all men are subject once to die and in that all men are alike Neverthelesse there is difference in the terms of life for one liveth longer and another a shorter time and yet according to Job the time of our life is measured and it is not possible for man to passe the bounds which God hath set and determined for our life Things standing so as indeed they are it will not be amisse to understand that which causes in the life of man why one liveth longer than another and what complexions makes best for a long life and lastly how we shall understand that where it is said that our daies are numbred and determined and that it is not possible to go beyond that which are obscure and difficult points and understood but of few people To understand therefore that which concerns the length of our life We must presuppose in the first place that the life of man and the maintenance of the humane body consists in the accord and harmony of the four elements or elementary qualities whereof it is composed That is to say hot cold moist and dry And expressely in the proportionable harmony of heat and moisture which Aristotle well demonstrates who makes onely mention of the agreement of these two qualities for the continuance of man So we see by experience that man fails not so long as he hath naturall heat for this heat is the principall instrument that maintains the vegetative spirit And indeed the life of man consists in no other thing than in maintaining the Instruments and Organs of the Soul amongst which naturall heat holds by good right the first rank For this heat is so necessary for thâ— maintenance of a humane body that it failing the soul is constrained to forsake the body and put an end to the life of that man And because this naturall heat holds of fire which consumes of its own nature all that it meets withall it is convenient to oppose it by an other contrary quality for the preservation of inferiour bodies For this cause God placed the Radicall or naturall moisture with this naturall heat to nourish and maintain it even as the fire is nourished and maintained with oil And because this Radicall moisture consumes and diminishes daily to maintain the same all living creatures must drink and eat that so by that means the moisture caused by that digestion may supply the default of nature But seeing that as Aristotle saith the moisture caused of that digestion is never so perfect as the Radicall and naturall although it serve much to maintain it of necessity this Radicall moisture diminisheth daily for the accidentall moisture caused by digestion is never so perfect as the Radicall which is vanished and by this means vanishing totally the naturall heat is lost and the body finisheth its end for if the Radicall moisture caused of this digestion were as perfect as the naturall moisture which is vanished man would live endlesly as Divines say who maintain that the nature of the Tree of life which God placed in the earthly Paradice consisted principally in this that eating of its fruit it restored the Radical moisture which would have been lost and vanished From thence it came that this Tree was prohibited to Adam and Eve after they were driven out of Paradice But if our first Parents had continued in their originall righteousness they and their Posterity eating of the fruit of that Tree would have lived eternally in flourishing youth without tasting corruption or old age untill God had glorified their bodies without passing through the gate of death But seeing that humane Race lost this Prerogative by sin which hath brought in death into the world it is no marvell if this offence be stamped upon us Now to return to our discourse I say the life lasts longer or shorter according as heat and Radicall moisture are concordant and proportionable For those in whom these qualities meet most tempered and best proportioned live longest And not those in whom the said qualities most abound From thence it comes that we see many smal creatures who have but little heat and moisture live longer than those that are greater and abound more in the said qualities which happens as well to Trees as men So that we may say long life consists in the temperature and just proportion of heat and moisture which failing the company that is to say life is dissolved and lost For when heat surpasseth moisture it consumes in a short time the whole body as we may see in chollerick men On the contrary when by excessive moisture the heat is extinguished as we see in phlegmatick persons the like happens By this neuerthelesse we must not understand that there ought to be as much moisture as heat But it is meet that the proportion be observed that is to say that the heat surpasse the moisture proportionably For a thing active hath no great power to work upon an other if it exceed not the thing passive which Aristotle covertly demonstrates when he saith that amongst the two qualities before spoken of there ought to be some litle coldnesse mingled to moderate the heat of the Radicall fire that it may not wholly consume the naturall moisture And that drought is also requisite to drie up the Radicall moisture that it may not quench the naturall fire as we see it often happens to little children who die of too much moisture Yet amongst these four qualities the hot and the moist are held for the principals as being vitall complexions and causing life As for the cold and the dry although they serve greatly for the preservation of life yet nevertheless we hold these two qualities to be the entrance to and beginning of death For cold is an enemy to heat in which principally consists the point of life And drought is opposite and contrary to moisture which nourisheth nevertheless the naturall heat So we may see in old folks which become dry and cold when they approach near unto death nay even in all dead bodies which ordinarily are dry and cold Man then Heaven working this good temperature ought to season his complexion amongst these four qualities in such sort that he maintain the heat in the first place and after that the moisture making the cold and the dry to serve according to their function and quarter Even so those that find themselves not thus proportionably temperate are naturally short lived See here then the causes of long and short life It rests now to speak of which is the best complexion to shew long life In the first place then we must note that of the four complexions in man to wit cholerick sanguine phlegmatick and melancholy the sanguine is the best to cause a man to live long For the bloud is hot and moist which qualities are proper to maintain life Also its moisture is not waterish but airy being hot and moist and sorts with the sanguine complexion And so this Sanguine Complexion
in their Histories that write of it I find written more that in that street upon the ground there is an Image of stone that represents the Birth of a Child and the Death of that impudent and brazen faced woman Whence we must know though that did come to pass as is before recited during the time this woman held the world in abuse the Church was not maimed in Faith because in it could not be wanting the Head Christ from whom proceeds the influence of all Grace and the utmost effects of the Sacraments by means of which Head the Sacraments have not been wanting to them that received them holily and by a lively faith for Christ supplied this want in them by his Grace And put the case that this woman nor no other could be capable to receive or give any one onely Character of Orders nor absolve any person and that therefore they that have been made Ministers by her hands must be ordained a new yet it is so that Christ supplying that default in them by his grace as we have said there is no further need to do it over again the truth is she was for her wisedome to be admired in that she could for so many years cover her estate and live after that close manner But that which made Theodosia Empress of Constanninople is not lesse to be admired because the wit the one used to counterfeit her self a man the other used to make known to all that she was a woman for in the vacancy of the Empire by the death of her brother Zoe and of her husband Constantine then made a Monk she knew so well how to behave her self in the carrying through of affairs she became Empress and for the same was feared and obeyed For without the help either of father or brother or husband she governed the Empire excellently in peace and prosperity for the space of two years and no more because she lived no longer and died to the grief of all her subjects in the time of Pope Leo the ninth in the year of grace one thousand and fifty CHAP. VIII Why man goes upright why he weigheth more fasting than when he hath eaten and the cause why he weighteth more dead than alive with other pretty discourses THe contemplative matters concerning the composition of man are infinite Lactantius Firmian writes a book of them apart And so have other learned men In truth there is one thing amongst many others that deserves particular consideration to be known that is why God hath made all other creatures except man who is born the chief whose eyes for the most part look downwards towards the earth and not onely reasonable creatures but also vegitables as we see of Trees who have their head and foundation in the earth and their boughs and branches above as for man he hath created him onely with his eys towards heaven his face upwards and his body streight up And although by all reason for these things it were sufficient to alledge the will of God yet it seems this was done by a Mystery and therefore worthy of contemplation so in truth our disposing or making manifestly shews us that we were not born for the earth but we were created to contemplate high and heavenly things which are not communicated to other creatures not being capable of them and there is none but man onely that is worthy of them God hath created all beasts with their head downward to shew that man onely reigns over them One of these reasons is eloquently noted by Lactantius saying that God having determined to make man for heaven and other creatures for earth he made man streight and upright and disposed to heavenly contemplation that he might admire the effects and have in reverence the place of his originall and his native Country making all other creatures low and bowing towards the earth because they have no participation in heaven Aristotle that had no light of faith saith That man onely amongst all creatures goes up-right in respect that his substance and his parts are Celestiall and not Terrestial And the Office of the spirits is knowledge and understanding in which man could not well know how to exercise if his body were great and weighty because the charge of his body would make his understanding dull Learned St. Thomas who forgot not to discuss and to examine any thing leaves not this question undetermined for in the exposition of youth and age he saith that for two causes man was formed upright towards heaven The one that he might be the most perfect of all creatures and he which participates and comes nearest to the quality of heaven The other because in the proportion of his body he is more hot then any other creature and that the nature of heat is to advance upward other creatures keep the mean as less participating of the heavenly quality and having lesse of this heat which raiseth up For this cause they are not of the same work and disposition as man It seems in this St. Thomas would follow the opinion of the Platonists maintaining that the heat and the spirit of man in which be abounds more than any other creature considering the proportion of his body is the cause that man goeth upright and streight as he doth because by the force and vigour of the spirits the bloud he lifts himself upright being helped by the composition and harmony of the Elements whereof man is composed with such equality weight that he may lift up himself Now something is in it seeing that by that part of the soul this of the body men are put forward to the love and contemplation of heaven they ought then to consider and think of high spirituall and good things and on the contrary to despise and shun low base and earthly things And yet neverthelesse we leave our selves so to be overcome with the cares of this life and earthly considerations that most of our time we lift up our eys to heaven but our spirits and thoughts are on the earth As for the propriety of the spirit of man whereof we have spoken Plinie alledges one thing more which though it be not of such importance as the rest yet it may give a tast of satisfaction to him that knows it not or would not have thought so much though experience manifests it daily He saith that a man when he is dead weigheth more than when he was alive and that it is so in all kind of creatures and that he that hath eaten his break-fast weighs lesse than when he was fasting Erasmus in one of his Problemes saith as much and other things of note giving the same reasons that Plinie doth which are founded in the essence of thespirits and the air which doth lighten them as we said before So likewise a man that is fasting weighs more than a man that hath eaten something although one would think he should weigh less forasmuch as he that hath eaten
THE WONDERS Of the World OR Choise Observations and Passages concerning the beginning continuation and endings of Kingdomes and Commonwealths With an exact division of the several Ages of the World and the most remarkable passages and memorable accidents that have come to pass therein Also divers weighty grounds and reasons both from Scripture and natural experience why men lived longer in former Ages then at this present With the seven several ages of men The opinions of divers great Emperours and Kings touching the person of Christ and the life of mankinde with the strange events that have befaln several of them Also a discovery of divers creatures bred in the Sea and other obscure places of the World retaining the similitude and likeness of men and women Together with the miserable death that befel Pontius Pilate after that he had condemned our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The place of his birth and burial and how he appears once every year in the said place in the shape and likeness of a Judge A Work very profitable and necessary for all Written originally in Spanish translated into French and now made English by that pious and learned Gentleman JOSHUA BAILDON Imprimatur John Downam London Printed for John Andrews at the white Lion in the Old Baily 1656. The WONDERS Of the VVORLD Discovering Many secret Rarities that have been hidden since the Creation CHAP. I. Why men lived longer in former ages than now in these days ALL those that are studious in Divine Writ may read that in the time of the first age and before that for sin a generall Deluge came over the earth mans life then was longer than it is at this present It is certain that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years Seth nine hundred and twelve Cain nine hundred and ten And descending from the one unto the other the shortest of their lives was seven hundred years and in these times we see few attain to fourscore or ninety years and if some one passe that it is rare and marvellous so that we come not to the tenth of the age of former men The learned either Divines or Philosophers who have discoursed thereupon seeing that nature that brings us forth now is the same that it was in times past and that those first men lived so long by nature and not miracle became astonied thereat and have curiously searched out the causes and reasons as Marcus Varro and an infinite number of others who have found these things so difficult in natures appearance that they have thought the years in ancient times not to be the same with ours in these modern times which opinion and belief is a great and vain errour as will be made appear in this following Chapter The truth is when I see the works of others and descend to that which agrees with my opinion that the principall reason why men live not so long now a days as formerly is that the Ancients had not in their times the causes that engender now in us those diseases whereby comes so soon old age and death Then we must consider that the first Parents of all humane linnage Adam and Eve were created by the immediate hand of God without any other means or help and therfore it is presumed that he created them of a most excellent complexion perfect Sympathie and proportion of humours which caused them to live in health so long and many years By means whereof the children that proceed from Parents so full of health must needs resemble their Progenitors in the same good and healthful complexion as men descended of excellent matter even till the change of ages the property whereof is to change and impair all things all humane kind began to grow weaker and the days of men to grow shorter Now in those times there was one thing that made much toward their long life which in these times is very hurtfull and contrary to us which was their great temperance in drink both in quality and quantitie and the small varietie of meats for they had not of so many sorts as now we have nor with so many inventions of cooking We do nor find that before the Deluge men knew what it was to eat flesh besides some hold it for certain that the fruits and hearbs were of far greater virtue and substance without comparison than now they are because then they proceeded out of new earth and not as it is at this day weak weary and as it were fallow for the Deluge was the cause of taking away its fat leaving it more infertile with a salt savour lesse perfect by the inundation of the Sea which floted for many weeks over it All these reasons are and every one of them sufficient however there are more if they were all put together to prove that this is no strange thing but naturall that men lived longer then than in these times Moreover it is to be noted and we hold it for certain that Adam knew all the virtues of Hearbs Plants and precious Stones and his children learned from him more than any man could learn since This was in part for health and the support of life and to cure diseases if peradventure any should happen by using such remedies as were simple and perfect and leaving out venemous compositions used in these present times the which instead of purging and cleansing weaken and kill those that take them and which is more in those former times the life and health of man was more supported and helped by the course of the heavens and influence of the Stars more benevolent in those times than they are now because they had not passed so many aspects conjunctions eclipses and other celestiall impressions from whence are proceeded these alterations variations and changes upon the earth and amongst the elements principall occasions of life and health in those former times and on the contrary infirmities and death in these But above all that that we have said and founded upon naturall reason I maintain that the cause of the long life of men in those days proceeded from the providence of God who would have their lives such and that the occasions aforesaid might help one the other to the end that onely of two might be bred many that the earth might be filled and human kind multiplied So we see that men not living so long after the Deluge as before God suffered them to go into the ark and so saved more men and women then he did create at the first to the end that the world might be replenished more easily St. Augustine speaking of these things sayeth That our fore-Fathers had the advantage of us not onely in health and long life but also in stature of body as it is evident in many Sepulchres and bones which have been found under great Mountains so that one may verily believe they were the bones of men living before the Deluge The same St. Augustine affirms that being in Vtica a Town in
have writ hereof is true or very likely Plinie and Varro speaking of the time of mans life affirm that the learned Egyptians knew by experience that man according to the order of nature could not live above a hundred years and if any one happen to live longer it is by some particular influence and force of the stars and a thing marvellous in nature Of this they took their ground from the heart of man in which by an Anotomy they have found experimentally marvellous secrets For they say at the age of one year the heart of man weighs two of their draghms at the age of two year four and so many years as he lives so many two draghms the heart encreases so that attaining to fifty years the heart weighs a hundred draghms And from that time afterwards it diminisheth its weight every year two draghms as before it did increase So that in a hundred years the heart annihilates it self and the body dies if by some other accident it be not advanced sooner for there are so many accidental causes which may and commonly cause death that there are few men arrive half the way to make this experience If this thing seem strange to some of us yet the Egyptians hold it for certain according to divers Authors and some as Lewis Caelius alledging Diescorides to have spoken much of this amongst other notable things as also Peter Crinit in his book of honest discipline and Cornelius Agrippa I scite all these Authors because it is a thing hard to be believed Let every one then give what credit to it seems good to himself And now we are treating of the heart of man and of so many excellencies that are in it we will not speak of one alone we must understand according to Aristoâ—le that man onely hath the heart placed on the left side and that all other creatures have it in the middest of the breast which he affirms in the first book of the nature of beasts Also this is the common opinion of all naturall Philosophers That the first part which is formed in man is the heart as the root of all the members in a humane body fountain of all naturall heat and the last member that dies in man and looses its motion It is so noble and delicate a member that it cannot be touched but it is present death Plinie recites an other wonder which happens some times saying that men have been fonnd to have the heart hairy and he that hath it so is very valiant and strong of disposition which was experimented in Aristomines who killed with his own hand in battell three hundred Lacedemonians who afterwards having escaped many dangers by his great valour at last died and being opened his heart was found hairy Suetonus in the life of Caligula and Plinie also saith that if a man die of poison his heart cannot burn although you throw it in the fire which was verified by the heart of Germanicus father of Caligula So it fareth with them that die of the disease called the Cardiague or griping at the heart And we must know that among the pellicles of the heart is the seat of laughter and to this purpose the ancient Historians write that the Roman-Gladiators having by any blow the caul or pellicles of the heart strook died laughing But even as laughter and joy proceeds from the heart so melancholy proceeds from thence and likewise good and evill thoughts Speech is procreated there and divers are of opinion that it is the principall seat and residence of the soul which seems to be confirmed by Christ himself when he says that wicked and evill thoughts proceed from the heart And that which enters in at the mouth soils not for those are indifferent things So venerable Bede in his Commentaries upon Saint Mark saith The chiefest place of the soul is not in the Brain as Plato maintains but in the hearr as our Saviour Christ saith CHAP. VII Of two Women the one of which in the habit of a man was made Pope the other Empresse I Beleeve many have heard of a woman Pope But because peradventure all know not by what means and that it was one of the strangest things that could happen amongst men I will here speak of it as it is extracted out of very true Histories She was born in England and in her youth grew acquainted with a learned man of whom perceiving her self to be beloved and she loved him no lesse took the habit of a man and named her self Iohn and forsaking her Countrey went along to dwell with him in the Town of Athens where then flourished the Schools with all manner of Learning and there lived some time where by her industry she attained to so much Learning that afterwards retiring her self to Rome she read publickly in the Schools in the habit of a Doctor By which readings and publick disputes she so gained the opinion of the Auditors that she was reputed one of the most Learnedst men of all her time and obtained such favour and authority among all that in the vacancie of the Apostolick Chair by the death of Leo the fourteenth of that name in the year of our Lord Eight hundred fifty two being taken for a man she was chosen Great Bishop of Rome and Universal Pope in the Church of God and kept that Chair two years and thirty odde days But being in this estate as happens always to such ill enterprises not having care of the preservation of her Chastitie had the company of one of her Favourite Serviteurs in whom she trusted most in so much that Madam the Pope proved with Child Nevertheless she hid her great belly with such care that none but her Minion could know any thing of it Howsoever God would not suffer such wickedness to last long nor go unpunished for as she went along according to the common solemnity to visit Saint Iean de Lateran her time of bearing being come she had publick correction for her secret sin for comming near to a certain place which is between the Church of Saint Clement and the Theatre improperly called Colliseus she was delivered with great pain of a humane creature which died incontinently with the Mother so both of them together without any Pomp or mourning were put into the ground and buried And for that cause the common opinion is that all the Soveraign Bishops that have been ever since come short of that place and when they come near it turn down another street in detestation of so horrible an offence And when they choose a Pope they set him upon a thing like a Close-stool pierced through that they may secretly know whether him that the choose be a male Many Authors write of this but I find not one that assures it Platinus onely writes of the Election of Popes ever since as is before recited Of all the Authors there is Martin and Platin in the Life of Popes and Sabollicus and St. Anthony
One may gather as much out of the words of Aristotle which saith The Viper onely amongst other Serpents makes her young ones for first she forms them in her body of egs as fishes spawn then having formed them they remain three days wrapped up in a tender thâ—â— skin which in due time breaks and sets the little ones at liberty because of which Apuleus in his apologie calls them Oviperes and not Vipers that is bred of egs And many times it comes to passe that this tender skin breaking in the belly of the Viper they come forth every day one even to the number of above twenty these are the words of Aristotle In another place in the third book of beasts he saith speaking of the bringing forth of Serpents The Viper before she brings forth little ones forms the egs within her And I think from thence proceeds this opinion who say that the little ones eat themselves out of the belly of the Viper For it hath seemed to them which maintain it that when Aristotle spoke of this first coming forth they would have it that they brake and gnawed the belly of the Viper Now leaving this discourse I say the Viper as venemous as she is gives succour and help to man Diascorides saith that the flesh of a Viper sodden or dressed may be eaten safely and that it is very medicinable for the Nerves and for the fight And to dress him to eat you must cut off the head the tail then the skin being taken off and well prepared boil him in oil and wine with good store of Aniseeds He saith also that of this flesh is made a kind of salt or pouder which gives a good appetite and is prepared in this manner Take a new earthen pot and put the flesh of the Viper in it dressed as before then put in salt and figs stamped with a competent quantity of Hony and the pot being well covered set it to bake a long time in an oven till it may be beaten and brought to a powder And whosoever afterwards would use it with other meats will find it very profitable and savoury Paul Egenetta saith that the flesh of the Viper is singular good for Lepers and Lazers and for that purpose esteems much of the salt forespoken of Plinie saith there is a certain nation in the Indies that eat Vipers Diascorides saith also that those that use to eat of the flesh of Vipers live long and in health Against the biting of this beast there are many remedies But Theophrastus names one saying that to him which is bit with a Viper melodie and musick help much Galen saith that the beast eats not all the time of winter and that she keeps her self as dead hid in the earth and then if you find her touch her or handle her she bites not and when Summer comes she recovers her force again So much Plinie reports of Lisards Snakes and all other sorts of creeping Serpents Aristotle saith they keep themselves so hidden in the earth three or four moneths without eating any thing Elian saith that the Vipers which breed in the Province of Arabia although they bite their teeth are not venemous because they eat Baum and lie under the shade of it And Aristotle saith they are very desirous to drink wine and that many people take them by putting vessels of wine in places where they haunt and so they make themselves drunk then they take them sleeping There are other things to be said of the quality and property of the Viper which I leave for brevities sake CHAP. XXVII Of the admirable property of a little beast whose biting is cured by the sound of musick and also of some ather infirmities that are cured by the same means THat which is said in the former Chapter by the authority of Theophrastus that the biting of the Viper may be cured with the sound of musick will make that which we shall speak now more credible Alexander of Alexandria and Piere Gilie a modern Author affirm and say that in Poville a country in Italy therâ— is a kind of Spider which those of that country call Tatantola and some Phalange which in the beginning of Summer are so venemous that whosoever is bitten of them if he have not help presently he looses his sences and dies and if any escape death they are sencelesse and totally not themselves For which evil experience hath a remedie which is musick that which these Authors say is as a testimony of their own experience as eye-witnesses who say that as soon as any one is bitten they send presently for one that can play upon the Vian or Flute or some other instrument which play and sing divers lessons which being heard by him that is strucken by the venemous Spider he begins to dance and stir as if all his life time he had been accustomed to dancing in which sury and force of dancing he continues till the venome be dissipated and wasted And this Alexander saies that he hath seen that one that hath been wounded with this beast hath continued so long in dancing till the Musitians have been all weary and ceased and the poor dancer fall to the ground as dead having lost his strength but as soon as they began to play again he saw the poor sick man raise himself anew and begin to dance with as much force as before even untill the wound was entirely cured He saith yet further that if it happen that one that had not been well cured by Musick a short time after hearing instruments of Musick began to stir their feet and were forced to dance even till they were cured which truly is wonderfull in nature A sclepiades writes that singing and a soft sound of musick is a great help to those that are Frantick We read also that Esmineas the Thebean hath cured divers diseases and maladies by a sweet soft noise of Flutes Theophrastus and Aulus Gelius say that musick appeaseth the pain of the Sciatica and the Gout Again we find in the holy Scripture that David with musick cast out the evill spirit out of Saul Such is the great effect that proceeds from the cause of the great amity that the nature of man bears to musick And if we well consider we shal not find it strange that divers infirmities are cured by the means of musick forasmuch as we see that there are some beasts that kill laughing others weeping and others sleeping As Plutarch writes to Cleopatre CHAP. XXVIII Of a strange medicine wherewith Faustina was cured of dishonest love And of divers other remedies against that passion THat the affection and prison of the mind which is ordinarily called Love is a strong passion and of great effect in the soul let us ask of such men which by experience have known it and of such of whom examples are notorious namely of very excellent personages that have suffered their wills to have been transported even so far that some of
of time even to the bottome of the water till the child made a sign to rise again In this solace and sport they spent many daies during which the Dolphin came every day to present himself to the brink of the Sea But at one time the child being naked swimming in the Sea and getting upon the Dolphin willing to hold fast one of the sharp pricks in the Fin of the Dolphin run into his belly which wounded him so that the child died immediately in the water which the Dolphin perceiving and seeing the bloud and the child dead upon his back he swam presently to the shore and as though he would punish himself for this fault swimming in great fury he leaped out of the water carrying with him as well as he could the dead child which he so much loved and died upon the shore with him This very thing is recited by Plinie and others with examples of Dolphins which have born love to men And particularly he saith that in the time of the Emperour Octavian another Dolphin in the same manner took love to a child upon the Sea-coast near to Pusoll and that every time this child called Simon they say this fish will run at that name it came presently to the Sea brink the child mounted upon the back of it and the Child was carried into the sea as little away as he would and brought back again safe He saith also that this child dying by accident of sicknesse and the Dolphin coming divers times to the accustomed place not finding the child there died also Plinie the second Nephew to the great Plinie recites marvellous things of the Dolphin in his ninth book of his Epistles in an Epistle which begins thus Incidi in materiam veram c CHAP. XXX Why Snow being covered with straw it preserves it in its coldnesse and hot water in its heat seeing they are two contrary effects by one and the same thing with some other secrets TO men of wit and lovers of the contemplation of the works of nature there shall not any thing present it self though never so slight or of little worth but they will find something of note in it which may yield them content when they have found it out We may find many men that if we should ask them the reason and what is the cause that Snow being covered with straw is preserved a long time in its cold nature of Snow without melting they could not tell what to say To this Alexander Aphrodise an excellent Parepatetick answers That straw hath no manifest or known quality it is neither hot nor cold so that some have named it without any quality for this cause because it is so singularly temperate and delicate even to such a degree as we cannot say whether it be hot or cold and so easily converts it self unto the qualitie of the thing whereunto it is adjoined so that putting it upon snow which is cold the straw pertakes of the cold quality of it and by the means thereof aids and maintains the coldnesse of the Snow as a thing of one quality helped by another without heating it at all because it hath none so the Snow being accompanied with cold and defended from heat which the straw keeps from it preserves it self in the same being a long time and longer than if it were not covered with straw By the same reason it works a contrary effect in warm-water because being covered with straw the straw receiveth immediately the quality of heat from the water and being so heat it aids and keeps the water in its heat and defends and keeps away the air that would cool it By this reason we may understand and find out other dificulties and doubts which curious persons may put unto us like unto this We know well that besides our naturall and inward heat that which causeth heat in us in Summer is the air which in that season is much more hot then at any other times in the year so the hotter the air is the more we feel the heat If then it be so now cometh it that we find more coldnesse and freshnesse and lesse heat in giving our selves air in summer by fanning and moving it when Aristotle saith motion causeth greater heat so that the air by this agitation ought to be hot it self and heat us more than if it were left quiet and unmoved The cause proceeds from this that we have more heat in our bodies then there is in the air as well naturally as what the air worketh in us For the air coming freshly I say freshly because it is more temperate then our selves it something tempers us but being at rest about us it heats it self by our heat as we have said before of the straw it preserves nay augments this heat howbeit if it be agitated and often renewed in coming upon us more temperate than we are our selves this temperature and difference which we find of lesse heat moderates that which we have from our selves This is the answer that Alexander and Aristotle gives to this question We must notwithstanding observe and note That if the air be more hot than the heat which we have from our selves the agitation and fanning of that air will not be so good because we shall find greater heat by so doing So let us see now to come again to hot water If we put our hands into it we shall have much ado to keep them in yet if we hold our hands still we may endure it better than if we stir them up and down because the water which surrounds the cold hand tempers a little that which is about it but in stirring it in the water the water renews its heat and begets every time new force We may ask again Why is it hotter in June and althrough July the Sun being then farther from us than at the beginning of June when we are in the Solstice and longest daies in the year beats more right upon us with his rays To which Aristotle answers in the second of his Meteors that the heat of the Sun is not the cause nor do we feel it the more by being near to us but when it hath the longer time to be over us because in June July it hath had a longer time to draw near unto us so in declining it causes a greater heat for it heats again in its descent the part and track of the air which it had before heat by its rising CHAP. XXXI In what part of the Zodiack the Sun the Moon and the rest of the Planets were placed when they were made And which was the beginning of years and times AS the Philosopher saith men are naturally curious to know and again in this case such is their covetousness greedy desire of human understanding that they content not themselves alone with the things that they comprehend with ease But beyond that they search and strive with great presumption to know and understand