignity yet those that are taken with this disease are usually the most healthy and of a sanguine constitution which is the most laudable For this were to accuse Nature either of Imprudence or Weakness but she is good wise powerful and solicitous for nothing so much as to purifie the body which she doth not only while the child is in
the Womb where she wraps it up in two membranes which receive the Urine Sweat and other Excrements of sanguification as the Intestines do the grosser excrements but assoon as it is born she expells its immundicities by blisters scurfs scabs tumors of the head and other purgations which Hippocrates saith preserve from diseases especially from the falling sickness Nor can the Malignity of the Air be the Cause as Fernelius holds alledging that the difficulty of respiration heaviness of the head inflammation of the face and such other concomitant symptoms seem to be caus'd by the viciousness of the air which infects the heart and by that means hurts the other Functions For then the Small Pox would be as Epidemical as the Pestilence or any other contagious maladies and seize upon all men indifferently not excepting such as have once had them Wherefore the matter of this disease is a serosity accompanied with the humours which make the Pox appear of several colours sometimes Red Yellow Black or White according as the Blood Choler Melancholy or Flegm flow thither Wind or Water only cause bladders or blisters Nevertheless it must be confessed that this serosity acquires some particular malignity as appears by the deformity caused by the pustules which not only pit the skin and flesh but sometimes even corrode and rot the bones The Fifth said That the Small Pox is a new and hereditary disease and that as all other new maladies of these last ages have always had their causes but only wanted fitting dispositions without which nothing is produced so the causes of the Small Pox have always been existent but the particular dispositions of bodies not lighting upon the point requisite for its production it hath not appeared till these late times whether through the influence of Heaven or through the Malignity of the Air or the intemperance of men the most apparent cause of most diseases formerly unknown or else through contagion and contact by which way the great Pox is communicated For the Small is likewise contagious and which is remarkable more amongst Kindred than Strangers because they being issued of the same blood have greater affinity of dispositions than Strangers CONFERENCE CXXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples AS there is nothing so hard as to judg of the worth of things so it is the highest point of prudence to understand the goodness of the means that may conduce to some end Precepts and Examples are the two Means to attain Vertue 't is demanded which is the best and most proper At first view Example seems to have the same advantage over Precept that the Whole hath over the Part for a Good Example besides being of its own nature a vertuous action holds the place of a Moral Rule but a Precept is only a General Maxim not necessarily follow'd by a particular Action whence it follows that Precept regards only the Understanding whereto it affords some light but Example makes impression upon both Faculties together the Understanding and the Will by an order necessary in civil life which is regulated by the example of others Therefore Great Persons are oblig'd to good Example which derives its dignity from that of the giver Moreover Moral Propositions are so reasonable and conformable to the instinct we have of good that all the World assents to them as consider'd in the General There is no body but acknowledges that what belongs to each man ought to be render'd to him that we ought not to do that to another which we would not have done to our selves yet in the circumstances and particular cases we do not always apply those precepts because then they appear clog'd with difficulties to which our passion or interest give birth Wherefore Example beng Particular is more considerable in Morality wherein people are govern'd more by opinion then reason but Precept is Universal and affects the mind only at a distance our actions being oftentimes contrary to the secret dictates of the Understanding In Example we feel the force and application of a precept in a particular subject and know not only that which ought to be done but how it ought to be done by seeing it practis'd Experience it self shew us that Doctrine alone is weak and little perswasive unless it be animated by the examples of a good life whose silence is more eloquent than all precepts Moreover we are like those with whom we live and the maladies of the body are not so contagious as those of the mind which notwithstanding may as well profit by bad examples as good the Understanding being able to turn bad food into good nourishment And as a brave Action excites good Motions in us by its beauty resulting from its conformity to Reason so a bad Action by its deformity and contrariety to Reason gives us aversion against it and an inclination to its opposite Socrates judg'd no Lesson so fit to moderate Anger as for a Man to behold himself in a glass when he is agitated with that Passion Which cannot be said of a bad Precept for this being a bad seed can never produce any fruit but of the same Nature On the other side Men are such Lovers of Pleasures that Virtue separated from Delight stumbles them and seemes too severe But Precept is a pure Rule of Duty without any attractive whereas Example which appears to our Eyes and is an Action cloth'd with circumstances perswades us more sweetly because we are naturally prone to Imitation whence it comes to pass that Comedies are so charming And Example is the subject of Imitation but Precept cannot be so for it is general of it self and all Moral Actions are singular The Second said That if it be true as the Stoicks say that Virtue is nothing else but a Science then Precepts must be the foundations as of Science so also of Virtute which indeed being a habit of a reasonable Faculty must be more promoted by Precepts which are infallible verities and supply light to that Power than Examples which have no force to convince a strong Mind They who follow Virtue by Example and not by Reason have more of the Ape than of the Man and all the power Example hath is onely to move the Will to admire and desire Virtue but not to teach the way of attaining it as Precept doth which besides being invariable and always alike to its self is more easie to be applyed than Example which puts on a new face according to the circumstances of times places and persons there being no Actions how contrary soever but have Examples to countenance their goodness Moreover they are either of the time past and so move us not much or of the present in which there are few of Virtue besides that they are of less duration than Precepts which are eternal If vicious Examples attract more powerfully to Vice than vicious Precepts the same cannot be said of the practice of Virtues since these have not all the External
obnoxious to external causes which produce diseases On the other side if Animals are happy 't is as Fools are whose minds are quiet by reason of their ignorance and insensibility But as it is better to be sensible then insensible even upon the condition of enduring pain sometimes so it is more happy to have a rational mind though it causes troubles to us sometimes then to have none Moreover we cannot avoid the stroaks of fortune otherwise then those of Thunder namely by being very high or very low but 't is better to be above tempests then below them and to be incapable of them by reason as a wise man then by stupidity as a beast CONFERENCE CXXX Whether is better that Men have many Wives or Women many Husbands THough plurality of Wives or Husbands be disallowed by the Christian Law yet not being contrary to the Law of Nations for many admit it nor of nature during which it was in use we may be permitted to doubt whether supposing Polygamy it were better one Husband should have many Wives or one Wife many Husbands There are examples of both Plurality of Wives was practised by Lamech who first had two by Abraham Jacob and the Patriarchs for multiplying of their Lineage afterwards by David and Solomon who had 700 Wives and 300 Concubins and at present 't is in use among the Turks who are permitted to have as many Wives as they can keep As for plurality of Husbands though it be not now in use yet it was sometimes amongst the Amazons who made use of Men only as Stallions as also amongst the Medes and Persians where it was a shame for a Woman to have less then five Husbands And by the report of Caesar in his Commentaries the Women of great Britain had no less then ten or twelve Husbands a piece Nevertheless this plurality of Husbands is somthing against the Law of Nature according to which the Male as the most perfect is the head and master of the Woman and as 't is a monstrous thing for a body to have many heads so 't is for a Woman to have many Husbands besides that they hinder production of Children for we see publick Women are barren and on the contrary plurality of Wives is the cause of much issue Wherefore 't is more expedient in a State whose chief strength consists in the number of men that one Husband have many Wives then one Wife many Husbands The second said Though men abusing the power and authority of Laws to their own advantage have oftner married more Wives then they have permitted them to have more Husbands yet the women have as much reason of complaint in this point as in any other establish'd to their prejudice without their being heard or summon'd Their vehement and irregular appetite after man of which the irregular motions of that Animal in Animali are most certain evidences seems to conclude in their favour For Woman alone of all Animals desires the Male at all times even after conception She the Fire the Sea and Death never say 't is enough as the matter hath a continual appetite of Forms so hath she of the Male which desire being natural ought to be satisfi'd otherwise it were in vain but nothing is so in Nature and therefore she ought to be permitted more Husbands since one alone is more apt to irritate then satiate her She is able and hath wherewith to satisfie them but if one man cannot suffice one woman how can he acquit himself towards a dozen Especially in this age wherein no doubt women would appeal from the constitution of Solon who would have men live with their wives only thrice a moneth as well as from that foolish custom of Cato who never visited his but when it rain'd Lycurgus was much better advis'd when he permitted old or otherwise impotent persons to chuse out the handsomest young men to lye with their wives This Sage Legislator well judging that they would of themselves take this liberty and therefore 't was better to grant it them that so they might be quit of the vice and blame attending this action when prohibited The Third said That the decision of this Question the very report of which sometimes put the Roman Dames into an aproar being of very great consequence to both parties 't is requisite to observe so much equity therein that the Women have no ground of exception though to speak truth I know not which would be most to their advantage whether to have more Husbands who would be so many Masters and Tyrants or to share with other Women the Caresses of one alone the first being contrary to their haughty humour and the second to their jealousie Besides the plurality of Husbands would hinder not only the propagation but also the education of Children for none would take care of the Children which were not his own and though they were he would not believe they belong'd to him It would be impossible for a Father to know his own Child the term of Child-bearing being no more certain testimony then the resemblance of Physiognomy Moreover whether the Wife were hated or loved by her Husbands she would be displeas'd to see all her Rivals in bad intelligence or the effects of their common hatred However being unable to please all by reason of the diversity of their humours she could not avoid the disgust of some of them As for that impure pleasure 't is too shameful to be brought into the account besides that the frequency of it would take away its sweetness no pleasures of life being such but upon the score of their rarity The Fourth said They that fear the multitude of Husbands would hinder conception and consequently generation by the confusion of several Seeds know not how either is effected since Physitians affirm with Hippocrates That the Womb no sooner receives the fruitful Seed but it shuts it self up to embrace the same straitly as the Stomach does the Meat and that so exactly as not to admit a needles point so that it cannot open again to receive new Seed in a second Coition And though superfoetation happen sometimes yet 't is very rare and is incident to a Woman that lies with the same Man several times as well as to one that lies with many The other Inconvenience of the incertainty of Issues and consequently of Successions is as little considerable for Man being not born for himself but for the State whereof he is a Member and Children less belonging to their Parents then to the Commonwealth whereof they are the Nursery 'twere more expedient that they were bred and instructed like those brave Lacedemonians at the publick charge than of their Parents whose tenderness and too great indulgence is oft-times the cause of their evil education Moreover this was the design of that Divine Commonwealth of Plato who would have not only other Goods but Wives and Children also common that so those ungrateful words of Mine and Thine which
are the cause of all Mischiefs might be taken away For by this means that importunate solicitude of Appropriation and Jealousie which oftentimes afflicts both parties would be no longer any thing but a phantasm Women would find their satisfaction in the plurality of Husbands these how many soever to one woman having always enough and more then they needed and the woman being cunning enough to divide her favours so that all her Husbands might be contented who besides dividing the burden of domestick cares would have an easier task by having the more Associates But especially 't would be much for the womans interest for if she be belov'd by all her Husbands 't will be unspeakable happiness to her if hated by any the caresses of some will make her amends for the bad usage of others whereas finding no remedy in that Gordian knot which tyes her to one person she abandons her self to despair insomuch that in the time of Spurius Carvilius seventy women accus'd one another to the Senate of having poyson'd their Husbands But if she be constrain'd to share the caresses of one Husband with a douzen rivals there will be nothing but perpetual feuds envies and jealousies Witness Leah and Rachel who though holy women yet daily contested for the possession of their common Husband Jacob. And the Scripture observes that Leah who was blear-ey'd was constrain'd to purchase of the fair Rachel with mandrakes the liberty of lying one night with Jacob. The 5th said That seeing a Woman is a hagger'd and indocible animal Experience shewing us that one single man is not capable to reduce her to reason 't were more expedient to allow her many Husbands the reverence and aw of whom and in defect thereof their force might tame her pride and insolence which is risen to the highest pitch since the time that Justinian's Wife got the Law of Divorce repeal'd which ever before had been a Bridle upon them CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion MOtion which is the mutation from one state to another is either simple or compound Simple is either of Quality is term'd Alteration or of Place and is call'd Lation or Motion Local Compound is either to Substance and is nam'd Generation which includes alteration and formation or to a greater Quantity which comprehends Local Motion with Accretion or Augmentation which cannot be made unless the parts extended change place This Accretion is an effect of one of the Faculties subservient to the Vegetative or Natural which are three the Generative the Auctive or Accretive and the Nutritive according to the three operations observ'd in living bodies which have parts generated nourishing and increasing for a thing must be generated before it can grow and acquire the perfection wherein it is maintain'd by Nutrition The Generative Faculty which is compounded of the Alterative and Formative regards the foetus in the womb The Auctive governs it from its birth till the twentieth or one and twentieth year which is the term of Accretion The Nutritive continues all the time of life which cannot subsist without nourishment because this repairs the continual dissipation of our substance caus'd by the action of heat upon humidity in which action Life it self consists Now though the body may be nourisht without growing yet it cannot grow unless it be nourisht For Accretion being an Extension of the parts in length and breadth new substance must be supply'd to fill up the place of that which is extended otherwise a living body should grow no more then a bladder doth when it is blown or a piece of leather when it is stretcht in the former what is gotten in capacity is lost in thickness and in the latter what is gotten in length is impair'd in breadth so that the augmentation of parts would be rather imaginary than real without supply of new matter to succeed that which is equally extended in all its dimensions amongst which nevertheless that of stature and of the solid parts as the bones is call'd Growth and not that which is made in thickness and the fleshy parts which are enlarged manytimes after the time of full growth The second said That all things being finite must have bounds of magnitude sutable to the use whereunto they are appointed which bounds are not determinate in inanimate bodies as Stones Metals Hair and Nails whose accretion being made by the bare apposition of matter they are augmented continually so long as there is accession of new matter to the former But in living bodies the same are regular for the accretion of these being internal and the work of the soul continues till the body hath attain'd the proportion and stature requisite to its functions To compass which Nature employs Heat as the Efficient Cause and Humidity as the Material Hence children grow most in their infancy because they are then most moist and men to a larger size then women because they have more heat Young men indeed have a more pungent and vigorous heat then Children but these are better stor'd as being nearer the principles of their generation and though it be not so active yet 't is more proper for the growth of the solid parts which being desiccated by a violent heat are not so extensible as when they are full of a fat and unctuous humidity But as for the manner of Accretion 't is almost the same with that of Nutrition The Aliment having been prepar'd in the Stomach and Liver and by this latter transmitted by the veins into all the parts of the body the purer particles of it sweat through the coats of the Vessels and fall like a gentle dew upon the parts which first imbibe then agglutinate and lastly assimilate the same So that Nutrition is nothing but Assimilation of the substance of the food to that of the living body and as Aliments nourish by resemblance of their Substance and by vertue of their Form so they cause augmentation by their Quantity and Matter which arriving at the solid parts as the Bones Cartilages and Ligaments causes the same to extend and grow in all dimensions but especially in height by reason that 't is proper to Heat to drive Humidity upwards And as when the Nutrition is equal to the Dissipation the body is only nourisht as in the Age of Consistence so when the Income of matter is greater than the Expence the surplusage meeting with a due heat causeth augmentation if it be less there follows wasting or diminution as is seen Old-Age The Third said As Animals are indu'd with a nobler degree of life than Plants so they vegetate after a more sublime manner and not only by bare heat and moisture For amongst Animals the Elephant a melancholy and consequently cold and dry beast is yet the greatest of the field the Crocodile though cold grows all its life and some Serpents have by long age attained to the length of sixty foot So amongst Trees Oaks though the dryest are the largest Of Bones the
Malleus Incus and Stapes in the Ear which serve to reproduce sounds grow not at all though they be full of mucosity and humidity on the contrary the Teeth the dryest of all parts as is manifested by their rotting last yet grow all the life long But if Heat and Moisture were the causes of Accretion then the Sanguine who are hot and moist should be of the largest size as they are not but commonly grow as well as the Flegmatick more in thickness than height augmenting their flesh and fat more then their solid parts On the contrary the tallest men are commonly cold dry and lean the lowest generally hotter and people grow upon recovery after fevers which dry the body Wherefore 't is more probable that the Growth of Animals is an effect of the Spirits which insinuating into the Vessels extend the same and withall the membranes muscles and other parts encompassing them proportionably The Fourth said That the Spirits are indeed the Soul's Organs and Instruments whereby she performs her functions but being of so volatile and fluid a nature as not to be reckon'd in the number of the parts of Man's Body they cannot of themselves cause Accretion which requires Apposition of new matter which insinuates it self equally into all the parts just as the nourishment doth both without penetration of dimensions or admission of vacuity This matter must be humid because of all Bodies the moist are most pliant and extensible Whence the Sea by reason of its humidity produces Monsters of strange bulk Yet this humidity as well as the heat must be in due degree for a great heat consumes instead of increasing whence the Males of Birds of prey are lesser than the Females because they are hotter but if it be too weak then the moisture instead of ascending falls downward by its proper gravity which is the cause that Women who have less heat are also of lesser stature than Men and larger downwards as Men are upwards According to the various marriage of this heat with moisture bodies grow variously some more slowly others more speedily some are little and dwarfish others Giants according to the defect or abundance of the matter serving to their first Formation But as for the rest of Man-kind Wise Nature hath set her self such bounds as she hath judg'd convenient beyond which the most part grow not which are between six and seven foot Not the Accretive Faculty is then lost or corrupted for 't is that power of the Soul and consequently incorruptible and inseparable from her but it cannot act longer for want of fitting dispositions to wit the softness and moistness of the solid parts As a Mule hath a Sensitive Soul but not the virtue of generating which is one of the Faculties of that Soul and a Load-stone rub'd with Garlick hath still the virtue of attracting Iron but cannot employ the same by reason that its Pores are stopt no more then the Eye can see in a Suffusion CONFERENCE CXXXII Whether the Dinner or Supper ought to be largest DIet or the Regiment of Living which is the first and most general part of Physick because it concerns both the healthy and the sick consists in regulating the quantity and quality of Aliments and the order and time wherein they are to be taken The Quantity must be proportional to the nature of the Person so that his strength may be repair'd and not oppress'd thereby As for the Quality they must be of good juice and as pleasing and agreeable as may be The Order of taking them is to be this such as are moist soft laxative and of soonest Digestion or Corruption must precede such as are dry hard astringent and of more difficult Concoction The Time in general ought to be so regulated that the interval of Meals be sufficient for digesting the nourishment last fore-going The Custom of most Nations hath made two Dinner and Supper Break-fast and Afternoon-collations being but Diminutives or parts of them two and the over-plus of notorious excesses Now if we compare Dinner and Supper together it seemes requisite that the latter be more plentiful because the Time ensuing it is most proper for Digestion in regard of the intro-recession of the natural heat during sleep which becoming by that means more united and vigorous performes the natural functions to wit Concoction Distribution Apposition and Assimilation more perfectly then after Dinner when it is diverted otherwise to the Senses and Operations both of Body and Mind Besides that the coldness and darkness of the night contributes not a little to the same effect upon the account of Antiperistasis Unless we had rather with some establish a new power of the Soul governing and disposing the Spirits according to necessity sometimes giving them the bridle and causing them to move outwards as in Anger Shame and Indignation sometimes summoning them inwards as in Fear Sadness and Sleep which for this reason renders the Countenance pale and all the extream parts cold whereas in the time of waking the external parts being hotter leave the Internal more cold The Second said That he agreed with the Church which enjoynes Fasting in the Evening but allows Dinners which it doth not without mature consideration drawn as well from Nature as from Grace For it thereby designes the eschewing those Illusions and Temptations attending good Cheer taken before going to bed and conceives a light Supper fittest for meditation and serenity of Mind The reparation of our dissipated Spirits by Food causeth the same disorder in the Body that happens in a Town or Village upon the entrance of strangers to people it after its desolation by some accident and therefore 't is better that this trouble arrive in the day when our waking senses are able to secure themselves from the Commotions caused by this change than in the night whose darkness helps to multiply the Phantasms which are in the Imagination pester'd with the vapors and gross fumes of Meats the Digestion whereof is then but begun Whereas in the day time such vapors transpire more freely by the Pores which are opened by the heat of the Sun and by the Exercises which are used in the Afternoon Besides Meats being onely to fill emptiness the time of the greatest inanition is the fittest for repletion which certainly Noon must be after the Evacuations of the fore-going Night and Morning The Third said There are four manners of taking Repasts First Some eat often and very much at each time so did the Athletae of old and so do those Gourmandizers who are alwayes hungry and whose Stomacks have been found after their death of unusual capacity This way is altogether opposite to Health Secondly Some eat little and seldom which course befits acute Diseases those that are judg'd the fourth day requiring sometimes a total abstinence in case the Patient's strength can bear it those that reach to the seventh or fourteenth very little Food and seldom Thirdly Such as must eat little but
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
Mixts are compounded The Sun indeed is the Efficient Cause of all productions here below but being a celestial and incorruptible body cannot enter into the composition of any thing as a Material Cause Much less can our common Fire which devours every thing and continually destroyes its Subject But it must be that Elementary Fire which is every where potentially and actually in its own Sphere which is above that of the Air and below that of the Moon Moreover being the lightest or least heavy of all the Elements the Harmony of the Universe which consists chiefly in their situation requires that it be in the highest place towards which therefore all other Fires which are of the same Nature ascend in a point with the same violence that a stone descends towards its Centre those remaining here below being detain'd by some Matter whereof they have need by reason of the contraries environing them from which that Sublunary Fire being exempt hath nothing to do with Matter or nourishment and by reason of its great rarity and tenuity can neither burn nor heat any more then it can be perceiv'd by us The Second said That subtlety one of the principal conditions requisite to the conversion of Matter into Fire is so far from hindring that it encreases the violence and activity of Fire making it penetrate even the solidest bodies whence that pretended Fire not being mixt with extraneous things to allay its heat as that of Aqua Vitae is temper'd by its Phlegm or aqueous humidity but being all Fire in its own Sphere and natural place which heightens the Virtue and qualities of all Agents must there also heat shine burn and produce all its Actions which depend not upon density or rarity or such other accidents of Matter purely passive but upon its whole Form which constituting it what it is must also make it produce Effects sutable to its Nature Wherefore as Water condens'd into Ice or Crystal is no longer Water because it hath ceas'd to refrigerate and moisten so the Fire pretended to be above the Air invisible and insensible by reason of its rarity is not Fire but subtile Air. They who say its natural inclination to heat and burn is restrain'd by the Influences of the Heavens particularly of the cold Starrs as Saturn and the Moon speak with as little ground since the circular motion of the Heavens whereby this Fire is turn'd about should rather increase than diminish its heat And besides Fire being a necessary Agent its action can no more be hindred by such Influences than the descent of a stone downwards Whereunto add that the beams of all Stars have heat and were any cold yet those of Saturn are too remote and those of the Moon too weak in comparison of this Fire the extent whereof is about 90000. Leagues for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is almost as much namely 56. Semidiameters of the Earth from which substracting between 25. and 30. Leagues which they allot to the three Regions of the Air the rest must be occupy'd by the Fire which they make to extend from the Concave surface of the Moon to the convex surface of the Air which it would consume in less than a moment considering the great disproportion between them Moreover were there such a Fire it could not be own'd an Element because its levity would keep it from descending and entring into the Composition of mixts and were it not leight yet it would be hindred from descending by the extream coldness of the Middle Region of the Air accounted by some a barrier to the violence of that Chymerical Fire which ought rather to be reckon'd amongst their Entia Rationis than the Natural Elements whereunto Corporeity and Palpability are requisite For these Reasons I conceive with Pythagoras that the Sun is the true Elementary Fire plac'd for that purpose in the middle of the World whose Light and Heat enter into the Composition not onely of all living things but also of Stones and Metals all other Heat besides that of the Sun being destructive and consequently no-wise fit for Generation The Third said He confounds Heaven with Earth and destroyes the Nature of the Sun who takes it for an Element that is to say a thing alterable and corruptible by its contraries which it must have if it be an Element The Heat of his beams proves it not the Elementary Fire seeing commonly the nearer we are to Fire the more we feel the Heat of it but the Supream and Middle Regions of the Air are colder than ours Besides were our common fire deriv'd from the Sun it would not languish as it doth when the Sun shines upon it nor would the heat of dunghils and caves be greater in Winter than in Summer Wherefore I rather embrace the common Opinion which holds That the heaviest Element is in the lowest place and the leightest in the highest whose Action is hindred by the proportion requisite to the quantity of each Element The Fourth said That the qualities of Fire viz. Heat Dryness and Light concurring in the Sun in a supream degree argue it the Elementary Fire for Light being the Cause of Heat the Sun which is the prime Luminous Body must also be the prime Hot that is to say Fire For as the pretended one above the Air was never yet discover'd so 't is repugnant to the Order of the Universe for the leightest of Elements to be shut up in the Centre of the Earth where some place it We have but two wayes to know things Sense and Reason the latter of which is founded either upon Causes or Effects Now we know nothing of the Sun or any other Celestial Bodies otherwise then by its Effects and sensible qualities which being united in Spherical Burning-glasses as they are in the body of the Sun notifie to us by their Effects the Nature of their Cause The Fifth said That Fire being to the World what the Soul is to the Body as Life is in all the parts of the Body so also is Fire equally diffused throughout the whole World In the Air it makes Comets and other Igneous Meteors In the Earth it concocts Metals and appears plentifully in Volcanoes whose Fires would not continue alwayes if they were violently detained in those Concavities yea 't is in the Waters too whose saltness and production of Monsters cannot be without Heat Yet being the most active of all Elements it is therefore distributed in much less quantity than the rest Nature having observed the same proportion both in the greater and lesser World Man's Body in which there is less of Fire than of the other Elements Otherwise had the Fire been equal to the rest it would consume all living things to ashes Nevertheless as the fixed Heat of Animals requires reparation by the Influent Heat from the Heart the Soul 's principal seat in like manner the Elementary Fire dispersed in all part of this great body of the World needs the
amounts to 5920. years according to the most probable Opinion which reckons 3683. years and three months to the Nativity of our Lord the Matter may also be decided by Reason provided we lay aside two powerful Passions the one proper to young Men who alwayes value themselves above their Predecessors and like Rehoboam think their own little finger stronger than the whole Body of their Fathers the other ordinary to old Men who alwayes extoll the time past above the present because the infirmities of their Bodies and Minds no longer allowing them the contentment they formerly enjoyed they know not where to charge the fault but upon Time though in truth it lyes upon Themselves For Nature being still as Wise and Powerful as heretofore and the Universal Causes the same their Operations must be likewise as perfect and their Effects as excellent in these dayes as they have been in any Then as for our Minds they are so far from being impair'd that they improve more and more in acuteness and being of the same Nature with those of the Ancients have such an advantage beyond them as a Pigmy hath upon the shoulders of a Gyant from whence he beholds not onely as much but more than his supporter doth The Second said As a Stone hath more force by how much 't is less from the hand that flings it and generally all Causes act more powerful upon their next than upon their distant Effects so also Men are less perfect proportionally to their remoteness from their Source and Original from whence they derive all their perfection This decay is chiefly observ'd in our bodies which are not so sound and well-constituted as those of our Ancestors and therefore 't is no wonder if the Souls where-with they are inform'd have less Vigor though the same Nature For although in order to judge aright of the Excellence of the Souls of one Age compar'd with another we ought to wave that advantage which the later have over the preceding by enjoying the benefit of their inventions whereunto 't is as easie to add as 't is to build upon a good foundation whereof others have firmly lay'd the first stones and Pillars Yet for all those great advantages there hath not in these last Ages appear'd any one equal to those grand Personages of Antiquity who have had the vogue in each Art and Science Moreover want of things made them more ingenious and the Experience of many years render'd them capable of every thing whereas now we cease to live when we but begin to know our selves Indeed they had the true Disciplines and Sciences whereof we have no more but the shadows and instead of real and solid Philosophy such as that of the First Ages was nothing remains to us but an useless Scholastick Gibberish which having been banisht the Company of all discreet people is shamefully confin'd to the inclosure of Colledges where I am confident the Professors will readily yield to Socrates Plato Lycurgus Solon and the Seven Sages of Greece to whose Age which was the year of the World 3400. I clearly give the prize there being no indowment of the Mind preferrable to that of Wisdom The Third said If Wisdom must carry it there is no Age to be compar'd to that of Solomon but because one Swallow makes not a Spring I should prefer before it that of Augustus and Tiberius when the Roman Empire was in its greatest Glory the rather because our Saviour the Paragon of all great Men liv'd in it and Virgil Ovid Cicero Cato besides many others flourisht at the same time Not to speak of the rare Inventions which also then appear'd as Malleable Glass and Perpetual Lights both now unknown The Fourth said If the complaint of the decay of Witts were true and new the World must be very old since Seneca who liv'd 1500. years ago made the same in his time But if the present Wits are not inferior to those of Seneca's time it will follow either that the world grows not worse as is commonly said or that long Series of years which makes above a quarter of the whole Age the world is taken but for one and the same time In which Case the world must be older than religion and truth teach us before it fell into that decay wherein we see it continue for so many Ages But indeed 't is a weakness to imagine that Witts diminish our Natural Inclination to despise what we possess and to regret what is pass'd making us judge to our own disadvantage that we are less perfect than our Ancestors and that our Nephews must be worse than our selves whence arose that Fiction of Four Ages differing according to so many Metals the Golden one by reason of its excellence that of Silver Brass and Iron proportionably as Men fell from the former Perfection of Soul and Innocence of Manners But all this while 't is in the beginning of the World that the weakness of Man appear'd by suffering himself to be govern'd by his Wife and the damnable Resolution of a Fratricide Moreover the Mind of Man being a Power of well Conceiving Reasoning Inventing and doing other Functions whereof he is capable he may arrive to a Supream Degree of Excellence either by the pure and liberal Will of his Maker or by the disposition and concurrence of Natural Causes or by Humane Industry So that God Nature and Art the three sole Agents of this World being the same as heretofore they must produce the same Effects For God creates not Souls now with less advantages and grace than formerly he is as liberal of his favours as ever especially in the Ages of Grace Nor doth Nature and other Second Causes contribute less to the perfection of Souls than heretofore And the Humane Soul however independent of Matter as to its Essence yet is so link'd to the Organs of the Body that it operates well or ill according as those are diversly affected which is what we call Good or Bad Wit whilst we judge thereof by the Actions and not by the Essence For those Organs and Dispositions depend of the Elements and Superior Bodies which are alwayes the same and consequently must produce the same Effects and hence the equal Dispositions of Bodies will inferr equal perfection of Minds But as for the difference of Souls arising from Art and Instruction undoubtedly those of our Age are better cultivated than any ever have been in times pass'd The Fifth said When I consider the high pitch whereunto so many great Men have carry'd the Glory of these last Ages I find more wonders than in the preceding but it pertains onely to the Ages ensuing to make their Elogiums Great Men whilst living being kept down by Envy or Contempt One Age must be let pass before we begin to judge of the worth of it then the following begins to regret what it sleighted it being natural to us to seek onely what is wanting and to be disgusted with plenty And truly I think
from falling but from the bare privation of the heat of the Sun who as by his presence he actually causes heat in the Air so by his absence he causes coldness in the same which penetrating our Bodies calefi'd by the diurnal heat easily therein condenses the vapors which are not yet setled or laid and squeesing them out of the Brain and all the parts just as we do water out of a wet spunge they fall upon the weakest parts where they cause a fluxion and pain The Fourth said That the Air being of it self very temperate can never do any mischief unless it be mix'd with some extraneous substances as Vapors and Exhalations which continually infect the first Region wherein we reside And because those subtle parts of Earth and Water exhal'd into it are imperceptible 't is not strange if they produce such sudden and unexpected effects as we see the Serene doth which is caus'd by vapors rais'd after Sun-set by the force of the heat remaining upon the surface of the Earth like those arising from heated water after it is taken off the fire So that the Serene is that vapour whilst it mounts upwards not when it falls downwards for it cannot descend till it be render'd heavier by condensation into Water Clouds or Mists which make the Air nubilous and not serene as in this effect it uses to be But at their first elevation they are more volatile rare subtle and invisible The Fifth said That the chief cause of this hurtful accident is the change of one contrary into another without medium which is always incommodious to Nature who for that reason conjoyns all extreams by some mediums which serve for dispositions to pass from the one to the other without difficulty And as the alteration of the body from cold to hot is painful witness those who hold their cold hands to the fire after handling of Ice in like sort that from hot to cold is very incommodious whence the hotter the preceding day hath been the more dangerous is the serene because the pores of the Body being open'd and all the humors disorder'd and mov'd by the diurnal heat the cold insinuates into and works upon the same with more liberty just as heated water is soonest frozen by reason its parts are more open'd by the heat and consequently more capable of receiving the impressions of Agents Which is also the reason why the first cold hurts us rather then the greatest frosts namely because it finds the body more open then ensuing hard weather doth So though in Winter the air be colder yet because 't is almost continually the same it makes less impression in the evening upon our bodies already accustomed to its rigor and though the air is colder at midnight then at Sun-set yet the serene is only at the beginning of the night when our bodies more sensibly receive alteration from the same Wherefore 't is only the sudden change of the air which makes the serene whereof our bodies are the more sensible according to the openness of the pores and of the futures of the head and the softness of the flesh which renders the body obnoxious to external causes as hardness which secures it from them makes it subject to internal causes through want of transpiration Hence Peasants Souldiers and all such as are hardned by labour and are of a firm and constant constitution feel no inconvenience from the Serene although they breathe an air more subtle and consequently more capable of being impregnated in the evening with qualities noxious to the body CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are Light and Inconstant and why THere is no more perfect Mirror of Inconstancy then Man as appears by the pleasure his body takes in the change of Pasture his mind in that of Objects and both in that of Condition Hence men look not upon present honours but as so many steps whereby to ascend to new the possession of present goods bringing no other satisfaction then that of their Stomack that is till a second Appetite be excited by new Meats Whereunto the nimbleness of their volatile Spirits the fluidity and mobility of their humours which constitute the temperament too notoriously furnish the efficient and material cause to inquire elsewhere for them for which reason the melancholick are less subject to this defect this earthy humour being less susceptible of change whence they prove more wise But amongst all Nations there is none to whom the vice of Levity is more imputed then to the French Caesar who had long convers'd with them frequently objects the same to them and experience sufficiently shews by what is pass'd that they are very far from the constancy of other Nations as not only their Statutes and Edicts which they cannot long observe but all their Modes and Customs and their desire of novelty abundantly testifie The causes whereof are either from the Climate or the Soil For 't is observ'd that where the Heaven is always in the same posture as toward the Poles or where the Sun heats almost in the same degree as near the Equator which makes the days and nights equal the Manners and Inclinations of the People are also equal on the contrary those that by the several remotions and approaches of the Sun have different constitutions of Air receive sutable impressions from the same which are afterwards manifested in their actions And because what is below is the same with what is on high the Earth consequently partakes of the same alterations which the Heaven produces in the Air and retains them longer Thus our Soul being heated and cooled moistned and dry'd in one and the same day suffering contrary changes in a very little time 't is no wonder if the Aliments it affords make the parts humors and spirits like it self that is to say flitting inconstant and mutable which parts being communicated from Father to Son can no more be chang'd by us even by Travels and Alteration of Soil than the Moor can change his skin which the temper of his native climate hath in like manner given him Add hereunto that the French Courtesie receiving all strangers more civilly than any Nation of the World is also more easily lead by their perswasions and examples And whereas the roughness and rusticity of many other people thinks shame and scorn to change as implying preceding Ignorance the sincerity and frankness of the French is such that he easily alters his Mind and way as soon as another seems better to him than his own other Nations what-ever Pride they take in being always constant and equal to themselves and especially more patient than we in our Adversities surpassing us onely in this particular that they better know how to dissemble their discontents The Second said Lightness of Minds is like that of Bodies respective onely not absolute And as Air is term'd Light in respect of Water and Earth so dull people those of the North and such others as would have gravity alone
in words gestures and actions pass for Wisdom call the French light because they are more nimble and active then themselves and being really what others are onely in appearance affect not that false mask of Wisdom whereof they possess the solidity and Body whilst these content themselves with enjoying its shadow and ghost For 't is not the change of habits or modes that argues that of the Mind but in great Matters as Religion and State in maintaining whereof the French may be affirm'd more constant than any Nation 'T is not an Age yet since France bad reason to glory as well as in Saint Jerom's time of never having produc'd Monsters but of planting the Faith well amongst all its Neighbors whose rigorous Inquisition is less a testimony of the Constancy than of the lightness or baseness of their Spirits since they are kept in their Religion by fear of the Wheel and the Gallows Then as for the State the French Monarchy is the ancientest in the world and hath been always maintain'd amidst the ruines and downfalls of other States by the exact observation of its fundamental Laws which is an eminent Argument of the Constancy of the French the Nations who have most charg'd them with this Vice shewing themselves the most inconstant whilst this puissant body of France remains always like it self which it could not do if the members which compose it were light and inconstant the greatest Vice where-with they can asperse us For since according to Seneca Wisdom is always to will and not-will the same things Inconstance and Irresolution in willing sometimes one thing sometimes another is a certain testimony of Folly Imprudence and weakness of Mind which coming to change intimates either that it took not its measures aright nor apprehended the fit means of attaining to the proposed end or that it had not Courage and Resolution enough to go through with its designes And not onely he who hath an inconstant and flitting Spirit is incapable of Wisdom which requires a settled Mind not mutable like that of the Fool who as the Scripture saith changes like the Moon but also of all sort of Virtue which consisting in a mediocrity is not attainable but by Prudence which prescribes its Bounds and Rules and by Stability and Constance which arms the Mind against all difficulties occurring in the way of Virtue in which as well as in the Sciences and Arts the French having more share than any other Nation 't is injurious to accuse them of Inconstancy The Third said 'T is not more vanity to believe one's self perfect in all things than temerity in going about upon blind passion for his Country to exempt it from a Vice whereof all strangers who know us better than we do our selves are universally agreed Let us confess therefore that we are inconstant since in comparison of the Vices of other Neighbouring Nations this will not onely appear light but make it doubtful whether it be a Vice since 't is grounded upon Nature which is in perpetual change whereby she appears more beautiful and agreeable than in identity and rest which is not found even in the prime Bodies and universal Causes which as well as others are in a continual mobility and change which is no-wise contrary to Wisdom which requires that we accommodate our selves to the circumstances of places persons and times which alter incessantly and that we consequently alter our Conclusions according thereunto besides that change of Opinion is a testimony of a free and ingenuous Spirit as that of the French is and it may be attributed to the power of example in a people environ'd with sundry Nations extreamly different and consisting of Spirits which are imbu'd with the qualities of them all For this Country lying under the forty third degree and the forty eighth the mixture of these people which partake a little of the Southern and a little of the Northern Neighbours sometimes conforms to the modes of one sometimes to those of the other And as in the change of Colours the difference is not seen but in the two extreamities those of the middle appearing changeable and diversifi'd so France situated between the Germans Italians and Spaniards mixing and tempering in it self the qualities of those Nations which are in its extreamities appears to them changeable and uncertain The Fourth said Though the French are not more inconstant than others yet their boyling and impetuous humor and the quickness of all their Actions having made them be esteemed such by all their Neighbors I shall rather refer the Cause thereof to their abundance of Spirits which are the sole Motors and Principles of all Actions produc'd by the purity of their Air and the variety of their Aliments than to the Aspects of Heaven or such other Causes since Nations under the same parallel with France as Podolia Hungary Tartary and many others should be subject to the same Vice which was sometimes imputed to the Grecians the most fickle and inconstant of all people without referring the Cause to the Winds as Cardan held that such as are most expos'd thereunto to have volatile Spirits otherwise the French and other Nations subject to Winds should quit their levity when they came into Climates less windy CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers NOthing ravishes us more than the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Automata or Bodies moving by Artifice having in the beginning made Idolaters who were undeceived when they came to know the Springs of them But above all the Motions of the Sea seem the more marvellous in that they are very different and contrary And they are of two sorts One Internal and common to all heavy Bodies whereby the Water descends downwards the agitated Sea becomes calm by returning to its level and Rivers follow the declivity of the Lands through which they pass The other violent which is either irregular render'd so by the irregularity of the Winds or regular which again is of two sorts namely that of reciprocation in the flux and reflux of the Sea and that which depends upon the several parts of the World being either from East to West or from North to South 'T is true Water being naturally fluid and moveable and not to be contain'd within its own bounds it were more strange if this great Body were immoveable than to see it move as it was necessary it should for Navigation and to avoid corruption The wonder onely is to see in one sole Body so great a diversity of Motions whereof onely the first is natural to it the others arise from some extrinsick Causes amongst which none acting more sensibly upon the Elements than the Celestial Bodies 't is to the diversity of their Motions that those of the Sea must be imputed but particularly that of its flux and reflux which being regular and always alike in one and the same Sea cannot proceed but from as regular a Cause such as the Heaven is and chiefly the
and the good Constitution of the Brain the fuliginous vapors whereof being repercuss'd by the abundance of Hair cause Vertigoes and pains of the Head not more certainly cur'd than by shaving the Head As for seemliness much Hair is rather frightful than handsome and our Ancestors were no less comely persons than we though they wore short Hair as at this day also do many warlike Nations Enemies of softness and delicacy whereof great Hair is a most certain token being proper to Women as on the contrary the long Beard is a note of Virility For inasmuch as he that loves conformes as much as possible to what he loves we may judge of the softness and dissoluteness of the manners of this time by the desire Men have to render themselves as like Women as they can by wearing like them much Hair and little Beard For when Men wore shorter Hair long Beards were in request and when the Hair ha's been long the Beards have almost ever been short the length of the one recompencing the brevity of the other which would otherwise render Men hideous The Third said If ever 't was true that Custom is a Tyrant 't is in this Case no variation having been so much as in matter of Hair The Scythians and Parthians wore both Hair and Beard long thereby to terrifie their Enemies The Greeks whose Hair is much commended by Homer kept it long to distinguish themselves from their slaves who were shorn as at present are Galley-slaves Artizans and Monasticks for Humility whom also Peter Lombard Bishop of Paris caus'd to shave their Hair and Beard in the year 1160 according to the 44th Canon of the Fourth Council of Carthage which forbids Clerks to wear either Locks or Beards The Aegyptians wear their Hair long and shave off their Beards The Maxii a people of Africa are shorn on one side of the Head and let the Hair grow on the other The Abaudi had the fore-part onely shaven the Antii contrary The Arabians shave even their Daughters round about leaving a Lock on the top The Armenians shave their Hair into the form of a Cross but there is something more majestical in the Beard than in the Hair and even Animals furnisht there-with seem to have some sort of gravity more than others Hence such as have affected the title of Wise have likewise suffer'd their Beards to grow but the Ephori made the Lacedemonians cut theirs as also Alexander and many Captains did their Souldiers lest their Enemies might catch hold of them But as the caprichio of persons of authority especially Courtiers gives the first model of fashions particularly as to Hair and Beard so to wear short Hair now every one's reaches to his waste or a magisterial spade Beard now all are close shaven except such whose Age and Condition exempts them from this Rule were for a Man to make himself taken notice of for things which bring no commendation which hath no place in discreet Minds but argues a phantastical and humorsome person who is commonly appointed contrary to the Modes whereof the present continually out-vie the Antient. The Fourth said Hair which is rather the leavs and boughs than as Plato held the roots of Man's Body which he terms a Tree revers'd having been chiefly design'd for preservation of the Brain from External Injuries they who would have care of their Health must consult the Constitution of their Brain before they determine either for long or short Hair Cold and Moist Brains need store of Hair to fence off the cold Air Hot and Dry the contrary As for the Hair of the Chin it was design'd onely for Ornament and a Testimony of the Authority which the Male hath above the Female whence that part seemeth somewhat sacred it being an Injury to touch one's Beard of which the Emperor Otho made such account that according to Cuspinian he was wont to swear by his own The proportion of it ought to follow the model of others of like condition Wise Men following the advice of the greatest number in matters indifferent provided they be not contrary to Honesty and Health CONFERENCE CL. VVhether Alterations of States have natural Causes STates being compos'd of Realms or Provinces these of Cities and Towns these of Families these of particular Persons and each Person having Natural Causes 't is clear that the Alteration of the Whole is to be attributed to the same Causes which make the change of its parts Thus when all the Houses of a Town are afflicted with Pestilence or consum'd by Fire which Accidents are capable of producing great Mutations in a Common-wealth it cannot be otherwise express'd but by saying that the Town is burnt or wasted by the Plague And as when the particular suffrages of each Counsellor tend to the absolution or condemnation of a Criminal 't were senseless to say that the Sentence of the Court were other than that of the President and Counsellors so also it is ridiculous to say that the Causes of personal mutations are Natural but not those of Political As therefore 't is almost the sole demonstration we have in Physicks that our Bodies are chang'd and corrupted because they are compos'd of the four Elements in like sort I conceive the Cause of alteration befalling the body of a State is to be sought in the Collection of the several members that compose it which coming to lose the harmony proportion and respect which made them subsist they are dissolv'd and corrupted which is a mutation purely natural and of absolute necessity The Second said If God hath reserv'd any thing to his own disposal 't is that of Crowns and the preservation of States which are the first and universal Causes of the safety of every particular person Whence the transferring of those Crowns from one State to another which is a greater mystery is a mutation purely supernatural as not onely God himself hath manifested when he subjected the State of the Israelites first to Judges and Captains which was a kind of Aristocracy and afterwards to Kings reducing them to a Monarchy but also all such as have wrought great changes in States of the World And Legislators knowing this belief imprinted in all Men's Minds have affected the Reputation of being descended from or favor'd by some Deity as did Alexander the Great and Numa Pompilius Moreover the Holy Scripture attributes to God the changing of Scepters and frequently styles him the God of Battels the winning and losing whereof are the most common and manifest Causes of the change of States And 't is a pure effect of the Divine Will that Men born free subject themselves to the Will of one sole or few persons so the changing of that Inclination cannot proceed but from Him who is the searcher of Hearts and gives us both to will and to do If Natural Causes had their effects as certain in Politicks as in Physicks States should have their limited durations as Plants and Animals have and yet
there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating
Appetite of Cold and Moist cannot be extinguish'd by Wine which is Hot and so more apt to inflame it The Life of the first Patriarch before the use of Wine namely before the Deluge was much longer than it hath been since and no doubt the principal defect in Man and the Cause of most Diseases is bad Digestion The Second said That Digestion being perform'd by the conflux of Spirits elaborated in the Spleen and Wine which is more spirituous and consequently furnishes more matter for our Spirits than any other Aliment cannot but powerfully promote the same Which clearly appears by old men in whom Wine hath the same Effect that Milk hath in Children and preserves these latter from Worms Whence possibly Hippocates gave it not onely in Quotidian but also in Continual Fevers the hurtfulness to be fear'd from its heat were it conjoyn'd with dryness being secur'd by its humidity which makes it symbolize with blood Yet all Wines are not hot small green Wines especially the White and Sharp have more of coldness than of heat and other Wines drunk in small quantity with much water refresh more than water alone because opening the Pores they insinuate into the remote parts which plain water presently closes Yea Wine as hot is a friend to the Stomack and Bowels whose membranous substance being cold and dry needs the contrary qualities of Wine wherefore Wine helps Digestion which water hinders being indigestible it self and so unable to give what it hath not God's discovering Wine to Men after the Flood as a remedy to the defect left thereby in all Creatures serving for their food being rather an evidence of its utility than hurtfulness And there is as little reason to accuse it of shortning our dayes as Guaicum of causing the Pox upon pretence that the use thereof was not known till that Malady appearing needed it for its Cure The Third said That the sole reason of the difficulty we find in digesting Wine is the great resemblance of its qualities with those of Blood both being Hot and Moist But there can be no proper Physical Action without contrariety For since every principal Agent induces Alteration in the subject which receives its Action this change cannot be effected but by depriving it of its former State and the qualities which maintain'd the same Which cannot be done but by contesting with and destroying them by contrary qualities and so according to more or less contrariety the Action is stronger or weaker Hence in the Digestion of Aliment which is a proper Physical Action wherein the Natural Heat destroyes the Food in order to turn it into another Form there must be contrariety and such Food as ha's least gives the Heat least hold to work against it it not being easie for the Natural Heat and Moisture to act against an Aliment Hot and Moist by reason of the resemblance between them as a Friend hardly combats and destroyes his Friend Wherefore Wine being of the same quality our Heat becoms idle in order to its Concoction Possibly too its abundance of Spirits make it hard to be digested stifling the Spirits employ'd for Concoction by reason of the too great resemblance between those of the one and the other The Fourth said That onely a disproportionate quantity of Wine is of difficult Digestion a small quantity promoting it Which holds good in all repletions but particularly of Wine which relaxing the Fibres and Tunicles of the Stomack weakens the Retentive Faculty provokes the Expulsive by its Acrimony either in the Superior Orifice whence arise Hick-cocks or in the Inferior whence proceed loathings and vomitings Therefore the Apostle saith Drink a little not drink much Wine Nor would the inconvenience be less if the best Aliments in the World were taken in Excess For when their mass is too great to be constring'd and embrac'd by the Stomack the Natural Heat is it self alter'd instead of over-mastering that in order to Assimilation The Fifth said That the Question is to be determin'd by the difference of Wines and Stomacks Strong Wines such as are sweet and piquant are improper for Hot and Cholerick Stomacks which must have only small green Wines or other beverages of neer quality to common water On the contrary Phlegmatick and Cold Stomacks and Melancholy Tempers are strengthened by Wine but prejudic'd by water and other cold drinks not that Heat is the cause of Digestion for the hotter a Fever is the more it hinders the same but because 't is a Medium whereof our Natural Heat serves it self The Sixth said That indeed the diversity of Subjects makes some change in the Hypothesis yet hinders not but we may pronounce upon the Thesis whether Wine helps or hurts Digestion I believe the latter because Digestion cannot be perform'd unless all the Meats of one meal be digested at the same time else the Chyle will be part well elaborated namely that made of the Food which hath had a convenient stay in the Stomack and part too much concoct and adust made of that which stay'd in the Stomack too long and after Digestion and part also too little proceeding from Meats requiring more Concoction and yet hurried away with the rest Now 't is certain that Wine being sooner digested than other Aliments by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen who hold that it asswages Thirst and is distributed sooner than they it will produce a confusion and hotch-potch in the nature of the Chyle which should be uniform But Water serving only for a Vehicle agrees better with variety of Meats being like the Menstruum of the Chymists and the Uniting Medium of the Lullists which serves to re-unite all different Bodies into one alone patiently attending their disposition without corrupting as Wine and Vinegar doth and without leaving behind in the Kidneys the tartar or lee of Wine which is the seed of the Stone where-with Water-drinkers are not so commonly troubled partly for the abovesaid reason and partly because that tartar is not dry'd in them as having less Heat than others CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than at any other time of the Night or Day IF Cold be a real quality then the greater distance there happens to be between it and the Source of Heat and Light the Sun the greater must the Cold be And if it be only a privation of Heat then mid-night is darker then either the Evening or Morning because oppos'd directly to the Light of the Sun it may seem that the Cold ought be greater likewise at that time because the same is opposite to Noon when the Sun's Heat is greatest yet the cool of the Morning argues the contrary being so ordinary that it fore-tells Day-break more certainly than the crowing of the Cock Unless you will attribute the cause to this that at Morning before Sun-rise 't is longer since the Sun inlightned the Horizon than at mid-night at which time the Air and other Elements still retain some of the preceding
having at the declining of the day rais'd many aqueous and consequently supreamly cold and the heat whereby they were rais'd abandoning them upon his absence the natural cold of those vapours becomes predominant and returns them by degrees into their first state Which refrigerating the Air makes the night the colder the further the vapours are from their extraneous heat that is to say the nearer day approacheth CONFERENCE CLIV. Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds THe first attributed the cause thereof to the desiccation of water for experience shews in all sublunary Bodies that dryness whitens as Sea-water becomes white when dry'd to Salt the stalks of Corn Pulse and the leaves of all other Plants wax white as they wither and dry The same happens to the Bones of Animals and grey Hairs on no other cause but siccity since the extremity expos'd to the Air is white but not the root Hence water by its transparence already partaking much of light but which its rarity reflects not to our view is no sooner desiccated into Ice Hail or Snow but it acquires this pure whiteness which humidity again destroys So the high ways white with dust grow black upon rain a wet cloth appears darker then a dry and that some things become black by drying as Coal is because there was heat enough to draw the humidity which was at its Centre to the Circumference but not enough wholly to dry it up as appears in that the same heat continu'd reduces the coal to white ashes which would be as perfectly white as Snow did not the Tincture imprinted thereon by the Salts withstand it for if you urge them further by fire you will make them of a perfect whiteness as appears in Chalks which are made not only of grey and black stones but even of Metals as Ceruse is made of Lead The Second said Whiteness is not a real Colour since it appears in all bodies depriv'd of preceding Colours of all which 't is indifferently susceptible But 't is otherwise with real Colours a subject imbu'd with one of which is not apt to receive all others but some only as Nature hath fram'd the Organs of Sense naked of all sensible objects to the end they might be susceptible of the same Wooll dy'd into a sadder colour cannot receive a lighter and black Wooll admits none at all but white being natural to every subject that hath no colour is capable of receiving all So when you wash off the blew or dirty colour of a Band it becomes white Whereby it appears that Whiteness hath the same reference to Colours that Unity hath to Numbers whereof 't is the beginning but is none it self And as 't is the Emblem of Innocence and Purity so also it proceeds from them The Air which is the purest of our Elements for Fire is only in Mixts and water refin'd into vapours which follows the Air in purity hapning to acquire visibility by condensation into Snow cannot represent the same under any other out-side but Whiteness Now that Whiteness is an effect of purity is manifest by the Stars which are represented to us only under the species of Whiteness and cannot be painted but with white in their light which de-albating what it irradiates and leaving the same elsewhere black shews that 't is as the purest so also the whitest thing in the world Likewise Metals are whiter according to their purity Lead is worse then Tin and this then Silver only upon account of their impurity the sole perfect mixture of the yellow incombustible Sulphur of Gold not permitting it to be alter'd and spoil'd of its yellow colour which nearest approacheth whiteness Wherefore Snow being a most pure Body compounded only of two colour-less elements namely Air and Water 't was necessary either that it should have no colour or if any whereby to become visible the principle and origin of all Colours namely White in the perfection with which Nature makes all her Works The Third said That the same difference which appears between the Stars and their Orbs is found between Water and Snow arising only from Density and Rarity As the Star appears white and the rest of the Heaven darker by reason of its rarity so likewise Water seems obscure upon account of its rarity and Snow white upon that of its density The Fourth said If that reason were good then Ice should be whiter then Snow because 't is more solid and yet the contrary appears Besides Snow is so far from being more dense and solid then Water that on the contrary there is less Air in Water then in Ice which is more close and compact then Snow the swimming of Ice upon the Water arguing some aerious parts included in it at the time of its congelation which is not and cannot be made without air Wherefore Snow differs from Water only by its figure or accidental form which reduceth it into flocks congealed by cold in a cloud not as it is resolv'd into Rain for then 't would prove Hail but whilst yet a vapour in the region of the Air. So then in this figure alone is the reason of the whiteness of Snow to be sought which is not found in water partly by reason of its transparence and partly because its smooth surface gives no hold to the visual ray Which is the reason why Water is pictur'd with a blew and darkish colour Thus burnish'd Silver as that of Looking-glasses seems dark if compar'd to rough Silver which doth not dissipate our visual Spirits as that former doth Hence Ice is much whiter then water as being less smooth The Fifth said That 't is proper to cold to whiten as 't is to heat to blacken Thus Southern People are either black or tawney Northern white and the Hair of both grows white with old age by reason of the coldness thereof All the cold parts of our Body are white as the Brain Bones Cartilages Membranes Fat and Skin Linen and Wax are whitened by the coldness of the night For the same reason not only Snow but Hail Frost Ice Rime and all other cold Meteors are of the same colour The Sixth said That though the whiteness of Snow was disputed by Anaxagoras and Armenia produces red by mixture of the exhalations of Vermillion with the ordinary vapors which the Sun raises from the water yet this whiteness is as manifest as the causes are hid no less then those of light which is the colour of Celestial Bodies as colours are the light of Terrestrial However this whiteness seems to proceed from a mixture of Air and Water as appears in froth whose consistence is like that of Snow the whiteness whereof possibly is increas'd by the Spirits wherewith Snow abounds which are luminous Bodies whereof the fertility caus'd by Snow is an Argument to which Spirits which Frost hath not may be ascrib'd what Galen affirms namely that Fish cover'd with Snow become more delicious for to the Moon it can with no more reason be
referr'd than to the Sun The Seventh said That an univocal and certain cause of whiteness cannot be found in the first or second Qualities Not in Heat or Cold since Snow Sugar and Salt are equally white though the first is cold the second temperate and the third hot Nor in Siccity or Humidity since humid Milk is no less white than dry Chalk and Plaster The density and weight of Silver the rarity and levity of Snow the sweetness of Sugar and the acrimony of Salt in short the examen of all other Second Qualities of white things shews that it depends not on them Nor yet on the third for white Agarick is purgative white Starch and flowr of Beans astringent Lastly what some call Fourth Qualities or Properties of the whole Substance depend as little upon Colours since the same whiteness which is in the Meal that nourishes us is also in the Sublimate that kills us It remains to inquire the reason of Colours and consequently of Whiteness in the proportion between the Sight and the Surface of the colour'd body When therefore it happens that the Visual Ray which issues forth pure and white that is to say colour-less finds no Colour in a Surface if the same be Diaphanous it takes it for a Medium not an Object as is seen in Glass Crystal Air and Water if opake it stops at the said Surface and finding no Colour thereon returns with the Species of the Object to make its report to the Common Sense that it saw nothing and this is what they call Whiteness Hence White so little delights the Sight that it disgregates and wearies it as a false stroke doth that brings nothing Now to apply this to Snow the Visual Ray is indeed stopt by its condens'd Surface but whence should it have Colour since 't is compos'd of Air and Water both colourless The Truth is sutably to its Principles it must necessarily remain without Colour that is White whereby it so disgregates the Visual Rayes that sometimes it blinded a whole Army CONFERENCE CLV Whether Courage be natural or acquir'd COurage being the Contempt of Danger which we naturally fear we cannot be naturally courageous for then two contrary Effects should proceed from the same Cause But the Truth is our Nature is indifferent to every thing whereunto it is lead and fashion'd Thus skittish Horses are made sober by inuring to the noise of Muskets which before they could not endure On the contrary brave Coursers kept in a dark Stable and unemploy'd become resty and jadish Moreover since there is no true Courage without Knowledge of the Danger whence Fools and Drunkards cannot be styl'd courageous this argues that this Virtue hath need of Rules and Precepts as without which our Knowledge cannot but be very imperfect Nor did any thing render the Romans more valiant than the Nations they subdu'd but Military Discipline wherein the Roman Legionary under-went his Apprentisage as other Artificers do in their Trades Which Instruction some of their Descendents despising have shewn thereby what difference there is between themselves and their Ancestours and determin'd this Question to the advantage of Industry At this day our Souldiers are not more strong and courageous than Town-people and the Officers whom alone we see perform all the brave Actions surpass not in Courage ordinary Souldiers saving that these have not been so well instructed as they and reflect not so much upon the shame and loss which they incurr by Cowardize And because that Courage is greatest which makes us contemne the greatest dangers hence that which leads us to the Contempt of Death the most terrible of all things is undoubtedly the greatest But the History of the Milesian Virgins is remarkable who upon the perswasions of a certain Orator were contrary to the natural timidity of their Sex carry'd to so great a Contempt of Death that nothing could restrain them from killing themselves but the example of their Self-murder'd Companions drawn forth-with naked about the streets Whereby it may be judg'd how powerful Perswasion is to encourage us Which Captains and Generals of Armies are not ignorant of who employ all their Rhetorick to impress Audacity in their Souldiers breasts upon an assault or a battel and those that have been in such encounters affirm that nothing conduces more either to inflame the Courage of Brave Men or infuse it into such as have none than an Exhortation well apply'd and suted to the Minds of those that are to be encourag'd sometimes by the Memory of their former Gallant Actions sometimes by those of their Enemies Cowardice sometimes by the greatness of the Danger and the inevitable ruine they incurr in case of turning their backs but commonly by the salvation of their Souls and the good of their Country and always by the fair spur of Honour and Glory Considerations directly opposite to those dictated to us by Nature which tend onely to preservation of the Individuall The Second said If Instruction made Men valiant and courageous than all that receive the same Education learn in the same Academy and fight under the same Captain should be equally courageous Yet there is so notable a difference between them that it cannot be imputed to any but Natural Causes such as are the structure of the parts of the Body the temper of the humors the nimbleness or heaviness of the Spirits and especially the diversity of Souls which inform our Bodies which diversity is apparent even in Infancy before the Corporeal Organs can be suspected to be the Cause thereof One Child is more timorous than another and no sooner begins to go but he beats his Companions who suffer themselves to be beaten by one weaker than themselves the first not quitting his hold for the rod for which another will do more than you would have him The truth is if the Soul be the Architect of her habitation to her must be imputed the Principal Cause of the variety found therein upon that of our Actions visibly depends For as every one readily addicts himself to those employments and exercises of body and mind whereunto he is most fit and which he performs with most ease so he is more easily lead to Actions of Courage whose Organs are best dispos'd for the same And because Children commonly have some-what of the Habit of Body and Temper of their Parents hence Courage seems to come by Descent which possibly renders our Gentry so jealous of the Antiquity of their Families in which they had rather find a Man beheaded for an Action that speaks Courage than a Burgess who had not liv'd in a noble way Moreover to judge well of Courage we must not consider it solely in Man since 't is found so resplendent in Animals incapable of Discipline and Instruction that the certainest Physiognomical Rule whereby to judge of a Valiant Man is taken from the similitude or resemblance he hath with the Lyon Bear or other Beasts of Courage Which shews that the
judgment for or against it without being divided as they are into several opinions The cause hereof I ascribe to the several disposition and habitude of the Organs which render the soul's operations different A sucking child being at a Sermon understands nothing at all of it one six or seven years old carries away a confus'd knowledg of it and thinks it enough to say that the Preacher spoke of God the young man and the old man judg thereof according to their inclination the cholerick hastily the melancholy with more circumspection and almost all severally Again if the matter be scholastical the Peasant who understands it not judges thereof with admiration the Scholar esteems it the illiterate Tradesman blames it and preferrs a point of morality in brief every one judges of it after his own way In the mean time 't is one and the same Sermon as one and the same liquor pour'd into different vessels which give it the tast wherewith they are already imbru'd The second said 'T is true Nothing is in the Intellect but what was before in the Senses yet many times the Intellect is so prepossess'd with prejudice that all supervening reasons signifie nothing and when some Passion as Love or Hatred biasseth it there is no room for equal consideration Hence condemned persons commonly accuse their Judges unjustly though indeed a friend's recommendation makes them look upon causes with other eyes then they should do The third said This variety of judgments proceeds not only from the diversity of the species introduc'd by the common sense into the Intellect but from the different conjunction which the Intellect makes of those species just as the same alphabet is written and read variously by several Writers and though many speak the same language yet both their pronunciation and phrase is different Whence their expressions being so different 't is no wonder if the conclusions of their reasonings prove not the same The fourth said He conceiv'd that there are some qualities in the soul which she derives not from the body Otherwise we should not see some people extremely opinionative and obstinate whose temper hath nothing of melancholy nor others so light and mutable though their constitution be not cholerick and yet these two humors are commonly reputed the causes of stubbornness and inconstancy But to what shall we ascribe it except to the soul alone that some men are naturally so given to devotion that in an affair wherein religion is never so little concern'd they account nothing equitable against Ecclesiasts and in the mean time there are others to whom what ever this sort of people propose is suspected And who can think that the resolution of those that have been burnt for Heresie proceeded from the temperament of the body The fifth said That Opinions are to be distinguisht into Practical and Speculative The first whereof wherein we find our selves interessed and which we promote upon that account 't is probable follow the temper and conformation of the Organs Thus the melancholy man who fears even imaginary dangers cannot be perswaded to prefer trading at sea before that at land but is alwavs fixt to hazard nothing If he must choose a profession he takes the Gown before the Sword and then too he had rather be silent then advance any new proposition lyable to rejection But if his birth or fortune command him to the war he is rather for corrupting the enemies forces then fighting them and in case of the latter he chooses an ambuscade before a pitcht battel On the contrary the hot cholerick person preferrs a course whereby he may soonest compass his design though with the hazard of his Life which he will not believe or at least not fear before the tedious progresses of other Employments which afford not their prosecutor meat till his teeth be out And the Sanguine easily agrees to this Advice provided it requires no pains or be sweetned with some pastime but the Phlegmatick cares neither for one nor the other On the other side in things consisting onely in Contemplation I see not why I should be rather of the Opinion that the flux and reflux of the Sea is caus'd by the Moon than by the Sun And hence it is that persons of different Tempers Sexes Climats and Ages agree more readily in a point of Philosophy than in their particular Inclinations and kind of Life Indeed the main Source of this Diversity of Opinion is the Vanity and Ambition of the Humane Mind which judging it self as well stock'd with Capacity and sufficiency as any other and above all things loving Liberty which seems disparag'd by consenting to an Opinion advanc'd by another this Conceit together with the dubiousness of all things not demonstrable carries us to seek some new Light which cannot be so small but we love it more than that of another as people commonly do their own Children Hence arise the so different Opinions of the Ancients about all matters of Philosophy and other Sciences not excepting Divinity it self even amongst Catholicks amongst whom we see Scotus disagreeing with Saint Thomas as Paracelsus doth in Physick with Galen Copernicus with Ptolomy in Mathematicks Raymond Lully and Ramus in Scholastick Philosophy with Aristotle and in Civil Law Cassius with Labeo and the Sabinians with the Proculeians The Sixth said 'T were a greater wonder if all Men were of one Opinion than that they imitate in this diversity all other things of the world At least 't is harder to assign the cause why one and the same Man is to day of one judgement and to morrow of another then to see as many several Sentences as Heads But to me this variety seems to arise from the various conception of things As appears by the example of Julius Caesar who being purpos'd to destroy King Deiotarus no sooner heard Cicero speak in his defence but he pardon'd him not to speak of many other Effects both of his and Demosthenes's Eloquence Whence it comes to pass that though the same Fact be related with the same Reasons yet the Diversities found in the manner and in all the senses imprint in us different species upon the report whereof we also make a different judgement The Seventh said This Variety proceeds from the Principles of Knowledge as appears in those of Mathematicks which being certain and known to all cause every one to assent to their infallible Consequences And so in a person seen at a distance of whom having a confus'd Knowledge one saith 'T is a Tree another a Beast or a Man but when his nearer approach makes him better known all agree that 't is Peter or James CONFERENCE CLIX. Why there is more Wind at Sea than at Land THe experience of less Wind and more Rain on Land than at Sea makes their Opinion questionable who hold Exhalations to be the matter of the former and Vapours of the latter unless we will say that Winds to whom the Poets rightly attribute the Empire of
poor Village and complaining less of his Malady then that he should dye without a Physician no other expedient was found but to cloath his Cook in the Curates Gown upon which he presently became half cur'd but causing the Curtains to be undrawn that he might the better see to thank his Doctor he discover'd the deceit and fell sick again more dangerously then before his imagination thus producing the effects both of sickness and recovery CONFERENCE CLXXII Of Fascination or Bewitching FAscination or Bewitching is the doing of hurt to one by sight without Contact mediate or immediate to deny which is to deny common experience the verdict of all Antiquity of the Learned and of the Holy Scripture it self The manner of it is vulgarly thought to be this namely when one maliciously and with a dangerous eye beholding some fair Child whose tenderness of body makes it more subject to hurt then a stronger person hurts it by commending it which Sorcery is thought to be render'd ineffectual by making Children wear about their Necks some preservatives ridiculous indeed yet much in use particularly amongst the Spaniards such as the figure of a thumb between the two fore-fingers in the form observ'd in making a fig for one 't is also a practice to make such a fig when they rise in the morning and to spit three times in the bosom Now this kinde of Fascination the Poet extends even to Beasts in the common Verse Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos Some refer it to Antipathy as they do the Basilisk's killing at a distance and the hoarseness caus'd by sight of a Wolf Plutarch in the fifth Book of his Symposiacks saith That some hurt their Parents and Friends with their Eyes alone and he relates a story of one Entelidas who like a second Narcissus perceiving himself handsome in a Fountain thereupon lost both his health and his beauty whence he concludes that such Fascination proceeds not alwayes from Envy but he refers the cause to the perverse custom some get of doing mischief which being turn'd into nature becomes as necessary to them as 't is to a bowl to roll Others think it an effect purely natural as a Blear Eye infects the beholder with the same evil and Plutarch saith He saw certain ancient people call'd Thibii who by their aspect hurt not onely Children but perfect men the visual rayes being render'd more active by the evil habit of those that have intention to hurt out of envy which is discern'd commonly by frequent beholding the prosperity of a hated person whence comes the word Invidere An example whereof is seen in the little Bird call'd a Witwal which becomes sick by the sight of one that hath the Jaundies whereof the Bird being presently conscious shuts its eyes upon such a persons approach For the poison is communicated onely to such as are fit to receive it even at further distance then fire reacheth Babylonian Naptha And they hold that Envy or some other passion increases its activity the soul promoting the operations of the body as the imagination excites love and eager Dogs sometimes become blinde through the violence wherewith they pursue their Game This opinion is backt by the observation of menstrous women whose aspect alone taints a Looking-glass and also by the effects proceeding from the passion of Love the cause whereof is attributed to the Eyes which are sometimes so disorder'd by erotical Folly that they see not the objects before them which cannot be attributed to beauty alone considering that the fairest women have oftentimes least power to attract Lovers by their looks whence some are found more dangerous to behold then others Besides Plutarch Aristotle and Heliodorus who confirm this Fascination which is deriv'd from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Envy in Deut. 28.56 This word is us'd and translated by St. Austin Fascination and the Chaldeans call'd it an evil-Eye as elsewhere that Eye of the envious Hireling is so term'd But St. Paul speaks plainly of it Gal. 3.1 asking the Galatians Who hath bewitched or fascinated you not to obey the Truth Which St. Anselm interprets thus Who hath hurt you by a livid and envious beholding of your perfection or like Enchanters hath deluded you and made you see one thing for another And Tertullian saith That Fascination which so followeth Praise that the one is taken for the other is a work of the Devil and sometimes also a punishment of God upon such as forget themselves through vanity The Second said That Fascination in the vulgar sense is not onely possible but natural though the cause be occult as also are magnetical and electrical attractions Thus maleficiated persons infect by insensible transpiration what they wear about themselves whereunto the eye's structure and temper renders it the fittest part of the body whence besides Diseases of the eyes we see Tears easily draw others from those that behold them shed Pliny relates that the Tribalians and Illyrians when angry kill'd people by their aspect alone And Olaus That the same is done at this day in some Northern Nations 'T is read of Tiberius that his eyes sparkled in the night insomuch that a Souldier dy'd by beholding him And Pyrrhus so terrifi'd another who came to dispatch him that onely by looking upon him he render'd him unable to touch him For whether vision be by Emission as the Platonists hold the Rayes will carry with them the qualities of the Eye that emits them or by Reception as Aristotle will have it the colours resulting from the impression of the qualities of a visible object will not be destitute of the same qualities or partly by emission and partly by reception according to Galen the rencontre of both sorts of Rayes cannot but be of great efficacy especially when animated by the Passions of Choler which enflames them or of Envy which envenoms them The Third said That there are two sorts of Fascination the one natural performed by natural means as venomous and malignant qualities which are sent from one body to another and infect the same by their malignity the other supernatural and diabolical perform'd by secret means whereby the vulgar believe that Witches can make sick whom they please by touching beholding and speaking to them which three wayes they employ to bewitch those to whom they desire mischief The first sort of Fascination is possible and is founded upon the Antipapathy and Contrariety which is found between almost all Bodies so that even the shadows of some Trees are noxious to some Animals as that of the Yew to Man and that of the Ash to Serpents The Fig-Tree appeases the madness of the Bull when he is ty'd to it by emission of certain vaporous spirits which entring into him temper and reduce him to moderation and from the same reason meat hang'd on a Fig-Tree becomes more tender and delicate to wit by attenuating its grosser parts For the heat of every living body incessantly
raising and sending forth vapors and spirits when these spirits meet others like themselves they serve them instead of a recruit and increase the good disposition of the body wherein they are And 't is this way that old women prejudice the health of Children whilst their vapid spirits are imbib'd by the tender skin of the Infants and so corrupting the humors disorder their natural functions Hence also consumptive persons give their disease to such as breathe near them and so likewise all contagious and occult maladies are communicated by one morbid subject to another dispos'd to receive the same affection But the latter sort of Fascination whereby common people think that not onely men and Animals may be kill'd but also plants dry'd up streams stopt stones broken in pieces and the like is no-wise in the power of nature whatever the Arabians say who ascribe all these effects to imagination whose power they equal to that of Intelligences who are able to move the whole Universe For if it doth nothing of it self in its proper body where it simply receives the species of things it must do less without its precinct Moreover 't is impossible for a sound man to make another sick because he cannot give what himself hath not they in whom by an extraordinary corruption the blood seed or other humors have acquir'd a venomous quality being necessarily sick So that 't is a pure work of Devils who knowing the properties of things apply the same really to the parts of the body without our privity whilst they amuze our senses with other objects as the aspect of another person or some such insignificant thing Besides that children being apt to lose their flesh upon unapparent causes such a change may be purely natural whilst it is by mistake charg'd upon a strangers praises of the Infant who must necessarily grow worse because it cannot become better CONFERENCE CLXXIII Of Amulets and whether Diseases are curable by Words Tickets or other things hang'd at the Neck or applyed to the body of the Diseased THis Question depends upon the Precedent for if 't is possible to make a person sick by the Aspect alone it may seem also possible to cure him by Contact alone In the examining of the matter we must distinguish as elsewhere also supernatural cures from those which come to pass according to the course of nature Of the former sort are all the Miracles of the Holy Scripture and Ecclesiastical History those which Gods power manifests in all times by his Saints and the cure which he hath reserv'd to our Kings by their sole Touch. Some cure may likewise happen naturally by the pronouncing of words when the Patients Fancy is so strong that it hath power enough over his body to introduce some notable change therein whence that Physician cures most in whom most confide Thus I have seen some persons eas'd of the Tooth-ache upon sticking a knife in a Tree and pronouncing some barbarous words But it falls out oftentimes that the effect of one cause is attributed to another Such was the cure of a Gentleman of the Ligue whom the late King Henry the IV. surprized in the Town of Loges as he was shivering with a Quartain Ague and the King in Railery sent him a Receipt against his Ague the sight whereof presently cur'd him through the fear he had of that unexpected approach So also many remedies act by some occult property as Paeony hung about Childrens necks against the Epilepsy and Quick-silver apply'd upon the Breast or hung in a Quill is believ'd a preservative against the Pestilence all precious stones are thought to have some vertue against some indisposition of the body or minde The Eagle-stone apply'd to the Arm retains the child in the Womb and to the knee facilitates Delivery Coral and the Jasper stop Blood the Nephitick Stone is conceiv'd to void the Gravel of the Kidneyes the hinder foot of a Hare carry'd in the Pocket cures the Sciatica of the same side from which it was taken For Remedies whose sole application cures by their penetrating and sensible vertue are not of this rank Thus if Quick-silver apply'd cures the Pox by causing a Flux at the mouth it must not be term'd an Amulet nor Cantharides when apply'd as a vesicatory they cause Urine nor Epithemes apply'd to the Heart or Liver but herbs and other things laid to the Patients wrist may be so styl'd when they have no manifest qualities proper against an Ague The Question therefore is Whether such Applications Suspensions and Wearings have any Natural Effect I conceive they have not For a Natural Action requires not only some Mathematical or Physical Contact but also a proportion between the Cause and its Effect Now what proportion can there be between a Prayer or other Speech most commonly insignificative and the Cure of a Disease much less between a little Ticket or other suspended Body and an Ague what is said of the weapon-salve being either fabulous or diabolical and alwayes superstitious as the Phylacteries of the Jews were Although this Error is so ancient that the Greek Athletae were wont to arm themselves with such things against sluggishness of which trifles their Adversaries also made use to overcome them in Wrastling and at this day some wear certain Chracters about them that they may win at play In like manner the Romans hung Amulets about their Children's necks which they call'd Praefifcini and Fascini and made of Jet as the Spaniards make them at present To which to attribute any power upon the account of their Form Number or other regard beside their Matter is an Error as great in Philosophy as it would be impiety and contempt of the Church to extend his conclusion to Dei's Reliques and other sacred things whose so continual Effect cannot be question'd but by the prophane and heretical The Second said That by the Doctrine lately publish'd in the Treatise of Talismans it appears that not only Matter but also Figure Number and other correspondences with the Celestial Bodies have some efficacy which to question because we know not the manifest Cause would be too great presumption Yea I would not call all such Effects Supernatural since there are so many things feasible whereof we know not the Cause And as to the Supernatural Effects of Amulets they are of two sorts For either they are perform'd by the favour and blessing of God who redoubles yea heightens to a seemingly unpossible degree the Effects of Natural Causes or else changes them Or they are effected by help of the Evil Spirit who is the Ape of Divine Actions As then in consequence of the Sacraments God's Graces are conferr'd upon Christians so the Devil agrees with the Sorcerer or Magician that as often as he shall make such a sign or speak such a word such an Effect shall follow whence 't is no wonder if the Devil though inclin'd solely to Evil sometimes does good as healing a Disease by applying
prizes of the Commodity he intends to deal in Which hath gain'd great Credit to this Assembly by the printed Bills it hath sometimes sent abroad containing the currant prizes of all Wares for every week in imitation of the City of Amsterdam For by this means the Merchant needs only discount the charges of transportation and make a Reduction of Weights and Measures to see his evident profit yet alwayes carefully observing to draw a line with some imaginary summ for hazards and contingences which may happen unexpectedly it being impossible what-ever care be us'd to regulate exactly the gain of Merchandize as depending partly on Chance and partly on the Will and Phansie of Men so that a Commodity which for being to day in fashion or otherwise in credit would yield twenty in the hundred profit to the Owner sometimes leaves him a loser or he is forc'd to keep it long in his Ware-house CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore PLato designing a Common-wealth whose Citizens might live in good intelligence justly excludes out of it the words of Mine and Thine conceiving that so long as there was any thing to be divided there would ever be Male-contents because Self-love the root from whence the too great desire of keeping and acquiring arises acts variously in Men by main force and strong hand in time of War and in Peace by Law-suits Now the desire of Getting having never been so great as at this day nor so much countenanc'd and rewarded since in consideration of wealth most Offices are dispos'd of 't is no wonder if Law-suits be more numerous at this day than in times past The Second said That Community of Goods feign'd by the Poets and exemplifi'd in the Primitive Church bating the Charity which produc'd it would cause as many mischiefs and consequently Law-suits as there are at present For every one would endeavour to appropriate what should be common and despise it if not able to compass it as we see common Causes are neglected and commonly lost for private interest Whence appears the impertinence of some Legislators and of the Nicolaitans who that the Children might be lov'd the more would have Wives common for common Wives and Children would be own'd by no Body and if such Women as belong but to two or three keep them alwayes in jealousie and many times ingage them in a Law-suit what would those do that belong'd to all the world Wherefore I conceive that if contrary Effects have contrary Causes 't is Plenty and its Daughter Pride that causeth Law-suits and Poverty and Humility makes Peace and Agreements Which the French Democritus intimates where he introduces an old man reconciling two Adversaries but 't is after they are both undone Thus also the Circle of Humane Life represents Labour holding Wealth by the Hand Wealth holding Pride Pride holding Contention which causeth Poverty this Humility which again produces Labour that Wealth and so round again For of fifty Law-suits not one would begin between the parties or at least it would soon be determin'd if either would humble themselves as much one to the other as they do to their Judges yea oftentimes to their Council Wherefore Vanity being greater in this Age than ever it was although with less reason in most 't is no wonder if our times abound more with Law-suits than the former The Third said That such as are at their ease have no mind to Law-suits and therefore 't is not Plenty that begets them but Necessity yet not an absolute one for he that hath nothing cannot go to Law but such that the one cannot pay what he owes and the other cannot be without it In every other Case Accommodements are possible 'T is from this Source that so many Seisures and Sentences proceed which the indebted would never suffer had they wherewithall to pay considering that the whole charges must fall upon themselves Now as there were never so many rich so there were never so many poor as there are at this day in France because every body labours out of the vanity above-mention'd to disable themselves every day more and more laughing at the Constitutions which are made to reduce us to frugality and ascribing all inconveniences both publick and private to any other Cause but themselves The Fourth said That though the Ages past having had the same vicissitudes of Peace and War and of Poverty and Riches yet had they not so many Law-suits as there are at present and therefore some other Cause thereof must be sought which possibly is this That the Spirits of Men are become more refin'd and subtle in the several Ages of the world and consequently advanc'd to a higher pitch of maliciousness whence many difficulties and contest arise in such matters wherein the goodness and simplicity of our Ancestors found none at all Nor hath the multitude and diversity of Laws been a small occasion of this bad event For besides the Roman Laws which lay long in oblivion and were restor'd to light by Veruher in the year 1127. and the Canons compil'd by Gratian whence came the judicial formalities our Customs and our Ordinances and amongst others those made since Charls VIII with long preambles and reasonings in imitation of Justinian have stirr'd up more Law-suits than there were in a thousand years before So that hath been good work for such as were minded to draw profit thereby to make so confus'd and intricate an Art of the Law that there is almost no Case wherein they cannot find some trick to multiply a Suit and render it immortal Moral Reason the foundation of the Law admits a thousand different faces not only in circumstances of Fact but also in matter of Law whence there are few Laws but have their contraries The Fifth said That the multiplicity of our Law-suits is to be attributed to the humor of the French Nation which is desirous of change and naturally subtle and eloquent Whence a Latine Poet stills France the Nurse of Lawyers Likewise the improvement of Learning in this last Age hath contributed much thereunto And the sight of great Estates gotten by the Law hath induc'd many Parents to put their Children to that profession as the readiest way to advancement Such as could not be Counsellors have been made Attornies Solliciters Sergeants and this great number of people employ their inventions to get a livelyhood which they cannot do without Law-suits And therefore 't is no wonder if they advise continue multiply and eternise them as much as they can egging on the Plaintiff by the motive of Profit and the Defendant by that of Self-preservation and refusing to the more simple their writings and other such helps as might bring them to accord The Sixth said That Law-suits increase or diminish according to the diversities of proportions kept in the Administration of Justice For some measure them by the Law of Nature whereby all Men are born equal and
colours CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. THe common Opinion attributes the coldness of the middle Region to the Antiperistasis of the heat of the upper and lower Regions which streightning the cold on either side leave it no other place but the middle whither the vapors rais'd by the Sun-beams ascending and no higher by reason of their weight and the thinness of the air there it comes to pass that the neighbourhood of these vapors returning to their natural cold encreases that of the middle Region But many inconveniences invalidate this Opinion First if this Element were hot and moist as is suppos'd it would shew some effects thereof but 't is quite contrary For he were a fool that should go into the Air to warm himself and the Air hath so little humidity that it dries all Bodies Secondly many Mountains surpassing the middle Region of the Air and retaining figures describ'd in the ashes of a Sacrifice for a whole year which shew that in all that time no Wind or Rain was rais'd there to deface them it would follow that such Mountains reflecting the Sun-beams by their solidity should cause heat in the middle Region of the Air and yet they are commonly cover'd with Snow Lastly this Antiperistasis being only in Summer not in Winter when the cold of the lower Region symbolises with that of the middle this reason should then cease and yet 't is in Winter-time that cold Meteors manifest themselves Wherefore we must recur to some other cause which Cardan takes to be the natural coldness of the Air not regarding the combination of the four first qualities For if cold be natural to the Air it will be easie to conclude that it must be coldest in the middle which is less alter'd by the contrary quality of heat being most distant from the Element of Fire if there be any and from the heat which necessarily follows the motion of the heavenly Sphears The Second said That Cold being no positive Quality but a bare negation it follows that Bodies destitute of Heat are necessarily cold Now the Air cannot have heat or any other quality because 't is to serve for a medium not only to all sublunary Bodies but also to the heavenly influences whose nature would be perverted and alter'd by the qualities of the Air as a colour'd medium imparts its colours to objects It happens therefore that vapours cool not but are cooled by the Air so that they become colder in the middle Region then whilst they were in their natural seats Yea they are so far from rendring the Air cold that they abate its sharpness which is never greater then in clear weather cloudy and misty weather being always more warm and accompany'd with less piercing cold For being rais'd rather by the subterraneous heat then by that of the Sun they warm our air which reaches not above a league from the Earth then being gradually deserted by the heat which carry'd them up they meet in those higher spaces which are void of all heat and begin immediately to condense and congeal them What people talk of the higher Region of the Air is very doubtful because the Element of Fire being but an Opinion cannot counter-balance the report of Acosta who affirms that divers Spaniards were kill'd by the cold in their passage upon the Mountains of Peru which he judges the highest of the World and within the upper region The Third said That if we were to be try'd by experience alone the Earth which in Winter is hot at the Centre and in Summer on its Surface would not be judg'd cold and dry as it is no more then the Water always cold and moist since the Sun's heat warms it and the saltness of the Sea renders it heating and drying But accidental qualities must be carefully distinguish'd from essential because these latter are hard to be discern'd when any impediment interposes As the sight cannot judge of the straitness of the stick in the water but by having recourse to reason which teaches us that all light Elements are also hot Now the lightness of the air is indisputable and its heat is prov'd by its subtlety whereby it penetrates bodies unpassable by light it self Yet this heat is easily turn'd into cold because the air being a tenuious body and not compact retains its qualities no longer then they are maintain'd therein by their ordinary causes So that 't is no wonder if not being hot in the highest degree as Fire is but in a remiss and inferior degree it easily becomes susceptible of a more powerful contrary quality For the Sun-beams which some hold to be the true Element of Fire heat not unless they be united by reflection and this reflection being limited cannot reach beyond our first Region the higher Regions must necessarily remain cold unless upon further inquiry it be thought that the motion of the air carry'd about with the Sphear of the Moon and the Element of Fire plac'd under the same are capable to heat it The Fourth said That if we may judge of those higher Regions of the Air by those of the Earth and Water which we frequent each of these Elements hath three sensible differences its Surface Middle and Centre Those that frequent Mines tell us that the heat which succeeds the exterior cold of our earth penetrates not above a quarter of a league in depth about the end of which space cold begins to be felt again and encreases more and more towards the Centre In like manner 't is probable that the Water follows the qualities as well as the declivity of the Earth That it is hot at the bottom whither therefore the Fish retire in Winter proceeds from the nearness of that middle Region of the Earth So that it being proper to these Elements to have different qualities in their middle from those of their extremities the same may be true also of the Air possibly because a perfect identity of temperature would not have been convenient for the generation of Mixts to which end all the Elements were destinated And it being the property of cold to close and re-unite the looseness and dissipation of the Air it was therefore highly necessary to be predominant in the middle Region thereof CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females DIstinction of Sex is not essential but consists only in the parts serving to Generation Nevertheless Aristotle makes Male and Female differ as Perfect and Imperfect and saith That Nature's intention is always to make a Male and that only upon the default of some requisite condition she produces a Female whom therefore he calls a Mistake of Nature or a Monster Galen likewise acknowledging no other difference styles Man a Woman turn'd outwards because Woman hath the same Organs with Man only wants heat and strength to put them forth Now indeed this heat and strength is manifestly greater in Males then Females even from the first conception for the
former are compleatly form'd by the 30th day the latter not before the 40th the former move in the third moneth the latter not till the fourth those are born in the ninth moneth these some days after and besides live not if born in the seventh moneth as Males do whose periods are therefore reckon'd by Septenaries and those of Females by Novenaries After birth we see the actions of Males are perform'd with more strength and vigor then those of Females who are actually colder and suffer more inconveniences from cold They are never ambidexters because they have not heat enough to supply agility to both sides and their right side is peculiarly destinated to the Generation of Females because the Spermatick Vessel on that side derives blood from the hollow Vein which is hottest by reason of the proximity of that Vein to the Liver whereas the left Spermatick draws from the Emulgent which carrying Serose humors together with the Blood 't is no wonder if the Seed of that side be crude and cold and consequently fitter for generating Femals then Males Hence Hippocrates saith that if as Peasants tye a Bull 's left Testicle when they desire a Bull-calf and the right when a Cow-calf the same be practis'd by Man the like effect will follow Whereby 't is manifest that whatever makes the Seed more hot and vigorous both in Male and Female furthers the Generation of Males and contrarily and consequently that the Morning when 't is best concocted is more proper then the Evening for begetting Boys and the Winter then the Summer at least on the man's part The Second said That as to the production of Males rather then Females or on the contrary no certain cause hath hitherto been assign'd thereof since we see that the same man in all likelihood without alteration of his temper hath only Girles by his first Wife and only Boys by the second and on the contrary and some that could get no Children at all in their youth have had only Boys in their old Age. Others have Males first others Females and others have them alternatively Whereof no other reason can be assign'd by Chance or rather the Divine Pleasure alone in the impenetrable Secrets whereof to seek for a cause were high temerity If heat and strength caus'd the difference young marry'd people would not have Girles first as it happens most often and decrepit old men should never get Boys as daily experience shews they do Moreover some men depriv'd of one of their Testicles have nevertheless begotten both Sons and Daughters which could not be if the faculty of begetting Children of one determinate Sex were affix'd to either of those parts And as from a false Principle nothing can be drawn but false Consequences so also is it in the opinion of Aristotle That Woman is but an occasional Creature For then Nature should produce far greater abundance of Males then of Females or else she would erre oftner then hit right which is inconsistent with her wisdom and yet in all places more Girles and Women are found then Men as appears in that we every where see plenty of Maids that want Husbands and in Countries wherein Polygamy is lawful there are Women enough to supply ten or a dozen Wives to each Man And indeed Nature's design is mainly for preserving the Species as that of every individual is to preserve it self and the bare degree of heat or cold in the Seed being but an accident of an accident cannot effect a formal change in the substance Only defective heat may occasion an effeminate man and abundant heat a Virago Besides this Opinion destroys the common and true one viz. That Generation is one of those actions which proceeds from a just proportion and temperature of the humors whence excessive or feverish heat destroys the Seed in stead of furthering Generation and is an enemy to all the other functions Wherefore 't is best to say that the same difference which is observ'd between the Seeds of Plants is also found in that of Animals though not discernable therein but by the effects and as the exactest prying cannot observe in the kernel of an Almond or Pine any difference of the Trunk Leaves and Fruit of those Trees although these parts be potentially contain'd therein so also the Seed of an Animal contains in it self even the least differences of Sex albeit imperceptibly to the eye Which the Rabbins being unable otherwise to comprehend conceiv'd that our first Parent was created an Hermaphrodite because both Sexes came from him his own and that of Eve The Third said That the sole ignorance of things occasions the ascribing of them to Chance which hath no power over the wise because they understand the reasons thereof As for universal causes as the Divine is they concur indeed with particular ones but as they are becoming in the mouths of Divines and of the Vulgar so Naturalists must not stop there since by the right use of external causes the internal may be corrected by which correction not only Seeds formerly barren or which fell in an ingrateful soil are reduc'd to a better temper and render'd prolifick but such as were destinated to a female production through defect of heat are render'd more vigorous and fit to generate Males Now that young married people hit not sometimes upon this latter Sex 't is because of their frequent debauchery which cools the Brain and consequently the whole habit of the Body Which happens not so frequently to men of more advanc'd age who use all things more moderately The Fourth attributed the cause to the Constellations and Influences of the Stars which reign at the time of Conception Males being generated under Masculine and Females under Feminine Signs CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences A Language is a Multitude or Mass of Nouns and Verbs which are signs of Things and Times destinated to the explication of our thoughts There are two sorts the one perfect call'd Mother-Languages the other imperfect The Mother-Languages are the Hebrew Greek and Latine the imperfect those which depend upon them Now the French being of this latter sort we cannot learn the Sciences by it alone because being particular and the Sciences general the less is not capable to comprehend the greater Moreover our Language being not certain in its Phrases nor yet in its Words not only Ages but also a few Years changing both whereas the Sciences are certain and immutable it will follow that they cannot be taught by it Besides there may be Inventions for which our Language hath no expression or at least not so good as others and to busie our minds in the search of words is more likely to retard the mind in the acquisition of Sciences then to further it The truth is 't were well if things were generally express'd by the most proper and significant words but they are not so in any Language much less in the French
the prejudice of a third Which yet hath not place in all there being found good Judges who would condemn their own Child if he had a bad Cause But to attribute to self-love the defect of clear-sightedness is to speak too Poetically since the Prince of Poets believes it not possible to deceive a Lover and the knowledge we have of others affairs hath no other foundation but that which we have of our own just as self-love is given us for a rule of that of our Neighbour The Third said That which happens most frequently being the rule and the rest the exception and the greatest part of Men resembling that Lamia who being blind at home put on her Eyes when she went abroad it must be agreed that we are less clear-sighted in our own than in others affairs Which is the meaning of the Proverb of the wallet in the forepart of which the bearer puts other Mens matters casting his own into the part behind upon his back Moreover to see clear is to see without clouds or mists such as are those of the Passions Fear Hope Avarice Revenge Ambition Anger and all the rest which suffer not the Species to be calmly represented to the Intellect which receives the same as untowardly as stirred water or a Looking-glass sullied with incessant clouds or vapors receive an Image objected to them 't is true the Passions have some effect upon it in affairs without but as themselves so their trouble is less and he is the best Judge who gives them no admittance at all which cannot be in our own affairs where consequently we are no less clear than in those of others CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains GOD having created the world in perfection it was requisite there should be Plains Mountains and Vallies upon the Earth without which agreeable variety there would be no proportion in its parts wherein nevertheless consists its principal ornament which hath given it the name of world no other beginning of Mountains seems assignable but that of the world Nor is there any possibility in attributing another Cause to those great Mountains which separate not only Provinces and States but the parts of the world all the Causes that can be assigned thereof being unequal to such an Effect Which the discovery of the inequalities of the Celestial Bodies observed in our dayes by Galileo's Tubes in some sort confirmed for by them Mountains are discerned in some Planets especially an eminent one in the Orbe of Mars which Mountain cannot reasonably be attributed to any cause but his primary construction The same may likewise be said of the Mountains of the Earth which besides having necessarily its slopenesses and declivities which are followed by Rivers and Torrents there is no more difficulty to conceive a Mountain then an elevated place in the Earth so that to say that from the beginning there was no place higher in one part of the earth then in another is to gain-say Scripture which saith that there were four Rivers in Eden each whereof had its current which could not be unless the place of their rise were higher then that whereunto they tended The Second said That the proportion from which the ornament of the World results is sufficiently manifested in the correspondence of the four Elements with the Heavens and of the Heavens with themselves yea in all compounds which result from those Elements moved by heat and the Celestial influences without fancying a craggy Earth from the beginning to the prejudice of the perfection which is found in the Spherical Figure which God hath also pourtray'd in all his works which observe the same exactly or come as near it as their use will permit as is seen particularly in the fabrick of Man's Body his master-piece whereof all the original parts have somewhat of the Spherical or Cylindrical Figure which is the production of a Circle And if the other Elements of Fire Air and Water are absolutely round and cannot be otherwise conceived though their consistence be fluid and as such more easily mutable in figure 't is much more likely that the earth had that exactly round figure at the beginning otherwise the Waters could not have covered it as they did since not being diminished from the beginning of the World till this time they are not at this day capable of covering it 'T is certain then that God gave the Earth that Spherical form it being to serve for the bulk and Centre to all the other Elements by means of which roundness the Water covered it equally but when it was time to render the Earth habitable to Animals and for that end to discover a part of it it was to be rendered more hollow in some places and more elevated in others since there is no Mountain without a Valley nor on the contrary Afterwards it came to pass that the Rain washed away whatsoever was fat and unctuous in those higher places and carrying it into Brooks and Rivers and thence into the Sea this Sea by the impetuosity of his waves makes great abyffes in some places and banks of sand in others but the great and notable change happened in the universal Deluge when the many Gulfs below and Windows on high as the Scripture speaks overflowed the whole Earth for forty days and forty nights together the Earth being thus become a Sea was in a manner new shaped by the torrents of the waters and the violence of the same waves which made Abysses in some places and Mountains in others according as the Earth happened to be more or less compact and apt for resistance Which is yet easier to be conceived of Rocks which being unapt to be mollified by either that universal rovage of waters or torrents superven'd in four thousand years since they remain intire and appear at this day as supercilious as ever over the more depressed parts round about The Third said That some Mountains were produced at the Creation others since partly by Rains and Torrents partly by Winds and Earth-quakes which have also sometimes levell'd Hills and reduced them into Valleys so that you cannot assign one certain or general cause of all For there is no more reason to believe that the ravages of waters have produced Mountains then that they have levell'd and filled Valleys with their soil as 't is ordinarily seen that the fattest portion of Mountainous places is washed away by Rain into Valleys and fertilizes the same And the smallness of the Earth compared to the rest of the world permits not its inequalities to make any notable disproportion in it or hinder it from being called Round as appears in Eclipses caused by the shadow of the Earth which she sends as regularly towards Heaven as if she were perfectly round The Fourth said That the waters of the Sea from which according to the Scripture all waters issue and return thither impetuously entring into the caverns of the Earth go winding along there till they find resistance
which displease the more judicious So that as there is one beauty absolutely such and another respective and in comparison of those who judge differently thereof according as they find it in themselves whence the Africans paint the Devil white because themselves are black and the Northern people paint him black because themselves are white so there are Gestures and Motions purely and simply becoming honest and agreeable others such only by opinion of the beholders as are the Modes of Salutation and lastly others absolutely bad as Frowning Winking biting the Lip putting out the Tongue holding the Head too upright or crooked beating of measures with the Fingers in short making any other disorderly Gesture All which defects as they are opposite to perfections which consist in a right situation of all the parts without affectation proceed from the Phansie either sound or depraved Which happens either naturally or through imitation The first case hath place in Children who from their birth are inclined to some motions and distortions of their Muscles which being double if one become weaker and its Antagonist too short it draws the part whereto it gives motion out of its natural seat as is seen in those that squint The second is observed in Children somewhat bigger who beholding some Gesture repeated render the same so familiar to themselves that at length it becomes natural to them Hence the prohibition of Mothers give their Children not to counterfeit the vices their companions bodies is not void even of natural reason because the Phansie is stronger in a weak Mind and when the Memory is unfurnished or other species whence the Phansies of Women are more powerful then those of Men. The Minds of Children being weak and residing in soft pliant Bodies more easily admit any idea's once conceiv'd And as a Language is more easily learn'd by Use then by Precepts so example is Extreamly prevalent and sweetly insinuating into the Phansie by the Senses diffuses its influence over the whole Body The Third said That if the Soul be an harmony as the pleasure it takes therein seems to intimate we need seek no other cause of the several motions and cadences of the Body which it animates 'T is the Soul which moves all the Nerves of the Body and carries to all the parts such portion as she pleases of Spirits proper to move them whereby like a player upon a Lute or some other Instrument she makes what string sound she pleases stretching one and loosening another And as Musick is such as the Quirrester pleases to make it delighting the Ear if it be proportionate thereunto and procuring the Musitian the repute of skilfulness if not the contrary happens so the Soul imprints upon the Body one figure or another which make a good or bad grace insomuch that oftentimes gracefulness is more esteemed than Beauty unless it may be better said to be part thereof for want of which beautiful persons resemble inanimate Statues or Pictures But as true Beauty is wholly natural and an Enemy to Artifice so the Soul ows to its original and first temper the good or posture which it gives its Body and there is as much difference between natural gracefulness and affected postures as between the Life and the Picture truth and appearance yea the sole suspicion of affectation offends us Moreover a Clown seldom becomes Courtly and whatever pains be bestowed in teaching him good Carriage yet still his defects appear through his constraint as on the contrary amongst Shepherds most remote from the civilities of the Court we see gentileness and dexterities which manifest that good carriage or Gestures are purely natural The Fourth said That in the Gestures and Motions of the Body two principles must be acknowledged one natural and the other accidental The former is founded in the structure and composition of every one's Body the diversity whereof produceth with that of the spirits humors and manners all the Actions and Passions which depend thereon the true motive causes of our Gestures and Carriages Hence he that suffers pain frowns he that repents bites his Lip or Fingers he that admires something and dares not express it shrugs his shoulders he that muses deeply turns his Eyes inward and bites the end of his Pen or Nails The accidental principle is imitation which next to Nature is the most efficacious cause and acts most in us Man being born for imitation more than any other Creatures as appears in that scarce five or six Species of Birds imitate our Language the Ape alone our Gestures we on the contrary imitate not only the voices of all Animals but also all their Actions And therefore as it cannot be denied that Nature contributes to our Gestures so neither can it be doubted that Imitation hath a power therein CONFERENCE CXCI. Which is most proper for Study the Evening or the Morning IF Antiquity had not had Errors the cause of those who prefer the study of the Evening before that of the Morning would be very desperate But Reasons having more force here than the Authorities of Pedagogues who hold Aurora the friend of the Muses only to the end that their Scholars rising betimes in the Morning themselves may have the more time left after their exercises I conceive the Evening much more fit for any Employment of the Mind than any other part of the day the Morning leaving not only the first and more common wayes full of Excrements but also all the Ventricles of the Brain wherein the Spirits are elaborated and also the Arteries and Interstices of the Muscles full of vapors whence proceed the frequent oscitations contortions and extension of the members upon our awaking to force out the vapors which incommode them On the contrary the Evening even after repast finds those first wayes full of good Aliments which send up benigne and laudable vapors which allay and temper the acrimony of other more sharp and biting found by experience in Men fasting who for that reason are more prone to Choler Moreover Study consisting in Meditation and this in reflection upon the Species received into the Phansie 't is certain that the report of these introduced all the day long serves for an efficacious Lesson to the Mind when it comes to make review of the things offered to the Intellect for it to draw consequences from the same and make a convenient choice but in the Morning all the species of the preceding day are either totally effaced or greatly decayed Moreover the melancholy humor which is most proper for Study requires constancy and assiduity which ordinarily accompanies this humor and it is predominant in the Evening as Bloud is in the Morning according as Physicians allot the four humors to the four parts of the natural day as therefore the Sanguine are less proper for Study than the Melancholy so is the Morning than the Evening Hence the good Father Ennius never versified so well as after he had drunk which seldom happens in
think 't is from some hideous Phantasms irregularly conceiv'd in the Brain as a Mola or a Monster is in the womb which Phantasms arising from a black humor cause Sadness and Fear a Passion easily communicable because conformable to the Nature of Man who consisting of a material and heavy Body hath more affinity with the Passions that deject him as Fear doth than with those which elevate him as Hope and Ambition do The moral cause of Panick Terror is Ignorance which clouds and darkens the light of the Soul whence the most ignorant as Children and Women are most subject to this Fear and Souldiers who are the more ignorant sort being taken out of the Country and from the dregs of the people become easily surpriz'd with it and by the proneness of Men to imitation upon the least beginning it finds a great accession and familiarity in Humane Nature The Fifth said That the cause of this Terror may be a natural prescience our Souls have of the evil which is to befall us which is more manifest in some than in others as appear'd in Socrates who was advertis'd of what-ever important thing was to befall him by his familiar Spirit or good Angel Now if there be any time wherein those Spirits have liberty to do this 't is when we are near our End our Souls being then half unloos'd from the Body as it comes to pass also at the commencement of a battel through the transport every one suffers when he sees himself ready either to die or overcome CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of Germain's Fair. THis Person is of a middle Stature hath a large Breast as also a Face especially his Fore-head very great Eyes and is said to be sixty years old though he appears to be but about forty He was born in the Town of Nota in the Island of Maltha and is nam'd Blaise Manfrede They that have observ'd him in private Houses and upon the Theatre relate that he makes his experiment not only every day but oftentimes twice in one afternoon Moreover vomiting so freely as he does he is always hungry when he pleases His Practise is very disagreeing from his publish'd Tickets wherein he promises to drink a hundred quarts of water but he never drinks four without returning it up again His manner is thus He causes a pail full of warm water and fifteen or twenty little glasses with very large mouths to be brought to him then he drinks two or three of these glasses full of water having first washt his mouth to shew that there is nothing between his teeth Afterwards for about half a quarter of an hour he talks in Italian which time being pass'd he drinks three or four and twenty more of the said glasses and thereupon spouts forth of his mouth with violence a red water which seems to be wine but hath only the colour of it This water appears red as it comes out of his mouth and yet when it is spouted into two of his glasses it becomes of a deep red in one and of a pale red in the other and changing the situation of his glasses on the left side of his mouth to the right and of those on the right to the left these colours always appear different in the same glass namely the one of a deep red and the other yellow or Citron-color Some of the water is of the color of pall'd wine and the more he vomits the clearer and less colour'd the water is He hath often promis'd to bring up Oyl and Milk but I never saw nor heard that he did it This done he sets his glasses to the number of fifteen or sixteen upon a form or bench to be seen by every one After which he drinks more water in other glasses and brings it up again either clear water or Orenge flower water or Rose-water and lastly Aqua Vitae which are manifest by the smell and by the burning of the Aqua Vitae having been observ'd to keep this order always in the ejection of his liquors that red water comes up first and Aqua Vitae last He performs this Trick with thirty or forty half glasses of water which cannot amount to above four quarts at most then having signifi'd to the people that his Stomack although no Muscle which is the instrument of voluntary motion obeys him he casts the same water up into the Air with its natural colour so impetuously that it imitates the Casts of water in Gardens to the great admiration of the Spectators who for six weâ—ks together were seldom fewer than three hundred daily For my part I find much to admire in this action For though men's Stomacks be of different capacities and some one person can eat and drink as much as four others yet I see not possibly where this fellow should lodge so much water And again he seems rather to powr water into a Tun than to swallow it though the conformation of the Gullet doth not consist with such deglutition Besides vomiting is a violent action and yet most facile in this Drinker And as to the order of this Evacuation 't is certain that all things put into the Stomack are confounded together therein so that Concoction begins by Mixtion and yet this fellow brings up what-ever he pleases as 't were out of several vessels so that he undertakes to eat a Sallad of several sorts of Herbs and Flowers and to bring them up all again in order Moreover what can be more prodigious than this mutation of Colours Smells and Substances And indeed they say he hath sometimes fear'd to be question'd for Sorcery But the greatest wonder is that smartness and violence wherewith he spouts out water from his Stomack not laterally which is the ordinary manner of vomiting but upwards which is a motion contrary to heavie bodies as water is Some speculative person that had read in Saint Augustin that a Man's being turn'd into a Horse by the power of Imagination might refer the cause of all these wonders to that faculty which daily producing new shapes upon the Bodies of Children in their Mothers womb may with less strangeness produce in this Man the above-mention'd alteration of one colour into another And as for his facility of bringing up what-ever he hath swallow'd I can find no better Reason for it than Custom which in him is turn'd into Nature The Second said That Ignorance being the Mother of Admiration we begin less to admire as we proceed to more Knowledg Now if this Maltese were a Magician he would do more marvellous things and of more than one sort whereas all his power is confin'd only to the vomiting up of liquors which he drunk before and the faculty of his Stomack being determin'd to this single kind of action the same must be natural because that is the definition of natural powers Moreover no action ought to be accus'd of Magick till good Reasons have evinc'd it to surpass all the powers of Nature
Liquors represent which Masses he holds between his teeth incorporated with some gum which fastens them there so that as the Water he drinks passes impetuously between his teeth it derives colours and odors from the same Which is the reason why the water he first casts forth is most colour'd whereas if the Dye proceeded from his Stomack it would be deeper at last of all as having acquir'd more digestion by a longer infusion The Sixth said That Histories are full of several particular Constitutions of the Natural Parts witness the example of the Maid mention'd by Cardan who drinking but two pints of water a day piss'd twenty and that of the Emperor Maximinus who commonly eat forty pound weight of meat with proportionable drink and sweat so abundantly that he fill'd 'T is said That Theagenes the Thasian eat a Calf for his dinner and Milo the famous Wrastler of Croton devour'd a 100. pound of Flesh a Hogshead of Wine and Bread proportionable Such was that Parasite who one day at the Table of the Emperor Aurelius eat a Boar a Sheep a Pig and an hundred Loaves and drunk half a tun of Wine All which stories render less strange the quantity of this Maltese's Drink whose colour possibly afterwards he disguises with powders hid in his Handkerchief which he handles so often or by the help of a double Glass of which his Vessels are made or by some other trick whereto he ha's inur'd himself for many years The Seventh said That mineral waters are usually drunk with more ease in great quantity by half than common water can be because their tenuity makes them pass immediately into the habit of the Body And if you consider that this fellow drinks only out of small vessels and those not always full as also with what nimbleness he dispatches his work you will much abate the opinion that he drinks so much as is generally believed Besides though his pail be of a middle size yet 't is never quite full and he spends much water in washing his mouth and his glasses and some too is left behind Nor is it absurd to think that before his shewing himself to drink he swallows a bolus of Brazil or of Alkanet or Fearn Root or of red Sanders or Indian Wood or some such other thing in powder after which drinking two or three glasses of water he interposes some interval that the same may be the better tinctur'd in his Stomack which time being pass'd he drinks about two quarts of water which soon after he brings up red appearing so both in the Air and in the glasses Which colour being weak for want of time to be well imbib'd by the water is wholly lost when the same is powr'd into a vessel wherein there is a little Verjuice Vinegar juice of Citron Spirit of Vitriol or other such acid liquor which is proper to consume the said color And 't is observable that the last water he vomits is continually paler than the first the tincture being diminisht by the quantity of water Add hereunto that 't is likely his glasses are smear'd with some essences which seem transparent to the Spectators for though he makes shew of washing them he only passes the brims dextrously over the water and lets none of it enter into them As for the violence wherewith he spouts forth the water it must be confess'd that the fellow hath a great natural propensity to vomiting which by frequent repetition is become habitual to him Custom being capable to produce such effects that I have seen a Beggar about fifty years old by being exercis'd thereunto piss as high as a pike CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers HOnest Antiquity was so desirous of knowing the Truth that when natural and ordinary proofs fail'd they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary Such was the Jews water of Jealousie which made the otherwise undiscoverable Adulterer burst in sunder the innocent Vestal's Sieve in which being accus'd of Incest she carry'd water without shedding Such also were the Oaths made upon Saint Anthonie's arm of so great reverence that 't was believ'd the perjur'd would burn a year with the fire of that Saint and in our time the excommunication of Saint Geneviesue which those that incurr are commonly reckon'd not to out-live a year In like sort the zeal of Men against that horrid crime of Murder hath made them cherish a perswasion that a Carkase will bleed before its Murderers though most slain Bodies bleed when they are stirr'd that so the Conscience of the Actors being disturb'd they might either by word or gesture be brought to make discovery of themselves For indeed the Blood which was congeal'd in the Veins presently after death becomes liquid again after two or three dayes when it is in its tendency to corruption which Liquefaction and the Inquisition after the Murderer hapning commonly at the same time 't is no wonder if the Body bleed in the Murderer's presence since it doth so frequently when he is absent Yet because this false perswasion from the co-incidence of times ceases not sometimes to have its effect and to discover Truth therefore Legislators have thought fit to authorize it and to use it as an Argument at least to frighten the Murderer though indeed 't is no conclusive one to condemn him The Second said That 't is not credible that Courts of Justice who often admit this proof to good purpose could so continue in ignorance of Natural Causes as not to discern the effusion of Blood ensuing upon its putrefaction in the Veins from that which happens upon confrontation of a Murderer 'T is better therefore to seek further for the cause than to question the effect which some attribute to some secret Antipathy of the murder'd person's blood to that of his Murderer or else to their mutual emission of spirits which still seeking the destruction of each other's person those of the Murderer being the strongest because still living cause a commotion in the Blood of the dead which thereupon breaks forth at the out-let of the wound Campanella attributes it to the sense where-with all things are indu'd and which still remains in these dead Bodies so that having a sense of their Murderers and perceiving them near hand they suffer two very different motions Trembling and Anger which cause such a commotion in the Blood that it flows forth at the wound For the spirits which during life had such perceptions as were necessary for their receiving and obeying the Soul's commands retain somewhat thereof after death and are capable of discerning their friends and their enemies The Third said If this opinion concerning the emanation of spirits whether by Sympathy or Antipathy be true it will follow That one who hath done a Murder with gun-shot cannot be discover'd by this sign and that one slain in his Wife's arms and in a crowd of his friends that endeavor'd to defend his life will bleed rather in
the presence of his friends than of his Murderer whose spirits are more inwardly retir'd through fear of punishment whereas those of his friends are sent outwards by Anger and desire of Revenge Yea if the Murderer had been wounded before he should rather bleed than the dead because his Blood is more boyling and capable of commotion by the spirits issuing out of the Carkase And had they any Sympathy they could not discover the Murderer for want of sense which they never had for the spirits which are in the Blood scarce deserve that name being purely natural and void of all sense even during life and specifically different from the animal spirits The vital spirits which are a degree above them vanish together with life whence the Arteries that us'd to contain them are empty And those that serve for Sensation cannot remain in a dead Body because they are easily dissipable and need continual reparation whence we see all the senses fail in a swoon because the Heart recruits them not by a continuity of their generation Besides should they remain after death they would be unactive for want of fit dispositions in the Organs Moreover natural causes act necessarily when their object is present but sometime t is known that Murderers have thrust themselves more diligently into the crowd of Spectators than any other persons for avoiding suspition and no such bleeding hath hapned in their presence and that Executioners take Criminals the next day from the Gallows or the Wheel and not a drop of Blood issues from their wounds And why should not a dead Sheep as well fall a bleeding afresh in the presence of the Butcher that kill'd it Or a Man mortally wounded when he that did it is brought unknown into his Chamber For 't is hard to imagine that we have less sense and knowledge whilst life remains than after death that a wounded person must die that he may become sensible In short t is easie to see that this effect is not like other wonders which have a cause in Nature because though we cannot assign the particular causes of these yet they are prov'd by some demonstrative or at least some probable reasons And as for Antipathy it should rather concenter all the dead person's Blood in his Murderer's presence and make it retire to the inward parts Wherefore I conclude that not only the causes of this miracle are not yet found but also that 't is impossible there should be any natural one of it at all The Fourth said That according to the opinion of Avicenna who holds That the Imagination acts even beyond and out of its Subject this faculty may cause the effluxion of Blood the Criminal's Phansie working mightily when the person slain by him is objected before his Eyes And the nitrous vapors arising out of the Earth upon digging up the Body together with the heat of the Air greater than that of the Earth and increas'd by the conflux of Spectators may in some measure contribute to the new fermentation of the Blood But the truth is after all our inquiries this extraordinary motion cannot be better ascrib'd elsewhere than to God's Providence who sometimes performs this miracle for the discovery of Murder which would otherwise be unpunisht but not always And 't is no less impiety to deny that Divine Justice comes sometimes to the aid of that of Men than 't is ignorance and rusticity to be satisfi'd in all cases with universal causes without recurring to particular ones which God employes most ordinarily for the Production of Effects yet does not so tye his power to the necessity of their operations but that he interrupts the same when he pleases even so far as to give clay power to open the Eyes of the blind CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn THere are no greater impostures in the Art of Physick than those which relate to Antidotes and Preservatives from Poyson such as the Unicorn's Horn is held to be And I am mistaken if it be not a popular error First because the opinions of all Authors are so contrary concerning it Philostratus in the life of Apollonius saith that the Animal of this name is an Ass and is found in the fenns of Colchis having one single horn in the fore-head where-with he fights furiously against the Elephant Cardan after Pliny saith 't is a Horse as 't is most commonly painted only it hath a Stag's head a Martin's skin a short neck short mane and a cloven hoof and is bred only in the Desarts of Aethiopia amongst the Serpents whose Poyson its horn which is three cubits long resists Garsius ab Horto saith 't is an Amphibious Animal bred on Land near the Cape of good Hope but delighting in the Sea having an Horses head and mane a horn two cubits long which he alone of all Authors affirms to be moveable every way Most agree that it cannot be tam'd and yet Lewis Vartoman saith that he saw two tame ones in Cages at Mecha which had been sent to Sultan Solyman Almost all confess it very rare and yet Marcus Sherer a Renegado German afterwards call'd Idaith Aga and Embassador from the same Solyman to Maximilian the Emperor affirms that he saw whole troops of them in the Desarts of Arabia And Paulus Venetus the same in the Kingdom of Basman where they are almost as big as Elephants having feet like theirs a skin like Camels the head of a Boar and delighting in mire like swine Nor are Authors less various concerning its manner of eating some alledging that being unable to feed on the ground by reason of his horn he lives only on the boughs and fruits of Trees or on what is given him by the hands of Men especially of fair Virgins of whom they say he is amorous though others think it fabulous Some believe that there was once such an Animal but not now the whole race perishing in the Deluge and that the horns we find now for the most part in the earth have been kept there ever since And if there be such variety in the description of this Animal there is no less in the horns which they tell us are those of the Unicorn That at Saint Dennis in France is about seven foot high weighs thirty pound four ounces being wreath'd and terminated in a point from a broad base Yet this is not comparable to that Aelian mentions which was so thick that cups might be made of it That at Strasburg hath some conformity with this of Saint Denis but those of Venice differ from both as that describ'd by Albertus Magnus doth from all For 't is saith he solid like a Hearts horn ten foot high and very large at the base The Swisses have one which was sometimes found on the bank of a River near Bruges two cubits long yellow without white within odorous and apt to take fire That at Rome is but one foot high having been diminish'd by being frequently rasp'd in order to be imploy'd against
Rhinoceros But these Authorities are not considerable in respect of that of the H. Scripture wherein 't is said Deut. 28. His horns shall be like that of the Vnicorn and Psal 22. Deliver me O God from the Lion's mouth thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the Vnicorns and Psal 29. He maketh Lebanon and Sirion to skip like a young Vnicorn and Psal 92. My horns shalt thou exalt like the horn of an Vnicorn and Isaiah 34. The Vnicorns shall come down with them and the bullocks with the bulls Job also speaks of it chap. 39. Add to these Authorities the experience and example of so many Kings and States who would not think their treasure well furnish'd unless they had an Unicorn's horn For the matter that makes teeth being transferr'd to the generation of horns and so further sublim'd 't is certain that all Horns have an Alexiterical Vertue by which they resist Feavers cure Fluxes of the belly kill Worms and serve for many other Remedies to Man but when this already great Vertue comes to be united into one single Chanel as it happens in the Unicorn the same is mightily augmented And 't is too much detraction from the power of Nature to deny such Vertue to be found in inanimate Bodies as in the Serpentine Tongues found in the Caves of Malta sealed Earths and Minerals such as those they call for that reason Vnicornu minerale not because taken from Unicorn's bury'd under ground ever since the time of the Deluge but because of their Resemblance in Vertues Properties and outward Figure and indeed there is so much of this Mineral Unicorn's horn and Mineral Ivory found that 't is not credible it ever belong'd to any Animal Nor is this truth prejudic'd by the tricks of Impostors who make counterfeit Unicorn's horns of Ivory or other horns or the bones of Elephants and other Animals kept for some time under ground whereby they acquire more solidity and some transparency by means of the salt of the Earth which insinuates thereinto as it doth to Porcellane which for that reason is bury'd a whole Age nor by the ebullition that some other natural and artificial bodies cause or by the sweating of some Stones upon the approach of poyson which proceeds from the poyson's inspissating the Air which thereupon sticks to the next solid body Nor is the colour material since process of time may alter it besides that the Ancients attribute blackness only to the horns of the Indian Ass and the Rhinoceros And as for the smell found in the Unicorn's horn in Suizzerland 't is an argument that the same is either adulterate or a Mineral one the texture of the horns being too close to evaporate any thing and those that have distill'd them by fires find that they abound with an inodorous Salt and a stinking Sulphur In short 't is not credible Clement VII Paul III. and divers others would have taken this Animal for their Arms if there were no such nor do Popes so much want understanding men that Julius III. would have bought a fragment of it for 12000. crowns whereof his Physitian made use successfully in the cure of Diseases that had any thing of venenosity Marsilius Ficinus Brassavola Matthiolus Aloisius Mundela and many other Physicians recommend it in such diseases especially in the Pestilence the Biting of a mad Dog Worms Falling-sickness and other such hideous Maladies To conclude I conceive that effects which depend upon occult Properties as this doth ought not to be rashly condemn'd being mindful that our knowledg is limited and therefore the Authorities Reasons and Experiences which establish the Unicorn's horn and its wonderful Effects are to be yielded to only with exception to Imposture CONFERENCE CCIV. Of Satyrs NOvelty and extraordinary things have such power upon our Minds that they not only render us attentive when they are present but remain longer imprinted in the Memory as those that teach the Art of Memory truly observe This oblig'd many Poets and Historians to speak of Hydra's Chimaera's Basilisks Satyrs Centaurs and other such Fictions For those that have most exactly examin'd the power of Nature find the mixture of these Species impossible not only on the part of the Matter which is to receive the Soul to which it is determin'd by a certain proportion but also in respect of the Form which is indivisible especially the Rational Soul To which purpose the Poet Lucretius speaks very learnedly and maintains that there can be no Centaurs and the reason he alledges holds as well against the possibility of Satyrs Because saith he if this mixture of the humane and equine Nature had place Horses being in their full strength at three years old at which time children scarce leave sucking the breasts of their Nurse how is it possible this monstrous Animal should be in its tender age and full growth both together And again a Horse growing when the Man enters into the prime of his youth how can the one dye when the other is in the state of its greatest vigour Now Goats live less time than Horses and so there is less probability for an Animal compounded of the Nature of a Goat and a Man Hence Pliny in the seventh book of his Natural History saith That a Hippocentaur being bred in Thessaly it dy'd the same day and was afterwards preserv'd in honey which is an excellent bawm Virgil places them at the entrance of Hell because things against Nature cannot subsist And S. Hierom in the life of S. Paul the Hermit relating how a Centaur appeard to S. Anthony doubts whether it were a true Centaur or the Devil under that shape and indeed seems to infer it an Evil Spirit because it was driven away by the sign of the Cross So that Satyrs are to be attributed only to the liberty Poets have ever taken as well as Painters of daring and attempting every thing without observing the Rule Horace prescribes them not to conjoyn Natures totally disagreeing and opposite for by these mixtures they intended only to represent very nimble lascivious rustick and perhaps abusive men whence came their Satyrick Poems The second said That 't is as dangerous to conclude all impossible that we have not seen as to be credulous to every thing But when Reason and the authority Experience carries with it are of a side our incredulity hath no excuse Now the case of Satyrs is such for they may be as well produc'd by the mixture of the Seeds of two Species as Mules are Besides were not the Imagination of Mothers capable of imprinting this as well as any other change of Figure in a Child's body whereof we have daily examples yet the wild suckling and course of life some Children may have had amongst Goats as Romulus and Remus had from a Wolf may in process of time have begot some resemblance of shape in them As for Lucretius's Reason we see that Plants are ingrafted into others not only of the same
no great road between the highest wisdom and the greatest extravagance it may be further inferr'd that those who are of a more dry Temperament whereof it is as likely that fools as well as wise men may be frequently have such visions and fall into those Ecstacies and upon this account that they mind not their own thoughts are easily susceptible of external impressions and the first objects which present themselves to them So that we may make a distinction of Ecstacies into two kinds The former is to be attributed only to great and contemplative persons and may be said to be only a disengagement of the mind which is so taken up with the apprehension of an object that it quite forgets all its other functions For the case is the same with the Vnderstanding in reference to its object which is Truth as it is with the Will in respect of its proper object to wit Good which it so passionately affects that it is not so much where it lives as where it loves In like manner the Understanding being forcibly engag'd to a taking object whereof it makes a particular observation of all the differences is so transform'd into it that it ceases to act any where else Now the reason of this is that knowledge or apprehension as well as all the other functions is wrought by a concourse of spirits which being by that means in a manner all employ'd in that transcendent action there are not enough remaining for the performance of other actions the small portion that is being wholly employ'd about respiration nourishment and the other actions necessary for the Conservation of Life Accordingly this kind of Ecstacy or cessation of the functions is not only observ'd to happen in that conflict and contention of the mind when it is wholly bent upon the examination of some object but also in all the other actions which are perform'd with excess such as for example the Passions are the extraordinary violences whereof occasion Ecstacies an extream grief casting a man down so much that he becomes as it were stupid and insensible The same thing happens also through joy by a contrary effect as well as in Anger Fear Audacity and the other perturbations of the irascible and concupiscible Appetites by reason of the great diffusion or concentration of the spirits Whence it follows that it is not more strange to see a man ravish'd and fallen into an Ecstacy as it were out of himself in the contemplation of some object than to see some persons so over-joy'd as to die out of pure joy For Knowledge being an action of the Understanding whereby it raises and elevates to a spiritual and incorporeal Being things that are most material which are advanc'd in the Understanding to a new and more perfect Being than that which they had of their own Nature the Understanding renders them like it self and is so united to them that there cannot be a greater conformity than what is between the object and the power whereby it is known When therefore that object is of its own Nature spiritual and immaterial the Understanding having disengag'd it self from every other Subject is so over-joy'd at its own knowledge that it forgets all other actions of less consequence The other Ecstacy is properly attributed to Lunaticks and distracted persons and is by Physicians plac'd among the highest irregularities caused by black Choler in the minds of such as are much inclin'd to Melancholy in whom it causes an alienation of Spirit which inclines them to imagine speak or do things that are ridiculous and extravagant sometimes with fury and rage when that humor is enflam'd and converted into black Choler and sometimes with a stupid sadness when it continues cold and dry The Second said That the Greek word signifying an Ecstacy is ordinarily taken for every change of condition whatever it may be sometimes for a transportation and elevation of mind whereby a man comes to know things absent as it was explicated in the precedent part of this discourse Such peradventure was the taking up of Saint Paul even while he liv'd into that blisful Seat of the Blessed which he calls the Third Heaven allowing the Air to be one and the starry-sky to be another And that of Saint John the Evangelist which he speaks of in the Revelation Nay before them such were those of the Prophets and after them those of many other persons if we may give any credit to Historians Such was that of the Abbot Romuald who finding a great difficulty to read the Psalms of David became in an Ecstacy he had as he was saying Mass so learned that he was able to interpret the most intricate passages of them Such was that of Saint Francis the Founder of the Order of Franciscans who in a ravishment receiv'd upon his body the marks of our Saviour's Passion Such was Saint Thomas Aquinas who frequently fell into such an Ecstacy that he seem'd dead to all that were about him Such was John Scot commonly known by the name of the subtle Doctor to whom the same thing happen'd so often that his most familiar friends seeing him as he sate reading or writing found him many times immoveable and without sentiment insomuch that he was carry'd away from the place for dead and yet these two last were rais'd up so illuminated from that Philosophical Death that they have left but few imitators of their great Learning The same thing is affirmed of a certain Virgin nam'd Elizabeth whose Senses were sometimes so stupifi'd that she continu'd a long time in a manner dead from which kind of Trance being come to her self she fore-told some things which afterwards came to pass according to her predictions To be short there are few Monasteries of either Men or Women but affirm as much of their Founders And that it may not be imagin'd that such a separation of Body and Soul happened during this Life only to Enthusiasm or a highly-contemplative meditation of divine things which nevertheless must be acknowledg'd the common cause of it we read of Epimenides of Creet and Aristeas the Proconnesian eminent Poets and Philosophers that sometimes they left their Bodies without Souls which having taken their progress about the world return'd after a certain time and re-animated their Bodies Nay Pliny hath a pretty remarkable Story how that the Soul of this Aristeas was many times perceiv'd to take her flight out of his Body under the form of a Crow and that his Enemies having observ'd it and on a time met with his Body in that posture burnt it and by that means disappointed the Bird of her nest Apollonius relates a Story yet much more prodigious of Hermotimus the Clazomenian to wit that his Soul made Voyages of several years having left his Body during that time without any sentiment while she went up and down into divers parts of the world fore-telling Earth-quakes great Droughts Deluges and such other remarkable Accidents And further that this
thing having several times happen'd to him he had given his wife a strict charge that no Body should touch his Body during his Soul's being abroad upon the account aforesaid but some persons of his acquaintance bearing him a grudg having with much importunity obtain'd of her the favour to see his Body lying on the ground in that immoveable posture they caus'd it to be burnt to prevent the Soul's return into it which yet it being not in their power to do and the Clazomenians being inform'd of that injury done to Hermotimus built him a Temple into which Women were forbidden to enter And Plutarch in his Book of Socrates's Daemon or Genius confirming this Relation and allowing it to be true affirms that those who had committed that crime were then tormented in Hell for it Saint Augustine in his Book of the City of God Lib. xiv relates that a certain Priest named Restitutus when-ever and as often as he was desir'd to do it became so insensible at the mournful tone of some lamenting voice and lay stretch'd along as a dead Carkase so as that he could not be awak'd by those who either pinch'd or prick'd him nay not by the application of fire to some part of his Body inasmuch as he could not feel any thing while he continu'd in the Ecstacy only afterwards it was perceiv'd that he had been burnt by the mark which remain'd upon his Body after he was come to himself before which time be had not any respiration and yet he would say that he had heard the voices of those who had cry'd aloud in his Ears calling to mind that he had heard them speaking at a great distance The same Author in the xix Book of the same Work affirms that the Father of one Praestantius was apt to fall into such Ecstacies that he believ'd himself chang'd into a Pack-Horse and that he carry'd Provisions upon his back into the fields with other Horses when all the while his Body continu'd immoveable in the House Among other Examples of this kind of Ecstacy Bodin in his second Book of his Daemonomania chap. 5. relates a story of a certain Servant-maid living in the Danphine having been found lying all along upon a dung-hill in such a dead sleep that all the noise made could not awake her nay her Master 's banging her with a switch not prevailing any thing he ordered fire to be set to the most sensible and tenderest parts of her Body to try whether she were really dead or not Which being upon tryal believ'd they left her in the same place till the morning and then sending to look after her she was found very well in her bed Whereupon the Master asking her What she had been doing all the night before Ah Master said she how unmercifully have you beaten me Upon that discovery she was accus'd for a Witch and confess'd it To be short Cardan in his eighth Book of the Variety of Things affirms of himself that he fell into an Ecstacy when he pleas'd insomuch that he sleightly heard the voices of those who spoke to him but understood them not Nay what is more was not sensible of any pinching nor yet feeling the exquisite pain of his Gout whereto he was much subject as being not sensible at that time of any thing but that he was out of himself He afterwards explicates the manner how that Ecstacy is wrought affirming that he felt it begin at the Head especially in the hinder part of the Brain and thence spread it self all along the Back-bone He affirmed further that at the very beginning of it he was sensible of a certain separation about the Heart as if the Soul with-drew at a kind of wicket or sally-port the whole Body concerning it self therein and adds that then he sees what-ever he would with his Eyes and not by the strength of the Understanding and that those Images which he sees are in a continual transiency and motion in the resemblance of Forests Animals and such other things The Cause whereof he attributes to the strength of the Imagination and sharpness of the Sight He further relates of his Father such things as are much more miraculous and occasion'd the suspicion of his being a Magician Now from all these Sacred and Prophane Histories it may be inferr'd that of Ecstacies some are miraculous and others natural The former not submitting to ordinary Causes any more than all the other things do that concern Religion which stands much upon the preheminence of being above Reason The latter proceeding from the great disproportion there is between the Body and the Mind the one being extreamly vigorous the other extreamly weak Whence it follows that there are two sorts of persons subject to Natural Ecstacies to wit those transcendent Minds which are dispos'd into weak Bodies and weak Minds in strong and robust Bodies inasmuch as there being not a perfect connexion and correspondence between them the Soul finds it no great difficulty to disengage her self from the Body or the Body from the Soul which by that means obtains a freedom in her operations it being supposd that they do not all at depend one upon another as may be seen in the Formation of the Embryo wherein the Soul making her self a place of aboad plainly shews that she is able to act without it as also in swoundings and faintings during which the Body continues so destitute of sense that no active faculty at least no operation of the Soul is observable in it The Third said That the Vegetative Soul which is without motion being the first whereby we live it is not to be much admir'd if the other two Souls to wit the Sensitive and the Rational do sometimes separate themselves from it and this is that which they call Ecstacy whereof we have a certain instance in all the faculties wich are in like manner separated one from another without the loss of their Organs Accordingly he who is most sharp-sighted as to the Understanding hath commonly but a weak corporeal sight the most robust Body is ordinarily joyn'd to the weakest Mind Those persons who walk and talk in their sleep do also shew that the Rational Soul does quit the Government of the Body and leaves it to the direction and disposal of the sensitive and the same thing may be also said of the Vegetative exclusively to the other two To come to Instances we have at this day the experience of some who continue a long time in Ecstacies and that not only in matters of great importance but also in some things of little concernment which they are not able to comprehend nay there are some have the knack of falling into Trances and Ecstacies when they please themselves And this hath been affirm'd to me of a certain person who was able to do it without any other trouble than this He caus'd to be painted on the wall a great Circle all white in the Centre whereof he set a black mark
meditations leaves the Spirits in the Organs whose function it is in the mean time to receive the impressions of the external objects and convey them into the common Sense and thence into the Imagination and Memory whereas 't is expected that the Ecstacy should leave the Body without action Whence therefore I conclude that there is not any at all in regard that an Ecstacy signifying a state of the Soul besides that which is natural to her and besides the natural consequence there is between the actions of the senses and those that are proper to the Rational Soul it may be affirm'd that such a state never happens and that the Soul shall not be absolutely freed from the incumbrances and distractions of the Body till after Death And this hath been sufficiently acknowledg'd by Socrates in Phoedon notwithstanding all the Ecstacies attributed to him and Aristotle whose thoughts were more abstracted and transcended those of all others would not by any means admit of Ecstacies from a natural cause but attributes them all to God Which procedure of his hath been approved by Scaliger and many others CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing THe Germans being engag'd upon an expedition of War had some reason to carry a Cock along with them to serve them for an incitement and example of Vigilance Thence haply proceeded the custom which some Mule-drivers and Waggoners still observe of having one fasten'd to the leading Mule or Horse and sometimes for want of that adorning them with a plume of his or some other feathers 'T was upon this account that Phidias's Minerva had a Cock upon her head-piece unless it be attributed to this that the said Goddess had also the presidency and direction of War where there is no less need of Vigilance than Industry though that Bird belongs to her sufficiently upon the score of his other qualities as being so gallant and courageous as many times rather to lose his Life upon the spot than quit the desire of victory and when he is engag'd fighting with such fury that Caelius Aurelian relates that one who had been peck'd by a Cock in the heat of fighting grew mad upon it For the Passion of Anger being a short fury 't is possible it may extreamly heighten the degree of heat in a temperament already so highly cholerick that in time the body of the Cock becomes nitrous and upon that consideration is prescrib'd to sick persons for the loosening the belly and that after he hath been well beaten with a wand and the feathers pluck'd while he is alive before he is boyl'd It may be further urg'd that this Courage of the Cock was the motive which inclin'd Artaxerxes King of Persia to grant him who kill'd Prince Cyrus the priviledge of carrying on his Javelin a little Cock of Gold as a singular acknowledgement of his Valour Whereupon the Souldiers of the Province of Caria whereof he who had the aforesaid priviledge of the Cock was a Native in imitation of him instead of Corslets wore Cocks upon their head-pieces whence they had the name of Alectryons or Cocks in Latin Galli which possibly is the reason that gave the French that name And whereas the Cock commonly crows after he hath beaten another it came also to be the Hieroglyphick of Victory and that haply gave the Lacedaemonians occasion to sacrifice a Cock when they had overcome their Enemies This Creature was also dedicated to Mars and the Poets feign that he had sometime been a young Souldier whom that God of War order'd to stand sentinel when he went in to Venus to give him notice of Vulcan's return but he having slept till after the Sun was risen and by that neglect of duty Mars being surpriz'd with her he was so incens'd that he metamorphos'd him into a Cock whence it comes say they that being ever since mindful of the occasion of his transformation he ever crowes when the Sun approaches our Horizon This fable how ridiculous soever it may be thought is as supportable as that of the Alcaron which attributes the crowing of our Cocks to one which it saies there is in Heaven a Cock of such a vast bulk that having his feet on the first of the Heavens the head reaches to the second and this Cock crowing above awakens and incites all those upon Earth to do the like as these last set one another a crowing as if they all crow'd at the same instant all over the world The Cock was also dedicated to the Sun and Moon to the Goddess Latona Ceres and Proserpina whence it came that the Novices and such as were initiated in their mysteries abstain'd from the eating of it It was also the same to Mercury in regard that vigilance and early rising are requisite in Merchants And thence it came that he was painted under the form of a Man sitting having a Crest or Comb on his Head Eagle's claws instead of Feet and holding a Cock upon his fist But there was a particular consecration made of him to Aesculapius which oblig'd Socrates at his death to entreat his Friends to sacrifice a Cock to him since the Hemlock where-with he was poyson'd had wrought well The Inhabitants of Calecuth sacrifice him to their divinity under the form of a he-goat And Acosta after Lucian affirms that anciently the Cock was ador'd as a God which Christianity not enduring hath order'd them to be plac'd upon Churches on the tops of steeples and other very high structures that by their turning about they might tell the beholders which way the Wind blew unless haply some would refer it to the repentance of Saint Peter at the second crowing of one of them As concerning the crowing of this Creature it is commonly attributed to his heat and may be a certain discovery of his joy at the approach of the Star of the same temperament with him And whereas he is more susceptible than any other of the impressions of the Air whence it comes that being moisten'd by the vapors he crows with a hoarser voice which Labourers look on as a prediction of Rain it may be thence consequent that he is the first sensible of the coming of the Sun Moreover whereas there is a Solar Animal such as is also the Lyon but in a lower degree than he the species of Birds being hotter and dryer as being lighter than that of four-footed Beasts it thence follows that the Cock hath an ascendent over the Lyon which no sooner hears his crowing but it awakens in his Imagination those species which cause terror to him Unless we would rather affirm that the spirits of the Cock are communicated to the Lyon by that more than material voice and as such more capable of acting than the spirits issuing out of the Eyes of sick persons which nevertheless infect those who are well and look on them nay if we may believe the Poet bewitch even innocent Lambs The Second said That
this error of the Lyon's being terrifi'd at the crowing of the Cock was to be added to the number of all those vulgar ones which had occasion'd so much beating of the Air in the schools and pulpits about Maxims which are discover'd to be absolutely false in the Practick it being a thing not impossible that some Lyon which had been tam'd and by change of nourishment become cowardly and degenerate had been a little startled at that shrill crowing of the Cock grating of a sudden upon his ears And this conjecture will not be thought strange by those who about the beginning of March last 1659. were present at an engagement which had been appointed between such a Lyon and a Bull in a Tennis-Court at Rochel The Lyon was so frightned at the sight of the Bull that he got up into the Lights precipitating the Spectators who had planted themselves there in great numbers as esteeming it the safest place of all and thence he slunk away and hid himself and could never afterwards be gotten into the lists It may also be imagin'd that the strangeness and novelty of that Crowing might surprize some Lyon that had never heard it before by reason of his living at a great distance from Cities and Villages where those Creatures are commonly bred and that thence it came the Lyon was startled at that first motion Moreover 't is possible nay it may be more than probably affirm'd that some have taken that startling out of indignation observable in the Lyon when any thing displeases him for an argument of his fear whereas it was a discovery of his being incens'd For to imagine a real and general fear in that generous Creature upon so sleight an account as the crowing of a Cock I cannot see any probability for it in regard that correspondence and conformity which is attributed to them should rather occasion a Sympathy in them than any thing of aversion which being fully as great as that which the Sheep hath for the Wolf should no more frighten the Lyon than the bleating of the Sheep does the Wolf Nor is it so much out of an aversion and Antipathy which the Wolf hath for the Sheep that he devours and converts it into his substance as out of kindness and love to his own preservation and there are commonly seen about those houses where Lyons are kept several Cocks and Hens and yet the Lyons never make any discovery of their being frighted at their crowing or crakling Nay for a further confirmation hereof it comes into my mind that I have seen a young Lyon devour a Cock which I must confess crow'd no more than those of Nibas a Village of the Province of Thessalonica in Macedon where the Cocks do not crow at all But if there were such an Antipathy between them as some would have imagin'd the Lyon would have thought it enough to tear him to pieces and not eat him as he did And therefore it is to be conceiv'd that what hath given occasion to this error is the moral sense which some would draw from it to shew that the strongest are not free from a certain fear which they conceive of those things whence they should least expect it So that to put this Question Why the Lyon is frightned at the crowing of the Cock is to enquire for the cause of what is not The Third said That we are not to make so sleight an account of the authority of our Ancestors as absolutely to deny what they have affirmed to us and seems to be sufficiently prov'd by the silent acquiescence of so many Ages under pretence that we are not able to resolve it Which were to imitate Alexander in cutting the Gordian knot because he could not unty it It were much better to endeavor to find out in the nature of the Cock and in his crowing the cause of the Lyon's being frightned thereat Let it then be imagin'd that the Lyon being an Animal always in a Fever through an excessive choler whereof his hair and violence are certain marks the same thing happens to him as to sick and feverish persons to whom noise is insupportable especially to those in whom a cholerick humor enflam'd causeth pains in the Head Nay there are some kinds of sounds which some persons are not able to endure yet so as that they cannot assign any cause thereof and so as that we are forc'd to explain it by Specifick Properties and Antipathies such as we may imagine to be between the crowing of a Cock and the ear of a Lyon And that is much more probable then the stopping of a Ship by the Remora when she is under all the sail she can make and a thousand other effects imperceptible to reason and such as whereof only Experience can judge and therfore that terror which the Lyon is put into at the crowing of the Cock is not so irrational that Sovereign of Animals having just cause to admire how from so small a Body there comes a voice so shrill and strong as to be heard at so great a distance considering with himself what mischief he does with so little noise and this terror of the Lyon is increas'd if the Cock be all white inasmuch as that colour promotes the diffusion of his spirits already dispers'd by the first motion of his apprehension CONFERENCE CCXIV. Of the Sibyls THough it be generally acknowledg'd that there were Sibyls yet as to their Names their Number their Country and their Works nay the whole story of them all is full of doubts and uncertainties The Etymology of the Greek word signifies as much as the Will or Counsel of God the Aeolick Dialect saying Siou instead of Theou The Chaldeans call'd them Sambetes They are cited and consequently acknowledg'd by Justin Martyr Theophilus of Antioch Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Tatian Lactantius and other ancient Authors Varro and Diodorus Siculus call them Women fill'd with divinity fore-telling things to come whence they came also to be call'd Prophetesses Some conceive that they were before the War of Troy and referr all their predictions only to one of them imagining that the same thing happen'd to them as had done to Homer who for his great reputation gave occasion to several Cities of Greece to attribute his birth to them in like manner as a great number of Cities and Countrys as for instance Erythrae Cumae Sardis Troy Rhodes Libya Phrygia Samos and Aegypt desirous to attribute to themselves the Birth of that Sibyl it came to be believ'd that there were many of them Amongst whom Martianus Capella grounding his assertion upon very probable conjectures acknowledges but two Erophila the Trojan Sibyl whom he affirms to be the same that others call the Phrygian and Cumaean and the others Symmagia call'd also Erythraea at the place of her birth Pliny affirms that there were at Rome three Statues of the Sibyls one erected by Pacuvius Taurus Aedile of the people the other two by Marcus Valerius Messala the
attraction made by the Centre the Question is To which of those three Causes that Motion is to be referr'd If it be attributed to the weight it will follow that the heaviest Body shall descend soonest if to the impulsion the celerity or slowness of the Agent shall accordingly render that Motion swift or slow but if only the attraction made by the Centre be the Cause of it the lesser weight shall descend as fast nay faster than the greater upon the same account as that the same piece of Loadstone more easily draws a small needle than it does a great key Nor can Experience always assist us in this case in regard the different composure and form of heavy Bodies as also the diversity of the means and the variety of the Agents whereby they are thrust forwards will not permit us to make an allowable Comparison between them Thus a ball of Cork which descended as fast in the Air as one of Lead shall not do the like in the water to the bottom whereof the Lead shall fall but not the Cork And again the same Lead being put into the form of a Gondola or other hollow vessel shall swim on the water which it could not before A Cloak folded close together into a bundle shall have a speedy descent in both Air and Water but let a Man fasten the same Cloak under the arm-pit so as that it may spread into a circle it shall so sustain him the Air that he shall fall very gently and receive no hurt by his fall Hence it also comes that many Women have been sav'd when falling into the Water their Clothes were spread all abroad The same thing may also be observ'd in those frames beset with Feathers or cover'd with Paper which Children call Kites and sustain in the Air and suffer to be carryed away with the Wind giving them ever and anon little checks or jerks by drawing the pack-thread to them whereby they are held imitating in that action the beating of the wings in Birds In fine the different manner of giving the first shock to weighty Bodies does accordingly diversifie their Motion towards the Centre For as the impulsion made downwards hastens its bent towards the Centre so when it is forc'd circularly it is retarded Whence it comes that a glass so cast down that it hath certain turns by the way does sometimes fall to the ground without breaking But to speak absolutely all conditions being suppos'd equal it should seem that the more weighty a Body is the sooner it falls to the Centre And this is made good by daily Experiences as may be seen in the weighing of Gold and Silver in the balance which hath a speedier and shorter cast when the piece is much weightier or lighter than it hath when there is but half a grain difference between both the scales The Second said That the Nature of weight or heaviness was to be number'd among the occult things Aristotle defines it to be a Quality inclining Bodies downwards and towards the Centre Others would have it to be an Effect of density which proceeds from the great quantity of Substance and Matter comprehended and contracted in a small room There are yet others who would have it to be an impulsion or fastning of one Body upon another in order to Motion downwards But to come nearer the business it is only the relation or report there is between a Body and its mean and its comparison with another Body According to this account of it the same piece of Gold is said to be light in respect of one weight and heavy in respect of another Wood is heavy in the Air and light in the Water Tin is light in comparison of Gold though very weighty in respect of Wood. Whence it follows that weight hath only a respective being and such as depends on some other thing and not on it self The Cause of it therefore is not to be sought in it self but else-where as must be that of the recoiling of a Tennis-ball which is not in the Ball nor in the arm of him that playes nor yet in the walls of the Tennis-Court but resulting from all these three together And whereas Experience seems to decide the Question propos'd 't is fit we should refer our selves to it Now it is certain that of two Bodies of unequal weight and of the same Figure and Matter equally forc'd or suffer'd to fall the one will as soon come to its Centre as the other as those may see who shall let fall at the same time from the top of a Tower two leaden bullets one of two pounds and the other of a quarter of a pound both which will come to the ground at the same instant the reason whereof is That the stronger impulsion in the bullet of two pounds meets with a stronger resistance of the Air to break through as it falls than that of quarter of a pound Whence we are to make a distinction between the greater impulsion which the weightier Body makes upon another Body and the celerity or slowness of the Motion wherewith it descends a hundred weight being heavier on the shoulders of a Porter than one pound but not coming sooner to the ground than it In like manner a stone descending so much the more swiftly the nearer it comes to its Centre clearly shews that it derives the force of its Motion from the Centre as its principle as we conclude that the strength of a bullet is spent and the Motion of it grows fainter the further it is at a distance from the arm and gun from which it came and which we hold to have been the cause and principle of it The Third said That the weightiest Bodies make the more haste to their Centre the nearer they approach it for their weight is increas'd by their approaching of it gravity in the scent of weighty Bodies increasing by the continuance of Motion quite contrary to violent Motion which admits of remission thereby artifice it seems in this point giving place to Nature so as that the latter never grows weary nay is infallible in all her Motions and that such a propension of weight to the centre is the only certain rule to draw direct lines to that centre and which is yet the more certain the greater the weight is And whereas the Mind of Man judges the better of things when they are oppos'd one to the other behold one of those little Atomes which dance up and down in the beams of the Sun striking in at a window it is a Body sustain'd in the Air only by its smalness and requires a long time to make an impression in that part of the Air which is under it which thing cannot be said of a Musket-bullet It is therefore deducible thence that the heaviest Bodies descend fastest to the Centre The Fourth said That we are not to seek for any other reason for the speedier descent of heavy Bodies than there is in all the other
Motions of Nature which proceed from the instinct imprinted by her in all things of loving their good which is their rest and natural place which till they have attain'd they are in perpetual disquiet and whereas the heavier a Body is the more parts there are in it concern'd in the pursuance of that good it is not to be wonder'd if it happens to them as to divers sollicitors in the same cause who press it more earnestly than one alone would do We may therefore say that the same natural instinct that makes the Mulberry-tree expect till the cold weather be over before it buds and the Halcyons till the tempests be past before they build their nests and makes them to secure their young ones before the Rain may much rather cause the most massie and weighty Bodies to make more haste For these fore-seeing that the Centre is not able to lodge all the Bodies tending thereto endeavour to get to it as soon as they can adding to their haste the nearer they approach it But the most certain reason of this speedier Motion is the general rule that the more the Cause is increas'd the more is the Effect augmented whence it follows that if weight be the Cause of Motion downwards the greater the weight is the more intense ought to be the Motion CONFERENCE CCXVI Of the Silk-worm THe use of Silk was brought over from the East-Indies into Europe above a thousand years since and was particularly introduc'd into Italy by two Religous Men who brought thither the grain of it somewhat above three hundred years since in which Country of Italy that commodity hath been much cultivated and that upon several accounts as the preciousness of it the easie transportation from one place to another by reason of its lightness And lastly for that it is one of the principal instruments of Luxury which never wanted Partizans and Abettors in any Age not to mention the great advantages and wealth attending the manufacture of it The Latine word Sericum is receiv'd from that of Seres an Oriental people who were more sedulous in the cultivation of it than any other and the same thing hath happen'd to this as to many other excellent productions deriv'd from mean and despicable Principles For the Animal from whose labour we have the silk is an Insect as are all those which spin to wit the Spider and the Caterpillar and it differs in nothing from this latter save that the Caterpillar hath a little hairiness and the silk of the Silk-worm is stronger than the web of the Caterpillar and of another colour but as to figure and bulk there is little difference between them Whereto may be added that their production is much at one as being as it were hatch'd of certain eggs living on leaves enclosing themselves in certain webs out of which they make their way after they are become a kind of Butterflies by a strange Metamorphosis which forces them from one extremity to another that is from the nature of Reptiles to that of Volatiles which transformation is such as were it not for the frequency of it might be plac'd among the greatest miracles of Nature considering the great difference there is between those two forms And that indeed is such as hath given some occasion to doubt whether the Silkworm becoming a Butterfly did not change its Species as it would be true were it not that every thing produces its like and the Silkworm deriving its birth from the seed of the Butterfly it is an argument that both are of the same Species Thus much as to their progress The Kingdom of Spain commonly furnishes us with the best grain or seed of these worms which are like heads of pins but black or resembling Rape-seed somewhat flatted on both sides This grain sometime in the Month of April being put between two warm pillows or expos'd to the Sun enclos'd in the linings of ones cloaths or otherwise chafed by a moderate heat but without any moisture there are produc'd of it little certain worms of the same colour that is black at their first coming forth which by reason of their smalness as resembling the points of needles pass through certain little holes made in a paper wherewith they are cover'd and fasten themselves on the Mulbery-leaves which are also placed on the said paper full of little holes upon which leaves all the best grain being hatch'd within five or six days goes creeping after the first worm that gets out of her shell all that is hatch'd afterwards never coming to any good These worms are thence transported with the leaves laid upon little boards or hurdles into a temperate place and dispos'd in a lightsom and spacious room where they are entertain'd with fresh leaves twice a day among which those of the white Mulbery makes finer silk than those of the black for want whereof the leaves of the Rose-bush Lettice and some others may be used but though the Worm makes a shift to subsist by that nourishment yet either it will not spin at all or the Silk will be like the web or clue wrought by the Caterpillars Thus it feeds for the space of forty days during which it becomes grey and changes its colour four times not eating for some days before each change by reason of the fulness it is then sensible of The Worm is subject to certain diseases and those oblige such as have the care of them to remove them out of one room into another and that even when they are dying in great quantities Perfume Incense Benjamin Vinegar and Wine recovering and comforting them as also the smell of broyl'd Bacon To prevent which Diseases and the assaults of Flies and Pismires who will make havock among them they are very carefully to be kept clean the boards on which the leaves lie to be rubb'd with wormwood or sprinkled with Wine which must be well dry'd up before they come near them all moisture being hurtful to them as also salt or the hands that have handled it All harsh sounds as those of the discharging of Muskets Bells and Trumpets destroys them nay the strong breaths of those who come near them especially such as have eaten or handled Garlick or Onions are very prejudicial to them When their time of spinning draws nigh which is about six weeks after their being first alive at which time they are about the bigness of a man's little finger more transparent than they use to be and the little snowt so lengthen'd as that it represents the form of a Nose the Animal by an extraordinary motion expresses the inconvenience it endures by reason of its burden Then is it cleans'd oftner and there is so much the less given it to eat and afterwards they set on the boards some dry'd branches of Heath Broom or Vines and above all of Birch as being the most delicate and least prickly least it should prick the Worm or entangle the Silk Then you shall see them
fasten their first threds and casting out of their mouths a kind of coarse sleeve silk and afterwards that which is finer and more perfect in one continu'd thread accompany'd by a gum which makes it stick one to another so that the worm does encompass it self with that silk which is commonly yellow very seldom greenish or white and being come to the end of the clue hath only so much room as it takes up Then for the space of fifteen days it remains immoveable and is cover'd with a skin or film like that which covers the fruit of the Pine-tree under itâ— shell and which appears not till after that is broken But these fifteen days being over of which those will abate some who are desirous to make advantage of the Silk and trouble themselves not what becomes of the grain the Silkworm though it seem'd to have been dead breaks through its web and comes out in the form of a white and horned Butterfly bearing a certain image of the Resurrection then coming together the Male which is smaller coupling with the Female that is bigger the latter sheds her seed upon a clean paper spread under her for the reception of it The seed being carefully put into a box is either kept for the next year or sold by the ounce they commonly keep as much as comes from a hundred Males and so many Females the grain or seed whereof before their copulation is barren Now if they be desirous to get silk out of it which is the principal advantage in order to which the Worms are kept about fifteen days after they are compleated these webs are cast into water somewhat better than luke-warm and the Women and Children employ'd about that work stir the water with an handful of Birch till they have fasten'd on seven or eight ends of silk which having done they wind it up into skains and that is the raw silk The Second said That it is to be imagin'd the use of Silk was absolutely unknown to the Jews especially when we consider that in the works of that magnificent Temple of Solomon wherein they spar'd not any thing of what they thought most precious there is no mention made of Silk instead whereof they made use of Goats-hair and other precious Fleeces But it was no strange commodity to the Greeks and Romans not to the former since that Parisatis the Mother of Cyrus was commonly wont to say that Kings were always to be spoken to in silken words nor yet to the latter inasmuch as they had some garments all of Silk which they call'd Vestes holosericas Which is the more creditable in regard that the Inhabitants of China who made use of it above a thousand years before us have very ancient Books whereof the paper is made of Silk In the interim through the revolution of times which makes that unknown in one age which was familiar in another it hath happen'd that Pliny never having seen any relates strange stories of it calling the Silk-worm a Fly though it be not transform'd into a Fly as was said before till after it hath finish'd its working of Silk He further affirms that this worm makes its nest in dirt or clay and that so hard that instruments of iron cannot penetrate it that in the said nest it makes more wax then Bees do and leavs in it a Worm bigger than the other Flyes Afterwards not being satisfi'd with himself he brings in a discourse which shews indeed that he had heard some talk of our Silk-worm but that he had never seen any nor met with any certain account thereof when he says That Silk came from a Worm that had two horns which worm brings forth certain Caterpillars which engender that which is call'd Bombylius out of which comes the Worm which produces that which makes the Silk and all these productions and the making of the Silk perform'd in six Months the last Worms saith he making a web of silk like that of a Spider and that the first who ever found out the invention of unweaving and unravelling that web that so some use might be made of the Silk was Pamphila the Daughter of Latona of the Island Coos In fine to make the story yet more fabulous he says that in the Island of Lango the Silkworms are engendred of the Flowers which the Rain causes to fall from Turpentine-trees Ashes Oaks and Cypress Trees enliven'd by the vapours which exhale out of the earth being at first little naked Butterflies which afterwards get a little hairiness to sesecure them from the cold and their feet are so rough that they fasten on all the Cotten they meet upon the leaves of Trees and make their silk of it then they break it with their feet card it with their claws and having reduc'd it to silk hang it up between the boughs of Trees where they comb it to make it the finer and that done they wind themselves within it as within a botom of silk and then are they dispos'd into earthen pots to be kept warm and are nourish'd with noise till they are renew'd again and re-assume their wings as they were before they had done their work So pitiful a thing is a deviation from Truth and so hard is it for a man to meet with her when he is once got out of her own path CONFERENCE CCXVII Why Ice being harder than Water is yet lighter IN this Question there are several others comprehended the first Why Ice is harder than Water the second Why it is lighter inasmuch as lightness is an inseparable accident of softness as this latter is an inseparable accident of lightness On the contrary density hardness and compaction is a sign or rather a cause of weightiness as it is observable in Meal Ashes and other Bodies of the like Nature which weigh heavier when they are close thrust together in the Bushel Nay further this Question comprehends in it self the Efficient Causes of Ice which is the coldness of the Earth the Water or the Air. It is not the first because if it were Rivers and Lakes would be frozen at the botom which on the contrary is most temperate and serves for a retreat to the Fish while the surface of the Water is frozen up which freezing if it be so violent as to reach the Center it is communicated by degrees from the surface Now that Rivers begin to freez on the sides does proceed hence that the Water there moves more slowly the channel or current of the Water which is rougher in the midst being interrupted by the inequality of its course For motion prevents congelation not upon the account that it warms inasmuch as that effect happens not to it otherwise then by the collision of two or more solid bodies but because there is no change made but upon some solid foundation which cannot be imagin'd in Water as long as it is in motion Nor is the Water congeal'd by that Cold which is Nature to it self for that
the prosecution of their designs or forc'd them to pronounce such as should be to their advantage This course was taken by Alexander the Great and Cleomenes by the former when he consulted the Pythian by the other when he consulted the Delphick Oracle both which they forc'd to say what they pleas'd themselves Thence it came that most of the ancient Philsophers exclaim'd against them and the Platonists who made a greater account of them then any of the other Sects acknowledge that they are no other then the most despicable Devils and those of the lowest rank who engage themselves in that employment which they must needs practise in desert and dreadful places to the end there might be fewer witnesses of their weakness and impostures These are apparent in their very Answers which if not false were so ambiguous or at least so obscure that many times there needed another Oracle to explain them Nor were they in vogue but during the darkness of Paganism which being dispell'd by the light of the Gospel those Oracles never durst appear in that glorious day which would have discover'd their lying and falshood The Second said That the Art of Divination being conjectural and grounded on experience as well as several others of that nature it is not to be admir'd that the Answers of those who heretofore made profession thereof were not always true and therefore it is as irrational a procedure to draw any consequences thence to its prejudice as to infer that the Precepts of Medicine are false because the Physician does not always make his Prognosticks aright The General of an Army may sometimes proceed upon wrong grounds and the expert Pilot may run upon those shelves and rocks which he most endeavours to avoid True it is that the subtilty of the Devil and depravedness of Mankind have foisted abundance of abuses into the business of Oracles especially in the erecting of those Statues to those fabulous Divinities which they commonly made of Olive-tree Lawrel Vine Cedar or some such kind of wood full of unctuous moisture which they said were the tears or sweat of their false Gods as also in the pompous Ceremonies wherewith they amused the credulous Vulgar Such were those of Trophonius among the Thebans who answer'd only those who being clad in white descended through a hole of the cave into his Temple and there offered cakes to the Spirits which inhabited it after which they were convey'd out at another place of the cave where they drunk the Water of the Fountain of Memory which caus'd them to remember whatever they had heard as they had drunk that of Lethe before they had entred into it which had caus'd them to forget all affairs of the World But we are not hence to conclude that all Oracles were false nor doubt of the validity of that sublime Art upon its being disparag'd by those who have profess'd it since it hath its grounds not only in the inclination of mens minds who having an extraordinary earnestness to know things to come there must needs be some Science for the attaining of that Knowledge otherwise Nature who had imprinted that desire in him should contrary to her custom have done something in vain but also in the dispositions of that Temperament which is subject to Melancholy or black Choler For the former of these is the Temperament of the more ingenious sort of people according to the Philsopher in his Problems and the other being more resplendent is that of persons enclin'd to Divination occasion'd by the clear representation of the Species in that humour which being bright and smooth as a Mirrour cannot so well be discover'd by those who are not of that Constitution to which Plato in his Memnon attributes the cause of Apollo's Priestesse's pronouncing the Oracles in Hexameter Verse though she had never learnt Poesie and Pompanatius in his Books of Enchantments affirms that it caus'd a Woman who never was out of Mantua where she was born to speak several strange Languages The Third said That Divination being above the reach of our Understanding as much as this latter is below the Divinity which hath reserv'd to it self the priviledge of a distinct knowledge of things to come it is to no purpose to seek for the true causes of it in our selves but we are to find them in the Heavens whence if we may believe the Professors of Astrology that quality of Divination or Prediction is communicated to Men by the interposition of the Intelligences whereby those vast Bodies are moved and that Science taught by making it appear how great a correspondence there is between the effects of the sublunary Bodies and the superior causes on which they depend and wherein they are potentially comprehended even before they are actually existent Whereto if you add the concourse of the Universal Spirit which equally animates the whole world and the parts whereof it consists and which meeting with convenient dispositions in the minds of men and the several places where Oracles have been given inspir'd those extraordinary motions which have rais'd the Spirit of man and open'd its way into effects the most at a distance from his knowledge Admitting I say such a concourse there may some probable reason be given of these Predictions not only of things whose causes being natural and necessary their effects are infallible such as are Eclipses the Rising Setting and Regular Motions of the Planets or of those whose causes are only probable as it is reported that Pherecydes foretold a dreadful Earth-quake by the boyling up of the water in his own Well and Thales foresaw the scarcity of Olives in the Territories of Athens But also of effects which having only contingent or free causes lie not so obvious to discovery and yet these being denoted by the general causes such as are the Heavens and the Universal Spirit those persons who have clear-sighted and illuminated Souls may perceive them therein even before they happen The Fourth said That there are three general causes of Oracles one Supernatural another Artificial and the third Natural and that not to speak any thing of the Supernatural whereof the Devils were the Authors and made use of it to continue still in their first Rebellion when they attempted to ascend into the Throne of God and be like him nor yet of their Artificial Cause which was certain persons devoted to their worship who retiring into Caves and Subterraneous places were incited by those evil Spirits to that sordid Ministry that so by that means they might lay snares for the simple who were easily drawn away by these false Lights The Natural Cause of those Oracles especially such as were pronounc'd out of the celebrated Caves and Grots of Antiquity was a subtile Exhalation rais'd out of those places which fastening on the Spirits of the Prophet or Prophetess already dispos'd to receive that impression had the same Influence on them as the fumes of Wine have on those who drink it to
to another they make several mixtures as when they come to separate after their union they are the causes of the corruption of mixt bodies And these bodies have so much the more Resistance which is the last property of these Atoms the more dense and solid these last are as on the contrary when they are less dense and solid by reason of the vacuity there is between their parts the bodies consisting of them have so much the less vigour and force to oppose external injuries The Fourth said That there is not any better instance whereby the nature of Atoms can be explicated then those little Motes which move up and down the air of a Chamber when the Sun-beams come into it at some little hole or cranny For from this very instance which is so sensible it may easily be concluded not only that they are bodies which have a certain bulk and quantity how little and indivisible soever it may be but also that they are in continual motion by means whereof as those little corpuscula or Motes incessantly move and strike one against another and are confusedly intermixt one among another so the Atoms by their perpetual agitation and concourse cause the mixtures and generations of all natural things So that all consider'd it is as ridiculous on the other side to affirm that they are only imaginary principles because they are not seen as to maintain that those little Motes are not in the air because they are not perceiv'd to be there in the absence of the Sun-beams which we must confess renders them visible but with this assurance that they are nevertheless there even when they are not discern'd to be there The Fifth said That it is certain there are abundance of bodies in Nature which are in a manner imperceptible to our senses and yet must be granted to be real bodies and consequently endow'd with length breadth profundity solidity and the other corporeal qualities Such as these are among others the sensible Species which continually issue out of the Objects and are not perceiv'd by the senses but only so far as they are corporeal and material especially the Odours exhaling from certain bodies which after their departure thence in process of time decay and wither Of this we have instance in Apples and other Fruits which grow wrinkled proportionably to their being drain'd of those vaporous Atoms whereof they were at first full which evaporate in a lesser or greater space of time the more closely those little bodies stick one to another or the more weakly they are joyned together Nay the intentional Species how sublimated soever they be by the defaecation made by the agent Intellect are nevertheless bodies as are also the Animal Spirits which are charged therewith and the vital and natural whereby the former are cherish'd In like manner Light the beams of the Sun and of other Stars their Influences their Magnetick Vertues and other such Qualities observable in an infinite number of things between which there is a mutual inclination and correspondence or antipathy cannot be imagin'd to act otherwise then by the emission of certain little bodies which being so small and subtile that they are incapable of further division may with good reason be called the Elements and material Principles of all Bodies since there is not any one but consists of them The Sixth said That the concourse of these Atoms being accidental if we may credit Epicurus we cannot attribute thereto the causes of the generations happening in this World inasmuch as an accidental cause not being able to produce a regular effect such as is that of Nature in Generation it is ridiculous to attribute it rather to these Atoms than to some other cause which is such per se and always regular in its operations such as is Nature her self But what further discovers the absurdity of that opinion is this that it thinks it not enough to refer the diversity of the other effects which are observ'd in all natural bodies to that of the Atoms whereof they consist but pretends also by their means to give an account of that of our Spirits which those Philosophers would represent unto us made of those orbicular atoms and accordingly easily mov'd by reason of that round figure and that those in whom it is most exact are the most ingenious and inventive persons as others are dull and blockish because their Spirits have a lesser portion of those circular Atoms But this speculation may be ranked among pure chimaera's since that the functions of our Understanding being absolutely spiritual and immaterial have no dependence on the different constitutions of those little imaginary bodies nay though there were any correspondence between them and the actions of our minds their round figure would not be so much the cause of our vivacity as might be the pointed or forked as being more likely to penetrate into and comprehend the most difficult things than the circular which would only pass over them without any fixt fastning on them CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why THough this noisom Disease sometime fastens on several parts of the body yet is there not any more sensible of its malice than the neck which by reason of its being full of glandules is extreamly troubled therewith which happens as well by reason of their thin and spongy constitution as their nearness to the brain from which they receive the phlegmatick and excrementitious humours more conveniently than any of the other parts can be imagin'd to do which are at a greater distance from it And yet these last notwithstanding that distance are extremely troubled therewith nay sometimes to such excess that if we may credit Johannes Langius in the first Book of his Medicinal Epistles a Woman at Florence had the Evil in one of her Thighs which being got out weigh'd sixty pound and a Goldsmith of Amberg had another of the same bigness in a manner neer his Knee And what is much to be observ'd is that though the Evil seems to be only external yet is it commonly preceded by the like swellings which ly hid within and whereof those without are only the marks which observation is confirm'd by the dissections made of those who are troubled with it in whose bodies after their death there are abundance of these Evils whereof the Glandules of the Mesenterium and the Pancreas which is the most considerable of any about Man's Body are full and which are commonly produc'd by Phlegm the coldness and viscosity whereof do indeed contribute to their rebellion but it is very much augmented by the external and common Causes such as are Air Aliment and Waters infected with some malignant qualities which render it Endemious and peculiar to certain Nations as for instance the Inhabitants of the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains especially the Spaniards who are more infected with this foul disease than any others which is also
were Kings came from the East where this Science flourished having found out that the Star which they saw being different from all the others yet no Meteor kindled by some Natural Cause was an extraordinary sign which God had been pleas'd to make appear unto them to give them notice of the Birth of his Son there being no rational ground to imagine they were down-right Magicians as Theophylact conceiv'd in his Commentaries upon Saint Matthew at least this is certain that after the adoration of our Saviour they absolutely renounc'd that Diabolical Magick if it be suppos'd they had any tincture of it before For as to this latter which is grounded upon some compact with the Devil who thereby obliges himself to do transcendent things for him with whom he hath contracted being a kind of Idolatry it is generally abhorr'd and condemn'd by all since it makes use of pernicious means to attain its end which is ever bad But such is not the other whose end and the means it employes to compass it being good and lawful there is no doubt but it may be lawfully used Besides as Psellus and Proclus two persons well skill'd in these matters have very well observ'd this last kind call'd Natural Magick is only an exact and perfect knowledge of the secrets of Nature by means whereof consequently to the Observations which some eminently-curious persons make of the motions of the Heavens and the influences of the Starrs with the Sympathies and Antipathies which are almost in all sublunary bodies they apply things so justly one to another and with such an exact consideration of time place manner and proportion that they work prodigious effects which the more credulous and such as are ignorant of the correspondence there is between these Effects and their Causes look upon as Miracles and Enchantments Such as were those of the Magicians of Pharaoh who could turn their Rods into Serpents make the Rivers of Aegypt red as blood and fill the whole Country with Froggs but were not able to go any further to imitate the other Miracles of Moses which they were forc'd to acknowledg wrought by the Finger of God Nor are the Effects of Artificial Magick less wonderful not only in respect of its Predictions observable in Judiciary Astrology Agriculture Medicine the Art of Navigation and others grounded upon very probable Conjectures but also of its operations as well true as false or illusory The true ones are grounded on the Principles of the Mathematicks especially on those of the Mechanicks which are the noblest and most necessary part thereof and on which do depend all the Water-Engines Machins moving of themselves and other Inventions wherewith the Ancients wrought such Effects as were accounted miraculous Such were that Man's Head of brass made by Albertus Magnus which fram'd an articulated Man's Voice in imitation of that of Memnon the glazen Sphere of Archimedes the motions whereof naturally represented those of the Celestial Orbes his Burning-glasses wherewith he burnt the Fleet of the Romans who besieg'd the City of Saragossa where he then was the wooden Dove of Archytas which flew up and down with the other Doves as did the little Birds of Boëtius made of Copper which had this further advantage that they could sing melodiously as could also those which the Emperour Leo caus'd to be made of Gold Malleable Glass and such other admirable Effects of this Art for that reason called by Hero Thaumaturgica Those which it produces by illusion and jugling depend on some sleightness of hand and cousening tricks such as are us'd by the Professors of Legerdemain to delude our Senses and make things appear otherwise than they are Such a performance was that mention'd by Josephus in the xviii Book of his Antiquities used by that false Messias Barchochabas who to gain himself the esteem of the true one had the knack of vomiting flames of Fire out of his Mouth as he spoke by means of a lighted piece of Towe which he could order as occasion serv'd which trick such another Impostor shew'd more cleverly by means of a nut-shell fill'd with Brimstone and Fire And it is a thing now generally known that by certain Artifices no way diabolical one may make a company of people sitting at the Table look as if they were dead or like so many Tawny-Moors nay if we believe Pliny in the xxviii and xxxv Books of his History they may be made to look as if they had the Heads of Asses or Horses The Second said That according to the Doctrine of Paganism re-advanc'd since the Light of Christianity by the Marcionites and the Manichees as there were two Gods one called Oromazus the Author of all good who was the Sun the other Arimanes Authour of all mischief so there were two kindes of Magick whereof one consisting of an exact knowledge and application of things in order to a good end is commendable and known by the simple denomination of Magick which they affirm to be an invocation of those Genii who are our Guardians and Benefactors in order to the procuring of some good either to our selves or others The other called Mangania which they exercised by the invocation of the bad Genii or Daemons was ever condemn'd as pernicious as having no other design then to do mischief by Sorceries and Witchcraft And though the grounds of that Doctrine are contrary to the Truth of Christian Faith yet since it assures us that there are good and bad Angels which were the Genii of Paganism there is some probability that as these last incline us to Idolatry Superstition and other Impieties to divert us from the worship of the true God by the study of the Black Art so is it the main business of the former by a discovery of the Secrets of Nature which is the White and Natural Magick to incline us to an acknowledgement of the Author of it In like manner as we find according to the Apostle that in the order which God observes for the good of his Church and the furtherance of our Salvation there are divers Gifts such as are those of knowledge healing working of miracles prophecying speaking of strange languages and the like all which do notwithstanding depend on the same Spirit of God who dispenses them according to his good pleasure So the Devil who endeavours to imitate the Works of God does the like in the distribution of those Talents which he communicates to his instruments to employ them upon different occasions the better to accommodate himself to the diversity of their inclinations whom he would abuse which is his principal design He furnishes those whose restless curiosity will needs know things to come with Oracles and Predictions he entertains the vain with impostures and illusions the envious with Charms and Sorceries the revengeful and such as are inclin'd to such implacable passions are suggested with all the mischievous contrivances which that perverse Spirit is at all times ready to teach any who are desirous
Ptolemy assignes to Saturn the right Ear the Spleen the Bladder and the Bones to Jupiter the Hands the Lungs the Liver the Blood and the Seed to Mars the left Ear the Reins and the Testicles to the Sun the Brain the Eyes and the Nerves to Venus the Nose the Mouth and the Genitals to Mercury the Tongue the Understanding and Ratiocination to the Moon the Mouth of the Stomack and the Stomack it self But they attribute these marks of the Face to the motion of the Stars of the eighth Sphere which are as it were expressions of the different Inclinations which every one naturally hath and which are bestow'd on him at his Nativity but with this Caution that it is hard to explicate them unless a Man can decipher those Characters and find out the true signification thereof which is the chiefest of all Sciences CONFERENCE CCXXXV Of Auguries and Auspices THere never was any Opinion so erroneous but it met with some Abettors nor any thing in point of practise so extravagant but was in some measure authoriz'd Of this quality is that of Auguries For though Cicero when he was Augur said somewhat on the behalf of them yet in his second Book of Divination he could not forbear discovering their absurdity and charging them with vanity and foolery And yet this Opinion was in such veneration among the Romans who were otherwise the most prudent of any Nation in the world that they sent yearly six Children Sons of the most eminent Senators into Tuscany to learn of the Inhabitants thereof who it seems were well skill'd in it the Science of foretelling things to come by the flight singing or chirping of Birds since generally known by the name of Augury Nay this veneration is the more remarkable in this respect that they would not undertake any thing of importance till they had first consulted the Colledg of Augurs which was first establish'd by Romulus who had also been instructed therein having order'd it to consist only of three persons according to the number of the Tribes But that number was afterwards increas'd to 24. who were consulted about what-ever concern'd that great Empire and they continu'd till the time of the Elder Theodosius when it was suppress'd having till then been so considerable by the nobility and merit of those whereof it consisted that they were the Arbitrators of all Counsels and Deliberations which were not taken till their judgements had been first had Nay they had this further advantage above all other Magistrates that they could not be put out of their places upon any account whatsoever but continu'd during their lives in that dignity as Fabius Maximus did who was Augur sixty two years Nor was it only requisite that that they should be free from crimes but also from all bodily imperfection the least defect of Body being accounted a lawful Cause to hinder an Augur from taking place among the rest it being as Plutarch affirms in his Problems an undecent thing for any one to present himself before the Gods and to treat of the Mysteries of Religion with anything of uncleanness or imperfection about him Nay they thought any thing of that kind so contrary to the said Ceremony that to be the more successful in the performance thereof it was requisite that the Birds and other Creatures whereof they made use in their Auguries should be as free from any defect as the Augurs themselves In the mean time they requir'd so much respect from the people that not thinking it enough to have the Lictors march before them with the Fasces as was done before the chiefest Magistrates they had for a further badge of their dignity a stick crooked at one end call'd Lituus which was that of Kings And indeed they assum'd to themselves so great authority that they confirm'd the Elections of Dictators Consuls and Roman Praetors whom they many times took occasion to depose under pretence that they had been elected contrary to the will of their Gods whereof they pretended to be the only Interpreters They took upon them also the knowledge and discovery of things to come by carefully observing certain extraordinary accidents which surpriz'd all others by their sudden and unexpected coming to pass and which by a certain Science and long Observation they affirm'd to be the significators of what was to come And this they derived principally from the Heavens and the different Apparitions of the Air especially from Thunder and Winds then from Prodigies and miraculous effects of Nature and afterwards from four-footed Beasts but especially from Birds from which comes the name to that kind of Divination called Auspicium Augurium wherein those Divinators fore-told things conceal'd and such as should come to pass by the singing and flight of Birds They also made the same Predictions by observing how the young ones being taken out of a cubb where they had been kept took the food laid before them For if these devour'd it with a certain greediness so as that some fell to the ground the Omen was fortunate and signifi'd all happiness to the Consulter whereas on the contrary it signifi'd ill-luck if they would not meddle with it at all And this Opinion was so strangely rooted in the Minds of some superstitious people that Titus Livius and Valerius Maximus attribute the Cause of two signal defeats of the Romans one under the Command of Publius Claudius in the first Punick War and the other under that of Flaminius in the second to their contempt of these Auguries The Second said That of all the several kinds of foretelling secret things he thought not any more rational than that which was done by the means of Birds called Ornithomantia the Nature of which Creatures being very ancient and in a manner celestial they seem to be more susceptible of the impressions of the Heavens whereof they are the Inhabitants and which are the true Causes of what-ever happens here below than any other Animals which have their abode either in the Earth or Waters Thence it comes that the Eagle which soars up higher than any other of the Volatile Common-wealth hath been the most esteem'd in the business of Auguries by the Professors of this Art who also give him the preheminence as to the constancy and vivacity of his Sight taking it for a signification of good luck when he began his flight on the right side and that especially if it were so violent that the noise of his wings might be heard Thus Aristander having seen an Eagle flying from the Camp of Alexander the Great towards that of his Enemies deriv'd thence an Augury of his Victory as Tarquinius Priscus did the like of his coming as he afterwards did to the Crown from this accident that an Eagle came and took his Cap off his Head and set it on again after he had kept it a good while in the Air. But Tarquinius Superbus had for an Augury of his exile and the loss of his Kingdom the
one time than at another but only seem to be such to our Senses which though they should be destitute of all qualities are then endu'd therewith so that the same Well-water which seems to be hot in Winter by reason of the coldness that is in the Touching seems cold in Summer by reason of the heat of the same Organ which judges of it comparatively For the contrary is seen in that Well-water in Summer being transported into a hot place is there nevertheless cold and the fumes and hot vapors which exhale from Springs and Wells in Winter do sufficiently demonstrate that during the said season the water is endu'd with a true and real heat too sensible to be accounted imaginary But this Antiperistasis is further more solidly confirm'd by Experience whereby we see that fire burns more violently and is more sparkling in great Frosts or in the shade than in hot weather or when it lyes expos'd to the beams of the Sun In like manner a little Water cast upon a great Fire makes it more violent than it was before and the Ventricles of our Bodies according to the Opinion of Hippocrates in his Aphorisms are hotter in Winter than in any other season of the year whence it comes that we are apt to feed more plentifully and Digestion is then better perform'd Nay if we but go down into our Cellars we shall find that the heat is more sensible there in Winter but in Summer when all things are scorch'd and burnt up on the surface of the Earth all Subterraneous Places are so much the colder the deeper they are and the nearer they approach to the Centre towards which Cold which is one of the natural qualities of the Earth gathers together and reunites it self thereto that so it may be secur'd from the heat whereby it is encompass'd of all sides And as it is to this that the generation of Metals in the entrails of the Earth is principally attributed so most of the Meteors which are fram'd in the two Regions of the Air owe theirs to this same Cold which coming to encompass and as it were to enclose the hot and dry Exhalation which makes the Winds Lightning Thunder and Thunder-bolts as also that which makes the Comets in the Middle Region of the Air these unctuous and easily-enflam'd vapors being encompass'd of all sides by the extream coldness of that Air which encloses them they in order to their Conservation re-unite and take fire after the same manner as the Rayes of the Sun darted against some Opake Body or reflected by Burning-glasses set on fire the most solid Bodies on which they are repercuss'd as it is related of Archimedes who by such an Artifice consum'd the Ships of Marcellus who besieg'd the City of Saragossa in Sicily Which instance serves as well to prove Antiperistasis as the manner whereby it is wrought to wit by the repercussion of the intentional Species of the Subject caus'd by its contrary Thus then it comes that the Water of Springs and Wells is cold in the Summer in regard the Species of the cold forc'd by the Water towards the heated Air which is all about it are darted back again by that opposite heat to the place whence they came whereupon being thrust closer together they there re-inforce and augment the Cold which happens not so in Winter when the Species of the coldness of the Water meeting with no Obstruction in the Air endu'd with the like quality insinuate themselves into it without any resistance and so not being reflected nor forc'd back towards the Water it is not then so cold as in Summer The Second said That the intentional Species being not design'd to act but only to make a discovery of the beings from which they flow as may be seen in those of all sensible Objects which these Species represent to the Organs that are to judge of them cannot contribute any thing to the vigor of the action observable in the Antiperistasis which he conceiv'd should rather be attributed to the simple form of the Subject which having an absolute sovereignty over the qualities employ'd thereby in order to Action renders them more or less active according to the need it stands in of them And as seething Water taken off the Fire becomes cold of it self without any other assistance than that of its proper substantial form which hath the property of re-instating it self in that degree of Cold which is naturally due unto it so ought it with greater reason to have an equal right of preserving that same quality when it is assaulted by its contrary Heat without having any recourse to those Emissions of Species which though we should grant the Tactile qualities what is much in dispute yet would not be able to cause an Antiperistasis inasmuch as being inseparable from them if the intentional Species of the coldness of Well-water were directed towards the warm'd Air it should take along with it the coldness and consequently it should be so far from acquiring any new degree of coldness thereby that it would lose much of that which it had before For since it is the Nature of these Intentional Species to be otherwise incapable by reason of their immateriality of producing any Corporeal and Material Effect such as is the augmentation of the degrees of any active quality as Heat and Cold are there being not any contrariety between the Species thereof no more than there is between those of â—ll other Bodies whereof they are the Images there is not any reason that obliges the Intentional Species of the Cold to retreat and close together when they come to meet with those of Heat or Heat it self no more than there is that the Species of this latter quality should make the other more vigorous by their reflection The Third said That it must be acknowledg'd that the Species of Cold and Heat and the other first Qualities were not contrary among themselves as being in their own Nature inalterable and incorruptible as the other Intentional Species are which come near the Condition of Spirits Yet does it not follow thence that these Species cannot be reflected inasmuch as the Visible Species Light and Voice which also have no contraries are not for that the less re-percuss'd by Mirrours and other solid Bodies or those hollow places which make Echoes The Fourth said That it is not sufficient in order to the giving of a reason of that effect to attribute it to the substantial form of every Agent but it is to be referr'd to a superiour cause such as is the Soul of the world whose function it being to preserve every thing in its intireness and to be assistant thereto when it comes into any danger as it happens when it is assaulted by its contrary then bent upon its destruction there lies a certain engagement on this first cause to relieve it in so great an extremity by supplying it with new forces to help it out of that oppression Thence
Mercury which is unctuous moisture renders them malleable and capable of extension which is an Argument of their perfection as well as colour sound and fixation or enduring Fire without alteration but not weight for then as Gold the perfectest Metal is the heaviest so Silver should be next to it in weight which is not Quick-silver being much more ponderous next Lead after which follow Silver Copper Tinn Iron and Stones whose weight is very different Whence it appears that Gravity is not an Effect of the condensation of Matter otherwise the Starrs being the denser parts of their Orbs should be heavy as they are not but it proceeds from the Form whereunto also the many wonderful Effects observ'd in Metals must be referr'd as that Gold discovers Poysons attracts Quick-silver and is attracted by the Foot of a Spar-hawk and lov'd by Gryphons as Iron is by Estriches who digest it that Tinn makes all Metals brittle where-with it is mixt Copper sinks not in the water of the Island Demonesus near Carthage and that Quick-silver though humid and alwayes fluid moistens not which some attribute to the equal mixture of siccity and humidity The Third said If ever the Opinion of Anaxagoras who held Omnia in omnibus was well grounded it was chiefly in reference to Metals whose Etymology together with the Chymists operations speak the easie transmutation of one into another imperfect Metals differing onely in certain accidental degrees from Gold and Silver which they may be turn'd into after purifying from their Leprosie and refining by Nature or Art And thus according to the opinion of some Moderns it may be said that supposing the earth a great Magnet it hath also in it self a commencement towards such metallick mutation since the Loadstone is in a manner the principle of Iron the most terrestrial of all Metals whence it is that they attract one another as do Mercury and Gold which is compos'd thereof And thus by the power of heat in the bowels of the Earth Iron the most imperfect and lightest of all Metals is turned into Steel and Copper afterwards into Tin and lastly being more depurated into Silver and Gold And since Art imitates Nature as in the fabricating of Artificial Gold you must first resolve a solid matter then volatilize and again fix and return into a solid substance so the generation of Metals may be conceiv'd to be effected by evaporation of the thinner parts of Earth and Water which being volatilized by the subterranean heat and lighting upon Rocks and hard Stones are there fixed and condensed into Metals differing according to the purity and concoction of their matter and the places it lights upon which are ordinarily Mountains The Fourth said That the different properties of Metals plainly argue the diversity of their Species since Properties presuppose specificating Forms Besides the World would have been very defective if Nature had made only Gold which may be better spared than Iron and Steel and is less hard for uses of Life Nor is it likely that Nature ever intended to reduce all Metals to Gold which then should be more plentiful than Iron and Lead since wise and potent Nature seldom fails of her intentions As for the alledged transmutation of Metals were it possible yet it proves them not all of the same Species change of Species being very ordinary and as easie to be made in Crucibles as in Mines nothing else being necessary thereunto but to open the bodies of the Metals and set at liberty what in some is most active and in others more susceptible of the Forms you would introduce Nature indeed always intends what is most perfect but not to reduce every thing to one most perfect Species as all Metals to Gold but to make a most perfect individual in every Species labouring with no less satisfaction for production of Iron and Flints then of Gold and precious Stones As for the principles of Metals all compound them of Mercury and Sulphur joyning Vitriols thereunto instead of salt to give Body to the said Ingredients but some will have Mercury to be the sole matter and understand by sulphur an internal and central heat in the Mercury concocting its crudity and by Mercury the cruder portion of its self their Salt being only the consistence whereof the Mercury is capable after Coction Others distinguish what is metallick in metals as only Mercury is from the impurities mixt therewith as earths sulphurs and Vitriols and make the perfect metals so homogeneous that 't is impossible to separate any thing from them which is a proof they say of the unity of their matter and conformity with Mercury which always retains its own nature though preparations make it appear in several shapes Moreover they inferr from the great ponderosity of Gold that it is only Mercury otherwise the less heavy bodies pretended to be mixt therewith should diminish its weight and Fusion which seems to reduce all metals into their most natural state makes them perfectly resemble Mercury in which alone the Chymists for that reason seek their Great Work Nevertheless seeing Experience teaches us that Mercurie's sulphurs and vitriols are found in all metals except Gold it must be confess'd that these three bodies are their immediate principles Nor doth it follow that they are not in Gold too though the Chymists have not yet been able to find them but so closely united as to be inseparable Coction having such power upon matters that have affinity as to unite them beyond possibility of separation as appears in Glass of which nothing else can be made but Glass though it be compos'd of different principles and in Mercury it self which is a Mixt but reduc'd to such homogeneity that nothing can be extracted out of it but Mercury Indeed Gold could not be so malleable us it is if it were all Mercury and they that know Mercury and the impossibility of depriving it of the proneness to revive will not easily believe it can without mixture of some other body acquire the form of Gold whose gravity proceeds from its proper Form and not from Mercury which can give it no more weight then it self hath Gold by being more dense not acquiring more gravity any more then Ice doth which swims upon the water CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun AS there are three simple bodies in the world possessing by right of Soveraignty Driness Cold and Moisture so there must be one primely Hot which they call Fire The diversities of Motion the four first Qualities and their possible Combinations the Humours Temperaments Ages and Seasons the Composition and Resolution of all Mixts are powerful inductions for that quaternary number of Elements Amongst which there is none controverted but Fire the variety of fires found in the world rendring it dubious which of them ought to be acknowledg'd the Element that is the natural simple first hot and dry body wherewith together with the other three all
most occurrences of humane life as we see that in syllables diversly transpos'd and put together all things in the world may be found The Third said That the Ancients are not be thought so credulous as to attribute such authority to the Sibylls if there had not been some young Maids and Women who had effectually fore-told things to them True it is chance may be fortunate in one or two cases as a blind Archer may casually hit the mark but it is very unlikely that one who cannot shoot at all should have the reputation of a good Archer all the world over And yet Authors are full in asserting the authority wherein the answers made by those women were Virgil grounding his discourse on that common perswasion says Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas And the Satyrist confirms what he had said with another verse to wit Credite me vohis folium recitare Sibyllae And it was ordinary to inscribe on Monuments the names of those who were appointed for the keeping of those books of the Sibylls and took care for the Sacrifices which the Romans offered up to appease the wrath of the Gods according to the counsel which as occasion requir'd they took from their verses Nay there was such a strict prohibition that any should have them in their private Libraries that one of those who were entrusted with the custody of the Sibylline Books named Marcus Atilius was sown up in a bag and cast into the Sea for lending Petronius Sabinus one of those Books to be transcrib'd or as some affirm only their simple Commentary containing the secrets of the Sacrifices which were made according to them Upon the same consideration that it pleas'd God to sanctifie Job though out of the Judaick Church the only one wherein salvation was then to be found I may say there is no inconvenience to imagine that he might as well bestow the Spirit of Prophecy on those Virgins at least commonly accounted such And consequently what is said to the contrary deserving rather to pass for adulterate and supposititious then that there should be any question made of what divers of the holy Fathers have affirmed of them the gift of Prophecy having been communicated also to Balaam and God having miraculously opened the eyes and unloos'd the tongue of his Ass What remains to this day imprinted in the minds of a great number of persons concerning Merluzina and other Fairies contributes somewhat to the proof of what hath been said some illustrious Families deriving their origin thence For as to the inserting of some supposititious verses into the body of their Works it should be no more prejudice to them then it is to those of the most excellent Authors among which the spurious productions of others are sometimes shuffled in And if it be true that Homer's Verses were at first confusedly pronounced by him and that it hath been the employment of others to reduce them into that noble order wherein we read them Why should the same observance of order be censur'd in the disposal of the Sibylline Verses Plato in his Theagines affirms That Socrates acknowledged them to be Prophetesses and in his Phoedon the same Socrates shews by their example That extravagance or distraction of mind does many times bring great advantages to Mankind Aristotle in the first question of the thirtieth Section of his Problems affirms That Women become Sibylls when the brain is over-heated not by sickness but through a natural distemper And elsewhere he describes the subterraneous Palace of a Sibyll whom he affirms according to the common report of her to have liv'd a long time and continu'd a Virgin Plutarch in his Treatise Why the Prophetess Pythia renders not her Answers in verse affirms that by a particular favour of God a Sibyll had spoken things during the space of a thousand years and elsewhere that she foretold the destruction of several Cities that were afterwards swallow'd up the fire of Mount Gibel and divers other things setting down near the time when what she had said should come to pass Pausanias affirms that the Sibyll Herophila had certainly foretold the bringing up of Helen at Sparta and that it should occasion the destruction of Troy Justin having related what account Plato made of persons who foretold things to come who he says deserve the name of Divine though they do not themselves comprehend the great and certain things which they predict says That that is to be understood of the Sibylline Verses the Writers whereof said he had not the same power as the Poets have to wit that of correcting and polishing their works inasmuch as the inspiration ceasing they do not so much as remember what they had said though some have been of opinion that the agitation of Mind wherewith they have prophesy'd seem'd to be the Effect of the evil Spirit producing as a confirmation of this opinion one of the Sibyls who sayes of her self that for her enormous crimes she was condemn'd to the fire Yet allowing these Verses to be ranked among the supposititious there is still a greater probability inclining us to judge otherwise of them when we consider the good instructions given us and the mysteries of our Salvation contain'd therein it being not the function of Devils and evil Spirits to encourage us to piety But however it be this is clearly evinc'd that there have been Sibyls and that they fore-told things to come CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why OF Natural Bodies some move from the Centre to the Circumference as Fire others from the Circumference to the Centre as the Earth others are in the mean between both as Air and Water the latter whereof inclines downwards but both of them are principally design'd to fill the Vacuum Whence it comes that the Air descends as much nay faster to the bottom of a Well when it is dry'd up than the Water had done before which consideration hath given occasion to some to attribute a mean or circular Motion to those two Elements as they have done a direct Motion to the two first And whereas these two kinds of Local Motion to wit the direct and the circular are the Principles of the Mechanicks the most profitable parts of the Mathematicks and that among the said Motions that which tends downwards which proceeds from weight is the most ordinary Agent and such as is the most commonly us'd in Machins or Engins where it is the most considerable either for the assistance it gives to fixt and setled instruments or for the obstruction it gives those which are moveable thence comes that famous dispute there is concerning the causes of Motion from above to beneath Which since it must needs proceed from one of these three to wit the weight of the Body descending and lightness of the mean through which the descent is made or from the impulsion of the said mean Or lastly from the