it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence
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
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 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
often as little Children and Old people whose heat being weak and easily dissipated they must be often nourish'd but by a little at a time for fear of overcharging their too weak Stomacks The last and commonest way is to eat plentifully but seldom which is the manner of middle-ag'd people who usually eat twice a day and more at one Meal than at the other it being hard for a Man to satiate himself both at Dinner and Supper without indammaging his Health Which made Plato wonder when he heard that the Sicilians fill'd themselves with Meat twice a day and oblig'd the Romans to make a light repast about Noon and a splendid Supper which I am for Upon this account the Church hath to macerate us forbidden Suppers on Fasting dayes which is an Argument that they are more agreeable and more conducing to Health than Dinners For such quantity of Food is to be taken as answers to the natural heat which being not onely more vigorous but also of longer duration between Supper and Dinner than between Dinner and Supper the interval whereof is seldom above six or seven hours whereas that between Supper and Dinner is about seventeen 't is more reasonable to sup more largely than dine For if the Dinner be largest we shall eat either as much as the heat is able to digest by Supper-time or more If we eat more and go to Supper before the digestion of the Dinner is wholly finish'd we shall beget crudities which are the seed of most diseases If we eat as much as the heat can digest and the Supper be less then the Dinner then the heat which follows the Supper being stronger and more active will soon concoct the meat taken at Supper and because 't is a natural agent not acting from a principle of liberty but of necessity and cannot remain idle having no extraventitious matter to work upon it will necessarily consume the laudable juices of the body drying up the same during sleep For whereas sleep is said to moisten whence arose the Proverb Qui dort mange He that sleeps eats 't is true when the stomach and entrals being fill'd with sufficient nourishment the Heat raises and disperses to all the parts the purest of the juices and vapours like gentle dews which it cannot do when the Stomach is empty The fourth said Nature having given us an Appetite to advertise us of the need of all parts there is no certainer rule of the time of Repast than this Appetite which for this reason is seated in the upper Orifice of the Stomach render'd sensible by the Nerves of the sixth Pair terminating therein For there is a continual dissipation of our substance in all the parts which being exhausted attract from their neighbours wherewith to fill their own emptiness these solicit the Liver for supply that the Guts by the Mesaraick Veins these the Stomack at the top whereof this suction terminates the sense or perception whereof is call'd Appetite which if of hot and dry is call'd Hunger if of cold and moist Thirst So that Nutrition being onely to recruit and repair the loss of our Substance there is no more assured sign of the fitting time to eat then when the said Appetite is most eager at what hour soever it be The fifth said That this might have place in well temper'd bodies which desire onely so much as they are able to digest but not in those whose Appetite is greater than their Digestion as cold and melancholy Stomacks or who desire less as the hot and bilious whose heat melting the juices abates the Appetite as on the contrary Coldness contracting the membranes of the Stomack augments it So that 't is most expedient for every one to consult his own Temper Age Nature and Custom of living Old people little Children such as are subject to Defluxions or have weak Stomacks must sup sparingly on the other side the Cholerick and such as are subject to the Head-ach must eat a larger Supper than Dinner But above all the Custom of every particular person is most considerable herein CONFERENCE CXXIII Which of the Humane Passions is most excusable MAn being compos'd of two Pieces Body and Soul and upon that account styl'd by Trismegistus The Horizon of the Universe because he unites in himself the spiritual nature with the Corporeal the Inclinations whereof are different he hath also need of two guides to conduct those two Parts the Rational and the Animal and make them know the Good towards which they are carried of their own Nature The Intellect makes him see the Honest and Spiritual Good the Imagination enables him to conceive a sensible and corporeal Good And as the Rational Appetite which is the Will follows the light afforded to it by the Intellect in pursuit of Honest Good whence Vertue ariseth so the sensitive Appetite is carri'd to the enjoyment of sensible Good which the Imagination makes it conceive as profitable and pleasant and that by motions commonly so disorderly and violent that they make impression not only upon the Mind but upon the Body whose Oeconomy they discompose and for this reason they are call'd Passions or Perturbations and Affections of the Mind These Passions either are carri'd towards Good and Evil simply as Love and Hatred the first inclining us to Good which is the Parent of Beauty the latter averting us from Evil or else they consider both Good and Evil Absent as Desire and Flight or Lastly they consider them being present and cause Pleasure and Grief which if of longer duration produce Joy and Sadness Now because difficulties frequently occurr in the pursuit of Cood and flight of Evil therefore Nature not contented to have indu'd Animals with a Concupiscible Appetite which by means of the six above-mention'd Passions might be carri'd towards Good and avoid Evil hath also given them another Appetite call'd Irascible to surmount the Obstacles occurring in the pursuit of Good or flight of Evil whence arise five other Passions Hope Despair Boldness Fear and Anger Hope excites the soul to the prosecution of a difficult but obtainable good Despair checks the motions of the soul towards the pursuit of a Good no longer obtainable Boldness regards an absent Evil which assures it self able to surmount Fear considers the same absent Evil without any means of being able to avoid it Lastly the violence of Anger is bent against a present Evil whereof it believes a possibility to be reveng'd And because a present and enjoyed Good cannot be accompani'd with difficulty hence there is no Passion in the Irascible Appetite answering to Anger as there is in the other Passions which again are divided according to the several objects about which they are exercis'd The desire of Honours is call'd Ambition that of Riches Covetousness that of fleshly Pleasures Concupiscence that of Meats Gourmandise or Gluttony The Hatred of Vice causes Zeal that of a Rival Jealousie The sorrow arising upon the sight of Evil suffer'd by an
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
them to their Society and to none else The Third said That there have ever been spirits extravagant irregular and incapable of all Discipline both Political and Ecclesiastical Hence have risen in the Church Heresiarchs and Schismaticks in the State Rebels and Mutineers in the Sciences Innovators and presumptuous persons who wanting Ability and Constancy to undergo the pains of Study necessary for obtaining the skill requisite to the right exercise of the least Disciplines and Professions take upon them to blame what they understand not and as the vulgar easily close with Calumnies to which the faults of the Professors not the Professions give but too much occasion so they readily prepossess the Understanding of their Hearers For which there is more matter in Physick than there is in any other Profession because the vulgar who judge thereof consider only events which are not in our power but only the application of causes the rest being the work of Nature Hence Paracelsus and others of that gang started up in the world establishing new Principles and vaunting themselves upon the authority of imaginary antiquity And as no Opinion is so erroneous but hath its followers so there have been found people enough of that sort to make a Colledge who forgetting that one of the faults they charg'd upon the Rational Physicians was that in their prescriptions they made use of a strange Language and Cyphers unknown to the vulgar have imitated those above-mention'd Priests of Aegypt who made an outside shew of brave Ornaments which being lifted up you see nothing but a Cat or an Ox at the stall Thus all their discourse is only of Aurum Potabile Mercurius Vitae Magistery of Pearls Quintessences Spirits Extracts which they denote by Cyphers invented at pleasure and apply as they say only according to the mind of Heaven all the cadences whereof they observe and measure for that purpose But if you look to the bottome of all you will see their Hands foul'd with coals or dung their Faces discolour'd by the Arsenical Exhalations of the Minerals they prepare in their furnaces and yet the most pitiful wretch of them all will swear that he knows the great work Indeed this were no great matter if the success of their Practise made amends for the defects of their Theory But seing chief remedies consist in vomiting or purging violently whereof few Bodies are capable no wonder if people use them only in desperate cases Nor is their impertinence sufferable whilst to credit themselves they pretend to be descended from the Gymnosophists from whom 't is to be fear'd they inherit at last nothing else but their nakedness For what better title have they for their succeeding to all those ancient Societies I mean such as were commendable and worthy of imitation than our Faculties have which are authoriz'd by the Laws of the Prince by possession immemorial and a conformity of all Nations which renders their right as strong as that of Nations Wherefore I advise these Brethren if they will not betake themselves to study as as others do to render themselves altogether Invisible as they pretend to be withdrawing from the Commerce of the rest of Mankind The Fourth said Who openly profess'd himself one of this Fraternity said that Doctor Flud of England had ingeniously interpreted these three Letters F. fide R. religione C. charitate though the common opinion prevails which will have them signifie Fratres Roseae Crucis But neither of these interpretations can pass for a great Secret wherefore it appears upon further search that the Cross is truly significative there but in another sense which is that in this †the word LVX is included whence some think that these Brothers took in Spain the title of Illuminati I shall venture further and add that Ros Dew which is the most powerful dissolver of Gold amongst natural and not corrosive Bodies is nothing else but Light condens'd and render'd corporeal which being concocted and digested artificially in convenient time in its proper vessel is the true Menstruum of the Red Dragon i. e. of Gold the true matter of Philsophers Of which Secret this Society desiring to leave Posterity intimation in their Name styll'd themselves Brethren of the Rosie Cross Thus Jacob's blessing upon Esau contain'd only these two matters De Rore Coeli pinguedine Terrae det tibi Deus Whereas this Society is charg'd with pretences of being invisible they mean only that it hath no visible marks to distinguish it from others as other Societies have namely several colours and fashions of habits but 't is known and visible only to those of the Society it self CONFERENCE CXCIV What Paracelsus meant by the Book M. I Shall not stand to consider whether it be true as some say that more persons besides Theophrastus ab Ohenheim bore the name of Paracelsus my present purpose is only to consider a passage lately recited here out of his Archidoxa Atque haec omnia saith he there parùm vulgaria de Medicina supernaturali Magica ex libro secreto ex Arabico idiomate in Latinum verso qui pro titulo habet Literam M. In which words we may observe how remote this Author's manner of Writing is from that of the Doctors of these times yea and of former too if you except the Chymists who mainly aim to speak clearly and to render themselves intelligible many of them professing to wish that things themselves could speak From which practise this Author is so far that he conceals even the Book 's name wherein he studied by a kind of Plagium hiding his Theft lest others should trap him and the same Jealousie runs through all his Works However for Curiositie's sake let us consider what Titles will sute to this Letter Me-thinks the fittest is Mundus that great Book open to all that are minded to read in it that to which Job David and many other Authors sacred and profane so frequently refer us each Element whereof is a Tome every Compound a Book and every part thereof a Letter All other Books are only Copies of this Original to which if they happen to have conformity they pass for good if not they are meer Chimera's having no foundation in the thing Hence ariseth that so remarkable difference between the Theory and the Practise of Arts for almost all Books being false Copies of this of the World no wonder if Book-doctors are most commonly ignorant of Things whose solid Contemplation produces other satisfaction in the informed Intellect than do the empty Phansies of those who either never understood what they writ or had not the gift of right expressing it And certainly we may have more exact and natural information from the species of things themselves than either the Writing or Speech of another person can give us The Second said That this Book M. is the Book of Magick whence many have believ'd Paracelsus a Magician and the rather in that they find him teaching in many places of
first Figure or Connexion of these Squares and he employ'd these Letters alone instead of Words which they denote for brevitie's sake Thus bb signifies the goodness of the difference or the difference of good things bc the goodness of greatness or the goodness of Concord bd the goodness of contrarieties or things contrary and so of the rest for he ties not himself solely to the word of each Square but extends it to all its Conjugata or Derivatives Species and Contraries As the Conjugata of Goodness are Well Good Bonificative or that is able to make something good Bonificent that makes a thing actually good Bonificable that may be made good Bonified that hath been or is made good to Bonifie to make good and Bonification the action whereby a thing is made good The Species of Goodness are 1 Permanent Good as To be Transient Good as To act 2. Honest Profitable and Delightful the Contrary of Good is Evil of Honest Base of Profitable Damageable of Delightful Troublesom Greatness transcendent and not categorical is that by reason whereof it is term'd great and acts very much it s Conjugates are Great Grandifying or Magnifying Magnificative Magnification and to Magnifie whose definitions may be understood by what is said of Goodness its Species are Finiteness and Infinity length breadth heighth multitude production dilatation multiplication and their conjugates its contraries smallness shortness narrowness and their Conjugates Duration is that by reason whereof a thing endures and is permanent Its Conjugates are enduring durable c. its Species Eternity Time and their Conjugates its contraries Change Privation c. with their Conjugates Power is that whereby a thing can exist and act it s Conjugates are potent possible to be able its Species Omnipotence which is in God alone simple power which is in Creatures strength masterdom authority jurisdiction empire its contraries impotence imbecillity impossibility and their Conjugates Wisdom is that by reason whereof any one is wise its Species are Science Intelligence Prudence Art Prophecy Conscience and their Conjugates its contraries Ignorance Imprudence Error Appetite is that by reason whereof a thing is desirable its Species are Instinct Cupidity and Will its contraries Hatred Malevolence Horror c. Virtue is here that which unites and contains a thing its Species are Perfect in God imperfect in Man its contrary Vice c. Truth is that by reason whereof things are true its speech are verity of the thing so God is Truth it self Verity of the Intellect as when we conceive that Man is an Animal and Verity of Speech as in this Proposition Homo est Animal its contrary is Falsity its Species those opposite to the former Truth is again divided into Necessary and Contingent Simple and Conjunct Glory is the supream and utmost perfection of a thing in the enjoyment whereof it acquiesces being unable to wish ought more such will be the Glory of the Blessed its Species are Honour consider'd in it self and call'd by the Latins Decus and Honor receiv'd from others which they properly call Honor. Thus much for the first Column The Second is of Relative Terms which agree not to all things in general as the former do but are three Ternaries one of the three whereof necessarily agrees for every thing either differs or agrees or is contrary to another is at its beginning middle or end is greater equal or less and is extended likewise to its Conjugates and divided into its Species but they have no other contrary but themselves consider'd one in respect of another The Third Column is of Questions whereof the first is Whether the thing simply exist as Whether there be a Phoenix or Whether it be some other thing as Whether the Moon be greater than the Earth The second is What the thing is To which it is answer'd by the Genus or Difference and consequently by a Definition or Description or else What the word signifies The third hath two branches the former demands Whence a thing took its Rise as in this Question Whence comes Original sin From that of our first Parents The latter asks To whom the thing belongs as Whose book is this The fourth Question inquires the Cause as Why a stone always tends towards the Centre The fifth concerns either continu'd Quantity as What magnitude the Sun is of or disjoynted Quantity as How many several magnitudes of stars there are in Heaven The sixth is concerning Quality as Whether Opium be hot or cold The seventh is of Time as When is there an Eclipse of the Moon The eighth is of the means by which one thing is in an other as The Earth in its Centre the Part in its Whole the Accident in its Subject Wine in its Cask The ninth asks How any thing is done As How do the Intellectual Species act upon the Intellect How do the Sensible Species act upon the Senses The Use of this Art styl'd also by its Author Cabalistica because 't is learnt better by Cabal or Tradition than by Rules consists in Terms Questions of the Alphabet and Figures which are Combinations or Conjunctions of two or three of those Terms to the end it may be easie for any one to examine the Question propos'd by all the wayes resulting from these Combinations or Conjunctions of Terms For Example if you desire to prove that the Intellect is immortal you must run over the Terms by themselves and examine the goodness of the Intellect its Greatness Duration Power and other following Terms first each apart and afterwards joyning two or three together And if you would not forget any Medium of proving carry the Question through all the squares resulting from the Combinations of these Terms which indeed are so numerous that the most judicious restrain themselves only to the principal and most suitable to the Subject it being not the multitude but the goodness of proofs that perswades CONFERENCE CXCVI. Why a Needle touch'd by a Loadstone turns toward the North TO omit Preface in this Question There are two sorts of Load-stones the black distinguisht with little lines which draws flesh and that which is of the colour of Iron This latter is call'd Lapis Herculeus perhaps upon account of its great virtue and Sideritis from Iron which it attracts Cardan mentions a third sort with which a Needle being rub'd enters into the flesh without being felt We here consider the second sort which turns it self towards the tail of the lesser Bear And since nothing is done in vain the Loadstone must be mov'd thither by some Cause which also must be either in Heaven or on Earth the Poles of both which are fixt I am of their opinion who say that under the Northern Pole there is an Island call'd Ilva wherein there are high Mountains of Loadstone towards which the stronger prevailing over the weaker both our lesser Loadstones and Needles toucht therewith turn because those vast heaps of Loadstone diffuse their virtue over the whole
that she eat those Mandrakes and that they render'd her fruitful which is not at all in the Text and her Fruitfulness might proceed from the favour of God or some more fit means than that Herb. Nor is it an edible fruit neither did all the Women in the Scripture who of barren became fruitful eat Mandrakes 'T is therefore probable that this Plant hath neither the Form nor the Properties which vulgar and vain Antiquity attributes to it The fifth said 'T is easier to overthrow then to establish a Truth when the question is about things apparently repugnant to Reason which many times agrees not with our own experience whereby we see several contrary effects of one and the same Plant. As the pulp of an Orenge cools the peel heats and oil of the seeds is temperate The like may be said of Mandrake which according to the diversity of its Species and Parts may produce the different effects which are attested by Antiquity Apuleius in his Metamorphosis relating That a Physician deluded the malice of a Servant and a Stepmother by giving them the juice of Mandrake instead of poyson which they desir'd of him to kill a young man which caus'd them to think him dead when he was only in a deep sleep and Columella speaking of the soil where it grows Quamvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta Mandragorae pariat flores Moreover since there are middle Natures compos'd of two extremes as your Zöophytes between Plants and Animals to wit Spunges and Coral between Brute and Man the Ape between the soul and body of Man his Spirits why may there not be something of a middle Nature between Man and Plant to wit the Mandrake a Man in external Shape and a Plant in Effect and internal Form In brief we believe there is an Unicorn though no man of this age hath seen it why therefore may we not believe that there is such a Mandrake as most describe who affirm that they have seen one as I my self have also though I cannot affirm whether it were a true or false one CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear THe Species conceiv'd in the Phantasie representing to the Intellect some future Good they beget Hope when Evil Fear 'T is not very hard to comprehend the way nor how he that sees himself pursu'd by a potent enemy betakes himself to flight by the Instinct of Nature which avoids what ever is destructive to her But the Mind is puzled to find the cause it sees not as of groundless Fear which nevertheless sometimes befalls the most resolute yea whole Armies which fly without any pursuer The Vulgar of the Ancients who made Deities of every thing especially of what they understood not thought Pan the God of Shepherds put this sudden Passion into the minds of men because oftentimes it happens to flocks of Sheep over which he is said to preside though there be no appearance of any Wolf to fright them whence they call'd it a Panick Terror Unless you had rather interpret Pan to be the Universal and Supreme Deity who giving the success of Battels sometimes immits such a fear into the hearts of those men whom he intends to deliver into the power of their Enemies The second said That Pan was an ancient Warrior who invented the ranging of Soldiers in order of Battel and distinguish'd them into Wings call'd by the Latins Cornua whence he was pictur'd with Horns He also first devis'd Strategems so that one day having sent out his Scowts and understood that the Enemies were lodg'd in a desert place full of resounding caverns he order'd his Soldiers that as soon as they approach'd the Enemy they should make a great shout which multiply'd by the Echo of those neighbouring caverns so frighted them that before they could understand what it was they betook themselves to flight conceiving they had to do with a far greater multitude of Enemies than there was Whence the Fable of this God Pan adds that the Goddess Echo was his Mistress From this Groundless Fear as others of the like nature came to be call'd Panick Terrors Such was that which seiz'd the Soldiers of Marc Antony in the War against Mithridates that of the Gauls under Brennus when they were ready to sack the Temple of Delphos that of Hannibal when he approacht the walls of Rome to besiege it and that of Macedonians under their King Perseus who so lost their courage upon sight of an Eclipse of the Moon that it was easie for the Romans to overcome them The Third said That Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Oâ—â—ris relates another cause of this Appellation namely That when the latter of them reign'd in Aegypt Typhon surpris'd him by a wile and cast him in a chest into Nilus which News arriving amongst the Pans and Satyrs it put them into an astonishment from which all other sudden frights took their name But leaving apart conjectures of words let us consider the thing and examine Whether it be not a mistake to think that there can be terrors without any cause I think There cannot because 't is as true in Moral as in Natural Philosophy That nothing produceth nothing But as an even balance is sway'd either way by the least blast and the cause being imperceptible seems to incline of it self so when Men are ready for a battel and every one thinks of the doubtful event thereof to himself the least external cause hapning to make never so little impression upon their Spirits whilst they are in this balance is enough to move them either way the first object that occurs yea the least word being of great efficacy And because Fear is found more universally imprinted in Mens minds than Courage hence there needs less subject to produce it than to animate them Thus at the battel of Montcontour this single word Save the Princes spoken either accidentally or by design made them lose the day Thistles being mistaken for Lances gave a great terror to a whole Army and an Ass or a Cow in the Trenches hath sometimes given an Alarm to considerable Garrisons The Fourth said That Fear caus'd in an Enemy being one of the surest means to conquer him Generals have not been more careful to animate their own Souldiers than to terrifie their Enemies even by vain affrightments as showts extravagant arms and habits For this reason the Germans were wont to paint their Faces with several colours that they might seem terrible some think our Poictevins had their name of Pictons from this custom So Gideon by Gods command employ'd Trumpets and earthen Pitchers with fire in them to terrifie the Amalekites Yet none of these Inventions no more than that of Elephants Chariots of fire and other Machins can cause a Panick Terror because it ceases to bear that name when 't is found to have some manifest cause So that to ask Whence Panick Fear proceeds is to ask What is the cause of that which hath none If there be any I
the Capacities of those who love since that considering the amiable objects whether they be such and consequently there be cause for the loving of them or are not really such but only so conceiv'd by the apprehensive faculty they are equally fit to move the Will to love them and to gain its affections and they ought to be the more agreeable to it in that it finds in them its perfection and the accomplishment of its desires And so the plurality of Friends is so far from being any prejudice to Friendship that it sets a greater esteem upon it as also on him who loves The Fourth said That Friendship taken generally is a mutual Good-will between those who are desirous to do one another some reciprocal kindness but taking it more precisely it may be defin'd a Vertue by means whereof vertuous persons are so united in Affection and Will that they become absolutely like one another through a hearty good Will Concord and good Turns mutually done and receiv'd The former resides particularly in the interior motions of the mind the second in words and discourse the third in effects These are the three essential marks of a vertuous Friendship which not regarding its proper interest as those do who love upon the account of pleasure or profit courts not the objects it loves out of any other consideration than that of the Vertue or Science which render it recommendable Now these qualities being seldom found among many who ought to be equally furnish'd therewith that the Friendship may be reciprocal it is very hard to meet with so many Subjects capable of so sublime a Vertue as that which besides that combination of Vertues requiring much experience and a great process of time that we might not be deceiv'd in the choice of Friends with each whereof a Man according to the common saying should eat a bushel of Salt before he contracted a Friendship it will be found a much harder task to make such a strict examination of the qualities and dispositions of many than it will be to do it of one alone with whom consequently it is more safe to enter into Friendship than it can be with many The Fifth said That Friendship being grounded on conversation and there being not any more divertive and delightful than that between those who eat and drink together the Case is the same with friends as it is with guests which ought not to be under the number of three nor exceed that of nine whence came the ancient Proverb that a well-ordered Feast should not be under the number of the Graces nor transcend that of the Muses In a word since conversation is the ground-work of perfect Friendship as the former cannot be pleasant among less than three and must be confus'd and wearisome among above nine but is most divertive when five or six persons well-qualifi'd and perfectly understanding one the other fall into mutual discourse so Friendship cannot be of long continuance between two but there must be a third to encourage it yet with this further caution that it is better maintain'd among a greater number of persons equally vertuous provided nevertheless it exceed not that of nine to prevent the confusion and inconvenices attending a greater The Sixth said That though there be an absolute necessity of Friendship in all he transactions of humane life in order to the more pleasant expence of it yet are there principally two certain times wherein its necessity is more apparent to wit those of Prosperity and Adversity In the former our friends participate of our happiness in the latter of our misfortunes and whereas these last are commonly more frequent than good successes the plurality of Friends who are our second-selves making the burthen the more supportable by the part every one takes in our misfortunes it is much more expedient that a Man should have many then content himself with a small number which being not able to bear the brunt of so violent an assault he would be in danger of being overcome thereby Nay though all things should happen according to our wishes yet were it convenient to have a considerable number of Friends the more to congratulate our good fortune which will make the greater noise in the world the greater their number is who approve and applaud it The Seventh said That the plurality of Friends was equally inconvenient as well in good as bad fortune For in the latter it must needs trouble us very much to give occasion of grief to a great number of Friends who though they bemoan us ever so much yet are we still in the same period of misfortune nay our unhappiness is the greater in that it is contagiously communicated to so many persons at the same time In the former there cannot be any thing more troublesom then that great number of people who love or pretend to love us in our prosperity it being then impossible for us equally to satisfie them all as we might easily do one single Friend from whom we may also derive greater comfort in Adversity than from many addressing themselves to us at the same time to whose humours to accommodate our selves well we must study an unconstancy equal to that of Proteus and put on as many Countenances as they have different Inclinations The Eighth said That since a good thing is so much the more excellent the more it is communicated and diffus'd several ways Friendship ought to derive its esteem from that communication which the greater it shall be the more recommendable shall it make the Friendship which consequently is the more perfect among many to whom it is always advantageous since it comprehends the three kinds of Goods the profitable the pleasant and the vertuous For is there not much to be gain'd in a society which the more numerous it is the greater advantages and assistances may be deriv'd from it There is not any thing so highly delightful as to love and to be belov'd of many But whereas Friendship is the Livery of Vertue whose inseparable attendant she is Can there be any thing more vertuous and commendable then after that manner to love several others who love us and by that reflux of mutual kindness give assurances of our Vertue answerable to the acknowledgements we had made of their merit the multitude of Friends not abating any thing of the esteem of civil Friendship no more than the great number of charitable persons does prejudice Charity which is a consummate Love and equally embraces all CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of Oracles THere is not anything disquiets the Spirit of Man so much as the desire he hath to know things to come and whereas he cannot of himself attain thereto by reason of the weakness of his knowledge which he derives from the Senses and other corporeal powers he will needs try what he can do out of himself and there is no place into which his curiosity hath not found a way to discover what he so much desir'd
sweetness of Honey makes it self perceptible to the Tongue by it self but the proportion of a fair countenance cannot make it self known but by its species which is the picture and representation of it This way is produc'd the Love of Inclination as well as that of Knowledge only with this difference that the Species which produce the former act imperceptibly and more suddenly then those that produce the latter which is more deliberate and rational The Third said There are but two sorts of Love one improper and Metaphorical the other proper and formal That precedes Knowledg and is an Instinct inclining natural things to their proper good This follows Knowledg as its guide and is the first Expansion of the Heart pleasing it self with the good it likes And as that is diffus'd over all Creatures so this is restrain'd only to the sensible and rational The Appetite whence the former proceeds is immers'd and incorporated in the nature of every thing and not distinguish'd from the faculties and powers they have to act But the latter ariseth from the Appetite properly so call'd whose functions or motions are the eleven Passions to which as many acts correspond in the Rational Appetite The Question cannot be concerning that improper Appetite for then Stones should have Love as well as Instinct towards their Centre but of the true and proper Love subsequent to Knowledg which gives Amability to good as Light doth Visibility to colours Wherefore they who talk of certain Spirits issuing out of the lov'd person's body into the eyes of the Lover and seising upon the heart without falling under knowledge seem ignorant of the nature of Love For should such spirits arrive at the heart without being observ'd yet they must come out thence again to be known before they can cause Love as we cannot know any thing that is in the soul unless it come first out thence and become sensible since nothing is in the Understanding but what pass'd through the Sense So a man cannot know his own face but by reflection from a Looking-glass without him For the Soul at our Nativity is like a smooth table or white-sheet of Paper and thence its primitive notions during this present state is by Phantasms supplied to us by our Senses Now the essential reason of this dependance which keeps Love subject to Knowledg is that the Appetite which is the Principle of Love is only a Passion or Propriety of the thing wherein it is but the Principle of Knowledge is an essential degree of Nature Hence Souls are distinguish'd by Cognition not by Appetite we call the Sensitive Soul so from the knowledg of Sense which constitutes its essential difference and the Rational Soul so because Reason the principle of Knowledg is a degree of Nature but Appetite is a propriety which follows it And being there is the same reason of Actions and their Principles as the Appetite supposes a principle of Knowledg so Love which is the action of the Appetite supposes actual and clear Knowledg Hence there is no love without knowledg For that we have more phansie to the one of two persons playing then to the other 't is because we discern somthing in his face gestures or motion that pleases us better Sympathy pretended the cause of this love may indeed be the foundation of it inasmuch as we naturally love those like our selves but it can never make us love till we have found in the thing some Je-ne-scay-quoy of lovely It cannot be the sole cause of our love since 't is of it self imperceptible to our knowledg and consequently cannot produce love till the effects of such sympathy to wit such an Air such a Motion and such a Deportment have pleas'd us And whereas 't is said that from eyes which behold us attentively we perceive something come forth that animates us I answer that oftentimes quick fix'd and sweet intuitions are tokens of love from which 't is no wonder if ours take rise and growth as from its proper cause since Love begets Love CONFERENCE CXX How the Vnderstanding moves the Will 'T Is proper to the Understanding not only to conjoyn things wholly different but oftentimes to abstract and separate such as are perfectly united in one and the same substance and differ only in accidents which it severs from their subjects Hence reflecting upon it self it distinguishes in its operation two Faculties to wit its Cognition and the Reasonable Appetite or Will although they are one and the same thing not only in the Soul whose essence is simple but also in the Intellect nor are their objects different Truth the object of the Understanding being convertible and all one with Good the object of the Will Hence Civilians acknowledg no Will in those that want Understanding as Ideots and Children And as the same Sun-beam that produces light causes heat too by the continuation of its action or by its re-union in a Burning-glass so an object long consider'd or strongly apprehended by the Understanding as good immediately incites and inflames the same to seek and desire it So that the cognition of a thing in the Understanding is only Theory which the Will applying it self thereunto by desire reduces into Practice As the Theorical habit of an Art differs not from the Practical and the conclusion of a Syllogism is only a dependance upon its two Premisses Wherefore the Will which is the practice of the Understandings speculation and a result of its ratiocination is not distinguish'd from the Understanding and to know good to desire and seek means to possess it are operations continu'd by one sole motion Besides to separate the actions of the Souls faculties and make them independent one of another would infer a kind of divisibility in the Soul but the Will being only a desire every desire a species of motion and motion an accident it is separable from its subject the Understanding whereof 't is only an affection and propiety So that the Intellect and the Will being the same thing when the former is carried towards an apprehended good we say it moves the Will as it doth the other powers which it employs in quest of that good when the same is external and it cannot attain to it by it self The Second said That to know to will and to be able although of the same extent in things purely natural as in a Stone whose knowledge desire and power to tend to its centre are the same thing yet are different actions in rational agents For oftentimes we know without willing and will what we cannot do and sometimes we know not that which we would Oftentimes we will things not only without but even against Reason witness the irregular Appetite of breeding Women and Green-sickness Maids Wherefore these actions being different the Faculties from which they proceed the Intellect Will and Motive Faculty must be wholly distinct seeing their two adequate Objects which specifie Faculties are consider'd under divers formal Reasons which
are the sole Causes of the distinction of Faculties For Entity immaterial and spiritual is as true and intelligible the object of the Understanding but as good and desirable 't is the object of the Will which are two wholly different formal Reasons Now though the Intellect and the Will are two different Faculties yet there is such a dependance between them that the one can do nothing without the other and they communicate mutual assistance the Understanding supplies Reasons and Counsels which the Will causes the Powers under its dominion to execute for 't is a blind Queen having no knowledg of her own but only what light she receives from the Intellect But how can it see the same if blind as 't is fancied We answer that as all things have a bent and natural inclination to their proper good though they know it not as even the Intellect assents to a truth known by ratiocination but knows not why it assents to a first Principle as That the whole is greater then its part and that 2 and 1 make 3 these being connate Notions so the Will is carried to the Good propos'd to it by the Understanding because the goodness and sutableness thereof engage it to endeavours of enjoying it wherein its supream Felicity lyes The Third said Since the Will is a desire every desire a motion and every motion from some other nothing moving it self the Will cannot desire unless mov'd by some superior power and knowledg For as there is no desire without knowledg so to the end this may not be idle and unprofitable Nature hath joyn'd an Appetite to it to wit a Sensitive Appetite to the knowledg of a Sensible Good apprehended such by the Imagination which is common to Men and Brutes and a Rational Appetite the Will to the knowledg of an honest Good apprehended such by the Understanding And whereas immaterial things cannot be known by themselves but by such as are sensible and corporeal we cannot better judge of the manner whereby the Intellect moves the Will then by that whereby the Imagination moves the Sensitive Appetite which is the sweetness of the Object whose Species being receiv'd by some one of the outward Senses and carried from the Common sense to the Phansie which relishes the same to the full is then propos'd to the Sensitive Appetite which presently flyes to it oftentimes so impetuously as that it hurries the Reason and the Will along with it self and constrains them to yield to the violence of those Passions which it excites to joyn with it in pursuit of that good and which itre doubles upon the occurrence of any obstacle to its designs In like sort the Will is carried of it self to a vertuous action when the Understanding represents the honesty of the same to it provided it be not otherwise prepossess'd and the said action be not accompani'd with difficulties and thorns as commonly happens for then that Sensitive Appetite oftentimes gets the better of Reason the Flesh of the Spirit There is this difference between the motions of the Will and the Appetite that the latter necessarily follows the duct of the Imagination by which 't is inclin'd inspite of it self towards a Delectable Good but the Will common to us with Angels is so mov'd by the Intellect that nevertheless it always remains mistress of its own actions and can do either good or evil by vertue of its liberty which alone discriminates Man from Beast and gives him right of empire and command which the Civilians define a power of making use of any thing at one's pleasure and without which not only Judgments Vertues Vices Rewards and Punishments Praises and Dispraises Consultations and Deliberations would be useless but also all Laws would be to no purpose Man would be in worse condition then Brutes over whom he hath no other advantage but that of Reason which would serve for nothing if he acted things necessarily as other Agents do and not freely and voluntarily The Fourth said He had always accounted it a vain enquiry how the Understanding moves the Will and the Senses the Sensitive Appetite towards their Objects because the Cognoscitive Faculty and these Appetites being really distinct and having nothing common there cannot intervene any commerce between them They are Officers that have severed charges without having any thing to share or dispatch together Nevertheless it being true that we love nothing but what is first apprehended and judg'd amiable we must seek this dependance somwhat higher Now all actions are of the whole Compositum and consequently Man who is the whole is he who by his knowledg either of Sense or of the Intellect judges what both the one and the other Appetite ought to embrace or reject Then after he hath pass'd his judgment by his Cognoscitive Faculty he determines himself to follow by his Appetite what he hath judg'd fit to be done in consequence whereof he applies his Motive Faculty to the execution of his Resolution So that 't is Man that moves himself by his Will towards Good or Evil to pursue or avoid after he hath consider'd what he ought to will how and in what sort to comport himself By this means we obviate a world of difficulties arising from this Question and resolve many as amongst others How the Understanding comes to illuminate corporeal phantasms without establishing an Intellectus Agens for that purpose whose office is pretended to sublime those phantasms by denudating them of their singularity and materiality that so they may become actually intelligible and proportionate to the Intellect For besides that 't is impossible to conceive how any spiritual light can fall from the Intellect upon a corporeal phantasm that which is corporeal being incapable of receiving any thing spiritual and the Intellect of producing any thing out of it self since all its actions are immanent we are deliver'd from all this trouble by saying that in the state of this present life Man by his outward and inward Senses takes in as much knowledg of things as they can give him and afterwards by his Understanding deduces and infers things which the phantasms alone could not acquaint him with Thus when a phantasm represents to him a thing which his eye beholds afar off he by his Understanding judges the same a Substance because the phantasm shews him that it subsists of it self if he see it walk he judges it alive So that 't is sufficient to the drawing of all his Consequences that he infer from the phantasms what they are capable to represent to him without need of spiritualizing them or of commerce between them and the Intellect In like manner 't is not needful that the Intellect shew the Will its Object but the man's seeing it is sufficient to cause him to move himself by his Will towards the Good which he apprehends For as a King hath his Scouts to discover the state of his Enemies upon whose report he holds a Council of War wherein he