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A44756 Thērologia, The parly of beasts, or, Morphandra, queen of the inchanted iland wherein men were found, who being transmuted to beasts, though proffer'd to be dis-inchanted, and to becom men again, yet, in regard of the crying sins and rebellious humors of the times, they prefer the life of a brute animal before that of a rational creture ... : with reflexes upon the present state of most countries in Christendom : divided into a XI sections / by Jam. Howell, Esq. Howell, James, 1594?-1666. 1660 (1660) Wing H3119; ESTC R5566 113,995 188

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Countrey and Kinred Otter How is this I not only hear but I understand the voice of a Man oimee I am afraid that Morphandra hath a purpose to re-transform me and make me put on human shape again Well Sir What 's your will with me Pererius Let it not give any offence if I desire to know What Countreyman you were when you were a Rational Creture Otter I came first into the World in Hydraulia not farr from Amstena and was a Mariner by my Profession Pererius Well the most gracious Queen Morphandra hath been pleased to promise me the favor as to turn you into Man again if you have a mind to it and from that groveling quadrupedal shape to make you an erect and a rational Creture once again Otter Sir you bid me to my losse for I live farr more to my contentment in this species wherein my heart and eyes are horizontal than when I was in an upright shape Pererius Consult better with your thoughts for Morphandra hath not only promised to re-convert you to Man but also she hath given me leave and liberty to carry you aboard of me and transport you to your Countrey again And I have a tite lusty Vessel in the Road wherein you shall be accommodated with a Cabbin to your contentment and all things necessary Otter These civilities might haply deserve thanks from an other but not from me in regard you proffer to reduce me from better to worse for if Experience be the touchstone of Truth I find farr more quietude and contentation in this figure of body than I did formerly therefore with this shape I have put on also a resolution never to turn Man or Mariner again Pererius I extremely wonder at this blindness and unnatural obstinacy of yours but now that Queen Morphandra hath during this time of discours betwixt us re-indowed you with the faculty of Reson and speech I pray impart unto me the cause of your strange aversion thus to become Man again Otter Truly Sir though Man doth vaunt and cry up himself to be the Epitome and Lord Paramount among all sublunary Cretures though he vainly entitle himself the Microcosm yet I hold him to be the most miserable of all others Go to his prime faculty Reson which as he saith is the specifical difference that distinguisheth him from us I have found that it fills his brain full of distraction of extravagant opinions and whimseys of pining griefs panting doubts and pannick fears of violent fancies and imaginations which oftentimes turn to phrensies it tortures him with vexation and inquietude of spirit insomuch that som of the profoundest Philosophers as I have heard affirmed that the Rational Soul was given to Man for his Self-punishment and Martyrdom he may be said to be his own Tormentor and the greatest Tyrant to himself nay these cruciatory passions do operat somtimes with such a violence that they drive him to despair and oftentimes to murther and destroy himself before Nature hath exspird her due cours in him all which we that are guided only by sense are not subject unto We only look upon the present object before our eyes and take no other care but for shelter and food and to please our appetit only Pererius 'T is true that all these turbulences and perplexities of spirit proceed from the Rational faculty but in compensation thereof we have by this Faculty the prerogative to know our Creator to contemplat his works and the fair fabrique of the World by this we have a dominion and Empire over all other Elementary Cretures both of Air Earth and Water by the reach of this Man with his crampons and harping-irons can draw ashore the great Leviathan He can make the Dromedary and Camel to kneel down and take up his burden He can make the fierce Bull to endure his yoke He can bring down the Vulture from his nest by this he can ride upon the back of the vast Ocean and with his winged Coursers ride post from one Pole to the other as you know well by your own Profession when you were Man and Mariner Otter Yet these advantages com short in my judgment to countervail those calamities that are incident to the Rational Creture which makes him come puling crying sometimes weeping into the world as foreteling his future miseries But now that I have partly displayed the discomposures and vexations of his mind I will give a touch of those infirmities that his Body is subject unto which is no other than a Magazin of malignant humors a hull wherein is stow'd a cargazon of numberless diseases of putrid and ugly corruptions insomuch that as in his life time whiles he sleeps in the bosom of his causes within the Womb ther 's no Creture lies neerer the excrementitious parts so ther is none whose excrements are more faetid and stinking the fewmets of a Deer the lesses of a Fox the crotells of a Hare the dung of a Horse and the spraints that I use to void backward are nothing so foetid which may be the cause why after Man's death ther 's no carcase so gastly and noisom as his so that Toads and Serpents engender often in his scull nor is his cadaver good for any thing when life is gone 'T is tru Mummy may be made of it but it must be don by embalment and great expence of Spices But many things in our carcases after death serve for divers uses as particularly in mine my Liver reduced to powder is good against the Flix and Cholic my Stones or testicles against the Palsie and my Skin is of such value that the fairest Ladies will be glad to wear it c. Pererius 'T is a great truth what you speak of Human bodies but all this comes accidentally it proceeds from variety of viands esculents and beverages not from the primitive plastick vertu and ordinance of nature Moreover that which makes them so subject to putrefaction is because they abound in heat and humidity more than other bodies which oftentimes makes som parts of the Compositum rott before life and motion leaves them But let not these thoughts avert you from a return to your first Beeing whereby when this transitory life is ended you may be made capable to live in the Land of Eternity whereas all brute Animals whose Souls soar no higher than the sense are born to have a being only in this World Therefore take on a manly resolution to be redintegrated into your first Principles so return to your own Country and Kinred to go on still in your Calling which is a useful and thriving Profession in the practise whereof you may see the Wonders of the Deep and therby have oportunity more often to invoke your Creator than in any other Trade Otter I cannot deny but the common saying is that He who cannot pray must go to Church at Sea yet I have often known and I have tryed it in my self that a Mariner in a storm is a
considers onely Universalls which are eternall and invariable and breed certitudes in us because she arrives to the knowledg of things by their causes and so she may be called Scientificall and appertains to contemplation whose onely scope is to discover Tnuth singly of it self But if we consider Physic as an Art which proceeds from experience and action she is incertain and fallacious in her operations in regard of the various constitutions of human bodies for those Drugs and Receipts which do work kindly with som bodies find crosse operations in others and many times the tru symptoms of the disease is not known Moreover we administer to others what we never take our selfs which made a great aged Physician being asked how he came to live so long to answer I have liv'd so long because never any Drug entred into my guts Besides when any Pill or Potion hath a kindly operation in the Patient it is as much by hap as by any good cunning What a nomber of remedies are ther for one onely disease whence may be inferred that ther is not any one peculiar infallible remedy Insomuch that when the Physitian applies Universalls to Particulars and administers any Purgation Vomit or Electuary it is requisit that both the Physician and Patient be fortunat ther is a kind of happines required in the busines Add hereunto that the complexion of men and women are so diffring their appetite so irregular and disordinat that it makes all Physicall operations to be so incertain Now touching the species of Us Sensitive cretures they are of so even strong complexions their appetites are so regular their nutriments and food their drinks are so simple that they need not any physicall Drugs Wheras among Mankind they make ever and anon an Apothecary's shop of their bellies being still in a course of Physic which makes them so miserable for it is a tru proverb Qui vivit medicè vivit miserè Therefore a kind of Tragicall speech was that of Alexander the Great when upon expiring his last he cried out being but then in the Meridian of his age Pereo turbâ Medicorum I perish by too many Physitians Pererius It begets much wonder in me that you should thus traduce your own Calling and derogate from so learned and laudable a Profession a Faculty that hath been always accounted to have a high kind of Divinity in it being founded by Apollo himself Mule In the shape I now wear I cannot lye nor flatter I can neither cogg cageòle nor complement as I did when I was a man when I used ever and anon to kiss those hands which I wish'd in my thoughts had been cut off my heart and my toung lying now more levell and even ther 's nearer relation betwixt them Therfore what I told you before was truth simple truth wherin the Brute Animal goes beyond the Rational who is subject to innumerable errors dissimulations and the humor of lying But to enlarge my self a little further upon the former subject of Physic which you call so learned an Art you know that every one is a Fool or a Physitian to himself naturally after he hath passed the Meridian of his years therfore what great learning can ther be in this Pererius 'T is much truth I have heard of divers irrational cretures that are learned this way who by the meer instinct and conduct of nature can direct themselfs to things that can cure them Mule This cannot be denied and therin many of them are more sagacious than men The Serpent goes to Fenell when he would clear his sight or cast off his old scruffy skin to wear a new one The Stagg Buck or Doe when they are hurt have recourse to Dittany The Swallow when she finds her young ones have sore eyes makes use of Celandine or Swallow-wort The Snail heals her self with Hemlock the Wesill when she prepares to fight with the Mole useth to raise her spirits by eating Rue The Stork heals all his infirmities with Origanum The wild Boar with Ivy The Elephant fenceth himself from the poison of the Camelion with Olive leaves The Bear makes use of Mandragora against Pismires The Patridge and wild Pidgeon do use to purge their superfluities with Bay-leaves The Dogg when he feels himself indisposed in his stomack runs to the green grasse a little bedewed c. But what need I detain you with more instances take any sensitive creture you please and you will find that Nature hath taught him a remedy against all infirmities that are incident unto him not onely to the species but to every Individuall and all this without any expence of time or tresure without any study or labour without any fee or reward without any teaching or instructions from others Whence 't is apparent that Nature is more carefull and indulgent of Us than of Ratinall cretures who though they are subject to a thousand infirmities more yet not one in a thousand knowes how to cure himself but he must have recourse to the Physician and so trusts him with his life and if he chance to work a cure upon him he useth to give his purse a purgation also for Though God heals yet the Physitian carries away the Fees Pererius 'T is very fitting the labourer shold have his hite and that every one shold live by his calling but how can mony be better employed than for the recovery of Health which is the most precious of all Jewells without which we can neither serve God man or our selfs Mule It is very tru that Physitians somtimes restore health but they misse as often how can they cure an Ague which is call'd opporbrium Medicorum the shame of Physitians besides ther 's an Artonian proverb says A la Goutte le Medecin ne voit goute The Gout makes the Physitian blind Yet they have this privilege that the earth covers all their faults Now what a world of distempers and maladies is mans body subject unto Ther is a common saying that says He hath as many diseases as a horse but 't is false for man hath many more besides a horse hath few or no diseases at all but what the cruelty of man doth cause in him either when he is over-ridden and so becoms broken-winded when gall'd backd founder'd or splinter'd by the carelesnes or cruelty of the Rider as I said before wheras a good man should be mercifull to his beast But ther 's never a part of the human body but it hath I cannot tell how many peculiar deseases belonging unto it Go to the Head it hath the Cephalagia the Hemicrania or the Migrain it hath the Scotomy or Vertigo the Palsy Convulsion Epilepsy or Falling-sicknesse It hath the Phrenitis Mania or Phrenzy Catarrs Apoplexy with many other Go to the Lungs it hath the Astma Pluritis Peripneumonia Empyema Ptisis Haemocrises with sundry more Go to the Heart the fountain of life it hath the Syncope or swooning Palpitation c. Go to the Stomack it hath
salt-water is Fox Touching those modern Smatterers in Policy you speak of the times abound with such such that while they take upon them to give Precepts for Government they amuse the Reader with Universalls and commonly ther is deceit in Universalls or rather they lead him to a labyrinth of distinctions wherby they render the Art of mastring Man to be more difficult and distracted then it is in its own nature But under favour the main cause that ther are such difficulties and incertitudes in prescribing generall Rules to govern the Human Creture is the perturbances of his mind his variety of humors his seditious disposition his inconstancies and an itching still after innovations And herein we Irrationall Animals are more obedient more gentle and docile But touching the policy you mention ther be som certain Maxims that may extend to the whole masse of Mankind in point of Government One is That the common peeple be kept still in such an awe that they may not have any power to rise up in Arms or be sharers in the Government and so be their own Caterers to chuse what Laws they please Secondly That ther be a visible standing effectif military strength still in being to keep them in such an awe as well to curb them as to conserve them It being the greatest Soloecism that can be in Government to rely meerly upon the affections of the Peeple in regard there is not such a wavering windy thing not such an humorsom crosse-grain'd Animal as the common Peeple ther is not such a Tyrant in the world if once he get on Horse-back And all Authors that have pretended any thing to policy either old or new affirm so much in their Writings If the Governour in chief hath not such a constant visible Power and moveable upon all occasions the common Peeple will use him as the Froggs in the Fable us'd the Logg of wood whom Iupiter at their importunity had dropt down among them for their King to whom they stood a while in som awe and dread but afterwards finding no motion in him they leapt and skipt upon him in contempt and derision There is another certain principle of policy That public Traitors and Rebells to their Prince and Country shold be dispatched to the other world without mercy for if they be but half punished they will like Snakes get and cling together again therfore 't is a good rule and that may be a proverb hereafter A Rebell and mad Dogg knock in the head They will not bite when they are dead Pererius Had you not told me before yet I shold have judg'd you a Saturnian by the wisdom of your Discours your Compatriots being accounted the prudentest men upon earth for whereas others are said to be wise after the Act others in the Act you are said to be wise before in and after the Act Moreover whereas the Artonian is said to be wiser than he seems to be the Tumontian not to be so wise as he seems the Saturnian is wise and seems to be so Therfore will you return to that noble Country and becom Man and Merchant again of which profession ther are Princes in your Country you well know Fox Ther are so yet I enjoy my self more contentedly in this shape and species I have now a more constant health and if I find my self illish at any time which is seldom I eat a little of the gumm of that Pine-tree and it cures me But I am nothing so subject to distempers of body or mind in this condition Touching the first when Nature hath finished her course in me I will leave it for a Legacy to my friends for 't is good and medicinall for many uses my Brain is good against the Falling-sicknesse my Blood against the Stone and the Cramp my Gall instill'd with Oyle takes away the pain in the ears my Toung worn in a chain is good for all diseases in the Eyes my Fatt healeth the Alopecia or falling off of the hair my Lights Liver and Genitalls are good against the Spleen my very Dung pounded with Vinegar is a certain cure against the Leprosie my Milt is good against Tumors and touching my Skin which is so much valued by the fairest Beauties I will bequeath it to the admired Queen Morphandra to make her a Muff as a small Heriot for her protection of me under her Dominion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seventh Section A Dialog 'twixt Morphandra Pererius and a Boar wherin ther are various Discourses and particularly of the rare Sympatheticall Powder that is lately found out which works sudden and certain Cures without any topicall application of Medicines to the part affected c. Morphandra Pererius and a Boar. Morphandra HOw came you off from that cunning Merchant you dealt withall last hath he accepted of the Bill of Exchange you presented unto him Pererius Truly Madame I may say according to the homely proverb that I have received a flapp with a Fox tail he hath plaid the cunning Sophister with me he hath protested against that Bill of Exchange nor will he upon any tearms resume his former shape but retain that which he hath alledging that he is now free from those stings of conscience from those corroding black jealousies from that vindicatif humor wherunto Mankind is subject specially those of his Nation with other molestations of mind He saith that in this feature he is also more healthfull He braggs likewise how many medicinall vertues are in his body after its dissolution from the sensitive soul and how much his skin is valued amongst the fairest Ladies which he intends to bequeath as a Legacy to your Majesty to make you Muffs of when he hath payed Nature the last debt And truly Madame by his acute answers and replies I found that he had the full use of the faculty of human Reson though appeering in that brutish shape which makes me more and more admire your power Morphandra This power the great Architect of the world hath given me I derive this prerogative meerly from Him not as I intimated to you before from any compact or consultation with ill Spirits although the flat and shallow-braind vulgar think I do it so by Magicall and Negromantic means Pererius I know full well Madame the ignorance or rather insulsity of the common peeple to be such that when they find any extraordinary effects produc'd transcending the ordinary course of nature they are presently struck with such an admiration that they think those effects to be done by the work of the Devill though they are operated by strength of Art and by connexion of naturall Agents and Patients properly apply'd as of late years ther is found out a Sympatheticall cure of wounds at a distance without any reall application of medicines to the part affected which kind of sanation they hold to be made by some diabolicall compact though reverà 'tis performed by such ways that do truly agree with the due course of nature by
ameine au gibet War makes the Thief and peace brings him to the gallows Therfore he prefers rather to passe his life peaceably under your Government than to be in Cuprinia where of late years men are so press'd for the Warrs to serve the ambition of their Kings that the whole Country is so drain'd that ther 's scarce any left but women old men and children Therfore he is very well pleas'd with this lycanthropy But Madame I spy a bearded Animal nibling upon the brow of that crag I desire by your favour to have som discours with him for by his long beard he shold have bin som Philosopher and so have more wit in him than other animals Morphandra You shall very willingly but I will tell you what he was before He was an Orosian born and I transform'd him to that shape for being a Mountaineer and for having aspiring thoughts with other resons Pererius I 'le go and accost him Sir will you please to come down hither into the plain for I have very good news to impart unto you that will make you skip for joy Goat I pray excuse me it is against my nature to descend if I did I should haply prove more foolish than the Goat in the Fable who being invited and perswaded by the fair speeches of the Lion to come down and feed in the medow where he was being come down the hungry Lion devoured him presently Pererius You need not apprehend any such fears here but I will come to you Queen Morphandra tells me that you were an Orosian born a very antient and noble Nation Have you a disposition to return thither to resume the shape of Man and to be again the child of Reson Goat What do you mean by Reson I think the shape and species I now am in are capable of Reson for we can distinguish 'twixt good and bad 'twixt what is noxious or profitable for us we have also the same organs the same cells and receptacles in the brain as man hath for to lodg Reson and the celestiall bodies pour the same influences upon us as they use to do upon the human Creture Pererius It cannot be denied but you have an Instinct that acts according to Reson and it may be call'd Instinctive Reson But the Reson that Beasts have is limited to corporeall objects to the necessities onely of life to find out food and shelter and bring up their young ones it s onely direct Reson that 's capable of Singulars it s restrain'd to an opinionative faculty it s a meer shadow of ours much like the objects that our fancy represents to us in sleep And this Instinct in Beasts is as much inferiour to Reson in Man as Reson in man is inferiour to Intelligence and Intuitions in the blessed Angells Goat Yet Sir it must be granted that actions whose successes are so well ordered actions which have so well regulated a progresse and concatenation so exactly tying the Mediums to the End must needs be performed by the guidance and light of tru Reson and such actions you know sensitive cretures daily perform With what art do Birds build their nests the Fox his hole the Badger his chamber with what caution do they preserve their young ones and fence them from the injury of the Hevens how punctually do they keep their haunts But what do you think of Pliny's Elephant repeating his Lesson at Moon-shine or of Ptolomey's Stagg that understood Greek of Plutarch's Dogg who could counterfeit the very convulsions of death of the Ape that could play at Chesse and another that had learnt som touches on the Guittern What think you of Caligula's Horse who was made Consul had not he Reson in him What think you of the Asse who being us'd to carry burdens of Salt over a Foord was us'd to stumble and fall constantly in such a place that therby the salt melting away into water his burden might be the lighter but his Master lading him with a tadd of Wool he fell at his usuall place but being helped up again and he feeling the pack of wool heavier in regard of the water that got in he never stumbled any more in the Foord after that time What think you of the Crow that in the time of a great drowth finding water in the bottom of a barrell and being fearfull to go down carried so many stones in her beak that letting them fall down they forc'd the water to rise upwards towards the top and so she dranck safely and at ease I pray were not all these not onely Instinctive but Discoursive Resons Pererius I confesse that he who denies a kind of Reson and Resoning also to brute Animals may be questiond whether he be master of Reson himself yet this Reson and Resoning looks upon present and particular notions onely But human Reson extendeth to universall notions out of the reach of sense which cannot be without abstractions and som reflections it hath on it self which Beasts cannot attain This Reson that is conversant with Universalls is the tru specificall difference 'twixt Man and Beasts It is the portion and property of Man alone whereby he hath the Soverainty over all over his fellow-cretures throughout all the Elementary World Ther is Intuitive ther is Discoursive and ther is Instinctive Reson the first is proper to Angels the last to Brute Animals and the second to Man who can contemplat and discourse of generalls and things absent And these three differ in excellency as the three degrees of Comparison Goat Yet though you excell us as you say in this kind of Reson ther 's many of us that surpasse you in strength and quicknesse of sense as the Eagle in seeing for he can look upon the Sun in the Meridian with full open eyes and not be dazzled the Hare can hear better and the Dogg goes far beyond you in smelling as also the Stagg therefore when he is removed from one Park to another you use to muzzle him and carry him in close Carts that he may not smell the way back again And there be examples to admiration of this kind Pererius Though som Beasts smelling be beyond ours in respect of celerity and way of reception yet in point of dijudication differencing the variety of smels which proceeds from the Rationall Soul we surpasse them Therfore though we cannot see as Eagles nor hear as Hares nor smel as well as Doggs yet Hands Speech and Reson makes amends for all The composition also of the body being Erect is advantagious the caus of which Erection after the beholding of Heven is the exercise Arts which cannot be done in another figure Mans body is likewise the most copious of organs and though born naked yet this nakednesse cuts out work for Reson It abounds also more with Animal spirits and heat it hath long feet that the body might be more steedy and his head is built upward like a Castle or Watch-tower in the upper Region Goat This
where she dwells Distinct from others no Dissector tells And which no creture else can say that state Enables her to be Regenerat She then becomes a Spirit and at last A Saint or Devill when that she hath cast The clogg of flesh which yet she takes again To perfect her beatitude or pain Thus Man is first or last allied to all Cretures in Heven in Earth or Hells black Hall Bee Whereas you alledg that the Intellectuall or Rationall Soul enters by Divine infusion I remember when I was a Nun that divers learned men were of opinion that she was like the other two Souls viz. the vegetal and the Sensitive propagated and traduc'd by the seed and sperm of the parents and that this was done by the hereditary vertu of that gran universall Benediction pronounced by God himself to all his cretures Encrease and multiply Then they proceeded to urge the common Axiom that like begets the like Now the great God of Nature did constitut all other species perfect in their own kinds with a procreative power to beget their like by a compleat generation And why shold Man in whom the ideas of all other created natures are collectively resplendent Why shold he I say com short of this perfection and priviledge for without it he may be ranck'd among those mutilat defective cretures who are destitut of power to procreat an Individuum like themselfs Pererius This shews the eminency of the human Soul above others in point of extraction for if she were made of such poor frail ingredients as the seeds of the parents she wold be perishable with the Body wheras the is created to be heir of Eternity Bee I remember the reply to this That the excellency of the human Soul is not to be derived from her creation and first materialls but from the Fiat or eternall Decree and particular blessing of the Creator who endowed her from the beginning with such a prerogative out of his free will and plesure to be capable of eternity But wheras you aver that the parentall feeds are too grosse ingredients to produce so noble a Soul I remember ther are great modern Doctors and Physitians who hold that neither the seed of mother or father go to the impregnation but that the Female conceives onely by a virtuall contact as the Loadstone draws Iron and that she is made pregnant by conceiving the generall Idaea without matter To make this new assertion good they compare the womb to the brain and that what the phantasma or appetit is in the brain the same phantasma or its analogy is excited in the womb for both of them are call'd Conceptions Pererius This is a wild extravagant opinion for one may believe with more reson that the Tumontian Mares are impregnated and made to conceive by the South-west winds Bee I remember another argument that was urged for the traducible generation of the human Soul which was that the Rationall Soul begins to operat in the prolificall seed the very first moment of conception as soon as the prolificall emissions of both sexes are blended by mutuall fermentation for then the conformative and proper operations of the Rational Soul begin upon the Embryo who proceeds to majoration and augmentation accordingly And it is no lesse then an absurdity to think that the Infant after conception shold be majorated by the influence of any other Soul then that from whom he received his formation Now that this formation begins instantly after the conception appeers by the early activity of nature which hath bin sensibly discover'd in abortive Embryo's by autopicall observations wherby it hath bin visibly found that a Septenary Slip put into clear water a subtle Inspector through a magnifying Glasse may discern all the rudiments of the organicall parts Ther may be seen there the generall conformative faculty in the seed wherin will visibly appeer three small bubling conglobations which are the materialls of the noblest parts viz. the Brain the Heart and the Liver ther will appeer also two small black Orbs or atomicall points which are the rudiments of the Eyes Whence may be strongly inferred that if organization and the conformation of the Infant begins in the very punctillio or first moment of the conception that the Rationall Soul then works in the seed as being the most vigorous part of it From hence it follows that Man doth absolutely procreat Man which could not be if the Genitor did not communicat the Human Soul unto his Issue For since Man is compos'd of Soul and Body if the parent cannot cannot impart both to his ofspring he may be said to be inferiour to Beasts who have intrinsic active principles and power in themselfs to propagat and beget Individiums of their own species without the concurrence of extrinsecall causes Pererius These are neotericall fancies and derogatory to the noblenes of the Rational Soul who hath a far more sublime and spirituall extraction Bee But to let passe this Quaere how and when the Rational Soul informs and actuats the Embryo ther have bin great researches and indagations made whether this Soul being so distinct from the Vegetal and Sensitive in her operations whether I say she hath any particular domicile or cell within the human body for her own residence Pererius It was never found yet by any inspections which the Naturalists and Anatomisers have made that the Rationall Soul hath any peculiar lodging proper onely to her self and differing from other Animals But being indivisible inextensive and without parts she is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte she is all in the whole and whole in every part of the compositum she is diffus'd up and down the whole masse or fabric of flesh ther being no movement at all without her For as the beams or light of the Sun displayeth it self every where through the whole Hemisphere yet hath it no particular mansion in any place more then another so the Rationall Soul which is a beam of Immortality diffuseth her self through the whole Microcosm of Man to quicken it yet she hath no particular residence in any part 'T is tru that she is radically in the heart and principally in the brain which is as it were her Capitol and the seat of the Animal-spirits Thence she issueth forth her commands and dividing her Empire into a Triarchy she governs by three Viceroys the three Faculties who though they are absolutely distinct by their Commissions and keep their Courts in severall Regions yet are they united by so indissoluble a league and sympathetic alliance that the prosperitie of one enlargeth the principalities of the other and the detriment of each threatens the integrity of the whole The Natural or Vegetal Faculty claims superiority of time in order of procreation as being Governesse of our Minority commanding the third part of our lises The Vital hath preheminence in order of necessity keeping her Court chiefly in the Heart which is the first part that lives
and the last that dies thence she transmits a souvrain and conservatory influence through all the members without which the whole Man must in the fleetest article of time be but a Cadaver The Animal Faculty challengeth supermacy in order of eminence as regulating the sublimer actions as Sense and Motion togegether with the Memory Understanding and Imagination to which as to their perfection the two former are design'd Therefore gentle Bees think speedily on the free proposall I have made and of the fair opportunity you have offered you to be reinform'd with Rational Souls and to return to the Religious Convent you came from where being wean'd from the frail world together with the cares and encumbrances therof Where by the constant practise of holy duties night and day you may act the parts of Angels upon earth and afterwards of tru Angels in the land of Eternity Therfore shake off this despicable poor humming condition and go again to sing Hymns and Halleluiahs to your Creator Bee Know Sir that we have also a Religion as well as so exact a Government among us here Our Hummings you speak of are as so many Hymns to the great God of Nature And ther is a miraculous example in Caesarius Cisterniensis how som of the holy Eucharist being let fall in a medow by a Priest as he was returning from visiting a sick body a Swarm of Bees being hard by took it up and in a solemn kind of procession carried it to their Hive and there erected an Altar of the purest Wax for it where it was found in that form and untouch'd But whereas you spoke of Angels how do the separated Souls of good men when they are exalted to Heven differ from the Angels Pererius As they agree so they differ in many things Angels and separated Souls agree in that both of them are Spirits Both of them are Intellectuall and Eternall Cretures They both behold the beatificall Vision Both of them are Courtiers of Heven and act meerly by the understanding c. Lastly They both are Parishioners of the Church Triumphant Now as the blessed Angels and Souls separat do thus agree So they differ in many things They differ in their Essentialls for the principles of Angels are meerly Metaphysicall viz. Essence and Existence but a separated Soul continues still part of that Compositum which formerly consisted of matter and form and is still apt to be reunited therunto Till then she is not absolutely completed for all that while she changeth not her nature but her state of life Moreover they differ in the exercise of the Understanding and manner of knowledge for a Soul separat knows still by discours and ratiotination which an Angell doth not but by Intuition They also differ in dignity of Nature for Angels have larger Illuminations At the first instant of their Creation they beheld the Beatific Vision the summe of all happines yet separated Souls are capable to mount up to such a height of glory by degrees as to be like them in all things both in point of Vision Adhaesion and Fruition Bee Now Sir that you speak of Angels what degrees are ther of them in the Celestiall Hierarchy Pererius They are divided into three Hierarchies and in every Hierarchy ther are three Orders The first consists of Seraphims the second of Cherubims the third of Thrones The second consists of Dominations of Vertues and Powers The third consists of Principalities of Angells and Archangells Now those of the supremest Hierarchy partake of divine Illuminations in a greter mesure And you were all born gentle Bees to be members of any of these glorious Hierarchies Bee I remember when I was a Nun that som presumptuous spirits would preach that Angels were created for Man and that Man was of so high a creation that he was little inferiour unto them if not their equall and that their chief ministeriall function was to guard Him c. Pererius They were presumptuous indeed and in a high degree of prophanenes as you shall find in these Stanza's of comparison though som of them are familiar and too low for so high a subject 1. Such as the meanest Star in Sky Is to the Sun in Majesty What a Monk's Cell is to high Noon Or a new Cheese unto the Moon No more is Man if one should dare Unto an Angel Him compare 2. What to the Eagle is a Gnat Or to Leviathan a Sprat What to the Elephant a Mouse Or Shepherd's Cott to Caesar's House No more is Man if one should dare Unto an Angell Him compare 3. What to a Pearl a peeble Stone Or Cobler's Shop unto a Throne What to the Oak the basest Shrub Or to Noah's Ark a Brewer's Tub No more is Man if one shold dare Unto an Angel Him compare 4. Then let not Man half child of night Compare with any Hevenly Wight He will appeer on that account A Mole-hill to Olympus Mount Yet let this still his comfort be He hath a capability To be of Heven Himself but on this score If he doth not make Earth his Heven before Bee Noble Prince you pleas'd to give divers touches of the Immortality of the human Soul I pray be pleas'd to illuminat and rectifie our understandings touching that point Pererius Concerning the immortality and incorruptiblenes of the Rational Soul in the World to com not onely Christian Divines but the best of Pagan Philosophers Poets and Orators have done her that right as is evident in their works Moreover the Intellectuall Human Soul doth prove her self to be immortall both by her desires her apprehensions and her operations Touching the first Her desires are infinit we know and never satisfied in this world Now it is a Maxim among the School-men That ther is no naturall passion given to any finit creture to be frustraneous Secondly Her apprehensions or longings after eternall Truths which are her chiefest employments and most adaequat objects declare her Immortall Thirdly from her operations 't is known that all corruption comes from matter and from the clashing of contraries Now when the Soul is sever'd from the Body she is elevated beyond the sphere of matter therfore no causes of mortality can reach her wherby her state and operations pronounce her immortall which operations she doth exercise without the ministery of corporeall organs for they were us'd to be a clog to her Add hereunto that she useth to spiritualize materiall things in the Intellect to abstract Idaeas from Individualls She can apprehend negations and privations she can frame collective notions all which actings conclude her immateriality and as 't was pointed at before where no matter is found ther 's no corruption and where ther 's no corruption ther 's no mortality Now her prime operations being without the ministery of Matter she may be concluded immortall by that common principle Modus operandi sequitur modum essendi Operations are according to the essence of every thing Now in the World to com the