apart and by it selfe unlesse some aire or fire be tempered with it whereas every sense findeth benefit of fire as of a vivificant power and quickening vertue and principally our sight above the rest which is the quickest of all the senses in the bodie as being the very flame of fire a thing that conformeth us in our faith and beliefe of the gods and as Plato saith by the meanes of our sight we are able to conforme our soule to the motions of celestiall bodies OF THE PRIMITIVE OR FIRST COLD The Summarie WE have heere another declaration of Plutarch wherein he examineth and discusseth after the maner of the Academicke philosophers without deciding or determining any thing a naturall question as touching Primitive colde And in the very first entrie thereof refuteth those who are of opinion that this first colde is the privation of heat shewing on the contrary side that it is meere opposite unto heat as one substance to another and not as privation unto habitude Then proceedeth he to dispute of the essence nature and fountaine of this colde for the cleering of which point he examineth at large three opinions the first of the Stoicks who attribute the primitive colde unto aire the second of Empedocles and Chrysippus who ascribe the cause thereof unto water Unto all their reasons and arguments he maketh answer and inclineth to a third opinion namely that earth is that primitive colde Which position he confirmeth by divers arguments yet resolveth he not but leaveth it to the discretion of Phavorinus unto whom he writeth for to conferre all the reasons of the one part and the other without resting in any particular opinion supposing that to suspend and hold his judgement in matters obscure and uncertaine is the wiser part of a philosopher than to yeeld and grant his consent either to one part or the other Wherein we may see that in regard of naturall philosophie our authour was of the Academicks sect but as touching the morall part we have seene before and specially in divers treatises of the former 〈◊〉 that he followeth of all the ancient philosophers those who were least impure and corrupt such I meane as in all their discourses had no other light to direct them but Nature OF THE PRIMITIVE OR first colde IS there then Ô Phavorinus a certaine primitive power and substance of cold like as fire is of heat by the presence and participation whereof ech one of the other things is said to be cold or rather are we to hold and say that cold is the privation of heat like as darknes of light and station of mooving and namely considering that cold is stationarie and heat motive and the cooling of things which were hot is not done by the entrance of any cold power but by the departure of heat for as soone as it is once gone that which remaineth is altogether cooled and the verie vapour and steim which seething waters doe yeeld passeth away together with the heat which is the reason that refrigeration diminisheth the quantitie therof in as much as it chaseth that heat which was without the entrance of any other thing into the place Or rather may not this opinion be suspected first and formost for that it overthroweth and taketh away many powers and puissances as if they were not qualities and habitudes really subsisting but onely the privations and extinctions of qualities and habitudes as for example heavinesse of lightnesse hardnesse of softnesse blacke of white bitter of sweete and so of other semblable things according as ech one is in puissance contrarie unto an other and not as privation is opposite unto habit Moreover for as much as everie privation is idle and wholy without action as blindnesse deafnesse silence and death for that these bee the departures of formes and the abolitions of substances and not certaine natures nor reall substances apart by themselves We see that cold after it be entred and imprinted as it were within the bodie breedeth no fewer nor lesse accidents alterations than doth heat considering that many things become stiffe and congealed by cold many things I say are staied retained and thickened by the meanes thereof which consistence and stabilitie unapt to stirre and hard to bee moved is not therefore idle but it is weightie and firme having a force and power to arrest and to hold in And therefore privation is a defect and departure of a contrarie power whereas many things be cooled although they have plentie of heat within and some things there be which cold doth constraine and constipate so much the more as it findeth them hotter like as we may observe in iron red hot when by quenching it becommeth the harder And the stoicke philosophers doe hold that the naturall spirits enclosed within the bodies of yoong infants lying in the wombe by the cold of the ambient aire environing them about is hardened as it were and refined and so changing the nature becommeth a soule But this is a nice point and verie disputable yet considering that we see cold to be the efficient cause of many other effects there is no reason to thinke that it is a privation Furthermore privation is not capable of more or lesse for so of twaine that see not at all the one is not more blind than the other and of two who cannot speake one is not more dombe than another neither of twaine who live not is one more dead than the other but among cold things we may well admit more lesse overmuch and not overmuch and generally intensions and remissions like as in those things that are hot and therefore ech matter according as it suffreth more or lesse by contrarie 〈◊〉 produceth of it selfe some substances cold and hot more or lesse than others for mixture and composition there can be none of habitude with privation neither is there any power which receiveth or admitteth the contrary unto it to bring a privation nor ever maketh it her companion but yeeldeth and giveth place unto it But contrariwise cold continueth very well as it is mixed with heat unto a certeine degree like as blacke with white colours base notes with small and shrill sweet savours with tart austere and by this association mixture accord of colours sounds drogues savours and tasts there are produced many compositions exceeding pleasant and delectable for the opposition which is betweene habitude and privation is alwaies a oddes and enmity without any meanes of reconciliation considering that the essence and 〈◊〉 of the one is the destruction of the other whereas that fight which is occasioned by contrary powers if it meet with fit time and season serveth oftentimes in good stead unto arts and to nature much more as well in other productions and procreations as in changes and alterations of the aire for in the orderly governance and rule whereof God who dispenseth and disposeth them is called Harmonicall and Musicall not in regard that he maketh a
either by experience or some casuall occasion IS it then the smel that mooveth them to seeke these remedies and like as the hony combes by the odor stirre up the bee and the flesh of dead carions the vultures drawing and alluring them a farre of so the craifishes invite unto them swine origan the tortoise and pismires the beare by certaine sents and fluxions which are accommodate and familiar unto them without any sense leading them thereto by discourse of reason and teaching them what is good and profitable Or rather be they the temperatures of the bodies disposed unto sicknesse that bring unto these creatures such appetites engendring divers ceremonies sweetnesses or other strange unusuall qualities as we 〈◊〉 it ordinary in great bellied women who during the time that they go with childe fall to eat grit earth with greedinesse in so much as expert phisitians fore-know by the sundry appetites of their patients whether they shall live or die for so 〈◊〉 the phisitian doth report that in the beginning of the Pneumonie or inflamation of the lungs one patient of his longing for to eate onions escaped that maladie and another whose appetite stood to figgs died for it of the same disease for that the appetites follow the temperatures and the temperatures are proportionate to the diseases It standeth therefore to great reason that beasts likewise such as are not surprised with mortall 〈◊〉 nor sicke to death have that disposition and temperature whereby their appetites doe moove and provoke each one to that which is good and holsome yea and expedient to the cure of their sicknesse 27 What is the cause that must or new wine cotinueth sweet a long time in case the vessell wherein it is kept be colde round about it IS it because the alteration of this sweet savour into the naturall taste of wine is the very concoction of the wine and colde hindereth the said concoction which proceedeth from heat Or contrariwise because the proper joice and naturall savour of the grape is sweet for we say that then the grape beginneth to ripen when it waxeth sweet Now colde not suffring new wine to exhale but keeping the kinde heat thereof within preserveth the said sweetnesse still And this is the very cause that those who make their vintage in a rainy constitution of the weather doe finde that their new wine wil not worke so wel in the vault because that such ebullition proceedeth of heat and the colde doth restraine and refresh the said heat 28 What is the cause that of all savage beasts the beare doth never lightly gnaw the net and toile with her teeth whereas wolves and foxes use ordinarily to eate the same IS it for that her teeth grow farre within her mouth in such sort that she cannot get within the cords of the nets having besides so great and thicke lippes betweene that they hinder her for catching hold with her said fangs Or rather because she having more force in her fore-feet which she useth in stead of hands therewith she doth teare and breake the cords or else having use both of her pawes and also of her month she imploieth those to the bursting of the nets and with her teeth fighteth and maketh her part good against the hunters Besides the tumbling and rolling of her body that she doth practise serveth her in as good stead as any thing else And therefore seeing her selfe in danger to be taken within the 〈◊〉 many times casteth her selfe round upon her head and indevoureth that way to escape rather than either by pawes or fangs to burst the toile 29 What is the reason that we woonder not to see any sources or springs of colde water like as we doe of hot notwithstanding it is evident that as heat is the cause of these so is colde of the other FOr we must not say as some holde opinion that heat indeed is an habitude of it selfe but colde nothing else but the privation of heat for it were in truth more woonderfull how that which hath no subsistance should be the cause of that which hath a beeing But it seemeth that nature would have us to woonder heereat onely for the rare sight heereof and because it is not often seene therefore we should enquire for some secret cause and demand how that may be which is but seldome observed But seest thou this starry firmament So high above and in 〈◊〉 vast In bosom moist of water element The earth beneath how it encloseth fast How many strange and woonderfull sights doth it represent unto us in the night season and what beauty sheweth it unto us in the day time and the common people woonder at the nature of these things ** As also at the rainebowes and the divers tinctures formes and pictures of the clouds appeering by day and how they be adorned with sundry shapes breaking out of them in maner of bubbles 30 What is the cause that when vines or other yoong plants which be ranke of leaves and otherwise fruitlesse are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IS it because that goats in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are exceding fat be lesse apt to engender and hardly for their fatnesse can leape the females For generative seed is the superfluous excrement of that nourishment which is conglutinate to the substantiall parts of the body Now when as any living creature or plant is in very good plight and growen grosse it is an evident signe that the nouriture is imploied and spent altogether in the maintenance of it selfe leaving no excrement at all or the same very small and not good for generation 31 What is the reason that if a vine be sprinkled and drenched with wine especially that which came of the owne grape it drieth and withereth away IS there not the same reason heereof as of the baldnesse in great drinkers when as the wine by meanes of heat causeth the moisture to evaporate which should feed the haire of their head Or is it not rather because the very liquor of wine commeth in some sort of putrefaction according to the verses of Empedocles When in vine-wood the water 〈◊〉 It turnes to wine whiles under barke it lies When as then a vine commeth to be wet with wine outwardly it is as much as if fire were put into it which doth corrupt the naturall temperature of that humour which should nourish it Or rather pure wine being of an astringent nature soketh and 〈◊〉 to the very root where shutting up and enclosing the pores it empeacheth the entrance of that sap by vertue whereof the vine is woont to bud burgen and flourish that it can not runne to the stocke Or may it not be it is cleane contrary to the nature of a vine that the liquor which once went out of it should returne againe into it for a liquor or humour whiles it is within the plant in the nature of a sap may well have power to feed the same but that being
him in cure but if peradventure he tumble and tosse in his bedde fling and cast off his clothes by reason that his bodie is tormented with some grievous hot fit no sooner stirreth he never so little but one or other that standeth or sitteth by to tend him is ready to say gently unto him Poore soule be quiet feare none ill Deare heart in bed see thou lie still he staieth and keepeth him downe that he shall not start and leape out of his bed but contrariwise those that be surprised with the passions of the soule at such a time be most busie then they be least in repose and quiet for their violent motions be the causes moving their actions and their passions are the vehement fits of such motions this is the cause that they will not let the soule to be at rest but even then when as a man hath most need of patience silence and quiet retrait they draw him most of all abroad into the open aire then are discovered soonest his cholerike passions his opinionative and contentious humors his wanton love and his grievous sorrowes enforcing him to commit many enormities against the lawes and to speake many words unseasonably and not befitting the time Like as therefore much more perillous is the tempest at sea which impeacheth and putteth backe a ship that it can not come into the harbour to ride at anchor than that which will not suffer it to get out of the haven and make saile in open sea even so those tempestuous passions of the soule are more dangerous which will not permit to be at rest nor to settle his discourse of reason once troubled but overturneth it upside downe as being disfurnished of pilots and cables not well balllaised in the storme wandring to and fro without a guide and steeresmen carried mauger into rash and dangerous courses so long untill in the end it falleth into some shipwracke and where it overthroweth the whole life in such sort that in regard of these reasons and others semblable I conclude that woorse it is to be soule-sicke than diseased in bodie for the bodies being sicke suffer onely but the soules if they be sicke both suffer and doe also amisse To proove this what neede we further to particularize and alledge for examples many other passions considering that the occasion of this present time is sufficient to admonish us thereof and to refresh our memorie See you not this great multitude and preasse of people thrusting and thronging here about the Tribunall and common place of the citie they are not all assembled hither to sacrifice unto the Tutelar gods Protectors of their native countrey nor to participate in common the same religion and sacred ceremonies of divine service they are not all met heere together for to offer an oblation unto Jupiter Astraeus out of the first fruits of Lydia and to celebrate and solemnize in the honor of Bacchus during these holy nights his festivall revils with daunses masks and mummeries accustomed but like as by yeerly accesse and anniversarie revolutions the forcible vigor of the pestilence returneth for to irritate and provoke all Asia so they resort hither to entertaine their suits and processes in law to follow their pleas and a world here is of affaires like to many brookes and riverers which run all at once into one channell and maine streame so they are met in the same place which is pestered and filled with an infinite multitude of people to hurt themselves and others From what fevers or colde ague-fits proceed these effects from what tensions or remissions augmentations or diminutions from what distemperature of heat or overspreading of cold humours comes all this If you aske of everie severall cause here in suite as if they were men and able to answere you from whence it arose how it grew and whereupon it came and first began you shall finde that one matter was engendred by some wilfull and proud anger another proceeded from a troublesome and litigious spirit and a third was caused by some unjust desire and unlawfull lust THE PRECEPTS OF WEDLOCKE The Summarie WE have heere a mixture and medley of rules for married folke who in the persons of Pollianus and Eurydice are taught their mutuall duety upon which argument needlesse it is to discourse at large considering that the whole matter is set out particularly and tendeth to this point That both at the beginning in the sequell also and continuation of mariage man and wife ought to assist support and love one another with a single heart and affection farre remooved from disdainfull pride violence vanitie and fill hinesse the which is specified and comprised in 45. articles howbeit in such sort that there be some of those precepts which savour of the corruption of those times bewraying the insufficiency of humane wisedome unlesse it be lightened with Gods truth We see also in this Treatise more particular advertisements appropriate to both parties touching their devoir as well at home as abroad and all enriched with notable similitudes and excellent examples In summe if these precepts following be well weighed and practised they are able to make mans life much more easie and commodious than it is But Plutarch sheweth sufficiently by the thirtieth rule how hard a matter it is to reteine each one in their severall dutie and that in manner all doe regard and looke upon things with another eie than they ought How ever it be those persons whom vertue hath linked and joined together in matrimonie may finde here whereby to profit and so much the more for that they have one lesson which naturall equitie and conscience putteth them in minde of everie day if they will enter never so little into themselves which being joined with the commandements of the heavenly wisedome it can not be but husband and wife shall live in contentment and blessed estate THE PRECEPTS OF WEDLOCKE PLUTARCH to POLLIANUS and EURYDICE sendeth greeting AFter the accustomed ceremoniall linke of marriage in this countrie which the Priestresse of Ceres hath put upon you in coupling you both together in one bed-chamber I suppose that this discourse of mine comming as it doth to favorize and second this bond and conjunction of yours in furnishing you with good lessons and wise nuptiall advertisements will not be unprofitable but sound verie fitting and comformable to the customarie wedding song observed in these parts The musicians among other tunes that they had with the haut-boies used one kind of note which they called Hippotharos which is asmuch to say as Leape-mare having this opinion that it stirred and provoked stallions to cover mares But of many beautifull and good discourses which philosophie affoordeth unto us one there is which deserveth no lesse to be esteemed than any other by which shee seeming to enchant and charme those who are come together to live all the daies of their life in mutuall societie maketh them to be more buxome kinde tractable and pliable one to
there is I say that bitter almonds should have power to withstand the strength of meere wine considering they drie the body within and will not permit the veines to bee full upon the tention and commotion whereof they say drunkennesse doth proceed and for evident proofe of this there may be a good argument gathered from that which befalleth foxes who having eaten bitter almonds is they drinke not presently upon them die therewith by reason that all their humors suddenly are spent and consumed THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that old folke take greater delight in pure and strong wine than others THere arose a question about old persons what the reason might be that they loved better to drink wine without water or at the leastwise delaied but a little Some alledged the habit of their bodies being cold and hard to be set into an heat in regard whereof the strength of wine was meet and agreeable to their temperature a reason very common and ready at hand but surely neither sufficient for to bee the cause of such an effect nor yet simply true for the same hapueth to their other sences as being hard to be mooved and affected yea and nothing easie to be stirred for to apprehend the qualities thereto belonging unlesse the same be passing strong and vehement whereof the true cause indeed is this that their temperature being weake dull and feeble loveth to be put in minde by knocking upon and this is the cause that for their taste they delight in such sapours as be biting their smelling likewise standeth even so to odors that be strong for affected it is with more pleasure in such as be not tempered nor delaied as for the sense of touching they feele no great paine of ulcers and sores and if it happen that they be wounded their hurt and harme is not so great the same befalleth to their hearing for their eares be in manner deafe and heereupon it is that musicians as they grow in yeeres and waxe aged straine and raise their voice in singing so much the higher and lowder as if they stirred up the organs of hearing by the vehement force of the sound for looke what is steele to the edge and temper of iron for cutting the same is spirit to the bodie for sense and feeling and when it beginnes once to slacke faile and decay the sense likewise and the instruments thereof become dull heavie and earthly having need of some such quicke thing to pricke it in good earnest as strong wine is THE EIGHTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that olde folke reade better afarre off than neere at hand AGainst those reasons which wee devised and alledged upon the subject matter and point in hand it seemed that there might be opposed the eie-sight for that elder persons for to reade any thing the better remoove the letters farther from their eies and in trueth can not well reade neere at hand which the poet Aeschylus seemeth covertly to implie and shew unto us in these verses Know him thou canst not if neere he stand to thee A good olde scribe thou maist much sooner be And Sophocles more plainly testifieth as much when he writeth of old folke in this wise The voice to them arrives not readily And hardly thorow their eares the way can finde Their eies do see farre off confusedly But neere at hand they all be very blinde If then it be so that the senses of aged persons and the instruments serving thereto are not willingly obeisant to their proper objects unlesse the same be strong and vehement what should the cause be that in reading they can not endure the reverberation of the light from letters if they be neere but setting the booke farther off from their eies they do by that meanes enfeeble as it were that light for that it is spread and dissipate in the aire like as the strength of wine when it is tempered with water To this probleme some answered thus That they remoove books and letters farre from their eie-sight not because they would make the saide light more milde or lesse radiant but contrariwise for that they are desirous to catch and gather more splendor and to fill the meane intervall which is betweene the eie and the letter with lightsome and shining aire Others accorded with those who holde that the eies do send out of them certeine raies for by reason that aswell from the one eie as the other a pyramidal beame doth issue the point whereof is in the sight of the eie and the basis doth comprehend the object that is seene probable it is that both these pyramides goe forward apart one from the other a good space and distance but after they be a great way off and come to encounter one another and be confounded together they make but one entire light and this is the reason that albeit the eies are twaine yet every thing that we see appeareth one and not two for that in trueth the meeting and shining together of those two pyramides in common do make of two sights but one This being presupposed and set downe olde men approching neere to letters comprehend the same more feebly in regard that the pyramidall beames of their eies are not yet joined and met together but ech of them reach to the objects apart but if they be farther off so that the said pyramides may be intermingled they see more perfectly much like to them who with both hands can claspe and hold that which they are not able to do with one alone Then my brother Lamprias opposed himselfe against all this and as one who had not read the booke of Hieronymus but even upon the pregnancy and quickenesse of his wit seemed to render another reason namely That we see by the meanes of certeine images arising from the objects or visible things which at the first be big and for that cause trouble the sight of old folke when they regard them neere and hard-by being indeed but hard and slow of motion but when the said images be advanced and spread farther into the aire and have gained some good distance the grosse and terrestriall parts of them breake and fall downe but the more subtill portions reach as farre as to the eies without any paine or offence unto them and do insinuate and accommodate themselves equally and smoothly into their concavities so that the eies being lesse troubled apprehend and receive them better And even so it is with the odours of flowers which are very sweet to smell unto a good way off whereas if a man come over-neere unto them they yeeld nothing so kinde and pleasant a sent the reason is because that together with the savour there goeth from the flower much earthly matter grosse and thicke which corrupteth and marreth the fragrant sweetnesse of the odour if it be smelled to very neere but in case the same be a prety way off that terrestriall vaparation is dispersed round about and so falleth
to have many hands in a dish at once to crosse one another with the elbow and to be with hand or arme 〈◊〉 his fellowes way striving a vie who should be more nimble with his fingers but surely all these fashions are absurd unseemely and as I may say dog-like ending many times in snarling jarring bitter taunts revilings and cholericke brawles not onely of the guests one with another but also against those that furnished the boord and the masters of the feast But so long as these wise faeries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say portion and partition had the ordering of suppers dinners and great feasts dispensing and setting out an equalitie for to mainteine the societie there a man should never see any 〈◊〉 or mechanicall disorder for in those daies suppers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guests at the table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carvers serving at the table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that they divided cut our and gave to everie one their due portions And verily the Lacedaemonians had among them certeine distributers of flesh whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those were no meane men of the vulgar sort but principall persons of the State insomuch as Lysander himselfe was by king Agesilaus ordeined and created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Asia that is to say an officer for the distribution flesh-meat in the campe there But downe went these distributions and divisions when superfluities and costly cates crept into feasts and were served up to the table for they could not then as I suppose so handsomely cut into even portions their pie-meats pasties tarts marchpaines and such devices of pastrie they might not so well divide ther flawnes custards egge-pies florentines and daintie puddings going under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne yet their blamangers jellies chawdres and a number of exquisit sauces and delicate junkets of all sorts sent up and brought to the boord but being overcome with the pleasure of such lickorous viands they tooke to them an abandoning of all equall distribution of parts and portion A good argument and sufficient proofe hereof a man may gather by that which we see yet at this day namely that the feasts at sacrifices and some publike banquets are made after the antique maner and served up by even portions to shew the simplicity and pure feeding that was in olde time so that I suppose whosoever would bring up againe that distribution should withall revive the ancient frugalitie But some man haply will say That where private proprietie is in place publicke communitie is turned out of doores True indeed in case that propriety reteine not equalitie for it is not the possession of a mans owne and of a thing in proper but the usurping of another mans right or the covetous encroching upon the common that hath brought injustice debate and trouble into the world which enormities the lawes do represse by the bounds limits and measure of that which a man holdeth as proper his owne and thereupon they be called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the power and authoritie which they have to part equally unto every one that which was common among all For otherwise if you admit not this distribution you have no more reason to allow that the master of the feast should deale among his guests to every one his coronet or chaplet of flowers nor his owne place to sit at the boord Nay if any one peradventure bring with him his shee-friend and sweet-heart or a minstrell wench to play and sing they must be common to him and his friends that all our goods may be huddled pell-mell and made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say one according as Anaxagoras would have all But if it be so that the challenge in proprietie of this or that is no trouble nor hinderance of societie and communion considering that other matters of principall regard and greatest importance are allowed for to be common I meane conference in talke courtesies and kindnesses of drinking one to another and mutuall invitings let us surcease and give over thus to despise discredit and condemne this laudable maner of portions and the lotterie in partage which as Euripides saith is the daughter of Fortune which giveth not the prerogative and preeminence either to riches or credit and nobilitie but going as it happeneth aswell one way as another cheereth up the heart of a poore and abject person and depriveth no sort and condition whatsoever of libertie but by acquainting the great wealthy and mighty person with an equalitie so as he repine not and grudge thereat reclaimeth him unto temperance and moderation THE THIRD BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-QUESTIONS The Contents or Chapters thereof 1 WHether it be commendable to weare chapless of flowers upon the head at a table 2 Of the Ivie whether it be hot or cold by nature 3 What the reason is that women be hardly made drunke but old men very soone 4 Whether women by their naturall constitution and complexion be hotter or colder than men 5 Whether wine of the owne nature and operation be colde 6 Of the meet time and season to company with a woman 7 What is the cause that Must or new wine doth not easily overturne the braine or make one drunke 8 How it commeth to passe that those who be thorow drunke indeed are lesse troubled in the braine than such as are but in the way unto it and as it were halfe drunke 9 What is the meaning of this old proverbe Drinke five or three but never foure 10 Why flesh-meats corrupt and putrife sooner in the moone shine than in the sunne THE THIRD BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-questions The Preamble or Proëme SImonides the poet ô Sossius Senecio seeing upon a time a stranger at the table sitting still and saying never a word when others were merrie and dranke liberally said unto him My friend if you be a foole you doe wisely but if you be a wise man you do as foolishly for it is a great deale better for a man as Heraclitus was woont to say to hide his own folly and ignorance than to discover the same and that iwis is a very hard matter to doe when we are set upon a merrie pinne and drinking wine lustily for as the poet Homer said very well Wine makes a man were he both wise and grave One while to sing and other whiles to rave To sport to play and laughfull wantonly To leape to daunce and foot it deintily Words to let fall and secrets to reveale Which better were to hold in and conceale In which verses the poet if I be not deceived doth covertly and by the way imply a difference betweene liberall drinking of wine or being somewhat cup-shotten and drunkennesse indeed for to sing to laugh and to daunce be ordinarie matters incident to those who have taken their
assaults and impressions of drunkennesse For these flowers if they be hot gently unstop and open the pores and in so doing make way and give vent for the heady wine to evaporate and breathe out all fumosities and contrariwise if they be temperatly colde by closing gently the said pores keepe downe and drive backe the vapours steaming up into the braine And of this vertue are the garlands of violets and roses which by their smell and comfortable sent represse and stay both ache and heavinesse of head As for the flower of Privet Saffron and Baccaris that is to say Our Ladies gloves or Nard Rusticke bring them sweetly to sleepe who have drunke freely for these send from them a milde aire breathing after a smooth and uniforme manner the which doth softly comprise and lay even the unequall distemperatures the troublesome acrimonies and disorderly asperities arising in the bodies of those who have overdrunk themselves whereupon there ensueth a calme and thereby the strength of the headie wine is either dulled or else rebated Other sorts of flowers there be the odours whereof being spred and dispersed about the braine purge mildly the pores and passages of the senses and their organes subtiliat and discusse gently withour trouble and offence with their moderate heat the humors and all moist vapours by way of rarefaction and warme the braine comfortably which by nature is of a cold temperature and for this cause especially those pettie garlands or poesies of flowers which they hung in old time about their necks they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one would saie suffumigations and they annointed all their brest-parts with the oiles that were expelled or extracted from them Alcyus also testifieth as much where hee willeth to powre sweet oile upon his head that had suffered much paine and upon his brest all grey for even so such odors are directed up as farre as to the braine being drawen by the sense of smelling So it was not because they thought that the soule which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was seated and kept residence within the heart that they called these wreathes and garlands about their necks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it for then more reason it had beene to have tearmed them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it was as I said before of the exhalation or evaporation upward from the region of the breast against which they were worne pendant neither are wee to woonder that the exhalations of flowers should have so great force for we finde it written in records that the shadow of Smilax especially when it is in the flower killeth them that lie a sleepe under it also from the Poppie there ariseth a certeine spirit when the juice is drawen out of it which they call Opium and if they take no better heed who draw the same it causeth them to swoone and fall to the ground there is an herbe called Alysson which whosever hold in their hands or doe but looke upon it shall presently be ridde of the yexe or painfull hickot and they say it is very good also for sheepe and goates to keepe them from all diseases if the same be planted along their cotes and folds the Rose also named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so called for that it casteth from it an odoriferous smell which is the reason that it quickly fadeth and the beautie passeth soone away cold it is in operation although it carie the colour of fire and not without good cause for that the little heat that it hath flieth up to the superficies of it as being driven outwardly from within by the native coldnesse that it hath THE SECOND QUESTION Whether Ivie of the owne nature be cold or hot THis speech of Tryphon we greatly praised but Amonius smiling It were not meet quoth he to kicke and spurne againe nor to overthrow so beautifull and gay a discourse as this was embelished and adorned with as great varietie as the garlands whereof it treated and which he undertooke to defend and mainteine but that I cannot tell how it is come to passe that the Ivie is enterlaced in the chaplet of flowers and said by the naturall coldnesse that it is to have a vertue and propertie to extinguish and quench the forcible heat of new wine for contrariwise it seemeth to be hot and ardent and the frute which it beareth being put into wine and infused therein giveth it power to inebriat and make drunke yea and to trouble and disquiet the bodie by the inflammation that it causeth by reason of which excessive heat the very body thereof groweth naturall crooked after the manner of wood that curbeth and warpeth with the fire also the snow which oftentimes cōtinueth and lieth many daies upon other trees flieth in great haste from the Ivie tree or to speake more properly is presently gone thawed and melted if it chance to settle upon it that by reason of the heat and that which more is as Theophrastus hath left in writing Harpalus the lieutenant generall under Alexander the Great in the province of Babylon by expresse order and direction from the king his master endevoured and did what he might to set in the kings orchard there certaine trees and plants which came out of Greece and such especially as yeelded a goodly shade caried large leaves and were by nature cold for that the countrey about Babylon is exceeding hot and scorched with the burning heat of the sunne but the ground would never enterteine nor abide the Ivie onely notwithstanding that Harpalus tooke great paines and emploied most carefull diligence about it for plant it as often as he would it dried and died immediatly and why hotte it is of the owne nature and was planted in a mould farre hotter than it selfe which hindered it for taking root for this is a generall and perpetuall rule that all excessive enormities of any object destroy the force and powers of the subject in which regard they desire rather their contraries in such sort as that a plant of cold temperature requireth an hot place to grow in and that which is hot demaundeth likewise a cold ground and this is the reason that high mountaine countries windie and covered with snow beare ordinarily trees that yeeld torch-wood and pitch as pines cone trees and such like And were it not so my good friend Tryphon yet this is certeine that trees which by nature are chill and cold shedde their leaves every yeere for that the small heat which they have for very penurie retireth inwardly and leaveth the outward parts naked and destitute whereas contrariwise heat and uncteous fattinesse which appeereth in the olive laurell and cypresse trees keepe themselves alwaies greene and hold their leaves like as the Ivie also doth for her part And therefore good father Bacchus hath not brought into use and request the Ivie as a preservative and present helpe against the encounter of
truth that whatsoever is more frutefull and apter for generation is also more hot certeine it is that yoong maidens be ripe betimes readier for marriage yea and their flesh pricketh sooner to the act of generation than boies of their age neither is this a small and feeble argument of their heat but for a greater and more pregnant proofe thereof marke how they endure very well any chilling cold and the injurie of winter season for the most part of them lesse quake for cold than men doe and generally need not so many clothes to weare Heereat Florus began to argue against him and said In my conceit these very arguments will serve well to confute the said opinion for to beginne with the last first the reason why they withstand cold better than men is because every thing is lesse offended with the like besides their seed is not apt for generation in regard of their coldnesse but serveth in stead of matter onely and yeeldeth nourishment unto the naturall seed of man Moreover women sooner give over to conceive and cease child-bearing than men to beget children and as for the burning of their dead bodies they catch fire sooner I confesse but that is by reason that commonly they be fatter than men and who knoweth not that fatte and grease is the coldest part of the bodie which is the cause that yoongmen and those that use much bodily exercise are least fatte of all others neither is their monthly sicknesse voidance of bloud a signe of the great quantity and abundance but rather of the corrupt qualitie and badnesse thereof for the crude and unconcocted part of their bloud being superfluous and finding no place to settle and rest nor to gather consistence within the bodie by reason of weaknesse passeth away as being heavy and troubled altogether for default and imbecillitie of heat to overcome it and this appeereth manisestly by this that ordinarily when their monthly sicknesse is upon them they are very chill shake for cold for that the bloud which then is stirred and in motion ready to be discharged out of the bodie is so raw and cold To come now unto the smoothnesse of their skinne and that it is not hairie who would ever say that this were an effect of heat considering that we see the hottest parts of mans bodie to be covered with haire for surely all superfluities and excrements are sent out by heat which also maketh way boring as it were holes through the skinne and opening the passages in the superficies thereof But contrariwise wee may reason that the sliecknesse of womens skinne is occasioned by coldnesse whilch doth constipate and close the pores thereof Now that womens skinne is more fast and close than mens you may learne and understand by them friend Athryilatus who use to lie in bedde with women that annoint their bodies with sweet oiles or odoriferous compositions for even with sleeping in the same bed with them although they came not so neere as to touch the women they finde themselves all perfumed by reason that their owne bodies which be hot rare and open doe draw the said ointments or oiles into them Well by this meanes quoth he this question as touching women hath beene debated pro contrà by opposit arguments right manfully THE FIFTH QUESTION Whether wine be naturally cold of operation But I would now gladly know quoth Florus still whereupon your conjecture and suspicion should arise that wine is cold of nature why And doe you thinke quoth I that this in an opinion of mine Whose then quoth the other I remember quoth I that not of late but long agoe I light upon a discourse of Aristotle as touching this probleme and Epicurus himselfe in his Symposium or banquet hath discussed the question at large the summe of which disputation as I take it is thus much For he saith that wine is not simplie of it selfe hot but that it conteineth in it certeine atomies or indivisible motes causing heat and others likewise that engender cold of which some it casteth off and loseth when it is entred into the bodie others it taketh unto it from the very bodie it selfe wherein it is according as the same petie bodies be of nature and temperature fitted and agreeable unto us in such sort as some when they be drunke with wine are well heat others againe contrariwise be as cold These reasons replied Florus directly bring us by Protagoras into the campe of Pyrrho where we shall meet with nothing but incertitude and be still to seeke and as wise as we were before for plaine it is that in speaking of oile milke honie and likewise of all other things we shall never grow to any particular resolution of them what nature they bee of but still have some evasion or other saying That they become such according as ech of them is mixed and tempered one with another But what be the arguments that your selfe alledge to prove that wine is cold Thus I see well quoth I that there be two of you at once who presse and urge mee to deliver my mind extempore and of a sudden the first reason then that commeth into my head is this which I see ordinarily practised by physicians upon those who have weake stomacks for when they are to corroborate and sortifie that part they perscribe not any thing that is hot but if they give them wine they have present ease and helpe thereby semblablie they represse fluxes of the belly yea and when the bodie runneth all to diaphoreticall sweats which they effect by the meanes of wine no lesse nay much more than by applying snow confirming and strengthening thereby the habit of the bodie which otherwise was ready to melt away and resolve now if it had a nature and facultie to heat it were all one to applie unto the region of the heart as fire unto snow furthermore most physicians do hold that sleepe is procured by cooling and the most part of soporiferous medicines which provoke sleepe be cold as for example Mandragoras and poppie Juice but these I must needs confesse with great force and violence doe compresse and as it were congeale the braine to worke that effect whereas wine cooling the same gently with ease and pleasure represeth and staieth the motion thereof so that the difference onely betweene it and the other is but in degree according to more and lesse Over and besides whatsoever is hot is also generative and apt to ingender seed for howsoever humiditie giveth it an aptitude to run and flow it is spirit by the meanes of heat that endueth it with vigor strength yea and an appetite to generation now they that drinke much wine especially if it be pure of it selfe and not delaied are more dull and slow to the act of generation and the seed which they sow is not effectuall nor of any force and vigor to ingender their medling also and conjunction with women is vaine and doth no
good at all by reason that their seed is cold and feeble furthermore all the accidents and passions which colde worketh doe befall unto those that be drunke for they tremble and shake they are heavie and dull of motion and looke pale the spirit in their joints and members is unquiet and mooveth disorderly their tongues falter stut and be double last of all their sinewes in the extremities of the bodie are drawen up in maner of a crampe and benummed yea and in many drunkennesso endeth in a dead palsie or generall resolution of all parts namely after that the wine hath utterly extinguished and mortified their naturall heat Physicians also are woont to cure these symptones and inconveniences procured by excessive drinke and surset by laying the patients presently in bedde and covering them well with clothes for to bring them to an heat the next morrow they put them into the baine or hot-house and rub them wel with oile they nourish them with meats which do not trouble the masse of the body and thus by this cherrishing they gently fetch againe and recover the heat which wine had dissipated and driven out of the bodie And forasmuch as quoth I in things apparent and evident to the eie we search for the like faculties which lie hidden and secret how can we doubt what drunkennesse is and with what it may be compared for according as I have before said drunken folke resemble for all the world old men and therefore it is that great drunkards soone wax old many of them become bald before their time and grow to be grey and hoarie ere they be aged all which accidents seeme to surprize a man for defect of heat Moreover vineger in some sort resembleth the nature and propertie of wine now of all things that are powerfull to quench there is none so repugnant and contrarie to fire as vineger is and nothing so much as it by the excessive coldnesse that it hath overcommeth and represseth a flame Againe we see how physicians use those fruits to coole withall which of all others be most vinous or represent the liquor of wine as for example pomgranates and other orchard apples As for honie do they not mix the substance thereof with raine-water and snow for to make thereof a kinde of wine by reason that the cold doth convert the sweetnesse for the affinitie that is betweene them into austeritie when it is predominant and more puissant what should I say more have not our ancients in olde time among serpents dedicated the dragon and of all plants consecrated Ivie to Bacchus for this cause that they be both of a certeine colde and congealing nature Now if any doe object for proofe that wine is hot how for them that have drunke the juice of hemlocke the sovereigne remedie and counterpoise of all other is to take a great draught of strong wine upon it I will replie to the contrary and turne the same argument upon them namely that wine and the juice of hemlocke mingled together is a poison incurable presently killeth those who drinke it remedilesse So that there is no more reason to prove it hot for resisting hemlocke than colde for helping the operation of it or els we must say that it is not coldnesse whereby hemlocke killeth those that drinke it so presently but rather some other hidden qualitie and propertie that it hath THE SIXTH QUESTION Of the convenient time for a man to know his wife carnally CErteine yoong men who were new students and had lately tasted of the learning conteined in ancient books were ready to teare Epicurus in pieces and inveighed mightily against him as an impudent person for proposing and moving speech which was neither seemly nor necessarie in his symposium or banquet as touching the time of meddling with a woman for that an ancient man well stept in yeres as he was should make mention begin talke of venerous matters and namely at a banquet where many yoong men were in place to particularize and make question in this sort Whether it were better for a man to have the use of his wife before supper or after seemed to proceed from a lascivious minde and incontinent in the highest degree Against which some there were who alledged the example of Xenophon who after his supper or banquet brought his guests not on foot but on horse-backe riding a gallop away home to lie with their wives But Zopyrus the physician who was very well seene and conversant in the books of Epicurus said That they had not read diligently and with advisement his booke called Symposium that is to say The banquet For he tooke not this question quoth he to treat of at the beginning as a theame or subject matter expresly chosen and of purpose whereto all their talke should be directed and in nothing els to be determined and ended but having caused those yoong men to rise from the table for to walke after supper he entred into a discourse for to induce them to continence and temperance and to withdraw them from dissolute lust of the flesh as being at all times a thing dangerous and ready to plunge a man into mischiefe but yet more hurtfull unto those who use it upon a full stomacke after they have eat and drunke well and made good cheere at some great feast And if quoth Zopyrus he had taken for the principall subject the discourse of this point is it pertinent and beseeming a philosopher not to treat and consider at all of the time and houre proper and meet for men to embrace their espoused wives or much better so to doe in due season and with discretion and is it I pray you not discommendable to dispute thereof elswhere and at other times and altogether dishonest to handle that question at the table or at a feast for mine owne part I thinke cleane contrary namely that we may with good reason reprove and blame a philosopher who openly in the day time should dispute in publicke schooles of this matter before all commers and in the hearing of all sorts of people but at the table where there is a standing cup set before familiars and friends and where other-whiles it is expedient to vary and change our talke which otherwise would be but lewke warme or starke colde for all the wine how can it be unseemely or dishonest either to speake or heare ought that is holsome and good for men as touching the lawfull company with their wives in the secret of marriage for mine owne part I protest unto you I could wish with all my heart that those Partitions of Zeno had beene couched in some booke entituled Abanquet or pleasant treatise rather than bestowed as they are in a composition so grave and serious as are the books of policie and government of State The yoong men at these words were cut over the thumbs and being abashed held their tongues and sat them downe quietly Now when others of the company
reason to induce us thereunto for men are wont to attribute a kinde of divinty unto things which are passing common and the commoditie whereof reacheth farre as for example to water light the seasons of the yeere as for the earth her above the rest they repute not onely divine but also to be a goddesse there is none of all these things rehearsed that salt giveth place unto one jot in regard of use and profit being as it is a fortification to our meats within the bodie and that which commendeth them unto our appetite but yet consider moreover if this be not a divine propertie that it hath namely to preserve and keepe dead bodies free from putrifaction a long while and by that meanes to resist death in some sort for that it suffereth not a mortall bodie wholly to perish and come to nothing but like as the soule being the most divine part of us is that which mainteineth all the rest alive and suffereth not the masse and substance of the bodie to be dissolved and suffer colliquation even so the nature of salt taking hold of dead bodies and imitating heerein the action of the soule preserveth the same holding and staying them that they runne not headlong to corruption giving unto all the parts an amitie accord agreement one with the other and therefore it was elegantly said by some of the Stoicks That the flesh of an hogge was even from the beginning no better than a dead carion but that life being diffused within it as if salt were strewed throughout kept it sweet and so preserved it for to last long Moreover you see that wee esteeme lightning or the fire that commeth by thunder celestiall and divine for that those bodies which have beene smitten therewith are observed by us to continue a great while unputrified and without corruption What marvell is it then if our auncients have esteemed salt divine having the same vertue and nature that this divine and celestiall fire hath Heere I staied my speech and kept silence With that Philinus followed on and pursued the same argument And what thinke you quoth he is not that to be held divine which is generative and hath power to ingender considering that God is thought to be the originall authour creatour and father of all things I avowed no lesse and said it was so And it is quoth he an opinion generally received that salt availeth not a little in the matter of generation as you your selfe touched ere-while speaking of Aegyptian priests they also who keepe and nourish dogs for the race when they see them dull to performe that act and to doe their kinde do excite and awaken their lust and vertue generative that lieth as it were asleepe by giving them aswell as other hot meats salt flesh and fish both that have lien in bring pickle also those ships vessels at sea which ordinarily are fraight with salt breed commonly an infinit number of mice and rats for that as some hold the females or does of that kinde by licking of salt onely will conceive and be bagged without the company of the males or bucks but more probable it is that saltnesse doth procure a certeine itching in the naturall parts of living creatures and by that means provokeht males females both to couple together and peradventure this may be the reason that the beauty of a woman which is not dull and unlovely but full of favor attractive and able to move concupiscence men use to name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say saltish or well seasoned And I suppose that the poets have fained Venus to have beene engendred of the sea not without some reason and that this tale that she should come of salt was devised for the nonce to signifie and make knowen under those covert tearmes that there is in salt a generative power certes this is an ordinarie and generall thing among those poets to make all the sea-gods fathers of many children and very full of issue To conclude you shall not finde any land creature finde any land-creature or flying fowle for fruitfulnesse comparable to any kinde of fishes bred in the sea which no doubt this verse of Empedocles had respect unto Leading a troupe which senselesse were and rude Even of sea-fish a breeding multitude THE SIXTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-QUESTIONS The Summarie 1 WHat is the reason that men fasting be more at hirst than hungrie 2 Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or the transformation and change of the pores and conduit of the bodie be the cause thereof 3 How commeth it that they who be hungrie if they drinke are eased of their hunger but contrariwise those who are thir stie if they eat be more thirstic 4 What is the reason that pit-water when it is drawen if it be left all night within the same aire of the pit becommeth more cold 5 What is the cause that little stones and plates or pellets of lead if they be cast into water cause it to be the colder 6 Why snowe is preserved by covering it with straw chaffe or garments 7 Whether wine is to run throw a strainer 8 What is the cause of extraordinarie hunger or appetites to meat 9 Why the poet Homer when he spcaketh of other liquors useth proper epithits onely oile he calleth moist 10 What is the cause that the flesh of beasts flaine for sacrifiece if they be hanged upon a fig-tree quickly become tender THE SIXTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-questions The Proeme PLato being minded to draw Timotheus the sonne of Canon ô Sossius Senecio from sumptuous feasts and superfluous banquets which great captaines commonly make invited him one day to a supper in the Academie which was philosophicall indeed and frugall where the table was not furnished with those viands which might distemper the bodie with feaverous heats and inflamations as Iōn the poet was wont to say but such a supper I say upon which ordinarily there follow kinde and quiet sleeps such fansies also and imaginations as ingender few dreames and those short and in one word where the sleeps do testifie a great calmnesse and tranquillitie of the bodie The morrow after Timotheus perceiving the difference betweene these suppers and the other said That they who supped with Plato over-night found the pleasure and comfort therof the next day and to say a trueth a great helpe and ready meanes to a pleasant and blessed life is the good temperature of the body not drenched in wine nor loaden with viands but light nimble and ready without any feare or distrust to performe all actions and functions of the day-time But there was another commodity no lesse than this which they had who supped with Plato namely the discussing and handling of good and learned questions which were held at the table in supper time for the remembrance of the pleasures in eating and drinking is illiberall and unbeseeming men of worth
was WE had a certeine guest who lived delicatly and loved to drinke cold water for to please and content whose appetite our servants drew up a bucket of water out of the pit or wel and so let it hang within the same so that it touched not the top of the water all the night long wherewith he was served the morrow after at his supper and he found it to be much colder than that which was newly drawen now this stranger being a professed scholar and indifferently well learned told us that he had found this in Aristotle among other points grounded upon good reason which he delivered unto us in this wise All water quoth he which is first hear becommeth afterwards more colde than it was before like to that which is provided and prepared for kings first they set it on the fire untill it boile againe which done they burie the pan or vessell wherein it is within snow and by this device it proves exceeding colde no otherwise than our bodies after that we have bene in the stouph or baines be cooled much more by that meanes for relaxation occasioned by heat maketh the bodie more rare and causeth the pores to open and so by consequence it receiveth more aire from without which environeth the bodie and bringeth a more sudden and violent change when as therefore water is first chafed as it were and set in an heat by agitation and stirring within the bucket whiles it was in drawing it groweth to be the colder by the aire which environeth the said vessell round about This stranger and guest of ours we commended for his confident resolution and perfect memory but as touching the reason that he alledged we made some doubt for if the aire in which the vessell hangeth be colde how doth it inchafe the water and if it be hot how cooleth it afterwards for beside all reason it is that a thing should be affected or suffer contrarily from one and the same cause unlesse some difference come betweene And when the other held his peace a good space and stood musing what to say againe Why quoth I there is no doubt to be made of the aire for our very senses teach us that colde it is and especially that which is in the bottome of pits and therefore impossible it is that water should be heat by the cold aire but the trueth is this rather although this cold aire can not alter all the water of the spring in the bottome of the well yet if a man draw the same in a little quantitie it will do the deed and be so much predominant as to coole it exceedingly THE FIFTH QUESTION What is the reason that little stones and small plates or pellets of lead being cast into water make it colder YOu remember I am sure doe you not said I what Aristotle hath written as touching pibble stones and flints which if they be cast into water cause the same to be much colder and more astringent And you remember quoth he aswell that the philosopher in his Problemes hath onely said it is so but let us assay to finde out the cause for it seemeth very difficult to be conceived and imagined You say true indeed quoth I and a marvell it were if we could hit upon it howbeit marke and consider what I will say unto it First to begin withall doe you not thinke that water is sooner made colde by the aire without if the same may come to enter into it also that the aire is of more force and efficacie when it beateth against hard slints pibbles or wherstones for they will not suffer it to passe thorow as vessels either of brasse or earth but by their compact soliditie resisting and standing out against it they put it by from themselves and turne it upon the water whereby the coldnesse may be the stronger and the water thorowout be fully affected therewith and this is the reason that in Winter time running rivers be much colder than the sea for that the cold aire hath greater power upon them as being driven backe againe from the bottome of the water whereas in the sea it is dissolved and passeth away by reason of the great depth thereof encountring there nothing at all upon which it may strike and bear but it seemeth there is another reason that waters the thinner and cleerer they be suffer the more from the colde aire for sooner they be changed and overcome so weake and feeble they are now hard wherstones and little pibbles doe subtiliat and make the water more thin in drawing to the bottome where they be all the grosse and terrestriall substance that trouble it in such sort as the water by that meanes being more sine and consequently weaker sooner is vanquished and surmounted by the refrigeration of the aire To come now unto lead cold of nature it is and if it be soaked in vineger and wrought with it maketh ceruse of all deadly poisons the coldest As for the stones a fore said by reason of their soliditie they have an inward coldnesse conceived deeply within them for as every stone is a piece of earth gathered together and congealed as it were by exceeding colde so the more compact and massie that it is the harder is it congealed and consequently so much the colder no marvell therefore it is if both plummets of lead and these little hard pibbles aforesaid by repercussion from themselves inforce the colduesse of water THE SIXTH QUESTION What is the reason that men use to keepe snowe within chafse light straw and clothes VPon these words that stranger and guest of ours after hee had paused a while Lovers quoth he above all things are desirous to talke with their paramours or if they can not so doe yet at leastwise they will be talking of them and even so it fareth at this time betweene me and snowe for because there is none heere in place nor to be had I will speake of it and namely I would gladly know the reason why it is wont to be kept in such things as be very hot for we use to cover and swaddle it as it were with straw and chaffe yea and to lap it within soft clothes unshorne rugges and shaggie frize and so preserve it a long time in the owne kinde without running to water A woonderfull matter that the hottest things should preserve those which are extreame colde And so will I say too quoth I if that were true but it is farre otherwise and we greatly deceive our selves in taking that by and by to be hot it selfe which doth heat another and namely considering that we our selves use to say that one and the selfe same garment in Winter keeps us warme and in Summer cooleth us like as that nourse in the tragedy which gave sucke unto Niobes children With mantles course and little blanquets worne She warm's and cool's her pretie babes new borne The Almaigns verily put on garments onely for to defend their bodies against
be steeped in some liquor as having not bene covered but with their owne bare coats for this you may observe ordinarily in stones that those parts and sides which lie covered deeper within the ground as if they were of the nature of plants be more frim and tender as being preserved by heat than those outward faces which lie ebbe or above the earth and therefore skilfull masons digge deeper into the ground for stones which they meane to square worke and cut as being melowed by the heat of the earth whereas those which lie bare aloft and exposed to the aire by reason of the cold prove hard and not easie to be wrought or put to any use in building semblably even corne if it continue long in the open aire and cocked upon the stacks or threshing floores is more hard and rebellious than that which is soone taken away and laid up in garners yea and oftentimes the very winde which bloweth whiles it is fanned or winnowed maketh it more tough and stubburne and all by reason of cold whereof the experience by report is to be seene about Philippi a citie in Macedonie where the remedie is to let corne lie in the chaffe and therefore you must not thinke it strange if you heare husbandmen report that of two lands or ridges running directly one by the side of another the one should yeeld corne tough and hard the other soft and tender and that which more is beanes lying in one cod some be of one sort and some of another according as they have felt more or lesse either of cold or of winde THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that the mids of wine the top of oile and the bottome of honie is best MY wives father Alexion one day laughed at Hesiodus for giving counsell to drinke wine lustilie when the vessell is either newly pierced or runneth low but to forbeare when it is halfe drawen his words are these When tierce is full or when it draweth low Drinke hard but spare to mids when it doth grow For that the wine there is most excellent For who knoweth not quoth he that wine is best in the middle oile in the top and honie in the bottome of the vessel but Hesiodus forsooth adviseth us to let the mids alone and to stay untill it change to the woorse and be sowre namely when it runneth low and little is left in the vessell Which words being passed the companie there present bad Hesiodus farewell and betooke themselves into searching out the cause of this difference and diversitie in these liquors And first as touching the reason of honie we were not very much troubled about it because there is none in maner but knoweth that a thing the more rare or hollow the substance of it is the lighter it is said to be as also that solid massie and compact things by reason of their weight do settle downward in such sort that although you turne a vessell up-side-downe yet within a while after each part returneth into the owne place againe the heavie sinks downe the light flotes above and even so there wanted no arguments to yeeld a sound reason for the wine also for first and formost the vertue and strength of wine which is the heat thereof by good right gathereth about the middes of the vessell and keepeth that part of all others best then the bottome for the vicinitie unto the lees is naught lastly the upper region for that it is next to the aire is likewise corrupt for this we all know that the winde or the aire is most dangerous unto wine for that it altereth the nature thereof and therefore we use to set wine vessels within the ground yea and to stop and cover them with all care and diligence that the least aire in the world come not to the wine and that which more is wine will nothing so soone corrupt when the vessels be full as when it hath beene much drawen and groweth low for the aire entreth in apace proportionably to the place that is void the wine the taketh winde thereby and so much the sooner chaungeth whereas if the vessels be full the wine is able to mainteine it selfe not admitting from without much of that which is adverse unto it or can hurt it greatly But the consideration of oile put us not to a little debate in arguing One of the companie said That the bottome of oile was the woorst because it was troubled and muddy with the leis or mother thereof and as for that which is above he said It was nothing better than the rest but seemed onely so because it was farthest remooved from that which might hurt it Others attributed the cause unto the soliditie thereof in which regard it will not well be mingled or incorporate with any other liquor unlesse it be broken or divided by force and violence for so compact it is that it will not admit the very aire to enter in it or to be mingled with it but keepeth it selfe a part and rejecteth it by reason of the fine smoothnesse and contenuitie of all the parts so that lesse altered it is by the aire as being not predominant over it neverthelesse it seemeth that Aristotle doth contradict and gainsay this reason who had observed as he saith himselfe that the oile is sweeter more odoriferous and in all respects better which is kept in vessels not filled up to the brim and afterwards ascribeth the cause of this meliority or betternesse unto the aire For that saith he there entereth more aire into a vessell that is halfe emptie and hath the more power Then I wot not well said I but what and if in regard of one and the same facultie and power the aire bettereth oile and impaireth the goodnesse of wine for we know that age is hurtfull to oile and good for wine which age the aire taketh from oile because that which is cooled continueth still yoong and fresh contrariwise that which is pent in and stuffed up as having no aire soone ageth and waxeth old great apparence there is therefore of truth that the aire approching neere unto oile and touching the superficies thereof keepeth it fresh and yoong still And this is the reason that of wine the upmost part is woorst but of oile the best because that age worketh in that a very good disposition but in this as badde THE FOURTH QUESTION What was the reason that the auncient Romans were very precise not to suffer the table to be cleane voided and all taken away or the lampe and candle to be put out FLorus a great lover of antiquitie would never abide that a table should be taken away emptie but alwaies lest some meat or other standing upon it And I know full well quoth he that both my father and my grandfather before him not onely observed this most carefully but also would not in any case permit the lampe after supper to be put out because for sparing of oile and that thereby
side it lieth lowest of all things in the world and by occasion thereof resteth unmooveable hauing no cause why it should encline more to one part than to another but yet some places of her because of their raritie do jogge and shake EPICURUS keepeth his old tune saying it may well be that the earth being shogged and as it were rocked and beaten by the aire underneath which is grosse and of the nature of water therefore mooveth and quaketh As also it may be quoth he that being holow and full of holes in the parts below it is forced to tremble and shake by the aire that is gotten within the caves and concavities and there enclosed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea how it was made and commeth to be bitter ANAXIMANDER affirmeth that the Sea is a residue remaining of the primitive humidity whereof the Sunne hauing burnt up and consumed a great part the rest behind he altered and turned from the naturall kind by his excessive ardent heat ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the said first humiditie being diffused and spred abroad in manner of a poole or great meere was burnt by the motion of the sunne about it and when the oileous substance thereof was exhaled and consumed the rest setled below and turned into a brackish and bitter-saltnesse which is the Sea EMPEDOCLES saith that the Sea is the sweat of the earth enchafed by the sunne being bathed and washed all over aloft ANTISTON thinketh it to be the sweat of heat the moisture whereof which was within being by much seething and boiling sent out becommeth salt a thing ordinary in all sweats METRODORUS supposeth the Sea to be that moisture which running thorough the earth reteined some part of the densitie thereof like as that which passeth through ashes The disciples of PLATO imagine that so much of the elementarie water which is congealed of the aire by refrigeration is sweet and fresh but whatsoever did evaporate by burning and inflammation became salt CHAP. XVII Of the Tides to wit the ebbing and flowing of the sea what is the cause thereof ARISTOTLE and HERACLITUS affirme that it is the sunne which doth it as who stirreth raiseth and carieth about with him the most part of the windes which comming to blow upon the Ocean cause the Atlanticke sea to swell and so make the flux or high water but when the same are allaied and cleane downe the sea falleth low and so causeth a reflux and ebbe or low water PYTHEAS of Marseils referreth the cause of Flowing to the full moone and of Ebbing to the moone in the wane PLATO attributeth all to a certeine rising of the waters saying There is such an elevation that through the mouth of a cave carieth the Ebbe and Flow to and fro by the meanes whereof the seas doe rise and flow contrarily TIMAEUS alledgeth the cause hereof to be the rivers which falling from the mountaines in Gaule enter into the Atlantique sea which by their violent corruptions driving before them the water of the sea cause the Flow and by their ceasing and returne backe by times the Ebbe SELEUCUS the Mathematician who affirmed also that the earth mooved saith that the motion thereof is opposit and contrary to that of the moone also that the winde being driven to and fro by these two contrary revolutions bloweth and beateth upon the Atlanticke ocean troubleth the sea also and no marvell according as it is disquieted it selfe CHAP. XVIII Of the round circle called Halo THis Halo is made after this manner betweene the body of the moone or any other starre and our eie-sight there gathereth a grosse and mistie aire by which aire anon our sight commeth to be reflected and diffused and afterwards the same incurreth upon the said starre according to the exterior circumference thereof and thereupon appeereth a circle round about the starre which being there seene is called Halo for that it seemeth that the apparent impression is close unto that upon which our sight so enlarged as is before said doth fall THE FOURTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving runne through the generall parts of the world I will now passe unto the particulars CHAP. I. Of the rising and inundation of Nilus THALES thinketh that the anniversarie windes called Etcsiae blowing directly against Aegypt cause the water of Nilus to swell for that the sea being driven by these windes entreth within the mouth of the said river and hindereth it that it cannot discharge it selfe freely into the sea but is repulsed backward EUTHYMENES of Marseils supposeth that this river is filled with the water of the ocean and the great sea lying without the continent which he imagineth to be fresh and sweet ANAXAGORAS saith that this hapneth by the snowe in Aethiopia which melteth in summer and is congealed and frozen in winter DEMOCRITUS is of opinion that it is long of the snowe in the north parts which about the aestival solstice and returne of the sunne being dissolved and dilated breedeth vapors and of them be engendred clouds which being driven by the Etesian windes into Aethiopia and Aegypt toward the south cause great and violent raines wherewith both lakes and the river also Nilus be filled HERODOTUS the Historian writeth that this river hath as much water from his sources and springs in winter as in summer but to us it seemeth lesse in winter because the sunne being then neerer unto Aegypt causeth the said water to evaporate EPHORUS the Historiographer reporteth that all Aegypt doth resolve and runne at it were wholly into swet in summer time whereunto Arabia and Libya doe conferre and contribute also their waters for that the earth there is light and sandy EUDOXUS saith that the priests of Aegypt assigne the cause hereof to the great raines and the Antiperistasis or contrarie occurse of seasons for that when it is Summer with us who inhabit within the Zone toward the Summer Tropicke it is Winter with those who dwell in the opposit Zone under the Winter Tropicke whereupon saith he proceedeth this great inundation of waters breaking downe unto the river Nilus CHAP. II. Of the Soule THALES was the first that defined the Soule to be a nature moving alwaies or having motion of it selfe PYTHAGORAS saith it is a certeine number moving it selfe and this number he taketh for intelligence or understanding PLATO supposeth it to be an intellectuall substance mooving it selfe and that according to harmonicall number ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is the first Entelechia or primitive act of a naturall and organicall bodie having life potentially DICEARCHUS thinketh it to be the harmonie and concordance of the foure elements ASCLEPIADES the Physician defineth it to be an exercise in common of all the senses together CHAP. III. Whether the Soule be a body and what is the substance of it ALl these Philsosophers before rehearsed suppose that the Soule is incorporall that of the owne nature it mooveth and is a spirituall substance and the action of a
paramouts in their armes CHAP. III. What is the substance of Naturall seed ARISTOTLE defineth Seed to be that which hath power to moove in it selfe for the effecting of some such thing as it was from whence it came PYTHAGORAS taketh it to be the foame of the best and purest bloud the superfluitie and excrement of nouriture like as bloud and marrow ALCMAEON saith it is a portion of the braine PLATO supposeth it to be a decision or deflux of the marrow in the backe bone EPICURUS imagineth it to be an abstract of soule and body DEMOCRITUS holdeth that it is the geneture of the fleshy nerves proceeding from the whole body and the principall parts thereof CHAP. IIII. Whether genetall Seed be a body LEUCIPPUS and ZENO take it to be a body for that it is an abstract parcell of the soule PYTHAGORAS PLATO and ARISTOTLE acknowledge indeed and confesse that the power and force of Seed is bodilesse like as the understanding which is the author of motion but the matter thereof say they which is shed and sent foorth is corporall STRATO and DEMOCRITUS affirme the very puissance thereof to be a body howbeit spirituall CHAP. V. Whether femals send foorth Seed as well as males PYTHAGORAS EPICURUS and DEMOCRITUS hold that the Female likewise dischargeth Seed for that it hath seminarie vessels turned backward which is the reason that she hath lust unto the act of generation ARISTOTLE and ZENO be of opinion that the Female delivereth from it a moist matter resembling the sweat which commeth from their bodies who wrestle or exercise together but they will not have it to be Seed HIPPON avoucheth that Femals doe ejaculate Seed no lesse than males howbeit the same is not effectuall for generation for that it falleth without the matrix whereupon it commeth to passe that some women though very few and widdowes especially doe cast from them Seed without the company of men and he affirmeth that of the male Seed are made the bones of the female the flesh CHAP. VI. The maner of Conception ARISTOTLE thinketh that Conceptions come in this maner when as the matrix drawn before from the naturall purgation and there withall the monthly tearmes fetch some part of pure bloud from the whole masse of the body so that the males genetall may come to it and so concurre to engender Contrariwise that which hindereth conception is this namely when the matrix is impure or full of ventosities as it maybe by occasion of feare of sorrow or weaknesse of women yea and by the impuissance and defect in men CHAP. VII How it commeth that Males are engendred and how Females EMPEDOCLES supposeth that Males and Females are begotten by the meanes of heat and cold accordingly and heereupon recorded it is in Histories that the first Males in the world were procreated and borne out of the earth rather in the East and Southern parts but Females toward the North. PARMENIDES mainteineth the contrary and saith that Males were bred toward the Northern quarters for that the aire there is more grosse and thicker than else where on the other side Females toward the South by reason of the raritie and subtilitie of the aire HIPPONAX attributeth the cause heereof unto the seed as it is either more thick or powerfull or thinner and weaker ANAXAGORAS and PARMENIDES hold that the seed which commeth from the right side of a man ordinarily is cast into the right side of the matrix and from the left side likewise into the same side of the matrix but if this ejection of seed fall out otherwise cleane crosse then Females be engendred LEOPHANES of whom ARISTOTLE maketh mention affirmeth that the Males be engendred by the right genetory and females by the left LEUCIPPUS ascribeth it to the permutation of the naturall parts of generation for that according to it the man hath his yerd of one sort and the woman her matrix of another more than this he saith nothing DEMOCRITUS saith that the common parts are engendred indifferently by the one and the other as it falleth out but the 〈◊〉 parts that make distinction of sex of the party which is more prevalent HIPPONAX resolveth thus that if the seed be predominant it will be a Male but if the food and nourishment a Female CHAP. VIII How Monsters are engendred EMPEDOCLES affirmeth that Monsters be engendred either through the abundance of seed or default thereof either through the turbulent perturbation of the mooving or the distraction and division of the seed into sundry parts or else through the declination thereof out of the right way and thus he seemeth to have preoccupated in maner all the answers to this question STRATO alledgeth for this part addition or substraction transposition or inflation and ventosities And some physicians there be who say that at such a time as monsters be engendred the matrix suffereth distortion for that it is distended with winde CHAP. IX What is the reason that a woman though oftentime she companieth with a man doeth not conceive DIOCLES the Physician rendreth this reason for that some doe send soorth no seed at all or lesse in quantity than is sufficient or such in quality which hath no vivificant or quickning power or else it is for defect of heat of cold of moisture or drinesse or last of all by occasion of the paralysie or resolution of the privy parts and members of generation The STOICKS lay the cause hereof upon the obliquitie or crookednesse of the mans member by occasion whereof he cannot shoot foorth his 〈◊〉 directly or else it is by reason of the disproportion of the parts as namely when the matrix lieth to farre within that the yerd cannot reach unto it ERASISTRATUS findeth fault in this case with the matrix when it hath either hard callosities or too much carnositie or when it is more rare and spungeous or else smaller than it ought to be CHAP. X. How it commeth that two Twinnes and three Twinnes are borne EMPEDOCLES saith that two Twinnes or three are engendred by occasioneither of the abundance or the divulsion of the seed ASCLEPIADES assigneth it unto the difference of bodies or the excellence of seed after which manner we see how some barly from one root beareth two or three stalkes with their eares upon them according as the seed was most fruitfull and generative ERASISTRATUS 〈◊〉 it unto divers conceptions and superfaetations like as in brute beasts for when as the matrix is clensed then it commeth soone to conception and superfaetation The 〈◊〉 alledge to this purpose the cels or conceptacles within the matrix for as the seed falleth into the first and second there follow conceptions and superfaetations and after the same sort may three Twinnes be engendred CHAP. XI How commeth it to passe that children resemble their parents or progenitours before them EMPEDOCLES affirmeth that as similitudes are caused by the exceeding force of the genetall seed so the dissimilitudes arise from
that outwardly appeere as for example wounds inflammations impostumes biles and botches in the share and other emunctories CHAP. XXX Of Health Sicknesse and old age ALCMAEON is of opinion that the equall dispensing and distribution of the faculties in the body to wit of moisture heat drinesse cold bitter sweet and the rest is that which holdeth maintaineth Health contrariwise the monarchie that is to say the predominant soveraignty of any of them causeth sicknesse for the predomination and principality of any one bringeth the corruption of all the other and is the very cause of maladies the efficient in regard of excessive heat or cold and the materiall in respect of superabundance or defect of humors like as in some there is want of bloud or brain whereas Health is a proportionable temperature of all these qualities DIOCLES supposeth that most diseases grow by the inequality of the elements and of the habit and constitution of the body ERASISTRATUS saith that sicknesse proceedeth from the excesse of feeding from crudities indigestions and corruption of meat whereas good order and suffisance is Health The STOICKS accord heereunto and hold that Old age commeth for want of naturall heat for they who are most furnished therewith live longest and be old a great time ASCLEPIADES reporteth that the Aethiopians age quickly namely when they be thirtie yeeres old by reason that their bodies bee over-heat and even burnt againe with the sunne whereas in England and all 〈◊〉 folke in their age continue 120. yeeres for that those parts be cold and in that people the naturall heat by that meanes is united and kept in their bodies for the bodies of the Aethiopians are more open and rare in that they be relaxed and resolved by the sunnes heat Contrariwise their bodies who live toward the North pole bee more compact knit and fast and therefore such are long lived ROMANE QVESTIONS THAT IS TO SAY AN ENQUIRIE INTO THE CAUSES OF MANIE FASHIONS AND CUSTOMES OF ROME A Treatise fit for them who are conversant in the reading of Romane histories and antiquities giving a light to many places otherwise obscure and hard to be understood 1 What is the reason that new wedded wives are bidden to touch fire and water 1 IS it because that among the elements and principles whereof are composed naturall bodies the one of these twaine to wit fire is the male and water the female of which that infuseth the beginning of motion and this affoordeth the propertie of the subject and matter 2 Or rather for that as the fire purgeth and water washeth so a wise ought to continue pure chaste and cleane all her life 3 Or is it in this regard that as fire without humidity yeeldeth no nourishment but is dry and moisture without heat is idle fruitlesse and barren even so the male is feeble and the female likewise when they be apart and severed a sunder but the conjunction of two maried folke yeeldeth unto both their cohabitation and perfection of living together 4 Or last of all because man and wife ought not to forsake and abandon one another but to take part of all fortunes though they had no other good in the world common betweene them but fire and water onely 2 How is it that they use to light at weddings five torches and neither more nor lesse which they call Wax-lights 1 WHether is it as Varro saith because the Praetours or generals of armies use three and the Aediles two therefore it is not meet that they should have more than the Praetours and Aediles together considering that new maried folke goe unto the Aediles to light their fire 2 Or because having use of many numbers the odde number seemed unto them as in all other respects better and more perfect than the even so it was fitter and more agreeable for marriage for the even number implieth a kinde of discord and division in respect of the equall parts in it meet for siding quarrell and contention whereas the odde number cannot be divided so just equally but there will remaine somwhat still in common for to be parted Now among al odde numbers it seemeth that Cinque is most nuptial best beseeming mariage for that 〈◊〉 is the first odde number Deuz the first even of which twaine five is compounded as of the male and the female 3 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 because light is a signe of being and of life and a woman may beare at the most five children at one burden and so they used to cary five tapers or waxe candels 4 Or lastly for that they thought that those who were maried had need of five gods and goddesses namely Jupiter genial Juno genial Venus Suade and above all Diana whom last named women in their labour and travell of childe-birth are wont to call upon for helpe 3 What is the cause that there being many Temples of Diana in Rome into that onely which standeth in the 〈◊〉 street men enter not 1 IS it not because of a tale which is told in this maner In old time a certeine woman being come thither for to adore and worship this goddesse chaunced there to bee abused and suffer violence in her honor and he who forced her was torne in pieces by hounds upon which accident ever after a certeine superstitious feare possessed mens heads that they would not presume to goe into the said temple 4 Wherefore is it that in other temples of Diana men are woont ordinarily to set up and fasten Harts hornes onely in that which is upon mount Aventine the hornes of oxen and other beefes are to be seene MAy it not be that this is respective to the remembrance of an ancient occurrent that sometime befell For reported it is that long since in the Sabines countrey one Antion Coratius had a cow which grew to be exceeding faire and woonderfull bigge withall above any other and a certeine wizard or soothfaier came unto him and said How predestined it was that the citie which sacrificed that cow unto Diana in the mount Aventine should become most puissant and rule all Italy This Coratius therefore came to Rome of a deliberate purpose to sacrifice the said cow accordingly but a certaine houshold servant that he had gave notice secretly unto king Servius Tullius of this prediction delivered by the abovesaid soothfaier whereupon Servius acquainted the priest of Diana Cornelius with the matter and therefore when Antion Coratius presented himselfe for to performe his sacrifice Cornelius advertised him first to goe downe into the river there to wash for that the custome and maner of those that sacrificed was so to doe now whiles Antion was gone to wash himselfe in the river Servius steps into his place prevented his returne sacrificed the cow unto the goddesse and nailed up the hornes when he had so done within her temple Juba thus relateth this historie and Varro likewise saving that Varro expressely fetteth not downe the name of Antion neither doth he write
other such particular artificers whom it suffiseth to know and understand the last and conjunct causes For so it be that a physician doe comprehend the neerest and next cause of his patients malady for example of an ague that it is a shooting or falling of the bloud out of the veines into the arteries and the husbandman conceive that the cause of blasting or Maying his corne is an hot gleame of the sunne after a shower of raine and the plaier upon the 〈◊〉 comprise the reason of the base sound is the bending downward of his instrument or the bringing of them one neere unto another it is sufficient for any of these to proceed to their proper worke and operation But a naturall philosopher who searcheth into the trueth of things onely for meere knowledge and speculation maketh not the knowledge of these last causes the end but rather taketh from them his beginning and ariseth from them to the primitive and highest causes And therefore well did Plato and Democritus who searching into the causes of heat and of heavinesse 〈◊〉 not the course of their inquisition when they came to fire and earth but referring and reducing things sensible unto intelligible principles proceeded forward and never staied untill they came unto the least parcels as it were to the smallest seeds and principles thereof Howbeit better it were first to handle and discusse these sensible things wherein Empedocles Straton and the Stoicks do repose the essences of all powers the Stoicks attributing the primitive colde unto aire but Empedocles and Straton unto water and another peradventure would suppose the earth rather to be the substantiall subject of cold But first let us examine the opinions of these before named Considering then that fire is both hot and shining it must needs be that the nature of that which is contrarie unto it should be colde and darke for obscuritie is opposite unto brightnesse like as cold to heat and like as darknesse and obscuritie doth confound and trouble the sight even so doth colde the sense of feeling whereas heat doth dilate the sense of him that toucheth it like as cleerenesse the sight of him that seeth it and therefore we must needs say that the thing which is principally darke and mistie is likewise colde in nature But that the aire above all things els is dimme and darke the very poets were not ignorant for the aire they call darkenesse as appeareth by these verses of Homer For why the aire stood thicke the ships about And no moone shine from heaven shewed throughout And in another place The aire anon he soone dispatch't and mist did drive away With that the sunne shone out full bright and battell did display And hereupon it is that men call the aire wanting light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say void of light and the grosse aire which is gathered thicke together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of privation of all light Aire also is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a mist and looke what things soever hinder our sight that we cannot see thorow be differences all of the aire and that part of it which can not be seene and hath no colour is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for want of colour Like as therefore the aire remaineth darke when the light is taken from it even so when the heat is gone that which remaineth is nothing but colde aire And therefore such aire by reason of coldnesse is named Tartarus which Hesiodus seemeth to insinuate by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the airie Tartarus and to tremble and quake for cold he expresseth by this verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the reasons 〈◊〉 in this behalfe But forasmuch as corruption is the change of anything into the contrary let us consider whether it be truely said The death of fire is the birth of aire For fire dieth aswell as living creatures either quenched by force or by languishing and going out of it selfe As for the violent quenching and extinction thereof it sheweth evidently that it turneth into aire for smoake is a kinde of aire and according as Pindarus writeth The vapour of the aire thicke Is 〈◊〉 against the smoake to kicke And not onely that but we may see also that when a flame beginneth to die for want of nourishment as in lamps and burning lights the very top and head thereof doth vanish and resolve into a darke and obscure aire and this may sufficiently be perceived by the vapour which after we are bathed or sit in a stouph flieth and steimeth up along our bodies as also by that smoake which ariseth by throwing cold water upon namely that heat when it is extinguished is converted into aire as being naturally opposite unto fire whereupon it followeth necessarily that the aire was first darke and cold But that which is more the most violent and forcible impression in bodies by cold is congealation which is a passion of water action of the aire for water of it selfe is given to spread and flow as being neither solide nor compact and fast by nature but hard it becommeth thicke also and stiffe when it is thrust close to by the aire and cold together comming betweene and therefore thus we say commonly If after South the North-winde straight do blow We shall be sure anon to have some snow For the South winde prepareth the matter which is moisture and the aire of the North winde comming upon it doth frize and congeale the same which appeareth manifestly in snow for no sooner hath it evaporated and exhaled a little the thinne and colde aire in it but immediatly it resolveth and runneth to water And Aristotle writeth that plates and plummets of lead doe melt and resolve with the cold and rigor of Winter so soone as water only commeth unto them and be frozen upon them And the aire as it should seeme by pressing such bodies together with colde breaketh and knappeth them asunder Moreover the water that is drawen out of a well or spring is sooner frozen and turned to ice than any other for that the aire hath more power over a little water than a great deale And if a man draw up a small quantitie of water in a bucket out of a pit or well and let the same downe againe into the well yet so as the vessell touch not the water but hang in the aire and so continue there but a while that water will be much colder than that which is in the bottome of the well whereby it appeareth manifestly that the primitive cause of cold is not in water but in aire And that so it is the great rivers will testifie which never are frozen to the bottome
that the water by the coldnesse thereof doth violence unto them howsoever Theophrastus thinketh that it is the aire that bursteth such vessels using colde as it were a spike or great naile to doe the feat But take heed that this be not rather a prety elegant speech of his than sounding to trueth for if aire were the cause then should vessels full of pitch or milke sooner burst than other More likely it is therefore that water is colde of it selfe and 〈◊〉 for contrary it is to the heat of fire in regard of that coldnesse like as to the drinesse thereof in respect of humidity To be briefe the property of fire ingenerall is to dissipate divide and segregate but contrariwise of water to joine conglutinate unite and binde knitting and closing together by the vertue of moisture And this makes me thinke that Empedocles upon this occasion ever and anon calleth fire a pernicious debate but water a fast amity for sewell and food of fire is that which turneth into fire and every thing turneth which is most proper and familiar as for that which is contrary the same is hardly to be turned as water which of it selfe it is impossible to burne causing both greene or wet herbs as also 〈◊〉 or drenched wood hardly to take fire and so in the end with much a doe they kindle and catch fire although the same be not light and cleere but darke dimme and weake because the viridity or greenenesse by the meanes of colde fighteth against the heat as his naturall enemie Peising now and weighing these reasons conferre them with the others But for that Chrysippus esteeming the aire to be the primitive colde in that it is dimme and darke hath made mention of those onely who say that water is more distant and farther remote from the elementary fire than the aire and being desirous to say somewhat against them By the same reason quoth he may a man aswel 〈◊〉 that the earth is the said primitive cold for that it is farthest from the elementary fire rejecting this argument and reason as false and altogether absurd Me thinks that I can well shew that the earth it selfe wanteth no probable 〈◊〉 laying my foundation even upon that which Chrysippus hath taken for the aire And what is that namely because it is principally and above all things els obscure dark for if he taking two contrarieties of powers thinketh of necessitie the one must follow upon the other 〈◊〉 there be infinit oppositions and repugnances betweene the earth and the aire for the earth is not opposit unto the aire as heavy unto light nor as that which bendeth downward unto that which tendeth upward onely nor as massie unto rare or slow and stedfast unto quicke and mooveable but as most heavy unto most light most massie unto most rare and finally as immooveable in it selfe unto that which mooveth of it selfe or as that which holdeth still the center in the mids unto that which turneth continually round Were it not then very absurd to say that upon so many and those so great oppositions this also of heat and cold did not likewise jointly follow Yes verily but fire is cleere and bright and earth darke nay rather it is the darkest of all things in the world and most without light for aire is that which doth participate of the first light brightnesse which soonest of all other burneth being also once full thereof it distributeth that light every where exhibiting it selfe as the very body of light for as one of the Dithyrambick poets said No sooner doth the sunne appeere In our horizon faire and cleere But with his light the pallace great Of 〈◊〉 and windes is all repleat And then anon it descendeth lower and imparteth one portion thereof to the lakes and to the sea the very bottomes of the rivers doe rejoice and laugh for joy so farre foorth as the aire 〈◊〉 and entreth into them the earth onely of all other bodies is evermore destitute of light and not 〈◊〉 with the radiant beames of sunne and moone well may it be warmed a little and present it selfe to be fomented with the heat of the sunne which entreth a little way into it but surely the solidity of it will not admit the resplendent light thereof onely it is superficially illuminated by the sunne for all the bowels and inward parts of it be called Orphne Chaos and Ades that is to say darkenesse confusion and hell it selfe and as for Erebus it is nothing else to say a truth but terrestriall obscurity and mirke darknesse within the earth The poets seigne the night to be the daughter of the earth and the mathematicians by reason and demonstration proove that it is no other thing than the shadow of the earth opposed against the sunne for the aire as it is full of darknesse from the earth so it is replenished with light from the sunne and looke how much of the aire is not lightned nor illuminate to wit all the shadow that the earth casteth so long is the night more or lesse and therefore both man and beast make much use of the aire without their houses although it be night season and as for beasts many of them goe to reliefe and pasturage in the night because the aire hath yet some reliques and traces left of light and a certeine influence of brightnesse dispersed heere and there but he that is enclosed within house and covered with the roufe thereof is as it were blinde and full of darknesse as one environed round about within the earth and verily the hides and hornes of beasts so long as they bee hole and sound transmit no light through them let them be cut sawed pared and scraped they become transparent because aire is admitted into them And I thinke truely that the poets eftsoones heereupon call the earth blacke meaning thereby darke and without light so that the most important and principall opposition between cleere and darke is found rather in the earth than in the aire But this is impertinent to our question in hand for we have shewed already that there be many cleere things which are knowen to be cold and as many browne and darke which be hot But there be other qualities and pussances more proper unto colde namely ponderositie steadinesse soliditie immutability of which the aire hath not so much as one but the earth in part hath them all more than the water Furthermore it may be saide that colde is that which most sensibly is hard as making things stiffe and hard for Theophrastus writeth that those 〈◊〉 which be frozen with extreme rigour of colde if they be let fal upon the ground breake and knap in pieces no lesse than glasses or earthen vessels and your selfe have heard at Delphi of those who passed over the hill Pernassus to succour and relieve the women called 〈◊〉 who were surprized with a sharpe pinching winde and drifts of snow that their cloakes and mantels through
extremity of colde were as starke and stiffe as pieces of wood insomuch as they brake and rent into 〈◊〉 so soone as they went about to stretch them out To say yet more excessive colde causeth the sinewes to be so stiffe as hardly they will bend the tongue likewise so 〈◊〉 that it will not stirre or utter any voice congealing the moist soft and 〈◊〉 parts of the body which being 〈◊〉 by daily experience they proceed to gather this consequence Every power and facultie which getteth the maistrie is woont to turne and convert into it selfe that over which it is predominant whatsoever is overcome by heat becommeth fire that which is conquered by spirit or winde changeth into aire what falleth into water if it get not foorth againe dissolveth and in the end runneth to water Then must it needs follow that such things as are exceeding colde degenerate into that primitive colde whereof we speake now excessive colde is first and the greatest alteration that can be devised by colde is when a thing is congealed made an ice which congelation altereth the nature of the thing so much that in the end it becommeth as hard as a stone namely when the cold is so predominant as well all the moisture of it is congealed as the heat that it had driven out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is that the earth toward her center and in the bottom thereof is frozen altogether and in maner nothing else but ice for that the excessive colde which never will yeeld and 〈◊〉 there dwelleth and 〈◊〉 continually as being thrust and driven into that corner farthest off from the elementary fire As touching those rocks cragges and cliffes which we see to appeere out of the earth Empedocles is of opinion that they were there set driven up susteined supported by the violence of a certeine boiling and swelling fire within the bowels of the earth but it should seeme rather that those things out of which all the heat is evaporate and slowen away be congealed and conglaciat so hard by the meanes of colde and this is the cause that such cragges be named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say congealed toward the head and toppe whereof a man shall see in them many places blacke againe namely whereas the heat flew out when the time was so as to see to one would imagine that they had heeretofore beene burnt for the nature of colde is to congeale all things but some more others lesle but above all those in which it is naturally at the first inhaerent for like as the property of fire is to alleviate it cannot otherwise be but the hotter that a thing is the more light also it is and so the nature of moisture is to soften insomuch as the moister any thing is the softer also it is found to be semblably given it is to colde to astringe and congeale it followeth therefore of necessity that whatsoever is most astrict and congealed as is the earth is likewise the coldest and looke what is colde in the highest degree the same must be principally and naturally that colde whereof we are in question And thereupon we must conclude that the earth is 〈◊〉 by nature colde and also that primitive colde a thing apparent and evident to our very sense for dirt and clay is colder than water and when a man would quickly suffocate and put out a fire he throweth earth upon it Blacke-smithes also and such as forge iron when they see it redde hot and at the point to melt they strew upon it small powder or grit of marble or other stones that have fallen from them when they were squared and wrought for to keepe it from resolving too much and to coole the excessive heat the very dust also that is used to bee throwen upon the bodies of wrestlers doth coole them and represse their sweats Moreover to speake of the commodity that causeth us every 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 and change our lodgings what is the meaning of it winter maketh us to seeke for high lofts and such chambers as be 〈◊〉 from the earth contrariwise summer bringeth us downe to the halles and parlours beneath driving us to seeke retiring roomes and willingly we love to live in vaults within the bosome of the earth doe we not thus thinke you directed by the instinct of nature to seeke out acknowledge that which is naturally the primitive colde and therefore when winter comes we lay for houses and habitations neere the sea side that is to say we flie from the earth as much as we can because of colde and we compasse ourselves with the aire of the sea for that it is hot contrariwise in summer time by reason of immoderate heat we covet mediterranean places farther within the land and farre remooved from the sea not for that the aire of it selfe is colde but because it seemeth to spring and budde as it were out of the primitive colde and to have a tincture as I may so say after the maner of iron from the power which is in the earth and verily among running waters those that arise out of rocks and descend from mountaines are evermore coldest but if 〈◊〉 and pittes such as be deepest yeeld the coldest waters for by reason of their profunditie the aire from without is not mingled with these and the others passe thorough pure and sincere earth without the mixture of aire among As for example such is the water neere the cape of Taenarus which they call Styx destilling by little and little out of the rocke and so gathered unto an head which water is so extreeme colde that there is no vessell in the world will holde it but onely that which is made of an asses hoofe for put it into any other it cleaveth and breaketh it Moreover we heare physicians say that to speake generally all kinds of earth do restraine and coole and they reckon unto us a number of minerals drawen out of entrails of the earth which in the use of physicke yeeld unto them an astringent and binding power for the very element it selfe from whence they come is nothing incisive nor hath the vertue for to stirre and extenuate it is not active and quicke not emollitive nor apt to spread but firme steadfast and permanent as a square cube or die and not to be removed whereupon being massie and ponderous as it is the colde also thereof having a power to condensate constipate and to expresse forth all humors 〈◊〉 by the asperity and inequalitie of the parts shakings horrors and quakings in our bodies and if it prevaile more and be predominant so that the heat be driven out quite and extinct it imprinteth an habitude of congealation and dead stupefaction And hereupon it is that the earth either will not burne at all or els hardly and by little and little whereas the aire manytimes of it selfe sendeth forth flaming fire it shooteth and floweth yea and seemeth as inflamed to lighten and flash
dust IS it not as I said before because wheat is able to overcome more nourishment but barley can not endure much moisture to drench and drowne it Or in this respect that wheat being a stiffe and hard kinde of graine resembling the nature of wood doth sooner come and chit within the ground in case it be well soked and softened with moisture and therefore liketh better of a wet ground whereas the drier soile at the first sowing agreeth better with barley and is more commodious for it being as it is a more loose and spungeous kinde of graine Or because such a temperature of the ground in regard of the heat is more proportionable and lesse hurtfull unto barley being as it is the colder graine Or rather husbandmen are affraid to thrash their wheat upon a dry and sandy floore because of ants for soone will they take to that kind of graine in such a place As for barley they use lesse to beare it because the cornes thereof be hard to be caried and recaried from one place to another they are so bigge 17 What is the cause that fishers chuse the haire of stone-horsetailes rather than of mares to make their angling lines IS it because the male as in all other parts so in haire also is more strong than the female Or rather for that they thinke the haire of mares tailes drenched and wet as it is ever and anon with their staling is more brittle and woorse than the other 18 What is the reason that when the Calamacie fish is seene in the sea it is a signe of a great tempest IS it because all soft and 〈◊〉 fishes are very impatient of colde and of foule-weather they be so bare and naked and have withall their flesh exceeding tender as being covered neither with shell nor thicke skinne ne yet scale but contrariwise having their hardy gristly and bony substance within which is the reason that all such fishes be called Malacia as one would say Soft and tender For which cause naturally they soone foresee a tempest and feele colde comming for that it is offensive unto them and therefore likewise when the Poulpe or Polyp runneth to land and catcheth holde of some little rocks it is a token that there is great winde toward And for the Calamacie he leapeth forth for to avoid the colde and the trouble or agitation of the water in the bottome of the sea for of other soft fishes his flesh is most tender and aptest to be pierced and hurt 19 Why doth the Polyp change his colour IS it according to the opinion of Theophrastus because it is a fearefull and timorous creature by nature and therefore when he is troubled or amazed as his spirit turneth so he altereth withall his colour even as we men do whereupon we say in the common proverbe The coward in view Soone changeth hew Or may this be a good probable conjecture of the change but not sufficient for the resemblance considering that he changeth so as heresembleth the rocks which he setleth upon Unto which propertie Pindarus alluded in these verses His minde doth alter most mutable To Poulpe the sea-fish skin semblable Which changeth hue to echthing sutable To live in all worlds he is pliable And Theognis Put on a minde like Polype fish and learne so to dissemble Which of the rocke whereto it sticks the colour doth resemble Also men usually say such as surpasse others for cunning and cautelous dealing studie and practise this that for to save themselves and not to be seene or knowen of those about them they alwaies will be like unto the poulpe and change their colours that is to say their maners and behaviour Or do they thinke such an one to make use of his colour readily as of a garment to change and put on another whensoever he will Well then the poulpe fish himselfe by his feare may haply give the occasion and beginning of this change and passion but the principall point of the cause consisteth in something els And therefore weigh and consider what Empedocles writeth Wot well all mortall things that be Defluxions havein some degree For there passe away continually many defluxions not onely from living creatures plants earth and sea but also from stones brasse and iron for all things perish and yeeld a smell in that there runneth something alwaies from them and they weare continually insomuch as it is thought that by these defluxions are all attractions and insultations and some suppose their embracings and connexions others their smilings some their impulsions and I wot not what circumplexions and environments to be attributed unto such defluxions and especially from rocks and stones along the sea continually washed and dashed with the waves therebe decisions passe of some parcels and small fragments the which do cleave unto other bodies and cling about those which have their pores more strict and close or els passe thorow such as have the same over rare and open As for the flesh of the Polype it is to see to fistulous and spongeous like unto hony-combs apt to receive all such defluxions and decisions from other bodies when as then he is afraid his winde goeth and commeth and withall shutteth up his bodie and bringeth it together that he may receive and reteine in the superficies of his skin the defluxions that come from that which is next it for the rivels and wrinckles of his soft skin which are knit with feare are in stead of crooke and bending cleies fit to enterteine the defluxions and parcels lighting upon them which scatter not heere and there but gathering upon the skin make the superficies thereof to be of semblable colour And that this is a true cause it may appeare by one great argument namely that neither the Polyp doth resemble in colour all that which is neere unto it not the Chamaeleon the white colour but both the one the other such things onely as the defluxions whereof are proportionate unto their pores and small passages 20 What is the cause that the teares of wilde boares be sweet but of stagges and hinds saltish and unpleasant to the taste HEat and colde are the cause of both for the stagge is colde of nature but the bore exceeding hot and fierie whereupon it is that the one fleeth away the other maketh head and stands to it when he is assaulted and then is it most of all that he sheddeth teares upon a fell heart for when plentie of heat as I said before mounteth up unto his eies His bristles stare and stand upright His ardent eyes like fire are bright and so the humour that distilleth from his eies is sweet Others say that these teares are pressed and wrong out from the bloud being troubled like as whey from milke and of this opinion was Empedocles And forasmuch as the bloud of the wilde bore is blacke and thicke in regard of heat but that of stags and hinds thin and waterish great
reason there is that the teares which passe from the one in anger and the other in feare should be such as is aforesaid 21 What is the reason that tame swine do farrow often in one yeere some at one time and some at another whereas the wilde of that kinde bring forth pigs but once in the yeere and all of them in a maner upon the same daies and those are in the beginning of Summer whereupon we say in our vulgar proverbe The night once past of wilde sowes farrowing T' will raine no more be sure for any thing IS it thinke you for the plentie they have of meat as in trueth fulnesse brings wantonnesse and of full feeding comes lust of breeding for abundance of food causeth superfluitie of seed aswell in living creatures as in plants As for the wilde swine they seeke their victuals themselves and that with travell and feare whereas the tame have alwaies store thereof either naturally growing for them or els provided by mans industry Or is the cause of this difference to be attributed unto the idle life of the one and the painfull labour of the other for the domesticall and tame are sluggish and never wander farre from their swineherds but the other range and rove abroad among the forrests and mountaines running to and fro dispatching quickly all the food they can get and spending it every whit upon the substance of their bodies leaving no superfluities expedient for geniture or seed Or may it not be that tame sowes doe keepe company feed and goe in heards together with their bores which provoketh their lust and kindleth the desire to engender according as Empedocles hath written of men in these verses The sight of eie doth kindle lust in brest Of looking liking then loving and the rest Whereas the wilde because they live apart and pasture not together have no such desire and lust one to another for their naturall appetite that way is dulled and quenched Or rather that is true which Aristotle saith namely that Homer calleth a wilde bore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having but one genetorie for that the most part of them in rubbing themselves against the trunks and stocks of trees doe crush and breake their stones 22 What is the reason of this usuall speech that beares have a most sweet hand and that their flesh is most pleasant to be eaten BEcause those parts of the body which doe best concoct and digest nourishment yeeld their flesh most delicate now that concocteth and digesteth best which stirreth most and doth greatest exercise like as the beare mooveth most this part for his forepawes he useth as feet to goe and runne withall he maketh use also of them as of hands to apprehend and catch any thing 23 What is the cause that in the spring time wilde beasts are hardly hunted by the sent and followed by the trace IS it for that hounds as Empedocles saith By sent of nosthrils when they trace Wilde beast to finde their resting place doe take hold of those vapours and defluxions which the said beasts leave behind them in the wood as they passe but in the spring time these are confounded or utterly extinct by many other smels of plants and shrubs which as then be in their flower and comming upon the aire that the beasts made and intermingled therewith do trouble and deceive the sent of the hounds whereby they are put out and at default that they cannot truly hunt after them by their trace which is the reason men say that upon the mountaine Aetna in Sicilie there is never any hunting with hounds for that all the yeere long there is such abundance of flowers both in hilles and dales growing as it were in a medow or garden whereof the place smelleth all over so sweet that it will not suffer the hounds to catch the sent of the beasts And verily there goeth a tale that Pluto ravished Prosperpina as she was gathering flowers there in which regard the inhabitants honouring the place with great reverence and devotion never put up or hunt the beasts that pasture about that mountaine 24 What is the reason that when the moone is at the full it is very hard for hounds to meet with wilde beasts by the trace or sent of the footing IS it not for the same cause before alledged for that about the full moone there is engendred store of deaw whereupon it is that the poet Aleman calleth deaw the daughter of Jupiter and the moone in these verses Dame Deaw is nourse whom of god Jupiter And lady Moone men call the daughter For the deaw is nothing else but a weake and feeble raine and why because the heat of the moone is but infirme whereof it commeth to passe that she draweth up vapours indeed from the earth as doeth the sunne but not able to fetch them up aloft not there to comprehend them letteth them fall againe 25 What is the cause that in a white or hoarie frost wilde beasts are hardly traced WHether is it for that they being loth for very colde to range farre from their dennes leave not many marks of their footings upon the ground which is the reason that at other times they make spare of that prey which is neere unto them for feare of danger if they should be forced to range farre abroad in Winter and because they would have ready at hand about them at such an hard season to feed upon Or else is it requisit that the place where men doe hunt have not onely the tracts of the beast to be seene but also of force to affect the sent of the hounds and to set their nosthrils a worke but then doe they moove this sense of theirs when as they are gently dissolved and dilated as it were by heat whereas the aire if it be extreme colde congealing as it were the smels will not suffer them to spread and be diffused abroad thereby to move the sense and heereupon it is as folke say that perfumes ointments and wines be lesse fragrant and odoriferous in Winter or in cold weather than at other times for the aire being it selfe bound and shut close doth likewise stay within it all sents and will not suffer them to passe foorth 26 What is the cause that brute beasts so often as they are sicke or feele themselves amisse seeke after divers medicinable meanes for remedie and using the same finde many times helpe as for example dogges when they be stomacke sicke fall to eat a kinde of quitchy grasse because they would cast and vomit choler hogges search for craifishes of the river for by feeding upon them they cure their headach the tortois is likewise having eaten the flesh of a viper eateth upon it the her be origan and the beare when she is full in the stomacke and doth loath all victuals licketh up pismires with her tongue which she no sooner hath swallowed downe but she is warished and yet none of all this were they taught
departed once from thence it should joine thereto againe or become a part thereof I cannot see how it is possible *********** 32 Why doth the date tree onely of all others arise archwise and bend upward when a weight is laide thereupon WHether may it not be that the fire and spiritual power which it hath and is predominant in it being once provoked and as it were angred putteth foorth it selfe so much the more and mounteth upward Or because the poise or weight aforesaid forcing the boughes suddenly oppresseth and keepeth downe the airie substance which they have and driveth all of it inward but the same afterwards having resumed strength againe maketh head afresh and more egerly withstandeth the weight Or lastly the softer and more tender branches not able to susteine the violence at first so soone as the burden resteth quiet by little and little lift up themselves and make a shew as if they rose up against it 33 What is the reason that pit-water is lesse nutritive than either that which ariseth out of springs or falleth downe from heaven IS it because it is more colde and withall hath lesse aire in it Or for that it conteineth much salt therein by reason of such store of earth mingled therewith now it is well knowen that salt above all other things causeth leannesse Or because standing as it doeth still and not exercised with running and stirring it getteth a certaine malignant quality which is hurtfull and offensive to all living creatures drinking thereof for by occasion of that hurtfull qualitie neither is it well concocted nor yet can it feed or nourish anything And verily the same is the very cause that all dead waters of pooles and meares be unholsome for that they cannot digest and dispatch those harmefull qualities which they borrow of the evill propertie either of aire or of earth 34 Why is the west wind held commonly to be of all other the swiftest according to this verse of Homer Let us likewise bestir our feet As fast as westerne winds do fleet IS it not thinke you because this winde is woont to blow when the skie is very well 〈◊〉 and the aire exceeding cleere and without all clouds for the thicknesse and impuritie of the aire doth not I may say to you a little impeach and interrupt the course of the winds Or rather because the sunne with his beames striking through a cold winde is the cause that it passeth the faster away for whatsoever is drawen in by the refrigerative force of the windes the same if it be overcome by heat as his enemie we must thinke is driven and set forward both farther and also with greater celeritie 35 What should be the cause that bees cannot abide smoake WHether is it because the pores and passages of their vitall spirits be exceeding streight and if it chance that smoke be gotten into them and there kept in and intercepted it is enough to stop the poore bees breath yea and to strangle them quite Or is it not the acrimony and bitternesse thinke you of the smoke in cause for bees are delighted with sweet things and in very trueth they have no other nourishment and therefore no marvell if they detest and abhorre smoke as a thing for the bitternesse most adverse and contrary unto them and therefore hony masters when they make a smoke for to drive away bees are woont to burne bitter herbes as hemlock centaury c. 36 What might be the reason that bees will sooner sting those who newly before have committed whoredome IS it not because it is a creature that woonderfully delighteth in puritie cleanlinesse and elegancie and withall she hath a marvellous quicke sense of smelling because therefore such uncleane dealings betweene man and woman in regard of fleshly and beastly lust immoderately performed are wont to leave behind in the parties much filthinesse and impurity the bees both sooner finde them out and also conceive the greater hatred against them heereupon it is that in Theocritus the shepherd after a merry and pleasant maner sendeth Venus away into Anchises to be well stung with bees for her adultery as appeereth by these verses Now go thy wate to Ida mount go to Anchises now Where mightie okes where banks along of square Cypirus grow Where hives and hollow truncks of trees with hony sweet abound Where all the place with humming noise of busie bees resound And Pindarus Thou painfull bee thou pretie creature Who hony-combs six-angled as they be With feet doest frame false Rhoecus and impure With sting hast prickt for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 What is the cause that dogges follow after a stone that is throwen at them and biteth it letting the man alone who flang it IS it because he can apprehend nothing by imagination nor call a thing to minde which are gifts and vertues proper to man alone and therefore seeing he can not discerne nor conceive the partie indeed that offered him injurie he supposeth that to be his enemie which seemeth in his eie to threaten him and of it he goes about to be revenged Or thinking the stone whiles it runnes along the ground to be some wilde beast according to his nature he intendeth to catch it first but afterwards when he seeth himselfe deceived and put besides his reckoning he setteth upon the man Or rather doth he not hate the stone and man both alike but pursueth that onely which is next unto him 38 What is the reason that at a certeine time of the yeere shee woolves doe all whelpe within the compasse of twelve daies ANtipater in his booke conteining the historie of living creatures affirmeth that shee woolves exclude foorth their yoong ones about the time that mast-trees doe shed their blossomes for upon the taste thereof their wombs open but if there be none of such blowmes to be had then their yoong die within the bodie and never come to light He saith moreover that those countries which bring not foorth oaks and mast are never troubled nor spoiled with wolves Some there be who attribute all this to a tale that goes of Latona who being with childe and finding no abiding place of rest and safetie by reason of Juno for the space of twelve daies during which time the went to Delos being transmuted by Jupiter into a wolfe obteined at his hands that all wolves for ever after might within that time be delivered of their yoong 39 How commeth it that water seeming white aloft sheweth to be blacke in the bottome IS it for that depth is the mother of darkenesse as being that which doth dimme and marre the Sunne beames before they can descend so low as it as for the uppermost superficies of the water because it is immediatly affected by the Sunne it must needs receive the white brightnesse of the light the which Empedocles verily approveth in these verses Ariver in the bottome seemes by shade of colour blacke The like is seene in caves and holes by depth where light
remaineth now that we should treat of Fortune and casuall adventure and of whatsoever besides that requireth discourse and consideration First this is certeine that Fortune is a kinde of cause but among causes some are of themselves others by accident as for example of an house or ship the proper causes and of themselves be the Mason Carpenter or Shipwright but by accident the Musician and Geometrician yea and whatsoever incident to the mason carpenter or shipwright either in regard of body or minde or outward things whereby it appeereth that the essentiall cause which is by it selfe must needs be determinate certeine in one whereas the accidentall causes are not alwaies one and the same but infinit and indeterminate for many accidents in number infinit and in nature different one from another may be together in one and the same subject This cause then by accident when it is found not onely in such things which are done for some end but also in those wherein our election and will taketh place is called fortune as namely to find treasure when a man diggeth a hole or grave to plant a tree in or to do and suffer any extraordinary thing in flying pursuing or otherwise going and marching or onely in retiring provided alwaies that he doeth it not to that end which ensueth thereupon but upon some other intention And heereupon it is that some of the anncient philosophers have defined fortune to be a cause unknowen and not foreseene by mans reason But according to the Platoniques who come neerer unto it in reason it is defined thus Fortune is an accidentall cause in those things that are done for some end and which are in our election and afterwards they adjoine moreover not foreseene nor knowen by the discourse of humane reason although that which is rare and strange by the same meanes appeareth also in this kinde of cause by accident But what this is if it appeere not manifestly by the oppositions and contradictory disputations yet at leastwise it will be declared most evidently by that which is writtē in a treatise of Plato entituled Phaedon where these words are found What Have you not heard how in what maner the judgement passed Yes iwis For one there was who came and told us of it whereat we marvelled very much that seeing the sentence of judgement was pronounced long before he died a good while after And what might be the cause thereof Ô Phaedon Surely there hapned unto him Ô Echecrates a certeine fortune For it chanced that the day before the judgement the prow of the galley which the Athenians sent to isle Delos was crowned In which words it is to be noted that by this tearme There hapned you must not understand There was but rather it so befell upon a concourse and meeting of many causes together one after another For the priest adorned the ship with coronets for another end and intention and not for the love of Socrates yea and the judges had condemned him also for some other cause but the event it selfe was so strange admirable as if it had hapned by some providence or by an humane creature or rather indeed by some superior nature And thus much may suffice as touching fortune and the definition thereof as also that necessarily it ought to subsist together with some one contingent thing of those which are meant to some end whereupon it tooke the name yea and there must be some subject before of such things which are in us and in our election But casuall adventure reacheth and extendeth farther than fortune for it compriseth both it and also many other things which may chance aswell one way as another and according as the very etymologie and derivation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sheweth it is that which hapneth for and in stead of another namely when that which was ordinary sell not out but another thing in lieu thereof as namely when it chanceth to be colde weather in the Dog daies for sometimes it falleth out to be then colde and not without cause In summe like as that which is in us and arbitrary is part of contingent even so is fortune a part of casuall or accidental adventure and both these events are conjunct and dependant one of another to wit casual adventure hangeth upon contingent and fortune upon that which is in us and arbitrarie and yet not simply and in generall but of that onely which is in our election according as hath beene before said And hereupon it is that this casuall adventure is common aswell to things which have no life as to those which are animate whereas fortune is proper to man onely who is able to performe voluntarie actions An argument whereof is this that to be fortunate happie and blessed are thought to be all one for blessed happinesse is a kinde of well doing and to doe well properly belongeth to a man and him that is perfect Thus you see what things are comprised within fatall destiny namely contingent possible election that which is within us fortune casuall accident or chance adventure together with their circumstant adjuncts signified by these words haply peradventure or perchance howbeit we are not to inferre that because they be conteined within destinie therefore they be fatall It remaineth now to discourse of divine providence considering that it selfe comprehendeth fatall destinie This supreame and first providence therefore is the intelligence and will of the sovereigne god doing good unto all that is in the world whereby all divine things universally and thorowout have bene most excellently and wisely ordeined and disposed The second providence is the intelligence and will of the second gods who have their course thorow the heaven by which temporall and mortall things are ingendred regularly and in order as also whatsoever perteineth to the preservation and continuance of every kinde of thing The third by all probabilitie and likelihood may well be called the providence and prospicience of the Daemonds or angels as many as be placed and ordeined about the earth as superintendents for to observe marke and governe mens actions Now albeit there be seene this threefolde providence yet properly and principally that first and supreame is named Providence so as we may be bolde and never doubt to say howsoever herein we seeme to contradict some Philosophers That all things are done by fatall destinie and by providence but not likewise by nature howbeit some by providence and that after divers sorts these by one and those by another yea and some also by fatall destinie As for fatall destinie it is altogether by providence but providence in no wise by fatall destinie where by the way this is to be noted that in this present place I understand the principall and sovereigne providence Now whatsoever is done by another be it what it will is evermore after that which causeth or maketh it even as that which is erected by law is after the law
to say Drying or having the power to drie Diatessaron A consonance or concord in Musick called a Fourth where of there be foure in the Scale which compriseth fifteene strings it answereth to the proportion Epitritos for it consisteth of three and one third part Diapente A consonance or concord in Musicke called a Five it answereth to the proportion Hemiolios or Sesquialtera for three conteineth two and halfe three and two make five Diapason a perfect consonance conteining two fourths or made of Diatesseron and Diapente As if it consisted of all an Eight It answereth to duple proportion or Diplasion Disdia pason A duple Eight or quadruple Fourth which was counted in old time the greatest Systema in the Musicke scale Diastema The intervall in the scale of Musick Also the rest or Time of which and of founds or notes consisteth Diatonicke Musicke Diazeugmenon Of disjuncts in Musicke Diaphoretical or Diphoretical So is called in Physicke Excessive sweat whereby the spirits be spent and the body much weakened and made faint as in the disease Cardiaca Diatonique Musicke Keepeth a meane temperature betweene Chromaticke and Enharmoniacke and may go for plaine song or our Musicke Diatonos A note in Musicke Diatonos Hypatōn D SOLRE Diatonos Mesōn Dictatour A soveraigne Magistrate above all others in Rome from whom no appeale was granted meere absolute and king-like but that his time of rule was limited within sixe moneths ordinarily so named because he onely said the word and it was done or for that he was Dictus that is to say nominated by one of the Consuls usually in fome time of great danger of the state and not otherwise elected Diesis The quarter of a note in Musicke or the least time or accent G SOL RE UT Dionysius in Corinth An usuall proverbe in Greece against such as are upon their prosperous estate so proud and insolent as they forget themselves and oppresse their inferiors putting them in minde that they may have a fall as well as Dionysius who having beene a mighty and absolute Monarch of Sicily was driven at last to teach a Grammar and Musicke schoole in Corinth Dithyrambs Were songs or hymnes in the honour of Bacchus who was surnamed Dithyrambus either because hee was borne twice and came into this world at two dores once out of his mother Senerleus wombe and a second time out of his father Jupiters thigh or else of Lythirambus according as Pindarus writeth For when Jupiter had sowed him within his thigh at what time as he should come forth againe he cried foorth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Undoe the seame Undoe the seame The Poets who composed such Hymnes were called Dithyrambicques whose verses and words were darke and intricate Divination Soothsaying or foretelling of future things Dolichus A long carriere or race containing twelve or as some say 24. Stadia Dorian or Doricke Musick Was grave and sober so called for that the Dorians first devised and most used it Drachme or Dram The eight part of an ounce Also a peece of money valued at seven pence halfe-penie in silver and in gold much about a french crowne The Romane denarius was aequivalent unto it E ECho A resonance or resounding of the last part of the voice or words delivered Echo-pan A song of Echo supposed to be a Nymph not visible but woonderfully beloved of Pan the Heardmens god Eclipticke making or occasioning an eclipse Elegi Lamentable and dolefull ditties composed of unequall verses as the Hexameter and Pentameter and such be called Elegiake Elenchs subtile arguments devised to reproove or confute Elotae The common slaves that the Lacedaemonians used and emploied in base ministeries as publicke executions c. Elucidaries Expositions or Declarations of things that be obscure and darke Embrochalion a devise that Physicians have to foment the head or any other part with some liquor falling from aloft upon it in maner of raine whereupon it tooke the name Emphaticall that is to say Expresse and verie significative Empiricke Physicians Who without regard either of the cause in a disease or the constitution and nature of the patient goe boldly to worke with those meanes and medicines whereof they had experience in others fall it out as it would Empusa A certeine vaine and fantasticall illusion sent by the divell or as the Painims say by Hecate for to fright infortunate folke Appeare it doth in divers formes and seemeth to go with one legge whereupon it tooke the name quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one foote or legge it hath of brasse the other of an asse and therefore it is named also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Encomiastical Perteining to the praise of a thing or person Endrome A kinde of bickering or conflict Endymatia A kinde of daunce or Musicall Note Enharmonion one of the three generall sorts of Musicke song of many parts or a curious concent of sundry tunes Enthymemes Unperfect syllogismes or short reasonings when one of the premisses is not expressed yet so understoode as the conclusion neverthelesse is inferred Epact The day put to or set in to make the leape yeere Ephori Certeine Magistrates or Superintendents for the people in Sparta in opposition to the kings and to take downe their regall power such as were the Tribunes of the Commons at Rome ordeined for to abridge the Consuls absolute authoritie Epiali Be fevers of the Quotidian kind that is continuall they have an unequall distemperature both of colde and heat at once but the heat seemeth to be milde and gentle at the first whereupon they tooke that name These fevers also for the same reason be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epidemial diseases Such as are occasioned by some common cause and therefore spred and take hold of all persons indifferently in a tract or city as the pestilence To Epitomize To relate or pen a thing briefly and by way of an abbreviarie Epitritos The proportion sesquitertion whereby eight exceedeth sixe namely by a third part Etymologie the knowledge of the origniall of words and from whence they be derived Eviration Gelding or disabling for the act of generation Exharmonians Discords or dissonances in Musicke Exstasie or Ecstasie A traunce or transportation of the minde occasioned by rage admiration feare c. F FLatulent Windy or engendring winde as pease and beanes be flatulent meat Fomentations in Physicke be properly devises for to be applied unto any greeved part either to comfort and cherish it or to allay the paine or else to open the pores of the skinne and to make way for plasters and ointments to worke their effects the better Laid to they are by the meanes of bladders spunges wollen clothes or quilts and such like Fungosity A light and holow substance such as wee may perceive in spunges mushromes fusse bals elder pith c. G GAlli The furious priests of dame Cybele the great mother of the gods honored in Phrygia It is supposed that they