things whereto they runne parallel and in their proper motions would never meet together Thus doth he sometime delude us in the conceits of Starres and Meteors beside their allowable actions ascribing effects thereunto of independent causations Thus hath he also made the ignorant sort beleeve that naturall effects immediatly and commonly proceed from supernaturall powers and these he usually derives from heaven and his owne principality the ayre and meteors therein which being of themselves the effects of naturall and created causes and such as upon a due conjunction of actives and passives without a miracle must arise unto what they appeare are alwayes looked on by the ignorant spectators as supernaturall spectacles and made the causes or signs of most succeeding contingencies To behold a Rain-bow in the night is no prodigie unto a Philosopher Then eclipses of Sun or Moon nothing is more naturall Yet with what superstition they have been beheld since the Tragedy of Niceas and his Army many examples declare True it is and we will not deny it that although these being naturall productions from second and setled causes we need not alway looke upon them as the immediate hands of God or of his ministring Spirits yet doe they sometimes admit a respect therein and even in their naturalls the indifferencie of their existences contemporised unto our actions admits a farther consideration That two or three Suns or Moons appeare in any mans life or reign it is not worth the wonder but that the same should fall out at a remarkable time or point of some decisive action that the contingencie of its appearance should be confined unto that time That those two should make but one line in the booke of faâ—e and stand together in the great Ephemerides of God beside the Philosophical assignment of the cause it may admit a Christian apprehension in the signality But above all he deceiveth us when wee ascribe the effects of things unto evident seeming causalities which arise from the secret undiscerned action of himself Thus hath he deluded many Nations in his Auguriall and Extispicious inventions from casuall and uncontrived contingences divining events succeeding Which Fuscan superstition first ceasing upon Rome hath since possessed all Europe When Augustus found two galls in his sacrifice the credulity of the City concluded a hope of peace with Anthony and the conjunctions of persons in choler with each other Because Brutus and Cassius met a Blackmore and Pompey had on a darke or sad coloured garment at Pharsalia these were presages of their overthrow which notwithstanding are scarce Rhetoricall sequells concluding metaphors from realities and from conceptions metaphoricall inferring realities again Now these divinations concerning events being in his power to force contrive prevent or further they must generally fall out conformably unto his predictions When Graceus was slaine the same day the Chickens refused to come out of the coope And Claudius Pulcher underwent the like successe when he contemned the Tripudiary Augurations They dyed not because the Pullets would not feed but because the devill foresaw their death he contrived that abstinence in them So was there no naturall dependance of the event upon the signe but an artificall contrivance of the signe unto the event An unexpected way of delusion and whereby he more easily led away the incercumspection of their beliefe Which fallacy he might excellently have acted before the death of Saul which being in his power to foretell was not beyond his ability to foreshew and might have contrived signes thereof through all the creatures which visibly confirmed by the event had proved authentick unto those times and advanced the Art ever after He deludeth us also by Philters Ligatures Charmes ungrounded Amulets Characters and many superstitious wayes in the cure of common diseases seconding herein the expectation of men with events of his owne contriving which while some unwilling to fall directly upon Magick impute unto the power of imagination or the â—fficacy of hidden causes he obtaines a bloody advantage for thereby he begets not onely a false opinion but such as leadeth the open way of destruction In maladies admitting naturall reliefes making men rely on remedies neither of reall operation in themselves nor more then seeming efficacy in his concurrence which whensoever he pleaseth to withdraw they stand naked unto the mischiefe of their diseases and revenge the contempt of the medicines of the earth which God hath created for them And therefore when neither miracle is expected nor connexion of cause unto effect from naturall grounds concluded however it be sometime successefull it cannot be safe to rely on such practises and desert the knowne and authentick provisions of God In which ranke of remedies if nothing in our knowledge or their proper power be able to relieve us wee must with patience submit unto that restraint and expect the will of the Restrainer Now in these effects although he seeme oft times to imitate yet doth hee concurre unto their productions in a different way from that spirit which sometime in naturall meanes produceth effects above Nature For whether he worketh by causes which have relation or none unto the effect he maketh it out by secret and undiscerned wayes of Nature So when Caius the blinde in the reigne of Antonius was commanded to passe from the right side of the Altar unto the left to lay five fingers of one hand thereon and â—ive of the other upon his eyes although the cure succeeded and all the people wondered there was not any thing in the action which did produce it nor any thing in his power that could enable it thereunto So for the same infirmity when Aper was counselled by him to make a collyrium or ocular medicine with the bloud of a white Cock and honey and apply it to his eyes for three dayes When Julian for his haemoptysis or spitting of bloud was cured by hony and pine Nuts taken from his Altar When Lucius for the paine in his side applyed thereto the ashes from his Altar with wine although the remedies were somewhat rationall and not without a naturall vertue unto such intentions can we beleeve that by their proper faculties they produced these effects But the effects of powers Divine flow from another operation who either proceeding by visible meanes or not unto visible effects is able to conjoyne them by his cooperation And therefore those sensible wayes which seeme of indifferent natures are not idle ceremonies but may be causes by his command and arise unto productions beyond their regular activities If Nahaman the Syrian had washed in Jordan without the command of the Prophet I beleeve he had beene cleansed by them no more then by the waters of Damascus I doubt if any beside Elisha had cast in salt the waters of Jericho had not bin made wholesome thereby I know that a decoction of wilde gourd or Colocynthis though somewhat qualified will not from every hand be dulcified unto aliment by an addition
of flower or meale There was some naturall vertue in the plaster of figs applyed unto Ezechias we finde that gall is very mundificative and was a proper medicine to cleere the eyes of Tobit which carrying in themselves some action of their owne they were additionally promoted by that power which can extend their natures unto the production of effects beyond their created efficiencies And thus may he operate also from causes of no power unto their visible effects for he that hath determined their actions unto certaine effects hath not so emptied his own but that he can make them effectuall unto any other Againe although his delusions run highest in points of practise whose errors draw on offensive or penall enormities yet doth he also deale in points of speculation and things whose knowledge terminates in themselves whose cognition although it seemes independent and therefore its aberration directly to condemne no man Yet doth he hereby preparatively dispose us unto errors and deductively deject us into destructive conclusions That the Sun Moone and Stars are living creatures endued with soule and life seemes an innocent error and a harmelesse digression from truth yet hereby he confirmed their Idolatry and made it more plausibly embraced For wisely mistrusting that reasonable spirits would never firmely be lost in the adorement of things inanimate and in the lowest forme of Nature he begat an opinion that they were living creatures and could not decay for ever That spirits are corporeall seemes at first view a conceit derogative unto himselfe and such as he should rather labour to overthrow yet hereby he establisheth the doctrine of Lustrations Amulets and Charmes as we have declared before That there are two principles of all things one good and another evill from the one proceeding vertue love light and unity from the other division discord daâ—knesse and deformity was the speculation of Pythagoras Empedocles and many ancient Philosophers and was no more then Oromasdes and Arimanius of Zoroaster yet hereby he obtained the advantage of Adoration and as the terrible principle became more dreadfull then his Maker and therefore not willing to let it fall he furthered the conceit in succeeding Ages and raised the faction of Maâ—es to maintaine it That the feminine sex have no generative emission affording rather place then principles of conception was Aristotles opinion of old maintained still by some and will be countenanced by him for ever For hereby he disparageth the fruit of the Virgin and frustrateth the fundamentalâ— Prophesie nor can the seed of the woman then breake the head of the Serpent Nor doth he onely sport in speculative errors which are of consequent impieties but the unquietnesse of his malice hunts after simple lapses and such whose falsities do onely condemne our understandings Thus if Xenophanes will say there is an other world in the Moone If Heraclitus with his adherents will hold the Sunne is no bigger then it appeareth If Anaxagoras affirme that Snow is black If any other opinion there are no Antipodes or that the Stars do fall shall he want herein the applause or advocacy of Satan For maligning the tranquility of truth he delighteth to trouble its streames and being a professed enemy unto God who is truth it selfe he promoteth any error as derogatory to his nature and revengeth himselfe in every deformity from truth If therefore at any time he speake or practise truth it is upon designe and a subtile inversion of the precept of God to doe good that evill may come of it And therefore sometimes wee meet with wholesome doctrines from hell Nosseteâ—psum The Motto of Delphos was a good precept in morality That a just man is beloved of the gods an uncontroulable verity T was a good deed though not well done which he wrought by Vespasian when by the touch of his foot he restored a lame man and by the stroake of his hand another that was blinde but the intention hereof drived at his owne advantage for hereby hee not onely confiâ—med the opinion of his power with the people but his integrity with Princes in whose power he knew it lay to overthrow his Oracles and silence the practise of his delusions But indeed of such a diffused nature and so large is the Empire of truth that it hath place within the walles of hell and the divels themselves are dayly forced to practise it not only as being true themselves in a Metaphysicall verity that is as having their essence conformable unto the Intellect of their maker but making use of Morall and Logicall verities that is whether in the conformity of words unto things or things unto their owne conceptions they practise truth in common among themselves For although without speech they intuitively conceive each other yet doe their apprehensions proceed through realities and they conceive each other by species which carry the true and proper notions of things conceived And so also in Morall verities although they deceive us they lye not unto each other as well understanding that all community is continued by truth and that of hell cannot consist without it To come yet nearer to the point and draw into a sharper angle They doe not onely speake and practise truth but may bee said well-wisher thereunto and in some sense doe really desire its enlargement For many things which in themselves are false they doe desire were true Hee cannot but wish hee were as he professeth that hee had the knowledge of future events were it in his power the Jewes should be in the right and the Messias yet to come Could his desires effect it the opinion of Aristotle should be true the world should have no end but be as Immortall as himselfe For thereby hee might evade the accomplishment of those afflictions he now but gradually endureth for comparatively unto those flames hee is but yet in Balneo then begins his Ignis Rotae and terrible â—ire which will determine his disputed subtiltie and hazard his immortality But to speake strictly hee is in these wishes no promoter of verity but if considered some wayes injurious unto truth for besides that if things were true which now are false it were but an exchange of their natures and things must then be false which now are true the setled and determined order of the world would bee perverted and that course of things disturbed which seemed best unto the wise contriver For whilest they murmure against the present disposure of things regulating their determined realityes unto their private optations they rest not in their established natures but unwishing their unalterable verities doe tacitely desire in them a difformitie from the primitive rule and the Idea of that minde that formed all things best And thus hee offended truth even in his first attempt For not content with his created nature and thinking it too low to be the highest creature of God he offended the ordainer thereof not onely in the attempt but in the wish and simple volition thereof
wise men in point of weather Now this proceeding from sense in the creature alive it were not reasonable to hang up an Hedgehog dead and to expect a conformable motion unto its living conversion and though in sundry plants their vertues doe live after death and we know that Scammonie Rhubarbe and Senna will purge without any vitall assistance yet in animals or sensible creatures many actions are mixt and depend upon their living forme as well as that of mistion and though they wholly seeme to retaine unto the body depart upon disunion Thus Glowewormes alive project a lustre in the darke which fulgour notwithstanding ceaseth after death and thus the Torpedo which being alive stupifies at a distance applied after death produceth no such effect which had they retained in places where they abound they might have supplyed Opium and served as frontalls in Phrensies As for experiment we cannot make it out by any we have attempted for if a single Kingfisher be hanged up with untwisted silke in an open roome and where the ayre is free it observes not a constant respect unto the mouth of the wind but variously converting doth seldome breast it right if two be suspended in the same roome they will not regularly conforme their breasts but oft-times respect the opposiâ—e points of heaven and if we conceive that for the exact exploration they should be suspended where the ayre is quiet and unmoved that clear of impediments they may more freely convert upon their naturall verticity we have also made this way of inquisition in suspending them in large and capacious glasses closely stopped wherein neverthelesse we observed a casual station and that they rested irregularly upon conversion wheresoever they rested remaining inconverted and possâ—ssing one point of the Compasse whilst the wind perhaps hath passed the two and thirty The ground of this popular practice might be the common opinion concerning the vertue prognosticke of these birds the naturall regard they have unto the winds and they unto them againe more especially remarkable in the time of their nidulation and bringing forth their young for at that time which happeneth about the brumall Solstice it hath beene observed even unto a proverbe that the Sea is calmâ— and the winds do cease till the young ones are excluded and forsake their nest which floateth upon the Sea and by the roughnesse of winds might otherwise be overwhelmed but how farre hereby to magnâ—fiâ— their prediction we have no certaine rule for whether out of any particular prenotion they chuse to sit at this time or whether it be thus contrived by concurrence of causes and the providence of Nature securing every species in their pâ—oduction is not yet determined Surely many things fall out by the Dâ—signe of the generall motor and undreamt of contrivance of Nature which are not imputable unto the intention or knowledge of the particular Actor So though the seminallity of Ivy be almost in every earth yet that it ariseth and groweth not but where it may be supported we cannot ascribe unto the distinction of the seed or conceive any science therein which suspends and conditionates its eruption So if as Pliny and Plutarch report the Câ—ocodils of Aegypt so aptly lay their eggs that the natives thereby are able to know how high the floud will attaine yet is it hard to make out how they should divine the â—xtent of the inundation depending on causes so many miles remote that is the measure of showers in Aethiopiâ— and whereof as Athanasius in the â—ife of Authony delivers the Devill himselfe upon demand could make no cleere prediction and so are there likewise many things in Nature which are the forerunners oâ— signes of future effects whereto they neither concurre in causaliâ—y or prenotion but are secretly ordered by the providence of causes and concurrence of actions collaterall to their signations CHAP. XI Of Grâ—ffons THat there are Griffons in Nature that is a mixt and dubious animall in the fore-part resembling an Eâ—gle and behinde the shape of a Lion with erected eares fouâ—e feet and a long taile many affirme and most I perceive deny noâ— the same is averred by Aelâ—an Solinus Mela and Herodotus countenanced by the name sometimes found in Scripture and was an Hieroglyphick of the Egypâ—ians Notwithstanding wee fiâ—de most dilâ—gent enquirers to be of a contrary assertion for beside that Albertus and Pliny have disallowed it the learned Aldâ—ovand hath in a large discourse rejected it Mathiaâ— Michovius who writ of those Northerne parts wherein men place these Griffins hath positively concluded against it and if examined by the doctrine of animals the invention is monstrous nor much in feriour unto the figment of Sphynx Chimaera and Harpies for though some species there be of a middle and participating natures that is of bird and beast as we finde the Bat to be yet are their parts so conformed and set together that we cannot define the beginning or end of either there being a commixtion of both in the whole rather then an adaptation or cement of the one unto the other Now for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gryps sometimes mentioned in Scripture and frequently in humane Authors properly understood it signifies some kinde of Eagle or Vulture from whence the Epithite Grypus for an hooked or Aquiline nose Thus when the Septuagint makes use of this word in the eleventh of Leviticus Tremellius and our Translation hath rendred it the Ossifrage which is one kinde of Eagle although the Vulgar translation and that annexed unto the Septuagint retaine the word Grips which in ordinary and schoole construction is commonly rendred a Griffin yet cannot the Latin assume any other sence then the Greek from whence it is borrowed and though the Latine Gryphes be altered somewhat by the addition of an h or aspiration of the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is not this unusuall so what the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins will call Trophaeum and that person which in the Gospel is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins will render Cleophas and therefore the quarrell of Origen was injust and his conception erroneous when he conceived the food of Griffins forbidden by the Law of Moses that is poeticall animals and things of no existence and therefore when in the Hecatombs and mighty oblations of the Gentiles it is delivered they sacrificed Gryphes or Griffins hereby we may understand some stronger sort of Eagles and therefore also when it said in Virgil of an improper match or Mopsus marrying Nysa Iungentur jam gryhes equis we need not hunt after other sense then that strange unions shall be made and differing natures be conjoyned together As for the testimonies of ancient Writers they are but derivative and terminate all in one Aristeus a Poet of Proconesus who affirmed that neere the Arimaspi or one eyed Nation Griffins defended the mines of gold but this as Herodotus delivereth he wrote by heresay and
parricidous animall and punishment of Murtherers is upon him and though the Tradition were currant among the Greekes to confirme the same the Latine name is introduced Vâ—pera quasi vipariat That passâ—ge also in the Gospell O yee generation of Vipers hath found expositions which countenance this conceit notwithstanding which auâ—hoâ—ities transcribed relations and conjectures upon enquiry we finde the some repugnant unto experience and reason And first it seemes not only injurious unto the providence of Nature to ordaine a way of production which should destroy the producer or contrive the continuation of the species by the destruction of the continuator but it overthrowes and frustrates the great Benediction of God which is expressed Gen. 1. God blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiply Now if it be so ordained that some must regularly perish by multiplication and these be the fruits of fructifying in the Viper it cannot be said that God did blesse but curse this animall upon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eat all thy life was not so great a punishment unto the Serpent after the fall as encrease be fruitfull and multiply was before This were to confound the maledictions of God and translate the curse of the Woman upon the Serpent that is in dolore paries in sorrow shalt thou bring forth which being proper unto the women is verified best in the Viper whose delivery is not only accompanied with paine but also with death it self And lastly it overthrows the carefull course and parentall provision of nature whereby the young ones newly excluded are sustained by the Dam and protected untill they grow up to a sufficiencie for themselves all which is perverted in this eruptive generation for the Dam being destroyed the younglings are left to their owne protection which is not conceiveable they can at all performe and whereof they afford us a remarkable confirmance many dayes after birth for the young ones supposed to breake through the belly of the Dam will upon any fright for protection run into it for then the old one receives them in at her mouth which way the fright bâ—ing past they will returne againe which is a peculiar way of refuge and though it seem strange is avowed by frequent experience and undeniable testimony As for the experiment although we have thrice attempted it it hath not well succeeded for though wee fed them with milke branne cheese c. the females alwayes dyed before the young ones were mature for this eruption but rest sufficiently confirmed in the experiâ—ments of worthy enquirers Wherein to omit the ancient conviction of Apollonius we shall set downe some few of moderne Writers The first of Amatus Lusitanus in his Comment upon Dioâ—corides Vidimus nos viperas praegnantes inclusas pyxidibus parere quae inde ex partu nec mortuae nec visceribus perforatae manserunt The second is that of Scaliger Viperas ab impatientibus morae faetibus numerosissimis rumpi atque interire falsum esse scimus qui in Vincentii Camerint circulatoris lignea theâ—a vidimus enatas viperellas parente saiva The last and most plaine of Franciscus Bustamantinus a Spanâ—sh Physitian of Alcala de Henares whose words in his third de Animantibus Scripturae are these Cum vero per me per alios haec ipsa disquisissem servata Vipâ—rina progenie c. that is when by my selfe and others I had enquired the truth hereof including Vipers in a glasse and feeding them with cheese and branne I undoubtedly found that the Viper was not delivered by the tearing of her bowels but I beheld them excluded by the passage of generation neare the orifice of the seidge Now although the Tradition be untrue there wanted not many grounds which made it plausibly received The first was a favourable iâ—dulgence and speciall contrivance of nature which was the conceit of Herodotus who thus delivereth himselfe Fearfull animalls and such as serve for food nature hath made more fruitfull but upon the offensive and noxious kinde she hath not conferred fertility So the Hare that becommeth a prey unto man unto beasts and fowles of the ayre is fruitfull even to superfaeâ—ation but the Lyon a fierce and ferocious animall hath young ones but seldome and also but one at a time Vipers indeed although destructive are fruitfull but lest their number should encrease providence hath contrived another way to abate it for in copulation the female bites off the head of the male and the young ones destroy the mother but this will not consist with reason as wee have declared before And if wee more nearly consider the condition of Vipers and noxious animalls we shall discover another provision of nature how although in their paucity shee hath not abridged their malignity yet hath she notoriously effected it by their secession or latitancie for not only offensive insects as Hornets waspes and the like but sanguineous corticated animals as Serpents Toads and Lizards do lye hid and betake themselves to coverts in the Winter whereby most Countries enjoying the immunity of Ireland and Candie there ariseth a temporall security from their venome and an intermission of their mischiefes mercifully requiting the time of their activities A second ground of this effect was conceived the justice of Nature whereby she compensates the death of the father by the matricide or murder of the mother and this was the expression of Nicander but the cause hereof is as improbable as the effect and were indeed an improvident revenge in the young ones whereby in consequence and upon defect of provision they must destroy themselves and whereas he expresseth this decollation of the male by so full a terme as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to cut or lop off the act is hardly conceiveable for the female Viper hath but foure considerable teeth and those so disposed so slender and needle-pointed that they are apâ—er for puncture then any act of incision and if any like action there be it may be onely some fast retention or sudden compression in the Orgasmus or fury of their lust according as that expression of Horace is construed concerning Lydia and Telephus Sive puer furens Impressit memorem dente â—abris notam Others ascribe this effect unto the numerous conception of the Viper and this was the opinion of Theophrastus who though he denieth the exesion or forcing through the belly conceiveth neverthelesse that upon a full and plentifull impletion there may perhaps succeed a disruption of the matrix as it happeneth sometimes in the long and slender fish Acus Now although in hot Countries and very numerous conceptions in the Viper or other animalls there may sometimes ensue a dilaceration of the genitall parts yet is this a rare and contingent effect and not a naturall and constant way of exclusion for the wise Creator hath formed the organs of animalls unto their operations and in whom hee ordaineth a numerous conception in them he hath prepared
a Countâ—y may be more fruitfull then it selfe For India is more fertile then Spaine because more East and that the Sunne ariseth first unto it Spaine likewise by the same reason more fruitfull then America and America then India so that Spaine is lesse fruitfull then that Country which a lesse fertile Country then it selfe excelleth Lastly if we conceive the Sunne hath any advantage by the priority of its ascent or makes thereby one Country more happy then another we introduce injustifiable acceptions and impose a naturall partiality on that luminary which being equidistant from the Earth and equally removed in the East as in the West his power and efficacie in both places must bee equall as Boetius hath taken notice in his first de Gemmis and Scaliger hath graphically declared in his Exercitations some have therefore forsaken this refuge of the Sunne and to salve the effect have recurred unto the influence of the starres making their activities Nationall and appropriating their powers unto particular regions So Cardan conceiveth the tayle of Ursa major peculiarly respecteth Europe whereas indeed once in 24 houres it also absolveth its course over Asia and America And therefore it will not be easie to apprehend those stars peculiarly glance on us who must of necessity carry a common eye and regard unto all Countries unto whom their revolution and verticity is also common The effects therefore are different productions in severall Countries which we impute unto the action of the Sunne must surely have nearer and more immediate causes then that Luminaâ—y and these if wee place in the propriety of the clime or condition of soyle wherein they are produced we shall more reasonably proceed then they who ascribe them unto the activity of the Sunne whose revolution being regular it hath no power nor efficacie peculiar from its orientality but equally disperseth his beames unto all which equally and in the same restriction receive his lustre and being an universall and indefiniâ—e agent the effects or productions we behold receive not their circle from his causality but are determined by the principles of the place or qualities of that region which admits them and this is evident not onely in gemmes mineralls and metalls but observable in plaâ—ts and animalls whereof some are common unto many Countries some peculiar unto one some not communicable unto another For the hand of God that first created the earth hath with variety disposed the principles of all things wisely contriving them in their proper seminaries and where they best maintaine the intention of their species whereof if they have not a concurrence and be not lodged in a convenient matrix they are not excited by the efficacie of the Sunnâ— or fayling in particular causes receive a reliefe or sufficient promotion from the universall For although superiour powers cooperate with inferiour activities and may as some conceive carry a stroake in the plasticke and formative draught of all things yet doe their determinations belong unto particular agents and are defined from their proper principles Thus the Sunne which with us is fruitfull in the generation of frogs toads and serpents to this effect proves impotent in our neighbour Island wherein as in all other carrying a common aspect it concurreth but unto predisposed effects and onely suscitates those formes whose determinations are seminall and proceed from the Idea of themselves Now wheras there be many observations concerning East and divers considerations of Art which seeme to extoll the quality of that point if rightly understood they doe not really promote it That the Astrologer takes account of nativities from the Ascendent that is the first house of the heavens whose beginning is toward the East it doth not advantage the conceit for he establisheth not his Judgement upon the Orientality thereof but considereth therein his first ascent above the Horizon at which time its efficacy becomes observable and is conceaved to have the signification of life and to respect the condition of all things which at the same time arise from their causes and ascend to their Horizon with it Now this ascension indeed falls out respectively in the East but as we have delivered before in some positions there is no Easterne point from whence to compute these ascensions So is it in a parallel spheare for unto them six houses are continually depressed and six never elevated and the Planets themselves whose revolutions are of more speed and influences of higher consideration must finde in that place very imperfect regard for halfe their period they absolve above and halfe beneath the Horizon and so for six yeares no man can have the happinesse to be borne under Jupiter and for fifteene together all must escape the ascendent dominion of Saturne That Aâ—istotle in his Politicks commends the situation of a City which is open towards the East and admitteth the rayes of the rising Sun thereby is implyed no more particular efficacy then in the West But that site is commended in regard the damps and vaporous exhalations ingendered in the absence of the Sun are by his returning rayes the sooner dispelled and men thereby more eaâ—ly enjoy a cleare and healthy habitation and upon these and the like considerations it is that Marcus Varro de re Rustica commendeth the same situation and exposeâ—h his farme unto the equinoxiall ascent of the Sun that Palladius adviseth the front of his edifice should so respect the South that in the first angle it receave the rising rayes of the winter Sunne and decline a little from the winter setting thereof And concordant hereunto is the instruction of Columella in his Chapter Depositione villae which hee contriveth into Summer and Winter habitations ordering that the Winter lodgings regard the winter ascent of the Sun that is South-East and the roomes of repast at supper the Aequinoxiall setting thereof that is the West that the Summer lodgings regard the Aequinoxiall Meridian but the roomes of caenation in the Summer he obverts unto the winter assent that is South-East and the Balnearies or bathing places that they may remaine under the Sun untill evening hee exposeth unto the Summer setting that is North-West in all which although the Cardinall points be introduced yet is the consideration Solary and onely determined unto the aspect or visible reception of the Sun That Mahumetans and Jews in these and our neighbour parts are observed to use some gestures towards the East as at their benediction and the killing of their meate it cannot be denied and though many ignorant spectators and not a few of the actors conceave some Magick or mysterie therein yet is the Ceremony onely Topicall and in a memoriall relation unto a place they honour So the Jews do carry a respect and cast an eye upon Jerusalem for which practise they are not without the example of their forefathers and the encouragement of their wise King For so it is said that Daniel went into his house and his windowes being opened
Grand Signior and most observable in the Moores in Bâ—aâ—ilia which transplanted about an hundred years past continue the tinctures of their fathers unto this day and so likewise faire or white people translated into hotter Countries receive not impressions amounting to this complexion as hath been observed in many Europeans who have lived in the land of Negroes and as Edvardus Lopes testifieth of the Spanish plantations that they retained their native complexions unto his dayes Fourthly if the fervor of the Sunne were the sole cause hereof in Aethiopia or any land of Negroes it were also reasonable that inhabitants of the same latitude subjected unto the same vicinity of the Sunne the same diurnall arch and direction of its rayes should also partake of the same hue and complexion which notwithstanding they do not For the Inhabitants of the same latitude in Asia are of a different complexion as are the Inhabitants of Cambogia and Java insomuch that some conceave the Negroe is properly a native of Africa and that those places in Asia inhabited now by Moores are but the inâ—rusions of Negroes ariving first from Africa as we generally conceave of Madagascar and the adjoyning Islands who retaine the same complexion unto this day But this defect is more remarkable in America which although subjected unto both the Tropicks yet are not the Inhabitants black betweeâ—e or neere or under either neither to the Southward in Brasilia Chili or Peru nor yet to the Northward in Hispaniola Castilia del Oro or Nicaraguava and although in many parts thereof it be confessed there bee at present swarmes of Negroes serving under the Spaniard yet were they all transported from Africa since the discovery of Columbus 〈◊〉 are not indigenous or proper natives of America Fifthly we cannot conclude this complexion in Nations from the vicinity or habitude they hold unto the Sun for even in Africa they be Negroes under the Southerne Tropick but arâ— not all of this huâ— either under or neere the Northerne So the people of Gualata Agaâ—es â—aramantes and of Goaga all within the Northerne Tropicks are not Negroes but on the other side about Capo Negro Cefala and Madagascar they are of a Jetty black Now if to salve this Anomaly wee say the heate of the Sun is more powerfull in the Southerne Tropick because in the signe of Capricorne falls out the Perigeum or lowest place of the Sun in his Excentrick whereby he becomes neerer unto them then unto the other in Cancer wee shall not absolve the doubt And if any insist upon such nicities and will presume a different effect of the Sun from such a difference of place or vicinity we shall ballance the same with the concernment of its motion and time of revolution and say he is more powerfull in the Northerne hemisphere and in the Apogeâ—â— for therein his motion is slower and so his heate respectively unto those habitations as of duration so also of more effect For though he absolve his revolution in 365. dayes odde howres and minutes yet by reason of his Excentricity his motion is unequall and his course farre longer in the Northerne semicircle then in the Southerne for the latter he passeth in 178. dayes but the other takes him 187. that is eleven dayes more so is his presence more continued unto the Northerne Inhabitant and the longest day in Cancer is longer unto us then that in Capricorne unto the Southerne habitator Beside hereby we onely inferre an inequality of heate in different Tropicks but not an equality of effects in other parts subjected to the same For in the same degree and as neere the earth he makes his revolution unto the American whose Inhabitants notwithstanding partake not of the same effect And if herein we seek a reliefe from the Dogstarre we shall introduce an effect proper unto a few from a cause common unto many for upon the same grounds that Starre should have as forcible a power upon America and Asia and although it be not verticall unto any part of Asia but onely passeth by Beach in terra incognita yet is it so unto America and vertically passeth over the habitations of Peru and Brasilia Sixtly and which is very considerable there are Negroes in Africa beyond the Southerne Tropick and some so far removed from it as Geographically the clime is not intemperate that is neere the cape of good Hope in 36. of Southerne Latitude Whereas in the same elevation Northward the Inhabitants of America are faire and they of Europe in Candy Sicily and some parts of Spaine deserve not propâ—rly so low a name as Tawny Lastly whereas the Africans are conceaved to be more pâ—culiarly scorched and torrified from the Sun by addition of drinesse from the soyle from want and defect of water it will not excuse the doubt For the parts which the Negroes possesse are not so void of Rivers and moisture as is herein presumed for on the other side the mountaines of the Moone in that great tract called Zanzibar there are the mighty Rivers of Suama and Spirito Santo on this side the great River Zaire the mighty Nile and Niger which doe not onely moysten and contemperate the ayre by their exhalations but refresh and humâ—ctate the earth by their annuall inundations Beside in that part of Africa which with all disadvantage is most dry that is in site betweene the Tropicks defect of Rivers and inundations as also abundance of sands the people are not esteemed Negroes and that is Lybia which with the Greeks carries the name of all Africa A region so desâ—rt dry and sandy that travellers as Leo reports are faine to carry water on their Camels whereof they finde not a drop sometime in 6. or 7. dayes yet is this Countrey accounted by Geographers no part of terra Nigritarum and Pâ—olomy placeth herein the Leuco Aethiopes or pale and Tawney Moores Now the ground of this opinion might bee the visible quality of Blacknesse observably produced by heate fire and smoake but especially with the Ancients the violent esteeme they held of the heate of the Sun in the hot or torrid Zone conceaving that part unhabitable and therefore that people in the vicinities or frontiers thereof could not escape without this change of their complexions But how farre they were mistaken in this apprehension moderne Geography hath discovered And as wee have declared there are many within this Zone whose complexions descend not so low as blacknesse And if we should strictly insist hereon the possibility might fall into some question that is whether the heate of the Sun whose feâ—vor may swarâ—e a living part and even black a dead or dissolving flâ—sh can yet in animals whose parâ—â— are successive and in continuall flâ—x produce this deepe and perfect glosse of Blacknesse Thus having evinced at least made dubious the Sunne is not the Author of this blacknesse how and when this tincture fiâ—st began iâ— yet a Riddle and positively to determine it surpasseth my presumption Seeing
of Blacknesse from such originalls in Nature as we doe generally observe things are deâ—igrated by Art And herein I hope our progression will not be thought unreasonable For Art being the imitation of Nature or Nature at the second hand it is but a sensible expression of effects dependant on the same through more removed causes and therefore the works of the one must prove reasonable discoverers of the other And first things become blacke by a â—ootish and fuligiâ—ous matter proceeding from the sulphur of bodies torrified not taking fuligo strictly but in opposition unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is any kind of vaporous or madefying excretion and comprehending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Aristotle defines it a separation of moist and dry parts made by the action of heat or fire colouring bodies objected Hereof in his Meteors from the qualities of the subject he raiseth three kinds the exhalations from ligneous and lean bodies as bones hair and the like he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fumus from â—at bodies and such as have not their fatnesse conspicuous or separated he tearmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuligo as waxe rosin pitch or turpentine that from unctuous bodies and such whose oylinesse is evident he nameth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or nidor now every one of these doe blacke the bodies objected unto them and are to be conceived in the sooty and fulâ—ginous matter expressed I say proceeding from the sulphur of bodies torrified that is the oily fat and unctuous parts wherein consist the principles of flammability not pure and refined sulphur as in the spirits of wine often rectified but containing terrestâ—ious parts and carrying with it the volatile salt of the body and such as is distinguishable by taste in â—oot nor vulgar and usuall sulphur for that leaves none or very little blacknesse except a metalline body receive the exhalation I say torrified â—indged or suffering some impression from fire thus are bodies casually or artificially denigrated which in their naturalls are of another complexion thus are Charcoales made black by an infection of their own suffitus so is it true what is assumed of combustible bodies Adusta nigra perusta alba black at first from the fuliginous tincture which being exhaled they become white as is perceptible in ashes And so doth fire cleanse and purifie bodies because it consumes the sulphureous parts which before did make them foule and therefore refines those bodies which will never bee 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 Thus Camphire of a white substance by its fuligo affordeth a 〈◊〉 black So is pitch blacke although it proceed from the same 〈◊〉 with rozen the one distilling forth the other foâ—ced by fire so of the suâ—â—â—tus of a torch doe Painters make a velvet blackâ— so is lampe blacke made so of burnt Harts horn a sable so is Bacon denigrated in Chimneyes so in fevers and hot distempers from choler adust is caused â— blacknesse in our tongues teeth and excretions so are ustilag◠〈◊〉 corne and trees blacke by blasting so parts cauterized gangrenated â—â—â—derated and mortified become black the radicall moisture or 〈◊〉 sulphur suffering an exâ—inction and smothered in the part affected So not only actuall but potentiall fire nor burning fire but also corroding water will induce a blacknes So are Chimneyes and furnaâ—â—â— generally blacke except they receive a cleare and manifest sulphur for the smoâ—k of sulphur will not blacke a paper and is commonly used by womâ—â— to whiten Tiffanies which it performeth by an acide 〈…〉 penetrating spirit ascending from it by reason whereof it is no◠〈◊〉 to kindle any thing nor will it easily light a candle untill that spirit bee spent and the â—lame approacheth the match And this is that acide and piercing spirit which with such activity and compunction invadâ—th the braines and nostrills of those that receive it And thus when Bâ—llonius affirmeth that Charcoales made out of the wood of Oxycedar are white Dr. Jordan in his judicious Discourse of minerall waters yeeldeth the reason because their vapours are rather sulphureous then of any other combustible substance So we see that Tinby coals will not blacke linnen being hanged in the smoake thereof but rather whiten it by reason of the drying and penetrating quality of sulphur which will make red Roses white And therefore to conceive a generall blacknesse in Hell and yet therein the materiall flames of sulphur is no Philosophicall conception nor will it consist with the reall effects of its nature These are the advenient and artificiall wayes of denigration answerably whereto may be the natural progresse These are the waies wherby culinary and common fires doe operate and correspondent hereâ—nto may be the effects of fire elementall So may Bitumen coales Jet blacke lead and divers minerall earths become black being either â—uliginous concretions in the earth or suffering a scortch from denigrating principles in their formation So Iron as Metallists expresse it consisting of impure Mercury and combust sulphur becomes of a darke and sad complexion whereas other metalls have a vivacity and quicknesse in aâ—pect So men and other animalls receive different tinâ—â—ures from constitution and complexionall efflorescences and descend 〈◊〉 lowâ—r as they partake of the fuliginous and denigrating humor 〈◊〉 so may the Aethiopians or Negroes become coal-blacke from 〈◊〉 efflorescences and complexionall tinctures arising from such probabilities as we have declared before The second way whereby bodies become blacke is an Atramentous condition or mixture that is a vitriolate or copperose quality conjoyning with a terrestrious and astringent humidity for so is Atramentum scriptorium or writing Inke commonly made by copperose cast upon a decoction oâ— infusion of galls I say a vitriolous or copperous quality for vitrâ—oll is the active or chiefe ingredient in Inke and no other salt that I know will strike the colour with galles neither Alom Sal-gemme Niâ—râ— noâ— Armoniack now artificiall copperose and such as we commonly use is a rough and acrimonious kinde of salt drawne out of ferreous and eruginous earths partaking chiefly of Iron and Copper the blew of copper the green most of Iron Nor is it unusuall to dissolve â—ragments of Iron in the liquor thereof for advanâ—age in the concretion I say a terrestrious or astringent humidity for without this there will ensue no tincture for copperose in a decoction of Lettâ—ce or Mallows affords no black which with an astringent mixâ—ure it will doe though it be made up with oyle as in printing and painting Inke But whereas in this composition wee use onely Nutgalles that is an excrescence from the Oake therein we follow and beat upon the old receit for any plant of austere and stipticke parts will suffice as I have experimented in Bistorte Myrobolaus Myrtus Brabantica Balaustium and Red-roses and indeed most decoctions of astringent plants of what colour soever doe leave in the liquor a deep and Muscadine red which by addition of vitrioll descend into a blacke
hereby he covertly adviseth us not to persevere in anger but after our choler hath boyled to retaine no impression thereof In the like sense are to be received or they will else be misapprehended when he adviseth his Disciples to give the right hand but to few to put no viands in a chamberpot not to passe over a ballance not to rake up â—ire with a sword or pisse against the Sunne which enigmatical deliveries comprehended usefull verities but being mistaken by literall Expositors at the first they have been understood by most since and may bee occasion of error to verball capacities for ever This fallacy in the first delâ—sion Satan did put upon Eve and his whole tentation might be this Elench continued so when he said Yee shall not dye that was in his equivocation she shall not incurre a present death or a destruction immediatly ensuing your transgression Your eyes shall be opened that is not to the enlargement of your knowledge but to the discovery of your shame and proper confusion You shall know good and evill that is you shall have knowledge of good by its privation but cognisance of evill by sense and visible experience And the same fallacy or way of dâ—ceit so well succeeding in Paradise hee continued in his Oracles through all the world Which had not men more warily undeâ—stod they might have performed many acts inconsistent with his intention Bâ—utus might have made haste with Tarquine to have kissed his owne mother The Athenians might have built them wooden walls or doubled the Altar at Delphos The circle of this fallacie is very large and herein may be comprised all Ironicall mistakes for intended expressions receiving inverted significations all deductions from metaphors parables allegories unto reall and rigid interpretations Whereby have arisen not only popular errors in Philosophy but vulgar and senselesse heresies in Divinity as will be evident unto any that shall examine their foundations as they stand related by Epiphanius Austin or Prateolus Other wayes there are of deceit which consist not in false apprehension of words that is verball expressions or sententiall significations but fraudulent deductions or inconsequent illations from a false conception of things Of these extradictionary and reall fallacies Aristotle and Logicians make in number six but we observe that men are most commonly deceived by foure thereof those are Petitio principii A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter A non causa pro causa And fallacia consequentis The first is petitio principii which fallacie is committed when a question is made a medium or we assume a medium as granted whereof we remaine as unsatisfied as of the question Briefly where that is assumed as a principle to prove another thing which is not conceaded as tâ—ue it selfe By this fallacie was Eve deceived when shee took for granted the false assertion of the devill Yee shall not surely dye for God doth know that in the day she shall eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods which was but a bare affirmation of Satan without any proofe or probable inducement contrary unto the command of God and former beliefe of herselfe and this was the Logick of the Jews when they accused our Saviour unto Pilate who demanding a reasonable impeachment or the allegation of some crime worthy of condemnation they only replyed if he had not been worthy of death we would not have brought him before thee wherein there was neither accusation of the person nor satisfaction of the Judge who well understood a bare accusation was no presumption of guilt and the clamoâ—s of the people no accusation at all The same fallacy is sometime used in the dispute between Job and his friends they often taking that for granted which afterward he denyeth and disproveth The second is à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter when from that which is but true in a qualified sense an inconditionall and absolute verity is inferred transferring the speciall consideration of things unto their generall acceptions or concluding from their strict acception unto that without all limitation This falacie men commit when they argue from a particular to a generall as when we conclude the vices or qualities of a few upon a whole Nation or from a part unto the whole Thus the divell argued with our Saviour and by this he would perswade him he might be secure if hee cast himselfe from the pinacle for said he it is written he shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall beare thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone But this illation was fallacious leaving out part of the text Psalme 91. He shall keep thee in all thy wayes that is in the wayes of righteousnesse and not of rash attempts so he urged a part for the whole and inferred more in the conclusion then was contained in the premises By this same fallaciâ— we proceed when we conclude from the signe unto the thing signified By this incroachment Idolatry first crept in men converting the symbolicall use of Idols into their proper worship and receiving the representation of things as the substance and thing it selfe So the statue of Belus at first erected in his memory was in after times adored as a Divinity And so also in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the bread and wine which were but the signalls or visible signes were made the things signified and worshipped for the body of Christ. And hereby generally men are deceived that take things spoken in some laâ—itude without any at all Hereby the Jewes were deceived concerning the commandement of the Sabbath accusing our Saviour for healing the sicke and his disciples for plucking the ears of corne upon that day And by this deplorable mistake they were deceived unto destruction upon the assault of Pompey the great made upon that day by whose superstitious observation they could not defend themselves or performe any labour whatsoever The third is a non causâ pro causâ when that is pretended for a cause which is not or not in that sense which is inferred Upon this consequence the law of Mahomet forbids the use of wine and his successors abolished Universities by this also many Christians have condemned liâ—erature misunderstanding the counsell of Saint Paul who adviseth no further then to beware of Philosophy On this foundation were built the conclusions of Southsayers in their Auguriall and Tripudiary divinations collecting presages from voice or food of birds and conjoyning events unto causes of no connexion Hereupon also are grounded the grosse mistakes in the cure of many diseases not only from the last medicine and sympatheticall receits but amulets chaâ—ms and all incantatory applications deriving effects not only from inconcurring causes but things devoid of all efficiencie whaâ—ever The fourth is the fallacie of the consequent which if strictly taken may be a â—allacious illation in reference unto anâ—ecedencie or consequencie as to
rerum Assuredly this learned man hath taken many things upon trust and although examined some hath let slip many others He is of singular use unto a prudent Reader but unto him that desireth Hoties or to replenish his head with varieties like many others before related either in the originall or confirmation he may become no small occasion of error 14. Lastly those Authors are also suspicious nor greedily to be swallowed who pretend to write of secrets to deliver Antipathies Sympathies and the occult abstrucities of things in the list whereof may be accounted Alexis Pedimont Antonius Mizaldus Trinum Magicum and many others not omitting that famous Philosopher of Naples Baptista Porta in whose workes although there be contained many excellent things and verified upon his owne experience yet are there many also receptary and such as will not endure the test who although he have delivered many strange relations in other peices as his Phylognomy and his Villa yet hath he more remarkeably expressed himselfe in his Naturall Magick and the miraculous effects of Nature which containing a various and delectable subject with all promising wondrous and easie effects they are etertained by Readers at all hands whereof the major part sit downe in his authority and thereby omit not onely the certainty of truth but the pleasure of its experiment And thus have we made a briefe enumeration of these learned men not willing any to decline their Workes without which it is not easie to attaine any measure of generall knowledge but to apply themselves with caution thereunto And seeing the lapses of these worthy pens we are to cast a wary eye on those diminutive and pamphlet Treaties dayly published amongst us pieces maintaining rather Typography then verity Authors presumably writing by common places wherein for many yeares promiscuously amassing all that makes for their subject they break forth at last in trite and fruitlesse Rhapsodies doing thereby not onely open injury unto learning but committing a secret treachery upon truth For their relations falling generally upon credulous Readers they meet with prepared beliefes whose supinities had rather assent unto all then adventure the triall of any Thus I say must these Authors be read and thus must we be read our selves for discoursing of matters dubious and many controvertible truths we cannot without arrogancy entreate a credulity or implore any farther assent then the probability of our reasons and verity of experiments induce CHAP. IX Of the same THere are beside these Authors and such as have positively promoted errors diverse other which are in some way accessory whose verities although they do not directly assert yet doe they obliquely concurre unto their beliefes In which account are many holy Writers Preachers Moralists Rhetoricians Orators and Poets for they depending upon invention deduce their mediums from all things whatsoever and playing much upon the smile or illustrative argumentation induce their Enthymemes unto the people they take up popular conceits and from traditions unjustifiable or really false illustrate matters though not of consequence yet undeniable truths Wherein although their intention be sincere and that course not much condemnable yet are the effects thereof unwarrantable in as much as they strengthen common errors and confirme as veritable those conceits which verity cannot allow Thus have some Divines drawne into argument the fable of the Phaenix made use of that of the Salamander Pellican Basilisk and divers relations of Pliny deducing from thence most worthy morals and even upon our Saviour Now although this be not prejudicial unto wiser judgements who are indeed but weakly moved with such kind of argument yet is it oftentimes occasion of error unto vulgar heads who expect in the fable as equall a truth as in the moâ—â—ll and conceive that infallible Philosophy which is in any sence delivered by Divinity But wiser discerners do well understand that every Art hath its owne circle that the effects of things are best examined by sciences wherein are delivered their causes that strict and definitive expressions are alway required in Philosophy but a loose and popular delivery will serve oftentimes in Divinity as may be observed even in holy Scripture which often omitteth the exact account of things describing them rather to our apprehensions then leaving doubts in vulgar minds upon their unknowne and Philosophicall descriptions Thus it termeth the Sun and the Moone the two great lights of heaven Now if any man shall from hence conclude the Moone is second in magnitude unto the Sun he must excuse my beliefe and I thinke it cannot be taken for heresie if I herein rather adhere unto the demonstration of Ptolomy then the popular description of Moses Thus is it said Chron. 2. 4. That Solomon made a molten sea often cubits from bim to brim round in compasse and five cubits the height thereof and a line of thirty cubits did compasse it round about Now in this description the circumference is made just treble unto the diameter that is 10. to 30. or 7. to 21. But Archimedes demonstrates in his Cyclometro that the proportion of the diameter unto the circumference is as 7 unto almost 22 which will occasion a sensible difference that is almost a cubit Now if herein I adhere unto Archimedes who speaketh exactly rather then the sacred Text which speaketh largely I hope I shall not offend Divinity I am sure I shall have reason and experience of every circle to support me Thus Morall Writers Rhetoricians and Orators make use of severall relations which will not consist with verity Aristotle in his Ethicks takes up the conceit of the Bever and the divulsion of his Testicles The tradition of the Beare the Viper and divers others are frequent amongst Orators All which although unto the illiterate and undiscerning hearers may seem a confirmation of their reallities yet is this no reasonable establishment unto others who will not depend hereon otherwise then common Apologues which being of impossible falsities do notwithstanding include wholesome moralities and such as do expiate the trespasse of their absurdities The Hieroglyphicall doctrine of the Egyptians which in their four hundred yeares cohabitation some conjecture they learned from the Hebrewes hath much advanced many popular conceits for using an Alphabet of things and not of words through the Image and pictures thereof they endeavoured to speak their hidden conceits in the letters and language of nature in pursuit whereof although in many things they exceeded not their true and reall apprehensions yet in some other they either framing the story or taking up the tradition conduceable unto their intentions obliquely confirmed many falsities which as authentick and conceded truths did after passe unto the Greeks from them unto other Nations are still retained by symbolicall writers Emblematistes Heraldes and others whereof some are strictly maintained for truths as naturally making good their artificiall representations others symbolically intended are literally received and swallowed in the first sense without all gust of the
at all consist with Atheisme yet doth it diductively and upon inference include the same for unity is the inseparable and essentiall attribute of Deitie And if there be more then one God it is no Atheisme to say there is no God at all And herein though Socrates onely suffered yet were Plato and Aristotle guilty of the same truth who demonstratively understanding the simplicity of perfection and the indivisible condition of the first causator it was not in the power of earth or Areopagy of hell to work them from it For holding an Apodicticall knowledge and assured science of its verity to perswade their apprehensions unto a plurality of gods in the world were to make Euclide beleeve there were more then one Center in a Circle or one right Angle in a Triangle which were indeed a fruitlesse attempt and inferreth absurdities beyond the evasion of hell For though Mechanicke and vulgar heads ascend not unto such comprehensions who live not commonly unto halfe the advantage of their principles yet did they not escape the eye of wiser Mineâ—vacs and such as made good the genealogie of Jupiters braines who although they had divers styles for God yet under many appellations acknowledged one divinity rather conceiving thereby the evidence or acts of his power in severall wayes and places then a multiplication of Essence or reall distraction of unity in any one Againe to render our errors more monstrous and what unto miracle sets forth the patience of God hee hath endeavored to make the world beleeve that he was God himselfe and fayling of his first attempt to be but like the highest in heaven he hath obtained with men to be the same on earth and hath accordingly assumed the annexes of divinity and the prerogatives of the Creator drawing into practise the operation of miracles and the prescience of things to come Thus hath he in a specious way wrought cures upon the sick played over the wondrous acts of Prophets and counterfeited many miracles of Christ and his Apostles Thus hath he openly contended with God And to this effect his insolency was not ashamed to play a solemne prize with Moses wherein although his performance was very specious and beyond the common apprehension of any power below a Dietie yet was it not such as could make good his Omnipotency For he was wholly confounded in the conversion of dust into lice An act Philosophy can scarce deny to be above the power of Nature nor upon a requâ—site predâ—sposiâ—ion beyond the efficacy of the Sun Wherein notwithstanding the head of the old Serpent was confessedly too weak for Moses hand the aâ—m of his Magicians too short for the finger of God Thus hath he also made men beleeve that he can raise the dead that he hath the key of life and death and a prerogative above that pâ—inciple which makes no regression from privations The Stoicks that opinioned the soules of wise men dwelt about the Moone and those of fooles wandred about the earth advantaged the conceit of this effect wherein the Epicureans who held that death was nothing nor nothing after death must contradict their principles to be deceived Nor could the Pythagorian or such as maintained the transmigration of souls give easie admittance hereto for holding that separated souleâ— successively supplyed other bodies they could hardly allow the raising of soules from other worlds which at the same time they concâ—ived conjoyned unto bodies in this More inconsistent with these opinions is the error of Christians who holding the dead doe rest in the Lord doe yet beleeve they are at the lure of the divell that he who is in bonds himself commandeth the fetters of the dead and dwelling in the bottomlesse lake the blessed from Abrahams bosome That can beleeve the resurrection of Samuel or that there is any thing but delusion in the practise of Nâ—cromancy and popular conception of Ghosts He hath moreover endeavoured the opinion of Deitie by the delusion of Dreames and the discovery of things to come in sleepe above the prescience of our waked senses In this expectation he perswaded the credulity of elder times to take up their lodging before his temple in skinnes of their owne sacrifices till his reservednesse had contrived answers whose accomplishments were in his power or not beyond his presagement Which way although it hath pleased Almightie God sometimes to reveale himself yet was their proceeding very different For the revelations of heaven are conveied by new impressions and the immediate illumination of the soule whereas the dâ—ceaving spirit by concitation of humors produceth his conceited phantasmes or by compounding the species already residing doth make up words which mentally speake his intentions But above all other hee most advanced his Deitie in the solemne practise of Oracles wherein in severall parts of the world he publikely professed his divinity but how short they slew of that spirit whose omniscience they would resemble their weaknesse sufficiently declared What jugling there was therein the Oratour plainely confessed who being good at the same game himselfe could say that Pythia Phillippised who can but laugh at the carriage of Ammon unto Alexander who addressing unto him as God was made to beleeve hee was a god himself How openly did he betray his Indivinity unto Craesus who being ruined by his Amphibologie and expostulating with him for so ungratefull a decâ—it received no higher answer then the excuse of his impotency upon the contradiction of fate and the setled law of powers beyond his power to controle what more then sublunary directions or such as might proceed from the oracle of humane reason was in his advice unto the Spartans in the time of a great plague when for the cessation thereof he wisht them to have recourse unto a Fawn that is in open tearms unto one Nebrus a good Physition of those dayes From no diviner a spirit came his reply unto Caracalla who requiring a remedy for his gout received no other counsell then to refraine cold drinke which was but a dieteticall caution and such as without a journey unto Aâ—sculapius culâ—nary prescription and kitchin Aphorismes might have afforded at home Nor surely if any truth there were therein of more then naturall activity was his counsell unto Democritus when for the falling sicknesse he commended the Maggot in a Goats head for many things secret are very true sympathyes and antipathyes are safely authenticke unto us who ignorant of their causes may yet acknowledge their effects Beside being a naturall Magician he may performe many acts in wayes above our knowledge though not transcending our naturall power when our knowledge shall direct it part hereof hath been discovered by himselfe and some by humane indagation which though magnified as fresh inventions unto us are stale unto his cognition I hardly beleeve he hath from elder times unknowne the verticity of the loadstone surely his perspicacity discerned it to respect the North when ours beheld it indeterminately Many
secrets there are in nature of difficult discovery unto man of naturall knowledge unto Satan whereof some his vain-glory cannot conceale others his envy will never discover Againe such is the mystery of his delusion that although he labour to make us beleeve that he is God and supremest nature whatsoever yet would he also perswade our beleefes that he is lesse then Angels or men and his condition not only subjected unto rationall powers but the action of things which have no efficacy on our selves thus hath hee inveigled no small part of the world into a credulity of artificiall Magick That there is an Art which withouâ— compact commandeâ—h the powers of hell whence some have delivered the policy of spirits and left an account even to their Provinciall dominions that they stand in awe of charmes spells and conjurations that he is afraid of letters and characters of notes and dashes which set together doe signifie nothing and not only in the dictionary of man but the subtiler vocabulary of Satan That there is any power in Bitumen pitch or brimstone to purifie the aire from his uncleannesse that any vertue there is in Hipericon to make good the name of fuga Demonis any such magick as is ascribed unto the root Baaras by Josephus or Cynospastus by Aelianus it is not easie to beleeve nor is it naturally made out what is delivered of Tobias that by the fume of a fishes liver he put to flight Asmodeus That they are afraid of the pentangle of Solomon though so set forth with the body of man as to touch and point out the five places wherein our Saviour was wounded I know not how to assent if perhaps he hath fled from holy water if he cares not to heare the sound of Tetragrammaton if his eye delight not in the signe of the Crosse and that sometimes he will seem to be charmed with words of holy Scripture and to flye from the letter and dead verbality who must only start at the life and animated interiors thereof It may be feared they are but Parthian flights Ambuscado retreats and elusory tergiversations whereby to confirme our credulities he will comply with the opinion of such powers which in themselves have no activities whereof having once begot in our mindes an assured dependence he makes us relye on powers which he but precariously obeyes and to desert those true and only charmes which hell cannot withstand Lastly to lead us farther into darknesse and quite to lose us in this maze of error he would make men beleeve there is no such creature as himselfe and that hee is not onely subject unto inferiour creatures but in the ranke of nothing Insinuating into mens mindes there is no divell at all and contriveth accordingly many wayes to conceale or indubitate his existency wherein beside that hee anihilates the blessed Angels and spirits in the ranke of his creation hee begets a security of himselfe and a carelesse eye unto the last remunerations And therefore hereto he inveigleth not only the Sadduces and such as retaine unto the Church of God but is also content that Epicurus Democritus or any of the heathen should hold the same And to this effect he maketh men beleeve that apparitions and such as confirme his existence are either deceptions of sight or melancholy depravements of phancy Thus when he had not only appeared but spake unto Brutus Cassius the Epicurian was ready at hand to perswade him it was but a mistake in his weary imagination and that indeed there were no such realities in nature Thus he endeavours to propagate the unbelief of witches whose concession infers his coexistency and by this means also he advanceth the opinion of totall death and staggereth the immortality of the soul for those which deny there are spirits subsistent without bodies will with more difficulty affirme the separated existence of their own Now to induce and bring about these falsities he hath laboured to destroy the evidence of truth that is the revealed verity and written word of God To which intent he hath obtained with some to repudiate the books of Moses others those of the Prophets and some both to deny the Gospell and authentick histories of Christ to reject that of John and receive that of Judas to disallow all and erect another of Thomas And when neither their corruption by Valentinus and Arrian their mutilation by Marcion Manes and Ebion could satisfie his designe he attempted the ruine and totall destruction thereof as he sedulously endeavoured by the power and subtilty of Julian Maximinus and Dioclesian But the longevity of that peece which hath so long escaped the common fate and the providence of that Spirit which ever waketh over it may at last discourage such attempts and if not make doubtfull its mortality at least indubitably declare this is a stone too bigge for Saturnes mouth and a bit indeed Oblivion cannot swallow And thus how strangely hee possesseth us with errors may clearely be observed deluding us into contradictory and inconsistent falsities whilest he would make us beleeve That there is no God That there are many That he himselfe is God That he is lesse then Angels or Men. That he is nothing at all Nor hath hee onely by these wiles depraved the conception of the Creator but with such riddles hath also entangled the Nature of our Redeemer Some denying his humanity and that he was one of the Angels as Ebion that the Father and Sonne were but one person as Sabellius That his body was phantasticall as Manes Basilides Priscillian Jovinianus that hee onely passed through Mary as Eutichus and Valentinus Some deny his Divinity that he was begotten of humanâ— principles and the seminall sonne of Joseph as Carpocras Symmachus Photinus That hee was Seth the sonne of Abraham as the Sethians That hee was lesse then Angells as Cherinthus That hee was inferiour unto Melchisedech as Theodotus That he was not God but God dwelt in him as Nicolaus And some embroyled them both So did they which converted the Trinity into a quaternity affirmed two persons in Christ as Paulus Samosatenus that held he was man without a soul and that the word performed that office in him as Apollinaris That he was both Sonne and Father as Montanus That Jesus suffered but Christ remained impatible as Cherinthus And thus he endeavours to entangle truths And when he cannot possibly destroy its substance he cunningly confounds its apprehensions that from the inconsistent and contrary determinations thereof collective impieties and hopefull conclusion may arise there 's no such thing at all CHAP. XI A further Illustration NOw although these wayes of delusions most Christians have escaped yet are there many other whereunto we are dayly betrayed and these we meet with in visible and obvious occurrents of the world wherein he induceth us to ascribe effects unto causes of no cognation and distorting the order and theorie of causes perpendicular to their effects he drawes them aside unto
that vast and almost answerable Tract of America it seemeth equally distracted by both and diverting unto neither doth parallell and place it self upon the true Meridian But sayling farther it veers its Lilly to the West and regardeth that quarter wherein the land is nearer or greater and in the same latitude as it approacheth the shoare augmenteth its variation And therefore as some observe if Columbus or whosoever first discoved America had apprehended the cause of this variation having passed more then halfe the way he might have been confirmed in the discovery and assuredly foretold there lay a vast and mighty continent toward the West The reason I confesse and inference is good but the instance perhaps not so For Columbus knew not the variation of the compasse whereof Sebastian Cabot first took notice who after made discovery in the Northern parts of that continent And it happened indeed that part of America was first discovered which was on 〈◊〉 side faâ—thest distant that is Jamaica Cuba and the Isles in the Bay of Mâ—xico And from this variation do some new discoverers deduce a probability in the attempts of the Northerne passage toward the Indies Now because where the greater continents are joyned the action and â—fflâ—ence is also greater therefore those needles do suffer the greatest variation which are in Countreys which most do feel that Action Aâ—d therefore hath Rome far lesse variation then London for on the West side of Rome are seated the great continents of France Spaine Germâ—ny which take of the exuperance and in some way ballance the vigour of the Eâ—stern parts but unto England there is almost no earth Wâ—st but the whole extent of Europe and Asia lyeth Eâ—stward and therfore at London it varieth eleven dgerees that is almost one Rhomb Thus also by reason of the great continent of Brasilia Peru and Chili the needle deflecteth toward the land twelve degrees but at the straits of Mâ—gellan where the land is narrowed and the Sea on the oâ—her side it varyeth but five or six And so likewise because the Cape 〈◊〉 Agullas hath Sea on both sides near it and other land remote and as it were aequidâ—stant from it therefore at that point the needle conforms unto the true Meridian and is not distract by the vicinity of Adjacencyes And this is the generall and great cause of variation But if in certaine creekes and valleys the needle prove irregular and vary beyond expectâ—nce it may be imputed unto some vigorous part of the earth or Magneticall eminence not far distant And this was the invention of D r Gilbert not many yeeres past a Physition in London And therefore although some assume the invention of its direction and others have had the glory of the Carde yet in the experiments grounds and causes thereof England produced the Father Philosopher and discovered more in it then Columbus or Americus did ever by it It is also probable what is conceived of its Antiquity that the knowledge of its polary power and direction unto the North was unknowne unto the Ancients and though Levinus Lemnius and Caelius Calcagninus are of another beliefe is justly placed with new inventions by Pancirollus for their Achilles and strongest argument is an expression in Plautus a very ancient Author and contemporary unto Ennius Hic ventus jam secundus est cape modo versoriam Now this veâ—soriam they construe to be the compasse which notwithstanding according unto Pineda who hath discussed the point Turnebus Cabeus divers others is better interpreted the rope that helps to turne the ship or as we say doth make it tack about the Compasse declaring rather the ship is tuâ—ned then conâ—erring unto its conversion As for the long expeditions sundry voiages of elder times which might confirm the antiquity of this invention it is not improbable they were performed by the helpe of starres and so might the Phaenicean navigators and also Vlysses saile about the Mediterranean by the flight of birds or keeping near the shore and so might Hanno coast about Africa or by the helpe of oares as is expressed in the voyage of Jonah And whereas it is contended that this veâ—ticity was not unknowne unto Salomon in whom is presumed a universality of knowledge it will as forcibly follow he knew the Arte of Typography powder and gunnes or had the Philosophers stone yet sent unto Ophir for gold It is not to be denyed that beside his politicall wisdome his knowledge in Philosophie was very large and perhaps from his workes therein the ancient Philosophers especially Aristotle who had the assistance of Alexanders acquirements collected great observables yet if he knew the use of the Compasse his ships were surely very sâ—ow that made a three yeares voyage from Eziongeber in the red Sea unto Ophir which is supposed to be Taprobana or Malaca in the Indies not many moneths sayle and since in the same or lesser time Drake and Candish performed their voyage about the earth And as the knowledge of its verticity is not so old as some conceive so is it more ancient then most beleeve nor had its discovery with gunnes printing or as many thinke some yeers before the discovery of America for it was not unknowne unto Petrus Peregrinus a French man who two hundred yeeres since hath left a Tract of the Magnet a perpetual motion to be made thereby preserved by Gasserus Paulus Venetus and about five hundred yeers past Albertus Magnus make mention hereof and quoteth for it a book of Aristotle de lapide which book although we find in the Catalogue of Laertius yet with Cabeus I rather judge it to be the work of some Arabick writer not many years before the dayes of Albertus Lastly It is likewise true what some have delivered of Crocus martis that is steele corroded with vineger sulphur or otherwise and after reverberated by fire For the Loadstone will not at all attract it nor will it adhere but lye therein like sand This is to be understood of Crocus martis well reverberated and into a violet colour for common chalybs praeparatus or corroded and powdered steele the Loadstone attracts like ordinary filings of iron and many times most of that which passeth for Crocus martis So that this way may serve as a test of its preparation after which it becommeth a very good medicine in fluxes The like may be affirmed of Flakes of iron that are rusty and begin to tend unto earth for their cognation then expireth and the Loadstone will not regard them CHAP. III. Concerning the Loadstone therein of sundry common opinions and received relations Naturall Historicall Medicall Magicall ANd first not onely a simple Hetorodox but a very hard Parodox it will seeme and of great absurdity unto obstinate eares if wee say attraction is unjustly appropriated unto the Loadstone and that perhaps we speake not properly when wee say vulgarly the Loadstone draweth Iron and yet herein we should not want experiment and great
Rose that as Dâ—oscorides delivers the flowers thereof are like the white violet and its leaves resemble Bryonie sutable unto this relation almost in all points is that of the thorne at Glassenbury and perhaps the daughter thereof herein our endeavours as yet have not attained satisfaction and cannot therefore enlarge Thus much in generall we may observe that strange effects are naturally taken for miracles by weaker heads and artificially improved to that apprehension by wiser 5. That ferrum Equinum or Sferra Cavallo hath a vertue attractive of Iron a power to breake lockes and draw off the shooes of a horse that passeth over it Whether you take it for one kinde of Secuâ—idaca or will also take in Lunaria we know it to be false and cannot but wonder at Mathiolus who upon a parallell in Plinie was staggered into suspension who notwithstanding in the imputed vertue to open things close and shut up could laugh himselfe at that promise from Aethiopis and condemne the judgement of Scipio who having such a picklock would spend so many years in battering the gates of Carthage Which strange and Magicall conceit seemes unto me to have no deeper root in reason then the figure of its seed for therein indeed it somewhat resembles an horseshooe which notwithstanding Baptista Porta hath thought too low a signation and raised the same unto a Lunarie representation 6. That Bayes will protect from the mischief of lightning and thunder is a qualitie ascribed thereto common with the figtree Aegle and skin of a Seale Against so famous a quality Vicomerâ—atus produceth experiment of a Bay tree blasted in Italy and therefore although Tiberius for this intent did weare a Laurell about his temples Yet did Augustus take a more probable course who fled under arches and hollow vautes for protection And though Porta conceive becasue in a streperous eruption it riseth against fire it doth therefore resist lightning yet is that no emboldning Illation And if wee consider the threefold effect of Jupiters Trisulke to burne discusse and terebrate and if that be true which is commonly delivered that it will melt the blade yet passe the scabbard kill the childe yet spare the mother dry up the wine yet leave the hogshead intire though it favour the amulet it may not spare us it will be unsure to rely on any preservative t is no security to be dipped in Styx or clad in the armour of Ceneus Now that beer wine and other liquors are spoyled with lightning and thunder we conceive it proceeds not onely from noyse and concussion of the ayre but also noxious spirits which mingle therewith and draw them to corruption whereby they become not onely dead themselves but sometime deadly unto others as that which Seneca mentioneth whereof whosoever dranke either lost his life or else his wits upon it 7. It hath much deceived the hopes of good fellowes what is commonly expected of bitter Almonds and though in Plutarch confirmed from the practise of Claudius his Physitian that Antidote against ebriety hath commonly failed Surely men much verst in the practice doe erre in the theory of inebriation conceaving in that disturbance the braine doth onely suffer from exhalations and vaporous ascentions from the stomack which fat and oylie substances may suppresse whereas the prevalent intoxication is from the spirits of drink dispersed into the veynes and arteries from whence by common conveyances they creep into the braine insinuate into its ventricles and beget those vertigoes accompanying that perversion And therefore the same effect may be produced by a Glister the head may be intoxicated by a medicine at the heele And so the poysonous bytes of Serpents although on parts at distance from the head yet having entered the veynes disturbe the animall faculties and produce the effects of drink or poyson swallowed And so as the head may bee disturbed by the skin it may the same way be relieved as is observable in balneations washings and fomentations either of the whole body or of that part alone 8. That every plant might receive a name according unto the disease it cureth was the wish of Paracelsus a way more likely to multiply Empericks then Herbalists yet what is practised by many is advantageous unto neither that is relinquishing their proper appellations to re-baptise them by the name of Saints Apostles Patriarcks and Martyres to call this the herbe of John that of Peter this of James or Joseph that of Mary or Barbara for hereby apprehensions are made additionall unto their proper natures whereon superstitious practises ensue and stories are framed accordingly to make good their foundations 9. We cannot omit to declare the grosse mistake of many in the nominall apprehension of planâ—s to instance but in few An herbe there is commonly called Betonica Pauli or Pauls Betony hereof the people have some conceit in reference to S. Paul whereas indeed that name is derived from Paulus Aegineta an ancient Physitian of Aegina and is no more then speed well or Fluellen The like expectations are raised from Herba Trinitatis which notwithstanding obtaineth that name onely from the figure of its leaves and is one kinde of liverworte of Hepatica In Milium Solis the epithite of the Sun hath enlarged its opinion which hath indeed no reference thereunto it being no more then Liâ—hospermon or grummell or rather milium Soler which as Serapion from Aben Juliel hath taught us because it grew plentifully in the mountaines of Solar received that appellation In Jews eares some thing is conceived extraordinary from the name which is in propriety but Fungus sambucinus or an excrescence about the roots of Elder and concerneth not the Nation of the Jews but Judas Iscariot upon a conceit he hanged on this tree and is become a famous medicine in Quinses sore throats and strangulations ever since And so are they deceived in the name of Horse-raddish Horse-mint Bull-rush and many more conceiving therein some prenominall consideration whereas indeed that expression is but a Grecisme by the prefix of Hippos and Bous that is Horse and Bull intending no more then great According whereto the great dock is called Hippolapathum and hee that calls the horse of Alexander great head expresseth the same which the Greeks do in Bucephalus 10. Lastly many things are delivered and believed of other plants wherin at least we cannot but suspend That there is a property in Basil to propagate Scorpions and that by the smell thereof they are bred in the braines of men is much advanced by Hollerius who found this insect in the braines of a man that delighted much in this smel Wherein beside that wee finde no way to conjoyne the effect unto the cause assigned herein the Modernes speake but timerously and some of the Ancients quite contrarily For according unto Oribasius Physition unto Julian The Affricans men best experienced in poysons affirme whosoever hath eaten Basil although hee be stung with a Scorpion shall feele no paine thereby which is
to preserve a long time incorrupted hath been the assertion of many stands yet confirmed by Austine De Civitate Dei by Gygas Sempronius in Aldrovand and the same experiment we can confirme our selves in the brawne or fleshy parts of Peacocks so hanged up with thred that they touch no place whereby to contract a moisture and hereof we have made triall both in the summer and winter The reason some I perceive attempt to make out from the siccity and drines of its flesh and some are content to rest in a secret propriety thereof As for the siccity of the flesh it is more remarkable in other animals as Aegles Hawkes and birds of prey And that it is a propriety or agreeable unto none other we cannot with reason admit for the same preservation or rather incorruption we have observed in the flesh of Turkeys Capons Hares Partridge Venison suspended freely in the ayre and after a yeare and a halfe dogs have not refused to eat them As for the other conceit that a Peacocke is ashamed when he lookes on his legges as is commonly held and also delivered by Cardan beside what hath been said against it by Scaliger let them beleeve that hold specificall deformities or that any part can seeme unhansome to their eyes which hath appeared good and beautifull unto their makers The occasion of this conceit might first arise from a common observation that when they are in their pride that is advance their traine if they decline their necke to the ground they presently demit and let fall the same which indeed they cannot otherwise doe for contracting their body and being forced to draw in their foreparts to establish the hinder in the elevation of the traine if the foreparts depart and incline to the ground the hinder grow too weake and suffer the traine to fall And the same in some degree is also observeable in Turkyes 3. That Storkes are to be found and will onely live in Republikes or free States is a pretty conceit to advance the opinion of popular policies and from Antipathies in nature to disparage Monarchicall government But how far agreeable unto truth let them consider who read in Plinie that among the Thessalians who were governed by Kings and much abounded with Serpents it was no lesse then capitall to kill a Storke That the ancient Aegyptians honoured them whose government was from all times Monarchicall That Bellonius affirmeth men make them nests in France And lastly how Jeremy the Prophet delivered himselfe unto his countreymen whose government was at that time Monarchicall Milvus in Coelâ— cognovit tempus suum Turtur Hirundo Ciconia custodierunt tempus adventus sui Wherein to exprobrate their Stupiditie he induceth the providence of Storkes Now if the bird had been unknown the illustration had been obscure and the exprobation but improper 4. That a Bittor maketh that mugient noyse or as we terme it Bumping by putting its bill into a reed as most beleeve or as Bellonius and Aldrovand conceive by putting the same in water or mud and after a while retaining the ayre by suddenly excluding it againe is not so easily made out For my own part though after diligent enquiry I could never behold them in this motion Notwithstanding by others whose observations we have expresly requested we are informed that some have beheld them making this noise on the Shore their bills being far enough removed from reed or water that is first strongly attracting the aire and unto a manifest distention of the neck and presently after with great Contention and violence excluding the same againe As for what others affirme of putting their bill in water or mud it is also hard to make out For what may bee observed from any that walketh the Fenns there is little intermission nor any observable pawse between the drawing in and sending forth of their breath And the expiration or breathing forth doth not onely produce a noise but the inspiration or haling in of the ayre affordeth a sound that may bee heard almost a flight shoot Now the reason of this strange and peculiar noise is well deduced from the conformation of the windepipe which in this birde is different from other volatiles For at the upper extream it hath no Larinx or throttle to qualifie the sound and at the other end by two branches deriveth it selfe into the Lunges Which division consisteth onely of Semicircular fibers and such as attaine but half way round the part By which formation they are dilatable into larger capacities and are able to containe a fuller proportion of ayre which being with violence sent up the weazon and finding no resistance by the Larinx it issueth forth in a sound like that from cavernes and such as sometimes subterraneous eruptions from hollow rocks afford As Aristotle observeth in a Problem of the 25. Section and is observable in pichards bottles and that instrument which Aponensis upon that probleme describeth wherewith in Aristotles time Gardiners affrighted birdes 5. That whelps are blinde nine dayes and then begin to see is the common opinion of all and some will be apt enough to descend unto oathes upon it But this I finde not answerable unto experience for upon a strict observation of many I have not found any that see the ninth day few before the twelfth and the eyes of some will not open before the fourteenth day And this is agreeable unto the determination of Aristotle who computeth the time of their anopsie or invision by that of their gestation for some saith he do go with their yong the sixt part of a yeer a day or two over or under that is about sixty dayes or nine weekes and the whelps of these see not till twelve dayes some goe the fifth part of a yeer that is 71. dayes and these saith he see not before the fourteenth day Others doe goe the fourth part of a yeer that is three whole months and these saith hee are without sight no lesse then seventeen dayes wherein although the accounts be different yet doth the least thereof exceed the terme of nine dayes which is so generally receaved And this compute of Aristotle doth generally overthrow the common cause alleadged for this effect that is a precipitation or over hasty exclusion before the birth be perfect according unto the vulgar Adage Festinans canis coecos parit catulos for herein the whelps of longest gestation are also the latest in vision The manner hereof is this At the first littering their eyes are fastly closed that is by coalition or joyning together of the eyelids and so continue untill about the twefth day at which time they begin to separate and may be easily divelled or parted asunder they open at the inward canthis or greater angle of the eye and so by degrees dilate themselves quite open An effect very strange and the cause of much obscurity wherein as yet mens enquiries are blinde and satisfaction acquirable from no man What ever
the rest of the souldiers called upon Jupiter Sotâ—r There is also in the Grâ—â—ke Authologie a remarkeable mention hereof in an Epigram upon one Proclus the Latine whereof we shall deliver as we finde it often translated Non potis est Proclus digitis â—mungere nasum namque est pro nasi mâ—le puâ—illa manus Non vocat ille Iovem sternutans quippe â—ec audit Se sternutantem tam procul â—ure sonat Proclus with 's hand his nose can never wipe His hand too little is his nose to grype He sneezing calls not Iove for why he heares himself not sneeze the sound 's so far from 's ears Nor was this onely an ancient custome among the Greeks and Romanes and is still in force with us but is received at this day in remotest parts of Africa for so we read in Codignus that upon a sneeze of the Emperour of Monomotapa there passed acclamations successively through the city Now the ground of this ancient custome was probably the opinion the ancients held of Sternutation which they generally conceived to be a good signe or a bad and so upon this motion accordingly used a Salve or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a gratulation for the one and a deprecation from the other Now of the wayes whereby they enquired and determined it signality the first was naturall arising from Physicall causes and consequencles of times naturally succeeding this motion and so it might be justly esteemed a good signe for sneezing being properly a motion of the braine suddenly expelling through the nostrils what is offensive unto it it cannot but afford some evidence of its vigour and therefore saith Aristotle in his Problems they that heare it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they honour it as somewhat Sacred and a signe of Sanity in the diviner part and this he illustrates from the practice of Physitians who in persons neere death doe use Sternutatories or such as provoke unto sneezing when if the facultiâ— arise and Sternutation ensue they conceive hopes of life and with gratulation receive the signes of safetie and so is it also of good signality in lesser considerations according to that of Hippocrates that sneezing cureth the hickett and is profitable unto women in hard labour and so is it of good signality in Lethargies Apoplexies Catalepsies and Coma's and in this naturall way it is somtime likewise of bad effects or signes and may give hints of deprecation â—s in diseases of the chest for therein Hippocratâ—s condâ—mneth it as too much exagitating in the beginning of Catarrhs according unto Avicenna as hindering concoction in new and tender conceptions as Pliny observeth for then it endangers abortion The second way was superstitious and Augurial as Caelius Rhodiginus hath illustrated in testimonies as ancient as Theocritus and Homer as appears from the Athenian mastâ—r who would have râ—tired because a boatman sneezed and the tâ—stimony of Austine that the Ancients were wont to goe to bed againe if they sneezed while they put on their shooe and in this way it was also of good and bad signification so Aristotle hath a Probleme why sneezing from noonâ— unto midnight was good but from night to noon unlucky So Eustathius upon Homer observes that sneezing to the left hand was unlucky but prosperous unto the right and so as Plutarch relateth when Themistocles sacrificed in his galley bâ—fore the battell of Xerxes and one of the assistants upon the right hand sneezed Euphrantides the Southsayer presaged the victorie of the Greekes and the overthrow of the Persians And thus wee may perceive the custome is more ancient then commonly is conceived and these opinions hereof in all ages not any one disease to have been the occasion of this salute and deprecation arising at first from this vehement and affrighting motion of the braine inevitably observable unto the standers by from whence some finding dependent effects to ensue others ascribing hereto as a cause what perhaps but casually or inconexedly succeeded they might proceed unto forms of speeches felicitating the good or deprecating the evil to follow CHAP. X. Of the Iewes THat Jews stinck naturally that is that in their race and nation there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evil savour is a received opinion wee know not how to admit although we concede many questionable points and dispute not the verity of sundry opinions which are of affinity hereto we will acknowledge that certaine odours attend on animalls no lesse then certaine colours that pleasant smels are not confined unto vegetables but found in divers animalls and some more richly then in plants and though the Probleme of Aristotle enquire why none smells sweet beside the parde yet later discoveries adde divers sorts of Monkeys the Civet cat and Gazela from which our muske proceedeth we confesse that beside the smell of the species there may be Individuall odours and every man may have a proper and peculiar savour which although not perceptible unto man who hath this sense but weake yet sensible unto dogges who hereby can single out their Masters in the dark wee will not deny that particular men have sent forth a pleasant savour as Theophrastus and Plutark report of Alexander the great and Tzetzes and Cardan doe testifie of themselves That some may also emit an unsavoury odour we have no reason to deny for this may happen from the qualitie of what they have taken the Faetor whereof may discover it self by sweat and urine as being unmasterable by the naturall heat of man nor to be dulcified by concoction beyond an unsavoury condition the like may come to passe from putrid humors as is often discoverable in putrid malignant fevers and somtime also in grosse and humide bodies even in the latitude of sanity the naturall heat of the parts being insufficient for a perfect and through digestion and the errors of one concoction not rectifiable by another but that an unsavoury odour is gentilitious or national unto the Jews if rightly understood we cannot well concede nor will the information of reason or sense induce it For first upon consult of reason there will bee found no easie assurance for to fasten a materiall or temperamentall propriety upon any nation there being scarce any condition but what depends upon clime which is not exhausted or obscured from the commixture of introvenient nations either by commerce or conquest much more will it be difficult to make out this affection in the Jewes whose race how ever pretended to be pure must needs have suffered inseparable commixtures with nations of all sorts not onely in regard of their proselytes but their universall dispersion some being posted from severall parts of the earth others quite lost and swallowed up in those nations where they planted for the tribes of Ruben Gad part of Manaâ—â—es and Naphthali which were taken by Assur and the rest at the sacking of Samaria which were led away by Salmanasser into Assyria and after a yeare and half and arived at Arsereth
that in strict account Joram was the Abavus or grandfather twice removed and not the father of Ozias and these omitted descents made a very considerable measure of time in the Royall chronology of Judah for though Azariah reigned but one yeare yet Joas reigned forty and Amazias no lesse then nine and twenty However therefore these were delivered by the Evangelist and carry no doubt an incontroulable conformity unto the intention of his delivery yet are they not appliable unto precise numerality nor strictly to be drawne unto the rigid test of numbers Lastly though many things have beene delivered by Authors concerning number and they transferred unto the advantage of their nature yet are they oftimes otherwise to be understood then as they are vulgarly received in active and causall considerations they being many times delivered Hieroglyphically metaphorically illustratively and not with reference unto action or causality True it is that God made all things in number weight and measure yet nothing by them or through the efficacy of either Indeed our dayes actions and motions being measured by time which is but motion measured what ever is observable in any falls under the account of some number which notwithstanding cannot be denominated the cause of those events and so doe we injustly assigne the power of Action even unto Time it self nor doe they speake properly who say that Time consumeth all things for Time is not effective nor are bodies destroyed by it but from the action and passion of their Elements in it whose account it onely affordeth and measuring out their motion informes us in their periods and termes of their duration rather then effecteth or physically produceth the same A second consideration which promoteth this opinion are confirmations drawne from Writers who have made observations or set downe favourable reasons for this climacteriall yeare so have Henricus Ranzovius Baptista Codrâ—nchus and Levinus Lemnius much confirmed the same but above all that memorable Letter of Augustus sent unto his Nephew Caius wherein he encourageth him to celebrate his nativitie for he had now escaped 63. the great Climactericall and dangerous yeare unto man which notwithstanding rightly perpended it can be no singulaâ—ity to question it nor any new Paradox to deny it For fiâ—st it is implicitely and upon consequence denyed by Aristotle in his Politicks in that discourse against Plato who measured the vicissitude and mutation of States by a periodicall fatality of number Ptolomie that famous Mâ—thematician plainly saith he will not deliver his doctrines by pâ—rts and numbers which are ineffectuall and have not the nature of causes now by these numbers saith Rhodiginus and Mirandula he implyeth Climactericall years that is septenaries and novenaries set downe by the bare obseâ—vation of numbers Censoriâ—us an Author of great authority and sufficient antiquitie speakes yet more amply in his booke De die Natali wherein exprâ—sly treating of Climactericall dayes hee thus delivereth himselfe Some maintaine that 7. times 7. that is 49. is most dangerous of any other and this is the most generall opinion others unto 7. times 7. adde 9. times 9. that is the yeare of 81. both which consisting of square and quadrate numbers were thought by Plato and others to bee of great consideration as for this year of 63. or 7. times 9. though some esteeme it of most danger yet do I conceive it lesse dangerous then the other for though it containeth both numbers above named that is 7. and 9. yet neither of them square or quadrate and as it is different from them both so is it not potent in either Nor is this yeare remarkable in the death of many famous men I finde indeed that Aristotle dyed this yeare but hee by the vigour of his minde a long time sustained a naturall infirmitie of stomack that it was a greater wonder he attained unto 63. then that he lived no longer The Psalme of Moses hath mentioned a yeare of danger differing from all these and that is ten times 7. or seventie for so it is said The dayes of Man are threescore and ten and the very same is affirmed by Solon as Herodotus relates in a speech of his unto Câ—aesus Ego annis septuaginta humanae vitae modum definio and surely that yeare most be of greatest danger which is the Period of all the rest and â—ewest safely passe thorow that which is set as a bound for few or none to passe and therefore the consent of elder times setling their conceits upon Climacters not onely differing from this of ours but an another though severall nations and ages do â—ancy unto themselves different years of danger yet every one expects the same event and constant veritie in either Againe though Varro divided the dayes of man into five portions Hippocrates into 7. and Solon into ten yet probably their divisions were to be received with latitude and their considerations not strictly to be confined unto their last unities So when Varro extendeth Pâ—eritia unto 15. Adolescentia unto 30. Iuventus unto 35. there is a large latitude betweene the termes or Periods of compute and the veritie holds good in the accidents of any yeeres betweene them So when Hippocrates divideth our life into 7. degrees or stages and maketh the end of the first 7. of the second 14. of the third 28. of the fourth 35. of the fift 47. of the sixt 56. and of the seventh the last yeare when ever it happeneth herein we may observe he maketh not his divisions precisely by 7. and 9. and omits the great Climactericall beside there is between every one at least the latitude of 7. yeares in which space or intervall that is either in the third or fourth yeere what ever falleth out is equally verified of the whole degree as though it had happened in the seventh Solon divided it into ten Septenaries because in every one thereof a man received some sensible mutation in the first is Dedentition or falling of teeth in the second Pubescence in the third the beard groweth in the fourth strength prevailes in the fift maturitie for issue in the sixth Moderation of appetite in the seventh Prudâ—nce c. Now herein there is a tolerable latitude and though the division proceed by 7 yet is not the totall veritie to be restrained unto the last year nor constantly to be expected the beard should be compleat at 21. or wisedome acquired just in 49. and thus also though 7. times 9. containe one of those septenaries and doth also happen in our declining yeares yet might the events thereof be imputed unto the whole septenarie and be more reasonably entertained with some latitude then strictly reduced unto the last number or all the accidents from 56. imputed unto 63. Thirdly although this opinion many seeme confirmed by observation and men may say it hath been so observed yet we speake also upon experience and doe beleeve that men from observation will collect no satisfaction that other yeares may be taken against it
Therapeuticke or curative Physicke we tearm that which restoreth the Patient unto sanity and taketh away diseases actually affecting now of diseases some are cronicall and of long duration as quartane Agues Scurvy c. wherein because they admit of delay we deferre the cure to more advantagious seasons others wee tearme acute that is of short duration and danger as Fevers Pleurifies c. in which because delay is dangerous and they arise unto their state before the Dog-dayes determine we apply present remedies according unto Indications â—especting rather the acutenesse of the disease and precipitancy of occasion then the rising or setting of Stars the effects of the one being disputable of the other assured and inevitable And although Astrologie may here put in and plead the secret influence of this Starre yet Galâ—n I perceive in his Comment makes no such consideration confirming the truth of the Aphorisme from the heat of the yeare and the operation of Medicines exhibited in regard that bodies being heated by the Summer cannot so well endure the acrimony of purging Medicines and because upon purgations contrary motions ensue the heat of the Ayre attracting the humours outward and the action of the Medicine retracting the same inward but these are readily salved in the distinctions before alleadged and particularly in the constitution of our climate and divers others wherein the Ayre makes no such exhaustion of spirits and in the benignity of our Medicines whereof some in their owne natures others well prepared agitate not the humours or make a sensible perturbation Nor do we hereby reject or condemne a sober and regulated Astrology we hold there is more truth therein then in Astrologers in some more then many allow yet in none so much as some pretend we deny not the influence of the Stars but often suspect the due application thereof for though we should affirme that all things were in all things that heaven were but earth celestified and earth but heaven terrestrified or that each part above had an influence upon its devided affinity below yet how to single out these relations and duely to apply their actions is a worke oft times to be effected by some revelation and Cabala from above rather then any Philosophy or speculation here below what power soever they have upon our bodies it is not requisite they should destroy our reasons that is to make us rely on the strength of Nature when she is least able to relieve us and when we conceive the heaven against us to refuse the assistance of the earth created for us this were to suffer from the mouth of the Dog above what others doe from the teeth of Dogs below that is to be afraid of their proper remedy and refuse to approach any water though that hath often proved a cure unto their disease There is in wise men a power beyond the stars and Ptolomy encourageth us that by fore-knowledge wee may evade their actions for being but universall causes they are determined by particular agents which being inclined not constrained containe within themselves the casting act and a power to command the conclusion Lastly if all be conceded and were there in this Aphorisme an unrestrained truth yet were it not reasonable to inferre from a caution a non-usance or abolition from a thing to bee used with discretion not to be used at all because the Apostle bids us beware of Philosophy heads of extremity will have none at all an usuall fallacie in vulgar and lesse distinctive braines who having once overshot the mean run violently on and finde no rest but in the extreams And hereon we have the longer insisted because the errour is materiall and concernes oftimes the life of man an errour to bee taken notice of by State and provided against by Princes who are of the opinion of Salomon that their riches consist in the multitude of their Subjects an errour worse then some reputed Heresies and of greater danger to the body then they unto the soul which whosoever is able to reclaime he shall save more in one Summer then Themison destroyed in any Autumne he shall introduce a new way of cure preserving by Theorie as well as practice and men not onely from death but from destroying themselves THE FIFTH BOOK Of many things questionable as they are commonly described in Pictures CHAP. I. Of the picture of the Pelecan ANd first in every place we meet with the picture of the Pelecan opening her breast with her bill and feeding her young ones with the bloud distilling from her Thus is it set forth not onely in common signes but in the Crest and Scucheon of many Noble families hath been asserted by many holy Writers and was an Hieroglyphicke of pietiâ— and pittie among the Aegyptians on which consideration they spared them at their tables Notwithstanding upon enquirie we finde no mention hereof in Ancient Zoographers and such as have particularly discoursed upon Animals as Aristotle Aelian Plinie Solinus and many more who seldom forget proprieties of such a nature and have beene very punctuall in lesse considerable Records Some ground hereof I confesse wee may allow nor need wee deny a remarkeable affection in Pelecans toward their young for Aelian discoursing of Storkes and their affection toward their brood whom they instruct to flie and unto whom they redeliver up the provision of their bellies concludeth at last that Herons and Pelecans do the like As for the testimonies of ancient Fathers and Ecclesiasticall writers we may more safely conceive therein some Emblematicall then any reall Storie so doth Eucherius confesse it to bee the Embleme of Christ and wee are unwilling literally to receive that account of Jerome that perceiving her young ones destroyed by Serpents she openeth her side with her bill by the blood whereof they revive and return unto life againe by which relation they might indeed illustrate the destruction of man by the old Serpent and his restorement by the blood of Christ and in this sense we shall not dispute the like relations of Austine Isidore Albertus and many more and under an Emblematicall intention we accept it in coat armour As for the Hieroglyphick of the Aegyptians they erected the same upon another Story that is from earnestly protecting her young when her nest was set on fire for as for letting out her blood it was not the assertion of the Egyptians but seemes translated unto the Pelecan from the Vulture as Pierius hath most plainly delivered Sed quod Pelicanum â—t etiam alijs plerisque persuâ—sum est rostro pectus dissecantem pingunt ita ut suo sanguine filios alat ab Aegyptiorum historiâ valde alienum est illi enim vulturem tantum id facere tradiderunt And lastly as concerning the picture if naturally examined and not Hieroglyphically conceived it containeth many improprieties disagreeing almost in all things from the true and proper description for fiâ—st whereas it is commonly set forth green or yellow in its proper
land So is it exceeded by that which by Cardan is termed the greatest in the world that is the River Oregliana in the same Continent which as Maginus delivereth hath beene navigated 6000. miles and opens in a Channell of ninety leagues broad so that as Acosta an ocular witnesse recordeth they that sayle in the middle can make no land of either side Now the ground of this assertion was surely the magnifying esteem of the Ancients arising from the indiscovery of its head For as things unknowne seeme greater then they are and are usually receaved with amplifications above their nature So might it also be with this River whose head being unknowne and drawne to a proverbiall obscurity the opinion thereof became without bounds and men must needs conceat a large extent of that to which the discovery of no man had set a period And this an usuall way to give the superlative unto things of eminency in any kinde and when a thing is very great presently to define it to be the greatest of all whereas indeed Superlatives are difficult whereof there being but one in every kinde their determinations are dangerous and must not be made without great circumspection So the City of Rome is magnified by the Latiâ—s to be the greatest of the earth but time and Geography enforme us that Cairo is bigger then ever it was and Quinsay in China farre exceedeth both So is Olympus extolled by the Greeks as an hill attaining unto heaven but the enlarged Geography of after times makes slight account hereof when they discourse of Andes in Peru or Teneriffa in the Canaries So have all Ages conceaved and most are still ready to sweare the Wren is the least of birds yet the discoveries of America and even of our owne Plantations have shewed us one farre lesse that is the Humbird not much exceeding a Beetle And truly for the least and greatest the highest and the lowest of every kinde as it is very difficult to define them in visible things so is it to understand in things invisible Thus is it no easie lesson to comprehend the first matter and the affections of that which is next neighbour unto nothing and impossible truly to comprehend God who indeed is all things and so things as they arise unto perfection and approach unto God or descend to imperfection and draw neerer unto nothing fall both imperfectly into our apprehensions the one being too weake for our conception our conception too weake for the other Thirdly divers conceptions there are concerning its increment or inundation The first unwarily opinions that this encrease or annuall overflowing is proper unto Nile and not agreeable unto any other River which notwithstanding is common unto many currents of Africa For about the same time the River Niger and Zaire do oveâ—flow and so do the Rivers beyond the mountaines of the Moone as Suama and Spirito Santo and not onely these in Africa but some also in Europe and Asia for so it is reported of Menan in India and so doth Botero report of Duina in Livonia and the same is also observable in the River Jordan in Judea for so is it delivered Josuah 3. that Jordan overfloweth all his banks in the time of harvest The effect indeed is wonderfull in all and the causes surely best resolvable from observations made in the Countries themselves the parts through which they passe or whence they take their originall That of Nilus hath beene attempted by many and by some to that despaire of resolution that they have only referred it unto the providence of God and the secret manuduction of all things unto their ends but divers have attained the truth and the cause alledged by Diodorus Seneca Strabo and others is allowable that the inundation of Nilus in Aegypt proceeded from the raines in Aethiopia and the mighty source of waters falling towards the fountaines thereof For this inundation unto the Aegyptians happeneth when it is winter unto the Aethiopians which habitations although they have no cold winter the Sun being no farther removed from them in Cancer then unto us in Taurus yet is the fervour of the ayre so well remitâ—ed as it admits a sufficient generation of vapours and plenty of showres ensuing thereupon This theory of the Ancients is since confirmed by experience of the Modernes as namely by Franciscus Alvarez who lived long in those parts and hath left a description of Aethiopia affirming that from the middle of June unto September there fell in his time continuall raines As also Antonius Ferdinandus who in an Epistle written from thence and noted by Condignus affirmeth that during the winter in those Countries there passed no day without raine Now this is also an usuall course to translate a remarkable quality into a propriety and where we admire an effect in one to opinion there is not the like in any other with these conceits do common apprehensions entertaine the antidotall and wondrous condition of Ireland conceaving in that Land onely an immunity from venemous creatures but unto him that shall further enquire the same will be affirmed of Creta memorable in ancient stories even unto fabulous causes and benediction from the birth of Jupiter The same is also found in Ebusus or Evisa an Island neere Majorca upon the coast of Spaine With these opinions do the eyes of neighbour spectators behold Aetna the flaming mountaine in Sicilia But Navigators tell us there is a burning mountaine in Island a more remaâ—keable one in Teneriâ—â—a of the Canaries and many vulcano's or fiery hils elsewhere Thus Crocodiles were thought to be peculiar unto Nile and the opinion so possessed Alexander that when he had discovered some in Ganges he fell upon conceit he had found the head of Nilus but later discoveries affirme they are not onely in Asia and Africa but very frequent in some Rivers of America Another opinion confineth its inundation and positively affirmeth it constantly encreaseth the seventeenth day of June wherein notwithstanding a larger forme of speech were safer then that which punctually prefixeth a constant day thereto for first this expression is different from that of the Ancients as Herodotus Diodorus Seneca c. delivering only that it happeneth about the entrance of the Sunne into Câ—ncer wherein they warily deliver themselves and reserve a reasonable latitude So when Hippocrates saith Sub Cane ante Canem difficiles sunt purgationes there is a latitude of dayes comprised therein for under the Dogstar he containeth not onely the day of its ascent but many following and some ten dayes preceding So Aristotle delivers the affections of animalls with the wary termes of Circa magna ex parte and when Theodorus translateth that part of his Coeunt Thunni Scombri mense Februario post Idus pariunt Iâ—nio ante Nâ—nas Scaliger for ante Nonas renders it Iunii initâ—o because that exposition affordeth the latitude of divers dayes For affirming it happeneth before the Nones he alloweth but one day
that is the Calends for in the Romane account the second day is the fourth of the Nones of June Againe were the day definitive it had prevented the delusion of the Devill nor could he have gained applause by its prediction who notwithstanding as Athanasius in the life of Anthony relateth to magnifie his knowledge in things to come when he perceived the rains to fall in Aethiopia would presage unto the Aegyptians the day of its inundation And this would also make uselesse that naturall experiment observed in earth or sand about the River by the weight whereof as good Authors report they have unto this day a knowledge of its encrease Lastly it is not reasonable from variable and unstable causes to derive a fixed and constant effect and such are the causes of this Inundation which cannot indeed be regular and therefore their effects not prognosticable like Ecclipses for depending upon the clouds and descent of showres in Aethiopia which have their generation from vaporous exhalations they must submit their existence unto contingencies and endure anticipation and recession from the moveable condition of their causes And therefore some yeares there hath been no encrease at all as Seneca and divers relate of the eleventh yeare of Cleopatra nor nine yeares together as is testified by Calisthenes Some yeares it hath also retarded and came far later then usually it was expected as according to Sozomen and Nicephorus it happened in the dayes of Theodosius whereat the people were ready to mutiny because they might not sacrifice unto the River according to the custome of their Predecessors Now this is also an usuall way of mistake and many are deceived who too strictly construe the temporall considerations of things Thus bookes will tell us and we are made to beleeve that the fourteenth yeare males are seminificall and pubescent but he that shall enquire into the generality will rather adhere unto the cautelous assertion of Aristotle that is bis septem annis exactis and then but magna ex parte That Whelps are blinde nine dayes and then begin to see is generally beleeved but as we have elsewhere declared it is exceeding rare nor doe their eye-lids usually open untill the twelfth and sometimes not before the fourteenth day And to speake strictly an hazardable determination it is unto fluctuating and indifferent effects to affixe a positive type or period for in effects of far more regular causalities difficulties doe often arise and even in time it selfe which measureth all things we use allowance in its commensuration Thus while we conceive we have the account of a year in 365 dayes exact enquirers and computists will tell us that we escape 6 houres that is a quarter of a day and so in a day which every one accounts 24 houres or one revolution of the Sunne in strict account we must allow the addition of such a part as the Sunne doth make in his proper motion from West to East whereby in one day he describeth not a perfect circle Fourthly it is affirmed by many and received by most that it never raineth in Aegypt the River supplying that defect and bountifully requiting it in its Inundation but this must also be received in a qualified sense that is that it raines but seldome at any time in the Summer and very rarely in the Winter But that great showres do sometimes fall upon that Region beside the assertion of many Writers we can confirme from honourable and ocular testimony and that not many yeares past it rayned in Grand Cairo 8 or 9 dayes together Beside men hereby forget the relation of holy Scripture as is delivered Ex. 9. Behold I will cause it to raine a very grievous haile such as hath not been in Aegypt since the foundation thereof even untill now wherein God threatning such a raine as had not happened it must be presumed they had been acquainted with some before and were not ignorant of the substance the menace being made in the circumstance Now this mistake ariseth from a misapplication of the bounds or limits of time and an undue transition from one unto another which to avoid we must observe the punctuall differences of time and so reasonably distinguish thereof as not to confound or lose the one in the other For things may come to passe Semper Plerumque Saepè or Nunquam Aliquando Raro that is Alwayes or never for the most part or Sometimes Oftimes or Seldome Now the deception is usuall which is made by the misapplication of these men presently concluding that to happen often which happeneth but sometimes that never which happeneth but seldome and that alway which happeneth for the most part So is it said the Sunne shines every day in Rhodes because for the most part it faileth not So we say and believe that a Camelion never â—ateth but liveth only upon ayre whereas indeed it is seen to eat very seldome but many there are who have beheld it to feed on flyes And so it is said that children borne in the eighth moneth live not that is for the most part but not to be concluded alwayes nor it seems in former ages in all places for it is otherwise recorded by Aristotle concerning the births of Aegypt Lastly it is commonly conceived that divers Princes have attempted to cut the Isthmus or tract of land which parteth the Arabian and Mediterranâ—an Sea but wherâ—in â—pon enquiry I finde some difficulty concerning the place aâ—tempted many with good authority affirming that the intent was not immediatly to unitâ— these Seas but to make a navigable channell betweene the Red Sea and the Nile the markeâ— whereof are extant to this day it was first attemptâ—d by Sersostris after by Dâ—â—iâ—s aâ—d in a feare to drowne the Country deserâ—ed by them both but was long after re-attempted and in some manner effected by Philâ—dâ—lphus and so the Grand Signior who is Lord of the Country conveyeth his Gallyes into the Red Sea by the Nile for he bringeth them downe to Grand Cairo where they are taken in pâ—â—ces caâ—â—yed upon Camels backs and rejoyned together at Suâ—s his port and navall station for that Sea whereby in effect he acts the designe of Cleopatra who after the battell of Actium in a different way would have conveyed her Gallies into the Red Sea And therefore that proverbe to cut an Isthmus that is to take great paines and â—ffect noâ—hing alludeth not unto this attempt but is by Erasmus applyed unto severall other as that undertaking of Câ—idians to cut their Isthmus but especially that of Corinth so unsuccessefully attempted by many Empâ—rors The Cnidians were deterred by the peremptory disswasion of Apollo plainly commanding them to desist for if God had thought it fit hee would have made that Country an Islâ—nd at fiâ—st But this perhaps will not be thought a reasonable discouâ—agâ—ment unto the activity of those spirits which endeavour to advantage nature by Art and upon good grounds to promote any part of the
name of Xanthus or the Yellow River of Phrygia and the name of Mar Vermeio or the Red Sea in America CHAP. X. Of the Blacknesse of Negroes IT is evident not only in the generall frame of Nature that things most manifest unto sense have proved obscure unto the understanding But even in proper and appropriate objects wherein we affirme the sense cannot erre the faculties of reason most often fail uâ— Thus of colours in generall under whose glosse and vernish all things are seen no man hath yet beheld the true nature or positively set downe their incontroulable causes which while some ascribe unto the mixture of the Elements others to the graduality of opacity and light they have left our endeavours to grope them out by twilight and by darknesse almost to discover that whose existence is evidenced by light The Chymists have attempted laudably reducing their causes uâ—to Sal Sulphur and Mercury and had they made it out so well in this as in the objects of smell and taste their endeavours had been more acceptable For whereas they refer Sapor unto Salt and Odor unto Sulphur they vary much concerning colour some reducing it unto Mercury some to Sulphur others unto Salt wherein indeed the last â—oncâ—it doth not oppresse the former and Salt may carry a strong concurrence therein For beside the fixed and terrestrious Salt there is in naturall bodies a Sal niter referring unto Sulphur there is also a volatile or Armoniac Salt retaining unto Mercury by which Salts the colours of bodies are sensibly qualified and receive degrees of lustre or obscurity superficiality or profundity fixation or volatility Their generall or first natures being thus obscure there will be greater difficulties in their particular discoveries for being farther removed from their simplicities they fall into more complexed considerations and so require a subtiler act of reason to distinguish and call forth their natures Thus although a man understood the generall nature of coloures yet were it no easie probleme to resolve Why grasse is green Why Garlick Molyes and Porrets have white roots deep green leaves and blacke seeds Why severall docks and sorts of Rhubarb with yellow roots send forth purple flowers Why also from Lactary or milky plants which have a white and lacteous juice dispersed through every part there arise flowers blue and yellow Moreover beside the specificall and first digressions ordained from the Creation which might bee urged to salve the variety in every species why shall the marvaile of Peâ—u produce its flowers of diâ—ferent colours and that not once or constantly but every day and vaâ—â—oâ—sly Why Tulips of one colour produce some of another and ruâ—ning through almost all should still escape a blew And lastly why some men yea and they a mighty and considerable part of mankinde should first acquire and still retaine the glosse and tincture of blacknesse which who ever strictly enquires shall finde no lesse of darknesse in the cause then blacknesse in the effect it selfe there arising unto examination no such satisfactory and unquarrellable reasons as may confirme the causes generally received which are but two in number that is the heat and scoâ—ch of the Sunne or the curse of God on Câ—â—m and his posteâ—iâ—y The first was generally received by the Ancients especially the heathen who in obscurities had no higher recourse then Nature as may appeare by a Discourse concerning this point in Strabo By Aristotle it seems to be implyed in those Problems which enquire why the Sun makes men blacke and not the fire why it whitens wax yet blacks the skin By the word Aethiops it selfe applyed to the mâ—morablest Nations of Negroes that is of a burnt or torrid countenance The fancie of the fable infers also the Antiquity of the opinion which deâ—iveth the complexion from the deviation of the Sunne and the conâ—lagration of all things under Phaeton But this opinion though generally embraced was I perceive rejected by Aristobulus a very ancient Geographer as is discovered by Strabo It hath been doubted by severall moderne Writers particularly by Ortelius but amply and satisfactorily discussed as we know by no man we shall therefore endeavour a full delivery hereof declaring the grounds of doubâ— and reasons of dâ—niall which rightly understod may if not overthrow yet shrewdly shake the security of this assertion And first many which countenance the opinion in this reason doe tacitly and upon consequence overthrow it in another For whilst they make the River Senaga to divide and bound the Moores so that on the South-side they are blacke on the other onely tawnie they imply a secret causality herein from the ayre place or River and seem not to derive it from the Sunne the effects of whose activity are not precipitously abrupted but gradually proceed to their cessations Secondly if we affirme that this effect proceeded or as we will not be backward to concede it may be advanced and fomented from the fervor of the Sunne yet doe we not hereby discover a principle sufficient to decide the question concerning other animals nor doth he that affirmeth the heat makes man blacke afford a reason why other animalls in the same habitations maintaine a constant and agreeable hue unto those in other parts as Lions Elephants Camels Swans Tigers Estâ—iges which though in Aethiopia in the disadvantage of two Summers and perpendicular rayes of the Sunne doe yet make good the complexion of their species and hold a colourable correspondence unto those in milder regions Now did this complexion proceed from heat in man the same would be communicated unto other animalls which equally participate the Influence of the common Agent For thus it is in the effects of cold in Regions far removed from the Sunne for therein men are not only of faire complexions gray eyed and of light haire but many creatures exposed to the ayre deflect in extremity from their naturall colours from browne russet and blacke receiving the complexion of Winter and turning perfect white for thus Olaus Magnus relates that after the Autumnall Aequinox Foxes begin to grow white thus Michovius reporteth and we want not ocular confirmation that Haâ—es and Partridges turne white in the Winter and thus a white Crow a Proverbiall rarity with us is none unto them but that insâ—parable accident of Aristotles is separated in many hundreds Thirdly if the fervor of the Sunne or intemperate heat of clime did solely occasion this complexion surely a migration or change thereof might cause a sensible if not a totall mutation which notwithstanding experience will not admit For Negroes traâ—splanâ—ed although into cold and â—legmaticke habitations continue their hue both in themselves and also their generations except they mixe with different complexions whereby notwithstanding there only succeeds a remission of their tinctures there remaining unto many descents a full shadow of their originalls and if they preserve their copulations entire they still maintaine their complexions as is very remarkable â—n the dominions of the
the daughters of the Canaanites And the like was performed by Isaac in the behalfe of his son Jacob. As for Cham and his other sons this curse attained them not for Nimrod the son of Chus set up his kingdome in Babylon and erected the first great Empire Mizraim and his posterity grew mighty Monarches in Aegypt and the Empire of the Aethiopians hath beene as large as either Lastly whereas men affirme this colour was a Curse I cannot make out the propriety of that name it neither seeming so to them nor reasonably unto us for they take so much content therein that they esteeme deformity by other colours describing the Devill and terrible objects White And if wee seriously consult the definitions of beauty and exactly perpend what wise men determine thereof wee shall not reasonably apprehend a curse or any deformity therein For first some place the essence thereof in the proportion of parts conceiving it to consist in a comely commensurability of the whole unto the paâ—ts and the parts betweene themselves which is the determination of the best and learned Writers and whereby the Moores are not excluded from beauty there being in this description no consideration of colours but an apt connexion and frame of parts and the whole Others there be and those most in number which place it not onely in proportion of parts but also in grace of colour But to make Colour essentiall unto Beauty there will arise no slender difficulty For Aristotle in two definitions of pulchritude and Galen in one have made no mention of colour Neither will it agree unto the Beauty of Animals wherein notwithstanding there is an approved pulchritude Thus horses are handsome under any colour and the symmetry of parts obscures the consideration of complexions Thus in concolour animals and such as are confined unto one colour wee measure not their Beauty thereby for if a Crow or Blackâ—bird grow white wee generally accounted it more pretty And even in monstrosity descend not to opinion of deformity And by this way likewise the Moores escape the curse of deformity there concurring no stationary colour and sometimes not any unto Beauty The Platonick contemplators reject both these descriptions â—ounded upon parts and colours or either as M. Leo the Jew hath excellently discoursed in his Genealogy of Love defining Beauty a formall grace which delights and moves them to love which comprehend it This grace say they discoverable outwardly is the resplendor and Raye of some interiour and invisible Beauty and proceedeth from the formes of compositions amiable whose faculties if they can aptly contrive their matter they beget in the subject an agreeable and pleasing beauty if over ruled thereby they evidence not their perfections but runne into deformity For seeing that out of the same materials Thersites and Paris Beauty and monstrosity may be contrived the formes and operative faculties introduce and determine their perfections which in naturall bodies receive exactnesse in every kinde according to the first Idea of the Creator and in contrived bodies the phancie of the Artificer And by this consideration of Beauty the Moores also are not excluded but hold a common share therein with all mankinde Lastly in whatsoever its Theory consisteth or if in the generall we allow the common conceit of symmetry and of colour yet to descend unto singularities or determine in what symmetry or colour it consisted were very dangerous for beauty is determined by opinion and seems to have no essence that holds one notion unto all that seeming beauteous unto one which hath no favour with another and that unto every one according as custome hath made it naturall or sympathy and conformity of minds shall make it seem agreeable Thus flat noses seem comly unto the Moore an Aquiline or hawked one unto the Persian a large and prominent nose unto the Romane but none of all these are acceptable in our opinion Thus some thinke it most ornamentall to weare their Bracelets on their wrests others say it is better to have them about their Ancles some thinke it most comely to weare their Rings and Jewells in the Eare others will have them about their privities a third will not thinke they are compleat except they hang them in their lips cheeks or noses Thus Homer to set off Minerva calleth her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is gray or light blew eyed now this unto us seems farre lesse amiable then the black Thus we that are of contrary complexions accuse the blacknes of the Mores as ugly But the Spouse in the Canticles excuseth this conceit in that description of heâ—s I am black but comely And howsoever Cerberus and the furies of hell be described by the Poets under this complexion yet in the Beauty of our Saviour blacknesse is commended when it is said his locks are bushie and blacke as a Raven So that to inferre this as a curse or to reason it as a deformity is no way reasonable the two foundations of beauty Symmetâ—y and Complexion receiving such various apprehensions that no deviation will bee expounded so high as a curse or undeniable deformity without a manifest and confessed degree of monstrosity Lastly it is a very injurious method unto Philosophy and a perpetuall promotion unto Ignorance in points of obscurity nor open unto easie considerations to fall upon a present refuge unto Miracles or recurre unto immediate contrivance from the insearchable hands of God Thus in the conceit of the evill odor of the Jewes Christians without a farther research into the verity of the thing or enquiry into the cause drawe up a judgement upon them from the passion of their Saviour Thus in the wondrous effects of the clime of Ireland and the freedome from all venomous creatures the credulity of common conceit imputes this immunity unto the benediction of St. Patrick as Beda and Gyraldus have left recorded Thus the Asse having a peculiar marke of a crosse made by a blacke list downe his backe and another athwart or at right angles downe his shoulders common opinion ascribe this figure unto a peculiar â—ignation since that beast had the honour to beare our Saviour upon his backe Certainly this is a course more desperate then Antipathies Sympathies or occult qualities wherein by a finall and satisfactive discernment of faith we lay the last and particular effects upon the first and generall cause of all things whereas in the other wee doe but palliate our determinations untill our advanced endeavors doe totally reject or partially salve their evasions CHAP. XII A digression concerning Blacknesse THere being therefore two opinions repugnant unto each other it may not be presumptive or skepticall in me to doubt of both and because we remaine imperfect in the generall theory of Colours wee shall deliver at present a short discovery of blacknes wherein although perhaps we afford no greater satisfaction then others yet shall our attempts exceed any for wee shall emperically and sensibly discourse hereof deducing the causes
unto a thousand yeares because none should ever be one day old in the sight of the Lord unto whom according to that of David A thousand yeares are but as one day doth not advantage Methuselah and being deduced from a popular expression which will not stand a Metaphysicall and strict examination is not of force to divert a serious enquirer for unto God a thousand yeares are no more then one moment and in his sight Methuselah lived no neerer one day then Abel for all parts of time are alike unto him unto whom none are referable and all things present unto whom nothing is past or to come and therefore although we be measured by the Zone of time and the flowing and continued instants thereof do weave at last a line and circle about the eldest yet can we not thus commensurate the sphere of Trismegistus or summe up the unsuccessive and stable duration of God CHAP. IV. That there was no Rainebow before the Flood THat there shall no Rainebow appeare forty yeares before the end of the world and that the preceding drought unto that great flame shal exhaust the materials of this Meteor was an assertion grounded upon no solid reason but that there was not any in sixteene hundred yeares that is before the flood seemes deduceable from holy Scripture Gen. 9. I do set my bow in the clouds and it shall be for a token of a Covenant betweene me and the earth From whence notwithstanding we cannot conclude the nonexistence of the Rainebow nor is that Chronology naturally established which computeth the antiquity of effects arising from physicall and setled causes by additionall impositions from voluntary determinators Now by the decree of reason and Philosophy the Rainebow hath its ground in Nature and caused by the rayes of the Sunne falling upon a roride and oppoâ—itâ— cloud whereof some reflected others refracted beget that semicircular variety we generally call the Rainebow which must succeed upon concurrence of causes and subjects aptly praedisposed And therefore to conceive there was no Rainebow before because God chose this out as a token of the Covenant is to conclude the existence of things from their signalities or of what is objected unto the sence a coexistence with that which is internally presented unto the understanding With equal reason we may inferre there was no water before the Institution of Baptisme nor bread and wine before the holy Eucharist Againe while men deny the antiquity of one Rainebow they anciently concede another For beside the solary Iris which God shewed unto Noah there is another Lunary whose efficient is the Moone visible onely in the night most commonly at full Moone and some degrees above the Horizon Now the existence hereof men doe not controvert although effected by a different Luminary in the same way with the other and probably appeared later as being of rare appearance and rarer observation and many there are which thinke there is no such thing in Nature And therefore by casuall spectators they are lookt upon like prodigies and significations made not signified by their natures Lastly we shall not need to conceive God made the Rainebow at this time if we consider that in its created and predisposed nature it was more proper for this signification then any other Meteor or celestiall appearency whatsoever Thunder and lightning had too much terrour to have beene tokens of mercy Comets or blazing Stars appeare too seldome to put us in minde of a Covenant to be remembred often and might rather signifie the world should be once destroyed by fire then never againe by water The Galaxia or milky Circle had beene more probable for beside that unto the latitude of thirty it becomes their Horizon twice in foure and twenty howres and unto such as live under the Equator in that space the whole Circle appeareth part thereof is visible unto any situation but being onely discoverable in the night and when the ayre is cleere it becomes of unfrequent and comfortlesse signification A fixed Starre had not beene visible unto all the Globe and so of too narrow a signality in a Covenant concerning all But Rainebowes are seene unto all the world and every position of sphere unto our owne Elevation it may appeare in the morning while the Sunne hath attained about forty five degrees above the Horizon which is conceived the largest semidiameter of any Iris and so in the afternoone when it hath declined unto that altitude againe which height the Sun not attaining in winter Rainebowes may happen with us at noone or any time Unto a right position of spheare it may appeare three howres after the rising of the Sun and three before its setting for the Sun ascending fifteene degrees an houre in three attaineth forty five of altitude Even unto a parallell sphere and such as live under the pole for halfe a yeare some segments may appeare at any time and under any quarter the Sun not setting but walking round about them But the propriety of its Election most properly appeareth in the naturall signification and prognostick of it selfe as contayning a mixt signality of raine and faire weather for being in a roride cloud and ready to drop it declareth a pluvious disposure in the ayre but because when it appeares the Sun must also shine there can bee no universall showres and consequently no deluge Thus when the windowes of the great deepe were open in vaine men lookt for the Rainebow for at that time it could not be seene which after appeared unto Noah It was therefore existent before the flood and had in Nature some ground of its addition unto that of Nature God superadded an assurance of his promise that is never to hinder its appearance or so to replenish the heavens againe as that we should behold it no more And thus without disparaging the promise it might raine at the same time when God shewed it unto Noah thus was there more therein then the Heathens understood when they called it the Nuncia of the gods and the laugh of weeping heaven and thus may it be elegantly said I put my Bow not my Arrow in the clouds that is in the menace of Raine the mercy of faire weather Laudable is the custome of the Jews who upon the appearance of the Rainebow doe magnifie the fidelity of God in the memory of his Covenant according to that of Syracides Looke upon the Rainebow and praise him that made it And though some pious and Christian pens have onely symboliz'd the same from the mystery of its colours yet are there other affections which might admit of Theologicall allusions nor would he finde a more improper subject that should consider that the colours are made by refraction of light and the shadows that limit that light that the Center of the Sun the Rainebow and the eye of the beholder must be in one right line that the spectator must be betweene the Sun and the Rainebow that sometime three appeare sometime
Text with another whether the Mandrakes here mentioned be the same plant which holds that name with us there is some cause to doubt the word is used in another place of Scripture when the Church inviting her beloved into the fields among the delightfull fruits of Grapes and Pomegranats it is said the Mandrakes give a smell and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits Now instead of a smell of delight our Mandrakes afford a papaverous and unpleasant odour whether in the leafe or apple as is discoverable in their simplicity or mixture the same is also dubious from the different interpretations for though the Septuagint and Josephus doe render it the Apples of Mandrakes in this Text yet in the other of the Canticles the Chaldy Paraphrase tearmeth it Balsame R. Solomon as Drusius observeth conceives it to be that plant the Arabians named Jesemin Oleaster and Georgius Venetus the Lilly and that the word Dudaim may comprehend any plant that hath a good smell resembleth a womans breast and flourisheth in wheat harvest Junius and Tremellius interpret the same for any amiable flowers of a pleasant and delightfull odour but the Geneva Translators have been more wary then any for although they retaine the word Mandrake in the Text they in effect retract it in the Margine wherein is set downe The word in the originall is Dudaim which is a kinde of fruit or slower unknowne Nor shall we wonder at the dissent of exposition and difficulty of definition concerning this Text if we perpend how variously the vegetables of Scripture are expounded and how hard it is in many places to make out the species determined Thus are we at variance concerning the plant that covered Jonas which though the Septuagint doth render Colocynthis the Spanish Calabaca and ours accordingly a gourd yet the vulgar translates it Hedera or Juice and as Grotius observeth Jerome thus translated it not as the same plant but best apprehended thereby The Italian of Diodati and that of Tremellius have named it Ricinus and so hath ours in the Margine for palma Christi is the same with Ricinus The Geneva Translators have herein been also circumspect for they have retained the originall word Kikaion and ours hath also affixed the same unto the Margine nor are they indeed alwayes the same plants which are delivered under the same name and appellations commonly received amongst us so when it is said of Solomon that hee writ of plants from the Cedar of Lebanus unto the Hysop that groweth upon the wall that is from the greatest unto the smallest it cannot be well conceived our common hysop for neither is that the least of vegetables nor observed to grow upon walls but rather as Lemnius well conceiveth some kinde of the capillaries which are very small plants and only grow upon walls and stony places nor are the faire species in the holy oyntment Cinnamon Myrâ—he Calamus and Cassiâ— nor the other in the holy perfume Frankinsence Stacte Onycha and Galbanum so agreeably expounded unto those in use with us as not to leave considerable doubts behinde them nor must that perhaps be taken for a simple unguent which Matthew onely tearmeth a pretious oyntment but rather a composition as Marke and John imply by pistick Nard that is faithfully dispensed and as Mathiolus observeth in his Epistles may be that famous composition described by Dioscorides made of oyle of Ben Malabathrum Juncus odoratus Costus Amomum Myrrhe Bâ—lsam and Nard which Galen affirmeth to have been in use with the delicate Dames of Rome and that the best thereof was made at Laodicea from whence by Merchants it was conveyed unto other parts but how to make out that Tâ—anslation concerning the Tithe of Mint Anise and Cumin we are still to seek for we finde not a word in the Text that can properly bee rendred Anise the Greeke being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latines call Anethum and is properly Englished Dill. Againe it is not deducible from the Text or concurrent sentence of Comments that Rachel had any such intention and most doe rest in the determination of Austine that she desired them for rarity pulchritude or suavity nor is it probable shee would have resigned her bed unto Leah when at the same time she had obtained a medicine to fructiâ—ie her â—elfe and therefore Drusius who hath expressely and favourably treated hereof is so farre from conceding this intention that he plainly concludeth hoc quo modo illis in mentem venerit conjicere nequâ—o how this conceit fell into mens minds it cannot fall into mine for the Scripture delivereth it not nor can it bee clearely deduced from the Text. Thirdly if Rachel had any such intention yet had they no such effect for she conceived not many yeares after of Joseph whereas in the meane time Leah had three children Isachar Zabulon and Dinah Lastly although at that time they failed of this effect yet is it mainly questionable whether they had any such vertue either in the opinions of those times or in their proper nature that the opinion was popular in the land of Canaan it is improbable and had Leah understood thus much she would not surely have parted with fruits of such a faculty especially unto Rachel who was no friend unto her As for its proper nature the Ancients have generally esteemed it Narcotick or stupefactive and is to be found in the list of poyson set downe by Dioscorides Galen Aetius Aegineta and severall Antidotes delivered by them against it It was I confesse from good Antiquity and in the dayes of Theophrastus accounted a philtâ—e or plant that conciliates affection and so delivered by Dioscorides and this intent might seem more probable had they not been the wives of holy Jacob had Rachel presented them unto him and not requested them for her selfe Now what Dioscorides affirmeth in favour of this effect that the graines of the Apples of Mandrakes mundifie the Matrix and applied with sulphur stop the fluxes of women he overthrows by qualities destructive unto conception affirming also that the juice thereof purgeth upward like Hellebore and applyed in pessaries provokes the menstruous flowes and procures abortion Petrus Hispanus or Pope John the twentieth speakes more directly in his Thesaurus pauperum wherein among the receits of saecundation he experimentally commendeth the wine of Mandrakes given with Triphera Magna but the soule of the medicine may lye in Triphera magna an excellent composition and for this effect commended by Nicolaus And whereas Levinus Lemnius that eminent Physitian doth also concede this effect it is from manifest causes and qualities elementall occasionally producing the same for he imputeth the same unto the coldnesse of that simple and is of opinion that in hot climates and where the uterine parts exceeed in heat by the coldnesse hereof they may bee reduced into a conceptive constitution and Crasis accommodable unto generation whereby indeed we will not deny the due and