of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
obnoxious to external causes which produce diseases On the other side if Animals are happy 't is as Fools are whose minds are quiet by reason of their ignorance and insensibility But as it is better to be sensible then insensible even upon the condition of enduring pain sometimes so it is more happy to have a rational mind though it causes troubles to us sometimes then to have none Moreover we cannot avoid the stroaks of fortune otherwise then those of Thunder namely by being very high or very low but 't is better to be above tempests then below them and to be incapable of them by reason as a wise man then by stupidity as a beast CONFERENCE CXXX Whether is better that Men have many Wives or Women many Husbands THough plurality of Wives or Husbands be disallowed by the Christian Law yet not being contrary to the Law of Nations for many admit it nor of nature during which it was in use we may be permitted to doubt whether supposing Polygamy it were better one Husband should have many Wives or one Wife many Husbands There are examples of both Plurality of Wives was practised by Lamech who first had two by Abraham Jacob and the Patriarchs for multiplying of their Lineage afterwards by David and Solomon who had 700 Wives and 300 Concubins and at present 't is in use among the Turks who are permitted to have as many Wives as they can keep As for plurality of Husbands though it be not now in use yet it was sometimes amongst the Amazons who made use of Men only as Stallions as also amongst the Medes and Persians where it was a shame for a Woman to have less then five Husbands And by the report of Caesar in his Commentaries the Women of great Britain had no less then ten or twelve Husbands a piece Nevertheless this plurality of Husbands is somthing against the Law of Nature according to which the Male as the most perfect is the head and master of the Woman and as 't is a monstrous thing for a body to have many heads so 't is for a Woman to have many Husbands besides that they hinder production of Children for we see publick Women are barren and on the contrary plurality of Wives is the cause of much issue Wherefore 't is more expedient in a State whose chief strength consists in the number of men that one Husband have many Wives then one Wife many Husbands The second said Though men abusing the power and authority of Laws to their own advantage have oftner married more Wives then they have permitted them to have more Husbands yet the women have as much reason of complaint in this point as in any other establish'd to their prejudice without their being heard or summon'd Their vehement and irregular appetite after man of which the irregular motions of that Animal in Animali are most certain evidences seems to conclude in their favour For Woman alone of all Animals desires the Male at all times even after conception She the Fire the Sea and Death never say 't is enough as the matter hath a continual appetite of Forms so hath she of the Male which desire being natural ought to be satisfi'd otherwise it were in vain but nothing is so in Nature and therefore she ought to be permitted more Husbands since one alone is more apt to irritate then satiate her She is able and hath wherewith to satisfie them but if one man cannot suffice one woman how can he acquit himself towards a dozen Especially in this age wherein no doubt women would appeal from the constitution of Solon who would have men live with their wives only thrice a moneth as well as from that foolish custom of Cato who never visited his but when it rain'd Lycurgus was much better advis'd when he permitted old or otherwise impotent persons to chuse out the handsomest young men to lye with their wives This Sage Legislator well judging that they would of themselves take this liberty and therefore 't was better to grant it them that so they might be quit of the vice and blame attending this action when prohibited The Third said That the decision of this Question the very report of which sometimes put the Roman Dames into an aproar being of very great consequence to both parties 't is requisite to observe so much equity therein that the Women have no ground of exception though to speak truth I know not which would be most to their advantage whether to have more Husbands who would be so many Masters and Tyrants or to share with other Women the Caresses of one alone the first being contrary to their haughty humour and the second to their jealousie Besides the plurality of Husbands would hinder not only the propagation but also the education of Children for none would take care of the Children which were not his own and though they were he would not believe they belong'd to him It would be impossible for a Father to know his own Child the term of Child-bearing being no more certain testimony then the resemblance of Physiognomy Moreover whether the Wife were hated or loved by her Husbands she would be displeas'd to see all her Rivals in bad intelligence or the effects of their common hatred However being unable to please all by reason of the diversity of their humours she could not avoid the disgust of some of them As for that impure pleasure 't is too shameful to be brought into the account besides that the frequency of it would take away its sweetness no pleasures of life being such but upon the score of their rarity The Fourth said They that fear the multitude of Husbands would hinder conception and consequently generation by the confusion of several Seeds know not how either is effected since Physitians affirm with Hippocrates That the Womb no sooner receives the fruitful Seed but it shuts it self up to embrace the same straitly as the Stomach does the Meat and that so exactly as not to admit a needles point so that it cannot open again to receive new Seed in a second Coition And though superfoetation happen sometimes yet 't is very rare and is incident to a Woman that lies with the same Man several times as well as to one that lies with many The other Inconvenience of the incertainty of Issues and consequently of Successions is as little considerable for Man being not born for himself but for the State whereof he is a Member and Children less belonging to their Parents then to the Commonwealth whereof they are the Nursery 'twere more expedient that they were bred and instructed like those brave Lacedemonians at the publick charge than of their Parents whose tenderness and too great indulgence is oft-times the cause of their evil education Moreover this was the design of that Divine Commonwealth of Plato who would have not only other Goods but Wives and Children also common that so those ungrateful words of Mine and Thine which
prizes of the Commodity he intends to deal in Which hath gain'd great Credit to this Assembly by the printed Bills it hath sometimes sent abroad containing the currant prizes of all Wares for every week in imitation of the City of Amsterdam For by this means the Merchant needs only discount the charges of transportation and make a Reduction of Weights and Measures to see his evident profit yet alwayes carefully observing to draw a line with some imaginary summ for hazards and contingences which may happen unexpectedly it being impossible what-ever care be us'd to regulate exactly the gain of Merchandize as depending partly on Chance and partly on the Will and Phansie of Men so that a Commodity which for being to day in fashion or otherwise in credit would yield twenty in the hundred profit to the Owner sometimes leaves him a loser or he is forc'd to keep it long in his Ware-house CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore PLato designing a Common-wealth whose Citizens might live in good intelligence justly excludes out of it the words of Mine and Thine conceiving that so long as there was any thing to be divided there would ever be Male-contents because Self-love the root from whence the too great desire of keeping and acquiring arises acts variously in Men by main force and strong hand in time of War and in Peace by Law-suits Now the desire of Getting having never been so great as at this day nor so much countenanc'd and rewarded since in consideration of wealth most Offices are dispos'd of 't is no wonder if Law-suits be more numerous at this day than in times past The Second said That Community of Goods feign'd by the Poets and exemplifi'd in the Primitive Church bating the Charity which produc'd it would cause as many mischiefs and consequently Law-suits as there are at present For every one would endeavour to appropriate what should be common and despise it if not able to compass it as we see common Causes are neglected and commonly lost for private interest Whence appears the impertinence of some Legislators and of the Nicolaitans who that the Children might be lov'd the more would have Wives common for common Wives and Children would be own'd by no Body and if such Women as belong but to two or three keep them alwayes in jealousie and many times ingage them in a Law-suit what would those do that belong'd to all the world Wherefore I conceive that if contrary Effects have contrary Causes 't is Plenty and its Daughter Pride that causeth Law-suits and Poverty and Humility makes Peace and Agreements Which the French Democritus intimates where he introduces an old man reconciling two Adversaries but 't is after they are both undone Thus also the Circle of Humane Life represents Labour holding Wealth by the Hand Wealth holding Pride Pride holding Contention which causeth Poverty this Humility which again produces Labour that Wealth and so round again For of fifty Law-suits not one would begin between the parties or at least it would soon be determin'd if either would humble themselves as much one to the other as they do to their Judges yea oftentimes to their Council Wherefore Vanity being greater in this Age than ever it was although with less reason in most 't is no wonder if our times abound more with Law-suits than the former The Third said That such as are at their ease have no mind to Law-suits and therefore 't is not Plenty that begets them but Necessity yet not an absolute one for he that hath nothing cannot go to Law but such that the one cannot pay what he owes and the other cannot be without it In every other Case Accommodements are possible 'T is from this Source that so many Seisures and Sentences proceed which the indebted would never suffer had they wherewithall to pay considering that the whole charges must fall upon themselves Now as there were never so many rich so there were never so many poor as there are at this day in France because every body labours out of the vanity above-mention'd to disable themselves every day more and more laughing at the Constitutions which are made to reduce us to frugality and ascribing all inconveniences both publick and private to any other Cause but themselves The Fourth said That though the Ages past having had the same vicissitudes of Peace and War and of Poverty and Riches yet had they not so many Law-suits as there are at present and therefore some other Cause thereof must be sought which possibly is this That the Spirits of Men are become more refin'd and subtle in the several Ages of the world and consequently advanc'd to a higher pitch of maliciousness whence many difficulties and contest arise in such matters wherein the goodness and simplicity of our Ancestors found none at all Nor hath the multitude and diversity of Laws been a small occasion of this bad event For besides the Roman Laws which lay long in oblivion and were restor'd to light by Veruher in the year 1127. and the Canons compil'd by Gratian whence came the judicial formalities our Customs and our Ordinances and amongst others those made since Charls VIII with long preambles and reasonings in imitation of Justinian have stirr'd up more Law-suits than there were in a thousand years before So that hath been good work for such as were minded to draw profit thereby to make so confus'd and intricate an Art of the Law that there is almost no Case wherein they cannot find some trick to multiply a Suit and render it immortal Moral Reason the foundation of the Law admits a thousand different faces not only in circumstances of Fact but also in matter of Law whence there are few Laws but have their contraries The Fifth said That the multiplicity of our Law-suits is to be attributed to the humor of the French Nation which is desirous of change and naturally subtle and eloquent Whence a Latine Poet stills France the Nurse of Lawyers Likewise the improvement of Learning in this last Age hath contributed much thereunto And the sight of great Estates gotten by the Law hath induc'd many Parents to put their Children to that profession as the readiest way to advancement Such as could not be Counsellors have been made Attornies Solliciters Sergeants and this great number of people employ their inventions to get a livelyhood which they cannot do without Law-suits And therefore 't is no wonder if they advise continue multiply and eternise them as much as they can egging on the Plaintiff by the motive of Profit and the Defendant by that of Self-preservation and refusing to the more simple their writings and other such helps as might bring them to accord The Sixth said That Law-suits increase or diminish according to the diversities of proportions kept in the Administration of Justice For some measure them by the Law of Nature whereby all Men are born equal and
ANOTHER COLLECTION OF Philosophical CONFERENCES OF THE French Virtuosi UPON QUESTIONS of all SORTS For the Improving of Natural Knowledg Made in the Assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most Ingenious Persons of that Nation Render'd into English By G. HAVERS Gent. J. DAVIES of Kidwelly Gent. LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring and John Starkey and are to be sold at their Shops at the George in Fleet-street neer Clifford's-Inn and the Mitre between the Middle-Temple-Gate and Temple-bar 1665. IMPRIMATUR Novemb. 20. 1663. WILLIAM MORICE PREFACE THe good Reception a Volume of the like Conferences appears to have found last year by the speedy distribution of the Copies hath given encouragement to the Version and Publication of this wherein I assure my self the Readers will not find themselves worse entertain'd at the second Course then they were at the first the Questions here being proportionably more Philosophical and chosen from such Subjects as are most inquir'd into at this day by the Curious of our own Nation who undoubtedly will find some contentment if not satisfaction in reading what the Virtuosi of our Neighbour-Nation have discours'd touching those Matters I have often heard it spoken to the Commendation of an Eminent Peer in the last Reign That for an hour or two together he made the most agreeable Conversation in the World but if upon parting any one of the Company happened to reflect upon what he had heard he could not remember the least particular passage saving that he had spent such a portion of Time very deliciously 'T was a happy Faculty for the Man for he did his business by it and partly ow'd his Promotion to this Talent I shall pronounce no otherwise upon him but thus That perhaps as Tully said in almost a like case he was a better Gallant than a Wise Man should be At least this way of consuming Time argued a great Disease in Mens Minds when they could be contented to feed upon Air and were so squeamish as not to be able to bear the wholsom Diet of solid Discourse 'T is too apparent that the same Humor is still predominant in these our days wherein Gaming makes the whole Converse amongst the Gentry who like rapacious Animals meet together but to prey upon one another whilst old Stories or News and for want of matter so innocent Detractions Derisions and Abuses are the only things that furnish talk to the Plebeians Thus we live and yet pretend to be Reasonable Creatures whilst true and solid Reason is almost as obscurely discernable in our Commerce as Sense and Motion are in Sponges and Oisters But 't is hop'd the better practice of some Excellent Persons amongst our selves may contribute much to the Reformation of this and to help it forward it cannot but do some good by exciting us to emulation to see what been already done by some Gentlemen of France to whose excellent Wits the World is beholden for these Conferences THE CONTENTS CONFERENCE CI. I. OF Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World Page 1 CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisdom Riches or Poverty 7 CONFERENCE CIII I. Of Glass II. Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks 13 CONFERENCE CIV I. Of Tobacco II. Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good 19 CONFERENCE CV I. Of Blood-letting II. Which is the most Excellent of the Soul 's three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment 25 CONFERENCE CVI. I. Of Dew II. Whether it be expedient for Women to be Learned 31 CONFERENCE CVII I. Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies II. Whether the Reading of Romances be profitable 37 CONFERENCE CVIII I. Of Talismans II. Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd 43 CONFERENCE CIX I. Of Volcano's or Subterranean Fires II. Which age is most desirable 49 CONFERENCE CX I. Of Mineral Waters II. Whether it be better to give than to receive p. 55 CONFERENCE CXI I. Of Antidotes II. Which is most communicative Good or Evil. 61 CONFERENCE CXII I. Why Animals cry when they feel Pain II. Whether it be expedient to have Enemies 66 CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 71 CONFERENCE CXIV I. Of the Milkie-Way II Which is most powerful Gold or Iron 79 CONFERENCE CXV I. Of the cause of Vapours II. Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice 85 CONFERENCE CXVI Which Climate is most proper for Long-life The second Question is remitted to the next Conference and 't is Resolv'd for divers Reasons that hereafter but one be handled at a time 90 CONFERENCE CXVII Which is most necessary to a State and most noble Physick or Law 93 CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness 96 CONFERENCE CXIX Of Love by Inclination or Sympathy 99 CONFERENCE CXX How the Vnderstanding moves the Will 102 CONFERENCE CXXI Whence come the Marks or Spots wherewith Children are born 107 CONFERENCE CXXII Of the Original of Forms 111 CONFERENCE CXXIII Whether Lean People are more healthy and long-liv'd than Fat 114 CONFERENCE CXXIV Whether we may better trust one whom we have oblig'd or one that hath oblig'd us 117 CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing 119 CONFERENCE CXXVI Of the Causes of the Small Pox. 123 CONFERENCE CXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples 126 CONFERENCE CXXVIII Of Incubi and Succubae and whether Devils can generate 129 CONFERENCE CXXIX VVhich Animal is happiest according to Nature 132 CONFERENCE CXXX VVhether is better that Men have many VVives or VVomen many Husbands 135 CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion 138 CONFERENCE CXXXII VVhether the Dinner or Supper ought to be largest 141 CONFERENCE CXXXIII VVhich of the Humane Passions is most excusable 144 CONFERENCE CXXXIV VVhich is the most laudable Temperament 147 CONFERENCE CXXXV Of Happiness and Vnhappiness and whether men are Happy or Vnhappy because they really are so or because they think themselves so 150 CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones 153 CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals 156 CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun p. 159 CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life 162 CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy 165 CONFERENCE CXLI Whether it be better to marry or not to marry 168 CONFERENCE CXLII At what time the Rational Soul is infus'd 171 CONFERENCE CXLIII Of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls 174 CONFERENCE CXLIV Whether there were braver Men in any preceding Age than in the present 177 CONFERENCE CXLV Of the Serene which is a hurtful Dew falling in Summer-Evenings 180 CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are light and inconstant and why 183 CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers 186 CONFERENCE CXLVIII Whether is better to Love or to be Lov'd 189 CONFERENCE CXLIX Of Hair 192 CONFERENCE
Chymical Remedies are prepar'd with a moderate heat as that of a Dunghill Ashes Balneum Mariae which cannot give them such Empyreuma And should they all have it yet being but an extraneous and adventitious heat 't is easily separated from them either of it self in time or speedily by ablutions wherewith even Precipitate Mercury is render'd very gentle and Antimony void of all malignity What is objected of the violence wherewith Mineral and Metallick Medicines act by reason of their disproportion to our Nature is as little considerable since Hippocrates and the ancient Physitians us'd Euphorbium Hellebore Scammony Turbith Colocynthis and such other most violent Remedies which are still in use and Galen employ'd Steel Sandarach burnt Brass and the like Medicines taken from Minerals wholly crude and without preparation which was unknown in his time Rondeletius uses crude Mercury in his Pills against the Venereous Disease whereof this Mineral is the true Panacaea Cardan and Matthiolus crude Antimony Gesner Vitriol Fallopius Crocus Martis against the Jaundies almost all Physitians Sulphur against the Diseases of the Lungs and such Patients as cannot be cur'd by ordinary Remedies they send to Mineral Waters And since not only Garlick Onyons and Mustard which we use in our Diet but also the Juices of Lemmons Citrons Berberries and Cantharides although corrosive are still in use why should we not use Chymical Medicines in small quantity purg'd from their corrosion and taken with convenient Waters and Vehicles The Fifth said There is in all natural things a certain fix'd Spirit the sole principle of their Virtues and Operations which being separated from them they remain only Carcasses without Souls As is seen in Earth render'd barren by extraction of its nitrous Salt in Wine dead or sowre and in the insipid phlegm of the same Wine separated from its Spirit by Chymical distillation which separates the good from the bad the pure from the impure the subtil from the gross the form from its more crass matter in a word the Spirit from its Body which being impregnated with the virtue of the whole Mixt reduc'd into a very narrow Volume is very active and proper not only to serve for Aliment to an Animal which is nourish'd with this Spirit the rest being unprofitable and as such converted into Excrements but also principally for the curing of Diseases by repairing and strengthning the fix'd Spirits which are the true feats of Diseases as well as of Health a Disease being nothing but the laesion of the Functions whereof the Spirits are the Principles whereas ordinary Physitians instead of separating the virtues of each Mixt to oppose the same as Specifical Remedies to all Diseases as the Chymists do stifle and destroy them by the confus'd mixture of abundance of Simples and Drugs whereof their Medicaments are compounded which by this means acquire a new temperament and particular virtue resulting from the ingredients whose qualities and properties are abated or rather extinguish'd in like manner as of the Elements united together is made a Compound wholly different from its principles Wherefore we may justly retort against such Remedies what they charge upon those of Chymistry namely That they are taken from dead Ingredients corrupted and depriv'd by the Fire of their Radical Humidity wherein consisted their prime purgative virtue which is not so easily dissipated since when a Nurse takes a Purge the strength of the Physick is convey'd by her Milk to the Child and we feed she-Goats and Pullen with Purgatives to render the Milk of the one and the Flesh of the other such However since there are so many incurable Diseases whose causes are sufficiently known but to which no Specifical Remedies are found Chymistry which opens the means thereunto by the solution of all Bodies ought to be cherish'd and not condemn'd as it is by the ignorant or malicious who must at least acknowledg it one of the members of Physick as belonging to Pharmacy which consists in the choice and preparation of Medicaments and is part of the Therapeutical Division But we say rather That the three parts of Medicine or its three ancient Sects are the three parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa and Chymistry is that new World lately discover'd not less rare and admirable than the others provided it be as carefully cultivated and rescu'd out of the hands of Barbarians Upon the Second Point it was said That Truth is not the most powerful thing in the World since oftentimes Fables and Romances have more attractives and no fewer followers than Histories as the Poets meant to signifie by the Fable of Pigmalion who fell in Love with a Statue For Romances which are nothing else but the Images of a phantastick Beauty are nevertheless lov'd and idolatris'd by abundance of Persons not only for the Eloquence whose fairest lines are seen in those fabulous Books but for the Gracefulness and Gallantry of the actions of their Personages which may serve for a perfect model of Virtue which having never been found compleat in all points in any Illustrious Man whose Life is always blemish'd with some spot History cannot give us a perfect example to imitate unless it be assisted by Romances without which Narrations purely Historical describing a naked fact are but excarnated Sceletons and like the first lines of a Picture grosly trac'd with a Crayon and consequently disagreeable if artifice give them not colour and shadows Thus Xenophon and in our times Don Guevara aiming to draw the Model of a perfect Prince one in the Person of Cyrus the other of Marcus Aurelius have heap'd together so many contrarieties to Truth that they have made rather Romances of them than Histories Thus Achilles's exploits appear far otherwise in Homer than in Dictys Cretensis those of Charlemain in Eginard and Ariosto than in the Annals 'T is to Romances that they owe half their Glory and if their Example hath given any excitation to the Readers Spirits 't is what the Romances aim'd at not the Histories The Romancer is the Master and Contriver of his Subject the Historian is the Slave of it And as by refraction of the visual rays variously reflected in a triangular Glass is form'd an Iris of colours which although not real yet cease not to please so by the variety of those accidents variously interwoven with the mixtures of Truth and Fiction is form'd so agreeable a Medley that it delights more in its Inventions than the Body of an uniform History from which Romances borrowing the most memorable accidents may be term'd the Essence and Abridgment of the same re-uniting all the Beauty Pleasure and Profit which they afford For these Books serve not only for delight but profit the one never being without the other since Fair which is the object of Delight and Good of Profit are reciprocal and inseparable And the pleasure we take in any thing is an infallible mark of its goodness and utility which is so much the greater in
contrary namely Unite the Four Humours in the Veins though different in nature instead of segregating them for in this Case Heat acts not with full authority but as the Soul's Officer following her intentions And the reason is because these four Humours being ingredients into the Nativity of Man they must necessarily pass into his nourishment which they cannot do without being mingled together But when the Blood is out of the Veins then the Heat disengag'd from the Soul's jurisdiction disgregates and separates all four making the Choler float uppermost the Phlegm next then the Blood and lowest of all Melancholy as the dregs Amongst Souls there is the same order of Superiority The Sensitive makes the Vegetative obey it as appears by this that if after meat the Imagination attend much to an object the Concoction of the Food is retarded because all the Faculties of the Soul being united in their Root and Essence of the Soul when she sets her self much upon one object she leaves the other inferiour powers idle they not being able to work but as the Soul their principle employs them Now this premis'd I say when a breeding Woman hath a longing for any thing this desir'd thing is imprinted strongly in the Phancy and this imprinting being made in the Brain the Spirits which flow from thence carry a copy thereof with them For as an intire Looking-glass represents but one Image but every piece of a broaken one hath its whole Pourtrait because the Intentional Species or Images of things though divisible by reason of their subject are yet in themselves formally indivisible being Forms without Matter and consequently indivisible Division proceeding from Quantity a concomitant of Matter So those Spirits which stream from the Brain though they leave there the image of the desir'd thing yet withall they carry the same image with them as being portions of the substance wherein it is engraven and running to the place where the Foetus is form'd by reason of the union of its Umbilical Vessels with those of the Mother they arrive at the Infant and imprint the Characters they bring upon it the Vegetative and Plastick or Formative Vertue suffering it self to be over-rul'd by the Sensitive as this is by the Imaginative and this again by the other superiour powers When the teeming Woman touching her self in any part the Spirits run thither from the Brain either by reason of the touch or the motion both depending upon the Animal Spirits but finding the Mother's flesh too hard and disproportinate to their effect and missing their blow they go to give it upon the tenderer flesh of the Child And as in Generation the Spirits of all the parts of the Body accur to the place where the Seed is receiv'd there to engrave the Characters of the parts whence they flow which afterwards serve for the Formative Vertue every one having his task to make the part from which it issu'd so the Mother's Spirits keep the same course and rule towards the Embryo so that those which serv'd to the Mother's touch go to find that same place in the Child's Body there to mark the Image which they brought from the Brain Nature finding ways for her Intention where none appear The Second said The impotence of that Sex and their weakness of Mind evidenc'd by the violence of all their Passions which know no mediocrity is one of the principal causes of the impetuosity of their desires Now the Species of the thing desir'd being in the Imagination it excites the Appetite which desir'd it this the motive Faculty which employs the Animal Spirits to execute the commands of the Faculties by whom it is set on work And as the Vertues and Images of things generated here below by the heat and influence of the Stars are receiv'd in the Air which consigns them to the Earth so those Spirits receive the Species and Images whereof the brain is full and being directed by the Imagination to the Womb which hath great communication with the Brain by means of the nerves of the sixt Pair as appears by the effects of Odors upon that part there they retrace and imprint upon the Child the Images wherewith they are laden For if it be true that the Imagination can act beyond its Subject as Estriches and Tortoises are said to hatch their Eggs with their Eyes and that Hens hatch Chickens of the colour of such cloths as are laid before them whilest they are sitting much more may the Imagination of a Woman represent upon the tender Fruit in her womb the Images of things which she passionately desires and this is no more strange than the common observation of People falling sick and recovering again meerly by Fancy The Third said That the images of things desired are in the Spirits just as those of sensible objects are in the Air which is full of them But as these that they may be seen must be terminated by a smooth and opake body so that those which are in the spirits may be express'd they must be terminated by a soft tender and capable body as a child's is in the first months of his conformation during which alone he is susceptible of these impressions which are only of things edible and potable being the Child then endu'd only with sensitive Life cannot be affected but by things serving to the Animal Life as aliments are which besides are ordinarily and most ardently desir'd by breeding Women those that long for chalk coals and other impurities being unhealthy and distemper'd Now to give account why the Grapes Mulberries Strawberries Goose-berries and other Fruits delineated upon our bodies ripen and change colour at the same time as the true fruits upon the earth do I shall not recurr to the Stars or Talismanical Figures but more probably to that Universal Spirit which causeth the same fermentation in the spirits of our bodies as in Wine and the Vine when it is in its sap and flower and in Pork or Venison when Hogs and Deer are salt mezled or go to rut The fourth said That some of these Marks adhere to particular Families So the family of Seleucus had an Anchor upon the thigh in Greece some were distinguish'd by a Lance a Crevish a Star c. which marks as Warts and Moles proceed from the Formative Vertue in the seed which containing the Idea of all the parts expresses them to the life in the child Other sorts of Marks are not ordinary but fortuitous and depend upon the Imagination alone which employs the spirits which are common both to the Mother and Child by the Umbilical Vessels and have the same motions so that when the Woman scratches her self in any part of her body the spirits having a like motion are carri'd towards that part and at the same time towards that correspondent part in the child's body whose tenderness is alone susceptible of the image wherewith they are impregnated and which is never to be removed as being from the first
besides true Friendship suspicion may as well arise in the Receivers as in the givers Mind Many give onely that they may receive with Usury others out of vanity and to make Creatures and Clients which they regarding no longer but as their inferiors and dependents 't is as dangerous for these to confide in their Benefactors as for a slave to use confidence towards his Master or a Vassal towards his Lord not often allow'd by the respect and timerousness of the less towards the great as commonly those are that give Whereas we ordinarily find in him whom we have oblig'd nothing but Subjection and Humility Virtues much disposing the mind to Gratitude which cannot but assure their Benefactors of their fidelity Nor can they easily be ungrateful if they would your confidence in them obliging them continually to fidelity and withall giving them occasion to requite your kindnesses by their assiduity and services Which was the recompence wherewith the poor amongst the Jews pay'd their Creditors by serving them for some years So that he is scarce less blameable who distrusts him whom he hath oblig'd and by this diffidence deprives him of the means of requital then he who having receiv'd a benefit betrayes his Benefactor the Injustice being almost alike in both If the first complains of having been deceiv'd by him whom he finds ungrateful the second in whom his Benefactor puts not the confidence which he ought will have no less cause of complaint that on the contrary he hath distrusted him and soil'd the lustre of the first Obligation by his diffidence and bad opinion of him which is to tax himself of impudence for having done good to one unworthy of it The Third said That if Men were perfect Communicative Justice would require of them that the receiver of a benefit should repay the like or at least some acknowledgment by his endeavours Which the Poets intimated by the Graces holding Hand in Hand But the perversity of Man is such that the more he is oblig'd to this Duty the worse he acquits himself thereof not doing any thing handsomely but what he does freely and because being a vain-glorious Creature he hates nothing so much as to be subject and to pay homage to him that hath done him good whose presence seems to upbraid him with his own meaness If he loves his Benefactor 't is with an interess'd and mercenary affection whereas that of the former is free from all self-respect and proceeds meerly from a principle of Virtue and consequently is with more reason to be rely'd upon Moreover a Work-man loves his Production more then he is lov'd by it as also God doth his Creatures and Fathers their Children Now a Benefactor who is a kind of Work-man and Artificer of our good Fortune cherishes and loves us as his work and creatures because he seems concern'd for our preservation just as Causes are for that of their Effects in which themselves revive and seem to be reproduc'd The Fourth said That our Natural Sentiments incline us more to rely upon those whom we have oblig'd then upon those who have oblig'd us not so much by way of challenging a requital for Obligations are not to be done in hope of recompence which would be exchange rather than kindness as because we are apt to trust those most whom we love most But we love those most to whom we have given greatest Testimony of our Affections A Man may be deceiv'd in reckoning his benefits as causes of Amity in the receiver but they are certain Effects and Signs of Affection in the bestower So that in respect of us 't is manifestly better to trust him whom we have oblig'd than him who hath oblig'd us The same is prov'd also in respect of him that is oblig'd even the wild beasts are tam'd and instead of hurting obey those that feed them and therefore 't were injurious to humanity not to judge It capable of acknowledging a benefit which it knows how to conferr without provocation For upon examination the Causes of Ingratitude will be found to arise from those who boast of the title of Benefactors the imprudence whereof is so great in some that they displease more than oblige by Presents unseasonably given of no value and contrary to Seneca's advice of little duration intermixt with ill Offices instead of being fenc'd with new to keep out the rain of the disgusts and coldnesses which destroy Friendship with regret and not with a chearful Countenance after denials and delayes so that the thing seemes rather snatch'd then receiv'd diminish'd by burthensome conditions and lastly nullifi'd by reproaches if not requited as soon as was expected Whence such pretended benefits deserve rather the name of Out-rages And nevertheless being there are many that are grateful even for such benefits we may justly conclude that Courtesies done with their due circumstances are far more capable to oblige the receivers to Gratitude which cannot consist with Unfaithfulness The Fifth said That the Decision of this as of all other Moral Questions depends upon persons times places and other circumstances whereupon Prudence is founded which teaches when how and whom we are to trust Yet supposing circumstances alike and two persons equally virtuous one of which hath done me good and the other receiv'd good from me the contrary Reason of the Law which presumes him alwayes bad who hath been once bad makes me judge That he who hath once done me good will sooner do me good again then another and therefore that I ought rather to trust him CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing AS Heat and Cold are the Efficient Causes of all Meteors so Driness and Moisture supply Matter for them sublim'd and made volatil by extraneous Heat Vapours which make Aqueous Meteors are of two sorts some ascend to the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a Cloud which afterwards turnes into Rain Snow or Hail Others through the weakness of Heat or tenuity of their Matter unable to ascend turn into Mists and Dew and the Serene which preceedes it and Frost For the Matter both of Frost and Dew is a subtil thin Vapour which when spread equally and uniformly about the Earth hinders not the Air 's transparency which therefore in time of Frost is alwayes clear and serene But their Efficient is distinct that of Dew is the moderate Coldness of the Night whence 't is most frequent in temperate Seasons that of a Frost is Vehement Cold whereby being first condens'd it falls down in form of Crystal Yet Cold alone suffices not to produce Frost for then Water which is cold in an eminent degree should be alwayes frozen But some terrene and gross parts must serve for an uniting medium to compact the moist parts of the Water or Vapour which being naturally fluid cannot be link'd together but by means of some dry parts fixing and restraining their fluidity Hence the impurest and most compounded Liquors are soonest frozen
of vacuity And Wine and Fruits lose their tast upon the loss of their spirits when they are frozen which spirits not being able to transpire in Cabbages and other Viscous Plants digest their crudities and by that means render the same Plants more tender CONFERENCE CXXVI Of the Causes of the Small Pox. THe variety wherewith this Malady afflicts or that which it causes in the body hath given it the name of Variolae Variolles or Vairolles as its resemblance to the blisters and to the manner wherewith the Venereous Disease invades the Indians to whom the same is Epidemical being caused by the corruption of the air causes it to be called the Small Pox. These are efflorescences or pustules appearing upon the body especially those of Children by reason of the softness of their skin with a Feaver pain scabbiness and purulent matter This malady comprizes three sorts of Diseases Namely Intemperature in its feaver and inflammation Bad conformation in the little Eminencies and solution of continuity in the Ulcers It s precedent signs are commonly hoarsness of the voice pain of the head inflammation of the whole face yawnings distentions trembling of the whole body sneezings and stitches It s concomitant essential and pathognomonical signs are Deliration frightful Dreams pains of the Breast and Throat difficulty of Respiration and a Continual Feaver which is sometimes putrid sometimes not All which signs proceed from the violent ebulition and agitation of the humours the conjunct cause of this Malady an effect of the natural heat which being irritated by their Malignity drives them outwards to the surface where they raise those little Tumours which if red and less high make the Meazles and when more eminent the Small Pox the Pimples whereof at first appear very small afterwards in time wax red and grow bigger from day to day till they become white then they suppurate and dry and lastly falling off commonly leave marks behind them not to be got away because they have consumed the skin which is never generated anew The second said A common effect must have a common cause Now the Small Pox and Meazles which differ only in that the former is produc'd of thinner and the latter of thicker blood are diseases not only common to many but so few escape them that a general rule here scarce admits any exceptions Two Causes there are the Material or the Efficient The former is the impurity of the Menstrual blood which serves for nourishing the foetus in the womb where at first it attracts the purest and sweetest blood but when grown bigger the gross together with the thin So that as Horses once in their lives cast the Strangles so men must also once purge and void that menstrual impurity which being equally dispers'd over all the body and in small quantity hinders not its functions The efficient Cause common likewise to all men is the Natural Heat which drives these impurities outwards and so they come to appear upon the skin which is the Universal Emunctory of the whole body but especially upon the face by reason of its tenderness and because being the place where all the Organs of Sense terminate 't is fuller of spirits then any other and consequently there is a greater attraction thither of those malignant Vapors Now that it seizes some in their childhood others in their youth some very few in old age and all after a different manner this depends upon our particular Constitutions either natural or acquisititious by custom and a long use of the things not natural For according as the humours reign in the body they give occasion to the eruption of that Venemous quality which before lay hid as Madness and Leprosie sometimes appear not till after divers years Our diet also contributes thereunto for when it symboliseth with that malignant humour it encreases the quantity thereof as on the contrary it corrects the same and retards its motion if it be of a laudable temper or exceed in contrary qualities The Third said What Original Sin is to the state of the Soul that the Small Pox seems to be to the state of the Body for this Disease commonly invades children who never committed any fault in their course of living and whose nature should be so much healthier by how much 't is more vigorous and nearer the principles of their Nativity wherefore it seems rather to proceed from the vitiosity of the Parents And as many hereditary diseases come from the bad disposition of the seed so from the impurity of the blood the material principle of our bodies some may also arise as Tettars Kibes Corns and other deformities of the skin which happen to children very like this Moreover this disease usually breaks forth in the seventh and ninth which are the first climacterical years when Nature endeavours the perfection of her work by purging and cleansing it of all impurities And as New Wine when it comes to work casts forth all the heterogeneous impurities in it's body so doth the natural heat attempt the like by causing an ebullition of the blood and spirits whether this Fermentation happens by the universal spirit of the world as those in other natural bodies or whether as 't is most probable it proceeds from the very strength of nature whose motions although regular and certain are yet unknown to any other besides it self which produces them according to the dispositions of the Subject wherein it resides The Fourth said That being our bodies were always form'd of the maternal blood and indu'd with one and the same natural heat which two are held the material and efficient causes of the Small Pox this Disease should have been in all times and places and yet it was unknown before the Arabians in whose time it began to appear For the little red round pustules and those other like flea-bitings mention'd by Hippocrates Aetius and some other Ancients are nothing less then the Small Pox to which not only Women during their Suppressions but even brute Beasts which have also their purgations as among others the Bitch the Mare and the Shee-Ass ought to be subject On the contrary such as have burning Feavers should be free from it if it be true that the seed and leven of this malady is dissipated by the ebullition of the blood which is vehement in a Feaver But 't is impossible to conceive how a venemous and pernicious matter as that impure part of the blood is said to be can be preserv'd for many years in its Mass for being the blood serves for continual aliment to all the parts these ought to resent something of that malignity yet those that are taken with this disease are usually the most healthy and of a sanguine constitution which is the most laudable For this were to accuse Nature either of Imprudence or Weakness but she is good wise powerful and solicitous for nothing so much as to purifie the body which she doth not only while the child is in
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
raising and sending forth vapors and spirits when these spirits meet others like themselves they serve them instead of a recruit and increase the good disposition of the body wherein they are And 't is this way that old women prejudice the health of Children whilst their vapid spirits are imbib'd by the tender skin of the Infants and so corrupting the humors disorder their natural functions Hence also consumptive persons give their disease to such as breathe near them and so likewise all contagious and occult maladies are communicated by one morbid subject to another dispos'd to receive the same affection But the latter sort of Fascination whereby common people think that not onely men and Animals may be kill'd but also plants dry'd up streams stopt stones broken in pieces and the like is no-wise in the power of nature whatever the Arabians say who ascribe all these effects to imagination whose power they equal to that of Intelligences who are able to move the whole Universe For if it doth nothing of it self in its proper body where it simply receives the species of things it must do less without its precinct Moreover 't is impossible for a sound man to make another sick because he cannot give what himself hath not they in whom by an extraordinary corruption the blood seed or other humors have acquir'd a venomous quality being necessarily sick So that 't is a pure work of Devils who knowing the properties of things apply the same really to the parts of the body without our privity whilst they amuze our senses with other objects as the aspect of another person or some such insignificant thing Besides that children being apt to lose their flesh upon unapparent causes such a change may be purely natural whilst it is by mistake charg'd upon a strangers praises of the Infant who must necessarily grow worse because it cannot become better CONFERENCE CLXXIII Of Amulets and whether Diseases are curable by Words Tickets or other things hang'd at the Neck or applyed to the body of the Diseased THis Question depends upon the Precedent for if 't is possible to make a person sick by the Aspect alone it may seem also possible to cure him by Contact alone In the examining of the matter we must distinguish as elsewhere also supernatural cures from those which come to pass according to the course of nature Of the former sort are all the Miracles of the Holy Scripture and Ecclesiastical History those which Gods power manifests in all times by his Saints and the cure which he hath reserv'd to our Kings by their sole Touch. Some cure may likewise happen naturally by the pronouncing of words when the Patients Fancy is so strong that it hath power enough over his body to introduce some notable change therein whence that Physician cures most in whom most confide Thus I have seen some persons eas'd of the Tooth-ache upon sticking a knife in a Tree and pronouncing some barbarous words But it falls out oftentimes that the effect of one cause is attributed to another Such was the cure of a Gentleman of the Ligue whom the late King Henry the IV. surprized in the Town of Loges as he was shivering with a Quartain Ague and the King in Railery sent him a Receipt against his Ague the sight whereof presently cur'd him through the fear he had of that unexpected approach So also many remedies act by some occult property as Paeony hung about Childrens necks against the Epilepsy and Quick-silver apply'd upon the Breast or hung in a Quill is believ'd a preservative against the Pestilence all precious stones are thought to have some vertue against some indisposition of the body or minde The Eagle-stone apply'd to the Arm retains the child in the Womb and to the knee facilitates Delivery Coral and the Jasper stop Blood the Nephitick Stone is conceiv'd to void the Gravel of the Kidneyes the hinder foot of a Hare carry'd in the Pocket cures the Sciatica of the same side from which it was taken For Remedies whose sole application cures by their penetrating and sensible vertue are not of this rank Thus if Quick-silver apply'd cures the Pox by causing a Flux at the mouth it must not be term'd an Amulet nor Cantharides when apply'd as a vesicatory they cause Urine nor Epithemes apply'd to the Heart or Liver but herbs and other things laid to the Patients wrist may be so styl'd when they have no manifest qualities proper against an Ague The Question therefore is Whether such Applications Suspensions and Wearings have any Natural Effect I conceive they have not For a Natural Action requires not only some Mathematical or Physical Contact but also a proportion between the Cause and its Effect Now what proportion can there be between a Prayer or other Speech most commonly insignificative and the Cure of a Disease much less between a little Ticket or other suspended Body and an Ague what is said of the weapon-salve being either fabulous or diabolical and alwayes superstitious as the Phylacteries of the Jews were Although this Error is so ancient that the Greek Athletae were wont to arm themselves with such things against sluggishness of which trifles their Adversaries also made use to overcome them in Wrastling and at this day some wear certain Chracters about them that they may win at play In like manner the Romans hung Amulets about their Children's necks which they call'd Praefifcini and Fascini and made of Jet as the Spaniards make them at present To which to attribute any power upon the account of their Form Number or other regard beside their Matter is an Error as great in Philosophy as it would be impiety and contempt of the Church to extend his conclusion to Dei's Reliques and other sacred things whose so continual Effect cannot be question'd but by the prophane and heretical The Second said That by the Doctrine lately publish'd in the Treatise of Talismans it appears that not only Matter but also Figure Number and other correspondences with the Celestial Bodies have some efficacy which to question because we know not the manifest Cause would be too great presumption Yea I would not call all such Effects Supernatural since there are so many things feasible whereof we know not the Cause And as to the Supernatural Effects of Amulets they are of two sorts For either they are perform'd by the favour and blessing of God who redoubles yea heightens to a seemingly unpossible degree the Effects of Natural Causes or else changes them Or they are effected by help of the Evil Spirit who is the Ape of Divine Actions As then in consequence of the Sacraments God's Graces are conferr'd upon Christians so the Devil agrees with the Sorcerer or Magician that as often as he shall make such a sign or speak such a word such an Effect shall follow whence 't is no wonder if the Devil though inclin'd solely to Evil sometimes does good as healing a Disease by applying
whom he ravish'd with his Voice and Harp which was first instituted to honour the Gods The Indians perform'd their Worship by Dancing to Songs Cybele's Priests with Cymbals the Curetes with Drums and Trumpets the Romans sung Spondaick Verses whilst they offer'd their Sacrifices and David danc'd before the Ark all his Psalms being fitted to the Harp and other harmonious Instruments of that time And in this see what power Organs have to enflame the zeal of the devout and how melodious voices are with it so that the chief difference of Divine Service is in the Singing And as for publick or private Feasts and Ceremonies nothing renders them more compleat then Musick whence the Verse Convivii citharam quam Dii fecêre sodalem 'T was the custom to present a Lute to the Guests and to him that could not play a branch of Bayes which oblig'd him to a Song But above all the use of Musick is effectual in War whence the Spartans march'd to the sound of Flutes in a kinde of Dance to the end that by the motion of their Souldiers they might discern the valiant from the poltrons The Pythagoreans themselves were lull'd asleep with the Harp to appease the troubles of their minde In short Musick accompanies us to the Graves where people sing Elegies for the deceased Thus the Phoenicians added Flutes to their mournings and the Romans had their Siticines who sung at their Funerals For Musick excites both sadness and mirth And just as Physick either quiets or purges the humors of our bodies so doth Musick the Passions of the minde Plato conceiving that it was given to man not only to tickle his ears but also to maintain the Harmony of the Soul with the Body and to awake our sleeping vertues Thus of divers modes the Dorick makes prudent and chaste the Phrygian excites to War and Religion the Lydian abates pride and turns it into lamentations the Ionick excites to honest pleasures and recreations Hence Aegysthus could never corrupt the chastity of Clytemnestra Agamemnons Wife till he us'd the help of the Poet and Musician Demodocus and the Emperour Theodosius being ready to destroy the City of Antioch was diverted and wrought to mercy by the melodious Sonnets of little Children instructed thereunto by Flavianus their Bishop Yea the Prophet Elisha recommended this Art when he commanded a Harp to be played on before him and then Prophesi'd to Joram the overthrow of the Moabites And Michaia did the like in the presence of Ahab King of Samaria refusing to prophesie till one had played before him upon a Musical Instrument The relation of Saxo Grammaticus in the 12th Book of his Danish History concerning Henry the 2d King of Denmark who being told of the excellent Musick of the Violin desir'd to see the effects of it which were such that at first it put him into a deep melancholly and afterwards chearing him up again rais'd his spirit to such a degree of rage that he slew four of his Guard and at last it return'd him to his first temper serving onely to shew the excellence of Musick when it is rightly us'd The Second said That Musick effeminates mens courage whilst it sweetens like that of Wine taken to excess intoxicates them and transports them out of themselves which hurtful effect gave just cause to the fable of the Syrenes who allur'd Pilots by their melodious voices to split against the Rocks But above all it excites to filthy pleasures and blindes the eyes of the Understanding as Mercury did those of Argus And its great delectation through the dissipation of the Animal spirits which the sweetness of the sound attracts by the ear leaves us less refresht then wearied and incapable of setting about any serious matter It s easing the Sciatica as 't is reported is common to it with every thing that causes great attention whereby the spirits and with them the humors being suspended the fluxion must consequently cease and the Rabbins attribute the driving away Saul's evil spirit not to the Harmony alone of Davids Harp but to the vertue of the Characters of the Divine Name written upon it What did the Sybarites get by training their Horses to the Pipe but this that the Crotonians causing Minstrels to play at the joyning of a Battel render'd their Horses useless to the Fight because they did nothing but Dance Moreover Orpheus one of the most ancient Musicians was torn to pieces by women because he debauch'd their Husbands Whence also Antisthenes said that Ismenias was either a Fool or a bad Citizen because he could play so well upon the Flute and Philip was angry with Alexander for singing too well and Antigonns his Governour broke his Harp Therefore the Egyptians banish'd Musicians as corrupters of Youth and the Lacedemonians were so afraid lest they should grow into credit amongst them that they expelled Timotheus out of their City for adding a string to his Lute Aristotle also places this Art amongst the Ludicrous and blames Painters for representing the gods singing and playing upon Instruments whose goodliest effect is to break silence and waste time leaving no permanent action after it more then the play of Cards Dice and Tennis doth which last is much more profitable for health and is accounted as honourable to be perfectly skill'd in by persons of quality as 't is shameful to be an excellent Musician In fine we read not that our Lord ever Sung nor yet Adam in the state of Original Righteousness but one Jubal the first Bigamer and second Murderer of the world is said to have been the inventer of it CONFERENCE CLXXVII Whether Barrenness is most commonly tht fault of Husbands or of Wives AS Fruitfulness is a power whereby every living thing is able to produce its like so Barrenness is an impotence in it to re-produce is self by the way of Generation by means whereof mortal individuals acquire immortality in their Species to which purpose nature hath furnish'd every one with necessary Organs The generation of perfect Animals requires three things diversity of Sex matter or seed which flows from both Male and Female and contains in it self the Idea and Character of the parts from which it issues and lastly conjunction of both together without which nothing is produc'd And though the defect of Generation may be sometimes on the mans part as well as on the womans yet she is more subject to sterility which is an impotence proper to a woman who after the knowledge of a man in an age and time convenient cannot conceive For those that conceive not after the 50th year or before the 12th are not term'd barren Conceptions beyond the former or before the latter term being supernatural or extraordinary as those of the Manandri and Calingi and that of one mention'd by Savonarola whom he saw big with Childe at nine years of Age as also the miraculous conception of Elizabeth after she was seventy years old The cause of Barrenness is ascrib'd by
some to the disproportion between the seeds whence she that is barren with her first Husband is fruitful with her second Those of the woman are either internal or external The internal depend partly upon the seed and menstrual Blood and partly upon the temper of the Womb and the habit of the body The seed of a woman as well as that of man must be of a laudable temper quantity and consistence and provided of spirits enough If the maternal blood which concurs likewise to generation be too plentiful or too little no effect follows any more then if it were corrupted or wanted other requisite conditions The Womb which is like the soil to corn may be hurt either in its temper or its conformation or in the solution of continuity all which disorders hinder gravidation As for the habit of body we observe that fat women are barren either because the matter of Seed which is the purer portion of the Blood is turn'd into fat or because the Epiploon of fat Women pressing upon the Orifice of the Womb hinders the Seed from entring into the bottom of it Nor are Women too lean fit for Children by reason of their dryness and the tenuity of their Womb although they are far more fit than fat Women but this leanness is to be understood of so great an extenuation that it leavs the parts dedicated to Generation destitute of their vigour and due temperature Neither are the very tall or very low much fitter but those that are of a moderate Corpulency and Stature whose Breasts are firm and their lower parts larger than their upper Now since Conception is an Action proper to the Womb which quickens the Genitures the Woman ought rather to be said the Cause thereof than the Man and by the reason of contraries the Defect thereof must likewise be charg'd upon her The Second said That to blame Women for being more frequently barren than Men is to deprive them of their chief Glory which is Fruitfulness For Nature form'd them chiefly for propagation as the Conformation of their Bodies seems to prove in which the parts serving to that purpose as the Womb and Breasts have direct communications not only between themselves but also with the noblest parts of the Body Whence the Civilians reckon not Praegnation amongst Diseases notwithstanding all its inconveniences but with Physitians as a sign of health and good disposition Whereof Vlpian l. 14. ff de aedilit edicto gives this Reason Because their greatest and peculiar Office is to receive and preserve the fruit And therefore Woman having been in Nature's first intention design'd for Generation she must be also much more fit for it because Nature never fails of her end than Man who being born for Command Labour Contemplation and other more sublime Employments is design'd for Generation but in the more remote intention of Nature For not to speak of the desire of Coition which might renew the old quarrel that cost Tiresias his Eyes Women seem far more desirous to be Mothers than Men do to be Fathers and Nature gives no desires in vain Besides Man is naturally Hot and Dry a Temper less proper for Generation and he inoreases the same by Hunting Warr Exercises and other violent Labours not to speak of business and study On the contrary Women living alwayes at ease have a Constitution both of Body and Mind more calm and consequently more fit for this Action or rather Passion As therefore 't is more easie to suffer than than to act so Women must find less difficulty in Generation and consequently have less impediment to propagate than Men. I say nothing of Excesses in Dyet wherein Men are alwayes more licentious yet 't is the Excess of Wine that some alledge as the chief Cause why some Northern Countries are at this day almost desart whereas anciently they were so populous that Historians call'd the North the Shop of Men and the Magazine of Nations Witness the frequent Colonies issu'd from thence and the great inundations they have upon other parts of the world And possibly the reason why the Hebrew Law oblig'd a Man to marry the Relict of his issuless Brother was because it suppos'd the defect to proceed from the Husband and not from the Wife otherwise why should the Sister of a Wife deceas'd with issue succeed in her stead too But this Sex is reckon'd alwayes fit for ingendring and indeed is ever ready for it as the other is not which is the reason as a late Lady said why Men make sute to Women rather than these to them Perhaps also upon the same account barrenness under the Old Law was accounted by Women so great a reproach because being very rare 't is a kind of a monstrous thing in their Sex to be barren Moreover we hear many Women complain to the Judges which is one of the principal Causes of unfruitfulness But Histories afford scarce above three or four Women of whose inability their Husbands complain'd And to speak truth as fertility is imputed to the field and not to the grain so it must also be to the Woman alone who is the field of Nature and not to the Man The Third said That besides the Internal Causes of fruitfulness and barrenness there are also External ones which depend upon the Air Dyet Exercises Passions and the abuse of the other things call'd Not-natural The Air by the continual alteration it causeth in the Body which attracts the same by Respiration and Transpiration sometimes occasioneth either fruitfulness or sterility according to the variety of its Substance Temper and Qualities two whereof viz. Excessive Heat and Cold are great Enemies to Generation the one melting the other congealing the Humors but the excess of Heat least hinders it especially in Women the coldness of whose Temper is corrected by the warmth and increas'd by the coldness of the Air whence they are more amorous in Summer than in Winter Whereas the greater heat of Men is weakned by that of Summer and augmented by the coldness of Winter during which therefore they are more prone to Love So Dyet too contributes much to render our Bodies fruitful or barren not only altering but making them of the same Temper with it self Thus the waters of Nilus are so fertile that they make the Egyptian Women bring forth three or four Children at once by reason of the Salt-Nitre wherewith that River is impregnated and wherein Chymists place the principle of Fecundity because Ashes and Earth depriv'd of their Nitre produce nothing But cold waters even such as have the Virtue to petrifie render Women especially barren as most Women in Spain are through their frequent use of Ice and cold waters though some lay the fault upon the rarity and tenuity of their Bodies and the excess of Heat which also is the reason why the African and Southern people are not so fruitful as those of the North. Dyet hot and moist easie of digestion nutritive and full
former are compleatly form'd by the 30th day the latter not before the 40th the former move in the third moneth the latter not till the fourth those are born in the ninth moneth these some days after and besides live not if born in the seventh moneth as Males do whose periods are therefore reckon'd by Septenaries and those of Females by Novenaries After birth we see the actions of Males are perform'd with more strength and vigor then those of Females who are actually colder and suffer more inconveniences from cold They are never ambidexters because they have not heat enough to supply agility to both sides and their right side is peculiarly destinated to the Generation of Females because the Spermatick Vessel on that side derives blood from the hollow Vein which is hottest by reason of the proximity of that Vein to the Liver whereas the left Spermatick draws from the Emulgent which carrying Serose humors together with the Blood 't is no wonder if the Seed of that side be crude and cold and consequently fitter for generating Femals then Males Hence Hippocrates saith that if as Peasants tye a Bull 's left Testicle when they desire a Bull-calf and the right when a Cow-calf the same be practis'd by Man the like effect will follow Whereby 't is manifest that whatever makes the Seed more hot and vigorous both in Male and Female furthers the Generation of Males and contrarily and consequently that the Morning when 't is best concocted is more proper then the Evening for begetting Boys and the Winter then the Summer at least on the man's part The Second said That as to the production of Males rather then Females or on the contrary no certain cause hath hitherto been assign'd thereof since we see that the same man in all likelihood without alteration of his temper hath only Girles by his first Wife and only Boys by the second and on the contrary and some that could get no Children at all in their youth have had only Boys in their old Age. Others have Males first others Females and others have them alternatively Whereof no other reason can be assign'd by Chance or rather the Divine Pleasure alone in the impenetrable Secrets whereof to seek for a cause were high temerity If heat and strength caus'd the difference young marry'd people would not have Girles first as it happens most often and decrepit old men should never get Boys as daily experience shews they do Moreover some men depriv'd of one of their Testicles have nevertheless begotten both Sons and Daughters which could not be if the faculty of begetting Children of one determinate Sex were affix'd to either of those parts And as from a false Principle nothing can be drawn but false Consequences so also is it in the opinion of Aristotle That Woman is but an occasional Creature For then Nature should produce far greater abundance of Males then of Females or else she would erre oftner then hit right which is inconsistent with her wisdom and yet in all places more Girles and Women are found then Men as appears in that we every where see plenty of Maids that want Husbands and in Countries wherein Polygamy is lawful there are Women enough to supply ten or a dozen Wives to each Man And indeed Nature's design is mainly for preserving the Species as that of every individual is to preserve it self and the bare degree of heat or cold in the Seed being but an accident of an accident cannot effect a formal change in the substance Only defective heat may occasion an effeminate man and abundant heat a Virago Besides this Opinion destroys the common and true one viz. That Generation is one of those actions which proceeds from a just proportion and temperature of the humors whence excessive or feverish heat destroys the Seed in stead of furthering Generation and is an enemy to all the other functions Wherefore 't is best to say that the same difference which is observ'd between the Seeds of Plants is also found in that of Animals though not discernable therein but by the effects and as the exactest prying cannot observe in the kernel of an Almond or Pine any difference of the Trunk Leaves and Fruit of those Trees although these parts be potentially contain'd therein so also the Seed of an Animal contains in it self even the least differences of Sex albeit imperceptibly to the eye Which the Rabbins being unable otherwise to comprehend conceiv'd that our first Parent was created an Hermaphrodite because both Sexes came from him his own and that of Eve The Third said That the sole ignorance of things occasions the ascribing of them to Chance which hath no power over the wise because they understand the reasons thereof As for universal causes as the Divine is they concur indeed with particular ones but as they are becoming in the mouths of Divines and of the Vulgar so Naturalists must not stop there since by the right use of external causes the internal may be corrected by which correction not only Seeds formerly barren or which fell in an ingrateful soil are reduc'd to a better temper and render'd prolifick but such as were destinated to a female production through defect of heat are render'd more vigorous and fit to generate Males Now that young married people hit not sometimes upon this latter Sex 't is because of their frequent debauchery which cools the Brain and consequently the whole habit of the Body Which happens not so frequently to men of more advanc'd age who use all things more moderately The Fourth attributed the cause to the Constellations and Influences of the Stars which reign at the time of Conception Males being generated under Masculine and Females under Feminine Signs CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences A Language is a Multitude or Mass of Nouns and Verbs which are signs of Things and Times destinated to the explication of our thoughts There are two sorts the one perfect call'd Mother-Languages the other imperfect The Mother-Languages are the Hebrew Greek and Latine the imperfect those which depend upon them Now the French being of this latter sort we cannot learn the Sciences by it alone because being particular and the Sciences general the less is not capable to comprehend the greater Moreover our Language being not certain in its Phrases nor yet in its Words not only Ages but also a few Years changing both whereas the Sciences are certain and immutable it will follow that they cannot be taught by it Besides there may be Inventions for which our Language hath no expression or at least not so good as others and to busie our minds in the search of words is more likely to retard the mind in the acquisition of Sciences then to further it The truth is 't were well if things were generally express'd by the most proper and significant words but they are not so in any Language much less in the French
the prejudice of a third Which yet hath not place in all there being found good Judges who would condemn their own Child if he had a bad Cause But to attribute to self-love the defect of clear-sightedness is to speak too Poetically since the Prince of Poets believes it not possible to deceive a Lover and the knowledge we have of others affairs hath no other foundation but that which we have of our own just as self-love is given us for a rule of that of our Neighbour The Third said That which happens most frequently being the rule and the rest the exception and the greatest part of Men resembling that Lamia who being blind at home put on her Eyes when she went abroad it must be agreed that we are less clear-sighted in our own than in others affairs Which is the meaning of the Proverb of the wallet in the forepart of which the bearer puts other Mens matters casting his own into the part behind upon his back Moreover to see clear is to see without clouds or mists such as are those of the Passions Fear Hope Avarice Revenge Ambition Anger and all the rest which suffer not the Species to be calmly represented to the Intellect which receives the same as untowardly as stirred water or a Looking-glass sullied with incessant clouds or vapors receive an Image objected to them 't is true the Passions have some effect upon it in affairs without but as themselves so their trouble is less and he is the best Judge who gives them no admittance at all which cannot be in our own affairs where consequently we are no less clear than in those of others CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains GOD having created the world in perfection it was requisite there should be Plains Mountains and Vallies upon the Earth without which agreeable variety there would be no proportion in its parts wherein nevertheless consists its principal ornament which hath given it the name of world no other beginning of Mountains seems assignable but that of the world Nor is there any possibility in attributing another Cause to those great Mountains which separate not only Provinces and States but the parts of the world all the Causes that can be assigned thereof being unequal to such an Effect Which the discovery of the inequalities of the Celestial Bodies observed in our dayes by Galileo's Tubes in some sort confirmed for by them Mountains are discerned in some Planets especially an eminent one in the Orbe of Mars which Mountain cannot reasonably be attributed to any cause but his primary construction The same may likewise be said of the Mountains of the Earth which besides having necessarily its slopenesses and declivities which are followed by Rivers and Torrents there is no more difficulty to conceive a Mountain then an elevated place in the Earth so that to say that from the beginning there was no place higher in one part of the earth then in another is to gain-say Scripture which saith that there were four Rivers in Eden each whereof had its current which could not be unless the place of their rise were higher then that whereunto they tended The Second said That the proportion from which the ornament of the World results is sufficiently manifested in the correspondence of the four Elements with the Heavens and of the Heavens with themselves yea in all compounds which result from those Elements moved by heat and the Celestial influences without fancying a craggy Earth from the beginning to the prejudice of the perfection which is found in the Spherical Figure which God hath also pourtray'd in all his works which observe the same exactly or come as near it as their use will permit as is seen particularly in the fabrick of Man's Body his master-piece whereof all the original parts have somewhat of the Spherical or Cylindrical Figure which is the production of a Circle And if the other Elements of Fire Air and Water are absolutely round and cannot be otherwise conceived though their consistence be fluid and as such more easily mutable in figure 't is much more likely that the earth had that exactly round figure at the beginning otherwise the Waters could not have covered it as they did since not being diminished from the beginning of the World till this time they are not at this day capable of covering it 'T is certain then that God gave the Earth that Spherical form it being to serve for the bulk and Centre to all the other Elements by means of which roundness the Water covered it equally but when it was time to render the Earth habitable to Animals and for that end to discover a part of it it was to be rendered more hollow in some places and more elevated in others since there is no Mountain without a Valley nor on the contrary Afterwards it came to pass that the Rain washed away whatsoever was fat and unctuous in those higher places and carrying it into Brooks and Rivers and thence into the Sea this Sea by the impetuosity of his waves makes great abyffes in some places and banks of sand in others but the great and notable change happened in the universal Deluge when the many Gulfs below and Windows on high as the Scripture speaks overflowed the whole Earth for forty days and forty nights together the Earth being thus become a Sea was in a manner new shaped by the torrents of the waters and the violence of the same waves which made Abysses in some places and Mountains in others according as the Earth happened to be more or less compact and apt for resistance Which is yet easier to be conceived of Rocks which being unapt to be mollified by either that universal rovage of waters or torrents superven'd in four thousand years since they remain intire and appear at this day as supercilious as ever over the more depressed parts round about The Third said That some Mountains were produced at the Creation others since partly by Rains and Torrents partly by Winds and Earth-quakes which have also sometimes levell'd Hills and reduced them into Valleys so that you cannot assign one certain or general cause of all For there is no more reason to believe that the ravages of waters have produced Mountains then that they have levell'd and filled Valleys with their soil as 't is ordinarily seen that the fattest portion of Mountainous places is washed away by Rain into Valleys and fertilizes the same And the smallness of the Earth compared to the rest of the world permits not its inequalities to make any notable disproportion in it or hinder it from being called Round as appears in Eclipses caused by the shadow of the Earth which she sends as regularly towards Heaven as if she were perfectly round The Fourth said That the waters of the Sea from which according to the Scripture all waters issue and return thither impetuously entring into the caverns of the Earth go winding along there till they find resistance
such unnatural Mixture make any productions the same is prodigious and amongst Animals is call'd a Monster But being an Error of Nature she returns to her old way as soon as she can and rather ceases to generate than produces second Monsters of those first And this in Mules rather than other Species because the Equine and Asinine Natures are no less contrary than Fire and Water So that if they happen to be conjoyn'd and make one Compositum the Generative Virtues then existent in their seeds make an Animal indeed but in producing the same they extinguish one another as Fire doth Water and so what is generated of them hath no power of Generation The Fifth said That this Sterility being suppos'd although Aristotle relates that in Syria-Mules commonly generate and Theophrastus Varro and others affirm the like of those in Cappadocia and Africa Democritus in Aelian attributes the cause thereof to the ill conformation of their genitals particularly of the womb which is unapt to retain and quicken the seed because through the excessive heat deriv'd from the Horse the passages serving to those parts in either sex are too much dilated besides that the same are very laxe in the Shee-Ass whence Naturalists and Experience tells us that she conceives not unless after covering she be well cudgel'd that so the pain thereof may make her constringe her womb and retain the seed which otherwise would slide out again Now this over great dilatation of the genitals appears by dissection and 't is found by Experience that the Beasts themselves are unwilling to such an unnatural copulation so that in some Countries people are fain to feed Asses with Mare 's milk and cover the Mares sometimes with Cloaths of the colour of an Ass to beguile them into the same Add hereunto that both the Species of which Mules are generated are very subject to Sterility For the Ass is of a cold temper and particularly its seed is so cold that unless it begins to generate at the first casting of its Teeth it remains barren for ever Yea if an Ass couple with a pregnant Mare the coldness of his seed makes her cast her Foal The Horse likewise by Arâ—stotle's report is very little fruitful whence his seed being further refrigerated by that of the Ass they produce an Animal indeed but altogether improlifick CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake SInce of the three Conditions of Curing to wit pleasantly speedily and safely this latter pertains chiefly to Plants it were good that a little more curious search were made into the treasures hid in the Plantal Family of Remedies whereof Nature hath provided above three thousand several Species which are many more than are in those of Animals and Minerals And as Nature hath instead of the Instinct bestow'd on other Animals to guide them to their good given Man Reason whereby he may proceed from things known to things unknown so besides the manifest and occult qualities of Plants from whence their uses may be inferr'd she hath markt those which are most useful to us with certain Signs and Characters Amongst these Mandrake is the most famous representing not the Eye as Eye-bright doth nor the Lungs as Lungwort nor the Liver as Liverwort nor the Rupture as Solomon's Seal nor the Hemorrhoids or Orpment nor an Ulcer as spotted as spotted Arsmart but the Figure of an entire Man And as the eminent Virtues of Ancient Heroes being too great to be comprehended by the Wits of these Ages gave occasion to fabulous Romances so the Wits of Botanists that have been capable to write the Virtues of other Simples have not been sufficient to speak of these of Mandrakes leaving the vulgar the liberty to attribute Supernatural Virtues to them Which made some Rabbins say that the Teraphins of Jacob's Father-in-law were the roots of Mandrake which render'd him Answers and for the loss of which he fell into such Passion and Pliny ascribes to the Mandrake the name of Osiris which was that of an Aegyptian Idol Our Histories report that in the year 1420. a certain Cordelier nam'd Frier Richard was so perswasive in his Sermâ—ns that in two dayes the Parisians publickly burnt all the instruments of voluptuousness and debauchery and particularly the Women their Images and Mandrakes which they kept wrapt up in their attires upon a belief that as long as they had Mandrakes they should never fail to become rich which Mandrakes gave them Answers by shaking the head or else by speech And there are not only true but also counterfeit ones such as were made by an Italian Mountebank as Matthiolus relates who carv'd the root of Pyony or of a great Reed in the shape of a Man and sticking Millet or Flax seed in the places where hair should grow bury'd the same for twenty dayes at the end whereof fine small threads appear'd in those places and a skin over all the rest which represented and pass'd for a true Mandrake Belleforest also relates that the Maid of Orleans was calumniated for having acquir'd the valour she testifi'd against the English by the Magical Virtue of a Mandrake And Henry Bouquet a modern Author affirms that Thieves steal the Goods out of Houses and Children from their Mothers Breasts by help of it those that behold them being unable to defend themselves because this Plant stupifies their Hands So likewise Levinus Lemnius tell us that 't is employ'd with great effect in Philtres and Amorous Potions Upon which account Natalis Comes thinks it was an ingredient in that which Circe gave Scylla whereby she became so desperately in Love with Glaucus that being unable to enjoy him she cast her self headlong into the streight of Messina Some think 't is the same Plant that Josephus lib. 7. cap. 25. de bello Judaico calls Baaras from the valley wherein it grows which he saith shines in the night like fire and is pluckt up by a hungry Dog ty'd to the top of the root after the same hath been softned with the Urine of a Woman because upon its plucking up 't is said to send forth a shreek which is mortal to the hearer and so the Dog dyes after his work is done Others conceive that this root cannot be found except a little before the rising of the Pleiades which is about the beginning of September Which is no more incredible than that the seed of Fearn springs but at a certain prefixt time before and after which it appears not 'T is likewise thought particular to Upper Hungary and to be pluckt up only by certain Sorceresses and that in the night whence also they sell the same secretly for fear of being punish'd by Justice as it happen'd Anno 1630. at Hamburg where the Senate caus'd three Women who exercis'd this trade to be whipt Moreover they hold that this Plant call'd Mandrake from a German word which signifies to bear the figure of a Man for Man hath the same sense in that Language as in ours and Dragen is
think 't is from some hideous Phantasms irregularly conceiv'd in the Brain as a Mola or a Monster is in the womb which Phantasms arising from a black humor cause Sadness and Fear a Passion easily communicable because conformable to the Nature of Man who consisting of a material and heavy Body hath more affinity with the Passions that deject him as Fear doth than with those which elevate him as Hope and Ambition do The moral cause of Panick Terror is Ignorance which clouds and darkens the light of the Soul whence the most ignorant as Children and Women are most subject to this Fear and Souldiers who are the more ignorant sort being taken out of the Country and from the dregs of the people become easily surpriz'd with it and by the proneness of Men to imitation upon the least beginning it finds a great accession and familiarity in Humane Nature The Fifth said That the cause of this Terror may be a natural prescience our Souls have of the evil which is to befall us which is more manifest in some than in others as appear'd in Socrates who was advertis'd of what-ever important thing was to befall him by his familiar Spirit or good Angel Now if there be any time wherein those Spirits have liberty to do this 't is when we are near our End our Souls being then half unloos'd from the Body as it comes to pass also at the commencement of a battel through the transport every one suffers when he sees himself ready either to die or overcome CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of Germain's Fair. THis Person is of a middle Stature hath a large Breast as also a Face especially his Fore-head very great Eyes and is said to be sixty years old though he appears to be but about forty He was born in the Town of Nota in the Island of Maltha and is nam'd Blaise Manfrede They that have observ'd him in private Houses and upon the Theatre relate that he makes his experiment not only every day but oftentimes twice in one afternoon Moreover vomiting so freely as he does he is always hungry when he pleases His Practise is very disagreeing from his publish'd Tickets wherein he promises to drink a hundred quarts of water but he never drinks four without returning it up again His manner is thus He causes a pail full of warm water and fifteen or twenty little glasses with very large mouths to be brought to him then he drinks two or three of these glasses full of water having first washt his mouth to shew that there is nothing between his teeth Afterwards for about half a quarter of an hour he talks in Italian which time being pass'd he drinks three or four and twenty more of the said glasses and thereupon spouts forth of his mouth with violence a red water which seems to be wine but hath only the colour of it This water appears red as it comes out of his mouth and yet when it is spouted into two of his glasses it becomes of a deep red in one and of a pale red in the other and changing the situation of his glasses on the left side of his mouth to the right and of those on the right to the left these colours always appear different in the same glass namely the one of a deep red and the other yellow or Citron-color Some of the water is of the color of pall'd wine and the more he vomits the clearer and less colour'd the water is He hath often promis'd to bring up Oyl and Milk but I never saw nor heard that he did it This done he sets his glasses to the number of fifteen or sixteen upon a form or bench to be seen by every one After which he drinks more water in other glasses and brings it up again either clear water or Orenge flower water or Rose-water and lastly Aqua Vitae which are manifest by the smell and by the burning of the Aqua Vitae having been observ'd to keep this order always in the ejection of his liquors that red water comes up first and Aqua Vitae last He performs this Trick with thirty or forty half glasses of water which cannot amount to above four quarts at most then having signifi'd to the people that his Stomack although no Muscle which is the instrument of voluntary motion obeys him he casts the same water up into the Air with its natural colour so impetuously that it imitates the Casts of water in Gardens to the great admiration of the Spectators who for six weâ—ks together were seldom fewer than three hundred daily For my part I find much to admire in this action For though men's Stomacks be of different capacities and some one person can eat and drink as much as four others yet I see not possibly where this fellow should lodge so much water And again he seems rather to powr water into a Tun than to swallow it though the conformation of the Gullet doth not consist with such deglutition Besides vomiting is a violent action and yet most facile in this Drinker And as to the order of this Evacuation 't is certain that all things put into the Stomack are confounded together therein so that Concoction begins by Mixtion and yet this fellow brings up what-ever he pleases as 't were out of several vessels so that he undertakes to eat a Sallad of several sorts of Herbs and Flowers and to bring them up all again in order Moreover what can be more prodigious than this mutation of Colours Smells and Substances And indeed they say he hath sometimes fear'd to be question'd for Sorcery But the greatest wonder is that smartness and violence wherewith he spouts out water from his Stomack not laterally which is the ordinary manner of vomiting but upwards which is a motion contrary to heavie bodies as water is Some speculative person that had read in Saint Augustin that a Man's being turn'd into a Horse by the power of Imagination might refer the cause of all these wonders to that faculty which daily producing new shapes upon the Bodies of Children in their Mothers womb may with less strangeness produce in this Man the above-mention'd alteration of one colour into another And as for his facility of bringing up what-ever he hath swallow'd I can find no better Reason for it than Custom which in him is turn'd into Nature The Second said That Ignorance being the Mother of Admiration we begin less to admire as we proceed to more Knowledg Now if this Maltese were a Magician he would do more marvellous things and of more than one sort whereas all his power is confin'd only to the vomiting up of liquors which he drunk before and the faculty of his Stomack being determin'd to this single kind of action the same must be natural because that is the definition of natural powers Moreover no action ought to be accus'd of Magick till good Reasons have evinc'd it to surpass all the powers of Nature
Valour is deduc'd from the Fathers side Upon which principle is grounded the account we make of Nobility which comes seldom but from the Father's side whereas the want of Nobility on the Mother's side does not make the Child less a Gentleman Nay some have made it a Question whether the Mother did contribute any thing to the formation of the foetus or only found it nourishment But those who have treated more nicely of this matter unanimously agree that the Woman's Seed is much weaker and more watery than that of the Man serving only to qualifie it as Water does Wine yet so as that the Water is converted into the nature of the Wine and is call'd Wine as soon as it is mixt with it As to those Children who chance to be more like their Mothers than their Fathers 't is to be conceiv'd one of Nature's fagaries who delighting in variety cannot produce many children but there must consequently be a great diversity of Lineaments in their faces and figures in their members among which the idea of a Woman imprinted in the imagination of the Father may be communicated to his Seed which consequently expresses that figure The second said That there were three kinds of resemblances to wit that of the Species that of the Sex and that of the Effigies as to the Body and that of manners as to the Soul or The resemblance of the Species is when a Man begets a Man a Woman proceeds from the material Principles of Generation which the Mother contributes more plentifully then the Father the proof whereof may be seen in the copulation of Animals of different Species For if a Hee-goat couples with a Sheep he shall beget a Sheep which shall have nothing of the Goat in it save that the fleece will be a little rougher then it is wont to be And if a Ram couples with a She-goat the production will be a Goat whose hair will be somewhat softer than otherwise But as to what is related of Aristo's having had a Daughter by an Ass who for that reason was called Onoscele of Stellius's having another by a Mare who was thence called Hippona and of a Sheep which brought forth a Lyon in the pastures of Nicippus to whom it presaged Tyranny of Alcippa who was deliver'd of an Elephant having been impregnated by an Elephant are to be look'd on as monstrous and possibly fabulous Productions The resemblance of the Sex depends on the temperature and predominancy of the Seeds For if the seed of both Male and Female be very hot Males will be engendred if cold Females and both of them will be either vigorous or weak according to the predominancy of heat or cold Whence it follows that this resemblance does not proceed more from the one then the other of those who are joyn'd together but the resemblance of Effigie and the other accidents of the Body and of the manners is more hard to resolve there being a secret vertue in both the Seeds which as Aristotle affirms is continu'd in it to the fourth Generation as may be confirm'd by the story of Helida who having lain with a Negro brought forth a white Child but her Grandchild by that was black Plutarch affirms the same thing to have happen'd in the fourth Generation of a Negro And yet this resemblance proceeds rather from the Mother's side than the Father's for if the causes which communicate most to their effects imprint most of their nature into them by that greater communication those effects accordingly retain so much the more of their Causes Now the Mother communicates more to the Child then the Father does for she supplies him with Seed those who have maintain'd the contrary being persons not much skill'd in Anatomy and after she hath contributed as much as the Father to that Generation she alone nourishes the foetus with her menstrual blood which then begins not to follow any longer the course of the Moon whereby it was regulated before Besides coming thus to furnish the said foetus with nourishment for the space of nine Months it is no wonder she should absolutely tranform it into her own nature which is thence accounted but one and the same in respect of both Mother and Child Now there is not any thing liker or can retain more of it then the thing it self which cannot be said of the Father who is not only different from the Embryo whom he hath begotten but also hath not any thing common with it after that first action So that there are many Children posthumi and born long after the death of their Fathers which thing never happens after the death of their Mothers nay it is seldom seen that a Child taken out of the body of a Mother ready to dy ever thrives much afterwards Though we shall not stick to acknowledge that what is related of the first person of the race of the Caesars from whom that Section was called the Caesarean might possibly happen according to the Relation yet is it done with this restriction that most of the other Stories told of it are fabulous But if the Mother comes afterwards to suckle her Child as Nature and the Example of all other Animals teaches her which is haply the reason of their being more vigorous and of a continuance of life more regular than that of the man that second nourishment added to the former being drawn from her milk which derives the quality of the mass of blood from which it is extracted makes him absolutely conformable to the Mother For if nourishment may as we find it to be true change the Temperament of Persons well advanc'd in years with much more reason may it work a remarkable alteration in the Body and Mind of a Child newly come into the World who is as it were a smooth Table susceptible of any impression Whence it is to be concluded that they proceed very rationally who are so careful of the well-fare of their little ones when the Mothers either by reason of sickness of upon some other account are not able to bring them up as to be very inquisitive about the Nurses they put them to and the quality of their Milk Nay what is more are not the changes caus'd by Nurses in the Body of the Infant as considerable as that which happens to the two seeds of Male and Female mixt at the Generation which recover their increase by the irroration of the Maternal Blood which flows thereto and if it be impure does communicate its impurity to it as on the contrary being pure it is many times able to purifie the corrupted seed of the Male Whence Physicians have observ'd that sound Children have descended from Fathers subject to the Leprosie and such diseases Add to this that the safety on the Mothers side is greater than on the Father's Moreover they are the Mothers from whom proceeds the Imagination which acts upon their Embryo all the time they are with Child and thence it comes that
to be his Disciples to whom the practice of his instructions prove as fatal as they are intended to be to those against whom they are employ'd CONFERENCE CCXXXIV Of the Moles and Marks appearing in the Face AS the Face is the highest part of the Body as to scituation and the most delicate as being the mansion of the external Senses which cannot act without the assistance of the Spirits whereby that delicacy is imprinted in it so does it accordingly lie more expos'd to as well internal as external injuries then the other parts which are not so much in sight nor of so exquisite a complexion And as the least flaw in a Diamond or a fair Looking-glass is soon perceiv'd by such as look attentively on them so these Marks are so much the more observable in the Face then in any other part of the body the more susceptible it is thereof by reason of its clearness and delicacy I may add to this a thing which would be very improbable if we had not the assurance of experience for it to wit that there is not any mark though ever so little in the face but doth denote some other which though not apparent it is nevertheless easie for such as are expert to conjecture whereabout it is by the inspection of those that are manifest Thus if there be a mark in the midst of the Fore-head it shews that there is such another in the midst of the breast but it will be towards one side or other of this latter inclining towards one of the arms if the mark in the Forehead be not exactly in the middle of it that is incline any thing to the right or left side as it must be on the brisket or lower part of the breast if it appear at the extremity of the forehead towards the root of the nose between which and the parts devoted to generation there is such a correspondence that the simplest sort of people draw consequences of their good or bad disposition from the length or figure of the nose But the more intelligent not contenting themselves with this conjecture affirm that according to the different scituations of those marks there are the like correspondent to them in those parts as well of the Man as of the Woman for whether those on the former be in the middle on the right side or the left those on the other parts are exactly answerable to them The several observations which have been made of these correspondences of marks in the Women we shall leave to the examination of the Female Physiognomists so far as the parts before-mentioned are under consideration and confine our selves to the Men. In these the mark which is apparent on the highest part of the nose towards the root as we call'd it before where the space is between both eyes always denotes another at the bottom of the Yard near the Testicles between which and the Ey-lids there is so great a correspondence that those little specks or warts which are many times to be seen on the latter are the significators of the like in the former even with that observance of proportion that if it be on the upper-lid those marks will be on that part of the Cods which is nearest the Yard if it be on the lower they shall be on that part which is nearest the Fundament Moreover from the appearance of one of these marks upon one of the Ey-brows it is concluded that there is as much on the shoulder on the same side which is at a greater or lesser distance from the Back-bone the nearer to or further off the other is from the space which is between both the eys There is the like correspondence between the Cheeks and the Thighs for if they have a mark just in the middle the thigh shall be marked just in the same part and on the same side if they be near the nose the thigh shall be marked near the groin if they incline towards the ears the correspondent marks will be towards the buttocks The mark appearing between the Eye and the eminent part of the Cheek discovers one under the Arm-pit that on the tip of the Ear shews there should be one on the upper part of the Arm. It is inferr'd also from the mark upon the upper lip adjoyning to the Nose in that space which makes a separation been the Nostrils that there is another answerable thereto in the Peritonaeum betwixt the Fundament and the Cods and from those on the Chin and the lower Lip that there are others about the bottom of the belly But though these rules are grounded on rational conjectures yet are they not infallible no more then those of Phystognomy whereof they are a part as is also Metoposcopy which judges of the secret inclinations by the inspection of the Face The second said That as Man comprehends in himself an abbreviation of all the rarities of the World so does his Face comprehend all those of his body whereof it is an extract So that as the greater world is known by Man's body which is the lesser it is no hard matter to make a discovery of this last by the face which indeed is less as to volume but so well compos'd and proportion'd that it may well be look'd upon as the most accomplish'd Master-piece of Nature who in the structure thereof hath imitated Geography which not able to shew us all the inhabitable Earth presents us with an epitom of it in a Map or behaves her self like a Whole-sale-Merchant who does not expose all his commodities but thinks it enough to shew patterns thereof whereby a judgment may be made of their value Thus it is that there may be a discovery made of the most secret motions within by the figure and composition of the parts of the face inasmuch as those of the other parts of the body depending on them there is a judgment made of the one by the other and consequently of the actions and inclinations which are commonly answerable to the constitution and temperament of the parts But it is somewhat hard to make this judgment by the simple marks of the Face whether they proceed from Nature as those do which Children bring along with them into the World and depend on the imagination of the Mothers which is an external cause or from some other Causes as the heat of the entrails the abundance of gross and terrene humours and the density of the pores of the skin which checking them in their way makes them appear in freckles specks and other kinds of spots in the face For these causes never being constant but subject to much variety according to the several occurrences which either augment or diminish them it is impossible to make a certain judgment of a thing which is in a continual change The Third said That the said Art of guessing at the marks of the most secret parts of the body by the inspection of those of the face is so ancient
are the cause of all Mischiefs might be taken away For by this means that importunate solicitude of Appropriation and Jealousie which oftentimes afflicts both parties would be no longer any thing but a phantasm Women would find their satisfaction in the plurality of Husbands these how many soever to one woman having always enough and more then they needed and the woman being cunning enough to divide her favours so that all her Husbands might be contented who besides dividing the burden of domestick cares would have an easier task by having the more Associates But especially 't would be much for the womans interest for if she be belov'd by all her Husbands 't will be unspeakable happiness to her if hated by any the caresses of some will make her amends for the bad usage of others whereas finding no remedy in that Gordian knot which tyes her to one person she abandons her self to despair insomuch that in the time of Spurius Carvilius seventy women accus'd one another to the Senate of having poyson'd their Husbands But if she be constrain'd to share the caresses of one Husband with a douzen rivals there will be nothing but perpetual feuds envies and jealousies Witness Leah and Rachel who though holy women yet daily contested for the possession of their common Husband Jacob. And the Scripture observes that Leah who was blear-ey'd was constrain'd to purchase of the fair Rachel with mandrakes the liberty of lying one night with Jacob. The 5th said That seeing a Woman is a hagger'd and indocible animal Experience shewing us that one single man is not capable to reduce her to reason 't were more expedient to allow her many Husbands the reverence and aw of whom and in defect thereof their force might tame her pride and insolence which is risen to the highest pitch since the time that Justinian's Wife got the Law of Divorce repeal'd which ever before had been a Bridle upon them CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion MOtion which is the mutation from one state to another is either simple or compound Simple is either of Quality is term'd Alteration or of Place and is call'd Lation or Motion Local Compound is either to Substance and is nam'd Generation which includes alteration and formation or to a greater Quantity which comprehends Local Motion with Accretion or Augmentation which cannot be made unless the parts extended change place This Accretion is an effect of one of the Faculties subservient to the Vegetative or Natural which are three the Generative the Auctive or Accretive and the Nutritive according to the three operations observ'd in living bodies which have parts generated nourishing and increasing for a thing must be generated before it can grow and acquire the perfection wherein it is maintain'd by Nutrition The Generative Faculty which is compounded of the Alterative and Formative regards the foetus in the womb The Auctive governs it from its birth till the twentieth or one and twentieth year which is the term of Accretion The Nutritive continues all the time of life which cannot subsist without nourishment because this repairs the continual dissipation of our substance caus'd by the action of heat upon humidity in which action Life it self consists Now though the body may be nourisht without growing yet it cannot grow unless it be nourisht For Accretion being an Extension of the parts in length and breadth new substance must be supply'd to fill up the place of that which is extended otherwise a living body should grow no more then a bladder doth when it is blown or a piece of leather when it is stretcht in the former what is gotten in capacity is lost in thickness and in the latter what is gotten in length is impair'd in breadth so that the augmentation of parts would be rather imaginary than real without supply of new matter to succeed that which is equally extended in all its dimensions amongst which nevertheless that of stature and of the solid parts as the bones is call'd Growth and not that which is made in thickness and the fleshy parts which are enlarged manytimes after the time of full growth The second said That all things being finite must have bounds of magnitude sutable to the use whereunto they are appointed which bounds are not determinate in inanimate bodies as Stones Metals Hair and Nails whose accretion being made by the bare apposition of matter they are augmented continually so long as there is accession of new matter to the former But in living bodies the same are regular for the accretion of these being internal and the work of the soul continues till the body hath attain'd the proportion and stature requisite to its functions To compass which Nature employs Heat as the Efficient Cause and Humidity as the Material Hence children grow most in their infancy because they are then most moist and men to a larger size then women because they have more heat Young men indeed have a more pungent and vigorous heat then Children but these are better stor'd as being nearer the principles of their generation and though it be not so active yet 't is more proper for the growth of the solid parts which being desiccated by a violent heat are not so extensible as when they are full of a fat and unctuous humidity But as for the manner of Accretion 't is almost the same with that of Nutrition The Aliment having been prepar'd in the Stomach and Liver and by this latter transmitted by the veins into all the parts of the body the purer particles of it sweat through the coats of the Vessels and fall like a gentle dew upon the parts which first imbibe then agglutinate and lastly assimilate the same So that Nutrition is nothing but Assimilation of the substance of the food to that of the living body and as Aliments nourish by resemblance of their Substance and by vertue of their Form so they cause augmentation by their Quantity and Matter which arriving at the solid parts as the Bones Cartilages and Ligaments causes the same to extend and grow in all dimensions but especially in height by reason that 't is proper to Heat to drive Humidity upwards And as when the Nutrition is equal to the Dissipation the body is only nourisht as in the Age of Consistence so when the Income of matter is greater than the Expence the surplusage meeting with a due heat causeth augmentation if it be less there follows wasting or diminution as is seen Old-Age The Third said As Animals are indu'd with a nobler degree of life than Plants so they vegetate after a more sublime manner and not only by bare heat and moisture For amongst Animals the Elephant a melancholy and consequently cold and dry beast is yet the greatest of the field the Crocodile though cold grows all its life and some Serpents have by long age attained to the length of sixty foot So amongst Trees Oaks though the dryest are the largest Of Bones the
that she eat those Mandrakes and that they render'd her fruitful which is not at all in the Text and her Fruitfulness might proceed from the favour of God or some more fit means than that Herb. Nor is it an edible fruit neither did all the Women in the Scripture who of barren became fruitful eat Mandrakes 'T is therefore probable that this Plant hath neither the Form nor the Properties which vulgar and vain Antiquity attributes to it The fifth said 'T is easier to overthrow then to establish a Truth when the question is about things apparently repugnant to Reason which many times agrees not with our own experience whereby we see several contrary effects of one and the same Plant. As the pulp of an Orenge cools the peel heats and oil of the seeds is temperate The like may be said of Mandrake which according to the diversity of its Species and Parts may produce the different effects which are attested by Antiquity Apuleius in his Metamorphosis relating That a Physician deluded the malice of a Servant and a Stepmother by giving them the juice of Mandrake instead of poyson which they desir'd of him to kill a young man which caus'd them to think him dead when he was only in a deep sleep and Columella speaking of the soil where it grows Quamvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta Mandragorae pariat flores Moreover since there are middle Natures compos'd of two extremes as your Zöophytes between Plants and Animals to wit Spunges and Coral between Brute and Man the Ape between the soul and body of Man his Spirits why may there not be something of a middle Nature between Man and Plant to wit the Mandrake a Man in external Shape and a Plant in Effect and internal Form In brief we believe there is an Unicorn though no man of this age hath seen it why therefore may we not believe that there is such a Mandrake as most describe who affirm that they have seen one as I my self have also though I cannot affirm whether it were a true or false one CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear THe Species conceiv'd in the Phantasie representing to the Intellect some future Good they beget Hope when Evil Fear 'T is not very hard to comprehend the way nor how he that sees himself pursu'd by a potent enemy betakes himself to flight by the Instinct of Nature which avoids what ever is destructive to her But the Mind is puzled to find the cause it sees not as of groundless Fear which nevertheless sometimes befalls the most resolute yea whole Armies which fly without any pursuer The Vulgar of the Ancients who made Deities of every thing especially of what they understood not thought Pan the God of Shepherds put this sudden Passion into the minds of men because oftentimes it happens to flocks of Sheep over which he is said to preside though there be no appearance of any Wolf to fright them whence they call'd it a Panick Terror Unless you had rather interpret Pan to be the Universal and Supreme Deity who giving the success of Battels sometimes immits such a fear into the hearts of those men whom he intends to deliver into the power of their Enemies The second said That Pan was an ancient Warrior who invented the ranging of Soldiers in order of Battel and distinguish'd them into Wings call'd by the Latins Cornua whence he was pictur'd with Horns He also first devis'd Strategems so that one day having sent out his Scowts and understood that the Enemies were lodg'd in a desert place full of resounding caverns he order'd his Soldiers that as soon as they approach'd the Enemy they should make a great shout which multiply'd by the Echo of those neighbouring caverns so frighted them that before they could understand what it was they betook themselves to flight conceiving they had to do with a far greater multitude of Enemies than there was Whence the Fable of this God Pan adds that the Goddess Echo was his Mistress From this Groundless Fear as others of the like nature came to be call'd Panick Terrors Such was that which seiz'd the Soldiers of Marc Antony in the War against Mithridates that of the Gauls under Brennus when they were ready to sack the Temple of Delphos that of Hannibal when he approacht the walls of Rome to besiege it and that of Macedonians under their King Perseus who so lost their courage upon sight of an Eclipse of the Moon that it was easie for the Romans to overcome them The Third said That Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Oâ—â—ris relates another cause of this Appellation namely That when the latter of them reign'd in Aegypt Typhon surpris'd him by a wile and cast him in a chest into Nilus which News arriving amongst the Pans and Satyrs it put them into an astonishment from which all other sudden frights took their name But leaving apart conjectures of words let us consider the thing and examine Whether it be not a mistake to think that there can be terrors without any cause I think There cannot because 't is as true in Moral as in Natural Philosophy That nothing produceth nothing But as an even balance is sway'd either way by the least blast and the cause being imperceptible seems to incline of it self so when Men are ready for a battel and every one thinks of the doubtful event thereof to himself the least external cause hapning to make never so little impression upon their Spirits whilst they are in this balance is enough to move them either way the first object that occurs yea the least word being of great efficacy And because Fear is found more universally imprinted in Mens minds than Courage hence there needs less subject to produce it than to animate them Thus at the battel of Montcontour this single word Save the Princes spoken either accidentally or by design made them lose the day Thistles being mistaken for Lances gave a great terror to a whole Army and an Ass or a Cow in the Trenches hath sometimes given an Alarm to considerable Garrisons The Fourth said That Fear caus'd in an Enemy being one of the surest means to conquer him Generals have not been more careful to animate their own Souldiers than to terrifie their Enemies even by vain affrightments as showts extravagant arms and habits For this reason the Germans were wont to paint their Faces with several colours that they might seem terrible some think our Poictevins had their name of Pictons from this custom So Gideon by Gods command employ'd Trumpets and earthen Pitchers with fire in them to terrifie the Amalekites Yet none of these Inventions no more than that of Elephants Chariots of fire and other Machins can cause a Panick Terror because it ceases to bear that name when 't is found to have some manifest cause So that to ask Whence Panick Fear proceeds is to ask What is the cause of that which hath none If there be any I
communicated by succession as most of the other diseases which become hereditary by means of the Spirits employ'd by the Formative Faculty in Generation and carrying along with them the Character of the parts and humours of him who engenders and imprinting them on the foetus Hence it comes that for the curing of it there is more requir'd than to administer the remedies commonly us'd in the cure of other tumours which must be dissolv'd or softened that so they may be brought to suppuration unless they can be consum'd and extirpated but in this there must be some particular means used And not to mention that which is generally known to all to wit the touching of those who have this Evil by the King of France and his Majesty of Great Britain whom they heal by a miraculous vertue and a special priviledge granted those two great Monarchs by God himself it is commonly affirmed that the seventh Male-child without any interruption of Females hath the same advantage of healing this disease by a favour which Theology calls gratia gratis data and whereof many affirm that they have seen the effects These are attributed to the vertue of the Number Seven so highly esteem'd by the Platonists as consisting of the first odd Number and the first even and square number which are Three and Four and are by them called the Male and Female whereof they make such account that according to the Opinion of these Philosophers the Soul of the world was made up of those two Numbers and it is by their means that whatever is comprehended in it subsists It is also for this Reason that Children born in the seventh month live as those born in the ninth whereas such as are born in the eighth die To this may be added That the most considerable Changes of Man's Life happen in these several Septenaries which number does not only contribute to his Conception which is not perfect till the seventh day after the Matter hath receiv'd the Virile Sperme and to his Birth in the seventh month but also to all the other accidents which happen to him in all the several Septenaries For the Child begins to have some appearance of Teeth in the seventh month at twice seven months he makes a shift to stand alone at three times seven his Tongue is so far loos'd that he speaks with some Articulation at four times seven he goes steadily and confidently at the age of seven years he acquires new forces and renews his Teeth at twice seven he is of ripe age and capable of engendring at three times seven he gives over growing but becomes still more and more vigorous till he hath attain'd to seven times seven that is to the forty and ninth year of his age by some called the little climacterical year as being the most compleat of any in regard it consists of a perfect number multiply'd by it self and in which there always happens some accident proceeding hence that Nature being not able to forbear the doing of something when she hath attain'd that sovereign degree of perfection is forc'd to decline It is therefore to be attributed to this compleat number which is called by the Greeks by a term which signifies Venerable that the seventh Son cures the Evil the cause whereof being malignant and indeed having something in it that is obscure which Hippocrates calls Divine it is not to be admired that the curing of it should depend on a Cause equally obscure and at so great a distance from our knowledge The Second said That without having any recourse to so abstracted a Cause as that of the vertue of the number Seven which being a discrete quantity is incapable of action which is reserv'd to such qualities only as are active Nor yet to the Stars which are at a greater distance from us Nor yet to the force of the Imagination which many think may produce that effect Waving all recourse to these I am of Opinion that it is rather to be referr'd to the Formative Faculty which producing a Male when the Seeds of the Parents are so dispos'd as that what is more vigorous and strong hath a predominancy over the other which is less such that is when it continues still in the getting of a Male without any interruption to the seventh time the reason of it is that these Seeds are still so strong and spirituous that a Male is gotten instead of a Female which is the production of those Seeds that are weaker and colder than the Masculine Now the heat and spirits whereby Males are procreated may communicate to them some particular vertue such as may be the Gift of healing the Evil which may be affirm'd with as good ground as that the spittle of a Man fasting being well-temper'd kills Serpents and that it is held many have heretofore had such a prerogative for the healing of certain diseases by some particular qualities depending either on those of their Temperaments or of their whole substance Thus Vespasian as Tacitus affirms in the fourth Book of his Histories restor'd his sight to a blind Man Adrian as Aelius Spartianus relates healed a Man born blind only by touching him And Pyrrhus King of the Epirotae if we may believe Plutarch in his Life heal'd all that were troubled with the Spleen in his time by touching their Spleen with the great Toe of his right Foot of which Toe there was a far greater Opinion conceiv'd after his death in that it was found intire and not consum'd by the fire as all the rest of his Body was This vertue of healing thus after an extraordinary manner hath been deriv'd into some whole Families There are to this day many in France who affirm themselves to be of the Family of Saint Hubert and have the gift of healing such as are bitten by mad Dogs In Italy there are others who make it their boast that they are of the Families of Saint Paul and Saint Catharine whereof the former are not afraid of Serpents which for that reason they bear in their Coat no more than these latter are of burning coals which they handle without burning themselves In Spain also the Families of the Saludatores and the Ensalmadores have the gift of healing many incurable diseases only by the Touch. Nay if we may rely on common Tradition we have this further to add that it holds for certain that those Children who come into the world on Good-Friday have the gift of healing several sorts of diseases especially Tertian and Quartan Agues The Third said That if the gift of healing the Evil depended on the vigour of the Principles of Generation which meet in the seventh Male-child it would follow that the eighth or ninth coming into the world consecutively should more justly pretend to that priviledge inasmuch as the generative faculty discovers a greater vertue and vigour in that production of a ninth male-Male-child without interruption then it might do in that of a seventh Which being not found
true it were absurd to look for the Causes of it in Nature whose forces are not able to attain an Effect so transcendent and so much above her reach It must therefore be a supernatural gift which God bestows on certain persons out of a pure gratuitous favour and more for the ease and comfort of others than out of any advantage to those who receive it as are also the gifts of Prophecy and doing Miracles For it is a demonstration of God's Omnipotence not to heal diseases only by ordinary means the dispensation whereof he hath left to Physicians who to that end make use of natural remedies but to do the same thing without any assistance of Nature by extraordinary and supernatural means in the application whereof he sometimes uses the Ministery of Angels as in the curing of Tobit and those sick people who came to the Pool at Jerusalem after the water had been stirr'd by the Angel sometimes by the Saints of whom it is written that the very shadow of their Bodies hath many times been effectual to that purpose as was that of Saint Peter and oftentimes those of other persons to whom he had communicated the gift for reasons unknown to us as he granted that of Divination to the Sibyls though they liv'd in Idolatry The Fourth said That Man was potentially all things and that consisting of a Body exactly temperate and of such a Soul as is the most perfect of forms he comprehended in an eminent degree within himself all the vertues of things as well corporeal as animate Whence comes it then that he shall not have the vertues and properties which are observable not only in stones wherewith he participates Being but also in Plants which are capable of Vegetation as well as he Animals with whom he hath motion sense and life and lastly in the separated Spirits as having answerably to them certain powers that are spiritual and remov'd from materiality And so since the Vertue of healing Diseases is found in most Beings which are of some nature with Man it is but reasonable he also should have the same one such as is the gift of healing the Evil which happens principally in the Seventh Male-child by reason of the perfection of his nature which performs all the most compleat functions in that number which Hippocrates upon that occasion affirms to be the dispenser of life Nay if there have been some who have had the Vertue of communicating several Diseases by their sight and touching as it is related of the Psylli Tribales Illyrians and other Nations who bewitch'd those whom they touch'd and of him whom Philostratus makes mention of in the life of Apollonius who kill'd with his very aspect as the Basilisk does far greater reason is there that there should be some to communicate health For though this latter requiring more preparations and conditions is so much the more difficultly transferr'd from one Subject to another then sickness is yet the reason of contraries will have it so that if the one is the other may be communicated and that with the greater justice inasmuch as health participating of the nature of good ought to be more communicative from one subject to another then sickness CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration THere is as much fault to be found with the excessive curiosity of those who would know all things as there is with the unsufferable stupidity of some others who are not any way touch'd with that natural desire of Knowledge for as these latter by renouncing that accomplishment deprive themselves of the greatest satisfaction of life so the others being transported beyond the limits prescrib'd to the mind of Man wander they know not which way and precipitate themselves into the abysses of errours and impieties That of the Necromancers who make it their boast that they can command out of their Tombs the Souls of the deceas'd that they may be by them inform'd of what they desire to know is so much the more enormous in that they have made an Art of it call'd by them the Black Art or the Art of Conjuration a name as ridiculous as the precepts whereof it consists which having no ground but what they derive from the capriccio's and fantastick extravagances of those Impostors they sufficiently destroy themselves so as there needs nothing else to discover their palpable vanity no more then there is to make appear the errour of those who to confirm that diabolical invention maintain that there are abundance of effects above those of Nature which are to be attributed to those souls separated from their bodies especially that of foretelling things to come and informing those thereof who consult them it being consider'd that besides the gift they have of Science which is common to them with all spirits disengag'd from matter they have a particular inclination of doing good to men by advertising them of those things which so much concern them But this is not only absurd in it self but also impious and contrary to Christian Faith which teaching us that there are but three places where these souls have their abode to wit Paradice Hell and Purgatory it is to be believ'd that those which are confin'd to the last never come out thence but upon a special permission of God which he sometimes grants them that they may sollicit the suffrages of the Living those of the damned are further from being in a capacity to get out of that infernal prison to which Divine Justice hath condemn'd them to be there eternally tormented And the Blessed Spirits are yet more unlikely to quit their blissful State and the joys of Paradice wherewith they are inebriated to satisfie the vain curiosities of those who invocate them and for the most part make use of them rather to compass the mischievous Sorceries and such like Crimes whereof that Black Art makes profession then to procure good to any one or if it happen that at any time they do any 't is in order to the doing of some greater mischief afterwards such as may be that of Superstition and Idolatry whereto these spirits inclining those who invocate them and requiring of them such Sacrifices and Adorations as are due only to the Deity it is more then a presumption that they cannot be the souls of the Blessed but downright Devils who transform'd into Angels of Light impose upon those who are so willing to be seduc'd The Second said That as the employments of the Devils are different so is there also a remarkable difference in their natures which depends principally on the places of their abode according to which if we may believe Orpheus some of them are Celestial or Fiery some Aery some Watery and some Terrestrial and Subterraneous and among those the Aerial to whom Plato attributes the invention of Magick are by the Students of that Art accounted to be the most ingenious to deceive men by reason of their more easie putting on of the grosser parts of the air and