to aske at my hands and not in such as be necessarie and requisite If it be so I say see that you be not like unto him that praiseth a pompe and solemne shew of plaies and games more than life indeed which standeth upon things necessary The procession and solemnitie of the Bacchanales which was exhibited in our countrey was woont in old time to be performed after a plaine and homely manner merily and with great joy You should have seene there one carying a little barrell of wine another a branch of a vine tree after him comes one drawing and plucking after him a goate then followeth another with a basket of dried figs and last of all one that bare in shew Phallus that is to say the resemblance of the genitall member of a man but now adaies all these ceremonies are despised neglected and in maner not at all to be seene such a traine there is of those that carie vessels of gold and silver so many sumptuous and costly robes such stately chariots richly set out are driven drawen with brave steeds most gallantly dight besides the pageants dumbe-shewes and maskes that they hide and obscure the auncient and true pompe according to the first institution and even so it is in riches the things that be necessarie and serve for use and profit are overwhelmed and covered with needlesse toies and superfluous vanities I assure you the most part of us be like unto young Telemachus who for want of knowledge and experience or rather indeed for default of judgement and discretion when hee beheld Nestors house furnished with beds tables hangings tapistrie apparell and well provided also of sweete and pleasant wines never reckoned the master of the house happie for having so good provision of such necessarie and profitable things but being in Menelaus his house and seeing there store of Ivorie gold and silver and the mettall Electrum he was ravished and in an ecstasie with admiration thereof and brake out in these words Like unto this the pallace all within I judge to be Of Jupiter that mightie god who dwels in azure skie How rich how faire how infinite are all things which I see My heart as I do them behold is ravish't woonder ouslie But Socrates or Diogenes would have said thus rather How many wretched things are here how needlesse all and vaine When I them view I laugh thereat of them I am not faine And what saiest thou foolish and vaine sot as thou art Where as thou shouldest have taken from thy verie wife her purple her jewels and gaudie ornaments to the end that shee might no more long for such superfluitie nor runne a nodding after forrein vanities farre fetcht and deere bought doest thou conrrariwise embellish and adorne thy house like a theatre scaffold and stage to make a goodly sight for those that come into the Shew-place Loe wherein lieth the felicitie and happines that riches bringeth making a trim shew before those who gaze upon them and to testifie and report to others what they have seene set this aside that they be not shewed to all the world there is nothing at all therein to reckon But it is not so with temperance with philosophie with the true knowledge of the gods so farre foorth as is meete and behoovefull to be knowen for these are the same still and all one although everie man attaine not thereto but all others be ignorant thereof This pietie I say and religion hath alwaies a great light of her owne and resplendant beames proper to it selfe wherewith it doth shine in the soule evermore accompanied with a certaine joy that never ceaseth to take contentment in her owne good within whether any one see it or no whether it bee unknowen to gods and men or no it skilleth not Of this kinde and nature is vertue indeed and trueth the beautie also of the Mathematicall sciences to wit Geometrie and Astrologie unto which who will thinke that the gorgeous trappings and capparisons the brooches collars and carkans of riches are any waies comparable which to say a truth are no better than jewels and ornaments good to trim yoong brides and set out maidens for to be seene and looked at For riches if no man doe regard behold and set their eies on them to say a trueth is a blinde thing of it selfe and sendeth no light at all nor raies from it for certainely say That a rich man dine and sup privately alone or with his wife and some inward and familiar friends he troubleth not himselfe about furnishing of his table with many services daintiedishes and festivall fare he stands not so much upon his golden cups and goblets but useth those things that be ordinarie which goe about everie daie and come next hand as well vessell as viands his wife sits by his side and beares him companie not decked and hung with jewels and spangles of gold not arraied in purple but in plaine attire and simply clad but when he makes a feast that is to say sets out a theater wherein the pompes and shewes are to meet and make a jangling noise together when the plaies are to be represented of his riches and the solemne traine therof to be brought in place then comes abroad his brave furniture indeed then he fetcheth out of the ship his faire chaufers and goodly pots then bringeth hee foorth his rich three-footed tables then come abroad the lampes candlesticks and branches of silver the lights are disposed in order about the cups the cup-bearers skinkers and tasters are changed all places are newly dight and covered all things are then stirred and remooved that saw no sunne long before the silver plate the golden vessels and those that be set and enriched with pretious stones to conclude now there is no shew els but of riches at such a time they confesse themselves and will be knowen wealthy But all this while whether a rich man suppe alone or make a feast temperance is away and true contentment OF THE NATVRALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN The Summarie WIsely said one whosoever it was That to banish amitie and friendship from among men were as great hurt to the societie of mankinde as to deprive them of the light and heat of the Sunne which being verified and found true in the whole course of this life and in the maintenance of all estates not without great cause Nature hath cast and sprinkled the seed thereof in the generation and nourishment of a race and linage whereof she giveth evident testimonies in brute beasts the better to moove and incite us to our duety That we may see therefore this pretious seed and graine of amitie how it doth flower and fructifie in the world we must begin at the love and naturall kindnesse of fathers and mothers to their children for if this be well kept and mainteined there proceed from it an infinite number of contentments which do much asswage and ease the inconveniences
disposition and condition of an Atheist to be happie as the state of freedome and libertie but now the Atheist hath no sparke at all of superstition whereas the superstitious person is in will and affection a meere Atheist howbeit weaker than to beleeve and shew in opinion that of the gods which he would and is in his minde Moreover the Atheist in no wise giveth any cause or ministreth occasion that superstition should arise but superstition not onely was the first beginning of impietie and Atheisme but also when it is sprung up and growne doth patronise and excuse it although not truely and honestly yet not without some colourable pretence for the Sages and wise men in times past grew not into this opinion that the world was wholly voide of a divine power and deitie because they beheld and considered any thing to be found fault withall in the heaven some negligence and disorder to be marked some confusion to be observed in the starres in the times and seasons of the yeere in the revolutions thereof in the course and motions of the sunne round about the earth which is the cause of night and day or in the nouriture and food of beasts or in the yeerely generation and increase of the fruits upon the earth but the ridiculous works and deeds of superstition their passions woorthy to be mocked and laughed at their words their motions and gestures their charmes forceries enchantments and magicall illusions their runnings up and downe their beating of drums tabours their impure purifications their filthy castimonies and beastly sanctifications their barbarous and unlawfull corrections and chastisements their inhumane and shamefull indignities practized even in temples these things I say gave occasion first unto some for to say that better it were there had bene no gods at all than to admit such for gods who received and approoved these abuses yea and tooke pleasure therein or that they should be so outragious proud and injurious so base and pinching so easie to fall into choler upon a small cause and so heard to be pleased againe Had it not beene farre better for those Gaules Scythians or Tartarians in old time to have had no thought no imagination no mention at all delivered unto them in histories of gods than to thinke there were gods delighting in the bloudshed of men and to beleeve that the most holie and accomplished sacrifice and service of the gods was to cut mens throates and to spill their bloud and had it not beene more expedient for the Carthaginians by having at the first for their law-givers either Critias or Diagoras to have beene perswaded that there was neither God in heaven nor divell in hell than to sacrifice so as they did to Saturne who not as Empedocles said reprooving and taxing those that killed living creatures in sacrifice The sire lists up his deere belooved son Who first some other forme and shape did take He doth him slay and sacrifice anon And therewith vowes and foolish praiers doth make but witting and knowing killed their owne children indeed for sacrifice and looke who had no issue of their owne would buie poore mens children as if they were lambes young calves or kiddes for the saide purpose At which sacrifice the mother that bare them in her wombe would stand by without any shew at all of being mooved without weeping or sighing for pittie and compassions for otherwise if shee either fetched a sigh or shed ateare shee must loose the price of her childe and yet notwithstanding suffer it to be slaine and sacrificed Moreover before and all about the image or idoll to which the sacrifice was made the place resounded and rung againe with the noise of flutes and hautboies with the sound also of drums and timbrels to the end that the pitifull crie of the poore infants should not be heard Now if any Tryphones or other such like giants having chased and driven out the gods should usurpe the empire of the world and rule over us what other facrifices would they delight in or what offrings else and service besides could they require at mens hands Antestries the wife of the great Monarch 〈◊〉 buried quicke in the ground twelve persons and offred them for the prolonging of her owne life unto Pluto which god as Plato saith was named Pluto Dis and Hades for that being full of humanitie unto mankind wise and rich besides he was able to enterraine the soules of men with perswasive speeches and reasonable remonstrances Xenophanes the Naturalist seeing the Egyptians at their solemne feasts knocking their breasts and lamenting pitiously admonished them verie fitly in this wise My good friends if these quoth he be gods whom you honor thus lament not for them and if they be men sacrifice not unto them But there is nothing in the world so full of errors no maladie of the minde so passionate and mingled with more contrarie and repugnant opinions as this of superstition in regard whereof we ought to shunne and avoide the same but not as many who whiles they seeke to eschue the assaults of theeves by the high way side or the invasion of wilde beasts out of the forcst or the danger of fire are so transported and caried away with feare that they looke not about them nor see what they doe or whither they goe and by that meanes light upon by-waies or rather places having no way at all but in stead thereof bottomlesse pits and gulfes or else steepe downe-fals most perilous even so there be divers that seeking to avoid superstition fall headlong upon the cragged rocke of perverse and stif-necked Impietie and Atheisme leaping over true religion which is feated just in the mids betweene both OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT The Summarie THere is not a man how well soever framed to the world and setled therein who can promise unto himselfe any peaceable and assured state throughout the course of his whole life but according as it seemeth good to the clernall and wise providence of the Almightie which governeth all things to chaslise our faults or to try our constancy in faith he ought in time of a calme to prepare himselfe for a tempest and not to attend the mids of a danger before he provide for his safetie but betimes and long before to fortifie and furnish himselfe with that whereof he may have necd another day in all occurences and accidents whatsoever Our Authour therefore in this Treatise writing to comfort and encourage one of his friends cast downe with anguish occasioned by his banishment sheweth throughout all his discourse that vertue it is which maketh us happie in everie place and that there is nothing but vice that can hurt and endamage us Now as touching his particularising of this point in the first place he treateth what kinde of friends we have need of in our affliction and how we ought then to serve our turnes with them and in regard of exile mone particularly he adjoineth this advertisment
departed once from thence it should joine thereto againe or become a part thereof I cannot see how it is possible *********** 32 Why doth the date tree onely of all others arise archwise and bend upward when a weight is laide thereupon WHether may it not be that the fire and spiritual power which it hath and is predominant in it being once provoked and as it were angred putteth foorth it selfe so much the more and mounteth upward Or because the poise or weight aforesaid forcing the boughes suddenly oppresseth and keepeth downe the airie substance which they have and driveth all of it inward but the same afterwards having resumed strength againe maketh head afresh and more egerly withstandeth the weight Or lastly the softer and more tender branches not able to susteine the violence at first so soone as the burden resteth quiet by little and little lift up themselves and make a shew as if they rose up against it 33 What is the reason that pit-water is lesse nutritive than either that which ariseth out of springs or falleth downe from heaven IS it because it is more colde and withall hath lesse aire in it Or for that it conteineth much salt therein by reason of such store of earth mingled therewith now it is well knowen that salt above all other things causeth leannesse Or because standing as it doeth still and not exercised with running and stirring it getteth a certaine malignant quality which is hurtfull and offensive to all living creatures drinking thereof for by occasion of that hurtfull qualitie neither is it well concocted nor yet can it feed or nourish anything And verily the same is the very cause that all dead waters of pooles and meares be unholsome for that they cannot digest and dispatch those harmefull qualities which they borrow of the evill propertie either of aire or of earth 34 Why is the west wind held commonly to be of all other the swiftest according to this verse of Homer Let us likewise bestir our feet As fast as westerne winds do fleet IS it not thinke you because this winde is woont to blow when the skie is very well 〈◊〉 and the aire exceeding cleere and without all clouds for the thicknesse and impuritie of the aire doth not I may say to you a little impeach and interrupt the course of the winds Or rather because the sunne with his beames striking through a cold winde is the cause that it passeth the faster away for whatsoever is drawen in by the refrigerative force of the windes the same if it be overcome by heat as his enemie we must thinke is driven and set forward both farther and also with greater celeritie 35 What should be the cause that bees cannot abide smoake WHether is it because the pores and passages of their vitall spirits be exceeding streight and if it chance that smoke be gotten into them and there kept in and intercepted it is enough to stop the poore bees breath yea and to strangle them quite Or is it not the acrimony and bitternesse thinke you of the smoke in cause for bees are delighted with sweet things and in very trueth they have no other nourishment and therefore no marvell if they detest and abhorre smoke as a thing for the bitternesse most adverse and contrary unto them and therefore hony masters when they make a smoke for to drive away bees are woont to burne bitter herbes as hemlock centaury c. 36 What might be the reason that bees will sooner sting those who newly before have committed whoredome IS it not because it is a creature that woonderfully delighteth in puritie cleanlinesse and elegancie and withall she hath a marvellous quicke sense of smelling because therefore such uncleane dealings betweene man and woman in regard of fleshly and beastly lust immoderately performed are wont to leave behind in the parties much filthinesse and impurity the bees both sooner finde them out and also conceive the greater hatred against them heereupon it is that in Theocritus the shepherd after a merry and pleasant maner sendeth Venus away into Anchises to be well stung with bees for her adultery as appeereth by these verses Now go thy wate to Ida mount go to Anchises now Where mightie okes where banks along of square Cypirus grow Where hives and hollow truncks of trees with hony sweet abound Where all the place with humming noise of busie bees resound And Pindarus Thou painfull bee thou pretie creature Who hony-combs six-angled as they be With feet doest frame false Rhoecus and impure With sting hast prickt for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 What is the cause that dogges follow after a stone that is throwen at them and biteth it letting the man alone who flang it IS it because he can apprehend nothing by imagination nor call a thing to minde which are gifts and vertues proper to man alone and therefore seeing he can not discerne nor conceive the partie indeed that offered him injurie he supposeth that to be his enemie which seemeth in his eie to threaten him and of it he goes about to be revenged Or thinking the stone whiles it runnes along the ground to be some wilde beast according to his nature he intendeth to catch it first but afterwards when he seeth himselfe deceived and put besides his reckoning he setteth upon the man Or rather doth he not hate the stone and man both alike but pursueth that onely which is next unto him 38 What is the reason that at a certeine time of the yeere shee woolves doe all whelpe within the compasse of twelve daies ANtipater in his booke conteining the historie of living creatures affirmeth that shee woolves exclude foorth their yoong ones about the time that mast-trees doe shed their blossomes for upon the taste thereof their wombs open but if there be none of such blowmes to be had then their yoong die within the bodie and never come to light He saith moreover that those countries which bring not foorth oaks and mast are never troubled nor spoiled with wolves Some there be who attribute all this to a tale that goes of Latona who being with childe and finding no abiding place of rest and safetie by reason of Juno for the space of twelve daies during which time the went to Delos being transmuted by Jupiter into a wolfe obteined at his hands that all wolves for ever after might within that time be delivered of their yoong 39 How commeth it that water seeming white aloft sheweth to be blacke in the bottome IS it for that depth is the mother of darkenesse as being that which doth dimme and marre the Sunne beames before they can descend so low as it as for the uppermost superficies of the water because it is immediatly affected by the Sunne it must needs receive the white brightnesse of the light the which Empedocles verily approveth in these verses Ariver in the bottome seemes by shade of colour blacke The like is seene in caves and holes by depth where light
susceptible of folly But wherefore should any man be offended and scandalized hereat if hee call to mind that which this philosopher wrote in his second booke of Nature where he avoucheth That vice was not made without some good use and profit for the whole world But it will be better to recite this doctrine even in his owne words to the end that you may know in what place they range vice and what speech they make thereof who accuse Xenocrates and Speusippus for that they reputed not health to be an indifferent thing nor riches unprofitable As for vice quoth he it is limited in regard of other accidents beside for it is also in some sort according to nature and if I may so say it is not altogether unprofitable in respect of the whole for otherwise there would not be any good and therefore it may be inferred that there is no good among the gods in as much as they can have none evil neither when at any time Jupiter having resolved the whole matter into himselfe shall become one shall take away all other differences wil there be any more good considering there will be no evill to be found But true it is that in a daunce or quier there wil be an accord measure although there be none in it that singeth out of tune maketh a discord as also health in mans body albeit no part thereof were pained or diseased but vertue without vice can have no generation And like as in some medicinable confections there is required the poyson of a viper or such like serpent and the gall of the beast Hvaena even so there is another kind of necessarie convenience betweene the wickednesse of Melitus and the justice of Socrates betweene the dissolute demeanor of Cleon and the honest 〈◊〉 of Pericles And what meanes could Jupiter have made to bring foorth Hercules and Lycurgus into the world if he had not withall made Sardanapalus and Phalaris for us And it is a great marvell if they 〈◊〉 not also that the Phthisicke or ulcer of the lungs was sent among men for their good plight of bodie and the gout for swift footmanship and Achilles had not worne long haire unlesse Thersites had beene bald For what difference is there betweene those that alledge these doting fooleries or rave so absurdlie and such as say that loosenesse of life and whoredome were not unprofitable for continence and jniustice for justice So that we had need to pray unto the gods that there might be alwaies sinne and wickednes False leasing smooth and glosing tongue Deceitfull traines and fraud among in case when these be gone vertue depart and perish withal But will you see now and behold the most elegant devise and pleasantest invention of his For like as Comoedies quoth he carrie otherwhiles ridiculous Epigrams or inscriptors which considered by themselves are nothing woorth how be it they give a certaine grace to the whole Poeme even so a man may well blame and detest vice in it selfe but in regard of others it is not unprofitable And first to say that vice was made by the divine providence even as a lewd Epigram composed by the expresse will of the Poet surpasseth all imagination of absurditie for if this were true how can the gods be the givers of good things rather than of evill or how can wickednes any more be enemie to the gods or hated by them or what shall we have to say and answere to such blasphemous sentences of the Poets sounding so ill in religious eares as these God once dispos'd some house to overthrow Twixt men some cause and seeds of strife doth sow Againe Which of the gods twixt them did kindle fire Thus to contest in termes of wrath andire Moreover a foolish and leawd epigram doth embelish and adorne the Comedie serving to that end for which it was composed by the Poet namely to please the spectatours and to make them laugh But Jupiter whom we surnamed Paternall Fatherly Supreame Sovereigne Just Righteous and according to Pindarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the best and most perfect artisan making this world as he hath done not like unto some great Comedie or Enterlude full of varietie skill and wittie devices but in maner of a city common to gods and men for to inhabit together with justice and vertue in one accord and happily what need had he to this most holy and venerable end of theeves robbers murderers homicides parricides and tyrans for surely vice and wickednesse was not the entry of some morisque-dance or ridiculous eare-sport carrying a delectable grace with it and pleasing to God neither was it set unto the affaires of men for recreation and pastime to make them sport or to move laughter being a thing that carrieth not so much as a shadow nor representeth the dreame of that concord and convenience with nature which is so highly celebrated and commended Furthermore the said lewd epigram is but a small part of the Poeme and occupieth a very little roome in a Comedie neither do such ridiculous compositions abound overmuch in a play nor corrupt and marre the pleasant grace of such matters as seeme to have beene well and pretily devised whereas all humane affaires are full thorowout of vice and mans life even from the very first beginning and entire as it were of the prologue unto the finall conclusion of all and epilogue yea and to the very plaudite being disordinate degenerate full of perturbation and confusion and having no one part thereof pure and unblamable as these men say is the most filthy unpleasant and odious enterlude of all others that can be exhibited And therefore gladly would I demaund and learne of them in what respect was vice made profitable to this universall world for I suppose he will not say it was for divine and celestiall things because it were a mere reciculous mockery to affirme that unlesse there were bred and remained among men vice malice avarice and lesing or unlesse we robbed pilled and spoiled unlesse we slandered and murdered one another the sun would not run his ordinary course nor the heaven keepe the set seasons and usuall revolutions of time 〈◊〉 yet the earth seated in the midst and center of the world yeeld the causes of winde and raine It remaineth then that vice sin was profitably engendred for us and for our affaires and haply this is it which they themselves would seeme to say And are we indeed the better in health for being sinfull or have we thereby more plenty and aboundance of things necessary availeth our wickednesse ought to make us more beawtifull and better favoured or serveth it us in any stead to make us more strong and able of body They answere No. But is this a silent name onely and a cretaine blinde opinion and weening of these night-walking Sophisters and not like indeed unto vice which is conspicuous enough exposed to the view of the
of the soule which is subject to passions For sweet odors as they doe many times excite and stirre up the sense when it is dull and beginneth to faile so contrariwise they make the same as often drowsie and heavy yea and bring it to quietnesse whiles those aromaticall smels by reason of their smoothnesse are spred and defused in the bodie According as some Physicians say that sleepe is engendred in us when the vapour of the food which we have received creepeth gently along the noble parts and principall bowels and as it toucheth them causeth a kinde of tickling which lulleth them asleepe This Cyphi they use in drinke as a composition to season their cups and as an ointment besides for they hold that being taken in drinke it scowreth the guttes within and maketh the belly laxative and being applied outwardly as a liniment it mollifieth the bodie Over and above all this Rosin is the worke of the Sunne but Myrrh they gather by the Moone light out of those plants from which it doth destill But of those simples whereof Cyphi is compounded some there be which love the night better as many I meane as be nourished by cold windes shadowes dewes and moisture For the brightnesse and light of the day is one and simple and Pindarus saith that the Sunne is seene through the pure and solitarie aire whereas the aire of the night is a compound and mixture of many lights and powers as if there were a confluence of many seeds from every starre running into one By good right therefore they burne these simple perfumes in the day as those which are engendred by the vertue of the Sunne but this being mingled of all forts and of divers qualities they set on fire about the evening and beginning of the night OF THE ORACLES THAT HAVE CEASED TO GIVE ANSWERE The Summarie THe spirit of errour hath endevoured alwaies and assaied the best he can to mainteine his power and dominion in the world having after the revolt and fall of Adam beene furnished with instruments of all sorts to tyrannize over his slaves In which number we are to range the oracles and predictions of certaine idoles erected in many places by his instigation by meanes whereof this sworne enemy to the glory of the true God 〈◊〉 much prevailed But when it pleased our heavenly father to give us his sonne for to be our Saviour who descending from heaven to earth tooke upon him our humane nature wherein he susteined the 〈◊〉 and punishment due for our sinnes to deliver us out of hell and by vertue of his merits to give us entrance into the kingdome of heaven the trueth of his grace being published and made knovenin the world by the preaching of the Aposlles and their faithfull successours the Divell and his angels who had in many parts and places of the world abused and deceived poore idolaters were forced to acknowledge their Sovereigne and to keepe silence and suffer him to speake unto those whom he meant to call unto salvation or els to make them unexcusable if they refused to heare his voice This cessation of the Oracles put the priests and sacrificers of the the Painims to great trouble and woonderfull perplexitie in the time of the Romane Emperours whiles some imputed the cause to this others to that But our authour in this Treatise discourseth upon this question shewing thereby how great and lamentable is the blindnesse of mans reason and wisedome when it thinketh to atteine unto the secrets of God For all the speeches of the Philosophers whom he bringeth in heere as interlocutours are 〈◊〉 tales and fables devised for the nonce which every Christian man of any meane judgemeut will at the first sight condemne Yet thus much good there is in this discourse that the Epicureans are here taxed and condemned in sundry passages As touching the contents of this conference the occasion thereof ariseth from the speech of Demetrius and Cleombrotus who were come unto the Temple of Apollo for the one of them having rehearsed a woonder as touching the Temple of Jupiter Ammon mooveth thereby a farther desire of disputation but before they enter into it they continue still the former speech of the course and motion of the Sunne Afterwards they come to the maine point namely Why all the Oracles of Greece excepting that onely of Lebadia ceased To which demand 〈◊〉 a Cynique Philosopher answereth That the wickednesse of men is the cause thereof Ammonius 〈◊〉 attributeth all unto the warres which had consumed the Pilgrims that used to resort unto the said Oracles Lamprias proposeth one opinion and Cleombrotus inferring another of his fall into a discourse and common place as touching Daemons whom he verily raungeth betweene gods and men disputing of their nature according to the Philosophie of the Greeks Then he proveth that these Daemons have the charge of Oracles but by reason that they departed out of one countrey into another or died these Oracles gave over To this purpose he telleth a notable tale as touching the death of the great Pan concluding thus that 〈◊〉 Daemons be mortall we ought not to woonder at the cessation of Oracles After this Ammonius confuteth the Epicureans who holde That there be no 〈◊〉 And upon the confirmation of the former positions they enter together into the examination of the opinions of the 〈◊〉 and Platonists concerning the number of the worlds to wit whether they be many or infinit growing to this resolution after long dispute that there be many and 〈◊〉 to the number of five Which done Demetrius reviving the principall question moveth also a 〈◊〉 one Why the Daemons have this power to speake by Oracles Unto which there be many and 〈◊〉 answeres made which determine all in one Treatise according to the Platonists Philosophie of 〈◊〉 principall efficient and finall cause of those things that are effected by reason and particularly of 〈◊〉 and predictions for which he maketh to concurre the Earth the Sunne Exhalations Daemons and the Soule of man Now all the intention and drift of Plutarch groweth to this point that the earth being incited and moved by a naturall vertue and that which is proper unto it and in no wise divine and perdurable hath brought forth certaine powers of divination that these inspirations breathing and arising out of the earth have touched the understandings of mē with such efficacy as that they have caused them to foresee future things afarre off and long ere they hapned yea and have addressed and framed them to give answere both in verse and prose Item that like as there be certeine grounds and lands more 〈◊〉 one than the other or producing some particular things according to the divers and peculiar proprietie of ech there be also certeine places and tracts of the world endued with this temperature which both ingender and also incite these Enthusiaque and divining spirits Furthermore that this puissance is meere divine indeed howbeit not per petuall eternall
〈◊〉 that his debt did grow unto him by the interest for use Furthermore because ever and anon the same Homer attributeth unto the night the epither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Quicke and sharpe you Grammarians are much affected to this word saying He understandeth thereby that the shadow of the earth being round groweth point-wise or sharp at the end in maner of a cone or pyramis And what is he who standing upon this point that small things may not be the proofes and signes of greater matters will approove this argument in Physicke namely that when there is a multitude of spiders seene it doeth prognosticate a pestilent Summer or in the Spring season when the leaves of the olive tree resemble the crowes-feet Who I say will ever abide to take the measure of the Sunnes body by clepsydres or water-dials with a gallon or pinte of water or that a tyle-formed tablet making a sharpe angle by the plumbe enclining upon a plaine superficies should shew the just measure of the elevation of pole from the Horizon which alwaies is to be seene in our Hemisphaere Loe what the priests and prophets in those parts may alledge and say And therefore we ought to produce some other reasons against them in case we would mainteine the course of the Sunne to be constant and unvariable as we hold heere in these countries And not of the Sunne onely cried out with a loud voice Ammonius the Philosopher who was then in place but also of the whole heaven which by this reckoning commeth in question For if it be granted that the yeeres decrease the race of the Sunne which he runneth betweene the one Tropique and the other must of necessity be cut shorter and that it taketh not up so great a part of the Horizon as the Mathematicians set downe but that it becommeth shorter and lesse according as the Southern or Meridionall parts be contracted and gather alwaies toward the Septentrionall and Northerne Whereupon it will ensue that our Summer will be shorter and the temperature of the aire by consequence colder by reason that the Sunne turneth more inwardly and describeth greater paralelles or equidistant circles than those be about the Tropicks at the longest and shortest daies of the yeere Moreover this would follow heereupon that the Gnomons in the dials at Syene in Aegypt will be no more shadowlesse at the Summer Tropicke or Solstice and many of the fixed starres will runne under one another some also of them wil be forced for want of roome to runne one upon another and be hudled pell-mell together And if they shall say that when other starres hold their owne and keepe their ordinary courses the Sunne onely observeth no order in his motions they cannot alledge any cause that should so much as hasten his motion alone among so many others as there be but they shall trouble and disquiet most of those things which are seene evidently above and namely those generally which happen unto the Moone in regard of the Sunne So that we shal have no need of those who observe the measures of oile for to proove the diversitie of the yeeres because the ecclipses both of the Moone and Sun will sufficiently shew if there be any at all for that the Sun shall many times meet with the Moone and the Moone reciprocally fall as often within the shadow of the earth so as we shall need no more to display and discover the vanity and falsitie of this reason Yea but I my selfe quoth Cleombrotus have seene the said measure of oile for they shewed many of them unto me and that of this present yeere when I was with them appeered to be much lesse than those in yeeres past So that Ammonius made answer in this wise And how is it that other men who adore the inextinguible fires who keepe and preserve the same religiously for the space of an infinit number of yeeres one after another could not as well perceive and observe so much And say that a man should admit this report of yours to be true as touching the measures of the oile were it not much better to ascribe the cause thereof unto some coldnesse or moisture of the aire or rather contrariwise to some drinesse and heat by reason whereof the fire in the lampe being enfeebled is not able to spend so much nutriment and therefore hath no need thereof For I have heard it many times affirmed by some That in Winter the fire burneth much better as being more stronger more fortified by reason that the heat thereof is drawen in more united and driven closer by the exterior colde whereas great heats and droughts doe weaken the strength thereof so as it becommeth faint loose and rawe without any great vehemencie and vigour nay if a man kindle it against the Sunne-shine the operation of it is lesse hardly catcheth it hold of the wood or fewell and more slowly consumeth it the same But most of all a man may lay the cause upon the oile it selfe for it goeth not against reason to say that in old time the oile was of lesse nutriment and stood more upon the waterish substance than now it doth as pressed out of olives which grew upon yoong trees but afterwards being better concocted and riper in the fruit comming of plants more perfect and fully growen in the same quantity was more effectuall and able longer to nourish and mainteine the fire Thus you see how a man may salve and save that supposition of the Ammonian priests although it seeme very strange and woonderfully extravagant After that Ammonius had finished his speech Nay rather quoth I Cleombrotus I beseech you tell us somewhat of the oracle for there hath gone a great name time out of minde of the deity resident there but now it seemeth that the reputation thereof is cleane gone And when Cleombrotus made no answer heereto but held downe his head and cast his eies upon the ground There is no neede quoth Demetrius to demaund or make any question of the oracles there when as we see the oracles in these parts to faile or rather indeed all save one or two brought to nothing This rather would be enquired into what the cause should be that generally they all doe cease For to what purpose should we speake of others considering that Boeotia it selfe which heeretofore in old time resounded and rung againe with oracles now is quite voide of them as if the springs and fountaines were dried up and a great siccitie and drought of oracles had come over the whole land For there is not at this day goe throughout all Boeotia unlesse it be onely in Lebadia one place where a man may would he never so faine draw any divination what need soever he hath of any oracle for all other parts are either mute or altogether desolate and forlorne And yet in the time of the Medes warre the oracle of Ptous Apollo was in great request and that of Amphiaraus
children be growen to that age wherin they are to be committed unto the charge of Tutors Schoolemasters and governors then parents ought to have an especial care of their state namely under whom they set them to be trained up least for want of good providence and foresight they betray them into the hands of some vile slaves base barbarians vaine and light-headed persons For most absurd and ridiculous is the practise of many men in this point who if they have any servants more vertuous or better disposed than others some of them they appoint to husbandry and tillage of their ground others they make Masters of their ships They employ them I say either in merchandise to be their factours or as stewards of their house to receive and pay all or else to be banquers and so they trust them with the exchaunging and turning of their monies But if they meete with one slave among the rest that useth to be cupshotten given to gluttony belly cheere or otherwise is untoward for any good service him they set over their children to bring them up Whereas indeed a governour over youth should be wel given of a right good nature himselfe such an one as Phoenix was who had the breeding and education of Achilles The principal point therfore and most important of all that hitherto hath bene alledged is this That choise men be sought out for to be teachers masters of our children who live in good name and without challenge whose cariage and behaviour is blameles who for their knowledge experience of the world are the best that may be found For surely the source roote of all goodnes and honesty is the good education and training up of our children in their tender age And like as good husbandmen and gardeners are woont to pitch props stakes close unto their yong plants to stay them up and keepe them streight even so discreete and wise teachers plant good precepts and holesome instructions round about their yoong schollers to the end that thereby their manners may bud foorth commendably and be framed to the rule of vertue But contrariwise you shall have some fathers now adaies that deserve no better than to be spit at in their very faces who either upon ignorance or for want of experience before any triall made of those masters who are to have the conduct and charge of their children commit them hand over head to the tuition of lewd persons and such as beare shew and make profession of that which they are not Neither were this absurditie altogether so grosse and ridiculous if so be they faulted herein of meere simplicitie default of foreknowledge But here is the heights of their folly and errour that themselves knowing otherwhiles the insufficiencie yea and the naughtines of some such Masters better than they doe who advertise them thereof yet for all that they commit their children unto them partly being overcome by the slatterie of claw-backes and partly willing to gratifie some friends upon their kinde and earnest entreatie Wherein they do much like for all the world to him who lying verie sicke in bodie for to content and satisfie a friend leaveth an expert and learned physition who was able to cure him and entertaineth another blind leech who for want of skill and experience quickly killeth him or else unto one who being at sea forgoeth an excellent pilot whom he knoweth to be very skilfull and for the love of a friend maketh choise of another that is most insufficient O Iupiter and all the gods in Heaven Is it possible that a man bearing the name of a father should make more account of a friends request than of the good education of his owne children Which considered had not that ancient Philosopher Crates 〈◊〉 you just occasion to say oftentimes that if possibly he might he would willingly mount to the highest place of the citie and there crie out aloud in this manner What meane you my Masters and whether runne you headlong carking and caring all that ever you can to gather goods and rake riches together as you do whiles in the mean time you make little or no reckoning at all of your children unto whom you are to leave all your wealth To which exclamation of his I may adde thus much moreover and say That such fathers are like unto him that hath great regard of his shoe but taketh no heed unto his foor And verily a man shall see many of these fathers who upon a covetous minde and a cold affection toward their owne children are growen to this passe that for to spare their purse and ease themselves of charge chuse men of no woorth to teach them which is as much as to seeke a good market where they may buy ignorance cheapest Certes Aristippus said verie well to this purpose when upon a time he pretily mocked such a father who had neither wit nor understanding and jibed pleasantly with him in this maner For when he demaunded of him how much he would take for the training up and teaching of his sonne He answered An hundred crownes A hundred crownes quoth the father by Hercules I sweare you aske too much out of the way For with a hundred crownes I could buy a good slave True quoth Aristippus againe Lay out this hundred crownes so you may have twaine your sonne for one and him whom you buy for the other And is not this a follie of all foliies that nourses should use their yoong infants to take meate and feed themselves with the right hand yea and rebuke them if haply they put foorth their left and not to forecast and give order that they may learne civility and heare sage holesom instructions But what befalleth afterward to these good fathers when they have first noursed their children badly then taught them as lewdly Mary I will tell you When these children of theirs are growne to mans estate and will not abide to heare of living orderly and as it becommeth honest men but contrariwise fall headlong into outragious courses and give themselves wholy to sensuality and servile pleasures Then such fathers all repent for their negligence past in taking no better order for their education but all too late considering no good ensueth thereupon but contrariwise the lewd prancks which they commit daily augment their griefe of heart and cause them to languish in sorrow For some of them they see to keepe companie with flatterers parasites and smell feasts the lewdest basest and most cursed wretches of all other who serve for nothing but to corrupt spoile and marre youth Others to captivate and spend themselves upon harlots queanes and common strumpets proud and sumptuous in expence the entertainment of whom is infinitly costly Many of them consume all in delicate fare and feeding a daintie and fine tooth Many of them fall to dice and with mumming and masking hazard all they have And divers of them againe entangle themselves
counseld me to lie The old mans curse that I might have perswaded so did I. And in another place O Iupiter whom men do father call thou art a God most mischievous of all Let not a yoong man in any wise be accustomed to praise such speeches neither let him seeke any colourable pretenses to cloke and excuse wicked and infamous acts he must not be studious and cunning in such inventions to shew therein his subtilitie and promptnesse of wit But rather he is to thinke thus that Poesie is the verie imitation of maners conditions and lives yea and of men such as are not altogither perfect pure and irreprehensible but in whom passions false opinions and ignorance beare some sway yet so as many times by the dexteritie and goodnesse of nature they be reformed and disposed to better waies When a yoong man then is thus prepared and his understanding so framed that when things are well done and said his heart is mooved and affected therewith as by some heavenly instinct and contrariwise not well pleased with lewd deeds or words but highly offended thereat certes such instruction of his judgement will be a meanes that he shal both heare and read any Poemes without hurt and danger But he that admireth al applieth himselfe so that he embraceth every thing he I say that commeth with a judgement devoted and enthralled to those magnificent and heroicke names like unto those disciples who counterfeited to be crump shouldred and buncht backe like their master Plato or woulds needs stut stammer and maffle as Aristotle did surely such a one will take no great heed but soone apprehend and interteine many evill things Moreover this yoong beginner of ours ought not to be affected after a timorous and superstitious manner as they are who being in a temple feare and dread every thing and are readie to worship and adore whatsoever they see or heare but boldly and confidently to pronounce and say as occasion serveth This is ill done or not decently spoken no lesse than to give his acclamation and consent to that which is well and seemely either said or done As for example Achilles seeing the soldiors how they fell sicke daily in the campe and not well appaid that the war was thus drawen out in length especially to the hinderance of his owne honor being a martiall man of great prowesse and renowne in the field assembled a counsell of war and called the Greeks together But as he was a man otherwise well seene in the skill of Physick perceiving by the ninth day past which commonly is criticall and doth determine of maladies one way or other by course of nature that it was no ordinary disease nor proceeding from usuall causes stood up to make a speech not framing himselfe to please and gratifie the common people but to give counsell unto the king himselfe in this maner I thinke we must all is done ô Agamemnon Leege Returne againe without effect to Greece and leave our seege This was well and wisely said these were modest and temperate words becomming his person But when the prophet or soothsaier said that he feared much the wrath and indignation of the mightiest man and soveraigne commander of al the Greeks he answered then never a wise or sober word for sworne a great oth that no man should be so hardy as to lay hand on the said prophet so long as he remained alive he added moreover and said full unseemely No if thou should'st both meane and name King Agamemnon I vow the same Shewing plainly by these words what little account he made of his prince and how he contemned souereigne authoritie nay he overpassed himselfe more yet and proceeded farther in heat of choler to lay hand upon his sword yea and to draw it foorth with a full purpose to kill the king which was done of him neither well for his owne honour nor wisely for the good of the State But repenting himselfe immediately Into the skabbard then anon he puts his doughty sword Minerva gave him that advise and he obeid her word Herein againe he did well and honestly for having not the power to extinguish and quench his choler quite yet he delaied it well and repressed it yea and brought it under the obeysance of reason before it brake out into any excessive outrage which had beene remedilesse Semblably Agamemnon himselfe for that which he did and said in the assembly of Counsell he was woorthy to be skorned and laughed at But in the matter concerning the Damosell Chryseis he shewed more gravitie and princely Majestie than in like case Achilles did for he when the faire Briseis was taken from him and led away Sat weeping in great agonie Retir'd apart from companie But Agamemnon himselfe in person conducting her as farre as to the ship delivering up and sending away to her owne father the woman whom a little before he said that he loved more deerely than his owne espoused wife did nothing unfitting himselfe or like a passionate lover Againe Phoenix being cursed by his father and betaken to all the hellish flends for lying with his concubine breaketh out into these words I minded once with sword of mine my fathers blood to she ad But that some god my rage represt and put this in my head How men would cry much shame on me and namely Gracians all With one voice me a parricide or Father killer call Which verses in Homer Aristarchus was afraid to let stand and therefore dashed them out But verily they serve in that place fitly for the purpose namely when Phoenix instructeth Achilles what a violent passion anger is and how there is no outrage but men will dare and do in the heat of choler when they will not be guided with reason or directed by the counsell of those that would appease them For he bringeth in Meleager also who was angrie with his citizens how be it afterwards pacified In which example as he wisely blameth and reprooveth such passious so he praiseth and commendeth as a good and expedient thing not to be led and carried away therewith but to resist and conquer them and to take up betime and repent True it is that hitherto in these places alreadie cited there is a manifest difference to be observed but where there is some obscurity as touching the true sense and meaning of a sentence we must teach a yoong man to stay himsselfe there and pause upon the point that he may be able to distinguish in this manner If Nausicaa upon the first sight of Vlisses a meere stranger falling into the same passion of love with him as Calypso did and seeking nothing but wanton pleasure as one living daintily and being now ripe and readie for marriage utter foolishly these and such like words and that before her waiting maids O that it were hap so brave a Knight to wed who hath my hart O that he would with me vouchsafe for to remaine and not depart Her boldnesse and
farre enough off from us Like as nurses therefore are wont to say unto their little children Crie not and you shall have this or that so we shall do very wel to speake unto our choler in this wise Make no such haste soft and faire keepe not such a crying make not so loud a noise be not so eager and urgent upon the point so shall you see every thing that you would have sooner done and much better And thus a father when he seeth his childe going about to cut or cleave any thing with a knife or edge toole taketh the toole or knife out of his hand and doth it himselfe even so he that doth take revenge out of the hands of choler punisheth not himselfe but him that deserveth it and thus he doth surely putting his owne person in no danger without damage and losse nay with great profit and commodity Now whereas all passions whatsoever of the minde had need of use and eustome to tame as it were and vanquish by exercise that which in them is unruely rebellious and disobedient to reason certes in no one point besides had we need to be more exercised I meane as touching those dealings that we have with our housholde servants than in anger for there is no envy emulation that ariseth in us toward thē there is no feare that we need to have of them neither any ambition that troubleth or pricketh us against them but ordinary and continuall fits of anger we have every day with them which breed much offence and many errours causing us to tread awry to slip and do amisse sundry waies by reason of that licentious libertie unto which we give our selves all the whiles that there is none to controll none to stay none to forbid and hinder us and therefore being in so ticklish a place and none to sustaine and holde us up soone we catch a fall and come downe at once And a hard matter it is I may say to you when we are not bound to render an account to any one in such a passion as this to keepe our selves upright and not to offend unlesse we take order before-hand to restraine and empale as it were round about so great a libertie with meeknesse and clemencie unlesse I say we be well inured and acquainted to beare and endure many shrewd and unhappy words of our wives much unkinde language of friends and familiars who many times do chalenge us for being too remisse over-gentle yea and altogether carelesse and negligent in this behalfe And this in trueth hath bene the principall cause that I have bene quicke and sharpe unto my servants for feare lest they might proove the woorse for not being chastised But at the last though late it were I perceived First that better it was by long sufferance and indulgence to make them somewhat woorse than in seeking to reforme and amend others to disorder and spoile my selfe with bitternesse and choler Secondly when I saw many of them often-times even because they were not so punished feare and shame to do evil and how pardon and forgivenesse was the beginning of their repentance and conversion rather than rigour and punishment and that I asture you they would serve some more willingly with a nod or winke of the eie and without a word spoken than others with all their beating and whipping I was at last perswaded in my minde and resolved that reason was more woorthy to command and rule as a master than ire and wrath For true it is not that the Poet saith Where ever is feare Shame also is there but cleane contrary Looke who are bashfull and ashamed in them there is imprinted a certaine feare that holdeth them in good order whereas continuall beating and laying on without mercy breedeth not repentance in servants for evill doing but rather a kinde of forecast and providence how they should not be spied nor taken in their evill doing Thirdly calling to remembrance and considering evermore with my selfe that he who taught us to shoot forbad us not to draw a bowe or to shoot an arrow but to misse the marke no more will this be any let or hinderance but that we may chastise and punish our servants if we be taught to do it in time and place with moderation and measure profitably and decently as it apperteineth And verily I do enforce my selfe and strive to master my choler and subdue it principally not denying unto them who are to be punished the libertie and meanes to justifie themselves but in hearing them to speake what they can for their excuse For as time and space doeth in the meane time finde the passion occupied another way and withall bring a certaine delay which doeth slacke and let downe as it were the vehemencie and violence thereof so judgement of reason all the while meeteth both with a decent maner and also with a convenient meane and measure of doing punishment accordingly And besides this course and maner of proceeding leaveth him that is punished no cause occasion or pretense at all to resist and strive againe considering that he is chastised and corrected not in choler and anger but being first convinced that he had well deserved his correction and which were yet woorse than all the rest the servant shall not have vantage to speake more justly and to better reason than his master Well then like as Phocion after the death of Alexander the great having a care not to suffer the Athenians to rise over-soone or make any insurrection before due time ne yet to give credit rashly unto the newes of his death My masters of Athens quoth he if he be dead to day he will be dead to morow also and three daies hence to even so should a man in mine opinion who by the impulsion and instigation of anger maketh haste to take punishment thus suggest and secretly say to himselfe If this servant of mine hath made a fault to day it will be as true to morrow and the next day after that he hath done a fault neither will there be any harme or danger at all come of it if hee chaunce to be punished with the latest but beleeve me if he be punished over-soone it will be alwaies thought that he had wrong and did not offend a thing that I have knowen to happen full often For which of us all is so curst cruel as to punish and scourge a servant for burning the roast five or ten daies ago or for that so long before he chanced to overthrow the table or was somewhat with the slowest in making answer to his Master or did his errand or other busines not so soone as he should and yet we see these such like be the ordinary causes for which whiles they be fresh and new done we take on we stampe and stare we chafe we frowne we are implacable and will heare of no pardon And no marvaile for like as any bodies seeme bigger through a mist even so
and discommodities of our life And Plutarch entring into this matter sheweth first in generallity That men learne as it were in the schoole of brute beasts with what affection they should beget nourish and bring up their children afterward he doth particularise thereof and enrich the same argument by divers examples But for that he would not have us thinke that he extolled dumbe beasts above man and woman he observeth and setteth downe verie well the difference that is of amities discoursing in good and modest tearmes as touching the generation and nouriture of children and briefly by the way representeth unto us the miserable entrance of man into this race upon earth where he is to runne his course Which done he proveth that the nourishing of infants hath no other cause and reason but the love of fathers and mothers he discovereth the source of this affection and for a conclusion sheweth that what defect and fault soever may come betweene and be medled among yet it can not altogether abolish the same OF THE NATURALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS to their children THat which mooved the Greeks at first to put over the decision of their controversies to forraine judges and to bring into their countrey strangers to be their Umpires was the distrust and diffidence that they had one in another as if they confessed thereby that justice was indeed a thing necessarie for mans lite but it grew not among them And is not the case even so as touching certaine questions disputable in Philosophie for the determining whereof Philosophers by reason of the sundry and divers opinions which are among them have appealed to the nature of brute beasts as it were into a strange city and remitted the deciding thereof to their properties and affections according to kinde as being neither subject to partiall favour nor yet corrupt depraved and polluted Now surely a common reproch this must needs be to mans naughtie nature and leawd behaviour That when we are in doubtfull question concerning the greatest and most necessary points perteining to this present life of ours we should goe and search into the nature of horses dogs and birds for resolution namely how we ought to make our marriages how to get children and how to reare and nourish them after they be borne and as if there were no signe in maner or token of nature imprinted in our selves we must be faine to alledge the passions properties and affections of brute beasts and to produce them for witnesses to argue and prove how much in our life we transgresse and go aside from the rule of nature when at our first beginning and entrance into this world we finde such trouble disorder and confusion for in those dumbe beasts beforesaid nature doth retaine and keepe that which is her owne and proper simple entire without corruption or alteration by any strange mixture wheras contrariwise it seemeth that the nature of man by discourse of their reason and custome together is mingled and confused with so many extravagant opinions and judgements fet from all parts abroad much like unto oile that commeth into perfumers hands that thereby it is become manifolde variable and in every one severall and particular and doeth not retaine that which the owne indeed proper and peculiar to it selfe neither ought we to thinke it a strange matter and a woonderfull that brute beasts void of reason should come neerer unto nature and follow her steps better than men endued with the gift of reason for surely the verie senselesse plants heerein surpasse those beasts beforesaid and observe better the instinct of nature for considering that they neither conceive any thing by imagination nor have any motion affection or inclination at all so verily their appetite such as it is varieth not nor stirreth to and fro out of the compasse of nature by meanes whereof they continue and abide as if they were kept in and bound within close-prison holding on still in one and the same course and not stepping once out of that way wherein nature doth leade and conduct them as for beasts they have not any such great portion of reason to temper and mollifie their naturall properties neither any great subtiltie of sense and conceit nor much desire of libertie but having many instincts inclinations and appetites not ruled by reason they breake out by the meanes thereof other-whiles wandering astray and running up and downe to and fro howbeit for the most part not very farre out of order but they take sure holde of nature much like a ship which lieth in the rode at anchor well may she daunce and be rocked up and downe but she is not caried away into the deepe at the pleasure of windes and waves or much after the maner of an asse or hackney travelling with bit and bridle which go not out of the right streight way wherein the master or rider guideth them whereas in man even reason herselfe the mistresse that ruleth and commandeth all findeth out new cuts as it were and by-waies making many starts and excursions at her pleasure to and fro now heere now there whereupon it is that she leaveth no plaine and apparant print of natures tracts and footing Consider I pray you in the first place the mariages if I may so terme them of dumbe beasts and reasonlesse creatures and namely how therein they folow precisely the rule and direction of nature To begin withall they stand not upon those lawes that provide against such as marrie not but lead a single life neither make they reckoning of the acts which lay a penaltie upon those that be late ere they enter into wedlocke like as the citizens under Lycurgus and Solon who stood in awe of the said statutes they feare not to incurre the infamie which followed those persons that were barren and never had children neither doe they regard and seeke after the honours and prerogatives which they atteined who were fathers of three children like as many of the Romains do at this day who enter into the state of matrimonie wedde wives 〈◊〉 beget children not to the end that they might have heires to inherit their lands and goods 〈◊〉 that they might themselves be inheritors capable of dignities immunities But to proceed unto more particulars the male afterwards doth deale with the female in the act of generation not at all times for that the end of their conjunction and going together is not grosse pleasure so much as the engendring of young and the propagation of their kinde and therefore at a certeine season of the yeare to wit the very prime of the spring when as the pleasant winds so apt for generation do gently blow and the temperature of the aire is friendly unto breeders commeth the female full lovingly and kindly toward her fellow the male even of her owne accord and motion as it were trained by the hand of that secret instinct and desire in nature and for her owne part she doth what
maner of Gods service and worship declare the same unto us after three sorts the first naturall the second fabulous and the third civill that is to say restified by the statutes and ordinances of every city and State the naturall is taught by philosophers the fabulous by poets the civill and legall by the customes of ech citie but all this doctrine and maner of teaching is divided into seven sorts the first consisteth in the celestiall bodies appearing aloft in heaven for men had an apprehension of God by starres that shew above seeing how they are the causes of great symphonie and accord and that they keepe a certeine constant order of day and night of Winter and Summer of rising and setting yea and among those living creatures and fruits which the earth beneath bringeth forth whereupon it hath bene thought that heaven was the father and earth the mother to these for that the powring downe of showers and raine seemed in stead of naturall seeds and the earth as a mother to conceive and bring the same forth Men also seeing and considering the starres alwaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holding on their course and that they were the cause that we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say beholde and contemplate therefore they called the sunne and moone c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say gods of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to run and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to behold Now they range the gods into a second and third degree namely by dividing them into those that be prositable and such as are hurtfull calling the good and profitable Jupiter Juno Mercurie and Ceres but the noisome and hurtfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say maligne spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say furies and Ares that is to say Mars whom they detested as badde and violent yea and devised meanes to appease and qualifie their wrath Moreover the fourth and fifth place and degree they attributed unto affaires passions and affections namely love Venus lust or desire and as for affaires they had hope justice good policie and equitie In the sixth place be those whom the poets have fained for 〈◊〉 being minded to set downe a father for the gods begotten and engendred devised and brought in such progenitors as these To wit 〈◊〉 Ceus and Crius Hyperion and Iapetus whereupon all this kind is named Fabulous But in the seventh place are those who were adorned with divine honors in regard of the great benefits and good deeds done unto the common life of mankind although they were begotten and borne after the maner of men and such were Hercules Castor Pollux and 〈◊〉 and these they said had an humane forme for that as the most noble and excellent nature of all is that of gods so of living creatures the most beautiful is man as adorned with sundry vertues above the rest and simply the best considering the constitution of his minde and soule they thought it therefore meet and reasonable that those who had done best and performed most noble acts resembled that which was the most beautifull and excellent of all other CHAP. VII What is God SOme of the philosophers and namely Diagor as of the isle of Melos Theodorus the Cyrenaean and Euemerus of Tegea held resolutely that there were no gods And verily as touching Euemerus the poet Callimachus of Cyrene writeth covertly in Iambique verses after this maner All in a troupe into that chapell go Without the walles the city not farre fro Whereas sometime that old vain-glorious asse When as he had the image cast in brasse Of Jupiter proceeded for to write Those wicked books which shame was to indite And what books were they even those wherein he discoursed that there were no gods at all And Euripides the tragaedian poet although he durst not discover set abroad in open 〈◊〉 the same for feare of that high court and councell of Areopagus yet he signified as much in this maner for he brought in Sisyphus as the principall author of this opinion and afterwards favourizeth even that sentence of his himselfe for thus he saith The time was when the life of man was rude And as wilde beasts with reason not endu'd Disordinate when wrong was done alway As might and force in ech one bare the sway But afterwards these enormities were laied away and put downe by the bringing in of lawes howbeit for that the law was able to represse injuries and wicked deeds which were notorious and evidently seene and yet many men notwithstanding offended and sinned secretly then some wise man there was who considered and thought with himselfe that needfull it was alwaies to blindfold the trueth with some devised and forged lies yea and to perswade men that A God there is who lives immortally Who heares who sees and knowes all woondrously For away quoth he with vaine dreames and poeticall fictions together with Callimachus who saith If God thou knowest wot well his power divine All things can well performe and bring to fine For God is not able to effect all things for say there be a God let him make snow blacke fire cold him that sitteth or lieth to stand upright or the contrary at one instant and even Plato himselfe that speaketh so bigge when he saith That God created and formed the world to his owne pattern and likenesse smelleth heerein very strongly of some old dotards foolerie to speake according to the poets of the old comedie For how could hee looke upon himselfe quoth he to frame the world according to his owne similitude of how hath he made it round in manner of a globe being himselfe lower than a man ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the first bodies in the beginning stood still and stirred not but then the minde and understanding of God digested and aranged them in order yea and effected the generations of all things in the universall world PLATO is of a contrary mind saying That those first bodies were not in repose but that they moved confusedly and without order whereupon God quoth he knowing that order was much better than disorder and confusion disposed all these things but as well the one as the other have heerein faulted in common for that they imagined and devised that God was entangled and encumbred with humane affaires as also that he framed the world in regard of man and for the care that he had of him for surely living as he doth happy immortal acomplished with all sorts of good things and wholly exempt from all evill as being altogether implored and given to prefer and mainteine his owne beatitude and immortallity he intermedleth not in the affaires and occasions of men for so he should be as unhappy and 〈◊〉 as some 〈◊〉 mason or labouring workman bearing heavie burdens travelling and sweting about the 〈◊〉 of the world Againe this god of who they
side it lieth lowest of all things in the world and by occasion thereof resteth unmooveable hauing no cause why it should encline more to one part than to another but yet some places of her because of their raritie do jogge and shake EPICURUS keepeth his old tune saying it may well be that the earth being shogged and as it were rocked and beaten by the aire underneath which is grosse and of the nature of water therefore mooveth and quaketh As also it may be quoth he that being holow and full of holes in the parts below it is forced to tremble and shake by the aire that is gotten within the caves and concavities and there enclosed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea how it was made and commeth to be bitter ANAXIMANDER affirmeth that the Sea is a residue remaining of the primitive humidity whereof the Sunne hauing burnt up and consumed a great part the rest behind he altered and turned from the naturall kind by his excessive ardent heat ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the said first humiditie being diffused and spred abroad in manner of a poole or great meere was burnt by the motion of the sunne about it and when the oileous substance thereof was exhaled and consumed the rest setled below and turned into a brackish and bitter-saltnesse which is the Sea EMPEDOCLES saith that the Sea is the sweat of the earth enchafed by the sunne being bathed and washed all over aloft ANTISTON thinketh it to be the sweat of heat the moisture whereof which was within being by much seething and boiling sent out becommeth salt a thing ordinary in all sweats METRODORUS supposeth the Sea to be that moisture which running thorough the earth reteined some part of the densitie thereof like as that which passeth through ashes The disciples of PLATO imagine that so much of the elementarie water which is congealed of the aire by refrigeration is sweet and fresh but whatsoever did evaporate by burning and inflammation became salt CHAP. XVII Of the Tides to wit the ebbing and flowing of the sea what is the cause thereof ARISTOTLE and HERACLITUS affirme that it is the sunne which doth it as who stirreth raiseth and carieth about with him the most part of the windes which comming to blow upon the Ocean cause the Atlanticke sea to swell and so make the flux or high water but when the same are allaied and cleane downe the sea falleth low and so causeth a reflux and ebbe or low water PYTHEAS of Marseils referreth the cause of Flowing to the full moone and of Ebbing to the moone in the wane PLATO attributeth all to a certeine rising of the waters saying There is such an elevation that through the mouth of a cave carieth the Ebbe and Flow to and fro by the meanes whereof the seas doe rise and flow contrarily TIMAEUS alledgeth the cause hereof to be the rivers which falling from the mountaines in Gaule enter into the Atlantique sea which by their violent corruptions driving before them the water of the sea cause the Flow and by their ceasing and returne backe by times the Ebbe SELEUCUS the Mathematician who affirmed also that the earth mooved saith that the motion thereof is opposit and contrary to that of the moone also that the winde being driven to and fro by these two contrary revolutions bloweth and beateth upon the Atlanticke ocean troubleth the sea also and no marvell according as it is disquieted it selfe CHAP. XVIII Of the round circle called Halo THis Halo is made after this manner betweene the body of the moone or any other starre and our eie-sight there gathereth a grosse and mistie aire by which aire anon our sight commeth to be reflected and diffused and afterwards the same incurreth upon the said starre according to the exterior circumference thereof and thereupon appeereth a circle round about the starre which being there seene is called Halo for that it seemeth that the apparent impression is close unto that upon which our sight so enlarged as is before said doth fall THE FOURTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving runne through the generall parts of the world I will now passe unto the particulars CHAP. I. Of the rising and inundation of Nilus THALES thinketh that the anniversarie windes called Etcsiae blowing directly against Aegypt cause the water of Nilus to swell for that the sea being driven by these windes entreth within the mouth of the said river and hindereth it that it cannot discharge it selfe freely into the sea but is repulsed backward EUTHYMENES of Marseils supposeth that this river is filled with the water of the ocean and the great sea lying without the continent which he imagineth to be fresh and sweet ANAXAGORAS saith that this hapneth by the snowe in Aethiopia which melteth in summer and is congealed and frozen in winter DEMOCRITUS is of opinion that it is long of the snowe in the north parts which about the aestival solstice and returne of the sunne being dissolved and dilated breedeth vapors and of them be engendred clouds which being driven by the Etesian windes into Aethiopia and Aegypt toward the south cause great and violent raines wherewith both lakes and the river also Nilus be filled HERODOTUS the Historian writeth that this river hath as much water from his sources and springs in winter as in summer but to us it seemeth lesse in winter because the sunne being then neerer unto Aegypt causeth the said water to evaporate EPHORUS the Historiographer reporteth that all Aegypt doth resolve and runne at it were wholly into swet in summer time whereunto Arabia and Libya doe conferre and contribute also their waters for that the earth there is light and sandy EUDOXUS saith that the priests of Aegypt assigne the cause hereof to the great raines and the Antiperistasis or contrarie occurse of seasons for that when it is Summer with us who inhabit within the Zone toward the Summer Tropicke it is Winter with those who dwell in the opposit Zone under the Winter Tropicke whereupon saith he proceedeth this great inundation of waters breaking downe unto the river Nilus CHAP. II. Of the Soule THALES was the first that defined the Soule to be a nature moving alwaies or having motion of it selfe PYTHAGORAS saith it is a certeine number moving it selfe and this number he taketh for intelligence or understanding PLATO supposeth it to be an intellectuall substance mooving it selfe and that according to harmonicall number ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is the first Entelechia or primitive act of a naturall and organicall bodie having life potentially DICEARCHUS thinketh it to be the harmonie and concordance of the foure elements ASCLEPIADES the Physician defineth it to be an exercise in common of all the senses together CHAP. III. Whether the Soule be a body and what is the substance of it ALl these Philsosophers before rehearsed suppose that the Soule is incorporall that of the owne nature it mooveth and is a spirituall substance and the action of a
counted nine after that the monethly purgations stay upon the first conception and so it is thought that infants be of seven moneth whichs are not for that he knew how after conceptiō many women have had their menstruall flux POLYBUS DIOCLES and the EMPIRICKS know that the eight moneths childe also is vitall howbeit in some sort feeble for that many for feeblenesse have died so borne in generall and for the most part ordinarily none are willing to reare and feed the children borne at the seven moneth and yet many have beene so borne and growen to mans estate ARISTOTLE and HIPPOCRATES report that if in seven moneths the matrix be growen full then the infant 〈◊〉 to get foorth and such commonly live and doe well enough but if it incline to birth and be not sufficiently nourished for that the navill is weake then in regard of hard travell both the mother is in danger and her fruit becommeth to mislike and thriveth not but in case it continue nine moneths within the matrix then it commeth foorth accomplished and perfect POLYBUS affirmeth it to be requisite and necessarie for the vitalitie of infants that there should be 182 daies and a halfe which is the time of six moneths compleat in which space the sunne commeth from one Solstice or Tropicke to another but such children are said to be of seven moneths when it falleth out that the odde daies left in this moneth are taken to the seventh moneth But he is of opinion that those of eight moneths live not namely when as the infant hastneth indeed out of the wombe and beareth downward but for the most part the navell is thereby put to stresse and reatched so cannot feed as that should which is the cause of food to the infant The MATHEMATICIANS beare us in hand and say that eight moneths be dissociable of all generations but seven are sociable Now the dissociable signes are such as meet with such starres and constellations which be lords of the house for if upon any of them falleth the lot of mans life and course of living it signifieth that such shall be unfortunate and short lived These dissociable signes be reckonned eight in number namely Aries with 〈◊〉 is insociable Taurus with Scorpius is sociable Gemini with Capricorn Cancer with Aquarius Leo with Pisces and Virgo with Aries And for this cause infants of seven moneths and ten moneths be livelike but those of eight moneths for the insociable dissidence of the world perish and come to naught CHAP. XIX Of the generation of animall creatures after what maner they be engendred and whether they be corruptible THey who hold that the world was created are of opinion that living creatures also had their creation or beginning and shall likewise perish and come to an end The EPICUREANS according unto whom Animals had no creation doe suppose that by mutation of one into another they were first made for they are the substantiall parts of the world like as ANAXAGORAS and EURIPIDES affirme in these tearmes Nothing dieth but in changing as they doe one for another they shew sundry formes ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the first Animals were bred in moisture and enclosed within pricky and sharpe pointed barks but as age grew on they became more drie and in the end when the said barke burst and clave in sunder round about them a small while after they survived EMPEDOCLES thinketh that the first generations as well of living creatures as of plants were not wholy compleat and perfect in all parts but disjoined by reason that their parts did not cohaere and unite together that the second generations when the parts begun to combine and close together seemed like to images that the third generations were of parts growing and arising mutually one out of another and the fourth were no more of semblable as of earth and water but one of another and in some the nourishment was incrassate and made thicke as for others the beautie of women provoked and pricked in them a lust of spermatike motion Moreover that the kinds of all living creatures were distinct and divided by certeine temperatures for such as were more familiarly enclined to water went into water others into the aire for to draw and deliver their breath to and fro according as they held more of the nature of fire such as were of a more heavie temperature were bestowed upon the earth but those who were of an equall temperature uttered voice with their whole breasts CHAP. XX. How many sorts of living creatures there be whether they be all sensitive and endued with reason THere is a treatise of ARISTOTLE extant wherein he putteth downe fower kinds of Animals to wit Terrestriall Aquaticall Volatile and Celestiall for you must thinke that he calleth heavens starres and the world Animals even as well as those that participate of earth yea and God he defineth to be a reasonable Animall and immortall DEMOCRITUS and EPICURUS doe say that heavenly Animals are reasonable 〈◊〉 holdeth that all Animals are endued with active reason but want the passive understanding which is called the interpreter or truchment of the minde PYTHAGORAS and PLATO do affirme that the soules even of those very Animals which are called unreasonable brute beasts are endued with reason howbeit they are not operative with that reason neither can they 〈◊〉 it by reason of the distempered composition of their bodies and because they have not speech to declare and expound themselves as for example apes and dogs which utter a babling voice but not an expresse language and distinct speech DIOGENES supposeth that they have an intelligence but partly for the grosse thicknesse of their temperature and in part for the abundance of moisture they have neither discourse of reason nor sense but fare like unto those who be furious for the principall part of the soule to wit Reason is defectuous and empeached CHAP. XXI Within what time are living creatures formed in the mothers wombe EMPEDOCLES saith that men begin to take forme after the thirtie sixt day and are finished and knit in their parts within 50. daies wanting one ASCLEPIADES saith that the members of males because they be more hot are jointed and receive shape in the space of 26. daies and many of them sooner but are finished and complet in all limbes within 50. daies but females require two moneths ere they be fashioned and fower before they come to their perfection for that they want naturall heat As for the parts of unreasonable creatures they come to their accomplishment sooner or later according to the temperature of the elements CHAP. XXII Of how many elements is composedech of the generall parts which are in us EMPEDOCLES thinketh that flesh is engendred of an equall mixture and temperature of the fower elements the sinewes of earth and fire mingled together in a duple proportion the nailes and cleies in living creatures come of the nerves refrigerat and made colde in
is somewhat remooved from the beames of the sunne beginneth to shew herselfe croissant in the evening toward the West whereas the sunne setteth the third when she is at the full now that occultation and hiding of hers in the first place they named Calends for that in their tongue whatsoever is secret hidden they say it is Clam and to hide or keepe close they expresse by this word Celare and the first day of the moones illumination which wee heere in Greece tearme Noumenia that is to say the new-moone they called by a most just name Nonae for that which is new and yoong they tearme Novum in manner as wee doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for the Ides they tooke their name of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth beautie for that the moone being then at the full is in the very perfection of her beautie or haply they derived this denomination of Dios as attributing it to Jupiter but in this we are not to search out exactly the just number of daies nor upon a small default to slander and condemne this maner of reckoning seeing that even at this day when the science of Astrologie is growen to so great an increment the inequalitie of the motion and course of the moone surpasseth all experience of Mathematicians and cannot be reduced to any certeine rule of reason 25 What is the cause that they repute the morrowes after Calends Nones and Ides disasterous or dismall dates either for to set forward upon any journey or voiage or to march with an army into the field IS it because as many thinke and as Titus Livius hath recorded in his storie the Tribunes militarie at what time as they had consular and soveraigne authoritie went into the field with the Romane armie the morrow after the Ides of the moneth Quintilis which was the same that July now is and were discomfited in a battell by the Gaules neere unto the river Allia and cōsequently upon that overthrow lost the very city it selfe of Rome by which occasion the morrow after the Ides being held and reputed for a sinister and unluckie day superstition entring into mens heads proceeded farther as she loveth alwaies so to doe and brought in the custome for to hold the morrow after the Nones yea and the morrow after the Calends as unfortunate and to be as religiously observed in semblable cases But against this there may be opposed many objections for first and formost they lost that battell upon another day and calling it Alliensis by the name of the river Allia where it was strucken they have it in abomination for that cause Againe whereas there be many daies reputed dismall and unfortunate they doe not observe so precisely and with so religious feare other daies of like denomination in every moneth but ech day apart onely in that moneth wherein such and such a disaster hapned and that the infortunitie of one day should draw a superstitious feare simply upon all the morrowes after Calends Nones and Ides carieth no congruitie at all not apparence of reason Consider moreover and see whether as of moneths they used to consecrate the first to the gods celestiall the second to the terrestriall or infernall wherein they performe 〈◊〉 expiatorie ceremonies and sacrifices of purification and presenting offrings and services to the dead so of the daies in the moneth those which are chiefe and principall as hath beene said they would not have to be kept as sacred and festivall holidaies but such as follow after as being dedicated unto the spirits called Daemons and those that are departed they also have esteemed cōsequently as unhappy altogether unmeet either for to execute or to take in hand any businesse for the Greeks adoring and serving the gods upon their new moones and first daies of the moneth have attributed the second daies unto the demi-gods and Daemons like as at their feasts also they drinke the second cup unto their demi-gods and demi-goddesses In summe Time is a kinde of number and the beginning of number is I wot not what some divine thing for it is Unitie and that which commeth next after it is Deuz or two cleane opposite unto the said beginning and is the first of all even numbers as for the even number it is defective unperfect and indefinit whereas contrariwise the uneven or odde number it selfe is finite complet and absolute and for this cause like as the Nones succeed the Calends five daies after so the Ides follow the Nones nine daies after them for the uneven and odde numbers doe determine those beginnings or principall daies but those which presently ensue after the said principall daies being even are neither ranged in any order nor have power and puissance and therefore men doe not enterprise any great worke nor set foorth voiage or journey upon such daies and heereto wee may to good purpose annex that pretie speech of Themistocles For when the morrow quoth he upon a time quarrelled with the festivall day which went next before it saying that herselfe was busied and tooke a great deale of pains preparing providing with much travel those goods which the feast enjoied at her ease with all repose rest and leisure the Festivall day made this answer Thou saidst true indeed but if I were not where wouldst thoube This tale Themistocles devised and delivered unto the Athenian captaines who came after him giving them thereby to understand that neither they nor any acts of theirs would ever have beene seene unlesse hee before them had saved the citie of Athens Forasmuch then as every enterprise and voiage of importance hath need of provision and some preparatives and for that the Romans in old time upon their festivall daies dispensed nothing nor tooke care for any provision being wholy given and devoted at such times to the service worship of God doing that nothing else like as even yet at this day when the priests begin to sacrifice they pronounce with a loud voice before all the companie there assembled HOCAGE that is to say Minde this and doe no other thing verie like it is and standeth to great reason that they used not to put themselves upon the way for any long voiage nor tooke in hand any great affaire or businesse presently after a festivall day but kept within house all the morrow after to thinke upon their occasions and to provide all things necessarie for journey or exploit or we may conjecture that as at this very day the Romans after they have adored the gods and made their praiers unto them within their temples are woont to stay there a time and sit them downe even so they thought it not reasonable to cast their great affaires so as that they should immediately follow upon any of their festivall daies but they allowed some respit and time betweene as knowing full well that businesses carie with them alwaies many troubles and hinderances beyond the opinion expectation and will
wing because it lifteth up the soule from things base and mortall unto the consideration of heavenly and celestiall matters 6 How is it that Plato in some places saith the Anteperistasis of motion that is to say the circumstant contrariety debarring a body to moove in regard that there is no voidnesse or vaculty in nature is the cause of those effects which we see in physicians ventoses and cupping glasses of swallowing downe our viands of throwing of 〈◊〉 waights of the course and conveiance of waters of the fall of lightenings of the attraction that amber maketh of the drawing of the lodestone and of the accord and consonance of voices For it seemeth against all reason to yeeld one onely cause for so many effects so divers and so different in kinde First as touching the respiration in living creatures by the anteperistasis of the aire he hath elsewhere sufficiently declared but of the other effects which seeme as he saith to be miracles and woonders in nature and are nothing for that they be nought else but bodies reciprocally and by alternative course driving one another out of place round about and mutually succeeding in their roomes he hath left for to be discussed by us how each of them particularly is done FIrst and formost for ventoses and cupping glasses thus it is The aire that is contained within the ventose stricking as it doth into the flesh being inflamed with heat and being now more fine and subtil than the holes of the brasse box or glasse whereof the ventose is made getteth forth not into a void place for that is impossible but into that other aire which is round about the said ventose without forth and driveth the same from it and that forceth other before it and thus as it were from hand to hand whiles the one giveth place and the other driveth continually and so entreth into the vacant place which the first left it commeth at length to fall upon the flesh which the ventose sticketh fast unto and by heating and inchasing it expresseth the humor that is within into the ventose or cupping vessell The swallowing of our victuals is after the same maner for the cavities as well of the mouth as of the stomacke be alwaies full of aire when as then the meat is driven within the passage or gullet of the throat partly by the tongue and partly by the glandulous parts or kernelles called tonsells and the muscles which now are stretched the aire being pressed and strained by the said meat followeth it hard as it giveth place and sticking close it is a meanes to helpe for to drive it downeward Semblably the waighty things that be flung as bigge stones and such like cut the aire and divide it by reason that they were sent out and levelled with a violent force then the aire all about behind according to the nature thereof which is to follow where a place is lest vacant and to fill it up pursueth the masle or waight aforesaid that is lanced or discharged forcibly and setteth forward the motion thereof The shooting and ejaculation of lightening is much what after the maner of these waights throwen in maner aforesaid for being enflamed and set on a light fire it flasheth out of a cloud by the violence of a stroke into the aire which being once open and broken givith place unto it and then closing up together above it driveth it downe forcibly against the owne nature As for amber we must not thinke that it draweth any thing to it of that which is presented before it no more than doth the lode stone neither that any thing comming nere to the one or the other leapeth thereupon But first as touching the said stone it sendeth from it I wot not what strong and flatuous fluxions by which the aire next adjoining giving backe driveth that which is before it and the same turning round and reentring againe into the void place doth 〈◊〉 from it and withall carry with it the yron to the stone And for amber it hath likewise a certeine flagrant and flatulent spirit which when the out-side thereof is rubbed it putteth forth by reason that the pores thereof are by that meanes opened And verily that which issueth out of it worketh in some measure the like effect that the Magnet or lode-stone did and drawen there are unto it such matters neere at hand as be most light and dry by reason that the substance comming thereof is but slender and weake neither is it selfe strong nor hath sufficient waight and force for to chase and drive before it a great deale of aire by means whereof it might overcome greater things as the lode-stone doth But how is it that this aire driveth and sendeth before it neither wood nor stone but yron onely and so bringeth it to the Magnet This is a doubt and dificulty that much troubleth all those who suppose that this meeting and cleaving of two bodies together is either by the attraction of the stone or by the naturall motion of the yron Yron is neither so hollow and spungeous as is wood nor so fast and close as is gold or stone but it hath small holes passages and rough aspecties which in regard of the unequality are well proportionate and fortable to the aire in such wise as it runneth not easily through but hath certaine staies by the way to catch hold of so as it may stand steady and take such sure footing as to be able to force and drive before it the yron untill it have brought it to kisse the lode-stone And thus much for the causes and reasons that may be rendred of these effects As considering the running of water above ground by what maner of compression and coarctation roud about it should be performed it is not so easy either to be perceived or declared But thus much we are to learne that for waters of lakes which stirre not but continue alwaies in one place it is because the aire spred all about and keeping them in on every side mooveth not nor leaveth unto them any vacant place For even so the upper face of the water as well in lakes as in the sea riseth up into waves and billowes according to the agitation of the aire for the water still followeth the motion of the aire and floweth or is troubled with it by reason of the inequalities For the stroke of the aire downeward maketh the hollow dent of the wave but as the same is driven upward it causeth the swelling and surging tumor of the wave untill such time as all the place above containing the water be setled and laied for then the waves also doe cease and the water likewise is still and quiet But now for the course of waters which glide and run continually above the face of the ground the cause thereof is because they alwaies follow hard after the aire that giveth way and yet are chased by those behinde by compression and driving forward and so
in order the qualitie and maner thereof howsoever there be many that thinke it very strange and absurd to search thereinto I say therefore that Destiny is not infinite but sinite and determinate however it comprehend as it were within a circle the infinitie of all things that are and have beene time out of minde yea and shall be worlds without end for neither law nor reason nor any divine thing whatsoever can be infinite And this shall you the better learne and understand if you consider the totall revolution and the universall time when as the eight sphaeres as Timaeus saith having performed their swift courses shall returne to the same head and point againe being measured by the circle of The same which goeth alwaies after one maner for in this definite and determinate reason all things aswell in heaven as in earth the which doe consist by the necessitie of that above be reduced to the same situation and brought againe to their first head and beginning The onely habitude therefore of heaven which standeth ordeined in all points aswell in regard of it selfe as of the earth and all terrestriall matters after certeine long revolutions shall one day returne yea and that which consequently followeth after and those which are linked in a continuity together bring ech one by consequence that which it hath by necessity For to make this matter more plaine let us suppose that all those things which are in and about us be wrought and brought to passe by the course of the heavens and celestiall influences all being the very efficient cause both of that which I write now and also of that which you are doing at this present yea and in that sort as you do the same so that hereafter when the same cause shall turne about and come againe we shall do the very same that now we do yea and after the same maner yea we shall become againe the very same men And even so it shall be with all other men and looke whatsoever shall follow in a course or traine shall likewise happen by a consequent and dependant cause and in one word whatsoever shall befall in any of the universall revolutions shall become the same againe Thus apparent it is as hath already beene said That Destiny being in some sort infinite is neverthelesse determinate and not infinite as also that according as we have shewed before it is evident that it is in maner of a circle for like as the motion of a circle in a circle and the time that measureth it is also a circle even so the reason of those things which are done and happen in a circle by good right may be esteemed and said to be a circle This therefore if nought els there were sheweth unto us in a maner sufficiently what is destiny in generality but not in particular nor in ech severall respect What then is it It is the generall in the same kinde of reason so as a man may compare it with civill law For first and formost it commaundeth the most part of things if not all at leastwise by way of supposition and then it compriseth as much as is possible all matters apperteining to a city or publike state generally and that we may better understand both the one and the other let us exemplifie and consider the same in specialty The civill or politique law speaketh and ordeineth generally of a valiant man as also of a run-away coward and so consequently of others howbeit this is not to make a law of this or that particular person but to provide ingenerall principally and then of particulars by consequence as comprised under the said generall for we may very well say that to remunerate and recompense this or that man for his valour is lawfull as also to punish a particular person for his cowardise and forsaking his colours for that the law potentially and in effect hath comprized as much although not in expresse words like as the law if I may so say of Physicians and of masters of bodily exercises comprehendeth speciall and particular points within the generall and even so doth the law of nature which first and principally doth determine generall matters and then particulars secondarily by consequence Semblably may particular and individuall things in some sort be said to be destined for that they be so by consequence with the generals But haply some one of those who search and enquire more curiously and exactly into these matters will hold the contrary and say that of particular individuall things proceed the composition of the generals and that the generall is ordeined and gathered for the particular Now that for which another thing is goeth alwaies before that which is for it but this is not the proper place to speake of these quiddities for wee are to referre them to some other howbeit that destiny doth not comprehend all things purely and expresly but onely such as be universall and generall is resolved upon for this present and serveth for that which we have to say heereafter yea and agreeth also to that which hath beene delivered somewhat before for that which is finite and determinate properly agreeable to divine providence is more seene in universall and generall things than in particular of this nature is the law of God and such is likewise the civill law whereas infinity consisteth in particulars After this we are to declare what meaneth this tearme By supposition for surely destiny is to be thought such a thing We have then called By supposition that which is not set downe of it selfe nor by it selfe but supposed and joined after another and this signifieth a sute and consequence This is the law or ordinance of Adrastia that is to say a decree inevitable unto which if any soule can associate it selfe the same shall be able to see by consequence all that will ensue even unto another generall revolution and be exempt from all evill which if it may be able alwaies to doe it shall neither susteine any damage nor doe harme Thus you see what it is that we call By supposition in generall Now that Fatall destiny is of this kind evidently appeereth as well by the substance as the name thereof for it is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as much as dependant and linked and a law it is and ordinance for that things therein be ordeined and disposed consequently and in maner of those which are done civilly Heereunto is to be annexed a treatise of relation that is to say what reference and respect hath Fatall destiny unto divine providence as also unto fortune likewise what is that which is in us what is contingent and such like things Moreover we are to decide wherein and how it is false wherein also and how it is true that all things happen and come to passe by Fatall destiny for 〈◊〉 it import and imply thus much That
having the greatest and most puissant cause withstanding and impeaching it ever for being true For looke whose destiny it is to die in the sea how can it possible be that he should be 〈◊〉 of death upon the land And how is it possible that he who is at Megara should come to Athens being hindred and prohibited by fatall destiny Moreover his resolutions as touching fantasies and imaginations repugne mainely against fatall destiny For intending to proove that fantasie is not an entire and absolute cause of assent he saith that Sages and wise men will prejudice and hurt us much by imprinting in our mindes false imaginations if it be so that such fantasies doe absolutely cause assent For many times wise men use that which is false unto leawd and wicked persons representing unto them a fantasie that is but onely probable and yet the same is not the cause of assent for so also should it be the cause of false opinion and of deception If then a man would transferre this reason and argument from the said wise men unto fatall destiny saying that destiny is not the cause of assents for so he should confesse that by destiny were occasioned false assents opinions and deceptions yea and men should be endamaged by destiny certes the same doctrine and reason which exempteth a wise man from doing hurt at any time sheweth withall that destiny is not the cause of all things For if they neither opine nor receive detriment by destiny certeinly they doe no good they are not wise they be not firme and constant in opinion neither receive they any good and profit by destiny so that this conclusion which they hold for most assured falleth to the ground and commeth to nothing namely that fatall destiny is the cause of all things Now if paradventure one say unto me that Chrysippus doth not make destiny the entire and absolute cause of all things but only a procatarcticall and antecedent occasion here againe will he discover how he is contradictorie to himselfe whereas he praiseth Homer excessively for saying thus of Jupiter Take well in worth therefore what he to each of you shall send And whether good or bad it be doe not with him contend As also where he highly extolleth Euripides for these verses O Jupiter what cause have I to say That mortall wretches we should prudent be Depend we doe of thee and nothing may Bring to effect but that which pleaseth thee Himselfe also writeth many sentences accordant hereunto and finally concludeth that nothing doth rest and stay nothing stirre and moove be it never so little otherwise than by the counsell and minde of Jupiter whome he saith to be all one with fatall destiny Moreover the antecedent cause is more feeble and weake than that which is perfit and absolute neither attaineth it to any effect as being subdued kept down by others mightier than it selfe rising up making head against it And as for fatall destiny Chrysippus himselfe pronouncing it to be a cause invincible inflexible and that which cannot be impeached calleth it Atropos Adrastia as one would say a cause that cannot be averted avoided or undone Likewise necessity and Pepromene which is as much to say as setting downe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an end and limit unto all things How then whether doe we not say that neither assents vertues vices nor well or ill doing lie in our free will and power if we affirme fatall destiny is to be maimed or unperfect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a fatality determining all things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without power to finish and effect ought and so the motions and habitudes of Jupiters will to remaine imperfect and unaccomplished for of these conclusions the one will follow if we say that destiny is an absolute and perfect cause and the other in case we hold that it is onely a procatarcticall or antecedent occasion For being an absolute and all sufficient cause it overthroweth that which is in us to wit our free will and againe if we admit it to be only antecedent it is marred for being effectuall and without the danger of impeachment For not in one or two places onely but every where in maner throughout all his commentaries of naturall philosophy he hath written that in particular natures and motions there be many obstacles and impediments but in the motion of the universall world there is none at all And how is it possible that the motion of the universall world should not be hindred and disturbed reaching as it doth unto particulars in case it be so that they likewise be stopped and impeached For surely the nature in generall of the whole man is not at liberty and without impediment if neither that of the foot nor of the hand be void of obstacles no more can the motion or course of a ship be void of let and hinderance if there be some stay about the sailes oares or their works Over besides all this if the fantasies and imaginations are not imprinted in us by fatall destiny how be they the cause of assents Or if because it imprinteth fantasies that lead unto assent thereupon all assents are said to be by fatall destiny how is it possible that destiny should not be repugnant to it selfe considering that in matters of greatest importance it ministreth many times different fantasies and those which distract the minde into contrary opinions whereas they affirme that those who settle unto one of the said fantasies and hold not of their assent and approbation doe erre and sinne For if they yeeld say they unto uncertaine fantasies they stumble and fall if unto false they are deceived if to such as commonly are not conceived and understood they opine For of necessity it must be one of these three either that every fantasie is not the worke nor effect of destiny or that every receit assension of fantasie is not void of error or else that destiny it selfe is not irreprehensible Neither can I see how it should be blamelesse objecting such fansies imaginations as it doth which to withstand and resist were not blameable but rather to give place and follow them and verily in the disputations of the Stoicks against the Academicks the maine point about which both Chrysippus himselfe and Antipater also contended and stood upon was this That we doe nothing at all nor be enclined to any action without a precedent consent but that these be but vaine fictions and devised fables and suppositions that when any proper fantasie is presented incontinently we are disposed yea and incited thereto without yeelding or giving consent Againe Chrysippus saith That both God and the wise man doe imprint false imaginations not because they would have us to yeeld or give our consent unto them but that we should doe the thing onely and incite our selves to that which appeereth As for us if wee be evill by
signified as much when he called the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sharpenesse at the point of the said shadow and yet the Moone as it appeareth in her ecclypses being caught and comprehended within the compasse of that shadow hath much adoo to get out of it by going forward in length thrice as much as her owne bignesse comes to Consider then how many times greater must the earth needs be than the Moone if it be so that the shadow which it casteth where it is sharpest and narrowest is thrice as much as the Moone But yee are afraid least the Moone should fall if she were avowed to the earth for it may be haply that Aeschylus hath sealed you a warrant and secured you for the earth when he said thus of Atlas He standeth like a pillar strong and sure From earth to heaven above that reacheth streight To beare on shoulders twaine he doeth endure A massie burden and unweldy weight if under the Moone there runne and be spred a light and thin aire not firme and sufficient for to susteine a solide masse whereas according to Pindarus To beare the earth there standmost putssant Columns and pillars of hard diamant And therefore Pharnaces for himselfe is out of all feare that the earth will fall mary he pittieth those who are directly and plumbe under the course of the Moone and namely the Aethiopians and those of Taprobana least so weightie a masse should tumble downe upon their heads And yet the Moone hath one good meanes and helpe to keepe her from falling to wit her very motion and violent revolution like unto those bullets or stones or whatsoever weights be put within a sling they are sure enough from slipping or falling out so long as they be violently swong and whirled about For every body is caried according to the naturall motion thereof if there be no other cause to empeach or turne it aside out of course which is the reason that the Moone mooveth not according to the motion of her poise considering the inclination thereof downward is staied and hindred by the violence of a circular revolution But peradventure more cause there were to marvel if she should stand altogether as the earth immoveable whereas now the Moone hath this great cause to empeach her for not tending downward hither As for the earth which hath no other motion at all to hinder it great reason there is that according to that onely weight of the owne it should moove downward and there settle for more heavy it is than the Moone not so much in this regard that greater it is but more for that the Moone by reason of heat and adustion of fire is made the lighter In briefe it appeareth by that which you say if it be true that the Moone be fire it hath need of earth or some other marter to rest upon and cleave 〈◊〉 for to mainteine nourish and quicken still the power that it hath for it cannot be conceived or imagined how fire should be preserved without fuell or matter combustible And you your selves affirme doe yee not that the earth abideth firme and sure without any base or piedstall to susteine and hold it up Yes verily quoth Pharnaces being in the proper and naturall place which is the very mids and center For this is it whereto all heavy and weightie things doe 〈◊〉 incline and are caried to from every side and about which they cling and be counterpeized but the upper region throughout if haply there be any terrestriall and heavy matter by violence sent up thither repelleth and casteth it downe againe with force incontinently or to speake more truely letteth it goe and fall according to the owne naturall inclination which is to tend and settle downward For the answer and refutation whereof I willing to give Luctus some reasonable time to summon his wits together and to thinke upon his reasons and calling unto Theon by name Which of the tragicall Poets was it Theon quoth I who said that Physicians Bitter medicines into the body powre When bitter choler they meane to purge and scoure And when he made me answere that it was Sophocles Well quoth I we must permit them so to doc upon necessity but we ought not to give eare unto Philosophers if they would maintaine strange paradoxes by other positions as absurd or to confute admirable opinions devise others much more extravagant and wonderfull like as these here who broch and bring in a motion forsooth tending unto a middle wherein what absurdity is there not Holde not they that the earth is as round as a ball and yet we see how many deepe profundities hautie sublimities manifold inequalities it hath affirme not they that there be antipodes dwelling opposit one unto another and those sticking as it were to the sides of the earth with their heeles upward their heads downward all arse verse like unto these woodwormes or cats which hang by their sharpe clawes Would not they have even us also that are here for to goe upon the ground not plumbe upright but bending or enclining sidelong reeling and staggering like drunken folke Doe they not tell us tales and would make us beleeve that if barres and masses of iron waighing a thousand talents a peece were let fall downe into the bottom of the earth when they came once to the middle centre thereof will stay and rest there albeit nothing els came against them nor sustained them up And if peradventure by some forcible violence they should passe beyond the said midst they would soone rebound backe thither againe of their owne accord Say not they that if a man should saw off the trunks or ends of beams on either side of the earth the same would never settle downeward still throughout but from without forth fall both into the earth and so equally meet one another and cling together about the hart or centre thereof Suppose not they that if a violent streame of water should runne downeward still into the ground when it met once with the very point or centre in the midst which they holde to be incorporall it would then gather together and turne round in maner of a whirlepoole about a pole waving to and fro there continually like one of these pendant buckets and as it hangeth wagge incessantly without end And verily some of these assertions of theirs are so absurd that no man is able to enforce himselfe to imagine in his minde although falsely that they are possible For this indeed is to make high and low all one this is to turne all upside downe that those things which become as farre as to the midst shal be thought below and under and what is under the middle shall be supposed above and aloft in such sort as that if a man by the sufferance and consent of the earth stood with his navell just against the middle and centre of it he should by this meanes have his head and his heeles both
upon him with this contradiction and say that he may aswel hold that whatsoever is beneath the Primum mobile or starrie firmament ought to be called Below In summe how is the earth called The middle and whereof is it the middle for the universall frame of the world called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is infinit and this infinit which hath neither head nor foot how can it in reason have a navill for even that which we call the mids of any thing is a kinde of limitation whereas infinitie is a meere privation of all limits and bounds As for him who saith it is not in the mids of that universalitie but of the world he is a pleasant man if he thinke not withall that the world it selfe is subject to the same doubts and difficulties for the said universall frame leaveth not unto the very world a middle but is without a certeine seat without assured footing mooving in a voidnesse infinite not into some one place proper unto it and if haply it should meet with some any other cause of stay and so abide stil the same is not according to the nature of the place And as much may we conjecture of the Moone that by the meanes of some other soule or nature or rather of some difference the earth 〈◊〉 firme beneeath and the Moone mooveth Furthermore you see how they are not ignorant of a great errour and inconvenience for if it be true that whatsoever is without the centre of the earth it skils not how is to be counted Above and Aloft then is there no part of the world to be reckoned Below or Beneath but aswell the earth it selfe as al that is upon it shal be above aloft and to be short every bodie neere or about the centre must go among those things that are aloft neither must we reckon any thing to be under or beneath but one pricke or point which hath no bodie and the same forsooth must make head and stand in opposition necessarily against all the whole nature besides of the world in case according to the course of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say above and beneath be opposite And not onely this absurdity will follow but also all heavie and ponderous bodies must needs lose the cause for which they bend and incline hither for bodie there will be none toward which it should move and as for this pricke or centre that hath no bodie there is no likelihood neither would they themselves have it so that it should be so puissant and forcible as to draw to it and reteine about it all things And if it be found unreasonable and repugnant to the course of nature that the world should be all above and nothing beneath but a terme or limit and the same without body without space and distance then this that we say is yet more reasonable namely that the region beneath and that above being parted distinctly one from another have neverthelesse ech of them a large and spacious roume to round themselves in But suppose if it please you it were against nature that terrestriall bodies should have any motion in heaven let us consider gently and in good termes not after a tragicall maner but mildly This prooveth not by-and-by that the Moone is not earth but rather that earth is in some place where naturally it should not be for the fire of the mountaine Aetna is verily under the ground against the nature of it howbeit the same ceaseth not therefore to be fire The winde conteined within leather bottles is of the owne nature light and given to mount upward but by force it commeth to be there where naturally it ought not to be Our very soule it selfe I beseech you in the name of Jupiter is it not against nature deteined within the body being light in that which is heavie being of a firie substance in that which is colde as yee your 〈◊〉 and being invisible in that which is grosse and palpable do we therefore denie that the soule is within the bodie that it is a divine substance under a grosse and heavie masse that in a moment it passeth thorowout heaven earth and sea that it pierceth and entreth within flesh nerves and marrow and finally is the cause together with the humors of infinit passions And even this Jupiter of yours such as you imagine and depaint him to be is he not of his owne nature a mighty and perpetuall fire howbeit now he submitteth himselfe and is pliable subject he is to all formes and apt to admit divers mutations Take heed therefore and be well advised good sir lest that in transferring and reducing every thing to their naturall place you doe not so philosophize as that you will bring in a dissolution of all the world and set on foot againe that olde quarrell and contention among all things which Empedocles writeth of or to speake more to the purpose beware you raise not those ancient Titans and Giants to put on armes against nature and so consequently endevour to receive and see againe that fabulous disorder and confusion whereby all that is weightie goeth one way and whatsoever is light another way apart Where neither light some countenance of Sunne nor earth all greene With herbs and plants admired is nor surging sea is seene according as Empedocles hath written wherein the earth feeleth no heat nor the water any winde wherein there is no ponderosity above nor lightnesse beneath but the principles and elements of all things be by themselves solitary without any mutuall love or dilection betweene them not admitting any society or mixture together but avoiding and turning away one from the other mooving apart by particular motions as being disdainfull proud and carying themselves in such sort as all things do where no god is as Plato saith that is as those bodies are affected wherein there is no understanding nor soule untill such time as by some divine providence there come into nature a desire and so amity Venus and Love be there engendred according to the sayings of Empedocles Parmenides and Hesiodus to the end that changing their naturall places and communicating reciprocally their gifts and faculties some driven by necessity to moove other bound to rest they be all forced to a better state remitting somewhat of their 〈◊〉 and yeelding one to another they grew at length unto accord harmony and societie For if there had not beene any other part of the world against nature but that ech one had bene both in place and for quality as it ought naturally to be without any need of change or transposition so that there had beene nothing at the first wanting I greatly doubt what and wherein was the worke of divine providence or whereupon it is that Jupiter was the father creator and maker For in a campe or field there would be no need of a man who is expert and skilfull in ranging and ordering of battell
beget any other than it selfe so feeble it is and imperfect but odde numbers coupled and mingled with others that be odde bring forth many even numbers so powerfull it is to engender every way As for all the other properties and different puissances of numbers the time will not now serve to discourse throughly of them all But heereby you see wherefore the ancient Pythagorean Philosophers called Five the Mariage as being compounded of the first male and of the first female The same also is sometime named Nature for that being multiplied by it selfe it falleth out still to determine in it selfe For like as nature taking a graine of wheat in the nature of seed and so diffusing it produceth many formes and divers kindes of things betweene through which she passeth and proceedeth untill at last she bringeth her worke to an end and when all is done sheweth a corne of wheat againe rendring the first beginning in the end of all even so when other numbers multiply themselves and end by growing and multiplication in other numbers only five six if they be multiplied by themselves do bring forth and regenerate likewise themselves for six times six maketh thirty six and five times five ariseth to twenty five But take thus much withall againe that Six doth this but once and after one maner onely when of it selfe it becommeth that foure square number but unto Five the same befalleth when it is multiplied by it selfe and besides particularly it hath this property that by addition of it selfe it produceth also it selfe in as much as it maketh ten which it doth alternatively and holdeth on this course in infinite as farre as any numbers will extend so as this number resembleth that principle or first cause which doth conduct and governe this universall world For like as it of the owne selfe preserveth the world and reciprocally of the world returneth into it selfe according as Heraclitus said of the fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fire into all things first doth turne And all things shall to fire returne like as golde is exchanged for wares and wares likewise for golde even so the meeting of five with it selfe howsoever it be can engender and bring forth nothing either imperfect or strange but all the changes that it hath be limited and certeine For either it begetteth it selfe or els produceth ten that is to say that which is proper and familiar or els perfect and accomplished Now if a man should come unto me and demand What is all this good sir unto Apollo I will answer againe That this concerneth not Apollo alone but Bacchus also who hath no lesse to do with the city of Delphos not is of lesse anthority there than Apollo himselfe For we have heard the Theologians partly in verse and partly in prose sing and say That this god being of his owne nature incorruptible and immortall yet I wot not by what sentence and reason fatall he is transmuted and changed in many sorts Sometime he is all on a light fire and causeth all things to be of the same nature and like unto all things otherwhiles most variable in all maner of formes passions puissances all different and becommeth as now he is the World so called by a most common and best knowen name But the Sages and wiser sort willing to conceale and keepe these secrets hidden from common people name this mutation change of his into fire Apollo signifying thereby a kinde of sole unity whereunto it reduceth all things and negation of plurality and Phoebus likewise betokening thereby his purity and cleerenesse from filth and pollution As for his conversion into winds water earth starres and into sundry kinds of plants and living creatures together with the order and disposition thereof such as we see all this passion I say and mutation they covertly do signifie under the name of a certeine distraction and dismembring and in these regards they call himselfe Dionysus Zagreus Nyctelius Isodaetes They exhibit also and counterfet I wot not what deaths destructions and dispatitions regenerations also and resurrections which be fables all and aenigmatic all fictions devised for to represent the foresaid mutations And verily to Bacchus they do chant in their songs certeine Dithyrambicke ditties and tunes full of passion and change with motions and agitations to and fro For according as Aeschylus saith The Dithyrambe with clamours dissonant Sorts well with Bacchus where he is resiant But unto the other that is to say Apollo they sing the Paean which is a setled kind of song and Musicke modest and sober Moreover in all their pictures and portraictures of images and statues they make Apollo alwaies with a yong face and never aging but the other to wit Bacchus they represent in many shapes and as many formes and visages And in one word to the one they attribute a constancy uniforme and evermore the same a regular order a serious and syncere gravity but unto the other mixed sports games wantonnesse and insolency in summe such a gravity as is interlaced with fury madnesse and inequality they invocate and call upon him by the name of Bacchus Eüius Bacchus I say 〈◊〉 Eüius Who women doth to rage incite And in such service furtous And frantike worship takes delight noting hereby not unfitly and without good purpose that which is proper to the one and the other mutation But for that the time of the revolutions in these changes is not equall and alike but of the one which is called Coros and signifieth plenty or satiety longer and of the other named Chresmosyne which betokeneth want and necessity shorter observing even herein the proportion they use the canticle Paean during all the rest of the yeere in their sacrifices but in the beginning of winter they stirre up the Dithyrambe and downe goeth Paean and so invocate this god for three moneths space in stead of the other supposing that there is the same proportion of the conflagration of the world to the restoring and reparation thereof as is of three to one But peradventure we have dwelt longer upon this point than we should considering the time howbeit this is certeine that they attribute the number of five unto this god Apollo as proper and peculiar unto him saying that one while it begetteth it selfe by multiplication as fire and another while maketh of it selfe ten as the world Moreover thinke we not that this number hath no societie with Musicke which is so agreeable unto this god as nothing so much Certes harmonie is to say at once occupied most of all about accords which we call Symphonies and that those are in number five and no more reason prooveth and experience will convince it to be so even unto him who shall make the triall either with strings or pipe-holes by the very sense of hearing only without any other reason For al these accords take their generation by proportion in number Now the proportion of the Musicke or Symphonie