Appetite of Cold and Moist cannot be extinguish'd by Wine which is Hot and so more apt to inflame it The Life of the first Patriarch before the use of Wine namely before the Deluge was much longer than it hath been since and no doubt the principal defect in Man and the Cause of most Diseases is bad Digestion The Second said That Digestion being perform'd by the conflux of Spirits elaborated in the Spleen and Wine which is more spirituous and consequently furnishes more matter for our Spirits than any other Aliment cannot but powerfully promote the same Which clearly appears by old men in whom Wine hath the same Effect that Milk hath in Children and preserves these latter from Worms Whence possibly Hippocates gave it not onely in Quotidian but also in Continual Fevers the hurtfulness to be fear'd from its heat were it conjoyn'd with dryness being secur'd by its humidity which makes it symbolize with blood Yet all Wines are not hot small green Wines especially the White and Sharp have more of coldness than of heat and other Wines drunk in small quantity with much water refresh more than water alone because opening the Pores they insinuate into the remote parts which plain water presently closes Yea Wine as hot is a friend to the Stomack and Bowels whose membranous substance being cold and dry needs the contrary qualities of Wine wherefore Wine helps Digestion which water hinders being indigestible it self and so unable to give what it hath not God's discovering Wine to Men after the Flood as a remedy to the defect left thereby in all Creatures serving for their food being rather an evidence of its utility than hurtfulness And there is as little reason to accuse it of shortning our dayes as Guaicum of causing the Pox upon pretence that the use thereof was not known till that Malady appearing needed it for its Cure The Third said That the sole reason of the difficulty we find in digesting Wine is the great resemblance of its qualities with those of Blood both being Hot and Moist But there can be no proper Physical Action without contrariety For since every principal Agent induces Alteration in the subject which receives its Action this change cannot be effected but by depriving it of its former State and the qualities which maintain'd the same Which cannot be done but by contesting with and destroying them by contrary qualities and so according to more or less contrariety the Action is stronger or weaker Hence in the Digestion of Aliment which is a proper Physical Action wherein the Natural Heat destroyes the Food in order to turn it into another Form there must be contrariety and such Food as ha's least gives the Heat least hold to work against it it not being easie for the Natural Heat and Moisture to act against an Aliment Hot and Moist by reason of the resemblance between them as a Friend hardly combats and destroyes his Friend Wherefore Wine being of the same quality our Heat becoms idle in order to its Concoction Possibly too its abundance of Spirits make it hard to be digested stifling the Spirits employ'd for Concoction by reason of the too great resemblance between those of the one and the other The Fourth said That onely a disproportionate quantity of Wine is of difficult Digestion a small quantity promoting it Which holds good in all repletions but particularly of Wine which relaxing the Fibres and Tunicles of the Stomack weakens the Retentive Faculty provokes the Expulsive by its Acrimony either in the Superior Orifice whence arise Hick-cocks or in the Inferior whence proceed loathings and vomitings Therefore the Apostle saith Drink a little not drink much Wine Nor would the inconvenience be less if the best Aliments in the World were taken in Excess For when their mass is too great to be constring'd and embrac'd by the Stomack the Natural Heat is it self alter'd instead of over-mastering that in order to Assimilation The Fifth said That the Question is to be determin'd by the difference of Wines and Stomacks Strong Wines such as are sweet and piquant are improper for Hot and Cholerick Stomacks which must have only small green Wines or other beverages of neer quality to common water On the contrary Phlegmatick and Cold Stomacks and Melancholy Tempers are strengthened by Wine but prejudic'd by water and other cold drinks not that Heat is the cause of Digestion for the hotter a Fever is the more it hinders the same but because 't is a Medium whereof our Natural Heat serves it self The Sixth said That indeed the diversity of Subjects makes some change in the Hypothesis yet hinders not but we may pronounce upon the Thesis whether Wine helps or hurts Digestion I believe the latter because Digestion cannot be perform'd unless all the Meats of one meal be digested at the same time else the Chyle will be part well elaborated namely that made of the Food which hath had a convenient stay in the Stomack and part too much concoct and adust made of that which stay'd in the Stomack too long and after Digestion and part also too little proceeding from Meats requiring more Concoction and yet hurried away with the rest Now 't is certain that Wine being sooner digested than other Aliments by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen who hold that it asswages Thirst and is distributed sooner than they it will produce a confusion and hotch-potch in the nature of the Chyle which should be uniform But Water serving only for a Vehicle agrees better with variety of Meats being like the Menstruum of the Chymists and the Uniting Medium of the Lullists which serves to re-unite all different Bodies into one alone patiently attending their disposition without corrupting as Wine and Vinegar doth and without leaving behind in the Kidneys the tartar or lee of Wine which is the seed of the Stone where-with Water-drinkers are not so commonly troubled partly for the abovesaid reason and partly because that tartar is not dry'd in them as having less Heat than others CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than at any other time of the Night or Day IF Cold be a real quality then the greater distance there happens to be between it and the Source of Heat and Light the Sun the greater must the Cold be And if it be only a privation of Heat then mid-night is darker then either the Evening or Morning because oppos'd directly to the Light of the Sun it may seem that the Cold ought be greater likewise at that time because the same is opposite to Noon when the Sun's Heat is greatest yet the cool of the Morning argues the contrary being so ordinary that it fore-tells Day-break more certainly than the crowing of the Cock Unless you will attribute the cause to this that at Morning before Sun-rise 't is longer since the Sun inlightned the Horizon than at mid-night at which time the Air and other Elements still retain some of the preceding
regard no other Creature besides becomes weary in its Operations For all Animals even the lowest degree of Insects sleep although such who have hard eyes and scales sleep more obscurely then the rest and Birds more lightly then four-footed Beasts which suck because they have a less and dryer Brain and consequently less need sleep whose use is to moisten and refresh that part Hence Man having of all Animals the largest Brain hath also need of the longest sleep which ought to be about seven hours Wherefore I cannot but wonder that Plato in his first Book of Laws would have his Citizens rise in the night to fall to their ordinary employments for this disturbing of their rest were the way to make a Common-wealth of Fools the Brain by watchings acquiring a hot and dry intemperature which begets igneous spirits whose mobility not permitting the Mind to consider the species impress'd upon them is the cause of unsteady and impetuous sallies of the Mind as on the contrary sleep too excessive fills the ventricles of the Brain wherein the Soul exercises her Faculties with abundance of vapours and humidities which offuscating and troubling the species the Mind thereby becomes slothful and dull The second said That Privations are understood by their Habits and therefore Sleep which is a privation of Sense cannot be better known than by the functions of the outward Senses which so long as an Animal exercises it is said to be awake and to sleep when it ceases to employ the same And being Sensation is perform'd by means of the animal Spirits refin'd out of the natural and vital and sent from the Brain into the Sensories which Spirits receive the species of the sensible object and carry it to the Inward Sense the common Arbiter and Judg of all external objects hence when those Spirits happen to fail or the Common Sense is bound up the other external Senses cannot discharge their offices Upon which account the Philosophers have defin'd Sleep The ligation of the First Sense or The rest of the Spirits and Blood And the Physitians The cessation of all outward Senses for the health and repose of an Animal hereby distinguishing it from the cessation of the outward Senses in Swoonings Falling-sickness Apoplexie Lethargy Carus Coma and such sorts of morbifick and praeternatural sleep produc'd by causes acting rather by an occult and somniferous property then by excess of cold or moisture otherwise Winter Ice and the coldest things should cause sleep Wine Annis Opium Henbane and abundance of hot Medicaments should not be Narcotick as experience evinces them to be But natural sleep is produc'd by vapours elevated from the aliments into the brain which moreover performing in us the office of a Ventose or Cupping-glass draws to it self those humid vapours condenses them by its coldness and resolves them into a gentle dew which falling upon the rise or beginning of the Nerves obstructs the passage to the animal Spirits the instruments of Sensation and voluntary Motion which it hinders though not Motion so much as Sensation because the Nerves of the hinder part of the Brain destinated to Motion being harder do not so easily imbibe those vapours as those of the fore-part destinated to Sensation But when the Heat and Spirits whereof there had been an absumption are again sufficiently repair'd they move anew toward the Brain where they resolve those dews which stopp'd the passage and hindred the commerce of the vital Spirits with the animal whereupon we naturally and without violence awake So likewise the violence of an extrinsecal object importunately striking the external Senses obliges the Soul to send other Spirits to the assistance of the few remaining therein and which before this supply apprehend objects only confusedly The Third said Sleep is not the Quiescence of the animal Spirits for these are active and form Dreams whilst we sleep nor of the vital which have no relaxation or rest so long as the Animal hath life much less of the natural Nutrition being perform'd best during sleep which is the cause why sleeping fattens Neither is the Brain 's humidity the cause of sleep as 't is commonly held but the defect of vital heat in the Heart in a sufficient degree for performing the functions of the outward Senses Moreover the sudden seizing and abruption of sleep which we observe cannot be produc'd but by a very movable cause such as the gross vapour of aliments is not but the vital heat is being carried into all parts of the body in an instant Whence it is that we observe the same to be more pale during sleep as having less of the said heat than during Evigilation The Fourth said That indeed the adequate cause of sleep is not a vapour arising from the aliments since it is procur'd by abundance of other causes which produce no evaporation as Weariness Musique Silence and Darkness Neither is it the above-mentioned deficience of Viâ—â—l Heat which indeed is necessary to the Organs inasmuch as they are endu'd with life but not to make them capable of sense there being sufficient in them even during sleep when the parts are found hot enough for Sensation if heat were the cause thereof as it is not But the right cause consists in the Animal Spirits for which as being the noblest instruments of the Body I conceive there is a particular faculty in the Brain which administers and governs them sending them to the Organs when there is need of them and causing them to return back in order to be restor'd and suppli'd As there is a particular faculty in the Heart over-ruling and moving the Vital Spirits as it pleases sometimes diffusing them outwards in Joy Anger and Shame sometimes causing them to retreat in order to succour the Heart in Sadness Grief and Fear The Fifth said The Empire of Sleep whom Orpheus calls King of Gods and Men is so sweet that Not to be of its party is to be an enemy to Nature 'T is the charm of all griefs both of body and mind and was given to man not only for the refreshment of both but chiefly for the liberty of the Soul because it makes both the Master and the Slave the poor and the rich equal 'T is a sign of health in young people and causes a good constitution of Brain strengthning the same and rendring all the functions of the mind more vigorous whence came the saying That the Night gives counsels because then the Mind is freed from the tyranny of the Senses it reasons more solidly and its operations are so much the more perfect as they are more independent on matter and 't was during the repose of sleep that most of the Extasies and prophetical Visions happened to the Saints Moreover frequent sleep is a sign of a very good nature For being conciliated only by the benignity of a temper moderately hot and moist the Sanguine and Phlegmatick whose humour is most agreeable are more inclined thereunto than the Bilious and
and diminish upon the appearing of the Tumour Some have held it to be Blood alone others Melancholy some Bile in regard of its mobility and activity many following the authority of Fernelius that 't is a cold phlegmatick and serous humour and that every Gowt is cold Mercurialis observing that Blood could not cause such great pains that Melancholy was too heavy and thick to be active Bile too subtile to descend and Phlegm too cold to excite such pungent pains and sudden motions which cannot proceed from a cold cause conceiv'd it was Phlegm mingled with Bile the latter serving as a Vehicle to the former and that former to precipitate and make this latter descend Some others confessing their ignorance acknowledg Qu' on n' y void goutte that they see not a jot in this Matter referring this Disease to occult and malignant causes acting by an unknown property as contagious and venemous diseases do I conceive it to be a salt humour subtile and picquant partaking of the nature of Salts which are all corrosive which acrimony and mordacity of this humour is caus'd by the Salt or Tartar contain'd in its substance or deriv'd to the Aliments whereof the humours are produc'd from the Earth which is full of such Salt Nitrous or Tartareous Spirits without which it would be unfruitful and barren as is seen in Earth whence Saltpeter is extracted which can never produce any thing This Nitrous Spirit being all drawn out of the Earth by the Plants which serve us for food and not being tameable by our heat much less convertible into our substance for an Animal is nourish'd with what is sweet and hath had life wherewith these Mineral Spirits were never provided if the natural Faculty be strong it expells them with the other unprofitable Excrements of the first concoction and Urine and Sweat and sometimes forms the Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or other Parts But if it happens either through the weakness of the expulsive Faculty or the quality of the Matter or some other defect that this Tartareous Spirit is not expell'd then it is carry'd with the Blood into the Parts and being unfit for nutrition transpires by the Pores if it be subtil enough or else in case it be thick and cannot be resolv'd flows back into the great Vessels and thence into the Joynts where sometimes it is coagulated into knots and grits and turn'd into a hard matter like chalk or plaister which shews that the four Humours are not the matter thereof since the same do not suppurate rendering then the Gowt incurable and the Reproach of Physians because they find no Cure for it no more than for that of old Men those who have a dry Belly and who live disorderly But 't is curable saith Hippocrates in young people in such as have no gritts or hardnesses form'd in the Joints those who are laborious obedient and to whom some great Evacuations arrive many having been cur'd of it by a Dysenterie As for the Place where it is form'd and the Way whereby the Matter which causes this Evil descends most with Fernelius conceive 't is the Head not the internal part of the Brain whose Excrements are easily voided outwardly by the Nostrils or inwardly by the Infundibulum or Tunnel and other Cavities but the outward part between the skull and the skin which being too thick and compact to give issue to the phlegmatick and serous humours there collected being begotten of the Excrements of the Jugular Veins which are expanded over all these Parts those serous and thin humours glide down between the Skin and other Feguments into the Joints But the Place of this Nitrous Matter above-mentioned are the Viscera of the Liver and Spleen which generate this Matter two ways 1. By the vitiosity of Aliments impregnated with this Nitrous Spirit which they plentifully attracted from the Earth whence it is that Wine which hath more of this Spirit and Tartar then any other Aliment is by consent of all very hurtful to the Gowt 2. By their proper vitiosity namely a hot and dry Intemperies whereby instead of concocting they adure the Blood and so fix that salt serosity which is the Salt or Tartar extracted out of its substance Unless you had rather say That as in the Kidneys of Persons subject to the Stone there is a certain arenaceous or lapidifick constitution proper for producing the Stone so in the Viscera of those who are subject to the Gowt there is a particular arthritical disposition apt to beget that tartareous matter which produces it The Way whereby this Matter is expell'd is the Veins and Arteries these Vessels manifestly swelling when the fits of the Gowt begin Moreover as this Disease unexpectedly invades by a sudden afflux of the Matter so it suddenly changes place especially by means of Refrigerants and Repercussives which drive the Gowt from one Foot to the other or into the Hand and other Parts which cannot be done but by the Veins and Arteries Lastly The Parts upon which this Matter falls and which are about the articulations are membranous and sensible because the Membranes being the first subject of Touch ought to be also of Pain a Symptom thereof The Third said That the greatest difficulty was Why this matter rather falls upon the Joints than other Parts which are not incommoded therewith neither the Nerves nor the Veins through which it passes no more than the Membranes and sensible Parts besides those which are about the Joints The cause whereof may be That as in health the Parts by a strange property attract such humours as are fit for their nutrition the Lungs bilious Blood the Spleen melancholy Blood the Kidneys serous the other carnous Parts temperate Blood so in sickness and ill constitution of the Body some of these Parts attract from all the rest certain humours wherewith they have most affinity So in the new Disease call'd Plica Polonica the viscous and glutinous humour which produceth it is chiefly carri'd to the hair which it knotteth and intaâ—gleth together and to the nails of the Hands and Feet which it makes hard and black And in the cure of Fracture of Bones the Stone call'd Osteocolla taken inwardly is carried towards the broken Bones and causes them to re-unite In like manner the Humour producing the Gowt hath some affinity with the Bones of the Joints especially with their Epiphyses The Fourth said That the Gowty have wherewith to comfort themselves not so much for that they foretel the changes of the Air and Seasons as for that this Disease is a token of health and an evidence of the strength and vigour of Nature which from the noble Parts drives the vicious humours upon the Joints But amongst its antecedent causes the Air is not to be forgotten especially the hot and moist Air of the Spring thawing the Humours lately congeal'd by the Winter to the vitiosity of which Air is that popular Gowt to be referr'd of which Athenaeus speaks in
and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
besides true Friendship suspicion may as well arise in the Receivers as in the givers Mind Many give onely that they may receive with Usury others out of vanity and to make Creatures and Clients which they regarding no longer but as their inferiors and dependents 't is as dangerous for these to confide in their Benefactors as for a slave to use confidence towards his Master or a Vassal towards his Lord not often allow'd by the respect and timerousness of the less towards the great as commonly those are that give Whereas we ordinarily find in him whom we have oblig'd nothing but Subjection and Humility Virtues much disposing the mind to Gratitude which cannot but assure their Benefactors of their fidelity Nor can they easily be ungrateful if they would your confidence in them obliging them continually to fidelity and withall giving them occasion to requite your kindnesses by their assiduity and services Which was the recompence wherewith the poor amongst the Jews pay'd their Creditors by serving them for some years So that he is scarce less blameable who distrusts him whom he hath oblig'd and by this diffidence deprives him of the means of requital then he who having receiv'd a benefit betrayes his Benefactor the Injustice being almost alike in both If the first complains of having been deceiv'd by him whom he finds ungrateful the second in whom his Benefactor puts not the confidence which he ought will have no less cause of complaint that on the contrary he hath distrusted him and soil'd the lustre of the first Obligation by his diffidence and bad opinion of him which is to tax himself of impudence for having done good to one unworthy of it The Third said That if Men were perfect Communicative Justice would require of them that the receiver of a benefit should repay the like or at least some acknowledgment by his endeavours Which the Poets intimated by the Graces holding Hand in Hand But the perversity of Man is such that the more he is oblig'd to this Duty the worse he acquits himself thereof not doing any thing handsomely but what he does freely and because being a vain-glorious Creature he hates nothing so much as to be subject and to pay homage to him that hath done him good whose presence seems to upbraid him with his own meaness If he loves his Benefactor 't is with an interess'd and mercenary affection whereas that of the former is free from all self-respect and proceeds meerly from a principle of Virtue and consequently is with more reason to be rely'd upon Moreover a Work-man loves his Production more then he is lov'd by it as also God doth his Creatures and Fathers their Children Now a Benefactor who is a kind of Work-man and Artificer of our good Fortune cherishes and loves us as his work and creatures because he seems concern'd for our preservation just as Causes are for that of their Effects in which themselves revive and seem to be reproduc'd The Fourth said That our Natural Sentiments incline us more to rely upon those whom we have oblig'd then upon those who have oblig'd us not so much by way of challenging a requital for Obligations are not to be done in hope of recompence which would be exchange rather than kindness as because we are apt to trust those most whom we love most But we love those most to whom we have given greatest Testimony of our Affections A Man may be deceiv'd in reckoning his benefits as causes of Amity in the receiver but they are certain Effects and Signs of Affection in the bestower So that in respect of us 't is manifestly better to trust him whom we have oblig'd than him who hath oblig'd us The same is prov'd also in respect of him that is oblig'd even the wild beasts are tam'd and instead of hurting obey those that feed them and therefore 't were injurious to humanity not to judge It capable of acknowledging a benefit which it knows how to conferr without provocation For upon examination the Causes of Ingratitude will be found to arise from those who boast of the title of Benefactors the imprudence whereof is so great in some that they displease more than oblige by Presents unseasonably given of no value and contrary to Seneca's advice of little duration intermixt with ill Offices instead of being fenc'd with new to keep out the rain of the disgusts and coldnesses which destroy Friendship with regret and not with a chearful Countenance after denials and delayes so that the thing seemes rather snatch'd then receiv'd diminish'd by burthensome conditions and lastly nullifi'd by reproaches if not requited as soon as was expected Whence such pretended benefits deserve rather the name of Out-rages And nevertheless being there are many that are grateful even for such benefits we may justly conclude that Courtesies done with their due circumstances are far more capable to oblige the receivers to Gratitude which cannot consist with Unfaithfulness The Fifth said That the Decision of this as of all other Moral Questions depends upon persons times places and other circumstances whereupon Prudence is founded which teaches when how and whom we are to trust Yet supposing circumstances alike and two persons equally virtuous one of which hath done me good and the other receiv'd good from me the contrary Reason of the Law which presumes him alwayes bad who hath been once bad makes me judge That he who hath once done me good will sooner do me good again then another and therefore that I ought rather to trust him CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing AS Heat and Cold are the Efficient Causes of all Meteors so Driness and Moisture supply Matter for them sublim'd and made volatil by extraneous Heat Vapours which make Aqueous Meteors are of two sorts some ascend to the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a Cloud which afterwards turnes into Rain Snow or Hail Others through the weakness of Heat or tenuity of their Matter unable to ascend turn into Mists and Dew and the Serene which preceedes it and Frost For the Matter both of Frost and Dew is a subtil thin Vapour which when spread equally and uniformly about the Earth hinders not the Air 's transparency which therefore in time of Frost is alwayes clear and serene But their Efficient is distinct that of Dew is the moderate Coldness of the Night whence 't is most frequent in temperate Seasons that of a Frost is Vehement Cold whereby being first condens'd it falls down in form of Crystal Yet Cold alone suffices not to produce Frost for then Water which is cold in an eminent degree should be alwayes frozen But some terrene and gross parts must serve for an uniting medium to compact the moist parts of the Water or Vapour which being naturally fluid cannot be link'd together but by means of some dry parts fixing and restraining their fluidity Hence the impurest and most compounded Liquors are soonest frozen
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
said Reason having been given Man to correct the Inclinations of the Sensitive Appetite 't is that alone must judge whether it be expedient for him to live long not Sense which makes us judge like beasts That nothing is dearer than Life But Reason illuminated either by Faith or by Philosophy teaches us that this World is the place of our banishment the Body the Soul's Prison which she alwayes carryes about with her Life a continual suffering and War and therefore he fights against Natural Light who maintaines it expedient to prolong so miserable a State For besides the incommodities attending a long Life which after 70. years as David testifies is onely labour and sorrow long Life is equally unprofitable towards attaining Knowlege and Virtue He that lives long can learn nothing new in the World which is but a Revolution and Repetition of the same Effects produc'd alwayes by the same Causes not onely in Nature whose course and changes may be seen in the Revolution of the Four Seasons of the Year but even in Affairs of State and Private Matters wherein nothing is said or done but what hath been practis'd before And as for Virtue the further we are from Childhod the less Innocence and Sanctity we have and Vices ordinarily increase with years The long Life of the first Men having according to some been the probable Cause of the depravation of those Ages CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy AS the Brain is the most eminent and noble of all the parts being the Seat of the Understanding and the Throne of the Reasonable Soul so its diseases are very considerable and the more in that they do not attaque that alone but are communicated to all the other parts which have a notable interest in the offence of their Chief ceasing to diffuse its Animal Spirits destinated to Motion Sense and the Function of the Inferior Members Which Functions are hurt by the Lethargy which deprives a Man of every other Inclination but that to sleep and renders him so forgetful and slothful whence it took its Greek name which signifies sluggish oblivion that he remembers nothing at all being possess'd with such contumacious sleepiness that she shuts his Eyes as soon as he ha's open'd them besides that his Phansie and Reasoning is hurt with a continual gentle Fever Which differences this Symptom from both the sleeping and waking Coma call'd Typhomania the former of which commonly begins in the Fits of Fevers and ends or diminishes at their declination but the Lethargick sleeps soundly and being wak'd by force presently falls a sleep again The latter makes the Patient inclin'd to sleep but he cannot by reason of the variety of Species represented to him in his Phansie The signes of this Malady are deliration heaviness of the Head and pain of the Neck after waking the Matter taking its course along the spine of the back frequent oscitation trembling of the Hands and Head a palish Complexion Eyes and Face pufft up sweatings troubled Urine like that of Cattle a great Pulse languishing and fluctuating Respiration rare with sighing and so great forgetfulness as sometimes not to remember to shut their Mouths after they have open'd nor even to take breath were they not forc'd to it by the danger of suffocation The Conjunct and next Cause of this Malady is a putrid Phlegm whose natural coldness moistens and refrigerates the Brain whilst it s put refactive heat kindles a Fever by the vapors carry'd from the Brain to the Heart and from thence about the whole Now this Phlegmatick Humor is not detained in the Ventricles of the Brain for then it would cause an Apoplexy if the obstruction were total and if partial an Epilepsie wherein the Nerves contract themselves towards their original for discharging of that Matter But 't is onely in the sinuosities and folds of the Brain which imbibing that excessive humidity acquires a cold and moist intemperature from whence proceeds dulness and listelesness to all Actions For as Heat is the Principle of Motion especially when quickned by Dryness so is Cold the Cause of stupidity and sluggishness especially when accompanied with humidity which relaxes the parts and chills their Action In like manner Heat or Dryness inflaming our Spirits the Tunicles of the Brain produce the irregular Motions of Frenzy which is quite contrary to the Lethargy although it produce the same sometimes namely when the Brain after great evacuations acquires a cold and moist intemperature in which case the Lethargy is incurable because it testifies Lesion of the Faculty and abolition of strength But on the contrary a Frensie after a Lethargy is a good sign resolving by its Heat and dissipating the cold humors which produce the same The Second said That coldness being contrary to put refaction Phlegm the coldest of all humors cannot easily putrifie in the Brain which is cold too of its own nature much less acquire a Heat sufficient to communicate it self to the Heart and there excite a Fever it being more likely for such adventitious Heat to cause in the Brain rather the impetuous motions of a Frenzy than the dulness and languor of a Lethargy Nor is it less then absurd to place two enemy-qualities in the same Subject to wit Cold and Heat whereof the one causes sleep the other a Fever which I conceive to precede not to follow the Lethargy and which having raised from the Hypochondres to the Brain a Phlegmatick blood mixt with gross vapors there causeth that obscuration of Reason and sluggishness of the whole Body but especially the abolition of the Memory the sutable temperament for which is totally destroyed by excessive humidity Indeed the troubled Urine liquid Digestions Tumors and pains of the Neck bloated Flesh and other such signs accompanying this disease argue that its matter is more in the rest of the Body than in the Brain which suffers onely by Sympathie The Third said If it be true that sleep is the Brother of Death then the Lethargy which is a continual drowsiness with a Fever and Delirium seemes to be a middle Estate between Life and Death which is known by the cessation of Actions most of which fail in those afflicted with this Evil which nevertheless is less then the Carus wherein the sleep is so profound that the Patient feels not when he is prickt or call'd by name but is depriv'd of all Sense and Motion saving that of Respiration which scarce appears in the Catoche or Catalepsie a stranger symptom than any of the former wherein the Eyes remain wide open the whole Body stiff and in the same state and posture wherein it hapned to be when it first seiz'd the same The Cause whereof most say is a cold and moist humor obstructing the hinder part of the Brain but I rather ascribe it to a sudden Congelation of the Animal Spirits as I do the Lethargy to narcotick and somniferous vapors which are the sole Causes of Inclination to sleep which cannot
't is the multitude of persons excelling in all sort of Arts and especially in the Sciences whereof never were so many Doctors Regents and Professors seen in one single Age as in this that makes us less esteem the ingenious that are now living for 't is onely rarity that gives price to things and that made him pass for a great Clerk a few Ages ago who could but write and read he that spoke Latine was a Prodigy though now 't is a Tongue almost as universal and common as the Native Now Admiration being the Daughter of Ignorance the esteem had of most of the admired in former Ages is rather an Argument of the Rudeness and Ignorance of the Times than of the excellence of their Witts Nor were they better than we in their Manners but onely more simple and yet culpable of as many Crimes But were we the more wicked this were no Argument of want of Witt which is the matter in question And if there have been sometimes a Ceres a Bacchus a Pallas a Vulcan and others advanc'd to Deities for finding out the way to sow Wheat plant Vine-yards spin Wool and forge Iron we have had in these last Ages the Inventors of the Compass the Gun Printing the Tubes of Galileo and a thousand other Inventions both more difficult and excellent the easiest having been first discover'd The Modesty of those that govern us who no less hate the vanity of praise than they know how to exercise Actions deserving it permits me not to shew you that all pass'd Ages have nothing that comes near the grandeur of their Souls and that their conduct is the more to be admir'd in that their business is both to keep themselves up with Friends and give reason to Enemies who also help to verifie that there are greater States-men and Captains in this Age than in any of the preceding CONFERENCE CXLV Of the Serene which is a hurtful Dew falling in Summer Evenings AS Painters find it harder to represent a calm smooth Sea than the rampant foaming billows of a storm which require more variety of Colours and afford the Pencil more liberty and as a History of Peace is harder to write and less pleasant to read than the Troubles and Commotions of Warr So I think it less difficult to describe the several impressions of Tempests than those of a calm Air which nevertheless at certain times produces pernicious Effects so much more remarkable in that they proceed from a very simple Cause no-wise malignant of it self to wit from a clear and serene Air free from Clouds and Vapours which in the Evening being cool'd by the reason of the Sun's Elongation acquires a certain Refrigerating and Catarrhous quality call'd by the vulgar The Serene because it happens either in the Evening or more commonly in fair weather when the Air is serene than when it is pluvious and full of Vapours Which quality some ascribe to the Influence of the Stars especially to the Moon term'd for that reason by the Psalmist Infrigidans which hath indeed a notable dominion over all Humid Bodies particularly those of Men who find sensible alterations in themselves according to the several faces of that Planet But because the Heavens diffuse their Influences upon those that are under covert as well as upon those that are in the open Air where onely the Serene is felt I should rather pitch upon the alterations of the refrigerated Air which acts but so far as it is near us and 't is always more proper to attribute Effects here below to proximate Causes than to recur to the Heaven which is but an equivocal Cause thereof The Second said If Cold were the Cause of the Serene the same should happen where-ever it were cold and be more hurtful according to the vehemency of that quality as towards Midnight or Morning and likewise in Winter Yet the Serene is never spoken of but in the temperate Seasons of Spring and Autumn and some little portion of the Seasons bordering upon them Besides in Summer the air of our cold Caves should be capable of producing it at mid-noon Wherefore I cannot think the Serene an effect of bare cold but of the vapors wherewith the air howsoever apparently pure is always charg'd whence proceeds the diversity of refractions In the Planets especially at Sun-rise and Sun-set which is never without some clouds which vapours being destitute of the diurnal heat and so coming to be condens'd fall down upon our heads just as Dew doth which is produc'd after the same manner but of a matter somwhat thicker and more copious And as there is no Dew so there is no Serene but in temperate Seasons and Regions never in Winter or the midst of Summer for violent cold congeals these vapours into Frost and Ice and vehement heat dissipates and consumes them The practice of our Ladies who use to remain in the Serene thereby to whiten their complexion and soften their flesh shows that this evening-air having a cleansing and levigating vertue must be impregnated with a quality like Dew which is detersive by reason of the salt which it drew from the earth by means whereof it not only whitens Linen and Wax but also purgeth Animals as appears by the fluxes hapning to Sheep driven out to grass before the Sun has consum'd the Dew and by Manna which is nothing but a condens'd dew and hath a purgative vertue The Third said Mans body being subject to the injuries of all external Agents receives so much greater from the impressions of the Air as the same is more necessary to life capable of subsisting for some time without other things but not a moment without Air which is continually attracted into our Bodies not only by respiration but also by insensible transpiration through the Pores of the Body which is pierc'd with holes like a Sieve for admission of air which is taken in by the Arteries in their motion of Diastole or Dilatation And being most agile and subtle it easily penetrates our Bodies altering them by the four first qualities wherewith it is variously impregnated according to the vicinity of the Bodies environing it which make the four Seasons of the Year wherein it variously disposes the bodies upon which it acts changing even their natural temperament And because the parts of a natural day have some proportion with those of a year upon account of the several changes caus'd by the common and proper revolutions of the Sun hence the Morning is like the Spring hot and moist or rather temperate and the Blood then predominates Noon resembles Summer hot and dry at which time Choler is in motion the following part is cold and dry Melancholy and correspondent to Autumn the Evening and whole Night by its coldness and humidity which puts Phlegm in motion is a little Winter the coldness whereof proceeds not from the vapors which are always accompani'd with some extraneous heat whereby they are retain'd in the Air and kept
the parts But the bodies of Plants and Animals inur'd onely to natural heat are far more vigorous whilst the same is secured against external cold by Bark Hair and Skin and those defensive Arms which Instinct taught our Fore-fathers so long as they were guided by Nature in Caves of the Earth which moderate the injuries of the Air much better then humane Art can do or else by thick clothing which reflects the fumes incessantly issuing out of the pores of the Body from which repercussion proceeds the warmth of our Garments If cold happen at any time to over-master the natural heat in the external parts the same is presently reviv'd but dissipated by fire before which infirm persons frequently fall into fainting fits by motion and exercise which heats all Bodies and much more such as are animated driving the Spirits and Blood and with them heat into the agitated part Of the benefit of which motion we cannot judge more certainly then by its effects For as Fire takes away the Appetite and dulls the Senses of those that sit at it so Exercise encreases it and renders the Body and Mind much more lively Wherefore I conclude for Exercise against Fire without which a late Physician liv'd twenty years seeing no other but that of his Candle and without employing his Wood as Sylvius did who run up and down Stairs laden with two or three Fagots more or less according as he was cold till he was warm and then he laid them up till another time The Third said Exercise is not more profitable to such as are accustom'd to it then hurtful to others Which Sedentary persons find true when they play at Tennis or Hunt or use such other violent motion For every sort of motion is not Exercise but only that which is perform'd with some streining whereby respiration is render'd more frequent the Arteries dilated the Spirits and blood chaf'd whence oftentimes they break their vessels and beget Fevers Pleurises Fluxes Head-aches and Catarrhs which is a manifest proof that 't is better to leave the Humors and Spirits in their natural temper For Health consists in a just proportion of the Humors which are generated by the Concoction of temperate and moderate Food which Concoction is perform'd better during rest then during motion and in the sleep of the night then in the labour of the day So also are excrements better expell'd when the Body is quiet then when 't is in motion which brings a confusion of pure with impure Insensible transpiration is sufficiently effected only by the internal motion of Nature without the help of external which Nature hath not prescrib'd Animals although they have no need of Fire being naturally Furr'd Feather'd and otherwise guarded against the injuries of weather and yet their age is almost as regular as that of immovable Plants Man on the contrary by reason chiefly of his several violent exercises hath no prefix'd time of life which labour inseparable from exercise wears and consumes more then his years and makes him old before his time depriving him also of that contentment and pleasure which makes us live Moreover since things are preserv'd and acquir'd by the same causes lost health which is recover'd by rest and the bed cannot be preserv'd by travel which besides consuming our radical moisture swifter then the natural heat doth alone hath the same effect that motion hath in a lighted Candle which is sooner spent when stirr'd then when at quiet The Fourth said That since Fire introduces into us a foreign and contranatural heat as besides the inconveniences already alledg'd the sweating of the head testifies 't is more hurtful then Exercise which only rouses up the natural heat enfeebled by the apertion of the pores caus'd by the Fire in Winter and the Sun in Summer when for that reason Exercise ought to be less The incommodity Exercise brings to unaccustom'd Bodies ought not to hinder their being form'd thereto by little and little and by the degrees recommended by Hippocrates in all changes For if Physicians contribute all their skill to correct distempers drawn from the birth much rather may they endeavour to turn bad customs into good as being an easier task Thus Galen was not accustom'd to cleave wood nor Pittacus King of the Mytelenians to grind corn yet they exercis'd themselves in these labours for their health And indeed some Maladies as those which proceed from a cold and moist distemper are cur'd by exercise especially if they come from repletion Thus Nicomachus of Smyrna was so monstrously fat that he could not put his hand behind him yet was brought to a moderate bulk by Exercise On the contrary Germanicus whose legs were somewhat too slender brought them to a competent proportion by Riding the concussions whereof shake the Stone out of the Kidneys Recovering persons need Exercise so much according to their strength that 't is the most safe means of restoring it and old men are chiefly preserv'd by it Antiochus the Physician and Spurnia both of them 80 years old preserv'd their Senses and strength entire by walking a great way every day on foot And yet Fire is less hurtful in that age by reason of the coldness and thickness of the skin which gives not its heat so free entrance nor so easie an issue to that within CONFERENCE CLII. Whether Wine helps or hinders Digestion and why THis Question will seem frivolous to the vulgar who are no sooner debarr'd Wine by the Physitian but they complain of Indigestion and weakness of Stomack But our free Philosophy shall use its own rights and inquire whether the common Opinion in this Point be the best Now if Wine which is hot and acknowledg'd such by all Physitians be receiv'd into a temperate Stomack it brings it into a distemper whence Saint Paul enjoyn'd it not to Timothy but in regard of the coldness or weakness of his Stomack in which case a due temper results from the one cold and the other hot But temperate persons must avoid it's use which was a just cause of Divorce to the Roman Dames capital in the Camp of the Carthaginians and still in divers parts of Asia whereunto if you add all those that are depriv'd of it because they have none produc'd amongst them Children and sick persons it will appear that to say nothing of Beasts which drink onely water and are more healthy than we there are a hundred live without it for one that drinks it Moreover they who are troubled with Indigestions find and make others sufficiently understand that Wine is last digested otherwise it would not keep its first colour savor and smell after all other food or at least onely alter'd by the acidity into which 't is easily corrupted Besides Water-drinkers have a better Appetite than Wine-drinkers which is an Argument that Wine helps Concoction less then Water and no wonder since as Galen saith it increases Thirst instead of quenching it as Water doth For Thirst which is the
having at the declining of the day rais'd many aqueous and consequently supreamly cold and the heat whereby they were rais'd abandoning them upon his absence the natural cold of those vapours becomes predominant and returns them by degrees into their first state Which refrigerating the Air makes the night the colder the further the vapours are from their extraneous heat that is to say the nearer day approacheth CONFERENCE CLIV. Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds THe first attributed the cause thereof to the desiccation of water for experience shews in all sublunary Bodies that dryness whitens as Sea-water becomes white when dry'd to Salt the stalks of Corn Pulse and the leaves of all other Plants wax white as they wither and dry The same happens to the Bones of Animals and grey Hairs on no other cause but siccity since the extremity expos'd to the Air is white but not the root Hence water by its transparence already partaking much of light but which its rarity reflects not to our view is no sooner desiccated into Ice Hail or Snow but it acquires this pure whiteness which humidity again destroys So the high ways white with dust grow black upon rain a wet cloth appears darker then a dry and that some things become black by drying as Coal is because there was heat enough to draw the humidity which was at its Centre to the Circumference but not enough wholly to dry it up as appears in that the same heat continu'd reduces the coal to white ashes which would be as perfectly white as Snow did not the Tincture imprinted thereon by the Salts withstand it for if you urge them further by fire you will make them of a perfect whiteness as appears in Chalks which are made not only of grey and black stones but even of Metals as Ceruse is made of Lead The Second said Whiteness is not a real Colour since it appears in all bodies depriv'd of preceding Colours of all which 't is indifferently susceptible But 't is otherwise with real Colours a subject imbu'd with one of which is not apt to receive all others but some only as Nature hath fram'd the Organs of Sense naked of all sensible objects to the end they might be susceptible of the same Wooll dy'd into a sadder colour cannot receive a lighter and black Wooll admits none at all but white being natural to every subject that hath no colour is capable of receiving all So when you wash off the blew or dirty colour of a Band it becomes white Whereby it appears that Whiteness hath the same reference to Colours that Unity hath to Numbers whereof 't is the beginning but is none it self And as 't is the Emblem of Innocence and Purity so also it proceeds from them The Air which is the purest of our Elements for Fire is only in Mixts and water refin'd into vapours which follows the Air in purity hapning to acquire visibility by condensation into Snow cannot represent the same under any other out-side but Whiteness Now that Whiteness is an effect of purity is manifest by the Stars which are represented to us only under the species of Whiteness and cannot be painted but with white in their light which de-albating what it irradiates and leaving the same elsewhere black shews that 't is as the purest so also the whitest thing in the world Likewise Metals are whiter according to their purity Lead is worse then Tin and this then Silver only upon account of their impurity the sole perfect mixture of the yellow incombustible Sulphur of Gold not permitting it to be alter'd and spoil'd of its yellow colour which nearest approacheth whiteness Wherefore Snow being a most pure Body compounded only of two colour-less elements namely Air and Water 't was necessary either that it should have no colour or if any whereby to become visible the principle and origin of all Colours namely White in the perfection with which Nature makes all her Works The Third said That the same difference which appears between the Stars and their Orbs is found between Water and Snow arising only from Density and Rarity As the Star appears white and the rest of the Heaven darker by reason of its rarity so likewise Water seems obscure upon account of its rarity and Snow white upon that of its density The Fourth said If that reason were good then Ice should be whiter then Snow because 't is more solid and yet the contrary appears Besides Snow is so far from being more dense and solid then Water that on the contrary there is less Air in Water then in Ice which is more close and compact then Snow the swimming of Ice upon the Water arguing some aerious parts included in it at the time of its congelation which is not and cannot be made without air Wherefore Snow differs from Water only by its figure or accidental form which reduceth it into flocks congealed by cold in a cloud not as it is resolv'd into Rain for then 't would prove Hail but whilst yet a vapour in the region of the Air. So then in this figure alone is the reason of the whiteness of Snow to be sought which is not found in water partly by reason of its transparence and partly because its smooth surface gives no hold to the visual ray Which is the reason why Water is pictur'd with a blew and darkish colour Thus burnish'd Silver as that of Looking-glasses seems dark if compar'd to rough Silver which doth not dissipate our visual Spirits as that former doth Hence Ice is much whiter then water as being less smooth The Fifth said That 't is proper to cold to whiten as 't is to heat to blacken Thus Southern People are either black or tawney Northern white and the Hair of both grows white with old age by reason of the coldness thereof All the cold parts of our Body are white as the Brain Bones Cartilages Membranes Fat and Skin Linen and Wax are whitened by the coldness of the night For the same reason not only Snow but Hail Frost Ice Rime and all other cold Meteors are of the same colour The Sixth said That though the whiteness of Snow was disputed by Anaxagoras and Armenia produces red by mixture of the exhalations of Vermillion with the ordinary vapors which the Sun raises from the water yet this whiteness is as manifest as the causes are hid no less then those of light which is the colour of Celestial Bodies as colours are the light of Terrestrial However this whiteness seems to proceed from a mixture of Air and Water as appears in froth whose consistence is like that of Snow the whiteness whereof possibly is increas'd by the Spirits wherewith Snow abounds which are luminous Bodies whereof the fertility caus'd by Snow is an Argument to which Spirits which Frost hath not may be ascrib'd what Galen affirms namely that Fish cover'd with Snow become more delicious for to the Moon it can with no more reason be
and divorce of them asunder Diseases of bare Intemperature which is either simple or with matter the Imagination may produce by moving the Spirits and Humors which it hath power to do For the Spirits being aerious and naturally very hot when they are sent by a strong Imagination into some part they may so heat it as by the excess of their heat to destroy the temper of such part as Anger sometimes heats the Body into a Fever And as the too great concourse of these Spirits makes hot intemperatures so their absence from other parts causes cold Diseases as crudities and indigestions familiar to such as addict themselves to Study and Meditation after Meat the Spirits which should serve for Concoction being carry'd from the Stomack to the Brain In like manner the Imagination having dominion over the Humors which it moves by mediation of the Spirits as Joy Shame and Anger bring blood and heat into the Face and outward parts and Fear and Sadness give them a contrary motion it appears that it hath power to produce Maladies of Intemperies with matter by the fluxion or congestion of the Humors into some part and out of their natural seat But if the Phansie can disorder the work of Conformation in another body then it s own as that of an Infant whose marks and defects wherewith he is born are effects of his Mothers Phansie much more may it cause the same disorder in its own Body whereunto it is more nearly conjoyn'd Wherefore since it can destroy the temper of the Similar parts and the harmony of the Organs it may also cause Diseases and by the same means cure them too for if contraries be cur'd by their contraries then it may cure a cold distemper by producing a hot one and if it hath power to cause by motion of the humors an obstruction in some part it may by the same means return them to their natural place and cure such obstruction 'T was to the Phansie that the cure of those Splenetick persons is to be attributed who were cur'd by the touch of the great Toe of Pyrrhus's left Foot and we see many Cures wrought by Amulets Periapts and other like Remedies which having no vertue in themselves to produce such an effect the same must be referr'd to some other cause Now none hath more empire then the Imagination over the Spirits and other Humours wherein almost all Diseases consist The Second said That the Imagination being a simple Cognoscitive Power cannot of it self produce the effects that are ascrib'd to it For all Cognition is Passion and to know is to suffer and receive the Species of the thing that is to be known whose impression made upon the Organs of Sense is by them carry'd to the Imagination which judges thereof upon their report Moreover there is this notable difference between the Sensitive or Cognoscitive Powers and the Vegetative or Motive which are destitute of all Cognition that the latter are active out of themselves and operate upon the Members which the Motive Faculty moves with full power and upon the aliments which the Vegetative Faculties as the Nutritive and Auctive alter and turn into the nature of the parts But the Sensitive Faculties and all other Cogniscitive Powers have no real sensible action They are active indeed so far as they are powers issuing from very perfect Forms but their actions are immanent and produce nothing beyond themselves and consequently can have no influence abroad So that the Imagination cannot immediately and of its own nature produce either a Disease or Health in the Body but only by means of the Motive Power or Sensitive Appetite the Passions whereof are acknowledg'd by Physitians to be the external causes of Diseases If the Phansie could produce any thing it should be by help of the Species it is impregnated withall which being extracted from things some think that they eminently contain the vertues of the objects from whence they issue and whereof they are Pictures and that hence it is that the Teeth are set on edge upon the hearing of grating sounds that the sight of a Potion purges many and that of salt things makes the Stomack rise in others and that the thought of the Plague oftentimes propagates it more then the corruption of the Air. Nevertheless these effects proceed only from the various motion of Heat and the Spirits caus'd by the Appetite and the Motive Power which are distinct from the Imagination For if the Species had the same power with the objects from which they issue they would not be perfective but destructive of their Organs the Species of Heat would burn the Brain that of Cold would cool it both would destroy it which is contrary to experience For though Heat and Cold are contraries in Nature yet they are not so in the Understanding but rather friendly the one contributing to the knowledg of the other and the end of Intentional Species is not to alter but onely to represent the objects whereof they are copies The Third said That Aristotle hath built his Physiognomy upon the great connection and sympathy of the Soul with the Body which is such that the one causeth considerable changes in the other To which purpose the Soul employes no other more effectual instrument then the Imagination Which power of the Soul upon the Body is evinc'd by the mighty effects of the Passions especially of Fear Love and Anger Fear having kill'd many as particularly St. Valier before the stroke of the Executioner On which account it is also that Mirth is commended for one of the best preservatives from the Plague And we see that Fear and Sadness are no less the causes then the infallible signs of the Disease call'd Melancholy The same is further verified by the strange Histories of those who being become sick by Fancy could not be cur'd but by curing the Fancy first the Remedy being to be of the same kinde with the Disease Thus he who fancy'd he had no head could not be restor'd to his right sense till the Physician clapping a leaden Cap upon him left him to complain a while of the Head-ache And another who having study'd Physick a little and took up a conceit that he had a prodigious excrescence in his Intestinum Rectum could not be cur'd till the Chirurgeon had made semblance of cauterizing it Another Gentleman who durst not piss for fear of causing an universal Deluge was cur'd of his conceit by the Countrey peoples crying out Fire and desiring him to quench it In like manner another believing himself dead would not eat and had dy'd in good earnest had not his Nephew who was reported dead come into his Chamber in a winding Sheet and fallen to eat before his Uncle who thereupon did the like And to go no further the tying of the Codpiece-point is accounted an effect of the Fancy and is cur'd by curing the Fancy alone So likewise a Lord of Quality falling sick accidentally in a
colours CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. THe common Opinion attributes the coldness of the middle Region to the Antiperistasis of the heat of the upper and lower Regions which streightning the cold on either side leave it no other place but the middle whither the vapors rais'd by the Sun-beams ascending and no higher by reason of their weight and the thinness of the air there it comes to pass that the neighbourhood of these vapors returning to their natural cold encreases that of the middle Region But many inconveniences invalidate this Opinion First if this Element were hot and moist as is suppos'd it would shew some effects thereof but 't is quite contrary For he were a fool that should go into the Air to warm himself and the Air hath so little humidity that it dries all Bodies Secondly many Mountains surpassing the middle Region of the Air and retaining figures describ'd in the ashes of a Sacrifice for a whole year which shew that in all that time no Wind or Rain was rais'd there to deface them it would follow that such Mountains reflecting the Sun-beams by their solidity should cause heat in the middle Region of the Air and yet they are commonly cover'd with Snow Lastly this Antiperistasis being only in Summer not in Winter when the cold of the lower Region symbolises with that of the middle this reason should then cease and yet 't is in Winter-time that cold Meteors manifest themselves Wherefore we must recur to some other cause which Cardan takes to be the natural coldness of the Air not regarding the combination of the four first qualities For if cold be natural to the Air it will be easie to conclude that it must be coldest in the middle which is less alter'd by the contrary quality of heat being most distant from the Element of Fire if there be any and from the heat which necessarily follows the motion of the heavenly Sphears The Second said That Cold being no positive Quality but a bare negation it follows that Bodies destitute of Heat are necessarily cold Now the Air cannot have heat or any other quality because 't is to serve for a medium not only to all sublunary Bodies but also to the heavenly influences whose nature would be perverted and alter'd by the qualities of the Air as a colour'd medium imparts its colours to objects It happens therefore that vapours cool not but are cooled by the Air so that they become colder in the middle Region then whilst they were in their natural seats Yea they are so far from rendring the Air cold that they abate its sharpness which is never greater then in clear weather cloudy and misty weather being always more warm and accompany'd with less piercing cold For being rais'd rather by the subterraneous heat then by that of the Sun they warm our air which reaches not above a league from the Earth then being gradually deserted by the heat which carry'd them up they meet in those higher spaces which are void of all heat and begin immediately to condense and congeal them What people talk of the higher Region of the Air is very doubtful because the Element of Fire being but an Opinion cannot counter-balance the report of Acosta who affirms that divers Spaniards were kill'd by the cold in their passage upon the Mountains of Peru which he judges the highest of the World and within the upper region The Third said That if we were to be try'd by experience alone the Earth which in Winter is hot at the Centre and in Summer on its Surface would not be judg'd cold and dry as it is no more then the Water always cold and moist since the Sun's heat warms it and the saltness of the Sea renders it heating and drying But accidental qualities must be carefully distinguish'd from essential because these latter are hard to be discern'd when any impediment interposes As the sight cannot judge of the straitness of the stick in the water but by having recourse to reason which teaches us that all light Elements are also hot Now the lightness of the air is indisputable and its heat is prov'd by its subtlety whereby it penetrates bodies unpassable by light it self Yet this heat is easily turn'd into cold because the air being a tenuious body and not compact retains its qualities no longer then they are maintain'd therein by their ordinary causes So that 't is no wonder if not being hot in the highest degree as Fire is but in a remiss and inferior degree it easily becomes susceptible of a more powerful contrary quality For the Sun-beams which some hold to be the true Element of Fire heat not unless they be united by reflection and this reflection being limited cannot reach beyond our first Region the higher Regions must necessarily remain cold unless upon further inquiry it be thought that the motion of the air carry'd about with the Sphear of the Moon and the Element of Fire plac'd under the same are capable to heat it The Fourth said That if we may judge of those higher Regions of the Air by those of the Earth and Water which we frequent each of these Elements hath three sensible differences its Surface Middle and Centre Those that frequent Mines tell us that the heat which succeeds the exterior cold of our earth penetrates not above a quarter of a league in depth about the end of which space cold begins to be felt again and encreases more and more towards the Centre In like manner 't is probable that the Water follows the qualities as well as the declivity of the Earth That it is hot at the bottom whither therefore the Fish retire in Winter proceeds from the nearness of that middle Region of the Earth So that it being proper to these Elements to have different qualities in their middle from those of their extremities the same may be true also of the Air possibly because a perfect identity of temperature would not have been convenient for the generation of Mixts to which end all the Elements were destinated And it being the property of cold to close and re-unite the looseness and dissipation of the Air it was therefore highly necessary to be predominant in the middle Region thereof CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females DIstinction of Sex is not essential but consists only in the parts serving to Generation Nevertheless Aristotle makes Male and Female differ as Perfect and Imperfect and saith That Nature's intention is always to make a Male and that only upon the default of some requisite condition she produces a Female whom therefore he calls a Mistake of Nature or a Monster Galen likewise acknowledging no other difference styles Man a Woman turn'd outwards because Woman hath the same Organs with Man only wants heat and strength to put them forth Now indeed this heat and strength is manifestly greater in Males then Females even from the first conception for the
which is in Caves and places under ground where it continues in its own nature is not frozen Nor yet that which lies expos'd to the influence of a cold air especially when it may easily insinuate it self into it Whence it comes that to cause water to freeze in a short time it must be warm'd before it be expos'd to the Air which finding its pores open by the heat so much the more speedily insinuates it self into it For as to what is maintain'd by some Physicians to wit that the Air is hot and moist seems to have been advanc'd by them rather to make a correspondence of the four possible combinations of qualities to so many Elements than for any convictive reason since the Air is never hot if it be not warm'd by some other heat then it hath in it self such as is that of Fire or the Sun-beams and these too must be reflected by the Earth On the contrary when it continues in its own nature as it does in the night-time during the absence of the Sun it is actually cold nay even in the greatest heats of Summer it keeps its coolness provided there be no application made to a hot body as may be seen in our Ladie 's Fanns who forcing away the Air from their hot faces are refresh'd by its coolness which then cannot proceed from any other principle than the proper nature of Air inasmuch as motion would be more likely to imprint heat on them then cold And this is further confirm'd by the Air we breathe the reciprocation whereof cools our Lungs whereas it should warm them if it were hot as the Peripateticks would have it It happens therefore that the Air for that reason call'd by some Philosophers primum frigidum the first cold insinuating it self into the Water produces therein the effect which Aristotle attributes to it to wit that of congregating all things as well of the same as of several kinds And whereas our common water what simplicity soever there may be in it consists of all the Elements especially Earth and Air the Air joyning it self to what it meets withal of its own Nature does in the first place render that cold and being by that means united to the other parts viz. to the Earth unperceivably intermixt with the Water and to the Water it self contracts and compresses them so as that they take up less space then they did before as may be seen in a Bottle fill'd with water and frozen up which though it had been full is nevertheless found to contain air in its upper part And yet this compression cannot be so well made but that there remain several particles of Air enclos'd in the Spaces of the Ice which were it not for that air would be vacuous and this by reason the surface as was said before freezing up first it from thenceforward hinders from making their way out those parts of air which either were got in before or caus'd by the avoiding of vacuity when the Center and other parts of the Water are forc'd by the Cold to take up less place then they did before We conclude therefore and say that though the Ice be dense and hard by reason of that compression of all its parts yet is lighter than Water because there is air enclos'd within it which cannot return to its sphere as that does which gets into the Water which by reason of its liquidity makes way for it So that it is no more to be wondred at why Ice is lighter than Water then that cork being harder is lighter than the same water Otherwise had the Ice no Air inclos'd within it as it happens to that engendred in Mines which in process of time comes to be Crystall it would fall to the bottom of the water as the other does The same thing may be instanc'd in porous wood which swims upon the water whereas Ebony by reason of its solidity and want of pores will sink The Second said That whether the Air be granted to be light or not or that it pass only for a body less weighty than the water as this latter is less heavy than the earth certain it is that the intermixt Air not that comprehended within the concavities but that diffus'd through the least parts of the Ice is that which makes it lighter inasmuch as it augments its sinnuosities as may be observ'd in a bottle fill'd with water which breaks when the water is congeal'd in regard that being converted into Ice the bottle cannot contain it So that as Snow is lighter than Hail so this latter is lighter than Ice and this last is lighter than water in regard it contains less matter in an equal space Accordingly it is the Air that freezes the water yet dos it not follow thence that it should be the primum frigidum as the Iron which is red hot burnes more vehemently than the elementary fire yet is not that red hot Iron the primum calidum that distinction proceeding from the difference of matter which as it must be the more compact in order to a greater burning so the cold for its better insinuation into all the parts of the water requires the conveyance of the Air. As to the lightness of Ice it seems to be the more strange upon this consideration that Physicians explicate lightness by heat as they do heaviness by cold But the fiery vapors which are in the water as may be said of that which hath been warm'd contribute very much to that lightness it being not incompatible that these contrary qualities should be lodg'd in the same Subject considering the inequality of the one in respect of the other and it is not to be thought a thing more strange that there should be potentially hot Exhalations in the water than that the Nile should abound in Nitre which is of an igneous nature Now from what matter soever the cold proceeds 't is evident by its action that it is not a privation of heat as some Philosophers would have maintain'd since that which is not as privation cannot have any effect But those who have referr'd freezing as well as thawing to the Constellations seem to have come near the mark in as much as those making certain impressions in the Air which serves for a mean to unite the Influences of the celestial bodies to the inferior diversly affect them one while contracting another dilating them according to the diversity of matter there being some not susceptible of congelation as the Spirit of Wine and Quintessences either upon the account of their heat or simplicity The Third said That if the first qualities of cold and heat were the Causes of freezing and thawing they would always happen accordingly the former when it is most cold and the other when the cold diminishes Now many times we find the contrary there being some dayes without any frost on which thaws we are more sensible of cold and sometimes we perceive it yet without any perceivable remission of the
please that they employ'd them not in their presages but only towards the Spring After which especially towards the month of August they made no account of them in regard they were not then in so much vigour nor in so good case yet did they appoint such a dependance among them that the Auguries taken from those that were inferiour gave place to the others of a higher quality So that if a Crow chanced to pass by while they were attentively divining by the flight of a Dove this lanter auspice was to no purpose no more then would be that of other Birds upon the arrival of the Eagle which also would signifie nothing upon the fall of a thunderbolt which disturbed all their mysteries with much more reason then a Rat might do which had no sooner appear'd in the Assembly but the whole Ceremony was put off to another more convenient time True it is then that some advantages may be made of Birds in order to the drawing of auguries and presages of natural effects such as are rain thunder tempests winds heat drought cold frost snow hail and other changes of weather produc'd by the impressions of the Heavens the Elements and other Causes as well general as particular but not to make any predictions thence of such events and accidents as depend on an infinite number of circumstances of time place and persons who being purely free agents their actions are wholly voluntary and consequently impossible to be predicted what artifices soever may be us'd to do it Whereto we may add this Remark that those artifices being full of abundance of vain and pernicious observations the sentence of condemnation past against them is just not only that of the Canon and Civil Laws which severely punish such as make use thereof but also that pronounc'd by the mouth of God who expressly forbids his people in the twentieth chapter of Leviticus to make their souls abominable by beast or by fowl threatning with death the Wizard and him that had a familiar Spirit CONFERENCE CCXXXVI Whether those Children who are born with Cawls about their whole or some parts of their Bodies are always fortunate and why CHildren do ordinarily come naked out of their Mother's Wombs when after their struggling with Nature they begin their entrance into the World with crying and tears acknowledging their weakness and the miseries they are likely to be expos'd to in the sequele of their lives Yet there are some Children excepted from this general Rule and thence is it that some would have them exempted from the misfortunes common to all the rest upon this accompt that they are born with cawls about them that is are encompass'd by a membrane which comes over their heads and their shoulders call'd by the Greeks Amnios which is the innermost of the three membranes wherein the wombe-lodg'd infant is enwrapped called by some Midwives the Coife or Biggin of the Child by others the Childs shirt and in some places known by the name of the Silihow by reason of its tender and delicate intertexture which other Children quit in their Mothers wombs before they come out thence with the other Membrane called Chorion of which together with that mass of flesh which had serv'd them for a cushion and support during the time of the praegnancy are fram'd the Secondines or After-burthen so called because it comes not out till after the Child is born And as these Children born thus cawl'd and coif'd with this tunicle which like a large Hood or Capouch covers their heads and necks seem not to participate of the nakedness of the others who bring nothing into the World so is it to be imagin'd that they are not so much subject to the miseries and calamities inseparable from the common life of other men inasmuch as their beginning being different from that of others who come after the ordinary way into the World upon the score of this special priviledge of having their heads furr'd and cover'd the consequence of it ought in all probability to be extraordinary and full of happiness whereof if this coif be not the cause yet have some at least observ'd that it hath always been the sign and that all those who have been born after that manner have been very fortunate The History of Antoninus sirnamed Diadumenus related by Aelius Lampridius in his Life confirms this observation For being born with such a coif he afterwards came to the soveraign dignity of the Empire in the management whereof all things succeeded according to his wishes Nay it hath been generally believ'd that good fortune was so constant an attendant of this Coif that all those who were desirous to compass their affairs carry'd it about them especially Advocates who made use thereof to gain reputation in their publick pleadings being to that end very careful to buy them of the Midwives who knowing the excellency thereof sold them at a very dear rate after they had surreptitiously got them away from the children they had received into the World For those who have made it their business to enquire more strictly into this observation maintain that he who brings this natural coif with him into the world is to expect all manner of good fortune even so far as to be invulnerable provided he be careful to have it always about him or what contributes more to that effect to eat it as is over-superstitiously done by some But the contrary will happen to the Child if he be robb'd of that precious exuvium or coat or it be secretly taken from him to be given to another who by that translation thereof will receive the whole benefit of it The Second said That though the foresaid perswasion sufficiently destroy'd it self there being no connexion or correspondence between the accidents of humane life and that shirt which sometimes comes over the whole Body of the Child commonly falls not much below the Shoulders and many times does only cover the Face like a Mask yet have many been of Opinion that it contributed much to happines and the advantage of good fortune insomuch that Saint John Chrysostome in several of his Homilies speaks against those of his time who made use thereof to gain esteem which a Clergy-man named Praetus being desirous to acquire by the means of such a Coif bought of a Midwife he was very highly censur'd as Balsamon affirms in his Commentaries upon the Canons of the Apostles And Paulus Jovius an Author of great repute observes on the Nativity of Ferdinand Daval that the Coif he brought with him from his Mothers Womb contributed much to his being happy and belov'd of all From all which we may make this inference that there is nothing so extravagant but may meet with Favourers and Abettors For I may lay it down for certain that this Opinion hath no other ground than what it hath found in the weak Brains of those Midwives who having nothing in them but the name have insensibly scatter'd these errours