first like maggots and they do as their dammes before them and then die And let this creature end my discourse concerning the things done in this fifth day wherein not able to mention all I have toucht at some and those so excellent as I could have spent more time in their better view were it not that the succeeding day hastens his dawning In the phrase of Moses I will therefore conclude and concluding say The Eve and Morn confine the fifth of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. IX This ninth chapter concerneth the creatures made in the sixth and last day namely creatures living neither in the aire nor water but upon the earth and these be of two sorts the brute beasts and Man This chapter hath two Sections Sect. 1. Wherein is both a division and entrance into this dayes work as also a discourse of the first part of it concerning the brute beasts whose creation was in the first part of the day THe just period of the fifth day being come to an end the sixth approacheth wherein God Almightie shutteth up the creation of every species and after all he resteth from his works watcheth by his providence over each part and parcell of the world which he had made And in this day he first produced the brute beasts living upon the face of the earth then he comes to the creation of man and makes him the Colophon or conclusion of all things else in whose nature he placed the greatest dignitie of any creature that is visible for man is of a middle between the beasts and Angels transcending the one and yet not worthy to equalize the other as afterwards when I come to that particular shall be declared with other things pertinent to his creation And now that the terrestriall beasts and he should be made both in one day is worth observing for had he been to live in the aire he might have seen the sunne with the flying fowls and have been created when they were made or had his habitation been in the waters the fish and he might both at once have been produced But being made neither to swimme with the fishes nor flie with the birds but live upon the earth it was most harmonious that the terrestriall beasts and his creation should in the same day the one succeed the other And that the end might shew the perfection of the work the prioritie of time is given to the beasts but the excellencie and prioritie of all appeares in man who was made Lord of the creatures and in whom God had placed a surpassing condition and by farre a more noble nature For whereas they are led by sense he hath reason whereas they look downwards and groveling from the skie his countenance is erect and his looks are mixt with majestie whereas they are animate without an immortall soul he liveth when he dieth and hath a soul which death it self knows not how to kill and whereas their bodies fall and never rise again his riseth when it is fallen and is like seed sown which sprouteth up when the time is come If this then be both the order and cause of such an order in this dayes work I must leave the most excellent piece untill the last and begin first to look and observe how the beasts in their severall kindes and daintie squadrons march up and down and walk from out the shop of their Creatour being brought to perfection even as soon as that powerfull word who spoke it did onely say it Let them be It would I confesse require no small volume to discourse of all Howbeit even in a few the glory of their Maker will well appeare and with that thought let us name some by which we may admire the rest And first consider what a strong vast creature the mighty Elephant is known to be There is no creature saith one among all the beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdome of Almighty God as the Elephant both for proportion of body and disposition of spirit and it is admirable to behold the industrie of our ancient forefathers and noble desire to benefit us their posteritie by searching into the qualities of every beast to discover what benefits or harms may come by them to mankinde having never been afraid of the wildest but they tamed them and the greatest but they also set upon them witnesse this beast of which we now speak being like a living mountain in quantitie and outward appearance yet by them so handled as no little dog could be made more serviceable tame or tractable They are usually bred in the hot eastern countreys for by reason they cannot well endure the cold they delight most in the East and South as in India and some places of Africa And before the dayes of Alexander Magnus there were never any in Europe but when he fought against Porus King of India he became master of many and how bravely they fought at the first for their masters and received many wounds Curtius hath related These Indian Elephants are most commonly nine cubits high and five cubits broad and in Africa they be about eleven foot high and of bignesse proportionable to their height Their colour is for the most part mouse-coloured or black and yet there was once one in Ethiopia all white as Mr. Topsell relateth They have a skinne so hard excepting on their belly that it is a very hard matter and in a manner impossible to pierce it with any sword spear or iron It hath on it very few hairs and is very full of chaps or crevises in which there is such a savour as invites the flies to a continuall feast howbeit they pay deerly for their cheer for although the Elephant cannot make use of his tail to drive them away yet by shrinking of himself close together he incloseth the flies within the chaps and so killeth them He hath a long trunked nose mighty teeth foure whereof be within his mouth serving to grinde his meat and two hang forth as afterwards shall be shewed He hath a tail slender and short and legs of an infinite strength his head is very great so that a mans head may as easily be thrust into it as his finger into the mouth of a dog but yet his eares and eyes are not equivalent to the residue of his other parts for his eares are small and their matter like to the wings of a Bat or Dragon and some bred in some places have no eares at all Their eyes likewise are like the eyes of swine but very red Two of their teeth as I said grow farre out of their mouthes one of which they alwayes keep sharp to revenge injuries and defend themselves and the other is lesse sharp being often used to root up plants and trees for their meat and commonly they grow out to the length of ten feet this is that which we
The other kinde of sweet dew is Mel or an Hony-dew Now this falleth not onely in other countreys but also here in England and we cannot give it a more significant name then a Mel-dew being both as sweet and also of the same substance that hony is Some suppose that it is drawn out of sweet herbs and flowers which I also beleeve acknowledging that there is a kinde of resudation of juice proceeding from them at a certain convenient time of their growth which juice is either drawn up as a vapour and so sweeteneth the dew in the aire by such time as it falleth or else issuing of it self from the said flowers and plants but not ascending it sweeteneth the dew after it is come down or fallen on them although the said dew be but ordinary for when ordinary dew falleth upon any of those leaves which yeeld such a resudation or sweat it cannot but be sweetened although none of the sweet liquour be drawn into the aire as a vapour with it Now of these two choose which in your judgement is the most probable Plinie witnesseth that these dews are most common at the shining of Syrius or the great Dog-starre and that before the rising of Virgiliae or the Seven starres in the morning with the Sunne they cannot at all be Ladanum is another kinde of sweet dew Arabia hath great plentie of it and no other countrey as Plinie writeth unlesse it be Nabathaea bordering on the Arabick coast of Syria It is called Ladanum because it is a vapour falling upon the herb Ladon or Ledum and is sweetened by the juice issuing from the leaves of the said herb mixing it self with the vapour Goats hairs are often found amongst it because the Goat feeding upon that herb scattereth some of his hairs which are incorporated with the vapour and the juice of Ladon whilest like gumme it is hardened by the Sunne And thus much of sweet dews Now followeth that which I called bitter blasting dew The Germanes say it is Mildaw which is an improper name if it hath relation to that which we call Mel-dew For Mel-dew as before I shewed is an hony-sweet dew and not a bitter dew This therefore may be rather named Ros noxius or bitter blasting dew because it hurteth and killeth such herbs and plants as it falleth on and sticketh or cleaveth to This vapour hath much earthly matter in it and therefore it remaineth white when the moisture is gone It is also corrupted which comes to passe as 't is conjectured through the often change of the Aire which being tainted or infected through varietie of differing Exhalations sendeth down noysome and unwholesome dews falling sometimes even in the day time it self And here an end concerning dew Artic. 4. Of white hoar-frosts I Come now to speak of Frosts for as dew claimed kindred of rain so white hoar-frost is of the house and linage of dew As for example thus When a vapour drawn into the aire is congealed before it can be turned into dew then we have Pruina in stead thereof or a white hoar-frost so that such a frost is nothing else but dew congealed by overmuch cold Aristotle affirmeth the like shewing among other things that both in respect of matter and place of generation they do well agree to which is also pertinent the calmnesse clearnesse and quietnesse of the time wherein either of them falleth For both of them consist of subtill thin vapours and are generated in the lowest region of the aire because upon some high hills there is neither hoar-frost nor dew to be seen the vapour as it seemeth ascendeth not so high And as for a windie obscure time it is an enemie to them both The difference being that hoar-frost is congealed in the vapour before it can be turned into water The one caused in a season that is temperately warm the other when it is cold The materiall cause therefore of hoar-frost is a subtill thinne vapour The formall is the congealing of it by which it differeth from dew The efficient is the autumnall or winter cold for those are the most common and ordinary times peculiar to it although sometimes it comes as an unwelcome guest in the spring and summer when the aire through cold is forward to send it And last of all the end or principall effects when it cometh not out of season or the finall cause is the contraction or shutting up of the pores or breathing holes of the earth and about the roots of plants that thereby their spirits being the chariots of heat may be contained in their own bowels for the good of such things as they give life unto And thus much concerning frost Artic. 5. Of Snow THere is no great difference between the matter of snow and matter of rain and hail excepting as some think that the vapour for snow is of an hotter qualitie then the vapour for rain and yet not so hot as that which is the materiall cause of hail For it is a tenent amongst Philosophers that hot things being cooled are apter for congelation then cold as is seen in warm water taken from the fire which will more suddenly and throughly be frozen then that which never felt the heat And this comes to passe in regard of the pores or passages made into the water through heat into which the cold entring it both cooleth it the sooner and congealeth it the more Neither is there any difference between white frost and snow excepting that frost is made of a vapour before it be turned into a cloud and snow of a cloud before it can be turned into water Snow therefore is a cloud congealed by great cold before it be perfectly resolved from vapours into water For if it should come to the densitie of water before the congelation then it could not fall so like locks of wooll as it doth but would be more closely compacted or joyned together having little or no spunginesse in it As for the whitenesse it proceedeth not from its own proper colour but rather in respect of those parts which are more aierie then the rest whereupon I finde some authours who determine the case thus namely that the white is by receiving the light into it at those many small parts even as in froth and fome is seen For say some Nix est spuma quaedam Snow is a kinde of froth and when it loseth part of its frothie nature and begins to melt it loseth also part of that whitenesse which at the first it retained To this also may be added the coldnesse that is infused into it when it is congealed as being a cause of whitenesse even as in phlegmatick bodies and cold countreys may be seen For such people are alwayes whiter of complexion then others cold being the cause of that their whitenesse Such winters as are void of snow are not so good for the fruits of the ground
sometimes constraining it to sink below them In an ebbe he heaves it up and in a floud he lets it sink As improbable also is that of some others who imagine one Angel to be an Angel of the water whose office is as in the pool of Bethesda to move the waters to and fro and for proof of this that place is alledged in the Revelation where when the vials were poured out upon the kingdome of the beast one of the Angels is called an Angel of the waters But know that the same answer made before concerning the moving of the windes will serve to stop this gap Or were it so that we must be tied to a literall sense the compulsion overthrows the assertion because he is called an Angel of the waters not for that he causeth them to ebbe and flow but because it was his office to corrupt them and turn them into bloud More probable was their opinion who attribute the cause to certain subterranean or under-sea fires whose matter is of neare akin to the matter of the Moon and therefore according to her motion they continue their times of burning and burning they make the sea so to boyl as that it is a tide or high-water but going out the sea sinks again But now if this opinion were true then the water in a tide would be thinner through the heat which causeth it to ascend thinner then at other times and so a ship carrying one and the same weight would sink deeper in a floud then in an ebbe which experience shews to be otherwise Yea were it so that there were such supposed fires in the bottome of the sea causing it to swell up like boyled water then it would also follow that the sea-water would be so hot that it might not be touched For if the heat of the supposed fire be sufficient to make it ascend it is sufficient also to make it hot which would appeare lesser in an ebbe then in a floud Wherefore omitting these and the like opinions the most allowable is to attribute this flux and reflux to the effects of the divers appearances of the Moon For we see by experience that according to the courses of the Moon the tides are both ordered and altered By which it is not improbable that the waters are drawn by the power of the Moon following her daily motion even as she is carried with the Primum Mobile Yea were it not so that the sea were hindered by some accident some have supposed that these waters would go round from East to West in 24 houres and so round again even day by day The accident hindering this circular motion is in regard that the West ocean sea is shot in between the firm land of America on the West part and the main land of Africa and Europe on the East part But were it so that there were no such accidentall let in the sea to be hindered by the land it would orderly follow the Moon and go daily round And seeing also it is hindered by such an impediment it is a probable conjecture to think that it cannot but be forced to retire for the firm land beats it back again Thus Mr William Bourn in the 5 book of his treasure for travellers chap. 6. determineth Others there be who attributing the cause to the moon do demonstrate it after another manner namely that through her influence she causeth these alternate motions and this influence of hers worketh according to the quadrate and opposite aspects of her position in the heavens or according to the quadrate and opposite configurations from that place where she was at the beginning For the seas saith a well learned writer begin to flow when the moon by her diurn rapt motion from East to West cometh to the nine a clock point in the morning or is South-east then they will continue flowing untill she come to a quadrate aspect or to 90 degrees which will be about 3 of the clock in the afternoon or be South-west when they cease from flowing and begin to ebbe continuing so untill she come to 180 degrees or the opposite place which will be somewhat after nine of the clock at night being the opposite place to that from which she began her flowing Then again they begin to flow and so continue untill she attain to 270 degrees from her first place which will be after three in the morning And then lastly they begin to ebbe and so continue still untill the moon come to that place where she was at the beginning for there the floud begins again Thus it is ordinarily yet her illumination the sunne and other starres may hasten hinder or something alter the moons influence as we see in spring-tides at the change and full and neap-tides at quarters and half quarters of the moon confessed by those who have been great masters in Astrologie And let this also be known that though the moon have dominion over all moist bodies yet not alike because of other causes concurring as the indisposition or unfitnesse of the subject or for want of matter and the like considerations As for example though it be probable that there be tides in mari Atlantico yet they are not to be perceived by reason of the vast widenesse and profunditie thereof in other places also of the sea are no tides being hindered by the strength of some current which prevaileth and in fresh water there is no tide because of the raritie thinnesse and subtiltie thereof which cannot retain the influence of the moon And note also that in such havens and rivers as ebbe and flow there may be great diversitie which cometh to passe both according to the indraught as also by reason of the crooked and narrow points and turnings of the banks which do let and stay the tide from that which is the common and ordinary course in the main bodie of the sea but afterwards when it is in and hath taken his sway then it cannot so soon reverse back but must continue untill the water behinde it be descended or ebbed into the sea The river Thames may serve as an instance in this for it is not a full sea in all places of it at one instant being three parts of a floud at the lands end before it can be any floud at London But were it so that there were no creeks islands straits turnings or other accidentall hinderances then there should be no difference found in any sea but the whole bodie should be swayed up and down with a constant course whereas since it is otherwise the times for every such place must be once found out that thereby they may be known for ever Wherefore the cavils of some men are nothing worth who by bringing particular and rare perhaps vain examples do think to take away this power from the moon For sith this lunar regiment is pertinent to most seas and that all our ocean doth follow her the exceptions taken
of Kings chap. 17. 16. and chap. 21. 3. and chap. 23. 5. and in Jeremie chap. 19. 13. and in Zeph. chap. 1. 5. and in the Acts chap. 7 42. For in all these places the holy Ghost calleth the starres the host and armies of heaven thereby amplifying the divine power of God by the force and power of these glorious creatures and this also is further confirmed by that in the song of Deborah Judg. 5. 20. where it is expressely testified that The starres fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Thus farre Scripture And now let experience also speak that thereby they who will not frame their understandings to be taught by the one but will seek for strange expositions may be forced to yeeld and acknowledge the truth by compulsion of this other in the front whereof I cannot but remember the noble Poets saying Senselesse is he who without blush denies What to sound senses most apparent lies And ' gainst experience he that spits fallacians Is to be hist from learned disputations And such is he that doth affirm the starres To have no force on these inferiours 1. As for example when the sunne shifts his habitation how diversly are the seasons differing insomuch that although the frostie beard of winter makes us tremble and shiver through extremitie of cold the warm lustre of the summers raies causeth us on the contrary to sweat and as it were pant through heat 2. Also the terrible accidents that succeed eclipses may not be forgotten nor vilipended for these testifie that the sunne by his heat and light quickeneth after an admirable fashion all earthly creatures being as it were the sourse and conserver of vitall heat and that the moon also hath a great power over inferiour bodies For if it were otherwise such lights coming to be hidden from the earth where there is a continuall revolution of generation and corruption could not cause after their eclipses the nature of inferiour things to be so altered and weakened as they are both in the elements and also in bodies composed of them 3. And furthermore who seeth not how orderly the tides keep their course with the moon of which I have spoken in the third dayes work 4. Also it is an observation that seldome faileth viz. that we have thunder and lightning in the summer time at the meeting of Mars with Jupiter Sol or Mercurie and for the most part great windes when Sol and Jupiter or Jupiter and Mercurie or Mercurie and Sol are in conjunction 5. And again the increase and decrease of bodies or of marrow bloud and humours in the bodie according to the increase and decrease of the moon doth speak for that horned queen and signifie that her vertue is not little For as she fills with light the marrow abounds in bones the bloud in veins the sap in trees the meat and moisture in the oister crab and creafish 6. Moreover experience also teacheth that all such wood as is cut for timber if it be not cut after the full moon will soon be rotten 7. Also those pease which are sown in the increase never leave blooming And as some report the pomegranate will bear no fruit any longer then just so many yeares as the moon was dayes old when it was first set and planted The Heliotropium with certain other flowers and plants we likewise see that they keep their course with the sunne And Plinie reports in his 37 book at the 10 chapter that the Selenite is a stone which hath the image of the moon in it increasing and decreasing according to her course in the heavens And doth not Cardan also report for certain as Sir Christopher Heydon it may be affirmed that the heavens in some sort do work upon mens mindes and dispositions And hereupon it comes to passe that Mars doth sometimes sow the seeds of warre by his working upon adult choler and the like Or the aire being greatly out of tune causeth not onely many sicknesses but strange disorders of the minde and they breaking out into act do many times disturb states translate kingdomes work unluckie disasters and the like of which I spake before in the second dayes work And now know that if the operation of the heavens in this be but so farre forth as the soul depends upon the bodily instruments all that is done to the soul is but an inclination for there can be no compulsion where the cause is so remote And therefore let it be observed that it is one thing to cause another thing to occasion or one thing to inferre a necessitie another thing to give an inclination The former we cannot averre to be in the power of the starres forasmuch as mans will which is the commandresse of his actions is absolutely free from any compulsion and not at all subject to any naturall necessitie or externall coaction Howbeit we cannot deny a certain inclination because the soul of man is too much indulgent to the body by whose motion as one worthily observeth it is rather perswaded then commanded There is therefore no Chaldean fate to be feared nor any necessitie to be imposed upon the wills of men but onely an inclination and this inclination is not caused by an immediate working of the starres on the intellectuall part or minde of man but occasioned rather mediately or so farre forth as the soul depends on the temperaments and materiall organs of the bodie In which regard I hope never to be afraid of the signes of heaven neither is there cause why I should ever curse my starres seeing I know in this the utmost of their power And as it was said to that Apostle My grace is sufficient for thee so may every one take it for granted that there is a second birth which overswayes the first To which purpose one makes this an observation Iustè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant elementa Dei Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the starres For then God holds the elements from warres Or as another not unfitly also speaketh Qui sapit ille animum fortunae praeparat omni Praevisumque potest arte levare malum The wise for ev'ry chance doth fit his minde And by his art makes coming evils kinde And in a word that pithie saying of Ioannes de Indagine shall close this Article Quaeris a me quantum in nobis operantur actra dico c. Dost thou demand of me how farre the starres work upon us I say they do but incline and that so gently that if we will be ruled by reason they have no power over us but if we follow our own nature and be led by sense they do as much in us as in brute beasts and we are no better For agunt non cogunt is all that may be said Artic. 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the starres have any kinde of power
over the actions of men AS for the power which the starres can have in this kinde I have in the end of the former Article alreadie declared Howbeit that I may leave as few scruples behinde me as I can my purpose is to cleare this question a little more For it hath been the serious perswasion of not a few that according to the tenent of Basil in his Hexameron and some others the dispositions of men may not be imputed any whit to the starres without wrong either to God or them If say they vicious inclinations or evil actions be stirred up by the starres then God should be the cause of humane outrages wickednesse and the like Or again if the moderation of our actions dependeth upon the stars then many absurdities would follow For first those starres whose aspect is said to be evil should either of themselves be created evil by their maker or else it must be that in respect of their own wills they made themselves evil afterwards neither of which may be affirmed Not the first because every thing thâ—… God made was very good Gen. 1. Not the second because seeing the stars are inanimate creatures without life and soul it were wickednesse to attribute a will unto them To all which objections and doubts it may be thus answered viz. that the starres are no malicious agents voluntarily striving to do mischief to the world but rather such as do harmlesly send down their naturall influences and powers into the universe and had it been that man had not fallen their inclinations in him had been no inclinations nor their power in occasioning felt any jot at all The evil proceeds from the nature of man who lost his puritie and strength of will in yeelding to that which was forbidden it comes not from the starres but from our selves And so Melancthon doth in effect answer to that of Basil saying that we ought in this to consider what excellencie of condition our humane nature hath lost and thereby observe how grievous and evil sinne is by which our temperatures are become brutish and not rashly condemne or without consideration go throw the starres out of heaven For in this present state of things Nè nunc quidem stellas scelerum causas esse they be his own words we say not that the starres are causes of our sinne in regard that though our inclinations rise from them yet they are not sole or chief causes of our actions but our will is the principall cause thereof which was first created in perfect libertie by which it both had power to withstand even as still it ought to refrain all inordinate inclinations Non enim fatalem necessitatem constituimus nec cogi Neronem à stellis c. For we do not constitute fatall necessitie nor affirm that Nero was compelled by the starres unto his so great and monstrous sinnes but yeelding to his lusts he willingly entertained those rages which the devil more and more instigated and so became worse then his nature though bad enough had made him Hitherto Melancthon to that of Basil. Wherefore when we fall into a due consideration of these things and finde that it was the fall of our first parents which hath induced this disproportion between our natures and the influences of the starres we shall soon see where the fault resteth namely in our selves For as that worthy Knight observeth we must consider that the impression or operation of every agent is alwayes answerable not to the power of it self but to the capacitie and aptnesse of the patient according to which rule the starres produce their effects even as the subject or matter is in which their influence doth work Which is but as I said before viz. that if man had not fallen their inclinations in him had been no inclinations nor their power in occasioning felt any jot at all For as the fire hurteth sore eyes but warmeth cold hands so the starres are formaliter bona although effectivè according to the unapt qualitie of the subject they produce a sad effect Or to use again the words of the said authour as we see the wine which is healthfull and comfortable to some how quickly it hurteth the constitution of another who hath but a weak brain so the sunne doth soften and melt wax but stiffen and make clay hard yet no man for this affirmeth either the wine to be drunk or the sunne to be formally soft or hard Wherefore saith he by this I may boldly conclude that although it be confessed that the starres are efficient causes of our inclinations yet there is no consequence to conclude them such themselves as the effects are that they produce for where the fault resteth hath been declared Furthermore he also proveth against those who say the starres are tainted in being causes by accident or occasions many times of ill he proveth I say that every occasion to sinne is not to be accounted a provocation to sinne or to be held unlawfull for if this were admitted we must also pollute God himself with sinne because he hath made fair women and sweet wine by means whereof many men fall yet neverthelesse none will denie them to be good for they have their lawfull use and right end Wherefore he doth here also excellently conclude that as no man will say that the Physician or his medicines do sinne though when they restore a spent and difeased bodie accidentally they procure lust no more are the starres to be accounted bad or to sinne though in constituting the temperature of our bodies they may be truely confessed causes by accident or occasions of sinne The question is therefore resolved that it is no derogation from the perfection of things created although we grant the starres to have a kinde of power over the actions of men which power both how and what it is hath been declared Artic. 3. Of predictions or whether the signes of heaven may be understood or searcht into THey be Davids words that The works of the Lord are great and sought out of those who have pleasure therein And Moses here in testifying that God created the starres for signes doth likewise shew that they may be understood otherwise to us they were no signes at all Neither do I doubt but that even Moses himself and Daniel likewise who were brought up the one in the learning of the Egyptians the other in the skill of the Caldeans did understand the signification of these signes And from whence was it that those nations had their knowledge but from Noah and Abraham if Iosephus or Berosus may be credited For concerning Noah do not those authours storie that soon after the floud he taught the Armenians and Scythians the secrets of these things Whereupon they said that he participated of a divine spirit So also Abraham that Father of many nations did equally instruct the Caldeans and Egyptians although indeed afterwards it was their bold adventure to mix magick
and superstitious vain inventions with this their lawfull skill And for us experience hath travelled in the manifestation of the severall qualities belonging to the lamps of heaven For as we know the fire to be hot the water moist this herb to be cold that to be drie so also by observation it doth manifestly appeare that the sunne gives heat and cherisheth the moon moisteneth Mars drieth and so of the rest Or thus ♄ Saturn is cold and drie stirres up and increaseth melancholy ♃ Jupiter is temperately hot and moist works most upon sanguine complexions stirring up and increasing that humour ♂ Mars through his heat and immoderate drinesse stirres up and increaseth choler and so often proves an accidentall cause of brawlings fightings warres and the like beside such sicknesses as may come by the superabundancie of that humour ☉ Sol is moderately hot and drie greatly cherishing all kinde of creatures ♀ Venus is cold and moist but it is in a temperate manner and as for her operation it is seen most in flegmatick complexions ☿ Mercurie is said to be drie in respect of his own nature but joyned to any of the other Planets he puts upon him their natures and works as they work Then followeth the Moon and she is well known to be the mistris of moisture Neither can you truely say that it is impossible to finde their natures to be either thus or thus for it is but 30 yeares that the longest of these did ever spend in his periodicall revolution and but 72 yeares as Tycho teacheth can runne about whilest the fixed starres alter one degree in their longitude Insomuch that Saturn whose period is but 30 yeares cometh twice to the same point of heaven before the eighth sphere is moved one degree and Jupiter whose revolution is 12 yeares cometh 6 times to the same place and Mars who accomplisheth his period in little lesse then 2 yeares meets 36 times with the same starres in the same place and as for the Sunne Venus Mercurie and the Moon their meetings with them be oftner Also it is certain that the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is once every 20 yeares and Mars and Saturn visit each other in lesse then every two yeares by means whereof it is no hard thing or as a thing impossible to finde out the simple natures either of the Planets or fixed starres And from these natures thus known and their mixtures and places observed it is that the effect is foreseen and the judgement given which if it be modestly carefully deeply and deliberately done by one well versed or conversant in these things doth for the most part happen as is foretold for the most part I say and not alwayes For as the Physician knoweth that the same portion of either single or mixed simples will not work upon all bodies alike so neither can the like portion and power of qualities stirre up or work alwayes ad idem but may sometimes receive either intention or remission according to the indisposed aptnesse of the subject the elements or elementary bodies not alwayes admitting of their powers alike or when they be overswayed by more potent and prevailing operations For universall and particular causes do many times differ and then the one hinders the operation of the other As for example particular causes as the conjunction of Venus and the Moon or some such like meeting may promise rain snow or sleet when universall causes which are not so easily seen do often turn it into more fair and warm weather And so also particular influences may seem to work upon such or such humours and thereupon make the bodie subject to this or that sicknesse and the minde enclined to this or that kinde of action with many such other like things howbeit it may so happen that nature may be at this time so abstrusely shut up that what we see not may overpower and work beyond what we see A man had need therefore have Argus his eyes to pierce throughly into these causes and examine without rashnesse either what may help or what may hinder otherwise his judgement may fail him even in things wrought by the course of nature for of other things he ought not to judge And indeed when there is a divers mixture of qualities all in a manner of equall portions as it may sometimes be how hard a thing is it then to finde out without a sound judgement the true event for there be many difficulties proceeding from the weaknesse of our judgements And for that again which I said before of natures abstruse kinde of working although I be no Stoick to tie Gods mightie hand to second causes yet I verily suppose that all things are not beyond the course of nature which seem to be extraordinarie but even many strange seeming things are wrought by the power of nature as sometimes in unwonted storms tempests droughts strange appearances or other like accidents And this again I also think that one man may see the cause when another cannot whereupon it comes to passe that there is such diversitie of judgements and thwarting of opinions many times about one and the same thing Also I might adde something which one or other will be readie to object concerning the devils permission in raising unwonted windes storms and such like Or I might speak not onely of Gods power but of his providence likewise in disposing his creatures to manifest their operation rather in one place then in another which is an act proceeding from his secret purpose and divine wisdome as when the clouds according to his decree do disburden themselves of their wearie drops rather here then there or there then here For saith he in the 4 chap. of Amos at the 7 vers I have caused it to rain upon one citie and it hath not rained upon another and the citie where it hath not rained was barren But I shall not need to meddle further For notwithstanding these difficulties it is manifest enough that the signes of heaven may be both sought into and also in some ample measure understood For it is true that God Almightie having both set and foreseen the course of nature long before doth now uphold it by his providence instrumentally to perform his will Neither every day doth he make the windows of heaven to stand open or the fountains of the great deep to be broken up nor yet doth he every day make the sunne or moon to stand still or the shadow to go back or an Eclipse to be at a quite contrarie time or the moon again to arise before her usuall course but hath undoubtedly left his works to be sought out of all those who take pleasure therein and according to that portion of sound judgement which he hath given to every one they may understand either more or lesse of these signes For as one starre differeth from another in lustre and beautie so one mans knowledge and better judgement transcends not seldome
in Psal. 16. 12. And further seeing it is said that righteousnesse shall dwell in the new earth as well as in the new heaven it may from thence be gathered that both the heaven and the earth shall be the seat of the blessed and that the saints shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth and that there shall be an intercourse between the said heaven and earth which is as Jacob in his vision saw when the angels were some of them ascending some descending that ladder which reached from heaven to earth or as Moses and Elias were seen talking with Christ upon the Mount But herein let us not be too bold for in this we may soon wade too farre namely if we should nicely determine how the saints shall then be disposed of whether some alwayes to the heaven some alwayes to the earth or such like things which to us are unrevealed Let it therefore suffice that although the manner of this change be secret and not known in every point yet the change it self is most certain and therefore hold we most certainly this truth for our stay that the world shall end and leave we the manner thereof to be exactly and particularly revealed by him who will very quickly perform it But of the time when in the following Section Sect. 3. ANd thus much concerning the manner of the worlds ending Now follows the time when But here I purpose not to meddle with any thing which shall tend to the precise scanning of it I will leave that to them who out of a desire they have to lanch into the deep have pried too farre I fear into the secrets of the Thunderer for oftentimes we see that they do but wisely tell us foolish tales and smoothly bring long lies unto an end because they say more then they have warrant for To whom Du Bartas by our famous Silvester thus sendeth greeting You have mis-cast in your Arithmetick Mis-laid your counters gropingly ye seek In nights black darknesse for the secret things Seal'd in the Casket of the King of kings 'T is He that keeps th' eternall clock of Time He holds the weights of that appointed chime And in his hand the sacred Book doth bear Of that close-clasped finall CALENDER Where in Red letters not with us frequented The certain Date of that Great Day is printed That Dreadfull Day which doth so swiftly post That 't will be seen before foreseen of most Yet such is the folly and curiositie of many that they will needs undertake to tell us when this time shall be which if they could then it seems it should not come as a snare upon the world nor yet steal upon us as a thief in the night But so it shall do For of that day and houre knoweth no man saith our Saviour and we may take his word because himself by his humanitie could not know it although in his humanitie by reason of his Godhead he was not ignorant of it Had he not therefore been God as well as man and of a divine as well as humane nature he must have remained ignorant in both with men and angels Mar. 13. 32. And furthermore concerning us that we be not too bold the same lesson which he taught his disciples is also ours not to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power as it is Act. 1. 7. From whence we may learn that whilest we exercise our selves in things that be too high for us we shall sooner betray our own curiositie then deliver a truth For Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of what we know not Whereupon I cannot but think that the predictions of men in this kinde especially seeing they are so various must needs be as true as those amongst the brood of presumptuous Astrologers concerning the end of Christian Religion which as Du Plessie observeth from them should have been some hundreds of yeares before this time nay it should then have ended when indeed it began most of all to flourish And so I doubt not but am certain that the world also should have had many endings before this time according to the doting froth of some mens idle fancies which if need were I could relate But as time was little beholding to them for cutting it off so short in like manner they were as little beholding to time for discovering their lies so plainly I will therefore before I meddle further with such approved liars leave them unto their best friends to gain if they can their credit for the time past and addresse my self to examine those who talk of a time yet to come Amongst whom the Jews have a tradition which although they fetch from the school or house of Elias yet we are not bound to credit it For it was not Elias the Prophet but a Rabbin of the same name as the learned know and who more fabulous or more full of vain fancies then those their greatest Doctours Six thousand yeares saith he the world shall stand and then it shall be consumed by fire Two thousand yeares shal be void or without Law two thousand yeares shall be under the Law and the last two thousand shall be the dayes of Messiah or Christ. Thus farre Elias And that this opinion hath been favoured by some of old and is also favoured now by some of our time I am not ignorant which chiefly they do for this reason namely because the six dayes of weekly labour do bear the Symbole of 6000 yeares wherein mankinde should endure the cares and troubles and travels of this world and then shall come that Sabbath of Sabbaths in the heaven of heavens when they are to rest from their labours Or as God was six daies in creating the world before there was a Sabbath so he shall be 6000 yeares in governing it and then the seventh begins an eternall rest in heaven Now this they ground upon the words of S. Peter who speaking of the day of judgement noteth that a thousand yeares in Gods sight are but as one day and one day as a thousand yeares 2. Pet. 3. 8. So that in this regard for six dayes of weekly labour they would have 6000 yeares of worldly trouble and the like before it endeth But if this weaknesse be the greatest strength for maintaining their assertion then I do not doubt to see their cause fainting upon the ground as not being able to subsist or stand upright For first concerning the Rabbin had he been a Prophet he would certainly have been a better Seer This I am sure of that he was much deceived in the particular division of his time in making three periods all of 2000 yeares apiece For although the yeares of the world have been diversly accounted by sundry authours yet you shall not finde the Rabbins just number of 2000
the Firmament that is appointed to this separating office but the whole Firmament as any one may see if he do but observe the words of God producing and assigning it Neither do we finde that the Firmament is any more then one To divide it into parts so as they imagine is not to divide it into parts but rather to make so many Firmaments as they imagine parts like as every scale of an onyon is a severall and differing scale and not one the part of another And besides neither is there the same reason between the parts of water and these supposed parts of the Firmament for then when God made the Sunne Moon and Starres he would not have said Let them be in the Firmament but above the Firmament for they are farre higher then the clouds yet I say they being higher then the clouds he is said to place them but in the Firmament and they being no more but in it how improperly do we affirm those things to be above it whose places are lower then either Sunne Moon or Starres And secondly admit Job tells us that there are waters bound up in thick clouds doth not Jeremie also tell us that they are drawn up in vapours from the earth which as hath been shewed cannot at all times be but then when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it whereas the out-spread Firmament is to be alwayes between them separating them not at times but continually And as for the rain proceeding from those waters which we call the clouds it stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again shewing that of right their proper place is here below and therefore we make not three kindes of waters as if we would be contrary to Moses in saying that there are other waters above the concave of the Firmament which on this second day of the worlds creation were separated from all other waters Wherefore observe but this they being separated on this second day how could they be such as the aire affordeth for the middle Region of the aire which is the place for the clouds was not untill the third day Not untill the third day I say because it is found by experience and from sufficient witnesse proved true that the tops of the highest mountains do reach up unto that place which we call the middle Region of the aire being some of them more loftie then the clouds As for example in Iapan there is a mountain called Figeniana which is some certain leagues higher then the clouds And in Ternate among the Philippine Islands there is a mountain which as Mr. Purchas in his pilgrimage relateth is even angry with nature because it is fastened to the earth and doth therefore not onely lift up his head above the middle Region of the aire but endeavoureth also to conjoyn it self with the fierie Element And of the mountain Athos between Macedon and Thrace it is said to be so high that it casteth shade more then thirtie and seven miles Also the mount of Olympus in Thessalie is said to be of that height as neither the windes clouds or rain do overtop it And although I omit sundry others of exceeding height it is also written of another mount so high above the clouds that some who have seen it do witnesse that they have been on the top of it and have had both a cleare skie over their heads and also clouds below them pouring down rain and breaking forth with thunder and lightnings at which those below have been terrified but on the top of the hill there was no such matter This surely was that mountain which Mr. Lydiat meant when he said that etiam aestivis diebus even in the summer time when the clouds are at the highest those on the top of the mountains have had fair weather and withall perceived that there was plentie of rain about the middle height of the same hills Thus we see that there are lofty mountains And indeed their loftines is the cause of a middle Region for the hils hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it about their tops a fit convenient place to thicken these vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the heavenly bodies are drawn up thither Wherefore that I may conclude the place of the middle Region being both caused and also overtopped by sundry high mountains it will appeare that there was no middle Region of the aire untill the third day because the waters were all over the earth and standing above the hills untill that very day For then and not before God gathered them together unto one place and made the drie land to appeare which before was covered with waters as with a garment Psalm 104. Rarior aqua saith one velut nebula terras tegebat quae congregatione densata est The thinne water like a mist or wet cloud covered the earth which by gathering together was made thick In which regard it may be said saith Aquinas that it was as naturall for the water to be every where about the earth as for the aire to be about both water and earth yet neverthelesse propter necessitatem finis saith he for the necessitie of the end namely that plants and living creatures should be upon the earth it was meet that the earth should be so uncovered and the waters so gathered that the drie land appeare Now this was a work pertinent unto the third day and before this work done there could be no middle Region and the middle Region being on this day and not before how can the waters in the clouds be those waters which were separated by the out-spread Firmament on the second day Neither do I here argue à facto ad fieri because in the very creation of this Firmament God then said Let it be between the waters that is even then beginning its office and art of separating them Which that it is even so we see he speaketh next concerning the lower waters and makes no more mention at all of those upper ones because he had already done with them and left them in their place unto which he had appointed them But furthermore this tenent is not a little helped by a consideration of the cataracts or windows of heaven which in the dayes of Noah were opened and poured down rain by the space of fourty dayes For me thinks the clouds could not be those windows of heaven because it rained fourty dayes and before it left raining the waters were higher then the hills being when fourty dayes were ended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains as in the historie of the Floud is manifest And hereupon it was that one once by the same reason concluded and said that either it did not rain fourty dayes which assertion we are sure is false or else it rained from some other where then from the middle Region For seeing the middle Region it self was
Exhalation hot and drie as all Exhalations are which are apt to be fired and also heavie in regard of the glutinous matter whereof it consisteth in which regard the cold of the night beats it back again when it striveth to ascend through which strife and tossing it is fired for in this encounter it suffereth an Antiperistasis and being fired it goeth to and fro according to the motion of the Aire in the silent night by gentle gales not going alwayes directly upon one point unlesse the winde be more then such a gale as is commonly called Aura And note that if the winde be any thing big or blowing then this Meteor cannot appeare at all because the winde will disperse the matter of the Exhalation not suffering it to be conjoyned Moreover some think that it may be kindled of it self although it be not so moved as before and this is performed by the active moving of the heat which is within it as is seen in an heap of moist hay which will set it self on fire These kindes of lights are often seen in Fennes and Moores because there is alwayes great store of unctuous matter fit for such purposes as also where bloudie battells have been fought and in church-yards or places of common buriall because the carcases have both fatted and fitted the place for such kinde of oyly Exhalations Wherefore the much terrified ignorant and superstitious people may see their own errours in that they have deemed these lights to be walking spirits or as the silly ones amongst the Papists beleeve they can be nothing else but the souls of such as go to Purgatorie and the like In all which they are much deluded For souls departed cannot appeare again I shall go to him saith David but he shall not return to me And saith Job He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Or as it is in the Psalmist Before I go hence and be no more seen So that if they walk sure it is invisible for saith the Scripture They shall be no more seen But what need I urge that For we see that they cannot at all return but are ignorant of all things done under the sunne and as it was with Dives and Lazarus so it is with every other Wherefore we may well say thus 1. If after death souls can appeare Why then did Dives crave That one his brethren word might bear What pains the damned have 2. Or if there be another room Which is not Heav'n or Hell How scap't the begger from the doom Of Purgatories cell 3. What shall become of Christs deare bloud If after death there be A way to make our own works good And place the soul in glee Quest. But if these lights be not walking spirits why is it that they leade men out of their way Answ. They are no spirits and yet leade out of the way because those who see them are amazed and look so earnestly after them that they forget their way and then being once out they wander to and fro not knowing whither sometimes to waters pits and other dangerous places whereupon the next day they will undoubtedly tell you strange tales as one saith how they were led up and down by a light which in their judgement was nothing else but some devil or spirit in the likenesse of fire which fain would have hurt them But of this enough and know last of all that if one be something neare these lights and the night calm then going from them they will follow us because there being no winde to hinder we draw the Aire after us or going towards them they go from us because we by our motion drive the Aire before us Moreover when the like matter chanceth to be fired in some such part of the Aire as is over the Sea then these lights appeare to marriners and are called Castor and Pollux if there be two at once otherwise Helena if there be but one The reason of which names was this Helena was the daughter of Iupiter and Leda and by the heathens she was taken for a goddesse but not for a goddesse of good fortune for this Helena was the cause of Troyes destruction as thus She was stollen away by Paris the sonne of Priamus K. of the Trojans stollen I say out of Greece whereupon her two brothers Castor and Pollux sayl to seek her but they were never heard of more or seen after which losse of these brethren made it be supposed that they were translated into the number of those gods who use to give good successe to marriners for they were lost at sea which is as if they were translated from thence Now then the Seamen having seen by often experience that one light was to them a signe of some tempest and that two lights were a signe of fair weather they called the one light Helena and the two lights they called Castor and Pollux Quest. But why should it be may some demand that they should thus appearing shew either fair or foul weather can any reason be shewn for it Answ. It is answered that one flame alone may be a signe of tempest or foul weather because that as that matter which burneth is so compact into one that it cannot be dissolved into two so in like manner the matter of tempest being exhaled by the like cause is kept from being dissipated and is so close together that before any long time it must needs work And again when two lights appeare why then it should be fair it is because there is not the like working in nature which was before but rather the contrary for as this Exhalation of the lights is divided so the matter which otherwise might be fit for tempest is not thickened but by the like cause is also divided scattered and easily dissolved insomuch that it cannot work so as at other times when there is a working to compact and not to dissipate 13. Ignis lambens is a cleaving and licking fire or light and is so called because it useth to cleave and stick to the hairs of men or beasts not hurting them but rather as it were gently licking them These flames may be caused two wayes as the learned write First when clammie Exhalations are scattered abroad in the aire in small parts and in the night are set on fire by an Antiperistasis so that when any shall either ride or walk in such places as are apt to breed them it is no wonder that they stick either on their horses or on themselves Secondly they may be caused another way viz. when the bodies of men or beasts being chafed do send out a fat and clammie sweat which according to the working of nature in things of this kinde is kindled and appeareth like a flame Virgil makes mention of such a fire as this upon the head of Iulus the sonne of Aeneas Ecce levis summo de
diseases were felt rivers dried up and plagues were increased Tamerlain K. of the Scythians and Parthians with an innumerable host invadeth Asia calling himself the WRATH OF GOD and DESOLATION OF THE EARTH as did Attilas of whom it is written that he named himself THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 6. Also in the yeare 1529 appeared foure Comets and in the yeares 1530 1531 1532 and 1533 were seen in each yeare one Lanquet saith that there were three within the space of two yeares upon which these and the like changes and calamities followed viz. A great sweating sicknesse in England which took away whole Myriads of people The Turk in the quarrell of Iohn Uvavoyda who laid claim to the crown of Hungary entred the said kingdome with two hundred and fiftie thousand fighting souldiers committing against the inhabitants thereof most harsh and unspeakable murders rapes villanies and cruelties A great famine and dearth was also in Venice and the countrey thereabout which swept away many for lack of sustenance The sweating sicknes also vexed Brabant and a great part of Germanie and especially the citie Antwerp where it consumed five hundred persons in the space of three dayes Great warres concerning the Dukedome of Millain between the Emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the French King All Lusitania or Portugall was struck with an Earth-quake insomuch that at Ulisippo or Lisbon a thousand and fifty houses were thrown down and 600 so shaken that they were ready to fall which made the people forsake the citie and runne into the fields and as for their churches they lay upon the ground like heaps of stones Upon this followed a great pestilence in those parts But a little before viz. in the yeare 1530 was a great deluge in Brabant Holland Zeland and the sea-coasts of Flanders as also an overflowing of the river Tyber at Rome occasioned by unseasonable tempests of winde Upon the neck of which troubles the Turk comes again into Hungarie and Austria but he was beaten back and a great company of his men slain and taken Unto which may be added how the sect of the Anabaptists not long after brought new tumults into Germanie 7. And for that last Comet in the yeare 1618 saith a Germane writer Praesagium ipsius jam â—…heu est in manibus nostris meaning that they felt by dolefull experience the sad events which followed after it Wherefore seeing these and the like accidents have been attendant upon the appearing of Comets it may well be said that although they have their causes in nature yet Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether The skie never burnt with such fires in vain For as one saith Loquitur cum hominibus Deus non modò linguâ humanâ per Prophetas Apostolos Pastores sed nonnunquam etiam ipsis Elementis in formas imagines diversas compositis That is God speaketh with men not onely with the tongues of men by Prophets Apostles and Teachers but sometimes also by the very Elements composed or wrought into divers forms and shapes there being a Theologicall end of sending Comets as also a Naturall and Politicall end But first before I come to that I think it not amisse to speak something concerning these their events and accidents namely whether it can be shewed why they should be wrought either so or so To which it is answered that in some sort we may give reasons for this and shew the causes of their significations For being Comets they consist of many hot and drie Exhalations And hot and drie Exhalations do not onely stirre up heat drie and parch the aire which may cause drought especially when much of the earths fatnesse is drawn away with the Exhalation and drought bring barrennesse but also the bodies of living creatures upon the distemper of the aire are mainly hurt suffering detriment in the consumption of their radicall moisture and suffocation through the poysonous breathings which the bellows of the bodie suck in and receive insomuch that there cannot but be sicknesses plagues and much mortalitie Besides which that they should usher in warres seditions changes of kingdomes and the like may also proceed from the same cause For when the Aire is distemperately heated then it is very apt so to disorder and dry up the bloud in humane bodies that thereby great store of red and adust choler may be purchased and this stirreth up to anger with the thought of many furious and violent actions and so by consequent to warre and from warre cometh victorie from victorie proceedeth change of commonwealths and translations of kingdomes with change of Laws and Religion for Novus Rex nova Lex New Lords new Laws Unto which also may be added that because great personages live more delicately then other men and feed more daintily having as many new fashions in their diets as in their clothes for their boards as for their backs that their bodies therefore are more subject to infection and will take the poyson of an intemperate aire before more temperate livers whereupon necessity inforceth that they die sooner in such a calamitie then other people as he once witnessed that said Plures pereunt gulâ quà m gladio Besides the death of great ones is more remarkable then when inferiour persons die so that if but some of them be taken away in common calamities it is as if they were onely aymed at because they are obvious to every ones eye as cities standing upon hills which cannot be hid And now that our bodies should follow the temperature of the Aire is nothing doubted seeing every lame aking or bruised joynt doth witnesse it even to the very ignorant But that our mindes and manners should follow the temperature of the bodie is more strange and wonderfull Yet true it is that by the mediation of humours and spirits as also through ill disposed organs the minde also suffereth For the bodie is Domicilium animae the souls house abode and stay so that as a Torch saith one gives a better light and a sweeter smell according to the matter it is made of in like manner doth our Soul perform all her actions better or worse as her organs are disposed or as wine savours of the cask where it is kept so the soul receives a tincture from the body through which it works For the Understanding is so tied to and captivated by his inferiour senses that without their help he cannot exercise his functions and the Will being weakened so as she is hath but a small power to restrain those outward parts but suffers her self to be overruled by them of which I shall have occasion to speak more in the fourth dayes work untill when I leave it in the mean time adding that Comets do not alwayes when they bring sicknesses corrupt the aire through immoderate heat and drinesse but sometimes also through immoderate heat and moisture as also by immoderate windes which may bring the
it be grosse the beams piercing it can spread or dilate it but a little way If it be thin they then are able to dilate it further And as for their significations they sometimes signifie rain sometimes winde sometimes fair cleare and calm weather sometimes frost sometimes tempest and sometimes snow 1. Rain if the circle wax altogether thicker and darker 2. Winde when the circle breaketh on the one side The reason whereof is because the circle is broken by the winde which is above and not yet come down to us here below But by this effect above we may gather both that it will come and also from what quarter namely from that quarter where the circle breaketh first 3. But if it vanish away and be dissolved altogether or in all parts alike then it is a token of fair weather 4. Or of frost in winter when it is great about the Moon 5. Of snow when at the same time of the yeare it seemeth to be craggie and rockie 6. Or of tempestuous weather when it looketh ruddie and is grosse and broken in many parts And thus much concerning Circles Artic. 6. Of the Rain-bow THe Rain-bow is to be spoken of next And this is nothing else but the apparition of certain colours in an hollow watery distilling or dropping cloud directly opposite to the Sunne representing in its fashion half a circle Or thus It is a bow of many colours appearing in a dewie dark droppie and hollow cloud by reflection of the Sunne-beams opposite to it For this is certain that lightsome or luminous bodies do cause images colours or appearances upon slender clean and thin objects Now of all bodies the Sunne is most lightsome but the aire and water are clean thin and slender Here then it appeareth that the Efficient cause of the Rain-bow is the light or beams of the Sunne which falling into fit apt or convenient matter opposite to them are refracted and reflected to our sight The Materiall cause is not water in act nor yet thick aire but a dewie vapour which is not continuus sed potiùs corpusculis guttularum discretus not absolutely of one bodie but rather severed into many bodies or little drops The Form of it is to be gathered out of the Figure and Colours And for the Figure we see it is circular But yet it never representeth to us any more then a Semicircle and not alwayes so great an arch The reason of which is because the centre or middle point of the Rain-bow which is diametrally opposite to the centre of the Sunne is alwayes either in the Horizon or under it So that seeing our sight of the heavens is cut off by the earth in such a manner as that we can never see above half of them it must needs be that the appearance of this circle be either more or lesse to us according to the Sunnes great or little distance from the Horizon And as for the colours they are commonly accounted three viz. Ruddie Green and Azure To which some adde a fourth The first is in the thickest and darkest part of the cloud For where a bright shining falleth upon a darkish place there it representeth a ruddie colour being somewhat like a Flame The second is caused by a more weak infâ—…action being in a remoter and more waterie part of the cloud whereupon it looketh greenish The third which is further into the cloud proceeds from the weakest infraction and is therefore of a more dark and obscure colour tending to a blew or an azure hue And sometimes a fourth colour is also perceived being very like a yellow or orenge-tawnie proceeding from a commixture of the red and green according to Aristotles judgement of which the learned may see Iul. Scaliger exerâ—… 80. sect 4. Now these colours in some rain-bows are more vehement or apparent in others more remisse or obscure which is according to the aptnesse of the cloud c. And in rain-bows caused by the moon for sometimes though seldome they have been seen in the night the colours are weaker whiter and lesse conspicuous being in a manner as white as milk which is because the moon having a borrowed light is nothing so strong in the projecting her raies but farre more feeble then the sunne But come to the finall cause and you will finde it twofold partly Naturall partly Supernaturall As it is Naturall we take it either as a signe of rain because it cannot appeare but in a waterie cloud which is so prepared that it is ready to fall in very drops or as a signe of fair weather namely then when the beams of the sunne are strong and the heat of it so great that the moisture of the cloud is dried up and the drops attenuated into thin aire All which may be discerned after this manner viz. when the colours grow either darker and darker or clearer and clearer For if the colours appeare dark thick or obscure by little and little till at the last they bury themselves in a black cloud then rain followeth But if the colours by degrees grow clearer and clearer till at the last they vanish away then we may expect fair and bright weather And this as it is a naturall signe But now as it is Supernaturall and then we behold it as a signe or symbole of Gods mercie towards the world betokening that it shall never be destroyed again through any Deluge or universall Floud For it shall be a signe of the covenant saith God between me and the earth viz. that there shall be no more a Floud of waters to destroy the earth Gen. 9. From both which significations or ends it may well be called Iris for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is as much as dico in the Latine signifying I say I publish I tell or I declare Iris therefore comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dico First because this bow publisheth or telleth to us the constitution of the aire Secondly because it declareth the covenant of God made with the world after the Floud shewing that his wrath is so farre forth appeased that he will never drown the world again which appeareth even in the order observed in placing the bow for we see it with the bended ends downwards and as one that holdeth a bow in peace insomuch that had it a shaft in it the earth should not be shot neither ought man to fear that the Lord will shoot any more such arrows of displeasure as before Some have thought that there was no rain-bow before the Floud but that it appeared since because God saith When I make the heaven thick with clouds I will put my bow in the clouds Gen. 9. To which it may be answered that God saith not that he will of new create a bow but that he will then put it into the clouds so as it never was before namely to be a signe c. So that although it were
the nature of the place over which it passeth it may be altered of which I shall speak more afterwards And besides all this the secret influence of the Planets worketh greatly towards the dissolution of the foresaid vapours But I proceed And now it followeth that I divide all sorts of rain into two kindes First such as are ordinary secondly such as be extraordinary I call those ordinary when nothing but water falleth And I call those extraordinary which others call prodigious rains as when worms frogs fish wheat milk flesh bloud wooll stones iron earth c. fall from the clouds Plinie makes mention of many such prodigies as these in the 56 chapter of his second book setting down the times when they happened Concerning all which next under God the causer of the causes causing them these or the like reasons may be urged to shew how it is possible they should be procured and upon what causes they naturally depend 1. And first for the raining of worms it may be thought that the putrefaction of some dead carcasses or other hath been drawn up into the aire as fumes and vapours are where it breedeth such worms as use to breed out of the like matter here below 2. The like may be said of frogs when the vapour is exhaled out of marish grounds at such times as they engender 3. So also of fishes excepting that as is supposed the force of windes may suddenly sweep away little frey out of ponds upon montanous places and so also little young frogs with many the like things may be taken up Some write of a whole calf falling from the clouds and have been thereupon perswaded that it is possible of Vapours and Exhalations with the power of heavenly bodies concurring a calf may be made in the aire But this is idle It was therefore as others write taken up in some storm of whirl winde and so let fall again 4. As for wheat and other grain it hath been observed that their raining down hath often come in case of extremitie to the great preservation and refreshment of the distressed in which regard it may be supposed that it was an immediate work of God wrought without the rule of nature so that were all the wits in the world prest into one yet were they all too weak to shew a true cause of such a prodigie Which made Du Bartas write concerning such Let them declare what cause could yerst beget Amid the aire those drizzling showres of wheat Which in Carinthia twice were seen to shed Whereof that people made them store of bread To speak therefore as I think I will not boldly affirm how this was caused but onely touch at the possibilitie of it namely that it might be effected like unto other strange rains first drawn from the earth into the aire and then sent down again For as I have already said in shewing probable reasons for such things as are strange we do also include God the chief and best cause of all things And so also we reade that when the Red sea was bayed up with a double wall to give the children of Israel safe and free passage through it God sent a strong East-winde all that night c. by which the waters were divided Exod. 14. 21. And again when the Quails came and filled their tents being as it were rained round about them they were brought from the sea with a winde and let fall a dayes journey on this side and a dayes journey on that side even round about their camp Numb 11. 31. He that hath seen saith one an egge-shell full of dew drawn up by the sunne into the aire in a May morning will not think it incredible that wheat and other grain should be drawn up in much hotter countreys then ours is much rather the meal or flower which is lighter 5. By the like reason also it sometimes raineth milk for when the intensissimus solis calor the vehement heat of the sunne shall either draw milk from the udders of cattell and shall mix it with the other parts of the cloud or shall so throughly trie purifie digest or concoct the vapour that it may look something white then will the drops look as if it rained milk 6. As for the raining of flesh it is supposed to be after this manner namely through the drawing up of bloud from places where much bloud hath been shed which being clottered together seemeth as if it were flesh 7. And so also it may rain bloud namely when it is not clottered together but thinner c. In the yeare of Christ 480 was such a rain As also in the yeare 864 neare unto Brixia in Italie was the like Yea and before either of these times our own chronicles tell us that in the dayes of Rivallo King of the Britains we also had bloud rained upon which ensued great mortalitie of people Histories make mention of the like wonders at other times But say some there is often great store of bloud spilt and yet no prodigie appeareth To which is answered that it is not the ordinarie exhaling vertue which resteth in the starres and Planets that can draw up such bloudy vapours although much bloud be spilt but then onely when there is a more unusuall concurrence of causes for sometimes they are disposed to one thing sometimes to another And for the working of any strange thing it must be when there is a strange kinde of combination amongst them To which purpose we know although we cannot alwayes directly see and demonstrate how they are mixed and combined that they principally intend and cause at the same time other changes of which the visible prodigie is but the proclaimer or fore-runner as if you look but a little before concerning Comets you may see and so rest satisfied And unto this also adde that there may be drops like unto bloud and yet no bloud drawn up And this may be either when the Sunne draweth vapours out of putrified watery places in which as I have often seen in a drought resteth much slimie and red-coloured corrupted water or else when the Sunnes immensive heat doth so boyl the water in the cloud that like unto the urine which a man maketh in a burning fever it looketh red when it falleth The like cause I gave before unto the water of a white colour but know that it must then be of another qualitie the matter of the vapour I mean for there are some kinde of waters as is well known which being boyled turn to white salt c. And as for a red colour the ordinarie rain sheweth that it is possible for we see that ordinary rain-water looketh alwayes more brown then spring or river-water being as if a more powerfull operation would turn it into red 8. The raining of wooll or hair is when a certain mossinesse like wooll such as is upon quinces willows and
shall speak afterwards and therefore let them now rest untill I meet them Artic. 2. What winde is upon what causes it dependeth and how it is moved FRom the falsehood of the former opinions I come to declare the truth concerning the generation of windes affirming that windes are generated by vertue of the Sunne which causeth an hot and drie Exhalation to be evaporated or aspired out of the earth Unto which some adde the power and operation of certain subterranean fires which are as an antecedent cause or causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the said windie exhalations yet so as being come neare to the superficies of the earth the Sunne provokes or stirres them up to come abroad being therein causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the moving cause for the Sunne as a porter rarifies the superficies of the earth and thereby openeth the pores and passages of it through which the matter of winde comes forth and flyeth sidelong over the face of the earth And if at any time it happen that these exhalations can have no way made them but are kept close prisoners they then by striving to get out shake the earth which makes sad mortals alwayes fear sometimes suffer and not seldome wonder Wherefore winde may be thus defined namely that it is a certain plentie of hot and drie exhalations void of pinguid matter which being partly aspired and partly exhaled out of the earth are driven about it lest the aire should be corrupted The matter then we see must be an exhalation The quantitie of it must be copious and so Aristotle also witnesseth affirming that in the generation of windes there is a concourse of many exhalations by little and little begetting a large masse of matter The qualitie of which matter must be hot and drie not mixed with any fattie substance for if it were of a pinguid nature then it would be enflamed like lightning seeing lightning is an hot and drie exhalation and like unto this save onely that it containeth great plentie of fattie matter such as is not amongst the matter of winde Unto which adde this observation that a meer earthie exhalation is never the whole matter of winde For it draweth up many mixed vapours with it as may be seen if we call to minde the storms and showers which often happen upon the allaying of a winde For that part of the exhalation which is more moist and vaporous then the rest is thickened and condensed into a rainie cloud whilest the other is either drawn high into the upper Region or else quite wasted dispersed and consumed Also know that the aire may increase and augment the exhalation after the motion is begun and so the blast seemeth the greater For the exhalation cannot but drive some part of the aire before it then followeth other some after it lest there should be vacuum And furthermore in that I assent to a twofold efficient cause of winde viz. the beams of the sunne attracting and also some certain subterranean fires expelling it is not without reason for it evidently appeareth when the sunne hath either little or no force to draw up an exhalation that then we have often great blasts as those Northern windes in winter and boisterous blasts which happen in the night above our Horizon when the sunne is under it And unto this may be also added the secret influence of the Planets who being in such or such a position do powerfully cause the earth to afford the aire great store of windie exhalations As for example the aspect of Iupiter especially his conjunction with the sunne causeth great windes producing also as they may be placed thunder and hail as well as fair weather And as for Mercury if he be aspected either with the sunne moon or Iupiter in Gemini Libra or Aquarius it is evermore an infallible signe of winde unlesse there be some other particular and more powerfull influence to crosse it for as some have found it generall influences may hinder those which are particular But come now to the motion of windes I said before in their definition that they were driven about the earth and now it may be demanded how that motion is and from whence it proceedeth Their motion is a laterall or sidelong motion caused through the aspiring of the exhalation and detrusion of the aire For the exhalation is hot and drie and drawn up by the attractive power of the sunne other starres whereupon whilest it tendeth towards the middle Region of the aire it is beaten down again through the coldnesse and densitie of that place and so with a refracted and disjoynted force it is driven hither and thither and not suffered to fly up nor willing to fall down in respect of the great levitie in it and having as it were divided the contention between both viz. the cold of the aire and heat of the exhalation neither overcoming other it flyeth not directly up nor directly down but laterally or obliquely for it is held to be a kinde of Axiome that those things which are moved partly by force and partly naturally move themselves obliquely By which reason lightning also shooting starres and the like Meteors fly not directly down nor up but sidelong as the winde unlesse it be that when they consist of Heterogenean parts or parts of a divers kinde which some also attribute to the matter of windes they then through the strife of those their elevating and depressing parts have a transverse motion as before The place from whence this motion of the windes beginneth is from above First because the motion must necessarily begin from that place whither the exhalation is carried as is seen in a vapour turned to rain Secondly because all those things which have great force there where they have their greatest force are not farre from their head or beginning of motion but the windes have their greatest force in places up on high therefore there they begin their motion as Havenreuter proveth Thirdly know that the rednesse of the skie and all other visible signes of winde do declare that some spirits or windie breathings are above which in short time will be turned into blasts For rednesse is a token of the adustion of exhalations in the aire and the breaking of a circle about the moon from some one side or other doth also shew the winde that is above but not as yet come down unto us The like also doth the swift motion of a single cloud in a cleare skie when we feel no blasts below Besides the hot and drie exhalation we know is carried first upright and cannot therefore move obliquely untill it be encountered wherefore the motion beginneth in the aire above and not in places here below And yet some imagine that certain particular windes which are known but onely in some countreys have their immediate motion from out the caverns of the earth without any ascent into the skie and
art yes surely hath he And if man be so potent as to make his skill admired yea and by those who are men as well as he what may we think of the Maker of men but that his art is much more then commendable and his wisdome much more then matchlesse so that the world and all the parts thereof afford nothing but matter of wonder It is therefore an acclamation which deserves impression in the hearts of us mortall men Oh God how manifold are thy works in wisdome thou hast made them all And being made his providence doth sustain them The sixth question is concerning the saltnesse of the sea and freshnesse of rivers Aristotle in his second book of Meteors at the 3. chapter setteth down besides his own three opinions concerning this saltnesse One whereof is that the waters overflowing the earth in the beginning of the world were so dried up by the heat of the sunne that not onely the drie-land appeared but all those waters which remained being the sea were so sucked and robbed of their sweet savour that they could not but be salt Another opinion agreeing to that of Plato who generating the sea ex tartaro or from great and deep gulfs in the earth or with others drawing it through the bowels of the earth gave occasion to think that the water in it self was sweet and yet became salt by reason of the divers savours that it met withall in the ground or veins of the earth Which cause by the interpretours of Aristotle is also attributed to Anaxagoras Metrodorus as being pleasing to them For as water strained through ashes is endued with a certain tart and salt kinde of acrimonie so the sea is made salt by some such kinde of earth through which it passeth which is as others have also thought who suppose that the saltnesse of Mineralls doth much conduce to this purpose A third was the opinion of Empedocles who affirmed that the sea was but the sweat of the earth being as it were rosted by the heat of the sunne and was therefore salt because all sweat is of such a savour Now these three opinions Aristotle endeavoured to confute by severall reasons shewing other causes of the seas saltnesse And indeed had it been so with him that he could have repaired unto Moses then had the first opinion been struck dead more easily then it was because Moses would have told him that the drying of the earth and gathering of the waters were one day elder then either sunne or starres And for the second if it be taken in a qualified sense it is not much amisse for although Aristotle saith that if it be a true opinion then rivers would be salt as well as seas because they runne in the veins of the earth yet know that all and every vein is not of one and the same temper as is apparent by the differing qualitie of springing waters As for the third it seemeth rather a ridiculous then philosophicall opinion for sweat is but a small part of that humour contained in any bodie that yeeldeth sweat but the sea is not the smallest part of humour in the bodie of the earth therefore it neither causeth the sea nor saltnesse of it But beside all these there are other opinions also Wherefore some again have attributed the cause to adust vapours partly let fall on the sea and partly raised from it to the brinks and face thereof Others to the motion of the sea Some to under-earth or rather under-sea fires of a bituminous nature causing both the motion and saltnes also Others to an hot and drie aspiration exhaled out of the earth and mixed with the water of the sea But that which followeth seemeth absolutely the best namely that it is effected by the working of the sunne which draweth out the purer and finer parts leaving the grosser and more base behinde even as in this little world of our bodies the purest part of our nourishment being employed in and on the bodie the urine and other excrements remaining do retain a perfect saltnesse Unto which opinion they also assent who affirm that the saltnesse is radically or originally in the matter of the water which must be so understood as the water hath in it an earthy kinde of substance of a drying nature which as I suppose was not first in the matter of the waters before they were gathered unto this one place where now they are because as is reported and written there be salt mines in sundry places as in a certain hill in Barbary out of which perfect salt is digged and used for salt after it is made clean and beaten small All which doth greatly commend the providence and wisdome of God For it is not unlike but that the sea was by his wisdome and providence gathered into such salt valleys of the earth as were otherwise barren and unfruitfull with which substance the gathered water being mixed must needs partake both of an earthy matter and also of a salt savour yet so as this salt savour cannot be drawn out and sensibly perceived in the mixture of many sweet humours joyned with it without a separation first made by the heat of the sunne of the thinner parts from the thicker And so the sunne is a disponent though not a productive cause of this saltnesse Now this opinion may be strengthened by many reasons First because sea-water when it is boyled doth evaporate a dewie or watrie humour which being collected and kept together hath a sweet tast or savour Secondly because vapours drawn from the sea and turned into rain are void of saltnesse Thirdly because the sea in summer and towards the South as Aristotle affirmeth is more salt then elsewhere which cometh to passe in that the sunne at that time and place draweth away more of the sweet humours then at other times Fourthly because the sea is fresher towards the bottome then at the top as some have found by using practises to experience it Fifthly because as Aristotle again testifyeth if an emptie vessel sealed up with wax be by some means or other caused to sink into the sea and there let lie for a certain space it will at the last be filled with very fresh and sweet water issuing in through the insensible small pores of the wax for by this manner of passing into the vessel the thin is strained from the thick yea by this means the earthy and adust part which carrieth the saltnesse in it is excluded whilest the other is admitted For in every salt savour two things are required viz. an adustion and an earthie kinde of substance of a drying nature both which are found in the sea For according to the testimonie of Physicians sea-water doth heat and drie more then other waters and is also more ponderous or heavie yea and it doth more easily sustain a heavie burden giving it lesse leave to sink then the fresh silver-seeming streams And thus we see
how the sea comes to be salt It followeth to shew why rivers be not salt as well as seas Now for the better explaining of this the first thing considerable will be concerning the originall of fountains and rivers Aristotle handled them amongst Meteors of a watry kinde because he supposed that there was the same originall of rivers within the earth which was of watry Meteors in the aire above the earth For if this aire saith he coming neare to the nature of a vapour is by cold turned into water then the aire which is in the caverns of the earth may be by the same cause condensed into water also According to which grounds we cannot but make this the originall of fountains and rivers namely that they are ingendred in the hollow concavities of the earth and derive both their birth and continuall sustenance from the aire which piercing the open chinks or chasma's of the earth and congealed by the cold of those places dissolveth into water as we see the aire in winter nights to be melted into a pearlie dew sticking on our glasse windows and being grown to some quantitie it will either finde a way or make a way to vent its superfluitie All which agreeth very well to the nature of the aire which seeing it is hot and moist the heat being gone it is thickened and so easily turned into water And as for a continuall running of rivers caused by this water it is saith Aristotle by a perpetuall succession of new aire But to this opinion we may not absolutely make subscription for although aire may be thus converted into water yet the sole matter of rivers cannot come from hence it may haply be an helping cause but not a prime or principall cause For first sith the aire is a thin subtil bodie there is necessarily required an abundance of aire to make but a little quantitie of water insomuch that it is not doubted by some without cause whether the dennes and hollow places of the earth be vast enough to receive so much aire as can make water enough to runne along untill it break out into a river or spring Secondly there be many fountains which have as it were a kinde of ebbing and flowing at certain direct and set times which they keep as constantly as the very sea it self As for example among other strange rivers Plinie makes mention of Dodon Jupiters fountain which evermore decreaseth from midnight untill noon thence it increaseth untill midnight again And in the island Delus the fountain of Inopus as he also affirmeth keeps his course with Nilus Also he makes mention of a little island in the sea over against the river Timavus or Brenta in Italie having certain fountains in it which increase and decrease according to the ebbing and flowing of the vast bodie of Amphitrite or the sea Wherefore the wise man Siracides thought more truely Ecclus. 40. 11. concerning these things affirming that all things which are of the earth shall turn to the earth again and that which is of the waters doth turn again into the sea Which saying of his I do not say is much strengthened but absolutely confirmed by one more authentick then it self namely by that of Solomon Eccles 1. 7. where it is witnessed that all rivers runne into the sea yet the sea is not full unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again Which testimonie makes it plain that the sea is the principall cause of all rivers and if therefore Aristotles aëriall vapours have any thing to do in this generation it is as much as nothing yet that which they are able to do I imagine they perform joyning themselves with the currents which come from the sea and so they runne together in the veins of the earth either untill free leave be given them to come abroad or that like Hannibal in the Alps they work themselves a way Now in this there is little or no difference between Solomon and Plato together with the ancient Philosophers before him although Aristotle dissenteth For that which Solomon calleth the sea Plato calleth the great gulf of the earth saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Ad illum hiatum omnes fluvii confluunt ex hoc vicissim omnes effluunt that is Into this gulf all rivers do both flow or assemble themselves and also by their courses come or flow out again But what need more words It is without controversie that rivers have their first originall from the sea that is the fountain-head from whence all fountains have their heads Neither can the saltnesse of the sea and freshnesse of rivers stop this current For concerning springs it is true indeed that they are fresh and this freshnesse notwithstanding their salt originall may be ascribed to percolation and straining through the narrow spungie passages of the earth which makes them leave behinde as an exacted toll the colour thicknesse and saltnesse So that you see sea water though in it self of a salt and brackish savour by passing through divers windings and turnings of the earth is deprived of all unpleasantnesse and by how much the spring-heads of rivers are remote from the sea by so much are their waters affected with a delightfull relish yea and why they ascend up to the highest mountains already hath been declared Unto which may be added that they come not with a direct course from the sea unto those hills neither do they ascend directly upwards on the sudden but by degrees and so winding themselves through many crooked passages and turnings they do as it were scrue themselves up to the convenientest place of breaking out and cannot go back because the sea is a farre heavier bodie then the vein that cometh from it even as the bloud in our veins is nothing in proportion to the liver from whence each vein of bloud hath its first beginning But I draw towards a conclusion adding in the last place that of waters be they seas or rivers we have a threefold use and benefit First that out of them drink may be afforded to man and beast as it is Psal. 104. 11. They give drink to every beast of the field the wilde asses quench their thirst c. Secondly that running through the earth as bloud through the bodie by interlacing it and sometimes overwhelming it they make the earth able to produce those fruits which are necessary for the life of man which benefit of overflowing so fattens the whole land of Egypt that the priests of that countrey did thereupon ascribe the beginning of time or of every thing that now is to that time of the yeare when their Nilus overflowed or when it first began to lift up it self above the banks and diffuse an ample portion of manuring bountie into the lap of the land which is as good to them as if Iupiter should descend in a golden shower And for other places where there be
no such luckie flouds there it is found that these bounteous watrie bodies yeelding vapours do purchase for them such dropping showers of rain that the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing and therefore these are great benefits challenging most humble thanks as it is Psal. 107. The third is that they can quell the rage of the hottest element and keep our mansions from cinders or a flamie conversion into ashes The fourth is that they yeeld us an easinesse and speedinesse of conduct and traffick by which each place partaketh of the blessings of every place Yea these and many more are the benefits of water without which the life of man could not be sustained But here I contract my sails and end this question for by coming on the shore I shall the better view that which remaineth concerning this liquid element Wherefore it followeth The next and last question propounded was concerning the fluxion and refluxion of the sea wherein I purpose as neare as I can to shew both why seas have that alternate motion as also why such murmuring brooks and rivers as do not ebbe and flow are destitute of the foresaid courses The motion of the sea is either naturall or violent The first is performeth on its own accord the other it doth not but by some externall force compelling it The first being a naturall motion is such as is in every other water namely that all waters do evermore flow into the lowest place because they have an heavinesse or ponderositie in them And thus the ocean naturally floweth from the North where it is highest unto the South as the lower place for there in regard of the great cold the waters are not onely kept from drying up but also increased whilest much aire is turned into water whereas in the South by reason of great heat they are alwayes sucked up and diminished Now this motion is called a motion of Equation because it is for this end namely that the superficies of the water may be made equall and distant alike on every side from the centre of gravitie The other being that which dependeth upon some externall cause is such as may be distinguished into a threefold motion One is rapt and caused by force of the heavens whereby it floweth from East to West The second is a motion of Libration in which the sea striving to poise it self equally doth as it were wave from one opposite shore to another And note that this is onely in such as are but strait and narrow seas being a kinde of trepidation in them or as I said before a motion of Libration just like a rising and falling of the beam of an equall-poised balance which will not stand still but be continually waving to and fro The third and last is Reciprocatio or Aestus maris called the ebbing and flowing of the sea The cause of which hath added no little trouble nor small perplexitie to the brains of the best and greatest Philosophers Aristotle that master of knowledge helps us little or nothing in this question And yet Plutarch affirmeth that he attributed the cause to the motion of the sunne Others have gathered from him that he seemed to teach it was by certain exhalations which be under the water causing it to be driven to and fro according to contrary bounds and limits But howsoever he taught or whatsoever he thought this we finde that nothing troubled him more For as Coelius Rhodiginus writeth when he had studied long about it and at the last being weary he died through the tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Negropont or Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion ebbing and flowing seven times a day at the least adding before that his untimely and disastrous precipitation these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quandoquidem Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem That is Although Aristotle hath not taken Euripus yet Euripus shall take Aristotle meaning that that should end him whose cause could not be comprehended by him But leaving Aristotle we shall finde as little help from his master Plato who as did also the Stoicks attributed the cause to the breath of the world Such also have been the fancies of others among whom Kepler may not be forgotten who in good earnest affirmeth and beleeveth that the earth is a great living creature which with the mightie bellows of her lungs first draweth in the waters into her hollow bowels then by breathing respires them out again A prettie fiction this and well worthy the pen of some fabling poet rather then to be spoken in good sober sadnesse and affirmed as a truth Others would have the cause to be by reason of waters in the holes of the earth forced out by spirits which comes something neare to that before concerning the breath of the world A third sort attribute the cause to the circular motion of the earth affirming that there is a daily motion of the earth round about the heavens which it performeth in 24 houres the heavens in the mean time onely seeming to move and not moving in very deed This opinion came first from the Pythagoreans and is defended by the Copernicanians as an effect of the foresaid motion As for example the earth moving swiftly round the water not able to follow the motion is left behinde and caused to flow to and fro like as in a broad shallow vessel may be seen for put water in such a vessel and let it be swiftly pulled forward and then you shall see that by being left behinde it will beat it self against the one side before the other can at all partake of its company and so it is also in the earth leaving the waters behinde whilest it moveth But if this opinion be true first tell me how it comes to passe that the sea doth not ebbe and flow alwayes at one and the same time but altereth his course and is every day about one houre later then other Secondly shew me why the tides are at one time of the moneth higher then at another Thirdly let me be informed why broad lakes and large rivers do not flow as well as seas Fourthly let me be rightly instructed how it comes to passe that things tend to the earth as their centre if the sunne as Copernicus and his followers imagine be the centre of the world Fifthly shew me why the aire in the middle Region is not rather hot then cold for surely if the earth should move round with a diurnall motion as they maintain then the middle Region must be either farre higher then it is or else the aire would be so heated by going round that the coldnesse in it would be either little or none at all for it is a ruled case that Remotio à motu circulari dat quietem frigiditatem et gravitatem sicut
propinquitas dat motum calorem et levitatem and thereupon it comes to passe that we have coldnesse in the middle Region the cause first beginning it being in respect of the hills which hinder the aire from following the motion of the heavens as in two severall places of the second dayes work I have declared Sixthly I would also know why an arrow being shot upright should fall neare upon the same place where the shooter standeth and not rather fall beyond him seeing the earth must needs carry him farre away whilest the arrow flyeth up and falleth down again or why should a stone being perpendicularly let fall on the West side of a tower fall just at the foot of it or on the East side fall at all and not rather be forced to knock against it We see that a man in a ship at sea throwing a stone upright is carried away before the stone falleth and if it be mounted up in any reasonable height not onely he which cast it but the ship also is gone Now why it should be otherwise in the motion of the earth I do not well perceive If you say that the earth equally carries the shooter aire arrow tower and stone then methinks you are plainly convinced by the former instance of the ship or if not by that then by the various flying of clouds and of birds nay of the smallest grashopper flie flea or gnat whose motion is not tied to any one quarter of the world but thither onely whither their own strength shall carry them some flying one way some another way at one and the same time We see that the winde sometimes hindereth the flight of those prettie creatures but we could never yet perceive that they were hindered by the aire which must needs hinder them if it were carried alwayes one way by the motion of the earth for from that effect of the earths motion this effect must needs also be produced Arm'd with these reasons 't were superfluous To joyn our forces with Copernicus But perhaps you will say it is a thing impossible for so vast a bodie as the heavens to move dayly about the earth and be no longer then 24 houres before one revolution be accomplished for if the compasse were no more then such a distance would make as is from hence to Saturns sphere the motion must extend in one first scruple or minute of time to 55804 miles and in a moment to 930 miles which is a thing impossible for any Physicall bodie to perform Unto which I must first answer that in these mensurations we must not think to come so neare the truth as in those things which are subject to sense and under our hands For we oft times fail yea even in them much more therefore in those which are remote and as it were quite absent by reason of their manifold distance Secondly I also answer that the wonder is not more in the swiftnesse of the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference for that which is but a slow motion in a little circuit although it be one and the same motion still must needs be an extraordinary motion in a greater circle and so I say the wonder is not more in the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference Wherefore he that was able by the power of his word to make such a large-compassed bodie was also able so to make it that it should endure to undergo the swiftest motion that the quickest thought can keep pace with or possibly be forged in imagination For his works are wonderfull and in wisdome he hath made them all Besides do but go on a while and adhere a little to the sect of Copernicus and then you shall finde so large a space between the convexitie of Saturns sphere and the concavitie of the eighth sphere being more then 20 times the distance of Saturn from us and yet void of bodies and serving to no other purpose but to salve the annuall motion of the earth so great a distance I say that thereby that proportion is quite taken away which God the Creatour hath observed in all other things making them all in number weight and measure in an excellent portion and harmonie Last of all let me demand how the earths motion and heavens rest can agree with holy Scripture It is true indeed as they alledge that the grounds of Astronomie are not taught us in Gods book yet when I heare the voice of the everlasting and sacred Spirit say thus Sun stand thou still and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon I cannot be perswaded either to think teach or write that the earth stood still but the sunne stood and the moon stayed untill the people had avenged themselves on their enemies Neither do I think after this that it was the earth which went back but the sunne upon Ahaz his diall in the dayes of Ezekias For when God had made the earth what said he did he bid it move round about the heavens that thereby dayes weeks moneths and yeares might be produced No. What then This was its office and this that which it should do namely bud and bring forth fruit for the use of man And for motion it was absolutely and directly bestowed upon the heavens and starres witnesse those very words appointing to the sunne and moon their courses setting them in the heavens so as they should never rest but be for signes and for seasons for dayes and for yeares And so also the wise Siracides understood it saying Did not the sunne go back by his means and was not one day as long as two I conclude therefore and concluding cannot forget that sweet meditation of a religious and learned Prelate saying Heaven ever moves yet is that the place of our rest Earth ever rests yet is that the place of our travell and unrest And now laying all together if the cause be taken away the effect perisheth My meaning is no more but thus that seeing the earth is void of motion the ebbing and flowing of the sea cannot be caused by it but dependeth upon some other thing Or again were it so that the earth had such a motion I should scarce beleeve that this ebbing and flowing depended on it For as I said before if this were the cause it could never be that the course of ebbs and flouds should keep such a regular alteration as they do day by day Neither could it produce a cause why the tides should be more at one time of the moneth then at another Nor yet as some suppose could the waters be suffered to flow back again but alwayes must be going on as fast as they can toward the Eastern part of the world But I leave this and come to another It was a mad fancie of him who attributed the cause to an Angel which should stand in a certain place of the world and sometimes heave up the earth above the waters
which is good against the stinging of Scorpions and so are love-sick youngsters cured for when nothing will help them they may again be healed by enjoying her who gave the wound The Asp is something like to a land-snake but with a broader back their eyes are red and flaming and out of their foreheads grow two pieces of flesh like an hard skinne and for their poison it is in a manner incurable Plinie writeth that they go alwayes two and two together and if one of them be slain the other will follow eagerly and seek up and down after him that slew his mate but it is the providence of God Almighty to give as many remedies against evil as there be evils in the world For the dulnesse of this serpents sight and slownesse of her pace doth keep her from many mischiefs which otherwise would be done The best way to cure their stings is presently to cut off the member bitten There be they who make three sorts of them that is to say the Terrestriall five handfulls long the Hirundiner coloured like a Swallow and is but a handfull long and last of all the Spitter greater then the other Their biting causeth death within few houres that of the Hirundiner is sudden of the Spitter somewhat slower beginning first with a dimnesse or trouble in the eyes then with a swelling in the face after that it proceedeth to a deafnesse and last of all it bringeth death Caelius Rhodiginus writeth that the Kings of Egypt did wear the pictures of Asps in their crowns whereby they signified the invincible power of principalitie in this creature whose wounds cannot easily be cured making it thereby an embleme of the power and wrath of a King and the priests of Egypt and those of Ethiopia did likewise wear very long caps having towards their top a thing like a navel about which were the forms of winding Asps to signifie to the people that those who resist God and the King shall perish by unresistable violence Topsell The Chameleons are admirable for their aierie subtance and for the changeablenesse of their colours 〈◊〉 if you will for their aierie sustenance although they sometimes hunt and eat flies He is of the form and greatnesse of a Lizzard but hath higher legs his ribs joyn in his bellie as in fishes his muzzle is long and his tail small towards the end and turning inwards his skinne is rough his eyes hollow and his nails crooked and when he moves himself he craâ—…leth slowly like a Tortoise See Plin. in his 8 book chap 33. Hâ—… tongue is almost half a foot long which he can dart â—…rth as swiftly as an arrow shot from a bow it hath a big â—…ot on the tip thereof and is as catching and holding as â—…lue which when he darteth forth he can fasten to the Grasse-hoppers Caterpillers and Flies thereby drawing them down into his throat He changeth into all and every colour excepting white and red whereof there be divers opinions some think that he changeth through fear but this is not like for though fear alter the colour as we when we are afraid wax wan and pale yet it will not change the bodie into every colour others think that by reason of his transparencie he taketh colour from those things which are neare him as the fish called Polypus taketh the similitude of the rocks stones where he lieth to deceive the fish and some again joyn both together for the Chameleon being in fear swelleth by drawing in the aire and then his skin being thereby pent is the smoother and the apter to receive the impression of the colours of things objected agreeing in this to that of Aristotle saying that his colour is changed being puft up with winde But be the cause from whence it will it affordeth a fit embleme or lively representation of flatterers and time-servers who fit themselves for all companies times occasions flattering any one thereby to make fit use of every one The Lizzard is a little creature much like the Eve but without poyson breeding in Italy and in many other countreys the dung of which beast cleareth the sight and taketh away spots in the eye the head thereof being bruised and applied will draw out a thorn or any other thing sticking in the flesh The Salamander is a small venimous beast with â—…ure feet and a short tail it doth somewhat resembâ—… the shape of a Lizzard according to Plinie lib. 10. câ—… 67. And as for his constitution it is so cold that like 〈◊〉 if he do but touch the fire he puts it out They be common in India in the isle of Madagascar as Mr Purchasâ—…lledgeth â—…lledgeth where he treateth of the creatures Plants and fruits of India But stay it is time to stop I know not how to mention every thing and yet there is nothing which is not worthy admiration I made I must confesse as much haste as I could and yet me thinks I see both these and thousands more runne from me flocking all together as if they meant to dance attendance now on Mans creation and not onely shew to him their due obedience and humble welcome into the world his stately palace but also wait to have their names according to their natures For whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was saith Moses the name thereof Let us now then come to him for whose sake all things else were made for God made the world for Man and Man for himself It was therefore a daintie fancie of one who brought in the World speaking to Man after this manner Vide homo dicit Mundus quomodo amavit te qui propter te fecit me Servio tibi quia factus sum propter te ut servias illi qui fecit me te me propter te te propter se. See oh man saith the World how he hath loved thee who made me for thee I serve thee because I am made for thee that thou maist serve him who made both me and thee me for thee and thee for himself This I will therefore adde Herbs cure our flesh for us the windes do blow The earth doth rest heav'n move and fountains flow United waters round the world about Ship us new treasures kingdomes to finde out The lower give us drink the higher meat By dropping on the ground nigh parcht with heat Night curtains draws the starres have us to bed When Phebus sets and day doth hide his head One world is Man another doth attend him He treads on that which oft times doth befriend him Grant therefore Lord that as the world serves me I may a servant to thy greatnesse be Sect. 2. The creation of Man being created male and female and made according to the image of God together with the institution of Marriage and blessing given to that estate THough Mankinde were the last yet not the least God onely spake his powerfull
The Scolopendra * De animal lib. 13. cap. 23. An embleme from this fish of swallowing the baits of sinne The Sturgeon An embleme concerning thriving The Calamarie * Liâ—… 9. cap. 29. The Purple The Polypus 〈◊〉 â—…sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 Polypus The Pearl-fish The Pearl and the Prawn emblemes of cheating The Gilthead An embleme of friendship The Plaice The Sole Whiting Gurnard Conger Salmon Thornback A medicine against the stone Herring Eeles The Shad. The Gogion or Gudgion Tâ—… 〈◊〉 The Perch and Pike The Trout The Eagle Parents ought not to bring up their children in idlenesse by an example taken from the Eagle The Phenix * Lib. 10. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 lib. 6. * Lib. 58. †Lib. de emend temp alio quoâ—… lib. cap. 22. The Griffon * See also 〈◊〉 Cosmog The Ostrich Job 39. 14 15. The Ostrich like women who will not nurse their children Ibis The Kite Emblemes from the Kite concerning the covetous gripers of this world Envie shadowed forth The Raven An emblem from the Fox and Raven concerning compaâ—…ions in ill c. Good to help digestion Plin. lib. 10. cap. 1â—… Against such aâ—… want naturall affection Aelian de animal lib. 3. cap. 43. Children should not be used too harshly in their minoritie * Prov. 13. 24. and chap. 23. 13. †Lib. 10. cap. 12. The egges of ravens are naught for big beâ—…ed women †Lib. 10. cap. 47. The Pelican * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perforo to beat or pierce Policie is better then strength The Stork Plin. lib. 10. cap. 23. There ought to be societie amongst men From whence men first learned to purge by clyster The Heron The Hawk Olaus Mag. lib. 19. Emblemes from the Ape and Hawk concerning treacherie and ruine to a mans house The Partridge The Phesant * Liâ—… 1â—… cap. 4â—… The Mallard Schol. Salernâ—… translated by Sir John Hir. The Nightingale * Aelian 〈◊〉 hist. lib. 12. Du Bart. The Lark Black-bird Linot Finch Mavis Redbreast Wren Thrush and Starling The Owl Bubo The Night-raven The Scriech-owl Noctua The Howlet To make a drunkard lothe â—…is liquour The Bat. The Cuckoe Lib. 19. False friends Ovid. Epist. Adulterous mâ—…n like the Cuckoe The Swallow * And so much the rather because they are seen in hotter countrâ—… when they be gone from hence neither can any one shew a cause for every thing in Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Turtle Innocencie to be learned from the Dove The Pigeon The Sparrow * 〈◊〉 hinketh so but I suppose that although their time be short yet it may be more then a yeare A storie of a Sparrow The Peacock An example of envie * 〈◊〉 lib 4. cap. 43. The Cock The Cock â—…eth the Lion Cock-fights * Var. hist. lib. 2. A storie concerning Cock-fighting Ibid. Du â—…art The Crane Care ought to be in Pastoâ—…rs Magistrates and Governours taught by an example from the Crane The tongue hath brought many to mischief The Swan A pattern of matrimoniall love Death ought to be cheerfull The Sea-crow A bird called Platea Policie is better then strength The Ray kills the Sea-crows The Plover * See the haven of health pag. 136. The Lapwing * Tereâ—…s â—…ex Thraâ—… Meta. lib. 6. The Osprey The Charadrion An emblemâ—… from the cure done by this bird concerning our cure wrought by Christ. Porphyrio The King-fisher * Lib. 10. cap. 3â—… Ovid. Met. lib. 11. Dâ—… 〈◊〉 * He names onely the â—…icilian sea Bermuda birds Birds of Paradise * Who also writeth that he saw a tree in the East-Indies the leaves of which changed themselves into birds who lived but 8 houres Du Bart. Sum. And of birds in the Moluccos as big as hens with horns in stead of crests They lay their egges in the sâ—…nd and there they be hatched The Cucuios * Like unto which are those birds mentioned by Plinie and Solinus Plin. lib. 10. cap 47. * See Purch and Du Bart. summary pag. 240. Bees * Topsel in his Hist. of Serpents Tops bist Sâ—…rp Wasps * But sometimes in thaâ—…ched houses Hornets A fight between a Sparrow and a Hornet The Badger on enemie to the Hornet A good medicine against stinging Cantharides Pyrausta Tarantula †Like unto which is an herb in Sardinia of which if any â—…at much they perish and die laughing It is like to Balm gentle 〈◊〉 Bombyx The creation of beasts The Elephant a Topsel b Plin. lib. 8. cap. 11 c 〈◊〉 lib. 8. d Topsel * And in Pegu the King hath many it being part of his royall title King of the White Elephants See Mr. Purch in his Pilgr of Asia lib. 5. e Munst. cosmog. The way to catch Elephants * These 〈◊〉 are anoinâ—…ed with a certain oyl which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow them †Some say they are chased in as is also the tame Elephant trained up on purpose for such huntings Purch of Asia lib. 5. The mouse is offensive to the Elephant Munst. An embleme from the Elephant The marriage bed must not be abused f Gemin lib. 5. cap. 60. Tobit 8. 4 7 8. * Ezek. 8. 6. and 22. 10. Levit. 18. 19. g See Mr. Perk. in his Aurea 〈◊〉 h Munst. A pattern for great men Gemin lib. 5. cap. 96. The Rhinoceros l Purch 5 book of Asia k Topsell l Purch ibid. ex 〈◊〉 The Unicorn Deut. 33. 17. Isai. 34. 7. Job 39. 9. Psalm 92. 10. A description of the Unicorns horn How hunters take them The Lion A storie of a Lion Another storie of a Lion * Aeliâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ist lib. 1 †Munst. He is truely valiant that can overcome himself * Fortiâ—…r est qui se quam qui fortiffuâ—… vincit 〈◊〉 The Tiger * And note thaâ—… his Mustachios are holden for mortall poisen causing men to die mad if they be given in meat Purch m Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. n Munster Topsell o Topsell The Panther p Plin. lib. 8. cap. 17. How the Leopard is begotten An embleme from the Panther concerning fair tongues and false hearts q Topsell The Camel r Purch s Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. t Plin. ibid. An embleme from the Camel concerning those who preferre earth before heaven * Matth. 19. 24. The Horse and Camel great enemies Stuffes made of Camels hair A lesson of patience and humilitie taught by the Camel The Dromedarie The Cameleopard u Lib. 8. cap. 30. The Hyaena x Topsell y Idem Pag. 439. The Corcuta The Mantichora a Purch lib. of Africa cap. 1. Zebra Muflo b Munst. Cos. Epit. The Ovassom Virginia Dogs Wolves Foxes c. The Wolf c Geâ—…in lib. 5. 6. 39 d Ibid. * Or elsé come with the green leaves and small boughs of Osrers c. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 22. Ola. Mag. lib. 18. e Tops f Ibid. Romulus Remus not nursed by a Wolf The Fox The subtilties of the Fox How the Fox catcheth fleas d Topsell †Geâ—…in lib.