very good meddow be ouermuch glutted with water and altogether ouerwhelmed as it were with continuall raine and you shall see what wise hay and what trim grasse you shall haue of that meddow So that vpon the reckening lay but the hare-worts against the goose-giblets as we are wont to say and for my part I see not but that Tabacco may worke as much good to vs in the auoiding of too much moisture as it is like to bring harme in the procuring of too much drinesse Touching your painting out of olde age with his stiffe and dry sinewes and with many other of his infirmities and imperfections I confesse them all to be true and wish with all my hart that I were able to remedie them were it but to amend some crooked conditions in my selfe and some thing else But yet I see no reason why that great cold should not be as great an occasion of the increase of all these harmes and imperfections in old age as any thing else that can be named For he that thinketh not that cold hath a mightie strength to worke a wonderfull hardnesse and drinesse let him but remember this last great frost in Nouember last past or if he hath bene in some of these great cold countries such as Russia where in very deed I neuer was although not verie farre from it when it was he can then tell that the ground is so hard and dry and all by the reason of cold onely for one halfe yeare or thereabout that they are enforced to leaue their dead bodies vnburied during all that time being not able with any instrument in the world to enter into the earth and to breake it vp vntill the Sunne be come about againe to relent and mollifie the same So that thus I conclude whether we take Tabacco or take no Tabacco yet seeing all those infirmities and imperfections which you haue reckened vp do follow old age euen by the course of nature much like as the shadow waiteth vppon our bodies and seeing that great cold either is or may be as great an increaser and hastiner of those infirmities as any one thing else is that can be named in all the world and seeing our poore friend Tabacco hath a good and a speciall property to resist that professed great enemy the cold me â—hinke it were a reasonable sute to intreate that Tabacco might rather be esteemed as a friend then a foe euen to old age also whose heate in this case no doubt is rather a pleasure then any offence at all vnto old men And yet you haue one other conceit more which maintaineth one of the strangest opinions that euer I heard of in all my life as olde as I am and that is this That by reason of hote and dry Sommers in haruest time the greatest waters and land flouds are most wont to appeare c. This in very truth is a point beyond Eela and I am not able to reach vnto it or to vnderstand it It was my chance to stand by when it was when that a Noble man in this land was in an exceeding great rage with a certaine gentleman an acquaintance of mine a very proper man and a stout The Noble man grew into such choler with him that at the length he all to be knaued the gentleman and often times repeated these words I tell thee thou art a knaue nay I tell thee troth thou art a very knaue The gentleman stood long mute and sayd neuer a word but at the length he could hold no longer but burst out into these words As God iudge me my Lord If your Lordship should tell me neuer so oft that I am a knaue yet you shall pardon me for by God I will neuer beleeue it and sayd not one word more The like answer I must be bold to make vnto you for if you tell me neuer so oft that dry Sommers make great water flouds yet in very truth I will neuer beleeue it And what your meaning is in so saying I protest I know not but this I wot well I am sure of that vpon this last great drought that we had as well in the Sommer time as also in the fall this yeare the riuer of the Thamis was become so shallow and dry as it were that the poore Westerne barges complained much of their hard passages downe the riuer to serue her Maiestie and her Maiesties citie of London while she lay at Richmond and now since her Maiestie iâ— come to White-hall to I know diuerse good farmers that are enforced to driue their cattell two miles and more to water them who were wont to haue great store and plenty of water euen at their owne doores before this hote and dry weather came to drie vp their springs And therefore to thinke that dry Sommers is cause of great waters in my opinion is nothing else but to dreame of a dry Sommer The sixt reason is for that This herbe or rather weede seemeth not voide of venome and thereby seemeth an enemy to the life of man c. I marry this is a matter of some importance indeed and would be well looked vnto But by the way this discourse of venomes or poysons would rather be tripped ouer then much dwelt vpon for diuerse good respects The times being so dangerous as they are I thinkâ— it not conuenient to meddle with any such matters and such gaps as these be would not so rashly and vnaduisedly be opened to the common people I knew a Preacher once and a verie honest learned man who meant no harme I dare sweare for him yet inueighing in his Sermon earnestly against the wickednesse of this age and telling of the bad dealing that lewd Ostlers vsed about the greasing of their horse teeth and the like vnhonest trickes that Bailifes vsed about the altering and changing of cowes hornes that were missing and strayed abroad did more harme in repeating these deceitfull sleights then all the rest of his Sermon could do good to his auditorie And you also in this place by your leaue might in my opinion haue bene something better aduised then to haue vsed so liberall or rather so lauishing a kind of talke both of poysons and of purgatiue medicines still coupling of them together in such an odious hatefull manner as you do Whereas in very deed there is no such matter if things be rightly vnderstood as hereafter shall better appeare In the meane time yet happie it is that God himselfe hath pronounced by himselfe that he is the author of Phisicke and hath therefore commanded the Phisition to be had in some good regard and reuerence for his knowledge sake Otherwise if such tales as you haue told of poysons and of purgatiues should be beleeued as indeed God be thanked they are not to be credited Phisitions might say they haue spun a fine threed and brought their hogs to a faire market and Phisicke her selfe might haue great cause to reioyce for bringing vp so
good spices as well with meat as also in their daily drinke suppinses and cawdels and yet for any thing that either you or I can see God be thanked there comes no hurt at all in the world thereby But why it should destroy and consume naturaâ—â— heate and moisture as you affirme which are the principals of our life in truth I vnderstand not vnlesse as I said the takers thereof should make whole meales thereof which I am sure no man doth For then indeed it may be it would worke that effect and so would all your cordiall spices do also if men should in that disorderly maner feede on them as to make whole meales thereof Whereas now being moderately taken and yet daily too they be great preseruers of health in most sort of men or rather in all kind of complexions as aâ—l men I am sure will confesse That which is added out of Aristotle Oâ—ne simile additum simili reddit ipsum simile magis simile maketh litâ—e for your purpose For as your selfe confesseth that Contraria contrarijs curantur so I thinke you are as willing to confesse also that similia similibus nutriuntur Now â—ir if Tabacco be hote and drie as you put downe that it is and the cholericke man hote likewise and then if â—â—ke be increased with like as Aristotle saith or if like be nourished maintained and preserued with like as Phâ—sitions affirme then like inough it is that the cholericâ—e mans complexion is rather preserued by Tabacco then destroyed presupposed alwaies if it be moderately taken It may be you will here haue a kind of euasion and a certaine starting hole and I guesse well inough what it is yet neuerthelesse I will not name it But for anything that is yet said of you to the contrarie this argument holdeth and so it shall rest for me Moreouer that Principle of Aristotle Omne simile additum simili c. must haue a nice interpretation and must be rightly vnderstood or else it is like inough I tell you to breede an errour Like increaseth like you say It is true but yet in quantitie it increaseth it and not in qualitie vnlesse that same like be in a higher and stronger degree of qualitie and likenesse And yet how it should then rightly be called like being by reason of a higher degree vnlike for my part I see not As for example hote water being put to as hote water maketh not that hote waâ—er hotter then it was vnto the which it is put It may well increase the substance and quantitie of that hote water but yet not the heate and quality thereof Then vnlesse Tabacco be hotter then choler which will be very hard to proue it cannot increase choler in heate and qualitie But if it be colder in power and qualitie as I thinke it will fall out that it is then doth it rather abate and suppresse the heate of choler then increase it For warme water yea though it be good and warme water yet because it is not so hote as scalding hote water is being put to scalding hote water it doth not increase his heate a whit but rather cooleth it I warrant you try it when you will Touching the great store of vndigested and crude humors which are the effects of immoderate heates in vs as you affirme and so consequently are cause and occasion of hote feuers I see no cause of any such feare by Tabacco For if daily experience may serue for a sufficient proofe of the contrarie I for my part haue seene none at all neither hath any man else I am sure knowne any or at the least very few among so many thousands that daily take it that haue fallen into agues directly vpon the taking of Tabacco and therefore euen by that experiment also it doth seeme vnto me that the taking thereof especially in fume which as your selfe graunteth hath very small force to worke any great matter vpon our bodies can cause no such fierie and extreame heate in the bodie as is by you supposed but rather if it do giue any heate yet that heate is rather a familiar and a pleasing heate then an immoderate extraordinarie and an aguish distemperature And as for them that affirme Agues to be cured by Tabacco as you say if any vnlearned so say in my iudgement it is an vnsauory speech without sence or methode and I leaue it to them that so say to defend it as they can But it may be you mistake them Possible it is that their saying yea and their meaning too is thus that in the curing of Agues Tabacco may haue his good vse if he be rightly vsed as well as other purgatiues haue And that opinion well vnderstood is not greatly amisse For if Purgations being done in good order and conueniently giuen in their due times and seasons be one of the especiall helpes to rid and cure rotten Agues as you know it is then it is like inough that Tabacco by his purging facultie may do much good by taking away the cause of the Ague as other Purgations do For if you thinke it can do no good that way because it is hote and drie then by that reason likewise no Purgatiues in a maner that the old auncient writers did vse can do any good that way For that they were all or most of them of the same nature hote and dry as for example Elleborus Colocinth Elatery Esulus Scammony which was not onely vsed by them in a manner altogether but at this day also is one of the most common and vsuallest things that we haue especially in our great and magistrall compositions As for the daunger that you presuppose is in the often vse of Tabacco to them that be in health for dissipating consuming that wholesome humor by often vomits seeges sweatings spittings and coughings which otherwise would be turned to good bloud and nourishment and all this to be done to by the fume of Tabacco which by and by vanisheth away as all smokes do In my fancy all this is but a meere imagination and directly against that which your selfe hath sayd already affirming that the fume hath no great force to worke any matter of moment in our bodies as also flat against common and daily experience For neither I nor you nor any man else in my opinioÌ„ euer did see that the fume for of that your talke must be or else you talke to no purpose which is the thing onely that is in daily vse did euer worke any great purgings or vomits or sweates or if it did at any time yet it was by a meere accident and chance which is nothing to purpose As for the other humidities which as you say it prouoketh from the braine and other parts of the head a man may thinke that those things may as conueniently be done and with as litle hurt or danger with Tabacco as we see them daily done by your Errhinaes and Nasaliaes and Sternutatories which are vsually giuen
alledge that by the same extreme heat of Tabacco bloud being vndigested and crude becometh vnfit for the sperme and seed of man therby is hindred the propagation of mankind by this hellish smoke out of Plutoes forge This reason wholy dependeth vpoÌ„ the same foundation that the other did and therfore may well receiue the same answer that the other had So that in a matter vnnecessarie there needeth not any necessary speech to be had But whereas you do confidently affirme that Tabacco cureth the disease called Gonorrhaea and there uppon would seeme to inferre that therefore it hindreth propagation good Lord how are you deceiued therein and yet in so saying what an excellent gift and vertue haue you found out in Tabacco and what a siâ—gular praise haue you put downe on Tabaccoes side I for my part haue as much labored in the curing of that disease as perchance most men haue of our profession and I hope to with as good successe But if I had thought in all the time of my practise that Tabacco had bene such a fellow and had had any such prerogatiue in the cure of that disease assure your selfe I would haue bene better acquainted with him then I am I would haue giuen him right good entertainement I will not vse many words in this matter for diuers good honest respects neither enter into any discourse to rip vp the diuerse kinds natures and differences of that loathsome disease or once seeme to mention the causes occasions thereof or to deale with any part of his remedies But let this only suffice for an infallible principle a thing to be maintained against all gaine sayers That whatsoeuer is good to cure that sicknesse that selfe same thing is singular good to helpe and farther propagation if it be orderly administred and rightly vnderstood For what thing in the world is there that is a greater enemy to generation then that disease is Tum quia corrumpiâ— totum nostrum corpus reddit ipsum semen languidum effoetum tum quia ipsa generandi etiam instrumenta nimis flaccida facit ad cocundum prorsus inepta Sed hoc in loco parcè timideque loquendum est Noui enim quà m sint malè morata haec nostra tempora in quà m audax oeuum aâ— dissolutam aetatem inciderimus Quocirca vt decentiae pudoris ac verecundiae iusta honesta ratio habeatur arbitramur multò meliùs esse hìc consistere quà m longiùs progredi The fifth reason is for that It decaieth and dissipateth naturall heate that kindly warmth in vs and thereby is cause of crudities and rheumes occasion of infinite maladies c. These obiections are much like vnto those that went before and are already sufficiently answered But yet for farther satisfaction let this yet be remembred by the way That in another place before your selfe hath confessed That in cold rheumaticke hydropicall bodies c. Tabacco may do much good And now is it become the cause of increase of these rheumes and cold waterish humors in our bodies here is a great alteration indeed vpon a sudden Likewise in another place you sayd it cured D. T. ofhis cold rheumaticke stomach And as I take it that was done by giuing of it some increase of good heate with a sufficient drinesse for otherwise I know he could not haue bene cured For this is flat and plaine that contraria contrarijs curantur And I am sure your selfe also is of that opinion And is Tabacco now found out to be a decayer and dissipator of that naturall kindly heate which heretofore it did giue and procure to others by your owne confession By my fay the reconciling of these and the like speeches whereof there be diuerse in your booke will put a wiser man then I am or your selfe either to cast about and to seeke the bottome of his wits how it may be brought to passe But for that the proofe of this your fifth reason hangeth vpon the proofe of your fourth argument as your selfe saith and for that cause your selfe also is willing to referre vs ouer to that fourth part of your Discourse euen so will I do to and so here rest a while And in the meane time if it will please you to giue me leaue to enter into the consideration of some of your pretty odde conceits which you haue here set downe in this chapter I will thanke you The troth is I feare me I am not very well able to conceiue your meaning thoroughly by reason that to my thinking in the deliuering of them you do vse diuerse kinds of windings in and out and as it were certaine turnings to and fro that are not altogether voyde of obscurity but it may be it is my weakenesse in vnderstanding and not your darkenesse in penning And therfore in truth I craue pardon if I chance to make an offence in mistaking c. One of your conceits is this That much hardnesse and drinesse is the occasion that moisture cannot enter If you meane by these words hard and dry an excessiue and an extreame hardnesse and drinesse in the highest degree then it may be yeelded vnto As for example A hard flint or a marble stone or a hote hard dry gad of steele will admit no moisture into it I confesse though you powre neuer so much water vpon them But what is this to Tabacco or what analogie or proportion is there betweene our bodies and these things though old bodies be dry and hard too yet are they neuer so dry and hard but they can admit moisture well inough like as when the earth is verie dry in so much that it is thereby full of chaps and chinkes because it is a porous bodie as we call it and in some sort spongious it is therfore apt able to receiue great moisture and to drinke in mightie showers of raine as daily experience sheweth albeit as it should seeme you are of a contrary opinion And euen so fareth it with our bodies Another conceit of yours is this That drinesse doth not onely hinder the receiuing of moisture but also by that meanes it is an enemy to nourishment as you inferre vpon it First to answer you merily and so I pray you to take it all the suckgrouts in London and all the whole company of tiplers of which societie I tell you there is not the least number will be all vpon you with open voice and come all against you in this to testifie That drinesse neuer hindered as yet the receiuing and imbibing in of any good liquor But in good sadnesse I thinke you speake and meane this of an exceeding great drinesse and in the highest degree and such as cannot be found in our bodies for so it must needes be that you meane and no otherwise And in that sence I assure you ouermuch wet also is as great an enemy to nourishmeÌ„t as by this familiar example may soone appeare Admit a
with a long discourse to set out the nature and force of custome and to tell what great acts she can do and bring to passe all which we do yeeld vnto But yet this is nothing to the chiefe point in question And for a briefe answer to all that is or may be said in that behalfe I am not of opinion that the Indians long vsing of it hath made it no poison to them but contrariwise because of it selfe and in his owne nature it was not a poison nor any hurtfull thing therefore with them it grew into custome For it is most likely in all common sence and reason that things must first either be found or knowne or at the least thought to be good and wholesome before they can be drawne into any vse and custome Some litle triall and experience I confesse must be had of them to know and find out the true nature of euery thing whether they be good or no but yet that little trial would neuer bring it to a daily custome or long vse but would by and by be checked and controlled if the thing it selfe were not found good and wholesome vpon the first proofe and triall thereof So that as I haue sayd alreadie iâ— is much more probable that the goodnesse of a thing is the cause of the custome thereof and not the custome cause of the goodnesse As for those particular instances of the people that Virgil maketh mention of and of the woman and maide that fed vpon poysons and killed others with her breath and yet liued her selfe let them either be true stories or but reports from mouth to mouth let them I say be what they will yet I account them but as pretty and rare obseruations of certaine secret Sympathies and inward workings of nature more to be wondered at for the strangenesse thereof then to be of any force to proue any thing against Tabacco or to be answered for any great matter of moment in this case But yet if it so please you let all this be granted That vse and custome doth make a thing good in time and yet what haue you got by this then For then all the Tabacconists haue that that they would haue For if custome say they made it good to the Indians why may it not do the like to the English in time If custome be the matter and all in all then let vs alone for we will bring it into as great vse and custome as euer aniething was In that you graunt it to haue such a prerogatiue for the Scorbute commonly called the Scuruy and for other the like diseases incident to that kind of people herein also you haue sayd verie much in his commendation For there is no disease that is more loathsome then that is neither is there anie that deserueth greater reward for the cure then that doth I am sure it is not vnknowne to you what a notable treatise is written by that worthie old man Wyerus about the curing of this Scuruie as they call it and how much he hath written in the praise of one poore herbe called Coclearia in respect that it is so wholesome for the cure of that disease And if Tabacco haue this singular gift also for that disease then I hold him in great regard and estimation and account of him as of an excellent simple that deserâ—eth rather to be worthily written of then to be so bitterly inueighed against To conclude at the last when you haue ended all your talke of the Scuruie then yet you labour to proue Tabacco to be a poyson forsooth this way Because say you when it is taken of an infected body it draweth out the poyson like to himselfe Your owne words are these or to this effect That Tabacco doth the like to other poysons which when they find any of their owne qualitie and nature in mans body c. they draw forth the same the likâ— coueting his like and yet leaue the sound and healthy humours cleare and vnspotted Blessed God I neuer heard of such a reason in al my life For in my poore opinion in saying this that you haue said you haue mightily freed Tabacco euen from the very suspition of all poyson or else I am wonderfully deceiued In this place there is some occasion offered to speake somewhat of the nature and manner of purgatiues in Phisicke Namely to tell by what meanes this act of purging is performed and what be the true causes of this attraction or drawing or purging of humors in a mans body He that shall enter into this question shall find a large field to plough For there be manie opinions about it and all earnestly defended some saying it is à manifesta qualitate others ab occulta aliqua vi coelesti virtute others some ab ipsa forma specifica as they tearme it And some againe à violento quodam motu contrarietate substantiae but the most famous for learning say it is à similitudine naturae and that is Galens opinion albeit he is mightily gainesaid and sore taxed for the same by that learned and famous man Valariola And therefore knowing that this discourse would be rather tedious then profitable in so short a Treatise as this is I will leaue that point for this time and rather seeke to answer your words as they lye in order Two things you do attribute vnto Tabacco the one is that from infected bodies it draweth out all the ill humours the other is that it leaues all the other humors in the bodie cleare and vnspotted as you say Two notable properties I assure you and such as would rather make a man in loue with Tabacco then cause him to hate it as a poyson What does Tabacco draw out of an infected bodie corrupt venimous humors because it is a corrupt venom it selfe and is like to those venimous humours that are drawne out by it and expelleâ— Me thinke in common sence that should not be so As I told you euen now so I say againe I will not stand vppon the examining and sifting out of the causes and the meanes of this sayd attraction and expulsion of humours for there be many opinions of that point as hath bene alreadie said and all of them probable and defensible But thus much both you and I do confesse and we see it also to be so that ill humors be purged or expelled or tumbled out of the body Marry how they do come out and by what meanes that cannot I tell but that they do come ouâ— that is flat and plaine and euerie man sees it by these said purgatiues And now Sir to leaue all schoole questions aside and plainely and bluntly to come to the point let me aske you but this familiar question Doth one friend vse to driue out another friend out of his house when he findeth him there who is like to himselfe in nature good will and conditions or rather doth he thrust out and expell a theefe if he
find him there or an enemie or such a one as loues him not but is contrary to him in all his actions and meanings Me thinke the case is too plaine and needeth no farther dispute But yet like finding his like it expelleth that like say you still and this is the faburden of your song And is it euen so indeede and does like expell his like with you now who haue borne vs in hand all this while that like added to like did delight and ioy in that like and increase that like in our bodies For if it doth all this then belike it expelleth it not nor one venome doth not thrust out another as you affirme now For if this reason of yours be true then he that hath taken a strong poison should be healed either by taking more of that poison or else by taking of a stronger poison then that is But try that when ye will and giue rats-bane to him that is poysoned with rats-bane alreadie and you shall see what a wise cure you shall haue of it So that to conclude as farre as I can see you are as farre off from prouing Tabacco to be a poison as both by reason and your owne words to he is rather found to be an enemie vnto poyson and an expeller and a conquerour of the same yea and more then so to for by your owne report it leaueth the other good humours which is a wonder I can tell you cleare and vnspotted as your owne words do testifie Now then this great storme we see is past and ouerblowne and this terrible accusation is much like to a Sampsons post thwited to a pudding pricke as the Prouerbe is Well now what more We must not yet so go away Then let vs heare your seuenth reason in the name of God The seuenth reason is for that The first author and finder thereof was the diuell and the first practisers of the same were the diuels Priests and therefore not to be vsed of vs Christians I must needes thinke that you were very neare driuen to go to the hedge for a stake when you pickt out this argument And must it needs be deuised and inuented by the diuell and must it needes be vsed by the diuels Priests and seruants and by none other and must not Chrstian men vse it in any case because Infidels the diuels seruants haue vsed it what remedie But yet my mind giueth me it should not be so And yet all this while why it should come from the diuell I heare no other reason made by you as yet but onely because Monardus the Spaniard affirmes it nay rather for that he imagineth it to be so And my answer forsooth is this for that he doth but barely affirme it onely and for that his assertion is but coniecturall I see no reason but that it may be as safely and as easily reiected as beleeued But yet if the circumstances be well considered that Monardus himselfe putteth downe me thinke it were a more charitable motion to thinke that it came from God who is the author of all good gifts then from the diuell This one thing I am most sure of that euen this selfe same Monardus whom you here bring against him as your greatest proofe hath written as much good of Tabacco as can be affirming him not onely to be verie good against infinite diseases in a manner but also to haue a singular gift to refresh men of their great and intollerable wearisomnes in their iourneyings Yea to be such a wonderfull preseruer curer of poisons yea and of that great admirable poison too called Bague how soeuer it hath pleased you to slander him in your last Chapter before this and in conclusion knitteth vp the whole Treatise of him with these words That for his excellent vertues Tabacco is had amongst the Indians in wonderfull estimation c. Now Sir how such an excellent thing as this is by his owne report should now be sayd by him to come from the diuell that would be knowne Touching the taking of it by their Priests and by and by falling asleepe thereupon c. Marke me but that whole discourse well and ye shall see it is taken reported quite amisse for indeede it maketh all for Tabacco For take but Monardus his owne tale and by him it should seeme that in the taking of Tabacco they were drawne vp and separated from all grosse and earthly cogitations and as it were caried vp to a more pure and cleare region of fine conceits actions of the mind in so much as they were able thereby to see visions as you say able likewise to make wise sharp answers much like as those men are wont to do who being cast into trances and exstasies as we are wont to call it haue the power and gift thereby to see more wonders and high misticall matters then all they can do whose braines cogitations are oppressed with the thicke and foggy vapours of grosse and earthy substances Marry if in their trances sudden fallings they had become nasty beastly feâ—lowes or had in most loathsome manner fallen a spuing and vomiting as drunkards are wont to do then indeed it might well haue bene counted a diuellish matter and bene worthy reprehension But being vsed to cleare the braines and thereby making the mind more able to come to her selfe and the better to exercise her heauenly gifts and vertues me thinke as I haue said I see more cause why we should thinke it to be a rare gift imparted vnto man by the goodnes of God then to be any inuention of the diuell And if that their Priests as you call them do abuse at any time this good gift to deceiue thereby the people with subtill and doubtfull speeches in their answers that was the Priests fault and to be ascrâ—bed vnto them and no whit to be imputed to the thing Now sir by the way whether those Priests do serue the diuell or no and be his seruants as you say they are that I do leaue to you and others to iudge I am of Cicero the Ethnickes opinion in this That there is no people or nation so rude or barborous in the world but that they haue some sence and feeling of God and that thereby they do ordaine and appoint to themselues some one kind or other of diuine worship and seruice of that immortall and omnipotent deity and most blessed euerlasting power albeit they vnderstand him not aright as we Christians do And albeit neither these Indians nor yet those Philosophers whom all ages haue hitherto so much reuerenced and by whom we haue receiued so many helpes of learning as we haue neuer knew Christ aright for that perchance they neuer heard of him and therefore like inough that they do all erre in their religion or rather superstition yet in my fancy it were a hard thing to pronounce them all to be the diuels seruants and his instruments being otherwise
the smoke of a thing worketh no such operation or increaseth not melancholie as you presuppose that it doth let me giue you another instance by another plaine demonstration Behold your poore ploughmen that liue continually in smokie houses and your blacke Smiths that are still moyling in sea-coale fire all the day long and Grim the Colier that is all his life time almost in continuall smoke in somuch as in a maner he feedes vpon it and tell me if you find many melancholie men among them All to be smeered perchaunce you shall haue them with smoke and soote on the outside and with foule blacke quarrie scorched hands but yet you shall see them as merrie and as madde knaues with as white teeth and as good complexions as any men aliue and as litle touched with sadnesse or melancholie as he that is least subiect to that disease Vnlesse it be sometime now and then when the poore Colier is set vpon the Pillorie for false measuring his coales then perchaunce he may be somewhat sad and melancholie for the time while his fooles head stands peeping out at the Pillorie hole But assoone as he hath giuen them the slip and gotten his head once from the Pillorie and is gone but some two or three miles out of London he is as merrie againe as a Cricket and all to be-knaues the Marshall for his labour and biddes him come now and he dare to fetch him to the Pillorie againe What must poore smoke being so light a thing and so soone vapoured away and so and so taken as your selfe hath described and by and by let out againe must smoke I say needes haue so great a force as to increase such a sad soure humor as melancholie Is no possibly as Domingo was woont to say Marrie if the smoke were a matter of solide substance so that it might be chewed as other meates are and swallowed downe and concocted and digested and then distributed and conueyed by the veines to the particular parts of the bodie to feede and cherish them then perchaunce vpon this long abode in the truncke of our bodie and vpon the thorough fermenting and working of it selfe into the whole masse or lumpe of our bloud that giueth vs nourishment if all this I say were done or might be done then perchaunce you had somewhat to say and to warne good Students to take heede how they did meddle with Tabacco for feare of increase of melancholie Otherwise in my iudgement this needlesse feare of yours doth somewhat sauour of melancholie in your selfe For you know that melancholie men be sad and fearefull non timenda timent which is one of the chiefest properties of a melancholie person And thus much briefly touching the smoke of Tabacco But now sir it may be your opinion is also that Tabacco increaseth melancholie and worketh this great daunger and offence by his purging facultie and this perchaunce is that which you seeme to glaunce at by the way when you say that it auoideth that liquid Phlegmaticke matter which would be good nourishment and that which otherwise should be mingled with the rest of our bloud and giue a moisture to the drinesse of melancholie and so keepe all things in good tune and temper c. If this be your opinion that bâ—bâ—cause the smoke of Tabacco maketh the takers thereof to spit a litle and to auoid by the mouth some waterish matter that therefore I say when it is vsed in purging it will purge the like matter also as it seemes you do make your chiefest argument vpon that point then I say that euen in this point also either you are or you may be deceiued For there be many things that will prouoke a man to spit much and yet they will not purge at all As for example take but Mastich and chew it vp and down in your mouth and you shall spit for life and yet it is no purgatiue The like may be said of an vnripe sharpe sower apple or the like for it will not onely do so to the eater thereof but also prouoke the stander by sometime to spit and spattle as much and more too as I haue seene And thereof I thinke comes this English Prouerbe That a mans teeth doth water at this or at that c. And here is to be noted by the way and it is worth the noting too and hath bene remembred alreadie in another place before that of that same liquid moist matter which you so much talke of and make it so necessarie and precious a thing as you do in all your discourse there is I say such store and plentie of it in our bodies for the most part and it is at all times so readie at hand to come at a call that there neede be no feare at all of spending of that moisture by the vse of Tabacco especially to vs that are English men and Ilanders as hath bene declared alreadie before But here you come vpon me and say Yea sir but Tabacco is a Purgatiue there is no question of that and because it is a Purgatiue therefore it must needs purge the like matter by the bellie which it doth auoid by the mouth and that is Phleame and other liquide matter and humiditie and in purging of that it maketh melancholie the drier and so consequently it maketh it the worse c. No not so good sir and to answer this obiection fully I doubt not but that you do know right welâ— that as touching purgatiue medicines there be two opinions of antiquitie The one affirmeth that they do purge by election and are called Elâ—ctiuè purgantia which is as much to say as that they do purge with a kind of choice or iudgement either this or that humor alone or else some one humor more then any other And yet those Electiuè purgantia do not so make speciall choise of that onely one humor alone as a Deere is wont to be singled out from the rest of the heard and so had in chace by himselfe alone without any other but their meaning is that those Purgatiues do expell and auoid some one humour more then the rest indeed which they do most fancie and haue a liking vnto but yet with that principall humor some one or other humor too may in part be expelled and auoided at the same instant as you and I do know many of those electiue Purgatiues which do purge some one yea some two nay some three humors all at one time though not all those humors indifferently at one time but they shall not be named by me of purpose because I thinke it not meete to acquaint the vulgar sort with any such secrets The other opinion is and those be iolly fellowes too I can tell you that be the authors of it That there are no purgatiues at all by election or choiâ—e which are called Electiuè purgantia as I haue told you but that all purgatiues do purge promiscuè or as a man would say a