Elements mixt together is the purenesse subtilenesse and simplicity if I may say so of that Element Which reason may serve too against them when they say that if it were there it should burne all about And which likewise may serve for answer to the objection of the Comets which are seene seeing they are of a terrestriall maligne exhalation and so having in them that earthly mixture and being inflamed by the neighbour-heate of that fiery Element no wonder though they bee seene and not it her subtile purenesse being free of all combustible matter and so the lesse conspicuous to our eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive perspicuum nisi condensetur est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia visum non terminat Iul. Scal. Exer. 9. There is no such question about the second Element which is the Aire for of it all agree that it hath three regions wherein all these you call Meteors are fashioned as clouds haile snow thunder wind and dew yea and higher than all these in the first and supreme Region these blazing Comets although other men place them above the Moone which are so formidable to ignorants who know not the causes of their matter Quest. Is this so as you give it forth Answ. It is of verity that the first Element which we call the Element of fire is disputable and hath beene denied by many but as for the Ayre none to my knowledge ever called it in question neither is there in all our Philosophy a subject more fitting a man of spirit to know than the discourse of the Meteors therein framed of all which although you have a tractate hereafter by it selfe yet one word here more to make you understand their nature and matter the better Section 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences THE great Creator hath so disposed the frame of this Vniverse in a constant harmony and sympathy amongst the parts of it that these Heavenly Lights which wee see above our heads have their owne force power and influence upon this Earth and Waters whereon and wherein we live marying as it were these two so farre distant Creatures both in place and nature by the mediation of this Ayre above spoken of which participateth of both their qualities warmenesse from the Heavens and moistnesse from the Earth and Waters Nature then but Melior naturâ Deus or GOD better than Nature hath ordained the Sunne Fountaine of light and warmth to be the physicall or naturall cause yea and the remotest cause as wee say in the Schooles of these Meteors as Aristotle himselfe in his first Book of his Meteors cap. 2. observeth When I speak of the Sun as most principall I seclude not the Stars and these celestiall bodies which rolling about in a per-ennall whirling and rotation doe lance forth their power upon the Earth also The neerest Physicall or naturall cause againe must be understood to be cold and heate heate from these heavenly bodies to rarifie or attenuate the vapors of the Earth whereby they may bee the easier evaporated by the Sunne or heate to draw fumes and vapours from the Earth upward cold againe to condensate and thicken those elevated vapours in the Ayre to thicken them I say either in clouds raine or snow or the rest Thus as the Meteors have a twofold cause as you have heard so have they a two fold matter The first and remotest are the two Elements but of them chiefly Earth and Water the neerer cause or matter are exhalations extracted from these former two Which exhalations I divide in fumes and vapours fumes being a thin exhalation hot and dry elevated from the Earth and that of their most dried parts by the vertue of the heavenly Starres and the Sunnes warmenesse elevated I say by the vertue and warmnesse of the Sunne and Stars from the driest parts of the Earth even the Element of fire from whence and of which our Comets fiery-Darts Dragons and other ignean Meteors doe proceed although later Astronomers have found and give forth some of the Comets formation to be above the Moone Whereas vapours are exhalations thicker and hotter swifter drawne up from the Seas and Waters by the power of the Sun and Stars of which vapors thither elevated are framed our raines snow haile dewe wherewith they falling back againe the Earth is bedewed and watered When I say that these vapours are hot and moist thinke it not impossible although the waters their mother be cold and moist for that their warmnesse is not of their owne innate nature but rather accidentall to them by vertue of the Sunne and Starres warmnesse by whose attractive power as the efficient cause they were elevated Now then as of fumes elevated to the highest Region of the Ayre the fiery Meteors are composed so of their watery vapours which are drawne no higher than the middle Region proceeds raine clouds snow haile and the rest or if they passe not beyond this low Region wherein we breath they fall downe into dew or in thick mysts Thus you see that these vapours are of a middle or meane nature betwixt the Ayre and the Waters because they resolve in some one of the two easily even as fumes are medians betwixt fire and earth in respect that they are easily transmuted or changed in the one or the other And thus as you have heard the efficient and materiall causes of Meteors So now understand that their forme dependeth upon the disposition of their matter for the materiall dissimilitude either in quantity or quality in thicknesse thinnesse hotnesse drinesse aboundance or scarcity and so forth begetteth the Meteor it selfe different in species and forme as if you would say by the aboundance of hot and dry exhaled fumes from the Earth and the most burnt parts thereof are begot the greater quantity of Comets winds thunders and contrary-wayes by the aboundance of moist vapours elevated by the force of the Sunne from the Seas and waters we judge of aboundance of raine haile or snow or dew to ensue according to the diverse degrees of light in the Ayrie Region whither they are mounted Now when I said before that hot exhaled fumes are ever carried aloft to the highest Region of the Ayre take it not to be so universally true but that at times they may be inflamed even in this low Region of ours here and that through the Sunnes deficiency of heate for the time for as the uppermost Region is alwayes hot the middle alwayes cold so is the lower now hot now cold now dry and againe moist according to the Sunnes accesse or recesse from it as Aristotle lib. 1. Meteo cap. 3. noteth And of this sort are these even visible inflamations which in the Seas are seene before any storme flaming and glancing now and then as I my selfe have seene yea and sometimes upon the tops of Ships masts Sterne and Poope or such as in darke nights now
of Thirois and his two Sonnes ALL motion tendeth to and endeth in rest except that of the Heavens Which in a perennall rotation wheeleth ever about Wherefore men beasts Fowle Fishes after the dayes travell doe covet and betake themselves to rest as it is in the Poet. Nox erat placidum carpebant fessa soporem Corpora per terras syluaeque saua quierunt Aequora cum medio volvuntur sider a lapsu Cum tacet omnis ager pecudes pictaeque volucres Et corda oblita laborum c. Captabant placidi tranquilla oblivia somni This sleepe is so necessary to the life of man that for want of it many have dyed as Perseus King of Macedon who being prisoner in Rome and for torture being kept from sleepe there dyed Causes of sleep are two fold Primary and secondary The true Primary Philosophicall and immediate cause of sleepe may be said to be this the heart the fountaine and seat of life having much adoe to furnish every part of the body with the streames of vitall spirits hath most adoe to furnish the braines which are the greatest wasters of them in regard of the many and ample employments it hath for them as for Pensing Projecting consulting reasoning hearing seeing and so forth which functions of the braine doe so exhaust the animall spirits sent up thither per venas carotides through the veines organs after by circulation in that admirable Rete or net of the braine they are there setled that of all necessity either our life in the heart behooveth to cease or it must betake it selfe to rest againe for the recollection and drawing backe of her spent vitall spirits to refurnish the braines with a new recrew of them Secondary causes of sleepe are divers as excessive labour agitation of the body repletion as by excesse of meates or drinkes inanition as by Copulation and many more of this kinde which doe so waste the spirits that of necessity there behooveth a cessation to be for a time that new spirits may be recollected for refreshing of it Ausonius wittily chiding his servants lasie drowsinesse imputes it to excesse of meate and drinke Dormiunt glires hiemem Perennem At cibo parcunt tibi causa somni est Multa quod potes nimiaque tendas Mole saginam Adde to these causes the tranquillity of a sound Conscience Whereupon it was that the two Sons of Thirois mentioned by Quintilian upon most reasonable judgement were quitted from the murther of their Father who was found in that same Chamber with them alone and they both in a sound sleepe the murtherer perchance having fled away for it was reasoned no men guilty of so heynous a crime as Patricide could sleepe so soundly as they were found to doe by the discoverers of their murdered Father But leaving examples of this or the former causes whereof every where are plenty I proceed Section 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploite or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the resons thereof agitated VVE reade that great men and Commanders upon the most important poynt of their exploytes and affaires have sometime fallen in so deepe sleepes that their servants and followers have had much adoe to get them to awake the like formerly being never perceaved in them Iustinus and Quintus Curtius in the life of Alexander the great relate of him That in the morning of that day appoynted for that memorable battell betwixt him and Darius he fell in so deepe a sleepe and slept so long that on the very shock of the battell very hardly could his favorite Parmenio after two or three tryalls get him to awake It is agreed upon that hotter constitutions are least subject to sleepe and all his actions and proceedings marke him out to be such an one so it could not be his constitution that brought that sleepinesse on him but he being then in hazard either to loose or conquer a field whereby both his Crowne Countrey and reputation lay at the stake motives to keep a man awake had so no question toyled his minde and body in the right preparing and ordering of all things befitting a man of his place for the encounter that being at a resolution he gave himselfe to sleepe which his former thoughtfulnesse and paines did augment upon him and not as some would have it the terror of his enemies forces as Marcus Anthonius objected to Augustus in that Navall combat against Pompey in Sicilie that he had not courage enough to behold the order of the battell for indeed he fell asleepe and slept so long till the Victory was his which he knew not of till Agrippa with much adoe had awaked him But indeed I construe both their courages rather to have beene so great as their former and succeeding actions may witnesse that they disdayned that the appâ—â—hension of such hazards or accidents as might ensue so great encounters should any way startle them from giving way to their owne inclinations whether to sleepe or wake or doe or not doe this or that Section 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when hee should have encountred Darius in battell heere excused Catoes sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-Murder BVt laying all these excuses aside I cannot much marvell at this sleeping of Alexander he being so young in the flower of his age and so more subject to sleepe besides being so puffed up with the fortunate successes of his affaires which made him have so high a conceit of himselfe as to whom sayth one fortune gave up townes captive and to whose pillow whilest he slept victories were brought as I must admire that strange sleepe of Cato who after Caesars Conquest of the field at Pharsalia despairing of the liberty of his enslaved Countrey resolved to kill himselfe rather then behold the ensuing alteration which Caesars government would bring with it He then I say having put all his domestick affaires in order expecting newes of the departure of his Colleagues from the Port of Vtica fell in so sound a sleepe that his servants in the next roome overheard him to snort extreamly yet after that sleepe which as it should seeme would have opened the eyes of any mans reason and understanding so farre as not onely to abhorre his first so ill-sett resolution but totally to extirpate a future thought of so damned an intention he awaked so strongly confirmed in his former intent that forthwith he stabbed himselfe And sleepe is sayd to mollifie and mitigate fury or rage in any mans minde Praeter Catonis invictum animum Now though this man whom his many other excellent vertues had made famous and many other worthy men amongst the ancients did imagine for the like deathes to be highly commended for courage yet Saint Augustine and with him every good Christian reputeth it rather to be an infallible
be allowed who as he should not wish a death unforeseene neither yet be unprepared at the sudden aproach of it so should he not by any meanes either accelerate or wish it thereby to bee rid out of any incomberances that may befall Nec metuit mortem bene conscia vita Nec optat For as Saint Augustine reason well against such Autocides and selfe murtherers it is rather a token of pusillanimity and lacke of courage in them than otherwayes a marke of true resolution to doe so seeing they had not the daring to abide the dint of adversities which threatned them Let us all remember to implore in our daily prayers our Makers assistance from above to aide us in that last houre for my owne part I thinke it one of the best fruits of my studies or travels to be ever arming my selfe against it and as in my morning and evening prayers I call for peace of conscience in the assurance of my reconciliation with my God and for peace on Earth for his blessing upon my children his favour upon my King and Countrey so more specially for the favourable assistance of the Holy Ghost the comforter to assist me then that neither the terror of a present death may affright me nor my trust and confidence breed in mee presumption nor my feare despaire but there being a sweet harmony betwixt my soule and my God I may lay downe my life in hope to re-assume it againe for ever Section 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life IT is true that the consideration of death which of all terrible things is most terrible as being the partition of the soule and body and so the destruction of this structure was the cause why divers of the Ancients fearing almost even to name it were wont to say in stead of he is dead he sleepes he hath left off to be hee is gone downe to the lower parts of the earth hunc ferreus urget Somnus in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem Or desiit esse or transiit ad manes and so forth the reason being that few or none of them had the full knowledge much lesse the assurance of the enjoying these pleasures after this life past which we Christians being taught at a better schoole have wherefore as well learned disciples of so worthy a master let us learne not only to name it but sted fastly to abide the approch the frowne and dint of it In me si lapsus labtur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Remembring our selves that howsoever soule and body be severed for a season and that the body lye companion with them that sleep in the dust yet that they shal conjoyne againe in the glorious resurrection to possesse those joyes unknowne to many of the Ancients which our Lord and Master hath purchased to us by his death remembring that howsoever wee should live to the fulnesse of yeares that wee shall see no more even unto the last date of our dayes than a boy of ten or fifteene yeeres For the seasons of the Yeare the Dayes and Nights the Seas Sun Moone and Starres Plants Herbes yea Beasts themselves c. keepe a constant course which in a perpetuall revolution were set and if so be that in these any change be then bee sure it is a foretoken of Gods kindled wrath against us For the Heathen Astronomer when the Sunne did eclipse at the time of our Lords passion could well say That either the God of Nature was suffering or else the frame of the world was to dissolve the eye of all things suffering such a deliquie now if the elder see any thing other than the younger be sure it is not in the nature and course of things above spoken which in perpetuall revolution do observe the course prescribed unto them by their Maker But in the persons of men which pointeth out unto us the frailty of their estates and even of them also if we remarke well we shall finde more who have died within thirty or thirty five yeeres of Age than past it But death being the common subject of our preachers especially in their funerall Sermons I passe it over as their peculiar Theme and according to my first purpose doe hasten to the divers sorts of Burialls Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients of Alexander Of Sylla How the People of Vraba did use their dead Customes of Finland Lapland Greece and other places concerning burialls AND first for the Antiquity of interring of the dead as Writers doe abound in their testimonyes that even amongst enemies in the hottest of their hostility and Wars Truces were granted for burying of the dead so particularly in the Word of God we have warrant out of the Macchabees that although there were not positive lawes of Nations and Countries for this effect Nature seemes to have ingraued it in the hearts of all thus Palinurus case in Virgill is regrated that he wanted the honour of buriall for having made ship-wracke thus the Poet deploreth his losse Heu numium Coelo Pelago confise serenâ— Nudus in ignota Palinure jacebis arena What reverence and regard the Roman Emperors have had unto it in their lawes and statutes in Iustinians workes may be seene plentifully and especially in one Title expressed by it selfe De non violando Sepulchro Alexander the great having discovered Achilles Tombe in Greece overgrowne with brambles and briers so honoured it that being crowned with a Garland of Lawrell and Cyprus he carowsed so many full bowles of Wine to his memory untill he had almost lost his owne So did Tullius Cicero for the time Questor send into Cicilie to readorne Archimedes Tombe it being almost obscured with thornes and brambles Contrariwise to this Sylla his cruelty and inhumane barbarity against the dead bodyes of his enemys is yet registred in the records of his Country for that he to be avenged upon his enemies being dead whom alive he could not come at caused to disinterr the halfe putrified carcases whereon he trampled with his Horses and being Iealous of being so served after his death ordained his body to bee cast into Tyber and caused to divert the Rivers course so to disappoint all who should search after it The like I find done by a certaine Pope who caused to carry about with him the Corps of some Cardinalls in Sheletons upon Mules ever before him to be avenged of them for that either they had crossed his election or had conspired against him whereupon the Author Septem praelati Papa iubente praelati c. Even the most barbarous Nations who otherwayes wanted all sort of humanity and civility have had respect to this For I finde in Peter Martyrs decads touching the Historie of the West Indies in Vraba and other parts thereabout how
matter whereof the Heavens are composed with the confutation of various opinions of Philosophers concerning it Pag. 4 Sect. 2. Of the Starres their substance and splendor where also of the Sunnes place in the Firmament 8 Sect. 3. Of the Moone her light substance and power over all sublunary bodies 10 Sect. 4. Of the Element of Fire whether it be an Element or not and of its place 12 Sect. 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences Sect. 6. That the Earth and Waters make but one Globe which must bee the Center of the World Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the Mediterrancan and Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur 18 Sect. 7. That the mountaines and valleyes dispersed over the earth hindreth not the compleatnesse of its roundnes Of burning mountaines and caves within the Earth 25 Sect. 8. Of time whether it be the producer or consumer of things Of the wisedome and sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is mollified of the Needle in the Sea Compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. 28 Sect. 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breathe seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified 34 Sect. 10. Of fishes and their generation How fowles are generated in the waters If gold can be made potable and of the matter of precious stones 40 Sect. 11. Of the Earth its circumference thicknesse and distance from the Sunne 43 A TABLE OF THE SECOND BOOKE OF METEORS Chapt. 1. THe definition of Meteors their matter substance place and cause 46 Chap. 2. Where Meteors are composed of Clouds where they are fashioned together with the solution of some questions concerning the middle Region 52 Chapt. 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the ayre and other such â—â—ery Meteors 55 Chapt. 4. Of Comets their matter forme nature and what way they portend evill to come 61 Chap. â— Of Râ—ine Dew Hâ—are-frost and their cause 69 Chap. 6. Of Snow its cause matter and nature 73 Chap. 7. Of Windes their true cause matter and nature c. 75 Chap. 8. Of Earth-quakes their cause and nature 79 Chap. 9. Of Thunder Lightning Haâ—le and certaine other secrets of Nature with their solution 82 Chap. 10. Of Rivers Fountaines and Springs their sources and causes 88 A TABLE OF THE Third Booke OF ARMIES AND BATTELS Sect. 1. THat greatest Armies have not alwayes carried away the victory the reason of it two examples of Semiramis and Xerxes 97 Sect. 2. Examples of Greeke Roman and Brittish Battels where the fewer number have overcome the greater 100 Sect. 3. Whether it bee requisite that Princes hazard their Persons in field or not of the encouragement that their presence giveth to the Souldiers When a King should venture to the field and what Lievtenants are to be deputed by him all exemplified 102 Sect. 4. Of the Romans prudencie and foresight in sending two Commanders abroad with their Armies and why the Grecians conjoyned two in their Embassies and of the danger of too strict Commissions 105 Sect. 5. Difference betweene Battels and Duels that Generals may refuse challenges with some passages betwixt Hannibal and Scipio in their warres 108 Sect. 6. That the exploits of our moderne Warriours have bin every way comparable to those of the Ancient with some examples to that effect 111 Sect. 7. The different betwixt the ancient manner of warfare and the moderne how farre the moderne engines of Warre exceede those of the ancient Greekes and Romans 113 Sect. 8. That the Ancients in their warres had greater opportunities to try their prowesse in battell than the modernes have 115 Sect. 9. The manner how the Greekes and Romans ordered their battels both by sea and by land the battels of Cannas and Trasimenes described 116 Sect. 10. A Maxime in Militarie discipline inferred to confirme Pompeys oversight at the battell of Pharsalia 119 Sect. 11. That the French what within their owne Countrey and abroad have fought more battels of late times than any other Nation and of their successe in them 120 Sect. 12. That Emulation amongst the Princes in France rather than Religion was the cause of the many Civill-warres there 122 A TREATISE OF DVELS and COMBATS Sect. 1. OF Combats by Champions for cleering of Queenes honours Combats betwixt Ladies betwixt Church-men and betwixt Iudges Combatants rewarded by Kings their spectators and S. Almachius kill'd for declaiming against Duels c. Sect. 2. A recitall of two memorable duels the one in France betwixt Monsieur de Creky and Don Philippin the other in Spaine betweene Pedro Torrello and Ieronimo Anca both of Arragon in the presence of Charles the fifth 129 Sect. 3. How Combats may be thought permissible the relation of a Combat betwixt Iarnacke and Chastigneray in the presence of King Henry the second of France citations of the Canon Law against Combats Examples of a Combate where the innocent was killed that the decision of all such questions whereupon Duels were permitted ought to be left to God 133 Sect. 4. Severall objections for the tolleration of Duels and Combats confuted Cajetans opinion of Duels wherein also the lawfulnesse of Battels is allowed 136 Sect. 5. Cajetans reason for referring the event of Battels to Monomachie where also is inserted the story of the Horatii and Curiatii 139 Sect. 6. That Kings and Generals of Armies for saving of the greater bloud-shed of their Souldiers have fought single for victories Examples of both A quarrell and challenge betwixt the Emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first King of France how it tooke no effect 141 Sect. 7. A discourse of a combate where thirteene French Knights fought against so many Italians wherein the French were overcome and some observations thereupon 144 Sect. 8. A memorable Polymachie betwixt two kindreds in the High-lands of Scotland betwixt whom there had beene a long and mortall enmity for the totall extirpation of the one of them fought before Kiâ—g Robert the second at Perth in Scotland 147 Sect. 9. A combate appointed by two French Barons the one of Gasconie the other of Poictou which was taken up of their own accord in the field the end of this Title 149 A TREATISE OF DEATH And of divers Orders and Ceremonies of Burials Sect. 1. The remembrance of death requisite in all men Ceremonies for the remembrance of it some documents against the feare of it what death Iulius Caesar wished of Autocides of selfe-murtherers c. 153 Sect. 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life 156 Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients Of Alexander of Sylla How
observed 65 Sect. 10. The order of the Elements with some observations of the Ayre and Water 70 Sect. 11. Of the Earth that it is the lowest of all the Elements its division first into three then into foure parts and some different opinions concerning them reconciled 71 Sect. 12. Of the different professions of Religion in the severall parts of the world what Countries and Ilands are contained within Europe and what within Asia 73 Sect. 13. With what Religions and Sects all the Easterne and Northerne Countries are possessed and in what places Christianity is most professed c. 75 Sect. 14. America and the New found-lands briefly described and some opinions about what time of the yeare the world had its beginning 77 Sect. 15. Wherein is to bee seene some things concerning the time when it is thought to take an end 79 Sect. 16. Copernicus his opinion of the Earths moving confuted Archimedes opinion of the world an Induction to the following Section 81 Sect. 17. The division of the starrie firmament in twelve houres of the Power and efficacie that is attributed to the Triplicities of them over every Country and the maintainers of these opinions confuted the divers dispositions of people of severall nations how attributed to the naturall disposition of the Planets An observation of Gods Providence 83 Sect. 18. The causes of the Changes of severall things as of men Countries plots of ground c. and that these proceede not from triplicities as Astrologers would have it 87 Sect. 19. How ancient Writers have compared Man and all his parts to the World and all its parts wherein is recounted the different dispositions of men of different Countries and to what Countries the faculties of the soule are attributed 88 A generall Introduction and incitement to the study of the METAPHYSICKS Sect. 1. OF the severall titles and appellations that have beene given by Heathnick and Christian Philosophers to Metaphysick the reasons wherefore every of those names were attributed unto it and finally whereof it principally treateth 91 Sect. 2. The Reasons why Aristotle added Metaphysick to the other parts of Phylosophie and how it is distinguished from the other Sciences 93 Sect. 3. Three Reasons conducing to the praise of Metaphysick inducing all men to the study of it and setting downe some principall ends and uses thereof 95 Sect. 4. The excellencie and dignity of the knowledge of Metaphysick that onely free and sublime mindes not distracted with worldly cares are fit for this studie and the Reasons wherefore 96 Sect. 5. For three respects the Metaphysick is called the most excellent Science and the most necessary to be understood by Christians 99 Sect. 6. The first respect for the universality 101 Sect. 7. The second Respect for the dignity That the consideration of the soule of man belongeth to the Metaphysicks with severall Reasons for the proofe thereof 102 Sect. 8. The third Respect for the Vsefulnesse Of the great use of Metaphysick is towards the furthering of all Divines in Controversies and other things A Conclusion 104 A Table of the principall Authors perused in the Contexture of this booke A AMbrosius Augustinus Ammianus Marcellinus Alexander ab Alexandre Aristoteles Aristophanes Apuleius Albertus Magnus Aulus Gellius Albertus Coloniensis Ausonius Aetius Auriliacus Albitegnius B Bodinus Buchananus Boeâ—ius Hist. Beroaldus C Chrysostomus Cardanus Caietanus Cicero Cuspinianus Cornelius Tacitus Cujacius Copernicus Clavius Chopinus Comineus Catullus Conimbricenses Claudianus D Pioniseus Areopagita Dion E Ennius Elias Vineti F. Fernelius Froissard Fonseca G. Guicciardin Galen Gensales Oviedâ—s H Hieronimus Horacius Haly Arab. Homerus Herodotus Herodianus Hypocrates Herpinus I. Irenaus Ius Civile Canon Iuvenalis Iustinus Trogus L. Lactantius Lucanus Luâ—â—ius M. Montaignes P. Martyr Verini P. Martyr Deâ—ad Mercator Martialis P. Mathew Paris Magirus Macrobius N. Natalis Comes O. Origines Ortelius Onuphrius Ovidius P. Plato Plinius Plutarchus Polybrus Plautus Philo Hebrâ—â—â—â— Propertius Ptolomaus Pierius Hierogli Q. Quintus Curtius Quintilianus R. Riplous Rodiginus Ruuius S. Seneca Ph. Strabâ— Sophocles Seneca Trag. Suettonius Serres Scaliger Suarez Sabellicus Sacraboskus T Tertullianus Tibullus Titus Linvius Terentius V. Valerius Maximus Vitruvius Virgilius Velleius Paterculus Villamont Vlpranus Volatteranus X. Xeuophon TO THE READERS OF these Varieties Courteous Reader AS best deserving Precedency I beginne at you whose short Character may be this One who is accomplished with such endowments as make an excellent man the meanest whereof would blow up some men with self-conceit selfe-love selfe-praise and an universall disparaging of others abilities He hath learned that God distributeth not his gifts to all men and makes good use of it for he derideth despraiseth nor condemneth any man nor his workes nor actions as being conscious that God might have endued him with that mans spirits to have produced no more admirable thing He reades many bookes though he may serve for a library himselfe yet his censure of these bookes he measureth by the Authors abilitie good intention and the profits it may yeeld to meaner Capacities than his but so discreetly that his words favour more of Commendation than reproach In a word he is one that escapeth not the Venemous bites of the ignorant Rable but hath Antidotes against it Yea hee is one who when he considers my Travells studies expences and painefull observations and withall that my tenne yeares travell abroad hath taught me almost to forget my Native Language and that the importunitie of friends made me put this to the view of the world which I thought ever to suppresse as being for the most part composed in the Countrey farre from the conversation of the learned which is the cheefe helpe to the perfectioning of such workes he is one I say that will then give such a Candide censure of me and it that the most rigide Critick will be strucke dumbe from Calumnie But before I leave him let him give me leave to tell him ingenuously that to him onely I present this worke and promise that ere long he shall be gratified with a present farre more worthy of his excellently well qualified goodnesse As opposite in all the former expressions to the courteous I addresse my selfe to the carping Reader He is not a naked but a ragged pretender to all wit and learning and hath a smattering of many some things He is so conceited of himselfe that he is not content to discommend some of the parts and members of another mans creature as not elegant enough or uniformely composed but will lay most vile and infamous asperations on the whole body of it whilst in his owne conscience he findes his to be but prodigious monsters if ever he had a sparke of Promethean fire in him to give a short life to any thing When hee meetes with any ignorant men then the Peacockes taile of ostentation spreads abroad and they silly creatures admire the Varietie of its colours even to the disparagement of more perfit and more sweetly singing Birds but presently
and then are perceived to flutter about Horse-meines and feet or amongst people gone astray in darke nights And these our Meteorologians call Ignes fatui ignes lambentes wilde-fires Sect. 6. That the earth and waters make but one globe which must be the Center of the world Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the mediterranean Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur THus then leaving the Aire I betake me unto the third and fourth elements which are the earth and waters for these two I conjoyne in the Chapter of the world and that after the opinion of the most renowned Cosmographers howbeit Plinius Lib. 2. Naturalis Histor cap. 66. and with him Strabo lib. 1. distinguish them so as they would have the waters to compasse the earth about the middle as though the one halfe of it were under the waters and the other above like a bowle or Apple swimming in a vessell for indeede Ptolomee his opinion is more true that the earth and waters mutually and linkingly embrace one another and make up one Globe whose center should be the' center of the world But here now I aske seeing the frame of the universe is such that the heaven circularly encompasseth the low spheares each one of them another these the fire it the Aire the aire againe encompasseth the waters what way shall the water be reputed an element if it observe not the same elementarie course which the rest doe which is to compasse the earth also which should be its elementarie place Answer True it is that the nature of the element is such but GOD the Creator hath disposed them other wayes and that for the Well of his Creatures upon earth Who as he is above nature and at times can worke beyond and above it for other wayes the earth should have beene made improfitable either for the production or entertainement of living and vegetable Creatures if all had beene swallowed up and covered with waters both which now by their mutuall embracing they do hence necessarily it followeth that the Sea is not the element of water seeing all elements are simple and unmixt creatures whereas the Seas are both salt and some way terrestriall also How deepe hold you the Sea to be Answ. Proportionably shallow or deepe as the earth is either stretched forth in valleys or swelling in mountaines and like enough it is that where the mouth of a large valley endeth at the Sea that shooting as it were it selfe forth into the said Sea that there it should bee more shallow then where a tract of mountaines end or shall I say that probably it is thought that the Sea is as deepe or shallow below as commonly the earth is high in mountaines and proportionably either deepe or shallow as the earth is either high in mountaines or low and streacht forth in vallies But what reason can you render for the Seas saltnesse Answer If we trust Aristotle in his 2 booke of Meteors and 3. as he imputeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to the Moone so he ascribeth the cause of its saltnesse to the Sunne by whose beames the thinnest and sweetest purer parts of it are extenuated and elevated in vapors whilest the thicker and more terrestriall parts which are left behind by that same heate being adust become bitter and salt which the same Author confirmeth in that same place before cited by this that the Southerne Seas are salter and that more in Summer then the others are and inforceth it by a comparison in our bodies where our urine by him is alleadged to be salt in respect that the thinner and purer part of that moistnesse by our inborne warmenesse is conveyed and carryed from our stomack wherein by our meate and drinke it was engendred thorough the rest of the parts of our body Neither leaveth he it so but in his Problems Sect 23. 30. for corroboration hereof he maintaineth that the lower or deeper the Sea-water is it is so much the fresher and that because the force of the Suns heat pierces and reaches no further then the Winter Cold extendeth its force for freezing of waters unto the uppermost superfice only and no further If it bee true then that the Seas are salt wherefore are not lakes and rivers by that same reason salt also Answer Because that the perpetuall running and streames of rivers in flouds hindreth that so that the sun beames can catch no hold to make their operation upon them and as for lakes because they are ever infreshed with streames of fresh springs which flow and run into them they cannot be salt at all the same reason almost may serve to those who asâ—â— what makes some springs savour of salt some vitrioâ—â—â—â—e of brimstone some of brasse and the like To which nothing can be more pertinently answered then that the diversity of mineralls through which they run giveth them those severall tastes What have you to say concerning the cause of the flowing and ebbing of the Sea Answ. To that all I can say is this that Aristotle himselfe for all his cunning was so perplexed in following that doubt that he died for griefe because he could not understand it aright if it be truth which Coelius Rhodiginus lib. 29. antiquarum lectionum cap. 8. writeth of him it is true indeede yea and more probable that many ascribe the cause of his death to have beene a deepe melancholy contracted for not conceaving the cause aright of the often flowing and ebbing of Euripus a day rather than to the not knowing the true cause of the Seas ebbing and flowing chiefly seeing Meteor 2 3. he ascribeth it to the Moone the mother and nurse of all moist things which is the most receaved opinion and warranted with the authoritie of Ptolomee and Plinius both as depending upon her magnetick power being of all Planets the lowest and so the neerer to the Sea which all doe acknowledge to bee the mistris of moisture and so no question but to it it must be referred which may bee fortified with this reason That at all full Moones and changes the Seas flowing and swelling is higher then at other times and that all high streams and tydes are observed to bee so seeing the Moone doth shine alike upon all Seas what is the cause that the Mediterranean Sea together with the West Indian-Seas all along Hispaniola and Cuba and the Coasts washing along the firme Land of America to a world of extent hath no ebbing nor flowing but a certain swelling not comparable to our Seas ebbing and flowing Answ. Gonsalus Ferdinando Oviedes observation in his History of the West-Indian-Seas shall solve you of that doubt and this it is He compareth the great Ocean to the body of a man lying upon his back reaching
poore condemned caitive who fled into his denne and cave because he pulled out of his pawe the thorne which molested him but likewise fed him by killing beasts of all sorts and bringing them unto him whereof Gellius at length and out of him Du Bartas If I should follow forth here all other questions of Natures secrets the taske were long and tedious and peradventure lesse pleasant to the Reader than painfull to me as why the Adamant-stone which of its owne nature is so hard that neither fire nor Iron can bruise or break it is neverthelesse broke in peeces in a dishfull of hot Goates-bloud soft bloud being more powerfull than hard Iron Whether fishes doe breath or not seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath What can be the cause of the Loadstones attractive power to draw Iron unto it Why some Plants and Herbes ripen sooner than others Or what makes a member of a Man or Beast being cut from the body to dye presently and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long within them Whether or not there be such affinity and to say love amongst plants and herbes that some will more fruitfully increase being set planted or sowen together then when mixed amongst others according to that of the Poet Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat nutant ad mutua palmae Foedera populeo suspirat populus ictu c. To which questions some others hereafter to be handled for me to give answer were no lesse presumption and foole-hardinesse than a demonstration of my grosser ignorance since Cardan and Scaliger are so farre from agreement in these matters as may be seen in Scaligers Exercitations yet having propounded these questions and to say nothing of my owne opinion touching the solution of such Riddles as wee call them were someway an imputation and I might be equally blamed with those who leade their neighbour upon the Ice and leave him there wherefore thus I adventure And first why the Adamant which for hardnesse is able to abide both the force of the fire and dint of any hammer yet being put in Goates-bloud parteth asunder Answ. Howbeit Scaliger in his 345. Exercitation Sect. 8. giveth no other reason than that absolutely it is one of the greatest miracles and secrets of Nature and therein refuteth their opinions who alleage the Analogie and agreement of the common principles of Nature which are common to the bloud and to the Adamant together to be the cause yet I thinke for my owne part that if any naturall reason may be given in so hidden a mystery it may be this That Goates as we all know live and feed usually on cliffie Rocks wheron herbs of rare pearcing and penetrative vertues and qualities grow neither is the derivation of that herbes name Saxifrage other than from the power it hath to breake stones asunder Goates then feeding on such rockie-herbes as these no wonder that their bloud having Analogie and proportion to their food be penetrative and more proper to bee powerfull in vertue than otherwayes convertible in fatnesse for wee see them of all grazing Beasts the leanest Quest. Now by what power draweth the Loadstone Iron unto it Answ. Aristotle in the 7th Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their similitude and likenesse of substances for so you see they are both of a like colour and that must be the cause how the false-Prophet Mahomet his Chest of Iron wherein his bones are doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing because either the pend or some verticall stone of the Vault where it is kept is of Loadstone and thus with Iulius Scaliger Exercitatione 151. I disallow Caspar Bartholinus his opinion who alleageth that the Loadstone doth not meerely and solely by its attractive faculty draw Iron unto it but for that it is nourished and fed by Iron for nothing more properly can bee said to feed than that which hath life Therefore c. Here also it will not be amisse to adde the reason why the Needles of Sea-compasses as these of other Sun-Dyals being touched by the Loadstone doe alwayes turne to the North and this is the most received That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issueth forth in foure Currants answerable to the foure corners of the Earth or the foure winds which place if the Seas have a source must bee thought to be its spring and this Rock is thought to be all of Loadstone so that by a kinde of affinity it would seeme by a particular instinct of nature it draweth all other such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it So that the reason of the Needles turning to the North in Compasses is that Nigra rupes of Loadstone lying under our North Pole which by the attractive power it hath draweth all things touched by it or it s alike thither Section 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breath seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified Quest. BVT whether and after what manner can Fishes be said to breath seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath Answ. This question hath beene agitated many Ages agoe both pro contra as we say Arist. cap. 1. De respiratione denying that they can breath Plato and divers others of his Sect affirming the contrary they who maintaine the negative part do reason thus Creatures that want the Organs and Instruments of breathing cannot be said to breath or respire but such are all fishes therefore c. The opposites on the other side doe thus maintaine their breathing all living creatures not onely breath but so necessarily must breath that for lack of it they dye as experience sheweth nay that the very insects or as you would say demi-creatures they must breathe but fishes are living Creatures therefore they must breathe The Aristotelians answering this distinguish the major proposition restraining the universality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire whereas there is no Ayre in the water the nature of it not admitting place for Ayre as the Earth doth which being opened with any Instrument as with a Plough or Spade may admit Ayre whereas the waters will fill all the void presently againe as we may see by buckets boxes or any other materiall thing being put into the water and taken out againe doe leave no vacuum behinde them for the waters doe straight wayes reincorporate seeing then there is no Ayre in the Fishes Element they cannot nor need not be said to breath for contrariwise wee see that being drawne from the waters to the Ayre they doe incontinently dye For answer to both extreames I could allow for fishes a kind of respiration called refrigeration which improperly
wherewith it was perplexed for I was saying that if things on the earth were propagated by their likes as by the authority of Aristotle I did instance and almost unto that the Lyrick Poet Horace applaudeth while he saith although not to this purpose wholly fortes creantur fortibus and againe Nec imbellem feroces progenerant aquilae columbam then how can fishes be said to live and have their substance of and by the Sea For if the Maxime both of Philosophie and medicine hold good that we exist and have our being of those things wherof we are nourished surely fishes existing of a more grosse and more materiall substance than water is cannot be said to live by the Sea much lesse Fowles seeing their flesh is more terrestriall and for that cause they build and bring forth their young ones upon the Land whereas otherwayes it should seeme that they live and have their essence and existence from the Sea for in Genesis we reade that the Great Creator commanded the waters to produce swimming creeping and flying creatures upon the Earth Answ. With Aristotle whom you object to mee you must consider that in the fire and ayre no Creature is framed For so in the 4th Booke of his Meteors he holdeth from them two indeed he admitteth vertue and power to bee derived to those which are created upon the Earth and in the Waters true it is that Fowles being volatile Creatures their generation should have fallen by lot in the Ayre but in respect that none can be well procreated there the next Element became their bringer forth as neerest in nature to the Ayre and as being little lesse than a condensed Ayre from which these Foules might soone flye up so that all things here below being made up of a dry and then of a thickned moist matter which are the Earth and Waters no marvell that properly of them all things are procreated howbeit they may be said to have their temperament and vertues from the superior two fire and ayre and where it may be objected how the matter of Fishes should be so firme and solid they being nourished by the thin waterish and slimy substance of the waters it must be considered that the Seas and waters are not so exempted of some mixture of earth in them out that even as the Earth some way participateth of them so they impart partly to it their moistnesse againe of which mixture both Fowles and Fishes doe live Quest. What is your opinion concerning the potablenesse of Gold after which our Chymists and Extractors of quintessences Calcinators and Pulverizers of Metals make such search and labour whereby Gold made drinkable as they undertake our youth neere spent may be renewed againe all diseases cured and the drinker thereof to live for many Ages Answ. Although Gold of all Metals be the King as the Sun amongst the Planets and that it is the softest of all and most volatile so the easiest to bee extended and wrought upon in so much that one Ounce of it is able to cover many Ounces and Pounds of Silver yea although of all Metals it abideth the triall of the fire best and loseth nothing by it as Arist. in the 3. Booke of his Meteors cap. 6. observeth yet that it may be made potable I doubt much of it and am a Galenist in that point and that for these two notable reasons which Iulius Scaliger setteth downe in his 272. Exercitation First because there must bee some resemblance betwixt the body nourished and the thing that nourisheth which no more holdeth betwixt our bodies and gold than betwixt a living and a dead thing Secondly because nothing is able to nourish us which the heate of our stomack is not able to digest But such is Gold and therefore c. Alwayes of the worth and vertue of Gold reade Plinius lib. 1. c. 3. capâ— 1. Quest. Now what is the matter of precious-Stones earth it cannot be for it is heavie dull and blackish coloured they are glitteringly transparent like Stars water it is not for even Crystalline Ice will dissolve whereas they for hardnesse are almost indissoluble yet Cleopatra is said to have liquefide a Pearle to Anthonie Answ. They are of most purified earth not without some mixture of moistnesse but such as are both mavellously by the force of the Sun subtilized tempered and concocted Section 11. Of the Earth its circumference thicknesse and distance from the Sunne OVR Cosmographers generally but more particularly our Geographers have beene very bold to take upon them the hability as I am informed to shew how many graines of Wheate or Barley will encompasse the whole Earth which I esteeme a thing impossible to any mortall man to doe and therefore frivolous to be undertaken and I think it very much if they can demonsttate how many Miles it is in compasse leaving to trouble their wits with the other yet hereupon I desire to be resolved Answ. The Philosophicall generall knowledge of things is twofold either knowing things which fall under the reach of their Science in their effects thereby to come to the knowledg of the cause or contrariwise by the cause first to know the effects to come But the Mathematicall demonstrations whereof Geometry is a part consist not in these speculations but in reall demonstrations and that in such sort that their positions being once well founded thereon they may build what they please whereas on the other side a little error or mistaking in the beginning becommeth great and irreparable in the end and so to make way to your answer there is no question but if once a Geometrian give up the infallible number of the Miles which the Earth will reach to in compasse but soone and on a sudden hee may shew how many graines will encompasse it for it is universally held that the Earth is in circuit one and twenty thousands and so many odde hundred Miles a Mile consisteth of a thousand paces a pace of five feet a foot of foure palmes a palme of foure fingers breadth a fingers beadth of foure Barley cornes and so from the first to the last the number of the Miles holding sure the supputation of the graines number will cleere it selfe by Multiplication Quest. By that meanes I see you seeme to make no difficulty of that whereof I so much doubted Answ. No indeed and in this point I perceive how farre learned men are to be respected above ignorants yea as much as Pearles Diamonds or precious Stones are to be preferred to grosse Minerals Quest. Seeing all depende upon the knowledge of the Earths compasse then how many Miles hold you it to be in roundnesse Answ. The discovery of our new found-lands and the confident assurance which our moderne Navigators and Mappers have of this Terra australis incognita maketh that punctually not to be pointed out but what may satisfie in that or in knowing how thick the masse of the
middle one upon the dissolution of a cloud Finally it may be said here that clouds not onely may bee seene beneath us to inviron the tops of our lower Mountaines for I my selfe crossing the lower Alpes at Genoa have seene them below me along the sides of the Mountaines they likewise may be perceived to glide over the Plaines and swimming over our Lakes and Rivers yet that serveth not to prove that they are generated in the lowest Region but rather argueth the ascending of these vapours and the gathering of them together of which the clouds must bee coagulated and no otherwise as that they are absolutely there framed But this by the way CHAP 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the Ayre and other such fiery Meteors THere be foure Elements as all know the Fire hot and dry the Ayre hot and moist the Earth dry and cold the Waters cold and moist Now as of the moisture of the Waters whether in their owne Element or on the Earths superfice are composed all watery vapours as clouds raine dew haile snow and hoare-frosts c. Even so from the dry parts of the Earth calefied or made hot by the Sun-beames doe proceed fumy exhalations whereof the fiery and burning Meteors are generated But so it is that of these vaporous exhalations whereof all the ignite and fiery Meteors or impressions are composed all are not framed alike for according to the diversity of the dispositions of their matter they are either round or long or more long than round or more round than long for if by the efficient and materiall causes which are the Sunne-beames exhaling these fumous evaporations from the driest part of the Earth these spumeous exhalations are such as are combustible and capable to bee kindled if it be of a like length and breadth then in that case it shall be seene to burne in the uppermost Region of the Ayre like a blazing fire of straw if it bee longer than broad then is it taken for those long falling Stars which by the Meteorologians are called Dall If otherwayes broader than long then are they called fiery inflammations which seeme to reele in the Ayre as it were and to shoot hither and thither And because sometimes these exhalations although dry have some coldnesse in them therefore the ejaculation of that cold matter maketh the Meteor to seeme by that extrusion to fall as being in labour to expell it whence more properly are our falling Stars which Stars at some times seeme to fall aside at other times strait downe or upward according as their matter is for the time either disposed or placed And if it be objected how contrary to their nature can they descend or fall downe their matter being light and not ponderous I told before that that commeth by expulsion and by way of projection for confirmation whereof may be added the experience we have of Thunder whose bolts and claps light at times even at our feet otherwhiles what in our houses beating downe Pinacles and Steeples the tops of Turrets and the like although it be both light and dry and the reason is That Thunder being generated in the middle Region of the Ayre not by exustion of any kindled hot matter but rather by a separation of an expelling cold meane while this cold thickning and coagulating it selfe together with violence in a manner detrudeth the hot matter which with it was thither drawn up and maketh such a noise and terrible din the time of that expulsion that not only the Ayre seemeth to bee rent asunder but the very Earth also appeareth to tremble at its violence Iust so as the matter of the falling Stars is placed they fall either straight down aside or upward as before I noted Even so is it with the Thunder Now as those vapors thickned in the ayre doe produce the afore-said effects so shall it not bee thought amisse to say that the same ayre being thickned with their vapors but not condensed in a cloud by susception of light but chiefly from the Suns rayes opposite to it either by night or day but chiefly by night become fiery coloured and looke as burning the same vapors stirring to and fro and being someway thickned by refraction of light doe assume unto themselves variable and diverse colours and those fires in effect are the same which vulgarly are called pretty dancers and by reason that the materiall cause of such impressions is swift and soone vanisheth therefore they abide and remaine the shorter time for such phantasmes not being come to the full perfection of other Meteors as seldome they are seene to doe so their abode and being is but short and inconstant they being composed but of hot and dry exhalations from chalky rocky sandy and sulphureous parts of the earth there being a mixture of moysture with them And to the effect that this may be somewhat better cleared we must consider That foure sorts of vapors are exhaled or drawne up out of the earth by vertue of the Sunnes rayes beside the smoake of our fires which ascending to the ayre also augments these fiery Meteors First vapors hot and dry not having so much humidity in them as may be able to overcome them but rather such as may make this dry vapor to be continued for no earthly thing can continue without moisture Secondly cold and dry which altogether are of the earth's nature virtually cold albeit formally all vapors are hot The third are those vapours which are hot and moyst where humidity predominateth over the heat The fourth kind of vapors which ascend are cold and moyst in which absolutely watry moystnesse beareth rule and this vapor virtually is called cold These foure sorts of vapors then are the neerest matter of all our meteors The first whereof viz hot and dry vapors doe ascend through the ayre quickly even to the concavity of the firy and ignean element where being enflamed and enkindled it becommeth the right generation and propagator of our fiery Meteors whereas the second being hot and moyst doth not ascend so high and because it is easily resolved it commeth to bee ayre The other two cold and dry and cold and moyst vapors are elevated aloft also but no farther then to the colder parts where they are thickned and coagulated together by the invironing cold but so as cold and moyst are converted to raine and the other cold and dry to wind or this falls downe with the pluvious or rainy vapour This being so we may see that there are foure kindes of vapors and exhalations conformable to the foure elements which make up the matter of these Meteors in such sort that as there are hot and dry exhalations and cold and dry even so there are hot vapours and cold and humid ones also Since then you know the matter of wind raine falling stars and inflammations in the ayre let us heare what can bee objected One demands what
neither raine dew nor Hoare-frost fall because of the violent motion and great flux of the ayre there for that matter is rather even wheeled about with that violent motion whereas in the lower Mountaines againe because of the lesser flux and motion of the ayre snow and raine falls but not deaw nor Hoare-frosts To end this part in a word then I say That dew and Hoare-frost have a like matter common to both viz moyst vapours exhaled from the earth and waters but not highly elevated in the ayre and except in quantity they differ not but onely in this that dew is fashioned of moderate cold the other is begotten by a more violent CHAP 6. Of Snow its cause matter and nature THe matter of Snow is a cloud composed of an aereall substance whereby it may bee made some way hot and of a terrestriall and earthly matter whereby when it is dissolved it leaveth some muddy substance behind it but the most speciall matter of it is of the vapors exhaled from the waters dispersed over the earth Their place is in the middle region where violent colds are which excessive cold must not be thought their generation only but then when that cold is dispersed through the whole ayre for then this cold is not so sharpe and piercing as that cold is which by the dispersed heat in the ayre is reenforced and crowded into one place Now because such colds are not spread abroad through the whole ayre but at certaine times as in winter in the end of Autumne and in the beginning of the Spring therefore it is that in winter in the tayle of Autumne or in the beginning of the Spring Snow falleth at least then most frequently And because the Northerly Climats are coldest and farthest remote from the hot Zone as there where the Sunne beames hath least reflex Quod sol obliqua non nisi luce videt Therefore it is also that in these places snow is most usually seene Now if it be said how can it be that the snowy cloud must be of a hot ayrie disposition seeing the other two ingredients are earthly and waterish vapors which naturally are cold for by this I should include contrarieties in one subject To which I answer that there are no absurdities in that for in this case the one is as ingredient the other as egredient the one over-comming the other remitting something of its dignity for as the cold holdeth together this snowy cloud till it dissolve into water so before this cloud begin to dissolve into snow we find the ayre which before was marvailous cold during the time of the congealing of this cloud to wax somewhat hoter by reason of the aery heat which leaveth the cloud and disperseth it selfe through the ayre From whence likewise we may gather the reasons why the snowy cloud before it dissolve in the ayre is cleare and cleareth the earth also Whereas the rainy clouds doe both dimme the sky and earth are exceeding cold immediately before the rayne fall downe That is because the rainy cloud hath nothing but grosse and heavy earth and watrish vapors in it whereas the snowy one hath besides them the ayre inclosed which being by nature warme and then being thrust out of the cloud by the predominancie of the other two cleareth and warmeth both CHAP. 7. Of Windes their true cause matter and nature c. IN the former part of this treatise we have heard that there are two sorts of exhalations whereof all Meteors above us in the Ayre are composed one of them moist called vapours the other dry called fumes or smoke not that any of these are so either wholly dry or moist or that they have no mixture of others for that is not but that the predominancy of the one above the other in the compound maketh the denomination Now as the heat of the Sun extracting these two from the earth and waters is their efficient cause so they againe are the materiall causes of the Meteors made up by them viz. vapours the causes of raine haile snow dew clouds and so forth As the dry and fumous exhalations are the causes of winde in particular as also of the hot Meteors above mentioned Hot and dry exhalations then are matter and causes of the wind and as they are elevated in the Ayre by the force of the Sunne so no question but from that same Ayre the winds begin to blow and not from the Earth first which in this may be discerned because that the highest Mountaines I meane if they exceed not the first Region Towres Trees Steeples and so forth are more agitated with winds then the lower and baser are as being neerer the ayre Feriunt summos fulmina montes Saepius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus And the reason is because straining to mount aloft conformable to their nature they are reverberated againe by the middle region their opposite being cold and moist to their hot and dry nature Now as the beginnings and first springs of Rivers are small but by corrivation of other lesser ones they increase Even so the first beginnings and principalls of windes are commenced but with few exhalations no question but their increment floweth from the adunition and combination of more exhalations Whence it is that some yeares are more windy and some seasons too then others and commonly the dryest Summers maketh the windiest and most tempestuous winters It is said in Scripture that the wind bloweth where it pleaseth and that none knoweth either whence it commeth or whither it goeth And it is truth indeed to speake particularly we feele it and find it we know it evanish away into the many vast and spacious inturnings of the ayre but from what particular place it floweth we know not well for as they are small in their principalls so no doubt but they receive augmentations in their progresse Here then it may be inferred that winds and raine are not procreated of the selfe same matter as some foolishly doe maintaine which by this only may bee evidently confuted that often times the windes are abated by raine and commonly after raine we have windes The first for this naturall reason because that violence of winds blowing clouds together and the invironing cold condensing and thickning them together makes them dissolve into water The other is because of waters or raine falling from the clouds by which meanes the Ayre is warmed and consequently the Earth which maketh it yeeld aboundance of hot exhalations for the Sunnes rayes to transport upward to the Ayre wherewith wind is framed againe And if it be objected that exhalations are common causes of winds and yet of the same winds some are cold as the North and East whereas the Southerly and Westerly are commonly hotter To this may be answered that the exhalations themselvs are not the occasion of that but the disposition of the Climats from whence they flow the Suns heat never
probabilities yet they should not deprive our great Creator from the supernaturall working thereof who by such unusual and terrible Syncopes of nature would even foretell and have mortall men whom these prodigies admonish forewarned of some effects of his wrath to ensue to the effect that if they will amend and turne to their God by humiliation and repentance they may avert that evill threatned and prevent his judgments CHAP. 9. Of Thunder Lightning Haile and certaine other secrets of Nature with their solution AND first concerning Thunder Quest. What can bee the causes of the lightning and firefleakes which in Latine are termed Fulgura coruscationes either in the clouds themselves from whence Thunder proceeds or wavering in the ayre Whether or no the exhalations inclosed within the cloud from whence they doe proceede be the cause and occasion both of the Thunder it selfe it 's sound and of the coruscation and lightning also Answ. Yea but diversly and by it's owne course for first by the agitation and motion of it within the cloud it causeth the sound after this manner The dry exhalation whereof this sound thunder it selfe and lightnings are generated ascending upward in the vapour to the middle region of the aire is engrossed in a cloud through the coldnesse of the place so it is compacted and this exhalation coarcted within the belly of that thickned and condensed matter which dry or firy exhalation thus inclosed by Antiperistasis or contrariety by the environing cold in the outward body of the cloud striveth to get out and make way for it selfe at last with much reluctance overcomming the environing cold maketh that hideous and horrible noyse wherewith here on earth wee are so terrified that sometimes Women are strooke in such feare by it that they part with child So by that same agitation it kindleth too being of a combustible substance viz. of a dry terrestriall and inflamable matter which once kindled by Antiperistasis expelleth it selfe with violence through that cold thickned cloud but first in and about the cloud it maketh these flashes and coruscations spoken of before so in lightnings it disperseth it selfe here and there through the aire both clearing the cloud above and the aire beneath Now if it be asked What is the cause why we see sooner the lightning then we heare the thunder clap That is because our sight is both nobler and the eye is sooner perceptive of its object then our eare as being the more active part and priore to our hearing beside the visible species are more subtile and lesse corporeal then the audible species this being reall the former intentionall as the skilfull in Opticks know and this is the reason why likewise we see the flash ere we heare the noyse of discharged gunnes Question Againe being asked why fire being naturally light doth not rather ascend then descend Answ. To that as before Because it is extruded by violence from its abode Besides this it being accoupled to a matter contrary to its owne nature and that matter predominating viz. A dry terrestriall substance in which it existeth that I say this terrestriall matter tending downe-ward draweth the fire perforce with it which may be perceaved by a kindled charcoale throwne out of ones hand which carryeth the fire along with it Againe if it be expostulated what can be the cause of the admirable effects of this thunder at some times bruising the blade of a sword the sheath un-offended melting mony and gold in a pocket the pocket remaining entire and killing a Man and not harming his cloathes And what maketh things touched by it smell of sulphure and brimstone And to kill a man in such sort that the bolts shall bruise all his bones the flesh never a whit hurt nor by appearance touched and the like Thus much for answer The thunder which is expelled or extruded from blacke clouds is more violent and hath greater force than that which is ejaculated from the whiter clouds This thunder then by nature subtile and pearcing but much more purified in it's distent when it mixeth with the aire is far more subtilized And againe being by the fire and heate of the thunder repurged of all grossenesse it is made so purely spirituall that is pearceth suddenly and insensible as it were almost all porous bodyes and never exerciseth it's force till it finde resistance And hereby it appeareth plainely how the skin is as it were untouched when the bone is broken which may serve for all accidents in this kinde But when it onely toucheth the outward of things without any great hurt it betokens the weaknes and imbecillity of the matter And where commonly bodyes so thunder beaten doe smell of sulphure and brimstone the matter of Thunder giveth the reason for it is composed of dry and sulphureous exhalations as of the smoake of Sulphur-terrae by Naples of hot smoke in bathes and rocks there of Monte de Sommi of Aetna in Sicilie of the burning hills at Mexico in America of our Hecla in Island and such like chalkie lymie and sulphureous places so vapors elevated out of these and the like places must make thunder which is composed of them to savour of them Now to those who aske which is the place where thunder is procreated and begotten answere may be made from the grosse humidity having in it some terrestriall glutinous and viscous humor not easily separated from it that it existeth in which being thickned in a cloud in the highest part of the middle region whither they are elevated above all other clouds composed of other moist vapours from thence I say by the invironing cold by Antiperistasis or a stronger opposite part they are extended and throwne downe Qu. Again if any demand why blacke clouds are conjectured most to containe and send forth thunder bolts most fearefull I answer indeed as blacke clouds flashes and lightnings are little to be regarded in respect that the blacnesse of them argueth but little firy matter to bee within But contrarywayes that it aboundeth in waterish vapours So commonly after thunder great raines ensue the cloud being dissolved and the fire expelled But indeed if the lightning bee not much to be feared of such a blacke cloud yet the thunder bolt of it is terrible as being violently expelled by the predominating cold even as the great charge of a Cannon enforceth the bullets flight and causeth the roaring noyse of it Of reddish or whitish coloured clouds the bolt is but weake in regard of the rarity and paucity of cold vapours to expell it but the flashes and lightning will be found dreadfull in respect of the abundance of exhalations wherewith after their owne colour the cloud is dyed But leaving these fiery and hot Meteors we betake us againe unto the moyst and watery ones as more consonant and frequent to our climate First if it bee asked whether our moyst Meteors such as snow haile and raine
up the vastnesse of the firmament so unmeasurably large as they doe for by their calculation though a man ride fourty myles a day yet shall he not see so much ground in many thousands of yeares as the firmament goeth about the earth in twenty foure houres So learned Clavius calculateth in his Commentary upon Sacroboscus But withall to know whether or not the Moone be inhabited or hath mountaines vallies and champion ground within her body and so forth and whether the rest of the planets as she be likewise inhabited considering say these curious fellowes that these vast bodies cannot be framed for light onely if not for this use also but being wearyed with these and alike more curious then profitable questions I leave them Section 7. To search out the secrets of Nature allowable if men be not too curious in them Eudoxus wish Plinius killed on the Mountaine of Vesuvius Aristotle drowned in Euripus Too much curiosity is a plague sent downe from Heaven on men The Poet Simonides acknowledged his ignorance of GOD How the Heathenish gods were pourtrayed IF any curiosity may be allowed I thinke the inquiry of the hidden and abstruse secrets of nature are agreeable and pleasing for a curious spirit provided that their curiosity carry them no further then to a reverent and respectfull admiration of the power of God working in Nature by them But if once such curious and inquisitive braines doe transgresse these limits and after the meditation of these things doe begin to drawe out of the secrets of Nature that which is unprofitable being knowne and so doe become transgressors of the old Law Non altum sapere not to be too inquisitive then I say their curiosities become vitious such as this was the curiosity of Eudoxus who desired at the hands of the gods to be so neere the Sun as to discerne the matter of it which was in question amongst his fellow Philosophers for the time although it should bee to the hazard of his life Such curiosity as this cost Plinius his life while too curiously he approached to the top of the Mount Vesuvius by Naples which I did with the hazard of mine also from thence to look down to the body of the hollowed hill to see if he might discerne the cause and matter of that fyre which bursting up in flames now and then had made it hollow within for then being choakt with a flash of a suddayne flame hee dyed So the river Euripus did requite Aristotle his curiosity with the like punishment although not drowning or overwhelming him with waves yet causing in him such melancholy for not comprehending its nature as procured his death We have warrant from holy Scripture that too much curiosity to knowe things is sent downe upon men as a plague in so farre that Herod esteemed Saint Paul distracted through his too much learning and they are scarce otherwise who thinke by their shallow capacity to comprehend the height length and depth of GODS workes which are so much the rather His by how much the lesse we understand them And it is observable that our beliefe is setled upon things incredible to humane reason to which a humble submission of spirit attayneth sooner then a curious inquiry Thus Saint Augustine esteemed GOD better to be adored bene sentiendo quà m multum loquendo In such sort that Simonides the Poet who was desired to describe God required first one day to thinke upon the subject and then another lastly a third and in the end confessed ingeniously that the more he studied it the further he was from comprehending it and the more he searched into that Theame the lesse he understood it which gave us well to understand how wisely the Aegyptian Priests Indian Brachmians the Persian Magi the French Druides and all the old Philosophers and wise men did who caused to mould and pourtrayte their gods with their fingers upon their lippes to teach men their Adorers not to bee too curious inquirers after their Nature or rashly blabbe forth what ever they imagine of them least that being discovered they should have beene found in the end to have beene but men either worthy in their time for warre or peace and after their death deified Micat inter omnes Iulium fidus velut inter ignes Luna minores Whereas the Nature of our great God-head is so profound a gulfe and hid mystery that as the Sun beames dazeleth our mortall eyes being too stedfastly fixed upon them even so doth over-curious inquiry after God and such other abstruse mysteries obfuscate the dim eyes of our understandings And as the Sun cannot bee seene but by his owne light So no more can God be knowne but by himselfe Section 8. Too great curiosities condemned and a moderation to bee used in them prescribed THus then as in Divine and heavenly mysteries wee should not be too curious but should rather content us with what is revealed So should we not in our worldly affaires busie our selves too curiously and perplexedly For as Gods secrets are not disclosed to the highest and most eminent amongst men but to the meaner and ignorant sort even so fortune and chance of this world falleth and followeth not alwayes the wisest and most curious but on such as for the most part doe not pursue them and these we doe tearme foole happy or more happy then wise Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt When I blame the extremity of curiosity as a master-vice it is not for that we should with the Stoicks â—ull our selves asleepe and cast off even allowable care concerning the events of our affaires in this life as to remitt and put over all to destiny which is no lesse blame-worthy then with the Epicureans to eate and drinke as if the morrow we were to die For as the golden mediocrity and commendable vertue consisteth betwixt extreames even so I say avoyding both evills this meant good may be admitted to be curious after all such things as concerne our vocation and trade of life And for this indeed wee have warrant but so that we referre the event of all to the alseeing providence who best knoweth our wants and can best helpe them Section 9. How GOD disappointeth the expectations of the most Curious And that the most subtill spirits runne into greater errors then the meaner doe I Wonder since neither the subtilties of this present age nor the wisdom of our predecessors neither Prophets of old nor preaching of new no not theirmost curious inquiries could rippe up the causes and notions of things which it hath pleased the Everliving to worke both above and below the concavity of the Moone in a manner to dazell mens eyes and to make their profoundest wits stoope under the wonders of His workes Why then should our curious Spirits rack their braines about the resolution of such questions which as they are difficult to be solved so are they dangerous
equity from iniquity who is above and the only verity who cannot be knowne nor pourtrayed by any image or representation saith he because no eye hath or can see him who whilest hee moveth all things yet abideth unmoveable who is knowne to be mighty and powerfull and who is onely knowne by his workes to be the Creator of this world as Socrates so his disciple Antisthenes acknowledged this yea Plato in Epimenide maintaineth these Gods to know all things to heare and see them then that nothing escapeth their knowledge whatsoever mortall things they be that live or breathe And Aristotle in his booke De mundo proveth that all things which it comprehendeth are conserved by God that he is the perfecter of all things that are here on earth not wearied saith hee like man but by his endlesse vertue indefatigable By all which we may discerne that hee acknowledgeth I may say religiously this visible world and all things therein to be created of God as in the 2 Book and 10. chap. of his Worke of generation and corruption at large appeareth To which authorities we may adde these of Galenus lib. 2. De foetu formando and of Plato Deum opificem rectorem nostri esse and that of Aristotle Deum cum genitorem tum conservatorem nostri esse quorum principium medium finem continet Of Theophrast Divinum quiddam omnium principium cujus beneficio sint permaneant universa Of Theodoret Deus ut Creator naturae sic conservator non enim quam fecit naviculam destituet but chiefly Galen Eum qui corpus nostrum finxit quicunqueis fuerit adhuc in confâ—rmatis particulis manere Now although in these particulars they agree both with us and amongst themselves yet in one point as may be seene in the subsequent section they differ Sect. 4. Opinions of Plato Aristotle and some Hebrewes concerning the worlds eternity The consonancy of opinions betwixt some ancient Philosophers and Moses about the worlds creation ARistotle would conclude the eternity of the world saying that as it had being from before all beginning so that it should never have an end to which opinions some of the Hebrewes particularly Leo the Thesbite seeme to assent so far howbeit they speake not of the ever durancie of it that after six thousand yeeres expired they understand it shall rest one thousand which then ended it shall begin of new againe and last other seven And so by course last and rest till the revolution of that great jubile of seven times seven be out runne At which time then this elementary world and nature the mother of all things shall cease To which opinion some way Origen in his worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod mundus cum tempore coeperit did incline Yet for all this I say Plato in his Timaeo speaking of the procreation of the world and of the vertues of the heavens proved that the world had a beginning and consequently that it shall have an end And that this is true saith he it is aspectable and may bee seene it may be handled it hath a body whence followeth that it hath beene begotten and seeing it is begotten it must bee by some preceding cause Now saith hee as it is a great worke to search out this causer of it so by our enquiry having found him to divulge him unto the vulgar is not altogether convenient Further he saith that God willing to beautifie this world as his chiefe worke made it a living creature subject to our sight containing within the inclosure of it all other living creatures according unto their severall species and kindes whereas he approcheth neerer the minde and sense of our profession than his fellow Aristotle so directly in his Timaeo he maintaineth that as God created or begat the world so he infused in it a procreative power which by divine or heavenly heate induced from above might propagate and procreate every thing according unto the owne kinde of it whether living or vegetable whether above or below And as the great Prophet and servant of God Moses bringeth in God speaking unto his creatures after their creation was finished Increase and multiply c. So Plato in his Timaeo bringeth in God speaking of the world and all contained therein in these words All ye who are created by mee give eare to what I am to say I will give you seed and a beginning of being wherefore doe ye for your parts beget and bring to light living creatures after your kinds augment and nourish them with food and when they shall cease to be let the earth receive them back againe from whence they came And to this Aristotle in his 2 Book De generatione corruptione cap. 10. giveth way where preferring in that place generation unto corruption hee saith that it is more worthy to be then not to be seeing properly to be appertaineth onely unto God and not unto creatures After the fabrick of the universe was accomplished it should have beene for no purpose if creatures had beene wanting in it therefore lest God should seeme to have forgot it he infused in every one according unto their owne kind a procreative power by which the generation of things might be perpetuated But how did he this saith hee First generally having spread abroad in the Heavens and Starres his divine seed for they claime a part in our generation Then particularly in every thing the owne proper seed of it all which he avoucheth in the 12. Booke of his Metaphysicks cap. 7. Section 5. Ancient Philosophers attributed the framing and continuance of all sublunary Creatures as we Christians doe unto God with a recapitulation of severall consonancies betwixt us and them IN which places and severall others of their workes as these worthy men have ascribed the cause of the being of all things unto God contrary to the opinion of these other frivolous preceding Philosophers who imputed the cause of it unto the concourse of Atomes So ascribe they the government of all these sublunary things unto the powers above with us Christians and not unto chance or fortune as these former Philosophers did Thus Aristotle in the first of his Meteorologicks It is necessary saith he that this whole world which environeth the earth should be continuated with the superior conversions or revolutions of those celestiall circles and bodies which roll and wheele above because the whole vertue of it dependeth from thence Neither is it probable that he who hath created the world and all that is within it should abandon and leave it so but that as the frame of the fabricke was his so likewise the guiding and ruling of it should be ascribed unto him also Which is more cleerely exprest by the said Aristotle in his booke De mundo Where he saith that it is an old saying and left by tradition from our forefathers that all things both are of God and likewise sustained by him and that there is
their Treasure for ever Wherewith the Senate being much pleased received him to their favour againe where he was entertained like a Prince attended with a Guard not so much for honour of his person as for feare he should have left them and gone otherwhere while in the end his Ingots being suspected and called in question for the validity of them his Guard beginning to vilifie him and to neglect their wonted strict attendance hee under cloud and silence of night with his Mistresse and a black dogge which still followed him fled their Citie and Territory and in the end having come to the Duke of Baviers ' bounds to Germany was there apprehended and hanged upon a gilded Gybbet as one who had deluded the world by his sophisticate monies SECT 2. The reason that moved the Author to handle this matter The different blessings betwixt the Indians and Christians the definition of the Philosophicall Stone the generall way and matter whereof it is made THe History I say of this unfortunate man and rich couzener made me the more curious and desirous to know the nature of so rare a thing as that which they call the Philosophicall Stone which if men might attaine to the West Indes should not bee so much frequented as they are but O how great is the wisedome and power of the Creator of all who reserveth the perfect knowledge of so high a secret to himselfe and imparteth it but to very few knowing the insatiablenesse of the heart of man and to these who know not the worth of gold hee doth bestow it in such plenty that their ordinary houshold-stuffe as Tongs Chuffles Pots Tables and Cupbords c. are made of it whereas they starve in a manner for that whereof we have such store and which they esteeme asmuch above their gold as we prize their gold above our other necessaries So far as I can learn I find that the Philosophicall stone by the Arabes called Elixir is the very true and just seed that engendereth and begetteth gold For gold is not procreated as I may say either of Brimstone nor of Mercurie nor of any such thing as fraudulently some suppose and give forth but it is to be search't and found out of gold it selfe and that most purified for there is nothing in Nature which hath not of it or rather in it the seede of its owne kinde whereby it may be multiplied but yet hardly by Art may it be drawne out by reason that the greatest and most vigorous strength of that seede consisteth in a certaine oylie substance or rather adhereth to it which whensoever by fire wee goe about to draw out or segregate from the substance it selfe it consumeth away which not being so in gold because by the violence of no fire it can be so burnt away but that it may abide the whole strength and force of Art therefore out of it onely that seede or Elixir may bee extracted whereto it seemeth the Poet alludeth when hee saith Vni quoniam nil deperit auro Igne velut solum consumit nulla vetustas Ac neque rubigo aut aerugo conficit ulla Cuncta adeò firmis illic compagibus haerent SECT 3. The Authors proposition the reasons of its denomination opinions of most approved Authors touching it and of the Possibility and factibility of it I Passe by the methode and order of Fernelius in his last chapter de ab ditis rerum causis as being too speculative for I will here set downe a more full and ample description of it and such as hath beene imparted by the most accurate wits that this age affordeth after I have a litle spoken of the names both of it and of the Authors who treat of it and have resolved some scrupulous difficulties yet my intention herein is rather to let the Readers know the most approved opinions of the most learned Writers on this subject then definitively to set downe mine owne It is called a Stone because the things whereof it is composed are consolidated and coagulated in a hard and heavy yet friable masse and thereafter reduced to a most subtle powder It is called the Philosophers Stone because Philosophers were the first Inventers of it and they best know the making and use of it They give it an infinite almost number of names partly to set out the matter nature and properties of it and partly to obscure and hide it from the ignorant and impostors for the which cause they gave it many figurative names styling it by some part of the matter whereof it is made and by similitudes as they call it Salamandra quae igne concipitur igne nutritur igne quoque perficitur It is conceived nourished and perfected by the fire and in the fire Philosophi celare volentes veritatem quasi omnia figurativè loquuti sunt Many thinke the Philosophers Stone a thing impossible to be got but a multitude of most ancient and modern Philosophers have thought otherwise who knew both the theorie and practick of it And of the transmutation of mettals Libavius bringeth in a great number of them that testifie the same in his Appendix de natura metallorum amongst whom hee produceth Geberus Hermes Arnoldus Thomas de Aquino Bernardus comes Ioannes Rungius Baptista Porta Rubeus Dornesius Vogelius Penotus Quercetanus Franciscus Picus who in his 3. Booke c. 2. de auro declareth eighteene particular instances whereby he affirmeth plainely that so many times hee did see the transmutation into silver and gold so that the possibility and factibility of the Philosophers Stone and transmutation is evident If any would alleadge difficulty it is true any thing is difficult and even the most facile thing is such to them that are ignorant but to those that know it in speculation and operation it is most easie even as ludus puerorum and opus mulierum SECT 4. That the making of the Philosophers Stone is lesse expensive and laborious than many things wee both use and weare why the makers of it enrich not themselves and others THe true making of that Stone is neither expensive nor long nor wearisome to those that have the dexterity of it Betwixt the Barley graine that must be sowne and the aquae vitae that is made of it there is both a longer time and many more points of labour And betwixt the linnessed and the linnen cloath wee were there is a longer time and much more labour than in the framing of Philosophers Stone as these blowers would have the world beleeve It is true many chymicall Philosophers so soone as they attained this precious Stone the very knowledge of it delighted them more than worldly gaine and they made more use of it in Physick than in projection And if any would aske what was the cause they made not themselves and all their friends most excellently rich It may be well answered they lacked not they had contentment
most carried away with superstitions The second Reason to the Mid-people participating of both extreames betwixt the religionary Southerne and the laborious industrious and warlike Northerne The third which is Vnderstanding to the Northerne who have more strong and robustuous bodies fitter for labour and handy-workes than the other two So as succinctly as I could I have given you a relish what the most learned have both written and thought of the world and its parts till a fitter time wherein God willing you shall receive a more ample content in this and other things A GENERALL INTRODVCTION AND INCITEMENT To the studie of the METAPHYSICKS Wherein the most excellent ends and uses thereof are illustrated and how necessary it is to be understood by Christians SECT 1. Of the severall titles and appellations that have beene given by Heathnick and Christian Philosophers to Mataphysick the reasons wherefore every of those names were attributed unto it and finally whereof it principally treateth THe high and sublime Science which we call Metaphysick hath divers titles and styles attributed unto it partly by Aristotle himselfe and partly by other Authors as is observed by Suarez in the beginning of his first Metaphysicall Disputation and by Fonseca in his prooemium prefixed to his Commentaries upon Aristotles Metaphysicks cap. 8. For first this Science is called Sapientâ—a â— Metaph c. 1. 2. because it disputeth of highest and most hard matters and of the first and most generall causes of things Secondly it is called Philosophia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of excellencie 4 Metaph. cap. 2. because it exceedeth all other parts of Philosophy in dignity very farre and as a Queene it hath Soveraignty and royall prerogatives above them all prescribing unto every particular Science the bounds and limits of it confirming or establishing the principles of them all Thirdly it is called prima Philosophia 6. Metaph cap. 1. lib. 2. cap. 6. because it treateth of most excellent matters as of God and of the Angels in so farre as they may be knowne by the light of Nature for as they are knowne to us by divine revelation the consideration of them belongeth to Divinity In the same respect it is called Philosophia Theologica 6 Mataph cap. 1. and Scientia Theologica 2 Metaph. cap. 6. and by Christian Philosophers who know another Theologie above for distinctions cause it is called Naturalis Theologia Last of all it is called Metaphysica which word occurreth not in Aristotle himselfe but is used by his Interpreters and followers yet it is grounded upon the titles of Aristotles Bookes of Metaphysicks which after by Aristotle himselfe or by Theophrastus who is thought to have collected Aristotles Workes and to have digested them in order are intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idest post naturalia aut transnaturalia and that either because this Science was invented after Naturall Philosophy for the knowledge of the natures of bodily substances which is called Physiology or else because the things considered in it are beyond and above the order or ranke of naturall things that is of grosse and bodily substances for it doth treate of spirituall and invisible substances viz. of God and of the Angels as also it treateth of the attributes and notions or conceptions of entity or beeing which are common to all things which have a reall being whether they be bodily substances or spirituall yea whether they be substances or accidents SECT 2. The Reasons why Aristotle added Metaphysick to the other parts of Phylosophie and how it is distinguished from the other Sciences ARistotle who is thought to be the first author of this sublime and almost divine Science added it to the rest of the parts of Philosophy chiefly for two causes as Fonseca well observeth in the 6. chapter of the Preface to his Commentaries upon the Metaphysicks First because in the Physicks these substances are considered which are composed of bodily matter and forme and in the Mathematicks they are said to be accidentia abstracta à materia secundùm rationem yet truely and really in their beeing or existence they have a necessary dependencie from bodily matter and therefore are called Accidentia materialia because they have their beeing in and from grosse and bodily substances Now besides these there are some things meerely immateriall that is neither composed of bodily matter and forme nor yet any way depending from bodily matter which therefore are in the Schooles said to be abstracta à materia secundùm rem secundum rationem as God the Angels spirituall accidents caet And therefore as materiall substances are considered in the Physicks and materiall accidents in the Mathematicks so it was requisite that there should be a third kinde of Science to wit the Metaphysicks for the consideration and handling of things meerely immateriall and independing from bodily matter Secondly there are some generall degrees and conceptions of entity or beeing as also some attributes properties principles and some divisions or distinctions which are common to all things whether they be bodily and materiall or spirituall and immateriall as ens essentia existentia unitas veritas bonitas and the divisions of ens in completum incompletum finitum infinitum necessarium contingens permanens successivum absolutum respectivum principium principiatum causam effectum subjectum adjunctum signum signatum mensuram mensuratum actum potentiam c. Now these things are transcending and doe exceed the limits of particular and inferiour Sciences as Physick Geometry Arithmetick and the Sciences which are subalternate and subordinate to them wherefore they cannot be handled in them but for the handling of them there must bee some generall and transcendent Science whose speculation is not limited to any particular species entis but comprehendeth and taketh in all things under the capacity and amplitude of the object of it And this is Metaphysick of which we are now speaking SECT 3. Three Reasons conducing to the praise of Metaphysick inducing all men to the study of it and setting downe some principall ends and uses thereof BY this every man may cleerely see the necessity of this Science for the perfection of Philosophy But it may be that some will thinke the consideration of these immateriall or spirituall things of which I did speake in my first reason as also these attributes properties and distinctions which are common to things materiall and immateriall and of which I did speake in my second reason some I say will thinke the consideration of them not to bee necessary but to be more curious than profitable But I perswade my selfe no wise or judicious man will thinke so For first without the knowledge of these generall and transcendent Metaphysicall tearmes and notions or conceptions no solide knowledge can be had for the subjects which are handled in inferiour Sciences
as Suarez noteth writing upon this place in his Index locupletissimus in Phisicam lib. 12. cap. 7. yea he seemeth to have beene ravished with the sweetnesse of this heavenly contemplation It is no wonder that Davâ—d in the 104 Psalme vers 34. said My meditation of him that is of God shall be sweete aud â— wâ—ll bee glad in the Lord. For if Aristotle found such sweetnesse in the contemplation of God as hee is Pater mund or Pater entium what sweetnesse yea what heavenly what ravishing joy may a man living within the Church have in the contemplation of God as he is Pater Ecclesiae and Pater misericordiarum 2 Cor. 1. 3. SECT 7. The secoâ—d Respect for the dignity That the consideration of the soule of man belongeth to the Metaphysicks with severall Reasons for the proofe thereof THere are some who thinke that not onely the contemplation of God and of the Angels doe belong unto the Metaphysicks but also the contemplation De anima humana seu rationali and that because it is a spirituall or immateriall substance Suarez in the first Tome of his Metaphysicks Disput. 1. Sect. 2. Parag. 18. most justly condemneth this opinion and that 1. because consideratio totius consideratio partium ejus ad unam eandem scientiam pertinet Now the consideration of man himselfe belongeth not to Metaphysick but to Physick and therefore the consideration of the soule of man which is a part of man belongeth also to Physick or naturall Philosophy 2. Albeit the soule of man be an immateriall substance in it selfe and although in the reall beeing of it it hath not a necessary dependencie from bodily matter yet God hath appointed that the ordinary and naturall existence or beeing of it as also the operation of it should be in materia corporea It is farre more probable that which is affirmed by Ruvins and Conimbricenses in the Frontispiece of their Treaties de anima separata à corpore and in their first questio prooemialis before their disputes de anima that the consideration of the beeing and operation of the soule in statu separationis à corpore after death untill the day of the generall resurrection doth belong not to Physick but in some respects to Theologie and in other respects to Metaphysick For the handling of these questions An status separationis à corpore sit animae rationali naturalis an anima à corpore separata habeat naturalem appetitum redeundi ad corpus an anima separata specie ab Angelis differat quas facultates seu potentias quas species intelligibiles quos habitus quem modum cognoscendi habeat anima separata à corpore the handling I say of these questions doth belong properly to Metaphysick neverthelesse these same Authors whom I have now cited as also Suarez in the place already spoken of affirme that the Tractatus de anima separata may most commodiously be added to the Bookes de anima not as a proper part of the Science de anima but as an Appendiâ— to it SECT 8. The third Respect for the Vsefulnesse Of the great use Metaphysick is towards the furthering of all Divines in Controversies and other things A Conclusion THirdly and lastly this Science exceedeth all the rest indignity in respect of the great use it hath in all other Sciences and Arts especially in Theology it selfe I neede not to insist in the confirmation of this for it is very well known that by the grounds of Metaphysick wee may demonstrate against Atheists that there is a God against Pagans that this God is one against Cerdon Marcion and the Manichaean Hereticks that there are not duo principia but unum summum primum principium against the Stoickes that there is not such a fatall necessity in all events as they dreamed of against that damnable and detestable Heretick Conradus Vorstius that Deus est infinitus immensus indivisibilis simplex totus in qualibet re in qua est aeternus quoad substantiam suam quoad ejus decret a immutabilis omnium accidentium expers for that wretched and madde Doctor denied all these things In many other Questions and Controversies which the Church hath against Hereticks ancient and moderne there is great use of Metaphysick But I feare to weary the Reader with these Generalls For I intend hereafter God willing to put forth a small Treatise of Metaphysicks wherein you shall finde that noble Science more perspicuously delineated FINIS The praise of Philosophy Effects of Philosophy Vses and ends of Philosophy Of Logick Of Metaphysicks Of Mathematicks The Authors Apologie Questions concerning the World The way how these questions are propounded Diverse opinions of the heavens substance What is the true matter substance of the firmament The earth rolled about with the heavens What is the substance of the stars What maketh them so cleare The Sun placed amiddest the Planets why What light the Moone thineth with what signifieth the black spots in the face of the Moone The Moones power over sublunarie bodies Reasons that there is not an lement of fire Comparison of a Mirrour to variety Why Commets are seene and not the Element of fire Knowledge of Meteors fit for men of spirit The remotest cause of Meteors The neerest cause Their remotest matter Matter and cause of the moist Meteors Difference betwixt fumes and vapours Great differences of the Meteors What are our S. Anthonies fires The earth and waters not seâ—cred like the other elements but linked together Quest. Why the waters are not about the earth Quest. Quest. Why lakes and running flouds are not salt Why some fountaines savour of brasse or salt c. Quest. Of the Seas ebbing and flowing Why the Mediterranean West-Indian Seas have no flux or reflux Of Magellanes Strait what maketh so violent a tyde there Why the Mare Del Zur hath flux and not the neighbouring Sea Why Lakes Rivers ebbe not nor flow not Why the Sea wâ—xes never more nor lesse for all the waters runne to and from it Quest. If the Seas be fresh some fathomes below he superfice The probability that certaine Seas may be fresh low Quest. Reason for the burning hiâ—ls which are in divers Countries The true cause of earth-quakes The comparison of the earth and mans a body Reasons why there is no time The Reasons confuted What things are said to be in Time Aristotles opinion that Time is the ruine of things how to be expounded Quest. Of the wittinesse of Dogs â—nd Horses Of the love of a Dog to his Master Discourse of a Dogs memory Distinction between things done by reason and a naturall inclination That certaine plants herbs vvill grow hiâ—dlier together than others The true cause how the hard Adamant is dissolved in a dish of Goats bloud What maketh the Loadstone draw Iron What maketh the Needle in a Sea compasse turne ever to the North. Reasons prâ— and contra
that fishes breath What way fishes may be said to breath If herring can â—â—ie How herring may be engendred in the Aire A sea-sawing râ—â—â—on why herring 〈◊〉 site Apodes or fowles without feet or Plumes Of Claick Geese Diverse kindes of Insects Sea Insects Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat What middle Creatures are How fishes can be said to live by the Sea seeing their flesh is more firme then the water whereof they are geneâ—â—ted How fowles are brought forth in waters The cause of the firme flesh of fishes That Gold cannot bee made potable The matter of precious stones Quest. Two Philosophicall wayes to know things What leeteth that We cannot aright give up the supputation of the Earths cricumference Diversity of opinions concerning the worlds Compasse The earths circumference or compasse The thicknesse of the earth Distance of the earth from heaven The most approved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun Definition of Meteors their matter substance and height of formation Meteors severally considered by Philosophers and naâ—uralists A comparison of these Vapors â—nto the body of man chiefly to the venâ—â—icle and head Whether there be any exhalaâ—ions from the lowest Region of the ayre The lowest region of the aire is hot and moist both by nature and accident The uppermost region hot and dry The middle region is only cold at least respectively In what region of the Ayre the Meteors are composed What clouds are Clouds are fashioned in the middle region Concerning the middle â—â—gion Solution The foggy vapours which we see like clouds skimming our lakes are but ascending to frame the cloud The matter and forme of fiery Meteors from whence they proceed What are our falling-stars What maketh them fal dovvn seeing they are light Solution Of thunâ—er the matter whereof and place where The matter forme of thâ—se which we call pretty Dancers Fower sorts of vapors ascend from the earth and waters which arâ— the neerest mâ—tter of all Meteors Ayre what Raine what wind Quest. What is the cause that the falling Stars make no noyse as the Thunder seeing one matter is common to both What meaneth these fiâ—es wee see by night before us or by us when we ride at some times Why are they not seene in the day time What be these complainings and laughing which sometimes are heard in the ayre They are Aereall spirits The nature forme of comets The reason of their long hayre or beard Sometimes they are round Halos 1. area What are the Circles about the Moone which we call broughes What course the Comets observe Answer for the diverse courses of Comets What maketh the Comets commonly move from the South to the North. The place of their abode commonly Whether or not they can portend evill to come The Philosophers deny it admitting them but as naturall things The Philosophicall reason why not Other of their reasons why they can portend no evill to come Other reasons of theirs The contrary is seene by experience Lamentable accidents which have followed after the appearing of Comets The reasons which our Astronomicall Philosophers give that Comets may portend change of States Examples of Comets appearing before desolâ—tion Answer to the former objections Conclusion of comets with a particular observation The first matter of raine The way how raine falleth downe The matter manner how dew is engendred What is that which in France we call Serene The matter manner how Hoare-frost are fashioned The place where dew and hoare-frost are framed Some more good observations of dew and Hoar-frost What Snow is Much Snow in the Northerne climats and Why Difference betwixt the Snowy cloud and the rainy one The matter and cause of winde The beginning of wind is but small but it encreaseth in blowing A place of Scripture concerning winds solved What maketh raine commonly follow winde And what after raine What maketh some windes cold other hot seeing one matter is common to both What maketh that in the heat of Summer there are fewest winds seeing then there should be most The way how the wind bloweth Againe the way how the wind bloweth The matter and forme of Earthquakes What makes the Southerne countries most subject to these earthquakes The odâ— betweene wind earthquakes A very fit comparison As our bodies are stirred with a hot ague even so the earth with an inclosed wind A remarkable question Solutions both Philosophicall and Theologicall What is the matter of lightnings The right cause of the noyse of thunder after the lightning Why we see the lightning before wee heare the noyse And why doâ—â— it descend seing it is light The cause of the admirable effects of thunder Why the thunder of blacke clouds are more terrible then those of White Why those that be thunder beaten smell of brimstone The true matter of thunder The reason why the thunder of black clouds are most dangerous All weake Meteors have one common matter Their difference in forme and place Why haile is round Why raine falleth in drops From whence fountains have their courses That there is waters within the earth The Sea the mother of fountaines How Fountaines are on the tops of mountaines How mountaine furnisheth water unto fountains Why some springs cease running What maketh two fountaines a little distant one hot and another cold The veines through which the waters run maketh them salt hot or cold Gods power outreacheth mans wisdome The comparison of the great little world A worthy similitude Greatest armies have not alwayes done great Semiramis innumerable army defeated by a very few under an Indian Prince Xerxes alio overthrowne by a handfull of Greekes and Salamines The battaile of Thermopilae Iohn King of France overthrowne by Edward the black Prince of England Edward Carnarvan of england overthrowen by Bruce at Bannak-burne Scanderbeg with a handfulâ— overthrew Mahomet If Princes may hazzard their persons in a field or not Queene Elizabeth on the front of her armie in 88. The countenance of a King a great incouragement unto souldiers When a King should be in proper person in a field Why powerful subjects are not alwâ—yes fiâ—est to bee elected Generals of armies One Generall â—itter not two How the Romans and Grecians send two Commanders with their armies abroad Their foresight and prudence herein Fabius and Marcellus contrary dispositions Why the Grecians did send alwayes two in ambassage or to field The limitating of Generals Commission dangerous Great ods betwixt battels and duels To shun fighting at times is no disgrace unto a General Hannibal sueth for peace at Scipio Hannibals speech unto Scipio Sr. Fr. Drakes stratageme in 88. Hannibals stratagem A comparison of drawing up of our armies with the Old Romans If the Roman field malice exceeded ours yet our beleaguring instruments of warre exceed theirs The terriblenes of our pieces How the Romans had a fitter occasion of trying their valour then we The battell of Lepanto surpasseth all the Romans Sea-fights