the prevailing Quality bears sway and makes a Temperament hot cold dry or moist In the second these Qualities being alter'd the Elementary Forms which were contrary only by their adversary Qualities unite and conspire into one particular Form the Principle of Occult Properties Sympathies and Antipathies according as their Forms are found Friends or Enemies Thus in all Medicaments there is a temperament of Qualities which is the cause that Pepper is hot Lettuce cold c. and a temperament of Forms which makes Agaric purge Phlegm Sena Melancholy Rhubarb Choler some Drugs Cardiacal others Cephalical or Splenical From the mixture of these Forms arises the action of Antidotes and Poyson and not from that of the Elementary Qualities although they accompany their Forms being their Servants and Vicegerents Otherwise did Poysons kill by excess of heat or cold Pepper and Cucumber would be Poyson as well as Opium and Arsenick and a Glass of Cold Water would be the counter-poyson of Sublimate And nevertheless there are many Alexipharmaca which agree in first qualities with the Poysons they encounter Upon the Second Point it was said Homer had reason to set two Vessels neer Jupiters Throne one full of Bitterness the other of Sweetness wherewith he compounded all the Affairs of the World Since by these contrarieties of Good and Evil Man's Life and Nature it self is divided For if the Principle of Good consist in Entity according to Aristotle and Evil in Non-Entity Privation which is the Principle of Non-entity â—nd consequently of Evil is as well rank'd amongst Natural Principles as Matter and Form which are the Foundations of Entity and Good And we see Corruptions are as common as Generations and Darkness as Light But if we consider Evil in the vitiosity of Entity then according to the Platonists who call what is material and corruptible Evil what is spiritual and incorruptible Good Man consisting both of a material and spiritual Substance will be the Center where all Goods and Evils will terminate In which respect he will be like the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil plac'd by himself in Paradise or like that to which David compares him planted by the brink of Waters which are Afflictions For his Branches and upper Parts being deck'd with Flowers Leaves and Fruits which are the three sorts of Goods which attend him his Flowers whose whiteness denotes the Innocence of his first Age are the Goods of the Body which pass away with his Spring His Leaves whose Verdure is the Symbol of Hope which never leaves him till death being fading and subject to be dispers'd by storms are the Goods of Fortune And his Fruits are the Goods of the Mind Knowledg and Virtue which are more savory and nutritive than the rest But if we behold the Roots of this Tree wherewith 't is fasten'd to the Earth and which are the original of his Evils some sticking to that Stock of Adam the source of his Original Sin which sends forth a thousand Suckers of all sorts of Vices and Passions others to that Clay from whence he was extracted and which is the Principle of all bodily Infirmities we shall find that his good things are external and communicated from elsewhere but his evil things are internal and natural and consequently more communicative For as to Vices the Evils of the Soul bad Examples corrupt more than virtuous edifie And for those of the Body Diseases are more easily gotten than cur'd and Health is not communicable to others but Epidemical Diseases are A bad Eye a tainted Grape and a rotten Apple infects its neighbour but by parity of Reason might as well be preserv'd by it The Evils of others not on'y do us ill by Compassion which is a sort of Grief but also their happiness causes in us Jealousie and Envy the cruelest of all Evils Besides Good is rare and consequently not communicative and Possession fills but satisfies not Nor is Metaphysical Good communicable being an abstracted not a real Quality And if Evil arise from the least defect of a thing and Good only from its absolute perfection then since nothing is absolutely perfect Good is not communicated to any one thing here below but on the contrary Evil is found in all The Second said That which hath no Being cannot be communicated But Evil is not any thing real and hath not any Efficient Cause as was held by the Manichees and Priscillianists condemn'd for establishing two Principles one of Good the other of Evil independent one on the other For since Good consists in the integrity and perfection of Parts and of whatever is requisite to the Nature of a Thing Evil is nothing but a Privation a defect and want of what is requisite to its perfection And being a thing is communicated according as it hath more or less of essence Good which is convertible with Being must be more communicative than Evil which is only a Being imperfect God who possesses Beeing and Goodness primarily communicates himself infinitely as doth also Light the most perfect of all created Substances Moreover the Nature of Good consisting in Suitableness and Appetibility by reason of Contraries that of Evil consists in Unfitness and Aversion and if Evil be communicated 't is always under the mask and appearance of some Good which alone is communicative by nature The Third said Good is more difficult than Evil which is commonly attended with Profit and Delight and consequently more communicative For Nature having implanted in us a love of our selves doth also instigate us to seek after all means that may tend as well to the preservation of our Nature as to our Contentment namely Riches Honour Beauty and all other Goods either real or imaginary which not being in our power but almost all in others hands cannot be much desir'd without sin nor possess'd without injustice much less acquir'd by lawful ways much rarer and longer than the unlawful and bad which are many and easie and consequently more frequent CONFERENCE CXII I. Why Animals cry when they feel Pain II. Whether it be expedient to have Enemies AS Speech was given Man to express the thoughts and conceptions of his Mind so was Voice to all Animals to signifie the motions and inclinations of their Nature towards good and evil But with this difference That Voice is a Natural Sign having affinity with the thing it signifies which Speech hath not being an Artificial Sign depending on the will and institution of its Author Hence it comes that there is great variety of Languages and Dialects among Men but one sole fashion of forming the same Voice amongst Animals who being more sensible of Pain than of Pleasure the former destroying Nature the latter giving only a surplusage of Goodness when the Evil is so great and pressing that they cannot avoid it impotence and weakness makes them send forth Cries to implore the help and assistance of their Fellows For Nature having imprinted in all Creatures a Knowledg of Good
often as little Children and Old people whose heat being weak and easily dissipated they must be often nourish'd but by a little at a time for fear of overcharging their too weak Stomacks The last and commonest way is to eat plentifully but seldom which is the manner of middle-ag'd people who usually eat twice a day and more at one Meal than at the other it being hard for a Man to satiate himself both at Dinner and Supper without indammaging his Health Which made Plato wonder when he heard that the Sicilians fill'd themselves with Meat twice a day and oblig'd the Romans to make a light repast about Noon and a splendid Supper which I am for Upon this account the Church hath to macerate us forbidden Suppers on Fasting dayes which is an Argument that they are more agreeable and more conducing to Health than Dinners For such quantity of Food is to be taken as answers to the natural heat which being not onely more vigorous but also of longer duration between Supper and Dinner than between Dinner and Supper the interval whereof is seldom above six or seven hours whereas that between Supper and Dinner is about seventeen 't is more reasonable to sup more largely than dine For if the Dinner be largest we shall eat either as much as the heat is able to digest by Supper-time or more If we eat more and go to Supper before the digestion of the Dinner is wholly finish'd we shall beget crudities which are the seed of most diseases If we eat as much as the heat can digest and the Supper be less then the Dinner then the heat which follows the Supper being stronger and more active will soon concoct the meat taken at Supper and because 't is a natural agent not acting from a principle of liberty but of necessity and cannot remain idle having no extraventitious matter to work upon it will necessarily consume the laudable juices of the body drying up the same during sleep For whereas sleep is said to moisten whence arose the Proverb Qui dort mange He that sleeps eats 't is true when the stomach and entrals being fill'd with sufficient nourishment the Heat raises and disperses to all the parts the purest of the juices and vapours like gentle dews which it cannot do when the Stomach is empty The fourth said Nature having given us an Appetite to advertise us of the need of all parts there is no certainer rule of the time of Repast than this Appetite which for this reason is seated in the upper Orifice of the Stomach render'd sensible by the Nerves of the sixth Pair terminating therein For there is a continual dissipation of our substance in all the parts which being exhausted attract from their neighbours wherewith to fill their own emptiness these solicit the Liver for supply that the Guts by the Mesaraick Veins these the Stomack at the top whereof this suction terminates the sense or perception whereof is call'd Appetite which if of hot and dry is call'd Hunger if of cold and moist Thirst So that Nutrition being onely to recruit and repair the loss of our Substance there is no more assured sign of the fitting time to eat then when the said Appetite is most eager at what hour soever it be The fifth said That this might have place in well temper'd bodies which desire onely so much as they are able to digest but not in those whose Appetite is greater than their Digestion as cold and melancholy Stomacks or who desire less as the hot and bilious whose heat melting the juices abates the Appetite as on the contrary Coldness contracting the membranes of the Stomack augments it So that 't is most expedient for every one to consult his own Temper Age Nature and Custom of living Old people little Children such as are subject to Defluxions or have weak Stomacks must sup sparingly on the other side the Cholerick and such as are subject to the Head-ach must eat a larger Supper than Dinner But above all the Custom of every particular person is most considerable herein CONFERENCE CXXIII Which of the Humane Passions is most excusable MAn being compos'd of two Pieces Body and Soul and upon that account styl'd by Trismegistus The Horizon of the Universe because he unites in himself the spiritual nature with the Corporeal the Inclinations whereof are different he hath also need of two guides to conduct those two Parts the Rational and the Animal and make them know the Good towards which they are carried of their own Nature The Intellect makes him see the Honest and Spiritual Good the Imagination enables him to conceive a sensible and corporeal Good And as the Rational Appetite which is the Will follows the light afforded to it by the Intellect in pursuit of Honest Good whence Vertue ariseth so the sensitive Appetite is carri'd to the enjoyment of sensible Good which the Imagination makes it conceive as profitable and pleasant and that by motions commonly so disorderly and violent that they make impression not only upon the Mind but upon the Body whose Oeconomy they discompose and for this reason they are call'd Passions or Perturbations and Affections of the Mind These Passions either are carri'd towards Good and Evil simply as Love and Hatred the first inclining us to Good which is the Parent of Beauty the latter averting us from Evil or else they consider both Good and Evil Absent as Desire and Flight or Lastly they consider them being present and cause Pleasure and Grief which if of longer duration produce Joy and Sadness Now because difficulties frequently occurr in the pursuit of Cood and flight of Evil therefore Nature not contented to have indu'd Animals with a Concupiscible Appetite which by means of the six above-mention'd Passions might be carri'd towards Good and avoid Evil hath also given them another Appetite call'd Irascible to surmount the Obstacles occurring in the pursuit of Good or flight of Evil whence arise five other Passions Hope Despair Boldness Fear and Anger Hope excites the soul to the prosecution of a difficult but obtainable good Despair checks the motions of the soul towards the pursuit of a Good no longer obtainable Boldness regards an absent Evil which assures it self able to surmount Fear considers the same absent Evil without any means of being able to avoid it Lastly the violence of Anger is bent against a present Evil whereof it believes a possibility to be reveng'd And because a present and enjoyed Good cannot be accompani'd with difficulty hence there is no Passion in the Irascible Appetite answering to Anger as there is in the other Passions which again are divided according to the several objects about which they are exercis'd The desire of Honours is call'd Ambition that of Riches Covetousness that of fleshly Pleasures Concupiscence that of Meats Gourmandise or Gluttony The Hatred of Vice causes Zeal that of a Rival Jealousie The sorrow arising upon the sight of Evil suffer'd by an
as often of apprehension as they thought of that sad fate Which fear ended with the Swine's meat and the Ship 's arrival at a safe Port where it appear'd that that vile Animal had felt none of that trouble which the Tempest had caus'd in the more unhappy men and consequently that their Imagination was the sole cause of it The like may be said of all other afflictions which men give themselves call'd therefore deservedly by the Wise-man Vanity and vexations of spirit For most of the inductions and consequences which the Mind draws from events prove false and nevertheless they give us real sorrows we see frequently that a great Estate left by a Father to his Children makes them debauch'd and worthless and degenerate from the vertue of their Parent who having receiv'd no inheritance from his own was constrain'd to labour and by that means attain'd Riches and Honour Whence it appears that the trouble of a Father leaving a small Estate to his Children at his death hath no foundation in the thing but only in his abus'd Imagination and consequently cannot be a real Evil and yet this is the most general Evil of all with the Vulgar Thus two men lodging under the same roof lost both their Wives not long ago one of them was so afflicted therewith that he dy'd of sorrow the other receiving the consolatory visits of his friends could not so well dissemble his joy but that it was perceiv'd and yet their loss was equal So that the sadness of the one and the joy of the other depended only upon the different reflection they made upon this accident Thus also the same affront that made one of Socrates's Disciples draw his sword made the Philosopher himself laugh at the sottishness of his enemy and every thing which the Vulgar calls Good or Evil Pain excepted is a Medal which hath its right side and its reverse CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether Man be the most diseas'd of all Creatures and why A Disease being a preternatural disposition hurting the Functions every living Body capable of action may become sick by some cause impeding its actions Hence not only Men but also Animals and even Plants have their Diseases which Theophrastus diligently describes Amongst Beasts though some are subject to particular Diseases as the Dog to Madness the Swine to Leprosie the Goat and Lyon to Fevers yet there is none so invaded with all sorts of Maladies as Man who is not exempt from any the least of his similary parts that is nourish'd being subject to twelve sorts of Diseases namely when they attract their aliment either not at all or but weakly or otherwise then they should or when they are defective either in retaining or concocting it or in voiding superfluities But if such part have sense too it may have fifteen if motion also eighteen And if it not only be nourish'd it self but labours also for the publick 't is lyable to twelve more according to the three ways that its Functions may be offended in attraction retention concoction and expulsion The Eye alone is subject to almost 200 infirmities and as if there were not ancient Diseases enough we see daily new ones unknown to former Ages Now the reason hereof lyes in the nature of Man who being the most perfectly temper'd and best compounded of all Animals because design'd to the greatest actions is therefore apt upon the least occasion to lose that evenness of proportion which as it requires a great train and concurrence of many things so also there needs but a little thing to subvert it by defect of the least of those requisites Indeed there are but two causes of Diseases to wit Internal and External and man is alike subject to both to the former by reason of his hot and moist temper which is prone to putrefaction and the more upon account of his variety of Food whereas other Animals never change their Diet which is the most probable cause of their health and good constitution For diversity of aliments incommodes Nature weakens the natural heat produces Crudities the Sources of most Diseases which also are frequently caus'd in Men by the internal Passions of Anger Fear and Joy The most ordinary external causes are the evil qualities of the Air pestilential vapours and malignant influences whereof Man's body is the more susceptible by reason of the tenderness of his Flesh and the porosity of his skin which on the contrary in other Animals is hard and cover'd with Hair Feathers and Scales and renders them less subject to the impressions of external bodies as also to Wounds Contusions Fractures and other solutions of continuity The Second said That such perfections or defects of things as we know most exactly seem to us the greatest as the excellences and defects of Pictures are not well observ'd but by those that are skill'd therein and he that is unacquainted with some certain Nation cannot know its Vices so as they that converse with it do Now Beasts being unable to signifie to us the differences of their pains and the other circumstances of their diseases hence we judge them to have fewer although the contrary appears in the Horse in whom observant Farriers remark a great number of Diseases to which we are not subject So that other Animals may have as many or more than Men who being less concern'd therein less understand them 'T is true the parts of Animals resemble ours saving what serve to distinguish their outward shape as appears by the Dissection of Apes whereby Galen learnt Anatomy and no difference is found between the Ventricles of a Man's and a Calfe's brain If their blood and other humors differ so do those of one Man from those of another Moreover Beasts have the same inward Causes Fear Anger and the other Passions in short all the other Non-natural things and not at their discretion as Man hath If a Dog hath the harder skin yet man is less lyable to blows and the injury of the Air. In fine who knows but it may be with these Animals as 't is with rusticks who though Men as well as we and subject to the same inconveniences yet all their Diseases are reduc'd to a few Heads since the true and spurious Pleurisie the Asthma the Cough the Palsie and other Maladies whereof we make so many branches are all reckon'd by them only for a hot or a cold Rheume The Third said The nearer Nature promotes Bodies to their utmost perfection the more frail she renders them And as in Mixts Glass which is her utmost atchievement is weaker and brittler than Stones so in Animals Man the most excellent and perfect is the most frail and weak by reason of the part wherein he abounds more than they and which advances him to wit the Brain the root of most Diseases And as the most noxious Meteors are form'd in the coldest Region of the Air so those that have a moist Brain are soft and less vigorous as Women and
that she eat those Mandrakes and that they render'd her fruitful which is not at all in the Text and her Fruitfulness might proceed from the favour of God or some more fit means than that Herb. Nor is it an edible fruit neither did all the Women in the Scripture who of barren became fruitful eat Mandrakes 'T is therefore probable that this Plant hath neither the Form nor the Properties which vulgar and vain Antiquity attributes to it The fifth said 'T is easier to overthrow then to establish a Truth when the question is about things apparently repugnant to Reason which many times agrees not with our own experience whereby we see several contrary effects of one and the same Plant. As the pulp of an Orenge cools the peel heats and oil of the seeds is temperate The like may be said of Mandrake which according to the diversity of its Species and Parts may produce the different effects which are attested by Antiquity Apuleius in his Metamorphosis relating That a Physician deluded the malice of a Servant and a Stepmother by giving them the juice of Mandrake instead of poyson which they desir'd of him to kill a young man which caus'd them to think him dead when he was only in a deep sleep and Columella speaking of the soil where it grows Quamvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta Mandragorae pariat flores Moreover since there are middle Natures compos'd of two extremes as your Zöophytes between Plants and Animals to wit Spunges and Coral between Brute and Man the Ape between the soul and body of Man his Spirits why may there not be something of a middle Nature between Man and Plant to wit the Mandrake a Man in external Shape and a Plant in Effect and internal Form In brief we believe there is an Unicorn though no man of this age hath seen it why therefore may we not believe that there is such a Mandrake as most describe who affirm that they have seen one as I my self have also though I cannot affirm whether it were a true or false one CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear THe Species conceiv'd in the Phantasie representing to the Intellect some future Good they beget Hope when Evil Fear 'T is not very hard to comprehend the way nor how he that sees himself pursu'd by a potent enemy betakes himself to flight by the Instinct of Nature which avoids what ever is destructive to her But the Mind is puzled to find the cause it sees not as of groundless Fear which nevertheless sometimes befalls the most resolute yea whole Armies which fly without any pursuer The Vulgar of the Ancients who made Deities of every thing especially of what they understood not thought Pan the God of Shepherds put this sudden Passion into the minds of men because oftentimes it happens to flocks of Sheep over which he is said to preside though there be no appearance of any Wolf to fright them whence they call'd it a Panick Terror Unless you had rather interpret Pan to be the Universal and Supreme Deity who giving the success of Battels sometimes immits such a fear into the hearts of those men whom he intends to deliver into the power of their Enemies The second said That Pan was an ancient Warrior who invented the ranging of Soldiers in order of Battel and distinguish'd them into Wings call'd by the Latins Cornua whence he was pictur'd with Horns He also first devis'd Strategems so that one day having sent out his Scowts and understood that the Enemies were lodg'd in a desert place full of resounding caverns he order'd his Soldiers that as soon as they approach'd the Enemy they should make a great shout which multiply'd by the Echo of those neighbouring caverns so frighted them that before they could understand what it was they betook themselves to flight conceiving they had to do with a far greater multitude of Enemies than there was Whence the Fable of this God Pan adds that the Goddess Echo was his Mistress From this Groundless Fear as others of the like nature came to be call'd Panick Terrors Such was that which seiz'd the Soldiers of Marc Antony in the War against Mithridates that of the Gauls under Brennus when they were ready to sack the Temple of Delphos that of Hannibal when he approacht the walls of Rome to besiege it and that of Macedonians under their King Perseus who so lost their courage upon sight of an Eclipse of the Moon that it was easie for the Romans to overcome them The Third said That Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Oâ—â—ris relates another cause of this Appellation namely That when the latter of them reign'd in Aegypt Typhon surpris'd him by a wile and cast him in a chest into Nilus which News arriving amongst the Pans and Satyrs it put them into an astonishment from which all other sudden frights took their name But leaving apart conjectures of words let us consider the thing and examine Whether it be not a mistake to think that there can be terrors without any cause I think There cannot because 't is as true in Moral as in Natural Philosophy That nothing produceth nothing But as an even balance is sway'd either way by the least blast and the cause being imperceptible seems to incline of it self so when Men are ready for a battel and every one thinks of the doubtful event thereof to himself the least external cause hapning to make never so little impression upon their Spirits whilst they are in this balance is enough to move them either way the first object that occurs yea the least word being of great efficacy And because Fear is found more universally imprinted in Mens minds than Courage hence there needs less subject to produce it than to animate them Thus at the battel of Montcontour this single word Save the Princes spoken either accidentally or by design made them lose the day Thistles being mistaken for Lances gave a great terror to a whole Army and an Ass or a Cow in the Trenches hath sometimes given an Alarm to considerable Garrisons The Fourth said That Fear caus'd in an Enemy being one of the surest means to conquer him Generals have not been more careful to animate their own Souldiers than to terrifie their Enemies even by vain affrightments as showts extravagant arms and habits For this reason the Germans were wont to paint their Faces with several colours that they might seem terrible some think our Poictevins had their name of Pictons from this custom So Gideon by Gods command employ'd Trumpets and earthen Pitchers with fire in them to terrifie the Amalekites Yet none of these Inventions no more than that of Elephants Chariots of fire and other Machins can cause a Panick Terror because it ceases to bear that name when 't is found to have some manifest cause So that to ask Whence Panick Fear proceeds is to ask What is the cause of that which hath none If there be any I
of Rome lest the corruption might be communicated to the neighbouring Houses but provided it should be done without the walls The Second said That though the general way of burying the dead now is to enterre them yet methinks that of burning them and preserving their ashes is more noble and honourable in regard the Fire excells the Earth in purity as far as it transcends it in its vicinity to Heaven the qualities whereof it communicates to the bodies it consumes purifying and preserving them from all putrefaction and making them so clear and transparent that according to the common opinion of Theology in the general conflagration the World and all bodies comprehended within it will be vitrify'd by means of the fire It is therefore more honourable to have our bodies consum'd by that Element then to have them devour'd by Worms and Putrefaction whereof fire being an enemy and the Embleme of Immortality there can be no better expedient to secure our deceas'd Friends from oblivion then that of burning their bodies whereof we have either the bones or ashes left which may be preserv'd whole Ages there being yet to be seen the Urns of the ancient Romans full of such precious deposita as those who put their Friends into the ground can never see Add to this that it is a rational thing to make a distinction between Man Beast which they do not who burying both treat them after the same manner whereas if Man's body were burnt and that of the Beast left to rot in the ground it would serve for a certain acknowledgment of the disproportion there is between them and that as the latter is of a mean and despicable condition it is accordingly dispos'd into the Earth which is under the other Elements and as it were the Common-shore of the World whereas the former being design'd for Immortatality Fire which is the most sensible Hieroglyphick thereof is more proper for it then the earth wherein if we were not carry'd away rather by opinion than reason and that Tyrant of three Letters in the Latin Tongue as a learned Author calls Custom did not corrupt our judgment it were more rational to bury the bodies of Malefactors then to burn them as is commonly done The Third said That if we may judge of the goodness of a thing by its Antiquity the way of interring the dead will carry it as having been from the beginning of the World Holy Scripture tell us that Abraham bought a Field for the burial of himself and his and that a dead body having been dispos'd into the Sepulchre where the bones of Elizeus were was rais'd to Life In other Histories we find that most Nations practis'd it especially the Romans till the time of Sylla who was the first whose Body was burnt at Rome which disposal of himself he order'd out of a fear he might be treated as Marius had been whose bones he caus'd to be taken out of the ground and cast into the River From that time they began to burn the Bodies of the Dead which continu'd till the Reign of the Antoninus's when the Custom of burying them came in again and hath since been us'd by all Nations whose universal consent gives a great presumption that this manner is to be preferr'd before any other Add to this that our Saviour would have his precious body so dispos'd and the Holy Church which is divinely inspir'd seems to mind us of the same thing when upon Ash-wednesday she tell us that we are dust and that into dust we shall return The Fourth said That there were five ways of disposing the dead One is to put them into the ground another to cast them into the water the third to leave them in the open air the fourth to burn them and the last to suffer them to be devour'd by Beasts This last is too inhumane to find any Abettors but among Barbarians Men are more careful to prevent the corruption of Water and Air without which they cannot live then to suffer carrions and dead carkasses which would cause infections and insupportable stinks so that the contest is only between Fire and Earth For my part I give the precedence to the former whose action is more expeditious than that of the other Elements which require a long time to consume dead bodies whereas Fire does it in an instant Whereto I may add this that there cannot be any other more likely expedient whereby men may secure themselves from those contagious infections which many times occasion diseases especially when they are attended by Malignancy Nay however it is to be wish'd whether dead bodies be buried or burnt that it should be done out of the City and that the Law of the Decemviri to wit Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito neve vrito were still punctually observ'd FINIS Of Sleep and how long it ought to be Which is the strongest thing in the World Of the Gowt Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom Riches or Honour Of Glass Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks Of Tobacco Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good Of Blood-letting Which is the most excellent of the Souls three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment Of Dew Whether it is expedient for Women to be Learned Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies Whether the reading of Romances be profitable Of Talismans Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd Of Volcano's Which Age is most desirable Of Mineral Waters Whether it be better to Give than to Receive Of Antidotes Which is most communicative Good or Evil Why Animals cry when they feel Pain Whether it be expedient to have Enemies Of the Rain-bow Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instruction Of the Milky-way Which is most powerful Gold or Iron Of the cause of Vapours Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice
produce either of an honest profitable or delightful Good this Opinion and Imagination must be the strongest of all moral agents Amongst the actions of the Imagination which are the Passions that of Love is the strongest because it serves for a foundation to all the rest it being true that we fear desire and hate nothing but so far as we love some other thing so that he who can be free from this Passion would be exempt from all others Amongst Transcendents Truth is strongest not that which is ill defin'd The conformity of our Vnderstanding with the thing known since there are things above us which surpass the reach of our capacity and yet cease not to be true But this Truth is a property and affection of Entity wherewith it is convertible and consequently cannot be truly defin'd no more then the other Transcendents since a Definition requires a Genus which being superiour and more common cannot be assign'd to Entity or Truth which is the same with Entity otherwise there should be something more general then Entity which is absurd And although the nature of this Truth is not distinctly known nevertheless the virtue of its effects is very sensible for it acts every where and in all yea above the strongest things in the world whose actions depend upon the verity of their Essence which they suppose And as this Verity is the Principle of the actions of all Agents so it is the End and First Mover which gives rise to all their inclinations whereby they all tend towards one Good which is nothing else but Truth which gives weight and value to Goodness But the force of Verity appears principally in that it acts upon the most excellent thing in the World to wit the Understanding which it convinces by its light wherewith it extorts consent and this so much the more as the Understanding is perfect as we see in the Understandings of the Wise and Learned who more easily suffer themselves to be overcome by Truth than the Vulgar and in those of Angels and Intelligences who likewise yield to Truth And because Verity and Entity are the same thing therefore God who possesses Entity Originally is also the Prime Verity which our Lord attributes to himself in the Gospel when he saith That he is the Truth and the Life For whereas Truth is oft-times altered and clouded in the world and frequently produces Hatred the most infamous of all Passions 't is a defect not found but in dissolute Spirits who cannot support the brightness of it and hate its light because it discovers their faults Yea even when men contradict the Truth and follow the deprav'd motions of their most disorderly Passions 't is allways under an appearance of Goodness and Truth But if the shadow and appearance alone of Truth hath so great an Empire over our minds as is seen in the most erroneous Opinions which never want followers with more just reason must it self when known be invincible and the strongest thing in the World In conclusion were propos'd amongst the strongest things Time which consumes all Death which overthrows all the Powers of the Earth Place which embraces all in it self and Necessity so potent that it is not subject to any Law but gives the same to all other things which cannot avoid its Empire insomuch that the Ancients esteem'd the Gods themselves not exempted from it but subject to the necessity of a Destiny CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom Riches or Poverty THe Gowt called Arthritis or Morbus Articularis is the general name of all aches of the Joynts caus'd by fluxion which gave it the name of Gowt and is different according to the divers connexions of the Bones and the Parts which it afflicts being term'd Podagra in the Feet Chiragra in the Hand and the Ischiatick ach by the vulgar Schiatica in the Hip. Nevertheless every Articular Pain is not the Gowt as appears by Contusions Luxations Wounds and the Pains of Women after Child-birth in Virgins after their Evacuation and in Bodies infected with the French Disease But 't is a Grief of the Parts indu'd with sense which are about the Joynts accompanied sometimes with swelling and caus'd by the fluxion of a sharp and serous humour transmitted out of the Veins and Arteries into those Parts whose motion it hinders and because the Feet are most remote from the source of heat therefore Nature commonly drives thither the matter of this Malady whereunto they are more dispos'd then other Parts as well by reason of their composition of Nerves Tendons Veins Arteries Membranes and Ligaments spermatick and cold parts as of their continual motion which gives occasion to the fluxion Hence the Gowt begins usually at the Feet especially at the great Toe whose motion is greatest which hinders not but that it begins too in the Hand Knee and Hip and sometimes in the Sides and if the matter abound sometimes it seizes upon the Joynts with such violence as would make Nature succumbe were the fits continual and not periodical as they are giving to some an interval of a year to others of six months or less according as there needs time for collecting the humour in those parts The cause of this vehement pain is the acrimony of the corrosive and mordicant humour which makes a solution of the parts whose coldness renders this evil almost incurable and makes it last fourty days the pain not being appeasable saving when the cause which produces it is resolv'd whereunto the coldness of its subject is not proper The Second said That in the Gowt as in all sorts of Fluxions four things are to be consider'd the Matter which flows the Place whence it comes the Way by which it passes and the Parts upon which it falls As for the first the Gowt hath some Matter not being as some hold a simple Intemperies which could not subsist so long nor cause such pungent pains much less a tumour as it happens sometimes in the part afflicted which cannot proceed but from the affluence of Matter This Matter some affirm to be Wind or Flatuosity with as little reason for then it might easily be resolv'd and would cause only a pain of distension Most hold that 't is the four Humours arguing from the diversity of Symptomes of this Disease and the various manner of curing some being eas'd by hot Aliments and Medicaments others by cold And lastly from the different colour of the tumours appearing sometimes red white or of some other colour by reason of the blood phlegm or other humours which produc'd them But though a very acute pain may in this malady as it doth in all others attract the humours which abound in the body and so cause a tumour yet this humour which makes the inflation cannot be the cause of the Gowt since at the beginning and before the parts are inflated the pains are very great but cease
pores being more open cannot retain those volatile substances So that had the Fat less heat as they have not for plenty of fat argues plenty of blood the purer and more aiery part whereof distilling like dew through the coats of the Vessels and passing through the Muscles when it comes to the Membranes is by them condens'd into that whitish substance rather by their density and natural property then by their coldness yet this Heat being better dispens'd and less alter'd in the Fat then in the Lean must consequently cause fewer diseases and last longer The Third said Life is the continuance of Heat in Humidity not aqueous and excrementitious as that of fat people is but oleaginous and aerial and the longer this Heat subsists therein the longer doth life last Now it continues longer in the Fat whose more open pores let out the fuliginous excrements rais'd by Heat which in fat bodies whose passages are stopt by the coldness or clamminess of pituitous humors stagnate and choke the heat like fire that wants free transpiration so necessary to life that it cannot subsist a moment without this action whereby the soul attracts air in at all parts of the body especially the mouth for refreshing and ventilating the heat and recruiting the spirits and by the same passages emits the fuliginosities necessarily following all consumption of humidity by Heat Which causes of Death being internal and consequently necessary and inevitable are much more considerable then the external whereto lean people are subject and which may be more easily avoided and remedied The fourth said That Fat persons have a more moderate and less consuming heat its activity being allay'd by the humidity of their Constitution and therefore 't is more durable than that of lean people whose heat already violent of it self is render'd more active by siccity which is a spur to it Hence they indure fasting with more trouble than the Fat whose moist substance both moderates and feeds their heat which appears to the touch very gentle and temperate as that of lean persons is sharp and pungent Moreover Diseases of Inanition to which the lean are subject are more difficult to cure than those of Repletion incident to the Fat. And old age which continually dries us up is the tendency to Death which is siccity it self The Fifth said Health being a Disposition according to Nature which renders a man capable of performing the offices of life aright and this disposition consisting in a due proportion of the first qualities which makes a harmony and laudable temper of the four humors the principal evidence thereof is a good state and habit of the body call'd by the Physicians Euexia and that Extreme which comes nearest this is the most healthy and fittest for long life The functions of life are Natural Vital and Animal all which are better perform'd by the lean than the fat First the Natural which are Nutrition Growth and Generation because the hotter flesh of the lean attracts more than that of the fat which may indeed imbibe the nutritive juices but cannot perfectly concoct and assimilate the same for want of sufficient heat whence they produce abundance of crude flegmatick excrements which render them pale and bloated For their more fatness proceeds from want of heat to consume superfluities Secondly growth being an effect of heat the Fat grow less because they are less hot than the Lean. For heat rarefies subtilises dilates and make the parts mount upwards as its defect makes the humors settle downwards hence women are never so tall as men and their lower parts are grosser whereas the upper parts of men as the head and breast are more large Thirdly the lean are more apt for generation because their spirits are more refin'd and their seed more concoct and plentiful than that of the fat the purest portion of whose blood is turn'd into fat instead of seed whence all guelded Animals become fat and according to Aristotle fat women are for the most part barren bear seldom who also as well as men of the same habit are more inclin'd to love but we are commonly most led to that which we perform best Then the Vital Functions too are more perfectly perform'd in the lean as appears by their large respiration their strong and great pulse the nimbleness in their motions and passions Lastly so also are the Animal to wit outward and inward sensation by reason of the pureness and subtlety of their spirits which likewise causes goodness of wit and of the disposition of their Organs more purifi'd and less burden'd with clouds and excrementitious humidities which render the fat more heavy both of mind and body CONFEERNCE CXXIV Whether we may better trust one whom we have oblig'd or one that hath oblig'd us COnfidence being the fruit of Friendship yea the sweet bond wherewith this Virtue unites Hearts it may seem we ought to have most in him that loves most perfectly namely he that hath oblig'd us For as 't is harder to give then to receive because we cannot give without depriving our selves of what we enjoy which is contrary to our natural inclination so it is a more virtuous action and argues a greater kindness the receiver of a benefit finding no difficulty in this action of receiving it Moreover we cannot doubt of his good will who obliges us by his benefits but we may of his that receives For it frequently happens to those that do good as it did to the Sower in the Gospel part of whose seed fell in stony places part amongst thorns part in the high-way and was devoured by birds and the least part upon good ground and brings not forth fruit but in its own time Yea there are many that hate nothing so much as the remembrance of those that have done them good as if their presence were an Universal Reproach notwithstanding that a second benefit revives the first and a third or fourth cannot but mind them of the preceeding But when you have obtain'd of them to remember it yet many regret nothing more then to pay a debt because constrain'd thereto either by Law or Duty and Man being of his own Nature free hates nothing so much as to do any thing by constraint Hence if he requites an Obligation 't is not with that freeness and cheerfulness which is requisite to good Offices and becomes a Benefactor in whom therefore we have more reason to confide then in another The Second said The little fidelity now in the world even amongst nearest Relatives makes it reasonable to enquire Who may be trusted And if the fear of Ingratitude the most vulgar crime though in shew much detested by all the world is the cause why he who hath done good to another yet dares not trust him the receiver thereof hath oftentimes no less doubt of his Benefactor 's intention For though he hath receiv'd a seeming testimony of his kindness yet the motives of benefits proceeding sometimes from an other cause
Senses of their party as Vices have The Third said That sensible and palpable things as examples are have more power upon us than bare words which cannot so well perswade a Truth but that they alwayes leave some doubting in us whereas Examples being sensible give us a more entire and perfect Knowledge yea they have influence even upon brute beasts who learn not by Precepts but by Examples which is an evidence of their certainty for a thing is the more certain the more common it is to us with more Hence Plato affirmes That Examples are necessary to perswade high and lofty matters Precepts indeed dispose but Examples animate the Soul to Virtue those admonish these stimulate and guide as in the resolution of doing well Instructions shew the way but Examples drive us with the point of Honour and the force of Emulation Nor do Precepts include Examples but the contrary and every Example comprehends a Document When we see a Good Man square his Life out to his Duty we find I know not what satisfaction and contentment in the admimiration of his Virtue and this pleasure makes us conceive yea strongly perswades us that all Virtues are amiable Even Vicious Examples sometimes make Vice appear to us so deform'd that we detest instead of pursuing it Hence the Lacedemonians setting aside the Precepts of Temperature were wont to make their Slaves drunk that the ill-favour'd spectacle might make their Children abhor that Vice Lastly Our Saviour whose Life was a continued Example of Virtue did more Works to teach us then he gave Words and Precepts most of which are comprehended under Examples and Parables Yea the Devil well knowing that Adam's mind was too strong to be prevail'd upon by Reasons first gain'd that of his Wife which was more weak that he might allure him to sin by her Example The Fourth said The end is not onely more noble but also more effectual than the means for 't is to that alone that they aim and terminate Now the end of all Examples is to deduce Precepts from them which Precepts are general Notions grounded upon many Experiences or Examples either of others or our own but these being wholly particular can have no power upon the Understanding which frames its conclusions onely upon things universally true as Maximes and Precepts are and that more than Examples for these are never perfect but full of a thousand defects those sure and infallible Moreover Precepts move the Understanding which is the noblest of all the Faculties whereas Examples make impression onely upon the outward senses and dull wits The Fifth said That as the Sight and the Hearing know how to put a difference between Colours and Sounds without Learning and all the Faculties can naturally discern their own Objects So the Understanding knows naturally the first Principles and clearly beholds those first Verities The Will hath also in it self the Principles and Seeds of Virtues as the Synteresis and remorse of Conscience in the most wicked sufficiently prove and is of it self carryed to Virtuous Actions without needing either Preecepts or Examples equally unprofitable to the bad who amend not thereby and to the good who want them not The Sixth said That the Question is to be decided by distinguishing of the Minds of Men. Those that excel in Judgement attribute more to Reason than to Examples which being more sensible affect the Imagination of duller heads who are not capable of Reasons So that though Precepts and Arguments be without comparison more perfect than Examples yet because very few are capable of them because the generality of the World is stupid and dull therefore they are not generally so proper to teach as Examples which nevertheless being of no power but serving onely to clear an obscure Truth ought not to have any ascendant over a Mind that is reasonable and furnish'd with Knowledge CONFERENCE CXXVIII Of Incubi and Succubae and whether Devils can generate TWo sorts of people err in this matter the superstitious and ignorant vulgar who attribute every thing to Miracles and account the same done either by Saints or Devils and the Atheists and Libertines who believe neither the one nor the other Physitians take the middle way distinguishing what is fit to be attributed to Nature and her ordinary motions from what is supernatural to which last Head 't is not reasonable to referr diseases and indispositions as the Incubus is call'd by the Greeks Ephialtes and by the vulgar the Night-mare 'T is defin'd An impediment of Respiration Speech and Motion with oppression of the Body whereby we feel in our sleep as 't were some weight upon the Stomack The Cause of it is a gross Vapor obstructing principally the hinder part of the Brain and hindring the egress of the Animal Spirits destinated to the motion of the parts which Vapor is more easily dissipable than the humor which causeth the Lethargy Apoplexy and other Symptoms which are therefore of longer duration than this which ceases as soon as the said Vapor is dissipated Now whereas the Passions of the Mind and Body commonly supply the matter of Dreams as those that are hungry or amorous will think they eat or see what they love those that have pain in some part dream that some body hurts the same hence when Respiration the most necessary of all the animal functions is impeded we presently imagine we have a load lying on our Breasts and hindring the dilatation of the same And because the Brain is employ'd in the Incubus therefore all the animal functions are hurt the Imagination deprav'd the Sensation obtunded Motion impeded Hence those whom this evil seizes endeavor to awake but can neither move nor speak till after a good while And though the Cause of this disorder be within our selves nevertheless the distemper'd person believes that some body is going about to strangle him by outward violence which the depraved Imagination rather thinks upon than Internal Causes that being more sensible and common This has given occasion to the error of the Vulgar who charge these Effects upon Evil Spirits instead of imputing them to the Malignity of a Vapor or some phlegmatick and gross humor oppressing the Stomack the coldness and weakness whereof arising from want of Spirits and Heat which keeps all the parts in due order are the most manifest Causes Much unlikely it is to be caused by Generation which being an Effect of the Natural Faculty as this of the Vegetative Soul cannot belong to the Devil who is a pure Spirit The Second said As 't is too gross to recurr to supernatural Causes when Natural are evident so 't is too sensual to seek the Reason of every thing in Nature and to ascribe to meer Phlegm and the distempered Phant'sie the Coitions of Daemons with Men which we cannot deny without giving the lye to infinite of persons of all Ages Sexes and Conditions to whom the same have happened nor without accusing the Sentences of Judicial Courts
Influence of the Sun's Rayes which produce and conserve it CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life NAture not contented to produce all things hath given them a desire of Self-preservation Even Inanimate Bodies redouble their activity at the approach of their destructive contraries whence proceeds Antiperistasis But this desire appears chiefly in Animals and above all in Man being grounded upon the Love he bears to himself Which extream Love instigating him to seek all good things contributary to his contentment makes him likewise desire long Life whereby he may continue his other enjoyments and consequently avoid all occasions of Death as that which interrupts the course of this Life and makes him cease to be Hence as by general consent Death is the most terrible of terribles so by the reason of Contraries Life is the most agreable and consequently most desirable and best thing in the World and not desirable only by all Men who are endued with Knowledg but also by all living things each after its mode and according as they are capable of desiring Plants attracting their nourishment and Animals seeking their Food with difficulty and carefully avoiding all dangers that lead to Death For though Nature loves change whereof she is the Principle yet 't is onely that of Generation or of a less into a more noble substance that of Corruption and Death she abhorrs being not further pleased in the vicissitudes of mutations than she gains by the change but she is a loser by Death which separates the Body from the Soul in the union whereof she hath all that she can wish She may disguise her self and changing of shape and countenance but can never light upon any more agreable than that which she makes appear in the Marriage of a Body with a Soul which are so perfectly united that after their dissolution our Souls alwayes retain an Inclination toward their ancient Mates which they once animated The Second said If the sentiment of Nature makes us conceive long Life desirable Reason which evinceth it full of Miseries and Calamities teaches us that the shortest is best and that we may justly wish either never to have been or to have dy'd as soon as we came into the World This was the Judgement not onely of the greatest Sages of Pagan Antiquity many of whom cheerfully quitted Life to escape its Miseries but the sometimes famous Republick of Marseilles gave Licence to the miserable to take Poyson which was kept in a publick Store Yea even the holiest Personages have been of the same Advice as Job amongst others who calls Man's Life a warfare upon Earth and curses the day of his Birth Moses and Elias who pray'd to God they might dye and Saint Paul who desires nothing so much as to be loos'd from this miserable Body in which as in a dark prison the Reasonable Soul is enclos'd and remains against its will since being of a Celestial Nature and so continually longing after the place of its extraction Death which delivers it from its fetters must be as desirable to it as contrary to the Body which having nought to hope for after this Life but to be the food of worms and corruption hath all reason to dread it and avoid the occasions of it as accordingly all such do who live onely for the Body resenting no other motions in themselves but of desire to live long Whereas Reason instructs us that here we never possess the Good whereof the Immortal Soul is capable by its two Powers the Understanding and the Will which never find any Truth or Goodness in the things of this World but what is sophisticate it makes us also conceive Life as a violent state and contrary to the Felicity of our better part The Third said Since Life is the duration of Being which undoubtedly is the greatest of all Goods Entity and Good being convertible that must be the most desirable which is of greatest continuance because it comes nearest infinity and eternity under which all Perfection is compris'd and which being therefore passionately desir'd by all Men but not attainable by any they endeavor to partake as much of it as they can by prolongation of Life which is the foundation not onely of the Goods of the Body and Fortune whose sweetness makes amends for some Evils of Life but also of the Mind in which Natural Felicity consists whereunto amongst other conditions long Life is requisite both for attaining of Knowledge and Virtue not to be gotten without long time which renders Men knowing and prudent as for making others taste the fruits of an exemplary Life The Fourth said That Beasts and even Stones having the good of Existence as well as we that alone is not sufficient to render Life desirable in regard Non-existence is much rather to be wisht than a Being alwayes miserable what ever some say to the contrary since even our Saviour saith It had been better for Judas never to have been born then to have fallen into the crime of Treason Moreover Seneca saith No person would accept of Life if he knew how dear it must cost him Hence we enter into the World weeping as if it were against our consent and as our Lives begin with tears so they are continu'd with labor and ended with pain Nor have we more reason to desire long Life for the Goods of the Mind which consist in Virtue alone For if we be vicious 't is expedient both for our selves and the Publick that we live but little for fear of corrupting others by our evil Examples If virtuous 't is much to be fear'd lest we be corrupted by the converse of the wicked who are very numerous which was the cause why God by a special favour took away Enoch in the midst of the course of his Life and transported him into the Terrestrial Paradise The fifth said If a long Life were less desirable than a short God should have deceiv'd those that honour their Parents by promising them a bad salary in recompence of a good Action Nor ought Physick to trouble it self and those that use it by so many Rules and Receipts were a short Life that is to say a speedy death so desirable nor would the Laws punish Criminals with Death if what they give them were better than what they take from them Moreover as the long-liv'd Oak and Palm-Tree are more excellent than the Mushrome Hysop and the Rose Stags Elephants Eagles Ravens and the Phoenix more perfect than Butterflies and those Insects which they call Ephemera because they live but one day so amongst Men those that live long seem to have some advantage above those that are of a short Life having the Principles of their Generation more vigorous wherein nevertheless the Sex Temperament Climate Habitation and manner of living make a notable difference Sanguine Men and the Inhabitants of Temperate Regions commonly living longer than Women cholerick Persons and such as live under intemperate Climates The Sixth
the presence of his friends than of his Murderer whose spirits are more inwardly retir'd through fear of punishment whereas those of his friends are sent outwards by Anger and desire of Revenge Yea if the Murderer had been wounded before he should rather bleed than the dead because his Blood is more boyling and capable of commotion by the spirits issuing out of the Carkase And had they any Sympathy they could not discover the Murderer for want of sense which they never had for the spirits which are in the Blood scarce deserve that name being purely natural and void of all sense even during life and specifically different from the animal spirits The vital spirits which are a degree above them vanish together with life whence the Arteries that us'd to contain them are empty And those that serve for Sensation cannot remain in a dead Body because they are easily dissipable and need continual reparation whence we see all the senses fail in a swoon because the Heart recruits them not by a continuity of their generation Besides should they remain after death they would be unactive for want of fit dispositions in the Organs Moreover natural causes act necessarily when their object is present but sometime t is known that Murderers have thrust themselves more diligently into the crowd of Spectators than any other persons for avoiding suspition and no such bleeding hath hapned in their presence and that Executioners take Criminals the next day from the Gallows or the Wheel and not a drop of Blood issues from their wounds And why should not a dead Sheep as well fall a bleeding afresh in the presence of the Butcher that kill'd it Or a Man mortally wounded when he that did it is brought unknown into his Chamber For 't is hard to imagine that we have less sense and knowledge whilst life remains than after death that a wounded person must die that he may become sensible In short t is easie to see that this effect is not like other wonders which have a cause in Nature because though we cannot assign the particular causes of these yet they are prov'd by some demonstrative or at least some probable reasons And as for Antipathy it should rather concenter all the dead person's Blood in his Murderer's presence and make it retire to the inward parts Wherefore I conclude that not only the causes of this miracle are not yet found but also that 't is impossible there should be any natural one of it at all The Fourth said That according to the opinion of Avicenna who holds That the Imagination acts even beyond and out of its Subject this faculty may cause the effluxion of Blood the Criminal's Phansie working mightily when the person slain by him is objected before his Eyes And the nitrous vapors arising out of the Earth upon digging up the Body together with the heat of the Air greater than that of the Earth and increas'd by the conflux of Spectators may in some measure contribute to the new fermentation of the Blood But the truth is after all our inquiries this extraordinary motion cannot be better ascrib'd elsewhere than to God's Providence who sometimes performs this miracle for the discovery of Murder which would otherwise be unpunisht but not always And 't is no less impiety to deny that Divine Justice comes sometimes to the aid of that of Men than 't is ignorance and rusticity to be satisfi'd in all cases with universal causes without recurring to particular ones which God employes most ordinarily for the Production of Effects yet does not so tye his power to the necessity of their operations but that he interrupts the same when he pleases even so far as to give clay power to open the Eyes of the blind CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn THere are no greater impostures in the Art of Physick than those which relate to Antidotes and Preservatives from Poyson such as the Unicorn's Horn is held to be And I am mistaken if it be not a popular error First because the opinions of all Authors are so contrary concerning it Philostratus in the life of Apollonius saith that the Animal of this name is an Ass and is found in the fenns of Colchis having one single horn in the fore-head where-with he fights furiously against the Elephant Cardan after Pliny saith 't is a Horse as 't is most commonly painted only it hath a Stag's head a Martin's skin a short neck short mane and a cloven hoof and is bred only in the Desarts of Aethiopia amongst the Serpents whose Poyson its horn which is three cubits long resists Garsius ab Horto saith 't is an Amphibious Animal bred on Land near the Cape of good Hope but delighting in the Sea having an Horses head and mane a horn two cubits long which he alone of all Authors affirms to be moveable every way Most agree that it cannot be tam'd and yet Lewis Vartoman saith that he saw two tame ones in Cages at Mecha which had been sent to Sultan Solyman Almost all confess it very rare and yet Marcus Sherer a Renegado German afterwards call'd Idaith Aga and Embassador from the same Solyman to Maximilian the Emperor affirms that he saw whole troops of them in the Desarts of Arabia And Paulus Venetus the same in the Kingdom of Basman where they are almost as big as Elephants having feet like theirs a skin like Camels the head of a Boar and delighting in mire like swine Nor are Authors less various concerning its manner of eating some alledging that being unable to feed on the ground by reason of his horn he lives only on the boughs and fruits of Trees or on what is given him by the hands of Men especially of fair Virgins of whom they say he is amorous though others think it fabulous Some believe that there was once such an Animal but not now the whole race perishing in the Deluge and that the horns we find now for the most part in the earth have been kept there ever since And if there be such variety in the description of this Animal there is no less in the horns which they tell us are those of the Unicorn That at Saint Dennis in France is about seven foot high weighs thirty pound four ounces being wreath'd and terminated in a point from a broad base Yet this is not comparable to that Aelian mentions which was so thick that cups might be made of it That at Strasburg hath some conformity with this of Saint Denis but those of Venice differ from both as that describ'd by Albertus Magnus doth from all For 't is saith he solid like a Hearts horn ten foot high and very large at the base The Swisses have one which was sometimes found on the bank of a River near Bruges two cubits long yellow without white within odorous and apt to take fire That at Rome is but one foot high having been diminish'd by being frequently rasp'd in order to be imploy'd against
thing having several times happen'd to him he had given his wife a strict charge that no Body should touch his Body during his Soul's being abroad upon the account aforesaid but some persons of his acquaintance bearing him a grudg having with much importunity obtain'd of her the favour to see his Body lying on the ground in that immoveable posture they caus'd it to be burnt to prevent the Soul's return into it which yet it being not in their power to do and the Clazomenians being inform'd of that injury done to Hermotimus built him a Temple into which Women were forbidden to enter And Plutarch in his Book of Socrates's Daemon or Genius confirming this Relation and allowing it to be true affirms that those who had committed that crime were then tormented in Hell for it Saint Augustine in his Book of the City of God Lib. xiv relates that a certain Priest named Restitutus when-ever and as often as he was desir'd to do it became so insensible at the mournful tone of some lamenting voice and lay stretch'd along as a dead Carkase so as that he could not be awak'd by those who either pinch'd or prick'd him nay not by the application of fire to some part of his Body inasmuch as he could not feel any thing while he continu'd in the Ecstacy only afterwards it was perceiv'd that he had been burnt by the mark which remain'd upon his Body after he was come to himself before which time be had not any respiration and yet he would say that he had heard the voices of those who had cry'd aloud in his Ears calling to mind that he had heard them speaking at a great distance The same Author in the xix Book of the same Work affirms that the Father of one Praestantius was apt to fall into such Ecstacies that he believ'd himself chang'd into a Pack-Horse and that he carry'd Provisions upon his back into the fields with other Horses when all the while his Body continu'd immoveable in the House Among other Examples of this kind of Ecstacy Bodin in his second Book of his Daemonomania chap. 5. relates a story of a certain Servant-maid living in the Danphine having been found lying all along upon a dung-hill in such a dead sleep that all the noise made could not awake her nay her Master 's banging her with a switch not prevailing any thing he ordered fire to be set to the most sensible and tenderest parts of her Body to try whether she were really dead or not Which being upon tryal believ'd they left her in the same place till the morning and then sending to look after her she was found very well in her bed Whereupon the Master asking her What she had been doing all the night before Ah Master said she how unmercifully have you beaten me Upon that discovery she was accus'd for a Witch and confess'd it To be short Cardan in his eighth Book of the Variety of Things affirms of himself that he fell into an Ecstacy when he pleas'd insomuch that he sleightly heard the voices of those who spoke to him but understood them not Nay what is more was not sensible of any pinching nor yet feeling the exquisite pain of his Gout whereto he was much subject as being not sensible at that time of any thing but that he was out of himself He afterwards explicates the manner how that Ecstacy is wrought affirming that he felt it begin at the Head especially in the hinder part of the Brain and thence spread it self all along the Back-bone He affirmed further that at the very beginning of it he was sensible of a certain separation about the Heart as if the Soul with-drew at a kind of wicket or sally-port the whole Body concerning it self therein and adds that then he sees what-ever he would with his Eyes and not by the strength of the Understanding and that those Images which he sees are in a continual transiency and motion in the resemblance of Forests Animals and such other things The Cause whereof he attributes to the strength of the Imagination and sharpness of the Sight He further relates of his Father such things as are much more miraculous and occasion'd the suspicion of his being a Magician Now from all these Sacred and Prophane Histories it may be inferr'd that of Ecstacies some are miraculous and others natural The former not submitting to ordinary Causes any more than all the other things do that concern Religion which stands much upon the preheminence of being above Reason The latter proceeding from the great disproportion there is between the Body and the Mind the one being extreamly vigorous the other extreamly weak Whence it follows that there are two sorts of persons subject to Natural Ecstacies to wit those transcendent Minds which are dispos'd into weak Bodies and weak Minds in strong and robust Bodies inasmuch as there being not a perfect connexion and correspondence between them the Soul finds it no great difficulty to disengage her self from the Body or the Body from the Soul which by that means obtains a freedom in her operations it being supposd that they do not all at depend one upon another as may be seen in the Formation of the Embryo wherein the Soul making her self a place of aboad plainly shews that she is able to act without it as also in swoundings and faintings during which the Body continues so destitute of sense that no active faculty at least no operation of the Soul is observable in it The Third said That the Vegetative Soul which is without motion being the first whereby we live it is not to be much admir'd if the other two Souls to wit the Sensitive and the Rational do sometimes separate themselves from it and this is that which they call Ecstacy whereof we have a certain instance in all the faculties wich are in like manner separated one from another without the loss of their Organs Accordingly he who is most sharp-sighted as to the Understanding hath commonly but a weak corporeal sight the most robust Body is ordinarily joyn'd to the weakest Mind Those persons who walk and talk in their sleep do also shew that the Rational Soul does quit the Government of the Body and leaves it to the direction and disposal of the sensitive and the same thing may be also said of the Vegetative exclusively to the other two To come to Instances we have at this day the experience of some who continue a long time in Ecstacies and that not only in matters of great importance but also in some things of little concernment which they are not able to comprehend nay there are some have the knack of falling into Trances and Ecstacies when they please themselves And this hath been affirm'd to me of a certain person who was able to do it without any other trouble than this He caus'd to be painted on the wall a great Circle all white in the Centre whereof he set a black mark
the prosecution of their designs or forc'd them to pronounce such as should be to their advantage This course was taken by Alexander the Great and Cleomenes by the former when he consulted the Pythian by the other when he consulted the Delphick Oracle both which they forc'd to say what they pleas'd themselves Thence it came that most of the ancient Philsophers exclaim'd against them and the Platonists who made a greater account of them then any of the other Sects acknowledge that they are no other then the most despicable Devils and those of the lowest rank who engage themselves in that employment which they must needs practise in desert and dreadful places to the end there might be fewer witnesses of their weakness and impostures These are apparent in their very Answers which if not false were so ambiguous or at least so obscure that many times there needed another Oracle to explain them Nor were they in vogue but during the darkness of Paganism which being dispell'd by the light of the Gospel those Oracles never durst appear in that glorious day which would have discover'd their lying and falshood The Second said That the Art of Divination being conjectural and grounded on experience as well as several others of that nature it is not to be admir'd that the Answers of those who heretofore made profession thereof were not always true and therefore it is as irrational a procedure to draw any consequences thence to its prejudice as to infer that the Precepts of Medicine are false because the Physician does not always make his Prognosticks aright The General of an Army may sometimes proceed upon wrong grounds and the expert Pilot may run upon those shelves and rocks which he most endeavours to avoid True it is that the subtilty of the Devil and depravedness of Mankind have foisted abundance of abuses into the business of Oracles especially in the erecting of those Statues to those fabulous Divinities which they commonly made of Olive-tree Lawrel Vine Cedar or some such kind of wood full of unctuous moisture which they said were the tears or sweat of their false Gods as also in the pompous Ceremonies wherewith they amused the credulous Vulgar Such were those of Trophonius among the Thebans who answer'd only those who being clad in white descended through a hole of the cave into his Temple and there offered cakes to the Spirits which inhabited it after which they were convey'd out at another place of the cave where they drunk the Water of the Fountain of Memory which caus'd them to remember whatever they had heard as they had drunk that of Lethe before they had entred into it which had caus'd them to forget all affairs of the World But we are not hence to conclude that all Oracles were false nor doubt of the validity of that sublime Art upon its being disparag'd by those who have profess'd it since it hath its grounds not only in the inclination of mens minds who having an extraordinary earnestness to know things to come there must needs be some Science for the attaining of that Knowledge otherwise Nature who had imprinted that desire in him should contrary to her custom have done something in vain but also in the dispositions of that Temperament which is subject to Melancholy or black Choler For the former of these is the Temperament of the more ingenious sort of people according to the Philsopher in his Problems and the other being more resplendent is that of persons enclin'd to Divination occasion'd by the clear representation of the Species in that humour which being bright and smooth as a Mirrour cannot so well be discover'd by those who are not of that Constitution to which Plato in his Memnon attributes the cause of Apollo's Priestesse's pronouncing the Oracles in Hexameter Verse though she had never learnt Poesie and Pompanatius in his Books of Enchantments affirms that it caus'd a Woman who never was out of Mantua where she was born to speak several strange Languages The Third said That Divination being above the reach of our Understanding as much as this latter is below the Divinity which hath reserv'd to it self the priviledge of a distinct knowledge of things to come it is to no purpose to seek for the true causes of it in our selves but we are to find them in the Heavens whence if we may believe the Professors of Astrology that quality of Divination or Prediction is communicated to Men by the interposition of the Intelligences whereby those vast Bodies are moved and that Science taught by making it appear how great a correspondence there is between the effects of the sublunary Bodies and the superior causes on which they depend and wherein they are potentially comprehended even before they are actually existent Whereto if you add the concourse of the Universal Spirit which equally animates the whole world and the parts whereof it consists and which meeting with convenient dispositions in the minds of men and the several places where Oracles have been given inspir'd those extraordinary motions which have rais'd the Spirit of man and open'd its way into effects the most at a distance from his knowledge Admitting I say such a concourse there may some probable reason be given of these Predictions not only of things whose causes being natural and necessary their effects are infallible such as are Eclipses the Rising Setting and Regular Motions of the Planets or of those whose causes are only probable as it is reported that Pherecydes foretold a dreadful Earth-quake by the boyling up of the water in his own Well and Thales foresaw the scarcity of Olives in the Territories of Athens But also of effects which having only contingent or free causes lie not so obvious to discovery and yet these being denoted by the general causes such as are the Heavens and the Universal Spirit those persons who have clear-sighted and illuminated Souls may perceive them therein even before they happen The Fourth said That there are three general causes of Oracles one Supernatural another Artificial and the third Natural and that not to speak any thing of the Supernatural whereof the Devils were the Authors and made use of it to continue still in their first Rebellion when they attempted to ascend into the Throne of God and be like him nor yet of their Artificial Cause which was certain persons devoted to their worship who retiring into Caves and Subterraneous places were incited by those evil Spirits to that sordid Ministry that so by that means they might lay snares for the simple who were easily drawn away by these false Lights The Natural Cause of those Oracles especially such as were pronounc'd out of the celebrated Caves and Grots of Antiquity was a subtile Exhalation rais'd out of those places which fastening on the Spirits of the Prophet or Prophetess already dispos'd to receive that impression had the same Influence on them as the fumes of Wine have on those who drink it to
communicated by succession as most of the other diseases which become hereditary by means of the Spirits employ'd by the Formative Faculty in Generation and carrying along with them the Character of the parts and humours of him who engenders and imprinting them on the foetus Hence it comes that for the curing of it there is more requir'd than to administer the remedies commonly us'd in the cure of other tumours which must be dissolv'd or softened that so they may be brought to suppuration unless they can be consum'd and extirpated but in this there must be some particular means used And not to mention that which is generally known to all to wit the touching of those who have this Evil by the King of France and his Majesty of Great Britain whom they heal by a miraculous vertue and a special priviledge granted those two great Monarchs by God himself it is commonly affirmed that the seventh Male-child without any interruption of Females hath the same advantage of healing this disease by a favour which Theology calls gratia gratis data and whereof many affirm that they have seen the effects These are attributed to the vertue of the Number Seven so highly esteem'd by the Platonists as consisting of the first odd Number and the first even and square number which are Three and Four and are by them called the Male and Female whereof they make such account that according to the Opinion of these Philosophers the Soul of the world was made up of those two Numbers and it is by their means that whatever is comprehended in it subsists It is also for this Reason that Children born in the seventh month live as those born in the ninth whereas such as are born in the eighth die To this may be added That the most considerable Changes of Man's Life happen in these several Septenaries which number does not only contribute to his Conception which is not perfect till the seventh day after the Matter hath receiv'd the Virile Sperme and to his Birth in the seventh month but also to all the other accidents which happen to him in all the several Septenaries For the Child begins to have some appearance of Teeth in the seventh month at twice seven months he makes a shift to stand alone at three times seven his Tongue is so far loos'd that he speaks with some Articulation at four times seven he goes steadily and confidently at the age of seven years he acquires new forces and renews his Teeth at twice seven he is of ripe age and capable of engendring at three times seven he gives over growing but becomes still more and more vigorous till he hath attain'd to seven times seven that is to the forty and ninth year of his age by some called the little climacterical year as being the most compleat of any in regard it consists of a perfect number multiply'd by it self and in which there always happens some accident proceeding hence that Nature being not able to forbear the doing of something when she hath attain'd that sovereign degree of perfection is forc'd to decline It is therefore to be attributed to this compleat number which is called by the Greeks by a term which signifies Venerable that the seventh Son cures the Evil the cause whereof being malignant and indeed having something in it that is obscure which Hippocrates calls Divine it is not to be admired that the curing of it should depend on a Cause equally obscure and at so great a distance from our knowledge The Second said That without having any recourse to so abstracted a Cause as that of the vertue of the number Seven which being a discrete quantity is incapable of action which is reserv'd to such qualities only as are active Nor yet to the Stars which are at a greater distance from us Nor yet to the force of the Imagination which many think may produce that effect Waving all recourse to these I am of Opinion that it is rather to be referr'd to the Formative Faculty which producing a Male when the Seeds of the Parents are so dispos'd as that what is more vigorous and strong hath a predominancy over the other which is less such that is when it continues still in the getting of a Male without any interruption to the seventh time the reason of it is that these Seeds are still so strong and spirituous that a Male is gotten instead of a Female which is the production of those Seeds that are weaker and colder than the Masculine Now the heat and spirits whereby Males are procreated may communicate to them some particular vertue such as may be the Gift of healing the Evil which may be affirm'd with as good ground as that the spittle of a Man fasting being well-temper'd kills Serpents and that it is held many have heretofore had such a prerogative for the healing of certain diseases by some particular qualities depending either on those of their Temperaments or of their whole substance Thus Vespasian as Tacitus affirms in the fourth Book of his Histories restor'd his sight to a blind Man Adrian as Aelius Spartianus relates healed a Man born blind only by touching him And Pyrrhus King of the Epirotae if we may believe Plutarch in his Life heal'd all that were troubled with the Spleen in his time by touching their Spleen with the great Toe of his right Foot of which Toe there was a far greater Opinion conceiv'd after his death in that it was found intire and not consum'd by the fire as all the rest of his Body was This vertue of healing thus after an extraordinary manner hath been deriv'd into some whole Families There are to this day many in France who affirm themselves to be of the Family of Saint Hubert and have the gift of healing such as are bitten by mad Dogs In Italy there are others who make it their boast that they are of the Families of Saint Paul and Saint Catharine whereof the former are not afraid of Serpents which for that reason they bear in their Coat no more than these latter are of burning coals which they handle without burning themselves In Spain also the Families of the Saludatores and the Ensalmadores have the gift of healing many incurable diseases only by the Touch. Nay if we may rely on common Tradition we have this further to add that it holds for certain that those Children who come into the world on Good-Friday have the gift of healing several sorts of diseases especially Tertian and Quartan Agues The Third said That if the gift of healing the Evil depended on the vigour of the Principles of Generation which meet in the seventh Male-child it would follow that the eighth or ninth coming into the world consecutively should more justly pretend to that priviledge inasmuch as the generative faculty discovers a greater vertue and vigour in that production of a ninth Male-child without interruption then it might do in that of a seventh Which being not found
besides true Friendship suspicion may as well arise in the Receivers as in the givers Mind Many give onely that they may receive with Usury others out of vanity and to make Creatures and Clients which they regarding no longer but as their inferiors and dependents 't is as dangerous for these to confide in their Benefactors as for a slave to use confidence towards his Master or a Vassal towards his Lord not often allow'd by the respect and timerousness of the less towards the great as commonly those are that give Whereas we ordinarily find in him whom we have oblig'd nothing but Subjection and Humility Virtues much disposing the mind to Gratitude which cannot but assure their Benefactors of their fidelity Nor can they easily be ungrateful if they would your confidence in them obliging them continually to fidelity and withall giving them occasion to requite your kindnesses by their assiduity and services Which was the recompence wherewith the poor amongst the Jews pay'd their Creditors by serving them for some years So that he is scarce less blameable who distrusts him whom he hath oblig'd and by this diffidence deprives him of the means of requital then he who having receiv'd a benefit betrayes his Benefactor the Injustice being almost alike in both If the first complains of having been deceiv'd by him whom he finds ungrateful the second in whom his Benefactor puts not the confidence which he ought will have no less cause of complaint that on the contrary he hath distrusted him and soil'd the lustre of the first Obligation by his diffidence and bad opinion of him which is to tax himself of impudence for having done good to one unworthy of it The Third said That if Men were perfect Communicative Justice would require of them that the receiver of a benefit should repay the like or at least some acknowledgment by his endeavours Which the Poets intimated by the Graces holding Hand in Hand But the perversity of Man is such that the more he is oblig'd to this Duty the worse he acquits himself thereof not doing any thing handsomely but what he does freely and because being a vain-glorious Creature he hates nothing so much as to be subject and to pay homage to him that hath done him good whose presence seems to upbraid him with his own meaness If he loves his Benefactor 't is with an interess'd and mercenary affection whereas that of the former is free from all self-respect and proceeds meerly from a principle of Virtue and consequently is with more reason to be rely'd upon Moreover a Work-man loves his Production more then he is lov'd by it as also God doth his Creatures and Fathers their Children Now a Benefactor who is a kind of Work-man and Artificer of our good Fortune cherishes and loves us as his work and creatures because he seems concern'd for our preservation just as Causes are for that of their Effects in which themselves revive and seem to be reproduc'd The Fourth said That our Natural Sentiments incline us more to rely upon those whom we have oblig'd then upon those who have oblig'd us not so much by way of challenging a requital for Obligations are not to be done in hope of recompence which would be exchange rather than kindness as because we are apt to trust those most whom we love most But we love those most to whom we have given greatest Testimony of our Affections A Man may be deceiv'd in reckoning his benefits as causes of Amity in the receiver but they are certain Effects and Signs of Affection in the bestower So that in respect of us 't is manifestly better to trust him whom we have oblig'd than him who hath oblig'd us The same is prov'd also in respect of him that is oblig'd even the wild beasts are tam'd and instead of hurting obey those that feed them and therefore 't were injurious to humanity not to judge It capable of acknowledging a benefit which it knows how to conferr without provocation For upon examination the Causes of Ingratitude will be found to arise from those who boast of the title of Benefactors the imprudence whereof is so great in some that they displease more than oblige by Presents unseasonably given of no value and contrary to Seneca's advice of little duration intermixt with ill Offices instead of being fenc'd with new to keep out the rain of the disgusts and coldnesses which destroy Friendship with regret and not with a chearful Countenance after denials and delayes so that the thing seemes rather snatch'd then receiv'd diminish'd by burthensome conditions and lastly nullifi'd by reproaches if not requited as soon as was expected Whence such pretended benefits deserve rather the name of Out-rages And nevertheless being there are many that are grateful even for such benefits we may justly conclude that Courtesies done with their due circumstances are far more capable to oblige the receivers to Gratitude which cannot consist with Unfaithfulness The Fifth said That the Decision of this as of all other Moral Questions depends upon persons times places and other circumstances whereupon Prudence is founded which teaches when how and whom we are to trust Yet supposing circumstances alike and two persons equally virtuous one of which hath done me good and the other receiv'd good from me the contrary Reason of the Law which presumes him alwayes bad who hath been once bad makes me judge That he who hath once done me good will sooner do me good again then another and therefore that I ought rather to trust him CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing AS Heat and Cold are the Efficient Causes of all Meteors so Driness and Moisture supply Matter for them sublim'd and made volatil by extraneous Heat Vapours which make Aqueous Meteors are of two sorts some ascend to the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a Cloud which afterwards turnes into Rain Snow or Hail Others through the weakness of Heat or tenuity of their Matter unable to ascend turn into Mists and Dew and the Serene which preceedes it and Frost For the Matter both of Frost and Dew is a subtil thin Vapour which when spread equally and uniformly about the Earth hinders not the Air 's transparency which therefore in time of Frost is alwayes clear and serene But their Efficient is distinct that of Dew is the moderate Coldness of the Night whence 't is most frequent in temperate Seasons that of a Frost is Vehement Cold whereby being first condens'd it falls down in form of Crystal Yet Cold alone suffices not to produce Frost for then Water which is cold in an eminent degree should be alwayes frozen But some terrene and gross parts must serve for an uniting medium to compact the moist parts of the Water or Vapour which being naturally fluid cannot be link'd together but by means of some dry parts fixing and restraining their fluidity Hence the impurest and most compounded Liquors are soonest frozen
obnoxious to external causes which produce diseases On the other side if Animals are happy 't is as Fools are whose minds are quiet by reason of their ignorance and insensibility But as it is better to be sensible then insensible even upon the condition of enduring pain sometimes so it is more happy to have a rational mind though it causes troubles to us sometimes then to have none Moreover we cannot avoid the stroaks of fortune otherwise then those of Thunder namely by being very high or very low but 't is better to be above tempests then below them and to be incapable of them by reason as a wise man then by stupidity as a beast CONFERENCE CXXX Whether is better that Men have many Wives or Women many Husbands THough plurality of Wives or Husbands be disallowed by the Christian Law yet not being contrary to the Law of Nations for many admit it nor of nature during which it was in use we may be permitted to doubt whether supposing Polygamy it were better one Husband should have many Wives or one Wife many Husbands There are examples of both Plurality of Wives was practised by Lamech who first had two by Abraham Jacob and the Patriarchs for multiplying of their Lineage afterwards by David and Solomon who had 700 Wives and 300 Concubins and at present 't is in use among the Turks who are permitted to have as many Wives as they can keep As for plurality of Husbands though it be not now in use yet it was sometimes amongst the Amazons who made use of Men only as Stallions as also amongst the Medes and Persians where it was a shame for a Woman to have less then five Husbands And by the report of Caesar in his Commentaries the Women of great Britain had no less then ten or twelve Husbands a piece Nevertheless this plurality of Husbands is somthing against the Law of Nature according to which the Male as the most perfect is the head and master of the Woman and as 't is a monstrous thing for a body to have many heads so 't is for a Woman to have many Husbands besides that they hinder production of Children for we see publick Women are barren and on the contrary plurality of Wives is the cause of much issue Wherefore 't is more expedient in a State whose chief strength consists in the number of men that one Husband have many Wives then one Wife many Husbands The second said Though men abusing the power and authority of Laws to their own advantage have oftner married more Wives then they have permitted them to have more Husbands yet the women have as much reason of complaint in this point as in any other establish'd to their prejudice without their being heard or summon'd Their vehement and irregular appetite after man of which the irregular motions of that Animal in Animali are most certain evidences seems to conclude in their favour For Woman alone of all Animals desires the Male at all times even after conception She the Fire the Sea and Death never say 't is enough as the matter hath a continual appetite of Forms so hath she of the Male which desire being natural ought to be satisfi'd otherwise it were in vain but nothing is so in Nature and therefore she ought to be permitted more Husbands since one alone is more apt to irritate then satiate her She is able and hath wherewith to satisfie them but if one man cannot suffice one woman how can he acquit himself towards a dozen Especially in this age wherein no doubt women would appeal from the constitution of Solon who would have men live with their wives only thrice a moneth as well as from that foolish custom of Cato who never visited his but when it rain'd Lycurgus was much better advis'd when he permitted old or otherwise impotent persons to chuse out the handsomest young men to lye with their wives This Sage Legislator well judging that they would of themselves take this liberty and therefore 't was better to grant it them that so they might be quit of the vice and blame attending this action when prohibited The Third said That the decision of this Question the very report of which sometimes put the Roman Dames into an aproar being of very great consequence to both parties 't is requisite to observe so much equity therein that the Women have no ground of exception though to speak truth I know not which would be most to their advantage whether to have more Husbands who would be so many Masters and Tyrants or to share with other Women the Caresses of one alone the first being contrary to their haughty humour and the second to their jealousie Besides the plurality of Husbands would hinder not only the propagation but also the education of Children for none would take care of the Children which were not his own and though they were he would not believe they belong'd to him It would be impossible for a Father to know his own Child the term of Child-bearing being no more certain testimony then the resemblance of Physiognomy Moreover whether the Wife were hated or loved by her Husbands she would be displeas'd to see all her Rivals in bad intelligence or the effects of their common hatred However being unable to please all by reason of the diversity of their humours she could not avoid the disgust of some of them As for that impure pleasure 't is too shameful to be brought into the account besides that the frequency of it would take away its sweetness no pleasures of life being such but upon the score of their rarity The Fourth said They that fear the multitude of Husbands would hinder conception and consequently generation by the confusion of several Seeds know not how either is effected since Physitians affirm with Hippocrates That the Womb no sooner receives the fruitful Seed but it shuts it self up to embrace the same straitly as the Stomach does the Meat and that so exactly as not to admit a needles point so that it cannot open again to receive new Seed in a second Coition And though superfoetation happen sometimes yet 't is very rare and is incident to a Woman that lies with the same Man several times as well as to one that lies with many The other Inconvenience of the incertainty of Issues and consequently of Successions is as little considerable for Man being not born for himself but for the State whereof he is a Member and Children less belonging to their Parents then to the Commonwealth whereof they are the Nursery 'twere more expedient that they were bred and instructed like those brave Lacedemonians at the publick charge than of their Parents whose tenderness and too great indulgence is oft-times the cause of their evil education Moreover this was the design of that Divine Commonwealth of Plato who would have not only other Goods but Wives and Children also common that so those ungrateful words of Mine and Thine which
are the cause of all Mischiefs might be taken away For by this means that importunate solicitude of Appropriation and Jealousie which oftentimes afflicts both parties would be no longer any thing but a phantasm Women would find their satisfaction in the plurality of Husbands these how many soever to one woman having always enough and more then they needed and the woman being cunning enough to divide her favours so that all her Husbands might be contented who besides dividing the burden of domestick cares would have an easier task by having the more Associates But especially 't would be much for the womans interest for if she be belov'd by all her Husbands 't will be unspeakable happiness to her if hated by any the caresses of some will make her amends for the bad usage of others whereas finding no remedy in that Gordian knot which tyes her to one person she abandons her self to despair insomuch that in the time of Spurius Carvilius seventy women accus'd one another to the Senate of having poyson'd their Husbands But if she be constrain'd to share the caresses of one Husband with a douzen rivals there will be nothing but perpetual feuds envies and jealousies Witness Leah and Rachel who though holy women yet daily contested for the possession of their common Husband Jacob. And the Scripture observes that Leah who was blear-ey'd was constrain'd to purchase of the fair Rachel with mandrakes the liberty of lying one night with Jacob. The 5th said That seeing a Woman is a hagger'd and indocible animal Experience shewing us that one single man is not capable to reduce her to reason 't were more expedient to allow her many Husbands the reverence and aw of whom and in defect thereof their force might tame her pride and insolence which is risen to the highest pitch since the time that Justinian's Wife got the Law of Divorce repeal'd which ever before had been a Bridle upon them CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion MOtion which is the mutation from one state to another is either simple or compound Simple is either of Quality is term'd Alteration or of Place and is call'd Lation or Motion Local Compound is either to Substance and is nam'd Generation which includes alteration and formation or to a greater Quantity which comprehends Local Motion with Accretion or Augmentation which cannot be made unless the parts extended change place This Accretion is an effect of one of the Faculties subservient to the Vegetative or Natural which are three the Generative the Auctive or Accretive and the Nutritive according to the three operations observ'd in living bodies which have parts generated nourishing and increasing for a thing must be generated before it can grow and acquire the perfection wherein it is maintain'd by Nutrition The Generative Faculty which is compounded of the Alterative and Formative regards the foetus in the womb The Auctive governs it from its birth till the twentieth or one and twentieth year which is the term of Accretion The Nutritive continues all the time of life which cannot subsist without nourishment because this repairs the continual dissipation of our substance caus'd by the action of heat upon humidity in which action Life it self consists Now though the body may be nourisht without growing yet it cannot grow unless it be nourisht For Accretion being an Extension of the parts in length and breadth new substance must be supply'd to fill up the place of that which is extended otherwise a living body should grow no more then a bladder doth when it is blown or a piece of leather when it is stretcht in the former what is gotten in capacity is lost in thickness and in the latter what is gotten in length is impair'd in breadth so that the augmentation of parts would be rather imaginary than real without supply of new matter to succeed that which is equally extended in all its dimensions amongst which nevertheless that of stature and of the solid parts as the bones is call'd Growth and not that which is made in thickness and the fleshy parts which are enlarged manytimes after the time of full growth The second said That all things being finite must have bounds of magnitude sutable to the use whereunto they are appointed which bounds are not determinate in inanimate bodies as Stones Metals Hair and Nails whose accretion being made by the bare apposition of matter they are augmented continually so long as there is accession of new matter to the former But in living bodies the same are regular for the accretion of these being internal and the work of the soul continues till the body hath attain'd the proportion and stature requisite to its functions To compass which Nature employs Heat as the Efficient Cause and Humidity as the Material Hence children grow most in their infancy because they are then most moist and men to a larger size then women because they have more heat Young men indeed have a more pungent and vigorous heat then Children but these are better stor'd as being nearer the principles of their generation and though it be not so active yet 't is more proper for the growth of the solid parts which being desiccated by a violent heat are not so extensible as when they are full of a fat and unctuous humidity But as for the manner of Accretion 't is almost the same with that of Nutrition The Aliment having been prepar'd in the Stomach and Liver and by this latter transmitted by the veins into all the parts of the body the purer particles of it sweat through the coats of the Vessels and fall like a gentle dew upon the parts which first imbibe then agglutinate and lastly assimilate the same So that Nutrition is nothing but Assimilation of the substance of the food to that of the living body and as Aliments nourish by resemblance of their Substance and by vertue of their Form so they cause augmentation by their Quantity and Matter which arriving at the solid parts as the Bones Cartilages and Ligaments causes the same to extend and grow in all dimensions but especially in height by reason that 't is proper to Heat to drive Humidity upwards And as when the Nutrition is equal to the Dissipation the body is only nourisht as in the Age of Consistence so when the Income of matter is greater than the Expence the surplusage meeting with a due heat causeth augmentation if it be less there follows wasting or diminution as is seen Old-Age The Third said As Animals are indu'd with a nobler degree of life than Plants so they vegetate after a more sublime manner and not only by bare heat and moisture For amongst Animals the Elephant a melancholy and consequently cold and dry beast is yet the greatest of the field the Crocodile though cold grows all its life and some Serpents have by long age attained to the length of sixty foot So amongst Trees Oaks though the dryest are the largest Of Bones the