of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence
entrails of the Earth and descended into the Abysses of the Waters to get out their most hidden treasures yea he hath pervaded with his sight the vast expanses of Heaven there to consider the Stars But he hath not yet been able to familiarise the Fire to himself which like a Salvage-beast devours every thing it meets Now although it be found almost in all places yet Sicily nourishes it more than any having amongst others the Mont Gibel or Aetna those of Hiera Lipara and many others in the Volcanian Islands which are adjacent to it and of Stromboli twenty Leagues distant from these Such also are those of Modena and Vesuvius in Italy which smoak to this day the three burning Mountains of Hecla Sainte Croix and Helga in Ise-land which cast forth Flames only at their feet their tops being all cover'd with Snow and whose Fire is augmented by casting Water in which serves it for Fewel Such were also that which by the report of Tacitus in the fifteenth of his Annals burnt the Territory of the Vbii under Claundius Nevo and could never be extinguish'd with Water but with Stones Cloth Linnen and other dry things that mention'd by Titus Livius which in three days reduc'd into ashes three Acres of the Territory of Calena at this day Carignola in Campania that which burnt for sixteen years together a great part of Scotland and not long since the Island of St. George which is one of the Asores and divers other fat Lands near the Sea which continually supplies unctuous matter to these Conflagrations whence the most remarkable of them are seen in Islands and other maritim places The Second said That the Pythagoreans who place Fire in the entrails of the Earth as its Centre would not be so much at a loss here as those who with Aristotle hold That it is there in a violent state and contrary to its Nature which requires the highest part of the World For since nothing violent can be of long duration How is it that Fire the most active of all the Elements hath not hitherto been able to free it self out of its Prison and get out of this state of confinement 'T is better therefore to say That Fire being the principal Agent of Nature necessary to all sorts of Generations which are made in all places is likewise found every where especially in the Earth where it is most sensible and is preserv'd longest in regard of the solidity of its Matter For Fire cannot subsist without Matter which serves it for Food and Aliment Whence the Poets describ'd Vulcan the God of Fire lame intimating its need of fewel and sustenance to support it none of which being found under the Orb of the Moon above the higher Region of the Air 't is reasonable to judg that there is no other Elementary Fire on high but that of the Sun who by his heat light and other qualities concurs more perfectly to the generation of all Mixts than that invisible and imaginary Fire 'T is therefore necessary that Fire have Matter to feed upon otherwise it dies and vanishes not only in an Enemy-country and among its Contraries who endeavour to destroy it but also in its own sphere or centre wherever it be since it must needs act there otherwise it would be weaker in its Centre than out of it But it cannot act upon it self for then it should destroy it self But nothing acts upon it self and therefore it must act upon some subject besides it self Wherefore the Matter of all Fire is any oylie fat and aerious Body whence Ashes wholly despoil'd of that unctuous humidity are incombustible That of Subterranean Fires is of two sort Sulphur and Bitumen both which are observ'd plentiful in burning places The Live or Fossile Sulphur which serves for Matter to these Fires is a terrestrial fat or oyl mingled with the slime of the Earth For the other sort of Sulphur found on the surface of Stones is nothing but the purer part of the former which being sublim'd by heat is stop'd and condens'd by those solid Bodies into a Matter call'd Flowers of Sulphur by which example Chymistry makes the like Flowers The Bitumen is also a fat juice which is either liquid like Oyl call'd by some Petroleum and the Naphtha of the Babylonians so inflammable that it attracts Fire at a distance and retains it in the Water which serves it for nourishment as is seen in that Bituminous Fountain which burns four Leagues from Grenoble in Dauphine and many other which cast forth both Flames add Waters at the same Out-let There is some too of the consistence of soft Wax as that slimy Bitumen floating upon the Lake of Sodome Some other hard like the Pit-coal call'd Tourbe whereof our Marshes are full which is the most general Matter of Subterranean Fires to whose violence the Nitre found there may also contribute for as Bituminous Earth makes these Fires durable which otherwise could not subsist so long with Sulphur alone which presently is evaporated and spent So the Nitre and Saltpeter wherewith the Earth is every where impregnated and which hath been before shewn to be the cause of its fertility is the cause of their impetuosity and violence which the situation of places may also promote The Third said That the Earth as well as the Air hath three Regions in its profundity the first temper'd and alter'd either apparently or really according to the various disposition of the ambient Air The second or middle extreamly cold The third always hot and burning And as the Matter of Thunder is a Sulphureous Nitrous and Bituminous Exhalation of the Earth drawn up by the Sun to the middle Region of the Air where 't is inflam'd by Antiperistasis of the ambient cold because being in the next disposition to Inflammation the least concurrent circumstance presently reduces that Power into Act So the inclosed and difficultly evaporable heat of the Earth finding the same easily-inflammable Matter there namely the Exhalations which issue from that third Subterranean Region upon the opening of Mines which testifie by their smell thickness and other qualities how much they partake of Minerals these hot and dry Exhalations ascending to the second Region of the Earth there meet with cold Spaces which being for the most part hollow or cavernous and stor'd with Sulphur Bitumen and other fat Earths become inflam'd by the Antiperistasis of cold and the proximity of those Materials And because the Earth which feeds these Fires consists of two parts the one arid and the other unctuous this unctuosity approaching nearer the Fire coming to be consum'd the Fire must needs be extinguish'd till the heat excited by the conflagration of many years having attracted all the unctuosity of the neighbouring Earth and this having by degrees impregnated that dry Earth which the Chymists call Caput mortuum it becomes again inflammable and continues fir'd till the same be desiccated again and so forward in a circle nothing hindring but
and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
Crystal which besides should swim upon the water as well as Ice doth and not be more heavy and transparent which cannot be attributed to their greater density caus'd by a more vehement cold since water inspissated into Ice becomes less transparent and Crystals are not so cold to the touch as Ice But above all their Calcination evidently shews that there is something else in them besides Water for finding out of which we must examine the principles of Bodies nearest akin to them as Alom and Glass which by their splendor and consistence much resemble precious Stones being like them Mineral Juices hardned and mixt by a proportionate quantity of Salts and violent Spirits which joyned together lose their Acrimony to embrace one another more closely These Principles are very viscous capable of great solidity and being of themselves transparent are proper to preserve all the brightness and light which their specifick forms can add to them This resemblance being supposed we are obliged to discover the same Principles of Composition in Jewels since things agreeing generically and having resemblance of qualities agree also as to matters and have nothing to distinguish them but that unknown Form which determines the Species But the truth is little brightness and hardness proceed not from their Form alone which is uncapable of so close connexion but from much dark Earth and a very impure Phlegm which is not found in precious Stones or in the Glass where-with in the Indies they make Emeralds Moreover 't is this body that most resembles those Stones which hath no other Principles but a Spirit mingled amongst much Salt and some little of Earth which are united by the activity of heat and condensed by their natural inclination to inspissation cold contributing but very little thereunto since they acquire their solidity and consistence whilst yet very hot The Artifice of counterfeiting Rubies and Diamonds with the same Principles of Glass greatly confirms this Opinion onely for avoiding brittleness they mix less terrestreity and consume not the moisture which causes Concretion with so much violence The Calcination of Crystals whereby much Salt is extracted from them and the easiness of making Glass there-with in like manner shews what are the Material Principles of these Stones Which Principles being contained or generated in the bosome of the Earth certain Juices are formed of their several mixtures which unite to the first body which happens to impress its Virtues upon them then the purest part of these Salts and Earths is volatilized by the Spirit mixt there-with and circulated by Heat which alwayes perfects it by further Concoction till it have rendered it Homogeneous These Juices commonly stick in superficial parts of the Earth where a moderate heat finishes their Concoction evaporating the too great humidity which hinder'd the induration natural to such substances Divers species are made according to the different impressions of Heaven or the place of their Generation or other dispositions to which I also refer the diversity of their Colours and not as most Chymists do to Sulphur which is never found in these Stones which Colours they ought to attribute rather to Salt their principal matter since by several degrees of Coction or Calcination it acquires almost all the Colours of these Stones being first white then blew and lastly reddish The Fifth said 'T is most probable that in the beginning there were Species of Stones of all sorts dispos'd in places most proper for their Conservation which have continually generated the like determining fit matter by the Emission of a certain Vapor or Spirit impregnated with the Character of their Species during its union with their substance before a perfect induration press'd it forth which Spirit lighting upon and uniting to fit Matter fixes and determines the same to be of the same Species with the Mass from which it issu'd For the common Opinion That these Stones are produc'd of a certain slime compounded of Earth and Water concocted and hardned by the action of Heat is groundless since how temperate soever that Heat were it would at length dissipate all the moisture and leave nothing but the Earth the darkest and most friable of all the Elements besides that Water and Earth having no viscosity are incapable of any continuity and hardness which arises from Salt which indu'd with a Principle of Coagulation perfectly unites the Water with the Earth so as not to be afterwards dissolvable by any Water but such as is mix'd with much Salt Lastly the Cement they make with Lime Water and Sand petrifying in time shews the necessity of the fix'd Salt of Lime which gives the coherence of all in the generation of Stones Wherefore I conclude that as in common and opake Stones there is a little Salt amongst much Earth so in those which are precious there is much Salt amongst a very small quantity of Earth CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals MEtal which is a Mineral solid opake heavy malleable ductile and sounding body is compounded either by Nature Art or Chance as Latin Electrum and Corinthian Brass or else it is simple and divided into seven Species according to the number of Planets whereunto each of them is referr'd as precious Stones are to the Fixed Starrs namely Gold Silver Lead Copper Iron Tinn and Quick-silver which others reject from the number of Metals because not malleable as also Tinn because compounded of Lead and Silver Their remote Matter is much Water with little Earth their next according to Aristotle a vaporous exhalation Their general Efficient Cause is Heaven by its Motion and Influencess producing Heat which attenuates and concocts the said Exhalation which is afterwards condens'd by Cold Hence all Metals are melted by violent Fire which evaporates Quick-silver and softens that sort of Iron which is not fusible The place where they are generated is the bosome of the Earth the Metals found in Waters as Gold in Tagus and Pactolus having been carry'd from the Earth by the Waters which washing and purifying them render them more perfect than those of the Mines The Second said Although Metals were generated at the beginning of the world in their Mines whence they were first extracted and wrought by Tubalcain who is the fabulous Vulcan of Paganism yet they cease not to be generated anew by the afflux of sutable Matter which is a metallick Juice form'd of humidity not simply aqueous for then Heat should evaporate instead of concocting it but viscous unctuous and somewhat terrestrial which for a long time holds out against whatever violent Heat as appears by the Fires of Volcanoes which are maintain'd by Bitumen alone and other sulphureous Earths This also is the Opinion of the Chymists when they compound them of Sulphur and Mercury Sulphur holding the place of the Male Seed and Mercury which is more crude and aqueous that of the maternal blood And as the Salt or Earth predominating in Stones is the cause of their friability so Sulphur and
Mixts are compounded The Sun indeed is the Efficient Cause of all productions here below but being a celestial and incorruptible body cannot enter into the composition of any thing as a Material Cause Much less can our common Fire which devours every thing and continually destroyes its Subject But it must be that Elementary Fire which is every where potentially and actually in its own Sphere which is above that of the Air and below that of the Moon Moreover being the lightest or least heavy of all the Elements the Harmony of the Universe which consists chiefly in their situation requires that it be in the highest place towards which therefore all other Fires which are of the same Nature ascend in a point with the same violence that a stone descends towards its Centre those remaining here below being detain'd by some Matter whereof they have need by reason of the contraries environing them from which that Sublunary Fire being exempt hath nothing to do with Matter or nourishment and by reason of its great rarity and tenuity can neither burn nor heat any more then it can be perceiv'd by us The Second said That subtlety one of the principal conditions requisite to the conversion of Matter into Fire is so far from hindring that it encreases the violence and activity of Fire making it penetrate even the solidest bodies whence that pretended Fire not being mixt with extraneous things to allay its heat as that of Aqua Vitae is temper'd by its Phlegm or aqueous humidity but being all Fire in its own Sphere and natural place which heightens the Virtue and qualities of all Agents must there also heat shine burn and produce all its Actions which depend not upon density or rarity or such other accidents of Matter purely passive but upon its whole Form which constituting it what it is must also make it produce Effects sutable to its Nature Wherefore as Water condens'd into Ice or Crystal is no longer Water because it hath ceas'd to refrigerate and moisten so the Fire pretended to be above the Air invisible and insensible by reason of its rarity is not Fire but subtile Air. They who say its natural inclination to heat and burn is restrain'd by the Influences of the Heavens particularly of the cold Starrs as Saturn and the Moon speak with as little ground since the circular motion of the Heavens whereby this Fire is turn'd about should rather increase than diminish its heat And besides Fire being a necessary Agent its action can no more be hindred by such Influences than the descent of a stone downwards Whereunto add that the beams of all Stars have heat and were any cold yet those of Saturn are too remote and those of the Moon too weak in comparison of this Fire the extent whereof is about 90000. Leagues for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is almost as much namely 56. Semidiameters of the Earth from which substracting between 25. and 30. Leagues which they allot to the three Regions of the Air the rest must be occupy'd by the Fire which they make to extend from the Concave surface of the Moon to the convex surface of the Air which it would consume in less than a moment considering the great disproportion between them Moreover were there such a Fire it could not be own'd an Element because its levity would keep it from descending and entring into the Composition of mixts and were it not leight yet it would be hindred from descending by the extream coldness of the Middle Region of the Air accounted by some a barrier to the violence of that Chymerical Fire which ought rather to be reckon'd amongst their Entia Rationis than the Natural Elements whereunto Corporeity and Palpability are requisite For these Reasons I conceive with Pythagoras that the Sun is the true Elementary Fire plac'd for that purpose in the middle of the World whose Light and Heat enter into the Composition not onely of all living things but also of Stones and Metals all other Heat besides that of the Sun being destructive and consequently no-wise fit for Generation The Third said He confounds Heaven with Earth and destroyes the Nature of the Sun who takes it for an Element that is to say a thing alterable and corruptible by its contraries which it must have if it be an Element The Heat of his beams proves it not the Elementary Fire seeing commonly the nearer we are to Fire the more we feel the Heat of it but the Supream and Middle Regions of the Air are colder than ours Besides were our common fire deriv'd from the Sun it would not languish as it doth when the Sun shines upon it nor would the heat of dunghils and caves be greater in Winter than in Summer Wherefore I rather embrace the common Opinion which holds That the heaviest Element is in the lowest place and the leightest in the highest whose Action is hindred by the proportion requisite to the quantity of each Element The Fourth said That the qualities of Fire viz. Heat Dryness and Light concurring in the Sun in a supream degree argue it the Elementary Fire for Light being the Cause of Heat the Sun which is the prime Luminous Body must also be the prime Hot that is to say Fire For as the pretended one above the Air was never yet discover'd so 't is repugnant to the Order of the Universe for the leightest of Elements to be shut up in the Centre of the Earth where some place it We have but two wayes to know things Sense and Reason the latter of which is founded either upon Causes or Effects Now we know nothing of the Sun or any other Celestial Bodies otherwise then by its Effects and sensible qualities which being united in Spherical Burning-glasses as they are in the body of the Sun notifie to us by their Effects the Nature of their Cause The Fifth said That Fire being to the World what the Soul is to the Body as Life is in all the parts of the Body so also is Fire equally diffused throughout the whole World In the Air it makes Comets and other Igneous Meteors In the Earth it concocts Metals and appears plentifully in Volcanoes whose Fires would not continue alwayes if they were violently detained in those Concavities yea 't is in the Waters too whose saltness and production of Monsters cannot be without Heat Yet being the most active of all Elements it is therefore distributed in much less quantity than the rest Nature having observed the same proportion both in the greater and lesser World Man's Body in which there is less of Fire than of the other Elements Otherwise had the Fire been equal to the rest it would consume all living things to ashes Nevertheless as the fixed Heat of Animals requires reparation by the Influent Heat from the Heart the Soul 's principal seat in like manner the Elementary Fire dispersed in all part of this great body of the World needs the
Moon which manifestly exercises its empire over all Humid Bodies the flux and reflux following the Lunar Periods and Motions not onely every six months to wit during the two Aequinoxes when their Tides are very high but also every month in the Conjunction and Opposition of the Moon and also every six hours of the day almost all Seas have their flux and reflux except some which make the same in more or less time and are longer in their reflux than their flux or on the contrary according to the declivity and various winding of the Lands the greatness or smallness of Creeks the Streights of the Seas narrowness of banks and other differences of situation The Second said That the Sea being a simple body can have but one natural Motion viz. that of its own weight which makes it flow into places lower than its source which it can never surmount Amongst the other three Motions proceeding from without that from East to West is discern'd by the time spent in Voyages at Sea which is much longer from West to East than from East to West because in the first they move contrary to the Motion of the Sea and in the second with it Now the cause hereof is the impression of the First Mover upon all the Orbes and Inferior Bodies which follow the rapidity of its daily Motion from East to West upon the Poles of the World That from North to South is likewise seen in most Seas and chiefly in the Euxine which being fill'd by the Palus Maeotis and the Tanais discharges it self by the Aegaean into the Mediterranean Sea which were it not for the high sluces of Africa would continue the same Motion Southwards Which sometimes hindred Darius and Sesostris from digging that space of Land which is between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean for fear lest this latter should overflow those Southern Countries The Cause of this Motion is the multitude of Waters towards that Pole whose coldness not raising so great a quantity of Vapors and Rains as towards the South the Waters come to be greater there and so are forc'd to fall towards the lower places Or rather since there is the same cold under the Antarctick Pole and consequently the same quantity of Waters and Rains this descent of the Waters Southwards must be attributed to the Elevation of the Earth in the North or to the narrow mouths or gulphs of those Seas which make the waters descend out of them more easily than they enter into them As to the flux and reflux which is a Compounded but regular Motion it cannot proceed from Vapors or from inconstant and irregular Winds but from the Motion Light and particular Influence of the Moon which attracting the Sea in the same manner that the Load-stone doth the Iron is the Cause of its accumulation or swelling and increase which makes the flux And then her Virtue abating by her elongation the Waters by their proper weight resume their level and so make the reflux And because all Seas are continuous the Moon when under our Horizon ceases not to cause the same Motions in our Seas as when she is above it the Waters necessarily following the motion of those which are next them which would be alike in all did not some variation arise from the different situations of Lands which is the cause that the flux and reflux of the Ocean is more sensible then the Mediterranean and in this the Adriatick then the Tuscan by reason that Sicily and the point of Italy makes the Sea enter impetuously into the Gulph of Venice wherein is observ'd another particular motion call'd Circulation whereby the Mediterranean flowing by its proper motion from East to West and meeting immediately at the entrance of that Gulph the Coast of Macedonia discharges it self impetuously thereinto and continues its motion to the bottom of the Gulph whence being repercuss'd it returns by the opposite Coast of Calabria to the other point of the Gulph by which it enters into the Tuscan Sea Hence to go from Venice to Otranto they take the Coast of Galabria and to return back that of Macedonia The Third said Nothing so strongly argues the mobility of the Earth as the motions of the Sea and Rivers for what else were it but a miracle if water contain'd in an immoveable vessel should agitate and move it self That of Rivers proceeds not from their weight which makes them fall into a place nearer their Centre seeing that in a declivity requisite to the course of a River for 200 leagues there must then be a depression more sensible then the altitude of the highest Mountains of the Earth nor could the Sea remit the waters to their Springs as the holy Scripture saith it doth if those Springs were higher then it But supposing the motion of the Earth 't is easie to render a reason of that of the Water As for Rivers almost all which run westward the Earth having its Diurnal Motion from West to East according to the Hypothesis of Copernicus may cause this their contrary motion by subtracting it self from the fluidity of the waters liquid bodies not exactly following the motion of solid as the water in a Tub rises in the side opposite to that towards which you sway the Vessel By the same reason also the Sea shall have its course from East to West which is therefore very sensible between the two Tropicks where the rapidity of the Earths motion is greater then under the Poles Hence upon this account Navigation is very easie Westward the Currents very violent the Tides great towards the Coast of America as is observ'd chiefly in Magellan's Streight where the refluxes of the Northern and Eastern Sea are advanc'd above 70 leagues and the Mar del Sur scarce goes to 25 and that weakly but about the Poles the Sea hath no other motion but that which is caus'd by Winds and Tempests As for the flux and reflux of the Sea according to the same supposition of its motion compounded of the annual in the Ecliptick where others make the Sun circulate and the Diurnal upon its own Axis and proper Centre there arises a certain irregular motion sometimes slower and sometimes swifter which is the cause of that flux and reflux for as in a Boat mov'd at first swiftly and then caus'd to move somwhat slower the water contain'd therein swells in its extremities till by continuation of that motion it recover its level and the Boat being again driven with the same velocity the water swells again upon the change of the motion the same comes to pass upon the unequal motion of the Earth mixt of the annual and diurnal But because the Moon being annex'd to the Earth exactly follows its motions therefore most Philosophers have taken the Moon for the cause of the flux and reflux although she be only the sign of it The Fourth said That according to this Hypothesis 't is easie to render a reason of two things very remarkable in
the Sea drive the Clouds over the Land where being less agitated they resolve into Rain But to continue my reasoning with the same Poets I shall say that having plac'd Aeolus's Palace in the caverns near the sea they have sufficiently proved why the Sea is more troubled with them than the Land For these Winds visibly issue from deep Caverns frequent on the Coasts of the Sea whose continually agitated waves incessantly stir them up 'T is no wonder then if they display their violences on that side which is freest to them Which is experienc'd in great Lakes adjacent to high Mountains as in that of Comum and de la Garde in Italy whose waves and roarings resemble those of the Sea and also in that of Geneva which is troubled extraordinarily Not but that Winds are generated in other Subterraneous places too none of which is exempt from them as appears in Wells and the mouths of Caves But the openings of such places being commonly strait upwards the Wind that come out of them is not so perceptible as that which issues out laterally from high Caverns upon the Sea-shore and they differ in that the Sea Wind is dryer and less corrupting possibly by reason of the saltness of the water upon which it passes The Second said That the difference in Question proceeds from the vast extent of the Sea which gives the Air once agitated more liberty to continue its motion which on the contrary is straitned and repress'd on Land by the occurse of Mountains Trees Houses and other obstacles By the same reason that the waves of a Pool or little Lake are much less than those of the Ocean besides that one and the same Wind hath much greater effect in a smooth and liquid plain which yields to it than upon a rough solid Body upon which burdens are not mov'd but with more force than there needs upon the water as they experience who endeavour to draw a stranded Ship on the Land which they saw move almost of it self whilst it was upon the water The Mechanical Reason whereof is that the water breaking into infinite points scarce makes any resistance to its Agent but the Earth press'd with the same load resists it in infinite points The Third said He that defin'd Wind to be Agitated Air rather spoke its Effect than Cause which is some middle thing between a Vapor and an Exhalation driven violently according to all the differences of place For an Exhalation which always mounts upwards and the Vapor which refrigerated descends downwards cannot separately be the matter of Wind. Hence as soon as the Vapor of a Cloud is resolv'd into Rain the Wind ceaseth the Exhalations not being sufficient to produce it alone as neither the Vapor is Otherwise Winds should be greatest in hot weather when Exhalations are most plentiful Wherefore the Sea having in its Four Qualities the materials of these two Meteors and being otherwise more capable of emitting them through its liquid substance than the Earth is through its hard and solid surface though both be equally heated as well by the Sun as by Subterraneous Fires Evaporations and Exhalations are sooner and oftner made at Sea than at Land The Fourth said That the thickest Air being oftimes the calmest and the clearest the most windy 't is doubtful whether Vapors and Exhalations produce Winds which besides presupposeth actual heat in the Sea which yet is never felt there but onely on Land It seems therefore that the Element of Air being very symbolical to that of the Air by their agreement and moisture they follow the motions one of the other Hence the Air contiguous to the Sea is agitated by it whence ariseth a Wind which again agitates the Sea it being well known that when there are no Waves there is no Wind. On the contrary when the Wind is to change the billows turn first And ordinarily the Winds change with the Tides The Fifth said There are two sorts of Winds upon the Sea Particular which reign in our Seas blowing indifferently from all Coasts and General which blow continually from the same quarter without giving place to their Contraries Such is the Oriental Wind in the Torrid Zone which was call'd by the Latins Subsolanus and by Mariners at this day South-East For it conducts Ships so constantly over the whole extent of Mer du Nord du Sud that without discontinuing Day or Night it exempts the Sea-men from touching their sails especially when they are near the Aequinoctial Indeed in the East Indies this Rule alters for this Wind holds there but six moneths leaving the other six free to its Antagonist The Cause whereof is ascrib'd to the repercussion of the capes and coasts of those Seas as that first Wind is to the motion of the Primum Mobile which together with the inferior Spheres draws the Air along with it in this place where the circumference of its motion is largest There is another general Wind which blows between the Tropick or twenty fourth Degree on this side the Line and the thirty fifth becoming Occidental with the like constancy that the abovesaid Oriental doth This some attribute to a contrary motion which all things have when those nearest them are hurri'd violently as the stream of water running impetuously in the midst makes that near the shores recoil backwards The Sixth said That as Vapours make Mists and Fogs and Sulphureous Exhalations make igneous Meteors so the Nitrous make Wind which keeps the air from corruption as the Earth is kept from it by Nitre and the Sea by Salt Moreover both the Wind and Nitre dry and are the causes of fecundity as is prov'd on the behalf of Nitre by the Nitrous sand of Nilus whose greater or lesser overflow promises to the Egyptians a year proportionably fruitful which is also said of the Rhosne abounding with Nitre And as for the Wind besides that all flatuous Meats provoke lust 't is said that the Mares of Andalusia conceive by the West-wind alone which also is styl'd the Father of Flowers In Brief if Wind be impetuous the effects of Nitre in Gun-powder and Aurum fulminans manifest that Nitre is no less Now Nitre being mix'd with the Air where it is volatile with the Earth where it is fix'd and with the Sea where it is barely dissolv'd no wonder if it exhale more easily from the Sea then from the Land and consequently if more winds be there Whence the reason may be drawn not only of the Sea-winds but also of the tempests and commotions of that vast Element a Tempest being nothing but the rarefaction of the Sea Nitre and the inflation of the Waters at Full Moon in March and September only the fermentation of the same Nitre in the season proper for generation As for that inflation hapning at the time of the Dog-star when the Etesian winds reign it proceeds from the heat of the Air then inflam'd by the rays of the Sun like the ebullition of Honey
tuft of Hair upon the Forehead 'T is cover'd with very soft Hair employ'd by the Natives to make Caps of It s Flesh resembles that of Crevices and being wounded sends forth blood being also of a very sweet taste It adheres to the earth by its root which sends forth a Stem or Stalk which is inserted into its Navil To all which wonders they adde That it lives as long as there is any green Grass about it and dyes when the same is wither'd either by time or purposely And to make the comparison full they say that of all devouring Animals Wolves alone desire to feed of it We finde also some example of this double Life in the Wood of Scotland which being humected in water is turn'd into Ducks as also in the Leaves of another Tree like that of the Mulberry which Anthony Pigafet reports to have two little feet on which they run away as soon as one touches them and live onely of Aire Such likewise are the Mandrakes of upper Hungary which grow in the axact shapes of Men and Women The Baraas mention'd by Josephus which shines in the night and whose flight cannot be stopt but by the menstrual blood of a woman The Balsam-Tree which Pliny affirms to tremble at the approach of the Iron that is to make incision in it and that other Tree which Scaliger saith grows about eight foot high in the Province Pudiferam and upon the approach of a man or other Animal contracts its boughs and extends the same again upon their departure whence it took the name of Arbor Pudica which constriction and dilatation is also attributed to the Spunge In all which effects we observe powers and faculties near of kin to those of Animals The same uniformity of nature between Plants and Animals is prov'd also in that both the one and the other live and dye have their nutrition augmentation and generation If Animals have their time of being salacious Plants have theirs of being in Sap. They have dictinction of Sex as appears particularly in the Cypress Hemp and the Palm which beareth not fruit unless planted near the Male or at least some branch thereof be fastned to it They seem too to have some kinde of respiration for besides that they love the free Aire towards which they encline when planted near a high Wall or under great Trees their Root which is their mouth hath some discernment of taste eschewing hurtful soils and spreading freely into good ground and not imbibing all sorts of liquors indifferently but onely such as are convenient for them Hence their parts have names common to those of Animals as the Marrow Flesh Veins Skin In a word they seem to want onely local-motion which yet besides the foregoing examples is found in the Herba Viva of Acosta which folds up it leaves and flowers when it is toucht as likewise Tulips do in the evening and open the same again in the morning Marigolds follow the Sun and thence have gotten the Latin name Solsequia but more manifestly the Sun-flower and the white Carline Thistle call'd the Almanack of Peasants who therefore hang it at their doors because it folds up its flowers when a Tempest is at hand 'T is notorious that the Bon-Chretien Pear-Tree and the Mulberry-Tree languish in places not frequented by men and on the contrary testifie by their vigour and fertility that they delight in their conversation Hereunto might be added the experience of Wood-Cleavers who finde that a wedge enters further at the first blow then for many following as if the substance of the Tree clos'd it self upon the first feeling it hath of its enemy But the bending of Hazle-rods towards Mines of Gold and Silver seems to denote something more in them then in Animals themselves In brief the motion of creeping Herbs may be call'd progressive amongst others that of the Gourd and Cucumber which follow the neighbouring water and shape their fruit in length to reach it CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms AS there is some middle nature between a Plant and an Animal partaking of both so there is also between a plain Mixt Body and a Plant to wit those Exuberances which grow sometimes on Trees as Agarick sometimes only out of the Earth as Mushroms and other such fungous Productions which are driven forth by the inward heat of the earth helpt by that of the Sun The matter of them is a slime or unctuous or viscous moisture fit to receive a sutable Form which is various according to the strength of Nature and the Disposition of the places through which it is driven as the Water of our Artificial Fountains puts on the shape of the pipe through which it passes And as for Trubbs 't is Cardan's Opinion That melted Snow sinking into the surface of the Earth and finding fit matter there produceth this Plant. Which the plenty of Spirits found in Snow makes me willing to assent to because they may serve for Seed to its Production The second said That he lik'd the common Opinion that Trubbs proceed from Thunder whose agitation of the Air and so of the Earth awakens the hidden Seed of this Plant as well of many others that grow of themselves or else perhaps the Rain that follows Thunder being full of Celestial Vertue proper for this Production is the Seed thereof For the Providence of Nature sometimes supplies by an Universal Efficient the Defect of particular Causes destinated to the production of other Plants which in most Trees and Herbs is the Seed which this wants as also all the ordinary parts of other Plants because 't is of the Nature of those Animals who have not their parts distinct one from another having neither stalk nor leaves nor flower nor root unless you will call it all root because it hath more appearance of than of any other part of a Plant which perhaps is the cause of its excellent taste which is neither sweet as most roots are nor sowr as most leaves are nor of any other kind of tast observ'd in the other parts of Plants but mix'd of all tasts together being very pleasant after coction hath matur'd what was terrestrial and aqueous in it As for Mushroms both their Nature and Cause is different but all proceed from an excrement which the Earth casts forth of it self and which was bred therein by the perpetual transcolation of the Humidities of the earth whence they are more or less hurtfull according to the greater or less malignity of such Humours but always of bad juice sutable to its Source and Material Cause The Third said 'T is the Rain of Autumn that makes the Mushrom the too great cold of Winter and that which yet remains in the Spring not permitting that Excrement to come forth but shutting it up as 't is the property of Cold and the heat and drought of Summer consuming the Matter that produces them as fast as it comes out of the Earth But in Autumn
which is so far from being rich enough of its self that it borrows from the Greek and Latine to express the most common things and consequently is not sufficient to teach all the Sciences The Second said The French Tongue is deriv'd from the Greek Latine and Gothick which are Languages much more copious then it and therefore they that will recur to originals will find those Tongues more adapted for teaching the Sciences then the French and yet not any single one of them sufficient for it since the Romans to become and deserve the name of Learned were oblig'd to learn Greek Moreover since Books are the chief instruments for attaining the Sciences the ancient Latine and Greek ones which yet were not sufficient for it are much more numerous than the French and by consequence the French Tongue is not capable to teach every Science and had it more Translations then it hath yet these are but small Rivulets deriv'd from that grand Source of Sciences which is found in the original Languages The Third said If we regard the order of times and particularly that of the Creation when all things were in their perfection and purity 't is most likely that that Language which took birth with Adam and all the Sciences is more fit to teach them then the much more Novel French and since there must be a proportion between Instruments and the Matters upon which they act and this proportion is not found between the French Tongue lately invented and the Sciences which are as ancient as the World who can think it sufficient to teach them and the Cabalists hold that the Language fit to teach the Sciences perfectly must have words adapted to signifie the Vertues and Properties of things which ours hath not The Fourth said That all the Language of Adam who gave names suitable to the nature of every thing being lost except the the name of God for that reason so much esteemed by the Jews The Cabalists in imitation of that Tongue invented one whereof I shall give you a taste It hath five Vowels E A V I O which answer to the Elements and the Heaven E to Earth A to the Water V to the Air I to the Fire and O to Heaven E produceth in pronunciation c d f g l m n p r s t z forasmuch as these Consonants cannot be produc'd without it A produceth h and k v produceth q I produceth nothing because pure and single Fire doth not O likewise produceth nothing because the Heaven only moves and excites Generations whereas E produceth abundance of Letters resembling the Earth which produceth every thing in its bosom being the Centre of Heaven and the Matrix of the Elements Now to form words according to the Elementary Qualities they will have the Vowels which compose such a word answer to the Elements which compose such a mixt body And to specifie degrees because the Vowels whereby they are denoted meeting together would spoil the pronunciation therefore they make foure orders of the sixteen Consonants viz. b c d f denote the four degrees of Fire g l m n those of Air p r s t those of Water x z ss st those of Earth Upon this foundation they build the composition of all their Words which they compose of Vowels according to the Elements predominant in things and of Consonants according to their degree But who sees not the absurdity of this invention which by this means would extend only to corporeal mixts whereof the quality and very degree is known Concerning which Naturalists are so far from being agreed that many attribute most natural effects to other causes as to Occult Properties so call'd in opposition to the Elementary 'T is best therefore not to rove from the common tract which teaches us the Sciences by real Languages amongst which those call'd Dead ones to wit the Hebrew Greek and Latine and others now disus'd suffice not for teaching the Sciences because they are not pronounc'd well and the learned agree not about the importance of many Letters and Syllables Besides the most eloquent express not themselves so naturally in those antick obsolete Tongues as in their own And all confess that in order to obtain the perfection of a Science too much plainness cannot be us'd either on the Teacher's part in establishing their Rules and Precepts or on the Learner's in propounding their difficulties for resolution CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same subject THe diversity of Colours is commonly deduc'd from the mixtion and proportion of the Elements but more truly from the several degrees of Sulphur which produces them as Salt doth Sapors the most certain indications what degree the quality of a Plant is of For if Colours had relation to the Elements then all red things should be hot and white things cold which is not true in Poppy and Roses on the one side nor Orange-flowers and Jasmin on the other So also green things should be always moist because this colour proceeds from an indigested humidity mixt with a part of putrifi'd earth as appears in standing waters and yet the greenness of Lawrel and Mint hinders them not from being hot and dry nor that of Ranunculus from burning But Colours are either natural or artificial which latter as we find it in Stuffs and Silks is neither the cause nor the effect of their temperament But natural colour such as that in the parts of living Animals is an effect of their Life and alterable after their death Wherefore I conclude that colour and its varieties proceeds from the different degrees of Sulphur in the subject but that one and the same subject is of several colours the causes may be First for that some of its parts are more compact others more loose and so differently receive the impression of the Sulphur and the Internal Fire Secondly the Sun shining more upon one part than another draws the internal colour from the Centre to the Circumference as Apples are colour'd on the side next the Sun Thirdly the same difference which is found between the Root Trunk Leavs Flower Fruit and other parts of Plants and Animals is also found in each portion of those parts as the lower part of the Rose is green the middle part whitish and the top red and the Tulip variegated is compounded of as many several particles which variety of places and matrices serves to determine the colour which Sulphur paints thereon being guided by the pencil of Nature The Second said That this diversity of colours proceeds only from the divers aspect of light which varies the colours of certain Bodies to our Eye as in the Rain-bow the Camelion and the necks of Pigeons in things expos'd to the Sun which seem far brighter than before To which you must add the distance and station of the beholders so water seems black or blew afar off but near hand colourless Turpentine Crystal and the whites of Eggs in several situations do the like
The Third said That there are four colours answering to the Elements viz. Black to Earth White to Water Yellow to Air and Red to Fire For discovering the Causes of whose diversities the ancient Philosophers prepar'd a Matter which by the degrees of fire they pass'd through all the colours of Nature and perceiv'd sometimes in their vessel what they call'd the Peacock's tail representing all colours in one single Matter whence they concluded the variety of colours to proceed from that of External Fire moving the Matter less in one part than in another Thus Antimony which is at first Black is rais'd into White Yellow Red and mixt Flowers according as they are sublim'd more or less But you can draw no consequence from hence to the Colours of Plants since redness which in works of Art argues perfect Digestion and Fire predominant doth not so in Simples CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why IT may seem superfluous to make this a Question since by the enumeration of all sorts of Affairs it appears that we are Moles yea perfectly blind in the Judgement we make of our selves and more clear-sighted than the Lynx in those we make of others Which also the Gospel testifies by the comparison of a mote which we espy in the Eye of a Neighbour not seeing the beam which is in our own for according to the direction of the Lawyers who are to be believed in point of affairs in the first place in reference to persons every one understands himself much less either in Mind or Body than he doth another most esteeming themselves more capable and worthy of praise for Witt than they are and as the Eye sees not it self but every other visible thing so he that hath any perfection or imperfection cannot consider the same in its true Latitude but easily adds something to the first or diminishes from the second whilst the various bent of our Passions always exalts and depresses the balance and keeps it from that aequilibrium which is necessary to a right Judgement Hence Physicians although they ought to know themselves better than they can be known by others yet when sick permit themselves to be treated by their Companions and never succeed so well in the Cure of themselves or their domesticks as they do abroad elsewhere In the second place we are less quick-sighted in things that concern our selves than in those of others whence commonly the greatest Lawyers leave the affairs of their own Houses more imbroiled than others Which was the cause that the Wife of Pacius the famous Lawyer of our time sent to him to ask his Advice concerning his own affairs under fancied names making him pay a Solicitor with his own Money In the third place Actions are in a very evill hand when they are to be managed or defended by their Authors either Modesty on the one hand extenuating them or Thrasonical pride dilating them and adding thereunto more than is fit Lastly the Laws shew sufficiently what hath been the opinion of Legislators upon this matter when they forbid Advocates and Procurators to plead and practise in their own Cause and when they injoyn Judges to forbear not only their own but also from all those wherein their kinred or alliances may have any interest Thus much for the first Head of the Question The Reason which is the second ariseth hence That the Eye as well as all other Organs of External and Internal Senses such as the Judgement is must be serene and not prepossessed by any tincture or Prejudice Now to require this serenity and indifferency in our own affairs is to demand an impossibility The Cause whereof may come from the pureness and subtilty of the Humane Spirit above that of other Animals compared to the Elements of Earth and Water which contracting themselves round about their own Centre move not but in quest of their food others more ayerious rise a little higher but yet have a bounded Region such are the spirits of Women whose Knowledg and Curiosity is limited to the affairs of their houswifrie or at most to those of their neighbourhood But the Mind of Man resembling Fire which hath no other bound but Heaven penetrates even to the Centre of the Earth carries its point every where and is like flame in a perpetual agitation oftentimes resembling our natural heat in Summer which abandons the Internal parts to carry it self to the extremities The Second said There is as great diversity of Judgements and Witts as there is of Eyes amongst Men. As there are some blind other Eyes from which the Objects must be set at distance to become visible some also to which they must be approached and lastly others which require a moderate distance between the Visible Object and the Organ Iin like manner there are some Judgements absolutely blind others which judge not things too near but require to have them removed or set at a middle distance there are others also which judge them better near hand than a far off and this truly is the custom of the best Judgements and of such as least suffer themselves to be prepossess'd Indeed what is more absurd than for us to remove far from Objects in order to judging of them after the manner of old men and of those that are short-sighted and if the saying of Aristotle be true The Species of the thing to be known must be not only introduced into but also made like the Mind Is the divesting our selves of it away to know it well By this reckoning we shall never see clear in any affair not in our own because 't is ours nor in those others in regard of the Envy Men bear to the prosperity of their Neighbours which makes them think that their Vines are more fruitful and their afflictions less severe If some Physicians resign themselves to the cure of others of the same profession 't is because they believe them as able as themselves or perhaps because their own Judgement is disturbed by the disease otherwise since the particular Knowledge of every one's Temper is the condition most requisite to a good Physician for curing his Patient and every one knowing his own better than another can in along time none can be a better Physician of another than of himself and if domestick cures be effected with less notice yet they are not less sure and remarkable to him that would consider them That Lawyers are not admitted to plead in their own Case is rather from their too much than too little Knowledge the Court foreseeing that they would be too prolix and hot in the prosecution thereof besides the greater temptation to dishonesty in disguising their own actions Nor is exception against Judges in the case of their kinred allowed because they see not clear enough into the affair in question but because interest which is inseparably fixed in humane minds might lead them to relieve their Relations to
the prejudice of a third Which yet hath not place in all there being found good Judges who would condemn their own Child if he had a bad Cause But to attribute to self-love the defect of clear-sightedness is to speak too Poetically since the Prince of Poets believes it not possible to deceive a Lover and the knowledge we have of others affairs hath no other foundation but that which we have of our own just as self-love is given us for a rule of that of our Neighbour The Third said That which happens most frequently being the rule and the rest the exception and the greatest part of Men resembling that Lamia who being blind at home put on her Eyes when she went abroad it must be agreed that we are less clear-sighted in our own than in others affairs Which is the meaning of the Proverb of the wallet in the forepart of which the bearer puts other Mens matters casting his own into the part behind upon his back Moreover to see clear is to see without clouds or mists such as are those of the Passions Fear Hope Avarice Revenge Ambition Anger and all the rest which suffer not the Species to be calmly represented to the Intellect which receives the same as untowardly as stirred water or a Looking-glass sullied with incessant clouds or vapors receive an Image objected to them 't is true the Passions have some effect upon it in affairs without but as themselves so their trouble is less and he is the best Judge who gives them no admittance at all which cannot be in our own affairs where consequently we are no less clear than in those of others CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains GOD having created the world in perfection it was requisite there should be Plains Mountains and Vallies upon the Earth without which agreeable variety there would be no proportion in its parts wherein nevertheless consists its principal ornament which hath given it the name of world no other beginning of Mountains seems assignable but that of the world Nor is there any possibility in attributing another Cause to those great Mountains which separate not only Provinces and States but the parts of the world all the Causes that can be assigned thereof being unequal to such an Effect Which the discovery of the inequalities of the Celestial Bodies observed in our dayes by Galileo's Tubes in some sort confirmed for by them Mountains are discerned in some Planets especially an eminent one in the Orbe of Mars which Mountain cannot reasonably be attributed to any cause but his primary construction The same may likewise be said of the Mountains of the Earth which besides having necessarily its slopenesses and declivities which are followed by Rivers and Torrents there is no more difficulty to conceive a Mountain then an elevated place in the Earth so that to say that from the beginning there was no place higher in one part of the earth then in another is to gain-say Scripture which saith that there were four Rivers in Eden each whereof had its current which could not be unless the place of their rise were higher then that whereunto they tended The Second said That the proportion from which the ornament of the World results is sufficiently manifested in the correspondence of the four Elements with the Heavens and of the Heavens with themselves yea in all compounds which result from those Elements moved by heat and the Celestial influences without fancying a craggy Earth from the beginning to the prejudice of the perfection which is found in the Spherical Figure which God hath also pourtray'd in all his works which observe the same exactly or come as near it as their use will permit as is seen particularly in the fabrick of Man's Body his master-piece whereof all the original parts have somewhat of the Spherical or Cylindrical Figure which is the production of a Circle And if the other Elements of Fire Air and Water are absolutely round and cannot be otherwise conceived though their consistence be fluid and as such more easily mutable in figure 't is much more likely that the earth had that exactly round figure at the beginning otherwise the Waters could not have covered it as they did since not being diminished from the beginning of the World till this time they are not at this day capable of covering it 'T is certain then that God gave the Earth that Spherical form it being to serve for the bulk and Centre to all the other Elements by means of which roundness the Water covered it equally but when it was time to render the Earth habitable to Animals and for that end to discover a part of it it was to be rendered more hollow in some places and more elevated in others since there is no Mountain without a Valley nor on the contrary Afterwards it came to pass that the Rain washed away whatsoever was fat and unctuous in those higher places and carrying it into Brooks and Rivers and thence into the Sea this Sea by the impetuosity of his waves makes great abyffes in some places and banks of sand in others but the great and notable change happened in the universal Deluge when the many Gulfs below and Windows on high as the Scripture speaks overflowed the whole Earth for forty days and forty nights together the Earth being thus become a Sea was in a manner new shaped by the torrents of the waters and the violence of the same waves which made Abysses in some places and Mountains in others according as the Earth happened to be more or less compact and apt for resistance Which is yet easier to be conceived of Rocks which being unapt to be mollified by either that universal rovage of waters or torrents superven'd in four thousand years since they remain intire and appear at this day as supercilious as ever over the more depressed parts round about The Third said That some Mountains were produced at the Creation others since partly by Rains and Torrents partly by Winds and Earth-quakes which have also sometimes levell'd Hills and reduced them into Valleys so that you cannot assign one certain or general cause of all For there is no more reason to believe that the ravages of waters have produced Mountains then that they have levell'd and filled Valleys with their soil as 't is ordinarily seen that the fattest portion of Mountainous places is washed away by Rain into Valleys and fertilizes the same And the smallness of the Earth compared to the rest of the world permits not its inequalities to make any notable disproportion in it or hinder it from being called Round as appears in Eclipses caused by the shadow of the Earth which she sends as regularly towards Heaven as if she were perfectly round The Fourth said That the waters of the Sea from which according to the Scripture all waters issue and return thither impetuously entring into the caverns of the Earth go winding along there till they find resistance
whereby their violence redoubled makes the Earth rise in some places and so forms Mountains which therefore are more frequent on the Sea-coasts then elsewhere and seldom further from the same then a hundred and fifty Leagues Now that the Sea is higher then the Earth the Scripture notes and those that travel upon the Sea observe the truth of Genesis which saith that the waters were gathered together on a heap For being remote from a Port at such distance as would otherwise suffer the same to be seen the rising of the interposed waters intercepts the view thereof The Fifth said 'T is easie to conceive how waters running underground make breaches and abysses such as that at Rome into which Q. Curtius cast himself and also in many other places even in our time wherein a Town of the Grisons was totally involved in the ruines of a neighbouring Mountain whose foundations the torrents had undermined And what is found in digging up the ruines of Buildings paved streets and other footsteps of mens habitations so deep that the cause thereof cannot be attributed to a bare raising of the ground in building by some humane artifice shews that these changes happen'd by the depression and sinking of the ground whereon such Towns stood and by the overturning of neighbouring Mountains which in this case turn Plains into Valleys and Valleys into Plains or else into Mountains as also these Mountains into Levels all these changes which to us seem prodigious being no more so to Nature whose agents are proportional to their effect then when we cover an Ant-hill with a clod of Earth But 't is not likely that subterranean waters whose violence is broken by their windings can raise Mountains or so much as ordinarily Hills much less can they raise higher the cavities of Rocks which are the ordinary Basis of such Mountains since our Vaults are ruined by the sole defect of one cliff or stone which joyns and knits the rest together the sand Hills which the winds heap up in Lybia as the waves do the banks in the Sea pertaining as little to the Question as they deserve the name of Mountains Wherefore 't is probable that Mountains are as old as the Earth which was formed uneven by Gods command that so its declivities might serve for assembling the waters together for to say that the situation of the Sea is higher then the Earth is not only contrary to the experience of Dreiners who find the declivity of the Land by no more certain way then by the inclination of the waters but also to the belief and manner of speech of all the world who use the term of going downwards when people pass along with the stream of Rivers which run all into the Sea whose surface must therefore necessarily be lower then that of the earth Whereas it is said that all waters come from the Sea this is meant of vapors exhaled from it and converted into Rain and Springs from whence arise Rivulets Brooks and at length Rivers which terminate again in the Sea The Sixth said In pursuance of Copernicus's opinion which makes the earth turn about the Sun that the several concussions it receives from that motion may possibly elevate one place and debase another CONFERENCE CXC Whence proceed good and bad Gestures Gracefulness and ill Aspects THe Soul being the principle of all the actions we need go no further to find the cause of Gestures and Postures 'T is true that as this Soul is but a general cause being according to the opinion of most Divines alike in all men it must like melted Metal borrow its form from the Mould whereinto it is infused so the Soul follows the model of the Body and as she formed it so in some sort be modified by it exercising her functions variously according to the diversity of its Organs Whereunto also the humors and their mixture or temperament contributes very much Hence a man of small stature and cholerick hath quick and hasty motions the tall and phlegmatick more heavy and slow the Sanguine and middle-sized between both Nevertheless the principal reason is drawn from the conformation of the parts whence the Lame halts he who hath the Muscles and Ligaments of the hinder part of the Neck too short holds his Head too upright He who hath a great Mouth and a large Breast is a great talker and so of all the other parts from the diversity whereof even that of Languages is said to have come These Gestures are either universal as we see some gesticulate with the whole body or particular one contracting his Forehead another shrugging his Shoulders beating of measures with his Foot like a good Horse rubbing his Hands as if they were scabby or to be washed not being able to speak to any one without touching him pulling his Button or pushing him upon the Arm or Breast Where also is but too observable the troublesome way of some who never end their discourse but by an Interrogatory whether you hear them or at least by an hem which they continue till you answer them yea others interlard their speech with some word so impertinent that it takes away the grace from all the rest all Gestures words and vicious accents to which may be opposed others not affected or repeated too often because 't is chiefly their frequent repetition which renders them tedious and as blamable as the saying over and over the same word as on the contrary their seldomness serves for an excuse to those who have no other Above all it must be endeavoured that the Gestures suit or at least be not wholly opposite to that discourse which they accompany as that ignorant Comedian did who pronouncing these words O Heaven O Earth look'd downward at the first and cast up his Eyes at the last Whence one and the same Gesture may be good or bad in respect of the subject whereunto it is applied and according to its seldomness or frequency As for ill looks they are always disagreeable disfiguring the proportion of the countenance and proceeding also from the first conformation of the parts For as the Arm is bowed only at the Shoulder Cubit and Wrist and the Leg at the Knee and Ancle though the Soul which makes the flection be alike in all other parts but the articulation is only in those parts so the motion is carried alike to all the Muscles but only those disposed by their conformation to receive the figure of such grimaces are susceptible thereof They likewise sometimes happen upon Convulsion of the parts which cause the strange bendings we observe therein though never without a precedent disposition which may be called their antecedent cause The Second said That we ought to ascribe to the Imagination all the Motions and Gestures of the Body which are agreeable or displeasing according as they suit with that of the beholder Hence Fools and Children whose judgment is irregular are pleased with seeing such gesticulations and the grimacies of Jack-puddings
Earth and so draw all Loadstones and what-ever Iron is rub'd with them towards themselves The Second said That the Cause of this Motion ought rather to be ascrib'd to some thing in Heaven because in Ships that approach that Island of Loadstone the Needle still tends towards the North and not towards that Island The truth is there is a Sympathy between some parts and things of the world the Female Palm bends towards the Male Straw moves to Amber all Flowers and particularly the Marigold and Sun-flower incline towards the Sun the Loadstone towards the Iron and the tail of the little Bear which if we conceive to be of the Nature of Iron there is no more inconvenience therein than in the other Properties attributed to the rest of the Starrs and Planets The Third said That to wave what other Authors have said this inclination of the Loadstone proceeds from the great humidity of the North which is the Centre of all waters towards which they tend For the Loadstone being extreamly dry and oblig'd to tend some way when it is in aequilibrio it veers towards that quarter to seek the moisture which is wanting to it as also doth Steel heated red hot and suffer'd to cool of it self if it be lay'd upon a piece of the wood floating gently in water The Fourth was of Cardan's Opinion who conceives that stones are animated and consequently that the soul of the Loadstone carries it to the search of its food and its good as the the Eye affects Light a Whelp is carry'd to his Dam's teat and a Sheep naturally eschews a Wolf For it matters not whether we hold That the touch'd Load-stone moves towards the tail of the little Bear which is distant five degrees from the Arctick Pole or Whether it flie and recoil from the part of Heaven diametrically opposite thereunto Now that the Loadstone is animated appears by its being nourisht with and kept in the filings of Steel by its growing old and by the diminishing of its attractive virtue with age just as the virtues of other bodies do Wherefore 't is probable that the Loadstone's soul either with-draws it from that part which is contrary to it or else leads it towards its good Indeed two different inclinations are observ'd in this Stone depending upon the situation it had in the Mine one Northwards whither it turnes the part that once lay that way the other Southwards whither it turns its opposite part But the Experiment of Iron loosing its attraction by being rub'd on the Loadstone the contrary way to which it was rub'd at first is an evident sign of such a soul in it which makes it thus vary its actions The Fifth said That all these accounts leave many difficulties to be resolv'd for if the Loadstone mov'd towards those great Adamantine Mountains of Ilva then they would draw only that and not Iron if Iron too why not before 't is rub'd with a Loadstone Nor doth this inclination of the Loadstone proceed from its dryness for then plain Iron which is as dry Pumice Lime and Plaster which are dryer should have the same effect Besides that there is not such want of humidity as that this stone should seek it Northwards the Mediterranean and the Main Ocean being nearer hand As for Heaven the Cause is no less obscure there and the terms of Sympathy and Antipathy differ not much from those which profess naked Ignorance The second Opinion hath most probability for since the two pieces of a Loadstone cut parallel to the Axis have so great a community of inclinations that a Needle touch'd with one piece is mov'd at any distance whatsoever according to the motion of another toucht with the other piece why may we not admit that the tail of the little Bear or its neighbouring parts are of a Magnetical Nature and have the same community with our Terrestrial Loadstone according to that Maxim in Trismegistus's Smaragdine-Table That which is above is as that which is below CONFERENCE CXCVII What Sect of Philosophers is most to be follow'd ALl the Sciences confess Obligations to Philosophy Divinity draws Ratiocinations from it Eloquence is diffuse Logick and Rhetorick is not to be learnt but after Philosophy Civil Law being wholly founded upon Morality is nothing but an effect of it whilst it teaches us to do voluntarily what the Laws makes us practise by force Physick supposes excellent skill in Philosophy since the Physician begins where the Naturalist ends Now there are so many Sects of Philosophers that to follow them all is to fall into manifest contradictions and to adhere to one alone is to be in great danger of mistaking the worst That which keeps us from being able to make a good choice is the little knowledge we have of these Sects and the Probability each seems to have and therefore 't is requisite to examine them in general in order to drawing a general conclusion And because Saint Augustine cites almost three hundred Opinions touching the Supream Good and as many may be brought touching other points of the Sciences I shall only take notice of the famousest Sects as seeming the most rational and most follow'd And let us compare the always contentious Peripatericks and the Stoicks together The end of the former was to contemplate and understand things the latter aim'd more to do good than to know it their design was Speculation the scope of these Practici I side with the former because that Science which embellisheth Man's noblest part his Understanding is the most sublime and consequently the most considerable And as the Understanding is more excellent than the Will so is Theory in matter Science than Exercise Acts of Virtue depending on the Acts of Reason and those of Reason not depending on those of Liberty Besides that is most to be esteem'd which must render us blessed and that is the knowledge of God and of the Creatures in God and in themselves which is to constitute the Beatifick Vision The Second said That Men ought not to get knowledge only to know but to operate comformably to their knowledge Truth would be either useless or dangerous if it lead us not to practise And though the Will is one Sense subordinate to the Understanding yet it commands the same in another To know how to do well and yet to do ill is a double crime And if knowledge alone could make happy the Devils would be soon in Heaven since Divines tell us the least of them hath more natural knowledge than all Mankind together Now the Opinion of the Stoicks regulating the Acts of our Wills and composing our Manners suitable to Reason seems to place the steps which must raise us to the highest pitch of Felicity Wherefore I conclude that the Curious may follow the first Sect of these namely the Peripateticks but good men must necessarily adhere to that of the Stoicks The Third said That there are three other Sects which seem to comprize all the rest
Rhinoceros But these Authorities are not considerable in respect of that of the H. Scripture wherein 't is said Deut. 28. His horns shall be like that of the Vnicorn and Psal 22. Deliver me O God from the Lion's mouth thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the Vnicorns and Psal 29. He maketh Lebanon and Sirion to skip like a young Vnicorn and Psal 92. My horns shalt thou exalt like the horn of an Vnicorn and Isaiah 34. The Vnicorns shall come down with them and the bullocks with the bulls Job also speaks of it chap. 39. Add to these Authorities the experience and example of so many Kings and States who would not think their treasure well furnish'd unless they had an Unicorn's horn For the matter that makes teeth being transferr'd to the generation of horns and so further sublim'd 't is certain that all Horns have an Alexiterical Vertue by which they resist Feavers cure Fluxes of the belly kill Worms and serve for many other Remedies to Man but when this already great Vertue comes to be united into one single Chanel as it happens in the Unicorn the same is mightily augmented And 't is too much detraction from the power of Nature to deny such Vertue to be found in inanimate Bodies as in the Serpentine Tongues found in the Caves of Malta sealed Earths and Minerals such as those they call for that reason Vnicornu minerale not because taken from Unicorn's bury'd under ground ever since the time of the Deluge but because of their Resemblance in Vertues Properties and outward Figure and indeed there is so much of this Mineral Unicorn's horn and Mineral Ivory found that 't is not credible it ever belong'd to any Animal Nor is this truth prejudic'd by the tricks of Impostors who make counterfeit Unicorn's horns of Ivory or other horns or the bones of Elephants and other Animals kept for some time under ground whereby they acquire more solidity and some transparency by means of the salt of the Earth which insinuates thereinto as it doth to Porcellane which for that reason is bury'd a whole Age nor by the ebullition that some other natural and artificial bodies cause or by the sweating of some Stones upon the approach of poyson which proceeds from the poyson's inspissating the Air which thereupon sticks to the next solid body Nor is the colour material since process of time may alter it besides that the Ancients attribute blackness only to the horns of the Indian Ass and the Rhinoceros And as for the smell found in the Unicorn's horn in Suizzerland 't is an argument that the same is either adulterate or a Mineral one the texture of the horns being too close to evaporate any thing and those that have distill'd them by fires find that they abound with an inodorous Salt and a stinking Sulphur In short 't is not credible Clement VII Paul III. and divers others would have taken this Animal for their Arms if there were no such nor do Popes so much want understanding men that Julius III. would have bought a fragment of it for 12000. crowns whereof his Physitian made use successfully in the cure of Diseases that had any thing of venenosity Marsilius Ficinus Brassavola Matthiolus Aloisius Mundela and many other Physicians recommend it in such diseases especially in the Pestilence the Biting of a mad Dog Worms Falling-sickness and other such hideous Maladies To conclude I conceive that effects which depend upon occult Properties as this doth ought not to be rashly condemn'd being mindful that our knowledg is limited and therefore the Authorities Reasons and Experiences which establish the Unicorn's horn and its wonderful Effects are to be yielded to only with exception to Imposture CONFERENCE CCIV. Of Satyrs NOvelty and extraordinary things have such power upon our Minds that they not only render us attentive when they are present but remain longer imprinted in the Memory as those that teach the Art of Memory truly observe This oblig'd many Poets and Historians to speak of Hydra's Chimaera's Basilisks Satyrs Centaurs and other such Fictions For those that have most exactly examin'd the power of Nature find the mixture of these Species impossible not only on the part of the Matter which is to receive the Soul to which it is determin'd by a certain proportion but also in respect of the Form which is indivisible especially the Rational Soul To which purpose the Poet Lucretius speaks very learnedly and maintains that there can be no Centaurs and the reason he alledges holds as well against the possibility of Satyrs Because saith he if this mixture of the humane and equine Nature had place Horses being in their full strength at three years old at which time children scarce leave sucking the breasts of their Nurse how is it possible this monstrous Animal should be in its tender age and full growth both together And again a Horse growing when the Man enters into the prime of his youth how can the one dye when the other is in the state of its greatest vigour Now Goats live less time than Horses and so there is less probability for an Animal compounded of the Nature of a Goat and a Man Hence Pliny in the seventh book of his Natural History saith That a Hippocentaur being bred in Thessaly it dy'd the same day and was afterwards preserv'd in honey which is an excellent bawm Virgil places them at the entrance of Hell because things against Nature cannot subsist And S. Hierom in the life of S. Paul the Hermit relating how a Centaur appeard to S. Anthony doubts whether it were a true Centaur or the Devil under that shape and indeed seems to infer it an Evil Spirit because it was driven away by the sign of the Cross So that Satyrs are to be attributed only to the liberty Poets have ever taken as well as Painters of daring and attempting every thing without observing the Rule Horace prescribes them not to conjoyn Natures totally disagreeing and opposite for by these mixtures they intended only to represent very nimble lascivious rustick and perhaps abusive men whence came their Satyrick Poems The second said That 't is as dangerous to conclude all impossible that we have not seen as to be credulous to every thing But when Reason and the authority Experience carries with it are of a side our incredulity hath no excuse Now the case of Satyrs is such for they may be as well produc'd by the mixture of the Seeds of two Species as Mules are Besides were not the Imagination of Mothers capable of imprinting this as well as any other change of Figure in a Child's body whereof we have daily examples yet the wild suckling and course of life some Children may have had amongst Goats as Romulus and Remus had from a Wolf may in process of time have begot some resemblance of shape in them As for Lucretius's Reason we see that Plants are ingrafted into others not only of the same
vertues which serve only as ornaments to his Being But as every virtue consists in a mediocrity and so hath two vicious extremities Excess and Defect so this is plac'd between two vices which may be said equally blamable since between the two extremities and the middle the distance is equal otherwise it were not the middle that is not a vertue and a point in which this vertue consists hath no latitude And though rashness which oftimes borrows the mask of generosity and valour seems to approach neerer it then Cowardice since being only an excess of Valour it may be more easily reduc'd to mediocrity then the other which partakes not thereof at all as diseases arising from repletion are easier to be cur'd then those which proceed from inanition Nevertheless to speak absolutely Cowardice is not so vicious as Temerity for if the one hath a false appearance of Valour the other hath a semblance of prudence and wisdom which is the rule and measure of all virtues And indeed we see most wise men are a little cowardly either their knowledg of things rendring them circumspect or experience of Fortune's blindness and inconstancy making them more distrustful of her dealing which they know is commonly unkindest to persons of merit or else the value they put upon Being encreasing their fear of Annihilation although this fear is common to all Animals and hath its foundation in Nature and so is more excusable then the madness of Temerity the usual vice of fools and lunaticks directly repugnant to our natural sentiments In a political consideration though both are punishable yet Cowardice least of the two and is most commonly excus'd as in Demosthenes yea sometimes recompensed as in that Roman Consul to whom the Senate gave publick thanks for having fled at the defeat of Cannae Where the temerity of young Manlius though successful cost him his head by the sentence of his own Father The Second said That Cowardice and Temerity must not be compar'd together if we would judge which is worse for on the one side the rash person compar'd to the poltron seems courageous and on the other the poltron appears prudent and well advis'd But they must be compar'd with Valour of which that of the two which partakes least is the most vicious Now Valour consists in two points to attempt and endure The rash person is bold in the onset but gives ground at the brunt The poltron do's neither He dares neither attempt nor bear up and so is further from true fortitude then the Rash and though they seem totally opposite yet the rash is oftentimes timerous and Necessity or Despair sometimes renders the veryest coward bold The Third said If the Stoicks say true that Nature is the surest guide we can follow in all our actions and that to live well and vertuously is to live conformably to Nature then Temerity which subverts the sentiments of Nature by whom nothing is sought so much as self-preservation seems much more vicious then Cowardice whose fault is only too much indulgence and inclining to natural sentiments in preference of self-preservation above all honours invented by men as incitements to contempt of death and the means leading thereunto The Fourth said As right Reason is the square of Prudence Equity of Justice and Moderation of Temperance so firmness and constancy of mind in attempting and enduring is the sign of Fortitude and Courage which is a vertue residing in the Irascible appetite moderating fear and rashness and consisting chiefly in not fearing dangers more then is fit especially those of War or which happen unexpectedly For two kinds of things cause fear some are above us and inevitable as Tempests Thunders Earth-quakes which a man may and ought to fear sometimes unless we be insensible or senseless others are ordinary vincible and not to be fear'd by the courageous To whom three sorts of people are contrary namely the furious who fear nothing at all the rash who venture at all casting themselves inconsiderately into all dangers and the poltrons who never venture upon any These tremble before and in the danger those seem at first to have a good heart but when the danger appears begin to tremble and bleed at the nose whereas he who is truly courageous attempts no danger inconsiderately but avoids it as much as he can handsomely but once engag'd loses his life therein if he cannot come out of it with his honour And though this vertue be generally esteem'd by all men because most serviceable for defence of States and hath more splendor and shew then any other yet 't is less known and the rarest of all not many possessing it free from the interest of gain or vanity anger fear of infamy constraint and other considerations besides that of honesty which alone gives name and value to all vertuous actions Rashness passes among the vulgar for true Valour though 't is further from it then Cowardice which being the daughter of knowledg and prudence as rashness is of ignorance and brutality and oftentimes of vanity seems to come neerer that virtue then Temerity which otherwise is incompatible with all other virtues as being destitute of Prudence which alone makes them what they are The Fifth said 'T is impossible to determine of these two Vices which are equally opposite to their middle vertue whatever false appearance Temerity may have of the contrary But the praise and blame of men proceeding commonly though unjustly from Success 't is that also which makes our actions approv'd and discommended So that the same action will be accounted courageous and as such applauded in a young stout Captain who gets the better of his enemies prosperous Rashness being rarely punish'd and again term'd temerarious in the same person if he happens to be worsted Yea men esteem and admire that most which they least expected as most remote from reason without which the Vertuous acts nothing Which teaches him to be contented with himself and not to make much account of blame and praise which are not integral parts of vertue but only serve to its ornament as our Hair and Nails do to our persons CONFERENCE CXVI Which Climate is most proper for Long-life The second Question is remitted to the next Conference and 't is Resolved for divers Reasons that hereafter but one be handled at a time BEcause amongst all Phaenomena or Apparences caus'd by the Celestial Bodies the diversity of artificial Days is most sensible and known to the most ignorant therefore Astronomers make use thereof to distinguish the several habitations of Mankind This diversity of Days depends upon two Causes the obliquity of the Ecliptick to the Equator and the inclination of the Horizon or the Sphere to the same Equator For the obliquity of the Ecliptick makes the diurnal Parallels which are Circles parallel to the Equinoctial describ'd by the Sun as he is carri'd about the Earth by the motion of the First Mover the number of which is equal to that