differs from Principle because every Cause is real and imparts a being different from its own which Privation being a Principle hath not And so every Cause is a Principle but every Principle is not a Cause Now a Cause is That which produceth an Effect There are Four Matter Form the Agent and its End Which Number is not drawn from any real distinction between them Seeing many times one and the same Thing is Form Agent and End in several respects So the Rational Soul is the Form of Man the Efficient Cause of his Ratiocination and the next End of the Creation But it is drawn from the four wayes of being a Cause which are call'd Causalities whereof one susteineth the Forms to wit the Matter An Other informeth that Matter and is the Form A Third produceth that Form and uniteth it to the Matter and is the Agent or Efficient Cause The Fourth by its goodness exciteth the Agent to act and is the Final Cause The Second said That the Causes are handled diversly according to the diversity of Sciences The Logician speaks of them so far as he draws from them his Demonstrations Definitions and Probable Arguments The Natural Philosopher inasmuch as they are the Principles of all kind of Alterations hapning in natural bodies The Metaphysitian as Cause is a Species of Entity which is generally divided into Cause and Effect In which consideration Supernatural Things have also some Causes but not all Wherefore in my Judgement said he Cause taken in general cannot be divided into the Four Species above mention'd because Spirits have no Material Cause but it ought to be first divided in reference to Immaterial things into Efficient and Final and into the four abovesaid in respect of Material That Efficient Cause is the first principle of Motion and Rest and is of two sorts viz. Vniversal or Equivocal and Particular or Vnivocal The former can produce several effects of different Species whether it depend not on any other as God and is then call'd the First Cause or depend on some other and is call'd a Second Cause As the Sun which together with Man generates Man The Particular otherwise Univocal Cause is that which produceth one sort of effect alone As Man generateth Man The Material Cause is that of which something is made The Formal Cause is that which causeth the Thing to be that which it is whether Essentially as the Soul makes the Man or Accidentally as a round form makes a Bowle The Final is that which incites the Agent to act as Gain doth the Merchant to Traffick The Third said Matter and Form being parts of the whole cannot be Causes thereof because then they would be Causes of themselves which is absurd Neither is the End a Cause but onely the term and rest of the Cause Besides there are some Ends which are impossible to obtain and are nothing of reality such as a Cause ought to be as when Heliogabalus propounded to himself to become a Woman others to fly to become invisible and the like absurdities So that there is but the Efficient Sole Cause of all Things which is the Internal Idea in God which is nothing else but that Fiat which created the World 'T is that very Cause which produceth all things in all different times and places and acts upon Art Nature and Nothing whence it is that All Entity conformable to that Increated Exemplar beareth those three Characters Truth Goodness and Vnity which all things are bound to represent under the Penalty of becoming Nothing out of which they were produced 'T is a Circle according to Trismegist whose Centre is every where and Circumference no where which possibly mov'd Galen to term Man the Centre of Mixt Bodies and all Antiquity a Little World and made Saint Thomas say that Man hath been united hypostatically to God the Son who is the Idea of the Father for the rejoyning of all the productions of the world to their first Principle Here he fell into Divinity but he was admonish'd to observe the Rules appointed by this Assembly to keep as far off as possible from such Matters and so he ended when he had mention'd the order that is observ'd in the actions of that Idea which said he acteth first upon the Intelligences as nearest approaching to its pure Nature they upon the Heavens these upon the Elements and these upon mixt bodies The Fourth added That that Idea is a Cause not onely in Natural Things but also in Artificial As in the building of a House the Idea which the Architect hath in his Mind excited his Will and this commands the Motive-faculty of the Members or those of his Laborours to dispose the Stones Timber and Morter which entring into the Composition of the Building cannot for the Reason above-mention'd be Causes of it as neither can the proportion and form An Other said That if the Idea be a Cause which cannot be but in Artificial Things it must be the Formal and not the Efficient since it is nothing else but an Original in imitation of which the Artificer labours and since the work derives its form from that Idea which is the Copy It was added by a Sixth That the Idea is not Cause but the true Essence of Things and the first objective Verity which precedes all Knowledge Humane but not Divine and is onely hereby distinct from Nothing in that it is known by God which suteth not with Nothing from which any thing cannot be distinguish'd but it must be if not in Act at least in Power The Seventh amplifying touching Ideas said That upon the Knowledge of them depend all Sciences and Arts but especially all what Men call Inventions which are nothing less then such because 't is no more possible to invent some thing new then to create some substance and make some thing of nothing But as all things are made by Transmutation so no Novelty is produc'd by Imitation either of things which are really existent or which our Mind frames and connects as of a Mountain and Gold it makes a Golden Mountain Thus the four most Excellent Inventions of the Modern Ages The Compass the Gun Printing and Perspective-glasses the two former were deriv'd from Experiments of the Load-stone from the effect of shooting Trunks and Fire As for Printing what is the Matrice wherein the Founders cast their Characters or those Characters compos'd in a flat Form as also Copper-cuts but a perfect Exemplar and Idea which is communicated fully to all its individuals And Perspective-glasses are nothing but ordinary ones multiply'd Another said That Causes cannot be known at all whence it comes to pass that we have no certain Knowledge Now to know is to know a thing by its Causes For the Vniversal Efficient Cause is above us and surpasseth the capacity of our Understanding and hence all the other inferiour and subordinate ones are unknown because their Cause is not known The Final is not in our power and being not so
as Cardan conceiveth For on the contrary all things become Hot by motion the Lead upon Arrows is melted and the Wood fired Water becomes thinner and hotter But the cause thereof is for that a strong Wind or Hot Air driven violently draws all the neighbouring Air after it which Air is Cold and we feel the coldness thereof Whence all strong Winds are alwayes cold The Third said We ought not to seek other causes of Natural Winds then those we find in Artificial Wind because Art imitates Nature Artificial Winds such as those of our Bellows the most common instruments thereof are caus'd by a compression of the Air made by two more solid Bodies then themselves which thrust the same thorow a narrower place then that of their residence For the Bellows having suck'd in a great quantity of Air when it s two sides draw together they drive out the same again with violence And this is that which they call Wind. In like manner I conceive two or more Clouds falling upon and pressing one another impetuously drive away the Air which is between them So we blow with our Mouths by pressing the Air inclos'd in the Palate and shutting the Lips to streighten its eruption Hereunto they agree who desine Wind to be Air stirr'd mov'd or agitated But if it be objected that the Clouds are not solid enough to make such a compression the contrary appears by the noise they make in Thunder-claps The Fourth alledg'd That Winds are produc'd in the World as they are in Man namely by a Heat sufficient to elevate but too weak to dissipate Exhalations whether that Heat proceedeth from Coelestial Bodies or from Subterranean Fires Wherefore as Hot Medicaments dissipate flatuosities so the great Heat of the Sun dissipates Winds The Fifth added It is hard to determine the Original of Winds after what our Lord hath said thereof That we know not whence they come nor whither they go and what David affirmeth That the Lord draweth them out of his Treasures NevertheIess I conceive that different causes ought to be assign'd of them according to their different kinds For although Winds borrow the qualities of the places through which they pass whence the Southern and Eastern are moist and contagious because of the great quantity of Vapours wherewith they are laden by coming over the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean yet some Winds are of their own Nature Hot and Dry making the Air pure and serene being caus'd by an Exhalation of the like qualities Others are so moist that they darken the Air because they are produc'd of Vapours Some places situated near Mountains and Rivers have particular Winds But as for those which blow at certain Periods either every year or every second year or every fourth year as one that blows in Provence I refer them to the Conjunction of certain Plants which reign at that time The Sixth said That Air hath a natural motion of its own as the Heavens have otherwise it would corrupt but meeting some streights and finding it self pen'd up it rallies and reunites its forces to get forth as it doth with violence and set it self at Liberty And this with so much the more vehemence as the places through which it passeth are streighter Whence it is that we alwayes perceive a Wind near a Door or Window half open or the mouth of a Cave which ceaseth when they are set wide open The Seventh continu'd That which is most difficult to conceive in reference to the Wind is its violence which I hold to proceed from the Rarefaction of a matter formerly condens'd and from the opposition of a contrary For the place of the Generation of Wind being either the Cavernes of the Earth or the Clouds the vaporous matter becoming rarifi'd so suddenly that it cannot find room enough to lodge in breaks forth impetuously as we see the Bullet is by the same reason violently driven forth by the Air enflamed in the Cannon Some think that Winds arise also from the Sea because a Wave is alwayes seen upon the changing of the Wind to rise on that side from whence it is next to blow The Eighth said That their motion is a direct line because it is the shortest way but not from below upwards by reason of the resistance they meet with in the coldness and thickness of the Middle Region of the Air whence the same thing happens to them that doth to smoak or flame which arriving at a ceiling or vault is constrain'd by the resistance it finds thereby to decline on one side Also their violence is increas'd by the adjunction of new Exhalations as Rivers augment theirs by the access of new streams II. Why none are contenteà with their own condition Upon the Second Point it was said That since the inferior World follows the course of the superior and Coelestial it is not to be wonder'd if the latter being in continual motion and agitation the former whereof Man makes the noblest part cannot be at rest For the Starrs according to their several Positions Aspects or Conjunctions move and carry us to desire sometimes one thing sometimes another The Ambition and Ignorance of Man are of the party too The former makes him alwayes desire to have the advantage above others to pursue Honours and Dignities and to think that to acknowledge a greater then himself is to own fetters and servility The latter represents things to him otherwise then they are and so causes him to desire them the more by how much he less understands their imperfections Whence many times by changing he becomes in as ill a case as Aesop's Ass who was never contented with his condition But the true Cause in my opinion is because we cannot find in this World a supreme temporal Good whereunto a concurrence of all outward and inward goods is requisite and were a Man possess'd thereof yet he could have no assurance that he shall enjoy it to the end of his Life whence living in fear of losing it we should be prone to desire something that might confirm it The Dignity of the Soul furnisheth me with another reason of our discontentment For she being deriv'd from Heaven and knowing that this is not her abiding City she may taste of terrene things but findeth them not season'd to her gust as knowing that frail and mortal things are not worthy of her nor sutable to her eternity And as a sick person that turns himself first on one side then on the other to take rest so the Soul finds her repose in motion And as morsels swallow'd down have no more savour so the present goods which our Soul possesseth give her no pleasure but like a Hunter she quits the game which she hath taken to pursue another The Second said Though by a wise Providence of Nature every one loves his own condition as much or more then another doth yet there being alwayes some evil mix'd with and adhering to the most happy state in the world
Inclinations of the Soul cannot be ascrib'd to a corporeal cause such as the Stars are For if all were govern'd by their influences we should see nothing but what were good as being regulated by so good causes I acknowledge but two virtues in the Heavens Motion and Light by which alone and not by any influences of occult qualities they produce corporeal effects Thus ought Aristotle to be understood when he referreth the cause of the continual Generation of Inferior things to the diversity of the Motions of the First Moveable and the Zodiack And Hippocrates when he foretelleth the events of Diseases by the several Houses of the Moon The Fourth said It is impossible to make an Art of predicting by the Celoestial Motions for five reasons besides the dominion which our Will hath over Effects without which it were free 1. The Connexion that is between the Celoestial Bodies and the Sublunary is unknown to Men. 2. The diversity of the Celoestial Motions causeth that the Heaven is never in the same posture as it ought to be for the making of a sure and certain Art grounded upon many repeated Experiments according to which like Effects are to be referr'd to like Causes 3. The extreme rapid and violent turning about of the Heavens doth not afford to find the precise minute of a Nativity for drawing the Theme or Figure of the true state of Heaven which they say is necessary 4. As of sixteen Consonants joyn'd with five Vowels are made words without number so of a thousand and twenty two Stars and more with seven Planets may be made Conjunctions and Combinations to infinity which surpass the comprehension of humane wit there being no Art of things infinite 5. Two persons or more born at the same time under the same Elevation of the Pole and disposition of the Heavens as they speak yea two Twins as Jacob and Esau are found oftentimes different in visage complexion inclination condition and end But is it probable that a hundred Pioneers stifled in the same Mine or ten thousand Men dying at the same battle have one and the same influence The Fifth said God having from all eternlty numbred the hairs of our Heads that is to say foreseen even the least Accidents which ought or may befall Men he hath establish'd an order for them in the Heavens disposing the course aspects and various influences of the Stars to draw out of Nothing those accidents at the time that they are to happen to Men whom they incline to meet the same yet so as to leave it in the power of their Free-will to avoid or expose themselves unto them without any constraint This truth is sufficiently confirm'd by the exact and admirable correspondence which is found between the most signal accidents of our lives and the hour of our Nativities so that Astrologers not onely conjecture by the time of the Nativity what is to come to pass but they also come to the knowledge of the true minute of the Nativity by the time at which accidents arrive and take this course to correct Horoscopes and Figures ill drawn And although long Experience may attest the certainty of this Art yet I confess since the faculties and qualities of the Stars are not perfectly known to us and we cannot alwayes precisely know the disposition of Heaven much less all the combinations of the Stars Astrology in respect of us is very uncertain and difficult but not therefore the less true and admirable in it self It is like a great Book printed in Hebrew Letters without points which is cast aside and sleighted by the ignorant and admir'd by the more intelligent So the Heavens being enamel'd by Gods Hand with Stars and Planets as with bright Characters which by their Combinations figure the various accidents which are to befall Men are never consider'd by the ignorant to dive into their Mysteries but onely by the Learned who themselves many times commit mistakes when they go about to read them because those shining Characters have no other Vowels or rather no other voice but that of God who is the true Intelligence thereof The Sixth said Three sorts of persons err touching the credit which is to be given to Astrological Predictions Some believe them not at all others believe them too little and others too much As for the first since they cannot deny that the Stars are universal causes of sublunary effects that such causes are of different natures and virtues and that their action and virtue is dispens'd by the motion which is successive and known they must of necessity confess that knowing the disposition of sublunary subjects the nature of the Stars and their motion many natural effects may be fore-seen and fore-told from them The Devil himself knows no future things certainly but by foreseeing the effects of particular causes in their universal causes which are the Stars They who believe too little confess that the Stars act upon the Elements and mixt Bodies for very Peasants know thus much besides many particular effects of the Moon But as for Man whose Soul of it self is not dependent upon any natural cause but free and Mistress of its own actions they cannot or for Religion's sake dare not affirm that it is subject to Coelestial Influences at least in reference to manners Yet it is no greater absurdity to say that the Soul is subject to the Stars then to say with Aristotle and Galen that it is subject to the Temperament of the Body which also is caus'd by the Starrs from the influence and action whereof the Soul cannot exempt its Body nor the Temperament thereof by which she acts Lastly they who give too much credit to the Stars hold that all things are guided by a fatal and irrevocable order of Nature contrary to Reason which admits the Author to be the Master of his own work and to Experience which assures us of the standing still of the Sun for Joshuah of his going backward for Hezechiah and of his Eclipse at full Moon during the Passion The Fourth Opinion is certain that there is truth in Astrological Predictions but it behoveth to believe them onely in a due measure since the Science of it self is but conjectural II. Whether is less blameable Avarice or Prodigality Upon the Second Point it was said That Avarice is less blameable then Prodigality For the latter is more fertile in bad actions then the former which though otherwise vicious yet refrains from the pleasures and debaucheries in which the Prodigal usually swims The Holy Scripture intending to set forth an example of Infinite Mercy relates that of the Prodigal Son who obtain'd pardon of the sin which is least worthy of it Moreover Prodigality doth far less good then Covetousness for this always looks at its own profit and takes care for its own benefit and the preservation of its dependents so that it exerciseth at least the first fundamental of Charity which is to do well to those who are nearest
discussion of this Controversie is that there is no Judge found but is interessed in the Cause Do not think that the determination of this Point is of little importance For we should have none of those dismal feuds both in high and mean families did not women go about to command over men instead of obeying them Now whether the business be fairly arbitrated or whether it be yielded out of complacency to that Sex which loves to be commanded and out of pity its frugality and weakness upon examination of the reasons of either side I find it safer to suspend my judgement that I may neither betray my own party nor incense the other which they say is not so easily reconciled as it is offended The Second said That the courtship and suing which Men use to Women is a tacite but sufficient argument of the esteem wherein they hold them for we do not seek after a thing which we under-value But the praecellence of Women above Men is principally argu'd from the Place the Matter and the Order of their Creation For Man had not the advantage to be created in the Terrestrial Paradise as Woman had who also was produc'd out of a more noble matter then he for he was made out of the Earth and she out of one of the Man's ribbs And as for the Order of the Creation God in the production of Mixt Bodies begun with the meanest things and ended with the noblest He first made the Earth and the Sea then Plants Fishes and the other Brutes After which he created Man as the Master of all things and lastly Woman as the Master-piece of Nature and the Model of all Perfections Mistress of Man stronger then he as the Scripture saith and consequently Mistress of all the Creatures Moreover there is no sort of Goods but are found in a higher degree in Woman then in Man For as for the Goods of the Body the chief whereof is Beauty Men have therein utterly lost the cause which they will be as little able to carry in reference to the Goods of the Mind For the same are found more vigorous and attain sooner to maturity in Women who upon that account are by the Laws adjudg'd Puberes at twelve years of age and Boyes not till fourteen They commonly perform more actions of Virtue then Men and indeed they have more need thereof to with-stand the assaults continually made upon their Chastity which is not too often found in the other Sex They are acknowledg'd by all to be more merciful faithful and charitable then Men so Devout that the Church which cannot err termes them by no other name and so patient that God hath judg'd them alone worthy to carry their Children nine moneths in their bellies no doubt because Men had not Virtue and Resolution enough for that office The Poets never feign'd but one Jupiter that was able to bear an Infant in his Body though it were but for a few moneths In fine there is no Science or Art in which Women have not excell'd witness the two Virgins Desroches and de Gournai the Vicountess of Auchi and Juliana Morel a Sister Jacobine of Avignon who understands fourteen Languages and at Lyons maintain'd Theses in Philosophy at the age of thirteen years so also of old Diotima and Aspacia were so excellent in Philosophy that Socrates was not asham'd to go to their publick Lectures in Astrology Hipatia of Alexandria the Wife of Isidore the Philosopher in Oratory Tullia the Daughter and doubly heiress of Cicero and Cornelia who taught Eloquence to the Gracchi her Sons in Poetry Sappho the inventress of Saphick Verses and the three Corynnae of whom the first overcame Pindar the Prince of Lyrick Poets five times and in Painture Irene and Calypso in the dayes of Varro If there have been Prophets there have also been Prophetesses and Sybils yea they were Virgins of old that render'd the Oracles at Delphos In brief if there have been war-like Men there have been Amazons too who have shew'd that Valour is not solely Masculine And in our dayes there have been found Maidens that have fought very courageously whose Sex was not known till they were stript after they had been slain in battle But these Feminine Virtues are not so much celebrated as those of Men by reason of the Envy which they bear to the Sex having subjected the same to such a pass that they are enforc'd to support all our defects Though indeed Women may say to Men as the Lyon did to a Man who shew'd him the picture of a Man killing a Lyon If Lyons said he were addicted to painting you would see more Men kill'd by Lyons then Lyons by Men. If Women had had the making of Laws and Histories you would see more Virtues exercis'd by Women then by Men. The Third said That although none but Men are at the ventilating of this Controversie yet Women ought not to alledge that it is easie to commend the Athenians in the City of Athens since God himself hath pass'd a Decree upon them in these words The Woman shall be subject to the Man And 't is to no purpose to say that it was otherwise before the first sin and that subjection was impos'd upon the Woman for a punishment seeing the punishment of the Serpent That he should creep upon the Earth doth not presuppose that he had feet before he caus'd Man to sin by the intervention of his Wife but indeed God converted that into a penalty which before was natural unto him The same ought to be said concerning the Woman who was no less subject to the Man before then after his sin Moreover after God had taken the Woman out of Adam's side whence they say it comes that their heads are so hard he did not say that she was good as he had pronounc'd all the rest of his Creatures And to get Adam to marry her there was no other expedient found but to cast him into a sleep no doubt because had he been awake he would have been very much puzzl'd to resolve upon it So that they who considering on one side the usefulness of that Sex for the preservation of the species of Men and on the other the mischiefs whereof it is the cause have not ill determin'd when they term'd Woman a Necessary Evil to which Men are addicted by natural instinct for the general good and to the prejudice of the particular just as Water ascends upwards contrary to its own nature for the eschewing of Vacuity Woman is an imperfect Animall whom Plato doubted whether he should not rank amongst the irrational and whom Aristotle termes a Monster they who treat her most gently stile her a simple Error of Nature which through the deficiency of natural heat could not attain to the making of a Male. Women big with Female Children are more discolour'd have their taste deprav'd and usually lift up their left leg first as it were for an evidence of that sinister conception
of rivers not being sufficient alone to hinder it if the salt did not preserve it from corruption as it doth all other things and to the end that its waters being salt and by that means more terrene and thick might bear not onely Whales and other Fishes of enormous bignes but also the great Ships necessary for the commerce of distant Climates and the mutual transportation of commodities wherewith each Country abounds whereby the life of men is render'd far more delightful For experience teaches that an egge will swim in a Vessel of water sufficiently salted but sink in fresh And the Chirurgions have no surer way then this to know whether the Lixivium or Lee wherewith they make their potential Cauteries be strong enough Now the Ocean imparts its saltness to all Seas which have communication with it Whence the Caspian Sea is fresh because 't is separated from it And 't is no more strange that saltness is natural to the Sea then that many other bodies amongst Plants and Minerals have a measure of it The earth is almost every where salt as appears by Salt-peter Vitriol Alum and other kinds of Salt which are drawn out of pits little deeper then the surface and crust of the earth which is incessantly wash'd and temper'd with water And amongst Plants Sage Fearn and many other taste of salt which being augmented turns into the bitterness and acrimony which is found in Wormwood Spurge and many other Herbs all which yea every other body partake thereof more or less as Chymical operations manifest The Second said Being we are not to recur to supernatural causes unless natural fail us methinks 't is more fit to refer the Sea's saltness to some natural cause then to the first creation or to the will of the Creator I conceive therefore that the cause of this Saltness is the Sun who burning the surface of the earth leaves as 't were hot and dry ashes upon it which by rain are carried into the rivers and thence into the Sea Besides the Sun elevating continually from the Sea by its heat the freshest parts of it as being the lightest and neerest the nature of air the more terrestrial and salt remain in the bottom or else the Sea-waters gliding through the bowels of the earth to maintain springs leave thicker parts as those dry and acid ashes behind which by their mixture produce this saltness and bitterness in the Sea Nor is it to be wonder'd that the heavenly bodies draw so great a quantity of waters out of the Sea for though the Vessel be very large yet is the heat of the Sun able to heat it since it reaches so deep as to concoct Metals in the entrails of the earth And if it were not thus all the rivers disgorging themselves into the sea it would long ago have overflown the earth But to know how nature makes the saltness of the Sea let us see by what artifice Salt is made in our Pits 'T is made by the same activity of the Sun which draws up the sweet parts of the water and condenseth the salt Whereby it appears that it is but a further progress of the first action of the same Sun who dispos'd the Sea-water to become the matter of such Salt The Third said A thing may become salt two ways either by separation of the sweetest and subtilest parts and leaving only the earthy which come neer the nature of salt or else by mixture of some other body either actually or potentially salt The Sea acquires saltness by both these ways For first it hath two sorts of water the one subtile and light the other thick and terrestrial after the Sun hath drawn up in vapour the more subtile of these waters and by its continual heat concocted the thick and terrene remainder which having not been able to ascend by reason of its ponderosity remains on the upper part of the water and gives it that saltness which is again remov'd when the sea-water being strain'd and filtr'd through the earth or by other ways formerly mention'd in this Company in discourse concerning the original of waters comes forth in springs and rivers which no longer retain the nature of their source because they bring not along with them the earthy part in which the saltness consists Now that the salt part is more gross then the fresh appeares in that the former becomes thick and the latter not Thus the freshest things become salt by the fire whose heat separates the subtile parts from the thick As for the second way as the waters carry with them the qualities of places through which they pass whence they are mineral or metallick and as in a Lixivium fresh water passing through ashes becomes salt so the sea-waters acquire and increase their saltness by mixture of salt bodies such as are the Hills of salt as Cardan holds which are produc'd anew like Sulphur and Bitumen in burning Mountains Now this saltness is caus'd either by rains full of mineral spirits which abound in acrimony or by the cinereous parts of the earth scorch'd by the Sun or lastly as things pass'd through the fire taste always of an Empyreuma or turning-to so the subterranean fires likely to be as well in the bottom as in the middle and borders of the Sea as they are ordinarily impart bitterness and saltness to it For as for those who say 't is nothing else but the sweat of the earth they speak saith Aristotle more like Poets then Philosophers And this metaphor is more proper to explain the thing then shew its true cause The Fourth said That all secrets consisting in the salt if we believe the Chymists 't is not to be wonder'd if it be difficult to find the cause of it it being the property of secrets to be hid And to practise the Rule which injoyns to credit every expert person in his own Art I shall for this time be contented with this reason drawn from their Art They hold the Salt to be the balsam of nature the connecter of the body with the spirit for they alot spirits to all bodies so that every body lasts more or less according to the salt which it hath and the salt in like manner remains longer or shorter according as it is fix'd or volatile This being premis'd I should think that this great compounded body the World needing a great quantity of Salt answerable to its vast bulk Nature could not find any other sufficient receptacle for it but the Ocean II. Whether is the better Flesh or Fish Upon the second Point it was said The word Best is taken at the table and amongst food with reference to the Taste in Physick for most healthful or wholsome In Divinity for most conducible to salvation and proper to the soul In Policy for most commodious to the publick For as the word good is a Transcendent passing through all the Categories of substances and accidents its comparatives also do the like Leaving to Divines the
naturally keep up above the water yet by enclosing it in some sort of vessel you may violently make it continue under the water II. Of the capricious or extravagant humours of women Upon the second Point it was said It is not here pronounc'd that all women are capricious but only the reason inquir'd of those that are such and why they are more so then men To alledge the difference of souls and suppose that as there is an order in the Celestial Hierarchies whereby the Archangels are plac'd above Angels so the spirits of men are more perfect then those of women were to fetch a reason too far off and prove one obscure thing by another more so Nor is the cause to be found in their bodies taken in particular for then the handsome would be free from this vice the actions which borrow grace from their subject appearing to us of the same nature and consequently their vertues would seem more perfect and their defects more excusable whereas for the most part the fairest are the most culpable We must therefore recur to the correspondence and proportion of the body and the soul. For sometimes a soul lights upon a body so well fram'd and organs so commodious for the exercise of its faculties that there seems more of a God then of a man in its actions whence some persons of either Sex attract the admiration of all world On the contrary other souls are so ill lodg'd that their actions have less of man then of brute And because there 's more women then men found whose spirits are ill quarter'd and faculties deprav'd hence comes their capricious and peevish humour For as melancholy persons whose blood is more heavy are with good reason accounted the more wise so those whose blood and consequently spirits are more agile and moveable must have a less degree of wisdom and their minds sooner off the hooks The irregular motions of the organ which distinguishes their Sex and which is call'd an animal within an animal many times have an influence in the business and increase the mobility of the humours Whence the health of their minds as well as that of their bodies many times suffers alteration A woman fallen into a fit of the Mother becomes oftentimes enrag'd weeps laughs and has such irregular motions as not only torment her body and mind but also that of the Physitian to assign the true cause of them Moreover the manner of living whereunto the Laws and Customs subject women contributes much to their defects For leading a sedentary life wherein they have always the same objects before their eyes and their minds being not diverted by civil actions as those of men are they make a thousand reflections upon their present condition comparing it with those whereof they account themselves worthy this puts their modesty to the rack and oftentimes carries them beyond the respect and bounds which they propos'd to themselves Especially if a woman of good wit sees her self marri'd to a weak husband and is ambitious of shewing her self Another judging her self to merit more then her rival not knowing to whom to complain of her unhappiness does every thing in despight And indeed they are the less culpable inasmuch as they always have the principles of this vice within themselves and frequently find occasions abroad The Second said that the word Caprichio is us'd to signifie the extravagant humour of most women because there is no animal to which they more resemble then a Goat whose motions are so irregular that prendre la chevre signifies to take snuffe without cause and to change a resolution unexpectedly For such as have search'd into the nature of this animal find that its blood is so sharp and spirits so ardent that it is always in a Fever and hence it is that being agitated with this heat which is natural to it it leaps as soon as it comes into the world Now the cause of this temper is the conformation of the Brain which they say is like that of a woman the Ventricles of which being very little are easily fill'd with sharp and biting vapours which cannot evaporate as Aristotle affirms because their Sutures are closer then those of men those vapours prick the Nerves and Membranes and so cause those extraordinary and capricious motions Hence it is that women are more subject to the Meagrim and other diseases of the head then men And if those that sell a Goat never warrant it sound as they do other animals there is no less excuse in reference to women Which caus'd the Emperour Aurelius to say that his Father in law Antoninus who had done so much good to others had done him mischief enough in giving him his daughter because he found so much bone to pick in a little flesh Moreover the Naturalists say that the Goat is an enemy to the Olive-tree especially which is a symbol of peace whereunto women are not over-well affected For not to mention the first divorce which woman caus'd between God and man by her lickorishness her talking her ambition her luxury her obstinacy and other vices are the most common causes of all the quarrels which arise in families and in civil life If you would have a troop of Goats pass over any difficult place you need force but one to do it and all the rest will follow So women are naturally envious and no sooner see a new fashion but they must follow it And Gard'ners compare women and girles to a flock of Goats who roam and browse incessantly holding nothing inaccessible to their curiosity There is but one considerable difference between them the Goat wears horns and the woman makes others wear them The Third said There is more correspondence between a woman and a Mule then between a woman and a Goat for leaving the Etymology of Mulier to Grammarians the Mule is the most teasty and capricious of all beasts fearing the shadow of a man or a Tree overturn'd more then the spur of the rider So a woman fears every thing but what she ought to fear The obstinacy of the Mule which is so great that it has grown into a Proverb is inseparable from the whole Sex most of them being gifted with a spirit of contradiction Mules delight to go in companies so do women the bells and muzzles of the one have some correspondence with the earings and masks of the other and both love priority The more quiet you allow a Mule it becomes the more resty so women become more vitious in idleness neither of them willingly admits the bridle between their teeth The Mule is so untoward that it kicks in the night time while 't is asleep so women are oftner laid then quiet Lastly the Mule that hath seem'd most tractable all its time one day or other pays his master with a kick and the woman that has seem'd most discreet at one time or other commits some notorious folly The Fourth said That those who invented the little
directly contrary to the felicity of a City which consists not onely in a society of Men but of Men of different conditions the meanest of which being commonly most necessary in a State would not be exercis'd if all were equally rich and powerful And if the necessity of Hunger which sometimes taught Pies and Crows to speak at Rome had not press'd most of the first inventors of Arts the same would be yet to discover Nothing is more beautiful in Nature then Variety nor yet in Cities Besides Men being apt to neglect the publick in comparison of their private interest were goods common they would be careless of preserving or increasing them and rely upon the industry of others Thus this equality would beget laziness whilst they that labour'd most could hope for no more then they that did nothing at all Moreover if Wives and Children were common as Socrates in Plato would have them it would be a great hindrance to propagation Children would not own their Parents nor these their Children and so there would be no paternal filial nor conjugal love which yet are the surest foundations of humane society Incests and Parricides would be frequent and there would be no place for the exercise of most virtues as of Chastity and Friendship the most perfect of all virtues much less of Liberality and Magnificence since nothing should be given but what belongs alike to all nor would any be capable of receiving The Third said That in a City which is a society of companions some things must be necessarily injoy'd in common as Publick Places Havens Fairs Priviledges Walls Town-houses Fortresses and publick charges But not all things in regard of the inconveniences which would follow thereupon and therefore Plato was forc'd to reform his first imaginary Republick and make another more sutable to the humours of men permitting every one the possession of some goods yet with this restriction that he would not have any become too unproportionably rich The Fourth said That Plato's design in his Republick was to conjoyn action and contemplation he would have a City first Mistress of her self then of the world more venerable then formidable to its neighbours less rich then just but sober temperate chaste and especially religious And to render it such he conceiv'd that by removing all impediments from within by equality of goods he trac'd out the way to contemplation which is the supreme good whereunto men aspire and therefore community of goods which is conducive thereunto cannot be too highly esteem'd But in this Age it would deprive all goods of that name by rendring them common and there would be no common good if there were none particular CONFERENCE LXXVII I. Of Sorcerers II. Of Erotick or Amorous Madness I. Of Sorcerers THe malignant Spirit 's irreconcilable to humane nature exalted above his own is such that he is not contented with doing all the mischief he can by himself but imployes his Ministers and Officers to that purpose as God whose Ape he is imployes his holy Spirits in his works These Officers are Magicians and Sorcerers The former are such as being either immediately instructed by the Devil or by Books of Magick use characters figures and conjurations which they accompany either with barbarous and insignificant words or some perversely taken out of the Holy Scripture by which means they make the Devil appear or else give some answer by sound word figure picture or other sign making particular profession of Divination Sorcerers are their servants aiming onely to do mischief and Sorcery is a species of Magick by which one hurts another by the Devils help And as the operation of the Devil is requisite thereunto so is the consent of the Sorcerers and Gods permission without which one hair falls not from our heads This consent is grounded upon a compact either express or tacite the former whereof is made by rendring homage either immediately to the Evil Spirit or to the Magician in his name or by addressing a request to him Commonly they take an oath of fidelity in a circle describ'd upon the ground the Devil herein as in other things imitating the Deity which is represented by a Circle A tacite compact is when one makes use of such means learn'd from a Magician or magical books known to be such or sometimes ignorantly But the most ordinary means which they use in their witchcrafts are powders which they mingle with food or else infect the body clothes water or air Amongst which the black powders are design'd to procure death the grey or red to cause sickness and the white to cure either when they are forc'd to it or in order to some greater mischief although this virtue depend not any ways upon their colour nor always upon their qualities Sometimes they perform their witcheries with words either threatnings or praises Not that these have any virtue in themselves any more then straws herbs and other things wherewith they bewitch people but because the Devil is by covenant to produce such or such effects by the presence of these things shewing himself a faithful performer in certain things to the intent he may at last deceive them in all The Second said That the charms of Sorcerers differ according to the end whereunto they are design'd some cause sleep and that by potions charmes and other enchantments the most usual of which are pieces of a dead body fastned to the house enchanted candles made of a particular wiek and fat or of the feet and hands of dead persons anointed with Oyle which the Devil gives them these they either light up or place candles at each finger and so long as this dismal light lasts they in the house remain in a deep sleep Other enchantments are to procure Love some of which act either within or without the body consisting of what is most sacred in Religion and most filthy in Nature so abominable is this practice and done in hatred of the Creator some likewise procure hatred hinder generation make women miscarry increase their pains of child-bearing dry up the milk breed thornes pieces of glass and iron knives hair and such other preternatural things in the body Of all which magical effects some indeed are real but the most part are prestigious The real are when the Devil makes use of natural causes for such an effect by applying actives to passives according to the most perfect knowledge which he hath of every things essence and properties having lost no gifts of Nature by sin but onely those of Grace But when the effect is above his power or God permits it not then he makes use of delusions to cover his impotence making appearance of what is not and hindring perception of what really is Such was Gyges's ring which render'd him invisible when he pleas'd and Pasetus's feasts from which the guests departed with intollerable hunger as also the money wherewith he pay'd his Merchants who found nothing at night in their bags And that
or triple The Second said That every thing that is mortal and corruptible is such in that it hath in it self some cause of this corruption All mortal bodies being compos'd of contrary ingredients have in themselves the principle of corruption from which as well simple bodies as the Elements and Heavens as Spirits and separate intelligences are free because a thing simple in its own nature cannot act upon it self by a destructive action though even those Spirits have but an arbitrary existence from their first cause on whom they depend But in the first sence and of their own nature they are absolutely incorruptible for were they corruptible then must some new substance be generated out of that which is corrupted which is absurd because they are simple and free from composition and consequently from corruption Now were reasonable Souls which are part of man who is compounded of matter and form again compounded of matter and form there would be a progression to infinity in causes which is contrary to natural reason Moreover nothing is corrupted but by its contrary and therefore that which hath no contrary is free from corruption But such is the rational soul which is so far from having any contrary that the most contrary things in Nature as habits and their privations being receiv'd in the Understanding are no longer opposites or enemies but friends and of the same nature whence the reason of contraries is alike and there is but one Science of them The Third said That such as a thing is such is its action A corporeal and material substance cannot produce an action which is not corporeal and an immaterial action owns no other principle but what is immaterial and incorruptible Hence the same reasons which prove the souls of brutes mortal because their operations exceed not the bounds of the body and tend onely to self-preservation and sensible good conclude also though by a contrary sense for the immortality of the rational soul whose operations are spiritual and abstracted from the body For nutrition concoction assimilation sense motion and other such actions being corporeal because terminated upon sensible and corporeal objects must consequently be produc'd by a faculty of the same nature corporeal and material But the reasonable soul besides those actions which are common to it with those of beasts hath some peculiar and much more sublime as by the Intellect to understand eternal truths to affirm deny suspend its judgement compare things together abstract them from matter time place and all other sensible accidents by the will to love and embrace vertue in spight of the contrary inclinations of the sensitive appetite to do good actions though difficult to avoid the evil which flatters the senses and the like which actions being above the body and material objects cannot be produc'd but by an immaterial and incorruptible substance such as the reasonable soul is Moreover since the soul can know all sorts of bodies it must consequently be exempt from all corporeal entity as the tongue to judge aright of sapours must have none and the eye to discern colours well The Fourth said That Nature which makes nothing in vain hath imprinted in every thing a desire of its end whereof it is capable as appears by induction of all created Beings Now the greatest desire of man is immortality whereunto he directs all his actions and intentions and therefore he must be capable of it But since he cannot accomplish this end in this life as all other things do it must be in another without which not only good men would be more unhappy then wicked but in general the condition of men would be worse then that of beasts if after having endur'd so many infelicities which brutes experience not the haven of our miseries were the annihilation of the noblest part of our selves Yea if the soul could not subsist without the body its supream good should be in this life and in the pleasures of the body and its chiefest misery in afflictions and the exercises of vertue which is absurd For whereas 't is commonly objected that the soul cannot exercise its noblest functions but by help of corporeal organs rightly dispos'd and that when it is separated from those organs it can act no longer and consequently shall exist no more action and subsistence being convertible this is to take that for granted which is in controversie namely that the soul cannot act without the organs of the body when it is separated from the same since it operates sometimes more perfectly when 't is freest from the senses as in Extasies burning Fevers in the night time and in old age The Fifth said As in Architecture the principal piece of a building is the Foundation so the most necessary of a Science is to lay good Principles without which first establish'd all our Sciences are but conjectures and our knowledge but opinion Now in order to judge whether the souls immortality be demonstrable by natural reasons 't is to be enquir'd whether we can find the principles of this truth whose terms being known may be naturally clear and granted by all The most ordinary are these 1. Every thing which is spiritual is incorruptible 2. That which is material is mortal 3. That which is immaterial is immortal 4. That which God will preserve eternally is immortal 5. A thing acts inasmuch as it exists and some other principles by which this so important verity seems but ill supported For the first is not absolutely true since habits of grace and natural habits which are spiritual are annihilated and corrupted those by sin these by intermission of the actions which produc'd them Then for the second 't is notoriously false since not only the forms of the Elements which are material and the Elements themselves consider'd according to their whole extent but also the first matter are incorruptible and eternal and according to the opinion of many Doctors of the Church 't is not an article of faith that the Angels are incorporeal although it be de fide that they are immortal to say nothing of igneous aerious demons and other corporeal genii of the Platonists As for the third the actions of the understanding and the will are immaterial and nevertheless perish as soon as they are conceiv'd and the intentional species are not incorruptible though not compos'd either of matter or form on the contrary the Heavens which are so compos'd are yet incorruptible Whereby it appears that immortality depends on something else As for the fourth 't is as difficult to prove that God will eternally preserve reasonable souls as that they are immortal And for the last 't is certain that many things act above their reach and the condition of their nature since that which exists not as the end nevertheless acts by exciting the efficient cause motion begets heat which it self hath not and light a corporeal quality is mov'd in an instant which is the property of incorporeal substances as also
crowned Or. Holland Or a Lyon gules Bavaria fuselé argent and azure of twenty one pieces placed bendwise Ireland gules a Harp Or. CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing I. Of the causes of Contagion DIseases being accidents must be divided as other accidents by their first subjects which are the solid parts the humours and the spirits and by their several causes some of which are manifest others unknown the malignity of the causes which produce them and the manner whereby they act being inexplicable Which diversity of causes depends upon those of mixtions which are of two sorts one of the qualities of the elements which makes the difference of temperaments the other of the elementary forms which being contrary only upon the account of their qualities when these put off their contrariety by alteration the forms easily become united and as amongst qualities so amongst forms one becomes predominant the actions whereof are said to proceed from an occult property because the form which produces them is unknown to us So Arsenick and Hemlock besides the power which the first hath to heat and the second to refrigerate have a particular virtue of assaulting the heart and killing speedily by a property hitherto unknown Such also are contagious and venomous diseases some whereof are caus'd by the inspir'd air as the Pestilence because air being absolutely necessary to the support of our natural heat if when it is infected with malignant and mortal vapours it be attracted by the mouth or the pores of the skin it corrupts the mass of the spirits as a crum of bread or other extraneous bodies makes milk or wine become sowre Others infect by bodily contact as the Itch the Pox the Measles and the Leprosie A third sort proceed from a venomous matter either communicated outwardly as by poyson and the biting of venomous beasts or generated in the body as it may happen to the blood black choler and the other humours being extravasated The Second said That diseases proceed either from the corruption and vitiosity of particular bodies some of which are dispos'd to the Pleurisie others to the Flux others to the Colick call'd therefore sporadical or dispers'd and promiscuous diseases or else from some common vitiosity as of the air aliments waters winds or other such common cause whereby many come to be seiz'd upon by the same disease at the same time so after Famines bad nourishment gives a great disposition to the Pestilence These maladies are fix'd to a certain Country seldom extending beyond it as the Leprosie to the Jews the Kings Evil to the Spaniards Burstenness to Narbon the Colick to Poitou the Phthisick to the Portugals the Pox to the Indians call'd by them Apua and brought by the Spaniards into Europe and such other diseases familiar to some particular Country and call'd Endemial Or else they are Epidemical and not ty'd to a certain region but produc'd by other external causes as pestilential and contagious diseases which again are either extraordinary as the Sweating-sickness of England the Coqueluche which was a sort of destillation or ordinary which manifest themselves by purple spots carbuncles and buboes But as the causes of the Small-pox and Measles are chiefly born within us being produc'd of the maternal blood attracted in the womb and cast forth by nature when become more strong so though the seeds of contagious diseases may come from without yet they are commonly within our selves The Third said That Contagion is the communication of a disease from one body to another the most violent so communicable is the Pestilence which is defin'd a most acute contagious venomous and mortal Fever accompani'd with purple spots Buboes and Carbuncles 'T is properly a species of a Fever being a venomous and contra-natural heat kindled in the heart manifesting it self by a high frequent and unequal pulse except when nature yields at first to the violence and malignity of the disease and then the pulse is slow small and languishing but always unequal and irregular Oftentimes it kills the first or second day scarce passes to the seventh if it be simple and legitimate but when 't is accompani'd with putrefaction it reaches sometimes to the fourteenth It s malignity appears in its not yielding to ordinary remedies which operate by their first qualities but only to medicaments which act by occult properties an argument that the cause of these diseases is so too Now four things are here to be consider'd 1. That which is communicated 2. The body which communicates the same 3. That to which it is communicated 4. The medium through which the same is done A thing communicated against nature is either the disease or the cause of the disease or the symptom Here 't is the cause of the disease which is either corporeal or incorporeal The incorporeal in my opinion are the malignant influences of the Stars as of Mars and Saturn and during Comets and Eclipses For since their benigne influences preserve motion and life in all things of the world by the reason of contraries the malignity of the same aspects may be the cause of the diseases and irregularities which we behold in it The corporeal cause must be moveable an humour a vapour or a spirit which malignant evaporations kill oftentimes without any sign of putrefaction or if there be any it proceeds not from the corruption of the humours but from the oppression and suffocation of the natural heat by those malignant vapours and then the humours being destitute of the natural heat and of that of the spirits which preserv'd them turn into poyson There must be some proportion between the body which communicates this vapour and that which receives it but the same is unknown to us and this proportion is the cause that some Contagions seise only upon some animals as Horses Dogs and Cattle others upon Men alone Children Women old Men Women with Child and their burthens others seize only upon certain parts as the Itch is communicated only to the skin the Phthisick to the Lungs the Ophthalmia to the eyes and not to the other parts The medium of this communication is the air which being rare and spongy is very susceptible of such qualities which it easily transmits by its mobility And these qualities happen to it either extrinsecally as from faetid and venomous vapours and fumes exhal'd from carrion marshes impurities and openings of the ground by Earth-quakes which are frequently follow'd by the Pestilence or else they arise in the Air it self in which vapours may acquire a pestilential malignity of which a hot and moist intemperature is very susceptible The Fourth said That the Pestilence is found indifferently in all seasons climates sexes ages and persons which argues that its proximate cause is not the corruption of the humors and intemperature of the first qualities Otherwise the Pestilence should be as other diseases whereof some are hot others cold and be cur'd
it self and causes them to act and move in the Matter rightly dispos'd As for the Second Like as they argue that the world is finite round and corruptible because its parts are so So also it may be said that the world hath a Spirit which enlivens it since all its principal parts have a particular one for their Conservation Action and Motion the parts being of the same Nature with the whole This Universal Spirit is prov'd by the impotency of the Matter which of it self having no activity or principle of Life and Motion needeth some other to animate and quicken it Now particular Forms cannot do that for then they would be principles of that Virtue that is to say principles of themselves which is impossible Wherefore there must be some Superiour Form which is the Universal Spirit the principle of Action and Motion the Uniter of the Matter and the Form the Life of all Nature and the Universal Soul of the World Whence it may confidently be affirm'd that the World is animated but with what Soul or Spirit is the difficulty For if we prove by Local Motion or by that of Generation that a Plant or Animal are animated why may we not say the same of all the World since its more noble and principal parts afford evidence thereof As for the Heaven and the Stars they are in continual Motion which the more â—ober Opinion at this day confesseth to produce from their Internal Form rather then from the Intelligences which some would have fastned to the Spheres as a Potter to his wheel The Sun besides his own Motion which some call in controversie gives Life to all things by his heat and influences The Air Water and Earth afford also instances of this Life in the production and nourishing of Plants and Animals Thus the principal parts being animated this sufficeth for the Denomination of the whole seeing even in Man there are found some parts not animated as the Hair and the Nails As for the Last Point which is to know what this Universal Soul is there are many Opinions The Rabbins and Cabalists say that it is the RVAH ELOHIM that is the Spirit of God which moved upon Waters Trismegistus saith that it is a Corporeal Spirit or a Spiritual Body and elsewhere calleth it the Blessed GreenWood or the Green Lyon which causeth all things to grow Plato affirmeth it to be the Ideas The Peripateticks a certain Quintessence above the Four Elements Heraclitus and after him the Chymists that it is a certain Aethereal Fire For my part I conceive that if by this Spirit they mean a thing which gives Life and Spirit and Motion to all which is found every where and on which all depends there is no doubt but 't is the Spirit of God or rather God himself in whom and through whom we live and move But if we will seek another in created Nature we must not seek it elsewhere then in that corporeal creature which hath most resemblance with the Deity The Sun who more lively represents the same then any other by his Light Heat Figure and Power And therefore the Sun is that Spirit of the World which causeth to move and act here below all that hath Life and Motion The Second said That that Soul is a certain common Form diffus'd through all things which are moved by it as the wind of the Bellows maketh the Organs to play applying them to that whereunto they are proper and according to their natural condition So this Spirit with the Matter of Fire maketh Fire with that of Air maketh Air and so of the rest Some give it the name of Love for that it serves as a link or tye between all Bodies into which it insinuates it self with incredible Subtility which Opinion will not be rejected by the Poets and the Amorous who attribute so great power to it The Third said That the Soul being the First Act of an Organical Body and the word Life being taken onely for Vegetation Sensation and Ratiocination the world cannot be animated since the Heavens the Elements and the greatest part of Mixed Bodies want such a Soul and such Life That the Stoicks never attributed a Soul to this world but onely a Body which by reason of its Subtility is called Spirit and for that it is expanded through all the parts of the world is termed Vniversal which is the cause of all Motions and is the same thing with what the Ancients call'd Nature which they defined the Principle of Motion The reason of the Stoicks for this Universal Spirit is drawn from the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies For if Rarefaction be made by the insinuation of an other subtile Body and Condensation by its pressing out it follows that since all the Elements and mixt Bodies are rarifi'd and condens'd there is some Body more subtile then those Elements and mixts which insinuating it self into the parts rarifies them and makes them take up greater space and going forth is the Cause that they close together and take up less Now Rarefaction is alwayes made by the entrance of a more subtile Body and Condensation by its going out This is seen in a very thick Vessel of Iron or Brass which being fill'd with hot Water or heated Air and being well stop'd if you set it into the cold it will condense what is contain'd therein which by that means must fill less space then before Now either there must be a Vacuum in the Vessel which Nature abhorreth or some subtile Body must enter into it which comes out of the Air or the Water which fills that space Which Body also must be more subtile then the Elements which cannot penetrate through the thickness of the Vessel There is also seen an Instance of this in the Sun-beams which penetrate the most solid Bodies if they be never so little diaphanous which yet are impenetrable by any Element how subtile soever And because a great part of the Hour design'd for Inventions was found to have slip'd away during the Reciprocation of other reasons brought for and against this opinion some curiosities were onely mention'd and the examination of them referr'd to the next Conference In which it was determin'd first to treat of the Air and then to debate that Question Whether it is expedient in a State to have Slaves CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves I. Of the Air. THe First said That he thought fit to step aside a little out of the ordinary way not so much to impugne the Maximes of the School as to clear them and that for this end he propros'd That the Air is not distinguish'd from the Water because they are chang'd one into the other For what else are those Vapours which are drawn up from the Water by the power of the Sun and those which arise in an Alembic or from boyling Water if we do not call them Air Now those Vapours are
that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
not attribute this impediment of generation to charms and enchantments but rather to the power of the Imagination which is of great moment in this case as we see also in Love or Hatred which though by several ways render a man incapable of this action For if one be sollicited by a woman whom he thinks unhandsome and hates he cannot satisfie her because sadness makes his spirits to retire Another being surpriz'd with the enjoyment of some rare beauty becomes alike impotent because joy dissipates the same spirits The desire of doing well and the fear of failing are also frequently obstacles to it witness the impotence of Ovid Regnier the man mention'd in Petronius the Count spoken of by Montague and many others Now these passions making an impression in the Phancie disturb and hinder it from moving the Appetite and consequently the motive faculties depriving them by this means of their ordinary functions The Third said There are two sorts of Impotence one natural and the other supernatural The first happens two ways either through want of matter which is the geniture and spirits or through defect of emission The former not to mention the parts serving to generation happens through the extinction of virility and that by reason of old age sickness violent exercises aliments or medicaments cold and dry and generally by all causes which dissolve the strength and dissipate the spirits and flatuosities as Rue according to Aristotle The second defect proceeds from the obstruction of the Vessels or from a Resolution or Palsie befalling the foresaid parts That which is supernatural is acknowledg'd according to the Canon by the practise of the Church which ordains the two parties to be unmarried if at the end of three years they cannot undo this Gordian knot in the presence of seven witnesses It is made by Sorceries and charms which indeed have no action of themselves yet when men make use of them the Devil according to a compact either tacite or express acts with them imploying to that end the natural things whereof he hath perfect knowledge and hinders generation in two manners either by disturbing the phancie with some images and species of hatred and aversion or else by suspending the generative faculty by the dissipation of flatuosities retention of spirits and concretion of the geniture Now natural impotence is discern'd from supernatural because the first is alwayes alike towards all sort of persons but the second is onely in reference to some particular Woman the Man being well enough dispos'd for all others But change is to no purpose when the impotence is natural The Fourth said That Ligature is a subverting of the order establish'd in order by which all things are destinated to some particular action and are lead to what is sutable for them 'T is an impediment whereby the actions of agents as it were repress'd and restrain'd and 't is either Physical or Magical The former proceeds from a particular Antipathy between two Agents the stronger whereof by some occult contrary property extinguishes and mortifies the virtue of the weaker Thus Garlick or a Diamond hinder the Loadstone from attracting Iron Oyle keeps Amber from drawing straw and the spirits of the Basilisk fix those of a Man The second of which kind is the tying of the Point is done by Magick which thereunto employes certain words images circles characters rings sounds numbers ointments philtres charmes imprecations sacrifices points and other such diabolical inventions but especially barbarous names without signification yea sometimes to that degree of impiety as to make use of sacred things as the divine appellations prayers and verses taken out of the Holy Scripture which it prophanes in its charmes and fascinations Because as Saint Augustine saith the Devils cannot deceive Christians and therefore cover their poyson with a little honey to the end that the bitterness being disguis'd by the sweetness it may be the more easily swallow'd to their ruine These Magical Ligatures if we may credit those who treat of them are almost infinite For there are some particularly against Thieves restraining them from carrying away any thing out of the house others that hinder Merchants from buying or selling in certain Faires and retain ships in the Port so that they cannot get out to sea either by wind or oars or keep a mill from grinding the fire from burning the water from wetting the Earth from producing fruits and upholding buildings swords and all sorts of weapons and even lightning it self from doing mischief dogs from biting or barking the most swift and savage beasts from stirring or committing hurt and the blood of a wound from flowing Yea if we believe Virgil there are some which draw down the Moon to the Earth and effect other like wonders by means for the most part ridiculous or prophane Which nevertheless I conceive are to be referr'd either to natural causes or to the credulity of those who make use of them or to the illusions of the Devil or to the hidden pleasure of God sometimes permitting such impostures to deceive our senses for the punishing of the over-great curiosity of Men and chastising of the wicked For I see not what power of action there is in a number even or odd a barbarous word pronounc'd lowdly or softly and in a certain order a figure square or triangular and such other things which being onely quantities have not any virtue power or action for these belong onely to Qualities The Fifth said That we ought not to do as the vulgar do who refer almost every thing to supernatural causes If they behold a Tempest or Lightning fall down upon any place they cry the Devil is broke loose As for effects which are attributed to Occult Properties 't is Sorcery as they say to doubt that the same are other then the works of Sorcerers But we must rather imitate true Philosophers who never recurr to Occult Properties but where reasons fail them much less to supernatural causes so long as they can find any in nature how abstruse soever they may be Those of this knot or impotence are of three sorts Some proceed from the want of due Temper as from too great cold or heat either of the whole constitution or of the parts serving to generation For a good Temperature being requisite to this action which is the most perfect of any Animal immoderate heat prejudices the same as much as cold because it dries the Body and instead of producing consumes the Spirits The Second Cause is in the Mind for the Body is of it self immoveable unless it be agitated by the Soul which doth the same office to it that a Piper doth to his instrument which speaks not a jot if he blow not into it Now the Phancy may be carri'd away else where or prepossess'd with fear or some other predominant passion Whence he that imagines himself impotent and becomes so indeed and the first fault serves for a preparatory to the second Hereupon
kind is when onely the Spirits are enflam'd and 't is call'd Ephemera because it continues but one day unless the Humours too become of the party as it falls out usually and it admits of three differences according to the three sorts of Spirits Animal Vital and Natural The Humoral Fever is either Simple or Compounded The Simple is either Continual or Intermitting The Continual is caus'd when the putrefaction of the Blood possesses the great Vessels or some noble Part. The Intermitting produc'd by the three other Humours putrefying out of the Veins is either Quotidian which is produc'd by Phlegme or Tertian by Choler or Quartane by Melancholy The Compounded or complex Humoral Fever is caus'd by the mixture of those Humours which then cause a double Quotidian double Tertian and double Quartane yea sometimes but very rarely a Quintane and others of longer interval which may be attributed to all the different from which Fevers arise The Efficient causes is in my opinion the strength of Nature and every one's particular Temper as he who is more robust and upon whom the disease is more violent will have longer Fits the Fight of Nature with the Malady being more stoutly maintain'd by the parties and consequently shorter intervals because that which increases to the one decreases to the other The Cholerick will have longer Fits of a Tertian Fever and shorter of a Quotidiane The Material Cause contributes very much herein being that which supplies Ammunition to this intestine War which is continu'd or discontinu'd according to the proportion and quantity of the Matter 'T is more easie to name the Formal Cause then to understand it But as for the Final 't is certain that Nature makes the intervals of Fevers purposely to rally and recruit her strength as truces and cessations of Armes use to be made when the Country is almost spent or the Souldiers too much harrass'd and out of heart The Second said That the Periods of Fevers have been matter of torture to the best wits who could not without admiration consider how e. g. one sick of a Quartan and appearing to day at the point of Death should nevertheless for two days together perform all his actions perfectly and then upon the fourth many times too at the same hour in more contumacious Fevers become in the like pitiful condition again Now the Cause hereof is commonly attributed to the time which is requir'd for producing the matter of the Fever and consuming it They hold that it is so long in consuming as the Fit lasts the the end whereof is the Crisis like as the ancient water-clocks of the Romans did not signifie nor strike the hour till the vessel was full Some have imputed the cause to the motion of the Humour and believ'd that as the humid mass of the Sea hath its flux reflux and interval so have the Humours of our Bodies when the natural heat which regulated them being disorder'd and its effect suspended by the disease governes the same no longer but abandons them to their own Capricio Of which motion 't is no easier to render a reason then of that of the Sea the Load-stone and all other occult motions Hence many have recurr'd to the Asylum of Last Differences the knowledge whereof is interdicted to Humane Capacity And therefore they have ventur'd to assign no other cause saving that the Interval of these Fevers being their most proper Difference it must not be wonder'd if we understand their nature as little as those of all other things in the world The Third said That the time which is requisite for generating the Humour cannot be the cause of these Intervals since the Fits of a Fever are longer or shorter though the Fever change not its Nature yea it will become double or trebble sometimes and still keep the name of a Quartan As on the contrary when there is so little matter left for it that it is almost quite gone yet it alwayes returnes on the fourth day although the Fit lasts a shorter time Yea it comes to pass oftentimes that he who hath had a Quartan and is cur'd of all other Symptomes of his Ague yet for a long time after feels the chilness and weariness at the same day and hour that his Disease was wont to seize upon him In the mean time while 't is manifest that the Fever being gone the Melancholy Humour is no longer gather'd together in sufficient quantity to produce it and therefore the cause cannot be attributed to the Melancholly Humour since it no longer causeth the fever Whereby we may judge that the quantity of the matter contributes to the lengthening or diminishing of the fit but gives not the fever its name or form Now as for the motion which they attribute to the Humour like that of the Sea and their calling this Interval the form of the Fever 't is a confession of their Ignorance but not a solution of the Question Galen in the second Book of the Differences of Fevers and the last Chapter refers the cause of these regular and periodical motions to the dispositions of the parts of the whole Body which being distemper'd cease not to transmit or receive generate or attract superfluous and excrementitious humours and he holds that so long as the cause of these dispositions lasts so long the circuits continue and consequently the reason why a Tertian which is caus'd by Choler returnes every third day is because the distemper'd parts transmit or receive or generate bilious humours and excrements every other day But the question remains still whence it is that these parts are affected in such manner that they cause such just and regular periods For though it be true that the parts by reason of pain or heat e. g. yellow putrid Choler nevertheless this doth not infer that they attract the same rather the third day then the fourth or every day as they ought to do since the cause being alwayes present viz. the pain or heat which incessantly attracts this humour the effect should alwayes follow and make a Quotidian circuit although indeed 't is but once in three dayes The Fourth said That as Physitians refer the unusual motions of Epileptical and the violent sallies of the Frantick not barely to the phlegmatick or atrabilarious humour but to a certain quality of it so ought we to do touching the periodical motions of Fevers which proceed not simply from the humours corrupted but from a particular condition and virtue of each humour whereby it is that putrifying Phlegme makes its approaches every day Choler every third and Melancholy every fourth day And as these humours so long as they retain their natural constitution have a regular motion which carries one into the Bladder of Gall and the Guts the other into the Spleen and the other into the Stomack so being corrupted each acquires a certain new quality and putrefaction which is the cause of other periodical motions namely those of Fevers The Fifth
seen in our days a dumb man who answer'd pertinently to all that was spoken to him only by beholding the motion of the speaker's lips which is also the reason why blind men attending only to improve the sense of Hearing best observe all differences of speech Whence I draw this consequence that the same may be practis'd in all other things which signifie by humane institution and so there may be an universal Language But the easiness every one finds in making himself understood by the Language and Writing which is familiar to him renders men careless of advancing this excellent Design which would be a means to spare the best time which our youth spends in learning the words of strange Tongues instead of applying themselves solely to the knowledge of things The Fourth said That the possibility of this Project appears in that there is an order in nature or at least consequent to the very nature of things according to which we may place next after the Creator the created spiritual substances then the corporeal one after another according to their dignity particularly the corporeal according to their place as the Heavens first and in them the Stars according to their dignity the Earth and its Animals the Sea and its Fishes the Plants according to their magnitudes those which are equal therein according to their vertues and other accidents doing the same with Metals Minerals bodies perfectly and imperfectly compounded by nature and by art and with the Elements then we may come to the Categories of accidents to which every thing in the world may be reduc'd and put in its right place Whereby it is evident that not only all things have their order but also that he who learns them according to this order easily avoids confusion the mother of ignorance It remains now to find out an order of words too which answers to that of things the first to the first and the second to the second which order is so natural to them that children make use of it to find out every thing which they seek in Dictionaries and Lexicons according to the order of the Alphabet And I know not whether we ought not to begin this handsome gradation and situation of all things in their rank correspondent to the order of the letters with the style that God gives himself Alpha and Omega But it cannot but be admir'd that the first combination of the letters makes Ab and Aba which signifies Father the first place being due to the Author and Father of all things II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great Stature or a small Upon the second Point it was said That largeness of body seems to be preferrable as well because the word Magnitude or Grandeur always includes some perfection in it self as because the Gods were anciently represented of a size exceeding the ordinary Which made Aristotle say that not only the greatness of the Heroes render'd them famous of old but that their Figures and Statues are venerable at this day Moreover we see that Saul the first King chosen by God for his own people was taller by the head then all the rest of the Israelites And amongst the conditions of Beauty magnitude so universally holds the first place that women advance themselves upon high Shooes and Patins that they may seem the handsomer How well shap'd soever a little man be he is never of so majestical a presence as one that is taller Whence you see little men affect to seem greater but never any tall men desire to be less Now the same Proportion which is between a Man and his habitation is found between the soul and the body which is its Mansion For as he who hath the largest house will be accounted to be better lodg'd then he who dwells in a Cottage though they be persons otherwise of equal condition so 't is probable that souls which are all equal find themselves better lodg'd in a great body then in a small and exercise all their functions with much more freedom The Second said That if magnitude put the value upon men the same should hold in animals nevertheless the Elephant yields to the Fox yea to the Pismire the Estrich to the Nightingale and the Whale is the most stupid of all Fishes Moreover nothing hinders the divine operations of the soul but the load of the body whereby the imperfection of our nature places us below the wholly incorporeal Intelligences and therefore the less the body is the neerer we approach the Angelical nature and our spirit is less impeded by the matter Hence little men are not only the most quick-witted but also the most active and nimble for that the strength is more united in them and diffus'd and dissipated in others Great and robust bodies as being fitter for labour were made to obey the small and tender which have more spirit then flesh Whence the Romans gave the Civil and Military charges to little men and sent the greater to guard the Baggage as those who gave the enemies more aim then the less Nor are the greater more proper for other Arts which made the Poet say as a thing impossible Sambucam potiùs caloni aptaveris alto And Samuel was reprov'd by God for offering to prefer the tall Stature of the eldest son of Jesse before the small size of David his youngest as if the Israelites had been displeas'd with the large body of Saul The Poets could not represent an enraged Cyclops and furious Ajax but under great bodies as on the contrary they made Vlysses very small And indeed natural Reasons agree well herein For amongst the causes of the bodie 's growth the material is a slimy or viscous humidity whence Fish grow most and in shortest time This Humidity is as it were Glew or Bird-lime to the soul hindring it from exercising its functions freely and therefore women being more humid have less wit then men and Fish are less disciplinable then the rest of animals The efficient is a very gentle heat for were it too great it would consume the matter in stead of dilating and fashioning it and dry the solid parts too much upon the increasing of which depends that of the rest of the body This is the reason why all gelt animals grow most and amongst Birds of prey the females are always greater then the males the excess of their heat being temper'd by the humidity of their Sex and young persons are found to have grown extraordinarily after Quotidian Agues which are caus'd by Phlegme so that it is not hard for such pernicious causes to produce a good effect The Third said That every thing is to be commended and esteem'd according to the use for which it is appointed Now Man being born for Reason and the functions of the Mind and having receiv'd a Body to be an instrument to him of Knowledg by making a faithfull report to him of what passes without by means of the species convey'd through the senses into
which have a great latitude according to the degrees of their mixtion from which they are said to be attenuating or incrassating detersive or emplastick rarefying or condensing laxative or astringent attractive or repelling mollifying or hardning And by this Second Faculty alone Medicaments act upon the Matter The Third Faculty of Medicaments arises not from their qualities or matter but from their form and specifick occult virtue as in Sena the Faculty to purge Melancholy in Terra Sigillata or Lemnia to fortifie the Heart against poysons as also that Scorpions kill with the tail and certain poysons cause death without any alteration of the Temper The Fourth said diseases are consider'd either in their genus in their species or in their individuals In the first way as a Disease is nothing but a disposition contrary to Nature and injuring the actions so it is cur'd by introducing the natural disposition In the second if it be a intemperature e. g. cold in the second degree its specifick is hot in the same degree if it be an Organical Disease as an Obstruction the onely remedy is to unstop the passages if it be solution of Continuity all that 's to be done is to conjoyn that which is divided But if a Disease be consider'd in the Individual then particular remedies of the same nature be employ'd which are the true specificks The Fifth said 'T is true of the causes of Health as well as of those of Diseases that the same thing is hurtful or healthful to one but not to another not onely amongst the different species but also amongst the individuals of the same species in regard of the several circumstances A remedy that recover'd one kills another yea that which not long ago was healthful to an individual person is now quite contrary So that 't is impossible to assign any specificks for an individual person which nevertheless is the subject on which the cure is to be done and not the species of man The Sixth said Every thing in Nature is determin'd to a particular action proceeding from its form and essence which is more adapted to such action then to any other So a Tree is determin'd to produce one kind of fruit rather then another Now the same may be said of Remedies drawn from the three families some are proper to purge a particular humour whence they are callld Cholagoga Melanogoga Hydragoga Emeticks Diureticks Diaphoreticks Discussives Sternutatories and Bechicks others strengthen a particular part whence they are call'd Cardiacks Cephalicks Hepaticks and Splenicks some have a faculty of resisting particular poisons so Treacle is specifical against the biting of a Viper a Scorpions flesh apply'd upon its own wounds heals it Oyle of Pine-nuts is good against Arsenick Long Aristoloch or Rue against Aconitum or Wolfs-bane Citron Pill against Nux Vomica or the Vomiting Nut the seeds of Winter-cherry against the Cantharides or Spanish Fly Mumie against Ulcers caus'd by Tithymal the flower of Water-lilly against Hellebore the root of Eglantine Gentian Bawme Betonie Pimpernel are excellent against the biting of a mad Dog and so others of the like nature Some Medicaments are call'd Amulets because being worne about the neck or lay'd to some part of the Body they preserve from Diseases So by the testimony of Galen Peony worne about the neck averts the Falling-sickness the dung of a Wolf eases the Cholick and the Jasper strengthens the stomack Trallianus affirmes that the Eagle-stone Aetites cures Quotidian Agues the Beetle and green Lizard Quartanes that the forehead of an Ass and a nail taken out of a shipwrack'd vessel is excellent for the Epileptick Fits The ashes of Frogs is good against bleeding the Lapis Judaicus and the blood of a Goat are useful against the stone of the Kidneys the water of a Stag's horn and the bone of his heart are excellent for infirmities of the heart Now to refer all these wonderful effects to the First Qualities is a groundless thing And therefore Galen derides his Master Pelops for attempting to render a reason of them The Seventh said That Physick invented at first by use and experience has nothing to do with Reason in things which fall manifestly under our senses but onely in such as surpass their comprehension which being confirm'd by Reason are much more infallible Nevertheless when Reason seems repugnant to Experience we must rather hold to Experience provided the same be establish'd upon many observations Now since Experience shews that there are Specifical Remedies although humane wit in regard of its weakness cannot find out the cause of them yet 't is better in this case to rely upon the testimony of the senses destitue of Reason then to adhere to Reason contradicted by Experience Moreover if there be Specificks for some Diseases there are so for all but they are unknown to us by reason of their multitude And who is he that can know the virtues and properties of every thing which is in the world The Chymists are of this opinion for they hold that all Medicaments have Signatures or particular marks and figures by which they have resemblance with the parts or diseases of Man's Body and which are as 't were the titles and inscriptions imprinted upon them by God's Hand to teach Men their faculties Hence the herb Lung-wort is very good for the Lungs Ceterach and Harts-tongue for the Spleen Poppy and green Nuts for the Head Satyrium for the Testicles Winter-cherry for the Bladder Birth wort for the Womb Madder for broken Legs Eyebright for the Eyes Solomons seal and Thorow-wax for Ruptures because the root of the one resembles a Rupture and the stalk of the other passes through its leaf as the Intestine doth through the Peritonaeum the roots of Tormentil red Sanders and the stone Haematites for bleeding blessed Thistle and other prickly Plants for the pungent pains of the side II. Whether Tears proceed from Cowardise The Second Point may be determin'd by comparing the great and little world together In the former the Suns heat draws up vapours and exhalations into the Air if the vapours be more in quantity then the other they dissolve into rain if less then the exhalations are turn'd into winds lightnings and other igneous meteors And as we cannot infer from thence that the Sun suffers any alteration or is colder and hotter for whether it rains or be fair he is still the same So neither must we attribute new qualities to the reasonable soul though it finds in the brain a matter either apt to be condens'd into tears or to be resolv'd into the blustering stormes and other effects of Choler yet 't is alwayes the same soul which according to the various temper of the body is easily or hardly mov'd to tears Women Children and old men are prone to weep because their brain is more moist then that of men of middle age and again those of them who are flegmatick and sanguine are more inclin'd to tears then the cholerick and
this reformation was still imperfect Julius Caesar 670 years after him assisted by Sosigenes a great Mathematician corrected the defect adding three moneths to the year in which he made this rectification which was the 708th year of the building of Rome namely two moneths between November and December one of 29 days and the other of 30 and another of 30 days at the end of December to make up the days which were pass'd So that this year Debtors had three moneths respite Then he divided the year into 365 days for this cause call'd from his name the Julian year But because the Sun is neer six hours more in accomplishing his Period he added a day every fourth year after the twenty third of February which they call'd Sexto Calendas and because in counting it twice they said bis sexto Calendas this year truth thence retain'd the name of Bissextile attributed by the vulgar to sinister and unfortunate things And to confirm the moneths to the Lunations he was contented to observe that every nineteenth year the Moon is found in the same place which was the discovery of another Mathematician of Athens nam'd Meton And forasmuch as they mark'd this number of 19 in their Kalendar with a Cypher of gold thence it came to be call'd the Gold Number The Christians took up this Calculation as the best of all But because there wants eleven minutes every fourth year to make the Bissextile or Leap-year intire it was found that from the time of Julius Caesar to Gregory XIII the Lunations and Aequinoxes had anticipated ten days which render'd the Golden Number useless and remov'd Easter and other moveable Feasts out of their true place Therefore this Pope assisted by Doctor Lilio a Physitian retrench'd those ten days throughout all Christendom except in places who are not pleas'd with novelty unless so far as it displeases the Pope Which anticipation will always oblige future Ages to use a like reformation of the Julian year which we begin from the mid-night which precedes the first Sun-rise of the moneth of January But the most sensible knowledge to be had of the duration and beginning of the Solar year is obtain'd by observing the day on which the shadow of the perpendicular needle of a Quadrant is found longest at noon being a certain sign that the Sun is then most depress'd and consequently that we must there set down the end of the preceding year and the beginning of the next which is visible by the exaltation of the Sun whose shadow will not be found equal again till after the revolution of a just year II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Had Stones life as Cardan held the solution of the second Question would be easie For the Load-stone's drawing Iron would be no more a wonder then an Animal's going to seek its food Now of those things which draw others some do it for eschewing of vacuity so water and other more ponderous bodies ascend air and other light bodies descend either of them against its proper inclination to prevent a vacuum Others do it out of desire to obtain what they need as their nourishment So Plants attract the juice of the earth the Gall-bladder Choler the Splene the Melancholy humour and every part blood Others do it by the mutual resemblance of the spirits issuing out of them such is the first motion of affection arising between two persons of the same humour and inclination But others are mov'd locally with out any manifest and corporeal cause so are the vapours and the dew drawn up by the Sun straw by Amber the womb by good smells the Load-stone by the North-star the Heliotrope and Selenotrope by the Sun and the Moon whose motions they follow Now in attraction it is requisite that the attractive vertue be stronger then the resistance of the body which is attracted The greatest resistance is from the ponderosity of a body the elevation of which without manifest cause is accounted miraculous and attributed by Divines to the Divine Power alone as when our Lord walk'd upon the water And so indeed would be the suspension of the gravity of iron attracted by the Load-stone if it were not ordinary the cause whereof may be ascrib'd to the meeting of spirits streaming out of the Iron and the Load-stone which being viscous and once joyn'd together are somewhat hard to be separated The Second said That as every body diffuses about it visible odorable and sonorous species which appear not to us unless they be reflected by some body proper to unite them the visible species by a Glass odours by heat sound by a hollow body such as makes the Echo In like manner the Load-stone and the Iron emit attractive species round about which are lost unless these of the one light upon those of the other for then their nature is so to conjoyn themselves that their union is indissoluble otherwise then by violence wherein there seems to be no greater marvel then in all other motions of natural bodies which act variously one upon another according to the disposition of the next matter So the fire acts upon combustible matter and not upon other the reason of these affects depending upon the determination of every particular cause the chain whereof is invisible and conceal'd from men The Third said The Superior bodies act upon the inferior and all motions here below proceed from those of the Celestial Bodies which are therefore purposely contiguous That of the Load-stone and Iron proceeds from the polar Stars which act so sensibly upon this Stone that being hung up in aequilibrio it spontaneously turns one part towards the Arctick and the other towards the Antarctick Pole unless in certain places where it varies between five and six degrees because 't is drawn by a stronger magnetick virtue proceeding from the Earth But this Stone draws Iron the more easily because 't is almost of the same nature with it self and the Magnet is easily turn'd into Iron in the Mines by a coction made by the virtue of the same stars For the liker things are the more inclin'd they are to unite together so Flame unites with Flame the drops of water joyn together a great Load-stone draws the less and Steel attracts the filings of steel The Fourth said As there is a civil converse between men for preservation of society so there is a natural one establish'd by God amongst the other creatures for the support of their common being consisting chiefly in their being mov'd one towards another Fire attracts unctuous exhalations and it self tends towards the Etherial fire the Air is drawn by the Lungs the Sea is drawn up by the Moon which causes its ebbing and flowing straw and dust by the Agate Iron by the Load-stone the virtue whereof together with the occult properties of all other bodies I attribute to that universal Spirit which carries every entity to its particular good The Fifth said If we would understand the causes of the
not by rarity alone or local extension but by formal extension or internal quantity and consequently that a little matter under a great internal quantity is the principle cause of tenuity rarity and transparence to which the evenness of surfaces is also requisite in gross bodies So that Light consists in a proportion between the quantity and the matter of its subject and Light is great when the matter is little under a great quantity as in the Heavens on the contrary the body is dark when a very small quantity is joyn'd to a great deal of matter as is seen in the Earth To prove this you must observe that all simple bodies are luminous excepting the Earth which is opake and we find Light in sundry animated bodies as in the Eyes of Cats and of those Indian Snailes which shine like torches and in our Gloe-wormes whose Light proceeds from their Spirits which being of a middle nature between the Body and the Soul are the least material thing in the world Whence it follows that Light is a form with the most of essence amongst sensible formes as obscurity hath the least The Second said The wonder of Marsilius Ficinus was with reason how 't was possible that nothing should be so obscure as Light For if Transparence be the subject of it why doth Crystal heated red hot in the fire come forth more luminous and less transparent then it was The same may be said of Rarity for we see that Air and Aqua Vitae are well rarify'd by the fire which inflames them but cease to be transparent as soon as they are made more rare and luminous which is an evident sign that rarity and transparence are not causes nor yet conditions of Light So the whole remainder of Heaven is lucid but onely the less rare parts and such as you might call vapours in respect of the pure Air. And the light which proceeds from the Sun the most luminous of all those celestial bodies would never be visible but be depriv'd of all its effects which are heating and enlightning if it were not reflected by some solid body Then it not onely appears but exerts its activity And if things be produc'd by the same causes which preserve and multiply them the solidity of burning mirrors made of Steel the hardest of all metals which make the Sun-beams do more then their own nature empowers them to shews sufficiently that their Light cannot arise from a rare and diaphanous cause Nor may the Light of rotten wood be assign'd to its rarity alone since many other bodies of greater rarity shine not at all nor that of Gloe-worms and Cats Eyes to their spirits since the flesh of some animals shines after their death as 't is affirm'd of Oxen that have frequently eaten a sort of Moon-wort and not onely the scales of divers fishes shine after separation from their bodies but sparkles of fire issue from the hair of some persons in great droughts whereunto the spirits contribute nothing Which would perswade me to believe that Light is a Form to the introduction whereof several conditions are requisite according to the diversity of subjects just as we see the Souls of some irrational creatures need great dispositions for their reception a Brain a Heart and a Liver with their dependances whereas others as Insects require lesse and are contented with something that may supply this defect some are generated in an instant without any apparent preparation as Frogs in a summer showre and therefore to assign the cause of Light is to seek the reason of Formes which is unknown to us Which similitude the vulgar speech confirmes for the people say The Candle is dead when it is extinguish'd presupposing that it had life before as an Animal hath so long as its form is conjoyn'd with its body Moreover Fire hath a Locall Motion as Animals have to obtain its food The Third said Light is a substance for it was created by God but 't is a Sixth Essence more subtile then that of Heaven which is call'd a Quintessence in respect of the Four Elements A substance which subsisted before the Sun having been created three dayes before it and nothing hinders but it may be communicated in a moment from Heaven to Earth since the intentional species of visible things is so Indeed whereunto shall we attribute the effect of Light which heats at distance and blinds being too great which colours and gives ornament to the Universe if it be not a substance And the Penetration of Dimension objected hereunto is salv'd by saying that it hath no more place here then when an Iron is red hot with the Fire which yet none will affirm to be an accident and neverthelesse it enters into the whole substance of the Iron and Light with it for 't is transparent and luminous at its centre when 't is throughly heated in the Fire The Fourth said The excellence of Light appears in that nothing hath greater resemblance with the Deity Which made some Heathen Philosophers say that Light is Gods Body and Truth his Soul Moreover the Scripture teaches us that God dwells in inaccessible Light And the blessed Spirits are stil'd Angels of Light as Daemons Spirits of darknesse Light enlivens and animates all things it rejoyces all Creatures by its presence Birds begin to sing and even flowers to display their beauties at its arrival And because Nothing gives what it hath not therefore some have conceiv'd that Light the enlivener of all the world is it self indu'd with life and that 't is the Universal Spirit and the Soul of the whole world Whence Plato in his timaeus brings no other argument to prove that Fire is an Animal but that it is luminous And in the sixth Book of his Common-wealth he makes the Sun who is the known Father of all living things the son of Light without which Pythagoras forbad to do any thing Moreover it hath no contrary Darkness being oppos'd to it onely privatively For its being is so excellent that Nature found not her self so able to make any thing that might be equall'd with it that might alter and corrupt it as the nature of Contraries require whereas all Qualities have each their particular enemy And 't is upon this very reason that Light acts in an instant because having no contrary quality to expel from its subject it needs no time or successive motion which is necessary to other qualities as to heat to warm cold water The Fifth said Light is a real form produc'd in the medium by a luminous body Aristotle calls it the act of the Perspicuum as it is Perspicuum This Form is accidental and falls under the head of Patible Qualities because 't is sensible by it self which is the property of accidents alone whereas substance is not sensible that is falls not under the perception of sense but by means of accidents and as it is the principle of action which belongs onely to a Quality For it cannot
hath gotten the life of his Enemy Indeed the word Virtue coming from the Latine which signifies Man implyes that to be virtuous 't is requir'd to overcome as a Man and leave tricks sleights and subtleties to Women to supply their weakness and yet Women too when they see the masculine vigorous deportment and feats of Arms of a Cavalier that has won the victory over his Enemy will prefer him before an other who hath had the same advantage without striking a blow Whence it appears that in all sort of Minds Generosity and Courage finds more favour then subtlety The Second said That the Emblem of the Wind and the Sun trying which should make the Traveller quit his Cloak attributing the mastery to the Sun above the Wind shews that Force is not alwayes the most efficacious For he who aimes to overcome must accomplish it by the most facile way which being ordinarily the gentlest because it finds least resistance brings about its designes more easily then violence which giving the Alarm makes every one stand upon his guard and renders all enterprizes dangerous Therefore the wise General who commits his affairs to Chance as little as he can assayes all other means before he comes to open force imitating a discreet Master of a Family who never falls to blows either in his house or out of it so long as he hath any hope from wayes of gentleness Moreover the means which peculiarly belong to Man ought to be prefer'd before those which are common to him with brutes yea in which they go beyond him And you see that they are not the most strong and robust that command in Monarchies and States but the most wise and prudent whose bodies are commonly more weak through their great watchings and toils and because these delicate bodies are more easie to be govern'd by the powers of the Soul which consequently are more worthily exercis'd therein The Third said That Philip of Macedon had reason to compare subtlety to the Foxes skin as force to the Lion's saying that the former was to be made use of when the latter hapened to be too short For he who employes subtlety in war thereby acknowledges his weaknesse which made an old Captain say when he was advis'd to set upon his Enemy in the night That he would win not steal a Victory For he that is vanquish'd onely by stratagem does not acknowledge himself worsted and they who make use of wiles when they think they have done they are alwayes to begin again as the Barretors who by some subtlety have procur'd a Verdict are never secure against new Sutes So a little man skill'd in wrastling may haply trip up his more sturdy Antagonist and so be counted more dextrous or nimble but not more strong then he Moreover since all actions take their rule from Justice which cannot consist with fraud he is not to be reputed a Conqueror that hath gotten a Victory unjustly The Fourth said That if we receive the judgement of the vanquish'd the Victors are alwayes faulty Therefore it matters not by what means we defeat our Enemies provided those means be lawful and transgress not the maxime of Divines That evil is not to be done to the end good may come of it This premiz'd 't is not onely lawfull for the chief of an Army but perfectly his duty to deprive his Enemies of all advantages before the fight in it and afterward besieging places defending them or giving them relief So Joshuah to encourage the Israelites to make an invasion into the land of Canaan caus'd Grapes of prodigious greatness which grew in that Country to be shew'd them in the Desart Cato to animate the Romans to the Carthaginian War let fall in the Senate some of the large African Figgs crying that there were but three days sail from the place where they grew An other by letting loose a Hare from the walls of Thebes thereby assur'd his Souldiers that they had to do onely with cowards since they suffer'd those Animals to come amongst them M. Antonius to exasperate the Romans against the murtherers of Caesar display'd his shirt to them all bloody And Augustus to convince them of ingratitude publish'd his Testament true or fictitious whereby he made those very murtherers his heirs Others of whom Examples are infinite by continual Alarms oblige their Enemies to watch and stand for some dayes in armes before the fight to the end to tire them out by those toiles they weaken them by delights cut off their provisions hinder their relief raise false reports and intercept Letters on purpose to abate their Courage or that of their Allies In the fight they strive to give their Enemies the disadvantage of the wind dust smoak and Sun in their faces they possess the highest and most advantagious places and drive them upon precipices ditches bogs and other incommodious places they let loose mad beasts upon them as Elephants of old to break their ranks and strike terror into them which others do also by their cryes words armes engines and other uncouth inventions the strangeness whereof making a great impression in their Minds puts them into disorder They make shew of assailing them on one side whilst on the other where they are weakest they give an assault in good earnest Some have overcome them by their celerity surprizing them asleep feasting playing or wearied others by a contrary stratagem get the better of them by patience undermining and consuming them by little and little After the fight when the Enemies are defeated they hinder them from getting together again in a body In brief all the sleight and artifice that humane invention can imagine to confound the counsels and dissipate the forces of the Enemy hath been in all times employ'd to that end and they who have best practis'd the same have gotten the name of great Captains Therefore Virgil had reason to say That it was not to be consider'd whether fraud or force were to be us'd against an Enemy but to conclude both are succesfully joyn'd together CONFERENCE LXIII I. Of Motion II. Of Custome I. Of Motion MOtion is consider'd variously in the Sciences By Metaphysicks inasmuch as Entity is divided into Moveable and Immoveable By Natural Philosophy as 't is an internal propriety of a Natural Body By Logick so far as 't is inseparable from Contrariety whereof it treats amongst the Opposites By Physick as being comprehended amongst the six things not-not-natural By Astronomy as it is annex'd to the Heavens and by them is the cause of all those here below By the Mechanicks as 't is the Agent of all their Engines And 't were to be wish'd for the perfection of the Mathematicks that as some of them treat of continuous Quantity permanent as Geometry others of discrete Quantity as Arithmetick considering them abstracted from their matter so there were some that treated purely of the nature and properties of continuous Quantity successive which is Motion For the doctrine of Motion
the campaigne War is the fair where wares are had best cheap and in sack'd Cities commodities are taken without weighing and Stuffs are not measur'd but with the Pike instead of the Ell if any complain there needs no more but to imitate Brennus's treating with the Romans besiedg'd in the Capitol cast the sword into the balance it will carry it Wherefore being Master of all Arts it is more necessary then they For he that is strongest finds sufficient of every thing The Seventh said As amongst the Arts some have others subservient to them as the Ephippians to the Military Art Chyrurgery Pharmacy the Gymnastick and all that relate to Health to Medicine or Physick Carpentry Masonry and others employ'd about building to Architecture and these Master Arts are call'd Architectonical So there is one above all these which is Policy the Eye and Soul of the State which governs all Arts gives them their rewards and punishes their defects sets what price it pleases upon things affords convenient place for the merit of every one sends Armies into the field and calls them back according to the necessity of affairs hath care of Piety and Justice establishes Magistracy appoints quarters to Souldiers and gives free exercise to all other Arts. All which considerations and accounts argue it the most necessary of all CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earthquake II. Of Envy I. Of the Earthquake IRregular motions are as strange as regular are agreeable especially those of bodies destinated to rest as the Earth is being the immoveable centre about which the whole fabrick of the world is turn'd For though the whole Heaven cannot rest any more then the whole Earth move yet the parts of them may the Scripture informing us that Joshuah made the Sun stand still that he might have time to pursue the Amorites and every Age having experiences of Earthquakes To which Aristotle ascribes the appearing of a new Island in the Pontick Sea call'd Heraclia and of another call'd Sacrea Many Geographers affirm that the Islands of Rhodes and Delos were produc'd by the like cause and that Sicily sometimes joyn'd to Italy was separated from it by an Earthquake whence the place of separation is still call'd by the Greek word Rhegium which signifies separation and fracture Pliny affirms that the Island of Cyprus was by this means divided from Syria and Euboea from Boeotia Histories tell of some Mountains that have clash'd together contrary to the Proverb which saith that they never meet of Towns transported to some distance from their first situation as hapned by an Earthquake in Syria in the ninth year of Constantinus Copronomus of others swallowed up as sometimes the greatest part of the City of Sparta upon which at the same time fell a part of Mount Taygetus which completed its ruine twenty thousand inhabitants of which City were also overwhelm'd by an other Earthquake by the relation of Diodorus about the 78. Olympiade Josephus reports that thirty thousand Jews were swallow'd up by another And Justin that when Tigranes King of Armenia became Master of Syria there hapned so dreadful an Earthquake that a hundred and thirty thousand Syrians perish'd by it Four hundred years agoe twelve thousand houses were shaken down at Lisbon Italy was much endamag'd in the year 1116 by one which lasted forty dayes principally Tuscany Puglia the Territory of Venice and Campagnia where twelve Cities perish'd and that of Pompey was swallow'd up in Winter which season neverthelesse is accounted free from it Four years agoe the City of Naples was horribly shaken especially the borders of Mount Visuvius The common opinion refers these effects to a dry Exhalation which makes the same concussion in the belly of the Earth as in that of a cloud shattering many times both the one and the other when it cannot otherwise get free from its confinement how hard or dense soever the bodies be that inclose it The Second said That the causes of Earthquakes are either Divine or Astrological or Physical The first have no other foundation but the Will of God who thereby oftentimes manifests to Men his justice and power and sometimes contrary to the course of ordinary and natural causes Such was that at the death of our Saviour in the 18th year of Tiberius which was universal and wherewith twelve Cities of Asia perish'd and that mention'd by Sigonius hapning in the year 343. under Constantine the Arrian Emperor whereby the City of Neocaesaria was wholly swallow'd up except the Catholick Church and its Bishop The Astrological causes are if we may credit the professors of this Art the malignant influences of Jupiter and Mars in the Houses of Taurus Virgo and Capricorn But as the first are too general so these are very uncertain being built for the most part upon false principles as also those which suppose the Earth a great Animal whose tremors are made in the same manner as those which befall other Animals Wherefore holding to the most perceptible causes I conceive with Democritus that torrents of rain coming to fill the concavities of the Earth by their impetuousnesse drive out the other waters and that upon their motion and swaying from one side to another the Earth also reels this way and by and by the other or rather that these Torrents drive out the winds impetuously as Air issues out of a bottle when it is filling which wind repells and agitates the Earth till it find some issue whence also come the sounds and lowings which accompany Earthquakes As is seen in Hydraulick instruments which by arificial mixing Air and Water when they are impell'd into pipes fit to receive the same excite sounds like those emitted by the wind-pipe of Animals agitated with the wind of their lungs and moistned with the salivous liquor or natural water The Third said That he could not be of their mind who because water is found by digging to a good depth in the Earth therefore interpret that place literally where 't is said That God hath founded the Earth upon the Water upon which it floats and that according to their agitation the Earth is like a Ship which fluctuates in a tempestuous Sea and lyes even and still in a calm since if this were so then the whole Earth should tremble at the same time which is contrary to experience The opinion of Anaximenes is more probable that as part of the Earth upon a droughth after a wet season cleaves and crackles so the same happens to Regions and whole Countries The Fourth said That if this opinion were true then they would begin increase diminish and cease by degrees nor would they last long Yet 't is observ'd some have continu'd forty days yea six moneths as that of Constantinople under Theodosius the younger and miraculously ceas'd upon the first singing of those words by all the people Sanctus Sanctus c. Aristotle also makes mention of some that lasted two years the cause whereof depends either upon the quality or
building without stones morter or other materials Therefore when Art offers to compare with Nature 't is as if a child upon a Gyant 's neck should therefore think it self taller then he whereas it hath no advantage but what it borrows from the Gyant which upholds it The Second said That actions being the rule whereby to measure the excellence of the Agents and being themselves determin'd by their end which alone sets value upon them Nature is therefore more excellent then Art in that it hath a nobler end in its actions and ordinarily attains the same which Art can never do For Nature as the internal principle of motion and rest of that wherein it is produces all substantial forms and is the cause of all generations and natural motions in the continual revolution of which is seen an unparallel'd order illustriously testifying the wisdom of Nature who governs them and who never fails to produce a plant or an animal when the matter is rightly dispos'd Whereas Art is only an external cause giving nothing but shape and outward shew to its works which indeed in some manner imitate those of Nature which is the end of Art but are never so perfect no Painter having ever made a bunch of grapes or a man so well as Nature because he represents only the surface and some few other external accidents but is far from being able to express the essence and substantial forms of these natural bodies which it attempts to imitate Moreover Nature frames all parts of her works together as in the formation of man though grosly and in a small volume and afterwards makes the same augment and move together but Art makes the parts of its work successively the foundation before the walls these before the roof the rough hewing before the last hand and motion excited by artifice is violent yea more in some parts of the Engine then in others The Third said That to doubt whether Art be more powerful then Nature is to doubt whether two be more then one or three then two For Art presupposes Nature perfected And as that is the strongest animal which can bring others under its laws so being Art always subdues Nature it must be the more potent Our nature is inclin'd to evil but the precepts of Divinity yea and of moral Philosophy too have no other aim but to correct its defects and overcome its perverseness both which are so happily effected that not only S. Paul professes I live yet not I but Christ in me but also the most excellent Physiognomist was mistaken in his judgement of Socrates from his aspect Nature leads man to follow his brutish and sensual appetite and to make use of every thing which complies therewith but Art coming to rectifie it civilizes him and teaches him to restrain his concupiscences to fast rather for conscience or health then incur eternal damnation in the other life and diseases in this And experience shews how far Art gets the mastery of Nature when a little man dextrous at his weapons easily overcomes a stronger who hath onely the help of nature The horse dog birds of prey and other animals capable of discipline do every thing which man teaches them much better then they would do of themselves Compare but the discourse of an ignorant with that of a learned person the carriage of a Clown with that of a Courtier the heaviness of a strong Lubber with the dexterity of a practis'd Champion In the Mechanicks a Child with an artificial Screw will lift up a greater burden then two Oxen can carry and these two Oxen will draw a load by the common artifice of Carts which ten other Oxen cannot bear upon their backs An Army of 20000 naked Savages hath been often defeated by 200 men arm'd with Swords and Arquebushes In brief compare the weakness of all things at their beginning and before time has brought them to perfection by a series of new precepts whereof Arts are composed and you will see that Art as much surpasses Nature as Bread doth Acorns or Wheat it self before Art hath fitted it to our use The Fourth said That duration is the measure of every thing 's excellence whence the Proverb teaches us to consider the end Bubbles of water and sope blown into the air look very handsome wait but a little and they are nothing So are all artificial things compar'd to natural As this gave them beginning so it sees them end overcomes and survives them that a thing perishes it hath from art that it lasts more or less it hath from nature as writing engraven in Marble is of longer continuance then that which is trac'd upon sand and yet 't is one and the same writing But sooner or later every thing returns to its first principles and what was borrow'd of nature must be paid back to her again We raisepalaces up to the clouds Nature endures it with some violence their gravity resisting the most it can till at length she seems to yield and to be tam'd by art But inquire news of them in future ages and they will tell you that Nature never rests till she hath return'd that to the ground which was taken out of it and this without Tools or Instruments Art squares trees which were round whence a Spartan Lady ask'd whether trees grew square leave them to the air they become round their corners rotting first of all Physitians observe that simple medicaments as the most natural are the most effectual and such as have least artifice are most active Whence the most expert laugh at that hotch-potch of herbs and other ingredients wherewith quack-salvers fill their receipts acknowledging that the more you have in compounding a medicine the lesse intentions you obtain the same one quality resisting and abating the edge of another And in removing of diseases they hold for a Maxime that 't is Nature alone which do's the cure Moreover the birth of a child is a pure work of Nature and she that leaves her to do the business is the most expert to bring Women to bed In brief all good Crises must be natural every thing that is artificial is directly contrary thereunto What adoptive Son hath so tender an affection to his parents as a natural one or what nurse suckles anothers with so good a heart as her own child which was the reason of the Gardiner to the Philosopher who ask'd him why bad herbs grew better of themselves then others transplanted and cultivated by Art When we would signifie an honest man we say he is of a good nature when a knave that he is full of artifice Men may disguise their manners and inclinations but cannot dissemble Nature a sanguine cholerick or melancholy person alwayes discover their nature through all the artifices and hypocrisies of art Preach to an intemperate ambitious or otherwise tainted with some vice as natural to him as to the lame to halt he will possibly restrain himself for some time but presently
sought onely in the continuance of the Suns action during the Spring and half the Summer whereby the Air is hotter then when he was neerer us So 't is hotter at two a clock in the afternoon then at ten in the morning although the Sun be at the same distance yea then at noon although he be then nearest of all and we read that an Ambassador of Presbyter John dy'd with heat as he landed at Lisbone although the heat be not so great there as in his Country but of louger continuance If it rains sometimes during the said season 't is by reason of too great attraction of Vapours by the heat of the Sun as is seen in the torrid Zone where when the Sun is in the greatest Apogaeum it rains continually The Second said That the Longitude of the Dog-star call'd by the Arabians Athabor is at this day about the 9. degr of Cancer and its meridional latitude 39. degr and a half Now the Ancients observing the greatest heat of the whole year to be commonly when the Sun is at the end of Cancer and beginning of Leo and at the same the Dog-star to rise with the Sun which the Astronomers call the Cosmical Rising nam'd those dayes Dog-dayes which begin with us about the two and twentieth of July whether they believ'd the cause of this heat to be that star assisting the Sun or else according to their order of distinguishing seasons before years and moneths were regulated by the course of the Sun they denoted those dayes by the rising of this star conceiving that it did not change place any more then the other stars of the Firmament As not onely the Poets but also Hippocrates distinguishes the four Seasons of the year by the rising and setting of the Pleiades and Arcturus And thus the name of the day hath remain'd to these dayes although the star be not in the same place following Ages observing that besides the eight motions admitted by the Ancients in the Heavens namely of the seven Planets and the First Mover there 's another peculiar to the starry Heaven which is finish'd according to some in 36000 years whereby it comes to pass that the Dog-star is no longer in the same place where it was at the first observation of these Dog-dayes For 't is about two thousand years since this star arose exactly with the Sun in the dayes which we call Canicular the heat whereof hath alwayes continu'd and yet the star hath pass'd forward and at this day rises not with the Sun till about the eighth of August when the Dog-dayes and strength of heat begins to expire Since therefore the effect continues and the pretended cause exists not at that time as the Astronomical Tables justifie it follows that it is not the cause of that effect Wherefore some have conceiv'd that the star which made the Dog-dayes was another star in the little Dog call'd Procyon But this Procyon did not rise with the Sun in the dayes of the Ancients till about the beginning of July which is three weeks before the Dog-dayes which consequently cannot be attributed to the fix'd stars by reason of their particular motion which causes them to vary situation the Dog-star by its proper motion proceeding 52. min. every year which make about 1. degr in 70. years 3. degr in 200. years and one sign in 2000. Besides if the stars had any force the same would be sensible at their coming to the meridian of the place with the Sun then when they rise with him because their greatest strength is when they are under the meridian being then in their greatest elevation above the Horizon and nearest the Zenith and consequently most active as experience shews in the Sun Therefore the true cause of the heat of Dog-dayes is because the Sun being towards the end of Cancer and the beginning of Leo we have more causes concurring together to produce heat then in any other season of the year namely the elevation of the Sun above the horizon the length of the days and shortness of the nights For then the dayes are not sensibly diminish'd nor the nights sensibly encreas'd the Sun hath not yet suffer'd any considerable change in his altitude above the Horizon but above all the preparation of the earth which hath been heated during the three moneths of the Spring and a moneth and half of the Summer whereby all the aqueous humidity which refrigerates is dissipated and the heat so far impacted into the earth that the night it self is less cold then in any other season The Fourth said As 't is absurd to seek in the stars for causes of effects when we see them manifest in the qualities of inferior bodies and the various concourse of so many different natural causes So 't is stupidity to deny all virtue to those great superior orbs rejecting wise Antiquity and all the most learned judiciary Astrologers who ascribe a particular virtue to each star as to the Dog-star to heat and scorch the Air. Moreover the Divine Hippocrates lib. de Affect inter Sect. 5. affirms that the disease call'd Typhos happens commonly in Summer and in these Dog-dayes because it hath a power to stir the choler through the whole Body And in his book De Aere locis aquis he adds that the rising of the stars is diligently to be observ'd especially that of the Dog-star and some few others at which times diseases turn into other kinds for which reason he saith Aph. 5. Sect. 4. That purging is dangerous when the Dog-star rises and some while before The Fifth said That all purging medicaments being hot t is no wonder if they are carefully to be manag'd during very hot weather in which there is a great dissipation of the spirits and strength so that our Bodies being then languid cannot be mov'd and agitated without danger Not that the Dog-star contributes any thing thereunto but onely the heat of the season caus'd by the Sun which attracting from the centre to the circumference and purging from the circumference to the centre there are made two contrary motions enemies to Nature which is the cause that many fall then into fevers and fainting fits II. Of the Mechanicks Upon the Second Point 't was said That as the object of the Mathematicks is two-fold either intellectual or sensible so there are two sorts of Mathematicks Some consider their object simply and abstracted from all kind of matter namely Geometry and Arithmetick others consider it as conjoyn'd to some matter and they are six Astrology Perspective Geodaesie Canonick or Musick the Logistick and the Mechanick Art which is nothing less then what its name imports being otherwise the most admirable of all because it communicates motion which is the most exquisite effect of Nature 'T is divided into Organical which composes all instruments and engines of war sordid which makes utensils necessary to the uses of life and miraculous which performs strange and extraordinary things 'T is this
which makes water ascend in the Pneumaticks whereof Hero writ a Treatise rendring the same melodious and resembling the singing of birds in the Hydraulicks It makes use of the four Elements which are the causes of the motions of engines as of Fire in Granadoes Air in Artificial Fountains both Fire and Air by their compression which water not admitting since we see a vessel full of water can contain nothing more its violence consists in its gravity when it descends from high places The Earth is also the cause of motion by its gravity when 't is out of Aequilibrium as also of rest when 't is equally poiz'd as is seen in weights The Second said The wit of Man could never preserve the dominion given him by God over other creatures without help of the Mechanicks but by this art he hath brought the most savage and rebellious Animals to his service Moreover by help of mechanical inventions the four Elements are his slaves and as it were at his pay to do his works Thus we see by means of the Hydraulicks or engines moving by water wheels and pumps are set continually at work the Wind is made to turn a Mill manag'd by the admirable Art of Navigation or employ'd to other uses by Aealipila's Fire the noblest of all Elements becomes the vassal of the meanest Artisans or serves to delight the sight by the pleasant inventions of some Ingineer or employes its violence to arm our thunders more powerfully then the ancient machines of Demetrius The Earth is the Theatre of all these inventions and Archimedes boasted he could move that too had he place where to fix his engine By its means the Sun descends to the Earth and by the artificial union of his rayes is enabled to effect more then he can do in his own sphere The curiosity of man hath carry'd him even to Heaven by his Astrological Instrumens so that nothing is now done in that republick of the stars but what he knows and keeps in record The Third said That since Arts need Instruments to perform their works they owe all they can do to the Mechanicks which supply them with utensils and inventions 'T was the Mechanicks which furnish'd the Smith with a hammer and an anvil the Carpenter with a saw and a wedge the Architect with a rule the Mason with a square the Geometrician with a compass the Astronomer with an astrolabe the Souldier with sword and musket in brief they have in a manner given man other hands Hence came paper writing printing the mariner's box the gun in these latter ages and in the preceding the Helepoles or takecities flying bridges ambulatory towers rams and other engines of war which gives law to the world Hence Archimedes easily drew a ship to him which all the strength of Sicily could not stir fram'd a heaven of glass in which all the celestial motions were to be seen according to which model the representation of the sphere remains to us at this day Hence he burnt the Roman ships even in their harbour defended the City of Syracuse for a long time against the Roman Army conducted by the brave Marcellus And indeed I wonder not that this great Archimedes was in so high in Reputaion For if men be valued according to their strength is it not a miracle that one single man by help of mechanicks could lift as much as ten a hundred yea a thousand others And his pretension to move the whole Earth were a poynt given him out of it where to stand will not seem presumptuous though the supposition be impossible to such as know his screw without-end or of wheels plac'd one above another for by addition of new wheels the strength of the same might be so multiply'd that no humane power could resist it yea a child might by this means displace the whole City of Paris and France it self were it upon a moveable plane But the greatest wonder is the simplicity of the means employ'd by this Queen of Arts to produce such excellent effects For Aristotle who writ a book of mechanicks assignes no other principles thereof but the Lever its Hypomoclion or Support and a balance it being certain that of these three multiply'd proceed all Machines both Automata and such as are mov'd by force of wind fire water or animals as wind-mills water-mills horse-mills a turn-broch by smoak and as many other inventions as things in the world CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenuous Man I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons NAtural Philosophy considers natural bodies as they are subject to alteration and treats not of the Soul but so far as it informes the Body and either partakes or is the cause of such alteration And therefore they are injust who require this Science to prove supernatural things as the Soul's Immortality is Although its admirable effects the vast extent of its thoughts even beyond the imaginary spaces its manner of acting and vigor in old age the terrors of future judgement the satisfaction or remorse of Conscience and Gods Justice which not punishing all sins in this life presupposes another are sufficiently valid testimonies thereof should not the universal consent of heathens themselves some of which have hastned their deaths to enjoy this immortality and man 's particular external shape infer the particular excellence of his internal form So that by the Philosophical Maxime which requires that there be contraries in every species of things if the souls of beasts joyn'd to bodies die there must be others joyn'd to other bodies free from death when separated from the same And the Harmony of the world which permits not things to pass from on extreme to another without some mean requires as that there are pure spirits and intelligences which are immortal and substances corporeal and mortal so there be a middle nature between these two Man call'd by the Platonists upon this account the horizon of the Universe because he serves for a link and medium uniting the hemisphere of the Angelical Nature with the inferior hemisphere of corporeal nature But there is difference between that which is and that which may be demonstrated by Humane Reason which falls short in proving the most sensible things as the specifical proprieties of things and much less can it prove what it sees not or demonstrate the attribute of a subject which it sees not For to prove the Immortality of the Soul 't is requisite at least to know the two termes of this proportion The Soul is immortal But neither of them is known to natural reason not immortality for it denotes a thing which shall never have end but infinitie surpasses the reach of humane wit which is finite And the term Soul is so obscure that no Philosophy hath yet been able to determine truly whether it be a Spirit or something corporeal a substance or an accident single
so And therefore there are more fools then wise happy For the latter discerning the meaness and vanity of the goods of the world account it no happiness to possess them but strain their wits to find others more solid which they will never find in this world whereas the former live contented and happy in the quiet enjoyment of their present goods beyond which they wish no others Moreover our happiness and contentment depends upon our selves that is upon our own imagination as appears in the Hospitals of fools who are so far from resenting the horror and misery wherein they really are that on the contrary they flatter themselves with their agreeable phancies of being Kings Emperors and very gods from which they take more pleasure then they give to others As also in that Athenian who imagining all the ships in the Piraean Haven to be his rejoyc'd for their return and su'd his friends at Law for curing him of this agreeable folly In fine according to the meer sentiments of nature the people of the world addicting themselves to all sorts of pleasures are more happy then those who deny the same to themselves in obedience to the counsels of the Gospel and yet in the judgement of God who is the rule of true wisdom these are wise and the other fools Lastly the Law is favorable to fools in the perpetration of great crimes their defect of will being their security For which reason we call them Innocents The Third said This Question is the harder to be determin'd because there is no judge but is a party But if we refer our selves to the wise as it belongs to them to determine things they will judge it to their own advantage And indeed to place felicity of the mind in the total alienation of the mind or in the several degrees of the same is no less preposterous then to place the pleasure of the body in pain or diseases For man's felicity or chief good consists not in opinion otherwise it were not true but only imaginary and so man alone amongst all the creatures could not be truly happy But this beatitude of man consists in his end this end is his action the action of man as man is that which renders him like to God by contemplation and vertue the two most perfect operations of the understanding and the will proceeding from principles to conclusions in the theory and from the means to the end in the practice of moral vertues which are not without prudence and reason because they consist in mediocrity which cannot be understood but by the comparison of the two extreams which is an action of the understanding Since therefore folly is a Laesion of the rational faculty whether this Reason be abolish'd deprav'd or diminish'd which are the several degrees of folly fools cannot be happy because they cannot live according to right reason in which the essence of this life's felicity consists As they are exempt from vices so they are incapable of vertues And if it be true that no man is happy but he that is contented and that contentment consists in the satisfaction we have in the enjoyment of some good which gives us rest fools cannot be happy since satisfaction of mind proceeds from its reflexion upon the excellence or goodnes of the thing which we possess Now reflexion is a most perfect act of the Intellect which returns upon its objects and it self So that what Civilians say of slaves that they cannot be happy in this world because they are not their own nor counted for any thing but reputed in the number of the dead the same may with much more reason be affirm'd of fools CONFERENCE XCII I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness THe Philosopher Thales had reason in affirming water to be the principle of all things whether he had learn'd out of the books of Moses that in the beginning the Spirit of God mov'd upon the face of the waters and so the water appear'd first of the Elements or else had observ'd in nature that no sublunary forms can subsist without moisture which Chymistry teaches us to extract out of the most acid bodies which neither can subsist without humidity tying and uniting their parts otherwise likely to fall into dust as it also serves to all generations those of Plants and Animals beginning always by humidity which is the cause why the Sea is more fruitful in Fish which likewise are more sound then the earth in its Animals of less bulk then the Marine For humidity is the food of their natural heat it also causes Leaves Flowers and Fruits to grow forth in Plants upon the earth and in the entrals thereof it forms Minerals the noblest of which are the most ductile and fusible which is a sign of their abundant humidity as the dryest and most earthy are the worst The dews of Heaven fertilize the earth whence God threatens his people to give them a heaven of brass and an earth of iron and when he promises great blessings he saith he will give dew in abundance which also was the blessing which Isaac gave his son Esau. The inundation of Nilus fattens the possessions of Egypt The Spring the most healthful and agreeable of all Seasons is moist Autumn on the contrary is the producer of diseases by reason of its drynesse Pearls are generated in the humidity of the Sea wherein also Venus was born Moisture is also the cause of plumpness and beauty which is never found in a lean face and a dry body and it hath so great an influence in our nature that we call a good one a good or pleasing humour The Moon governs all things by moisture upon which she hath a particular influence and the Planets are more benigne in moist Signs then in dry amongst which that of Virgo spoils the earth of all its beauties and of the Planets Mars and Saturn are the destroyers of nature by their drynesse In sine Humidity renders the Seasons Winds Places Ages more agreeable and Women more beautiful then Men. As Children who abound in humidity are more agreeable then dry old men And there 's no person but had rather live in a climate temper'd with humidity as between 40 and 50 degrees then in the sands and desarts of Libia more proper for the generation of Monsters then the habitation of men The Second said Although dry weather being the fairest and pleasantest hath more patrons then moist yet 't is more unhealthy The temperate Zones are pluvious and that Autumn which is commonly rainey is yet most unhealthy this proceeds from the inequality of its temperature and some other extraneous causes as the abundance of fruits which fill our bodies with crudities The Spring whose temperature is hot and moist is according to Hippocrates most healthy not subject to great diseases the matter whereof is evacuated
so well obey'd as on the contrary Nerva's mildness weakned and enervated the Roman Commonwealth Was ever King more severe and better obey'd then Tamberlane or any family more powerfully establish'd then that of the Ottamans which owes all its grandeur to severity and rigour the sole upholder of Military Discipline a good Captain never pardoning any in war For the misery of inferiors whether true or imaginary joyn'd with the natural desire of liberty easily carries them to rebellion if fear and rigour tye not their hands Thus the war undertaken by the Servants against their Masters at Rome was the effect of mildness nor was there any other means to repress it but by blood and slaughter as another Nation once routed an Army of their Slaves with Whips and Stirrup-leathers the sight of which reviving the memory of their former scars was more effectual then ordinary weapons Therefore when the Law gave power of life and death over slaves it intended not to authorize homicide being sufficiently careful of men's lives but judg'd it expedient to retain these persons in their duty by the apprehension of death The reason which once oblig'd the Senate to put 600 innocent slaves to death for an example to others The Second said whatever security there may be in severity it hath effects too violent to be durable Man's mind is too delicate a piece and whatever difference fortune hath put between men their spirit which is the same in all is too noble to be curb'd with a cudgel and biting of brutish severity which on the other side causes hatred as mildness doth love and is therefore to be prefer'd there being none but had rather be lov'd then hated and no way to be belov'd but by loving For the same Proverb which reckons servants amongst necessary evils reckons a wife so too and the tyrannical Aphorism So many servants so many enemies is not true but in those who have cause given them to be so And indeed a Master's condition would be the worst of all if he must live always at home upon his guard as in a den of Lyons or Tygres For what is alledg'd that servants are ill bred and ill-natur'd and seldom acknowledge the obligations they have to their Masters is indeed too true in the most eminent conditions but that which we call ingratitude in them comes especially from the rigour of our deportments which offuscate the benefits and commodities they receive from us Their low fortune is unpleasant enough without making them desperate to our prejudice And indeed the Laws which have allow'd most severity to Masters over their slaves have sometimes been insufficient to secure them from the fatal strokes of their discontent as many Histories of Roman Masters murder'd by their slaves notwithstanding that rigour of Silanus's Law and the dangerous revolts of Spartacus and others in the Provinces sufficiently testifie Whence it appears that a man must be in as much fear of his servants as he would be fear'd by them and that suspicion and diffidence is as well the mother of treacheries as of safety since it seems to leave those whom we distrust to do all the mischief they can For to pretend severity for avoidance of contempt and too great familiarity in my judgement speaks great weakness of mind and as if dominion and majesty could not be more agreeably maintain'd by clemency and gravity affected by rigour is as ridiculous as odious yea 't is to fall into an extremity too vicious to make one's self hated for fear of being sleighted and to appear cruel to avoid being familiar The Third said That although gentleness be more acceptable then severity yet 't is also more dangerous witness that of Lewis the Debonnaire and Eli the chief Priest towards their children for whom the Wiseman recommends the rod as Aristotle doth discipline for servants and slaves and the indulgence of good husbands to their wives is the most apparent cause of the luxury reigning in that Sex to say no worse A family is a kind of Republick and the principles of Occonomy and Policy are much alike Now we see States are preserv'd by the exact severity of Laws signifi'd by the Rods Axes Maces and naked Swords born by Magistrates and the Scepters of Kings But no Magistrates have Ensigns of gentleness as being more dangerous because directly oppos'd to justice all whose rights and priviledges are preserv'd by severity And hence clemency is not permitted to be us'd by inferior Judges but that it may be more rare 't is reserv'd to Princes themselves who are above Laws and Customs The Fourth said It belongs to Prudence to determine when how where and why ways of gentleness or severity are to be us'd some minds being exasperated by severity like those tempers on which violent medicines work least and others turning sweetness into bitterness whilst they think it to proceed from timerousness or impotence and so take license to do any thing whom benigne medicines act not But to speak absolutely the way of gentleness must always precede and be found unprofitable before coming to rigour according to the precept of the Physitians who use fire and cauteries only when the malignity of the malady will not yield to ordinary remedies which the ancient Arabians never us'd till having first try'd a diet and regiment of living Nor do's wise Nature ever use violence till she is forc'd to it by some potent cause as the fear of Vacuity or the penetration of Dimensions In all the rest of her actions she proceeds with sweetness wherewith she hath so endow'd man that the same humour which gives and preserves his being namely Blood is the cause of Clemency and Gentleness call'd for this reason Humanity Wherefore 't is more sutable to our nature then to lean towards its contrary and the way from gentleness to rigour is more rational and natural then from rigour to gentleness For when a rough master speaks flatteringly to his servants they are no more mov'd therewith then a Horse accustom'd to the spur is with the voice alone Yea a Horse that will not stir for words will go for the spur and Masters who incessantly rate and beat their servants are like those ill Horse-men who have alwayes their spurs in the Horses sides where they make by this means a callous scar insensible to the most quick stimulations CONFERENCE XCIV I. Of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon II. Whether all Sciences may be profitably reduc'd to one I. Of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon T Is an ancient saying that the Luminaries have never more spectators then when some Languishment befalls them because ordinary effects how excellent soever affect us less then such as are not common whose novelty raises admiration in our minds otherwise much delighted in considering others defects and imperfections Those of the Celestial Bodies are deficiencies of light call'd Eclipses which happen by the diametrical interposition of some opake body To speak onely of those
incessantly assault it And if we compare it to other Sciences it overthrows most of their Principles by establishing the Mysteries of Faith This is it which made the wisest of men and who perfectly understood all Sciences to say That they were but vanity And were this union possible he hath so highly recommended sobriety of knowing that 't would be a kind of intemperance to desire to know every thing no less presumptuous by exceeding the bounds set by God to each of our capacities then ridiculous by attempting to make a necessary and infallible thing of many contingent and uncertain and not yet agreed upon The Third said That Unity which is one of the Transcendents co-eternal and co-essential to Good ought to be the attribute of all good things and consequently of Discipline which likewise being the good of the Understanding which is one cannot be comprehended by it but by their becoming conformable the one to the other If any reply That 't is enough that things enter into it successively and so need not be one which would be inconsistent with their nature I answer That the series and order which is found in those things belongs to one single Science otherwise they would have no conection together and by this means could not be made use of to purpose And since all our Notions depend one of another our Discourse being but a continual Syllogism whose Conclusions depend upon the Premises it follows That the Syllogism being the subject but of one Science they all pertain but to one Science whence Philosophy is defin'd the knowledge of things divine and humane that is to say of every thing Indeed since all moral Virtues are so connected together that 't is impossible to possess one without possessing all the Sciences which are the intellectual virtues must be streightly united likewise and the more for that they have but one most simple subject to wit the Uderstanding And since the means of Being are the same with those of Knowing every thing that is in the world having the same Principles of existence must also have the same principles of knowledg and so make one sole Science because Sciences differ only by reason of their principle all which too depend upon one Metaphysical principle namely That one and the same thing cannot be and not be which proves all others and therefore it follows That there must be one sole Science general comprehending all the rest For to say That every several manner of handling a thing makes a distinct Science is to imitate him who would make an Art of every Simple Lastly Nature would not have given us a desire of knowing every thing if this desire could not be accomplished But it is impossible to be so whilst the Sciences remain so diffuse as they are at present CONFERENCE XCV I. Of the diversity of Wits II. Of New-years Gifts I. Of the diversity of Wits DIversity is found in all things but no where more remarkably then in man for not to speak now of Bodies that of Minds is so great that none have been ever found to have the same inclinations or motions or that have been so much as like to themselves the Mind being an indefatigable Agent varying postures every moment according to the several occurrences of new objects to which it becomes like But though the division of Wits be so unequal and disadvantageous to some that there 's observ'd as great difference between one man and another as between some men and a brute yet all are well pleas'd with their lot and every one thinks he hath enough to spare and to govern and instruct others so conceited are we of what belongs to our selves Now the cause of this diversity of Spirits and Inclinations seems to be the various constitution of bodies whose temper the motions and inclinations of the Soul follow and this temper being incessantly mutable by causes internal and external not only in the four seasons of the year but also in the four parts of the day hence ariseth the diversity of the actions and inclinations of the Mind which is so great that the same thing pleases and displeases us in a little space of time The Second said That the Faculty which they call Ingenium or Genius cannot proceed meerly from the temperament of the four qualities For we see those that come nearest the temperament of man are the most stupid and Ages Seasons and Aliments changing those qualities continually should also incessantly change mans wits But 't is a quality or ray of the Reasonable Soul which finding the four qualities variously mix'd in every one makes use thereof in different operations and so this difference is only accidental not essential Moreover we see that whatever difference be conceiv'd in Minds yet their fundamental inclinations are alike the hatred and aversion of evil things and the desire and prosecution of good if the means imploy'd to these purposes be different this proceeds from a particular imagination caus'd by the constitution of the humours which makes this difference appear as through a colour'd glass So the choler of the Souldier puts him upon seeking honour and profit in Arms the Advocate is mov'd to seek them in the Sciences either by his more moderate temper or by the example and pleasure of his Ancestors Yet this Proportion cannot change the essence of Wits but only the appearance as a Painter out of the mixture of four or five colours makes infinite others which differ only in shew The Third said There are many partial causes of this variety and they may be various to infinity according to the various haps they meet with like the letters of the Alphabet diversly combin'd yet they may be referr'd to three principal Nature Art and Fortune The Nature of Man is the Soul and the Body Souls cannot differ specifically as some hold for then a species should be part of an individual since the Soul makes a part of man which is absurd because the species must be predicated of many individuals Yet I think there is some individual difference between our Souls not wholly depending upon the conformation of the organs or the temper of humours because excellent Souls have been found to lodg in ill-made Bodies as those of Socrates and Aesop and the contrary Art may also contribute much to this diversity especially in Youth when wits are more flexible some very dull ones having been incredibly improved by study So also may Fortune and Occasion amongst others the place of residence as the fertility of Palestine in Pasturage made the Jews Shepherds and the plains of Aegypt fitted for tillage by the inundation of Nilus made the Aegyptians Plow-men Those that inhabit the coasts of the Sea are Merchants in regard of the conveniency of transportation And necessity which forces our wits upon sundry things makes the Arabians who live in an unfertile soil for the most part Thieves as sterility has constrain'd others to make war upon their
never put into the same subject an internal and radical principal of two contrary desires as that of Man is to that of Woman the one consisting in action the other in passion the one in giving the other in receiving they cannot belong to one single individual which should also be both Agent and Patient contrary to the common Axiom founded upon the first Principle that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time Moreover the qualities of the Genitures being contrary that of the Woman cold and moist and that of the Man hot and dry they cannot meet in the same subject in so excellent a degree as is requir'd to generation For the strength divided is never so vigorous as united especially when its subjects are different No Hermaphrodites ever us'd both sexes perfectly but at least one of them weakly and abusively and consequently they are justly punish'd by the Laws For were both parts equally fit for Generation 't were contrary to policy to hinder them from using the same propagations being the chief Nerves of a State But these people are oblig'd to make choice of one Sex that by this election it may be konwn which they exercise best and may be prohibited the abuse of the other The Third said There 's nothing in Nature so disunited but is rejoyn'd by some medium As there are Spirits apart and Bodies apart so there are animated Bodies consisting of both Amongst beasts Leopards Mules Doggs and many others partake of two different Natures the Bat is between a beast and a bird as Frogs Ducks and other amphibious creatures partly Fish and partly Terrestial Animals The Bonaretz is a plant and an animal the Mushrome is between earth and a plant So since there is Man and Woman there may also be some nature containing both As to the cause of them besides nature's general inclination to reunite different things it seems that the same which produces monsters produces also Hermaprodites especially when the matter is more then needs a single Man or Woman and too little for two Nature herein imitating a Founder who casting his metal in a mould if there be any over-plus it sticks to the Piece which he intended to form Unless you had rather say that if both the seeds be of equal power and neither predominant over the other the Formative Virtue then produces both sexes which it would have distinguish'd into two Twins had there been matter sufficient for two Twins Whereunto also the Imagination of the Mother may also contribute For since some have been born with Virilities sticking at the end of their Nose and other places of the Countenance Nature seems less extravagant when she places them in their true situation there being no likelyhood in the Astrologers account that the conjunction of Mercury and Venus in the eight house which they assign to births is the cause hereof The Fourth said That Hermaphrodites being of those rare and extraordinary effects which fall no more under Law then under Reason 't is very difficult to assign the true natural causes of them Yea if there be nothing less known then forms and their original even when Nature acts regularly we cannot but be more at a loss in the combinations of forms and species and coupling of sexes which are deviations from the rule of Nature Hermaphrodites who have both sexes are of four sorts for they have Virilities in the ordinary place and muliebrities either in the perinaeum or the scrotum or else the feminine parts being in their right place the masculine appear above them as is seen many times in Goats or lastly the Virilities lying hid in the middle of the other at length come forth as ha's hapned to many Girls and Women turn'd into Men as to Marie Germain by the relation of Montagne to Arescon a Native of Argos who was sirnam'd Arescusa according to Martianus And Hippocrates affirms in 6. Epid. that a Woman nam'd Phaetusa who after she had had Children by her Husband Pytheus the Abderite this her Husband being long absent from her she came to have a beard and the other badges of virility The same he also testifies to have hapned to Namysia the wife of Gorippus in the Isle of Thasus Of which effects we shall easily find the reason if we say with Galen that Woman is an imperfect Animal and a fragment of Mankind and so 't will be no wonder to see a Woman become a Man then to see all other things acquire the perfection due to their Nature which they ought to attain lest their inclination thereunto be in vain Moreover 't is certain that a Woman desires a Man as Matter doth Form Power Act Imperfection Perfection Deformity Beauty in a word the Female the Male Nature affording us many examples of these changes of sexes and metamorphoses So Metals and Elements are turn'd one into another Wheat into Cockle Rye into Wheat Barley into Oats Origanum into Wild Thyme Sisymbrium into Mint Which caus'd Anaxagoras to say That every thing is in every thing According to which principle the Male is actually in his Female and Hermaphrodites are no more saving 't is more conspicuous So that the Ancients left us some truths under the figures of a god Lunus and the Moon and of a bearded Venus to whom the Dames of Athens sacrific'd in mens clothes The Fifth said That the transmutation of sexes is impossible by reason of the diversity of the Genitories in Men and Women which is greater then is here fit to be display'd But those Maidens who have been thought to change their Sex were Hermaphrodites who retain'd the marks of the Feminine sex onely till a certain age as that of Puberty when the increased heat driving the Virilities forth did the same thing as it doth in Children whom it enables to speak at a certain age Unless you will say that the Clitoris caus'd the mistake by its resemblance as it happens in that symptome call'd by Aegineta Cereosis or Cauda which makes Tribades pass for Hermaprodites The change of Men into Women not like that of Nero and Sardanapalus but of Tiresias mention'd by the Poets is more impossible unlesse they suppos'd that some causes destroying the heat of the Genital parts and weakning the strength the Virilities came to wither and retire inwards as the Umbilical vessels do after the faetus is born and that Nature conform'd to the cold temper superven'd in the whole body FINIS Ludus Literarius Ludi-Magistri Nihil est ex omni parte beatum Jupiter est quodcunque vides quodcunque movetur Lucan Id quod inserius est sicut illud quod est superius You may see the figure of these Parhelij in Des Cartes Meteors Splen ridere facit Mundus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornatus Eclesiasticus Sign Weeping Oderint dum mutuant * Guy fig. Misletoe
after The Fourth reply'd That this Motion seemed to him impossible to find not for its being unprofitable for it would be one of the greatest helps that Art could afford Man to ease him in his labours but because there is in all Arts some thing of impossibility as the Quadrature of the Circle in Geometry in Rhetorick the perfect Orator the Philosophers Stone in Chymistry the Common-wealth of Plato in Polity and in the Mechanicks Perpetual Motion And whereas it is said that a less weight or less strength can lift up a greater this is to be understood in more time So that what is gotten in strength is lost in time which comes all to one For Example one Man or one hundred weight shall raise as high in one hour as much weight as four Men or 400. weights shall raise in a quarter of an hour by any Mechanick Invention whatsoever The Last Hour was imployed in the mentioning of some Engines which had some likelihood of moving themselves endlesly And amongst others it was propos'd That a Wind-mill having a large wing which the wind should alwayes drive behind as it doth weather-cocks and by that means alwayes present its four ordinary sails to the wind might lift up so weighty a burthen whilst the wind blows that the same burden coming to descend while the wind ceaseth would cause a Motion of Continual Duration Which also may be more easily practis'd in a Perpetual Fountain by help of a Great Reservor which should be fill'd by help of the wind and be emptying it self all the time that it bloweth not One Demanded Whence it cometh that some are inclin'd to Mechanicks others onely to Contemplation and Literature It was answer'd that this proceeds from the Resemblance which their Mind hath with the Things which they affect The time being past for this Conference this Question afforded the Subject to the next for the first point concerning Resemblance and chiefly that of kinred one to another And for the Second Whether Letters ought to be joyn'd with Armes CONFERENCE V. I. Of Resemblance II. Whether it behoveth to joyn Armes to Letters I. Of Resemblance UPon the First It was said That there are Three Sorts of Resemblance viz. Of Species of Sex and of Aspect The Resemblance of Species comes from the Univocal Cause determined to produce an Effect like to it self That of Sex comes from the Predominancy either of the Masculine or Feminine Geniture or from the weakness of both The End of Nature being alwayes to make a perfect work viz. a Male to which if she cannot attain she maketh a Female The Resemblance of Aspect or individual which is that we are speaking of comes from the Formative Virtue inherent in the Geniture which being like a Quintessence or Extract not onely of all the parts which contribute to its Generation but also of the Spirits which accompany move and inform it in some manner it is not to be wonder'd if what is produc'd thereof bear their image and likeness as the Visible Species representeth the luminous or coloured Thing from whence it proceedeth To which if the Imagination also concur it sends still to the Faetus more Spirits then there were before which being the Principal Artificers in Formation imprint a shape or figure upon it like the Body from whence they streamed and of which themselves partake in some sort As the Water which issueth out of Pipes though it spout far retaineth the form thereof The strength of which Imagination is too great to doubt of being such as it is able to change the colour of a Child and to cause some to be born all hairy by the sight of the like Objects Of which the marks which are imprinted on the Bodies of Infants in the womb of their Mothers through some such Imagination are sufficient proofs and that in Brutes too The Second said That indeed this is an Effect of the Imagination seeing Galen having caus'd the picture of a white Child to be hang'd at the beds-feet of a Moor-Lady she brought forth a Child of the same colour And besides the Example of Lahan's sheep which brought forth streaked young by reason of the Rods of that colour plac'd in their drinking-troughs Experience of Hens who bring forth white Chickens if they be cover'd with Linnen while they brood verifieth the same The way that that Faculty produceth such an Effect is thus The Animal Spirits which reside in the Brain slide thence into the whole Body but especially into the Matrice by reason of the near Sympathy which is between them by the Nerves of the Sixth Conjugation which unite them and render Women subject to so many several accidents whereof the field of Nature is too fertile The Spirits then imprinting their qualities into that solid part it serves as a mould for the forming of the tender Embryo Which is not to be understood of Simple Imagination but of those upon which the Mind maketh a vehement and constant reflexion The Third said That if the Imagination contributed any Thing to the Resemblance we should see no unhandsome Children For could a Man beget what he would he would alwayes make it resemble some fair Idea in his Imagination Besides this Faculty can have no influence saving at the moment of the Act or during the bearing Not in the former for nothing acts upon that which is not Now the Parts exist not yet during that Act. Not the latter for the parts are then already form'd It will then be demanded in what time of the bearing this Imagination hath power If it be said in the former part it is held that the parts expos'd to our view are not then form'd and yet 't is in those that Resemblance is observ'd But in those first dayes onely the Principal pars viz. The Liver the Heart and the Brain are form'd If you will have it to be in the latter dayes the Soul being by that time introduc'd which is its true form and imprints upon the body the traces of the Inclinations it cannot thence forward be susceptible of alterations by a meer fancy Now that the manners of the Soul follow the External Form of the Body appears by Physiogmony wholly founded upon that Principle The Fourth argued that the Geniture is the superfluous aliment of the Third Concoction which proceeding from all the parts of the Body retaines the Characters of the same and imprints them upon the Body of the Embryo And hence come hereditary diseases as also the usual Resemblance of Twins And such is the Law of Nature that Children resemble their Fathers and Mothers just as Plants do the Plants which produce them As for the unlikness it comes usually from the diversity of the Genitures of Father and Mother which make a Third Temperament as of the colours yellow and blew mingled together is made a green The Fifth attributed the Cause to the divers Constellations because seeing all the alterations which happen here below cannot said he
proceed but from Heaven or the Elements there is no probability in attributing them to these latter otherwise they would be both Agents and Patients together And besides if the Elements were the Efficient Cause of the Mutations which come to pass in Nature there would be nothing regular by reason of their continual Generation and Corruption Wherefore 't is to the Heavens that it ought to be ascrib'd And as the same Letters put together in the same order make alwayes the same word So as often as the principal Planets meet in the same Aspect and the same Coelestial Configuration the Men that are born under such Constellations are found alike Nor is it material to say though 't is true that the Heavenly Bodies are never twice in the same scituation because if this should happen it would not be Resemblance longer but Identity such as Plato promised in his great Revolution after six and forty thousand years Besides there is no one so like to another but there is alwayes found more difference then conformity The Sixth affirm'd That the same Cause which produceth the likeness of Bodies is also that which rendreth the inclinations of Souls alike seeing the one is the Index of the other Thus we see oftimes the manners of Children so expresly imitate those of their Parents of both Sexes that the same may be more rightfully alledged for an Argument of their Legitimacy then the External Resemblance alone which consists onely in colour and figure This makes it doubtful whether we may attribute that Resemblance to the Formative Virtue Otherwise being connex'd as they are it would be to assign an Immaterial Effect as all the operations of the Rational Soul are to a Material Cause The Seventh ascrib'd it to the sole vigour or weakness of the Formative Virtue which is nothing else but the Spirits inherent in the Geniture and constituting the more pure part of it The rest serving those Spirits for Matter upon which they act for the organizing it and framing a Body thereof Now every Individual proposing to himself to make his like he arrives to his End when the Matter is suted and possess'd with an Active Virtue sufficiently vigorous and then this likeness will be not onely according to the Specifical Nature and the Essence but also according to the Individual Nature and the Accidents which accompany the same This seems perhaps manifest enough in that First Degree of Children to Fathers but the difficulty is not small how a later Son that hath no Features of his Fathers Countenance comes to resemble his Grand-father or Great Grand-father The Cause in my Judgement may be assign'd thus Though the Geniture of the Ancestor was provided with sufficient Spirits to form a Son like himself yet it met with a Feminine Geniture abounding with qualities contrary to its own which infring'd its formative vertue and check'd the Action thereof hindring the Exuberance of its Spirits from attaining to frame such lineaments of the Countenance as Nature intended or else it met with a Matrice out of due temper by some casual cold though otherwise both the Genitures were laudably elaborated For when those Spirits or Formative Virtue become chil'd and num'd they shrink and retire into their mass as he that is cold to his bed and wanting heat in which their Activity consists they remain in a manner buried and without Action in reference to this Resemblance And nevertheless there is left enough to make a Male like to the Father as to the species This Son thus form'd comes to Age to Generate and meeting with a Feminine Geniture proportion'd to his own in vigour and strength and a Matrice proper to receive them those Spirits of his Father which till then lay dormant are awaken'd to Action and concurring from all parts of the Body suddenly impregnate the Geniture of the Immediate Father having by their long residence in the corporeal mass been recruited refined and elaborated And as old Wine surpasseth new in strength and vigour of Spirits because it hath less Phlegme so those Spirits of the Grand-father having digested all the superfluous Phlegm wherewith those of the Father abound are more strong then they and win possession in the Geniture for the forming and organizing of it according to the shape of the Body from whence they first issued The Eighth said That he was very backward to believe that any Thing of our Great Grand-fathers remaineth in us seeing it is doubted upon probable grounds whether there remaineth in our Old Age any thing of our Child-hood and that the Body of Man by the continual deperdition of its Three-fold Substance Spirits Humours and solid parts is like the ship Argo which by the successive addition of new matter was the same and not the same That he conceiv'd not yet how the Geniture can proceed from all the parts seeing Anatomy teacheth us that the Spermatick Veines derive it immediately from the Trunk of the Hollow Vein Vena Cava and the Emulgent and the Arteries from the great Artery Aorta conveying it to be elaborated in the Glandules call'd Prostatae from whence it is set on work by Nature The solid Parts can have no Influence upon it for what humour or juice is brought to them for their nourishment goeth not away naturally but by sweat insensible transpiration and the production of hair The Spirits are too subtle and dissipable to preserve in themselves a Character and imprint the same upon any Subject That Resemblance in my Judgement proceedeth from the natural heat which elaborateth and delineateth the Body of the Geniture and by it the Embryo First with the general Idea of its species and then with the accidents which it hath and which it borroweth from the Matrice from the menstruous blood and the other Circumstances requisite to Generation and when chance pleaseth there is found a likeness to the Father Mother or others Which Circumstances being alike in the Formation of Twinns cause them to resemble one another unless when the Particles of the Geniture which is sufficient for two are of unlike Natures and are unequally sever'd by the natural heat So that for Example the milder and more temperate Particles are shar'd on one side and on the other the more rough and bilious As it hapned in Jacob and Esau the former of whom was of a sweet and the other of a savage humour and then Bodies as different as their Manners One the contrary many resemble one another in Countenance who are nothing at all related as Augustus and that young Man who being ask'd by the Emperour whether his Mother had never been at Rome answer'd No but his Father had And the true and false Martin Guerre who put a Parliament their Wife and all their kinred to a hard task to distinguish them II. Whether Letters ought to be joyned with Armes The Second Hour design'd for treating of the Conjunction of Armes and Letters began with this discourse That Armes seem not
nothing but Water rarifi'd and subtiliz'd by heat as also when they are reduc'd into Water by condensation this Water is nothing but Air condens'd And so Air and Water differ not but by Rarefaction and Condensation which are but Accident and consequently cannot make different species of Element Both the one and the other may be seen in the Aeolipila of Vitruvius out of which the heat of Fire causeth the Water which is therein to issue in the form of Air and an impetuous wind which is the very Image of that which Nature ordinarily doth I conceive also that the Air is neither hot nor moist nor light as Philosophers commonly hold For as to the First the Air is much more cold then hot and for one torrid Zone there are two cold Besides Heat is but Accidental to it being caus'd by the incidence and reflections of the rayes of the Sun So that this cause failing in the night when the Sun shines not or in Winter when its rayes are very oblique and their reflection weak or in the Middle Region whether the Reflection reacheth not the Air becometh cold and consequently in its natural quality since there is no External Cause that produceth that coldness As for the Second The Air dryeth more then it moistneth and if it moistneth it is when it is cold and condensed and consequently mix'd with many particles of Water and when it dryeth it is by its own heat For the Definition which Aristotle giveth of Humid and Moist is onely proper to every thing which is fluid and not stable and in this respect agrees to the Air which is fluid and gives way to all sorts of Bodies As for the Last which is its levity the harmony of the world by which all things conspire to union and so to one common Centre seemeth to contradict it For if the Air hath its Motion from the Centre the parts of the world might be disunited For the Air would escape away there being no restraint upon it by any External Surface Moreover if we judge the Air light because we see it mount above water we must also say that Wax and Oyle are light since we observe the same in them But that which they do is not mounting above the Water but being repell'd by the Water And so the principal of Motion being External the same is violent and not natural Whereas when the Air descends into the Well it descends thither naturally there being no External Cause of that descent For Vacuum not existing in Nature cannot produce this Effect Since according to the received Maxime Of a Thing which is not there can be no Actions Besides it would be it self-self-cause of its own destruction and do contrary to its own intention preserving Nature by this Action whereas it is an Enemy to it and seeketh the ruine thereof Lastly Since many Particles of Air being condens'd and press'd together give ponderosity to a thing as is seen in a Baloon or foot-ball it must needs be ponderous it self for many light Bodies joyn'd together are more light The Second said That the difference between Water and Air is as clear as either of those Elements For that the Vapours which arise from the Water by means of the Suns heat and the wind which issueth out of the abovesaid Vessel full of Water and placed upon the Fire cannot be call'd Air saving abusively But they are mixts actually compos'd of Water and Fire For the rayes of the Sun entring into the Water raise it into Vapour And the Fire infinuating it self by the Pores of the Vessel into the Water which it containeth causeth the same to come forth in the form of wind which is compos'd of Fire and Water Of Fire because the property of Fire being to mount on high it lifts up that subtiliz'd Water with it self Of Water because this Vapour hath some coldness and humidity whence meeting with a solid Body it is resolv'd into Water because the Fire alone passeth through the Pores of that Body Besides Water being moist and Air on the contrary dry as the precedent opinion importeth they cannot be the same thing And since all Alteration is made between two different things Water and Air transmuting one into another as it hath been said cannot be the same Lastly as there are two Elements whereof one is absolutely light as the Fire the other absolutely heavy as the Earth So there are two which are such but in comparison with the rest The Water compar'd with the Earth is light because it floateth above it The Air in comparison of the Water is light too because it is above it So that when it descendeth lower then the Water into the Caverns of the Earth 't is Nature that obligeth it to renounce its proper and particular interest for preserving the general one which is destroy'd by the Vacuum not that the Vacuum is the Cause thereof for it hath no existence And the Air wherewith the Baloon is fill'd rendreth the same more heavy because it is impure and mixt with gross Vapours Which it would not do were it pure and Elementary such as is that of which we are speaking which is not to be found in our Region The Common Opinion hath also more probability which holdeth that the Air is hot and moist Hot because it is rare and light which are effects of heat Moist because it is difficultly contain'd within its own bounds and easily within those of another Thence it is that the more Bodies partake of Air the more they have of those qualities As we see in Oyl which is hot being easily set on flame And Moist in that it greatly humecteth and easily expandeth it self on all sides But if the Air seemes sometimes to be cold 't is by accident by reason of the cold vapours wherewith it is fill'd at that time The Third said That he conceiv'd that contrarily the Air is cold and dry 1. Because it freezeth the Earth and Water in Winter and therefore is colder in either of them 2. Because it refresheth the Lungs and by its coolness tempereth the extreme heat of the Heart and of the other parts which it could not do if it were hot 3. Inasmuch as hot things expos'd to the Air are cooled which they would not be but at least preserve their heat being in a place of the same Nature 4. The more it is agitated the more it refresheth as we see by Fans because then the unessential things being seperated from it it is more close and united quite contrary to the other Elements which grow hot by being agitated 5. In the night time the more pure and serene and void of mixtures the Air is the colder it is 6. Thence it is that flame burnes less then boyling water or hot Iron because in flame there is a great deal of Air which being colder then Water and Iron represseth more the strength of the Fire Lastly since according to Aristotle Air doth not putrifie what is
becomes oblig'd by the various contingencies of War when the Leaders miscarrying or being elsewhere employ'd the Souldier must supply the place of Captain to his Companions and himself This hath mov'd almost all the Oriental Nations and particularly the Turks to abstain from Wine though they also adjoyn reasons for it drawn from their false Religion to confirm their Minds more in conformity to this piece of Policy Therefore Mahomet to induce them to it by their own experience invited the principal Persons of his Army to a Feast where he caus'd them to be served with the most exquisite Wines First they all agreed upon the Excellency of Wine but having taken too much of it there arose such a tumult amongst them that he took occasion thence the next morning to represent to them that Wine was nothing else but the Blood of the first Serpent whose colour it also beareth as the stock of the Vine which produceth it retaineth the crooked form of that vile Animal and the rage whereinto it putteth those that use it doth testifie And to content them that still lov'd the taste of it he promis'd them that they should drink no-nothing else in their Paradise where their Bodies would be proof against its violence Which Prohibition hath been the most apparent cause of the amplification of his Empire and propagation of his Sect not onely because Wine was by its acrimony dangerous to the most part of his Subjects of Africa and Arabia where such as are addicted to it are subject to the Leprosie and that his people who cultivated Vines might employ themselves more profitably in tilling the Earth but principally it hath been more easie for him and his successors to keep 200000 men of War in the field without the use of Wine then for another Prince as potent as he to keep 50000 with the use of Wine which besides is difficult to transport and incumbreth the place of Ammunition which is absolutely necessary The Third said That Mahomet was not the first that prohibited Wine for before him Zaleucus forbad the Locrians to drink it upon pain of Death The Lacedemoniaus and the Carthaginians as Aristotle reporteth had an express Law by which they forbad the use of it to all people that belong'd to War And the wise man counselleth onely the afflicted to drink it to the end to forget their miseries But for all this he conceiv'd that it ought not to be prohibited now to our Souldiers since it augmenteth Courage envigorateth strength and taketh away the fear of danger though indeed it is fit to forbid them the excess thereof if it be possible In Conclusion It was maintain'd that Wine ought to be forbidden not onely to Souldiers but to all such as are of hot and dry tempers and use violent exercises because it hurts them as much as it profits weak persons Wherefore Saint Paul counselleth Timothy to use it for the weakness of his stomack But God inhibited it to the Nazarens and to those which enter'd into his Tabernacle under pain of death Moreover you see that Noah who us'd it first abus'd it And anciently it was to be had onely in the shops of Apothecaries because 't is an Antidote and most excellent Cordial provided its continual use render not its virtue ineffectual our Bodies receiving no considerable impression from accustomed things Therefore Augustus gave ear to all the other complaints which the Romans made to him but when they mention'd the dearness of Wine he derided them telling them that his Son in Law Agrippa having brought Aquaeducts to the City had taken care that they should not dye of Thirst. At the Hour of Inventions amongst many others these two were propos'd The first to prepare common Water so that it shall dissolve Gold without the addition of any other Body c. The second to make a Waggon capable to transport by the help of one Man who shall be in it the burdens of ordinary Waggons in the accustomed time of which the Inventers deliver'd their Memories and offer'd to make the experiments at their own charges These Subjects were propounded to be treated of at the next Conference First The Earth Secondly What it is that makes a Man wise CONFERENCE IX I. Of the Earth II. What it is that makes a Man wise I. Of the Earth UPon the first Point it was said That the Earth is a simple Body cold and dry the Basis of Nature For since there is a Hot and Moist it is requisite for the intire perfection of Mixts that there be a Cold and a Dry to bound them and give them shape This Earth then upon which we tread is not Elementary for it is almost every where moist and being opened affordeth water which was necessary to it not onely for the union of its parts which without moisture would be nothing but Dust but also in regard of its gravity which I conceive cometh from humidity because as the lightest things are the hottest and driest so the heaviest are usually the coldest and moistest Besides gravity proceeding from compactedness and compactedness from moisture it seemeth that moisture is the cause of gravity Which is prov'd again by the dissolution of mixt Bodies whereby we may judge of their composition For the heaviest Bodies which are easily dissolvable are those from which most Water is drawn whence it is that there is more drawn from one pound of Ebeny then from twenty of Cork From this gravity of the Earth its roundness necessarily follows For since 't is the nature of heavy things to tend all to one Centre and approach thereto as much as they can it follows that they must make a Body round and spherical whereof all the parts are equally distant from the Centre For if they made any other Figure for Example a Pyramide or a Cube there would be some parts not in their natural place i. e. the nearest their Centre that might be Moreover in the beginning the Earth was perfectly spherical and the Waters encompassed it on all sides as themselves were again encompassed by the Air. But afterwards these Waters to make place for Man retiring into the hollows and concavities made for that purpose in the Earth it could not be but that those parts of the Earth which came out of those cavities must make those tumours which are the Mountains and Hills for the convenience of Man And nevertheless it ceaseth not to be Physically round although it be not so Mathematically As a bowle of Pumice is round as to the whole though the parts are uneven and rough They prove this roundness 1. By the shadow of the Earth which appearing round in the Eclipses of the Moon argueth that the Body whence it proceedeth is also round 2. Because they who travel both by Sea and by Land sooner discern the tops of Mountains and the spires of Steeples then the bottome which would be seen at the same time if the Earth were flat 3. Because according as
Opinion alledging That such Motion would be violent in respect of the Earth which for that it naturally tendeth downwards cannot be hois'd towards Heaven but against its own Nature and no violent thing is durable He added also the testimony of the Scripture which saith God hath establish'd the Earth that it shall not be moved that it is firm or stable for ever that the Sun riseth and setteth passing by the South toward the North And lastly it relateth the Joshuah's word as one of the greatest Miracles On the other side it was affirm'd That the Opinion of Copernicus is the more probable which Orpheus Thales Aristarchus and Philolaus held of old and hath been follow'd by Kepler Longomontanus Origanus and divers others of our times viz. That the Earth is mov'd about the Sun who remaineth unmoveable in the Centre of the World Their Reasons are I. The middle being the most noble place is therefore due to the most noble Body of the World which is the Sun II. It is not more necessary that the Heart be seated in the midst of Man then that the Sun be plac'd in the midst of the Universe quickning and heating the greater as that doth the lesser World Nor do we place the Candle in a corner but in the midst of the Room III. The circular Motion of the Planets round about the Sun seemes to argue that the Earth doth the same IV. It is more reasonable that the Earth which hath need of Light Heat and Influence go to seek the same then that the Sun go to seek that which he needeth not Just as the Fire doth not turn before the Roast-meat but the Roast-meat before the Fire V. Rest and Immobility is a nobler condition then Motion and ought to belong to the visible Image of the Deity viz. the Sun who in that regard hath been adored by sundry Nations VI. We see heavy things kept up in the Air onely by virture of Motion For instance a stone plac'd in a sling and turn'd round about VII They who deny the Motion of the Earth by the same means deny its aequilibrium which is absurd to do For if a grain of Wheat laid upon a Sphere exactly pendulous upon its Poles causeth the same to move the like ought to come to pass in the Terrestrial Globe when any heavy Body is transported upon it from one place to another Seeing the greater a circle is the less force is needful to move it and there is no impediment from the Air much less from its Centre which is but a point The same comes to pass when a Bullet is shot out of a Cannon against a Wall VIII If both the Direct and the Circular Motion be found in the Load-stone which tendeth by its gravity to the Centre and mov'd circularly by its magnetick virtue the same cannot be conceiv'd impossible in the Earth IX By this Simple Motion a multitude of imaginary Orbs in the Heavens without which their Motion cannot be understood is wholly sav'd and Nature alwayes acts by the most compendious way X. It is much more likely that the Earth moves about five leagues in a minute then that the eight Sphere in the same time moves above forty Millions yea infinitely more if it be true that the extent of the Heavens is infinite and that beyond them there is neither time nor place So that to have all the Heavens move round in four and twenty Hours were to measure an infinite thing by a finite II. Of two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body He who spoke first to the Second Point said That in his judgement the Anger of God is the true cause of Monsters since the Scripture threatens to cause the Wives of those whom God intends to punish to bring forth Monsters The same is the universal conceipt of the vulgar who are terrifi'd at the sight of such prodigies which are termed Monsters not so much because the people shews them with the finger as for that they demonstrate the Divine Anger whereof they are always taken for infallible arguments Upon which account the Pagans were wont to make expiation for them with sacrifices And most Writers begin or end their Histories with such presages The Second said That as it is impious not to ascribe the Natural Actions on Earth to Heaven so it seem'd to him superstitious to attribute the same to the Supreme Author without seeking out the means whereby he produceth them For though they may be very extraordinary in regard of their seldomness yet they have their true causes as well as ordinary events Which doth not diminish the Omnipotence of the Divine Majesty but on the contrary renders it more visible and palpable to our Senses As the Ministers Ambassadors and military people employ'd by a great King for the putting of his command in execution are no disparagement to his Grandeur That he conceiv'd the cause of such Monsters was the quantity of the Geniture being too much for the making of one Child and too little for the finishing of two which the Formative Virtue designed to produce as also the incapacity of the Womb which could not receive its usual extension and that by reason of some fall or blow hapned when the parts of the Embryo's began to be distinguish'd and separated one from the other whence an Abortion would have follow'd had not there been a great vigour in the two faetus which was sufficient to retain their internal formes namely their Souls but could not repair the defects of the external formes at least in that wherein the matter hath been most deficient As the Founder how excellent an Artist soever he be makes an imperfect Image when his material is defective The Third said That for the passing of a certain Judgement upon the present subject he conceiv'd fitting to make this description of it The greater of this two-fold body is called Lazarus and the other John Baptista Son of John Baptista Coloreto and Perigrine his Wife of the Parish of Saint Bartholomew on the Coast of the Seigniory of Genua They were born in the year 1617. between the eleventh and twelfth of March about mid-night and baptiz'd by Julio Codonio Curé of the place by direction of the Abbot Tasty Vicar general of the Archbishop of Genua and three moneths after confirm'd by Pope Paul V. Their Mother dy'd three years after their birth The first is of low stature considering his age of more then sixteen years of temper very melancholly and lean Both the one and the other have brown chestnut hair They are united together by the belly four fingers above the Navel the skin of the one being continu'd to the other and yet their feeling and motion are so distinct that the one being prick'd the other feeleth nothing The first saving this conjunction is well proportion'd and furnish'd with all his Members The other who came into the world with a head much less then his Brother hath one at the present twice
as big which greatness seemes to proceed from an Oedema or Inflation occasion'd by the posture of his head which is alwayes pendulous and supine and this defluxion of humours joyn'd with his Brother's negligence hath caus'd some sores upon him He hath the countenance of a Man but a most dreadful one by the disproportion of all its parts He is deaf blind dumb having great teeth in his mouth by which he casts forth spittle and breathes very strongly rather then by the nose which is close stop'd within His mouth is otherwise useless having never drunk nor eaten nor hath he any place for evacuation of excrements His eyes are alwayes shut and there appears no pupil in them He hath but one thigh one leg and one foot extremely ill shap'd and not reaching to the knee of the other But he hath two armes very lean and disproportionate to the rest of the body and at the end of each of them instead of hands a thumb and two fingers very deformed too At the bottome of his belly there is a little membranous appendix without a passage His pulse is manifest in either arm as also the beating of his heart though the external figure of his breast and the divarication of his jugular veines have very little of the ordinary structure and situation Whereby it appears that each of them hath a brain heart and lungs distinct but they have both but one liver one stomack and one set of Intestines For one of them sleepes sometimes while the other is awake one hath been sick while the other hath been in health The greater hath been blooded above twenty times in three grievous diseases but no Physitian hath ventur'd to purge him lest the purgative medicament passing through those unusual windings should produce unusual effects to his prejudice He lives after the common manner exercising all his rational vital and natural faculties in perfection And they who have been to see him in this City as almost every one runs to see this Wonder of Nature may judge of his management and conduct of his affairs Yet the negligence of the greater in supporting the less and holding him in a convenient posture is not to be pass'd over without notice for though he breathes as I said above yet he alwayes keeps his head cover'd with a double linnen cloth and his cloak and although by his great weight he continually stretches the skin of his belly yet he endeavours not to ease either his Brother or himself Yea the custome of carrying this load hath render'd it so light to him that he performes all ordinary exercises and playes at Tennis like another Man All which consider'd it seemes this Monster is one of the most notable Errours of Nature that hath appear'd in this Age and perhaps in any preceding Besides the causes alledg'd above some extraordinary conjunction of the Stars happening at the time of his conception may have had some influence in this irregular production Moreover it appears that the less draweth nourishment from the greater by the Anastomosis or Insertion of his Vessels with those of his Brother as the Child sucks the Maternal Blood by the Vmbilical Vein there being in both but one principle of sanguification But it is otherwise as to Life Motion and Feeling which being distinct in them cannot proceed from one and the same principle The Fourth said That it may be doubted whether this be a Monster or no their union being not sufficient for that denomination For we frequently see two trees grow together in the middle and otherwise separate Nor is the deficiency of parts in the one any more monstrous then if one single man should be born without Armes and Legs Moreover he inherited the same from his Father which doth not come to pass in Monsters The Fifth said That according to Plato the case is the same with Nature as with Virtue All that exceeds their ordinary rules is called monstrous As deformity of the Mind is Vice so is also that of Nature That the cause of this instance is like that of an Egg with a double yelk out of which the pellicles being broken that separated them are produc'd two Chickens joyn'd together or else one with four wings four feet or other such irregularities So these Twins having been divided in the Womb at the place where they co-here either by the acrimony of humours or some other violent cause Nature which loves nothing so much as Union forthwith assembled its spirits and humours to unite that which was separated Which design of Nature is apparent in the cure of wounds and burnes the fingers and other parts uniting together one to the other contrary to its first intention the figure and use of the same parts But the difficulty is whether there be two Souls in these two Bodies For my part considering that they have two Brains wherein the Soul is held to reside and the external humane shape they may be rightly call'd two Men who consequently have two Souls Now if that which is in the less doth not exercise its functions the reason is because the Organs are not fitly dispos'd and proportion'd no more then those of little Children Ideots and Mad men and through this Nature's having been hinder'd by the rebellion of the Matter to receive such dispositions from the Agents which are Heat and the Spirits which also being too languishing have not been able to impart to their subject all the degrees of necessary perfection The Sixth said That he compar'd the framing of this Monster to the Workmanship of a piece of Tapistry upon which two persons are imploy'd The more diligent of the two finishes his task first the more slothful finding all the material spent is constrain'd to leave his business imperfect and fasten it to the other as well as he can So the spirits being in too great abundance to attend the fabricating of one single Child undertook two and began each from the Head The more vigorous had done first and the other finding no more stuff made but half a Man who by reason of the continuity of the Matter became connected to the first Now whereas it may be said that the Definition of Monsters brought by the Civilians doth not appertain to it the answer is That the same thing may be a Monster Physically inasmuch as it deflecteth from the Laws of Nature as this doth though it be not one Politically in that it is capable to make a Will Inherit Contract and to do all other Actions civil The Hour of Inventions was spent in Replies and Comparisons of other Monsters particularly that of mention'd by Buchanan in the fifteenth Book of his History born in Northumberland with two heads four armes two breasts and onely two leggs It was instructed in Musick so that each head sung its part melodiously and discours'd together pertinently They dy'd one fifteen dayes before the other the latter by the putrefaction of his inseparable Companion At length
these two points were chosen First Of the Hairy Girl seen in this City Secondly Whether it be more difficult to resist Pleasure then Pain CONFERENCE XI I. Of the little Hairy Girl lately seen in this City II. Whether it is more easie to resist Pleasure then Pain I. Of the Hairy Girl THe First said That this German Girl born at Ausperg called Barbara Vrsine the Name and Sir-name very well suting to the person if they were not invented purposely is no Monster For a Monster is desin'd a Natural Effect degenerating from the right and usual frame or perfection essential to its species But the same holdeth not in this person who is onely an extraordinary effect of Nature whereof two causes may be assign'd First the prevalence of internal heat which more powerfully drives outwards the steames or exhalations that serve for the matter of Hair and is also the cause that Children are sometimes born with Teeth Whence it comes to pass that Hair grows in more places and more plentifully in those which are hot and dry In like manner it hath been observ'd that some notable Warriours and Pirats have had their Hearts hairy The Second Cause is the strong Imagination of the Mother during her conceiving or in the dayes near it when the Embryo being like soft wax is capable of every impression never so little proportionate to its subject yea sometimes it is so extravagant that the effect cannot be attributed to any other cause Such was that young Girl mention'd by Marcus Damascenus and presented to the Emperour Charles IV. which besides that she was all hairy like this had the feet of a Camel her Mother having too wistly consider'd the Image of Saint John Baptist clothed in Camel's hair And this consideration satisfi'd the Father who at first disown'd her The same was the Opinion of Hippocrates when he sav'd the Honour and Life of a Princess who had brought forth an Aethiopian through the too attentive minding of the picture of a Moor hanging at her beds-feet Which mov'd Galen to advise such Ladies as would have fair Children to behold those that are such frequently at least in picture The Second said That this Hair being an Effect against the Intention as well of Vniversal Nature which could not design any profit from a bearded Woman as of the particular Agents which designed to produce an Individual like to one of themselves according to the ordinary course it follows that the Girl must be termed a Monster The Cause whereof cannot be the indisposition of the Matter nor its too great quantity or deficience since all the parts of this Child being well proportioned and her colour native conclude and argue the same as to the humours of her Body Yet it may well proceed from some exorbitance in quality not caus'd by the formative virtue but by the Imagination of the Mother For that of the Father contributes nothing hereunto That the Formative Virtue doth not the business is prov'd because the Hair is a fuliginous vapour arising from the more dry and earthy parts of the residue and excrement of the third Concoction which is made in the parts and the Expulsive Faculty casteth forth as useless and unsutable the same arriving at the skin is imprison'd thereby the Cuticle And Nature which hath no further need of it hinders its return Now this Matter is forc'd to abide thus till it make it self way through the Pores fram'd by its heat rarifying the skin During its stay there it is concocted incrassated hardened and puts on the figure of the Pore through which it issueth As the soft Matter of Glass is incrassated by the heat and takes the form of the mould in which it is formed Hence it is that they whose skin is tender have very soft Hair For their skin being by reason of its great rarity unable to resist the least heat easily opens its Pores which thereby become very small to give the vapour passage which vapour because it stay'd not long enough to be concocted and hardned produceth very soft gentle and loose Hair On the other side in those whose skin is hard and dry the resistance of the same causeth the inclosed heat to act more vehemently and consequently to make greater Pores through the which those vapours passing after a longer inclosure produce a Hair thicker dryer and harder as having been more parched and adur'd For the vapour is by this means thickned and hardned like the smoak which is condens'd into soot in the Chimney Now the Formative Virtue cannot be the cause of this production of Hair in all parts of the Body of this person First because heat the cause efficient is at that time too weak through defect of which we see that a dozen or fifteen years after the birth Hair is not produc'd even in Males Secondly the Matter of this little Body is too soft to furnish stuff dry enough for the making of that fuliginous vapour It remaineth therefore that it be ascrib'd to the Imagination of the Mother who being a Superior Agent many times hinders the Formative Virtue from doing what it designeth That she is Superior it is true For the Formative Virtue belongeth to the Vegetative Life Man begetting onely as he is Vegetative God alone begetteth by the Vnderstanding but the Imagination is a Faculty of the Sensitive Life and so subjecteth the less to it self as the Agent which operateth by the Understanding makes use of that which operateth by Nature So the Smith though a mean Artisan yet makes use of Fire the most noble Elementary Agent as a Slave Now the Imagination acteth in this manner It presents to the Woman some pleasing object this object excites her Appetite the Appetite by its dominion and command moves the Motive Faculty the performer of its pleasure This Motive Faculty discharging its Office by the Spirits which it sets in Motion and sends forth as it lists And these Spirits having their Source and Original in the Brain upon which the Phantasmes of the Imagination are imprinted it comes to pass that when a Child-bearing Woman hath a lively representation or Imagination of the thing which she desires those Spirits upon which the Image is imprinted coming to be sent forth by the Motive Faculty and separating from the rest of their troop which is in the Brain carry along with them the said Image or Effigies The same hapning in the Brain that doth in a Looking-glass which being intire sheweth but one Object but broken into a hundred pieces every piece representeth the same whole For the Nature of Species is of it self indivisible and is not divided but because of the subject in which they are So the Phantasme being in the Brain representeth but one and the same thing but a part of the Spirits upon which it is engraven separating from thence carry the same along with them And arriving with the blood and humours at the faetus which incessantly draws them from the Mothers
Body by the Umbilical Veins engrave upon it the Image configur'd to them The Third said That he could not ascribe this Effect to the Imagination no more then all other Monsters because the Girl resembling neither Father nor Mother seem'd to him by this uncouth and strange hairiness to deserve the name of a Monster For First The Imagination cannot produce any real Effect the Intentions of Men produce nothing such this belongs onely to the Deity Secondly All the Animal Faculties being almost intercepted in Generation how can the Formative Faculty which according to Erastus is the sole Agent conceive and apprehend those Images and Representations For there is little appearance that the formes of the Imagination are engraven upon Aerial Spirits in the same manner that these of the Formative Faculty of the Heavens or Vniversal Spirit are imprinted in the Air for the production of Mixt Bodies For if it were so then Children would have upon their Bodies marks or tokens of every thing that their Mothers had ardently desir'd and imagin'd and in their Imagination and desires they have no commendation for Constancy by reason of the continual Agitation of their blood which is incessantly attracted by the Foetus So that we should see strange portraits of the Mothers Phancies upon the Infants Body whereby would be sav'd much of the pains that Baptista Porta takes in his Natural Magick to teach how to produce Monsters Moreover as the Common Sense judgeth of the difference of Objects which it carrieth to the Imagination so the Imagination retaineth not those Species saving to present them to Reason which judgeth and determineth upon them Wherefore if for example the Common Sense represents to the Imagnation a Centaur or some other Monster and the Imagination represent the same to Reason this Reason of ours will never allow or consent that the Formative Faculty attempt to bring it to effect The Fourth said That he did not think this Girl ought to be termed a Monster unless in the large signification of the word as it comprehends every thing that is contrary to the intention of the agent or is extraordinary Thus Aristotle calls a Woman a Monster and a fault of Nature which always designes the making of a Male as the more perfect which being unable to do either in regard of the disposition of the Agent or of the Matter she makes a Woman And for the same reason he calls a Child which doth not resemble its Father a Monster because the Father design'd to beget a Man like himself But this person is not truly such since she is faulty onely in the excess of superfluities or excrements not of any part that varies the species As one that voideth more excrements then others or hath greater Nails then usual cannot be stil'd a Monster Besides what we account monstrous in this person we have the same our selves For were our Sight acute enough we might see that there is no part of the Body but is cover'd with Hair and perhaps not so fair and soft as hers in which we find nothing extraordinary but in the length For whereas she hath a light-colour'd beard of four or five fingers length the cause thereof is because the Hair is carefully shav'd off the rest of her countenance which otherwise would be all of the same length This Hair proceedeth from extreme Moisture and Moderate Coldness the former supplyeth the matter for its Generation and the latter helpeth the Action of Heat by the occlusion of the Pores which it causeth So that if among Children which according to Hippocrates are more humid then those who have attain'd to Adolescence there be found any who have such a degree of Coldness as is able to support the root of the Hair by condensing the skin it will grow in all parts of the Body though unequally according to the difference of humour The Fifth said That besides the Imagination already alledg'd which caus'd Perfina Queen of Ethiopia to bring forth a white Daughter and a Woman in our time to bring forth a Child like a Frog by having held a Frog in her hand for some disease this Hair proceeds from a certain temper proper for producing the same which temper is found in this little person as it is in other persons in some places onely and at a certain Age. This temper seemes to be cold for we see that Men and other Creatures are most hairy in the coldest Countries and cold hath a great influence upon Hair some persons having in one night had their Hair extremely grown and chang'd through an excess of fear and consequently of cold for fear causeth all the heat of the external parts to retire inwards As it hapned to a Gentleman of twenty eight years old who being condemned to death for an Adultery committed in the Palace of Charles V. the next morning was found all white in the Prison whereupon the Emperour granted him his pardon As the Grandfather of the same Emperour did formerly upon the same account to a Spaniard nam'd Osorio The like hapned to an other in shorter time who found the rope begin to break by which he was let down by the side of a steep rock to get an airy of Hawks Now this great abundance of Hair cannot proceed from extreme Humidity for then it must either be radical and consequently mild and no sit Matter for Hair or else adventitious sharp and corroding which would destroy their root Besides it is not credible that so little a Body as this can afford so much excrementitious matter Nor can it proceed from excess of Heat for we see heat makes Hair to shed in those that have a burning Fever or a Hectick and the Hair and Nails grow in dead bodies which have no natural heat II. Whether it be harder to resist Pleasure then Pain Upon the Second Point it was said That if Pleasure be consider'd as a Good and Pain as an Evil it is not to be doubted but that the latter is as insupportable to our Nature as the former is agreeable to it But there are two sorts of Good and Evil of Pain and Pleasure One of the Mind and another of the Body and many times the pains and sufferings of the Body are the joyes of the Mind and the pleasures and the gratifications of the flesh the crosses and torments of the Spirit Now there are scarce any pure and unmixt pleasures or pains in the world but they are usually mingled one with the other And if they could be separated Pain would turn the scale as being the more heavy and difficult to be supported In reference to which mixture the Greek Poet judiciously feigned that there are two vessels at the entrance of Heaven one full of Honey and sweetness the other of Gall and bitterness Of which two Liquors mingled together Jupiter makes all men to drink and tempers with them every thing that he pours down here below So that the Pains and Pleasures of the
follow For in such cases there are instances of great forgetfulness or Folly as Gaza forgot even his own Name It is divided into Deliration Phrensie Melancholy and Madness Though the word Deliration be taken for all sorts of Folly yet it more strictly signifies that which is caus'd by rising of the hot humours and vapours to the Brain and frequently accompanies Fevers and Inflammations of the internal parts Phrensie is an Inflammation of the membranes of the Brain caus'd by the bilious blood or humour usually with a Fever and a languid Pulfe in regard such phrenctick persons are intent upon other things whereby their respiration is less frequent Melancholy both the Ideopathical which is in the Vessels of the Brain and the Sympathetical or Hypochondrical which ariseth from the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery ariseth from that humour troubling the Brain and by its blackness making the patients sad and timerous or as Averroes will have it by its coldness because Heat emboldens and Cold makes fearful as we see in Women As this humour causeth Prudence and Wisedom when it is in its natural quality so when it is corrupted it produceth Folly there being as little distance between the one and the other as between the string of a Lute stretch'd up to the highest pitch and the same when it is broken Which made Montaigne say That there is but one turn of a peg between Wisedom and Folly If this Melancholy humour be moveable and bilious it will cause imaginations of various absurd things like to those of Dreams Wherefore Aristotle compares the fame to waters in motion which alwayes represent objects ill If it be more fix'd it causeth insuperable Opiniastry As is observ'd in those who phancy themselves Pitchers Cocks Geese Hens Glass Criminals Dead Damned and so in infinitum according to the diversity of Phancies Conditions and Inclinations The Folly of Love is of this kind which hath caus'd desperation and death to many Lastly Mania or Madness is an alienation of the Mind not mingled with fear and sadness as Melancholy is but with boldness and fury caus'd by the igneous and boyling Spirits of the other Choler which possessing the Brain and at times the whole Body by their immoderate heat render Men foolish furious and daring Such a heat that they are insensible of cold in mid Winter though stark naked sometimes so excessive that it degenerates into Lycanthropy rage and many other furious diseases By the induction of all which species of Folly it appears that whence soever the matter which causeth Folly ariseth it makes its impression in the Brain For though the Soul be as much in the heel as the head yet it is improper to place Wisedom in the heel but it may reasonably be assign'd to the Brain Yet to circumscribe it to a certain place excluding any other me-thinks ought no more to be done then to assign some particular corner of a Chamber to an Intelligence of the Nature of which the Soul participates The Third said Melancholy is the cause of Prudence onely by accident hindring by its dryness the too great mobility of the Blood and by its coldness checking the too impetuous sallies of the Spirits but it is by it self the cause of Folly and also of the two other Syncopies Eclipses and Alienations of the Judgement which are observ'd in the Apoplexy and the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness If Melancholy abound in the Brain it either possesses its ventricles or predominates over its temper If it be in the ventricles it either molests them by its malignity and acrimony and causeth the Epilepsie or else it fills them and causeth the Apoplexy For as we put Oyl upon a piece of Wine that is prone to decay and sowre which Oyl being aerious and consequently humid by its subtile and unctuous humidity keeps its particles so united that the Spirits of the Wine cannot penetrate through it and so being cover'd by it they are restrain'd and tarry in the Wine In like manner Melancholy by its tenacious and glutinous viscosity like black shining pitch keeps its particles so conjoyn'd that the Spirit contain'd in the ventricles cannot issue forth into the Nerves to serve for voluntary motion and the functions of sense whence followes their cessation But if the Melancholy Humour presseth the ventricles by its troublesome weight then they retire and by their retiring cause that universal contraction of the Nerves If this Humour prevail over its temper then it causeth deliration or Dotage and that in two manners For if it exceed in dryness which is a quality that admits degrees then by that dryness which is symbolical and a kin to heat it attracts the Spirits to it self as it were to make them revolt from their Prince and to debauch them from their duty employes them to fury and rage and causes madness making them follow its own motions which are wholly opposite to Nature For being cold dry black gloomy an enemy to light society and peace it aims at nothing but what is destructive to Man But if the cold in this humour exceed the dry then it will cause the disease called Melancholly which is pure Folly and makes the timerous trembling sad fools for cold not onely compresseth and incloseth the Spirits in the Brain and stupifies them so as to become unactive but hath also a back blow upon the Heart the reflux of its infection exhaling even to that seat of life and streightning it into it self whereby its Spirits become half mortifi'd Moreover this Humour sometimes piercing through the Brain comes about with a circumference and lodges amongst the Humours of the Eye placing it self before the pupil and the Crystalline under the Tunicles which cover it by which means the Melancholy persons seem to behold dreadful Objects abroad but it is within his Eye that he sees them As for the same reason they who have the beginning of a suffusion imagine that flyes flocks of wool or little hairs because of the Humour contain'd there which if it be Blood they seem red if Choler yellow if Melancholy black But in all the cases hitherto alledg'd me-thinks the Seat of Folly is the same with that of Imagination which is the Brain and not any of the ventricles in particular for since the Intellect acteth upon the phantasmes of the Imagination this upon the report of the Common Sense and this upon the information of the External Senses which are diffus'd throughout all the Brain and each possesseth a part of it the whole Brain must necessarily contribute to Ratiocination II. Whether Women or Men are more inclin'd to Love Upon the Second Point the First said Women are of a more amorous complexion then Men. For the Spirits of Women being more subtile according to Aristotle's Maxime That such as have more tender flesh have more subtile Spirits they are carri'd with more violence to amiable Objects And Love being according to Plato the off-spring of Plenty and Indigence that of Women
a certain person having been cur'd by a fast of that duration it cannot be said that all dye of that wherewith some are cur'd II. Of the Echo Upon the Second Point it was said The Echo is a reflected multiply'd and reciprocal sound or a repercussion of sound made by hollow rocks or edisices by the windings of which it comes to be redoubled as the visible species is reflected in the Mirror It is made when the sound diffus'd in the Air is driven into some hollow smooth and solid Body which hinders it from dissipating or passing further but sends it back to the place from whence it came as the wall makes the ball rebound towards him that struck the same against it According as the sound is violent and the space little or great it returns sooner or slower and makes an Echo more or less articulate It may be hence gather'd whether Sound is produc'd by the Air or some other Body since fish have the use of their Ears in the Water and the voice passeth from one end of a Pike to the other without resounding in the Air. And which is more strange strike as softly as you please with your singer upon the end of a Mast lay'd along he that layes his Ear to the other end shall hear it better then your self and a third that doth the like at the middle shall hear nothing at all In the Church de la Dorade at Tholouze he that whispers at one end of the wall is heard at the other by reason of its smoothness On the contrary it is reported that in Scotland there is a stone call'd the Deaf-stone because they which are on one side of it hear not the noise no not of Trumpets sounding on the other the stone sucking up the sound as a sponge doth Water The Second said That the Image which we see of our selves in a Looking-glass being as it were alive and yet dumb is less admirable then the Echo which we hear not and yet hear complain sing and talk with us without Body and without understanding This Echo is not onely a resilition or reflexion of the sound or voice or rather the voice it self so reflected and sent back by the opposition of some solid Body which makes it return whence it came and stops its course and flux For then it would follow that as often as we speak we should hear Echoes seeing we never speak but there is made some resilition of our voice by means of the opposition of solid Bodies near us and encompassing us on every side And yet we seldom hear any thing but our bare voice or some confus'd murmur as it happens in new houses in Churches under a vault before a wall and other such places in which we ought to hear a very articulate Echo since the voice is reflected better there then elsewhere I think therefore then the Echo is made in the same manner as the reflection of the Sun 's light or of the rayes of any other fire whatsoever by hollow mirrors which unite that light and those rayes and so produce another fire For as fire cannot be produc'd by plain or convex mirrors which reflect but one ray in one and the same place and all sorts of concave or hollow mirrors cannot be proper for it because it is necessary that the cavity be dispos'd and made in such manner that it may be able to reflect a sufficient quantity of rayes in one and the same place which being conjoyn'd and united together excite again and re-kindle that fire from which they issu'd which seem'd vanish'd by reason of the dissipation of its heat and rayes So the Echo which is nothing but the same voice reanimated and reproduc'd by the concourse and reunion of several of its rayes dissipated and afterwards reflected into one and the same place where they are united and recollected together and so become audible a second time cannot be produc'd by bare walls and vaults which do not reflect and recollect a sufficient quantity of those rayes into one and the same place but onely resemble many of them near one another whence ariseth a murmuring or inarticulate Echo Now as Art imitates Nature and sometimes surpasses her so we find there are Burning Mirrors which re-unite the rayes of fire and in like manner there may be made Artificial Echoes without comparison more perfect then those wherewith chance and the natural situation of places have hitherto acquainted us Whereunto beside what I have already mention'd the Hyperbole the Parabole and chiefly the Oval greatly conduce with some other means which are treated of in the Cataptricks The Third said The Echo the Daughter of Solitude and Secretary of weak Minds who without distrusting her loquacity fruitlesly acquaint her with their secret thoughts teaches us not to declare our secrets to any person since even stones and rocks cannot conceal them but she especially affords entertainment to Lovers possibly because she ownes the same Father with Love namely Chance For as no Love is more ardent then that which arises from the unlook'd for glances of two Eyes from the collision of which issues a spark little in the beginning but which blown up by the violence of desires grows at length into a great flame so though Art studies to imitate the natural Echo and the pretty conceits of that Nymph yet it never equals her graces which she borrows onely from the casual occurrence of certain sinuosities of Rocks and Caverns in which she resides the rest of her inveiglements remain unknown to Men The Cause why Antiquity made her a Goddess All which we can truly say of her is to define her a reflection of the voice made by an angle equal to that of incidence Which is prov'd because the Echoes in narrow turnings are heard very near him that sings 2. Nature always works by the shortest way which is the streight therefore Reflection is made by the same 3. When the voice is receiv'd in a streight line it formes no distinct Echo because it is united with the same direct line whereby it was carry'd which by that means it dissipateth and scattereth The same happens in a convex line But if the Body which receives it be concave it will recollect it from the perpendicular of the speakers mouth towards that Body and 't is by the concourse of the voice reflected in that line that the Echo is form'd 4. The Body which receives the voice must be sonorous which none is except it be hollow From which four propositions I conceive the way may be deriv'd to imitate the Echo and tame that wood-Nymph in some manner The Fourth said Vitruvius was not ignorant of this Artifice having very dextrously imitated the Nature of the Echo by the convenient situation of some earthen vessels partly empty and observing a proportion of plenitude to vacuity almost like that which some Musicians make use of to represent their six voices And that which hath been made
in the Tuilleries justifies him Yet Art finds a greater facility in this matter near Lakes Hills and Woods naturally dispos'd for such a re-percussion But which increases the wonder of the Echo is its reduplication which is multiply'd in some places seven times and more the reason whereof seemes to be the same with that of multiplication of Images in Mirrors For as there are Mirrors which not onely receive the species on their surface so plainly as our Eye beholds but cannot see the same in the Air though they are no less there then in the Mirror so there are some that cast forth the species into the Air so that stretching out your arm you see another arm as it were coming out of the Mirror to meet yours In like manner it is with the voice And as a second and a third Mirror rightly situated double and trebble the same species so other Angles and Concavities opposite to the first cause the voice to bound and by their sending it from one to another multiply it as many times as there are several Angles but indeed weaker in the end then in the beginning because all Reaction is less then the First Action CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred I. How Spirits act upon Bodies IT is requisite to understand the Nature of ordinary and sensible actions that we may judge of others as in all Sciences a known Term is laid down to serve for a rule to those which are inquir'd So Architects have a Level and a Square whereby to discern perpendicular Lines and Angles Now in Natural Actions between two Bodies there is an Agent a Patient a Contact either Physical or Mathematical or compounded of both a Proportion of Nature and Place and a Reaction Moreover Action is onely between Contraries so that Substances and Bodies having no contraries act not one against the other saving by their qualities Which nevertheless inhering in the subjects which support them cause Philosophers to say that Actions proceed from Supposita Now that which causeth the difficulty in the Question is not that which results from the Agent for the Spirit is not onely a perpetual Agent but also a pure Act nor that which proceedeth from the Patient for Matter which predominates in Bodies is of its own Nature purely Passive But 't is from the want of Contact For it seemeth not possible for a Physical Contact to be between any but two complete substances And if we speak of the Soul which informes the Body it is not complete because it hath an essence ordinated and relative to the Body If we speak of Angels or Daemons there is no proportion of Nature between them and Bodies and much less resemblance as to the manner of being in a place For Angels are in a place onely definitively and Bodies are circumscrib'd with the internal surface of their place How then can they act one upon the other Nor can there be reaction between them For Spirits cannot part from Bodies But on the other side since Action is onely between Contraries and Contraries are under the same next Genus and Substance is divided into Spiritual and Corporeal there ought to be no more true Action then between the Soul and the Body both Contraries not onely according to the acception of Divines who constantly oppose the Body to the Spirit and make them fight one with the other but speaking naturally it is evident that the proprieties of the one being diametrically opposite to those of the other cause a perpetual conflict with them which is the same that we call Action Contact is no more necessary between the Soul and the Body to infer their action then it is between the Iron and the Load-stone which attracts it What Proportion can be found greater then between Act and Power the Form and the Matter the Soul and the Body which are in the same place As for Reaction supposing it to be necessary whereof yet we see no effect in the Sun nor the other Coelestial Bodies which no Man will say suffer any thing from our Eye upon which nevertheless they act making themselves seen by us And Lovers are not wholly without reason when they say a subject makes them suffer remaining it self unmoveable It is certain that our Soul suffers little less then our Body as is seen in griefs and corporal maladies which alter the free functions of the Mind caus'd by the influence of the Soul upon the Body through Anger Fear Hope and the other Passions The Soul then acts upon the Body over which it is accustom'd to exercise Dominion from the time of our Formation in our Mothers womb it governs and inures it to obey in the same manner as a good Rider doth a Horse whom he hath manag'd from his youth and rides upon every day Their common contentment facilitates this obedience the instruments the Soul makes use of are the Spirits which are of a middle nature between it and the Body Not that I fancy them half spiritual and half corporeal as some would suppose but by reason they are of so subtile a Nature that they vanish together with the Soul So that the Arteries Ventricles and other parts which contain them are found wholly empty immediately after death The Second said That if we would judge aright what ways the Soul takes to act upon the Body we need onely seek what the Body takes to act upon the Soul For the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal to those from the circumference to the centre Now the course which it holds towards the Soul is thus The Objects imprint their species in the Organ of the outward Sense this carries the same to the Common Sense and this to the Phancy The Memory at the same time presents to the Judgement the fore-past Experiences which she hath kept in her Treasury The Judgement by comparing them with the knowledge newly arriv'd to it by its Phantasmes together with its natural habit of first principles draws from the same a conclusion which the Will approves as soon as Reason acquiesseth therein According to the same order the Will consignes the Phantasmes in the Memory and the Phancy this to the Common Sense and this to the Organs of the Senses For Example as soon as my Judgement hath approv'd the discourse which I make to you and my Will hath agreed thereunto she consign'd the species to my Memory that it might remember to reduce them into this order according to which my Memory distributed them to my Imagination this to my Common Sense this to the Nerves appointed for the Motion of my Tongue and the other Organs of Speech to recite the same and now into those of my hand to write them down to you The Third said That the clearing of the Question propounded depended upon two others First what link or union there may be between a Spiritual and a Corporeal thing Secondly supposing
that of the six sorts of Motion the Spirits can act onely by the Local how they can touch a Body to remove it locally since there is no Contact but between Bodies To the first I answer that there is no need of union such as that which joynes the Soul to the Body for joyning the Act with its true Power if there be any in us it must be that which we see is necessary for the communion of Action For when Actions cannot be exercis'd but by two parties of different Nature there is found an Union between those different Natures which is very natural and founded upon the necessity of such Action Wherefore I am so far from thinking the union of the Soul with the Body a strange thing that I should wonder more if there were none For the better understanding whereof it is to be observ'd that our Soul hath two sorts of Actions one peculiar to it self as to Will and to understand the other common with the Body as to See Hear Feel c. These latter are as much natural as the former And as if it were in a State in which it could not exercise the former that State would be violent to it and contrary to its Nature so it is equally troublesome to her while she cannot exercise the latter Since therefore it is a part of the Nature of the Soul to be able to exercise its functions it is consequently natural to it to be united to the Body seeing without such union it cannot exercise those functions Now I am no more solicitous to know what this union is then to understand what that is which unites one part of an essence with the other since the Body is in some manner the essence of the Soul making one suppositum and individual with it and the Soul hath not its Nature intire saving when it is united with the Body I pass to the Second and say that supposing two sorts of Contact one of a suppositum the other of Virtue the Spirits touch the Body which they move locally by a Contact of Virtue by impressing the force of their motive faculty upon the Body which they will move as my hand impresseth its motive virtue upon the ball which I fling which virtue though extrinsecal persists in the ball as long as it moves even when it is distant from my hand And although there is some disparity inasmuch as the hand and the ball are both corporeal which a Spirit and a Body are not yet since our Soul applyes its motive virtue to the Body which it animates it is probable there are many qualities common both to Spiritual and Corporeal Substances as is the power of acquiring habits And it is also likely that the power of moving from one place to another which is in a Spirit is not different in specie from that which is in a Horse although their Subjects differ If therefore the motive faculty of Bodies is that of the same species with that of Spirits why should we account it strange that that of a Spirit should be communicated to a Body The Fourth said That the Example of our Lord carried by the Devil to the top of a Mountain and of a pinnacle of a Temple shews sufficiently that Daemons can act upon Bodies and that all natural things falling under the cognisance of Sense are moveable in their activity yet not at once and in gross but one thing after another For an Angel not being an Informing Form ty'd and connected to any particular sensible Nature as the Rational Soul is but an Assisting Form that is an External Agent which moves and agitates it to pleasure it is indifferent and can determine to move what Body it pleases But sensible things are not subject to Spirits saving so far as Local Motion For the Devil acts either upon the Body or upon the Soul as it is in its Organs If upon the Body he either doth it alone or by the intervention of another Agent If the latter then there must be a Local Motion to apply the same to the Body upon which he causeth it to act for the tormenting or moving of it If he doth it by himself immediately and causeth pain in the parts it is either by solution of continuity or by distention of those parts or by compression of them All which is no more but dislocating them and moving them out of their right situation If he causes a Fever it is either by collecting the humours from all the parts For Example Choler which congregated together in too great quantity distempers the Body or else by restraining the perspiration of the fuliginous vapour which is the excrement of the third Concoction and being with-held within causeth the putrefaction of the humours and all this is local motion too By which also he produceth all the diseases which he is able to cause inspiring a putrid Air which like Leven sowers and corrupts the humours If he acts upon the Senses and the Passions he doth it either outwardly by some mutation of the Object or inwardly by some alteration of the Faculty If the former it is because by a Local Motion he formes a Body heaping together uniting and adjusting the materials necessary thereunto as the Air an aqueous vapour a terrene and unctuous exhalation and the heat of the Sun or some other which he employes artificially according to the experience which he hath acquired throughout so many Ages till he make them correspond to the Idea of the Body which he designes to form All the Actions of Men are perform'd in like manner by putting together conjoyning or retrenching or separating things In one word by apposition or separation If he acts internally upon the Faculty 't is either upon the Phancy or the Appetite or the External Sense Upon the Phancy either by compounding one Phantasm of many as it happens in sleeping or else by acting upon a single one to make it appear more handsome or ugly More handsome by the concourse of many pure clear refin'd Spirits which enliven and embellish that Phantasm as we see a thing appear more handsome in the Sun More ugly by the arrival of certain gloomy and dark Spirits which usually arise from the humour of Melancholy In the Appetite if he excites Love there 't is by the motion of dilatation expanding the Spirits and making them take up more room If Hatred or Sadness it is coarcting the same Spirits by compression He can also cause a subtile mutation in the outward Senses internally especially upon the sight As we see those that have a suffusion beginning imagine that they see Pismires and Flyes which others besides themselves behold not Moreover Melancholy persons often terrifi'd with various frightful representations the cause whereof is an humour extravasated between the Tunicles of the Eye under the Cornea before the Crystalline which disturbs the sight with various shapes by reason of its mobility as the Clouds appear to us of several figures
and imperfect and so is a second in Musick Three is the first Male and the first degree of perfection hence a Third is agreeable to the Ear. The Fourth is so likewise because it makes up the Ten. Add 1 2 3 and 4 and you have the grand Number of Ten the Father of all others Also a Fifth pleases the Ear wonderfully because it is an Abridgement of the grand Number and the marriage of the Male and the first Female The other Numbers are useless except the Eighth because Musitians call it Identity or Unity which is a Divine Number or rather no Number nor is the Eighth as delightful as it is accounted by Musitians amongst their Concords The Fourth said That the Reason why some Notes are agreeable and other unpleasing in Musick is because the former move the Faculty of the Soul after a manner sutable to it and the latter do not as we see an Example of it in Ballads and Dances where when the Violin or Minstrel hath sounded a braul which goes well to the cadence not onely the Members of the Dancers comply therewith and follow the same readily but also the Souls seemes to dance with the Bodies so great Sympathy have they with that Harmony But if on the contrary the power of the Soul be otherwise agitated at the same time that Harmony how regular soever will displease us Witness the displeasure taken at cheerful aires by those who are in Mourning to whom doleful notes better agree which on the other side are disagreeable to such as are merrily dispos'd Add hereunto the humour of the Phancy which hath an aversion to some sounds as well as to some smells For as for Discords janglings and other troublesome sounds no other cause of their general inacceptableness ought to be sought then that disproportion and deformity which is sound in things Natural and Artificial the former being more intollerable then the latter because the Eye is not struck with the visible species as the Ear is with sound and can turn away from the Object which displeaseth it which the Ear cannot and is clos'd with much more difficulty CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition I. Of the Original of Winds THere is more resemblance then one would imagine between these two poynts The Wind of the Air and that of Ambition to which the discontent of Men with their condition is commonly ascribed As for the First Some have held that all Wind even that which blows upon the Sea comes from the Earth and that the first conjecture which was entertain'd of the Region of the West Indies was taken from the Wind perceiv'd to come from that quarter But the History of Christopher Columbus attributing the discovery to Chance thereof cannot consist with that opinion There is no Meteor whose effects have more of Miracle which is defin'd An Effect whereof no Natural Cause is seen For even the Lightning is seen by the brightness of the fire which accompanies it But the effects of this aim at the highest things which it overthrows and you neither see the Agent nor understand it Yet the Sagacity of Humane Wit is admirable Sins have serv'd to clear Cases of Conscience Arsenick Sublimate and other poysons are converted by Physick into Cauteries and other profitable remedies The Civil Law hath by occasion of evil manners receiv'd addition of good Laws The Winds which drown Ships are so managed by the Art of Navigation which divides them first into four principal North East South West and then into eight by the addition of four half points and hath at length subdivided them into 32. that by their help Men sail upon the main Sea and provide forreign remedies for Physick Sugar and spices for Kitchins and employments for many other professions The Second said That though many causes may agitate the Air yet all of them are not sufficient to raise a Wind but the Air must be agitated by some Fume which is raised either from the Earth and is called an Exhalation or from the Water and is called a Vapour either of which partakes of the Nature of the Element from whence it proceeds A Vapour is moist an Exhalation dry An extrinsecal Heat which predominates in them gives them all their motions and makes them mount on high And because it is the property of Heat alwayes to move and act therefore these Fumes are so long in action as the Heat lasts They arise in company together and are carry'd upwards but are presently separated For the moisture of the Vapour quencheth the Heat which animated it so that the sole absence of the Sun or the occurse of the least Cold depriving the Vapour of the little Heat which was left in it and made it still ascend upwards it becomes more condens'd and falls down in Rain But an Exhalation hath a greater degree of Heat which is render'd more active by the driness and tenacity of the matter Therefore it ascends till it meets with the Air of the Middle Region which is thick and congeal'd by which being hinder'd â—o pass further it seeks a passage on one side or the other Many times when it strives to rise higher it becomes engag'd among Clouds which inclose it on all sides Being thus inclos'd and straitned it becomes united together and thereupon being inflam'd breaks the Clouds and causes Thunder or if it â—ind less resistance towards the Earth it descends with violence to the place from whence it arose and makes Whirl-winds But if such Exhalation have not time enough to mount as far as the Middle Region as it happens most frequently but as soon as it is drawn up be hinder'd and inclos'd by the Vapour turn'd into thick and cold Air in the Lower Region of the Air then Winds are produc'd in this manner This Exhalation being unable to mount upwards because the whole Region is full of thick Air which resists it it must go either on one side or other wherefore it tends that way where it meets least resistance And whereas there are certain seasons wherein the Air is sometimes less thick towards the South others wherein it is so towards the North and the other quarters of Heaven thence it is that the Winds blow there most usually Moreover the reason why the Wind hath a kind of whistling is because the Exhalation clasheth with violence against that thick Air. Hence also it is that Winds are more ordinary in the Night and about Evening because in those times the Vapour looseth its Heat through the Suns absence and so being become a thick Air better incloseth the Exhalation and resisteth the same with more force But as the Air which issueth out of our Lungs is hot yet if it be sent forth with some little violence it becometh cold So though the Exhalation which causeth Wind be never without Heat yet we never feel the Wind hot Not that the Air loseth its Heat by motion
that evil is the cause that we are never contented therewith I add further If it were possible to heap all the goods of the world into one condition and all kind of evils were banish'd from the same yet could it not fill the Appetite of our Soul which being capable of an infinite Good if she receive any thing below infinite she is not fill'd nor contented therewith Nevertheless this dissatisfaction doth not proceed from the infirmity and ignorance of the Humane Soul but rather from her great perfection and knowledge whereby she judging all the goods of the world less then her self the goods intermingled with miseries serve her for so many admonitions that she ought not to stay there but aspire to other goods more pure and solid Besides these I have two natural reasons thereof First Every Good being of it self desirable every one in particular may desire all the goods which all Men together possess Yet it is not possible for him to obtain them wherefore every one may desire more then he can possess Whence there must alwayes be frustrated desires and discontents Secondly The Desires of Men cannot be contented but by giving them the enjoyment of what they desire Now they cannot be dealt withall butas a bad Physitian doth with his Patients in whom for one disease that he cures he causeth three more dangerous For satisfie one Desire and you raise many others The poor hungry person asketh onely Bread give it him and then he is thirsty and when he is provided for the present he is sollicitous for the future If he hath money he is troubled both how to keep it and how to spend it Which caus'd Solomon after he had deny'd his Soul nothing that it desir'd to pronounce That All is vanity and vexation of Spirit The Third conceiv'd That the Cause of this Dissatisfaction is for that the conditions of others seem more suitable to us and for that our Election dependeth on the Imagination which incessantly proposeth new Objects to the Soul which she beholding afar off esteemes highly afterwards considering them nearer sees as the Fable saith that what she accounted a treasure is but a bottle of Hay The Fourth said That because every thing which we possess gives us some ground of disgust and we do not yet perceive the inconvenience of the thing we desire therefore we are weary of the present and hope to find less in the future Whence we despise the one and desire the other The Fifth added That Man being compos'd of two parts Body and Soul which love change it is necessary that he love it too Choose the best posture and the best food you will it will weary you in a little time Let the most Eloquent Orator entertain you with the most excellent Subject suppose God himself you will count his Sermon too long if it exceed two hours or perhaps less Is it a wonder then if the Whole be of the same Nature with the Parts The Sixth attributed the Cause of this Discontent to the comparison which every one makes of his own State with that of others For as a Man of middle stature seemes low near a Gyant so a Man of moderate fortune comparing his own with the greater of another becomes discontented therewith Wherefore as long as there are different conditions they of the lowest will always endeavour to rise to the greatest and for the taking away of this Displeasure Lycurgus's Law must be introduc'd who made all the people of Sparta of equal condition If it be reply'd that nevertheless they of the highest condition will be contented I answer that our Mind being infinite will rather fancy to it self Epicurus's plurality of worlds as Alexander did then be contented with the possession of a single one and so 't will be sufficient to discontent us not that there is but that there may be some more contented then our selves The Seventh said That the Cause hereof is the desire of attaining perfection which in Bodies is Light whence they are alwayes chang'd till they become transparent as Glass and in Spirits their satisfaction which is impossible For Man having two principles of his Actions which alone are capable of being contented namely the Vnderstanding and the Will he cannot satiate either of them One truth known makes him desire another The sign of a moderate Mind is to be contented with it self whereas that of a great Mind is to have alwayes an insatiable appetite of knowing Whence proceedeth this It is for that it knows that God created every thing in the world for it and that it cannot make use thereof unless it have an exact and particular knowledge of the virtues and properties of all things It knows also that it self was created for God and the knowledge of the Creatures is nothing but a means to guide it to that of God So that if it take those means which lead it to the end for the end it self it deceives it self and finds not the contentment which it seeks and will never find the same till it be united to its First Principle which is God who alone can content the Vnderstanding His Will is also hard to be satifi'd The more goods it hath the more it desires It can love nothing but what is perfect It finds nothing absolutely perfect but goodness it self For the Light and knowledge wherewith the Understanding supplieth it discover to it so many imperfections and impurities in the particular goods it possesseth that it distasts and despises them as unworthy to have entertainment in it Wherefore it is not to be wonder'd if Man can never be contented in this world since he cannot attain his utmost End in it either for Body or Soul CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour I. Of the Flux of the Sea THe First said That if there be any other cause of this Flux then the heaping together of the Waters from the beginning under the Aequinoctial by Gods Command whence they descend again by their natural gravity and are again driven thither by the obedience which they owe to that Command which is so evident that they who sail under the Aequator perceive them selves lifted up so high by the currents that are usually there that they are many times terrifi'd thereat there is none more probable then the Moon which hath dominon overall moist Bodies and augments or diminishes this Flux according as she is in the increase or the wane The Second said That the Moon indeed makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea greater or less yea she governes and rules it because being at the Full she causeth a Rarefaction of its Waters But this doth not argue that she is the Efficient Cause of the said Flux The Sea rises at the shore when the Moon riseth in the Heaven and retires again when the Moon is going down their motions are indeed correspondent one to the other yet I know not how
into Water but this moist Air is full of damp vapours which are nothing but Water rarifi'd and which meeting with those cold and solid Bodies are condens'd and return'd to their first Nature Wherefore the Air is so far from being the cause of so many Springs and Rivers which water the Earth that on the contrary all the Air in the world provided it be not mixt with Water cannot make so much as one drop It is more probable that in the beginning of the world when God divided the Elements and the Waters from the Waters which cover'd the whole surface of the Earth he gather'd the grossest and most unprofitable water into one mass which he called Sea and dispersed through the rest of the Earth the fresh Water more clear and pure to serve for the necessities of the Earth Plants and living Creatures Moreover the Scripture makes mention of four great Rivers issuing out of the terrestrial Paradise and a Fountain in the middle of it which water'd the whole surface of the Earth from the Creation In not being possible that Air resolv'd into Water could make so great a quantity of waters in so little time The Fifth added That those Waters would soon be dry'd up without a new production for which Nature hath provided by Rain which falling upon the Earth is gather'd together in Subterraneous Cavernes which are as so many Reservers for Springs according to Seneca's opinion This is prov'd 1. Because in places where it rains not as in the Desarts of Arabia and Aethiopia there is scarce any Springs on the other side they are very frequent in Europe which aboundeth with rain 2. Waters are very low in Summer when it rains but little and in Winter so high that they overflow their banks because the season is pluvious 3. Hence it is that most Rivers and Springs break forth at the foot of Mountains as being but the rain water descended thither from their tops The Sixth said That it is true that Rivers are increased by Rain but yet have not their original from it For were it so then in great droughts our Rivers would be dry'd up as well as the Brooks As for Springs they are not so much as increas'd by Rain for we see by experience that it goes no deeper into the earth then seven or eight feet On the contrary the deeper you dig the more Springs you meet with Nor is the Air in my judgement the cause thereof there being no probability that there is under the earth cavernes so spacious and full of Air sufficient to make so great a quantity of Water since there needs ten times as much Air as Water to produce it Neither can the Sea be the cause of Springs since according to the Maxime of Hydraulick Water cannot ascend higher the place of its original but if Springs were from the Sea then they could not be higher then the level thereof and we should see none upon the tops of Mountains Now that the Sea lies lower then Springs and Rivers is apparent because they descend all thitherwards The Seventh said That Waters coming from the Sea and gliding in the bowels of the Earth meet with Subterranean Fires which are there in great quantity whereby they are heated and resolv'd into Vapours These Vapours compos'd of Water and Fire mounting upwards meet some Rocks or other solid Bodies against which they stick and are return'd into Water the Fire which was in them escaping through the Pores of those Bodies the Water trickles forth by the clefts and crevisses of the Rocks or other sloping places The Eighth said That as Art can draw forth Water by Destillation Expression and other wayes taught by Chymistrie so by stronger reason Nature cannot want wayes to do the same and possibly in divers sorts according to the various disposition of places and of the matter which she employes to that use II. Whether there is any Ambition commendable Upon the Second Subject it was said That there is some correspondence between the two Questions for as Water serves for a Medium of Union in natural Composition so Ambition serves to familiarise pains and dangers in great enterprizes For it makes Children strive to get credit in little exercises and Men think nothing so high but may be soar'd to by the wings of Ambitior Juvenal indeed gives Wings to necessity when he saith A Hungry Greek will fly up to Heaven if they command him and Virgil saith Fear adds Wings to the heels of the terrifi'd but those of Ambition are much more frequent in our Language 'T is true Ambition may many times beat and stretch forth its Wings but can no more exalt it self into the Air then the Estrich Sometimes it soars too high as Icarus did and so near the light that it is burnt therein like Flyes For the ambitious usually mounts up with might and main but thinks not how he shall come down again This Passion is so envious that it makes those possess'd therewith hate all like themselves and justle them to put them behind Yea it is so eager that it meets few obstacles which yield not to its exorbitant pertinacy insomuch that it causeth Men to do contrary to do what they pretend and shamefully to obey some that they may get the command over others The importunateness of Ambition is proof against all check or denyal and the ambitious is like the Clot-burr which once fastned upon the clothes is not easily shaken off When he is once near the Court neither affronts nor other rubs can readily repell him thence And because his Essence consists in appearance he many times wears his Lands upon his back and if he cannot at once pride himself in his Table his Clothes and his Train yet he will rather shew the body of a Spaniard then the belly of a Swiss At his coming abroad he oftentimes picks his teeth while his gutts grumble he feeds upon aiery viands When he ha's been so lucky as to snap some office before he ha's warm'd the place his desires are gaping after another He looks upon the first but as a step to a second and thinks himself still to low if he be not upon the highest round of the ladder where he needs a good Brain lest he lose his judgement and where it is as hard to stand as 't is impossible to ascend and shameful to descend Others observing That Honour is like a shadow which flyes from its pursuers and follows those that flie it have indeed no less Ambition then the former for I know no condition how private soever that is free from it but they artificially conceal it like those who carry a dark Lanthorn in the night they have no less fire then others but they hide it better They are like Thieves that shooe their Horses the wrong way that they may seem by their steps to come from the place whither they are going or else like those who hunt the Hyena This Beast loves the voice
since the in extinguishable thirst after the Future hath induc'd all Ethnick Antiquity to feed Fowls for Augury to immolate Sacrifices for presaging their good or bad Fortune there is some ground to pardon them and all others who seek some glimmerings of the future in Dreams I conceive the most Incredulous reading in the Scripture that seven lean kine devouring so many fat ones presag'd seven years Famine which consum'd all the store of seven other fertile years and moreover the truth confirm'd by the event of the Dreams of so many others cannot but have them in some reverence But on the other side when every one considers how many Phancies come into our heads in sleep both sick and well the truth whereof is so rare that it may be compar'd to that of Almanacks which setting down all sorts of weather sometimes happen right upon one or to those bad Archers who shooting all day long glory if they once hit the mark he presently concludes that credit is not lightly to be given to them Wherefore I think after explication how Dreams are caused it will be fit to examine whether there be any connexion or affinity between the things which we dream and those which are to come to pass as there was between the Aegyptian Hieroglyphicks which the things signifi'd by them and as there is at this day in the Characters of China and in the Signatures observ'd by some Physitians between some Plants and the Parts or Diseases to which they are proper For it is not without some hidden reason that Experience hath caus'd so many persons to take notice that as for example Death and Marriage make a great stir and alteration in the house where they happen so the one is usually the indicatour of the other that because the Hen makes a cry when she layes her Eggs from whence is produc'd a Chicken that cryes too therefore Eggs signifie brawls or quarrels that Pearls signifie Tears because they resemble them that as the Serpent is alwayes mischievous and moves along with little noise so he denotes secret Enemies and the cutting off his head the getting the better of one's Enemies that as our Teeth are not pluck'd out without pain so to dream that they fall out prefigures the death of a Relation and other such things which cannot be number'd but by a Calepine much less the interpretation thereof unfolded The Second said That Dreams are caus'd by the rising of vapours from the Stomack to the Brain by whose coldness they are condens'd and then falling like a gentle dew upon the Nerves and stopping the passages by which the Animal Spirits issue to the outward senses the species of objects which we receiv'd awake and were then confus'd and agitated by heat settle by little and little and become as clearly discern'd as when we were awake Or else our Imagination which as Aristotle saith is like a Painter who makes a mixture of divers colours joyning several of those species together formes chimera's and other strange images which have no antitype in Nature Just as a Child drawing accidentally certain Letters out of a heap mingled together joynes them and formes words of them which have no sense And as dirty or stirred waters doth not represent any Image or very badly so the Imagination being embroil'd and agitated by the gross fumes of the meat which arise after the first sleep represents ill or not at all the images of things which it hath in it self Hence it is that Drunkards and Children dream little or not at all and that the Dreams of the first part of the night are turbulent and those of the morning more tranquil and quiet to which alone therefore credit is to be given So that Interpreters of Dreams account the same nearer or farther from their Effect according as they more or less approach the day-break The Third said That Dreams are different according to the different Causes whence they proceed which are either within us or without us That which is within us is either Natural or Animal or Moral from which arise three different kinds of Dreams The Natural are usually suitable to the complexion of the Body and constitution of Humours Thus the Bilious or Cholerick dreams of fire and slaughter The Pituitous or Flegmatick dreams that he is swimming fishing or falling The Melancholy sees sad and dismal things in his sleep The Sanguine hath pleasures and jollities in his Phancy The Animal proceed from our ordinary employments and cause the actions on thoughts of the day to be represented again to the Imagination in the night The Moral follow the good or bad inclinations of every one Thus the Voluptuous person dreams of Delights and the Ambitious of Honours The external cause of Dreams is either God or Angels and these either good or bad and they either imprint new species upon the Phancy or dispose those which are in it before so as thereby to advertise us of things which concern us These alone in my opinion are those that are to be taken notice of The Fourth said That besides these causes of Dreams there are also some corporeal causes as the temper of the Air or the constitution of the Heavens and the nature of places to which is to be refer'd the relation of Ammianus Marcellinus That the Atlantick people have no Dreams as also the common report that they who lay Lawrel-leaves under their heads when they go to sleep have true Dreams together with the Observation of Aristotle that if a Candle cast the least glimpse before the Eyes of such as are a sleep or a little noise be made near them they will dream that they see Lightning and hear Thunder it being proper to the Soul when we are a sleep to make an Elephant of a Flie. The Fifth said That the chief inquiry in this matter is How any Dreams can signifie that which is Future and what connexion there is between the figures which Dreams represent to us and the thing signifi'd to us by them For it is certain in the first place that Dreams have some affinity and conformity with our Temper This with our Manners our Manners with our Actions and finally our Actions with the Accidents which betide us Whence it appears that according to this series Dreams have some great correspondence with those Accidents For the Soul which knows our Temper and by necessary sequel our Manners and Actions beholds in those three together the Accidents of our Life which are annex'd represented and contained potentially in them as Fruits and Trees are in Flowers and Seeds But as Flowers and Seeds are very different in Figure from the Fruits and Trees which they produce so the Characters of the Accidents of our Life being contained or rather produced by our Temper our Manners and Actions are represented to the Soul under the various species of things which are to befall us because being linked by a streight bond to this corporeal mass it cannot judge
our vicious inclinations other where then within our selves it being deriv'd from the structure and composition of our Bodies For he who hath not what to eat and wherewith to defend himself from cold or who fears distress finds the seeds of theft in his natural inclination of self-preservation The same Fear makes him become covetous When any thing obstructs the accomplishing of his wishes if he be weak he becomes sad thereupon if strong he falls into Choler This Passion leads him to revenge the height of whose violence is Murther If the enjoyment thereof be free to him the pleasure which he takes therein produceth Luxury and debaucheries and thus 't is with all Vices On the contrary poor Virtue meets with nothing in us but opposition The Stomack the Intestines and all the natural parts revolt against Temperance and Continence The Cholerick Humour fights against Clemency Covetousness inciteth to Injustice the Comparison of our condition with that of our betters to Ambition and Envy with that of our Inferiors to Pride and Disdain In brief Virtue finds nothing in us that makes for her interest which seems to me the reason why it is less familiar to us then Vice The Sixth said No person is either vicious or virtuous of his own nature but he becomes so by Instruction and Custome Instruction is so powerful that it makes even Beasts capable of Discipline Custome is of such influence that it is rightly term'd an other nature Wherefore our being rather vicious then virtuons is not from any natural inclination For on the contrary we have the seeds and sparks of Virtue within us and I almost believe with Plato that when Men become vicious it is by force and against their nature But the fault proceeds from our bad Education and corrupt Customes which become yet worse by the conversation of vicious persons who are very numerous The Seventh said Though we consent more easily to Virtue then to Vice yet the number of the good and virtuous being less then that of the wicked and vicious hath caus'd the contrary to be believ'd The reason whereof is not the difficulty of doing well but because Vices are esteem'd and rewarded instead of being punish'd and Virtue instead of Recompence receives nothing but Contempt So the Exorbitancy of Clothes instead of being punish'd causeth him to be honoured who is unworthy to be so Wherefore if there were a State in which Reward and Punishment were duly dispens'd from the Cradle it would be a rarer thing to see a wicked man there then a black Swan because the good which we love and the evil which we hate would be inseparably joyn'd together the one with Virtue and the other with Vice CONFERENCE XXII I. Of Judiciary Astrology II. Which is least blameable Covetousness or Prodigality I. Of Judiciary Astrology THe weakness of our reasoning is a strong argument to abate the presumption of our being able to judge of the power of the Stars For if we are ignorant of the nature of the least Herb we tread upon we must be more so of that of the Celoestial Bodies which are so remote from us and our knowledge that the greatest masters of this Art dispute still whether every Star be a several world whether they are solid or not what qualities they have and which are the true places Besides the local motion of Animals may wholly frustrate the effect of their influences And if Xanthus hindred the Sun from making his head ake when he walk'd abroad and the Moon doth not chill those that are in the house certainly the effects of less active and remoter Stars may be declin'd by the same wayes since Fire the most active thing in nature doth not burn if the hand be mov'd swiftly over it And what more was to be fear'd by Americus Vesputius Ferdinand Magellan and others who sail'd round the Earth one way whil'st the Heaven turn'd the other Why should we seek in Heaven the Causes of Accidents which befall us if we find them on Earth And why should we look so far for what is so near Is it not more fit to refer the cause of Knowledge to study of Riches and Honour to Birth Merit or Favour of Victory to the dexterity and diligence of the General who cast his contrivance well to surprize his Enemy then to attribute these Events to the Planets If experience be alledg'd to manifest the effect of many Predictions I answer that as the Animal which is said to have made a letter by chance with its Hoof in the dust was no Scribe for all that so though amongst a thousand false predictions one by chance proves true yet is not the Art ever the more certain Yea I will urge it against themselves for it is not credible that we should see so many unfortunate Astrologers if they could fore-see their own infelicity or else they must acknowledge themselves fools since they grant that the Wise-man rules over the Stars The Second said That every thing here below suffers mutation and nothing is able to change it self whence it follows that that which is the cause of Alteration must it self be exempt from the same Whence consequently the Heavens which are the sole Body that suffer no change must be the cause of all mutation For the Elements are the material cause thereof and therefore cannot be the Efficient And as the Stars are the thickest and onely visible part of Heaven so they have most light and influence by which assisted with their motions they communicate their qualities to the Air the Air to the Bodies which it toucheth especially to the humours in Man over which it hath such power that its diversity diversifyes all the complexions of Man-kind Now our Humours model our Manners and these our most particular Actions They may talk that the Wise-man over-rules the Stars but Experience shews that the Stars guide the Will not by compelling it but by inclining it in such a manner that it cannot resist because they subminister to it the means determined to the End whereunto they incline it whence it is as hard yea impossible for it to draw back as for a Drunkard to forbear drinking when he is very thirsty and hath the bottle at his command The Impostures which are affirm'd of the Casters of Nativities can no more prejudice or disparage Judiciary Astrology then Mountebanks do Physick Yea though the state of Heaven be never twice the same yet is it not so in the subjects of all other Disciplines Never were two diseases found altogether alike in Physick nor in Law two Cases alike in all their circumstances yet the Precepts of thse Sciences are nevertheless true because it sufficeth that the principal conditions concur as it is also sufficient that the same principal aspects and situations of the Stars be found in Heaven for the making of Rules in Judiciary Astrology The Third said Every Effect followeth the Nature of its Cause and therefore the Actions and
tyr'd with one season because another soon succeeds it On the contrary we see variety of Food raiseth the languishing Appetite the diversity of Odors which succeed one another delight the Smelling Nothing is more acceptable to the Sight then a Meadow checker'd with several colours or a garden variegated with Tulips and other Flowers of all sorts and hues which the Spring discloses Harmony proceeds from the variety of Notes and the Orator who would move his Auditors must not speak too long upon the same thing in the same words he must alter his gesture and voice and the pauses which distinguish his action are very serviceable to that purpose But as there is nothing more swift then the Sight so no Sense is sooner weary with the semblance of its objects The reason whereof is this being a most active sense its operation doth not make it self perceiv'd by the Eye but by the changing of the object So that when it beholds alwayes the same thing it seemes to it self as if it beheld nothing Look upon the Earth all cover'd with Snow or a Chamber wholly hung with Black or some other single colour the Sight is offended therewith If Green offends us less it is because it is compounded of Yellow and Blew and the best blended of all the Colours and as such reunites the visual rayes between its two extremes yet it affordeth nothing near the delightfulness that ariseth from the variety of Tapistry I conceive therefore that the chief end of the diversity of Countenances is Distinction and lest the same thing should betide Women that did Alcmena in Plautus who suffer'd Jupiter to quarter with her because she took him for her Husband Amphitryo But the subordinate end is the Contentment which Man finds in this variety As for other causes the Efficient indeed doth something for Children commonly resemble their Fathers and Mothers But the Material contributes very much hereunto so that they who for example are begotten of a Masculine and Feminine Geniture wherein the sanguine temper is equally prevalent resemble one another and have a ruddy and well shap'd Countenance But because 't is next to impossible that the said temper should be equally found in two different subjects thence ariseth the variety of Complexions and Lineaments The Second said There is as great variety in all natural things as in Faces though it be not so remarkable to us For we see Birds and Beasts distinguish one another very well Now the Final Cause of this Diversity seemes to me to be the ornament of the World which otherwise would have nothing less then the importance of its name Musick and Painting receive graces from things which in reality are nothing namely Pauses which are onely privations of Notes and shadows which are defects of light This diversity of Visages which ariseth from that of the persons and their inclinations is as well contributary to the splendour and beauty of a state as of nature For if all things were alike there would be a confus'd identity and general disorder not much different from the ancient Chaos Nothing would be acted in Nature for action is not between things like but between things contrary Nor would there be Beauty in the Countenance if there were not diversity in the parts but all the Face were Eye or Nose For Beauty ariseth from Proportion and this from the correspondence of many different parts Very little would there be amongst Men if all were alike there being no Beauty when there is no deformity whereunto it may be compar'd and who so takes away Beauty takes away Love of which it is the foundation This divine link of humane society would be destroy'd for Love is a desire to obtain what we want and another possesseth and therefore it cannot exist but between persons unlike Nor could a State consist longer because all Men being externally alike would be so internally too all would be of the same profession and no longer seek to supply one anothers mutual necessities Now this diversity of persons proceeds from the divers mixture of the four Humours which being never found twice temper'd in the same sort each one having his peculiar constitution which the Physitians call Idiosyncrasie they never produce the same person twice nor consequently one and the same surface or external shape alike If the Matter design'd to constitute and nourish the bones be in too great quantity the Man is born robust large and bony if it be defective he becomes a dwarf and a weakling Again this Matter according as it carried to every bone in particular gives a differing conformation to the same which is also derived to the Muscles spread over those bones from which they borrow the external figure which they communicate to the skin The Third said He found two Causes of the Diversity of Countenances One in Heaven The other in the Heads of Women namely in their Imaginations Heaven is never found twice in the same posture by reason of the manifold Motions and Conjunctions of the Planets and yet 't is the Sun and Man that generate a Man and what is said of the Sun ought likewise to be understood of the other Coelestial Bodies It is necessary then that this variety in the Cause produce also variety in the Effect Hence it is that Twins have so great resemblance together as having been conceiv'd and born under the same Constellation As for the Imagination 't is certain that of the Mother which intervenes at the time of Conception more powerfully determines the shape and colour of the Foetus then any other Cause as appears by the marks which Infants bring with them from their Mothers Womb who well remember that such things were in their Phancy and that they had a vehement apprehension of the same So that as many different Imaginations as Women have when they conceive make so many Countenances and other parts of the Body different II. Whether is the more noble Man or Woman Upon the Second Point it was said That in times of old there was found at Rome a Widower that had buried two and twenty Wives and at the same time a Widow that survived her two and twentieth Husband these two the people of Rome constrain'd to marry together after which both Men and Women awaited which of the two would dye first at length the Woman dy'd first and all the Men even to the little Boyes went to her interment every one with a branch of Lawrel in his Hand as having obtaind the victory over that Sex This Question of the nobleness and dignity of the one above the other is of greater consequence then that other in which not onely Women very frequently get the better there being more old women then old men through the sundry dangers whereunto men are expos'd and from which women are exempted but also Stags and Ravens which live hundreds of years much surpass either of them But one of the greatest difficulties arising in the
considerations which pertain to them in this matters in which they are much puzzled to apply a Rule to so many different Climates Seasons and Persons we may here make comparison of Flesh and Fish in the other three Cases In regard of the state of Physick and the Table All which have this common That it cannot be pronounc'd as to one of them which of the two is best Flesh or Fish because 't is requisite to have regard to places and persons To begin with Policy 'T is true a time must be left to fowls to lay their egges hatch and bring up their young to other animals to suckle theirs otherwise the earth and the air would soon be depopulated which time is usually the spring But being this season and all others follow the course of the Sun in the Zodiack which renders it various according to the diversity of Climates we cannot find a time equally and universally proper for that release of Animals Besides there are Countries as England and Holland so abounding with fish and persons addicted to fishing that nature offering them fish of her own accord and their land not producing enough of other food for its inhabitants the meaner people could not live of their industry unless they were oblig'd by political Rule to live a certain time with Fish and abstain from Flesh. As on the contrary there 's such a defect of fish in the middle parts of Spain that they keep fast with the least nutritive parts of Animals Feet and Entrails Wherefore a general political rule cannot be establish'd but as in most other things of the world we must make use of a leaden Rule and conform it to the stone Secondly for Physick the Case is much the same For by reason of the variety of Tempers fish will not only be wholsome but also appointed by the Physitians to some persons as to the Cholerick whose stomacks need refreshment True it is there are found more to whom Fish do's hurt then otherwise But this proceeds from satiety and too great repletion which would not be so frequent if we liv'd in the ancient Frugality For we see they who eat no supper receive less hurt from fish then others do But 't is always true that fish cannot be absolutely pronounc'd wholesome or unwholsome As for the goodness of Taste that is yet more controverted as depending on the several phancies of men The Second said That to judge this Question well the same conditions are to be observ'd as in Juridical Sentences in which alliances or friendships are allowable causes of exception and credit is not given to those whose converse and particular inclination to one of the Parties renders their judgements suspected No doubt he who had been fed with Stock-fish from his youth and lov'd it so much that being arriv'd to the Pontifical Dignity even then made his most delicious fare of it would have concluded for fish On the contrary most others whose stomacks agree not so well with fish will give the advantage to flesh 'T is true If it be here as 't is in petty Courts where he who cries loudest carries the Cause then fish to whom nature has deny'd the use of voice must lose it unless we maturely weigh their reasons 1. The value and delicacy of Meats is usually rated according to their rarity and the scarcity of getting them and therefore Heliogabalus never ate flesh but on the main Sea nor fish but when he was very distant from it Now Nature has separated fish from the habitation of men and divided the one from the other as much as the water is from the Earth 2. There 's no kind of taste upon land which is not found in the water nor any terrestrial animal but hath its like in the Sea But we cannot say the same of Fishes that there are terrestrial animals which have all their several tastes and this proceeds from the almost infinite number of Fishes good to eat whereas the Kinds of land-animals serviceable for man's food are very few To that we may answer such as ask whether there be more delicacy in Flesh or Fish as those who should ask whether Table is more delicious that of a Citizen cover'd only with his ordinary fare or that of Lucullus abounding besides with all imaginable rarities You have some fishes who have nothing of fish but the name having the consistence colour smell and taste of flesh and the Hashes and Bisques made of them differ not from others But you have no flesh which hath the taste of fish 3. Animals more subject to infirmities and diseases ought less to delight our taste and make us more afraid of them Now land-animals are more sickly then fish whose healthiness occasion'd the Proverb As sound as a Fish 4. Our taste is chiefly delighted in variety Now there is not only incomparably more sorts of Fishes then of other Animals but each of them is prepar'd after many more fashions then Flesh there being some Fish which is dress'd five several ways whereas when you have roasted a Partrich or made a hash Capilotade or the Cook is at the end of his skill 5. That which cloyes most is less delicate as we see the most delicious things are those which whet instead of satiating the Appetite presently Now Fish fills less then Flesh. 6. 'T is a more friable food and easier to be grownd by the teeth then the flesh of land-animals and consequently more delicate 3. The Third said There 's no flesh how delicate soever which comes neer the odour and savour of the little Pulpe the fish Spaga taken in Sicily the Tunny and Atolle of Phrygia of those little fishes call'd Cappes found in the stones in Marca d' Ancona and infinite others so esteem'd by the ancients that they reckon'd amongst their greatest Delights Ponds and Conservatories of Fish which they nourish'd even with the bodies of their Slaves to the end they might be more tender and delicate as 't is reported of Lucullus and Pollio who caus'd theirs to be devour'd by Lampreys Nor is fish less nutritive then flesh seeing there are whole Nations as the Ichthyophagi which have no other bread but fish of which dry'd in the Sun and reduc'd into powder they make a bread as nourishing as ours By which means Fish serves both for bread and for meat which Flesh cannot be made to do The Fourth said That the more affinity food hath with our nature the more agreeable it is to us it being the property of aliment to be like the thing nourish'd Now 't is certain there 's more resemblance between our bodies and those of land-animals then those of fish considering that the former breathe the same air with us and are nourish'd with the same things Besides aliment the more concocted and digested is also the more delicate raw flesh is not so delicate as dress'd nor boil'd as roast upon which the Fire acts more and the parts of animals neerest the heart
afforded before God had curs'd it and so inseparably connected man's labour with those fruits that now a days to express a hundred acres of Land we commonly say A hundred acres of Labour And as a place ceases to be the Court when the King is no longer in it so the Divine Benediction withdrawn from the Earth it ceas'd to be Paradise Yea Adam having ceas'd to be King of it and by his sin lost the Dominion which he had over all even the fiercest Creatures the Earth became no longer a Paradise to him But if I be requir'd to assign a particular place to this Paradise leaving the description of places which I never saw to the belief of Geographers I find none more fit for it then France Its Climate is temperate especially towards the East and South It hath four Rivers which bring into it Gold and all the other Commodities attributed unto Paradise by the first Historian It so abounds with all sorts of flowers that it hath taken three Lillies for its Arms And with fruits that it hath for it self and its Neighbours yea above any other it produces every Tree fair to look upon and good for food to use the Scripture-words One interpos'd That he should think 't was Normandie so fruitful of goodly Apples were it not that no Vines grow there whose fruit is so pleasant to behold The fourth said As there is no great certainty in the consequences drawn from Allegories so neither are Allegories very successfully drawn from Histories and substituted in their places I know not what History is if that of our first Father be not nor where to stop if people will subtilize upon the first circumstance of his Creation and what he did afterwards But if we find difficulty in according the Geographical Tables of the present time with the truth of that why do not we likewise make Allegories of the Creation and all its sequels which are so many Miracles If we see no Angel that guards the access to it no more did Balaam see that which stood in his way though visible to his Asse And being the space of the Garden of Eden is not determinately set down nothing hinders but that it might be of very vast extent and this takes away the scruple of those who object the distance which is between all those great Rivers Besides being Enoch and Elias were since Adam's fall transported into this Paradise where they must be till the coming of Antichrist 't is a certain Argument of its real subsistence II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Upon the second point it was said That the Ancients were much more careful then we not only to preserve the Images of their Fore-fathers but also to keep their Bodies which they variously embalmed The Grecians wash'd them in Wine mingled with warm Water and then put them them into oyl of Olives Honey or Wax The Aethyopians first salted them and then put them into Vessels of Glass In the Canary Islands they season them in the Sea and afterwards dry them in the Sun The Scythians place them upon Mountains cover'd with snow or in the coolest Caves Indeed every one knows there is a Cave at Tholouze which hath a particular virtue to preserve carkasses from corruption and in which is seen at this day the entire body of the fair Saint Baume and many others dead above 200 years ago The Indians cover'd them with ashes The Aegyptians conceiving that bodies corrupted rose not again and that the Soul was sensible of the Bodies corruption did not yield to any people in curiosity of preserving them they fill'd with Myrrhe Cinamon and other Spices or with Oyl of Cedar then they salted them with Nitre whose aerimony consumes all the superfluous humidities which cause putrifaction 'T is from these bodies that we have that excellent Mummie whose admirable effects I ascribe to sympathy But concerning what is affirm'd that being transported by Sea they cause tempests and strange agitations in the Ship 't is an effect which is to be attributed to a more occult cause The Second said Man is so admirable an Edifice that even his Ruines have their use His Fat is one of the most excellent Anodynes His Skull serves against the Epilepsic This liquor which is drawn from his Tomb hath several vertues and the reasons of the great and admirable effects imputed to it as the healing of inwards Ulcers and Contusions of Blood arriving to such as have fallen from on high seem to me imputable to three Causes a Spiritual a Celestial and an Elementary The first ariseth hence that so perfect a Form as the reasonable Soul having inform'd part of this Compositum which by the mixture of some Ingredients as Myrrhe and Aloes hath been preserv'd from corruption the same thing arrives to it which the Chymists say doth to their white Gold when they have extracted its Sulphur and Tincture For being re-joyn'd to other Gold it easily resumes the same form and is sooner and more inseparably combin'd with it then any other thing as having been of the same species So when you put Mummie into a body of the same species it takes part with the nature whence it proceeded and siding with it incounters the disease and its symptomes like Succour coming to relieve a besieged City with provisions and ammunition The Celestial cause is drawn from the Heavens for that the light and influence of superiour bodies act upon all the sublunary but by the consent of all none is so susceptible of their actions as man and if his soul be not subject thereunto yet his body is undoubtedly to each part of which each part of Heaven not only answers as some hold but the whole to all Whence is seen the diversity of disposition inclinations and manners such and so great that 't is a palpable mistake to attribute the same to the meer mixture of the Elements Now Mummie having receiv'd not only while it was animated but afterwards all the influences whereof the humane body is susceptible it becomes as it were the abstract of all the Celestial powers and better then Talismanical figures communicates the same to him that uses it The last reason drawn from the mixture of the Elements and their qualities might suffice alone without the preceding For Man being the abridgement of the world ought also to contain all the faculties of it and his Mummie being inanimate but having liv'd the life of a plant an animal and a man it contains all these natures eminently The Third said That Man affecting nothing so much as immortality because he fears nothing more then death and being unable to secure himself from it do's all that he can to perpetuate himself in some fashion since he cannot wholly The desire of supporting his Individual person and defending it from all inconveniences which may abridge his life makes him count nothing difficult In Propagation he seeks the eternity of his species And though he is assur'd by Reason of
may hold in violent deaths whereof the causes may be avoided but that 't is not credible that a decrepit old man who hath spun out his Life to the last can continue it the nature and Etymology of the radical moisture not admitting a possibility of restauration I answer that reasons taken from the original of words are not the strongest and that besides there are roots which endure more and others less according as they are well or ill cultivated And if the reason drawn from contraries be considerable being many poysons are so quick that they corrupt the radical moisture in an instant ought we to conceive Nature so much a step-dame as that she hath not produc'd something proper to restore it And that Humane Industry is so dull and little industrious in the thing which Man desires most which is long Life that it cannot reach to prepare some matter for the support yea for the restauration of that Original Humidity Considering that we are not reduc'd to live onely by what is about us as Plants and Plant-animals do but all the world is open and accessible to our search of Aliments and Medicines Moreover we have examples not onely of a Nestor who liv'd three ages of an Artephius who liv'd as many and many more and the Herb Moly the Nectar and Ambrosia of the Poets which kept their gods from growing old may well be taken for a figure of the Tree of Life which was design'd for separation of this Humidity but also of compositions proper to produce that effect Yea were it not actually so yet 't is not less possible and God hath not in vain promis'd as a Reward to such as honour their Superiors to prolong their dayes upon the earth The Second said If Medaea found Herbs as the Poets say to lengthen the Life of Aeson the Father of Jason the Daughters of Aelias miscarried of their purpose Indeed every thing that lives needs Heat for exercising its Actions and Humidity to sustain that Heat the duration of this Heat in the Humidity is Life which lasts as long as the one is maintain'd by the other like the lighted wiek in a Lamp Now Nature dispenses to every one from the Birth as much of this Heat and Moisture as she pleases to one for fifty to another for sixty seventy eighty years or more which ended the stock is spent Physick may husband it well but cannot produce it anew Aliments never repair it perfectly no more then Water doth Wine which it increases indeed but weakens too when mingled therewith The Third back'd this Suffrage with the opinion of Pythagoras who held that our Life is a strait line that the accidents which disturb it and at length bring Death constitute another and accordingly saith he as these two lines incline less or much towards one another Life is long or short because the Angle of their incidence and at which they cut which is our Death happens sooner or later and it would never happen if these two lines were parallel Now the meeting of these two lines cannot be deferr'd or put off The Fourth said 'T were a strange thing if Humane Art could repair all other defects of the Body and Mind excepting that whereof there is most need and all Ages have complain'd Brevity of Life For our Understanding hath much less need of an Art of Reasoning our tongue of an Art of speaking our legs of dancing then our Life of being continu'd since 't is the foundation of all the rest Besides Physick would seem useless without this For though it serv'd only to asswage the pains of diseases which is a ridiculous opinion yet it would thereby protract the time of Death to which pain is the way The Fifth said That for the preservation of Life 't is requisite to continue the marriage of Heat and moisture Death alwayes hapning immediately upon their disjunction and leaving the contrary qualities in their room Cold and Dryness Now to know how Heat must be preserv'd we must observe how 't is destroy'd And that is four wayes I. By Cold which being moderate fights with it but violent wholly destroyes it II. By suffocation or smothering when the Pores are stop'd and the issue of fuliginous vapours hindred Thus Fire dyes for want of Air. III. By its dissipation which is caus'd by hot medicaments violent exercise and immoderate heat of the Sun or Fire Whence proceeds a Syncope or Deliquium of the Heart IV. By want of Aliment without which it can no more last a moment then Fire without wood or other combustible matter All agree that the three first Causes may be avoided or at least remedied And as for the Fourth which is doubled of I see nothing that hinders but that as the spirits of our bodies are perfectly repair'd by the Air we incessantly breathe so Aliments or some Specificks as as amongst others Gold dissolv'd in some water not corrosive may in some manner restore the fewel of our Heat And seeing there are found burning Mountains in which the Fire cannot consume so much matter apt for burning but it alwayes affords it self other new which makes it subsist for many Ages Why may not a matter be prepar'd for our Natural Heat which though not neer so perfect as that which it consum'd for were it so an Animal would be immortal yet may be more excellent then ordinary Aliments and by this means prolong our Lives And this must be sought after not judg'd impossible The Sixth said That Life consisting in the Harmony and proportion of the four first qualities and in the contemperation of the four Humours there 's no more requir'd for the prolonging of Life but to continue this Harmony Which may be done not onely by a good natural temper but also by the right use of external things as pure Air places healthful and exposed to the Eastern winds Aliments of good juice sleep sufficiently long exercises not violent passions well rul'd and the other things whose due administration must prolong Life by the same reason that their abuse or indiscreet usage diminishes it The Seventh said That Life consists in the salt which contains the Spirit that quickens it and is the preservative Balsame of all compounds The vivifying Spirit of Man is inclos'd in a very volatile Armoniack Salt which exhales easily by Heat and therefore needs incessant reparation by Aliments Now to preserve Life long it is requsite to fix this volatile salt which is done by means of another salt extracted by Chymistry which is not onely fix'd but also capable to fix the most volatile For the Chymists represent this salt incorruptible in it self and communicating its virtue to other bodies Upon which account they stile it Quintessence Aethereal Body Elixir and Radical Balsame which hath a propriety to preserve not onely living bodies many Ages but dead from corruption II. Whether 't is better to be without Passions then to moderate them Upon the Second Point it was said
good examples who may innocently follow their inclination because it will lead them only to vertuous or at least indifferent things And for the vicious 't is certain the evil which they do not by reason of the repugnance which they have to it and the fear of punishment cannot be imputed to them for vertue nor consequently make them happy CONFERENCE XXXII I. Sympathie and Antipathy II. Whether Love descending is stronger then ascending I. Of Sympathy and Antipathy WHat a Father once said That the first second and third Point of Christian Philosophy was humility meaning that it all referr'd thereunto the same may be said of Sympathy and Antipathy which is the Similitude or Contrariety of Affections For the generation and corruption of all things is to be referr'd to them The sympathy of the simple qualities and the Elements wherein they are found are causes of the temperament of mixt bodies as the antipathy is of their dissolution 'T is they who unite and dis-unite those compound bodies and by approximating or removing them one from another cause all their motions and actions When these causes are apparent to us and may be probably imputed to qualities we recur to them as the most easie general and common But when we find bodies whose qualities seem alike to us and nevertheless they have very different effects we are then constrain'd to seek the cause thereof elsewhere and finding none we call it an Occult Propriety whose two daughters are Sympathy and Antipathy For Man being a reasonable creature is desirous to know the reason of every thing and when he cannot attain to it he becomes as much tormented as a Judge whose Jurisdiction is retrench'd and this through want of apprehending that what he knows hath no other proportion to what he ignores then finite yea very little hath to infinite And being unable to find the true reason of an infinite number of effects which ravish him with admiration yet resolving to have some one he feigns one under these names of Sympathy and Antipathy those two Hocus Pocus's to which he refers the cause why Corral stays bleeding Amber draws straw the Loadstone Iron which the Theamede rejects why the Star-stone moves in Vinegar the Cole-wort is an enemy to the Vines Garlick a friend to the Rose and Lilly increasing one the others ' odour why a man's fasting-spittle kills the Viper why Eeles drown'd in Wine make the drinker thenceforward hate it why Betony strengthens the Brain Succhory is proper to the Liver Bezoar a friend to the Heart and infinite others But because general causes do not satisfie us no more then Definitions whose Genuses are remote and the Differences common it seems we are oblig'd to a particular inquisition of their causes The Second said The Subjects in which Sympathies and Antipathies are found must be distinguish'd in order to assign their true causes For in things alike we may refer their effects to the similitude of their substances and accidents Thus the Lungs of a Fox are useful to such as are Phthisical the intestine of a Wolf is good for the Colick Eye-bright for the Eye Solomons's-Seal for the Rupture the black decoction of Sena for Melancholy yellow Rhubarb for choler white Agaric for Flegm Yet 't is not requisite that this resemblance be total for then a man's Lungs should rather be serviceable to the Phthisical then that of a Fox and the Load-stone should rather draw a Load-then Iron which yet do's not hold because there 's no action between things perfectly alike Antipathy also arises from the contrariety of Forms their qualities and other accidents Now we are much puzzl'd to assign the causes of this Sympathy and Antipathy in things which have nothing either of likeness or contrariety as when I see two unknown men play at Tennis the one with as good a grace as the other I have a kind of desire that one may rather win then the other Is it not rather chance which causes this Our will though free being always oblig'd to tend this way or that way and cannot chuse the worst or else all things being made by weight number and measure those affect one another most who have the same proportion in their composition or who had the same configuration of heaven at their birth Or every thing naturally affecting to become perfect seeks this perfection in all the subjects which it meets and when the same disposition is found in two several bodies or minds if they would arrive at that perfection by one and the same way this meeting serves for the means of union which is our sympathy and their different disposition or way the contrary The Third amongst sundry examples of Antipathy said That if we believe Apuleius the Look-glassing us'd by an incontinent woman spoils the visage of a chast that it is manifest between the horse and the Camel the Elephant and the Swine the Lyon and the Cock the Bull and the Fig-tree the Adder and a naked man the Ape and the Tortois the Serpent and the shadow of the Ash. For that which is observ'd amongst Animals who devour and serve for food to one another as the Wolf and the Sheep the Kite and the Chicken or amongst those who always offend and hurt one the other as Man and the Serpent deserve rather the name of Enmity whereof the causes are manifest But to speak truth all these effects are no more known to us then their causes are unknown He who endu'd them with Formes having annex'd Proprieties thereunto both the one and the other impenetrable to humane wit The Fourth said That for a lasting order amongst the creatures it was requisite that every one were naturally lead to its own preservation by adhering to what was conducible thereunto and eschewing the contrary Now to do this they needed instruments whereby to act which are their qualities either manifest which proceed from the Temperament and are either First or Second or else occult which proceed from every form and substance to which the Sympathies and Antipathies correspondences and contrarieties of all natural Bodies ought to be referr'd from whence issue some spirits bearing the character and idea of the form from which they flow These spirits being carried through the air just as odours are if their forces and vertues be contrary they destroy one another which is call'd Antipathy If the same be friendly they unite and joyn together the stronger attracting the weaker Hence Iron doth not attract the Load-stone but the Load-stone Iron So when a Wolf sees a man first the man loses his voyce or at least becomes hoarse because venomous spirits issue out the Wolfe's eyes which being contrary to those which issue out of the man inclose the same and by hindring them to flow forth hinder them from forming the voyce But when the man spies the Wolf first his effluvia being foreseen hurt less and have less power upon him because the man encourages himself against them The
Fifth said 'T is more fit to admire these secret motions which depend only on the good pleasure of Nature who alone knows wherein consists the proportion correspondence which makes bodies symbolize one with another then to seek the true cause of them unprofitably And Aristotle himself confesses that he knew not whereunto to refer the Antipathy which is between the Wolf and the Sheep so strange that even after their deaths the strings of Instruments made of their guts never agree together as the feathers of the Eagle consume those of other Birds Likewise the subtile Scaliger after much time unprofitably spent acknowledges that he understands it not They who go about to give reasons of it are not less ignorant but more vain then others The Sixth said Words are frequently abus'd as for example when 't is attributed to Antipathy that the Dog runs after the Hare whereas 't is for the pleasure that he takes in his smelling which is an effect of Sympathy But they who refer almost every thing to Occult Proprieties are like the Country-man who not seeing the springs of a Watch thinks it moves by an occult vertue or who being ask'd why it thunders answers simply because it pleases God Wherefore instead of imitating the ignorant vulgar who are contented to admire an Eclipse without seeking the cause the difficulty ought to inflame our desire as we use more care and diligence to discover a hidden treasure nothing seeming impossible to the Sagacious wits of these times The Seventh said That according to Plato the reason of Sympathies and Antipathies is taken from the correspondence and congruity or from the disproportion which inferior bodies have with the superiour which according as they are more or less in terrestrial bodies and according to the various manner of their being so the same have more or less sympathy For as inferior things take their source from above so they have one to the other here below the same correspondence which is common to them with the celestial bodies according to the Axiom that things which agree in one third agree also among themselves Thus amongst stones those which are call'd Helites and Selenites Sun-stone and Moon-stone are luminous because they partake of the rayes of those Luminaries and the Helioselene imitates by its figure the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon Amongst Plants the Lote or Nettle-tree the Mari-gold and the Heliotrope or Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun Amongst Solar Animals the Cock and the Lyon are the most noble and the Cock more then the Lyon he alwayes gives applauses to the Sun when he perceives him approaching our Horizon or Zenith Whereupon the Lyon fears and respects him because things which are inferior to others in one and the same degree yield to them though they surpass them in strength and bigness as the arms which fury hath put into the hands of a mutinous multitude fall out of them at the presence of some man of respect and authority though they be a thousand against one II. Whether Love descending be stronger then ascending Upon the second Point it was said Although this be a common saying and it seems that Love ought rather to descend then ascend yea that Fathers are oblig'd to love their children even with the hatred of themselves yet I conceive that the love of children towards their fathers surpasses that of fathers towards their children inasmuch as the latter proceeds from the love which the fathers bear to themselves being desirous to have support and assistance from those whom they bring into the world and in them to perpetuate their names honours estates and part of themselves But the love of children to Fathers is pure and dis-interested as may be observ'd in many who having no hope of a patrimony love and honour their parents with most respectful kindness Moreover the supream authority and absolute power of life and death which the Romans and our ancient Gaules frequently us'd against their children shows their little affection For not to speak of those Nations who sacrific'd theirs to false gods nor of Manlius Mithridates Philip II. King of Spain and infinite others who put them to death Fathers anciently held them of worse condition then their slaves For a slave once sold never return'd more into the Seller's power whereas a son sold and set at liberty return'd thrice into the power of his Father As also at this day in Moscovia Russia and particularly in Cyprus Rhodes and Candia where 't is an ordinary thing for fathers to sell their sons to marry their daughter which made Augustus say having heard that Herod had kill'd his own son that it was better to be the Swine then son of a Jew But Patricide was unknown to ancient Legislators and Lycurgus never ordain'd any punishment against such criminals not imagining that such a crime could come into the mind of a lawful child whom the Persians conceiv'd to declare himself a bastard by such an action For that foolish custom which reign'd some time at Rome of precipitating men of sixty years old from the bridge into Tyber is no sign of the cruelty of children towards their fathers since they imagin'd that they did an act of piety and religion therein by delivering them from the miseries of this life The Second said None can know how great a love a father bears his children but he that hath been a Father Paternal tenderness is so vehement that all the passions and affections of the soul give place to it Prudence and Philosophy may preach to us restraint and moderation but a father's love admitting no rule caus'd a King of Sparta to run with a stick between his legs a Grand Cosmo to whip a top and the wisest of all the Grecians to play at Cob-nut to make pastime to their children experiences sufficient to gain the cause to paternal love though it were not back'd by these reasons 1. That love being the issue of knowledge the more there is of knowledge the more there is of love Therefore fathers having more knowledge then their children have also more love 2. As man desires nothing so much as immortality so he loves that thing especially which procures the same to him and hating death more then any thing in the world extreamly loves what seems to keep him from dying as his children do in whom he seems to revive Whence also the Pelican feeds its young at the expence of its own blood On the contrary Man being the most ambitious of all creatures hates nothing so much as to see himself subjected to another Wherefore children that the benefits which they receive from their fathers may oblige them to gratitude and subjections they perform the same indeed but with much less love then their fathers 3. God ha's given no commandment to fathers to love their children knowing that they lov'd them but too much but he hath to children to love and honour their fathers as having need to be invited
temper a great quantity of subtile and brisk spirits quickness of wit a habit custom of doing some action as the Postilion who sadled bridled and rid his horse asleep and after making some careers brought him back to the Stable The Second said Though according to Aristotle in the 5. Book of the Generation of Animals there is some difference between a dream and this affection which causes men to walk in their sleep because saith he a dream is when the sleeper takes that for true which is presented to him though it be not so But when one dreams that he is in a place and is there indeed and doth really that which he imagines 't is rather a vision then a dream Nevertheless methinks their extraordinary motions may as well be referr'd to dreams as any other motions which are made in sleep considering that they come from the same cause are made by the same organs and differ not but in degree The one being made by a bare representation of the species and the other by a strong impression So that 't is no more wonder to see a man rise out of his bed walk get upon the ridge of a house climb a tree and do other like things without waking then 't is so see another dreamer speak in his sleep laugh cry stir his arms and legs both of them being led thereunto by the same means The Third said He wonder'd not so much to see a man walk in his sleep considering that 't is ordinary enough to those which travel provided they walk in a plain and even way as Galen records to have hapned to himself he having gone almost a league in that manner and not waking till he stumbled at the foot of a tree But he wonder'd indeed how they perform'd their actions better in the night then in the day and with more courage and wake not during those violent motions and stirrings The cause whereof is as I conceive that being awake they have a Reason which contradicts their Imagination and Appetite and which having an eye over all their actions the same are not so sure because they are less free in sleep at which time the faculties of the Understanding being as 't were consopited the others are carried towards their objects with more certainty then when they are controll'd and restrain'd by that superior faculty as we see servants are more brisk in their motions when they are out of their masters presence They act also with more boldness because having no knowledge of the present dangers they do not apprehend the same Which is observ'd in fools and children who do themselves less hurt in dangers because they apprehend them less Lastly the cause why they wake not during those great motions although they swim over rivers proceeds from the great quantity of those thick and glutinous vapours which stop the pores serving to the commerce of the spirits during the long time that they are dissipating according as 't is observ'd in drunkards or those that have taken somniferous medicaments who by reason of the excessive vapours of the wine or drugs awake not whatever be done to them Whence the melancholy temper is most prone to this affection because black choler which hath the consistence of pitch sends its gross vapours up to the brain and they are the most difficult to be resolv'd The Fourth said If men left themselves to be conducted by their natural inclination without making so many reviews and reflections upon what they do their actions would be much better and surer For as where two Masters are neither is obey'd so both the superior and inferior appetite striving to command in man neither the one nor the other is perfectly master Besides 't is an establish'd order of nature that things which have most proprieties and faculties have less certainty those which have most certainty have fewest proprieties Thus the Swallow makes its nest with more certainty then the Architect doth a house The Vine more assuredly makes the Grape then the Swallow its nest the stone more infallibly descends towards its centre then the Vine-makes the Grape because a stone hath only the first step of being the Vine besides hath a Vegetative being and the Swallow a Sensitive but Man who besides all these degrees hath Reason endeavours to make use of all these several Utensils and consequently makes use of none imperfection as he who is skill'd in sundry Crafts discharges not any so well as he who addicts himself but to one Now whilst a man is awake the variety of objects and of the powers which are mov'd in him hinder him from performing so perfect an action as when all the other faculties are bound up by sleep the sensitive alone remains mistress The Fifth said As there is but one straight line and infinite crooked so there is but one right manner of acting and infinite oblique The right line is that a man perform all his animal functions only awake the vital and natural as well asleep as awake Deviation from this rule happens a thousand several ways One is asleep when he should wake another is unquiet when he should sleep In a third inquietudes are only in the spirits the body remaining asleep In some both the spirits and the body are agitated only the judgement and reason are bound up Some Morbifick causes go so far as to inflame the spirits whence comes the Ephemera others more vehement alter and corrupt the humours whence the diversity of Fevers and amongst them Phrensies in which you see bodies scarce able to turn in the bed cast themselves out at a window run through the streets and hard to be restrain'd by the strongest So great a force hath the soul when she gets the head of Reason which serv'd as Bit and Cavesson to her Indeed if Naturalists say true that a spirit is able to move not only a Celestial Sphere but the whole world it self were it not restrain'd by a greater power 't is no wonder if the same spirit have a great power over a body which it informs when it hath shaken off the dominion of Reason as it happens in sleep-walkers The Sixth said 'T is probable that the more causes contribute to one and the same effect the more perfectly it is done Man being awake hath not only the action of all his parts but that of all his senses strengthned by the concourse of spirits renders his parts much more strong and vigorous then when his is asleep Reason assisted by daily experience avoucheth that he acts better waking then sleeping and yet we see the contrary in the persons under consideration Wherefore their agitation cannot be attributed to the soul alone which informs the body but to some spirit good or bad whether such as they call aerial Hob-goblins or others which insinuating into the body as into a ship whose Pilot is asleep governs and guides it at pleasure and as a thing abandon'd to the first occupant carries
in the acquisition This pleasure herein resembling all other sorts which consist only in action and not in acquiescence or satisfaction But may not it also be thus because our soul being a Number always desires and aimes to perfectionate it self And as no number can be assign'd so great but that some others may be added to it even to infinity so our soul is capable of receiving new light and new notions to infinity Or else as every thing tends to its natural place so our soul being of celestial original aspire to the infinite knowledge of God by that of finite things The Fourth said That the reason why both young and old desire to know is because of the extream pleasure which they take in knowing things But if some be not inclin'd thereunto 't is in regard of the difficulties which abate indeed but cannot wholly extinguish their natural ardour This pleasure is apparent in that we take delight to know not only true things but such as we are conscious to be notoriously false yea sometimes we are more delighted with the latter then the former provided they have some pretty conceits as with Stories Fables and Romances For there is nothing so small and inconsiderable in nature wherein the mind finds not incomparable divertisement and delight The Gods saith Aristotle are as well in the least insects as in the most bulky animals and to despise little things is in his judgement to do like children For on the contrary as in Art the less place a Picture takes up the more it is esteem'd and the Iliads of Homer were sometimes the more admir'd for that they were compriz'd in a Nut-shel so in Nature the less volumn things are in the more worthy they are of admiration Now if there be so much pleasure in seeing the figures and representations of natural things because we observe the work-man's industry in them there is much more contentment in clearly beholding those things themselves and remarking in their essence proprieties and vertues the power and wisdom of Nature far transcending that of Art But if the knowledge of natural things affords us such great delight that of supernatural ravishes us in a higher measure and 't is also much more difficult because they are remote from our senses which are the ordinary conveyances of knowledge Wherefore there being pleasure in knowing both great things and small natural and supernatural 't is no wonder if man who usually follows delectable Good takes delight in knowing The Fifth said The Philosopher in the beginning of his Metaphysicks proves this Proposition 1. By Induction from the senses which are respectively delighted in their operations whence we love the sense of Seeing above all the rest because it supplies us with more knowledge then any one of the rest 2. Because Man being mindful of the place of his original desires to raise himself above Plants and the other Animals By Sense he advances himself above Plants by Memory above certain Animals who have none by Experience above them all but by the use of Reason from which proceedeth Science Men excel one another For there are Animals which have some shadow of Prudence but not any hath Science And as Seneca saith men are all equal in their beginning and their end that is as to life and death not differing but in their interval whereof Science is the fairest Ornament The cause of this desire of knowing proceeds then from the natural inclination which every thing hath to follow its own good Now the good of Man as Man is to know For as a thing exists not but so far forth as it acts the Rational Soul the better part of us cannot be term'd such saving inasmuch as it knows yea Action being the measure not only of being but also of the perfection of being whence God who is most perfect never ceases to act and the First Matter which is the most imperfect of all entities acts either little or nothing at all therefore the Reasonable Soul being the most noble and perfect of all formes desires to act and employ it self incessantly in its action which is the knowledge of things Indeed every thing strives after its own operation As soon as the Plant is issu'd out of the earth it thrusts forward till it be come to its just bigness The Eye cannot without pain be hindred from seeing Silence causes sadness And as we see the Boar and the Bull by an admirable instinct of Nature the one oppose its forehead the other its mouth against such as provoke them though the former as yet wanteth teeth and the latter horns so the reason and desire of knowing appears very early in children even before they are capable of much The Sixth said That the Intellect becometh each thing which it understands Hence Man the most inconstant of all creatures is carri'd so ardently to the knowledge of all things which finding not worthy of him he relinquishes till he be arriv'd at the knowledge of his Creator to whom conforming himself he desires to know nothing more but acquiesces contemplating in him as in a mirror all other things of the World The Seventh said All things were made for the use and behoof of man and therefore he has reason to desire to know every thing to the end he may make use of it The Eighth said We have the seeds and treasures of Knowledge hidden in our selves which longing to be exerted and reduc'd from power into act incessantly sollicite us to put them forth Hence comes the desire of knowing or rather awakning these species which are perfected in us by use and in time wholly display'd In which respect Teachers are with good reason compar'd to Mid-wives who do not produce the Infant in the Mother's womb but lend a helping hand to its coming forth For Teachers do not infuse knowledge into the children whom they instruct but only assist them to produce it out of folds and recesses of the mind in which otherwise it would remain unprofitable and like matter without form as the Steel doth not give fire to the Flint but elicits the same of it So those natural lights and notices being at first invelop'd with clouds when their veil is taken away and they are loosned as the Platonists speak from the contagion of the senses they extreamly delight those who bore them inclosed in their breast and needed help to exclude them II. Whether exchange be more convenient then buying and selling Upon the second Point it was said As Unity is the beginning of Numbers in Arithmetick and of causes in nature so community of goods was no doubt at first amongst men But because 't is the occasion of negligence and cannot continue long in regard some are better husbands more easie to be contented and need less then others hence arose the words of Mine and Thine which are more efficacious then Ours and Yours since even Monasticks take it for a mortification and children cry when any thing proper
spares nothing to attain the same To this end he employs not only the four Elements but makes a distinct art of the ways of Prediction by each of them He makes use of all mixt bodies too and searches even the bowels of living creatures yea the very Sepulchres of the dead in quest of Presages of the future And although speaking absolutely such inventions are more capable to attract the admiration and consequently the money of credulous persons then to instruct them unless perhaps in prudence to take care of being so easily deceiv'd afterwards yet there seems to be a correspondence and connexion between present and future things as there is between the pass'd and the present for as he who perceives the corruption of unburied bodies after a Battle to have infected the air and begotten the Pestilence may certainly refer the cause of such Contagion to the War so he that shall behold a furious War in which great Battles are fought may conjecture an approaching Pestilence Possibly if we were as careful to contemplate the changes of all other bodies Minerals and Vegetables we should remark therein Presages as much more infallible then those of animals as their actions being more simple are likewise more certain as may be instanc'd in the Mulberry-tree which buds not till all the cold weather be pass'd but because the Local Motion which is proper to animals affects us more thence it becomes also more remarkable The Second said That man must not be forgotten in this Disquisition For not to speak of Prognostication in his diseases by means whereof the Physitian gets the esteem of a God we see old men and other persons so regular in the constitution of their bodies that they will tell you beforehand better then any Almanack by a Tooth-ach a Megrim or a Sciatica what weather is approaching whether rain frost or snow or fair This is commonly attributed to the rarefaction or condensation of the peccant humours in their bodies the same discharging themselves upon what part they find weakest as the weakest are commonly the most oppress'd and there making themselves felt by their acrimony but the parties are no longer sensible thereof then that intemperate weather continues a new disposition of the air causing a new motion and alteration in the humours When Cats comb themselves as we speak 't is a sign of rain because the moisture which is in the air before the rain insinuating it self into the fur of this animal moves her to smooth the same and cover her body wherewith that so she may the less feel the inconvenience of Winter as on the contrary she opens her fur in Summer that she may the better receive the refreshing of the moist season The crying of Cats Osprey's Raven's and other Birds upon the tops of houses in the night-time are observ'd by the vulgar to pre-signifie death to the sick and those creatures are thought to know the approach thereof by their cadaverous scent which appears not to us till after their death by reason of the dulness of our senses it being no less admirable that such carrion Birds smell better then we then 't is to see a dog distinguish by his smelling the traces of a Hare which are imperceptible to us But it may as well be that these Birds cry by chance upon the first house where they light and are heard onely by such as watch in attendance upon persons dangerously sick they being likewise Birds of but a weak sight and therefore flying abroad most commonly in the dark As for the fore-sight of fertility by the Honeton and of a calm by the Halcyon or Kings-fisher these ought to be referr'd to the same instinct of Nature which guideth the Spider to weave her nets and the Swallow to build her neast The Third said There is a close connexion between the superior and inferior bodies the chain whereof is to us imperceptible though their consecution be infallible This was signifi'd by Trismegistus when he pronounc'd that that which is below is like that which is on high and therefore 't is not to be wonder'd if one be the sign of the other The Fourth said Certain Animals are found under the domination of one and the same Starr of which subjection they have some character either external or internal And 't is credible that all bodies especially Plants have figures or characters of their virtues either within or without Thus they say those Plants which are prickly and whose leaves have the shape of a spears poynt or other offensive armes are vulnerary those which have the spots or speckles of a Serpent are noted to be good against poysons and all are serviceable for the conservation of such parts and cure of such diseases as they resemble in figure In like manner 't is probable that the Cock hath a certain internal character which particularly rank him under the dominion of the Sun and that this is the cause that he crows when his predominant planet possesses one of the three cardinal points of Heaven in which the same hath most power namely in the East when the light thereof is returning towards him in the South at which time he rejoyces to see it at the highest pitch of strength and at mid-night because he feels that it is then beginning again to approach to our Hemisphere But he crows not at sun-set being sad then for its departure and for that he is deprived of its light And for this reason in my opinion the Romans chiefly made use of young Chickens from which to collect their auguries because they conceiv'd that being Animals of the Sun and more susceptible of its impressions by reason of their tenderness they were more easily sensible and consequently afforded more remarkable tokens by their motions and particular constitution of the various dispositions of the Sun in reference to the several Aspects of good and bad Planets especially of Saturn their opposite Whence judging by the dulness and sadness of the Chickens that the Sun was afflicted by a bad Aspect of Mars or Saturn they drew a consequence that since this Luminary which besides its universal power was the Disposer of their fortune with Mars was found ill dispos'd when they were projecting any design therefore they could not have a good issue of it Thus people prognostice a great Famine or Mortality when great flocks of Jayes or Crows forsake the woods because these melancholy birds bearing the characters of Saturn the author of famine and mortality have a very early perception of the bad disposition of that Planet The Fifth said Thence also it is that if a flie be found in an Oak-apple 't is believ'd that the year insuing will be troubled with wars because that Insect being alwayes in motion and troublesome is attributed to Mars If a spider be found in the said Excrescence then a Pestilence is feared because this Insect hath the characters of malignant Saturn if a small worm be seen in it then this
by the Sun or regard several quarters of the world so the Comets have different shapes or figures which ought no more to astonish us then these of the Clouds which according to their conjunction together represent innumerable formes or at least then those of other fiery Meteors variously figur'd according to the casual occurrence of the matter which composes them Therefore Scaliger in his Exercitations holds that Comets are neither signes nor causes of the events which follow them and derides those who believe that they fore-shew the death of Great Persons or that destruction of Nations and Kingdomes alledging that many great Great Men have dy'd yea many Illustrious Families and States been destroy'd without the appearance of any Comet and on the contrary that many Comets have appear'd and no such accidents ensu'd The Fourth said That Comets are certain Stars whose motion is unknown to us and who being rais'd very high in their Apogaeum remain for a long time invisible This is of no unfrequent observation in Mars who as many Astrologers affirm is at some times lower then the Sun and at other times so high above the rest of the Planets superior to his sphere that his body remains hid when his opposition to the Sun ought to render it most conspicuous In like sort those Stars which God reserves as instruments of the greatest events which he hath fore-ordain'd to come to pass in the Universe remain a long time elevated in their Apogaeum till they come at length to descend towards the Earth from whence as soon as they begin to manifest themselves they attract great quantity of vapours which receiving the light variously according to the nature of the places whence they were rais'd represent to us sundry shapes of hairy and bearded Stars or in form of a Dart Sword Dish Tub Horns Lamps Torches Axes Rods and such others as it falls out And although those Stars incessantly act yet coming to be produc'd anew and being nearer the Earth their effects are augmented and become more sensible As the Fish ceases neither to be nor to move when it is in the bottome of the Sea yet it appears not to us to have either existence or motion unless when it comes near the surface of the Water The Fifth said that Comets must needs be some extraordinary things since they alwayes presignifie strange events especially in Religion Histories observe that of sixty six Comets which have appear'd since the Resurrection of our Saviour there is not one but hath been immediately follow'd by some disorder or division in the Church caus'd by Persecutions Schismes or Heresies That which Josephus relates to have appear'd over the Temple of Jerusalem and lasted a year contrary to the custom of others which exceed not sixty days was follow'd by the ruine of Judaism That of which Seneca speaks to have appear'd in Nero's time was the forerunner of the Heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion That of the year 1440 foreshew'd the Heresie of Nestorius That of the year 1200 the division caus'd by the Waldenses and Albingenses And lastly those which have been seen since the year 1330 have sufficiently manifested the truth of this effect by the multiplicity of Sects wherewith Christendom abounds at this day But especially the thirty Comets which have appear'd in France since the year 1556 four of which were in the same year namely in the year 1560 but too well witness the verity of their presignifications which as S. Augustine saith are ordinarily fulfill'd before the same are known by men The Sixth said That as in all things else so in Comets the magnitude demonstrates the vehemence and considerableness of the future event The colour signifies the nature of the Planet under whose dominion it is The splendor or brightness shews the quick and effectual activity thereof as its less lively colour testifies the contrary The Form is a Celestial character or hicroglyphick denoting an effect in the earth as if God spoke to us by signs or writ to us after the mode of China where the figures of things stand for letters not contenting himself to destinate to this purpose the combinations of the Planets with the other Stars which are the next causes of all natural effects here below The place of the Air or of Heaven namely the sign of the Zodiack wherein the Comet is serves to design the Country which is threatned by it and if it be in a falling House it signifies sudden death It s motion from West to East indicates some forreign enemy whose coming is to be fear'd If it move not at all 't is a sign that the enemy shall be of the same Land upon which the Meteor stops so likewise if it goes in twenty four hours from East to West because this motion is imputed to the first mover which hurries along withall the other Celestial Bodies Their effects also belong to the places towards which their hairs or tails incline Those which appear at day-break and continue long have their effects more sudden those of the evening and of less continuance later They are especially of great importance when they are found with any Eclipse and the Precept which Ptolomy and his Interpreters enjoyn principally to observe is that those are deceiv'd who believe that every Comet signifies the death of some great person but they only hold that as when the fiery Planets rise at day-break as so many attendants on the Sun he that is then born shall be a King so when a Comet is the fore-runner of the Sun at day-break it signifies the death of some great person The Seventh said That Comets do not so much foretel as cause Dearths and Famines Wars and Seditions burning Fevers and other diseases by the inflammation which they impress upon the Air and by it upon all other bodies and most easily upon our spirits For seeing twinkling and falling Stars are signs of great drought and impetuous winds when they shoot from several parts of Heaven how much more are those great fiery Meteors which we contemplate with such sollicitude and which act no less by conceit upon our souls then by their qualities upon our bodies Which being found to have place in those of delicate constitutions as great persons are occasion'd the opinion that those grand causes exercise their effects most powerfully upon people of high rank besides that the accidents which befall such persons are much more taken notice of then those of the vulgar But herein there is found less of demonstration then of conjecture II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Upon the second Point it was said That there is none but prizes an action of clemency and forgiveness more then an action of vengeance But all the difficulty is to distinguish what is done through fear from what proceeds from greatness of mind Thus when a Lyon vouchsafes not to rise for a Cat or little Dog that comes neer him but employs his strength only against some more stout creature
their internal is unknown to us Now divers Minerals have the same proportion that Trees have and the cause why Mines are larger is because they are not agitated by winds nor in danger of falling as Trees are to whose magnitude for that reason Nature hath been constrain'd to set bounds and although Minerals grow much more then they yet it do's not follow that they have not certain terms prefix'd to their quantity If they bear neither flowers nor fruits 't is so too with some Plants upon which the Sun shines not as the Capillary Herbs which grow in the bottom of Wells and some others also as Fern. And the case is the same with this common Mother the Earth as with Nurses for as when they become with child the infant whom they suckle dyes so where there are Mines under the Earth nothing grows upon the surface The decaying and old age of stones is also a sign of their being vital as appears by the Load-stone which loseth its strength in time and needs filings of Iron to preserve its life All which being joyn'd to what Scaliger relates that in Hungary there are threds of gold issuing out the earth after the manner of Plants perswades me that Minerals have a particular soul besides that universal spirit which informs the world and its parts but this soul is as much inferior to that of Plants as the vegetative is below the sensitive II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing perfectly Upon the second Point it was said Sciences are the goods of the mind and the riches of the soul. And as 't is not sufficient to happiness to have riches but the possesser must be able to preserve and enjoy them so 't is not enough to have a great stock of notions but they must be brought into the light and put in practice Now this is done better by him who understands but one single thing perfectly then by him who knows a little of all ordinarily with confusion which is the mother of ignorance This is what they call knowing a little of every thing and of all nothing For being our mind is terminated the object of its knowledge ought to be so too whence it is that we cannot think of two thing at the same time Thus of all the world mine eye and my mind can see but one thing at one time one single Tree in a Forest one Branch in a whole Tree yea perfectly but one single Leaf in a whole Branch the exception of the mind like that of the eye being made by a direct line which hath but one sole point of incidence And the least thing yea the least part is sufficient to afford employment to the humane soul. Hence the consideration of a Fly detain'd Lucian so long that of a Pismire exercis'd the wit of a Philosopher three and forty years That of the Ass sufficiently busi'd Apuleius Chrysippus the Physitian writ an entire volumn of the Colewort Marcion and Diocles of the Turnep and Rape Phanias of the Nettle King Juba of Euphorbium Democritus of the number of Four and Messala made a volumn upon each Letter Even the Flea hath afforded more matter to sundry good wits of this age then they found how to dispose of How then can man who is ignorant of the vilest things be sufficient to know all The Second said If the word knowledge be taken strictly for a true knowledge by the proper causes 't is better to know a little of every thing then one thing alone If for a superficial knowledge 't is better to know one thing solidly then all superficially that is a little well then all badly For 't is not barely by action that the Faculty is perfected but by the goodness of the action One shot directly in the mark is better then a hundred thousand beside it one single Science which produces truth is more valuable then all others which afford onely likelihoods and all conjectural knowledge is no more wherewith nevertheless almost all our Sciences overflow out of which were all that is superfluous extracted it would be hard to find in each of them enough to make a good Chapter as appears by the small number of Demonstrations which can be made in any Science yet those are the onely instruments of knowledge Hence it is that he who applyes himself to many Sciences never succeeds well in them but loses himself in their Labyrinth for the Understanding can do but one thing well no more then the Will can Friendship divided is less as a River which hath more then one Channel is less rapid and he that hunts two hares catches none Of this we have many instances in Nature which ennables the Organs to perform but one action the Eye to see and the Ear to hear and one tree brings forth but one kind of fruit In well govern'd Families each officer discharges but one employment In States well order'd no Artificer exercises above one Trade whereas in Villages one work-man undertakes five or six Mysteries and performes none well like the knife or sword of Delphos spoken of by Aristotle which serv'd to all uses but was good for none The Third said The Understanding being a most subtile fire a Spirit alwayes indefatigably moving and which hath receiv'd all things for its portion 't is too great injustice to retrench its inheritance to clip its wings and confine it to one object as they would do who would apply it but to one single thing not considering that the more fewel you supply to this fire the more it encreases is able to devour Moreover it hath a natural desire to know every thing to go about to confine it to one were to limit the conquests of Alexander to an acre of Land And as every Faculty knows its object in its whole latitude and according to all its species and differences the Eye perceives not onely green and blew but all visible colour'd and luminous things the Touch feels cold hot soft hard things and all the tactile qualities the Phancy is carry'd to every sensible good the Will loves all that is good and convenient In like manner the Understanding which is the principal Faculty of Man and though it be most simple yet comprehends all things as the Triangle the first and simplest of all figures containes them all in it self since they may be resolv'd into and proved by it ought not to be in worse condition then the others its inferiors but must be carry'd towards its object in the whole extent thereof that is know it If sundry things cannot be conceiv'd at a time that hinders not but they may successively Besides that the variety of objects recreates the Faculties as much as the repetition of one and the same thing tires enervates and dulls it The Fourth said All things desire good but not all goods So though Men be naturally desirous of knowing yet they have a particular inclination to know
equal The reason is because all the world is eager to get and therefore 't is a trouble to a Man to keep what he hath For the profit of one not arising without the dammage of another as there is no generation without corruption nothing accrues to one but what the other loses Wherefore the striving of every one to get shews the pains there is in gaining something from another and again being every one gapes after another's goods it is difficult to preserve the same as a beast after which all the world is in chase can hardly save it self Hence Diogenes said that Gold might well be pale since every one layes plots to entrap it The Second said That as for the guarding of a Place it is requisite that the same be fortifi'd on all sides whereas there needs but one breach or one gate open'd for the surprizing of it so it seems there is more pains requir'd to keep then to get Besides the ways of losing and spending are almost infinite and far easier then those of gaining or acquiring which are very few To get 't is sufficient to have strength common to Men and Beasts but to preserve there needs Prudence not onely peculiar to Man but with which very few are well provided This is prov'd also by Nature which acquires new formes by one single action but cannot preserve the same without many For Conservation is the duration of the existence of a thing and this duration a continual production of it and consequently more difficult then Acquisition which is dispatch'd by one simple generation The Third said States and Families are increas'd by acquiring and upheld by preserving what they acquir'd Both the one and the other are very difficult as Experience teaches us for we see but few Families and States advanc'd and on the contrary many others fall to decay Nevertheless it seemes more painful to get then to keep For if he who possesses much is troubled to preserve it he that hath nothing is much more troubled to get something it being far easier for him who hath a stock already not onely to preserve but increase it then for him who hath nothing at all to become Master of any thing as there is more of miracle in Creation then in Conservation of the Universe and as 't is harder to make leven out of nothing then to make new paste with the leven which one hath already Therefore the Latin verse tells Aemilian that if he is poor he will alwayes be so because no body gives any thing but to the rich as too many examples evidence The Fourth said As 't is the same virtue in the Load-stone which retains and which attracts the Iron and that which preserves is the same with that which produces so to keep and to get are but one and the same thing since he who by his good management preserves his goods continually makes them his own But as the harder a weight is to be lifted up 't is the harder to be held up so the more labour there is in acquiring the more there is also in preserving the thing acquir'd Hence those who have undergone hard toyle to get an estate are more busied in keeping it then they who receive one from another without pains And upon this account 't is that Aristotle saith Benefactors love those they do good to better then they are belov'd by them because 't is more pains to oblige then to be oblig'd and women love and preserve their children so tenderly and dearly because of the pain which they undergo in bringing them forth Yet because this Sex is designed to look after the goods of the family and men to procure them it may seem thereby that 't is harder to get then to keep otherwise the strongest should not have the more difficult task as equity and justice require The Fifth said The Question is resolv'd chiefly by considering the diversity of times inclinations capacities and things In Seditions or Wars 't is hard for a man to keep his own the stronger dispossessing the weaker and the Laws being little heard amidst the clashing of Arms. In Peace when justice secures every man's possession 't is easier to preserve In Youth acquisition is more facile yet keeping is not so easily practis'd then as in old age The Prodigal does violence to himself when he finds a necessity of saving and thinks nothing more difficult The Slothful man knows not how to get any thing The Covetous finds difficulty in both but the greatest in keeping and therefore apprehending no security amongst men after having experienc'd the trouble of securing his wealth by the honesty of others from the frauds of Debtors the subtlety of Lawyers the violence of Thieves he is oftentimes reduc'd to hide his Treasure under ground Persons of courage and great vivacity of spirit but defective in discretion are more in pain to keep then to get As it was said of Alexander Hanibal and many other great Captains that they knew better how to overcome then to make use of their Victory And indeed these two qualities seem inconsistent for Conquerors have almost always been so magnificent as that they have given away with one hand what they acquir'd with the other reserving nothing to themselves but hope and glory whereas preserving seems proper to the Magistrate and civil Judge Lastly some things are acquir'd with great facility but difficulty kept as Friendship which oftentime is gotten in an instant but more difficult yea almost impossible to continue The favours of Lovers are ordinarily of this rank being more easily gotten then kept On the contrary Knowledge is kept with more ease then it is gain'd because ignorance must first be remov'd out of the Understanding and this is a matter of difficulty whereas to preserve knowledge the species need only be stirr'd up again and the more they are excited they become the more strong and vigorous contrary to other things which perish in the use For the same actions which produc'd the habit preserve it but with much less difficulty then it was acquir'd The same may be said of Vertues for 't is harder for a bad man to become good then for one of this latter sort to continue in the exercises of vertue As for the goods of the Body Beauty Strength and Health as they are frail so they are easie to lose the Jaundise the small Pox the least disorder in our humours are sufficient to alter or destroy them utterly The goods of Fortune so call'd because they depend upon so incertain and mutable a cause that he that hath them can searce call himself master of them as riches and honours are hard to get and easie to lose inasmuch as a man must perform an infinite number of vertuous actions to obtain promotion but a single bad action is enough to ruine him It having pleas'd God in order to keep every one within their duty that in this world as well as in the other our felicity
Medals representing the upper part of a woman and the lower of a Mule commend this Sex whilst they think to blame it For there is nothing more healthy strong patient of hunger and the injuries of seasons or that carries more and is more serviceable then a Mule Nature shews that she is not satisfi'd with her other productions whilst she makes other animals propagate by generation but when she has made a Mule she stops there as having found what she sought Now if certain actions of women seem full of perverseness and capricio to some possibly others will account them to proceed from vivacity of spirit and greatness of courage And as the Poet in great commendation of his black Mistress chanted her cheeks of Jet and bosom of Ebeny so whatever some people's mistake may say to the contrary the most capricious woman is the most becoming Nor is this humour unprofitable to them for as people are not forward to provoke a Mule for fear of kicks so we are more shie of women then otherwise we should be for fear of capricioes well understanding the difference which the Proverb puts between the van of the one and the rear of the other Yet some hold that this capriciousness of women follows the Moon no less then their menstruosities do Others that the flower of beans contributes very much to it The Fifth said That if credit is to be given to experience Solomon who had experience of a thousand women compares an ill capricious woman to a Tygress and a Lyoness Such were Medea Xantippe and many others Moreover the Poets say that the Gods intending to punish Prometheus for having stoln the celestial fire gave him a wife And when Satan afflicted Job he depriv'd him of his flocks of his houses and of his children but had a care not to take his wife from him knowing that this was the onely way to make him desperate as it would have done without God's special grace The Rabbins say three sorts of persons were exempted from publick charges and could not be call'd into judgement to wit the Poor the Nephritick and he that had a bad wife because they had business enough at home without needing any abroad The Laws likewise exempted new marry'd men from going to the wars the first year of their marriage allowing them this time which is the roughest and most important to repress their quarrelsomeness and reduce their fierce Spouses to duty Which if the Husbands could not effect a little bill of Divorce appointed by God and the Laws for putting an end to the poor Man's miseries did the business Though the Chaldeans us'd not so much formality but onely extinguish'd the domestick fire which the Priest kindled at the marriage Yet the priviledge was not reciprocal neither Divine nor Humane Laws having ever allow'd women to relinquish their Husbands for then being as capricious and inconstant as they are they would have chang'd every day For the same reason the Laws have alwayes prohibited to women the administration of publick affairs And the Religion of the Mahumetan Arabians assignes them a Paradise apart because say they if the women should come into that of the men they would disturb all the Feast CONFERENCE XLVII I. Of the Virtue of Numbers II. Of the Visible Species I. Of the Virtue of Numbers THe Mind of Man resembles those who make the point of their tools so small that they spoil them with too much sharpning and in the contemplation of natural causes there is more then enough to satisfie his desire of knowledge were it not that he will attempt every thing Hence it is that the causes of different effects here below are sought in things the most remote and no otherwise appertaining to them then that as accidents and circumstances Of these accidents some have action as Quality others have none as Quantity under which are comprehended Number Figure Lines Surface and its other species which are consider'd either in some matter or else abstracted from it in the former of these wayes they have some virtue in regard of their matter but not in the latter An Army of fifty thousand Men is potent but the number of fifty thousand can do nothing yea is nothing if taken abstractedly Wherefore as reasonable as it is to seek the virtues of simple and compound bodies in their qualities and to say e. g. that Pepper bites and alters the Tongue because it is hot and dry so absurd it seemes to think that five or seven leaves of Sage apply'd to the Wrist have more virtue then six or eight The Second said Nothing includes more wonders in it self then Number and if our Reason cannot penetrate their cause they ought to be the more esteem'd for being unknown This is the universal opinion of all Antiquity both Jewish and Pagan which otherwise would not have made so much adoe with them Yea there 's divine authority for it contain'd in the eleventh Chapter of Wisedom God made all things in number weight and measure Experience justifies their Energy teaching us that certain numbers are to be observ'd in cases where we would have the like effects which possibly is the canse why the operations of one and the same remedy are found so frequently different We see Nature so religious in this observation in all her works that she never produces an Animal but the proportion of seeds is adjusted most exactly that in Plants their grains and all other parts have the same taste colour and virtue whence it is that simple medicaments are alwayes more certain then compound because Nature either produces them not at all or makes them with the same number weight and measure of matter and qualities 'T is through the virtue of number that such a Plant as Coloquintida is mortal when it grows alone and medicinal when many of them grow together The Third said The Pythagoreans and Platonists ascrib'd so great power to numbers that they thought all things were compos'd of them and more or less active according to their several proportion Of which they made four sorts First the Poetical or Musical the virtue whereof is such that it gave occasion to the Fable of Orpheus who is said to have drawn even beasts trees and rocks by the harmonious sound of his Harp 'T was by the cadence of the like numbers that David chas'd away Saul's evil spirit and Poetry which differs from Prose onely by its numbers hence derives the power it hath over mens souls The Second sort is the Natural and is found in the composition of all mixt bodies The Third is Rational peculiar to Man whose soul they term'd a moving number the connexion whereof with the body they said continu'd so long as the numbers which link'd them remain'd united together The Fourth Divine upon which and the Natural the Cabalists and Magicians have founded their profoundest secrets and Agrippa his Occult Philosophy But above all others they particularly esteem'd the odd number styling
not be made in the Eye but in the Air. CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have Life EVery thing in the world is effected by an order and disposition of causes and means subalternate one to another God makes himself known to Men by the marvellous effects of Nature The immaterial and incorruptible Heavens communicate their virtues and influences here below first through the Element of Fire which is most subtile and then through the Air which is most pure in the upper Region more gross in the middle and in the lower infected by the vapours and exhalations of the Water and Earth and all compounds in the production whereof Nature observes such order as that she begins alwayes with the more simple and never passes from one extremity to another without a medium Thus the Plant springeth out of the ground like an herb becomes a shrub and then a tree The Embryo lives onely a vegetable life at first then arrives to motion and lastly is indu'd with reason Even in civil life too speedy advancements are taken ill whereas he who grows great by degrees do's not so much offend the Minds of others and provokes less jealousie Hence also the deaths and especially the violent astonish us more then the births of Men because they come into the world and grow up by little and little but are cut off in a moment So likewise the burning of Cities and overthrow of States cause the more admiration because sudden vicissitudes seem less conformable to the order of Nature then their progressive erections That which is observ'd in the composition and generation of bodies holds also in their nutrition for both of them proceed from the same Faculty and are almost the same thing For to nourish is to be chang'd into the substance of that which is nourish'd Nature makes no change from one term to another by a violent motion and progress but by little and little of a matter capable of being converted into the substance of the living thing as onely that is which hath life it being as impossible to make a living thing of that which never was such and consequently whose matter hath no disposition to become such as 't is to make a thing be which cannot be The Second said setting aside Cardan's opinion who extends life even to Stones as there are three orders of living things so there are three that have need of nutrition Plants Animals and Men. Plants are nourish'd with the juice of the earth Animals for the most part with Plants and Men better with the Flesh of Animals then with any other thing by reason of the resemblance of their natures The first order is not here spoken of because Plants must needs be nourish'd with that which hath not had life unless we will say that the universal spirit informing the earth gives it vertue to produce and nourish them The two latter are only in question and I think it no more inconvenient that what hath not had life may serve for aliment and be converted into the substance of a living creature then that the earth and water simple elements in respect of a Plant are assimilated by it and made partakers of vegetable life For as fire makes green wood combustible by exsiccating its humidity so an Animal may render such matter fit for its nourishment which was not so before Not only the Oestrich is nourish'd with Iron which it digests Pigeons and Pullen with gravel the stones of which are found in their crops smooth and round but also men may be nourish'd with bread made of earth And the Spaniards are much addicted to the use of an earth call'd Soccolante which they mingle with water and sugar its terrene consistence refuting their opinion who hold it to be the juice of a Plant. Yea some in Sieges have supported their lives with inanimate things as with bread of Slate as 't is reported of that of Sancerre And moreover 't is manifest that some sick people are nourish'd with water alone for many days together The Third said Nutrition is made by the help of heat which alters and divides the aliments and reduces them to a most simple substance capable of being converted into every similary part the property of heat being to separate heterogeneous things and conjoyn those of the same nature Hence things least compounded are more easily assimilated And as among Medicaments so among aliments the more simple are the best and make fewest excrements The air doth not only refresh the natural heat but serves for food and aliment to the spirits our best and noblest parts with which air alone as the common opinion holds the Camelion is nourish'd as the Grashopper with dew which is nothing but concreted air and the Jews were fed fourty years with Manna which is a kind of dew for the Scripture saith it vanish'd with the heat of the Sun yea the Manna which is found at this day in Calabria other places is capable of nourishing an animal and yet it never had life but fall's from heaven upon the stones from which it is collected The same may be said of hony which is a kind of dew too falling upon the leaves flowers of Plants and serving for food to Bees who only gather it without other preparation And a sort of Flyes call'd Pyraustae live with nothing but fire as many Fishes do of plain water Moles and Worms of simple earth Antimony and divers other Minerals purg'd from their malignant qualities serve for aliment and they who are expert in Chymistry make a kind of bread of them The Magistery of Pearls and Coral many precious Stones and Gold it self by the consent of all antiquity wonderfully repair our radical moisture by their fix'd spirits whence they are call'd Cordials The Fourth said If man were homogeneous and all of a piece he would be not only immortal according to Hippocrates but need no food which is necessary only for reparation of what substance is consum'd now nothing would be destroy'd in man were it not for the heterogeneous pieces of which he is made up Wherefore since we are nourish'd with the same things whereof we are compos'd and we are not compos'd of one pure and simple element but of four it follows that whatever nourishes us must be mix'd of those four Elements and therefore the more compounded it is as animate things are the more proper it is to nourish Otherwise were the aliment pure it could not be assimilated And although it could be assimilated yet it could not nourish the whole body but only either the terrestrial parts if it were earth or the humours if it were water or the spirits if it were fire or air The Fifth said The life of man cost Nature dear if it must be maintain'd at the expence of so many other animals lives If you say that being
or through a colour'd glass or neer some other lively colour Are any colours fairer then those of the Rain-bow and yet they are no more real then those of the Clouds The whiteness which we behold in the milky way ariseth only from the light of many small Stars The necks of Pigeons seem of a thousand more colours then they have The Heavens the Air and the Water have none but what we phancy or what their depth and the weakness of our sight gives them The scales of Fish some small worms and certain kinds of rotten wood shining in the night seem to us to be colour'd And Pictures are apprehended well or ill drawn according to their situation The Second said The object of Vision is colour the Organ the Eye the medium is a Diaphanous body illuminated Provided these three be rightly dispos'd the Organ and the medium free from all colours and the object at a convenient distance all men will necessarily behold colours as they are and always alike which would not be so if they were imaginary or fortuitous Besides being the object of the sight the surest of all Senses they ought to have a real existence as all the objects of the other Senses have For the object of the outward sense must be real otherwise it cannot act upon the Organ and the Agent and the Patient ought to agree in the same genus The Third said Colours as all other second qualities have a real existence since they arise from the commixtion of moist and dry caus'd by heat and determin'd by cold The first thing that happens in this mixtion is that the humidity is thickned by the accession of some dry substance and of this co-agulation is made a green colour which therefore is the first of colours as may be observ'd in water the grosser parts of which become green moss and in Plants when they first spring out of the earth But if heat exceed in the mixtion then ariseth the Red Purple and other lively and bright colours which according as they degenerate attain at length to Black which is made by adustion But when mixtions take a contrary course by cold then arise all dead colours which terminate in black too by a contrary cause namely the total extinction of heat as 't is seen in old men and dead persons who are of a leaden and blackish colour As therefore green is the first so Black is the last of colours yea 't is properly no colour especially when the humidity is already all consum'd as in coals or is separated from the dry parts as in things become black by putrefaction as the gangrenous parts of an animal Neither is white a colour but a mean between colour and light The rest are true colours The Fourth said Colours cannot proceed from the temperament or mixture of the four first qualities because mixt bodies of different temperature have the same colour Sugar Arsenic and all Salts are white the Crow and Raven are black and on the contrary one and the same mixt body of the same temperature in all its parts is nevertheless of several colours which it changes without mutation of its temper Ebeny is black in its surface and grey within Marble Jasper and Porphyry delight the sight chiefly by the variety of their colours yellow Wax grows white and white becomes black in the Sun Nor can any one say that the part of a Tulip which differs in colour from all the rest is therefore distinct in quality Wherefore since colours proceed not from the first elementary qualities they are no more real then the intentional species of the sight yea they are the very same thing for the visible species are nothing else but qualities streaming from every terminated body which alter the medium filling the same with their images which they diffuse even into the Organ Now colours are the same being qualities which actually change and alter the Diaphanous and illuminated body The Fifth said This argues that we are ignorant of the reason of the mixtion of every body and why such a body hath such a colour but not that colours are not true and real Yet with this distinction that the colours alone which are seen with the conditions requisite to sensation are real that is to say exist really and not in the Imagination For if it were not so we should see them as well by night as by day and with our eyes shut as open as that foolish Antiphon did who thought he always saw his own image before him And a sensible faculty ought to have a real and sensible object since the object must be of the same nature with the faculty But there are colours which are not really in the surface of bodies though they appear so to us by reason of the divers reception of light or of some other extrinsecal colour of a transparent diaphanous body or some other external cause which hinders the eye from discerning the true colour of the mixt body which colour though appearing otherwise then it is yet really exists but is hidden under another apparent one which continues as long as its external causes And colour'd bodies are no less so by night then by day but because vision cannot be made unless the medium be illuminated 't is only through the want of light that we see them not in the night For although we perceive in the dark the eyes of Cats Toad-stools Worms certain horns and rotten wood yet 't is not their true colour but a certain splendor different from colour which proceedeth either from their igneous spirits or because they approach neer simplicity There is therefore reality in colour but it is consider'd two ways either as a quality resulting from the mixture of the four Elementary qualities in which sence 't is defin'd by Aristotle the extremity of a perspicuum terminated or as being simply visible and is defin'd by the same Philosopher a motive quality of a body actually diaphanous In the first signification the colours seen in the Rainbow or the yellow colour cast upon a white wall by the Sun-beams passing through a glass or other medium of the same colour are no more real and true colours of those subjects then the blackness upon Paper by reason of the ink hiding its natural whiteness But in the latter signification every colour whatsoever is real since the one is as well visible as the other The Sixth said Colour differs not from light saving that colour is the light of mixt and light is the colour of simple bodies which the more simple they are they are also more luminous But if they communicate not their light 't is for want of density which is the sole cause of all activity The parts of Heaven are equally luminous and yet only the more dense and thick as the Stars can diffuse their light to us If this light grows weak it degenerates into a white colour as we see in the Moon and Stars if it be
under water for some hours without a Tube XXXIX To make a Needle which shall always turn towards the North though it were never touch'd with a Loadstone XL. To make a Fire without combustible matter portable in any place whatsoever fit to boile withall and which will last many hundred years yea as long as the world XLI To make a Mineral Tree of a mixture of Metals which shall grow in form of a Tree in a vessel of Glasse well clos'd XLII To turn Iron into Steel and Copper to keep it from rusting and give it such a temper that a complete sute of Armes of three quarters less weight then ordinary shall resist Musket-shot XLIII To encrease a Man's Pulse so that he shall seem to have a Fever and to diminish it so that he shall seem a dying yet both without prejudice to his health XLIV Many Secrets were propos'd for the preservation of Health and Cure of Diseases the mentioning whereof I defer till experience shall be made of them Credulity being not less excuseable or more dangerous in any Art or Science then in Physick and therefore I am the more cautious and careful to publish none but certain things and such as deserve to be communicated As for the second Point which consists in the resolution of some difficulties observ'd in the course of these Conferences 't is true they were not sooner publish'd but some took exception that there was not a choice made of some few persons to speak any that seem'd of quality being admitted to declare their Sentiments because said they this diversity of minds which is one of the wonders of the Universe cannot but produce unpleasing discords and dissonances sometimes prejudicial to the publick or at least they advis'd to restrain their discourses to certain laws and modifications and limit to a set space of time which it should not be lawful for any to exceed and this in order to remedy the itch of speaking no less then of writing in many who are so fond of being heard On the contrary others lik'd nothing so much in this free commerce of wits as an unconfined liberty conceiving nothing more advantagious for the initiation of the young the divertisement of the old and the honest recreation of all nor which more testifies to Posterity the generous proceeding of those that govern diametrically opposite to the tyrannical slavery of some others then this publick liberty afforded to every Gentleman to produce and speak what he thinks in these Conferences regulated by the bounds prescrib'd by themselves and so strictly observ'd that the severest Censors of the host august Bodies and Sovereign Courts who are often present at them have hitherto found nothing to disapprove therein the persons nominated by the Assembly to preside in the same having comported themselves with such civility towards those to whom they signifi'd when it was time to cease speaking that they have had abundant cause to be satisfi'd and the Assembly taken more content in the diversity of the Speakers opinions then if they had been all of one mind as the identity of many sounds do's not make harmony Afterwards some propounded that only two persons might speak upon a Question one for the affirmative part and the other for the Negative and in that at most a third might conciliate their different judgements in things wherein a third opinion might have place to the end the hearers might have no more to do but to assent to that which should seem best But as this hath been practis'd sometimes and may be continu'd in matters convenient for it so it seems injust to others to stop the mouths of the rest of the company only for the hearing of two or three besides the tediousness of a long discourse whereas the multitude of concise verdicts resembles a Nose-gay diversifi'd with many Flowers of different colour and odour besides that there are many subjects concerning which so different judgements arise that the number thereof cannot be limited our Reason being so little captivated that it finds out new paths every day to arrive at Truth which it goes to seek beyond the Imaginary spaces Some to make these Conferences the more esteem'd would have them held but once a moneth others were so far from being weary of them that they desir'd them every day But to comply with both it was thought expedient to hold them once a week Some desir'd to handle but one Question others more Experience hath manifested that the former course would be tedious and the latter full of confusion could the brevity of the time admit it The Points pitch'd upon at the last Conference to be treated in the next were these CONFERENCE LI. I. At what time the Year ought to begin II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron I. At what time the year ought to begin SInce the Year begins by a Moneth the Moneth by a Day the Day by an Hour the Hour by a Minute the Question seems to demand at what moment the Year ought to begin A Year is a space of Time Time is the duration of motion the most perfect of motions is the local the most excellent of local motions is the circular and celestial which bath something of infinity Now to speak generally a Year is the revolution of some celestial Orb and takes its name from the spherical bodies which return to the same place from whence they departed So the year of Saturn is of 10955 days and twelve hours that of Jupiter of 4331 days eighteen hours that of Mars of 687 days that of the Sun of 365 days six hours wanting eleven minutes thâ—se of Venus and Mercury are almost like that of the Sun that of the Moon is of about twenty nine days But the longest year of all is that of the eighth Sphere call'd the perfect or Platonick year at the end of which all the Stars are to return to the same places and distances that they had at the Creation which shall be accomplish'd as the Platonists say in 490000 Solar years by vertue of the Septenary multiply'd seven times according to the number of the seven other inferior Orbs but more probably according to Alphonsus in 36000 years considering that the eighth Sphere moves but one degree in a hundred years and so in 36000 years pervades the 360 degrees of the Zodiack The Cynical year of the Egyptians and Babylonians was measur'd by the course of the celestial Dog or of Orion and consisted of 1460 years The Sabbatical year of the Jews was every seventh year the Jubilary every fiftieth in which they rested and the Trumpets sounded Which minds me of the Intermission which this company made at its fiftieth Conference after which the Trumpet animates us to a new Career Now although civil years may be measur'd by the motion of any Celestial Body whatsoever yet the Sun and the Moon the two grand Luminaries have been by general consent taken to describe the year one whereof is call'd Solar being
the subtilest sense to wit the Sight The Fifth said That the nobleness of the Touch appears principally in that 't is the most infallible of all the senses as the most honourable persons are accounted most worthy of credit Therefore our Lord being to convince S. Thomas at that time incredulous caus'd him to feel his side and manifest things are call'd palpable because the Touch is the last sense that is deceiv'd Whence they who dream do not frequently find their errour till putting forth their hands to the phantasin they begin to be convinc'd that it is nothing but air The Sixth said That as 't is a common vice to all the Senses to be deceiv'd so that of Touch is not more exempt from it then the rest and the less because it judges of the quality of its objects only by comparison according to the diversity of which one and the same thing diversly affects it and is sometimes apprehended one way sometimes another A man that comes out of a hot Bath shivers in the same air which he accounted warm before he enter'd into the water and when he that learns to dance puts off his leaden soles he thinks his feet lighter then he did before he put them on The Seventh said The Touch is an external sense terrestrial and gross it perceives hot and cold dry and moist heavy and light hard and soft smooth and rough or unequal acide viscous or slippery thick and thin tough and friable or brittle and other such tactile and earthy qualities For as there are five simple Bodies in Nature namely the Heaven and the Elements so each of the five external Senses corresponds to one of them the Sight to Heaven in regard of its transparence and lucidity the other four to the Elements of which the Earth symbolizeth with the Touch because every thing that is felt must have some solidity and consistence which proceeds from the Earth otherwise it could not make it self felt by it self but only by some predominant quality as we feel not the air when it touches us unless it be extreamly cold or hot The Organ of Feeling is inward skin which incompasses the whole body of a creature by reason of its so perfect and equal temperature that it is neither hot nor cold dry moist but equally partakes of all these qualities a requisite condition in the Organs of the senses which must be unprovided of all the qualities whereof they are to judge So the Crystalline humour is without colour the tongue without sapour the nostrils without scent the ears without any sound And the skin is neither hard like the bones nor soft like the flesh but of a temper between both being therefore call'd a Nervous flesh and a fleshy Nerve which skin never so little touch'd feels perfectly which would not come to pass if it were not the Organ of the Touch. 'T is therefore woven of infinite nerves terminated in it and bringing the animal spirits to it which are the efficient causes of the Touch as well as of all the other Senses For what the Philosopher saith That a sensible object apply'd upon the Organ is not perceiv'd must be understood only of the three Senses which are for the convenience of an animal to wit the Sight Hearing and Smelling not of the other two which are for its absolute necessity upon which consideration Nature hath appointed them to judge more neerly exercising these two Senses by a medium internal and inseparable from the Organ II. Of Fortune Upon the second Point it was said Fortune is a cause by accident in things which are done for some end by an Agent that makes use of Reason So 't is fortune when one walking for his health or divertisement finds a Purse but chance hazard or adventure is in things which act for some end without election as brutes mad people and children who are not fortunate or unfortunate unless in hope The difficulty of understanding the nature of Fortune ariseth from the infinite abundance of things which may be causes of things which befall men And as 't is proper to man to admire what he understands not upon the observation of the many strange and unforeseen accidents in the world some say that they come to pass by a fatal destiny necessarily guiding every cause to its effect others that they fall out by chance to which the ancient Philosophers ascrib'd so much that Empedocles accounted the situation of the Elements fortuitous Democritus and Leucippus thought the production of all things was effected by the casual concourse of their atomes flying in the vacuum insomuch that out of a blind superstition they erected Temples and Altars to Fortune For indeed there is nothing divine in Fortune since there is not any cause by it self but may be a cause by accident and consequently Fortune Nor is it the Divine Providence since that which is foreseen cannot be call'd fortuitous But we give the appellation of Fortune to any cause which missing of its proper effect produceth another which it intended not The Second said 'T was the ignorance of men that invented Fortune which hath no other existence but in their imagination For every thing that is hath a certain cause determined to its effect But Fortune and Chance are uncertain and indeterminate therefore not causes And although the proximate cause of every thing be unknown to us yet 't is not the less certain for all that in respect of God who ignores nothing Therefore if there be a fortune in respect of us 't is an effect of our ignorance The Third said We must establish in Nature either Destiny or Fortune The former seems to fasten man to Ixion's wheel which permits him not to do any thing of himself and takes from him the commendation of good and blame of evil rendring him by this means guiltless of whatever he do's and laying all upon universal causes whatever distinction may be made of God's will in general and particular it not being conceivable that two contrary wills can at the same time proceed from the same source The second is more correspondent with the daily events which produce effects whereof no necessary cause can be found Indeed if effects are to be divided according to their causes 't is certain that some are necessary and some contingent whereof the latter being fortuitous cannot be referr'd to any thing but to Fortune Yea of the things which come to pass in the world some always arrive in the same manner as day and night when the Sun rises and sets others fall out ordinarily but not always as that a child is born with five fingers on a hand there being some that have six and others on the contrary arrive very rarely as Monsters But if this variety of causes and effects hath place in natural things 't is found much oftner in humane actions whose constancy is unconstancy it self there being not any whose effect is certain For what man can promise himself
it It is wholly necessary to Merchants for their selling Upon which score possibly Mercury was made the Patron of Negotiators For perswasion which is the end of it needs not alwayes an Oration complete in all its members the greatest pitch of an Orator is to contract himself according to time place and persons A General of an Army animates his Souldiers more with three words as he is going to charge the Enemy then a Preacher doth his Auditors in a whole Lent Even Gestures are sometimes eloquent so the Curtesan Phryne carry'd her law-suit by discovering her fair bosome as also did a Captain by shewing his scars to their Judges who intended to condemn them Whereby it appears how great the power and extent of Eloquence is The Second said Since some were so hardy the last Conference as by speaking ill of Poets to disparage the language of the gods let us examine that of men that Pallas may not complain of the same treatment that was shew'd to the Muses For not to strike the same string twice the lasciviousnesse imputed to them seems more justly to belong to Orators and Poets since Meroury the god of thieves as well as of Eloquence and not Apollo was the messenger of the amours of the gods Now 't is hard for the Disciples not to retain some thing of their Master Moreover Socrates and Plato define Eloquence the art of deceiving or flattering and this latter banishes Orators out of the excellent Common-wealth which he took so much pains to contrive But other real States have done them more evil driving them effectively out of their territories rightly judging with Aeschylus that nothing is more pernicious and prejudicial then an affected language embellish'd with the graces of Eloquence which the more florid it is the more poyson it hides under its flowers which have nothing but appearance Therefore the Romans the wisest Politicians in the world drave them so often out of their Common-wealth as during the Consulship of Fannius Strabo and Valerius Messala when Cneus Domitius and Q. Licinius were Censors and under the Emperor Domitian And 't is one of the surest foundations of the Turkish Empire and by which they have found most advantage their forbidding the having by this means instead of an Army of talkers good for nothing but to multiply noises and divisions by disguising the Truth innumerable stout fellows of their hands who have learn'd no other lesson but Obedience By which from a small beginning they have subdu'd a great part of the world particularly Greece which alwayes made profession of this talkativenesse Yea in Athens it self the cradel of Eloquence the Orators were forbidden the Court the Palace and other publick Assemblies because they perverted Right and Timagoras was there condemn'd to death for having made Complements to Darius according to the mode of the Persians The ancient Republick of Crete and that of Lacedaemon the School of Virtue were not unmindfull to provide against these Sophisters the latter opposing their design by the brevity of its Laconick stile and having banish'd Ctesiphon for boasting that he could discourse a whole day upon what ever subject were propounded to him What then would it have done to Demosthenes who commonly brag'd that he could turn the balance of Justice on which side he pleas'd Is not Eloquence therefore more to be fear'd then the musick of the Syrens or the potions of the inchantresse Circe being able to involve innocence in punishment and procure rewards to crimes Moreover 't is a Womans Virtue to talk And therefore Caesar disdain'd this present which Nature had given him and few people value it but such as have nothing else to recommend them Volaterranus observ'd few persons both virtuous and eloquent nor do we find famous Orators in Macedon which gave birth to Alexander and so many other great Captains 'T was with this Eloquence that Demosthenes incens'd Philip against his own City of Athens that Cicero animated Marcus Antonius against that of Rome that of Cato was one of the causes that incited Caesar against the liberty of his Country and yet Cato hated this art of Oratory so much that he once caus'd audience to be deny'd to Carneades and his companions Critelaus and Diogenes Ambassadors from Athens to Rome upon no other reason but because they were too Eloquent And not to speak of the vanity of Orators a vice more incident to them then to Poets witnesse the boastings of Cicero their art is altogether unprofitable since it serves onely to paint and deck the truth which hath no need of ornaments and ought to be plain pure simple and without artifice In a word to represent truth adorn'd with flowers of Rhetorick is to lay Fucus upon a fair Complexion to paint Gilly-flowers and Anemonies and to perfume Roses and Violets But what may it not falsifie since it disguises it self covering its figures with the hard words of Metonymy Synecdoche and other barbarismes to make them admir'd by the ignorant The Third said That there being nothinb but is lyable to be abus'd both they speak true who commend Eloquence and they who decry it When this faculty of speaking well undertakes to make great things little and the contrary it frustrates their wish who would have things themselves speak Nor is there any lover of eloquent discourses but prefers before elegant speaking the plainesse of a good counsel when some serious matter is in debate either touching health businesse or the good of the Soul And therefore I conclude that Eloquence is indeed more graceful but simplicity and plainesse more excellent and desirable CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony I. Of the Hearing THe Hearing is the Sense of Disciplines the inlet of Faith which the Apostle saith comes by Hearing the judge of sounds and their differences the cognition whereof is the more difficult for that they are the least material qualities of all considering that they are neither the First as the Tangible nor the Second as Colours Odours and Sapours depending upon the various mixture of the first but of another kind of qualities which have scarce any thing of the grossnesse of matter The little corporeity they have not proceeding from that but from the Air which enters with it into the Eear Neverthelesse sound is not wholly spiritual for it presupposes in the bodies collided together hardnesse smoothnesse and such other second qualities without which the collision of two bodies is not audible But the chief cause of the difficult cognition of sounds is that they are produc'd of nothing namely of Local Motion which by the testimony of the Philosophers is a pure Nothing Motion being rather a way to being then a true being Not that Motion produces something that is real of it self since Nothing cannot produce any thing but onely by accident and by another So by friction attenuating the parts it generates heat and by the meeting of two bodies it makes sound which lasts as long
as its cause and ceases when this fails contrary to other qualities which have a fix'd and permanent existence in Nature For the tingling of a bell which continues some while after the stroke is not one single sound but many the parts of the bell being put into a trembling motion by the blow and communicating the same to the parts of the Air contain'd in the cavity of the bell which Air is so long clash'd together till all the insensible parts of the bell be return'd to their first rest and therefore the laying of the hand upon it hinders this motion and consequently stops the sound And 't is for this reason that it resounds more when it hangs freely then when it is held in the hand and some bells have been seen to fly in pieces upon the application of a piece of Iron to them whilst they were trembling The cause whereof is this if while all the parts of the bell tremble and equally move from their place one part be check'd it becomes immoveable and so not following the agitation of the rest is separated from them The Second said Though sound the object of the Hearing containing under it Voice and Speech is oftentimes accompany'd with three things the body striking the body struck and the Medium resounding yet these three do not alwayes meet in all sort of sounds as we see in that which is made by our bellows the noise of a Petar Salt Chestnuts and other aerious and flatuous bodies cast into the fire because these flatuosities being rarifi'd require an outlet and therefore impetuously break forth out of their restraint which eruption striking the neighbouring Air produces a sound The same is seen also in the Voice which is form'd by collision of the Air in the Lungs against the Larynx the palate and the teeth So that the proximate cause of sound is not the shock of two bodies but the breaking of the Air when its motion is hindred A piece of cloth makes a noise in the tearing but not in the cutting because of the sudden separation of the parts of the Air which on the other side for fear of Vacuum are impetuously carry'd towards the place of their separation and the wind whistles by reason of the violent motion which it causeth in the Air sometimes driving the same before it sometimes pressing and wracking it or because it meets some other wind or body that opposes its natural motion The Third said A perfect sound cannot be made without the encountring of two bodies and Air between them for want of which there would be local motion but no sound in a Vacuum and the motion of those great celestial orbes is not audible Now these bodies must be hard and solid either of their own Nature as Copper and Silver or by the union and construction of their parts which makes them act and resist as if they were solid such are the Air and Water agitated Moreover that this sound be perfect 't is requisite that the bodies be large and smooth for if they be rough and scabrous the Air which is compress'd finds means to expand it self in the interstices of the higher parts if they be acute and pointed they cut and divide but do not break it So a needle striking the point of another needle makes no noise because it onely cuts the Air but do's not compresse it If these solid bodies be hollow and dry the sound is made the better and yet more if they be aerious Hence among metals Brass Silver and Gold resound more then Lead and Iron which are of a terrene nature Among Trees the Sallow and the Fig-tree have a sound and the leaves of Laurel crackle in the fire by reason of their aerious parts Lastly the bodies must be friable that is to say divisible at the same time into very small particles as Air Glass and Ice or in case they break not at least they must tremble in all their parts as bells do Therefore Water not being friable by reason of its tenacious humidity which keeps the particles together cannot be the subject of sounds that of running Water being made by the occurse of the Air upon its surface not in the Water it self in which no sound can be made although it may be somewhat confus'dly transmitted as 't is to fishes whom the noise makes to abandon the shore The Fourth said Hearing was given to Man to satisfie his natural inclination to understand the thoughts of his species by the utterance of words which would be useless to conversation if they were not receiv'd by this faculty whose dignity appears chiefly in the structure of its Organ the Ear both external and internal which is destinated to the reception of sounds Therefore the Philosopher derides Alcmaeon for saying that Goats respire at the ears The external is Cartilaginous and tortuous unmoveable in man alone always open on each side the head to receive sounds from all parts which are carri'd upwards in an orbicular figure The internal situate in the os petrosum or bone of the Temples hath four passages viz. the auditory meatus clos'd with a membrane call'd the Drum behind which is a cord fastned to the stirrup the anvil and hammer small bones as dry and big in children as in old men 2. That which incloseth the natural and immoveable Air the principal Organ of hearing 3. The Labyrinth 4. The Cochle or Shell-work But the passage which goes from the Ear to the Palate and the orifice of the Wind-pipe is most remarkable by which the inspir'd air doth not only refresh the Lungs but also the natural implanted air in the ear Hence ariseth that sympathy of the Palate and the Ears and to hear well we sometimes hold our breath for fear of disordering the species of sounds and those that gape or yawn hear little or not at all because the vaporous spirit which causeth oscitation so puts up the drum of the ear that it cannot well receive sounds and for the same reason they that yawn dare not pick their ears at that time for fear of hurting the inflated Drum which if it come to be touch'd the yawning ceaseth those that scratch their ears put themselves into a hawking or coughing And lastly 't is for this reason that such as are born deaf are also dumb because of the straight connexion of the auditory Nerve being of the fifth conjugation with the seventh which is at the root of the Tongue The Fifth said Sounds are carri'd to the ear in the same manner as they are produc'd namely by a fraction of the air adjoyning which hath a sphere of activity and is like that which is caus'd in the water by casting a stone into it but without any intentional species Otherwise sounds would be heard at the same time and in the same manner by those that are neer and those that are far off in regard the intentional species being spiritual is carri'd in an instant being caus'd by
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
as it is very excellent so 't is exceeding rare and being not us'd amongst us cannot come into comparison with the rest Whereas Sculpture and Statuary consisting only in paring away the overplus of matter or if the matter be fusible in casting it into a mould made from the original as the moulds of Plaster are from the faces of persons newly deceas'd need less industry The Second said Although Painting be sensible and visible yet it belongs to very few persons to judge well of it witness Alexander who going to see Appelles and offering to talk concerning Painting he spoke so ill that the Apprentices of that Artist could not forbear laughing Indeed Painting is one of the noblest parts of the Mechanicks and ought as well to be rank'd amongst the Mathematicks as Astronomy For if the reason of the Celestial motions gave cause for accounting this Science amongst the Mathematicks more justly may the reason of the motions and proportions of mans body the object of Painting more admirable and of which more certain and real knowledge may be had then of those remote bodies deserves to be of that rank considering that it makes use of the same Mathematical Rules Proportions whose Rules are so infallible that seven excellent Statuaries very distant one from the other being employ'd to make a brazen Colossus perform'd their tasks by the precepts of their Art and the parts which each of them made severally being put together represented a well proportion'd man According to which proportion a mans body must be eight lengths of his head from the less corner of the eye to the tip of the Ear is to be twice the length of the Eye the Feet and Hands stretch'd forth equally distant from the Navil and such other remarks The Third said The reason of the measures and proportions observ'd in Painting consists principally in four points viz. in the form and figure of the thing represented which is taken from the visual rays in the shadow which is to be taken from the rays of light in colour which is to imitate the natural and in the handsome posture or situation of the thing painted For Painting is the imitation of the affections of bodies with reference to the light made upon a solid Plane Hence a face is otherwise represented under the water then bare distant then neer in the Sun-shine then in the shadow by Candle-light or Moon-light And though the Painter represents also the dispositions of the soul as anger or sadness yet he doth it always by the features and qualities of the body The Fourth said They who blame Painting and Statuary because they represent unfitting objects and gave occasion to the Idolatry of antiquity may as justly blame beauty because 't is sometimes the occasion of sinning Painting hath this preeminence above all Arts that it imitates God more perfectly then they for God was the first Painter when he made man the goodliest piece of the world after his own image and likeness and all the bless'd spirits are but contracted copies of so perfect an original 'T is that which frees the body from the tombe and like a second table after shipwrack preserves the memory of virtuous men renders present those who are absent and makes almost as strong impressions upon our Soul as the thing it self witnesse the friendships of the greatest personages of the world contracted by its means And as if the desire of pourtraying it self were natural to all things there is no body but incessantly produces its own image which flies and wanders in the Air till it meet with some solid and smooth body whereon to represent it self as we see in Looking-glasses and polish'd marble where the images are much more exact then those which Art draws with a pencil yea then their own originals of whose corporeal matter they are wholly divested And as the beginning of all Arts are rude this of Painting is attributed to the Daughter of Belus who observing her Fathers shadow upon a wall delineated it with a coal For Pourtraiture invented by Philocles the Aegyptian is ancienter then Painting invented either by Gyges the Lydian in Aegypt according to Pliny or by Pyrhus Cousin to Daedalus according to Aristotle The Fifth said That in Painting as in other disciplines Ignorance of the principles is the cause that so few succeed well in it These principles are the methodical proportion of Mans Body Perspective the reason of shadows Natural Colours Designing and History all which must be found in a good Piece and the defect of some of them as it frequently happens causes us to wonder though we know not the reason that there is commonly something in all draughts that does not satisfie our Minds For oftentimes when all the rest is good Perspective hath not been well observ'd or the Design is nought or the History ill follow'd But as things are the more to be esteem'd which are the most simple so there is more of wonder in Painting to the life with a coal as Appelles did before Ptolomy to denote a person to him whom he could not name then with colours the least part of Painting which consists properly onely in proportion and this being the most divine action of Understanding 't is no wonder if there be so few good Painters For they are mistaken who place the excellence of painting in the smallness of the strokes because they fancy that Appelles was discover'd to Protogenes by having made a smaller line then he For on the contrary the most excellent strokes of Masters are many times the grossest and that this proportion may be exact it must imitate not onely particular subjects but generally the species of every thing Which Michel Caravague neglecting to do about 90. years since and instead of following Durer's excellent Rules addicting himself to draw onely after the life hath lead the way to all his successors who care not for his Rules but give themselves onely to imitation and this is the cause of the defects of painting at this day CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. I. Of Light I Conceive with a learned Physitian of the most worthy Chancellor that France ever had in his Treatise of this subject that Light is of two sorts one radical and essential which is found perfectly in the Stars the fire and some other subjects but imperfectly in colour'd bodies because Colour is a species of Light The other secondary and derivative which is found in bodies illuminated by the Light Both are made in Transparent Bodies those of the Stars in the Heaven and that of flame and bodies ignited in the fire whiteness in the Air and blackness in the Water But these transparent bodies must be condens'd that those Lights and Colours may appear and therefore the principle of Light is in transparence alone whereof neither purity rarity tenuity nor equality of surfaces are the causes but they all proceed from the quantity of matter some bodies having more matter then others
and their duration is their age the second are successive whose duration is time For duration follows the existence of every thing as necessarily as existence follows essence Existence is the term of production Duration is the term of conservation So that to doubt whether there be such a real thing in Nature as Time is to doubt of the duration and existence of every thing although the Scripture should not assure us that God made the day and the night which are parts of time Moreover the contrary reasons prove nothing saving that time is not of the nature of continuous beings but of successive which consists in having no parts really present This Time is defin'd by the Philosopher The Number of Motion according to its prior and posterior parts that is to say by means of time we know how long the motion lasted when it begun and when it ended For being Number may serve for Measure and Measure for number therefore they are both taken for one and the same thing Indeed when a thing is mov'd 't is over some space whose first parts answer to the first parts of motion and the latter parts of the space to the latter parts of the motion and from this succession of the latter parts of the motion to the former ariseth a duration which is time long or short according to the slowness or quickness of this motion And because by means of this duration we number and measure that of motions and of all our actions therefore it is call'd Number or Measure although it be onely a Propriety of Time to serve for a Measure and no ways of its essence The Fourth said That to understand time 't is requisite to understand the motion and two moments one whereof was at the beginning of that motion and the other at the end and then to imagine the middle or distance between those two extreams which middle is Time Therefore man alone being able to make comparison of those two extreams only he of all animals understands and computes time Hence they who wake out of a deep and long sleep think it but a small while since they first lay down to rest because they took no notice of the intermediate motions and think the moment wherein they fell asleep and that wherein they wak'd is but one single moment The same also happens to those who are so intent upon any action or contemplation that they heed not the duration of motions Now not only the motions of the body but those of the mind are measured by time Therefore in the dark he that should perceive no outward motion not even in his own body might yet conceive time by the duration of his soul's actions his thoughts desires and other spiritual motion And as Time is the Measure of Motion so it is likewise of rest since the reason of contraries is the same And consequently motion and rest being the causes of all things time which is their duration is also their universal cause The Fifth said That 't is ordinary to men to attribute the effects whereof they know not the causes to other known causes though indeed they be nothing less so they attribute misfortunes losses death oblivion and such other things to Heaven to Time or to place although they cannot be the causes thereof Hence some certain days have been superstitiously accounted fortunate or unfortunate as by the Persians the third and sixth of August in regard of the losses which they had suffer'd upon those days the first of April by Darius and the Carthaginians because upon the same day he had lost a Battle to Alexander and these were driven out of Sicily by Timoleon who was always observ'd to have had some good fortune upon his birth day Moreover the Genethliacks affirm that the day of Nativity is always discriminated by some remarkable accident for which they alledge the example of Charles V. whose birth day the 24th of February was made remarkable to him by his election to the Empire and the taking of Francis I. before Pavia Such was also that day afterwards solemniz'd in which Philip of Macedon receiv'd his three good tidings But as there is no hour much less day but is signaliz'd by some strange accidents so there is not any but hath been both fortunate and unfortunate As was that of Alexander's birth who saw Diana's Temple at Ephesus burnt by Herostratus and the Persians put wholly to the rout Yet the same Alexander as likewise Attalus Pompey and many others dy'd upon the day of their Nativity so did Augustus upon that of his Inauguration Wherefore 't is no less ridiculous to refer all these accidents to Time then to attribute to it the mutation oblivion and death of all things whereof it is not the cause although for this purpose Saturn was painted with a sickle in his hand with which he hew'd every thing down and devour'd his own children For Time as well as Place being quantities which are no ways active they cannot be the causes of any things The Sixth said Time is diversly taken and distinguish'd according to the diversity of Professions Historians divide it into the four Monarchies of the Medes the Persians the Greeks and the Romans and the States and Empires which have succeeded them The Church into Working-days and Festivals the Lawyers into Terms and Vacations the Naturalists consider them simply as a property of natural body Astronomers as an effect of Heaven Physitians as one of the principal circumstances of Diseases which they divide into most acute acute and chronical or long which exceed 40 days and each of them into their beginning augmentation state and declination as distinguish'd by the common indicatory and critical days II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Upon the second Point it was said That Force being that which first caus'd obedience and admiration in the world the strongest having ever over-mastered others it cannot enter into comparison with a thing that passes for a Vice and even amongst Women as sleight and and subtlety doth and crafts in any action otherwise glorious greatly diminisheth its lustre So Hercules is more esteem'd for having slain the Nemaean Lion with his club then Lysimachus for having taken away the life of another by dextrously thrusting his hand wrap'd up in a piece of cloth into his open'd throat and so strangling him of which no other reason can be given but that the former kil'd him by his cunning and the other by plain strength Moreover General things are made of Particular duels and single fights are little pictures of battles Now every one knows what difference there is between him that overcomes his Enemy without any foul play and another that makes use of some invention or artisice to get advantage of him For though Duels are justly odious to all good men yet he that hath behav'd himself gallantly therein even when he is overcome gains more Honour then he that by some fraud
is so excellent that by its help Philosophers guided onely by the light of Nature have come to the knowledge of one Eternal God alone and of the dependance that all beings have upon one sole cause because every thing that is mov'd is mov'd by something else otherwise if it mov'd it self it should make it self perfect since every thing that moves gives perfection and that which is mov'd receives the same Now this cannot be because then one and the same thing should at the same time be both Agent and Patient have and not have perfection be and not be which is the greatest absurdity Wherefore what ever is mov'd 't is mov'd by some other thing and this by some other till you come to a First Mover who gives Motion to all things For otherwise there would be a progress into infinity which cannot be admitted into causes Likewise that all things depend upon a Supreme Cause is prov'd by Motion because every thing that is mov'd depends upon that which moves it Whereupon the Naturalists say that it is united thereunto by a Contact either of the Suppositum or of Virtue and therefore all things being mov'd by that First Cause depend wholly upon it and are united to it But as excellent things are most difficult and commonly the clearest are assaulted by the strongest objections so there have been some persons that have deny'd Motion as Parmenides and Zeno although it hath as true existence as Nature which is the principle of it because they could not answer the objections brought against it Others on the contrary as Heraclitus have conceiv'd that all things are in continual Motion although the same be never perceiv'd by our Senses But Aristotle according to his wont chusing the middle opinion hath affirm'd That there are some things which alwayes move others that alwayes rest and others that move and rest alternately That which alwayes rests is the First Mover That which alwayes moves is the Heavens whose never interrupted circular Motion comes very near infinity Things which move and rest at times are all other simple or compound bodies in which the Motion is either natural as in fire to mount upwards or in violent as in the same fire to descend downwards Both which kinds of Motion admit of rest too the natural when the body hath found its centre the violent at the point of reflection or when the virtue impress'd upon it by the Agent ceases The Second said The incessant mutation made in all things argues that there is no Rest since Rest is the abiding of things in one and the same state and nothing doth so Nor is there any Motion because if there were it should be made in an Instant But Nothing is chang'd in an Instant being all Mutation presupposes two termes one From which and another To which and there are no termes without a middle or medium nor can any thing pass from one terme to another through a medium but in time That Motion must be made in an Instant appears because there is nothing between the last point of that which is to be chang'd and the first of that which is chang'd For in Local Motion a stone begins to be mov'd at the same instant wherein it ceases to rest There is therefore no intermediate space between its motion and its rest And if two extremes which have no medium between them be together then things which are together are in one and the same moment This is yet further manifest in the other kinds of Motion For in Generation there is nothing between Not-Being and Being and in Corruption nothing between Being and Not-Being Otherwise there should be something that exists and exists not which is contrary to the first principle In Alteration as soon as the Air is illuminated the Darkness ceaseth and there is nothing between them In Accretion or Augmentation the Body is still in its first quantity till it receive a greater as likewise in Diminution 't is alwayes in the same magnitude till it be reduc'd to a less For we must beware of taking the dispositions or preparations to all these motions for the motions themselves The Third said 'T is easier to say what Motion is not then what it is since the Philosopher tells us that it hath more of Non-entity then of Entity Wherefore being things cannot be known but so far as they are true and they are not true but so far as they have Being 't is no wonder if Motion be one of the difficultest to be understood and 't is the more so because we must not confound with the other things that accompany it which are the Agent and Patient their action and passion it s two termes the extent of place time and the subject wherein it is caus'd Besides every thing that is known being so either by it self when it is real or by some other when it is not such Motion which partly is and partly is not can neither be known by it self nor by some thing else for it cannot be known by the Senses nor without their help by the Intellect there being in Motion a something before and something after and consequenly a correspondence which falls not within cognizance of the Senses Therefore to supply this defect the Philosophers have describ'd Motion of it self insensible by things that fall under sense saying that it is That which is included between the term From which and the term To which as the Physitians render the motions of life sensible by Dentition Puberty Stature different colours of the Hair in short by the vigor and inclination of actions and by such other sensible signes which notifie the diversity of Ages And the Astrologers those of the Sun and other Stars by the houses of the Zodiack their Oppositions and different Aspects as also by the dispositions of the Air which make the diversity of our seasons like those Travellers which distinguish the number of miles by Cities Villages Crosses and other visible signes Motion is therefore the passage from one term to the other And so not onely when my hand slides from one side of this paper to the other but also when of hot it becomes cold there is made a Motion II. Of Custome Upon the Second Point it was said That Right is divided into written and not written the former is the Laws the second is Custome which is of Right us'd of long time establish'd by little by the liking of every one and approv'd by the tacite consent of the whole people and therefore more grateful then Law which never equally pleases all and is oftimes form'd in an instant But Custome taking root by time is not establish'd except after long experiences 'T is of account among Physitians that Hippocrates commands that regard be had to it as well to the age the disease the country and the season yea he saith that all things accustomed although bad are yet less hurtful then those which are unusual although better in
decrepit Parents instead of believing themselves parricides call us cruel for letting ours continue so long in the miseries of age Infinite like instances have caus'd some to say that 't is another nature but I hold it stronger then nature since by it Mithridates render'd poyson innoxious to himself and some whole Nations of India live upon Toads Lizards and Spiders Yea it hath made death as lovely and desireable as life amongst great Nations whereas Philosophy with all its pompous discourses hath labour'd much to render the same indifferent to a few persons 'T is call'd by Pindar the Emperess of the world and caus'd Seneca to say that we govern not our selves by reason but by custom accounting that most honest which is most practis'd and error serves us for a law when it is become publick Lastly 't is stronger then the laws themselves since it gives them all the power and authority which they have The Fifth said That Vertue it self is nothing but a custom For we have it not by nature as Plato holds in his Menander because of those things which we have by nature the faculties are found in us before the actions So the power of seeing hearing and speaking is in man before these acts but we perform vertuous actions before we have the habit of vertue Moreover these vertues are for this reason call'd moral because they are implanted by custom and as an Architect learns his Art by frequent building so by constant performance of acts of justice or courage men become just or courageous Therefore the true way to become virtuous is to be accustom'd to vertue from one's infancy and hence Fathers are so careful to have their children well instructed and to give them good examples For being nothing but difficulty keeps men off from the practice of virtue if this difficulty were remov'd by custom which makes the hardest things easie vertue which seems so knotty would be delightful and pass into nature And 't is a token of perfect vertue when men take pleasure in exercising it CONFERENCE LXIV I. Of the Imagination II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear I. Of the Imagination BEcause the knowledge of the present suffic'd not for the preservation of animals but requir'd also that of the past and the future therefore Nature hath made provision for the same giving them not only five Outward Senses whereby they know their objects present for every sensation is a sort of knowledge but likewise a Common Sense to Distinguish those objects an Imagination to represent the same to it when they are absent and a Memory to preserve the Species Now as amongst the external Senses those are exercis'd most perfectly whose organs are best dispos'd so amongst the internal those are most vigorous which are found in a brain best temper'd for their action If its constitution be humid then the Common Sense acts most perfectly if dry the Memory is most tenacious if hot the Phancy or Imagination is strongest But if the temper of the same Brain be cold and dry then Prudence reigns in it as we see in old men and melancholy persons For 't is more reasonable to say that the Organ of these faculties is the whole Brain then any one part of it And what is brought for proof of the contrary that oftimes one of the faculties is hurt while the rest are entire some having a sound Memory when their Imagination is deprav'd argues not that they have different seats but as the natural faculty in the whole Liver sometimes attracts but cannot retain retains but cannot digest or separate excrements so the animal faculty equally dispers'd through the whole substance of the Brain sometimes judges well of the difference of objects acknowledges conveniences and disconveniences receives the true species but yet cannot retain them on the contrary the Memory will be sometimes entire although the Imagination be disorder'd because the constitution which is then found in the whole Brain is fit for the exercise of one of those functions not of the other Moreover it happens not unusually that those faculties are wounded although the Ventricles assign'd for their residence be not as in the head-ach or distemper of the Brain and in Phrensies caus'd only by inflammation of the Meninges without any laesion of the Ventricles The Second said That the Imagination is not distinct from the other faculties but our soul resembles the Sun which in the continuity of the same action hath different effects not acting in the diaphanous parts of Heaven refrigerating the middle region of the air heating the lower and again herein corrupting some bodies producing and giving life to others The conservation of the species and their reception not being two different actions but rather as the wax by one and the same action receives a figure and retains it so the Imagination which receives the species of objects must not be distinguish'd from it self when it preserves and retains them unless by reason or mental discrimination whereby we call Memory it self an action although it be but the continuation and preservation of the first The Third said The effects of the Imagination are so marvellous that most of those are ascrib'd to it whereof we can find no other reason As the likeness of Children to their Fathers although they be only putatives because the apprehension of disloyal Wives of being surpriz'd by their Husbands makes them conceive them always present the production of most Monsters the marks imprinted upon the Child in the Womb and the like But that it is the Mistress of Reason and the Will deserves most admiration For the Soul imagining no danger or proposing to it self a good greater then the mischief of the danger carries the body upon the ridges of houses upon ropes and breaches even upon the mouths of Canons makes some swim cross rivers asleep who destroy and drown themselves and are frighted where they have least cause namely when they awake or find themselves alone in the dark so soon as their Phancy proposes some terrible object to them how absurd soever it be Wherefore they who desire to encourage Souldiers heat their Brains with Wine which keeps their imagination from representing the danger to them or raise some extraordinary boldness in them by generous discourses whose new impressions drive their bodies upon dangers Hence the Turks disorder the imagination of their Souldiers by Opium the effect whereof in the quantity wherein they take it is contrary to that whereby it casts sick persons into a sleep in this climate Reason never acquiesces in the propositions which our Imagination hath not apprehended as true and therefore weak minds are less capable of relinquishing an error wherewith they have been imbu'd Offences are not such but so far as our phancy conceives them such For a great hurt which we have receiv'd if an excuse follow it offends us not whereas an indifferent word a coldness a gesture which we interpret for a scorn even a privation
of action as neglect of a salutation makes men go to the field Yea all the professions of the world borrow their praise or their blame from Phancy And who is there amongst us but would account it a grievance and make great complaints if that were impos'd upon him by command which his phancy makes him extreamly approve The studious person rises in the night to study the amorous spends it in giving serenades In brief the Proverb that saith None are happy or unhappy but they who think themselves so abundantly evidences the power of Imagination The Fourth said All Animals that have outward senses have also Imagination which is a faculty of the sensitive soul enabling them to discriminate things agreeable from the contrary Therefore those Philosophers who deny'd this power to Worms Flyes and other insects which they affirm'd to be carried towards their good by chance and not by any knowledge of it besides their derogating from divine providence were ignorant that the smallest animals cease not to have the same faculties as others at least confused as their Organs are which contain the more marvels in that they serve to more several uses Moreover Experience shews us that they well distinguish what is fit for them from what is not yea they have their passions too for choler leads the Bee to pursue the enemy that hath pillag'd its hive their providence or fore-cast since both that and the Pismire lay in their provisions and observe a kind of policy among them the former acknowledging a King which they could not do without the help of Imagination although the same be not so strong in them as in perfect animals among whom even such as have no eyes or want the use of them as the Mole are much inferior to others in Imagination which is chiefly employ'd about the Images whence it takes its name whereof the sight supplies a greater quantity then all the other Senses So that every animal being naturally lead to its own good needs an Imagination to conceive it such but all have not Memory which being given only to enable animals to find their abode again which they are oblig'd to quit for some time in quest of food those who change not their residence as Oysters or which carry it with them as Snails and Tortoises have no need of it The Fifth said That the Imagination is a cognition different from that of sense for it knows that which is not but the Sense doth not from Science and Intelligence because these are always true but that is sometimes true sometimes false Nevertheless 't is not opinion because opinion produces a belief in us which presupposes perswasion and this is an effect of Reason whereof brutes are not possest although all of them have more or less some Imagination It s object is of so great latitude that it goes beyond that of entity since that which is not as well as that which is the false as well as the true are under its jurisdiction for it composes divides and runs over all nature and what is out of nature herein almost like the Intellect which owes all its highest notions to it since it can know nothing without the phantasmes of the Imagination which on the contrary depends not any ways upon the Understanding in its operations The Sixth said The Imagination although very active and carri'd in a moment from the lowest stage of the world to its highest stories and to those spaces which it phansies above the heavens yet cannot comprehend where it self is lodg'd But the quality of the Brain most proper for it is heat For besides its great activity whereby it is necessarily alli'd to fire the phanciful persons are most subject to burning Fevers the cholerick excel in this faculty of which on the contrary the phlegmatick are worst provided Whence perhaps Poets who owe their best Verses to the Phancy heighten the heat of their Brain by drinking the best liquors Moreover 't is the strongest of all the Souls Faculties and involves every thing here below It disorders and quiets Nations making them undertake wars and desire peace it awakens and stills our passions and as if nature were not powerful enough to produce all things necessary to the perfection of the world it daily frames new ideas and makes other worlds to its curiosity 'T is this that blinded him of whom Pliny speaks who having dream'd in the night that he had lost his sight found himself blind when he wak'd 't is this that gave a voice to Croesus's son which nature had deny'd him which chang'd L. Cossutius from a woman into a man which made horns grow out of the forehead of Cippus after his dreaming of the Oxen whom he had seen fighting all the day before In brief 't is this that made Gallus Vibius become foolish by having mus'd too much upon the causes of folly But it acts not only within both upon the body and the soul it diffuses its power beyond its own mansion For to it is attributed that wonder of the Tortoises and Estriches which hatch their egges by the sight as also that of Hens which breed Chickens according to the colours laid neer their Nests and sometimes of the shape of a Kite if they have been frighted by that bird whilst they were hatching 'T is also to the power of Imagination that what my Lord Bacon affirms is to be referr'd namely That it is dangerous to be beheld by our enviers in extream joy as 't is reported that certain Scythian women murder'd only with a single aspect and possibly to this cause better then to any other the bleeding of a murder'd body in the murderer's presence may be imputed as also that the most vigorous have been found cold and impotent and other effects the cause whereof may be better referr'd to this Imagination and the connexion and coherence of this cause with those effects demonstrated II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear Upon the second Point it was said That fear being of two sorts one filial mix'd with respect proper to the ingenuous the other servile arising only from the consideration of punishment it appears hence that fear is more effectual then hope which is not often found but in good persons whereas fear is found both in the wicked and the good The Laws seem also to decide this question there being none that encourages vertue to hope for any thing but all infuse an abhorrence of crimes by the fear of punishments Moreover both the Indies would not suffice the least Commonwealth if profitable rewards were to be given to every good action perform'd in it and honorable recompences being valu'd only for their rarity would be no longer so if they came to be common Therefore there is but one Treasurer of the Exchequer in office but Judges Counsellors Archers and Serjeants innumerable Moreover there is always more to be fear'd then hop'd For he who hath an estate and honour may more easily lose
and these being dissipated by age the species put forth themselves by little and little as Characters engraven on wood or stone cover'd over with wax appear proportionably as it melts off And therefore he term'd all our knowledge a remembrance but although he err'd herein yet reason'd better then Aristotle who admitted the Metempsychosis but deny'd the Reminiscence both which are necessary consequents one of the other The Second said That the operations of the Intellect are so divine that not being able to believe the same could proceed from it self it refers them to superiors For it invents disposes meditates examines and considers the least differences it compounds and divides every thing apprehends simple termes conjoynes the subject and the attribute affirms denyes suspends its judgements and alone of all the Faculties reflects upon it self yea by an action wholly divine produces a word For as in speaking a word is produc'd by the mouth so in understanding is form'd the word of the Mind Yet with this difference that the former is a corporeal patible quality imprinted in the Air and not the latter for intellection is an immanent operation Hence some have thought that all these divine actions were perform'd by God himself whom they affirm'd to be that Agent Intellect which irradiating the phantasmes produces out of them the intelligible species which it presents to our Intellect Others ascrib'd them to an Assisting Intelligence Some to a particular genius But as I deny not that in supernatural cognitions God gives Faith Hope and Charity and other supernatural gifts in which case God may be said to be an Agent Intellect I conceive also that in natural and ordinary knowledge of which alone we speak now no concourse of God other then universal is to be imagin'd whereby he preserves natural causes in their being and do's not desert them in their actions ' This then the Understanding it self which performes what ever it thinks surpasses its strength which it knows not sufficiently and the Agent and Patient Intellect are but one being distinguish'd onely by reason As it formes that species 't is call'd Agent as it keeps and preserves them Patient For as the Light causes colours to be actually visible by illuminating them together with the Air with their medium so the Agent Intellect renders all things capable of being known by illustrating the phantasmes separating them from the grosness of the matter whereof they have some what when they are in the Imagination and forming intelligible species of them Otherwise if these phantasmes remain'd still in their materiality the Understanding being spiritual could know nothing since that which is sensible and material remaining such cannot act upon what is spiritual and immaterial Besides the species of the Phancy representing to us onely the accidents of things it was requisite that the Intellect by its active virtue subliming and elevating those species to a more noble degree of being should make them representative species of their own essence Which it doth by abstraction of the individual properties of their subject from which it formes universal conceptions which action is proper to the Intellect This supreme Faculty being so noble that it ennobles all beings rendring them like to it self The Third said That the Intellect is to the Soul such as the Soul is to the body which it perfectionates And as it knows all corporeal things by the senses so it knows incorporeal by it self This Faculty serves for a medium and link uniting all things to their first cause and 't is Homer's golden chain or Jacob's ladder which reaches from Earth to Heaven by which the Angels that is the species and most spiritual notions ascend to the heaven of man which is his brain to inform him and cause the spirits to descend from thence to reduce into practice the excellent inventions of the Understanding Now as Reason discriminates men from brutes so doth this Intellect men amongst themselves And if we believe Trismegistus in his Pimander God has given to all men ratiocination but not Understanding which he proposes for a reward to his favourites Aristotle saith 't is the knowledge of indemonstrable principles and immaterial forms Plato calls it Truth Philo the Jew the chief part and torch of the Soul the Master of the little world as God is of the great both the one and the other being diffus'd through the whole without being mix'd or comprehended in any part of it The fourth said That the humane is a substance wholly divine and immortal since it hath no principle of corruption in it self being most simple and having no contrary out of it self Eternal since 't is not in time but above time Infinite since its nature is no-wise limited and is every thing that it understands changing it self thereinto not by a substantial mutation but as the First Matter is united with the formes remaining alwayes the same Matter the wax remaining entire receives all sort of figures So the intellect is not really turn'd into the things which it understands but only receives their species wherewith it is united so closely that it is therefore said to be like to them As likewise though it be call'd Patient when it receives them 't is not to be inferr'd that it is material since these species are material and acting upon the Intellect alter it not but perfectionate it Moreover it hath this peculiarity that the more excellent these species are the more perfect it is render'd whence after the highest things it can as easily comprehend the less An assured token of its incorruptibility and difference from the senses which are destroy'd by the excellence of their objects But as the soul being freed from the body hath nothing to do with sensitive knowledg because then it ratiocinates no more but beholds effects in their proper causes commanding and obeying it self most perfectly exempted from the importunity of the sensitive appetite so while it is entangled in the body it receives some impressions resulting from the parts humours and spirits destinated to its service being in some sort render'd like to them So the soul of one born blind is ignorant of colours the cholerick are subject to frowardness and the melancholy timerous by reason of the blackness of that humour The Fifth said All actions of men depending on the temper those of the Understanding so long as it is entangled in the bonds of the body are not free from it For as that of Plants gives them the qualities proper to attract concoct and convert their aliments and generate their like and beasts having a temper sutable to their nature are lead as soon as they come into the world to what is convenient for them without instruction So men are lead of their own accord to divers things according as their souls meet dispositions proper to certain actions yea they are learned without ever having learn'd any thing as appears in many phrantick and distracted persons amongst whom some although ignorant
have been seen to make good Verses others to discourse learnedly of the sublimest matters some to speak languages and tell things to come Which may naturally proceed from the souls being capable of it self to know every thing the past by help of the memory the present by all the senses and the future by the Understanding and meeting with a brain whose temperature is by disease render'd proper for such actions the same being possible to befall it by such accidents as happens by age which changing the temper of the body is also the cause of the diversity of actions Therefore children cannot perform the functions of the reasonable soul because they are of a hot and moist temper unapt for the actions of the actions of the Understanding as on the contrary very fit for the actions of the vegetative and sensitive soul. So that if men were born cold and dry they would come into the world perfectly wise and judicious but because they acquire this temperature of brain only with time therefore they are not knowing but with time II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humor Upon the second Point it was said That it might be handled either physically or morally If it be demanded upon the former principles whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same temper 't is answer'd that as Nature hath distinguish'd the Sex so she hath assign'd to either its peculiar temperament if a woman which should be cold and moist be hot and dry she is unapt for generation as the husband also is when being ill qualifi'd with hot and dry he falls within the Law de Frigidis But if it be question'd morally whether conformity of manners be more requisite to Matrimony then their diversity and difference then since diversity of actions is necessary in a family the office of the husband being other then that of the wife it seems they ought to be as different in manners as they are in the temper which produces such manners and these the inclinations and actions The Second said Those Philosophers who held that the Male and Female were each but one part of man which name is common to both would have concluded for resemblance of humours and manners for they said that either sought his other half till they found it Which made the friendships so boasted of in pass'd ages and so rare in this and likewise marriages of which they that take more notice find that but few married couples have no resemblance even in their countenance Moreover marriages being made in heaven and the most considerable accidents of life the same influence which makes the marriage of the husband must also make that of the wife and if all actions here below borrow their force from the heavens as Astrologers hold the husband and wife having the same universal cause of so great and notable a change whereon depends almost all the welfare and misery of either cannot but resemble one another And therefore those who resemble one another most will agree best with their universal cause and consequently the Stars will find less resistance to produce their effects upon them and so they will live more sweetly then if by contrariety of manners they should do as the Traveller at sea who walks in the ship contrary to its course or who attempts to sail against wind and tyde or rather like those that draw several ways whereby the cord is sooner broken then any advancement made of the load so during this contrariety of manners nothing can go forward in the management of domestick affairs Hence the Proverb that we must eat many a bushel of Salt with a man before we chuse him for a friend is interpreted that by semblance of food a similitude of manners with him must be acquir'd which if requisite between two friends how much more between two married persons who ought not to have greater friends then they are one to the other being in society of all the goods and all the evils of this life Imagine one of a pleasant the other of a melancholy humour one loving company the other solitude the opposition of these contrary inclinations will render the presence of the one as insupportable to the other as Musick and Dancing are displeasing to a sad man or tedious complaints for one dead are to him that is dispos'd to mirth For by this disproportion the mind receives a check which is very disagreeable to it If one be young and the other old one handsome the other deformed one of an amorous complexion and the other not the mischiefs which follow thereupon are too common to be enumerated If one be nimble and the other slow the actions of the one will displease the other whereas that which pleases being or appearing good and nothing next our selves being so acceptable to us as what resembles us two persons who shall agree to do something or not to do it shall have peace and tranquillity of mind The Third said That in Oeconomy as well as Policy there ought to be a harmony which consists in diversity and not in unisonance or identity which is every where disagreeable and dull This made Aristotle desire that the man were at least ten years elder then the woman the disparity of age causing that of humours and this makes the difference which is found between individuals one of the greatest wonders of the world Therefore the husband and wife ought to be unlike in their manners and actions to the end either may keep their station the one above the other below one command the other obey Moreover the husband and wife that always agreed would have no matter to talk of Be the man a great talker and the woman too the house will be always full of noise on the contrary the silence of the one will give place to the other's talkativeness and excuse it If both be knowing or skilful they will not esteem one another but if one admire the other there will be greater love between them If both be prodigal they will quickly see the bottom of the bag whereas the thriftiness of the one will make amends for the expensiveness of the other If one be sad the other being pleasant will divert him if not they will both fall into the excess either of sadness or joy If one be prophane the party that is devout will convert him by good example In brief if one be severe 't is good that the other be gentle if one be passionate that the other be patient otherwise the house will be always in an uproar The Fourth said If Justinian or rather his Wife Theodora had not abolish'd the laudable custom of divorcing wives introduc'd by Spurius Carrilius to abate their pride and malice or at least if the wives of these times were of the humour of those Roman women who having displeas'd their husbands ask'd them pardon in the Temple of a Goddess call'd for that reason Viriplaca it would not
had good drinking in such repute that they establish'd Magistrates call'd Oenoptae to preside at feasts and give order that every one did reason to his companion The Fourth said According as heat or moisture predominate in Wine so they imprint their footsteps upon our bodies The signs of heat are nimbleness of action anger boldness talking ruddiness of the countenance a pimpled Nose Eyes twinkling and border'd about with scarlet Those of humidity are slothfulness numness and heaviness of the head tears without cause softness and humidation of the Nerves which makes the Drunkard reel and lispe which effects nevertheless are different according to the qualities of the Wine and the Drinker's Brain For if the streams of the Wine be hot and dry and they be carri'd into a hot and dry Brain or a small Head they cause watchings and render the man raging and furious If they be more humid as those of Wine temper'd with water which is held to intoxicate more then pure Wine because the water assisted by that vehicle stays longer in the Brain and the Brain be moist too they cause sleep and laughter when the sanguine humour meets a more temperate Wine For which variety of the effects of Wine the ancients represented Bacchus mounted upon a Tyger with a Lyon a Swine and an Ape by his side The Fifth said That to drink fasting or when one is hot furthers intoxication because the passages being open'd by heat more speedily attract the Wine and its vapours are more easily lift up to the brain as also when the stomack is empty and the fumes of the Wine are not allay'd by those of meat But as drunkenness may be procur'd by several means so there are others that preserve from it Some make Wine utterly abhorr'd as the water that distills from the Vine the Eggs of an Owle or Wine wherein Eels or green Froggs have been suffocated Others repress its violence as the Amethyst which derives its name from its effect a sheep's lungs roasted the powder of swallow's bills mingled with Myrrhe Saffron bitter Almonds Worm-wood Peach kernels the Wine of Myrtle Oyle Colworts and Cabbage which preservatives were more in use among the Ancients who needed them more then we their Wines being more vaporous and hurtful then ours Witness Homer who speaking of the Wine which Apollo's Priest gave Vlysses saith he could not drink of it without tempering it with twenty times as much water as the strongest of our Wines can bear The Sixth said That Drunkenness as vicious as it is wants not its benefits For besides that 't is the Anodyne wherewith all laborious people relieve their pains it dispels cares and loosens the Tongue Whence Wine is call'd Lyaeus Which made one of Philip's Souldiers say when he was accus'd of having spoken ill of his Prince That he should have spoken far worse of him if he had not wanted more Wine So that the Proverb may be more true that Liberty rather then Verity is in Wine And therefore some Lawyers advise rather to inebriate such as are accus'd of a crime then put them to the rack according to the example of Josephus who by this means discover'd a conspiracy lay'd against him by a Souldier whom he distrusted indeed but had not proof enough to convict him II. Of Dancing Upon the Second Point it was said That Harmony hath such power over the Soul that it forces it to imitation Whence those that hear an Air which they like cannot forbear to chant it softly and sometimes it makes such impression in their Minds that they cannot be rid of it when they would as they experiment who fall asleep upon some pleasing song for many times they awake repeating it And because its powers delight not to be idle therefore the Soul being mov'd stirs up the spirits they the humours and the parts constraining them to follow their bent and motion which is call'd Dancing This Dancing therefore is a part of Musick which leads our members according to the cadence of the notes of a voice or instrument It imitates the manners passions and actions of men and consequently is of different species But their principal division was anciently taken from their place and use For either it was private and serv'd at marriages or Theatral which again was of three sorts the the first grave and serious practis'd in Tragedies the other more free in Comedies and the third lascivious and dishonest fâ—â— Satyrs The other differences relate to the Countries where they were in request as the Ionick to their Authors as the Pyrrick invented by Pyrrhus the Son of Achilles or by Pyrrichius the Lacedaemonian to their subject to the instrument whose eadence they follow to what they imitate as that which was call'd the Crane lastly to the habits and other things which were worne in dancing The most ancient as the easiest of all was that which took its name from a net whereto it resembles which is our dance in round of which Thesius is made the Author as well as of that in which the dancers intermix and pass under one anothers arms imitating by these turnings and windings those of the Labyrinth But the Theatral which the Mimes and Pantomimes represented in the Orchesters were like those of our ballads and express'd all gestures so well that a King of Pontus lik'd nothing so much in Rome as one of these Mimes which he obtain'd of Nero to serve him for an interpreter to Ambassadors For gestures have this above voices that they are understood by all Nations because they are the lively and natural images of things and actions whereas the voice and writing are but signes by institution And hence Dancing is very dangerous when it imitates dishonest things for it makes the strongest impression upon the Mind The Second said That the God of Wine sirnamed by the Ancients Chorius which signifies Dancer argues the mutual relation of dancing and Wine It hath alwayes been in so great esteem amongst warlike people that the Lacedaemonians and Thebans went to charge their Enemies with the musick of Flutes and Hoboys and the former had a solemn day in which the old the young the middle-ag'd danc'd in three companies with this Ditty We have been we are and we shall be brave fellows The Athenians went so far as to honour Andronicus Caristius an excellent dancer with a statue and to choose Phrynicus their King for having gracefully danc'd the Pyrrhick measures which Scaliger boasts he had often danc'd before the Emperor Maximilian Moreover the Romans committed the charge thereof to their most sacred Pontifs whom they call'd Salij that is Leapers Lucian in the Treatise which he writ of it ascribes the original of dancing to Heaven since not onely all the celestial bodies but also the ocean the hearts of living creatures and other sublunary bodies imitate them following the course of the first mover And indeed as if dancing had something of divine it hath alwayes been employ'd in Sacrifices
of the radical moisture of plants and animals For they alone are capable of dying as they are of living what they attribute to Fire the Load-stone and some other inanimates being purely Metaphorical Violent death is produc'd either by internal causes as diseases or by external 'T is caus'd by destroying the harmony of the parts and humours which constituted life after which destruction the Soul not finding the organs longer meet for exercising its functions as Fire that wants unctuous and combustible humidity forsakes its matter to retire into its own sphere And though the corruption of one be the generation of another there being no matter but hath alwayes some form as Bees are generated out of dead Oxen yet there is this distinction that the progress of a form less noble to one that is more is call'd generation or life as when an Egg is made a chick but when this progress is made from a more noble form to a less as from a man to a carcase then 't is call'd Corruption and Death if the form preceding were vital Thus all are wayes of Death which lead to corruption The first of these wayes is life for nothing comes under its Laws but is subject to those of Death considering the wayes that we dye as we are borne and that our end depends on our original as there is no harmony but must end in discord the latter note not being capable to accord with the first rest which is the end or death of harmony whereunto our life is not onely compar'd but may be fitly defin'd by it that Galen enlightned by Reason alone conceiv'd the Soul to be nothing else The Third said That onely in the death of men there is a separation of the Soul from the Body seeing that after the death of animals and plants there still remain faculties in their bodies which cannot depend on the sole mistion of the Elements but must be referr'd to some internal principle which can be no other then their Soul Yet with this difference that as during life these faculties were as formes in their matter so after death they are as substances in their place though without any activity for want of necessary dispositions which return afterwards by generation or the action of the celestial bodies producing wormes and other animals which come of themselves and never but from a nature formerly animated not receiving by this new generation any substantial form but onely making the Soul appear which was kept as 't were buried before this resuscitation Thus the death of plants and beasts is the privation of their vegetative and sensitive actions the principle of those actions alwayes remaining But that of men besides this privation of their actions causes the dissolution of the Soul from the Body which is properly death The inevitable necessity whereof is by Avicenna deriv'd from four chief causes I. From the Air which alters and dryes us II. From our own heat which by accident destroyes it self III. The continual motion of our bodies furthers the dissipation of that heat IV. The various Inclination of the Elements some of which are carry'd upwards others downwards and so break the union which preserves our life Albert the Great assignes a fifth cause namely the contrariety of forms and qualities death happening when humidity hath given place to drynesse But because this excesse of drynesse might be corrected by its contrary therefore the Moderns lay the fault upon the radical moisture Which some of them say we receive from our Parents and is continually impair'd without being at all recruited from the birth But this is absurd for then the Son must have infinitely lesse then his Father because he receives but a very small portion which besides cannot be distributed through a great body nor afford supply to so many actions Others more probably affirm that the Humidum which is repair'd is not of the same purity with that which we derive from the principles of our birth by reason of reaction and its being continually alter'd by our heat But that which indubitates this reason is that the Elements do not maintain themselves but by reaction notwithstanding which they cease not to be alwayes in the same state Fire as hot Air as moist as ever it was Inasmuch as the substantial forms expell all Qualities which are not suitable to themselves and recover their natural ones without other assistance Moreover when old men beget children they communicate to them an excellent radical humidity otherwise there would be no generation and consequently they can do as well for themselves as for their posterity But if they give them such as is bad and corrupt it follows that their children who live after their death re-produce much better by their nutrition then that which they had receiv'd and consequently the radical humidity may not onely be repair'd but meliorated And there 's no reason why an exact course of dyet may not keep a man from dying as the Chymists promise I had therefore rather say that as the union of the Soul with the Body is unknown to humane wit so is their disunion which I ascribe rather to the pleasure of the supreme Ruler who causes us to abide sentinel as long as he thinks meet then to any natural thing which is the reason why those that deprive themselves of life are justly punish'd because they dispose of what is not their own although it seemes to the vulgar that they do wrong to none but themselves because 't is by their own will and act The Fourth said What is compos'd of contraries between which there is continual action necessarily receives sundry changes and alterations in its being which by degrees bring it to a total corruption This is conspicuously seen in the life of man the ages and all other mutations whereof are as so many steps towards death 'T is the most worthy employment of a man to consider that he dyes every day For as Seneca saith that which deceives us is that we consider death as afar off whereas a great part of it is already pass'd for it already possesses all the time that we have been which is the cause that instead of employing our time profitably we consume a great part of it in doing nothing a greater part in doing ill and all in doing other things then ought to be which proceeds from not thinking often enough upon death as which no Preacher is so powerful For the fear it imprints in the soul vertue it self cannot wholly eradicate the sole aspect of the shades of the dead or their voices imprinting paleness upon the countenance of the most resolute Therefore the Philosopher holds that the fear of death is not only competible with courage but that he who fears it not at all rather deserves the name of mad then valiant The Fifth said That they who have had recourse to death to deliver themselves from their miseries as Brutus Cato his daughter Portia and some others have
same with perfect freedom CONFERENCE LXVIII I. Of the Magnetical Cure of Diseases II. Of Anger I. Of the Magnetical cure of Diseases 'T Is requisite to agree upon the Facts before inquiry into Right Now many Authors report that wounds have been cur'd by the sole application of a certain Unguent which for this reason they call Armarium to the instrument or offensive weapon that made it And Goclenius a German Physitian affirms that he saw a Swedish Lady cure one of her servants so that had been hurt by a blow with a knife by his companion and that this cure is very common having been practis'd in presence of the Emperour Maximilian Yea that 't is ordinary for the Peasants of his Country to cure hurts in their feet by sticking the nails or thorns which made them in Lard or Bacon Many Farriers cure prick'd horses by digging up as much ground as their foot cover'd Behold the ordinary composition of the aforesaid Oyntment Take an ounce of the unctuous matter that sticks on the inside of the Scull of one hang'd and left in the air let it be gather'd when the Moon encreases and is in the Sign either of Pisces Taurus or Libra and as neer as may be to Venus of Mummie and man's blood yet warm of each as much of man's fat two ounces of Lin-seed-oyl Turpentine and Bole Armenick of each two drams mingle altogether in a Morter and keep the mixture in a long-neck'd glass well stop'd It must be made while the Sun is in the Sign Livra and the Weapon must be anointed with it beginning from that part which did the mischief from the point to the hilt if it be a thrust and from the edge if it be a cut or blow Every morning the Patient must wash his hurt with his own Urine or else with warm water wiping away the pus which would hinder unition The weapon must be swath'd as the wound uses to be and kept in a temperate place For otherwise they say the Patient will feel pain If you would hasten the cure the weapon must be dress'd often and if you doubt of the part which did the mischief it must be dip'd all over in unguent If the hurt be small 't will be enough to dress the weapon every other day washing the hurt every morning and evening But this is not to be practis'd in wounds of the Arteries Heart Liver and Brain because it would be to no purpose Now by the nature of the ingredients and their conformity with us their effect seems to be natural and grounded upon the sympathy that there is between the blood issu'd from the wound and remaining on the weapon and that which is left in the wounded body so that the one communicates to the other what good or evil it receives although it be separated from the whole As they affirm that those whose leg or arm is cut off endure great pains when those parts that were lop'd off corrupt in the earth Which happens not if they be carefully embalm'd So the Bee the Viper and the Scorpion heal the hurts made by themselves Of which no other reason is alledg'd but this correspondence and similitude of the parts to their whole the bond of which is very strong although to us invisible The Second said There 's no need of recurring to these superstitious remedies since Nature of her own accord heals wounds provided they be not in the noble parts and be kept clean from the impurities generated in them through their weakness which hinder unition which is an effect of the natural Balsam of the blood and therefore not to be attributed to those Chimerical inventions which have no affinity with the cure whereunto they are intitl'd For every natural agent is determin'd to a certain sphere of activity beyond which it cannot act so the fire burns what it touches heats what approaches it but acts not at any remote distance whatever Moreover time and place would in vain be accounted inseparable accidents from natural motions if this device held good considering that contact is requisite to every natural action which is either Mathematical when surfaces and extremities are together or Physical when the agents touch the Patients by some vertue that proceeds from them Neither of which can be unless the body which heals touches that which is heal'd For all Medicinal effects being to be referr'd to Elementary qualities there is none of them more active then heat which being circumscrib'd within its bounds even in the aliment of fire can be no less elsewhere The Third said That the doctrine of the common Philosophy which teacheth that natural agents always touch one the other is erroneous or else ill explain'd and dependent upon other false principles which attribute all actions to elementary qualities which are taken for univocal causes whereas themselves are but equivocal effects of other supream causes the first of which is Heaven For when God created the world immediately with his own hands he was pleas'd to commit the conduct of natural causes to the Heavens that he might not be oblig'd to make every day new miracles as were those of the Creation For this end he fill'd them with spirits sufficient to inform all sorts of matters whose mixture requir'd some new form and change This made the Philosopher say that the Sun and Man beget Man and Hermes in his Smaragdine Table that the things which are below are as those which are on high And the Astrologers hold that there is nothing here below but hath some proper and peculiar Star some of which appear but far more appear not in the Heavens in regard of their disproportion to our sight or their neer conjunction as in the milky way But if the respective correspondencies of all the Celestial Bodies be not so clearly evident in other sublunary bodies as that of the Pole-star is with the Load-stone of dew with the Sun of this and the Moon with the Heliotrope and Selenotrope yet are they no less true 'T is credible therefore that the Weapon-salve hath such sympathy with the Constellation which is to make the cure of the wound that by its magnetick vertue it attracts its influence from Heaven and reunites it as a Burning-glass doth the Sun-beams at as great distance by which means it is deriv'd to the instrument that made the wound communicating its healing vertue to the same as the Sun likewise communicates his heat to the earth which heats us afterwards and thus this instrument being indu'd with a sanative vertue communicates the same to the wound made by it the cure of which besides the form and connexion of the instrumental cause with the effect is further'd by Nature which always tends to preserve it self and the imagination of the wounded person which induces Hippocrates to require that the Patient have hope and confidence in his Physitian for this as its contrary ruines many by dejecting their strength doth miracles towards a recovery
or elsewhere Whereby it appears that there is no Rule but has its exception since Nature which gives the same to all things oftentimes dispenses with her self The Third said The Soul is the act of an Organnical Body endu'd with Life and the principle of vegetation sense and motion according to Aristotle an Intellective or continual motion according to Plato a Number moving it And consequently Life is nothing but motion and a thing may be said to be alive when it is able to move it self by any kind of motion whether of generation or corruption accretion or diminution local motion or alteration For the most evident sign of Life is self-motion Whence we call such Living Waters which flow and those dead which stand still although improperly because this motion is extrinsical to them namely from their source and the declivity of the earth The Pythagoreans therefore believ'd the Heaven animated because it is mov'd according to all the differences of place and that this Animal is nourish'd with the Air which it draws out of the spaces which we call Imaginary Now as powers are known so they are distinguish'd by their actions So that the perfecter the motion is which denotes Life the perfecter the Life is Therefore as Oysters and other imperfect Animals endu'd with sense enjoy a nobler life then plants which onely vegetate so they are inferior to other perfect Animals which besides sense have progressive motion and these again the slower and more impedite their motion is the more they yield in dignity to others as the Snail to the Dog and Hare In brief these are lesse noble then Man whose Soul is mov'd after a more admirable manner and who hath the faculty of Understanding the most perfect of all which being found in God in a far higher degree beause it constitutes his whole essence being and Understanding being in him one and the same thing he hath the most perfect life of all Which is the cause why our Lord saith that he is the Life Moreover as the First Matter which is the lowest of all things that are if it may be said to be hath need iof all so the sublimest of all things God hath need of nothing but includes in himself all perfections the chiefest of which is Life which all Creatures enjoy onely by participation from him The Fourth said Life is a continual action of Heat upon humidity the periods whereof are distinguish'd by the several effects of this heat to wit the alterations of temper and diversity of ages For 't is Physically as well as Morally true which Job saith that our life is a warfare upon the earth since a thing is not accounted living unless so far as it acts Death being the privation of actions and there is no action but between contrary qualities of which heat and moisture are the foundation of life as cold and siccity are the concomitants of death old age which leads us thither being also cold and dry Hence they are the longest liv'd who have most heat as Males then Females terrestrial animals then Fish those which have blood then those which have not As also those that abound with this humidity live long provided it have the qualities requisite namely be fat aerious and not aqueous or excrementitious because otherwise it easily cools and congeals and by that means incongruous to life The Fifth said That heat being the most noble and active of all qualities executes all the functions of life when it meets with organs and dispositions sutable thereunto This heat must be in act and not only in power such as that of Lime and Pepper is And though it be not so sensible in plants yet it ceases not to be actually in them so long as they are alive and to digest and assimilate the aliments which it draws for them out of the earth ready prepar'd whence they have no excrements as animals have With whom nevertheless they have so great resemblance that Plato in his Timaeus saith that Plants are tanquam animala and Pythagoras conceiv'd them to be inform'd with the souls of some men who having liv'd in the world without exercising other actions then those of the vegetative life addicting themselves to nothing but to feed and generate are condemn'd to pass into the bodies of Plants as the souls of those who have lead a brutish life are relegated into those of Swine Tygres Lyons and other brutes whose manners they had imitated Empedocles and Anaxagoras as Aristotle reports attributed to Plants a perception of pain and pleasure Moreover they have not only their maladies old age and death as animals have but some too have differences of sex and local motion as 't is observ'd of certain Palmes which bend towards one another and of divers other Plants which recoil from those that are contrary to them and grow best neer others The Sixth said Life is nothing but the union of the soul with the body which requires a fitting temperature and conformation from whence afterwards proceed all actions and motions both internal and external Wherefore life is not an action of an action which is absurd but hath its own actions Nor is it the action of the soul for then the body could not be said to live But 't is the act of the soul in the body which being finite and terminated as heat its principal instrument is this is the cause that all living bodies have the terms or bounds of their quantity both as to greatness and smallness but bodies inanimate have not so because they acquire their quantity only by the approximation and apposition of their matter and not by receiving the same inwardly and because they have no organs which require a certain conformation and magnitude which they never exceed II. Of Fasting Upon the second Point it was said That there are many sorts of corporal Fasts not to speak of the spiritual which is abstinence from sin There is one of necessity and the most intolerable of all which made the ancient Poets declaim against Poverty saying that it was to be cast into the sea against the rocks and which made so few Cynicks in respect of so many other Sects of Philosophers Against which evil there is no other remedy but to make that voluntary which cannot be avoided There are fasts of thrift for the Covetous and others of Policy observ'd in many States to good purpose lest the Country be desolated of Cattle and would be should men eat egges and flesh in the beginning of the Spring when Fowls hatch and Beasts engender at which time the flesh of animals is unwholsome because they begin then to enter into heat There is a fast of Health ordain'd by Physitians to such as are full-bodied and abound with ill humours this is the best lik'd of all nothing being undertaken so willingly as for health whereunto moderate fasting greatly conduces as well to preserve it according to the Proverb that Gormandise hath slain more
then the Sword as recover it according to the advice of the Arabians and other Physitians who all acknowledge intemperance for their best friend and are wont to prescribe Diet in the first place to which belong primarily Fasting then Medicaments and lastly Cauteries There is also a moral fast which is a vertue which in eating observes a measure sutable to nature and right reason for the taming of the sensual appetite and encreasing the vigour of mind which is enervated by plenty of meats A vertue which S. Austin calls the keeper of the memory and Judgement Mistress of the Mind Nurse of Learning and Knowledge But the Fast of Religion is the most excellent of all because it refers immediately to God who by this means is satisfi'd for sins because it abates the lust of the flesh and raises the spirit to contemplation of sublime things purifying the soul and subduing the flesh to the spirit but particularly that of Lent whose sutableness is manifest in that this time is the tenth part of the year which we offer to God as from all antiquity the tenths of every thing were dedicated to him Moreover 't is observ'd that Moses and Elias who fasted forty days the longest fast mention'd in Scripture merited to be present at our Lord's Transfiguration The Second said Fasting is an abstinence from food as to quantity or quality As to the first some have abstain'd long from all kind of food as Histories assure us and Pliny tells of the Astomi a people of India neer the River Ganges who have no mouths but live only upon smells But 't is abstinence too when we eat little and soberly and only so much as is needful for support of life such as were the abstinences of the Persians and the Lacedemonians with whom it was a shameful thing to belch or blow the Nose these being signs of having taken more food then nature is able to digest The Gymnosophists Magi and Brachmans rigorously observ'd these fasts In quality we abstain from some certain meats Thus the Jews abstain'd from all animals except such as chew'd the Cud and were cloven hoof'd And amongst them the Nazarites were forbidden by God to drink Wine or any inebriating liquor as the Essceans a Sect of Monasticks besides Wine abstain'd from flesh and women Pythagoras abhorr'd Beans as much as he lov'd Figs either because the first were us'd in condemning criminals or because they excited lust by their flatuosity None of this Sect touch'd fish out of reverence to the silence of this animal and they made conscience of killing other creatures in regard of their resemblance with us which was also observ'd by the first men before the Flood for 2000 years together the Law of Nature which then bore sway making the same abhor'd But this fast is much harder in our diversity of fare then when only Acorns serv'd for food to our first Fathers when the Athenians liv'd of Figs alone the Argians and Tirynthians of pears the Medes of Almonds the Aethiopians of Shrimps and the fruits of Reeds the Persians of Cardamomes the Babylonians of Dates the Egyptians of Lote as the Icthyophagi of Fish of which dry'd and ground to powder many Barbarians make bread at this day and their meat of the fresh For in those days people liv'd not to eat as many do in these luxurious times but eat to live The Third said That fasting is as contrary to the health of the body as conducive to that of the mind The best temper which is hot and moist is an enemy to the souls operations which require a temper cold and dry which is acquir'd by fasting hence choler being hot and dry gives dexterity and vivacity blood hot and moist renders men foolish and stupid and the cold and dry melancholy humour is the cause of prudence But this is to be understood of fasting whereby less food is taken then nature is able to assimilate not of that which observes a mediocrity always commendable and good for health Moreover the right end of fasting is to afflict and macerate that body by abstaining from the aliments which it naturally desires But as in drinking and eating so in abstinence from either there is no certain rule but regard must be had to the nature of the aliments some of which are more nutritive then others to that of the body to the season custom exercises and other circumstances so they who eat plentifully of ill-nourishing meats or whose stomacks and livers are very large and hot or who are accustom'd to eat much will fast longer then those that eat little but of good juice or who have not much heat and use but little exercise Growing persons as children though plentiful feeders yet oftentimes will fast more then those that eat less In Winter and Spring when the bowels are hotter and sleep longer fasting is more insupportable because the natural heat being now stronger then in Summer and Autumn consumes more nourishment Wherefore only discretion can prescribe rules for fasting If it be for health so much must be given Nature as she requires and no more the first precept of Hippocrates for health being Never to satiate one's self with food If 't is intended to purge the soul then 't is requisite to deny something to nature the sucking which is felt in the stomack serving to admonish reason of the right use of abstinence For temperance must not be turn'd into murder and fasting only macerate not destroy the body The Fourth said That by fasting Socrates preserv'd himself from the Plague against which we are erroneously taught to make repletion an Antidote when 't is manifest man's fasting spittle is found to be an enemy to poysons to kill Vipers and mortifie Quick-silver Moreover we may impute the false consequence which is drawn from the true Aphorisme of Hippocrates That Eunuchs Women and Children never have the Gout and the production of so many modern diseases to gluttony and the frequency of meals our fore-fathers being so well satisfi'd with one that Plato wonder'd how the Sicilians could eat twice a day CONFERENCE LXX I. Of Climacterical Years II. Of Shame I. Of Climacterical Years MAn's life is a Comedy whereof the Theatre or Stage is the World Men the Actors and God the Moderator who ends the Play and draws the Curtain when it seems good to him When 't is play'd to the end it hath five Acts Infancy or Childhood Adolescence Virility or Manhood consisting of middle age and old age each of 14 years which multiply'd by 5 make 70 years the term assign'd to humane life by the Royal Prophet These acts are divided into two Scenes of as many septenaries in either of which considerable alterations both in body goods and mind also are observ'd to come to pass For seeing many persons incur great accidents at one certain number of years rather then another and if they scape death fall again into other dangers at certain times and so from one degree
of the Book of seven horns of the Lamb and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent throughout all the earth of the seven heads and seven questions of the Dragon of the seven heads of the Woman which are seven hills of seven Kings seven Angels seven Trumpets seven vials seven plagues The Scripture makes mention of seven resurrections to that of our Saviours The 1. of the Widows Son of Sarepta by Elias The 2. of the Shunamite's Son by Elisha The 3. of the Souldier who touch'd the bones of that Prophet The 4. of the Daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue The 5. of the Widows Son of Naim The 6. of Lazarus And the 7. of our Lord. The Rabbins say that God employ'd the power of this Number to make Samuel so great as he was his name answering in value of the Letters to the Hebrew word which signifies seven whence Hannah his Mother in her thanks to God saith That the barren had brought forth seven Solomon spent seven years in building Gods Temple Jacob serv'd seven years for Leah and as many for Rachel The wall of Jericho fell down at the sound of Joshuah's seven Trumpets after the Israelites had gone seven times about it on the seventh day Nabuchadononosor did penance for his pride seven years amongst the beasts Moreover there are seven Penitential Psalms The Nile and the Danow have seven mouths There are seven hills at Rome Prague and Constantinople Noah entred into the Ark with seven persons and seven pairs of all clean Animals After seven dayes the waters fell from Heaven during seven times seven dayes On the seventh moneth the Ark rested upon the Mountain of Ararat The Ecclesiastes limits mourning to seven dayes There were seven years of plenty and as many of famine in Aegypt There were seven Lamps in the Tabernacle typifying seven gifts of the Spirit The Jews ate unleavened bread seven dayes and as many celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles They let their land rest every seventh year and after seven times seven had their Jubilee The strength of Sampson lay in seven locks of his Hair There are seven Sacraments in the Church as in Heaven seven Planets seven Pleiades seven Stars in the two Bears The Periodical course of the Moon is made in four times seven days at each of which septenaries it changes its face In brief there were seven miracles of the World and seven Sages of Greece There are seven Electors seven liberal Arts seven pairs of Nerves seven Orifices serving for gates to the Senses Natural sleep is limited to seven hours and this Number is by some justly esteem'd the knot or principal band of all things and the symbol of Nature The Fifth said It was not without cause that Augustus was so extreamly fearful of the Climactericals that when he had pass'd his 63d year he writ in great joy to all his friends but he dy'd in the second Climacterick after his 77th year consisting of eleven septenaries which was also fatal to Tiberius Severus T. Livius Empedocles S. Augustin Bessarion as the sixty third was to Aristotle Cicero who also was banish'd in his Climacterick of 49 Demosthenes Trajan Adrian Constantine S. Bernard the blessed Virgin and many others And the next Climacterick of 70 to three of the Sages of Greece to Marius Vespasian Antoninus Golienus David who was also driven from his Kingdom by his Son at his sixty third year and committed his adultery and homicide at his forty nineth both climactericals And as much might be observ'd of the fates and actions of other men were regard had of them Our first Father dy'd at the age of 931 years which was climacterical to him because it contains in it self seven times 133. Lamech dy'd at 777 years climacterical likewise as Abraham dy'd at 175 which contains 25 times seven Jacob at 147 consisting of 21 times seven Judas at 119 made of 17 times seven the power of which Climactericals many make to extend to the duration of States which Plato conceiv'd not to be much above 70 weeks of years The Sixth said That regular changes proceeding necessarily from a regular cause and no motion being exactly regular in all nature but that of the Heavens supposing there be climacterical years and not so many deaths and remarkable accidents in all the other numbers of days moneths and years had they been all as carefully observ'd as some of them have been their power of alteration cannot but be ascrib'd to the celestial bodies That which befalls us every seventh year arises hence as every Planet rules its hour so it makes every day moneth and year septenary beginning by Saturn and ending at the Moon which governs the seventh and therein causes all mutations which acquire malignity by the approach of Saturn presiding again over the eighth which is the cause why births in the eighth moneth are seldom vital II. Of Shame Upon the second Point it was said That the Passions consider evil and good not only absolutely but also under certain differences Desire hath regard to absent good not in general but in particular sometimes under the respect of Riches and then 't is call'd Covetousness sometimes of Honour and then 't is call'd Ambition sometimes of Beauties and then 't is an amorous inclination So grief looks upon present evil if it be in another it causes compassion in us if in our selves and apprehended prejudicial to our honour it causes shame which is a grief for an evil which we judge brings ignominy to us a grief so much the greater in that no offence goes more to the quick then that which touches our reputation It occasion'd the death of a Sophist because he could not answer a question and of Homer because he could not resolve the riddle of the Fishers and of others also upon their having been non-plus'd in publick For as nothing is more honorable then vertue and knowledge so nothing is so ignominious as ignorance and vice nor consequently that makes us so much asham'd being reproaches of our falling short of our end which is to understand and to will and so of being less then men but as Plato said Monsters of nature But amongst all the vices Nature hath render'd none so shameful as that of lasciviousness whereof not only the act but also the gestures and signs cause shame Hence an immodest or ambiguous word and a fix'd look make women and children blush whom shame becomes very well being the guard of chastity and the colour of vertue as it ill becomes old men and persons confirm'd in vertue who ought not to commit any thing whereof they may be asham'd The Second said That shame is either before vice and the infamy which follows it or after both In the first sence shame is a fear of dishonour In the second 't is a grief for being fallen thereinto Neither of the two is ever wthout love of honesty but lies between the two extreams or sottish and rustick
that two Spheres may be so contiguous as the Celestial are that there can be no air between them yet they might nevertheless be mov'd and heated yea much more then if there were air interpos'd between them The Third said As a form cannot be receiv'd into any subject without previous dispositions so when they are present they suddenly snatch the form to themselves Those of fire are rarity lightness and dryness of which the more bodies partake the more they will be susceptible of the nature of fire Therefore what is capable of being heated by motion must be dry not moist whence fire is never produced by water any more then of air agitated by reason of their excessive humidity perfectly contrary to the dryness of fire But that which is extreamly dry is half fire needing no more but to become hot as happens necessarily when it is rarefi'd and attenuated by motion and consequently inflam'd every substance extreamly tenuious and dry being igneous since in the order of nature all matter necessarily receives the form whereof it hath all the dispositions For there being a separation and divulsion of parts made in every sort of motion as is seen in water when it falls from on high it follows that they are render'd more rare and capable of being converted into fire The Fourth said That motion rarity and heat ordinarily follow and are the causes one of another Thus the Heavens by their rapid motion excite heat in all sublunary bodies and this heat as 't is its property opening the parts rarefies the whole Water receiving the rayes of the Sun is mov'd and agitated by them this motion produces rarity this heat which makes the subtilest parts ascend upwards as on the contrary heat being the most active quality is the cause of motion this of rarity by collision attenuating the mov'd parts So that motion is not more the cause of heat then this is of motion The Fifth said That heat and fire which is only an excess of heat are produc'd four ways by propagation union putrefaction and motion In the first way one way generates another fire a thing common to it with all other bodies in nature which is so fruitful that even the least things produce their like In the second manner when the Sun-beams are reflected by bellow glasses they burn in the point of union provided the matter be not white because whitenesse takes away the reason upon which they burn which is their uniting whereas white disunites and disgregates the rayes To which manner that of antiperistasis is also to be referr'd when external cold causes such a union of the degrees of heat that it becomes inflam'd The third cause of heat is putrefaction proceeding from disunion of the Elements amongst which fire being the most active becomes becomes also more sensible to us The last is motion by which bodies rub'd or clash'd one against another take fire by reason of the Sulphur contain'd in them which alone is inflamable as we see Marble and Free-stone yield not fire as Flints do whose smell after the blew seems sulphureous For if only the air be fir'd whence comes it that in striking the steel the sparkles of fire fall downwards contrary to the nature of fire which ascends besides the air would be turn'd into flames not into sparkles and two stones rub'd one against the other would cause as much fire as steel and the flint or other stones out of whose substance these igneous particles are struck Whence according to their differences they make different sparkles If the stones be hard and struck strongly they render a sprightly fire if soft they either render none at all or such as is less vigorous Moreover the observations of fire issuing forth upon the rubbing of a Lyon's bones as also Laurel and Ivy and Crystal with Chalcedon and that which comes from stroking the back of a Cat in the dark and from the casting a drop of rectifi'd oyl of Vitriol into cold water evidence that this fire is produc'd out of the bosom of the matter which is more dispos'd thereunto then any other not from the encompassing air But that which serves most to shew that 't is from the matter this fire of motion comes is the duration of the Heavens which being in all probability solid would have been set on fire were it not that they are not of a combustible matter nor apt to conceive fire for how little soever that heat were there would be more neer the Sphere of the Moon then at the Centre of the Earth and nevertheless the air is frozen while heat causes corruptions and generations upon the earth and at the centre of it and this heat having been always encreasing as is that of the motion would be insupportable II. Of Chastity Upon the second Point it was said That Reason regulates the inclinations of the appetite by the vertues amongst which temperance serves to moderate that of eating by abstinence and of drinking by sobriety as also the concupiscence of the flesh by chastity which is more excellent then the two former in that its business lies with more powerful adversaries which assail it without as well as within by so many avenues as there are senses amongst which the hearing and sight receiving the poyson of glances and words cause chastity to stagger and languish but it receives the deadly blow when the touch surrenders it self to the inchantment of kisses and the other delights which follow them Moreover the necessity of natural actions being the standard of pleasure and generation which concerns the general being more necessary then nutrition which relates only to the particular it hath also more pleasure and consequently being more hard to withstand chastity which surmounts it not only deserves Palmes and Triumphs in the other world but also in this hath been rewarded by God with the gift of Prophecy in the Sibyls and is honour'd by all even the most wicked for its rarity which made the Poet say that there was none in his time chaste but she that had not been tempted Now Chastity is of three sorts Virgineal Conjugal and that of Widows to which the Fathers attribute what is said of the grains of Corn which brought forth one a hundred other thirty and other sixty For Virgineal Chastity in either sex consisting in integrity of body and purity of soul and in a firm purpose to abstain from all sort of carnal pleasures the better to attend divine service is more worthy then the other two and prefer'd before any other condition by S. Paul who counsels every one to desire to be like him in this point Hence the Church hath chosen it and is so immutably affected to it to the end souls freed from worldly care might be more at leisure for divine things from which Matrimony extreamly diverts The chastity of Widows hath for pattern the Turtle and the Raven who having lost their mates live nine ages of men without coupling with
same as in those who are blinded and hardned in vice sometimes it forces it to come over to its own side and back it exorbitance with Reasons In some others in whom Reason remains intire and there is a clear knowledge of the turpitude of an action yet the Will is so bound and charm'd by the vehemence of the Passions of the Concupiscible and Irascible Appetite that it follows their motions inspight of the remonstrances of Reason Such was Medaea who by reason saw the heinousness of her intended murther of her Children but rage and desire of revenge upon their Father Jason transported her So it was said of the Athenians that they knew indeed what was fit to be done but did it not The Fourth said They who hold that Virtues are not habits distinct from Sciences would not be of this opinion that we can know good and do evil for Divinity teaches us that there is no sin without ignorance and that as 't would not be in our power to sin if we had perfect knowledge of the turpitude of Vice so 't is impossible for a man to know the beauty of Virtue without loving her considering too that we have in us the seeds of Virtue to which we are naturally lead inasmuch as it conducts us to the supreme good seeds which would grow of themselves were it not for the depravation of our judgement which being imbu'd with the false maxims of the Imaginations which governs all our actions and judges not of the goodness of things but by sense and common opinion according to which glory follows vice and contempt poor Virtue this is the cause that these seeds of Virtue are stifl'd in the birth Whereunto greatly conduces the example of other vicious persons who are more numerous then the virtuous And as Vice is more sensible so it easily passes into habit this habit into custom which being another nature begets a kind of necessity to Vice which becoming familiar by degrees seems most agreeable in respect of the severe aspect of Virtue men having in this condition Appetites as irregular as those of Child-bearing women who prefer char-coal chalk and ashes before good Aliments The Fifth said That the contest between the Sensitive Appetite and Reason arises from the diversity of their objects unto which either of them endeavours to draw the Will Hence if it happen that Honesty the object of Reason be a sensible evil as to fast fight or indure any thing contrary to the sensitive Appetite whose object is delectable and sensual good there arises a combat between these two Faculties in which Reason is many times worsted for want of being well seconded But when the object of Reason and the Appetite is the same namely a sensible good there is no debate between them For Reason proposing it to the Will it spontaneously tends to it being also lead thereunto by the Sensitive Appetite Hence in Indignation Com-Passion and Emulation which are rational motions accompany'd with anger grief and self-love there is no fight between the Sensitive Appetite and Reason since in these virtuous motions Reason gives the bridle to those Passions which are the Emissaries of the Appetite As when the commands of a Master agree with the inclinations of the Servant he sets upon performing them cheerfully But being it very seldome happens that what is commanded by Reason agrees with the Passions of the Appetite but is commonly difficult and laborious 't is not to be wondr'd if this intestine war be frequent and the Appetite get the better of Reason Moreover what is in the Intellect being transmitted from the Senses equally revolted against this Faculty their Princess it still retains something of the grosness of Sensuality so that these notions of the Intellect oftimes taking part with the Senses and Sensitive Appetite Reason cares not to prevail over them it being also proper to inferiors to have some contrariety to the commands of their Superiors as is seen in the Celestial Spheres which have a motion opposite to that of the First Mover Besides that the Empire of Reason over the Appetite is not despotical or of a Master over a Servant but political such as that of a Magistrate over the Citizens and consequently half voluntary II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man Upon the Seond Poynt Plato's opinion was mention'd that the Gods having by Epimetheus produc'd all other Animals with some particular gift made man naked and weak destitute of all natural aids and subject to so many miseries that they pitied him and thereupon order'd Prometheus to give him Reason Speech and Hands the first to know and contemplate the marvells of the world the second to express his thoughts outwardly the last to put his words and thoughts in execution Reason not differing from Speech saving that it is internal whence 't is also call'd the word of the mind and the other external This external Speech is so excellent that though it consist but of wind which is Air striking against the Epiglottis modifi'd and articulated by the tongue lipps palate and teeth yet 't is the interpreter of the reasonable soul according to whose example 't is equally receiv'd into all the ears of the Auditors When this Speech is true 't is a sign of the mind's conception and as natural and peculiar to man as Reason it self one of whose goodliest priviledges it is Besides man being born to live in society needed not onely Reason to guide himself but also Speech to govern others which likewise hath more power over Souls inclining and turning them as it pleases The Second said Some Animals are perfectly mute as worms and Snails others render some sound as Flyes Grashoppers though 't is onely that of their wings and some have voice as all perfect animals amongst whom man hath the particular advantage of Speech For sound is a Collision of Air between two solid bodies Voice is a sound render'd by the mouth of an Animal to express its affections But Speech is a voice which signifies by institution and is call'd a verb if it signifie time otherwise a noun As it signifies by institution 't is distinguish'd from the voice which is a natural sign and hath some correspondence with the thing signifi'd So the hoarse voice of one angry perfectly represents the inundation and tempest of the Spirits in this Passion The lowness and mildness of a sad and afflicted mans voice represents the effect of sadness which is to compress the Heart and Arteries for these organs being coarcted the voice becomes more slender as appears in Women fat people children and eunuchs The Lover's interrupted speech betrayes the inequality of his mind But words are signes without any reference to the thing signifi'd depending onely on the Will of those who first gave names to things For if they were natural signes they would be understood by all the world and be every where the same But though 't is not natural but acquir'd by precepts
Jeremy Constantine saw S. Peter and S. Paul and according to the opinion of many Samuel appear'd to Saul and foretold him of things which were to befall him though others conceive 't was a corporeal apparition which also is much more certain because souls either appear with their true bodies although this is very rare too yea and unbecoming happy souls to rejoyn themselves to putrifi'd carcases or most commonly assume bodies of air The cause of which apparitions is ascrib'd to the union which is between the soul of the dead person and that of the surviving to whom it appears whether the same proceed from consanguinity or identity of manners great familiarity and friendship which seems to make but one soul of those of two friends so that the soul finding it self in pain either through present or future evils especially when it sees it self oblig'd to the performance of some vow neglected during life God for his own glory the ease of his creature and the conversion of sinners permits it to manifest it self by ways most convenient CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness THe vulgar Maxime is not always true That a disease throughly known is half cur'd For this disease though known to the most ignorant is of very difficult cure and therefore was call'd by antiquity the Herculean disease that is to say unconquerable the Sacred disease because of its dreadful symptoms and Lunatick because those who are born either in the Full or New Moon or during its Eclipse are troubled with this malady which hath great correspondence with the motions of the Planet 't was also call'd Morbus caducus or Falling Sickness by reason that it makes the person fall to the ground and Comitialis because it interrupted Assemblies lastly 't is call'd Epilepsie because it intercepts the functions of the mind and senses 'T is defin'd the cessation of the principal actions and of sense and voluntary motion with convulsion which is not continual but by internals The true and proximate cause of it is either a vapour or an humour pricking the membranes of the brain which endeavouring to discharge the same contracts it self attracts the nerves to it these the muscles and parts into which they are implanted causing hereby those convulsive and violent agitations of the Epilepticks Sneezing and the hickcock have some resemblance of it the latter being caus'd by a sharp vapour sent from the stomack or other place by sympathy to its upper orifice which it goadeth with its acrimony and thereby forces it to contract it self in order to expell the same the former call'd by Avicenna the lesser Epilepsie differing not from the greater saving in duration is also caus'd by some vapours pricking the former part of the brain which contracts it self to expell the same by the nostrils The Second said That the unexpectedness of this malady and the Patient 's quick recovery may justifie the vulgar for thinking that there is something divine in it Since nothing amazes us more then sudden uncomprehended alterations Therefore in Hippocrates days they us'd to make expiations and incantations for this disease which he derides saying that the bad Physitians promoted this false conceit that they might get the more honour for the cure or be more excusable for not effecting the same The Third said That the Epilepsie and Apoplexie differ onely in degree both having the same cause namely abundance of gross humours either phlegmatick or melancholy which if it wholly fills the brains ventricles and makes a total obstruction so that the Animal Spirits the instruments of voluntary motion and sense be obstructed it causes an apoplexie which is a total abolition of sense and motion in the whole body with laesion of the rational faculty The Heart continues its pulse for some time till the consumption of what Animal Spirits were in the Nerves serving to the Muscles for respiration But if the obstruction be not perfect and the crass humour over-loads the ventricles then they contract themselves and all the Nerves which depend upon them whence comes that universal contraction of the limbs as one cover'd in bed with too many clothes pulls up his legs bends and lifts up his knees to have more air and room under the load which presses him The Fourth said That as the brain is the moistest of all the parts so it abounds most in excrements the thinnest of which transpire by the sutures pores but the grosser meeting in great quantity in the brain melt its substance into water which coming to stop the Veins and Arteries hinder the commerce of the spirits whether this pituitous matter be deriv'd from the paternal or maternal geniture or whether the part of seed which makes the brain happen not to be well purg'd in the womb where the rudiments of this malady are first laid or whether the brain purge not it self afterwards sufficiently by its emunctories and the scabs usual to Children Hippocrates saith this malady cannot begin after twenty years of age when the constitution of body is become more hot and dry and many Children are cur'd of it onely by the desiccation caus'd by the alteration of age seasons and manner of dyet The Fifth said That a gross humour cannot be the cause of those quick and violent motions of the Epilepsie nor be collected and dissipated in so short a time as the duration of a Paroxisme Therefore the cause of it must be some biting and very subtile matter for no such gross obstructive matter is found in the brain of those that dye of this malady but onely some traces or signes of some malignant vapour or acrimonious humour as black spots a swarthy frothy liquor an Impostume in the brain some portion of the Meninx putrifi'd corrosion of the bone and such other things evidencing rather the pricking of the brain then stopping of its passages The Sixth said That were the Epilepsie produc'd by obstruction it would follow that as a total one in an Apoplexie abolishes all sense and motion so the incomplete one of the Epilepsie should onely diminish not deprave motion as it doth So that the Epilepsie should be a symptom like the Palsie or Lethargy from which nevertheless 't is wholly different Nor can it be simply the mordacity or malignity of an humour since malignant and pestilential Fevers hot and dry Aliments as spices mustard salt garlick onyons and the lke biting things cause not this Evil. The truth is there is a specifical occult quality of the humours particularly disposing to this disease the Chymists call it a Mercurial Vapour that is an acid penetrating and subtile spirit a Vitriolike Spirit a biting and corrosive salt which makes not men onely but Quailes Dogs Sheep and Goats subject to it And as some things beget this malady by an occult Epileptical quality as Smallage Parsly a goats liver roasted and stinking smells as horn pitch
and jet burnt whence the Ancients being about to buy a slave made him snuff up smoak of brimstone to try whether he were not subject to this disease so many Antepileptical remedies cure it but that which proceeds by sympathie from the stomack or other parts more easily then that which is idiopathical and radicated in the brain As the shavings of man's skull not buried drunk with water of Teile-tre and Paeony so contrary to this evil that it cures the same by being hung about the neck II. Whether there be any Art of Divination Upon the Second Point 't was said That Man who alone understands the nature and difference of Time is more solicitous about the future then about the present which is but a moment or the past which concerns him only historically Hence arises his ardent desire of presaging to satisfie which he makes use of every thing in the world Which is an infallible argument of the vanity of this Art of Divination because effects cannot be fore-told by all sorts of causes but onely by those wherewith they have connexion and wherein they are potentially contain'd as leaves and fruits are in the seeds and 't is receiv'd a Maxime that when an effect may be produc'd by sundry causes none of them is the true cause since we cannot from such an effect proceed to the knowledge of its cause Now Divination is not taken here as Hippocrates speaks of it in his Prognosticks when he saith that nothing is makes Physitians more resemble Gods then the foretelling of what will befall and hath already befallen their Patients For there he speaks of the predictions of Physick but here to divine is to affirm an event whereof we see not any cause or probable sign For if by seeing a Rain-bow I prognosticate rain or that a tree will bear fruit when it is well blossom'd or that a sick person that rests ill the night before the seventh day will have a Crisis this is not Divination But if not knowing a prisoner nor his affairs I fore-tell that he will be set at liberty or not that an unknown person will be married and how many Children he will have or such other things which have no necessary nor yet contingent causes known to me this is properly to Divine Whereby it appears that there is no Art of Divination Art being a body of precepts tending to some profitable end whereas were Divination certain it would cause nothing but either despair or negligence and precepts being of things hapning necessarily or most commonly that whose cause we know not cannot be known by precepts And therefore all your Soothsayers Augurs Sorcerers Fortune-tellers and the like are but so many Impostors The Second said That Divination which is a prediction of future things remote from our knowledge is of three sorts Either from God as Prophecy from Devils as Conjuring or from causes purely natural which is Prognostication or Conjecture Prophecy is a divine inspiration whereby one fore-sees and declares remote things infallibly 'T was exercis'd at first by the Priests of the Law with the Vrim and Thummim which were twelve precious stones in the high Priests Ephod and afterwards by the Prophets instructed in dreams or visions whence they were call'd seers Diabolical Divination depends upon some compact either tacite or express with the Devil who being able to declare such things as have appear'd by some outward act as the authors of robberies things lost or such futurities as depend on natural and necessary causes but not such as proceed from causes purely free or contingent the Soothsayers his servants can know no more concerning the same then their Master This Divination is of two sorts The first is call'd Daemonomancy when the Devils themselves give answers out of Caves or Images sometimes by beasts men or most frequently by women rendring oracles by their mouths stomacks or bellies but for the most part ambiguous and doubtful for fear of being mistaken The other is call'd Mangania or Goetia the most detestable species of which is Necromancy which draws answers from the mouths of the dead Others more remarkable are 1. Hydromancy or Divination by water into which they pour drops of oyle or cast three little stones observing the sections of the circles which they describe 2. Lecanomancy by a basin of water at the bottom of which the answers are heard after casting thereinto some plates of Gold and Silver and precious stones engraven with certain characters 3. Gastromancy by glass bottles full of water in which a big-belly'd woman or an innocent child beholds images 4. Catoptromancy by Looking-glasses 5. Crystallomancy by crystal cylinders 6. Dactylomancy by enchanted Rings like that of Gyges 7. Onychomancy by anointing the nail of a child with oyle or tallow and holding it towards the Sun they see in it what they demand 8. Aeromancy by conjurations of the Air. 9. Coscinomancy by a sieve and sizzars All which species of Divination presume either an express or tacite compact with the Devil But there were three without compact 1. Aruspices who drew conjectures from the entrails and motions of beasts sacrificed from the figures made by melted wax cast into water call'd Ceromantie or Daphnomancy from the crackling of burning Lawrel Omphalomancy when by the knots and adhering to the navil and secundines the Mid-wives fore-tell how many Children the new deliver'd woman shall have afterwards Amniomancy foretelling the Childs fortune from the red or livid colour of the coat Amnios Parthenomancy to discover Virginity by measuring the neck or drinking powder'd Agat which she that is no Virgin vomits up again 2. Augures or Auspices who divin'd from birds beasts prodigies and accidents as Pliny reports of the Servilii that they had a piece of brass money which they fed with Gold and Silver and it increas'd when any good was to befall their Family and diminish'd upon some approaching evil 3. Unlawful Lots are Cleromancy which comprehends Homer and Virgil's Lots Alectriomancy by a Cock eating corns of wheat lay'd upon the Letters of the Alphabet Oniomancy by names Arithmancy by numbers Lastly Natural Divination which is Conjecture either taken from the Stars as Judiciary Astrology the Air and its several dispositions the Sea and Trees as when a Plague is fore-told by the flourishing of Roses or Violets in Autumn Animals also supply some presages as Mice running away from an house presignifie its downfall or burning and Sparrows delinquishing a Country denote the Pestilence and infection of the Air. The Third said That the Soul being immortal is also capable of knowing things after the manner of eternity which being a total and simultaneous possession of endless life knows all things at once things future and past as present which knowledge is like that of a man who beholds a whole Army at the same time from the top of a Mountain and that of time in which things are seen successively is like that of him who through a hole sees every
no other discipline but Logick and Geometry in regard of the certainty of their principles which are so clear that they are alike known by all even the most ignorant who need only understand their terms to assent to their truth Such as these are every thing which is said of the Genus is also said of the Species and what is not said of the Genus is not said of the Species which they call Dictum de omni de nulle If to equal things you add equal things the remainder will be equal And if to unequal things you add unequal things the remainder will be unequal For whereas beasts have a natural faculty which is the common sense or estimative faculty whereby they judge of the convenience or inconvenience of objects the first time the same are presented to them Man beyond this natural power enabling him to judge of sensible objects hath a peculiar one which is the Intellectual by means whereof he is said to be every thing in power because it enables him to know every thing and to judge of the truth or falshood of universal things which are Principles And as the eye beholding white or black judges sufficiently what colour it is without seeking reasons thereof elsewhere then within it self so the Intellect discerns the truth of principles by it self without the help of any other faculty yea without the habit of any Science because these principles being before the Science whereof they are principles must be more clear and known then it whence Intelligence is defin'd the habit or knowledge of such first Principles Thus ask a Geometrician why the whole is greater then its part he can give you no other reason but that 't is a principle known of its own nature The Third said That Geometry being the knowledge of eternal truths by infallible principles is most certain And 't is an evidence of its certainty that it neither proposes nor demonstrates why a thing is such but only that it is such As 't is propos'd and demonstrated that in the same segment of a circle all the angles are equal but not why they are so because 't is a truth which comes to our knowledge by certain principles and propositions formerly demonstrated as certain as the principles themselves Hence this truth is demonstrated which nevertheless hath not any cause of its existence as frail and perishing things have no material being abstracted from all matter nor efficient for the agent is not any way consider'd therein nor formal an angle being of its own nature only the inclination of lines nor yet final this being not made to any intention In like manner 't is demonstrated that four numbers or four lines being proportional that is when there is such reason of the first to the second as of the third to the fourth the square of the two extreams is equal to the square of the two middlemost but not why 't is so this question occurring only in dubious things The Fourth said That knowledge being desir'd by all men who for this end are endu'd with an Intellect capable of all sorts of notions it must needs be found in some subjects otherwise nature should have given us a general desire of a thing which is not And since there are causes of every thing there must be a Science of those causes But the multitude of apparent causes is the reason that we are oftentimes ignorant of the right and take one for another the shadow for the body and apparence for truth Which argues not that there is no knowledge but rather few knowing persons For Socrates who said he knew nothing but that he knew nothing and the Pyrrhonians who doubted of every thing had even a knowledge of their ignorance Moreover the exact knowledge men have by the senses of particular things necessarily carries them to that of universals wherein Science consists As he that often experienc'd in divers persons that Sena purg'd their melancholy acquires of himself this general Notion that all Sena purges melancholy And on the contrary he who understands a general proportion in gross may of himself apply the same to all particulars so great a connexion there is between things universal and particular in which the fruit of Science consists The Fifth said Since all knowledge depends upon another prenotion which is what they call principles those which compose the Sciences must also distinguish the same Wherefore Sciences are to be term'd certain or uncertain according as the pre-existent notions whereupon they are founded are certain or not Now amongst those principles some are universal common to all Sciences as those of Metaphysicks in all things either the affirmative or the negative is true that which is not hath no propriety Besides which 't is necessary to have particular one 's proper to the Science which are true first immediate causes of the Conclusion preceding and more known then it The six conditions requisite to principles in order to a demonstration They must be true not false for that which is false exists not that which exists not cannot be a cause of that which exists nor consequently a false principle be the cause of a true demonstration First that is not proveable by others immediate so enjoyn'd with the attribute that there is nothing between them two to joyn them more neerly causes of the conclusion that is this principle must be the necessary cause of this truth and consequently precede and be more known then it As taking this for a principle that the interposition of an opake body between light and a body illuminated causes a shadow upon this body we conclude that as often as the earth is found interpos'd between the Sun which is the light and the Moon which is the body illuminated it will necessarily come to pass that there will be a shadow upon the body of the Moon which is its Eclipse The Sixth said 'T was the errour of Socrates that observing our Sciences depending on other preceding notions he apprehended that we learned nothing new but that Science was nothing but the remembrance of what the soul formerly knew before its being inclos'd in this body not considering that the knowledge of principles and notions is confus'd and not distinct and that the knowledge of them in gross is not sufficient to denominate a person knowing but that we must first draw universal conclusions from them then apply the same to particulars without which application those principles would be unprofitable and not produce any Science Thus the Divine applies this general principle that that which is contrary to the Law of God is evil to particular conclusions as to murder theft and perjury The Physitian who holds for a Principle that Contraries are cur'd by their Contraries draws these other conclusions from it that a cold distemper is cur'd by hot medicaments a hot by refrigerating obstruction by openers which he applies again to particular subjects The States-man from this general Principle
That every thing that disturbs the publick quiet is to be repress'd concludes that the Seditious are to be punish'd So 't is not enough for a Mathematician to know that equal things added to equal things are likewise equal unless he apply this universal principle to particular lines surfaces and bodies Which is done either by the Synthetical or by the Analytical way which nevertheless must be follow'd by the Synthetical Now 't is in the application of these general rules to particulars that errour is committed even in the most certain Sciences The Seventh said That there are few Sciences because there are few Principles and Proposition's demonstrable as the contingent and the absolute are not Whence it is that the future is not demonstrable and hence follows the incertainty of Politicks Wherefore only necessary Propositions whereof the truth is permanent and eternal are demonstrable and all these are necessarily demonstrable because they have infallible principles yet only such of these whose principles are known by men are demonstrable by men So 't is certain that the Inundation of Nilus and the flux and reflux of the Sea are not demonstrable because men know not the principles are not known Whereby it appears how ridiculous they are who undertake to demonstrate every thing CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body THe extream variety of men's actions and manners cannot proceed from the diversity of their souls which are accounted all equal but from that of the bodies wherein according to the various tempers thereof the soul produces that variety of manners And as in natural and animal actions one and the same Soul digests in the stomack makes blood in the Liver and Veins sees by the Eyes and reasons in the Brain so likewise it is sometimes sad when the melancholy humour predominates in the body sometimes cheerful when blood abounds and sometimes also froward or angry when the choler is agitated The Second said That the soul being the form as the body is the matter it must be the cause of all humane actions not the body which receives them since the soul informs and perfectionates the body and begets in it the habit which produces the manners and actions As the horse governs not the rider but the contrary and 't is to the rider that the honour or blame of the course is to be imputed And were the soul but a quality as the most prophane have ventur'd to affirm yet the same priviledge must be reserv'd to it which is allow'd to the predominant quality in every compound which gives it not only the denomination but also the action as in compound medicaments the most active simple carries the credit from the rest Besides if the body and the humours thereof were the author and cause of manners an ignorant person could never become learned and a single Lecture of Xenocrates had never made a Drunkard cast off his chaplet of flowers and turn a Philosopher The examples of many grand personages sufficiently ill furnish'd with graces of the body evidence what certainty there is in arguing from the out-side of the corporeal structure to the furniture of the soul and that the signs of malice remark'd in some as in Zoilus from his having a red beard a black mouth and being lame and one-ey'd of Thersites and Irus from their having sharp heads rather shew the malice or ignorance of such as make these remarks then prove that these dispositions of body are the true cause of malice we see people of the same temper hair stature features and other circumstances very different in their manners and inclinations And the same is observ'd in horses For since the Stars the most powerful agents do not constrain but only incline certainly the humours cannot do more True it is their inclination is so strong that no less grace of Heaven is needful to resist the same then strength to retain a man that is rolling down the declivity of a hill Yet Socrates remaining unmov'd by the embraces of a Curtezan whom his Scholars contriv'd into his bed to try him although he was naturally very prone to vice justifies that how hard soever it be to stop the slipping foot when it is once going yet 't is not impossible and therefore the manners of the soul do not always follow the constitution of the body Not considering the power which the fear of God hath over our wills the effects whereof I here meddle not with as being supernatural since they have sometimes destroy'd all the maximes of nature witness those that give themselves to be burnt for the faith The Third said That the body must needs contribute to the soul's actions as being its instrument But it contributes only what it hath namely its temperament and other proprieties Therefore 't is from this temperament that the same are diversifi'd The soul sees no longer when the eyes are shut or blinded 't is wise in a well temper'd brain not only in a dry as Plato in his Timaeus conceiv'd because he saw children grow more prudent as their brain was desiccated 't is stupid in a too moist brain and foolish or furious in one inflam'd as in deliration or madness 'T is also forc'd to leave its body when a violent Fever hath so deprav'd the humours thereof that there remains not the temper necessary to its reception Therefore it follows the temper of the humours Thus because we see fire introduc'd into any combustible subject and extinguish'd when the same is consum'd we say fire follows combustible matter and becomes of the same nature quantity and other qualities Moreover Hippocrates saith Nations are warlike or cowardly laborious or not of good or bad nature according to the diversity of climates and soils they inhabit which render them diversly temper'd Hence in Asia where the air is temperate and less subject to changes then Europe and Africa men are more healthy and handsome their manners more equal and laudable on the contrary in Countries more cold or hot the inhabitants are either more cruel or more boisterous more hardy or more timerous and Mountaineers are more industrious as on the contrary those who live in a fertile soil are commonly more slothful Hence amongst the Greeks the Thebans and all the Baeotians whose Country was rich and the air very thick were very dull and the Athenians very subtle which was the cause that 't was said people were born Philosophers at Athens on the contrary 't was a prodigious thing to see one wise Anacharsis among the Scythians Hippocrates addes the seasons too according to the change whereof men's manners are also found divers But all these cannot act upon the soul but by the organ of the body changing its humours and introducing new qualities into the parts thereof The Fourth said Even sucking children give some tokens to what their
constitution inclines them before the contraction of any habit vertuous or vicious some of courage others of timidity some of modesty others of impudence and as soon as they begin to speak some are lyers others love truth And of two children taught by the same Master the hardest student is many times a less prosicient then the other who hath a temper proper for learning and is as inclin'd to it as another is to Merchandize Mechanicks Travel War or this will be quarrelsome the other respectful and discreet one is born to servitude and the other prefers his liberty before a Kingdom So that not only the moral actions of the will but also those of the understanding absolutely depend on the body the soul being of a spiritual nature which of it self can never produce any sensible effect without the mediation of some body not so much as exercise its proper actions of Willing and Understanding both which depend on the phantasms which are intellectual species fabricated by the agent intellect in the Patient upon the model of those that were brought by the senses into the imagination hence if these be alter'd or deprav'd by the spirits or humous flowing to the brain reasoning becomes either diminish'd or deprav'd or else wholly abolish'd the spirits so confounding these phantasms that the intellect cannot make its reviews nor compose or divide them in order to elicite its conclusions and frame its notions For souls differ only by the spirits the tenuity and lucidity whereof is proper for contemplation their abundance makes a man bold their inflammation renders him frantick their defect causeth sloth and cowardize and being design'd to serve equally to the actions of the soul and body they were made of a middle nature between body and spirit whence they are called spiritual bodies and are the cause of union between them and mutual communication of their passions and affections So the bodies diseases affect the soul and disturb its operations the spirits abandoning the brain to succour the grieved parts the bilious humour in the ventricles of the brain or a tumour and a Sphacelus cause madness the blood overheated causeth simple folly accompani'd with laughter melancholy produceth serious folly In like manner the body resents the passions of the soul fear causeth trembling and paleness shame blushing anger foaming and all this by the spirits The Fifth said If manners depended on tempers vertues might be easily acquir'd by the course of diet which seems ridiculous For then the divine faculties of the soul should depend not only upon meats but upon all other things not natural which would be to subject the Queen to her servants to enslave the will and take away its liberty which makes it to be what it is Besides Theology cannot consist with this conclusion which would acquit persons of blame and lay it upon nature as its author For he that should commit some evil cholerick action or other sin could not avoid it being lead thereunto by the bilious humour produc'd by nature whereunto 't is almost impossible to resist and so he would seem innocent and unjustly punish'd for what he committed not voluntarily though without the will there is no sin Moreover men would not be variable but always the same the bilious always angry the sanguine ever in love c. and yet we see men exercise all sorts of virtues and capable of all vices Many beasts have not only the same constitution of brain but also external shape like that of man as Apes whose bones are so like those of men that in Galen's time Anatomists consider'd only their Sceletons yea the same temper and all internal parts alike as Swine and there 's little or no difference between the brain of man and a calf and yet none of these animals have actions like those of men which being purely spiritual and intellectual must depend upon another cause the rational soul whose actions are not any way organical for then it should be corporeal because proceeding from the body and consequently mortal II. Of Sights or Shews Upon the second Point 't was said That the communication of the ills and goods of the soul and body has put men upon searching what may relieve the languishing strength of either And as the soul is delighted by bodily pleasures so it also in gratitude returns the like pleasure to the body by the contentment which it receives in acquiring knowledge the least laborious of which is that most recreative as that is which is convey'd by the sight For the hearing makes us know things only one after another but the sight shewing them all at once more fully satisfies our natural desire of knowing Hence all people from the highest to the lowest are so delighted with shews or spectacles that the Romans kept Actors and Comedians with publick pensions and Cicero publickly commended Roscius who alone had 12000 crowns for a stipend from the Roman people They employ'd the incomes of the woods about Rome dedicated to their gods for the maintaining of Theatres Amphitheatres Cirques and other places destinated to shews wherein the Senators and Knights had the fourteen first ranks or seats for whose conveniency Q. Catulus cover'd the Scene with veils of sine linen Lucius and Cinna made a versatile or shifting Scene P. Claudius was the first that adorn'd it with pictures and tables C. Antonius cover'd it with silver Murena made one of pure silver Trebonius one guilded others inlay'd with Ivory Nero sprinkled all the place of the Cirque where the horses run with gold-sand and cover'd it with veils beset with stars in form of a sky Heliogabalus made an Euripus of wine at the Circensian plays in which he caus'd a Naval Battle to be represented as if the wickedest Princes could not have cover'd their enormities with a more specious liberality or more agreeable to the people These spectacles were likewise us'd at the funerals of great Princes and made part of their service of the gods They divert the great make the miserable forget their affliction are the true physick of the soul the book of the ignorant and the only way truly to revive the transactions of former ages The Second said Nothing is so destructive to good manners as the frequentation of Theatres and most other spectacles which is the most dangerous for that things represented to the eyes make deeper impression in the mind then by any other sense Which made Aristotle advise the prohibiting of Comedies and S. Augustin declare them contrary to piety and honesty The same is the opinion of all the Fathers particularly Tertullian who in an express treatise blames all sort of spectacles as proceeding from the superstition of Paganism causing troubles and quarrels yea rendring men capable of all sort of wickedness by the impression of their examples For the sights of Mimes and Pantomimes are ridiculous Rope-dancers unprofitable Farces or Enterludes dangerous and enemies to purity Comedy the least dangerous of all sights
oblig'd by right of their birth to pay to it but in requital for the same they have a Proverb against them That a rolling stone gathers no moss they little improve their fortunes The Third said Every Nation produces not every thing and all climates have inhabitants excelling in some particulars Since therefore there 's no such learning as by examples and travels afford the most it follows that it 's necessary for an ingenuous man to survey foreign manners institutions customs laws religions and such other things upon which moral prudence is superstructed Whence Homer calls his wise Vlysses the Traveller and Visiter of Cities Moreover 't was practis'd in all ages not only by our ancient Nobility under the name of Knights errant but also by the greatest personages of antiquity Pythagoras Socrates Plato Pliny Hippocrates and we ow to the Voyages of Columbus Vesputius Magellane and some others the discovery of America and other new Lands formerly unknown and abundance of Drugs and Medicaments especially Gold and Silver before so rare not to mention the commodities of commerce which cannot be had without Voyages The Fourth said That for seven vagabond errant Stars all the rest of the firmament are fix'd and stable sending no malignant influence upon the earth as the Planets do And the Scripture represents Satan to us as a Traveller when he answers God in Job to the question whence he came I come from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it The Fifth said We must distinguish persons places times and other circumstances pertaining to voyages For if you except Embassies in which the good of the State drowns all other considerations those that would travel must be young and strong rich and well born to get any good by their travels otherwise they will be but like sick persons who receive no ease but rather inconvenience by tumbling and stirring the injudicious and imprudent returning commonly worse then they went because they distract their minds here and there Of which one troubled with the same disease of travelling asking Socrates the reason he answer'd him that 't was because he did not leave himself behind when he chang'd place and that he ought to change his mind and not the air in order to become wise it being impossible but he that is a fool in one Country can become wise by passing Seas and running from one Province to another As for places 't is certain that before the voyages of Italy and some other climates the disease of Naples and other worse things were not only not so much as heard but most contagious diseases have by this means been transfer'd into the remotest Countries So that if ever it were reasonable for a man to be wise at another's cost 't is in the matter of travels in which those that have perform'd most commonly bring home no other fruit but a troublesome talkativeness wherewith they tire peoples ears and a sad remembrance of what they have suffer'd CONFERENCE LXXXVIII I. Which is the best sect of Philosophers II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names I. Which is the best Sect of Philosophers ONe of the greatest signs of the defects of the humane mind is that he seldom accomplishes his designs and often mistakes false for true Hence ariseth the incertainty and variety in his judgements For as there is but one straight line from one point to another so if our judgements were certain they would be always alike because Truth is one and conformable to it self whereas on the contrary Error is always various This variety is of two sorts one of the thing the other of the way to attain it For men were no sooner secur'd from the injuries of the air and provided for the most urgent necessities of the body but they divided themselves into two bands Some following outward sense contented themselves with the present Others would seek the causes of effects which they admir'd that is to say Philosophize But in this inquisition they became of different judgements some conceiving the truth already found others thinking it could never be found and others labouring in search of it who seem to have most right to the name of Philosophers The diversity of the way to arrive to this truth is no less For according as any one was prone to vice or vertue humility or pride the probable cause of diversity of Sects he establish'd one sutable to his own inclination to judge well of which a man must be of no party or at least must love the interest of truth most of all But the question is which is Truth no doubt that which comes neerest the Judge's sentiment and has gain'd his favour as Venus did the good will of Paris And because the goodness of a thing consists in its sutableness the contemplative man will judge Plato's Philosophy better then that of Socrates which one delighted with action and the exercise of vertues will prefer before all others the indifferent will give the preeminence to that of the Peripateticks who have conjoyn'd contemplation with action And yet speaking absolutely 't is impossible to resolve which is the best of all For as we cannot know which is the greatest of two lines but by comparing them to some known magnitude So neither can we judge which is the best Sect of Philosophers unless it be agreed wherein the goodness of Philosophy consider'd absolutely consists Now 't is hard to know what this goodness is unless we will say 't is God himself who as he is the measure of all beings so he is the rule of their goodness So that the best Philosophy will be that which comes neerest that Supream Goodness as Christian Philosophy doth which consists in the knowledge of one's self and the solid practice of vertues which also was that of S. Paul who desir'd to nothing but Jesus and him crucifi'd which he calls the highest wisdom although it appear folly in the eyes of men The Second said That the first and ancientest Philosophy is that of the Hebrews call'd Cabala which they divided into that of Names or Schemot and of things call'd by them Sephiroth Whose excellency Josephus against Appion proves because all other Philosophies have had Sects but this always remain'd the same and would lose its name if it were not transmitted from Father to Son in its integrity 'T was from this Cabala that Pythagoras and Plato sirnamed Moses Atticus took their Philosophy which they brought into Greece as 't was from the Indian Brachmans and Gymnosophists that Pythagoras took his Metempsychosis and abstinence from women and animals and learn'd weights and measures formerly unknown in Greece Some of these Indian Philosophers use to stand upon one foot all day beholding the Sun and had so great respect for every thing indu'd with a soul that they bought birds and other animals and if any were sick kept them in hospitals till they were cur'd and then set them free The Persians
likewise had their Magi the Egyptians their Priests the Chaldeans and Babylonians their Astrologers and Sooth-sayers the Gaules their Druyds and Bards But the Greeks had more plenty and variety then any Their ancientest Philosophy was that of Musaeus Linus Orpheus Hesiod Homer who cover'd the Science of natural and supernatural things under the veil of Poetry and Fiction till the time of Pherecydes the master of Pythagoras who first writ the same in Prose Their Philosophers may be distinguish'd according to the diversity of subjects whereof they treat whence they who amuz'd themselves about ratiocination were nam'd Logicians the first of whom was Zeno. They who contemplated Nature Naturalists the first of whom was Thales they who soar'd to supernatural speculations Metaphysitians wherein Aristotle excell'd those who regulated manners Moralists of whom Socrates was the principal who was the son of a Sculptor and a Midwise But their principal division is of their different Sects which though in great number may be reduc'd to these following I. The Academick so called of the place where 't was taught so famous that all places destinated to instruction in Liberal Sciences retain the same name at this day 'T was divided into three namely the old Academy whereof Socrates and Plato were authors the middle which ow'd its institution to Archesilaus author of the famous Epoche or suspension of judgement concerning all things whom for that reason Tertullian calls Master of Ignorance and the new founded by Carneades and Lacides who held that there is something true but 't was incomprehensible which was almost the same Sect with the Scepticks and Pyrrhoneans II. The Cyrenaick introduc'd by Aristippus the Cyrenian disciple of Socrates who first took money for teaching others and held it as one of his principal maximes not to refuse any pleasure which presented it self to him yet not to seek it III. The Magarian establish'd by Euclides of Magara which proceeded by interrogations IV. The Cynick founded by Antisthenes Master to Diogenes and Menippus V. The Stoick whereof Zeno Cyttiensis Auditor of Crates the Cynick was author VI. The Epicurean of Epicurus the Athenian who conceiv'd that every thing was made by chance and that the chief good consisted in pleasure some say of the body others of the mind VII The Peripatetick instituted by Aristotle 'T would be endless to relate the extravagances of all particular persons But I conceive that of the Cynicks was the most dishonest that of the Stoicks most majestical that of the Epicureans most blameable that of Aristotle most honourable that of the Academicks most safe that of the Pyrrhoneans or Scepticks the most easie For as 't is not very creditable so nothing is easier when any thing is ask'd of us then to say that we are incertain of it instead of answering with certainty or else to say that we know nothing of it since to know our ignorance of a thing is not to be wholly ignorant of it The Third said That the Sect of the Scepticks had more followers then any other doubters being incomparably more numerous then Doctors and is the more likely to be true For compare a Gorgias Leontinus or other Sophister of old time or one of the most vers'd in Philosophy in this age who glory of knowing all and of resolving all questions propounded with a Pyrrhonean the first will torture his wit into a thousand postures to feigen and perswade to the hearers what himself knows not and by distinctions cast dust in their eyes as the Cuttle-fish vomits Ink to soil the water when it finds it self caught On the contrary the Sceptick will freely confess the debt and whether you convince him or not will always shew that he has reason to doubt Nevertheless though this Sect be the easiest 't is not in every thing the truest For as 't is temerity and intolerable arrogance to pronounce sentence confidently upon things which are hid to us and whereof we have not any certain knowledge as the quadrature of the circle the duplication of the cube the perpetual motion the Philosophers Stone so 't is too gross stupidity to doubt of the existence of things to judge whereof we need no other help but perfect senses as that it is this day when the Sun shines that the fire burns and that the whole is greater then its parts The Fourth said That Philosophy being the desire of Wisdom or rather Wisdom it self which is nothing else but a store of all the virtues Intellectual and Moral that is the perfectest Philophy which renders those addicted to it most sure in their knowledge and inclin'd to virtue And because there was never sect but had some defect neither in the theory or the practice the best of all is not to be any but to imitate the Bee and gather what is good of each sort without espousing it which was the way of Potamon of Alexandria who as Diogenes Laertius records founded a Sect call'd Elective which allow'd every one to choose what was best in all Philosophies 'T is also the way that Aristotle held in all his Philosophy especially in his Physicks and Politicks which are nothing but a collection of opinions of the Ancients amongst whom he hath often taken whole pages out of Hippocrates though he name him not Nor are we more oblig'd to embrace Aristotle's Philosophy then he did that of his Predecessors it being free for us to frame one out of his precepts those of Raimond Lully Ramus and all others The Fifth said That amongst all sects the most excellent as also the most severe is that of the Stoicks whom Seneca ranks as much above other Philosophers as men above women Their manner of discoursing and arguing was so exquisite that if the Gods said one would reason with men they would make use of the Logick of Chrysippus the Stoick Their Physicks treated partly of bodies partly of incorporeal Beings Bodies according to them are either principles or elements which are ours Their principles are two God and Matter which are the same with the Unity and Binary of Pythagoras the fire and water of Thales They call God the cause and reason of all things and say that he is fire not the common and elementary but that which gives all things their being life and motion And they believ'd that there is one God supremely good bountiful and provident but that he is single in his essence herein following Pythagoras who said that God is not so much one as Unity it self Seneca saith that he is all that thou seest all intire in every part of the world which he sustaines by his power Briefly they conclude their natural knowledge of God as the sovereign cause by his Providence by Destiny which he hath establish'd in all things and by the Genii Heroes and Lares whom they constitute Angels and Ministers of this Supreme Providence The Second Principle Matter they make coeternal to God grounding their doctrine upon the Maxime of Democritus that as
nothing can be annihilated so nothing can be made of nothing Which was likewise the error of Aristotle who is more intricate then the Stoicks in his explication of the first matter which he desines to be almost nothing True it is they believ'd that every thing really existent was corporeal and that there were but four things incorporeal Time Place Vacuum and the Accident of some thing whence it follows that not onely Souls and God himself but also the Passions Virtues and Vices are Bodies yea Animals since according to their supposition the mind of man is a living animal inasmuch as 't is the cause that we are such but Virtues and Vices say they are nothing else but the mind so dispos'd But because knowledge of sublime things is commonly more pleasant then profitable and that according to them Philosophy is the Physick of the Soul they study chiefly to eradicate their Vices and Passions Nor do they call any wise but him that is free from all fear hope love hatred and such other passions which they term the diseases of the Soul Moreover 't was their Maxime that Virtue was sufficient to Happiness that it consisted in things not in words that the sage is absolute master not onely of his own will but also of all men that the supream good consisted in living according to nature and such other conclusions to which being modifi'd by faith I willingly subscribe although Paradoxes to the vulgar II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names Upon the Second Point 't was said That a name is an artificial voice representing a thing by humane institution who being unable to conceive all things at once distinguish the same by their differences either specifical or individual the former by appellative names and the other by proper as those of Cities Rivers Mountains and particularly those of men who also give the like to Horses Dogs and other domestick creatures Now since conceptions of the Mind which represent things have affinity with them and words with conceptions it follows that words have also affinity with things by the Maxime of Agreement in the same third Therefore the wise to whom alone it belongs to assign names have made them most conformable to the nature of things For example when we pronounce the word Nous we make an attraction inwards On the contrary in pronouncing Vous we make an expulsion outwards The same holds in the voices of Animals and those arising from the sounds of inanimate things But 't is particularly observ'd that proper names have been tokens of good or bad success arriving to the bearers of them whence arose the reasoning of the Nominal Philosophers and the Art of Divination by names call'd Onomatomancy and whence Socrates advises Fathers to give their Children good names whereby they may be excited to Virtue and the Athenians forbad their slaves to take the names of Harmodius and Aristogiton whom they had in reverence Lawyers enjoyn heed to be taken to the name of the accused in whom 't is capital to disguise it and Catholicks affect those of the Law of Grace as Sectaries do those of the old Law the originals whereof were taken from circumstances of the Bodie as from its colour the Romans took those of Albus Niger Nigidius Fulvius Ruffus Flavius we those of white black grey red-man c. from its habit Crassus Macer Macrinus Longus Longinus Curtius we le Gros long tall c From its other accidents the Latines took Caesar Claudius Cocles Varus Naso we le Gouteux gowty le Camus flat-nos'd from Virtues or Vices Tranquillus Severus we hardy bold sharp from Profession Parson Serjeant Marshal and infinite others But chiefly the names of places have been much affected even to this day even since the taking of the name of the family for a sirname And if we cannot find the reason of all names and sirnames 't is because of the confusion of languages and alteration happening therein upon frequent occasions The Fourth said That the cause of names is casual at least in most things as appears by equivocal words and the common observation of worthless persons bearing the most glorious names as amongst us a family whose males are the tallest in France bears the name of Petit. Nor can there be any affinity between a thing and a word either pronounc'd or written and the Rabbins endeavour to find in Hebrew names which if any must be capable of this correspondence in regard of Adam's great knowledge who impos'd them is no less an extravagance then that of matters of Anagrams In brief if Nero signifi'd an execrable Tyrant why was he so good an Emperor the first five years And of that name import any token of a good Prince why was he so execrable in all the rest of his life CONFERENCE LXXXIX I. Of Genii II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable I. Of Genii PLato held three sorts of reasonable natures the Gods in Heaven Men on Earth and a third middle nature between those two whose mansion is from the sphere of the Moon to the Earth he calls them Genii from their being the causes of Generations here below and Daemons from their great knowledge These Genii whom his followers accounted to be subtile bodies and the instruments of Divine Providence are according to them of three sorts Igneous Aereous and Aqueous the first excite to contemplation the second to action the third to pleasure And 't was the belief of all Antiquity that every person had two Genii one good which excited to honesty and virtue as the good Genius of Socrates whom they reckon'd in order of the Igneous and the other bad who incited to evil such as that was which appeard to Brutus and told him he should see him at Philippi Yet none can perceive the assistance of their Genius but onely such whose Souls are calm and free from passions and perturbations of life Whence Avicenna saith that onely Prophets and other holy Personages have found their aid in reference to the knowledge of future things and government of life For my part I think these Genii are nothing else but our reasonable souls whose intellectual and superior part which inclines us to honest good and to virtue is the good Genius and the sensitive inferior part which aims onely to sensible and delightful good is the evil genius which incessantly sollicites us to evil Or if the Genii be any thing without us they are no other then our good and evil Angels constituted the former to guard us the second to make us stand upon our guard Moreover 't was expedient that since inferior bodies receive their motion from the superior so spiritual substances inherent in bodies should be assisted in their operations by superior spirits free from matter as 't is an ordinary thing in Nature for the more perfect to give law to such as are less in the same kind And not onely men but also all other parts of the world have Angels deputed
by expulsion of the noxious humours Moreover humidity revives Plants and Animals and Man Nature's perfectest work abounds most with it to which cause Cardan refers his greater sagacity And being life is nothing else but the Prime Humidity thence thirst comes to be the greatest bodily inconvenience and diseases caus'd by a dry intemperature are generally incurable Rheum is not so dangerous as an Hectick Fever and experience shews us that land too moist may be render'd fertile but there 's no remedy for the droughts of Africa humane Art being puzled to preserve a Garden during those of Summer Lastly Physick takes the opportunity of moist weather for purgations as most convenient for health The Third said That all the first qualities are active but heat and moisture more then the other two whence the air being imbu'd with humidity alters our bodies more sensibly then when 't is charg'd with dry exhalations For our radical moisture is aerious oyly and benigne and the extraneous moisture is aqueous maligne and pernicious a capital enemy to that balsame of life as extraneous heat is to our vital heat which is suffocated by abundance of excrements collected by humidity which stops the pores but dissipated by dryness which opens them Which made the Prince of Physick say Aph. 15. Sect. 3. that of the seasons of the year droughts are more healthy and less fatal then rainy and moist weather in which happen long Fevers Fluxes Epilepsies Apoplexies and divers others putrid maladies Though 't is impossible to determine the question absolutely because 't would be requisite to consider siccity and humidity separate from other qualities and in their own nature wherein they are not to be found being never separated from cold or heat which render their natures and consequently their effects various The Fourth said That the pleasure we take in a thing is the surest evidence of the good or hurt it does us Hence rain is always more grateful to us in droughts then the contrary Besides Death and old age which leads to it is nothing but a desiccation and dry diseases are most perillous because they are either conjoyn'd with heat which encreases them and makes them very acute or with cold which generates Schirrusses and other maladies accompani'd with obstruction which are not cur'd but by humectation Summer and Autumn are the sickliest and dryest seasons of the year but we are more healthy in Winter and the Spring And do's not the humidity of the night repair the loss caus'd by the siccity and actions of the day as in the morning the most humid part of the day our minds are more serene then all the rest of the day whence it was call'd the friend of the Muses The Brain the mansion of the soul and its divinest faculties is not only most humid but the seat of humidity as choler melancholy fear and all other passions common to us with beasts have their seat in the Gall the Spleen and the heart which are dry parts But although humidity seems more a friend to nature then siccity yet the question must be voided by the distinction of temperaments of which the melancholy and the bilious especially receive very great incommodity from droughts and benefit from moist seasons which on the contrary much torment the phlegmatick II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active Upon the second Point 't was said That man being born to live in society and employment the contemplative life seems incongruous to this end and our first Parent was plac'd in the earth to Till it and eat his bread in the sweat of his countenance not to live idly and look about him Moreover the end is more noble then the means which tend to it but we generally contemplate only in order to act In Divinity we consider God's Commandments in order to perform them In Mathematicks Lines Surfaces Solids Numbers and Motions to make use thereof for Fortifications Carpentry and the Mechanicks In Natural Philosophy its Principles and Causes to refer the same to Medicine In Law Right to apply it to Fact In Morality the Virtues in order to exercise them Consider what difference there is between the contemplation of an empty brain and solid action that is to say between theory and practice you will find the former only a chimera and the other a reality as excellent and profitable as the first is useless except to feed the phancy with vain imaginations and fill the mind with presumption there being none but thinks himself a greater master then others before he hath set his hand to the work and yet 't is by their works that our Lord tells us we shall know every one and not by their discourses which are as much below them as effects and things are more then words The Second said Contemplation is as much more excellent then action as the soul is then the body and to compare them together is to equal the servant with her mistress For not to speak of the raptures of an extasi'd soul nor of eternal blisse which consisting in contemplation that of this world must do the like in reference to natural things Nature alone teaches us that things which are for themselves are more excellent then those which are for others But the contemplation and knowledge of truth hath no other end but it self action the common uses of life Whence contemplation less needs external things then action which requires the help of Riches Honours Friends and a thousand other circumstances which hinder a contemplative person more then they help him who therefore delights most in Desarts and Solitudes Moreover the end is to be prefer'd before the means and the end of active life is to bring us rest as the military life is in order to establish and the civil to preserve peace therefore the rest of the contemplative life being the end of the turbulent active life it is much more noble then its means As appears also by its duration which is greater then that of transient and transitory action but contemplation is durable and permanent which is a sign of the Divinity of the Intellect that produces it infinitely more excellent then all the other inferior powers the principles of actions Contemplation being abstracted from matter and earthly things wearies not the body as actions do which require corporeal organs and therefore the pleasure of it is most pure and simple and constant in regard of its object those sublime things which wisdom contemplates whereas that of action is never intire by reason of the inconstancy of its object which are political things continually mutable The contemplative man finds full satisfaction in himself without going abroad to beg approbation and rewards from men without which virtues languish and are imperfect Moreover the pleasure of contemplation is peculiar to men and not competent to brutes who have not only external actions as well as we as Speaking Singing Dancing Fighting Spinning Building and other Works
of Art which we learn'd from them for the most part but they have also virtues as Chastity Simplicity Prudence Piety On the contrary God as the Philosopher teaches exercises neither virtues nor any external actions but contemplation is his sole employment and consequently the most divine of all though it were not calm agreeable permanent sufficient proper to man and independent of others which are the tokens of beatitude and the chief good The Third said since 't is true which Plato saith that while we are in this world we do nothing but behold by the favour of a glimmering light the phantasms and shadows of things which custom makes us to take for truths and bodies they who amuse themselves in contemplation in this life cannot be said contented unless after the manner of Tantalus who could not drink in the midst of the water because they cannot satisfie that general inclination of nature who suffers nothing idle in all her precincts to reduce powers into act and dead notions into living actions If they receive any pleasure in the knowledge of some truths 't is much less then that which is afforded by action and the exercise of the moral virtues of the active life the more excellent in that they are profitable to many since the most excellent good is the most communicable Moreover all men have given the pre-eminence to civil Prudence and active life by proposing rewards and honours thereunto but they have punish'd the ingratitude and pride of speculative persons abandoning them to contempt poverty and all incommodities of life And since the Vice which is opposite to active life is worse then ignorance which is oppos'd to the contemplative by the reason of contraries action must be better then contemplation and the rather because virtuous action without contemplation is always laudable and many times meritorious for its simplicity on the contrary contemplation without virtuous acts is more criminal and pernicious In fine if it be true that he who withdraws himself from active life to intend contemplation is either a god or a beast as Aristotle saith 't is more likely that he is the latter since man can hardly become like to God The Fourth said That to separate active life from contemplative is to cut off the stream from the fountain the fruit from the tree and the effect from its cause as likewise contemplation without the vertues of the active life is impossible rest and tranquillity which are not found in vice being necessary to contemplate and know Wherefore as the active life is most necessary during this life so the contemplative is more noble and divine if this present life be consider'd as the end and not as the means and way to attain to the other life in which actions not contemplations shall be put to account Contemplation is the Sun Action the Moon of this little World receiving its directions from contemplation as the Moon of the great World borrows its light from the Sun the former presides in the day of contemplative life the second which is neerer to us as the Moon is presides in the darkness of our passions Both of them represented in Pallas the Goddess of Wisdom and War being joyn'd together make the double-fronted Janus or Hermaphrodite of Plato square of all sides compos'd of Contemplation which is the Male and Action which is the Female CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun THere is nothing perfect in the world spots being observ'd in the brightest bodies of Nature And not to speak of those in the Sun which seem to proceed from the same cause with those observ'd in our flame according as 't is condens'd or rarifi'd we may well give account of those in the Moon by saying with the Pythagoreans and some later excellent Mathematicians that the Moon is an earthly habitable Globe as the eminences and inequalities observ'd therein by the Telescope the great communications of the Moon with our earth depriving one another of the Sun by the opacity rotundity and solidty of both and the cold and moist qualities which it transmits hither like those of this terr-aqueous Globe since the same apparences and illumination of the Earth would be seen from the Heaven of the Moon if a man were carri'd thither And because solid massie bodies as wood and stone reflect light most strongly therefore the brightest parts of the Moon answer the terrestrial dense parts and the dark the water which being rarer and liker the air is also more transparent and consequently less apt to stop and reflect light This we experience in the prospect of high Mountains very remote or the points of Rocks in the open Sea which reflect a light and have a colour like that of the Moon when the Sun is still above the Horizon with her whereas the Sea and great Lakes being less capable of remitting this light seem dark and like clouds So that were this Globe of Ocean and Earth seen from far it would appear illuminated and spotted like the Moon For the opinion of Plurality of Worlds which can be no way dangerous of it self but only in the consequences the weakness of humane wit would draw from it much less is it contrary to the faith as some imagine is rather an argument of Gods Omnipotence and more abundant communication of his goodness in the production of more creatures whereas his immense goodness seems to be restrain'd in the creation of but one world and of but one kind Nor is it impossible but that as we see about some Planets namely Jupiter and Saturn some other Stars which move in Epicycles and in respect of their stations and those Planets seem like Moons to them and are of the same substance so that which shines to us here below may be of the same substance with our earth and plac'd as a bound to this elementary Globe The Second said That the spots of the Sun and Moon cannot be explicated without some Optical presuppositions And first 't is to be known that Vision is perform'd three ways directly by reflection and by refraction Direct Vision which is the most ordinary is when an object sends its species to the eye by a direct way that is when all the points of one and the same object make themselves seen by so many right lines Reflective Vision is when the species of an object falling upon the surface of an opake body is remitted back to the sight as 't is in our Looking-glasses Vision by refraction is when the species of an object having pass'd through a medium diaphanous to a certain degree enters obliquely into another medium more or less diaphanous for then 't is broken and continues not its way directly but with this diversity that coming from a thicker medium into a thinner as from water into air the species in breaking
recedes from a perpendicular falling upon the common surface of the two mediums as on the contrary entring into a less diaphanous medium out of one more diaphanous it breaks and Cones neerer a perpendicular then it would have done had it continu'd directly Secondly 'T is to be observ'd that bodies which cause reflection or refraction are either smooth or unequal and rough Smooth bodies make reflection and refraction with order and the reflected or refracted image resembles its object although it may be alter'd by the various figures of the reflecting or refracting bodies as convex Looking-glasses diminish it hollow enlarge it whereas on the contrary convex Perspective Glasses enlarge and concave lessen the object but both the Looking-glasses and the other represent the Image perfect Unequal and scabrous bodies reflect or refract confusedly without distinct representation of the Image because these Bodies being terminated with infinite little imperceptible surfaces looking every way they also reflect every way as is seen in stones wood and other bodies of different ruggedness and so causing different reflections and refractions in the third place we must observe some prime properties of Looking-glasses as That if a species fall perpendicularly upon the surface 't is likewise perpendicularly reflected and consequently upon its own object as when the Eye beholds it self in the glass But if the species fall obliquely upon the glass it will be reflected as obliquely the other way making the angles of the incidence equal to those of reflection as when the Eye beholds something else then it self in the glass And an Eye constituted in the place where it may receive the reflection shall see the image of the object by help of the glass But if the mirror reflect no species to the place where the Eye is then the surface of the mirror shall appear so much more dark as the mirror is exact that is smooth and more opake the greater the light is As the Eye being in the place of reflection cannot bear the Sun-beams reflected from the mirror no more then the Sun it self but being in another place it shall see nothing but darkness and take the glass for a hole especially if it lie upon the ground Moreover a Convex Spherical glass hath this property that it represents the image very small and more small when the Eye and object are remote from the mirror which is small or appears such In which glasses also the Image never takes up the whole plane of the glass but a very small part of it Lastly Every object which appears lucid and not by its own light transmits light to us either by reflection or refraction after having receiv'd the same from some other luminous object From these truths here suppos'd but clearly demonstrated in the Catoptricks I conclude necessarily That the body of the Moon is not smooth but rough or scabrous For 't is manifest by its various faces that it borrows from the Sun the greater light of the two which appear in her the least whereof namely that which appears in the part which the Sun enlightens not in the increase and decrease many think to be her own which borrow'd light increases or diminishes according as she removes farther from or comes nearer to the Sun whence the diversity of her faces From which diversity of faces 't is concluded further that the figure of the face towards us is spherical convex either rough or smooth But smooth it cannot be because then it would represent the very Image of the Sun to us very small and in a small part of its face the rest remaining dark by the aforesaid observations of Looking-glasses wherefore it must be rough or unequal because the whole face appears lucid when 't is beheld by the Sun at the full and no image of the Sun appears distinctly in it For 't is certain that the Moon sends her borrow'd light by reflection and not by refraction otherwise she should be diaphanous and would appear most illuminated when near the Sun and be full in her conjunction and obscure in her full because she 's lower then the Sun and so in conjunction his light would appear through her and in her full which is her opposition the Sun's light would pass through her towards Heaven not towards us Wherefore as to the spots of the Moon it may be said in general that she is unequally seabrous and the dark parts are nearest smoothness and so make a more orderly reflection but another way then to the Earth the Angles of Incidence and Reflection being not dispos'd thereunto But they are not perfectly smooth because they transmit a little light to us which they could not do being perfectly smooth unless at a certain time when the Sun were so dispos'd as that his Image might be seen in those parts as in a Spherical Mirror The other more scabrous parts making a disorderly and irregular reflection are seen on all parts as if you fasten pieces of glass marble or the like smooth bodies to a wall enlighten'd by the Sun the rough parts of the wall will appear very bright and the smooth obscure But because we know not truly what is the matter of the Heavenly Bodies we can onely say for proof of this unevenness in the Moon 's body that the rougher parts are more hard and the less rough are liquid for then the liquor surrounding the centre of the Moon as the water doth about that of the earth will have a surface more approaching to smoothness as the water hath and this without inferring it compos'd of earth and water but of some celestial matter like to our elementary and whose fluidity or hardness doth not prejudice its incorruptibility those who hold the Heavens solid or liquid holding them equally incorruptible Unless we had rather say that the body of the Moon being all of the same hardness may nevertheless have parts unequally rough and smooth The Third said That he apprehended two causes of these spots First the diverse conformation of these celestial bodies which being no more perfectly round then the earth which nevertheless would appear spherical to us if it were luminous make shadows inseparable from bodies of other figure then the plain Secondly from the weakness of our Sight which as it phancies colours in the clouds which are not in them no more then the Air is blew though it appear to us and we paint it such so being dazled by a luminous body and the visual ray being disgregated it makes sundry appearances therein which can be onely dark and obscure in a thing which is lucid For I would not attribute these spots which represent the lineaments of a face to such a phancy as that of Antiphon who saw his own picture in the Air since they are observ'd by all people after the same manner but the weakness of our Sight may contribute something thereunto For if we say that every celestial body is an earth and that the bright part is
the terrestrial mass and the dark the water or the contrary it will be necessary that this earth also have its Heaven that its stars and so to infinity The Fourth said That they who have imagin'd spots in the Sun had them in their Eyes it being improbable that there is any defect of light in that Star which is the fountain of it but they are produc'd by the vapours between the Sun and the Eye and therefore appear not at full noon and change with the vapours and clouds As for those which appear in the Moon 's face there is great diversity of opinions as of the Rabbines and Mahometans of the ancient Philosophers reported by Plutarch in his treatise thereof and of the moderns The first are ridiculous in believing that Lucifer by his fall and the beating of his wings struck down part of the light of this great Luminary or that the same was taken away to frame the Spirits of the Prophets Those Philosophers who attributed the cause to the violence of the Sun-beams reflected from the Moon to our Eyes would conclude well if the like spots appear'd in the Sun as do in the Moon because the rayes coming directly from the Sun to the Eyes have more brightness and dazle more then those reflected by the Moon Nor can these spots be the Images of the Sea and its Streights for the Ocean surrounding the Terrestrial Globe that part of it which remains in the lower part of the Globe cannot send its species so far as the Moon whilst she enlightens the upper part the Moon being able to receive onely the species of that part which she enlightens according to the principles of Theodosius who teaches us that from the Zenith of one Hemisphere right lines cannot be drawn to the other Hemisphere by reason of the solidity of the Globe the caliginous fire the wind the condensation of the Air and the like opinions of the Stoicks and other ancient Philosophers though erroneous yet seem to me more probable then those of some Moderns who will have the Moon inhabited not considering that 't is too small to make an habitable earth her body being the fortieth part of the Terrestrial Globe and its surface the thirteenth of that of the Earth or thereabouts besides that she comes too near the Sun whose Eclipse her interposition causeth They who make the Moon and the Earth to move about the Sun may indeed with Copernicus explicate the most signal motions and phaenomena But the stability of the Pole and the Stars about it requires a fix'd point in the Earth with which the inequality of the dayes and seasons could not consist if the Sun were stable and in one place Moreover the difference of dayes proceeds from the obliquity of the Ecliptick which is the cause that the parallels of the Solstice are nearer one to another and the dayes then less unequal then at the Equinoxes which cannot hold good in this Scheme But 't is less reasonable to say that the hollow places in the Moon seem dark for by the rules of perspective they should remit the Sun's rayes redoubled by their reflection by reason of the cone which is form'd in hollow parts nor can they be eminences which appear obscure because in this case the spots should not appear so great or not come at all to us being surpass'd by the dilatation of the rayes redoubled by the conical figure of the cavities of the Moon 'T is therefore more probable that as a Star is the thicker part of its Orbe so the Moon hath some dense then others which are the most luminous as those which are more diaphanous letting those beams of the Sun pass through them which they are not able to reflect for want of sufficient density seem more obscure and make the spots The fifth said The spots of the Sun cannot be from the same causes with those of the Moon which experience shews us changes place and figure those of the Sun remaining always alike and in the same figure whereby we may also understand the validity of what is alledg'd by some That the Sun moving upon his own Centre carries his spots about with him For granting this motion yet if these spots interr'd in the Sun they would always appear in the same manner and at regular times by reason of the Sun 's equal and uniform revolution Nevertheless the most diligent observers find that some of them are generated and disappear at the same time in the Solar face Which would incline me to their opinion who hold those spots to be generated out of the body of the Sun in the same manner that exhalations are out of the bosom of the earth did not this derogate from the receiv'd incorruptibility of the Heavens For it cannot be any defect of our sight mistaking the vapours between the eye and the Sun for spots inherent in his body since they are seen by all almost in the same number and figure which should alter with the medium if this were the cause of them and 't is impossible that vapours should follow the Sun in his course for so many days together as one of these spots appears for it must move above 6000 leagues a day though it were not much elevated above the earth Nor do our Telescopes deceive us since without them we behold these spots in a Basin of water or upon a white paper in a close Chamber whereinto the Sun is admitted only by a small hole Nor Lastly are they small Stars call'd by some Borboneae and Mediceae because we perceive both their nativity and their end II. Whether 't is best to use â—â—verity or gentleness towards our dependents Upon the second Point 't was said That he who said a man hath as many domestick enemies as servants imply'd that we are to use them as such converse with them as in an Enemy-Country and according to the Counsel of good Captains build some Fort therein for our security Which Fort is severity and its Bastions the reasons obliging us to this rigour The first of which is drawn from the contempt ensuing upon gentleness and familiarity and from the respect arising from severity and gravity especially in low and servile souls which being ill educated would easily fall into vice to which men are more inclin'd then to vertue if they be not restrain'd by fear of punishment which makes deeper impression upon their minds then the sweetness and love of virtue wherewith they are not acquainted Besides that servants are apt to grow slack and luke-warm in their duties unless they be spurr'd up by severity And 't is a great disorder when a servant becomes equal to his master as it happens by mildness nor was Paganism ever more ridiculous then in the Saturnalia when the servants play'd the masters It must likewise be confess'd that severity hath a certain majesty which exacts such honour and service as gentleness cannot obtain By this virtue Germanicus became so considerable and was
a Gorgon's head a Crane a Dragon a Serpent a fish call'd Scarus or the Gilt-head a Mulberry-tree a Hiacynth Royalty by the reins of a bridle an Elephant and a Dog Wisdom by the breast or the wand of Pallas Concord by a Crow a Caduceus or Mercurius's rod a Peacock a Bee and a Lute Fear by waves a Dove a Hart a Hare and a Wolf All which figures signifi'd other things besides yea oftentimes contraries as the Ass is the Hieroglyphick of wisdom with the Cabalists and with us of stupidity and the same wisdom was denoted among the Egyptians by a sieve which with us is the emblem of a loose-tongu'd person that can retain nothing In fine this Hieroglyphical invention is good for nothing but to make the ignorant admire what they must reverence without knowing it For that which secures all professions from contempt is the use of terms not understood by the vulgar CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity II. Of Coat-Armour I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity THe World is Man's Palace whereof God is the Architect sustaining the same with the three fingers of his Power Goodness and Wisdom And the Scripture saith He hath hung the Earth in the midst of the Air and ordained all things in number weight and Measure which are the three pillars of this stately Edifice Number is the cause of Beauty Measure of Goodness and Weight of Order which is not found but in the place towards which bodies are carry'd by their Gravity A quality depending upon the four first which by their rarefaction or condensation of things cause more or less ponderosity For light signifies nothing but less heavy it being certain that as the Earth gravitates in the Water and this in the Air so would the Air in the sphere of Fire Fire in the Heaven of the Moon this in the mixt and so forwards till you come to nothing which hath no weight because it hath no corporeity The Second said That gravity and the descent of natural bodies to the centre cannot proceed from the predominance of terrestrial parts in mixts since Gold the heaviest of metals and Mercury which is next it have more humidity then siccity that is to say more Water then Earth in comparison of other metallick bodies God being the most ductile and Mercury the most fluid So also Salt which is heavier then wood or stone is nothing but water cogeal'd and dissolving again in a moist place Wherefore Gravity seems rather to proceed from these three things namely place comparison and figure Place is so considerable herein that bodies gravitate not in their proper places but onely when they are remov'd from the same and more or less proportionally to their distance Comparison makes us judge a body light because 't is less heavy then an other On the contrary Figure makes heavy bodies light causing Leaf-gold to swim which in the same quantity reduc'd into a Globe would sink and an expanded body weighs less in a balance then when it is in a less volumn Which is also observ'd of the thinner parts of the Air which being of a more moveable figure are seen to play therein when the Sun shines clear The Third said That the cause why a broader figure swims or is upheld in the Air more easily then if it were in a Globe or other closer figure is not for that figure makes a thing lighter but from the resistance of the medium which hath more hold in one then in the other Nor do's gravity proceed from the inclination of a thing to its Centre since the Centre is but a Point wherein nothing can lodge And if the Centre of the world were the Centre of heavy things the stars which are the denser and solider parts of their orbs and consequently have more gravity which necessarily follows the density of corporeal matter especially the Moon which is demonstrated to be solid and massie because it reflects the light of the Sun should not remain suspended above the Air which is lighter but descend to this Centre of the Universe For to believe with some that the Moon is kept up like a stone in a sling by the rapid motion of the First Mover is to hold the Stars the greatest and noblest part of the Universe in a violent state onely to give rest and a natural state to the least and meanest which is the Earth Wherefore the descent of bodies is not because of themselves they affect the Centre of the Earth but for that they are upon a body lighter then themselves order obliging every thing to take its own place and till it be so every body being necessitated to move it self the heaviest downwards and the less heavy upwards Hence water gravitates not in its channel although it be not in its Centre because the upper part of the water is not heavier then the lower The Fourth said That Gravity is a certain quality which carries all bodies towards a common point continuing the union of the parts of the world hindring Vacuity by the concentration of all bodies which press one another the heavy having more matter in less quantity For when we see Air mount above Water and Fire above Air they yield and give place to heavier bodies as Oyle being in the bottom of Water ascends to the top not by its lightness but by the weight of the water which thrusts it up So Lead and all other metals except Gold swim in Mercury to which they yield in gravity For in equal quantities Gold weighs 19 Mercury 13 Lead 11 and ½ Silver 10 and ⅓ Copper 9 Iron 8 and Tin 7 and ½ As for the cause of this gravity which some say is in heavy bodies others in their Centre to which they attribute a magnetical virtue I conceive it consists in a reciprocal attraction of the same bodies which draw and are drawn and others are drawn to the inferiour body which attracts with all its parts so that bodies are carry'd towards the Earth and the Earth attracts them reciprocally as the Load-stone attracts Iron and is attracted by it For 't is evident that the Load-stone draws Iron and to prove that 't is drawn by Iron lay a Load-stone in one scale and in the other an equal weight to it If you apply Iron to the bottom of the scale where the Load-stone is this scale will raise up the other the Iron attracting the Load-stone to it self On the contrary if you approach with the Iron over the Load-stone the scale wherein it is will ascend towards the Iron which attracts it For whereas 't is objected that if the Earth attracted things with all its parts then it would follow that things let down in some hollow of the Earth being attracted by the parts above and those below would not descend by reason of contrary attractions I answer that those bodies being out of their Centres the greatest and strongest part of the Earth which is towards
take thence a charme which the Spirit left there or to invoke the same Spirit signifies that you must go and take from under a stone agreed upon the cypher'd letter and decipher it by the same alphabet upon which it was cypher'd Vigenarius spends half his Book in speaking of the Cabala of the Jews and the Caldeans and the other half in many Alphabets of all sorts with Key and without he hath indeed abundance of Cyphers which seem undecypherable which he makes to depend on three differences 1. On the form of Characters which comprehends several figures lines and colours 2. On their order and situation but changing the Alphabet almost infinite ways 3. On their value and power giving such signification to one letter or character as you please All which are easily known for cyphers The second condition of a cypher and which follows that of secresie being not to appear such the least suspicion causing the stopping of the paper and so rendring it unprofitable to the writer which has given occasion to some to cover characters drawn in oyl with something that might be wash'd off besides other such inventions to take away suspicion such as that of having two Books of the same impression and under pretext of sending Tables of Astrology or Merchants Bills to design by cyphers the letter of the Book which you mean to express the first cypher signifying the fourth page the second the fourth line and the third the fourth letter of that line which you would denote CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs I. Of Ignes fatui 'T Is a question whether 't would be more advantageous to mans contentment to be ignorant of nothing since then he would admire nothing which is one of his greatest pleasures Hence a Peasant beholding a flake of fire following him or going before him in the night time will be otherwise ravish'd with it then a Philosopher who knows or thinks he knows the cause of it there being little difference herein as to our satisfaction They conceive it to be an unctuous exhalation apt to be inflam'd like the fatty steam of a Candle newly put out which instantly conveighs down the neighbouring light to seek its aliment But the same example shews us that fire very suddenly devours its aliment when it is subtile and thin So that if a fire of straw which is much more material then an exhalation vanishes so quickly that we express the most transient momentary things thereby how can a far thinner exhalation keep this foolish fire so long which besides burns not as appears by its sticking innoxiously upon the hair of men and manes of horses and yet Aqua-vitae never so well rectified will singe the hair as was sometimes verified to the great prejudice of one of our Kings which would make me think that as all fire is not luminous as a hot dunghil burns your finger and fire excited by motion burns much more without blazing so there are some lights which are not igneous as in Heaven the Stars and in Earth some rotten woods certain fishes worms eyes flesh of animals and other more such subjects which cannot be more susceptible of those lights which burn not then the Air which is the prime diaphanous body and consequently most capable of receiving them although possibly we cannot truly know what temper the Air must acquire to become luminous no more then what is fit for it in other subjects For to attribute the cause thereof to purity or simplicity signifies little for earth and ashes are more simple then the flesh or other part dead or living of an Animal and yet this shines and those not The Second said That these fires may be referr'd to four sorts The first resemble falling Stars or lighted Torches which Plutarch saith were seen to fall upon Pompey's Camp the eve before the Battle of Pharsalia The second is that kind of flame which has appear'd upon the heads of some as of Ascanius in Virgil and of Servius Hostilius which was an omen to them of Royalty The third are those which appear at Sea about the Masts and Shrouds of the Ships named by the Ancient Castor and Pollux when they are two and when but one Helena and by the Moderns the fire of S. Elme The last are those which are seen in the Country in the night time and are thought to drive or draw Travellers into precipices As for the first 't is certain that the same exhalation which makes Comets in the highest Region of the Air and Thunders in the middlemost is also the matter of these falling Stars and being rais'd in small quantity from the earth is condens'd by the cold of the middle Region where finding no cloud strong enough to uphold it 't is inflam'd by the antiperistasis of its contrary or the swift motion of its fall by reason of its great heat and siccity And as they proceed from the same cause as dry winds do so they presage winds and drought especially in that quarter from whence they fall But as for the other sorts I conceive they are only lights and not fires For the Air being transparent and the first subject of Whiteness as Aristotle saith hath likewise in it self some radical light which is sustein'd by that of the Stars which shine in the night And this whiteness of the Air is prov'd by the appearance of it when t is enclos'd in moist bodies as in froth snow and crystal which whitness is very symbolical to light which it preserves and congregates as is seen by the same snow in a very dark night Yea to speak plainly whiteness is nothing else but light extinct luminous bodies appearing white neer a greater light and white luminous in darkness So 't is possible that the thinner parts of the Air being inclos'd in these unctuous vapours they appear enlightned and shining as well by reason of the condensation of its body as the inequality of its surfaces like a diamond cut into several facets or as the Stars appear luminous only by being the denser parts of their Orbs. And this kind of light has been seen upon the heads of children whose moister brain exhal'd a vapour proper for it such also as that is which forms the Will-i'th'-Wisp which may also proceed from the reflection of the Star-light from the Sea or Rocks For That two of these fires bode good to Seamen and one ill is but one of the superstitions of Antiquity unless you think that the greater number of fires argues greater purity of the Air and consequently less fear of tempest The Third said He accounted the common opinion more solid which teacheth two material principles of all Meteors Vapour and Exhalation but one and the same efficient the heat of the Sun which lifts the thinner parts of the water in a vapour and those of the earth in an exhalation the former hot and moist the latter hot and dry borrowing their heat from an extraneous heat but
countenance Yet besides this change of the natural colour which is red it hath divers other symptomes whereof the chief are a perverse appetite call'd Malacia or Pica Nauseousness Tension of the Hypochondres faintings and palpitations of the heart difficulty of breathing sadness fear languishing weakness and heaviness of all the members an oedematous humour or bloatiness of the feet and the whole face of which accidents those of the alteration of colour being the most perceptible and the pathognomonical signes of this disease have with the vulgar given the denomination to it This malady is not to be sleighted as people imagine being sometimes so violent that the peccant humours being carri'd to the head render the Maidens distracted and mad yea sometimes they dye suddenly of it the heart and its vital faculty being stifled and oppress'd by it For this symptome hurts not only the functions of one part or faculty but invades the whole oeconomy causing an evil habit which degenerates into a Dropsie especially that which the Physitians call Leucophlegmatia or Anasarca when the flesh like a spunge imbibes and attracts all the aqueous and excrementitious humidities The antecedent and prime cause of this malady is the suppression of the menstrual blood the conjunct and proximate is the collection of crude and vicious humours in all the parts of the body which they discolour Now when the blood which serves in women for the principle of generation becomes burdensom to nature either by its quantity or its quality which happens commonly at the age of puberty she expells it by the vessels of the womb which if they be stop'd that blood mingled for the most part with many other excrementitious humours which it carries along with it as torrents do mud returns the same into the trunk of the hollow Vein from thence into the Liver Spleen Mesentery and other Entrails whose natural heat it impairs and hinders their natural functions as concoction and sanguification and so is the cause of the generating of crude humours which being carried into all the parts of the body are nevertheless assimilated and so change their natural colour Of which causes which beget those obstructions in the Vessels of the Matrix the chief are a phlegmatick and viscous blood commonly produc'd by bad food as Lime Chalk Ashes Coals Vinegar Corn and Earth which young Girles purposely eat to procure that complexion out of a false perswasion that it makes them handsomer Yet this malady may happen too from a natural conformation the smalness and closeness of the aforesaid Vessels whence the fat and phlegmatick as the pale are are more subject to it then the lean and brown The Second said 'T is an opinion so universally receiv'd that the Green-sickess comes from Love that those who fight under his Standards affect this colour as his liveries But 't is most appropriate to Maidens as if nature meant to write in their faces what they so artificially conceal and supply for their bashfulness by this dumb language Whereunto their natural Constitution conduecs much being much colder then that of men which is the cause that they beget abundance of superfluous blood which easily corrupts either by the mixture of some humour or for want of free motion like standing waters and inclos'd air and infects the skin the universal Emunctory of all the parts but especially that of the face by reason of its thinness and softness And as obstructions are the cause so opening things are the remedies of this malady as the filings of Steel prepar'd Sena Aloes Myrrhe Safron Cinamon roots of Bryony and Birth-worth Hysope wild Mecury the leaves and flowers of Marigold Broom flowers Capers c. The Third said That the vulgar opinion that all Green-sickness is from Love is a vulgar errour For though the Poet writes that every Lover is pale yet hatred causes paleness too and the consequence cannot be well made from a passion to a habit Besides little Girles of seven and eight years old are troubled with this disease and you cannot think them capable of love no more then that 't is through want of natural purgation in others after the age of puberty for women above fifty yeers old when that purgation ceases have something of this malady Yea men too have some spices of it sometimes and yet the structure of their parts being wholly different from that of females allows not the assigning of the same cause in both Yea did the common conceit hold good that those who have small vessels and as such capable of obstruction are most subject to it yet the contrary will follow to what is inferr'd to their prejudice For they will be the less amorous because the lesser vessels have the lesser blood which is the material cause of Love to which we see sanguine complexions are most inclin'd II. Of Hermaphrodites Upon the second Point 't was said That if Arguments taken from the name of the thing be of good augury Hermaphrodites must have great advantage from theirs as being compounded of the two most agreeable Deities of Antiquity Mercury or Hermes the Courtier of the Gods and Venus or Aphrodite the Goddess of Love to signifie the perfection of both sexes united in one subject And though 't is a fiction of the Poets that the Son begotten of the Adultery of Mercury and Venus was both male and female as well as that of the Nymph Salmacis who embrac'd a young man who was bathing with her so closely that they became one body yet we see in Nature some truth under the veil of these Fables For the greatest part of insects and many perfect animals have the use of either sex As the Hyaena by the report of Appian one year do's the office of a male and the next of a female as the Serpent also doth by the testimony of Aelian and as Aristotle saith the Fish nam'd Trochus and 't is commonly said that the Hare impregnates it self Pliny mentions some Nations who are born Hermaphrodites having the right breast of a Man and the left of a Woman Plato saith that Mankind began by Hermaphrodites our first Parents being both Male and Female and that having then nothing to desire out of themselves the Gods became jealous of them and divided them into two which is the reason that they seek their first union so passionately and that the sacred tye of Marriage was first instituted All which Plato undoubtedly learn'd out of Genesis For he had read where 't is said before Eves formation or separation from Adam is mention'd That God created Man and that he created Male and Female The Second said That Natural Reason admits not Hermaphrodites for we consider not those who have onely the appearances of genital parts which Nature may give them as to Monsters two Heads four Arms and so of the other parts through the copiousness of matter but those who have the use and perfection of the same which consists in Generation For Nature having
motion we must first discover their nature which is the principle of motion Now the particular nature of every thing is unknown to all men as well as the proportion of the mixture of their substances whereon their occult properties depend as the manifest qualities do on the mixtion of their first qualities which we are wont to call manifest not but that the reason of them is as difficult as of the rest but because they are more ordinary Which indeed has caus'd us to give them the name e. g. of lightness to the fire heaviness to the earth though no person has hither to assign'd the cause thereof Give but a name to this quality which the Iron hath of moving towards the Load-stone it will be as manifest as the motive virtue which carries a stone towards its centre We may indeed alledge the final cause of both and say in general that 't is the good of the thing mov'd that sets it in motion or on the contrary the good of the thing whereunto it tends that moves and attracts it but the formal cause which we here inquire is equally unknown The Sixth said That Iron is carri'd to the Load-stone as to its good and as the stone to its centre and hence it is that the Iron turns towards the North which is the native place of the Magnet For being a natural not a violent motion the motive faculty must be in the Iron which moves it self the goodness of the object attracting only by a metaphorical motion which supposes a motive faculty in the thing mov'd CONFERENCE LII I. Of a Point II. Whether other Animals besides Man have the use of Reason I. Of a Point IF it be true that there are more wonders in a Hand-worm then in an Elephant because all the faculties which are extended and have their manifest causes and instruments in the latter are found compendiously Epitomiz'd in the former and as it were independent of their organs there will be more wonders in a Point then in all the rest of the bodies which are compos'd of it Indeed there 's nothing so small as a Point and yet 't is the object of most Sciences Grammar treats of the Point of distinction Natural Philosophy of the Point of reflection and that which serves for the Centre of the Earth Astrology of the vertical points Zenith and Nadir and makes use of them to compute the motions of the Celestial Bodies Geography hath its four Cardinal Points All Sciences and Arts borrow this word to give some order to the things whereof they treat Lastly it serves for a principle to Geometry which begins its first Propositions with it And because if we believe Plato every beginning is divine a Point which is the principle of a line as this is of a surface this of a body an instant of time and an unite of number hath something of Divinity which Trismegistus for that reason calls a Centre or Point whose Circumference is no where and therefore they who hear us speak of a Point must not think that it is of an inconsiderable matter The Second said Although much is not to be argu'd from our manner of speaking in which the word Point with us French signifies a negation yet it seems to imply that if it be something it wants but little of being nothing For to speak truth a Point is the mean which is found between nothing and something 'T is not an accident for it doth not betide befall or arrive to a substance but is before and inseparable from the same Nor is it a substance since a substance is infinitely divisible but a Point is that which hath no parts that is to say is indivisible We cannot compare it to an instant in respect of time for the time past hath been instant or present and the future shall be so but a Point is not and never shall be a quantity nor to a Unite in regard of Number since Number is made of Unites and an Unite added to the greatest number whatever renders the same yet greater whereas a hundred Millions of of Points together make but a Point because that which hath no quantity of it self cannot give any Nevertheless 't is most probable that a Point exists really since 't is the foundation of all other quantities and two Spheres exactly round touch one another but in a Point The Third said As there is no mean between contradictories so neither can there be any between nothing and something Entity and Non entity Now a Point being the term of a line and every where in it must consequently be some thing Yea I maintain that it is a body and divisible by this argument One sole Being is not finite to wit the Creator all others to wit the Creatures and every part of them are finite Every finite thing is compos'd of parts being compos'd of ends or extremities and a middle For it would be as ridiculous to say that a thing is finite with out ends as to say that a thing is long without length or hot without heat A mathematical point is a finite thing Therefore 't is compos'd of parts To say that it is finite negatively and not positively cannot hold For as every mensurable solid is compos'd of and terminated by Mathematical surfaces these by lines and lines by points so a point is compos'd of and terminated by its ends which are its parts and extremities these again being compos'd of parts external and internal are also finite and consequently divisible to infinity Therefore a Point is not finite by negation which is nothing since nothing is not the term of a Point Neither is it terminated by it self since every thing is bounded by some term which is without it and if nothing cannot measure it self much less can it bound or perfect it self For 't is so true that every solid how small soever is divisible to infinity that the Naturalists maintain that if by Divine Omnipotence Humane and Angelical power being too short a grain of Millet should be divided into a hundred millions of parts every moment from the Creation to the end of the World the progression would never come to an Indivisible Point This is justifi'd by the Section of a Circle or Globe For if the Diametre of a Circle be divided into two equal parts the Centre of it which is a point will be semblably into two equal parts for it must not be all on one side otherwise the division would be unequal nor must it be turn'd into nothing since 't is not possible for any thing to be annihilated naturally But if those two Semidiametres were re-united as at first the two parts of the divided Point would be rejoyn'd into one point which would make the Centre again In like manner if a Globe perfectly round touch'd a perfect plain all agree that it would be in a Mathematical point which is not indivisible For the point of the plain hath parts since it hath