or the like or if the Eyes should be placed in the Breast in the Neck or Mouth or the Ears in the Breast or Belly or behind in the Head or if the Arms should be where the Legs are or the Legs where the Arms are set or that an Arm or Hand Leg or Foot should grow out of the Head or if a Man should be in some kind like a Beast and many the like Examples might be given this being against the nature of the kind and not according to the natural shape may be called a Monster Thus there are both ugly Creatures and Monsters the one being a Defect of Nature the other a Fault of Nature or as I may say a Vice in Nature But a right shap'd Toad may be of an ill favour'd kind as not being so handsom a kind as Mankind or many other kinds of Animals for I never heard any Poetical high Expressions of the Commendation of a Toad as to say that is a most beautifull amiable sweet lovely Toad Of Upright Shape THat which makes Man seem so Excellent a Creature above other Animal Creatures is nothing but the Straitness and Uprightness of his Shape for being strait breasted and his Throat so equal to his Breast and his Mouth so equal to his Throat makes him apt for Speech which other Creatures have not for either their Legs Belly or Neck Mouth and Head are uneven or unequally set And this Shape doth not onely make Man fit for Speech but for all sorts of Motion or Action which gives him more Knowledge by the Experience thereof from the Accidents thereby than all other Animals were they joyned together Thus Speech and Shape make Men Gods or Rulers over other Creatures Memory is Atoms in the Brain set on fire SOme say Memory is the folding of the Brain like Leaves of a Book or like Scales of Fishes which by motion of Wind or Vapours are caused by outward Objects which heave up their Folds wherein the Letters or Print of such things as have been represented to it and those things that have been lost in the Memory is either by the reason those Folds have never been opened after they were printed or that the Prints have been worn out as not being engraven deep enough But I think it is as likely that the Brains should be full of little Substances no bigger than Atomes set on fire by Motion and so the Fire should go out and in according as the Motion is slackned or increased either by outward Objects or inward Vapours and when things are lost in the Memory it is when the Fire of those Atomes is gone out and never kindled again and that sometimes the Memory is not so quick as at other times is because some Vapours damp and smother the Fire or quench it out But Memory is the light and life of Man and those that have the most of those kindled Feabers or Atomes are the greatest Wits and the best Poets having the clearest Sparks Now the Substances are plain and not figured in new born Children nor clearly kindled but take Figures as they receive Objects and when they see their Nurse which is the first thing they take notice of then one of those small Substances turns into the Figure of the Nurse yet that Figure being not kindled presently because the moysture of the Brain hinders that Motion that kindles the Fire and the Figure doth no good unless it be thorowly kindled and the brighter it is the perfecter is the Memory And the reason why Children have not so much Knowledge is because they have not so much Heat nor so many Figures in their Brains nor those Substances so clear for Wood that is newly set on fire is not so bright a Fire as when it is half burnt out for Men we see in their middle age have the perfectest Understanding and the reason why Old Men become as Children is because Children are as a Fire that is first kindled and Old Men as Fire that is burnt out Now there are not onely those Figures that the Senses have brought in but new Figures that former Figures have made which are those Fictions which Poets call Fancy and the reason why all Men are not so good Wits as some is because their Fuel is too wet or too dry which are those Atomes and the reason why some Men are not so wise as they might be is because Objects come not in time enough for though they take the Prints yet they take not the Fire Now those Prints or Forms are like Glasses or several Forms of Pots of Earth for though they are formed and figured yet they are not hardned or perfected untill they have been in the Fire so that the Form may be there although not kindled but when they are kindled they are Thoughts which are Memory Remembrance Imagination Conception Fancy and the like Of Reason SOme say Reason is born with a Man as well as Passion but surely we may more certainly say that it is bred with a Man than born with a Man for we see many times that Men are born which have never the use of Reason as those we call Changelings or Naturals but we never saw any Man born without Passion for Passion seizeth the Body as soon as Life and they are inseparable and no more to be separated than Motion and Life for as soon as the Body receives Life it receives Like and Dislike as Pain grieves it and Ease pleaseth it so that Passion is the Sense of Life and Reason the Child of Time But Reason is like the stone or kernel of Fruit-trees which if it be well set with the help of the Sun and Earth may come to be a Tree but yet it is not a Tree whilst it is a Kernel so we may say Man is born with Reason because in time he is capable of Reason but yet he is not a reasonable Creature untill he can distinguish between Good and Evil for himself but as Life begets Sense so Sense begets Reason Thus Reason is a second or third Cause of Nature for Nature works producingly as one thing produceth another and that other a third But Natures first Work and principal Material is Life and Life is Motion and Motion is Nature and Nature is the Servant of God for Art is the Invention of Man and Man the Invention of Nature Of Imagination of Man and Beast ONE Man may know what Imagination another Man hath by the relation of Discourse but Man cannot know what Imaginations Beasts have because they can give no relation to Mans Understanding for want of Discourse wherefore Beasts may have for all any Man knows as strange and as fantastical Humours Imaginations and Opinions as Men and as clear Speculations and Beasts are as busy and as full of Action as Men although not in useless Actions yet it is in the prudent part for the subsistence of Life for themselves and their Young being provident and iudustrious thereunto
find out many excellent and beneficial Arts but not the Cause or Principle Yet we find that Nature works not so curiously upon the Essence of Things as upon the Corporal Substance for Nature is but rude in the Minds of Men and so in other Creatures untill Community and Art have civilized them and Experience and Learning have perfected them Of Nature NAture is more various in the Shapes Thoughts and Colours than in the Substance or Kind of Things yet for Shapes there are but four grounds as High Low Thick and Thin of Quality or Essences she hath but four as Fire Water Air and Earth and for Colours the ground is onely Light and for Life she hath given onely three degrees as the Life of Growth the Life of Sense and the Life of Reason which is a Motion belonging to the Mind the other two Motions belong to the Corporal Part and all Life is but Motion so that Motion is the Life of Natures Work and the Work of Natures Life The Power of Natural Works ALthough Nature hath made every thing Good if it be rightly placed yet she hath given her Works power of misplacing themselves which produceth Evil Effects for that which corrupts Nature as it were is the disordered mixture But of all her Works Man hath entangled her waies the most by his Arts which makes Nature seem Vicious when most commonly Mans Curiosity causeth his Pain But there is nothing that is purely made and orderly set by Nature that hath not a Virtue in it but by her Creatures mis-applyings produceth a Vice Change in Nature NAture hath not onely made Bodies changeable but Minds so to have a Constant Mind is to be Unnatural for our Body changeth from the first beginning to the last end every Minute adds or takes away so by Nature we should change every Minute since Nature hath made nothing to stand at a stay but to alter as fast as Time runs wherefore it is Natural to be in one Mind one minute and in another in the next and yet Men think the Mind Immortal But the Changes of Nature are like the Sleights of a Juggler we see many several Shapes but still but one Matter Of Natural Wars IT seems to me a thing above Nature that Men are not alwaies in War one against the other and that some Estates live in peace somtimes forty or an hundred years nay some above a Thousand as the Venetians without Civil Warrs for the old saying is So many Men so many Minds yet they meet all in Ambitious Desires and naturaly Self-love seeks and strives for Preheminency Command which all cannot have yet submit and obey which is strange But say some it is Love that Makes Unites and Keeps a Common-wealth in Peace no saies another it is Fear and another may say as Tichobrahe the Dane said of the Sun and Earth For Ptolomy saith that the Sun moveth and the Earth stands still Copernicus said that the Earth moved and the Sun stood still Tichobrahe took up the third Opinion to which could be added no more but that they both moved So one may say it is both Love and Fear since those two Passions most commonly accompany one another But say they all things naturally incline to Peace and Unity and that War is unnatural because it tends to Destruction but some may say again that we find Nature hath made nothing but is subject to Preying Ravening and Devouring one thing of another and that most things live upon the spoil of another by the Humours Constitutions and Desires she hath given them for in many things their Lives cannot subsist or be nourished but by the Death of other Creatures So that Men are not only subject to War upon one another but all Creatures that Nature hath made as also the Elements for what is Thunder but a War betwixt Heat and Cold for Nature meeting in Contrarieties must needs Dispute when they meet and are never quieted untill one part get the upper hand and though Numbers make aConsort yet they must have a Sympathy one to another Thus all things are subject to War yet the Causes are different that provoke them to it But Nature would have wanted work if she had made all things to continue and nothing to decay for Death is as natural as Life but it seems to be Natures great Art to make all things subject to War and yet live in Peace as not to make an utter Destruction Of Darkness DArkness is more powerfull than Light for a little dark Cloud will ecclipse the great light of the Sun and there would be more Twilight if there were no Clouds for the Clouds are like a Screen that hides the Light Of the Air. THE Air is Water as well as the Sea So that Men Beasts and Birds are all but kinds of Fishes for we cannot live without Air which is rarified Water but it seems we are of a subtiller Sense than Fishes which makes us require a thinner Element Of Air. THE Air is as all other Animal Creatures are subject to Corruption Putrefaction and Distemper somtimes in a continual Feaver other times in an intermitting Feaver sometimes in a Hectick Feaver other times it hath shaking Agues Wind-Chollcks and oft times Rheumatick and Hydropical and as the Air is so it is apt to infect mens Bodies by reason that Air is so thin and subtil as it enters and intermingles into all things Of the Corruptions of the Air. THE Air is more corrupted in the Spring and the Autumn than in the Winter and Summer for in the Winter it is less corrupted by reason it is more united as being congealed by Cold neither hath the Sun that Force to draw more Vapours than it can digest besides for want of Heat the Pores of the Earth are shut where by less Vapours issue out and in Summer it hath a sufficient heat to concoct what it draws up or at least it contracts it so as to keep it from running into corruption and the Spring at the Suns return opens the Pores of the Earth suoking out Vapour there from which V pour is like the first milk of a Cow or the like Udder'd Creature when they have new cast forth their Birth which Milk is all corrupted with Blood and Matter by reason it hath been so long in the Udder so likewise the Vapour is corrupted when it is first drawn as it were by the returning Sun by reason it wanted Vent and Agitation to purify it and as it is ascending it mingles with those Creatures that live upon the Earth for the Pores of the Creatures that live upon the Earth also open by the springing heat from whence Vapours like wise do issue from their Bodies yet they live by the Air that encompasseth them as Fishes do in Water which if the Water be corrupted the Fishes dye caused by the Malignity they draw in for though they are not smotherd or choaked as in Frosty weather yet could
surely invention is easier then imitation because invention comes from nature and imitation from paintul and troublesome inquirie and if he goeth not just the path that hath been trod before him he is out of the way which is adouble pain at first to know the path and then to tread it out but invention takes his own wayes besides invention is easie because it is born in the brain Where imitation is wrought and put into the brain by force EPISTLE SOme say as I heare that my book of Poemes and my book of Philosophical Fancies was not my own and that I had gathered my opinions from several Philosophers To answer the first I do protest upon the grounds of Honour honesty and Religion they are my own that is my head was the forge my thoughts the anvil to beat them out and my industry shaped them and sent them forth to the use of the world if any use may be made thereof but my Lord was the Master and I the Prentice for gathering them from Philosophers I never converst in discourse with any an hour at one time in my life And I may swear on my conscience I never had a familiar acquaintance or constant conversation with any prosest Scholar in my life or a familiar acquaintance with any man so as to learn by them but those that I have neer relation to as my Husband and Brothers it is true I have had the honour sometime to receive visits of civility from my Noble and Honorable acquaintance wherein we talk of the general news of the times and the like discourse for my company is too dull to entertain and too barren of wit to afford variety of discourse wherefore I bend my self to study nature and though nature is too specious to be known yet she is so free as to teach for every straw or grain of dust is a natural tutor to instruct my sense and reason and every particular rational creature is a sufficient School to study in and our own passions and affections appetites and desires are moral Doctors to learn us and the evil that follows excesse teaches us what is bad and by moderation we finde and do so learn what is good and how we ought to live and moderate them by reason and discourse them in the minde and there is few that have not so much natural capacity and understanding but may know if not finde out what is needful for life without artificial education for nature is the chief master art and education but the under ushers in the School of life for natural objections may be applied without the help of arts and natural rules of life may lead us safe and easy wayes to our journeys end and questionlesse nature was the first guide before art came to the knowledge and if it were not for nature art many times would lose her followers yet let nature do what she can art oft times will go out of the right way but many will say it is the nature of man that invents and the nature of man to erre that is t is the nature of man to be so ambitious as to strive to be wiser then nature her self but if nature hath given men ambition yet nature hath given men humilitie to allay that fiery appetite and though nature hath given men ignorance yet nature hath given men undestanding to bring them out of that darknesse into the light of knowledge and though nature hath obscured the secrets of the natural cause yet he hath given men nature to observe her effects and imaginations to conjecture of her wayes and reason to discourse of her works and understanding to sinde some out and these gifts are general to mankinde wherefore I finde no reason but my readers may allow me to have natural imagination understanding and inquiries as well as other Philosophers and to divulge them as they have done if that they beleeve that I am produced by nature and not by artifices hand cut out like a stone-statue but if my readers will not allow my opinions and fancies to be my own yet truth will but there is a natural education to all which comes without pains taking not tormenting the body with hard labour not the minde with perturb'd study but comes easy and free through the senses and grows familiar and sociable with the understanding pleasant and delightful to the contemplation for there is no subject that the sense can bring into the minde but is a natural in structour to produce the breeding of rational opinions and understanding truthes besides imaginary fancies if they will give their minde time as to think but most spend their time in talk rather then in thought but there is a wise saying think first and speak after and an old saying that many speak first and think after and doubtlesse many if not most do so for we do not alwayes think of our words we speak for most commonly words flow out of the mouth rather customarily then premeditately just like actions of our walking for we go by custome force and strength without a constant notice or observation for though we designe our wayes yet we do not ordinarily think of our pace nor take notice of every several step just so most commonly we talk for we seldom think of our words we speak nor many times the sense they tend to unlesse it be some affected person that would speak in fine phrases and though speech is very necessary to the course of mans life yet it is very obstructive to the rational part of mans minde for it imployes the minde with such busy and unprofitable maters as all method is run out of breath and gives not contemplation leave to search and enquire after truth nor understanding leave to examine what is truth nor judgment how to distinguish truth from falshood nor imagination leave to be ingenious nor ingenuity leave to finde invention nor wit leave to spin out the fine and curious threed of fancy but onely to play with words on the tongue as balls with rackets Besides a multiplicity of words consounds the solid sense and rational understanding the subject in the discourse yet to think very much and speak yery seldom makes speeed uneasy and the tongue apt to faulter when it is to deliver sense of the matter they have and want of uncustomary speaking makes the Orator to seek for words to declare the sense of his meaning or the meaning of his sense besides want of eloquence many times loseth not onely rational opinions but conceals truth it self for want of perswading rhetorick to raise up belief or to get understanding so that a contemplatory person hath the disadvantage of words although most commonly they have the advantage of thoughts which brings knowledge but life being short those that speak much have not time to think much that is not time to study and contemplate wherefore it is a great losse of time to speak idle word that is words that are
Wives the one to get a good Husband the other to keep her Husband from coveting his Neighbours Wife for it is an Honour for Maids to get good Husbands because it is a kind of Reproach to live unmarried for Marriage is Honourable and gives a Respect to Women unless they be incloystered which all Constitutions will not agree withall and an honest Wifes care is to please her Husband if she can when she hath him for Marriage is the end of an honest Mind to all but Widows for they when they marry again do as it were Cuckold their dead Husband and their living Besides if they have Children they make a Distraction and Division in their Families and most commonly to the ruine of the first Husbands Estate having so great a share and so much power according to our Laws And though they should not marther themselves as the Custome hath been in other Countryes but contrary rather to preserve their Health and to dry their Eyes after a while of those Obsequies of Tears which are Sacrifices to the Dead yet to live a retired Life to shew their unalterable Affections for though it be fit for a Widow to put off her violent Passion of Sorrow as well as she can yet there is no Humour becomes that Condition better than Sadness for Sadness which is a moderate Grief looks full of Fortitude and is Humble Modest Gracefull and so far from dis composing any part as it gives a setled and majestical Face So Painting is most disallowable in Widows for they should take the example of Judith where it is said when she went to Holofernes she anointed her self as she did usually in her Husband Manassas time which it seems she used not after he was dead before this time for as they have none to Displease so ought they not to Allure But some will say that their Poverty is such as they know not how to live and they may be presented to such a Fortune as may make them live happy and free from the Misery that Poverty compels them to It is answered that Nature is satisfied with a little if their Ambition be not great but if not they must make use of the old Proverb which is that Necessity hath no Law in case they present not their Necessity to be greater than it is But to return to Beauty it is pleasing either Natural or Artificial and both to be admired for if Art be Commendable why not in the Face as well as in the Feet in dancing Measures or as in the Hand upon Musick Instruments or in the Voyce or in the Art of Oratory and Poetry which will sooner increase Desires yet this is allowed of in all places and times not onely in Temporal Society but in Spiritual Unions where David the Beloved of God was a great Master in the Knowledge and Practice of them And if these Arts be Commendable and are Graces to all parts of the Body shall it be condemned onely for Colour in the Face And as Beauty is the Adornment of Nature so is Art the Adornment of Beauty and this saith the Defendant against the Plaintiff But all Opinions have or most of them Sides and Factions but my Opinion is so far with the Defendant as I believe all Adotnments of Beauty are lawfull for Women if the Intention be good Yet I am utterly against the Art of Painting out of three respects The first is Dangerous for most Paintings are mixed with Mercury wherein is much Quicksilver which is of so subtil a malignant nature as it will fall from the Head to the Lungs and cause Consumptions and is the Cause of swelling about the Neck and Throat The next is that it is so far from Adorning as it Dis-figures for it will rot the Teeth dim the Eyes and take away both the Life and Youth of a Face which is the grea'est Beauty Thirdly and lastly the Sluttishness of it and especially in the Preparatives as Masks of Sear-Clothes which are not onely horrid to look upon in that they seem as Dead Bodies embowelled or embalmed but the Stink is Offensive Then the Pomatum and Pultis which are very uneasy to lye in wet and greasy and very unsavoury for all the while they have it on it presents to their Nose a Chandlers Shop or a greasy Dripping-pan so as all the time they fry as it were in Grease neither will their Perfumes mend it and their Oils And though I cannot say they live in Purgatory because they shun all hot places for they cannot have the comfortable heat of the Fire and shun the Natural heat of the Sun as they must live alwaies as if they were at the North Pole for fear the Heat should melt away their Oil and Oily Drops can be no grace to their Face Dry Painting shrivels up the Skin so as it imprints Age in their Face in filling it full of Wrinkles wherefore Paintings are both Dangerous Ill-favoured and Sluttish besides the troublesome pains But for other Adornments in Women they are to be commended as Curling Powdring Powncing Cloathing and all the Varieties of Accoutrement in that they have none of the said former Qualities but give a gracefull advantage to the Person Besides Dressing is the Poetry of Women in shewing the Fancyes and is the cause of imploying the greater part of a Commonwealth for in four parts three of them are in the Arts of Adornments for it is not onely Tailers Imbroyderers Perfumers Milleners Feather-makers Jewellers Mercers Silkmen Semsters Shoemakers Tiremen and many many more but every one of these Trades have many Trades belong to them as for example How many Trades belong from the Silk-worm to the Ladies Gown and from the Golden Mine to the Lace that is laid upon it and so in order to all other things which is the cause of keeping a Commonwealth in Union in busying and imploying their Minds which keeps them from Factious Thoughts and Designs Besides it distributes and spreads the Maintenance of the Kingdome for without particular Commerce and Trasick a Commonwealth cannot stand and subsist for though many a Commonwealth may subsist without the help of their Neighbours yet it cannot live without their own Imployment and Dividement among themselves for as some share in Lands so others in Offices and the rest in Trades wherein all trasick from the one to the other so that every Man lives by his Neighbour and not altogether upon himself Of Paleness and Blushing WHen a sudden Paleness seizeth the Face it shews a Guiltiness or some great Fear but a Blush will come into the Face many times when there is no occasion to raise it for it oftner proceeds from the Constitution of the Body than from a Guiltiness of the Mind for when the Blood is thin and the Spirits are hot they are apt to run up to the Face without the Minds consent or knowledge but when Blushing is raised by the Mind it is commonly from a Noble Suspicion that is
thousand A Wicked Mans Heart is like a Snake of Wier put up round in a Box that when it is opened by base or cruel Actions it flyes in the Face of those that stand by it Of the Thoughts Allegory 42. THE Thoughts of Men are like the Pulses of Men the well-temper'd Pulse beats even strong and slow but a hot Constitution beats even strong and quick a feaverish Pulse beats double and quick but in a high Feaver the Pulse beats treble and sometimes seems to stand still and in a cold Constitution the Pulse beats slow and dull so the Thoughts of those that have slow strong and even Thoughts are Wise and Judicious those that are even strong and quick are Witty and Ingenious those that are double and quick have ready Wits but no Judgements those that have treble Thoughts and sometimes seem to stand still are Mad but have strong Fancies and those that are slow and dull have neither Wit nor Judgement There is no way to clear Thoughts but by Words Of Melancholy Allegory 43. MElancholy persons are never in the Mean but alwaies in Extremes as to be sometimes in an humour of extreme Laughter other times possest with high Fears passionate Weeping violent Anger or Rage and so with stupid Dulness and know not why and yet Rational Persons and therefore it is not alwaies Outward Objects but Inward Dispositions as the working of the Spirits or the motion of the Body for Melancholly Persons have thick gross heavy Humours when the Humour is rarified it moves Laughter when heated Anger when moved with desperate Fear the Smoke which is the breathing of it distils into Tears when setled and cold Stupid so this one Humour brings several Passions 44. WOrds of Commendations mixt with the Flowers of Rhetorick make a sweet Posie of Joy when they are bound up with the Beams of Pleasant Eyes But words of Reproach bound up with the Wrinkles of Frowns make a Rod to whip an Offender 45. THey that take Self-Love for their Guide ride in the Waies of Partiality on the Horse of Flattery to the Judge of Falshood and they that take Reason for their Guide ride in the Way of Probability on a Horse of Prudence towards the End of Truth 46. SPight creeps like a Snake out of the Bank of base Thoughts to sting the name of good Fame 47. THE Animal Figure of Mankind I will similize to an Island the Blood as the Sea that runs about the Mouth as the Haven which receive the Ships of Provision which are Meat Drinke or Mrechandice of Luxurious and Superfluous Meats and Drinks which cause many times the ruin of the Island like as a Rebellious Pride so the Humours of the Body swelling with malignity ruinate the Body by a sudden Usurpation as dead Palsies Apoplexies or the like but the exterior Senses are the Forts and the vital parts are like the Magazine which as long as they are secured and that there are Provisions they are safe but if once they are taken the Island is utterly lost and ruinated besides the Island is in great danger to be over-flowed for the Blood which is as the Sea being alwaies in perpetual motion running about Ebbing and Flowing through the narrow Veins and large Arteries if by chance it break through the Arteries or over-flow the small Veins it drowns the Island wherefore Chyrurgions which are like Drayners should cut Sluces to let it out 48. A Married life is an Olio Podrido of several Troubles and Vexations mixt together and say the chief Meat should be Turtle Doves though they are most commonly Scolding Daws yet Jealousie is the Sauce and Broth thereto Sickness and pain in Breeding and Bearing of Children are the Limmons and Oranges that are mixed therin On this Dish a Married life feeds which produceth no good Nourishment but breeds raw indigested cholerick and melancholy Humours but a single Solitariness is a Dish which is made with Ingredients of Peace Happiness Pleasure and Delight This Dish produceth good Nourishment and the Life oft-times invites the Muses to feed thereon 49. LIfe is like the Shell of a Nut and Reputation like the Kernell therein which if the Teeth of Time crack gently the Kernell comes out whole but if it crack it too rustly or hard it breaks the Shell and bruises the Kernel or champs it all in pieces 50. FRiendship is like to two Convex Glasses where the Species come forth and meet each other 51. THE Mind is like Nature and the several Thoughts are the several Creatures it doth create Forgetfulness is the Death and Remembrance the Life 52. JUstice should be a mans Governour Prudence his Counsellor Temperance his Friend Fortitude his Champion Hope his Food Charity his House Faith his Porter to keep out all Falshood and to let in none but Truth Wit his Companion Love his Bedfellow Patience his Mistris or HandMaid Reason his Secretary and Judgement his Steward 53. PRudence through the ground of Misery cuts a River of Patience where the Mind Swims in Boats of Tranquillity along the Streams of Life untill it come to the Shore of Death where all Streams meet 54. A Child's Brain is like ground uncultivated and Time the Husbandman with the several Senses which are as Plows throwing up the Furrows of Conception and soweth Seeds of Thoughts from whence sprout up several Opinions and Fancies 55. OR a Child's Brain is like an Island uninhabited and the Blood in the Veins is the Sea that doth surround it but Time the great Navigator plants it with Strength which causeth the Spirits as Merchants to traffique thereto by which it becomes populated with Thoughts and builds Towers of Imaginations the Magistrates which are Opinions dwell therin but the Castles of Fancie are for the Muses who attend the Queen of Wit but all Brains are not fertile alike but are like Islands that are neer the Poles which are inhabited with nothing but Wild Beasts as Ruff and Rude Bears others though they be neerer the Sun yet are Incipid and Barren being full of Heaths bearing nothing but Mossy Ignorance or else Moorish being full of Boggs of Sloth where Lives are swallowed up sinking insensibly and some other Brains have rich Soils but want the manuring of Education whereby the Thoughts which are the people grow lazy and live brutishly but those Brains that have rich Soils moderatly peopled well manured having not more peopled Thoughts than work for their Industry or so few as not to manage or imploy every part therein these Brains are fortified with Understanding Governed by Judgment Civilized by Reason Manured by Experience whereby they reape the plenty of Wisdome and live in peacefull Tranquillity and being inriched with Invention grow pleasant with Recreations making Gardens of Pleasure wherein grow Flowers of Delight and planting Orchards of various Objects which the several Senses bring in these grow tall Trees of Contemplations whereon the Birds of Poetry sit and sing and peck at the Fruit
not so much the Wisdome of Henry the Seventh that gave him the Crown as his Good Fortune in having a Tyrant Opposer on which the Peoples fear was above their feeling for they did apprehend more Tyrannie than they found in the time that Richard did reign for he made more good Laws in the time of his Reign than had been made in the Reign of many Kings before or after him But the Peoples mistrust cannot be satisfied with any Act let it be never so just or profitable but by their absence which they never think far enough untill they go to the Shades of Death and many times that which they believe will prove the best for them proves the worst because they follow not Reason but Will For Henry the Seventh whom they thought to be most happy under proved but a Tyrant in his Acts although a Saint in his Words for he brought by the means of Projecting and Informing Knaves the greatest or indeed all Estates to be Forfeited and so to be Compounded for by which he raised great Sums of Money to the ruining of many Antient Families yet he reigned peaceably most part of all his time which many a better and juster Prince had not the fortune to do Of the Emperors MOST commonly it may be said of Kings or Governors as they say of March It comes in like a Lion it goeth out like a Lamb and when it comes in like a Lamb it goeth out like a lion But when a Man desires to raise an Empire or himself to be an Emperor he flatters the People but when he is once become Emperor he makes the People flatter him Caesar might have proved a good Emperor but he had not time to be an ill one Augustus Caesar was a wise Prince he knew there was no way to settle the new-born Empire and to enjoy it peaceably but by gaining the Love of the People not by the base servile way of Flattery but by executing Justice and making wise and good Laws Tiberius was a good Prince whilst the memory of Augustus lasted in the Minds of the People and a wise Prince that he could dissemble his Humour so well and so long and none was so fit as Ascianus to bring him to bed of his great belly'd Cruelty Tiberius was of a lazy disposition as we may know by his solitary and luxurious life Nero came too soon to the Empire to reign well Vanities the Rulers of Youth despise Prudence and Temperance the Companions of Age his Vanities bred Vices his Vices bred Fear Fear bred Jealousie Jealousie bred Tyrannie Tyrannie bred Conspiracy and Conspiracy Destruction in brief he had not Age enough to poyse him he killed himself more out of Fear than Courage Both the Neroes the Uncles and the Cosen were much of a humour Nero Germanicus his Son he was Proud Cowardly Effeminat Envious Vainglorious Covetous to get Prodigal to spend Cruel without Craft and Mad he was not wise enough to rule his Empire nor temperate enough to govern his Vanities nor couragious enough to dissemble his Fears or be a good Prince As for Claudius the Emperour he was more learned than wise and he had more good Nature than Constancy and whatsoever ill he did he was seduced to do it by those he loved True it is he was of an easy Disposition but that proceeds more from a good Disposition in Nature than an evil one and it rather comes from Love than Hate although the Effects be all one for he that is easily perswaded and suddenly believes commits more Cruelty by his Credulity than distributes Justice by his good Nature As for Galba he had too narrow a Soul for so great an Empire for the Vices of Age and Covetousness had got hold of him he was Old and Crazy he had no Generosity to entice nor Sweet Behaviour to win nor Oratory to perswade nor Industry to order nor Faith to perform and whatsoever Man hath these Faults must needs get more Enemies than Friends As for Otho he had not Patience to try his Fortune neither lived he so long as any one could judge of his Government he was better beloved of his Souldiers than fortunate in their Successes besides he was beloved more of the People after he was dead than when he was living but whether he killed himself for the grief of those Souldiers that were lost or fear of the loss of the rest or for fear of himself it is doubtfull Vitelius was cruel gluttonous and of an unworthy nature For Vespasian he was very greedy of Gain to the height of Covetousness and yet he was very Generous for whatsoever he got though ill yet he bestowed it well he was a very mercifull Prince and very few Faults to be found in him He sprung from a Family of no great growth Titus Flavius Son to Vespasian he was so good there cannot enough be said in praise of him he was a Wise Prince and a Just Prince a Mercifull Prince and a Loving Temperate Carefull and Religious Prince he seemed to have more Goodness in him than were waies or means to express it he was Valiant Learned Mild Patient Industrious Skilfull in all Arts and Majestical Flavius Domitianus was Cruel and Vainglorious he followed not the steps of his Father nor Brother I observe Ill-born Natures cannot be bettered by Good Examples nor warned by Ill Examples for all the Cruel Emperors came to Untimely Deaths Of Pompey with Caesar. SOme praise Pompey and say He was a faithfull and loving Citizen of Rome a Father in defending the Laws and Liberties and a Martyr in dying in the Cause Others dispraise him and say It was Envy to Caesar that brought him out against him more than for the Publick Good and that if Pompey had had but the same Fortune he would have taken upon him the same Command Others again praise Caesar and say that he was forced to use his Power and Arms against the Senate out of necessity the one being much in Debt having exhausted his Estate the other in defence of his Life knowing the Senate would accuse him instead of rewarding him for his good Service and that Rational Men may judge by the succession of Story that he was necessitated and that Fortune being on his side gave him greater Hopes and higher Designs which he thought not at first on and that he had Reason though he had not been necessitated for though the Roman Government began from a Low and Mean Beginning yet it came to be the most Powerfull and Famous whilst Mediocrity ruled amongst them for at first their Poverty made them Just not daring to do Wrong and Prudent in providing the best waies and means to keep and raise themselves and Valiant and Industrious to defend themselves and to increase their Dominions Thus Virtues begot their Strength and raised their Fame But their good Fortune brought Plenty and Plenty Pride the one runs into Luxury the other into Ambition and Ambition begot Factions
the power to keep a Friendship for there was never any of our Senses that could constantly be unwearied of any one Subject or Object having naturally a various quality which makes them great Admirers but uncertain Lovers and Friends neither is it altogether the Strength of Love but the Length that makes a perfect Friendship Friendship of Kings SOme say that Kings are unhappy because they cannot have a Bosome-friend for there must be some Equality for True Friendship and a Prince makes himself a Subject or his Subject as great as himself in making particular Friendships which may cause Danger to his Person and State But a King that hath Loyal Subjects wants no Friend But say they a Friend is to open and disburthen the Thoughts from his Heart of all Joys Griefs and Secrets which are not so convenient or satisfactory to be published to all his Loyal Subjects To all which may be answered that his Privy Council is a Secret Friend where he may and ought to disburthen his Mind being an united Body or should be so which will increase his Joys with their Joys and ease his Griefs with their Counsel which is the part of a Friend So as a Privy Council to Kings is as a Private Friend to another Man Friendship of Parents and Children IT is said Parents and Children cannot have Friendship for they must have no tyes of Nature but be Voluntary and Free where in Parents it is rather a Self love or Self-interest than a clear Friendship Where I answer that there can be no Friendship but proceeds from Self-love and Interest for their delight is in their Friend and to dye for a Friend is because they cannot live without him Besides say they there is a Bar that hinders the Friendship of Parents and Children which is the Duty and Respect which ought to be in the Child towards the Parent and a Reservedness of the Father to the Child But to my thinking it is a strange Reason that Duty and Respect should hinder Friendship as if Friendship were built upon an open Rudeness But certainly True Love which is that which makes Dear Friendships takes more pleasure to be Commanded and to Obey those they love than to Command and be Obeyed Besides Respect hinders not the disclosing or the receiving into the Mind or helping with their Bodies or Estates or parting with Life which are the Acts of Friendship For I take Duty and Obedience to be from the Mind as consenting to their Desires and respect as towards the Body by an humble presenting of it self But a Reservedness of the Parent to the Child is rather a proud Insulting and Love of Authority than out of Love or Consideration for their good or to keep their Natural Affection for it must be a very Ill Nature that sweet and kind Perswasions free and open Relations seasonable and secret Counsellings willing and reasonable Actions shall not onely keep the Natural Love as from the Child to the Parent but tye a perfect Friendship as from Man to Man unless you will say there can be no perfect Friendship except there be an equality of their Ages which indeed a Child and a Parent can never be even in But Parents are so far from making of Friendship with their Children as they know less and are more unacquainted with them than with Strangers by their reserved Formalities or else they are so rudely Familiar with their Children as makes their Children rudely Familiar with them in which kind of Natures and Humours can be no tyes of Friendship neither with their own nor Strangers Of Madness in general THere are more that run Mad for the loss of Hope than for the loss of what they have Enjoyed as for example How many have run Mad for the loss of their Servant or Mistress which are called Lovers but few or none for their Husbands or Wives every Town or Kingdome at least may be an Example of the first but few in the whole World to be heard of the last And how many Parents have run Mad for the loss of their Children because they have lost the hopes of their Perfections or Excellencies which Time might have brought forth that might have been an Honour to their Name and Posterity which by Death were cut off So as it is not so much for the present Comfort they lost in their Child for few Parents make their Children their onely or chief Society but the expectation of the Future being lost is that they most commonly run Mad for for there are none that wish not themselves in a good Condition and there are very few that not onely wish themselves in a better Condition though they have no cause to complain but hope to be so and where the Hopes are cut off and the Desires remain they must needs grow Impatient and Impatiency grows Extravagant and Extravagancy is Madness But how seldome is it heard that Children run Mad for their Parents the reason is because there is little hopes from them but of their Estates or Titles if they have any for Men never consider so much what is past as what is to come unless it be to compare the past time with the present that they might guess at the Future So that there is nothing to hope from Parents because all things are past from them for Men joy more in looking forward through their Posterity than in looking back upon their Ancestors the one is a Contemplation of Life the other but a Contemplation of Death and though they are sometimes proud of their Forefathers worthy Actions yet they take more delight in the hopes of their own Posterity And when Men grow Mad for the loss of their Estates it is not for what they have enjoyed but for what they would or might have enjoyed had not Ill Fortune been but now they cannot And when Men fall Mad through Despair it is because they have no hopes of Heaven So that Hope is the Life of Mans Thoughts and the Ground of his Actions it makes Piety in the Church and Industry in the Common-wealth where the want of it is a Death in Life An Epistle to the Unbelieving Readers in Natural Philosophy MANY say That in Natural Philosophy nothing is to be known not the Cause of any one thing which I cannot perswade my self is Truth for if we know Effects we must needs know Causes by reason Effects are the Causes of Effects and if we can know but one Effect it is a hundred to one but we shall know how to produce more Effects thereby Secondly That Natural Philosophy is an endless Study without any profitable Advantage but I may answer That there is no Art nor Science but is produced thereby if we will without Partiality consider from whence they were derived Thirdly That it is impossible that any thing should be known in Natural Philosophy by reason it is so obscure and hid from the knowledge of Mankind I answer That it is impossible that
Night piece for it wants the Sun of Rhetorick to make it a Glorious Day The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART III. Much Praise makes a Physician think himself Learned IT is a strange thing to see into what great Errours Men will run as suppose a Person shall find out or have it by Receipt a rare Medicine as to cure one Disease which is curable and for the Fame of this one Medicine shall have a whole Country flock to him for Medicines for their several Diseases and shall not be perswaded from it and at last perswade him as Self-love is easily perswaded to practice that he hath no skill in and so kill more by his Ignorance than his Medicine can qure by its Virtue Of Physicians IT is almost impossible for all Physicians to know all Diseases and their Remedies as they prosess to do by their general Practices for we find to learn a mean Art it is the study and service of seven Years and certainly it is much more difficulty to know Diseases which are like Faces not any one alike Besides Diseases lye so hid in the Body of an Animal as they are never perfectly known but guess'd at and to know the Cure of a Disease is as hard as to know the Disease and indeed we can never know a perfect Cure unless we could know the undoubted Cause But Physicians should watch as Philosophers the Stars with Observations and in time they may guess so well as seldom to fail of a Remedy Wherfore it were good that every particular Physician should be bound by a Law to study onely a single Disease and the Cure thereof and not to confound their Brains with tearms and names of Diseases and to kill the Patient by being ignorant of the Cause But let every Disease go to a proper Physician for though there be a multitude of Diseases yet there are more Physicians but such is the sad Condition that they rather adventure to Chance or Luck than Skill for Diseases are like several Countenances in Faces though there be one and the same kinds of Faces as Man-kind Horse-kind and Cow-kind yet every Horse-face is not alike nor every Mans Face is not alike so Diseases as Pox-kind and Plague-kind and Feaver-kind yet all Feavers are not alike nor Plagues nor Pox for they are different in degrees wherefore one and the same Medicine will not cure one kind of Disease but the Medicine must differ as the Disease for as the Countenance of the Disease changeth so must the Medicine But it is harder to take the degrees of Diseases than to draw a Picture to the Life for it is hard to know in what Degree a Disease is in But the Second Part of my Philosophical Fancies will treat more at large of Diseases and their Cures The Motion of the Blood THE most Renowned and most Learned Physician Doctor Harvey hath found out the Circulation of the Blood by his industrious study so methinks it should be very beneficial towards the health of Man to find out the Motion of the Blood as it runs whether it hath one intermixing Motion as it runs or whether the Blood doth not do as the Water seems to do which going in a swift source where the following Drops are as great Strangers to the leading Drops as the situation of either Pole for though the hinder Drops press forwards and drive on the former like Crouds of People one shuffling another yet they do not seem to intermix or incorporate but rather seem to break and divide into parts for if they should intermix and incorporate one drop into another their intermixing Motion would hinder their running Motion so much as it would be scarce perceivable how it went forward and if the Blood do not intermix then some Veins may have foul and corrupted Blood and some very pure Blood which we many times see which makes me think it doth not intermix if so we may take out our good Blood and leave our bad behind us not knowing where the Corrupted Blood lyeth and this Corrupted Blood may infect the Vital Parts as it runs along This makes some that when they let Blood in Feavers they are never the better because that Vein was not open where it lay so that Physicians had better strike two or three Veins and venture the loss of Good Blood than miss the Bad for it may corrupt all the rest though not by intermixing yet by corrupting the Liver as it floweth Of letting Blood THere are more Diseases come in having too much Blood than too little for when the Veins are too full the Blood hath no liberty to run out and for want of Motion corrupts which Corruption bursts out into Small-Pox Fistaloes Kings Evils and many such like Diseases But if the Humour thrusts not Outwards it corrupts the Inward Parts as the Liver the Lungs or else breeds Imposthumes and many such Diseases But if there be much Blood and thin then by the agitation it grows hot or else by the many Spirits in much Blood it begets too much Motion Motion Heat and Heat and Motion fires the Blood and inflames the Spirits which causeth Feavers of all sorts Frenzies and Consumptions for there may be as well too much Motion in the Body as too little But when the Parts of the Body are congeal'd or tyed up with Cold then the Blood cannot run nor the Spirits work but Motion ceaseth and the ceasing of Natural Motion is Death Or if the Blood run too fast about and the Spirits work too hard by reason of too much Heat they wast out themselves by reason of too much Labour and so are worn out like the Wheels of a Clock for the Clock ceaseth to go when the Wheels are broken Of Diet. THere is nothing preserves Health more and lengthens Life than due and just proportion of Diet according to the strength of the Stomack for one should eat so that the Body should feed upon the Meat and not the Meat to feed upon the Body as it doth with those that eat more than they can digest for the Superfluity makes Slough and Slime in the Body which Slime drowns the Spirits slackens the Nerves corrupts the Blood and weakens the Body besides it bringeth many Diseases Neither should one eat so little as to let the Body feed upon it self for much Fasting dryes the Blood heats the Body and fires the Spirits which Fire once getting into the Arteries is seldome or never cured being a Hective Feaver But it is as hard to know a just proportion to the strength of the Stomack as to keep it when they know it This Knowledge comes by observing the Stomack for at some times the Stomack requires more than at other times although the Appetite may be less when the Stomack is empty or it is requirable to give it more for some have such weak Appetites as they sterve their Bodies because they would not displease their Tast or else eat such things as