upwards whereof those which are on the one side have no communication with those on the other It s a pure imagination which hath no probability since these evacuations are most commonly made by the veins and that the humors which run by those secret Conduits must enter into the veins where notwithstanding there are no passages there must also Conduits be found which must go cross since the humors somtimes go from the right side to the left sometimes from the fore to the hinder parts and most commonly from the center to the circumference Beyond all in either of these opinions we cannot see what the danger would be were not this rectitude observed in the evacuation of humors But supposing that it s done by the direction of the spirits its easie to judge that Nature must be very highly opprest when she observes not that order which was prescribed unto her and when she wanders from her ordinary road to fly from the Enemy which presseth her for its the reason for which those motions which she makes in sharp Fevers in equal dayes are very dangerous because it s a sign of the violence which she suffers and of the disorder wherein the greatness of the ill hath cast her which makes her forget the odd dayes in which she ought to assault choler which is the cause of those diseases However it be the rectitude we mentioned infallibly comes from the spirits which lead the humors within the compass of one half of the body without carrying them to one another unless there be some great impediment for Nature takes so much care for the preservation of living and animal things that she hath divided them all into two halfs that if it happened the one should suffer any alteration the other might save it self therefrom and so preserve in that the Nature of the whole Now this division is real and manifest in some subjects as in grains and seeds of Plants which all are composed of two portions which may be separated and in all the Members of Animals which have them double in others it is obscure and appears not in an actual separation of the parts but onely in the operations which shew that they have every one of them their distinct jurisdiction and their different interests as that is whereof we speak which distinguisheth the body into two halfs the one of which is right the other left such also is that which is to be found in those members which are but One as the Brain the Tongue the Nose c. where we often see the one half assaulted by an ill and the other exempt from it although in themselves there is not any separation If it therefore be true that Nature to preserve the one half of the body chargeth the other with all the disorder which happens unto it and hinders those humors which afflict it from issuing out of their bounds to cast it self on the other we cannot doubt but the Spirits which are the first and principal Organs will serve her in this undertaking and but that it is they which carry the humors from one place to another in the compass prescribed unto them by her So that if it should happen that to make this transport it were necessary to make use of the veins which are on the other side they for that forget not Natures design nor those orders which they have received and do but onely pass if we may so speak into the neighbours limits to arrive at that place whereto they ought to come Thus when to discharge the Spleen from those humors which incommodate it a bleeding of the Nose happens to the left nostril they must of necessity pass from the veins of the Spleen into the vena cava which is on the right side but the spirits know how so to direct them that they at last return to the same line and into that half of the body wherein the Spleen resides But it s to enter too far into the secrets of Physick its sufficient to say that the communication which the veins have one with another in that ingenious distribution which Hippocrates hath made proceeds from the Spirits which carry the humors from one to another according to the relation and consent which the parts have together or according to that rectitude which they keep amongst themselves Article XIX TO return to the sympathy which the inward members have with the parts of the hand I conceive that the reasons which we have deduced to maintain it if they do not altogether convince the most opinionated yet will they at least leave in their mindes great suspition of the truth thereof And I doubt not but Chiromancy ought to rest satisfied since they establish what til now was unknown unto it the principal of its foundations and that it will afterwards be easie for it to uphold it with the maximes of Astrology which is to furnish it with the most part of its rules and be security for the greatest of its promises In effect if it be true that the inward parts are governed by the Planets and that they receive from the Stars some particular influence as Astrology teacheth it must needs be that with the vertue which those parts send to the hand that which the Planets communicate unto them must also be carried unto them And at the same finger where the heart for an example causeth an influence of its vettue that Planet which hath the direction of the heart must also dispence his It being not probable that this should stop at the heart whilst that dispenceth to the hands what is proper and natural unto it Since supposing the truth of celestial influences we must say that of these two vertues there is but one contracted which is the onely essential disposition and specifick property of every part Now so it is that in a conclusion in Astrology proved by its principles and observations that the Liver is governed by Jupiter the Spleen by Saturne the heart by the Sun and so for the rest The first finger must therefore be be governed by Jupiter the second by Saturne the third by the Sun c. since these principal parts have a sympathy and consent with those fingers and communicate with them the vertue which they have neither need we wonder that Chiromancy hath changed the order of the Planets in the hand nor ask why it hath rather placed Jupiter on the fore-finger and the Sun on the third then in any other place because the nature of the Heart and Liver and the sympathy which they have with those fingers hath remarked those places as the particular houses which these Planets have in the Hand as they have in Heaven those which are affected unto them All the difficulty reduceth it self to this point to know whether these stars do onely govern the principal parts of the body and whether they communicate any secret vertue unto them which causeth the good or ill disposition which they have
the right Ventricle of the heart where the blood is hottest and most boiling not onely because the Liver which is the Source of blood is neerer unto it not onely because the veins of all the right parts are more full according to Hippocrates but also because it is placed on the Right side where Motion ought alwayes to begin For as the Spirits are the principal Organs of all the Actions of the body and that Nature send them more abundantly where they ought to be strongest and most painfull we need not doubt but motion being to begin on the right side and all those preparatives which are necessary for it and the principal effect it requires being to be done in that place there must needs be a greater quantity of spirits flowing thither which heat and fortifie it by the heat it carrieth along with it and by those secret influences of those principles of life which she communicates unto it whence it comes that the parts themselves which serve nothing at all to motion and are on that side resent that force and that vigor which was destined for that onely action for the right eye is stronger and more exact then the left and the rectitude of the sight which is made by both together depends absolutely from it all those Organs which serve for generation and are on that side form males and those on the left females and speaking generally sickness most commonly assaults the left parts as those which have least heat and consequently are weakest Article V. NOw that Motion naturally begins on the right side is a truth which connot be contested if we consider what is done in all Animals for the four-footed begin to go with the right foot forwards others which have but two alwayes lift up the right first a man can better bear a burthen on his left then on the right shoulder because the principle of motion must be free and undisturbed And Painters never forget in the posture they place their Figures in to make them keep their left foot foremost as commonly we do when we stand upright forasmuch as it is that posture which brings the body to a condition to move when it would march There are even Creature to be found who by reason of their figure could not have those differences of Right and Left as Purple-shel fish and all the rest whose shels are in form of a Snails yet are they not deprived of Right because when they ought to move they must necessarily have the principle of motion All these truths being thus therefore established to wit that there are places and parts in the body which are more and less noble that the most noble are destined there to place the most excellent parts that the excellency of the parts is deduced from the profit they afford and that consequently the hands who for several services which they render are placed on high as in the most noble place ought to be more excellent then the Feet It remains now that we should shew that they receive a most considerable assistance from the principles of life and that all the noble parts communicate unto them some greater vertue then to any other whatsoever Article VI. TO which purpose we must first observe that Nature hath more care of those parts which are the most excellent that she commonly forms them first and that she useth more art in making them and more foresight in preserving them then she doth in the rest This appears in the order she keeps at their first conformation For after the Heart and the Brain which she first rudely forms the eyes which without doubt are the most delicate and the most noble Organs appear before all the rest of the parts even before there is any sign of the Liver Spleen or Reins The Mouth in all Creatures is also one of the first formed after the eyes the Organs of the progressive Motion are afterwards seen and then we observe the Liver the Spleen and the rest of the bowels as the last and most exact observations on Anatomy witness Besides we see that the higher parts are sooner finished and that in Children they are greater and stronger then the lower whence it is that they have all the same proportion which is in the stature of Dwarfs and that they cannot go by reason their legs are too short and too weak Now its certain that all the care which Nature takes either in forming them first or in advancing their perfection depends from the natural heat which she communicates in greater abundance for it is the general instrument of all her actions and the true subject wherein all her faculties recide So that if there are parts which are first formed it must needs be that the first portion of this heat which is alwayes most pure and of most efficacy in its Scource must have been dispenced unto them and if they perfect themselves before the rest it must be by a particular application of this quality which acts therein more strongly then in any other part and which for that cause is continually supplyed by the influence of the Spirits which augment and fortifie it whence it follows that the hands which are formed before so many parts and which are sooner found perfect and compleat then the feet have also had a more advantageous share of natural heat and a more ample distribution of the Spirits then they have had Article VII BUt if we will consider these parts in a more perfect condition and in a time when they are able to perform the principal functions which they are destined unto its certain that the Heart the Liver and the Brain do communicate them some greater vertue then they do to the rest of the parts for besides the actions of a natural and sensitive life which they have in common with them progressive motion is particularly reserved unto them So that to perform this action wherein is more pains and whereto more strength is required they need have a greater help and a stronger influence from those principal Members then is necessary for the rest of the actions of life So they must have more blood more heat and more spirits more blood to render their consistence more firm more natural heat to inspire more strength in them and more animal spirits to give them beyond Sence the motive faculty for without those conditions those Organs were useless and no motions could be made In a word since the instruments are no instruments but by the vertue which they draw from the cause which imploys them it must needs be that those parts which are instruments of motion must receive also from the principles of motion that vertue which make them act consequently they must have this vertue more then the rest they have more spirits to afford in them they have therefore also more communication with those noble parts which are the Sources of the spirits and of this vertue This reason is indeed common
it were to much to flatter the blindeness of those who afford them more faith then they deserve and even to abuse the time which our imployments require But that you may not complain of this fore-shortning I shall add to those Discourses which I entertain you with all those Reasons which at first made me have a suspition that there was some truth in Chiromancy and that it might have more assured grounds then many have imagined And I doubt not but they will produce the same effect in the mindes of such who will consider them without preoccupation since those very things which ought to render them suspected and give a repulse to those who would imploy themselves therein are those which may authorize it and breed a desire in them to have the knowledge thereof In effect as the first and principal Foundation of Chiromancy is the disposition of the Planets which it hath diversly placed in the Hand for it hath placed Jupiter on the fore-finger called the Index Saturne on the next the Sun on the third Mercury on the fourth Venus on the thumb and the Moon on its inferiour part This foundation I say which overthrows the natural order of the Planets and which consequently rather seems to be the Capritio of the first Inventors of this Science then any reason they had to rank them so is far from rendring it suspected of falsehood from thence I conceive it rather one of those things which affords us the first suspitions of the truth thereof For the Humane Soul which is so great a lover of proportion and which never fails to adorn and enrich her imaginations wheresoever she can insinuate it cannot have forgotten it here without cause and that she hath been forc'd by the truth of experiences which have been made to change the order of the Planets which it hath so exactly preserved in Metaposcopy and in a thousand other occasions where it had the liberty of application And without doubt were it a pure imagination it would have been more easie and more reasonable to have placed Saturne on the fore-finger Jupiter on the second the Sun on the fourth and so to have followed that order which the Stars observe among themselves then so to transpose them as they have Now if they were to have been changed it seems it would have been more fit to have made the greatest finger govern by the greatest Star or to have assigned it that which was most moveable rather then the third which is least active So that there is a great probability that so extraordinary a disposition of the Planets is not the work of their fancies who first found out this Science but of that necessity which they had to follow the reasons and experiences which marked out this truth But the observation which Aristotle reports in his History of Animals encreaseth this first suspition For in that incomparable work wherein we may say Nature hath discovered and explicated her self He assure us that there are lines in the hand which according as they are long or short remark the length or shortness of life And as this is one of the first of the rules of Chiromancy it s to be beleeved that he was not ignorant of it and that that admirable man would not introduce into a History which was to be one of the fairest Pictures of Nature any thing that was doubtful of the Truth whereof he was not well assured That if it be certain as experience hath since confirmed it there is no reasonable person who will not judge but the hand ought to have a stronger connexion with the principles of life then all the rest of the exterior parts whereon these marks are not to be found That these mark are the effects whereby the good or ill disposition of those principles from whence they proceed ought to be made known And finally that in this part there are wonders which hitherto are not well known and that if we could finde out the knowledge of them we might perhaps discover that which Chiromancy boasts of To conclude He that would but mind that those lines which are in the hand are in all men different That in one person they change from time to time and that all this diversity can proceed from no other internal or external cause which is known to us he must be constrained to confess that all these characters are the effects of some secret influence which imprints them on that part and that Nature doing nothing in vain they are for particular use and at least mark the alteration which is in those principles which produce them For to refer those impressions to the articulation or motion of the Hand as some have is what cannot be maintained seeing articulations are equal to all men who nevertheless have all unequal Lines That there are many where no articulation is as in the space which is betwixt the joynts of the Finger that Children new born and who all shut their hand after one manner without almost making any motion yet have many Lines which are different in every of them That those who exercise the same Art and consequently ought near upon to make the like motions yet have them as different as if they were of a contrary profession That in the same person they change although there be no change in his manner of living And that lastly in the Forehead where there is no articulation and that all men move it after one manner there are the like Lines which have the same diversity as those of the Hand We may further add to these considerations the antiquity of Chiromancy which must have been in use before Aristotle since what he speaks of the Lines of the Hands is one of its Observations and Rules the exercise which it hath given to so many learned men who have employed themselves therein and have even honored it with their Writings and those wonderful judgments which have been made according to its maxims For in what riseth even to astonishment that of Forty five persons whom Cocles thereby had forseen should die by a violent death Cardan observes that in his time there were but two which were yet alive to whom this mischance happened not But freely to speak the Truth hereof these are as we have already observed but light suspitions which conclude not the certainty of this Science For as concerning the order of the Planets which it hath inverted that makes us presume it did it not without reason But the question still remain undecided to wit whether it be true That those stars have any power on the Hand and whether every one hath his particular place which is affected with it The Authority of Aristotle may also be contested And all that diversity of Lines may also have other causes and be of other uses then what Chiromancy gives them Moreover how antient soever it be there have been old errors which have abused all the passages and although it hath
been cultivated by great spirits in all times there have been some who have amused themselves on curiosities as vain as this may be Finally all those witnesses and examples which are produced in its defence ought not to have more weight then those of Geomancy Oenomancy and other such like Divinations may boast of which are all imaginary and superstitious and yet want neither their professors nor success in those judgments which they make On the other side all these latter reasons do not altogether condemn it and effect nothing against it but that they render it doubtful leaving the mind in uncertainty of what it ought to beleeve and desirous to clear it self therein Now the onely means to attain this is to examine the principles and to see by what reasons it may be maintained For if there are any which are certain and well established there in my opinion can be no man that hath reason joyning the former suspitions with the Truth of these principles but must confess that if the Science which is built thereupon is not yet ascertained it may become so by those diligent and exact observations which may be added thereunto and if it cannot promise all what Astrology causeth it to hope for from the Stars which it hath placed in the hands yet at least it may judge of the good or ill disposition of the inward parts which Sympathize with it and thereby make great discoveries for the preservation of health and for the cure of diseases For were it restrained within those limits and that she could brag of nothing else it would still be a very considerable Science which from the excellency of its knowledge and from the profit it might advance were worthy of the curiosity of the most severe Philosophers and of all those who apply themselves to the search of Natures wonders These were the considerations which I had before I came to the Examen of that Principle which I before spoke of which to speak the truth is the principal foundation whereon the disposition of the Planets on the several parts of the hand is upheld and almost the onely Source whence all the judgements which Chiromancy can promise are deduced The Method which I have observed is to shew 1. THat there are some Situations more noble then others 2. That the most noble situations are destined for the most excellent parts and that the excellency of the parts is drawn from the profit they bring 3. What profit the hands afford 4. That the right hand is more noble then the left 5. That Motion begins on the right side 6. That the hands have a greater share of natural heat 7. That the hands have most communication with the noble parts 8. That the noble parts dispence secret vertues to the hands 9. That Nature confounds not the vertues and consequently 10. That the vertues of the parts are not received in the same places of the hend 11. That the Liver sympathizeth with the fore-finger 12. That the Heart sympathizeth with the third finger 13. That the Spleen sympathizeth with the middle-finger 14. That all the inward parts sympathize with the other parts of the hand 15. That the face is an abridgement of all the outward arts 16. That all the parts sympathize with one another And 17. That the distribution of the veins which Hippocrates made to discern this sympathy was neither understood by Aristotle nor by Galen 18. Whence that due observation of Nature in her evacuations 19. That he Stars rule in the several parts of the hand 20. That the Stars govern the inward parts 21. That the Moon governs the brain 22. That the Sun governs the heart 23. That the rest of the Planets govern the other inferiour parts 24. That the Principles established do very much regulate many doubtfull things in Chiromancy Article I. TO give a solid beginning to this Enquiry we must observe that there are three orders of Situation in which all the parts of Animals excepting the Heart are found to be placed Above Below the Right and Left side Before and Behinde But they are equal neither originally nor in dignity and there is a diversity of perfection not onely amongst them but even also in those terms and differences whereof they are composed For the Fore and Hinder-part are more Noble then the Right or the Left side and they then the Upper or Lower but yet the Forepart is more Noble then the Hinder the Right then the Left and the Upper then Lower The Reason of this diversity first comes from that their three orders of Position answer to those three dimensions which are to be found in all natural bodies length breadth and depth as they answer to the three Species of quantity which are in all Mathematical bodies the Line the Surface and the Solid For the Line designs the Length the Length produceth Highand Low from the Surface comes the Breadth and from that Right and Left and the Solid produceth depth as from the depth comes the Fore and Hinder-parts Now the Line is by nature first and more simple then the Surface and this then the Solid Length also naturally precedes Breadth and this is before the Depth and in pursuit this order of Situation of high and low is more simple and before that of Right and Left as that is in respect of Before and Behinde So that Nature making always its progress from things which are less perfect to those which are more so it follows not onely that the Line and Length are less perfect then the Solid and the Depth But also that the same diversity is to be found in the order of Situation which answers every one of them and that consequently the Fore and the Hinder-part are more noble that of the Right and Left is so after it and that of Upper-most and Lowermost is less so as the first and most simple of all In effect we see that all things have been distributed to bodies according to the excellency which they ought to have For those which live first grow in length and perfecting themselves they acquire largeness and profundity Plants indeed have Hight and Lowness but are deprived of Right and Left of Before and Behinde Animals onely possess these differences although some have them not all it being onely reserved for those whose parts are better distinguished and whose motion is more regular Yet this signifies not but that all these kindes of Situation may be in bodies purely natural but they are uncertain and strangers having no internal principle which fixeth and determines them and its onely in relation to things animated that they are to be observed therein for what is the upper or fore-part of a pillar may be the Basis and hinder-part and that which is on the right without ever changing place may be placed on the left But it is not so with living and animate things in which all the differences of situation which their parts have are invariable being fixed