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
and mighty men in the little houses of meane and poore folke in Kings Courts and in the bed-chambers of new wedded wives it is inquisitive in all matters searching aswell the affaires of strangers and travellers as negotiations of Lords and Rulers and other-while not without danger of his owne person For much like as if a man upon a kinde of wanton curiositie will needs be tasting of Aconite or Libard-baine to know forsooth the quality of it commeth by a mischiefe dieth of it before he can know any thing therof so they that love to be prying into the faults of great persons many times overthrow themselves before they come to any knowledge For such as can not be content with the abundant raies and radiant beames of the Sunne which are spread so cleere over all things but will needs strive and force themselves impudently to looke full upon the circle of his body and audaciously will presume and venture to pierce his brightnesse and enter into the very minds of his inward light commonly dazzle their eies and become starke blinde And therefore well and properly answered Philippides the writer of Comedies upon a time when King Lysimachus spake thus unto him What wouldest thou have me to impart unto thee of my goods Philippides What it pleaseth your Maiesty quoth he so it be nothing of your secrets For to say a truth the most pleasant and beautifull things simply which belong to the estate of Kings do shew without and are exposed to the view and sight of every man to wit their sumptuous feasts their wealth and riches their magnificent port and and pompe in publike places their bountifull favours and liberall gifts But is there any thing secret and hidden within Take heed I advise thee how thou approch and come neere beware I say that thou do not stirre and meddle therein The joy and mirth of a Prince in prosperitie can not be concealed hee cannot laugh when he is disposed to play and be merry but it is seene neither when he mindeth and doth prepare to shew some gracious favour or to be bountifull unto any is his purpose hidden but marke what thing he keepeth close and secret the same is terrible heavie stearne unpleasant yea ministring no accesse nor cause of laughter namely the treasure house as it were of some ranckor and festered anger a deepe designe or project of revenge Jealousie of his wife some suspicion of his owne sonne or diffidence and distrust in some of his minions favorites and friends Flie from this blacke cloud that gathereth so thicke for when soever that which is now hidden shall breake foorth thou shalt see what cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning will ensue thereupon But what be the meanes to avoid it mary even as I said before to turne and to withdraw thy curiositie another way and principally to set thy minde upon matters that are more honest and delectable Advise thy selfe and consider curiously upon the creatures in heaven in earth in the aire in the sea Art thou delighted in the contemplation of great or smal things if thou take pleasure to behold the greater busie thy selfe about the Sunne seeke where he goeth downe and from whence he riseth Search into the cause of the mutations in the Moone why it should so change and alter as it doth like a man or woman what the reason is that she looseth so conspicuous a light and how it commeth to passe that she recovereth it againe How is it when she hath beene out of sight That fresh she seemes and doth appeere with light First yoong and faire whiles that she is but new Till round and full we see her lovely hew No sooner is her beautie at this height But fade she doth anon who was so bright And by degrees she doth decrease and waine Untill at length she comes to naught againe And these truly are the secrets of nature neither is she offended and displeased with those who can find them out Distrustest thou thy selfe to atteine unto these great things then search into smaller matters to wit what might the reason be that among trees and other plants some be alwaies fresh and greene why they flourish at all times and be clad in their gay clothes shewing their riches in every season of the yeere why others againe be one while like unto them in this their pride and glorie but afterward you shall have them againe like unto an ill husband in his house namely laying out all at once and spending their whole wealth and substance at one time untill they be poore naked and beggerly for it Also what is the cause that some bring foorth their fruit long-wise others cornered and others round or circular But peradventure thou hast no great mind to busie thy selfe and meddle in these matters because there is no hurt nor danger at all in them Now if there be no remedie but that Curiositie should ever apply it selfe to search into evill things after the maner of some venemous serpent which loveth to feed to live and converse in pestilent woods let us lead direct it to the reading of histories and present unto it abundance and store of all wicked acts leawd and sinfull deeds There shall Curiositie finde the ruines of men the wasting and consuming of their state the spoile of wives and other women the deceitfull traines of servants to beguile their masters the calumniations and slanderous surmises raised by friends poisoning casts envie jealousie shipwracke and overthrow of houses calamities and utter undoing of princes and great rulers Satisfie thy selfe herewith to the full and take thy pleasure therein as much as thou wilt never shalt thou trouble or grieve any of thy friends acquaintance in so doing But it should seeme that curiosity delighteth not in such naughtie things that be very old and long since done but in those which be fresh fire new hot and lately committed as joying more to beholde new Tragedies As for Comedies and matters of mirth she is not greatly desirous to be acquainted with such And therefore if a man do make report of a mariage discourse of a solemne sacrifice or of a goodly shew or pompe that was set foorth the curious busie-bodie whom we speake of will take small regard thereto and heare it but coldly and negligently He will say that the most part of all this he heard alreadie by others and bid him who relateth such narrations to passe them over or be briefe and cut off many circumstances Marie if one that sits by him chance to set tale on end and begin to tell him there was a maiden defloured or a wife abused in adulterie if he recant of some processe of law or action commenced of discord and variance betweene two brethren you shall see him then not to yawne and gape as though hee had list to sleepe you shall not perceive him to nod hee will make no excuse at all that his leisure will not
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
mire confessing and declaring I wot not what sinnes and offenses that he hath committed to wit that he hath eaten or drunke this or that which his god would not permit that he hath walked or gone some whither against the will and leave of the divine power Now say he be of the best sort of these superstitious people and that he labour but of the milder superstition yet will he at leastwise sit within house having about him a number of all kindes of sacrifices and sacred aspersions yee shall have old witches come and bring all the charmes spels and sorceries they can come by and hang them about his necke or other parts of his bodie as it were upon a stake as Bion was woont to say It is reported that Tyribasus when he should have beene apprehended by the Persians drew his cemiter and as hee was a valiant man of his hands defended himselfe valiantly but so soone as they that came to lay hands on him cried out and protested that they were to attach him in the kings name by commission from his Majestie he laid downe his weapon aforesaid immediately and offred both his hands to be bound and pinnioned And is not this whereof we treat the semblable case whereas others withstand their adversitie repell and put backe their afflictions and worke all the meanes they can for to avoide escape and turne away that which they would not have to come upon them A superstitious person will heare no man but speake in this wise to himselfe Wretched man that thou art all this thou suffrest at the hands of God and this is befallen unto thee by his commandement and the divine providence all hope hee rejecteth he doth abandon and betray himselfe and looke whosoever come to succour and helpe him those he shunneth and repelleth from him Many crosses there be and calamities in the world otherwise moderate and tolerable which superstition maketh mischievous and incurable That ancient King Midas in old time being troubled and disquieted much in his minde as it should seeme with certaine dreames and visions in the end fell into such a melancholy and despaire that willingly he made himselfe away by drinking buls blood And Aristodemus king of Messenians in that warre which he waged against the Lacedaemonians when it hapned that the dogs yelled and houled like wolves and that there grew about the altar of his house the herbe called Dent de chien or Dogs grasse whereupon the wisards and soothsayers were afraid as of some tokens presaging evill conceived such an inward griefe tooke so deepe a thought that he fell into desperation and killed himselfe As for Nicias the Generall of the Athenian armie haply it had beene farre better that by the examples of Midas and Aristodemus he had beene delivered and rid from his superstition than for feare of the shadow occasioned by the eclipse of the moone to have sitten stil as he did and do nothing untill the enemies environed and enclosed him round about and after that fortie thousand of Athenians were either put to the sword or taken prisoners to come alive into the hands of his enemies and lose his life with shame and dishonor for in the darkenesse occasioned by the opposition of the earth just in the mids betweene the sunne and the moone whereby her body was shadowed and deprived of light there was nothing for him to feare and namely at such a time when there was cause for him to have stood upon his feet and served valiantly in the field but the darkenesse of blinde superstition was dangerous to trouble and confound the judgement of a man who was possessed therewith at the very instant when his occasions required most the use of his wit and understanding The sea already troubled is With billowes blew within the sound Up to the capes and clifs arise Thicke mistie clouds which gather round About their tops where they do seat Fore-shewing shortly tempests great A good and skilful pilot seeing this doth well to pray unto the gods for to escape the imminent danger and to invocate and call upon those saints for helpe which they after call Saviours but all the while that he is thus at his devout praiers he holdeth the helme hard he letteth downe the crosse saile-yard Thus having struck the maine saile downe the mast He scapes the sea with darknesse overcast Hesiodus giveth the husbandman a precept before he begin to drive the plough or sow his seede To Ceres chaste his vowes to make To Jove likewise god of his land Forgetting not the while to take The end of his plough-taile in hand And Homer bringeth in Ajax being at the point to enter into combat with Hector willing the Greeks to pray for him unto the gods but whiles they praied he forgat not to arme himselfe at all pieces Semblablie Agamemnon after he had given commandement to his souldiours who were to fight Ech one his launce and speare to whet His shield likewise fitly to set then and not before praieth unto Iupiter in this wise O Iupiter vouchsafe me of thy grace The stately hall of Priamus to race for God is the hope of vertue and valour not the pretense of sloth and cowardise But the Iewes were so superstitious that on their Sabbath sitting still even whiles the enemies reared their scaling ladders and gained the walles of their citie they never stirred foot nor rose for the matter but remained fast tied and inwrapped in their superstition as it were in a net Thus you see what superstition is in those occurrences of times and affaires which succeed not to our minde but contrary to our will that is to say in adversity and as for times and occasions of mirth when all things fall out to a mans desire it is no better than impietie or atheisme and nothing is so joyous unto man as the solemnitie of festivall holidaies great feasts and sacrifices before the temples of the gods the mysticall and sacred rites performed when wee are purified and cleansed from our sinnes the ceremoniall service of the gods when wee worship and adore them in which all a superstitious man is no better than the Atheist for marke an Atheist in all these he will laugh at them untill he be ready to go beside himselfe these toies will set him I say into a fit of Sardonian laughing when he shall see their vanities and other-whiles he will not sticke to say softly in the eare of some familiar friend about him What mad folke be these how are they out of their right wits and enraged who suppose that such things as these doe please the gods Setting this aside there is no harme at all in him As for the superstitious person willing he is but not able to joy and take pleasure for his heart is much like unto that city which Sophocles describeth in these verses Which at one time is full of incense sweet Resounding mirth with loud triumphant song And yet the
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
upon the land which had remained a long time among them and had passed by descent from father to sonne and by their forefathers had beene first brought unto them from Brauron unto the isle Lemnos and which they caried with them from thence into all places wheresoever they came after this sudden fright and tumult was passed as they sailed in the open sea they missed the said image and withall Pollis also was advertised that a flouke of an anker was wanting and lost for that when they came to weigh anker by great force as commonly it hapneth in such places where it taketh hold of the ground among rocks it brake and was left behinde in the bottome of the sea whereupon he said that the oracles were now fulfilled which foretold them of these signes and therewith gave signall to the whole fleete for to retire backe and so he entred upon that region to his owne use and after he had in many skirmishes vanquished those who were up in armes against him he lodged at length in the citie Lyctus and wan many more to it Thus you see how at this day they call themselves the kinsfolke of the Athenians by the mothers side but indeed by the father they are a colonie drawne from Lacedaemon THE LYCIAN WOMEN THat which is reported to have beene done in Lycia as a meere fable and tale devised of pleasure yet neverthelesse testified by a constant same that runneth verie currant For Amisodarus as they say whom the Lycians name Isarus came from about the marches of Zelea a colonie of the Lycians with a great fleet of rovers and men of warre whose captaine or admirall was one Chimaerus a famous arch-pirate a warlike man but exceeding cruell savage and inhumane who had for the badges and ensignes of his owne ship in the prow a lion and at the poope a dragon much hurt hee did upon all the coasts of Lycia insomuch as it was not possible either to saile upon the sea or to inhabit the maritime cities and townes neere unto the sea side for him This man of warre or arch-rover Bellerophontes had slaine who followed him hard in chase with his swift pinnace Pegasus as he fled untill he had overtaken him and withall had chased the Amazones out of Lycia yet for all this he not onely received no worthy recompence for his good service at the hands of Iobates king of Lycia but also which was woorse sustained much wrong by him by occasion whereof Bellerophontes taking it as a great indignitie went to sea againe where he praied against him unto Neptune that he would cause his land to be barraine and unfruitfull which done hee returned backe againe but behold a strange and fearfull spectacle for the sea swelled overflowed all the countrey following him everie where as he went and covering after him the face of the earth and for that the men of those parts who did what possibly they could to entreat him for to stay this inundation of the sea could not obtaine so much at his hands the women tooke up their petticots before went to meet him shewed their nakednes wherupon for very shame he returned back the sea likewise by report retired with him into the former place But some there be who more civilly avciding the fabulosity of this tale say That it was not by praiers imprecations that he drew after him the sea but because that part of Lycia which was most sertill being low and flat lay under the levell of the sea there was a banke raised along the sea side which kept it in and Bellerophon cut a breach thorow it and so it came to passe that the sea with great violence entred that way and drowned the flat part of the countrey whereupon the men did what they could by way of praiers and intrearie with him in hope to appease his mood but could not prevaile howbeit the women environing him round about by great troups companies pressed him so on all sides that he could not for verie shame deny them so in favour of them said downe his anger Others affirme that Chimaera was an high mountaine directly opposite to the sunne at noon-tide which caused great reflections and reverberations of the sunne beames and by consequence ardent heats in manner of a fire in the said mountaine which comming to be spread and dispersed over the champion ground caused all the fruits of the earth to dry fade and wither away whereof Bellerophontes a man of great reach and deepe conceit knowing the cause in nature caused in many places the superfice of the said rocke or mountaine to be cloven and cut in two which before was most smooth even and by that reason consequently did send back the beames of the sun cansed the excessive heat in the countrey adjoining now for that he was not well considered and regarded by the inhabitants according to his demerit in despite he meant to be revenged of the Lycians but the women wrought him so that they allaied his fury But surely that cause which Nymphus alleageth in his fourth booke as touching Heraclea is not fabulous nor devised to delight the Reader for he saith That this Bellerophontes having killed a wilde bore that destroied all the fruits of the earth all other beasts within the Xanthiens countrey had no recompense therefore whereupon when he had powred out grievous imprecations against those unthankfull Xanthiens unto Neptune hee brought salt-water all over the land which marred all and made all become bitter untill such time as he being wonne by the praiers and supplications of the women besought Neptune to let fal his wrath Loe whereupon the custome arose and continueth still in the Xanthiens countrey That men in all their affaires negotiate not in the name of their fathers but of their mothers and called after their names THE WOMEN OF SALMATICA ANnnibal of the house of Barca before that he went into Italic to make warre with the Romaines laid siege unto a great citie in Spaine named Salmatica the besieged were at the first affraid and promised to do whatsoever Annibal would commaund them yea and to pay him three hundred talents of silver for securitie of which capitulation to be performed they put into his hands three hundred hostages but so soone as Anmbal had raised his siege they repented of this agreement which they had concluded with him and would do nothing according to the conditions of the accord whereupon hee returned againe for to besiege them afresh and to encourage his souldiers the better to give the assault he said That hee would give unto them the saccage and pillage of the towne whereupon the citizens within were wonderfully affraid and yeelded themselves to his devotion upon this condition That the Barbarians would permit as many as were of free condition to goe foorth every man in his single garment leaving behind them their armes goods money slaves and the citie Now the dames
Leaves some blowen downe by minde outragious Lie shed on ground and others numerous Bud fresh in wood when pleasant spring doth call Mens houses so some rise and others fall Now that this similitude or comparison of tree-leaves fitly expressed and represented the transitorie vanitie of mans life it appeareth evidently by those verses which he wrote in another place You would not say that I were wise if I did armour take To fight with you in wretched mens behalfe and for their sake Who much resemble leaves at first faire in their fresh verdure So long as they of earthly fruits do feed for nouriture And afterward be like to them withred and dead againe When humour radicall is spent and no strength doth remaine Simonides the Lyricall Poet when as Pausanias king of Lacedaemon bearing himselfe high and vaunting of his brave exploits bad him upon a time by way of mockery to give unto him some sage precept good advertisement knowing ful well the pride over-weening spirit of the said prince counselled him onely to call to minde and remember That he was but a man Philip likewise king of Macedon hearing newes in one and the same day of three severall happie successes the first That he had woon the prize at the great running of chariots drawen with horses in the solemnitie of the Olympicke games the second How his lieutenant generall Parmenio had defaited the Dardanians in battell and the third That his wife Olympias was delivered safe of a jolly sonne lifted up his hands toward heaven and said O fortune I beseech thee to send unto me in counterchange some moderate adversitie as knowing full well that she bare spight and envie alwaies to great felicities Semblably Theramenes one of the thirty tyrants of Athens at what time as the house wherein he supped with many others fell downe and he alone escaped safe out of that dangerous ruine when all others reputed him an happie man cried out with a loud voice O fortune for what occasion of misfortune reservest thou me and verily within few daies after it hapned that his owne companions in government cast him in prison and after much torture put him to death Moreover it seemeth unto me that the poet Homer deserveth singular praise in this matter of consolation when hee bringeth in Ahilles speaking of king Priamus being come unto him for to raunsome and redeeme the corps of his sonne Hector in this wise Come on theresore and heere sit downe by me upon this throne Let be all plaints for beare we thus to weepe to sigh and grone And though our griefe of heart be much let us the same represse For why no teares will ought prevaile nor helpe us in distresse To live in paines and sorrowes great men areprede stinate By gods above and they alone dwell ay in blessed state Exempt from cares and discontents for in the entrie-sill Of Jove his house in heaven aloft two tunnes are standing still Whereout he doth among men deale such gifts as they containe In one good blessings are bestowed in th' other curse and paine Now be to whom great Jupiter vouchsafes of both to give Sometime in joy and otherwhiles in heavinesse shall live But if a man be onely from that cursed vessell sped With shame with want and penurie he is full ill be sted He shall be sure upon the earth to wander and to flray In much disgrace with God and man untill his dying day The poet who came after him both in order of time and also in credit and reputation Hesiodus although he taketh upon himselfe the honour to have beene a disciple of the Muses having as well as the other included the miseries and calamities of mankind within one tun writeth that Pandora in opening it set them abroad in great quantitie and spred them over all lands and seas saying in this maner No sooner then this woman tooke the great lid from the tun With both her hands but all abroad she scattered anon A world of plagues and miseries thus mischiefes manifold She wrought thereby to mortall men on earth both yoong and old Hope onely did reniaine behinde and slew not all abroad But underneath the upmost brim and edge it still abode For why before it could get foorth the lid she clapt to fast When other evils infinite were slowen from first to last Full was the earth of sundrie plagues full was the sea likewise Diseases then and maladies from day to day did rise Among mankind and those by night doe walke and crecpe by stealth All sodainly without cause knowen and doe impeach mans health Uncald they come in silence deepe they make not any noise For Jupiter in wisedome great bereft them all of voice To these sayings and sentences the comicall poet according well as touching those who torment themselves by occasion of such misfortunes when they happen writeth thus If teares could cure and heale all our disease Or weeping slay at once our paine and griefe We would our gold exchange for teares to ease Our maladies and so procure reliefe But Master now teares with them beare no sway Nor ought prevaile for weepe we or weepe not They hold their course and still keepe on their way So that we see by plaints nothing is got What gaine we then nought sir yet give me eare Griefe brings foorth teares as trees their frute doe beare And Dyctis when he comforted Danaë who sorrowed overmuch for the death of her sonne spake unto her in this maner Thinke you that Pluto doth your teares regard And will for sighes and grones your sonne back send No no cease you to sob and weepe so hard Your neighbours case marke rather and intend Harts ease will come if that you call to minde How many men have died in dungeon deepe Or waxen old bereft of children kind Or princely state and port who could not keepe But fell to basedegree consider this And make right use it will you helpe iwis He giveth her counsell to consider the examples of those who have beene more or lesse unfortunate then herselfe as if the comparing of their condition might serve her turne very well the better to endure her owne calamitie And heereto may a man very pertinently draw and applie the saying of Socrates who was of opinion that if we laid foorth all our adversities and misfortunes in one cōmon heape with this condition that each one should carrie out of it an equal portion most men would wish and be glad to take up their owne and goe away with all The poet Antimachus also used the like induction after that his wife whom he loved so entirely was departed for whereas her name was Lyde he for his owne consolation in that sorrow of his composed an Elegie or lamentable dittie which he called Lyde wherein he collected all the calamities and misfortunes which hapued in old time to great princes and kings making his owne dolour and griefe the lesse by comparing it with other
will than to rubbe or besmeare it with oile like as bees also by that meanes are soone destroied so it is therefore that all those trees which have beene named are of a fattie substance and have a soft and uncteous nature insomuch as there distilleth and droppeth from them pitch and rosin and if a man make a gash or incision in any of them they yeeld from within a certeine bloudie liquor or gumme yea and there issueth from the tortch staves made of them an oileous humour which shineth againe because they are so fattie unguinous This is the reason why they will not joine and be concorporate with other trees no more than oile it selfe be mingled with other liquors When Philo had done with his speech Crato added thus much moreover That in his opinion the nature of their rinde or barke made somewhat for the said matter for the same being thinne and drie withall yeeldeth neither a sure seat socket as it were to the impes or buds which there dies to rest in nor meanes to get sappe and nutriment for to incorporate them like as all those plants which have barks verie tender moist and soft whereby the graffes may be clasped united and soddered with those parts that be under the said barke Then Soclarus himselfe said That whosoever made these reasons was in the right and not deceived in his opinion to thinke it necessarie that the thing which is to receive another nature should be pliable and easie to follow every way to the end that suffring it selfe to be tamed and over-come it might become of like nature and turne the owne proper nutriment into that which is set and graffed in it Thus you see how before wee sow or plant we eare and turne the earth making it gentle soft and supple that being in this manner wrought to our hand and made tractable it may be more willing to apply it selfe for to embrace in her bosome whatsoever is either sowen or planted for contrariwise a ground which is rough stubborne and tough hardly will admit alteration these trees therefore consisting of a light kinde of wood because they are unapt to be changed and overcome will admit no concorporation with others And moreover quoth hee evident it is that the stocke in respect of that which is set and graffed into it ought to have the nature of a ground which is tilled now it is well knowen that the earth must be of a female constitution apt to conceive and beare which is the cause that we make choise of those trees for our stocks to graffe upon which are most frutefull like as we chuse good milch women that have plenty of milke in their brests to be nurses for other children besides their owne who we put unto them but we see plainly that the cypresse tree the sapin and all such like be either barren altogether or else beare very little frute and like as men and women both who are exceeding corpulent grosse and fatte are for the most part unable either to get or beare children for spending all their nourishment as they doe in feeding the body they convert no superfluitie thereof into genetall seed even so these trees employing all the substance of their nouriture to fatten as it were themselves grow indeed to be very thicke and great but either they beare no frute at all or if they doe the same is very small and long ere it come to maturitie and perfection no marvell therefore that a stranger will not breede or grow there whereas the owne naturall issue thriveth but badly THE SEVENTH QUESTION Of the stay-ship fish Echeneis CHaeremonianus the Trallien upon a time when divers and sundry small fishes of all sorts were set before us shewed unto us one with a long head and the same sharpe pointed and told us that it resembled very much the stay-ship fish called thereupon in Greeke Echeneis and he reported moreover that he had seene the said fish as he sailed upon the Sicilian sea and marvelled not a little at the naturall force and propertie that it had so sensiblie in some sort to stay and hinder the course of a shippe under saile untill such time as the marriner who had the government of the prow or foredecke espied it sticking close to the outside of the ship upon the relation of this strange occurrent some there were in place at that time who laughed at Chaeremonianus for that this tale and fiction devised for the nonce to make folke merry and which was incredible went currant with him and was taken for good paiment againe others there were who spake very much in the defence of the hidden properties and secret antipathies or contrarieties in nature There you should have heard many other strange passions and accidents to wit that an elephant being enraged and starke mad becommeth appeased immediatly upon the sight of a ram also that if a man hold a branch or twig of a beech tree close unto a viper and touch her therewith never so little she will presently stay and stirre no farther likewise that a wilde bull how wood and furious soever he be will stand gently and be quiet in case he be tied to a fig-tree semblably that amber doth remoove and draw unto it all things that be drie and light withall save onely the herbe basill and whatsoever is besmeered with oile Item that the Magnet or Lode-stone will no more draw iron when it is rubbed over with garlicke the proofe and experience of which effects is well knowen but the causes thereof difficult if not impossible to be found out But I for my part said That this was rather a shift and evasion to avoid a direct answere unto the question propounded than the allegation of a true cause pertinent thereto for we daily see that there be many events and accidents concurring reputed for causes and yet be none as for example if one should say or beleeve that the blowming of the withie called Chast-tree causeth grapes to ripen because there is a common word in every mans mouth Loe how the chast-trees now do flower And grapes wax ripe even at one hower or that by reason of the fungous matter seene to gather about the candle-snuffes or lamp-weeks the aire is troubled and the skie overcast or that the hooking inwardly of the nailes upon the fingers is the cause and not an accident of the ulcer of the lungs or some noble part within which breedeth a consumption Like as therefore every one of these particulars alledged is a consequent of divers accidents proceeding all from the same causes even so I am of this mind quoth I that one and the same cause staieth the shippe and draweth the little fish Echeneis to sticke unto the side thereof for so long as the ship is drie or not overcharged with moisture soaking into it it with great reason that the keele glideth more smoothly away by reason of the lightnesse thereof and cutteth merrily
of the proper and native qualitie that it hath whereas colde by restreining seemeth to conteine and keepe each thing in the owne kinde or nature and water especially Now for the trueth of this that the coldnesse of water hath vertue to preserve the snowe is a sufficient testimonie which keepeth flesh a long time sweet and without corruption but contrariwise heat causeth all things to goe out of their owne nature yea even honie it selfe for being once boiled marred it is but if it continue raw it not onely keepeth it selfe well enough but helpeth to preserve other things and for a further proofe of this matter the water of lakes and pooles is a principall thing to confirme the same for as potable it is and as good to drinke in Winter as any other waters but in Summer the same is starke naught and breedeth diseases and therefore since the night answereth to Winter and the day to Summer those water-men of Nilus abovesaid are of this opinion That water wil continue longer before it turen and corrupt if it be drawen in the night season To these allegations which of themselves seemed to carry probabilitie enough reason also includeth as an evident inartificiall proofe to strengthen and confirme the experience and beleefe of these water-men for they said that they drew water whiles the river was yet still and quiet for in the day time many men either saile upon it or otherwise fetch water from it many beasts also passe to and fro in it whereby it is troubled thicke and muddie and such water will soone putrifie for whatsoever is mixed more easily taketh corruprion than that which is pure and simple considering that mixture maketh a fight and fight causeth change and alteration Now who knoweth not that putrifaction is a kinde of mutation which is the cause that painters call the mixtures of their colours by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say corruptions and the poet Homer when he speaketh of dying saith they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say staine and infect the common use also of our speech carrieth it to call that which is unmixed and meere of it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say incorrupt and sincere but principally if earth be mingled with water it changeth the qualitie and marreth the nature of it quite for ever for being potable and good to drinke and therefore it is that dormant and dead waters which stand in hollow holes are more subject to corruption than others as being full of earthie substance whereas running streames escape this mixture and repell the earth which is brought into them good cause therefore had Hesiodus to commend The water of some lively spring that alwaies runnes his course And which no muddie earth among doth trouble and make woorse For holsome we holde that which is uncorrupt and uncorrupt we take that to be which is all simple pure and unmixed and hereto may be adjoined for to confirme this opinion of theirs the sundrie kinds and differences of earth for those waters which run thorow hillie and stonie grounds because they carrie not with them much of the earth or soile are stronger and more firme than such as passe along marishes plaines and flats Now the river Nilus keeping his course within a levell and soft countrey and to speake more truely being as it were bloud tempered and mingled with flesh is sweet doubtlesse and full of juices that have a strong and nutritive vertue but ordinarily the same runneth mixed and troubled and so much the rather if it be stirred and disquieted for the moving and agitation thereof mixeth the terrestriall substance with the liquid humour but when it is quiet and at repose the same setleth downe to the bottome by reason of the weight Thus you see why they draw up their water in the night-season and withall by that meanes they prevent the sun-rising which alwaies doth catch up and corrupt that which is in all waters most subtile and light THE SIXTH QUESTION Of those who come late to supper where discoursed it is from whence be derived these names of refections in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MY yonger sonnes upon a time had staid longer at the theater than they should to see the sights and heare the eare-sports which there were exhibited by occasion whereof they came too late to supper whereupon Therus sonnes called them in mirth sport 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say supper-letting and night-supping-lads with other such like names but they to be meet quit with them againe gave them the tearme of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say runners to supper Heerewith one of the elder sort there present said That hee who came late to his supper ought rather to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he maketh more haste with an extraordinary pace for that he hath seemed to staie too long to which purpose he related a pretie tearme of Battus the buffon or pleasant jester to Caesar who was wont to call those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say desirous of suppers who at any time came tardie For quoth he although they have businesse to call and keepe them away yet for the love of good cheere and sweet morcels they refuse not to come late though it be whensoever they are invited Heere came I in with the testimonie of Polycharmus one of the great oratours who managed the State of Athens in an oration of his where making an apologie of his life unto the people in a frequent assembly he spake in this wise Loe my masters of Athens how I have lived but besides manie other things which I have already alledged take this moreover that whensoever I was bidden to any supper I never came last for this seemed to be very popular and plausible whereas contrariwise men are wont to hate them as odious persons and surly lords who come late and for whom the rest of the companie are forced to staie Then Soclarus willing to defend the yoong boies But Alcaeus quoth he called not Pittacus Zophodorpidas because he supped late in the night but for that it was ordinary with him to delight in none other guests and table companions but base vile and obscure persons for to eat early or betimes was in old time counted a reproch and it is said that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a breakefast was derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say intemperance Then Theon interrupting his speech Not so quoth he but we must give credit rather unto those who report the auncient manner of life in old time for they say that men in those daies being laborious painfull and temperate in their living withal tooke for their repast early in the morning a piece of bread dipped in wine and no other thing and therefore they called this breakfast
and taught that the affirmative doth conteine of connexed propositions one hundred thousand and besides one thousand fortie and nine but the negative of the same propositions comprehendeth three hundred and ten thousand with a surplusage of nine hundred fiftie and two and Xenocrates hath set downe that the number of syllables which the letters in the alphabet being coupled and combined together do affoord amount to the number of one hundred millions and two hundred thousand over why should it therefore bee thought strange and wonderfull that our body having in it so many faculties and gathering still daily by that which it eateth and drinketh so many different qualities considering withall that it useth motions and mutations which keepe not one time nor the same order alwaies the complications and mixtures of so many things together bring evermore new and unusuall kinds of maladies such as Thucydides wrot was the pestilence at Athens conjecturing that this was no ordinarie and usuall maladie by this especially for that the beasts of prey which otherwise did eat of flesh would not touch a dead bodie those also who fell sicke about the red sea as Agathircides maketh report were afflicted with strange symptomes and accidents which no man had ever read or seene and among others that there crawled from them certeine vermin like small serpents which did eat the calves of their legs and the brawnes of their armes and looke whensoever a man thought to touch them in they would againe and winding about the muskles of the flesh ingendered inflammations and impostumes with intolerable paine This pestilent disease no man ever knew before neither was it ever seene since by others but by them alone like as many other such accidents for there was a man who having beene a long time tormented with the disurie or difficultie of his urine delivered in the end by his yard a barley straw knotted as it was with joints and we know a friend and guest of ours a yoong man who together with a great quantitie of naturall seed cast foorth a little hairie worme or vermin with many feet and therewith it ranne very swiftly Aristotle writeth also that the nourse of one Timon of Cilicia retired her selfe for two moneths space every yeere and lurked in a certeine cave all the while without drinke or meat or giving any other apparence of life but onely that shee tooke her breath certes recorded it is in the Melonian books that it is a certeine signe of the liver diseased when the sicke partie is verie busie in spying seeking and chasing the mice and rats about the house a thing that now a daies is not seene let us not marvell therefore if a thing be now engendred that never was seene before and the same afterward cease as if it had never beene for the cause lieth in the nature of the bodie which sometime taketh one temperature and one while another but if Diogemanus bring in a new aire and a strange water let him alone seeing he is so disposed and yet we know well that the followers of Democritus both say and write that by the worlds which perish without this and by the straunge bodies which from that infinitie of worlds runne into this there arise many times the beginnings of plageu and pestilence yea and of other extraordinarie accidents we will passe over likewise the particular corruptions which happen in divers countries either by earthquakes excessive droughts extreme heats and unusuall raines with which it cannot be chosen but that both winds and rivers which arise out of the earth must needs be likewise infected diseased and altered but howsoever those causes wee let goe by yet omit we must not what great alterations and changes be in our bodies occasioned by our meats and viands and other diet and usage of our selves for many things which before time were not wont to hee tasted or eaten are become now most pleasant dainties as for example the drinke made of honie and wine as also the delicate dish of a farrowing swines shape or wombe as for the braine of a beast it is said that in old time they were wont to reject and cast it from them yea and so much to detest and abhorre it that they would not abide to heare one to name it and for the cucumber the melon or pompion the pomeeitron and pepper I know many old folke at this day that cannot away with their taste credible it is therefore that our bodies receive a woonderfull change and strange alteration by such things in their temperature acquiring by little and little a divers qualitie and superfluitie of excrements farre different from those before semblably wee are to beleeve that the change of order in our viands maketh much heereto for the services at the boord which in times past were called the cold tables to wit of oisters sea-urchings greene sallads of raw lettuce such other herbs be as it were the light forerunners of the feast as transferred now by Plato from the rereward to the forefront and have the first place whereas besore in old time they came in last a great matter there is also in those beavers or fore-drinkings called Propomata for our ancients would not drinke so much as water before they did eat and now a daies when as men are otherwise fasting have eat nothing they will be in maner drunke after they have well drenched their bodies they begin to fall unto their meats and whiles they be yet boiling they put into the stomacke those things that bee attenuant incisive and sharpe for to provoke and stirre up the appetite and still fill themselves up full with other viands but none of all this hath more power to make mutation in our bodies nor to breed new maladies than the varietie of sundry fashions of bathing of flesh for first formost it is made soft liquid and fluid as iron is by the fire and afterwards it receiveth the temper and tincture of hard sleele by cold water so that me thinks if any one of those who lived a little before us should see the dore of our stouphes and baines open he might say thus Heere into runneth Acheron And fire-like burning Phlegethon Whereas in our forefathers daies they used their bathes and hot-houses so milde so kinde and temperate that king Alexander the Great being in a fever lay and slept within them yea the Gaules wives bringing thither their pots of pottage and other viands did eat even there with their children who bathed together with them but it seemeth in these daies that those who are within the stouphes and baines be like unto those that are raging madde and barke as dogs they puffe and blow like fed swine they lay about them and tosse every way the aire that they draw in as it were mingled with fire water suffereth no piece nor corner of the body in quiet and rest it shaketh tosseth and remooveth out of place the least indivisible parcell
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
opinion that the Winde is a fluxion of the aire when as the most subtile and liquid parts thereof be either stirred or melted and resolved by the Sunne The STOICKS affirme that every blast is a fluxion of the aire and that according to the mutation of regions they change their names as for example that which bloweth from the darknesse of the night and Sunne setting is named Zephyrus from the East and Sunne rising Apeliotes from the North Boreas and from the South Libs METRODORUS supposeth that a waterish vapour being inchafed by the heat of the Sun produceth and raiseth these winds and as for those that be anniversary named Etesia they blow when the aire about the North pole is thickened and congealed with cold and so accompanie the Sunne and flow as it were with him as he retireth from the Summer Tropicke after the 〈◊〉 Solstice CHAP. VIII Of Winter and Summer EMPEDOCLES and the STOICKS do hold that Winter commeth when the aire is predominant in thickenesse and is forced upward but Summer when the fire is in that wise predominant and is driven downward Thus having discoursed of the impressions aloft in the aire we will treat also by the way of those which are seene upon and about the earth CHAP. IX Of the Earth the substance and magnitude thereof THALES with his followers affirme there is but one Earth 〈◊〉 the Pythagorean mainteineth twaine one heere and another opposit against it which the Antipodes inhabit The STOICKS say there is one Earth and the same finite XENOPHANES holdeth that beneath it is founded upon an infinit depth and that compact it is of aire and fire METRODORUS is of opinion that Earth is the very sediment and ground of the water like as 〈◊〉 Sunne is the residence of the aire CHAP. X. The forme of the Earth THALES the STOICKS and their schoole affirme the Earth to be round in maner of a globe or ball ANAXIMANDER resembleth the Earth unto a columne or pillar of stone such as are seene upon the superficies thereof ANAXIMENES compareth it to a flat table LEUCIPPUS unto a drum or tabour DEMOCRITUS saith that it is in forme broad in maner of a platter hollow in the mids CHAP. XI The 〈◊〉 of the Earth THe disciples of THALES maintaine that the Earth is seated in midst of the world XENOPHANES affirmeth that it was first founded and rooted as it were to an infinite depth PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that fire is the middle as being the hearth of the world in the second place he raungeth the Earth of the Antipodes and in the third this wherein wee inhabit which lieth opposite unto that counter earth and turneth about it which is the reason quoth he that those who dwell there are not seene by the inhabitants heere PARMENIDES was the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who set out and limited the habitable parts of the Earth to wit those which are under the two Zones unto the Tropicks or Solsticiall circles CHAP. XII Of the bending of the earth PYTHAGORAS is of opinion that the earth enclineth toward the Meridionall parts by reason of the 〈◊〉 which is in those South coasts for that the Septentrionall tracts are congealed and frozen with cold whereas the opposite regions be inflamed and burnt DEMOCRITUS yeeldeth this reason because of the ambient aire is weaker toward the South quoth hee the Earth as it groweth and encreaseth doth bend to that side for the North parts be 〈◊〉 whereas contrariwise the Southeren parts are temperate in which regard it weigheth more that way whereas indeed it is more plentifull in bearing fruits and those growing to greater augmentation CHAP. XIII The motion of the Earth SOme hold the Earth to be unmoveable and quite but PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that it moveth round about the fire in the oblique circle according as the Sunne and Moone do HERACLIDES of Pontus and Ecphantus the Pythagorean would indeed have the Earth to move howbeit not from place to place but rather after a turning manner like unto a wheele upon the axell tree from West to East round about her owne center DEMOCRITUS saith that the Earth at first wandred to and fro by reason as well of smalnesse as lightnesse but waxing in time thicke and heavie it came to rest unmoveable CHAP. XIIII The division of the Earth and how many Zones it hath PYTHAGORAS saith that the earth is divided into five Zones proportionably to the sphaere of the universall heaven to wit the Artick circle the Tropick of Summer the Tropick of Winter the Aequinoctiall and the Antartick Of which the middlemost doth determine and set out the verie mids and heart of the earth and for that cause it is named Torrida Zona that is to say the burnt climat but that region is habitable as being temperate which lieth in the mids betweene the summer and the winter Tropick CHAP. XV. Of Earthquakes THALES and DEMOCRITUS attribute the cause of Earthquakes unto water The STOICKS thus define and say Earthquake is the moisture within the earth subtiliated and resolved into the aire and so breaking out perforce ANAXIMENES is of opinion that raritie and drinesse of the earth together be the causes of Earthquake wherof the one is engendred by excessive drougth the other by gluts of raine ANAXAGORAS holdeth that when the aire is gotten within the earth and meeteth with the superficies thereof which it findeth tough and thicke so as it cannot get forth it shaketh it in manner of trembling ARITSTOTLE alledgeth the Antiperistasis of the circumstant cold which environeth it about on everie side both above and beneath for heat endevoreth and maketh hast to mount aloft as being by nature light A drie exhalation therefore finding it selfe enclosed within and staied striveth to make way through the cliffs and thicks of the Earth in which busines it cannot chuse but by turning to and fro up and downe disquiet and shake the earth METRODORUS is of mind that no bodie being in the owne proper and naturall place can stirre or moove unlesse some one do actually thrust or pull it The earth therefore quoth he being situate in the owne place naturally mooveth not howsoever some placesthereof may remove into others PARMENIDES and DEMOCRITUS reason in this wise for that the earth on everie side is of equall distance and confineth still in one counterpoise as having no cause wherefore it should incline more to the one side than to the other therefore well it may shake onely but not stirre or remoove for all that ANAXIMENES saith that the Earth is caried up and downe in the aire for that it is broad and flat Others say that it floteth upon the water like as planks or boords and that for this cause it mooveth PLATO affirmeth that of all motions there be six sorts of circumstances above beneath on the right hand on the left before and behind Also that the earth cannot possibly moove according to any of these differences for that on everie
would say pined or famished Or rather it may allude unto the tale that goeth of the shirt empoisoned with the blood of Nessus the Centaure which ladie Deianira gave unto Hercules 61 How commeth it to passe that it is expresly for bidden at Rome either to name or to demaund ought as touching the Tutelar god who hath in particular recommendation and patronage the safetie and preservation of the citie of Rome nor so much as to enquire whether the said deitie be male or female And verely this prohibition proceedeth from a superstitious feare that they have for that they say that Valerius Soranus died an ill death because he presumed to utter and publish so much IS it in regard of a certaine reason that some latin historians do alledge namely that there be certaine evocations and enchantings of the gods by spels and charmes through the power wherof they are of opinion that they might be able to call forth and draw away the Tutelar gods of their enemies and to cause them to come and dwell with them and therefore the Romans be afraid left they may do as much for them For like as in times past the Tyrians as we find upon record when their citie was besieged enchained the images of their gods to their shrines for feare they would abandon their citieand be gone and as others demanded pledges and fureties that they should come againe to their place whensoever they sent them to any bath to be washed or let them go to any expiation to be clensed even so the Romans thought that to be altogether unknowen and not once named was the best meanes and surest way to keepe with their Tutelar god Or rather as Homer verie well wrote The earth to men all is common great and small That thereby men should worship all the gods and honour the earth seeing she is common to them all even so the ancient Romans have concealed and suppresse the god or angell which hath the particular gard of their citie to the end that their citizens should adore not him alone but all others likewise 62 What is the cause that among those priests whom they name Faeciales signifying as much as in geeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Officers going between to make treatre of peace or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Agents for truce and leagues he whom they call Pater Patratus is esteemed the chiefest Now Pater Patratus is he whose father is yet living who hath children of his owne and in truth this chiefe Faecial or Herault hath still at this day a certain prerogative speciall credit above the rest For the emperours themselves and generall captains if they have any persons about them who in regard of the prime of youth or of their beautifull bodies had need of a faithfull diligent and trustie guard commit them ordinarily into the hands of such as these for safe custodie IS it not for that these Patres Patrati for reverent feare of their fathers of one side and for modest shames to scandalize or offend their children on the other side are enforced to be wise and discreet Or may it not be in regard of that cause which their verie denomination doth minister and declare for this word PATRATUS signifieth as much as compleat entire and accomplished as if he were one more perfect and absolute every way than the rest as being so happie as to have his owne father living and be a father also himselfe Or is it not for that the man who hath the superintendance of treaties of peace and of othes ought to see as Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say before and behind And in all reason such an one is he like to be who hath a child for whom and a father with whom he may consult 63 What is the reason that the officer at Rome called Rex sacrorum that is to say the king of sacrifices is debarred both from exercising any magistracie and also to make a speech unto the people in publike place IS it for that in old time the kings themselves in person performed the most part of sacred rites and those that were greater yea and together with the priests offered sacrifices but by reason that they grew insolent proud and arrogant so as they became intollcrable most of the Greeke nations deprived them of this authoritie and left unto them the preheminence onely to offer publike sacrifice unto the gods but the Romans having cleane chased and expelled their kings established in their stead another under officer whom they called King unto whom they granted the oversight and charge of sacrifices onely but permitted him not to exercise or execute any office of State nor to intermedle in publick affaires to the end it should be knowen to the whole world that they would not suffer any person to raigne at Rome but onely over the ceremonies of sacrifices nor endure the verie name of Roialtie but in respect of the gods And to this purpose upon the verie common place neere unto 〈◊〉 they use to have a solemn sacrifice for the good estate of the citie which so soone as ever this king hath performed he taketh his legs and runnes out of the place as fast as ever he can 64 Why suffer not they the table to be taken cleane away and voided quite but will have somewhat alwaies remaining upon it GIve they not heereby covertly to understand that wee ought of that which is present to reserve evermore something for the time to come and on this day to remember the morrow Or thought they it not a point of civill honesty and elegance to represse and keepe downe their appetite when they have before them enough still to content and satisfie it to the full for lesse will they desire that which they have not when they accustome themselves to absteine from that which they have Or is not this a custome of courtesie and humanitie to their domesticall servants who are not so well pleased to take their victuals simply as to partake the same supposing that by this meanes in some sort they doe participate with their masters at the table Or rather is it not because we ought to suffer no sacred thing to be emptie and the boord you wot well is held sacred 65 What is the reason that the Bridegrome commeth the first time to lie with his new wedded bride not with any light but in the darke IS it because he is yet abashed as taking her to be a stranger and not his owne before he hath companied carnally with her Or for that he would then acquaint himselfe to come even unto his owne espoused wife with shamefacednesse and modestie Or rather like as Solon in his Statutes ordeined that the new maried wife should eat of a quince before she enter into the bride bed-chamber to the end that this first encounter and embracing should not be odious or unpleasant to her husband
extremity of colde were as starke and stiffe as pieces of wood insomuch as they brake and rent into 〈◊〉 so soone as they went about to stretch them out To say yet more excessive colde causeth the sinewes to be so stiffe as hardly they will bend the tongue likewise so 〈◊〉 that it will not stirre or utter any voice congealing the moist soft and 〈◊〉 parts of the body which being 〈◊〉 by daily experience they proceed to gather this consequence Every power and facultie which getteth the maistrie is woont to turne and convert into it selfe that over which it is predominant whatsoever is overcome by heat becommeth fire that which is conquered by spirit or winde changeth into aire what falleth into water if it get not foorth againe dissolveth and in the end runneth to water Then must it needs follow that such things as are exceeding colde degenerate into that primitive colde whereof we speake now excessive colde is first and the greatest alteration that can be devised by colde is when a thing is congealed made an ice which congelation altereth the nature of the thing so much that in the end it becommeth as hard as a stone namely when the cold is so predominant as well all the moisture of it is congealed as the heat that it had driven out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is that the earth toward her center and in the bottom thereof is frozen altogether and in maner nothing else but ice for that the excessive colde which never will yeeld and 〈◊〉 there dwelleth and 〈◊〉 continually as being thrust and driven into that corner farthest off from the elementary fire As touching those rocks cragges and cliffes which we see to appeere out of the earth Empedocles is of opinion that they were there set driven up susteined supported by the violence of a certeine boiling and swelling fire within the bowels of the earth but it should seeme rather that those things out of which all the heat is evaporate and slowen away be congealed and conglaciat so hard by the meanes of colde and this is the cause that such cragges be named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say congealed toward the head and toppe whereof a man shall see in them many places blacke againe namely whereas the heat flew out when the time was so as to see to one would imagine that they had heeretofore beene burnt for the nature of colde is to congeale all things but some more others lesle but above all those in which it is naturally at the first inhaerent for like as the property of fire is to alleviate it cannot otherwise be but the hotter that a thing is the more light also it is and so the nature of moisture is to soften insomuch as the moister any thing is the softer also it is found to be semblably given it is to colde to astringe and congeale it followeth therefore of necessity that whatsoever is most astrict and congealed as is the earth is likewise the coldest and looke what is colde in the highest degree the same must be principally and naturally that colde whereof we are in question And thereupon we must conclude that the earth is 〈◊〉 by nature colde and also that primitive colde a thing apparent and evident to our very sense for dirt and clay is colder than water and when a man would quickly suffocate and put out a fire he throweth earth upon it Blacke-smithes also and such as forge iron when they see it redde hot and at the point to melt they strew upon it small powder or grit of marble or other stones that have fallen from them when they were squared and wrought for to keepe it from resolving too much and to coole the excessive heat the very dust also that is used to bee throwen upon the bodies of wrestlers doth coole them and represse their sweats Moreover to speake of the commodity that causeth us every 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 and change our lodgings what is the meaning of it winter maketh us to seeke for high lofts and such chambers as be 〈◊〉 from the earth contrariwise summer bringeth us downe to the halles and parlours beneath driving us to seeke retiring roomes and willingly we love to live in vaults within the bosome of the earth doe we not thus thinke you directed by the instinct of nature to seeke out acknowledge that which is naturally the primitive colde and therefore when winter comes we lay for houses and habitations neere the sea side that is to say we flie from the earth as much as we can because of colde and we compasse ourselves with the aire of the sea for that it is hot contrariwise in summer time by reason of immoderate heat we covet mediterranean places farther within the land and farre remooved from the sea not for that the aire of it selfe is colde but because it seemeth to spring and budde as it were out of the primitive colde and to have a tincture as I may so say after the maner of iron from the power which is in the earth and verily among running waters those that arise out of rocks and descend from mountaines are evermore coldest but if 〈◊〉 and pittes such as be deepest yeeld the coldest waters for by reason of their profunditie the aire from without is not mingled with these and the others passe thorough pure and sincere earth without the mixture of aire among As for example such is the water neere the cape of Taenarus which they call Styx destilling by little and little out of the rocke and so gathered unto an head which water is so extreeme colde that there is no vessell in the world will holde it but onely that which is made of an asses hoofe for put it into any other it cleaveth and breaketh it Moreover we heare physicians say that to speake generally all kinds of earth do restraine and coole and they reckon unto us a number of minerals drawen out of entrails of the earth which in the use of physicke yeeld unto them an astringent and binding power for the very element it selfe from whence they come is nothing incisive nor hath the vertue for to stirre and extenuate it is not active and quicke not emollitive nor apt to spread but firme steadfast and permanent as a square cube or die and not to be removed whereupon being massie and ponderous as it is the colde also thereof having a power to condensate constipate and to expresse forth all humors 〈◊〉 by the asperity and inequalitie of the parts shakings horrors and quakings in our bodies and if it prevaile more and be predominant so that the heat be driven out quite and extinct it imprinteth an habitude of congealation and dead stupefaction And hereupon it is that the earth either will not burne at all or els hardly and by little and little whereas the aire manytimes of it selfe sendeth forth flaming fire it shooteth and floweth yea and seemeth as inflamed to lighten and flash
stale Or haply this carieth more shew and probabilitie with it than trueth for certeine it is that the water of fountaines brookes and rivers come as new and fresh as they for as Heraclitus saith It is impossible for a man to enter into one and the same river twice because new water commeth still and runneth away continually and yet these nourish lesse than raine waters Is this therefore the reason because the water from heaven is light subtile aireous and mixed with a kinde of spirit which by that subtilitie entreth soone and is easily caried to the root of plants and heereupon in the fall it raiseth little bubbles because of the aire and spirit enclosed within Or doth raine water nourish more in this regard that it is sooner altered and overcome by that which it nourisheth for this is it that we call concoction properly contrariwise cruditie and indigestion when things are so strong and hard that they will not suffer for such as be thinne simple and unsavory are most easily and soonest altered of which kinde is raine water for being engendred as it is in the aire and the winde it falleth pure and cleane whereas springing waters are like to the earth out of which they issue or the places through which they 〈◊〉 gathering thereby many qualities which cause them unwilling to be digested and more slow to be reduced by concoction into the substance of that which is to be nourished thereby on the other side that raine waters be easie to be changed and transmuted it appeereth by this that more subject they are to corruption and putrefaction than those either of rivers or of pittes and welles and concoction seemeth to be a kinde of putrefaction as Empedocles beareth witnesse saying When in vine-wood the water putrifies It turnes to wine whiles under barke it lies Or rather the truest and readlest reason that can be alledged is the sweetnesse and holsomnesse of raine waters falling as they doe so presently so soone as the winde sends them downe and heereupon it is that beasts desire to drinke thereof before any other yea and the frogges and paddocks expecting a raine for joy sing more shrill and merily ready to receive and enterteine that which will season the dead and dormant waters of standing lakes as being the very seed of all their sweetnesse for Aratus reckoneth this also for one of the signes of a showre toward writing thus When wretched brood The adders food from out of standing lake The tad-pole sires Imeane desires fresh raine and loud doth coake 3 What might be the cause that shepherds and other herdmen give salt unto their sheepe and cattell which they feed IS it as most men doe thinke to the end that they should fall the better to their meat and so consequently feed fatte the sooner because the acrimony of salt provoketh appetite and opening the pores maketh way unto the nourishment for to be digested and distributed more casily throughout the whole body in regard whereof the physician Apollonius the sonne of Herophilus gave counsell and prescribed leane folke and such as thrived not in their flesh not 〈◊〉 sweet wine thicke gruell and frumentie but salt fish out of the pickle anchoves powdred meats and such as were condite in brine the subtile acrimonie whereof might in maner of setting a peruke for want of haire serve to apply nutriment through the pores of the body into those parts that need it Or rather may it not be for health-sake in which regard they use their cattell to little salt thereby to take downe their ranke feeding and restreine their grossenesse and corpulencie for such as grow exceeding fatte are subject to breed diseases but salt consumeth and dispatcheth this fatte and by this meanes also when they be killed they are sooner and with greater expedition flaied because the fatte which knit and bound the skinne fast to the flesh is now become more thinne gentle and pliable through the acrimony of the salt besides the bloud also of such as be ever licking of salt becommeth more liquid and nothing there is within that will gather and grow together in case there be salt mingled therewith It may be moreover that they doe it for to make them more fruitfull and apter for generation for we see that salt bitches which have beene fed with salt meats are more hot apter to goe proud and sooner with whelpe And for this cause those keeles and barges that transport salt breed greater store of mice for that they engender the oftener 4 How commeth it to passe that of raine waters such as fall with thunder and lightning which thereupon be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are better for to water seeds or yong plants than any other MAy it not be because they be full of winde and ventositie by reason of the trouble and confused agitation of the aire And the nature of wind and spirit is to stirre the humiditie and by that meanes doth send it forth and distribute it the better Or is it not rather that heat fighting against colde is the cause of thunder and lightning in the aire which is the reason that seldome there is any thunder in winter but contrariwise very often in the Spring and Autumne for the inconstant and unequall distemperature of the 〈◊〉 which being supposed the heat concocting the humiditie causeth it to be more pleasant and profitable unto the plants of the earth Or why may it not be because it thundreth and lightneth especially and more often in the Spring than in any other season of the yeere for the reason before alledged now the Spring showers and raines are most necessarie for seeds and herbs against the Summer time whereupon those countries wherein there be many good ground showers in the Spring as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth plentie of good fruits 5 How is it that there being eight kind of savours there is no more but onely one of them to wit saltish that can not be found naturally in fruits For as touching the buter savour the olive hath it at first and the grape is soure at the beginning but as these fruits begin to change and grow to their ripenesse the bitternesse of the olive turneth into a 〈◊〉 and unctuous savour and the sharpe verdure of the grape into a smacke of wine semblably the harshnesse in the unripe dates as also the austere and unpleasant sharpnesse in pomgranats changeth into sweetnesse As for pomgranats some there be as also other apples which are 〈◊〉 soure and never have other taste And as for the sharpe and 〈◊〉 savour it is ordinarie in many roots and seeds IS it for that the salt savor is not primitive not engendred originally but is rather the corruption of other primitive savors and in that regard can not serve to nourish any creature living with grasse or graine but it is to some in stead of a sauce because it is a meanes that they should not upon fulnesse either lothe
reason there is that the teares which passe from the one in anger and the other in feare should be such as is aforesaid 21 What is the reason that tame swine do farrow often in one yeere some at one time and some at another whereas the wilde of that kinde bring forth pigs but once in the yeere and all of them in a maner upon the same daies and those are in the beginning of Summer whereupon we say in our vulgar proverbe The night once past of wilde sowes farrowing T' will raine no more be sure for any thing IS it thinke you for the plentie they have of meat as in trueth fulnesse brings wantonnesse and of full feeding comes lust of breeding for abundance of food causeth superfluitie of seed aswell in living creatures as in plants As for the wilde swine they seeke their victuals themselves and that with travell and feare whereas the tame have alwaies store thereof either naturally growing for them or els provided by mans industry Or is the cause of this difference to be attributed unto the idle life of the one and the painfull labour of the other for the domesticall and tame are sluggish and never wander farre from their swineherds but the other range and rove abroad among the forrests and mountaines running to and fro dispatching quickly all the food they can get and spending it every whit upon the substance of their bodies leaving no superfluities expedient for geniture or seed Or may it not be that tame sowes doe keepe company feed and goe in heards together with their bores which provoketh their lust and kindleth the desire to engender according as Empedocles hath written of men in these verses The sight of eie doth kindle lust in brest Of looking liking then loving and the rest Whereas the wilde because they live apart and pasture not together have no such desire and lust one to another for their naturall appetite that way is dulled and quenched Or rather that is true which Aristotle saith namely that Homer calleth a wilde bore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having but one genetorie for that the most part of them in rubbing themselves against the trunks and stocks of trees doe crush and breake their stones 22 What is the reason of this usuall speech that beares have a most sweet hand and that their flesh is most pleasant to be eaten BEcause those parts of the body which doe best concoct and digest nourishment yeeld their flesh most delicate now that concocteth and digesteth best which stirreth most and doth greatest exercise like as the beare mooveth most this part for his forepawes he useth as feet to goe and runne withall he maketh use also of them as of hands to apprehend and catch any thing 23 What is the cause that in the spring time wilde beasts are hardly hunted by the sent and followed by the trace IS it for that hounds as Empedocles saith By sent of nosthrils when they trace Wilde beast to finde their resting place doe take hold of those vapours and defluxions which the said beasts leave behind them in the wood as they passe but in the spring time these are confounded or utterly extinct by many other smels of plants and shrubs which as then be in their flower and comming upon the aire that the beasts made and intermingled therewith do trouble and deceive the sent of the hounds whereby they are put out and at default that they cannot truly hunt after them by their trace which is the reason men say that upon the mountaine Aetna in Sicilie there is never any hunting with hounds for that all the yeere long there is such abundance of flowers both in hilles and dales growing as it were in a medow or garden whereof the place smelleth all over so sweet that it will not suffer the hounds to catch the sent of the beasts And verily there goeth a tale that Pluto ravished Prosperpina as she was gathering flowers there in which regard the inhabitants honouring the place with great reverence and devotion never put up or hunt the beasts that pasture about that mountaine 24 What is the reason that when the moone is at the full it is very hard for hounds to meet with wilde beasts by the trace or sent of the footing IS it not for the same cause before alledged for that about the full moone there is engendred store of deaw whereupon it is that the poet Aleman calleth deaw the daughter of Jupiter and the moone in these verses Dame Deaw is nourse whom of god Jupiter And lady Moone men call the daughter For the deaw is nothing else but a weake and feeble raine and why because the heat of the moone is but infirme whereof it commeth to passe that she draweth up vapours indeed from the earth as doeth the sunne but not able to fetch them up aloft not there to comprehend them letteth them fall againe 25 What is the cause that in a white or hoarie frost wilde beasts are hardly traced WHether is it for that they being loth for very colde to range farre from their dennes leave not many marks of their footings upon the ground which is the reason that at other times they make spare of that prey which is neere unto them for feare of danger if they should be forced to range farre abroad in Winter and because they would have ready at hand about them at such an hard season to feed upon Or else is it requisit that the place where men doe hunt have not onely the tracts of the beast to be seene but also of force to affect the sent of the hounds and to set their nosthrils a worke but then doe they moove this sense of theirs when as they are gently dissolved and dilated as it were by heat whereas the aire if it be extreme colde congealing as it were the smels will not suffer them to spread and be diffused abroad thereby to move the sense and heereupon it is as folke say that perfumes ointments and wines be lesse fragrant and odoriferous in Winter or in cold weather than at other times for the aire being it selfe bound and shut close doth likewise stay within it all sents and will not suffer them to passe foorth 26 What is the cause that brute beasts so often as they are sicke or feele themselves amisse seeke after divers medicinable meanes for remedie and using the same finde many times helpe as for example dogges when they be stomacke sicke fall to eat a kinde of quitchy grasse because they would cast and vomit choler hogges search for craifishes of the river for by feeding upon them they cure their headach the tortois is likewise having eaten the flesh of a viper eateth upon it the her be origan and the beare when she is full in the stomacke and doth loath all victuals licketh up pismires with her tongue which she no sooner hath swallowed downe but she is warished and yet none of all this were they taught
out of water having earth under it there ex haleth aire which aire comming to be subtilized the fire is produced and environeth it round about as for the stars they are set on fire out of these together with the sunne what is more contrary than to be set on fire and to be cooled what more opposite to subtilization and rarefaction than inspissation and condensation the one maketh water and earth of fire and aire the other turneth that which is moist and terrestriall into fire and aire And yet in one place he maketh kindling of fire and in another refrigeration to bee the cause of quickning and giving soule unto a thing for when the said firing and inflammation comes generall throughout then it liveth and is become an annimall creature but after it commeth to be quenched and thickned it turneth into water and earth and so into a corporall substance In the first booke of Providence he writeth thus For the world being throughout on fire presently it is with all the soule and governour of it selfe but when it is turned into moisture and the soule left within it and is after a sort converted into a soule and body so as it seemeth compounded of them both then the case is altered In which text he affirmeth plainly that the very inanimat parts of the world by exustion and inflammation turne and change into the soule thereof and contrariwise by extinction the soule is relaxed and moistned againe and so returneth into a corporall nature Heereupon I inferre that he is very absurd one while to make of senselesse things animat and living by way of refrigeration and another while to transmure the most part of the soule of the world into insensible and inanimat things But over and above all this the discourse which he maketh as touching the generation of the soule conteineth a proofe demonstration contrary to his owne opinion for he saith That the soule is engendred after that the infant is gone out of the mothers wombe for that the spirit then is transformed by refrigeration even as the temper is gotten of steele Now to prove that the soule is engendred and that after the birth of the infant hee bringeth this for a principall argument Because children become like unto their parents in behaviour and naturall inclination wherein the contrariety that he delivereth is so evident as that a man may see it by the very eie for it is not possible that the soule which is engendred after birth should be framed to the maners and disposition of the parents before nativity or else we must say and fall out it will that the soule before it was in esse was already like unto a soule which is all one as that it was by similitude and resemblance and yet was not because as yet it had not a reall substance Now if any one doe say that it ariseth from the temperature and complexion of the bodies that this similitude is imprinted in them howbeit when the soules are once engendred they become changed he shall overthrow the argument and proofe whereby it is shewed that the soule was engendred for heereupon it would follow that the soule although it were ingenerable when it entreth from without into the body is changed by the temperature of the like Chrysippus sometime saith that the aire is light that it mounteth upward on high and otherwhiles for it againe that it is neither heavy nor light To prove this see what he saith in his second booke of Motion namely that fire having in it no ponderosity at all ascendeth aloft semblably the aire and as the water is more conformable to the earth so the aire doth rather resemble the fire But in his booke entituled Naturall arts he bendeth to the contrary opinion to wit that the aire hath neither ponderosity nor lightnesse of it selfe He affirmeth that the aire by nature is darke and for that cause by consequence it is also the primitive cold and that tenebrosity or darknesse is directly opposite unto light and cleerenesse and the coldnesse thereof to the heat of fire Mooving this discourse in the first booke of his Naturall questions contrary to all this in his treatise of Habitudes he saith That these habitudes be nothing else but aires For that bodies quoth he be 〈◊〉 by them and the cause why every body conteined by any habitude is such as it is is the continent aire which in iron is called hardnesse in stone spissitude or thicknesse in silver whitenesse in which words there is great contrariety and as much false absurditie for if this aire remaine the same still as it is in the owne nature how commeth blacke in that which is not white to be called whitenesse softnesse in that which is not hard to be named hardnesse or rare in that which is not solide and massie to be called solidity But in case it be said that by mixture therein it is altered and so becommeth semblable how then can it be an habitude a faculty power or cause of these effects whereby it selfe is brought under and subdued for that were to suffer rather than to doe and this alteration is not of a nature conteining but of a languishing impotencie whereby it loseth all the properties and qualities of the owne and yet in every place they hold that matter of it selfe idle and without motion is subject and exposed to the receit of qualities which qualities are spirits and those powers of the aire which into what parts soever of the matter they get and insinuate themselves doe give a forme and imprint a figure into them But how can they mainteine this supposing as they do the aire to be such as they say it is for if it be an habitude and power it will conforme and shape unto it selfe every body so as it will make the same both blacke and soft but if by being mixed and contempered with them it take formes contrary unto those which it hath by nature it followeth then that it is the matter of matter and neither the habitude cause nor power thereof Chrysippus hath written often times that without the world there is an infinit voidnesse and that this infinitie hath neither beginning middle nor end And this is the principall reason whereby they resute that motion downward of the 〈◊〉 by themselves which Epicurus hath brought in for in that which is infinit there are no locall differences whereby a man may understand or specifie either high or low But in the fourth booke of Things possible he supposeth a certeine middle space and meane place betweene wherein he saith the world is founded The very text where he affirmeth this runneth in these words And therefore we must say of the world that it is corruptible and although it be very hard to proove it yet me thinks rather it should be so than otherwise Neverthelesse this maketh much to the inducing of us to beleeve that it hath a certeine incorruptibility if I may
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
from it daily is highly to be reckoned and accounted of and therefore neither can the Delphians be noted for follie in that they terme Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a chariot by reason of this yoke-fellowship nor Homer in calling this conjunction of man and wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say amity and friendship Solon likewise is deemed by this to have beene an excellent law-giver and most expert in that which concerneth mariage when he decreed expresly that the husband should thrice in a moneth at the least embrace his wife and company in bed with her not for carnall pleasures sake I assure you but like as cities and states use after a certeine time betweene to renew their leagues and confederacies one with another so he would have that the alliance of mariage should eftsooones be enterteined anew by such solace and delectation after jarres which otherwhiles arise and breed by some bone cast betweene Yea but there be many enormious and furious parts will some one say that are plaied by such as are in love with women And be there not more I pray by those that are enamoured upon boies do but marke him who uttereth these passionate words So often as these eies of mine behold That beardlesse youth that smooth and lovely boy I faint and fall then wish I him to hold Within mine armes and so to die with joy And that on tombe were set where I do lie An Epigram mine end to testifie But as there is a furious passion in some men doting upon women so there is as raging an affection in others toward boies but neither the one nor the other is love Well most absurd it were to say that women are not endued with other vertues for what need we to speake of their temperance and chastity of their prudence fidelity and justice considering that even fortitude it selfe constant confidence and resolution yea and magnaminity is in many of them very evident Now to holde that being by nature not indisposed unto other vertues they are untoward for amitie onely and frendship which is an imputation laid upon them is altogether beside all reason For well knowen it is that they be loving to their children and husbands and this their naturall affection is like unto a fertile field or battell soile capable of amitie not unapt for perswasion nor destitute of the Graces And like as Poesie having sitted unto speech song meeter and thime as pleasant spices to aromatize and season the same by meanes whereof that profitable instruction which it yeeldeth is more attractive and effectuall as also the danger therein more inevitable Even so nature having endued a woman with an amiable cast and aspect of the eie with sweet speech and a beautifull countenance hath given unto her great meanes if she be lascivious and wanton with her pleasure to decive a man and if she be chaste and honest to gaine the good will and favour of her husband Plato gave counsell unto Xenocrates an excellent Philosopher and a woorthy personage otherwise howbeit in his behavior exceeding soure and austere to sacrifice unto the Graces and even so a man might advise a good matron and sober dame to offer sacrifice unto Love for his propitious favour unto mariage and his residence with her and that her husband by her kind loving demeanour unto him may keepe home and not seeke abroad to some other and so be forced in the end to breake out into such speeches as these out of the Comoedie Wretch that I am and man unhappy I So good a wife to quit with injury For in wedlocke to love is a better and greater thing by farre than to be loved for it keepeth folke from falling into many faults slips or to say more truly it averteth them from all those inconveniences which may corrupt marre ruinate a mariage as for those passionate affections which in the beginning of matrimoniall love moove fittes somewhat poinant and biting let me entreat you good friend Zeuxippus not to feare for any exulceration or smart itch that they have although to say a trueth it were no great harme if haply by some little wound you come to be incorporate and united to an honest woman like as trees that by incision are engraffed and grow one within another for when all is said is not the beginning of conception a kinde of exulceration neither can there be a mixture of two things into one unlesse they mutually suffer one of the other be reciprocally affected And verily the Mathematical rudiments which children be taught at the beginning trouble them even as Philosophie also at the first is harsh unto yong men but like as this unpleasantnesse continueth not alwaies with thē no more doeth that mordacity sticke still among lovers And it seemeth that Love at the first resembleth the mixture of two liquors which when they begin to incorporate together boile and worke one with another for even so Love seemeth to make a certaine confused tract and ebullition but after a while that the same be once setled and throughly clensed it bringeth unto Lovers a most firme and assured habit and there is properly that mixtion and temperature which is called universall and thorough the whole whereas the love of other friends conversing and living together may be very well compared to the mixtion which is made by these touching and interlacings of atomes which Epicurus speaketh of and the same is subject to ruptures separations and startings a sunder neither can it possibly make that union which matrimoniall love and mutuall conjunction doeth for neither doe there arise from any other Loves greater pleasures nor commodities more continually one from another ne yet is the benefit and good of any other friendship so honorable or expetible as When man and wife keepe house with one accord And lovingly agree at bed and bord Especially when the law warranteth it and the bond of procreation common betweene them is assistant thereto And verily nature sheweth that the gods themselves have need of such love for thus the Poets say that the heaven loveth the earth and the Naturalists hold that the Sunne likewise is in love with the Moone which every moneth is in conjunction with him by whom also she conceiveth In briefe must it not follow necessarily that the earth which is the mother and breeder of men of living creatures and all plants shall perish and be wholly extinct when love which is ardent desire and instinct inspired from god shall abandon the matter and the matter likewise shall cease to lust and seeke after the principle and cause of her conception But to the end that we may not range too farre nor use any superfluous and nugatory words your selfe doe know that these paederasties are of all other most uncertaine and such as use them are wont to scoffe much thereat and say that the amitie of such boies is in manner of an egge divided
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
light of the Sunne commeth to wit the Aaire the Moone and the earth we see that one of them is by him illuminate not as the aire but as the earth we must of necessity collect that those two be of one nature considering that of the same cause they suffer the same effects Now when all the companie highly commended Lucius for this disputation Passing well done of you Lucius quoth I you have to a proper discourse annexed as prety a comparison for we must give you your right and not defraud you of that which is your due With that smiled Lucius I have yet quoth he a second proportion which I will adde unto the other to the end that we may prove by demonstration that the Moone wholy resembleth the earth not only by this that she suffreth togtheer with the earth from the same cause the same accidents but also because they both doe worke the like effects upon the same object For this I am sure you will yeeld and grant unto me that of all those things which are observed about the Sunne none doe so much resemble one another as his eclips doth his setting or going downe if you will but call to minde that meeting of Sunne and Moone together which hapned of late daies and beginning immediatly after noonested caused many a starre from sundry parts of the skie to be seene and wrought such a temperature or disposition in the aire as is of the twilight evening and morning But if you will not grant me the said supposition in this our Theon here will cite and bring I trow Mimnermus Cydias Archilochus and besides them Stesichorus and Pindarus lamenting that in eclipses the world is robbed of their greatest light which they bewaile as if it were enterred saying that midnight was come at noone day and that the radiant beames of the Sunne went in the way and path of darkenesse but above all he will alledge Homer saying that in an eclips the faces and visages of men were overcast and seized upon with night and darkenesse also that the Sunne was quite lost and missing out of the heaven being in conjunction with the Moone ************** And this hapneth by a naturall cause according as Homer sheweth in this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What time as Moones their interchange begin As one goes out another commethin As for the rest in mine advise they be as certaine and doe conclude as exactly as the demonstrations of the Mathematicians to wit that as the night is the shadow of the earth so the eclipse of the Sun is the shadow of the Moone when as the sight returneth upon it selfe For the Sunne going downe is hidden from our sight by the earth and being eclipsed is likewise darkened by the Moone and both the one and the otherbe offuscations of darkenesse that of the Sunne setting by the earth and the other of the Sunne eclipsed by the Moone by the reason that the shade 〈◊〉 our sight of which premises the conclusion evidently doth follow For if the effect be like the efficients also be semblable because necessary it is that the same accidents or effects in the 〈◊〉 subject must come from the same efficient Now if the darkenesse occasioned by the eclipses be not so deepe nor affect the aire so forcibly as doth the night we are not to marvell thereat for the substance of that bodie which maketh the night and of it that 〈◊〉 the eclipse may wel be the same although the greatnesse be not equall For the Aegyptians I suppose doe hold that the Moone is in bignesse the 72. part of the earth And Anaxagoras saith it is just as big as Peloponnesus Aristarchus writeth that the overthwart line or Diamiter of the Moone in proportion to that of the earth is lesse than if 60. were compared with nineteene and somewhat more than if a hundred and eight were compared with 43 and thereby the earth bereaveth us of all sight of the Sunne so great it is For it must be a great obstacle and opposition betweene which continueth the time of a night and the Moone albeit otherwhile she hideth all the Sunne yet that ecclipse neither lasteth not so long nor is so universall for there appeareth alwaies about his circumference some light which will not permit the darknesse to be so blacke and deepe and altogether so obscure Aristotle also I meane the ancient Philosopher of that name rendring a reason why there happen ecclipses of the Moone oftener than of the Sunne among other causes brings in this for one that the Sunne is ecclipsed by the obstruction of the Moone and the Moone by that of the earth which is much greater and more spacious and so by consequence is opposed very often And Posidonius defined this accident thus The ecclipse of the Sunne quoth he is the conjunction or meeting of the Sunne and the Moone the shadow whereof doeth darken our eie-sight for there is no defect or ecclipse of the Sunnes light but unto those whose sight the shadow of the Moone hath caught and so hindreth them from seeing the Sunne Now in confessing that the shadow of the Moone reacheth downe unto us I know not what he hath left himselfe for to alledge Certes impossible it is that a starre should cast a shadow for that which is voide altogether of light is called a shadow and light maketh no shadow but contrariwise naturally riddeth it away But what arguments besides were alledged to this purpose quoth he The Moone quoth I then suffereth the same ecclipse Well done quoth he of you to reduce this into my memorie But would you have me to prosecute this disputation as if you had already granted and set downe that the Moone is subject to ecclipses when she is caught within the shadow of the earth or that for a subject and argument of some declamation and demonstration unto you I first rehearse all the arguments one after another Mary do so I pray you quoth Theon bestow your labour in such a discourse I had need verily quoth he of some perswasion having onely heard say that when these three bodies to wit the earth the Sunne and the Moone are directly in one right line then happen ecclipses for that either the earth taketh the Sunne from the Moone or the Moone taketh him from the earth for the Sunne is in defect or ecclipse when the Moone and the Moone likewise when the earth is in the mids of them three whereof the one falleth out in conjunction the other in the opposition or full Moone Then quoth Lucius these be in a maner all the principall points and the very briefe of those that which hath beene delivered but to begin withall if you thinke so good take in hand that firme argument which is drawen from the forme and figure of the shadow which indeed is a Conus or Pyramis resembling a sugar loafe with the sharpe end forward namely when a great fire or great light being round
comprehendeth a masse likewise round but lesse and hereupon it commeth that in eclipses of the Moone the circumscription of the blacke or darkenesse from the cleere and light have alwaies their sections round for the approchments and applications of a round bodie in what part soever whether it give or receive those sections by reason of the similitude doe alwaies keepe a round forme and be circular Now to the second argument You know well I suppose that the first part eclipsed or darkened in the Moone is that which regardeth the east and contrariwise in the Sunne that which looketh toward the west for the shaddow of the earth goeth from east to west but contrariwise the Sunne and Moone from west eastward The experience of the apparitions giveth us the visible knowledge of these things and many words there need not to make the demonstration hereof plaine and evident to be understood by which suppositions is confirmed the cause of the eclipse For in as much as the Sunne is eclipsed when he is overtaken and the Moone by meeting with that which maketh her eclipse by all likelihood nay rather necessarily the one is caught behinde the other surprised before for that the obstruction inumbration beginneth on that side on which that commeth first that maketh the said inumbration Now the Moone lighteth upon the Sunne from the west as striving with him in course and hastning after him but the shaddow of the earth commeth from the east as having a contrary motion The third reason is taken from the time and greatnesse of the eclipses of the Moone For when she is eclipsed on high and farre from the earth she continueth but a little while in defect or want of light but when she suffereth the same default being low and nere unto the earth she is much oppressed and slowly getteth she foorth of the shade thereof and yet when she is low she moveth most swiftly and being aloft as slowly But the cause is in the difference of the shaddow which toward the bottome or base is broader as are the Cones or Pyramides so it groweth smaller and smaller taper-wise untill at the top it endeth in asharpe point And hereupon it cōmeth that the Moone being low and so falling within the shadow is compassed with greater circles of the shadow so passeth through the very bottome of it that which is most darke but being on high by reason of the narrow compasse of the shadow being as it were in a small puddle of mire she is but a little sullied or beraied therewith so quickely getteth forth of it Here I passe by the accidents and effects that have their particular causes For we daily see that the fire out of a shady place appeareth shineth the rather either by reason of the thickenesse of the darke aire which admitteth no efluxions nor diffusions of the vertue of the fire keeping in and containing within it selfe the substance thereof or rather if this be a passion of the sense like as hot things nere unto cold are felt to be more hot and pleasures presently upon paines found more vehement even so things cleere appeare better when they are laid neere unto those that be darke by meanes of different passions which doe streine the imagination but the former conjecture seemeth to bee more probable for in the Sunne-shine the whole nature of fire not onely leeseth his brightnesse but also in giving place unto it becommeth more dull and unwilling to burne for that the heat of the Sunne doth scatter and dissipate the force thereof If then it were true that the Moone had in it a feeble and dimme or duskish fire as being a muddy starre as the Stoicks saie it is reason it were and meet that it should not suffer any one of those accidents but contrary al which now we see it to suffer namely to be seene at that time when as it is hidden and againe to be hidden what time as she sheweth herselfe that is to say to be covered all the rest of the time being darkned by the aire environing it and to shine out againe for six moneths and afterwards for five moneths be hidden entring within the shadow of the earth For of 465. revolutions of ecclipsed full Moones 404. are of six moneths and the rest of five It must needs be then during this time the Moone should appeare shining in the shadow but contrariwise we see that in the shadow ecclipsed she is and looseth her light which she recovereth againe afterwards when she is escaped and gotten foorth of the said shadow yea and appeareth often in the day time so that it is rather any thing else than a firie body and resembling a starre Lucius had no sooner thus said but Pharnaces Apollonides came running both together to set upon him and to confute his speech and then Pharnaces assisted by Apollonides there present Why this quoth he is that which principally prooveth the Moone to be a starre and to stand much upon fire namely that in ecclipses she is not wholly darkned and not at all to be seene but sheweth through the shade a certeine colour resembling a coale of fire and the same fearefull to see to which is the very naturall and proper hue of her owne As for Apollonides he made instance and opposition as touching the word shadow for that quoth he Mathematicians by that terme use alwaies to call the place which is not illumined but the heaven admitteth no shadow Whereto I made answer that this instance of his was alledged rather against the word contentiously than against the thing Physically or Mathematically for the place which is darkned and obstructed by the opposition of the earth if a man will not call a shadow but a place voide or deprived of light yet be it what it will whensoever the Moone is there you must of necessitie confesse that she becommeth obscure and darkned and in one word I say it is a very absurd folly to hold that the shadow of the earth reacheth not to that place from whence the shadow the Moone falling upon our sight heere upon the earth causeth the ecclipse of the Sunne And now will I come againe to you Pharnaces For that burnt colour like a coale in the Moone which you say is proper unto her agreeth very well to a body that hath thicknesse and depth neither use there to remaine in bodies which be rare any marke or token of a flame nor a coale can possibly be made of a body which is not solide able to receive deepe within it the heat of fire and the blacknesse of smoake as Homer himselfe sheweth very well in one place by these words When flower of fire was gon and flowen away And flame extinct the coales he did forth lay For the coale seemeth not properly to be fire but a bodie firie and altered by fire remaining still in a solid masse or substance which hath taken as it were deepe root
and comprehend another that the rainebow which compasseth the other without forth yeeldeth dim colours and not sufficiently distinct expressed because the outward cloud being farther remote from our sight maketh not a strong and forcible reflexion And what needs there any more to be said considering that the very light of the Sunne returned and sent backe by the Moone 〈◊〉 all the heat and of his brightnesse there commeth unto us with much adoe but a small remnant and a portion very little and feeble Is it possible then that our sight running the same race there should any percell or residue thereof reach from the Moone backe againe to the Sunne For mine owne part I thinke not Consider also I beseech you quoth I even your owne selves that if our eiesight were affected and disposed alike by the water and by the Moone it could not otherwise be but that the Moone should represent unto us the images of the earth of trees of plants of men and of starres as well as water doth and all other kinds of mirrors Now if there be no such reflexion of our eie sight 〈◊〉 the Moone as to bring backe unto us those images either for the feeblenesse of it or the rugged innequallity of her superficies let us never require that it should leape backe as far as to the Sun Thus have we reported as much as our memory would carrie away whatsoever was there delivered Now is it time to desire Sylla or rather to require exact of him to make his narration for that admitted he was to here this discourse upon such a condition And therefore if you thinke so good let us give over walking and sitting downe here upon these seates make him a sedentarie audience All the companie liked well of this motion And when we had taken our places Theon thus began Certes I am desirous quoth he and none of you all more to heare what shall be said But before I would be very glad to understand somewhat of those who are said to dwell in the Moone not whether there be any persons there inhabiting but whether it be possible that any should inhabit there For if this cannot be then it were mere folly and beside all reason to say that the Moone is earth otherwise it would be thought to have beene created in vaine and to no end as bearing no fruits nor affoording no habitation no place for nativity no food or nourishment for any men or women in regard of which cause and for which ends we 〈◊〉 hold that this earth wherein we live as Plato saith was made and created even to be our nourse and keeper making the day and night distinct one from another For you see and know that of this matter many things have beene said aswell merily and by way of laughter as 〈◊〉 and in good earnest For of those who inhabit the Moone some are said to hang by the heads under it as if they were so many 〈◊〉 others contrariwise who dwell upon it are tied fast like a sort of 〈◊〉 and turned about with such a violence that they are in danger to be slung and shaken out And verily she moveth not after one single motion but three maner of waies whereupon the Poets call her other while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Trivia performing her course together according to length bredth and depth in the Zodiak Of which motions the first is called A direct revolution the second An oblique winding or wheeling in and out and the third the Mathematicians call I wote not how An inequalitie and yet they see that she hath no motion at all even and uniforme nor certeine in all her monthly circuits and reversions No marvell therefore considering the impetuositie of these motions if there fell a lion sometimes out of her into Peloponnesus nay rather we are to wonder why we see not every day a thousand sals of men women yea and as many beasts shaken out from thence and flung downe headlong with their heeles upward For it were a meere mockerie to dispute and stand upon their habitation there if they neither can breed nor abide there For considering that the 〈◊〉 and Troglodytes over whose heads the Sunne standeth directly one moment onely of the day in the time of the Solstices and then presently retireth hardly escape burning by reason of the excessive siccitie of the circumstant aire how possibly can the men in the Moone endure 12 Summers every yere when the Sunne once a moneth is just in their Zenith and setleth plumbe over head when she is at the full As for winds clouds and raines without which the plants of the earth can neither come up nor be preserved it passeth all imagination that there should be any there the aire is so subtile drie and hote especially seeing that even here beneath the highest mountaines doe admit or feele the hard and bitter Winters from yeere to yeere but the aire about them being pure and cleere and without any agitation whatsoever by reason of the subtilitie and lightnesse avoideth all that thicknesse and concretion which is among us unlesse haply we will say that like as Minerva instilled and dropped into Achilles mouth some Nectar and Ambrosia when he received no other food so the Moone who both is called and is indeed Minerva nourisheth men there bringeth foorth daily for them Ambrosia according as olde Pherecides was wont to say that the very gods also were sedde and nourished For as touching that Indian root which as Megasthenes saith certeine people of India who neither eat nor drinke nor have so much as mouthes whereupon they be called Astomi do burne and make to smoake with the odor and perfume whereof they live how can they come by any such there considering the Moone is never watered nor refreshed with raine When 〈◊〉 had thus said You have quoth I very properly and sweetly handled this point you have I say by this mery conceited jest laied smooth and even those bent and knit browes the austerity I meane of this whole discourse which hath given us heart and encouraged us to make answere for that if we faile and come short we looke not for streight examination nor feare any sharpe and grievous punishment For to say a trueth they who take most offence at these matters rejecting and discrediting the same are not so great adversaries unto those who are most perswaded thereof but such as will not after a milde and gentle sort consider that which is possible and probable First and formost therefore this I say that suppose there were no men at all inhabiting the Moone it doth not necessarily follow therefore that she was made for nothing and to no purpose for we see that even this earth here is not thorowout inhabited nor tilled in all parts nay there is but a little portion thereof habitable like unto certeine promontories or 〈◊〉 arising out of the deepe sea for to breed in gender and bring forth
or casket the holy doctrine of the gods pure and clensed from all superstition and affected curiositie who also of that opinion which is held of the gods declare some things which are obscure darke others also which be cleere and lightsome like as be those which are reported as touching their holy and religious habit And therefore whereas the religious priests of Isis after they be dead are thus clad with these holy habiliments it is a marke and signe witnessing unto us that this sacred doctrine is with them and that they be departed out of this world into another and carie nothing with them but it for neither to weare a long beard nor to put on a frize rugge and course gabardine dame Clea makes a Philosopher no more doth the surplice and linnen vestment or shaving an Isiaque priest But he indeed is a priest of Isis who after he hath seene and received by law and custome those things which are shewed and practised in the religious ceremonies about these gods searcheth and diligently enquireth by the meanes of this holy doctrine and discourse of reason into the trueth of the said ceremonies For very few there be who among them who understand and know the cause of this ceremony which is of all other the smallest and yet most commonly observed namely why the Isiaque priests shave their heads and weare no haire upon them as also wherefore they goe in vestments of Line And some of them there be who care not at all for any knowledge of such matters yet others say they forbeare to put on any garments of wooll like as they doe to cat the flesh of those sheepe which caric the said wooll upon a reverence they beare unto them semblably that they cause their heads to be shaven in token of dole and sorrow likewise that they weare surplices and vestments of linnen in regard of the colour that the flower of line or flaxe beareth which resembleth properly that celestiall azure skie that environeth the whole world But to say a trueth there is but one cause indeed of all for lawfull it is not for a man who is pure and cleane to touch any thing as Plato saith which is impure and uncleane Now it is well knowen that all the superfluities and excrements of our food and nourishment be foule and impure and of such be engendred and grow wooll haire shagge and nailes and therefore a meere ridiculous mockerie it were if when in their expiatorie sanctifications and divine services they cast off their haire being shaven and made smooth all their bodies over they should then be clad and arraied with the superfluous excrements of beasts for we must thinke that Hesiodus the Poet when he writeth thus At feast of gods and sacredmeriment Take heed with knife thy nailes thou do not pare To cut I say that dry dead excrement From lively flesh of fingers five beware teacheth us that we ought first to be cleansed and purified then to solemnise festivall holidaies and not at the very time of celebration and performance of holie rites and divine service to use such clensing and ridding away of superfluous excrements Now the herbe Line groweth out of the earth which is immortall bringeth foorth a frute good to be eaten and furnisheth us wherewith to make a simple plaine and slender vestment which sitteth light upon his backe that weareth it is meet for all seasons of the yeere and of all others as men say least breedeth lice or vermine whereof I am to discourse else where Now these Isiaque priests so much abhorre the nature and generation of all superfluities and excrements that they not onely refuse to eate most part of pulse and of flesh meats mutton and porke for that sheepe and swine breed much excrement but also upon their daies of sanctification and expiatorie solemnities they will not allow any salt to be eaten with their viands among many other reasons because it whetteth the appetite and giveth an edge to our stomacke provoking us to eate and drinke more liberally for to say as Aristagoras did That salt was by them reputed uncleane because when it is congealed and growen hard many little animals or living creatures which were caught within it die withall is a very foolerie Furthermore it is said that the Aegyptian priests have a certeine pit or well apart out of which they water their bull or beefe Apis and be very precise in any wise not to let him drinke of Nilus not for that they thinke the water of that river uncleane in regard of the crocodiles which are in it as some be of opinion for contrariwise there is nothing so much honored among the Aegyptians as the river Nilus but it seemeth that the water of Nilus doth fatten exceeding much and breed flesh over fast and they would not in any case that their Apis should be fat or themselves grosse and corpulent but that their soules might be clothed with light nimble and delicate bodies so as the divine part in them should not be oppressed or weighed downe by the force and ponderositie of that which is mortall In Heliopolis which is the citie of the Sunne those who serve and minister unto their god never bring wine into the temple as thinking it not convenient in the day time to drinke in the sight of their lord and king otherwise the priests drinke thereof but sparily and besides many purgations and expiations they have wherein they absteine wholly from wine and during those daies they give themselves wholly to their studies and meditations learning and teaching holy things even their very kings are not allowed to drinke wine their fill but are stinted to the gage of a certeine measure according as it is prescribed in their holy writings and those kings also were priests as Hecataeus writeth And they began to drinke it after the daies of king Psammetichus for before his time they dranke it not at all neither made they libaments thereof unto their gods supposing it not acceptable unto them for they tooke it to be the verie bloud of those giants which in times past warred against the gods of whom after they were slaine when their bloud was mixed with the earth the vine tree sprang and this is the cause say they why those who be drunke lose the use of their wit reason as being full of the bloud of their progenitours Now that the Aegyptian priests both hold and affirme thus much Eudoxus hath delivered in the second booke of his Geographie As concerning fishes of the sea they doe not every one of them absteine from all indifferently but some forbeare one kind some another as for example the Oxyrynchites will eate of none that is taken with an hooke for adoring as they doe a fish named Oxyrynchos they are in doubt and feare lest the hooke should be uncleane if haply the said fish swallowed it downe with the baite The Sienites will not touch the fish Phagrus For it should
potable water and with that all those who are present set up a note and shout as if they had found Osiris againe then they take a piece of fatty and fertile earth and together with the water knead and worke it into a paste mixing therewith most precious odors persumes and spices whereof they make a little image in forme of the Moone croissant which they decke with robes and adorne shewing thereby evidently that they take these gods to be the substance of water and earth Thus when Isis had recovered Osiris nourished Orus and brought him up to some growth so that he now became strengthned fortified by exhalations vapors mists and clouds Typhon verily was vanquished howbeit not shine for that the goddesse which is the ladie of the earth would not permit suffer that the power or nature which is contrary unto moisture should be utterly abolished onely she did slacken and let downe the vehement force thereof willing that this combat and strife should still continue because the world would not have beene entier and perfect if the nature of fire had beene once extinct gone And if this goe not currant among them there is no reason and probability that any one should project this assertion also namely that Typhon in times past overcame one part of Osiris for that in olde time Aegypt was sea whereupon it is that even at this day within the mines wherein men dig for mettals yea and among the mountaines there is found great store of seafish Likewise all the fountaines welles and pits and those are many in number cary a brackish saltish and bitter water as if some remnant or residue of the olde sea were reserved which ranne thither But in processe of time Orus subdued Typhon that is to say when the seasonable raine came which tempered the excessive heat Nilus expelled and drave forth the sea discovered the champian ground and filled it continually more and more by new deluges and inundations that laied somewhat still unto it And hereof the daily experience is presented to our eies for we perceive even at this day that the overflowes and rising of the river bringing new mud and adding fresh earth still by little and little the sea giveth place and retireth and as the deepe in it is filled more and more so the superficies riseth higher by the continuall shelves that the Nile casts up by which meane the sea runneth backward yea the very Isle Pharos which Homer knew by his daies to lie farre within the sea even a daies sailing from the continent firme land of Aegypt is now a very part thereof not for that it remooved and approched neerer and neerer to the land but because the sea which was betweene gave place unto the river that continually made new earth with the mudde that it brought and so mainteined and augmented the maine land But these things resemble very neere the Theologicall interpretations that the Stoicks give out for they holde that the generative and nutritive Spirit is Bacchus but that which striketh and divideth is Hercules that which receiveth is Ammon that which entreth and pierceth into the earth is Ceres and Proserpina and that which doth penetrate farther and passe thorow the sea is Neptune Others who mingle among naturall causes and reasons some drawen from the Mathematicks and principally from Astrology thinke that Typhon is the Solare circle or sphaere of the Sunne and that Osiris is that of the Moone inasmuch as the Moone hath a generative and vegetable light multiplying that sweet and comfortable moisture which is so meet for the generation of living creatures of trees and plants but the Sunne having in it a pure firy flame indeed without any mixture or rebatement at all heateth and drieth that which the earth bringeth forth yea and whatsoever is verdant and in the flower insomuch as by his inflamation he causeth the greater part of the earth to be wholly desert and inhabitable and many times subdueth the very Moone And therefore the Aegyptians evermore name Typhon Seth which is as much to say as ruling lordly and oppressing with violence And after their fabulous maner they say that Hercules sitting as it were upon the Sunne goeth about the world with him and Mercurie likewise with the Moone by reason whereof the works and effects of the Moone resemble those acts which are performed by eloquence and wisedome but those of the Sunne are compared to such as be exploited by force and puissance And the Stoicks say that the Sunne is lighted and set on fire by the Sea and therewith nourished but they be the fountaines and lakes which send up unto the Moone a milde sweet and delicate vapour The Aegyptians faine that the death of Osiris hapned on the seventeenth day of the moneth on which day better than upon any other she is judged to be at the full and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans call this day The obstruction and of all other numbers they most abhorre and detest it for whereas sixteene is a number quadrangular or foure-square and eighteene longer one way than another which numbers onely of those that be plaine happen for to have the ambient unities that environ them equall to the spaces conteined and comprehended within them seventeene which falleth betweene separateth and disjoineth the one from the other and being cut into unequall intervals distracteth the proportion sesquioctave And some there be who say that Osiris lived others that he reigned eight and twenty yeeres for so many lights there be of the Moone and so many daies doth she turne about her owne circle and therefore in those ceremonies which they call The sepulture of Osiris they cut a piece of wood and make a certeine coffin or case in maner of the Moone croissant for that as she approcheth neere to the Sunne she becommeth pointed and cornered untill in the end she come to nothing and is no more seene And as for the dismembring of Osiris into foureteene pieces they signifie unto us under the covert vaile of these words The daies wherein the said planet is in the wane and decreaseth even unto the change when she is renewed againe And that day on which she first appeareth by passing by and escaping the raies of the Sunne they call an Unperfect good for Osiris is a doer of good and this name signifieth many things but principally an active and beneficiall power as they say and as for the other name Omphis Hermaeus saith that it betokeneth as much as a benefactour Also they are of opinion that the risings and inundations of the river Nilus answere in proportion to the course of the Moone for the greatest heigth that it groweth unto in the countrey Elephantine is eight and twenty cubits for so many illuminations there be or daies in every revolution of the Moone and the lowest gage about Mendes and Xois sixe cubits which answereth to the first quarter but the meane betweene about the city
Memphis when it is just at the full commeth to foureteene cubits correspondent to the full Moone They holde moreover Apis to be the lively image of Osiris and that he is ingendred and bred at what time as the generative light descendeth from the Moone and toucheth the Cow desirous of the male and therefore Apis resembleth the formes of the Moone having many white spots obscured and darkened with the shadowes of blacke And this is the reason why they solemnize a feast in the new Moone of the moneth Phamenoth which they call The ingresse or entrance of Osiris to the Moone and this is the beginning of the Spring season and thus they put the power of Osiris in the Moone They say also that Isis which is no other thing but generation lieth with him and so they name the Moone Mother of the world saying that she is a double nature male and female female in that she doth conceive and is replenished by the Sunne and male in this regard that she sendeth forth and sprinkleth in the aire the seeds and principles of generation for that the drie distemperature and corruption of Typhon is not alwaies superior but often times vanquished by generation and howsoever tied it be and bound yet it riseth fresh againe and fighteth against Orus who is nothing els but the terrestriall world which is not altogether free from corruption nor yet exempt from generation Others there be who would have all this fiction covertly to represent no other thing but the ecclipses for the Moone is ecclipsed when she is at the full directly opposite to the Sunne and commeth to fall upon the shadow of the earth like as they say Osiris was put into the chest or coffer above said On the other side she seemeth to hide and darken the light of the Sunne upon certeine thirtieth daies but yet doth not wholly abolish the Sunne no more than Isis doth kill Typhon but when Nephthys bringeth forth Anubis Isis putteth herselfe in place for Nephthys is that which is under the earth and unseene but Isis that which is above and appeareth unto us and the circle named Horizon which is common to them both and parteth the two hemisphaeres is named Anubis and in forme resembleth a dogge for why a dogge seeth aswell by night as by day so that it should seeme that Anubis among the Aegyptians hath the like power that Proserpina among the Greeks being both terrestriall and coelestiall Others there be who thinke that Anubis is Saturne and because he is conceived with all things and bringeth them foorth which in Greeke the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth therefore he is surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Adogge So that there is some hidden and mysticall secret in it that causeth some even still to reverence and adore A dogge for the time was when more worship was done unto it in Aegypt than to any other beast but after that Cambyses had killed Apis cut him in pieces and flung the same heere and there no other creature would 〈◊〉 neere to taste thereof save the dogge onely whereupon he lost that prerogative and preeminence to be more honoured than other beasts Others there are who would have the shadow of the earth which causeth the Moone to be ecclipsed when she entreth into it to be named Typhon And therefore me thinks it were not amisse to say that in particular there is not any one of these expositions and interpretations perfect by it selfe and right but all of them together cary some good cōstruction for it is neither drought alone nor winde nor sea ne yet darknesse but all that is noisome and hurtfull whatsoever and which hath a speciall part to hurt and destroy is called Typhon Nether must we put the principles of the whole world into bodies that have no life and soule as Democritus and Epicurus doe nor yet set downe for the workman and framer of the first matter a certeine reason and providence without quality as do the Stoicks such a thing as hath a subsistence before and above all and commandeth all for impossible it is that one sole cause good or bad should be the beginning of all things together for God is not the cause of any evill and the coagmentation of the world bendeth contrary waies like as the composition of a lute or bow as Heraclitus saith and according to Euripides Nothings can be by themselves good or bad That things do well a mixture must be had And therefore this opinion so very auncient is descended from Theologians and Law-givers unto Poets and Philosophers the certeine author and beginning whereof is not yet knowen howbeit so firmely grounded in the perswasion and beliefe of men that hard it is to suppresse or abolish the same so commonly divulged not onely in conferences disputations and ordinary speeches abroad but also in the sacrifices and divine ceremonies of gods service in many places as well among the Barbarians as Greeks to wit that neither this world floteth and waveth at aventure without the government of providence and reason nor reason onely it is that guideth directeth and holdeth it as it were with certeine helmes or bits of obeisance but manie things there be confused and mixed good and bad together or to speake more plainely there is nothing heere beneath that nature produceth and bringeth foorth which of it selfe is pure and simple neither is there one drawer of two tunnes to disperse and distribute abroad the affaires of this world like as a taverner or vintner doeth his wines or other liquors brewing and tempering one with another But this life is conducted by two principles and powers adverse one unto another for the one leadeth us to the right hand directly the other contrariwise turneth us aside and putteth us backe and so this life is mixt and the verie world it selfe if not all throughout yet at leastwise this beneath about the earth and under the Moone is unequall variable and subject to all mutations that possibly may be For if nothing there is that can be without a precedent cause and that which of it selfe is good can never minister cause of evill necessarie it is that nature hath some peculiar cause and beginning by itselfe of good aswell as of bad And of this opinion are the most part of the ancients and those of the wisest sort For some thinke there be two gods as it were of a contrary mystery profession the one author of all good things and the other of bad Others there be who call the better of them god and the other Daemon that is to say divell as Zoroastres the Magician did who by report was five thousand yeeres before the warre of Troy This Zoroastres I say named the good god Oromazes and the other Arimanius Moreover the gave out that the one resembled light more than any sensible thing else whatsoever the other darknesse and ignorance also that there is one in the middes betweene them
in the body so far inbred in the soule of the universall world in opposition alwaies to the better and to warre against it Now then in the soule reason and understanding which is the guide and mistresse of all the best things is Osiris Also in the earth in the windes in water skie and the starres that which is well ordained staied disposed and digested in good sort by temperate seasons and revolutions the same is called the defluxion of Osiris and the very apparent image of him Contrariwise the passionate violent unreasonable brutish rash and foolish part of the soule is Typhon Semblably in the bodily nature that which is extraordinarily adventitious unholsome diseased as for example the troubled aire and tempestuous indispositions of the weather the obscuration or ecclipse of the Sunne the defect of the Moone and her occulation be as it were the excursions deviations out of course and disparations and all of them be Typhons as the very interpretation of the Aegyptian word signifieth no lesse for Typhon they name Seth which is as much to say as violent and oppressing after a lordly maner It importeth also many times reversion otherwhiles aninsultation or supplantation Moreover some there be who say that one of Typhons familiar friends was named Bebaeon But Manethos affirmeth that Typhon himselfe was called Bebon which word by interpretation is as much as cohibition restreint or impeachment as if the puissance and power of Typhon were to stay and withstand the affaires that are in good way of proceeding and tend as they should doe to a good end And heereupon it is that of tame beasts they dedicate and attribute unto him the most grosse and indocible of all others namely an asse but of wilde beasts the most cruell and savage of all others as the crocodiles and riverhorses As for the asse we have spoken before of him In the city of Mercury named Hermupolis they shew unto us the image of Typhon purtraied under the forme of a river-horse upon whom sitteth an hauke fighting with a serpent By the foresaid horse they represent Typhon and by the hauke the power and authority which Typhon having gotten by force maketh no care oftentimes both to be troubled and also to trouble others by his malice And therefore when they solemnize a sacrifice the seventh day of the moneth Tybi which they call the comming of Isis out of Phoenicia they devise upon their halowed cakes for sacrifice a river-horse as if he were tied and bound In the city of Apollo the maner and custome confirmed by law was that every one must eat of a crocodile and upon a certaine day they have a solemne chase and hunting of them when they kill as many of them as they can and then cast them all before the temple and they say that Typhon being become a crocodile hath escaped from Orus attributing all dangerous wicked beails all hurtfull plants and violent passions unto Typhon as if they were his workes his parts or motions Contrariwise they purtray and depaint unto us Osiris by a septer and an eie upon it meaning by the eie foresight and providence by the septer authority and puissance like as Homer nameth Jupiter who is the prince lord and ruler of all the world Hypatos that is sovereigne and Mestor that is foreseeing giving us to understand by sovereigne his supreme power by foreseeing his prudence and wisdome They represent Osiris also many times by an hauke for that she hath a wonderfull cleere and quicke sight her flight also is as swift and she is wont naturally to sustaine her selfe with very little food And more than that by report when she flieth over dead bodies unburied she casteth mould and earth upon their eies And looke whensoever she flieth downe to the river for to drinke she setteth up her fethers straight upright but when she hath drunke she laieth them plaine and even againe by which it appeareth that safe she is and hath escaped the crocodile For if the crocodile seise upon her and catch her up her pennache abideth stiffe and upright as before But generally throughout wheresoever the image of Osiris is exhibited in the forme of a man they purtray him with the naturall member of generation stiffe and straight prefiguring thereby the generative and nutritive vertue The habiliment also wherewith they clad his images is bright shining like fire For they repute the Sunne to be a body representing the power of goodnesse as being the visible matter of a spirituall and intellectuall substance And therefore their opinion deserveth to be rejected who attribute unto Typhon the sphaere of the Sunne considering that unto him properly appertaineth nothing that is resplendent healthfull and comfortable no disposition no generation or motion which is ordered with measure or digested by reason But if either in the aire or upon the earth there be any unseasonable disposition of windes of weather or water it hapneth when the primitive cause of a disordinate and indeterminate power commeth to extinguish the kinde vapours and exhalations Moreover in the sacred hymnes of Osiris they invocate and call upon him who lieth at repose hidden within the armes of the Sunne Also upon the thirtieth day of the moneth Epiphi they solemnize the feast of the nativity or birth of Orus eies at what time as the Sunne and Moone be in the same direct line as being perswaded that not onely the Moone but the Sunne also is the eie and light of Horus Likewise upon the twenty eight day of the moneth Phaopi they celebrate another feast of the Sunnes basons or staves and that is after the Aequinox in Autumne giving covertly thereby to understand that the Sunne hath need of an appuy or supporter to rest upon and to strengthen him because his heat beginnes then to decay and languish sensibly his light also to diminish and decline obliqucly from us Moreover about the soltice or middle of winter they cary about his temple seven times a cow and this procession is called the seeking of Osiris or the revolution of the Sunne as if the goddesse then desired the waters of winter And so many times they doe it for that the course of the Sunne from the Winter solstice unto the Summer solstice is performed in the seventh moneth It is said moreover that Horus the sonne of Isis was the first who sacrificed unto the Sun the foureteenth day of the moneth according as it is written in a certaine booke as touching the nativity of Horus howsoever every day they offer incense and sweet odors to the Sunne three times First at the Sunne rising Rosin secondly about noone Myrth and thirdly at the Sunne setting a certaine composition named Kiphi The mysticall meaning of which perfumes and odors I will heereafter declare but they are perswaded that in all this they worship and honor the Sunne But what need is there to gather and collect a number of such matters as these seeing there be
such things as manifestly do appeere For in divers and sundry countries we see that lakes and whole rivers yea and many more sountaines and springs of hot waters have failed and beene quite lost as being fled out of our sight and hidden within the earth but afterwards in the very same places they have in time shewed themselves againe or else run hard by And of mettall mines we know that some have beene spent cleane and emptied as namely those of silver about the territory of Attica semblably the vaines of brasse oare in Euboea out of which they forged sometime the best swords that were hardned with the tincture of cold water according to which the Poet Aeschylus said He tooke in hand the keene and douty blade Which of Euboean steele sometime was made The rocke also and quarry in Carystia it is not long since it gave over to bring foorth certeine bals or bottomes of soft stone which they use to spin and draw into thred in maner of flax for I suppose that some of you have seene towels napkins nets caules kerchiefes and coifes woven of such thred which would not burne and consume in the fire but when they were foule and soiled with occupying folke flung them into the fire and tooke them foorth againe cleane and faire but now al this is quite gone and hardly within the said delfe shall a man meet with some few hairie threds of that matter running here there among the hard stones digged out from thence Now of all these things Aristotle and his sectaries hold That an exhalation within the earth is the onely efficient cause with which of necessity such effects must faile and passe from place to place as also otherwhiles breed againe therewith Semblably are we to thinke of the spirits and exhalations prophetical which issue out of the earth namely that they have not a nature immortall and such as can not age or waxe olde but subject to change and alteration For probable it is that the great gluttes of raine and extraordinary flouds have extinguished them quite and that by the terrible fall of thunder-bolts the places were smitten and they withal dissipated and dispatched but principally when the ground hath beene shaken with earthquakes and thereupon setled downward and fallen in with trouble and confusion of whatsoever was below it cannot chuse but such exhalations conteined within the holow caves of the earth either changed their place and were driven forth or utterly were stifled and choked And so in this place also there remained and appeered some tokens of that great earth-quake which overthrew the city and staied the Oracle heere like as by report in the city Orchomenos there was a plague which swept away a number of people and therewith the Oracle of Tiresias the prophet failed for ever so continueth at this day mute and to no effect And whether the like befell unto the Oracles which were woont to be in Cilicia as we heare say no man can more certeinly enforme us than you Demetrius Then Demetrius How things stand now at this present I wot not for I have beene a traveller and out of my native country a long time as yee all know but when I was in those parts both that of Mopsus and also the other of Amphtlochus flourished and were in great request And as for the Oracle of Mopsus I am able to make report unto you of a most strange and woonderfull event thereof for that I was my selfe present The Governour of Cilicia is of himselfe doubtfull and wavering whether there be gods or no upon infirmity as I take it of miscredance and unbeliefe for otherwise he was a naughty man a violent oppressour and scorner of religion But having about him certeine Epicureans who standing much upon this their goodly and beautifull Physiologie forsooth as they terme it or else all were marred scoffe at such things he sent one of his affranchised or freed servants unto the Oracle of Mopsus indeed howbeit making semblance as if he were an espiall to discover the campe of his enemies he sent him I say with a letter surely sealed wherin he had written without the privity of any person whatsoever a question or demaund to be presented unto the Oracle This messenger after the order and custome of the place remaining all night within the sanctuary of the temple fel there asleepe and rehearsed the morrow morning what a dreame he had and namely that he thought he saw a faire and beautifull man to present himselfe unto him and say unto him this onely word Blacke and no more for presently he went his way out of his sight Now wee that were there thought this to be a foolish and absurd toy neither wist we what to make of it But the governour aforesaid was much astonied thereat and being stricken with a great remorse and pricke of conscience worshipped Mopsus and held his Oracle most venerable for opening the letter he shewed publikely the demaund conteined therein which went in these words Shall I sacrifice unto thee a white Bull or a blacke insomuch as the very Epicureans themselves who conversed with him were much abashed and ashamed So he offred the sacrifice accordingly and ever afterwards to his dying day honoured Mopsus right devoutly Demetrius having thus said held his peace but I desirous to conclude this whole disputation with some corollary turned againe and cast mine eie upon Philippus and Ammonius who sat together Now they seemed as if they had somewhat to speake unto me and thereupon I staied my selfe againe With that Ammonius Philip quoth he ô Lamprias hath somewhat yet to say of the question which hath beene all this while debated For he is of opinion as many others beside him are that Apollo is no other god than the Sunne but even the very same But the doubt which I moove is greater and of more important matters For I wot not how erewhile in the traine of our discourse we tooke from the gods all divination and ascribed the same in plaine termes to Daemons and angels and now we will seeme to thrust them out againe from hence and to disseize them of the Oracle and three footed table of which they were possessed conferring the beginning and principall cause of prophesie or rather indeed the very substance and power it selfe upon windes vapours and exhalations For even those temperatures heats tinctures and consolidations if I may so say which have beene talked of remove our minde and opinion farther off still from the gods and put into our heads this imagination and conceit of such a cause as Euripides deviseth Cyclops to alledge in the Tragoedie bearing his name The earth must needs bring forth grasse this is flat Will she or nill she and feed my cattell fatte This onely is the difference because he saith not that he sacrificed his beasts unto the gods but unto himselfe and his belly the greatest of all the Daemons but we both sacrifice and
vertuous deed 492.30 Megisto the wife of Timoleon her wise speech 494.10 Melancholicke persons great dreamers and their dreames most significant 1349.50 Melanippides what he altered in Musicke 1257.20 Melanchosike disposition praesage the sicknesse 618.20 Melanthius his apophthegme of a tragoedie 55.50 Melanthius his speech concerning factions in Athens 25.40 Melanthius checketh Gorgias 323.20 Melanthius the flattering parasite of K. Alexander Phaeraeus 86.10 Melanthia what it is 64.50 Melanuri 15.20 Melicertaes body cast up with a wrecke 717.10 Melichrus a slattering terme 93.30 Mellicre what she is 398.30 Melisponda 712.50 Melissus the Philosopher a good Statist and martiall man 1128 20 Melissa wife to Periander 330.40 Melissus the sonne of Abron killeth himselfe 945.50 Melon one of the conspiratours against Archias the Thebane 1225.20 Melos women their vertuous act 487.30 Memnon his apophthegme 404.50 Memorie in children to be exercised 11.30 Memorie how profitable it is 11.50 the mother of the Muses 1131.30 of what power it is 1344.1 Menalippe a tragoedie of Euripides 1139.30 Menander his comoedies praised 759.30 much commended before Aristophanes 942.40 his untimely death 943.30 Menander a wise and mild prince 377.1 highly honoured by his subjects 377.1 Menecrates a vain-glorious Physician 424.20.449.10 reprooved by Agesilaus 424.20 Menedemus shutteth the doore against his friends sonne 〈◊〉 10. his opinion of vertue 64.50 Menelaus and Paris enter combat 793.1 Menelaus and Helena debased by Herodotus 1230.20 Menelaus came unbidden to Agamemnon his feast 753.40 Menelaus in Homer protected by Minerva 1282.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is MENTIS a temple at Rome 630 40. when it was dedicated 635.1 Mercurie terrestriall and celestial 1182.30 Mercurie is come what it meaneth 193.10 Mercurie why he is shrined neere to the graces 59.20 master of merchants 692.30 Mercuriall Daemons 1297.50 Mercurie Hegemon 290.40 Mercurie the author of Grammar and Musicke 1288.30 Mese 796.40 Mesoromasdes 294.40 Messenger reporting newes of the victory at Marathon 984.1 Messenger of the victory at Mantinea how rewarded 984.10 Mestor an attribute of Jupiter in Homer what it signifieth 1308.1 Metageitnion and Metageitnia 272.30 Metaphors 800.1.10 Metellus sacrificeth his owne daughter 910.30 his secrecie 197. 30. checked by Cicero 439.50 Meteors what they be 826.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 685.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 890.50 Methides sepulchre in AEgypt 1295.40 Methyer what it signifieth 1310.20 Metiochus a favourite of Pericles 365.1 Metrocles challenged the kings of Persia. 299.50 he contemned poverty 299.20 Metrodorus his letters commending bodily pleasures 595.10 professeth ignorance in historie and poetrie 590.40 his grosse opinion of pleasure 1127.10 he vaunteth for rescuing Mythra 1128. 50. he scorneth Lycurgus Solon and such 1129.20 Mettall mines that have failed to bring forth oare 1345.40 Mezentius king of the Tuscanes 866.20 Micca her vertuous deed 492.30 most barbarously misused by one Lucius 492.50 murdered by him 493.1 Mice of the water detested of Zoroastres and the Magi. 711.1 Mice conceive by licking salt 728.40 Midas upon a melancholie killed himselfe 265.1 Mildenesse of Euclides his brother 130.30 Milesia the daughter of Scedasus 946.10 Milesian maidens troubled with melancholy 496.30 how their rage was repressed ib. 40 Milichius an attribute to God 125.20 Military exercises fit for youth 10 10 Milke not properly called moist as oile is 740.40 Milke in women how it is made and whereto it serveth 220.10 Milke-way or Galaxia 826.40 Milke how students should use in their diet 621.10 Miltiades a tyrant at first prooved a good captaine 543.40 Mimi 760.10 a MIND the efficient cause of all things 806.30 Minerva rebuked for piping 122.30 Minerva flang away her pipes 122 40 Minerva Chalcioecos 909.30 Minerva provident 381.1 Minerva Itonia 796.20 Minerva but one 796.20 Minerva Optelitis 464.1 Mine and Thine 80.30 Mine and Thine reprooved by Plato 318.40 K. Minis why accursed by the Aegyptians 1290.40 Minos a judge among the dead 532.20 why he was called Jupiters Oaristes 290.10 Minotaures whence they come 568.50 Minstrels at Rome disguised in womens apparell 869.20 Minstrell pipers forsake Rome ib. Minstrell wenches whether they are to be admitted to sober feasts 757.20 Minyas his daughters enraged 899.30 Mirrors and the resemblances in them 837.20 Mirrors of divers sorts and their reflexions 1170.1 Mirth to be joined with serious affaires 653.1 Misogyne a temple of Hercules 1198.1 Mithridates one who for eating and drinking wan the best game 655.30 surnamed Dionysus ib. K. Mithridates escaped death by the meanes of Demetrius 415.20 Mitres who he was and what it signifieth 1036.1 Mixolydian musicke who invented 1253.20 Mixarchagenas who it is 895.40 Mixture of elements 814.40 Mneuis a beefe or bull in Heliopolis 1300.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how defined 953.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother of the Muses 11.30.796.30 Mnesarete her image of beaten gold 1195. her name was also Phryne ib. why named Phryne 1195.1 Mnesiphilus 336.40 Mnesiphilus kind to Themistocles 398.20 Mockes and scornes to be abidden with patience 48.10 Mockers and scorners how to be answered ib. Modesty a great token of progresse in vertue 253.10.20 Moderation in both fortuues commended 510.20.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 29.1.679.30.50 Moist what thing is properly called 740.30 Molionidae 1106.20 massacred by Hercules 1194.40 Molpus the minstrell 896.40 Molus the father of 〈◊〉 found headlesse 1330.10 Monarchia what it is 941.20 it is the best government ib. 50 Monethly termes or purgations of women 220.30 Moneths first and second to what gods consecrated 858.40 Moneths attributed to Juno 876.1 Monogenes the name of Proserpina and the reason thereof 1182.30 Monophagi in Aegina 901.50 Monsters how engendred 843.1 Mony with the stampe of Janus face and the prow or poope of a ship 864.50 Mony with the stampe of a beefe sheepe and a swine 865.10 Moone at full what effects it hath 697.30.40 Moone slow and of a feeble heat 1168.50 Moones upon the shooes of the noblest Senatours in Rome 875.30 Moone of what substance it is 1183.10 Moone the type of this worlds mutability 875.40 Moone a most pure mirrour 1161 1 at full Moone women have easiest child-birth 876.10 whether the Moone be earth 1163 1 the Moones substance 824.30 the Moone whether it be a dimme fire 1162.1 the Moones three motions 1177. 10. her magnitude 824.40 1172.1 illuminate from the Sunne ib. 50 Moone why it falleth not 1163.20 the Moones forme or figure 824.50 Moone within the confines of the earth 1165.20 her seven shapes 825.1 her illuminations ib. 10. her ecclipse 825.20 her monthly occultations 825.40 how she is illumined from the Sunne 1169.10 the Moones face or unequall apparition therein 825.50 the face appeering in the Moone and the cause thereof 1160 the Moone hath divers denominations 1329.1 the Moone inhabited 825.50.1177.1178 the Moone worketh moist effects 1179.10 the Moone is named Pseudophanes 826.1 Moone-shine hurtfull to babes and for sleepe 697.10.20 Moone how farre distant from the Sunne 826.1 the tale of the Moone and her
industrie hath devised and found out as an appendant and accessarie Neither can it be said what time of the world it was when as man had no water nor ever read we in any records that one of the gods or demi-gods was the inventer therof for it was at the very instant with them nay what and we say that it gave them their being But the use of fire was but yesterday or the other day to speake of found out by Prometheus so that the time was when as men lived without fire but void of water our life never was Now that this is no devised poeticall fiction this daily and present life of ours doth plainly testifie for there be at this day in the world divers nations that are mainteined without fire without house without hearth or chimney 〈◊〉 abroad in the open wide aire And Diogenes the Cynicke seldome or never had any use of fire insomuch as having upon a time swallowed downe a polype fish raw Loe quoth he my masters how for your sake we put our selves in jeopardie howbeit without water there was never any man thought that either we might live honestly and civilly or that our nature would possibly endure it But what need is there that I should particularize thus and go so neere as to search farre into the nature of man considering that whereas there be so many or rather so infinit kinds of living creatures mankinde onely in a maner knoweth the use of fire whereas all the rest have their nourishment and food without the benefit of fire Those that brouse feed flie and creepe get their living by eating herbes roots fruits and flesh all without fire but without water there is not one that can live neither going or creeping on the land nor swimming in the sea not yet flying in the aire True it is I must needs say that Aristotle writeth how some beasts there be even of those that devoure flesh which never drunke but in very trueth nourished they be by some moisture Well then that is more profitable without which no maner of life can consist or endure Proceed we farther passe from those living creatures which use to feed upon plants fruits even unto the same that are by us them used for food Some of them there be which have no heat at all others so little as it can not be perceived Contrariwise moisture is that which causeth all kind of seeds to chit to bud to grow and in the end to bring forth fruit for what need I to alledge for this purpose either wine and oile or other liquors which we draw presse out or milke forth out of beasts paps which we do see dayly before our eies considering that even our wheat which seemeth to be a drie nutriment is engendred by the transmutation putrefaction and diffusion of moisture Furthermore that is to be held more profitable which bringeth with it no hurt nor dammage but we all know that fire if it breake forth get head and be at libertie is the most pernicious thing in the world wheras the nature of water of it selfe doth never any harme Againe of two things that is held to be more commodious which is the simpler and without preparation can yeeld the profit which it hath but fire requireth alwaies some succour and matter which is the reason that the rich have more of it than the poore and princes than private persons whereas water is so kind and courteous that it giveth it selfe indifferently to all sorts of people it hath no need at all of tooles or instruments to prepare it for use compleat and perfect it is in it selfe without borowing ought abroad of others Over and besides that which being multiplied as it were and augmented loseth the utilitie and profit that it had is by consequence lesse profitable and such is fire resembling herein a ravenous wild beast which devoureth and consumeth all that it commeth neere in so much as it were by the industrie and artificiall meanes of him who knoweth how to use it with moderation rather than of the owne nature that it doth any good at all whereas water is never to be feared Againe of two things that which can do good being both alone and also in the company of the other is the more profitable of the twaine but so it is that fire willingly admitteth not the fellowship of water nor by the participation thereof is any way commodious whereas water is together with fire profitable as we may see by the fountaines of hot water how they be medicinable and verie sensibly is their helpe perceived Never shall a man meet with any fire moist but water as well hot as colde is ever more profitable to man Moreover water being one of the foure elements hath produced as one may say a fift to wit the sea and the same well neere as profitable as any one of the rest for many other causes besides but principally in regard of commerce and trafficke For whereas before time mans life was savage and they did not communicate one with another this element hath conjoined and made it perfect bringing societie and working amitie among men by mutuall succours and reciprocall retributions from one to the other Heraclitus saith in one place if there were no sunne there had beene no night and even as well may it be said Were it not for the sea man had beene the most savage creature the most penurious and needie yea and the least respected in all the world whereas now this element of the sea hath brought the vine out of the Indians as farre as Greece and from Greece hath transported it unto the farthest provinces likewise from out of Phaenicia the use of letters for preservation of the memorie of things it hath brought wine it hath conveighed fruits into these parts and hath beene the cause that the greatest portion of the world was not buried in ignorance How then can it bee otherwise that water should not be more profitable since it furnisheth us with another element But on the contrarie side peradventure a man may begin hereupon to make instance oppositely in this manner saying that God as a master-workeman having the foure elements before him for to frame the fabricke of this world withall which being repugnant and refusing one another earth and water were put beneath as the matter to be formed and fashioned receiving order and disposition yea and a vegetative power to engender and breed such as is imparted unto it by the other two aire and fire which are they that give forme and fashion unto them 〈◊〉 and excite the other twaine to generation which otherwise had lien dead without any motion But of these two fire is the chiefe and hath dominion which a man may evidently know by this induction For the earth if it be not enchafed by some hot substance is barren bringeth forth no fruit but when as fire spreadeth it selfe upon it it infuseth into it a
certaine power which causeth it to swell as it were and have an appetite to engender For other cause there can 〈◊〉 none rendred why rocks clifts and mountaines be barren and drie but this that they have either no fire at all or else participate 〈◊〉 little the nature thereof in summe so farre off is water from being of it selfe sufficient for the owne preservation or generation of other things that without the aide of fire it is the cause of the owne ruine and destruction For heat it is that keepeth water in good estate and preserveth it in her nature and proper substance like as it doth all things besides and looke where fire is away or wanteth there water doth corrupt and putrifie in such sort as the ruine and destruction of water is the default of heat as we may evidently see in pools marishes and standing waters or wheresoever water is kept within pits and holes without issue for such waters in the end become putrified and stinke againe because they have no motion which having this propertie to 〈◊〉 up the naturall heat which is in everie thing keepeth those waters better which have a current and runne apace in that this motion preserveth that kind heat which they have And hereupon it is that To live in Greeke is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigfieth to boile How then can it otherwise be that of two things it should not be more profitable which giveth being and essence to the other like as fire doth unto water Furthermore that thing the utter departure whereof is the cause that a creature dieth is the more profitable for this is certaine and manifest that the same without which a thing cannot bee hath given the cause of being unto the same when it was with it For we do see that in dead things there is a moisture neither are they dried up altogether for otherwise moist bodies would not putrifie considering that putrefaction is the turning of that which is drie to be moist or rather the corruption of humours in the flesh and death is nothing else but an utter defect and extinction of heat and therefore dead things be extreme cold insomuch as if a man should set unto them the very edge of rasours they are enough to dull the same through excessive cold And we may see plainely that in the verie bodies of living creatures those parts which participate least of the nature of fire are more senselesse than any other as bones and haire and such as be farthest remooved from the heart and in manner all the difference that is betweene great and small creatures proceedeth from the presence of fire more or lesse for humiditie simply it is not that bringeth forth plants and fruits but warme humiditie is it that doth the deed whereas cold waters be either barren altogether or not verie fruitful and fertill and yet if water were of the owne nature fructuous it must needs follow that it selfe alone and at all times should be able to produce fruit whereas we see it is cleane contrarie namely that it is rather hurtfull to fruits And now to reason from another head and go another way to worke to make use of fire as it is fire need wee have not of water nay it 〈◊〉 rather for it quencheth and 〈◊〉 it out cleane on the other side many 〈◊〉 be who cannot tell what to doe with water without fire for being made hot it is more profitable and otherwise in the owne kinde hurtfull Of two things therefore that which can do good of it selfe without need of the others helpe is better and more profitable Moreover water yeeldeth commodity but after one sort onely to wit by touching as when we feele it or wash and bathe with it whereas fire serveth all the five senses doth them good for it is felt both neere at hand and also seene afarre of so that among other meanes that it hath of profiting no man may account the multiplicity of the uses that it affoordeth for that a man should be at any time without fire it is impossible nay he cannot have his first generation without it and yet there is a difference in this kinde as in all other things The very sea it selfe is made more 〈◊〉 by heat so as it doth heat more by the agitation and current that it hath than any other waters for of it selfe otherwise it differeth not Also for such as have no need of outward fire we may not say that they stand in need of none at all but the reason is because they have plenty and store of naturall heat within them so that in this very point the commodity of fire ought to be esteemed the more And as for water it is never in that good state but some need it hath of helpe without whereas the exellencie of fire is such as it is content with it selfe and requireth not the aid of the other Like as therefore that captaine is to be reputed more excellent who knowes to order and furnish a citie so as it hath no need of forren allies so we are to thinke that among elements that is the woorthier which may often times consist without the succour and aide of another And even as much may be said of living creatures which have least need of others helpe And yet haply it may be replied contrariwise that the thing is more profitable which we use alone by it selfe namely when by discourse of reason we are able to chuse the better For what is more commodious and profitable to men than reason and yet there is none at all in brute beasts And what followeth heereupon Shall we inferre therefore that it is lesse profitable as invented by the providence of a better nature which is god But since we are fallen into this argument What is more profitable to mans life than arts but there is no art which fire devised not or at least wise doth not maintaine And heereupon it is that we make 〈◊〉 the prince and master of all arts Furthermore whereas the time and space of life is very short that is given unto man as short as it is yet sleepe as Ariston saith like unto a false baily or publicane taketh the halfe thereof for it selfe True it is that a man may lie awake and not sleepe all night long but I may aswell say that his waking would serve him in small stead were it not that fire presented unto him the commodities of the day and put a difference betweene the darkenesse of the night and the light of the day If then there be nothing more profitable unto man than life why should we not judge fire to be the best thing in the world since it doth augment and multiply our life Over and besides that of which the five senses participate most is more profitable but evident it is that there is not one of the said senses maketh use of the nature of water