THE HISTORIE of Life and Death With Observations Naturall and Experimentall for the Prolonging of LIFE Written by the Right Honorable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount S. Alban LONDON Printed by I. Okes for Humphrey Mosley at the Princes Armes in Pauls Church-Yard 1638. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO THE Right Worshipfull Sr. EDWARD MOSLEY Knight his Majesties Atturny General of the Dutchey of Lancaster c. SIR THe Honourable Author of this History was such a miracle of Learning that Fancy striving to comprehend his Worth would be lost in Wonder and Amazement this Work of his retaining an affection to Grayes-Inne where the Author is and shall bee remembred by the Living and Posterity hath an originall ambition before it walk abroad into the World to visit Your Worship being a worthy Ornament of that Society that so Your respective entertainment may instruct the Envious and Ignorant Tribe to reverence rather than udge Honorable Personages and their Labours It will become mee onely to waite on the Imaginations of so great a Genius and while they converse with You in a nearer distance to acknowledge that Your Worships Name dignified with deserved Titles the Seales of vertue agreeing with mine only in Denomination made mee presume of Your Favour in accepting them and my Intention full of Service viceable respects hoping that verbum sat c. a word will bee sufficient to present this Oblation and the humble service Of Your Worships Honourer HUMPHREY MOSLEY TO THE Living and Posterity THE History of Life and Death being the last of sixe Monethly designations seemed worthy to bee preferred to bee the second in Publication because the least losse of time in a matter of so great utility should bee pretious for wee hope and desire that it may redound to the good of many and that noble Physitians raising their minds may not be wholly imployd in uncleane cures nor honoured only for necessity but become also the Stewards of Divine Omnipotency and Clemency in prolonging and renewing the life of Man especially since it may be done by safe convenient civill but untryed new waies and meanes For while 〈◊〉 Christians aspire and labour to come to the Land of Promise it will be a signe of Divine favour if our shoos and the garments of our frail bodies be here little worne in our iourney in the worlds wildernesse THE History of Life and Death The Accesse ANcient is the saying and complaint that Life is short and Art long Therefore our labours intending to perfect Arts should by the assistance of the Author of Truth and Life consider by what meanes the Life of man may be prolonged For long Life being an increasing heape of sinnes and sorrowes lightly esteemed of Christians aspiring to Heaven should not be dispised because it affoords longer opportunity of doing good Workes Moreover Amatus survived the other Disciples and many Fathers especially many holy Monkes and Hermites lived very long whereby it seemes that this blessing of long Life so often repeated in the Law was after our Saviours time lesse diminished then other earthly benedictions But the happinesse of long life is naturally desired although the meanes to attaine it through false opinions and vaine reports be hard to find the generall opinion of Physitians concerning Radicall mosture and Natural heat being deceiveable and the immoderate praise of Chymicall Medicines possessing others with failing hopes That which admits reparation remayning whole and sound in Essence may be eternally preserved as the Vestall Fire whereupon Physitians and Phylosophers perceiving that the bodies of living creatures being nourished repaired and refreshed grew old afterward and speedily perished they sought Death in an irreparable subject supposing Radicall moysture incapable of solid reparation from Infancy there being no just reparation but an unlike Addition sensibly by Age decayed and at last corrupted and dissolved This conceit of theirs was ignorant and vaine for young living creatures being all over and wholly repaired do by their increasing in quantity and growing better in quality shew that if the measure and manner of repairing decayed not the matter of repairing might be eternall But the 〈◊〉 in repairing proceeds from the unequall repairing of some parts sufficiently others hardly and badly in Age the bodies of men beginning thereby to undergoe Mezentius torment living in the embraces of the dead untill they dye and being easily repairable yet through some particular difficulty in restoring doe decay For spirits blood flesh and fatnesse are in the declining estate of Age easily repaired but there is much difficulty and danger in repairing the dry parts and fuller of pores as membranes tunicles nerves arteries veines gristles most of the bowels and all the organicall and instrumentall parts For when those parts that should performe their office to other actually reparable parts cannot being decayed in strength execute their office a generall ruine follows and parts naturally restoreable through defective Organs of Reparation doe decrease and decay For the spirit like a light flame continually feeds on bodies and the Ayre without conspiring therewith doth suck and dry the fabrick and instruments of the body which are thereby decayed and made unfit to performe the office of repairing And these are the true wayes whereby natur all Death approacheth deserving due consideration For how can Natures course if unknowne bee helped or prevented Therefore the meanes whereby the consumption or decay of mans body may be prevented and the repairing and restoring thereof furthered are most precious and worth knowing The spirits and ayre without are the chiefe causes of consumption and the generall progresse of Nourishment is the cause of restoration For the spirit within and the ayre without doe worke on dead bodies striving also to produce in living bodies the same effects though weakened and restrayned by the vitall spirits and partly by them increased For bodies without life doe a long while subsist and endure without Reparation but the life of creatures without due nourishment and reparation suddenly decayes and is extinguished like fire Therefore a two-fold search is required considering mans body as livelesse and unnourished and as living and nourished So much for the Preface proceeding now to the Topicks or common-places of the search Particular Places OR Poynts of Inquiry concerning Life and Death 1. OF Nature durable and lesse durable in liveles bodies and in Vegetables no copious or Legall but a summary briefe inquiry is made 2. Of the Drinesse Withering and Consumption of livelesse bodiesand Vegetables of their manner and progresse in working and also of hindring and staying of Drying Withering and Consumption and the preservation of the state of Bodies and also of Mollifying Softning and Reviving beginning to be affected with Drinesse make diligent inquiry 3. Yet no perfect exact inquiry is needfull concerning these poynts included under their proper Title of Duration and Continuance beeing not principall matters in this Inquiry but such as doe onely affoord light to prolonging and restoring of Life in
living Creatures subiect as is aforesayd to the same accidents butin a peculiar manner Afterward the inquiry proceedes from livelesse Creatures and Vegetables unto living Creatures and Man 4. Of long liv'd and shortliv'd living Creatures with the due circumstances causing their long lives enquire But the dureablenesse of Bodies being two-fold one in Identity or being the other in repayring of Vegetables and living Creatures perfected by nourishment therefore concerning nourishment and the wayes and progresse thereof enquire in the Title of Digestion and nourishment where they are particularly handled The inquiry proceeds from living Creatures to Man the principall subject whereof a more exact and perfect inquiry is needfull 5. Of the long Life of men in respect of the Ages of the World Countries Climates places of birth and Dwelling 6. Of the length and shortnesse of Life in men in regard of their stocke and Kindred and in respect of severall Complexions Constitutions shapes and statures of the Body measure and space of Growth and the making and proportion of the Limbes inquire 7. The long and short Life of Men is shewed by no Astrologicall inquiry but by common and evident Observations drawne from Births in the seaventh eight ninth and tenth Moneth by night or day and in what Moneth of the yeare 8. How Mans Life is lengthned and shortned by sustenance Dyet government of Life exercise and the like and by Ayre shewed in the aforesayd poynt of dwelling places 9. How Studdies kind of Life affections of the Soule and divers accidents doe shorten and lengthen the life of Man 10. Of Medicines prolonging life 11. The signes of a long and short life not denoting ensuing Death which belong to Physicall History but being in health apparent are observable by the Physiognomy and such others To the inartificiall inquiry of length and shortnesse of Life is added an Artificiall inquiry by ten practicall intentions being of three sorts and intending to stay Consumption to Repaire and Renew Age. 12. Preservatiues against drinesse and Consumption and to keep the body from drying and consuming 13. Of Nourishment and Digestion being Repairers of the body and how to improove and make them good 14. How to repaire and renew age and to soften and moisten hardnesse and drynesse 15. And because the way of death without knowing the seate house and den of death is hard to be knowne therefore these kinds of Death are declared which want and necessity whence consumption of Age proceeds not violence doe procure 16. Of the drawing neare of Death and the necessary not violent causes thereof 17. Lastly the lively character of Age describing the different state of the Body in youth and Age by their necessary Effects and Defects 18. Of the different state of the Body and abillities in Youth and in Age remayning undecayed NATVRE Durable The History MEttals are very durable and continue beyond al observation Age and Rust not perspiration making them decay but not Gold 2. Quick silver beeing a moyst and soft substance is easily rarified by the fire but without fire doth neither decay by Age nor gather Rust. 3. The harder sort of Stones and many Minerals though exposed in the open ayre are very durable much more lying in the earth Stones gather a kind of solder insteed of Rust but pearles and Christall though their clearenesse decay through age are more durable then Mettals Stones on the Northside of Pyramids Churches and other buildings do sooner than on the South-side decay and consume but Iron as appeares by iron bars of windows doth on the South-side sooner than the North-side beginne to rust For in all putrefaction as rust moisture haftens dissolution and Drinesse withering 5. The stocks and bodies of hard Trees being feld and hew'd into timber or framed into wooden workes doe last divers ages yet their bodies differ some being hollow as the Elder-tree outwardly hard but having a soft pith in the middle But of solid trees such as the Oke the inward part called the heart of the Oke is hardest 6. The leaves and stalkes of Plants and Flowers continue not long but doe either dissolve into dust or rot Roots are more durable 7. Bones of living creatures last long as appeares by dead bones lying in Charnell-houses Hornes also are very durable and Teeth as Ivory and Sea-horse teeth 8. Hides also and skinnes endure long as it is evident by ancient Parchment-bookes Paper also will last many ages though not as long as Parchment 9. Glasse and burned Bricks also roasted Flesh and Fruites last longer than raw because the roasting prevents putrefaction and by evacuating and venting the watry humour doth longer preserve the oyly humour 10. Water is soonest devoured and dryed by the Ayre oyle on the contrary doth slowly evaporate which in liquors and mixtures may bee discerned For Paper wetted with water is at first transparent but afterward waxeth white and cleare againe loosing that former transparentnesse the vapour of the water being exhaled but Paper dipped in Oyle is a long while transparent the oyle being not exhaled so that writings by laying on them an oyled Paper and carefully drawing the Letters discerned through the Paper may be counterfeited 11. All Gummes are very durable and also Waxe and Honey 12. Other accidents also as well as their owne Nature doe make bodies endure or decay For Wood and Stones lying continually in the Water or Ayre endure longer than if they were sometimes wet and over-flowed and stones placed in buildings North or South as they lye in the Mynes are more durable and Plantslive longer being removed and transplanted Greater Observations 1. IT is a certaine Position that all Bodies which may bee touched have a spirit with tangible parts covered and 〈◊〉 being the originall cause of dissolution and consumption prevented by detaining of the spirit 2. The spirit is detained either violently when it is thrust together and confin'd or voluntarily the spirits being slack and unactive in motion and the Ayre doth not urge it to vent and issue forth for hardnesse and oylinesse being durable qualities doe binde supple and feed the Spirit and keepe it from the corruption of the Ayre which is in substance like unto Water as Flame to Oyle And so much of the durablenesse and dissolution of inanimate bodies The Historie COld Hearbs with their roots and stalkes doe every yeere spring and dye as Lettice Purslane Wheate and all kind of Corne yet the colder sort of hearbs endure three or foure yeeres as the Violet Strawberry Burnet Primrose and Sorrell but Borage and Buglosse are short liv'd Borage living a yeere Buglosse above a yeere 14. Hot hearbs beare their age and yeeres better as hysop thyme savory marioram balm mint worme-wood germander sage c. Fennell after the 〈◊〉 is dead buddeth forth againe from the roote but pulse and sweet marjoram can better endure age than winter and will live and flourish being set 〈◊〉 a warm place and defenced from cold For a
off Limbes juyce of Hemlocke is used to mitigate the paine by putting the spirits to flight and casting the Patient into a swoone 19. The thickning of the spirits by Flight and driving inwards is a good effect of Poppy-juyce proceeding from a bad Cause being the flight of the spirits 20. Poppey was esteemed by the Graecians to bee a great preserver of Health and prolonger of Life the principall ingredient used by the Arabians called Gods hands was Poppey-juyce the bad qualities thereof being allay'd with other mixtures as Treacle Mithridate and the like 21. All Medicines thickning the Spirits as Poppey doth especially and staying and restrayning the Spirits unruly working and raging in pestilentiall Diseases are good to prolong life 22. A good quantity of Poppy-juyce being found by experience to be comfortable is taken by the Turkes to make them valiant but to us unlesse taken in a small quantity and well allay'd it is deadly poyson 23. Poppy-juyce doth also strengthen the spirits and excite to Venery 24. The distilled waters of wilde Poppy is good for Surfeits Feavers and divers Diseases the spirits being therby thickned and strengthened to resist any diseases 25. The Turkes drinke the powder of an hearbe in warme water to increase their valour and sharpnesse of wit but a greater quantity thereof is of a stupe fying power like Poppey 26. The East Indians refresh themselves before and after labour by holding in their mouths or eating a famous Roote called Betell enabling also their acts of Generation being also of a stupefying power because it blacketh the teeth 27. Tobacco in this age growne so common and yeelding such a secret delight and content that being once taken it can hardly be forsaken doth lighten the body and take off wearinesse opening the pores and voyding humours but thickning the spirits being a kind of Henbane and doth like Poppy buzzell and trouble the braine 28. Some humours of the body as those proceeding from melancholy are like Poppey-juyce and doe cause long life 29. Opium Or Poppy-juyce the Leaves and seeds of both kinds of Poppey also Henbane Mandrake Hemlocke Tobacco Nightshade or Banewort have all a drowsie stupefying power 30. Treacle Mithridate Trifer Paracelsus Gumme Syrrop of Poppey Pills of Hounds tongue are compouded drugs of the sale nature 31. These Presecriptions Prolong life by thickning the spirits by coolers 32. In Youth keepe every yeere a coole dyet about May the spirits in Summer being loose and thinne and no cold humours bred and take a Julip of Poppey and other hot ingredients but not too strong every morning between sleep then keepe a spare diet for fourteene dayes afterward forbearing Wine and hot Spices 33. Smoakes and steames being not too purgative to draw forth humours but having a light operation on the spirits of the braine doe coole the spirits as well as coolers therfore a Suffumigation made of Tobacco wood of Aloes dry Rosemary-leaves and a little Myrrh being in the morning received into the Nostrills is very wholesome 34. But the Water of compound Opiate Drugs the vapor rising in distilling and the heare settling downwards is better to bee taken in youth than the drugs for the vertue of distilled water is in their vapour being in other respects weake 35. Some Drugs being like Poppy but not so strong doe yeeld a drowsie cooling vapour and wholesomer than Poppy not shunn'd by the spirits being thereby gathered together and thickned 36. The drugges like unto Poppy and therewith used are Saffron and Saffron flowers the Indian Leafe AmberGrīse Coriander-seed prepa red Amomum Pseudamomum Rhodianwood water of Orange Blossomes and an infusion of the flowers steeped in Oyle Olive and a Nutmeg dissolved in Rose-water 37. Vse Poppy sparingly at set times but these other Drugs being commonly taken and in dayly dyet are very soveraigne to prolong life Pharmacopaeus in Calecut by using Amber lived to one hundred and sixty yeeres of Age and the Nobility of Barbary by using the same drugge are longer liv'd than the common people And our long-liv'd Ancestors used Saffron very-much in their Cakes and Broths So much of thickning the spirits by Poppy and Other drugges 38. The second way and meanes to thicken the spirits is by cold for cold doth properly thicken and by a safer operation and working than the malignant qualities of Poppey though not so powerfully yet because coolers may be familiarly used in dayly dyet they are better to prolong Life than drowsie Potions or Drugs 39. The spirits are cooled by breathing by vapours or by dyet the first way being best but difficult the second good and easie the third weakeand tedious 40. The cleare pure Ayre which may be taken on the dry tops of mountaines and in open shady fields is good to thicken the spirits 41. Also vapours doe coole and thicken and Nitre hath in this kind a speciall operation grounded on these Reasons 42. Nitre is a kind of cold Spice being so cold that it biteth the tongue as hot Spices doe 43. The spirits of all Drugges Naturally not Accidentally cold are few and weake spirituall Drugges being on the contrary hot Nitre onely having aboundance of spirits is of a vegetable nature and cold For Camphire is spirituall and cold in operation by accident and the thinne quality thereof being without sharpnesse doth lengthen the breath in inflammations 44. Also Nitre mingled with Snow and Ice and put about vessels doth congeale and freeze the liquor within and common Bay-salt doth make Snow colder and more apt to freeze But in hot Countries where no Snow falls Niter is onely used 45. 〈◊〉 and Souldiers to make them valiant doe drinke Gunne-powder before they fight or joyne Battaile as the Turkes doe Poppy 46. Nitre doth allay the destroying he are of burning 〈◊〉 and Pestentiall 〈◊〉 47. The Nitre in Gun-powder shunning the flame when a Peece is fired doth make the crake and report 48. Nitre is the spirit of the earth for any pure earth covered or shaded from the Sun-beames so that nothing doe spring or grow thence will gather store of Nitre the spirit of Nitre being inferiour to the spirit of living creatures and of Vegetables and Plants 49. Cattell drinking of water wherein there is Nitre doe grow fat being a signe that the Nitre is cold 50. Land and Grounds are made ranke and mellow by the fatning quality of the spirit of Nitre which is in dung 51. Therefore the spirit of Nitre will coole thicken and refresh the spirits and abate their heate For as strong Wine and Spices doe enflame the spirits and shorten life so Nitre composing and restrayning the spirits doth lengthen life 52. Nitre may bee used with meate and eaten with Salt to the proportion of a tenth part and put in morning Broaths from three Graines to ten or in drinke and being used in any manner moderately it Prolongs Life 53. As other Drugges besides Poppy being weaker and safer to bee taken in greater quantity and oftner doe
my youth I was familiarly acquainted at Poicters in France with an ingenious young Gentleman afterward an eminent man who inveighing against the conditions of Age would usually say that old mens minds being visible would appeare as 〈◊〉 as their Bodies 〈◊〉 afterward comparing the mindes vices in Age to the 〈◊〉 defects saying They 〈◊〉 skinn'd and impudent 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and envious 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Earth not Heaven being their constant Object 〈◊〉 Limbs wavering and unconstant wooked finger'd greedy and covetous knees 〈◊〉 and fearefull 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 But to make a more serious Comparison Youth is shamefac'd and modest Age is hardened Youth is liberall and mercifull Age is hard youth emulates age envies youth is religious and fervently zealous being unexperienced in the miseries of this World age cold in piety and charity through much experience and incredulity youth is forward in defire age 〈◊〉 youth light and inconstant age grave and constant youth is liberall bountifull and loving age covetous and wisely provident youth confident and 〈◊〉 age distrustfull and 〈◊〉 youth gentle and 〈◊〉 age froward and disdainfull youth sincere and simple age cautelous and close youth haughty in desires age carefull for necessaries youth a Time-pleaser Age a Time-rememberer youth an Adorer of Superiors age a Censurer And by many other Characters impertinent to the present matter the different conditions of youth and age may bee described But the body growing fat in age so the Iudgement not the Fancy growes stronger preferring safe sure courses before shows appearances And lastly Age loves to 〈◊〉 and brag and being defirous to doe least is desirous to talke most Poets therefore feigned that old 〈◊〉 was changed into a chirping Grashopper Canons of the Continuation and Forme of Death CANON 1. DIssolution or Corruption 〈◊〉 by transmigration into another Body The Explication THere is no utter destruction Corruption being a dissolution into Ayre or 〈◊〉 into some other body As the Spider Flye and Ant 〈◊〉 tender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falling into Amber 〈◊〉 therein buryed finding therein both a Death and 〈◊〉 preserving them 〈◊〉 from Corruption than a Royall Monument For no Ayre being within there can be no corruption and the 〈◊〉 nature of Amber 〈◊〉 of no Reception from their substance Wood or Roots being put into 〈◊〉 would also remaine 〈◊〉 Waxe Honey and Gumme doe also preserve 〈◊〉 corruption CAN. 2. EVery tangible body hath Spirit covered and encompassed with a thicke body being the cause of consumption and dissolution The Explication NO knowne body on the upper part of the Earth doth want a spirit either by 〈◊〉 and concoction of coelestiall heate or by other meanes for the concavity and hollownesse of bodies admitting no vacuity or emptinesse is fill'd with Ayre or a spirit But this spirit here mentioned is no power efficacy or perfection but onely a 〈◊〉 invisible body yet locall dimensive and reall neither is this spirit Ayre as the juyce 〈◊〉 Grape is not water but a 〈◊〉 body like Ayre yet 〈◊〉 but the thicke parts 〈◊〉 substance being 〈◊〉 slow and almost 〈◊〉 would endure longer 〈◊〉 the working piercing spirit 〈◊〉 not devoure the moysture 〈◊〉 body and all that is 〈◊〉 vertible into a new spirit 〈◊〉 former new made spirits 〈◊〉 by degrees 〈◊〉 together This is evident the decrease of waight in 〈◊〉 bodies by venting of 〈◊〉 not increasing the 〈◊〉 of a body but yet by 〈◊〉 making it grow dry CAN. 3. THE 〈◊〉 of the spiriti is the cause of Drynesse but by inward detaining and warking they doe soften 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quicken The Explication THere are foure workings of the Spirit Drynesse Softning Putrefaction and generation of bodies Drynesse is no proper worke of the Spirit but of the thicker parts after the venting of the Spirits shrinking and uniting together to avoide vacuity or emptinesse as burned Bricks doe Sea-coale cakes stale Bread and Toasts Softnesse is 〈◊〉 worke of the Spirits 〈◊〉 by heate whereby the Spirits enlarging not venting 〈◊〉 pierce into and moysten 〈◊〉 thicker parts making 〈◊〉 soft and limber as Fire 〈◊〉 Mettalls and Waxe for 〈◊〉 and other stiffe 〈◊〉 are of a matter fit to 〈◊〉 the Spirits and keep 〈◊〉 from venting 〈◊〉 is a mixt work of the 〈◊〉 thicker parts for after 〈◊〉 spirit contayning and 〈◊〉 the parts of the 〈◊〉 is vented all the parts 〈◊〉 and returne into their 〈◊〉 Elements because by the spirits of substances gathering 〈◊〉 putrefied bodies stink 〈◊〉 the assembling together of 〈◊〉 becōming light 〈◊〉 the withdrawing of water and earth are dissolved and fall asunder But generation or quickning being a mixt worke of the spirit and thicker parts is performed in another manner the spirit being totally detayn'd swelling and moving locally but the thicker parts being not dissolved but following the motion of the spirit blowing and fashioning them into divers Formes are generated and become bodies therefore the matter quickned is alwayes clammy limber plyant and soft be thereby fit to detayne the spirit and to yeeld to the spirits fashioning of parts such being also the clammy yeelding matter of all Vegetables and living Creatures generated of 〈◊〉 or seed CAN. 4. ALL living Creatures have two Spirits dead Spirits 〈◊〉 those in livelesse Creatures 〈◊〉 the living Spirits The Explication NEcessary is the consideration of Mans body as 〈◊〉 and unnourished or 〈◊〉 and nourished the 〈◊〉 shewing the wayes of 〈◊〉 the latter of 〈◊〉 For there are in the 〈◊〉 Bones Skinnes Organs 〈◊〉 the severall limbes of the 〈◊〉 body such spirits as are 〈◊〉 the Flesh Bone and Skinne 〈◊〉 separated and Dead 〈◊〉 in a Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vitall spirits governing and agreeing with them is of a different nature integrall and constant They differ in two respects mortuall dead spirits are not continued but disjoyned and inclosed in a thicker body as Ayrein Snow or Froath But the spirit being continuate passing through certaine Channels and totally inclosed is either pervious passing through small pores or continuate and resident in a proportionable quantity to the Body in a hollow seate or Fountaine whence lesser Rivalets are derived This seate is the Ventricles of the Braine being straite and narrow in the baser sort of living creatures whose spirits being spred through the whole body have no particular 〈◊〉 residence as in 〈◊〉 Eeles and Flyes whose 〈◊〉 being cut asunder will 〈◊〉 afterward And Birds their Heads being pluckt off will leape and flutter because their Heads being small their spirits have therein no 〈◊〉 residence But 〈◊〉 have large Ventricles especially Man And besides the vitall spirit is inflameable being compounded of Flame and Ayre as the moysture of Living creatures is of Oyle and Water the 〈◊〉 giving it motion and 〈◊〉 as inflameable smoak before it blaze into a flame 〈◊〉 hot thinne and moveble being when it is a flame 〈◊〉 substance but the 〈◊〉 of the vitall spirits is more gentle than the flame of the spirit of wine beeing compounded of an aiery substance
moyst and greene also all hard fruits will keepe long in Meale or Saw-dust or in a heape of sound Corne. 17. Fruites in liquors of their kind resembling their flowers will keepe fresh as Grapes in Wine Olives in Oyle c. 18. Pomegranates and Quinces keepe long being lightly dipped into Sea-water or salt water and then in the open Ayre and shade dryed 19. Fruits laid in Wine Oyle Pickle are thereby long kept Honey and the Spirits of wine preserve them longer but especially Quicksilver 20. Fruites covered with Wax Pitch Mortar Past or the like keepe Greene very long 21. Flyes Spiders ' and Ants being accidentally drowned and buried in Amber and the Gums of Trees their soft and tender bodies doe never rot or corrupt 22. Grapes and other Fruits are by hanging up both kept from bruises often received by lying on the ground and are also by the Ayre equally encompassed 23. Observe that Vegetables and Fruites beginne to putrifie and wither on that part by which growing they attracted nourishment therefore Apples or Fruites their stalkes being covered with Waxe or Pitch wil keepe best 24. Great Weekes of Candels doe sooner consume the Suet then lesser weeks the flame of Cotton sooner then that of a Rush or Straw or Wooddentwigs and Iuniper Torches burne out sooner then Firre or Beech Torches A candle blazing in the Winde wastes sooner then burning quietly in a Lanthorne for generally all flames stirred with Winde are most wastfull and devouring Also Lampes in Sepulchers burne very long 25. The nature also and quality of the Nourishment as of the flame maketh candels burne long Waxe being more durable than Sewet and wet Sewet than dry Sewet and hard Waxthan soft Wax 26. Trees the earth about their roots being not every yeere but evere five or ten yeeres opened and the superfluous boughs and branches cut away and pruned will last the longer Also dunging and spreading of Marle about Trees or much watering makes them fruitfull but not durable And so much of preventing Drynesse and Consumption The experiments of softning Drynesse drawne from living creatures and from Man are these which follow 27. Willow-twigs serving usually to binde Trees layd to steepe in water become more flexible Rods are set in Pitchers of water to keepe them from drying and Bowles cleft with drynesse being laid in the water doe close againe 28. Boots growne old hard and stubborne being greased with Sewet before the fire doe wax soft or being onely held before the fire become somewhat softer Bladders and skinnes growne hard are softned with warme water and Sewet or any kind of grease especially by rubbing together 29. Old Trees having stood long without removing if the earth bee opened about their Rootes will beginne to put forth and flourish 30. Old spent Oxen taken from the Plough being put into fresh pastures recover new tender flesh and as sweete as if it were of a Steere 31. A strict spare dyet of Guiacum and bread twice bak'd used for curing the French Disease or old Catarrhs and the Dropsie makes Patients very leane by consuming the moisture of their body which being restor'd againe they become strong and lusty Moreover weakning sicknesses well cur'd doe make many-live the longer afterward Greater Observations 1. MEn like Owles wondrous sharp-sighted in the darknesse of their owne opinions are blinded with the day-light of Experience The elementall quality of drynesse and how drynesse by a natural working doth corrupt and consume bodies is observed but not the beginning proceeding and ending of drynesse and consumption 2. Drynesse and Consumption proceed from three Actions originally caused by the naturall spirit of bodies 3. The 1. Action is the refining of moisture into spirit the 2. the spirits venting the 3. the drawing or closing together of the bodies thicker parts the spirit being gotten out The former are Causes onely of Consumption the last is that drynesse and hardnesse heere chiefly handled The refining of Spirits is cleare and manifest for the spirit inclosed in every tangible body that may bee toucht forgets not to alter and change whatsoever is digestable and convertible in the body and doth multiply it selfe by begetting a new spirit This is most evident in substances which by drynesse being abated in weight are hollow and full of pores and doe yeeld an inward kind of sound for the spirit making things lighter rather than heavier by converting into it selfe the heavy moisture of a body makes it lighter in weight And this is the first Action namely of refining cōverting moisture into spirit 5. The second Action of the spirits venting is also evident For this venting forth of the spirit may be seene in vapours and smelt in decaying odours and sents or if breaking out by degrees as in age is the same but insensibly performed Moreover the spirit in a compact close body finding no pores whereby to vent striving to get out drives and thrusts out the thicker parts of the bodies superficies thereby making mettalls rust and fat substances grow mouldy And this is the second Action of the Spirits venting 6. The third Action obscurer but certaine is the contraction of thicker parts after the spirits getting forth for bodies do then contract take up lesser roome as dry'd Nut-kernels fill not their shells and beames and wooden rafters joyned close at first afterward through drynesse doe chinke and cleave asunder and Bowles chap and gape with drynesse Secondly it is evident by the wrinkles of withered bodies some parts by contraction being loosened others drawne together and wrinkled For wrinkled outsides of bundels of Paper and old Parchments the skinne of living creatures and soft cheese having an outward coate wrinkled with age are smooth within and so Parchment Paper and leaves held before the fire doe wrinkle turne and winde together For Age by slow contracting and drawing together doth cause wrinkles but fire doth hastily contract and fold together and substances uncapable of wrinkles do cōtract and grow hard But when bodies after the spirits are violently vented and moisture consumed cannot unite contract they putrefie into a masse of dust which being lightly touched falls asunder and vanishes into ayre as burnt Paper and Linnen and embalmed carkasses will doe And this is the third action of Contraction of thick parts after the Spirits venting 7. Observe that when fire and heate drying onely accidentally have performed their proper worke of refining and diffusing the spirit and moysture then the parts accidentally contract onely to avoid vacuity and emptinesse or for other reasons 8. Putrefaction and drynesse proceeding from the inward spirit differ in their ingresse and entrance for in putrefaction all the spirit is not vented but a part detayn'd which like a silent fancy works divers changes on the thicker parts not locally contracted and brings them to an uniforme likenesse The length and shortnesse of Life in living creatures COncerning the length and shortnesse of Life in living creatures observations
and cleerenesse and of the Balsomes and Quintessences of living Creatures which being contayn'd and received in Vessels would give a proud hope of immortality And of the flesh of Serpents and Harts being powerfull to renew Life the one changing his skinne the other his Hornes and the flesh of Eagles because the Eagle changeth his Bill and of one that by annointing himselle all over except the soules of his feete lived 300 yeeres and never felt any other sicknesse but onely a swelling of his feete and of Artesius who perceiving that his spirits grew old attracted the spirit of a lusty young man killing him for that purpose and receiving it into his mouth with the young mans last Breath living many yeeres by his Spirit and of fortunate Houres according to Astronomie wherein medicines to prolong Life should bee gathered and compounded and of the Planets influence powerfull to prolong life and the like superstitious fables and strange delusions by which Reason being besieged hath miserably yeelded up the Fort of beleefe But to these materiall Intentions touching the quicke of the matter though not largely handled much cannot be added some few Admonitions onely concerning them are to be delivered First the Offces and Duties of Life being better than Life the Prescriptions of our Intententions hinder not the Offices and Duties of Life such being rejected or lightly mentioned and not insisted on For no serious Discourse of living in a Denne or hole of a Rocke like Epimenides Cave never befriended with any cheerefull Sun-beame or Day-light or of continuall Baths of prepared Liquors nor of Seare-cloaths keeping the body in a bagge nor of thicke pargetting and painting used by Salvages or of accurate dyets to prolong life formerly kept by 〈◊〉 and in our Age more moderately by Cornarus Venetus nor the like unprofitable idle projects are heere mentioned But our Remedies and Precepts may be used without interrupting and hindering common duties and businesses Secondly it is a vaine conceit to imagine that any Potion or Medicine can stay or renew the course of Nature which great Worke must bee brought about and effected by Application of divers Remedies and being a new project must bee wrought by unusuall meanes Thirdly some following Propositions are not grounded on approoved experiments but on Reason and our former Principles and suppositions are all cut and digged out of the Rock and Myne of Nature And because mans body is in Scripture said to be the Soules upper garment therfore no dangerous but wholesome and profitable Remedies are here propounded Besides it is observable that the same drugs are not good to preserve Health and to lengthen life for some being good to cheere the spirits and make them vigorously and strongly performe their duties doe shorten life others being powerfull to prolong life unlesse prevention bee used doe endanger health therefore some Cautions and Advertisements shall bee inserted leaving the choise of Remedies belonging to the severall Intentions to the Readers discretion For their agreeablenesse to different constitutions of bodies to divers kinds of Life and severall ages and the Order observable in their Application would bee too tedious to declare and unfit to bee published The 3. Intentions propounded in the Topicks of staying consumption perfecting reparation and renewing Age are enlarged into these ten Operations 1. The first Operation is of reviving and renewing the Spirits 2. The second Operation is of excluding or keeping out the Ayre 3. The third of Blood and heate breeding Blood 4. The fourth of the juyce and moysture of the Body 5. The fifth of the Bowels and digestion of nourishment 6. The sixth is of the outward parts attracting nourishment 7. The seaventh is of making Dyet more nourishing 8. The eight is of the last act of Assimilation or converting into the substance of the body 9. The ninth is of making the parts of the body tender after they begin to wither and waxe dry 10. The tenth is of purging out old-moysture and filling the body with fresh new moysture Of these Operations the first foure belong to the first Intention the second foure to the second Intention and the two last to the third Intention And because these Intentions may bee dayly practised therefore under the name of an History Experiments Observations Counsells Remedies Explications of Causes and Reasons are together blended and mingled The Operation on the Spirits to make them continue youthfull and to revive and renew them being decayed The History 1. THat the Spirits worke all effects in the Body is most cleere and evident by divers Experiments 2. And youthfull Spirits convey'd into an old Body would like a great wheele turning about the lesser make Nature move backward and old folks become young 3. In all Consumption by Fire or age the more moisture that the spirit or heate doth devoure the lesse durable is the substance 4. The spirits working temperately should not drinke or devoure but sip the moysture of the body 5. Flames are of two kinds one suddaine and weake working and vanquishing thinne substances as the blazing flame of straw and shavings of wood the other strong and constant invading hard stubborne substances as the flame of great wood 6. Flames suddainly blazing and weake doe dry consume and parch the Body but strong flames dissolve and melt the body making it moist and solt 7. Also some plasters and medicines for swellings drawing out thinne humours doe harden the flesh others by drawing strongly doe soften 8. And some Purgations doe sweepe and fetch away waterish thinne humours others draw downe watery stubborne flymy matter 9. Such spirits as are more powerfull to abate and subject hard stubborne humours than to avoyd thinne and prepared humours will keepe the body lusty and strong 10. The Spirits should bee composed thicke in substance hot and lively not sharpe and burning of sufficient quantity not abounding or swelling and quiet in motion not hoyting or leaping in an unequall unruly manner 11. Vapours worke powerfully on the Spirits as those doe arising from sleepe drunkennesse melancholy and merry passions and from odours and sweet smells recreating the fainting spirits 12. The Spirits are by foure sorts of meanes thickned by flight cooling delight and restraint and first of the thickning by flight 13. Bodies by generall driving and putting to flight are forced into their Center and so thickned 14. The juyce of blacke Poppy and all medicines procuring sleepe doe thicken the spirits by flight 15. Three Graines of Poppy-juyce will make the spirits curdle together and quite extinguish their working 16. The spirits are not put to flight by the coldnesse of Poppy-juyce and the like Drugs being hot but the flight of the spirits doth make them hot and cooling 17. The flight of the spirits from Poppy-juyce is best discerned by the outward application making the spirits withdraw and retire and keepe within untill the mortified part turne to a Gangrine 18. In painefull incisions or cutting for the Stone or cutting
in Age doe signifie long life 45. Astrologicall Observations drawne from the Horoseope or Nativity are not allowable Children comming at eight Moneths are commonly still-borne but Children borne in Winter are long-liv'd 46. A strict Pythagoricall Dyet or Cornarus Dyet of equall proportion are good to make Schollers and Fryars live long But by free eating and drinking and a plentifull Dyet common people live longest A moderate temperate dyet though healthfull is no cause of long life for the strict Dyet doth breed few spirits consuming lesse moysture and the full Dyet yeelds more repairing nourishment but the moderate Dyet affords neither fewer spirits nor more nourishment the meane of good extreames being not so good as of bad extreames With a strict dyet watching must bee used to keepe sleepe from oppressing the spirits being few and also moderate exercise abstinence from Venery But a plentifull Dyet requires much sleepe frequent exercise and seasonable venery Baths and Oyntments formerly used for delight not to prolong life shall bee hereafter in the following Propositions exactly handled But the learned and wise Physitian Celsus held that variety and change of good plentifull dyet was best also watching but longer and oftner sleepe fasting also but more frequent Feasting and businesse sometimes but more often pleasure and recreation were good and healthfull In keeping a good dyet being the greatest lengthner of Life there are different observations I remember 〈◊〉 an old man of above an hundred yeeres of Age produced for a witnesse in a Plea of Prescription having given in evidence and being askt by the Iudges by what meanes hee had lived so long answered By eating before I was hungry and drinking before I was thirsty but this matter shall bee heereafter handled 47. A religious holy Life may cause a long life for retyrednesse rest divine Contemplation spirituall joy noble hope wholesome feare sweet sorrow newnesse of life strict Observations Repentance and Satisfaction doe lengthen the naturall life of a mortified Christian and the austere dyet of such a life hardens the Body and humbles the Spirit so that Paul the Hermite and Simeon the Anchorite and many other Monkes lived thus in the Wildernesse untill they were old 48. Next unto this is the learned life of Philosophers Rhetoricians and Grammarians living in ease and thoughts not appertaining to businesse without griefe delighting in variety impertinences and in a free voluntary expence of time in the pleasant conversation of young men But Philosophies in respect of long life are different for superstitious high contemplative Philosophies as the Pythagoricall and Platonicke and naturall Philosophy Metaphysicks and Morall Philosophy of Heroicall vertues were good studies to prolong life such were the Philosophies of Democritus Philolaus Xenophon Astrologians and Stoicks also sensible Philosophies not profound and speculative but agreeable to common opinion were good studies profest by Carneades and the Accademicks Rhetoricians and Grammarians But difficult subtile Philosophies weighing matters in the Scale of Principles and full of thorney questions were bad studies whereunto the Peripateticks and Scholasticks were devoted 49. The Countrey life busied in imployments abroad being active and keeping a fresh homely dyet without care and envy doth therefore prolong life 50. The Military life is good in youth many excellent Warriers having beene long-liv'd as Corvinus Camillus xenophon Agefilaus and other both ancient and moderne Also the improvement of Vertue by increasing dayly in goodnesse and labouring in youth doth prolong life the remembrance thereof being sweet in age Besides military affections raised with the desire and hope of Victory infuse into the Spirits heate agreeable to long life Medicines for long life MEdicines there are many for preserving Health and and curing Diseases but few to prolong life Therefore those notables Medicines called Cordials shall be here propounded For Cordials taken to fortifie and strengthen the Heart and Spirits against poyson and diseases being with Iudgement used may by all likely hood be as powerfull to prolong life These heere selected and orderly set downe are best 1. Gold is exhibited and used three wayes in potable Gold Gold quenched in Wine or substantiall Gold as Leafe-Gold and powder Gold Potable Gold was given first in dangerous desperate Diseases for an excellent powerful Cordiall receiving the virtuall effect from the spirit of Salt wherein it is dissolved for Gold would bee more soveraigne could it bee without corrosive waters or by Corrosives cleared of their venemous quality dissolved 2. Pearles are taken in loose powder or dissolved in the sharpe juyce of greene Lemmons or in spiced Comfits and drinkes The Pearle and the shell whereunto it cleaves are of one nature and in quality like the shells of River-Crabs 3. Two Christalline precious Stones are chiefe Cordials the Emerald and Iacinth given in the same manner as Pearles but not usually dissolved yet these glasse greene stones are of a sharp operation The benefit and helpe received from these medicinall Species shall be hereafter declared 4. Bezars Stone is of approoved vertue recreating the spirits and provoking gentle sweat Unicornes Horne is of like esteeme with the Harts Horne and the Bone of the Harts heart Ivory and the like 5. Amber-Grise is very good to comfort and refresh the spirits These Drugges following are of approved vertue Hot. Saffron The Indian Leafe Wood of Aloes Citron Barke Baulme-Mint Graines Avens or Sanamund Orange Flowers Rosemary Mint Betony Blessed Thistle Cold. Nitre Roses Violets Strawberry bush Strawberries Syrrop of Lemmons Syrrop of Oranges Juice of Apples Borrage Buglosse Burnet Sanders Camphire Prescriptions for Dyet being here onely delivered hot waters and Chymicall Oyles by Chymists sayd to be under the Planet of Mars having a destructive furious operation and also hot biting Spices are to bee rejected and waters must bee made more temperate lively and fragrant than Phlegmatick Distillations or hot Extractions of the spirit of Wine 6. Often letting blood having beene formerly much used and all Observations falling out fit and convenient is good to prolong life the old moysture of the body being thereby evacuated and emptied and new introduced and bred 7. Consumptious also and sicknesses procuring leanenesse being well cured doe lengthen life the Body being thereby supply'd with new moysture after the consumption of the old Therefore it is sayd that to grow healthfull after such a Sicknesse is to grow youthfull therefore the procuring of sicknesse by Artificiall Dayets shall be hereafter declared Intentions INquiry having beene made concerning livelesse bodies Vegetables living creatures and Man a new search by true and proper Intentions resembling the paths of mortall life shall be made and more effectuall than all former contemplations of comforting naturall heate and Radicall moysture or of meates breeding good Blood neither hot nor Phlegmaticke and of refreshing and recreating the spirits or of Medicines of Gold being of all mettals least subject to corruption and of precious Stones recreating the spirits by their hidden qualities
condensate and thicken the spirits by flight so Drugs of an inferiour nature and operation to Nitre doe also coole and thicken the spirits 54. All Drugges inferiour to Niter smell earthly like good pure earth newly turn'd up and digg'd the chiefe whereof are Burrage Buglosse Burnet Strawberry-leaves and strawberries Cowcumbers and fragrant Apples Vine-leaves and Buds and Violets 55. Next to these are Drugges of a hot smell but cooling as Balme Citrons and Lemmons greene Oranges Rose-water roasted Peares Damask and Red Roses and Muske-Roses 56. These Fruits inferiour to Nitre for thickning the spirits should bee used raw not roasted their cooling spirits being by fire dispersed therefore to infuse or squeeze them into Drink or to eate or smell to them raw is best 57. The spirits are thickned also by the odour and smell of other Drugges inferiour to Poppey and Nitre For the smell of pure fresh earth comming from following a Plough or digging or weeding and the smel of leaves fallen from trees in Woods or Hedge-rowes at the beginning of Autumne is good to coole the spirits and especially wither'd Strawberry leaves also the smel of Violets of the flowers of Pellitory of the Wall of Blackberries and Madre-selve is cooling 58. A Noble man of my acquaintance who lived to bee very old did usually after sleepe smell to a clod of fresh earth 59. Also Endive Succory Liverwort Purflaine c. doe by cooling the blood coole also the spirits though not so soone as vapours and smells So much of thickning the spirits by Flight The third kind of thickning is by Delight the fourth by the restraint of their cheorefulnesse joyfulnesse and too violent motions 60. The spirits are mitigated and thickned by such acceptable pleasing Objects as doe not draw them forth but afford them inward delight whereby being collected into their Center they enjoy themselves and therein finde a sweete content 61. The former Positions of drugges inferior to Opium and Nitre being here remembred further inquiry of thickning the spirits by cooling will bee needelesse 62. The restraint of the violent affections and motions of the spirits shall bee hereafter declared now the thickning of the spirits having beene shewed the qualification and temper of their heate follows 63. The spirits should not bee hot and sharpe but strong and lusty to conquer and subdue resisting matter not to attenuate expell thin humors Spices Wine and strong drinke must be temperately used and after Abstinence hath refreshed the appetite and also Savory Margerum Penny-royall and all heaters that bite on the tongue must bee seldome used The heate by them infused into the Spirits being not operative but a devouring heate 65. These Hearbs strengthen the heate of the Spirits Endive Garlicke Blessed-Thistle young Cresses Germander Angelico Wormseed Vervin Set-well Myrthe Pepperwort Elder-budds and Parsley and being used in Sawces and Medicines are hot in operation 66. Also of cooling Drugges compounded with Euphorbium Bastard Pellitory Stavesacres Dragon-wort Anacardium Oyle of Beaversstone Hart-wort Opoponax Gumme of Agasillis and Galbanum and the like to allay the drowsie stupefying power of Poppey a very good Medicine to strengthen the spirits and make them hot and lusty may bee made like Treacle and Mithridate being not sharpe nor biting on the tongue but bitter and of a strong sent yet hot in the stomacke and in working or in their Operations 67. The desire of Venery often stirred up and excited but seldome satisfied in Act doth strengthen the heate of the spirits and so doe some of the affections So much of the heare of the spirits being a cause of long life 68. The spirits should not abound but be few and moderate for a small flame devoures not so much as a greater 69. A sparing Pythagoricall dyet such as Monks and Hermits under the Order of St. Necessity and St. Poverty used is good to prolong life 70. Also drinking of water hard lodging cold spare Dyet of Sallets Fruits and powderd flesh and sale Fish without any fresh warme meate a haire-shirt fasting watching abstinence from sensuall pleasures doe abate and diminish the spirits which being reduc'd to a quantity sufficient to maintaine life doe make lesser wast on the body 71. But a higher Dyet somewhat above those rigorous moderate Dyets being kept man equall constant manner hath the same operation For a great constant quiet flame consumes not so much as a lesser which blazeth and is somtimes bigger sometimes lesser and Cornarus Venetus keeping such a constant Dyet and drinking and eating so many yeeres by just proportion and weight lived in perfect health untill hee was an hundred yeeres of age 72. Also to avoyd inflammation of the spirits a full-sed body not mortified by strict dyets must use seasonable Venery lest the spirits swelling too much doe soften and destroy the body so much of the moderate plenty of spirits 73. The restraynt of the spirits motion is next considerable for motion doth make the spirits hot There be three Restrayners of the spirits Sleepe avoyding of violent labour exercise and wearinesse and the governing and moderating of troublesome affections And first of Sleepe 74. Epimenides slept many yeeres in a Cave without any food because the spirits in sleepe devoure not much radicall moysture 75. Also Dormice and Bats doe sleepe in holes all the Winter sleep restrayning the consrming power of their vitall spirits so Bees wanting Honey and Butter-flies and Flesh-flyes do live by sleep 76. Sleepe after Dinner the first Vapours of meate like a Dew ascending then into the head is good for the Spirits but unwholesome for the body And sleepe is as nourishing as meate for old folkes who should often take light Refections and short naps and beeing growne extreame olde should live in continuall ease and Rest especially in Winter 77. Thus moderate sleepe being sound and quiet doth prolong Life 78. To make one sleepe soundly and quietly Violets are good sod Lettuce Syrrup of Roses Saffron Balme Apples eaten before going to Bed a sop dipt in Malmsey wherein a Muske-Rose hath beene steeped or a Pill or Potion made of these Ingredients Also all binding Drugges as Coriander-seed prepared and roasted Quinces and Peares doe cause sound and quiet sleepe But a good draught of cleere cold Water is best to make young folkes having strong stomacks sleepe soundly Voluntary Extasies and fixed profound Meditations joyned with a quiet minde doe thicken the spirits more than sleepe making them rest from outward operations as sleepe doth So much of sleep 79. Violent wearisome exercises and motions as Running Tennis Fencing are not good nor strayning of strength to the uttermost as Leaping and wrestling for the spirits by such violent nimble motions and straining of the strength being droven into a narrow roome doe become more sharpe and praedatory or devouring but Dancing Shooting Riding Bowling and such moderate Exercises are very healthfull Some of the affections and passions of the minde doe shorten the life of man and some
doe cause long life 80. By exceeding great joy the spirits are made thinne loose and weake but by familiar common Recreations they are not loosened but strengthened 81. Joy arising from sensuall pleasure is bad but the remembrance of former ioy or the apprehension of ioy to come conceived onely in the imagination is good 82. An inward conceived ioy sparingly vented doth comfort the heart more than a vulgar immoderate expression of ioy 83. Sorrow and Griefe beeing without Feare and not too heavy and Grievous doe prolong Life by Contracting the Spirits which is a kinde of Condensation or Thickning 84. Great Feares doe shorten Life for though Sorrow and Feare doe both contract the Spirits yet Sorrow doeth onely contract but Feare mingled with Care and Hope doth heate and Vexe the Spirits 85. Anger being close and suppressed is a kinde of vexation making the spirits devoure the moisture of the body but being vented and getting forth doth strengthen the heate of the spirits 86. By Envy the worst passion the Spirits and by them the Body are hurt and weakned beeing alwayes in Action and Working for Envy is sayde to keepe no Holy-dayes 87. Pitty and Compassion of anothers misery whereinto wee cannot possibly fall is good but Pitty reflecting backe and exciting Feare of beeing in as bad a case is bad 88. Shame lightly at the first drawing in the spirits and afterwards sending them forth againe doth make blushing bashfull Folkes commonly long-liv'd But shame arising from Reproach and continuing long doth contract and choake the spirits 89. Love not unfortunate nor wounding too deepe being a kind of joy is governed by the rules prescribed for joy 90. Hope being the best of all the Affections and Passions is very powerfull to prolong Life if like a nodding Nurse it doe not often fall asleepe and languish but doe continually feed the fancy with beholding good Obiects And therefore such as propound certaine ends and purposes to be compassed thriving and prospering therein according to their desire are commonly long-liv'd but having attayned to their highest hopes all their Expectitions and desires being satisfied doe not live long afterward 91. Admiration and light contemplation are very good to prolong Life keeping the spirits busied in 〈◊〉 matters and in a peaceable quiet gentle temper So that all Philosophers and observers of the Wonders of Nature as Democritus Plato Parmenide Apollonius were long liv'd Also Rhetoricians tasting onely matters following the light of speech not obscure dark Philosophy were also long-liv'd as Gorgias Protagoras I socrates Seneca Andas old men are Talkative so Talkative men doe often live to bee old men For Talkativenesse is a signe of a light Apprehension not binding or vexing the spirits but subtile acute studies wearying and weakening the spirits doe shorten life So much of the motion of the spirits by the pafsions of the minde some generall Observations not included in the former Division doe follow 92. The spirits must not bee often loosed nor made thinne being thereby loosed for the spirits being once extenuated loosened and made thinne are not easily collected and thickned The spirits are loosed by excessive Labour exceeding violent passions of the minde much sweating much Evacuation warme Baths and intemperate or unseasonable Venery also Care Griefe doubtfull expectation sicknesse sorrow and payne doe dissolve and loosen the spirits and should therefore bee avoyded and shunned 93. The spirits delight in Customes and Novelties for customes not used untill they grow wearisome and Nove'ties much desired and then enjoy'd doe wonderfully preserve the vigour of the spirits Therefore Judgment and Care should bee shewed in leaving off Customes before they become loathsome and contemptible and in making the desire of Novelties stronger by restraint and in altering and changing the course of our life lest the spirits imploy'd in one setsed kind of Life should grow heavy and dull For though Seneca sayd well A foole doth alwayes beginne to live yet this Folly and many other doe lengthen life 94. It is observable contrary to common custome that the spirits being in a good quiet sound temper discerned by the quietnesse and inward joy of the minde should bee cherrished not changed 95. Ficinus saith that Old men should comfort their spirits with the actions of their childhood and youth being a Recreation proper to Age. Therefore the remembrance of former Education together is pleasant in conversation and the place of Education is beheld with delight So that the Emperour Vespasian would not alter his Fathers house being but a meane building because the old House did put him in remembrance of his Childhood and besides on festivall Dayes hee would drinke in a Silver-tip'd wooden Cup which was his Grand-mothers 96. Also an alteration of life for the better is acceptable and delightfull to the Spirits Therefore Youth and Manhood having beene spent in pleasures proper and peculiar to those Ages Old age should enjoy new delights especially moderate ease Therefore Noble-men in their Age should live a retired kind of life as Cassiodorus having beene in great favour with the Gothish Kings of Italy and accounted the soule and life of their Affaires at fourescore yeeres of age retired to a Monastery living there to 110. yeeres of Age and there dyed But such Retyrement should be before the body bee decayed and diseased for then all changes though for the better doe hasten death and a retyred life being undertaken their minds and thoughts should not be addicted to idlenesse but imploy'd in pleasant delightfull studies or in building and planting 97. Lastly the spirits are recreated by labour willingly undertaken but consumed by action or labour performed with unwillingnesse Therefore a free kind of life by Art contrived to bee at our owne disposing and an obedient minde not resisting but yeelding to the power of fortune doe prolong life 98. And for the better governing of the Affections the body must not bee soluble or loose for on all the affections except those arising from melancholy as Drunkennesse and Melancholy such laxativenesse and loosenesse hath more power than on the heart or braine 99. This operation of making the spirits continue youthfull and lusty not mentioned by Physitians hath beene more diligently handled because the readiest and most compendious way to prolong Life is by renewing the Spirits working suddainly on the body as vapours and passions doe worke on the spirits in a direct not indirect manner The Operation on the exclusion or keeping out of the Ayre 2. The History 1. THe Exclusion or keeping out of the Ayre doth in two respects lengthen life First because the outward Ayre animating the spirits and being healthfull doth next unto the inward spirits devoure the moysture of the body growing thereby dry and withered 2. Secondly by the Exclusion and keeping out of Ayre the body being shut and closed and not breathing forth at the pores the detayned spirits by their working doe soften the hardnesse of the body 3. The reason
violent but naturall by defect of Nature doth enter at certaine common doores The History 1. THE living spirit subsists by due motion temperate cooling and fit nourishment A flame needs onely motion and Nourishment being a simple substance the Spirit a compounded substance destroyed by approaching neerer to the nature of flame 2. A flame as Aristotle well no ted is by a greater stronger flame extinguished much more the spirit 3. The flame of a Candle being put into a Glasse and kept very close is extinguished by the Ayre enlarged by heate and thrusting the flame together And fewell lying too close in a Chimney burnes not with a bright flame 4. Fire also by thrusting pressing together is extinguished and a coale of fire being trodden Or crush'd with the Tongs 5. But concerning the spirits blood or fleame getting into the Ventricles of the Braine doe cause suddaine Death the spirit having no place of residence or motion Also violent Fractures and beating of the head doe cause suddain Death by straightning the spirits in the ventricles of the Braine 7. Opium and other strong Drugs procuring unsensiblenesse doe by thickning the spirits deprive them of motion 8. Venemous vapours beeing hateful to the spirits are deadly poysons by whose malignant quality the spirits are opprest deprived of their motion and made unable to resist so strong an enemy 9. Extreame Drunkennesse and Gluttony have caused sudaine Death the spirits not with thicke or malignant vapours proceeding from Opium or poyson but with aboundance of Vapors being opprest 10. With the suddain apprehension of Griefe and Feare conceived at the relation of unexpected bad tidings some have suddainly Dyed 11. The Excessive compression and inlarging of the Spirits are both deadly 12. Great and suddaine ioyes have deprived many of their life 13. Greater Evacuations of water by Dissections for the Dropsie or violent and suddaine Fluxes of Blood are Deadly the Blood and spirits doe avoyde vacuity or emptinesse and fill up the emptie places repaying hither slower Fluxes of Blood procuring want of nourishment but no powring backe of the spirits So much of the compression and effusion of the spirits causing Death 14. Stopping the breath is through defect of cooling deadly by choaking and strangling the motions of the spirits being not hindred but cooling defective for excessive hot Ayre drawne in for breath doth choake as soone as stopping of the Breath As by burning charcoale or by the smell of new whited walles in a close chamber Iustinian and others have beene choaked Fausta the wife of Constantine the great was strangled by the steame of an exceeding hot Bath 15. For breath is drawne in by the Lungs and breathed forth againe every third part of a minute 16. The beating of the Pulse and of the Heart both by the systole or backward motion or Dyastole or forward motion is thrice as swift as breathing for the beating of the Heart could it be without stopping being stayd would cause Death sooner than strangling 17. Delian Dyvers and PearleFishers through continuall use will hold their Breath tenne times longer than another 18. Living Creatures having Lungs hold their breath a shorter or longer time as they neede more or lesse cooling 19. Fishes neede lesse cooling than other creatures cooling and breathing themselves at their Gills And as other creatures cannot endure a hot close ayre so Fish in water quite frozen over and long covered with Ice are choaked and strangled 20. The naturall heate of the Spirits is by another more violent heate oppressed being unable to endure them both without cooling as may bee seene in burning-feavers naturall heate being extinguished and Dissipared by hot putrified Humors 21. Want of Sleepe is a want of cooling For motion doth rarifie make thinne sharpen and encrease the heat of the Spirits But by sleep their motion is allayd and their wandring restrayn'd For sleepe doth strengthen and excite the working of the inward parts and Spirits and all outward motion but maketh the living spirit rest from motion Every 24. houres nature requires 5. or 6. houres sleepe Thogh some have miraculously refrained from sleepe for Mecaenas slept not a great while before hee dyed 22. Nourishment is a third want of Nature suffered by the parts of the Body not the living spirit subsisting in Idenity and Beeing without succession or renewing And the reasonable Soule proceeding not from Generation needs no reparation beeing not subject to Death as the Animall and Vegative soule differing both in Essence and Forme from the reasonable Soule For their confusion without distinction was the Originall of transmigration and many heathen hereticall opinions 23. A healthfull body doth every day require food enduring not to fast three dayes together unlesse enabled by custome but sicke folkes can easily fast and sleepe doth nourish as Exercise makes the body require nourishment And some miracles of Nature have lived a long time without meate or drinke 24. Dead bodies being kept from putrefaction will not a long time decay But living bodies cannot above three dayes subsist this speedy consumption being the worke of the living spirit repairing it selfe or making the parts neede repairing and therefore living creatures by sleeping endure longer without food sleepe being the reception and collection of the living Spirit 25. A continuall Flux or voyding of blood by the Piles or by vomiting of Blood some veyne within being opened or broken or by wounds doth cause speedy Death For the Blood of the veines doth supply and feed the blood of the Arteries and the blood of the Arteries doth feed the spirits 26. Meate and Drinke received twice daily is not all voyded by Extrements vrine or sweating the rest being converted into the moysture substance of the body the body growing not bigger as the repaired spirits are not in quantity increased 27. Nourishment must be so prepared and Dressed that the spirits may worke thereon For the flame of a Torch is not maintayned and kept burning by the staffe unlesse it bee covered with waxe lights and hearbs alone are no nourishing flood This doth cause the decay in Age the Spirits cloathed with Flesh and Blood being few and thinne and the moysture and blood old and hard are unable to nourish 28. The ordinary necessities of Nature are these continuall motion of the Spirits in the ventrieles of the Braine beating of the heart every third part of a moment Breathing every moment Sleepe and Food within three Dayes the decaying after fourscore years of age of the faculties of Digestion these Defects beeing not seasonably supply'd Death will ensue So that Death hath three Doores the spirits fayling in motion cooling and nourishing The living spirit is not like a flame continually lighted and extinguished without certaine duration and continuance A flame doth live in a flame being by contrary qualities only extinguished But all parts of the Body beeing to the living Spirit friends and servants are also comfortable and serviceable Therfore the living Spirit