But to urge this question as far as it might go and to examine all the consequences and circumstances with that severity which Philosophy hath used in these matters besides that it were to put to Arbitration those truths which Astrology placeth in the rank of things already judged which its most opinionated Enemies are for the most part forced to confess This would require a Discouse which would pass the bounds of our designe and offend the very method wherewith all Sciences should be treated for it will not give us leave to doubt or convert those things which we meet with in it and particularly defends us to censure the Principles whereupon they are established and make those pass for currant which are taken from the conclusions of superior Sciences how doubtfull soever they are with the same priviledge as the Maximes and common Notions of the Mathematicks prevail It s sufficient for Chiromancy that Physick maintains its first foundation all what it receives afterwards from Astrology may be allowed it or at least brought to a pause until we examine the grounds of Astrology it self Article XX. YEt that we may not leave a suspition that those conclusions which are drawn from thence for its principles are altogether imaginary and contrary to the truth we shall make it appear by some observations which cannot be disputed that there are parts of the body under the particular direction of some of the Planets and this will be nothing difficult for some of them and although rejecting those experiences wherewith Astrology might furnish us on this occasion we have not enough of others to make an absolute proof of this Truth yet the first may seem to prejudge the rest and will leave a well founded conjecture for us to beleeve that every member is governed by one of those Stars and that that Principle which Astrology hath made for Chiromancy is not ill established Article XXI LE ts therefore begin with the Brain No man will contest but that the Moon hath a secret Empire over it and but that she makes it more manifestly sensible of her power then any of the rest for it swells and falls encreaseth and diminisheth according as that Star is in the full or wain for which cause Physick which is not ignorant of these changes takes care that the trepanning which she appoints be made with the greatest precaution at the full of the Moon because it then knows the Brain is also full and so drawing these membranes which environ nearer to the bone it brings them in danger of being the more easily touched by the Instrument But the diseases of that part which have their accesses and fits according to the course of the Moon evidently shew the Ligature and Sympathy which is betwixt them For there are some which follow her motions so regularly that they might be the Ephemerides thereof and although she be under the Horizon although the sick person endeavour by all means to shelter himself from her influences yet all this hinders her not from the overflowing of a Flux which at a set time happens at the change of her quarters which he is sensible of without observing them in the Heavens or in the Almanack The assaults of the Epilepsy do they not commonly follow the motions of that Planet Are there not species of folly which we call Lunaticks and have not Horses diseases in the head which bear that name because both the one and the other of them follow the motions of the Moon In fine do we not know that the rayes of that Star cause opinionated Fluxions and makes persons to love their complexions if their faces are long exposed principally in their sleep Now all these effects can relate to nothing but its influences because they often happen when she is hidden under the Earth and in that condition neither her light nor the magnetick vertue which is attributed to her cannot works on us neither do we doubt the truth of these secret qualities after those many observations which have been made of an infinite many effects which they have produced And amongst other the flowing of the Sea which without dispute follows the motion of the Moon beginning ever when she riseth in our Horizon or on that of the Antipodes and having its greatest force when she hath attained their or our Meridian For if we can demonstrate as it were easie to do would this place admit the length of the Discourse we should make if we can I say demonstrate that the Flood can proceed neither from the motion of the Earth nor from the light of the Stars nor from any magnetick vertue nor by the impulsion of the Moon nor by the rarefaction which heat causeth on the water there can nothing but these influences remain which can be the cause of this admirable Motion and which without doubt is so also of all those accidents which we have now observed Article XXII IF it be acknowledged in that Star and if it be from them that we have the direction of one of the principal parts of the body we cannot doubt but that the Sun who is King and as it were the father of all therest of the Planets must also have some which are more powerfull and but that he who concurs to the generation of all things hath reserved to himself the first and most noble parts of Animals to have the conduct thereof and communicates his vertues thereunto It s not to be doubted but that he hath chosen the heart for his throne and for the place of his exaltation he resides there as he is in Heaven in the midst of all the Stars I would say of all the members of the body which are governed by the Planets From thence it gives the influence of its vertue to all the parts of the little world and if in its course it happen to suffer any malignant aspect that member is sensible of it and suffers with the disorders of its Soveraign It hath been indeed observed that those who are sick suffer an extraordinary weakness during the Eclipses of the Sun and that even those who are of a delicate complexion sensibly resent in themselves the effect of this constellation moreover the vital faculty becomes so languishing in the Solstices and Equinoctials and when malignant Stars rise with him that Hippocrates hath forbidden us at such times to make use of any remedy till after ten dayes But we must not here forget an observation which that incomparable man hath written in his Book of Dreams which will not onely shew the Sympathy which is betwixt the Heart and the Sun but also that which the Moon and the Stars have with the rest of the parts for after having supposed that the Sun hath relation with the middle of the body the Moon with those ranges which are in it and the Stars with the inward parts he saith that if these Stars appear in a dream with that purity and regularity of motion which is
the right Ventricle of the heart where the blood is hottest and most boiling not onely because the Liver which is the Source of blood is neerer unto it not onely because the veins of all the right parts are more full according to Hippocrates but also because it is placed on the Right side where Motion ought alwayes to begin For as the Spirits are the principal Organs of all the Actions of the body and that Nature send them more abundantly where they ought to be strongest and most painfull we need not doubt but motion being to begin on the right side and all those preparatives which are necessary for it and the principal effect it requires being to be done in that place there must needs be a greater quantity of spirits flowing thither which heat and fortifie it by the heat it carrieth along with it and by those secret influences of those principles of life which she communicates unto it whence it comes that the parts themselves which serve nothing at all to motion and are on that side resent that force and that vigor which was destined for that onely action for the right eye is stronger and more exact then the left and the rectitude of the sight which is made by both together depends absolutely from it all those Organs which serve for generation and are on that side form males and those on the left females and speaking generally sickness most commonly assaults the left parts as those which have least heat and consequently are weakest Article V. NOw that Motion naturally begins on the right side is a truth which connot be contested if we consider what is done in all Animals for the four-footed begin to go with the right foot forwards others which have but two alwayes lift up the right first a man can better bear a burthen on his left then on the right shoulder because the principle of motion must be free and undisturbed And Painters never forget in the posture they place their Figures in to make them keep their left foot foremost as commonly we do when we stand upright forasmuch as it is that posture which brings the body to a condition to move when it would march There are even Creature to be found who by reason of their figure could not have those differences of Right and Left as Purple-shel fish and all the rest whose shels are in form of a Snails yet are they not deprived of Right because when they ought to move they must necessarily have the principle of motion All these truths being thus therefore established to wit that there are places and parts in the body which are more and less noble that the most noble are destined there to place the most excellent parts that the excellency of the parts is deduced from the profit they afford and that consequently the hands who for several services which they render are placed on high as in the most noble place ought to be more excellent then the Feet It remains now that we should shew that they receive a most considerable assistance from the principles of life and that all the noble parts communicate unto them some greater vertue then to any other whatsoever Article VI. TO which purpose we must first observe that Nature hath more care of those parts which are the most excellent that she commonly forms them first and that she useth more art in making them and more foresight in preserving them then she doth in the rest This appears in the order she keeps at their first conformation For after the Heart and the Brain which she first rudely forms the eyes which without doubt are the most delicate and the most noble Organs appear before all the rest of the parts even before there is any sign of the Liver Spleen or Reins The Mouth in all Creatures is also one of the first formed after the eyes the Organs of the progressive Motion are afterwards seen and then we observe the Liver the Spleen and the rest of the bowels as the last and most exact observations on Anatomy witness Besides we see that the higher parts are sooner finished and that in Children they are greater and stronger then the lower whence it is that they have all the same proportion which is in the stature of Dwarfs and that they cannot go by reason their legs are too short and too weak Now its certain that all the care which Nature takes either in forming them first or in advancing their perfection depends from the natural heat which she communicates in greater abundance for it is the general instrument of all her actions and the true subject wherein all her faculties recide So that if there are parts which are first formed it must needs be that the first portion of this heat which is alwayes most pure and of most efficacy in its Scource must have been dispenced unto them and if they perfect themselves before the rest it must be by a particular application of this quality which acts therein more strongly then in any other part and which for that cause is continually supplyed by the influence of the Spirits which augment and fortifie it whence it follows that the hands which are formed before so many parts and which are sooner found perfect and compleat then the feet have also had a more advantageous share of natural heat and a more ample distribution of the Spirits then they have had Article VII BUt if we will consider these parts in a more perfect condition and in a time when they are able to perform the principal functions which they are destined unto its certain that the Heart the Liver and the Brain do communicate them some greater vertue then they do to the rest of the parts for besides the actions of a natural and sensitive life which they have in common with them progressive motion is particularly reserved unto them So that to perform this action wherein is more pains and whereto more strength is required they need have a greater help and a stronger influence from those principal Members then is necessary for the rest of the actions of life So they must have more blood more heat and more spirits more blood to render their consistence more firm more natural heat to inspire more strength in them and more animal spirits to give them beyond Sence the motive faculty for without those conditions those Organs were useless and no motions could be made In a word since the instruments are no instruments but by the vertue which they draw from the cause which imploys them it must needs be that those parts which are instruments of motion must receive also from the principles of motion that vertue which make them act consequently they must have this vertue more then the rest they have more spirits to afford in them they have therefore also more communication with those noble parts which are the Sources of the spirits and of this vertue This reason is indeed common
it were to much to flatter the blindeness of those who afford them more faith then they deserve and even to abuse the time which our imployments require But that you may not complain of this fore-shortning I shall add to those Discourses which I entertain you with all those Reasons which at first made me have a suspition that there was some truth in Chiromancy and that it might have more assured grounds then many have imagined And I doubt not but they will produce the same effect in the mindes of such who will consider them without preoccupation since those very things which ought to render them suspected and give a repulse to those who would imploy themselves therein are those which may authorize it and breed a desire in them to have the knowledge thereof In effect as the first and principal Foundation of Chiromancy is the disposition of the Planets which it hath diversly placed in the Hand for it hath placed Jupiter on the fore-finger called the Index Saturne on the next the Sun on the third Mercury on the fourth Venus on the thumb and the Moon on its inferiour part This foundation I say which overthrows the natural order of the Planets and which consequently rather seems to be the Capritio of the first Inventors of this Science then any reason they had to rank them so is far from rendring it suspected of falsehood from thence I conceive it rather one of those things which affords us the first suspitions of the truth thereof For the Humane Soul which is so great a lover of proportion and which never fails to adorn and enrich her imaginations wheresoever she can insinuate it cannot have forgotten it here without cause and that she hath been forc'd by the truth of experiences which have been made to change the order of the Planets which it hath so exactly preserved in Metaposcopy and in a thousand other occasions where it had the liberty of application And without doubt were it a pure imagination it would have been more easie and more reasonable to have placed Saturne on the fore-finger Jupiter on the second the Sun on the fourth and so to have followed that order which the Stars observe among themselves then so to transpose them as they have Now if they were to have been changed it seems it would have been more fit to have made the greatest finger govern by the greatest Star or to have assigned it that which was most moveable rather then the third which is least active So that there is a great probability that so extraordinary a disposition of the Planets is not the work of their fancies who first found out this Science but of that necessity which they had to follow the reasons and experiences which marked out this truth But the observation which Aristotle reports in his History of Animals encreaseth this first suspition For in that incomparable work wherein we may say Nature hath discovered and explicated her self He assure us that there are lines in the hand which according as they are long or short remark the length or shortness of life And as this is one of the first of the rules of Chiromancy it s to be beleeved that he was not ignorant of it and that that admirable man would not introduce into a History which was to be one of the fairest Pictures of Nature any thing that was doubtful of the Truth whereof he was not well assured That if it be certain as experience hath since confirmed it there is no reasonable person who will not judge but the hand ought to have a stronger connexion with the principles of life then all the rest of the exterior parts whereon these marks are not to be found That these mark are the effects whereby the good or ill disposition of those principles from whence they proceed ought to be made known And finally that in this part there are wonders which hitherto are not well known and that if we could finde out the knowledge of them we might perhaps discover that which Chiromancy boasts of To conclude He that would but mind that those lines which are in the hand are in all men different That in one person they change from time to time and that all this diversity can proceed from no other internal or external cause which is known to us he must be constrained to confess that all these characters are the effects of some secret influence which imprints them on that part and that Nature doing nothing in vain they are for particular use and at least mark the alteration which is in those principles which produce them For to refer those impressions to the articulation or motion of the Hand as some have is what cannot be maintained seeing articulations are equal to all men who nevertheless have all unequal Lines That there are many where no articulation is as in the space which is betwixt the joynts of the Finger that Children new born and who all shut their hand after one manner without almost making any motion yet have many Lines which are different in every of them That those who exercise the same Art and consequently ought near upon to make the like motions yet have them as different as if they were of a contrary profession That in the same person they change although there be no change in his manner of living And that lastly in the Forehead where there is no articulation and that all men move it after one manner there are the like Lines which have the same diversity as those of the Hand We may further add to these considerations the antiquity of Chiromancy which must have been in use before Aristotle since what he speaks of the Lines of the Hands is one of its Observations and Rules the exercise which it hath given to so many learned men who have employed themselves therein and have even honored it with their Writings and those wonderful judgments which have been made according to its maxims For in what riseth even to astonishment that of Forty five persons whom Cocles thereby had forseen should die by a violent death Cardan observes that in his time there were but two which were yet alive to whom this mischance happened not But freely to speak the Truth hereof these are as we have already observed but light suspitions which conclude not the certainty of this Science For as concerning the order of the Planets which it hath inverted that makes us presume it did it not without reason But the question still remain undecided to wit whether it be true That those stars have any power on the Hand and whether every one hath his particular place which is affected with it The Authority of Aristotle may also be contested And all that diversity of Lines may also have other causes and be of other uses then what Chiromancy gives them Moreover how antient soever it be there have been old errors which have abused all the passages and although it hath
to the hands and feet in respect of the other parts but if we add hereunto the advantage which the higher situation hath above the lower the excellency of the parts there placed and those particular cares which Nature takes of them as we have shown it will make it apparent that in this distribution of spirits and of vertue the hands have had the greater share and consequently that they have more communication with the noble parts then the feet or any other member whatsoever Article VIII BUt besides this communication which they have with them by means of the veins arteries and nerves there are others more secret which have more obscure wayes and passages and yet more clearly discover the truth which we seek for if it be true that the lines in the hand observe the length and the shortness of life according as they are long and short as Aristotle and experience teach us There must not onely be a greater relation and a stronger tye of the principles of life with it then there is with all the rest of the parts where these marks are not to be found but it s also necessary that the noble parts which are the Sources wherein these principles of life are shut up should communicate unto it some secret influence which can have no relation to those common and manifest vertues which it receives from them since the blood nor the spirits the heat nor motion which they distribute unto it serves not at all to render those lines long or short or to mark the length or shortness of life Article IX THat secret Sympathy which is betwixt the hand and the noble parts being then presupposed until we can more fully prove it by more just and particular observations we must establish it for a certain principle that Nature never confounds the vertues principally those which are formal and specifick which have never so little opposition amongst themselves and that she ever as much as she can separates them for without producing the maximes of Astrology which hath divided Heaven into so many Planets and Stars into so many Signs and Houses different in vertue there is no order of things in the Universe wherein this truth is not acknowledged Amongst perfect Animals the qualities which are necessary to generation have been divided into two Sexes in every of them the faculties which govern life have every one their particular seat and all the Sences have their proper Organs and their functions separated Examine Plants Minerals and Stones and you shall finde the same distinction and without troubling our selves to sever them as we might It will be sufficient to observe in the Load-stone where it is so sensible that without blindness of stupidity we need not doubt of it for in a Homogene body whose composition is every way equal and wherein it seems that all the parts ought to have the same power yet it s certain that there are some which have been partakers of magnetick qualities and that there are two Poles where they have been separately placed and if what hath been lately pretended to have been observed is true that there is a first Meridian in this stone all the rest must be so too and consequently they must every one have a different inclination So true it is that Nature loves to separate Vertues as it is that she hates Confusion and Mixture In effect did she not exactly observe this order things would often be done contrary to design one quality would destroy another and effects would not answer their causes nor the end they are destined unto Article X. IF this be so and if there are particular Vertues which the noble parts communicate to the Hand they must not confound themselves together they must not be placed in the same part and therefore there must be a place destined for that of the Liver another for that of the Heart and so for all the rest But the greatest difficulty is in what parts and particular places these influences are received for although Chiromancy assures us that the fore-finger hath a sympathy with the Liver the second with the Spleen the third with the heart c. Yet it produceth no convincing proof of this truth and what experiences so ever it produceth to maintain it they still leave those in doubt who will not be satisfied with their reasons and they seem often to be fancies and grocesios in the Minde forged only by humane curiosity and of a truth who ever could well have established this sympathy by other observations then those which are fetched from the stock of Chiromancy and had Medicine or some other part of Physick furnished them he might have boasted to have discovered the Mistery of this Science and to have found the onely foundation whereon the truth of all the rest was grounded for my part I pretend not to produce all those which are necessary to make a full proof thereof yet I beleeve I have some which may commence it and which having demonstrated one part will leave an invincible presumption for all the rest with hopes that a man might after a diligent observation of what happens to that admirable Organ perfect the same Article XI THe first which we therefore ought to propose is to shew the consent and sympathy which the Liver hath with the fore-finger called the Index and this is drawn from Physick which teacheth us that Leprosie hath its Source and principal Seat in the Liver and that one of the first signes whereby it is first made known appears on that finger for when all the Muscles of the hand and even all the body are sull and juycy those which serve for the motion of that finger are dried and withered principally that which is in the Thenar that is to say in the space which is betwixt that finger and the thumb wherein all what is fleshy wasts it self and nothing remains but the skin and fibres which lie flatted to the bones Now this cannot thus happen but that there must be some Analogy and some secret commerce betwixt the Liver and that part since it is one of the first which resents the alteration which is made in its substance it being truly said that there is no disease which so much corrups the nature of the Liver and destroys not onely its vertue but even its substance as this which for that cause is called the universal Cancer of the Liver and of all the mass of blood Galen was without doubt ignorant of this sympathy which ratiocination alone could never have discovered whereas to have been instructed therein it must have been revealed to him in a dream for he reports that having been assaulted by a violent grief which caused him to fear an impostune in the Liver he was in his sleep advised to cause that Artery to be opened which runs all along that finger and that this remedy in an instant appeased the grief which he had resented for a long time before which
evidently witnesseth that there is some particular communication betwixt those two parts and some secret friendship which binds them together Article XII THe second Observation is to shew that also which the Heart hath with the third which is called the Ring-finger because we there usually wear Rings for it is a wonderfull thing when the Gout falls on the hands it is the last finger it assaults and Levinus reports that in all those whom he hath seen labor of that disease their third finger of the left hand was alwayes free whilst all the rest were cruelly tormented with grief and inflamation Now as the parts resist sickness more or less according as they have more or less strength and that strength depends from the more or less of natural heat which they have this finger must needs have more of it then the rest since it resists ill more then they can And because its share of natural heat comes either from the first conformation of the parts or from the influence which the principle of heat communicates unto them and that there is no likelihood but that this finger which hath the same structure and the same composition as the rest have must have more of that first and original heat which is given unto it at the birth it follows that that which it hath comes from the influence which the principle of the heat sends unto it more abundantly then unto the rest And consequently it hath more communication more dependance and more connexion with the heart which without dispute is the principle of heat then all the rest of the fingers together have This Sympathy was not unknown to Antiquity and History teacheth us that of old Phisitians did believe that this finger had some cordial vertue being used privatively from all the rest to those Medicaments which they put into their potions and Antidotes whence it is they have called it the Medical finger which the Latine retains and that its one of the reasons for which it ever wore rings and that divers apply remedies for the weakness of the heart as Levinus says he hath often experienced and for the cure of intermitting fevers as some still do with good success it s also long since that men have been troubled to finde the cause of that Intelligence and of the relation which is betwixt those two parts For some as Appian in Aulus Gellius say that there is a nerve that proceeds from the heart and ends in that finger others have affirmed that it was an artery which made this colliation and that its manifestly felt beat in women that lie in in those which are tired with labour and in all those diseases wherein the heart labours But although this latter opinion be the more probable yet it clears not quite the difficulty because all the other fingers have an artery as well as that which comes from the same branch and from the same Source as that adding also that it is not necessary that there should be manifest conduits to carry these vertues Nature as Hippocrates says making wayes and secret paths not onely to give a passage to its faculties but even to the humors themselves which she would drive out Article XIII I Could add for a third Observation The Sympathy betwixt the Spleen and the middle-finger the wonderfull effects which the opening of the Salvarella produceth in the diseases of the Speen For this vein commonly betwixt the middle and the third finger as Hippocrates saith or betwixt this and the little one sending up some branches to the Medium we may very probably beleeve that the vertue of the Spleen is through that vein carried to that finger and that the third being occupied by the influence of the Heart it cannot receive that of the Spleen if it be true that the vertues confound not themselves as we have demonstrated In effect what ever our new Practitioners say Experience joyned with the authority of the first Masters of the Art is stronger then all those reasons which they can produce for besides that it is dangerous to submit all the Rules of Physick to ratiocination which is often weak and deceitfull and to forsake the opinion of the Ancients who have been more just observers of things then those which came after them I may say of a truth that having more then threescore times made overture of that vein in quartain Agues it never failed after due preparations either to cause the Fever to cease or to make the fits the lighter Let them not go about to reason on the distribution or greatness of the vessels as the same stock may have several branches which have not the same vertue and that some of them bear flowers or fruits and others which have none So although all the veins of the Arm and of the hand come from the same stock yet have they not the same employments and are but Channels whereby several faculties may flow so that that which the Spleen sends may wholly pass to the Salvarella without imparting it self to the rest even as the parts discharge themselves onely on those which are particularly affected with them although they have connexion with others by their vessels and by their situation whence those several transports of humors and those changes which sickness makes from one place to another happens as hereafter we shall more amply declare As for the largeness of the veins which render the evacuation the more profitable then are those of the small ones it s a true thing when its necessary to diminish the universal fulness of the body but to discharge a small part the least often so as they are near unto and that they have some secret society with it perform it with more safety and with more efficacy then the greater In fine since it is a received opinion from all times that the opening of that vein is profitable to the diseases of the Spleen as may be seen in the writings of Hippocrates of Gaien and of all the Arabians it s not probable it should have been approved by such great men and should have out-lived so many ages and have come to us without having been maintained by experience since reason could give us no foundation for such a belief and if by this means this remedy hath been made known we ought not strictly to examine the reasons no more then the purgative faculties or any other specifick vertues which Physick abounds withall To return again to the first proof which we have left we said that this observation might be made use of to establish the sympathy of the Spleen with the second finger we might also add the History which Hippocrates reports in the fourth of the Popular Diseases of the woman whose Hypocondryes were so streightned and her respiration so hindred to whom there happened on the eleaventh day a fluxion and inflammation on that same finger whereby for a time she found her self eased although afterwards the violence of the
fever and impostume which was formed in her bowels brought her to her death Whence we may conjecture that a portion of that humour which was in the Spleen discharged it self on the finger as on a part which had connexion and consent with it and that this little discharge afforded her some ease but because all the cause of the ill could not be contained in so small a room the rest of it caused the imposthumation whereof she died yet to speak freely these are but conjectures which we bring in parallel with the foregoing observations which seem demonstrations of the Truth which we seek Article XIV ANd it were to be wished that we had the like to shew distinctly the rest of those sympathies which the other interiour parts have with other parts of the Hand But from the negligence men have had to finde them we are obliged still to speak truth that since those of the Heart and Liver are not to be doubted the rest must needs be so although they appear not so manifestly unto us and that not onely the Brain and other parts which have a publick and principal function as well as the Heart and Liver but also the Spleen the Stomach the Lungs the Kidneys and perhaps others also have every one in the Hand their proper and affected place with which they have consent and communication Article XV. SO that we may affirm and for a proof of this secret intelligence which the parts have one with another and for the honour of that whereof we discourse that the Hand and the Face contain an abridgement of all the parts of the Body for this is an Epitomy of all the outward Members having no part which hath not its particular and manifest relation with some one of them as that also hath of all the interior parts having no place which hath not its colligation and sympathy with some one of them And without doubt it s one of the principal reasons for which they have both had a constitution of hides altogether particular and that the skin which is every-where else separate from the Muscles is so united to that that its impossible to be separated Nature which hath destined those parts to be as it were Looking-glasses wherein all the rest ought to be represented would in them have the flesh joyn to the hide that the impression which it receives of the neves veins and arteries which are shed abroad in them might the more easily communicate it self and appear the more readily outwards That which is also to be found in the Soles of the Feet which in some manner participate the same advantages which the hands have whereon Podomancy hath been established which promiseth the same things that Chiromancy doth but with less success for those reasons which we shall deduce Howsoever it be it s an admirable thing and in my opinion not enough considered that there is none of the marks on the Face which we commonly call Moles but another is to be found in some part of the Body certain and determined which particularly answers thereunto for if any be on the forehead there will be another on the brest and according as that is in the middle high or low on this or that side this will have the same difference in its situation for one on the cheeks you shall have another on the thighs if on the brows another will be on the shoulders if on the ears another on the arms and so for the rest Now we cannot say that this correspondence is simply in those marks since all of them are formed of the same matter and that consequently they cannot have more relation one with another but they must be in the very same parts and that the society which they have together must be the cause that the one cannot be marked but its correspondent must at the same time suffer the same impression we see likewise that besides the secret consent which they may have together a sensible and manifest relation in the situation and in the structure which they have for the breast which is that part of the body which is below the head the most flat bony answers directly to the fore-head which hath the same qualities the thighs which are on the sides and are very fleshy relate to the cheeks which are even so the brows to the shoulders by reason of the eminency which both of them have the ears to the arms being both advanced and as it were without the work and so of the rest Yet all this signifies not that this resemblance is the true Source of this sympathy it s neither just nor exact enough to produce such like effects and its necessary there should be some secret bond which binds these parts one with another and which must be the principal cause of this wonderful har mony which is amongst them whereof these natural Characters are unreproachable witnesses Article XVI BUt it is not onely betwixt the exterior and manifest parts that this society is to be found there is yet another which is more general which was known by Hippocrates and serves for the ground-work of that ingenious division of the veins which he hath made in his Book of Bones for that admirable person having considered the several transports of humors and change of diseases which so often happens of some certain parts to others hath observed those veins whereby it might be effected and which were to be opened for their cure and to observe a method which might avoid confusion he established several Heads and as it were divers Articles in which he began the distribution of those vessels for he placed the first at the Heart the second at the Reins the third at the Liver the fourth at the eyes the fifth at the Head whence he makes four pair of veins to issue which afterwards spread themselves into several places Article XVII NOt that he did beleeve that those were the first Sources whence the veins draw their origine as Aristotle Galen and almost all their Sectators have imposed it on him since he knew that they were all rooted in the Liver whence they distribute themselves to all the parts of the body to convey nourishment unto them as in pursuit he makes it appear in the distribution which he makes of the Hepatick vein what he hath also reported in his second Book of Popular Diseases but it was to remark the consent which there was betwixt those five parts with the rest and those sicknesses and symptomes which they mutually communicated to one another So when he says that the left eye receives a vein from the right eye and this one from the left this must not be litterally taken as if they truly took their origine from those parts but it s to shew that the diseases of one eye are communicable to the other as if they had veins which carried them directly thither It s truely by the means of veins that this communication
natural unto them it s a sign of perfect health and that there is nothing in the body which follows not that order and rule which Nature requires But if we see any one which obscures it self which disappears or which is stopt in its course it s a sign of a sickness which is come to those parts which answer every one of them for if these disorders happen to the Stars the sicknesses will be contracted into the habit of the body if in the Moon in the cavities of the body but if it be in the Sun it will be the stronger and harder to be cured as that which assaults the principle of life The middle he speaks of is to be understood onely of the vital parts which comprehend the Heart and those parts which environ it Now if this be true as reason and experience have so often since confirmed it we must thence conclude that since the imagination forms in its dreams all these images of the Sun to represent the good or ill disposition of the Heart It s necessary that it should have some foundation to joyn together two things which are so different in themselves and that in this part it finde solar qualities which may serve as a model to those figures and pictures which it makes of that Star In a word the particular influences which the Heart receives from the Sun are the originals on which the Soul sleeping takes all those admiral copies otherwise why should it not do so for some other member and why in an inflamation of the Liver for example where heat is at that time greater then in the rest of the body should it not represent to it self that Star which is the Source of all the heat in the world as well as it doth in the lesser alterations of the Heart Certainly in this part there are vertues so strange and hidden that its impossible to relate them to the Elements For that it often resists flame without being able to be consumed that it will not grow soft in boiling unless you take off its ears that some fish can never be crooked if it be left in their body these are effects which are so particular unto it and of which its so hard to render a reason by manifect qualities and that it gives way for us to presume that those it hath are of a higher order and have relation as Aristotle says to the Element of the Stars Now if the influence which the Heart receives from the Sun is a cause that these dreams represent themselves by the images of this Planet the several dispositions the heart is in must needs cause the same from the Moon and from other Stars in relation to the cavities of the body and exteriour parts and thence it is that without doubt Astrology hath placed under the direction of the Moon the Brain the Stomack the Intestines the Bladder and the Matrix which are the most considerable cavities of the body but also that it hath distributed all the outward parts to all the signs of the Zodiack having first founded it on this doctrine of Hippocrates whereto it hath since added its own experiences Article XXIII AFter all these reasons we need not doubt but that the other Planets also have their particular influences and that they govern but as they do some particular parts of the body But Philosophy hath taken so little care to take observations thereof that besides those which Astrology furnisheth us withal we have none which do observe the direction which Jupiter hath on the Liver that which Saturn hath on the Spleen c. unless you will place in this rank those scars and moles which are to be found naturally imprinted on those parts For it s assured that he at whose birth Saturne rules hath commonly one of these marks on the region of the Spleen if it be Jupiter on that of the Liver if Venus on the secret parts and there is another betwixt the brows for which cause Dares Phrygius in the Picture which he made of the fair Hellen said that she had one betwixt her brows which Cornelius Nepos hath expressed in these two fair Verses Sola supercili is nubes inter flua rar is Audaci macula tenues discriminat arius But I esteem not these observations just enough nor sufficiently confirmed by experience to draw a certain proof of what we pretend it shall suffice us to say that until there be a more exact inquiry made the Sun and the Moon who without difficulty command the Heart and the Brain shall serve out of a prejudgment to make us beleeve that the rest of the Planets have an empire over those Members which Astrology hath submitted them unto and consequently we may conclude that that Principle which it hath assigned Chiromancy is not without foundation and that it may maintain a great many of the promises which it hath made Article XXIV THese are the reasons on which I did beleeve the establishment might be made which might also serve to regulate many things which are not yet agreed on in the practice of this Art to observe the causes of divers effects which are to be found therein and if I do not deceive my self they will prepare the minde to beleeve that Metoposcopy wants no more then this foundation to makes it an Art and to maintain the truth of its maximes for if the noble parts have so great a connexion with the hand they in all probability ought to have a greater with the face which is the abridgement of all the body the seat of the Sences and the Souls mirror and if vertues do not confound themselves as hath been shown every one may have as in the Hand it s proper and affected place that of the Heart will be admitted into one place that of the Liver into another and so for the rest and consequently the same Planets which command those parts will govern the same places and will there leave the marks of the good or ill influences which they have shed abroad through the principal members of the Body But so curious a matter and so carelessly examined requires a particular Discourse as well as this and with this had need of new observations to confirm the truth thereof Perhaps I shall have one day time to communicate these unto you which I have observed and to shew you that the whole man appears in the face we may say that Man hath not been well known since we have not known those wonders which are in his face Resuming therefore our former discourse I said that those reasons which we had deduced regulate many things which are doubtfull in the practice of this Art for there are some which hold that we must not stop at the inspection of the Hands and that that of the Feet is also necessary that the left Hand ought to be considered in women and of those who are born in the night and the right in men and of those who