Plato Aristotle and other Philosophers confirming God onely to be the Creator of all things 234 Sect. 4. Opinions of Plato Aristotle and some Hebrewes concerning the worlds eternity the consonancie of opinions betwixt some ancient Philosophers and Moses about the worlds creation 236 Sect. 5. Ancient Philosophers attributed the framing and continuance of all sublunary Creatures as we Christians doe unto God with a recapitulation of severall consonancies betwixt us and them 238 Sect. 6. Severall other opinions wherein the ancient Heathnicks agreed with us Christians confirmed by the testimonies of their Poets 240 Sect. 7. Of good and bad spirits and wherein the opinions of the Heathnicks agree with ours concerning good spirits 242 Sect. 8. How neere the Ancients agree with us concerning bad spirits and in what orders they were divided of old 243 OF SLEEPE AND DREAMES Sect. 1. THat nothing can subsist without sleepe or rest exemplified in the death of Perseus King of Macedon The primary and secondary causes of sleepe that a sound coâ—science is a great motive to sound sleepe proved in the example of Thirois and his two Sonnes 245 Sect. 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploit or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the reasons thereof agitated 248 Sect. 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when he should have encountred Darius in battell here excused Cato's sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-murther 249 Sect. 4. Of Dreames both Naturall Accidentall Divine and Diabolicall Apollodorus dreame Abrahams Iosephs Pharaohs Nebuchadnezzars c. 251 Sect. 5. The Emperour Severus his dreame of Pertinax which he caused to be molded in Brasse An admirable dreame of the Emperour Henry the fifth Cicero's of Octavianus That beasts dreame but hard labouring men seldome and the reason thereof c. 254 A Table of the fifth Booke Wherein the READER must conceive that the Page begins anew and doth not follow the former computation OF THE NVMBERS THREE and SEVEN Sect. 1. Treating briefly of Numbers in generall 1 Sect. 2. Conteining variety of memorable things comprehended within the Number of Three as of Heaven and Hell and of Poeticall fictions and some observations amongst the Romans 2 Sect. 3. Conteining some Theologicall and Morall precepts and observations redacted under the number of three 5 Sect. 4. Of Politicke Government Of living Creatures and of duties belonging to men of severall professions as Physicians Iudges and Lawyers c. with some Physicall observations all Tripartite 7 Sect. 5. Memorable observations comprehended within the Number of Seven as of the age of the World and mans generation 9 Sect. 6. How the seven Planets are sayd to rule severally over the seven ages in the life of man 11 Sect. 7. The opinions of some Fathers of the Church and some Philosophers concerning the number of Seven what attributes they gave with some of Hypocrates observations thereon 13 Sect. 8. Of the Seven Wonders of the world 14 Sect. 9. A continuation of observations on the number of seven taken out of holy Scripture 15 Sect. 10. Of the seven great Potentates of the world of criticall dayes and climacterick yeeres with other observations 16 Sect. 11. Of the Worlds Continuance and Ending 19 A TREATISE OF Prodigies and Miracles Sect. 1. The definition of Miracles with their distinction In what time they were requisite in what not c. 21 Sect. 2. Of Prodigies and in what veneration they were amongst the ancient Romans 23 Sect. 3. A continuation of prodigies which happened in the time of the second Punick Warre with many others that were seene under the times of severall Consuls of Rome 26 Sect. 4. Of Prodigies that happened during the civill warres betwixt Marius and Sylla of some in Iulius Caesars time as at his passing the River of Rubicone the Pharsalian warres and at his death c. 28 Sect. 5. Of Prodigies before the death of Galba before the destruction of Ierusalem and at the end of the Valeriâ—n persecution 29 Sect. 6. A continuation of other Prodigies with a conclusion of this Treatise 31 SALAMANDRA OR The Philosophers Stone Sect. 1. THe History of the life and death of Antonio Bragadino 33 Sect. 2. The reason that moved the Author to handle this matter the different blessings betwixt the Indians and Christians the definition of the Philosophicall Stone the generall way and matter whereof it is made 35 Sect. 3. The Authors proposition the reason of its denomination opinion of most approved Authors touching it and of the possibility and factibility of it 37 Sect. 4. That the making of the Philosophers Stone is lesse expensive and laborious than many things we both use and weare why the makers of it enrich not themselves and others 39 Sect. 5. A generall relation of the matters and materials requisite to this Worke and in what time it may bee perfected 41 Sect. 6. Of the five degrees whereby the Worke is perfectioned and first how to bring it to Solution 43 Sect. 7. How from Solution to make Coagulation 44 Sect. 8. How from Coagulation to produce Fermentation 45 Sect. 9. The way to bring the Worke to Fixation 46 Sect. 10. From all the former how to perfectionate Multiplication 47 Sect. 11. A short recitall of some other wayes of perfecting it used by some Filii artis and why it is called Salamandra 47 OF THE WORLD Sect. 1. OF the various distractions of Philosophers in their opinions concerning their Gods and upon how ill grounds they were setled 94 Sect. 2. Of the severall sorts of Gods amongst the Heathen that they imagined them to bee authors of evils that they were but mortall men And some opinions of Philosophers concerning the nature beeing and power of their Gods 51 Sect. 3. Pythagoras opinion concerning the transmigration of soules rejected of the coupling of the soule and body together with severall opinions of the ancient learned men concerning the substance of the soule 54 Sect. 4. The former Heathnick opinions confuted by our Christian Beliefe that they differed concerning the time of the soules continuance and place of its abode how they thought soules after the separation from the body to bee rewarded for good or ill c. 56 Sect. 5. Philosophicall tenents of plurality of Words confuted of Gods Creation of male and femall of all living Creatures 58 Sect. 6. Severall opinions of severall Philosophers concerning the Worlds Eternity their naturall reasons for approving of it and what the Egyptians thought concerning the antiquity of the World 60 Sect. 8. The most approved opinion of all Philosophers concerning the Worlds beginning and matter the infallible truth of it and a checke of Augustines against over-curious inquisitors after those and the like mysteries 64 Sect. 9. How Philosophers differ from Christians in the wayes whereby God is knowne the parts whereof the world is composed the division of the celestiall Spheares wherein severall varieties may be
of Thirois and his two Sonnes ALL motion tendeth to and endeth in rest except that of the Heavens Which in a perennall rotation wheeleth ever about Wherefore men beasts Fowle Fishes after the dayes travell doe covet and betake themselves to rest as it is in the Poet. Nox erat placidum carpebant fessa soporem Corpora per terras syluaeque saua quierunt Aequora cum medio volvuntur sider a lapsu Cum tacet omnis ager pecudes pictaeque volucres Et corda oblita laborum c. Captabant placidi tranquilla oblivia somni This sleepe is so necessary to the life of man that for want of it many have dyed as Perseus King of Macedon who being prisoner in Rome and for torture being kept from sleepe there dyed Causes of sleep are two fold Primary and secondary The true Primary Philosophicall and immediate cause of sleepe may be said to be this the heart the fountaine and seat of life having much adoe to furnish every part of the body with the streames of vitall spirits hath most adoe to furnish the braines which are the greatest wasters of them in regard of the many and ample employments it hath for them as for Pensing Projecting consulting reasoning hearing seeing and so forth which functions of the braine doe so exhaust the animall spirits sent up thither per venas carotides through the veines organs after by circulation in that admirable Rete or net of the braine they are there setled that of all necessity either our life in the heart behooveth to cease or it must betake it selfe to rest againe for the recollection and drawing backe of her spent vitall spirits to refurnish the braines with a new recrew of them Secondary causes of sleepe are divers as excessive labour agitation of the body repletion as by excesse of meates or drinkes inanition as by Copulation and many more of this kinde which doe so waste the spirits that of necessity there behooveth a cessation to be for a time that new spirits may be recollected for refreshing of it Ausonius wittily chiding his servants lasie drowsinesse imputes it to excesse of meate and drinke Dormiunt glires hiemem Perennem At cibo parcunt tibi causa somni est Multa quod potes nimiaque tendas Mole saginam Adde to these causes the tranquillity of a sound Conscience Whereupon it was that the two Sons of Thirois mentioned by Quintilian upon most reasonable judgement were quitted from the murther of their Father who was found in that same Chamber with them alone and they both in a sound sleepe the murtherer perchance having fled away for it was reasoned no men guilty of so heynous a crime as Patricide could sleepe so soundly as they were found to doe by the discoverers of their murdered Father But leaving examples of this or the former causes whereof every where are plenty I proceed Section 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploite or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the resons thereof agitated VVE reade that great men and Commanders upon the most important poynt of their exploytes and affaires have sometime fallen in so deepe sleepes that their servants and followers have had much adoe to get them to awake the like formerly being never perceaved in them Iustinus and Quintus Curtius in the life of Alexander the great relate of him That in the morning of that day appoynted for that memorable battell betwixt him and Darius he fell in so deepe a sleepe and slept so long that on the very shock of the battell very hardly could his favorite Parmenio after two or three tryalls get him to awake It is agreed upon that hotter constitutions are least subject to sleepe and all his actions and proceedings marke him out to be such an one so it could not be his constitution that brought that sleepinesse on him but he being then in hazard either to loose or conquer a field whereby both his Crowne Countrey and reputation lay at the stake motives to keep a man awake had so no question toyled his minde and body in the right preparing and ordering of all things befitting a man of his place for the encounter that being at a resolution he gave himselfe to sleepe which his former thoughtfulnesse and paines did augment upon him and not as some would have it the terror of his enemies forces as Marcus Anthonius objected to Augustus in that Navall combat against Pompey in Sicilie that he had not courage enough to behold the order of the battell for indeed he fell asleepe and slept so long till the Victory was his which he knew not of till Agrippa with much adoe had awaked him But indeed I construe both their courages rather to have beene so great as their former and succeeding actions may witnesse that they disdayned that the appâ—â—hension of such hazards or accidents as might ensue so great encounters should any way startle them from giving way to their owne inclinations whether to sleepe or wake or doe or not doe this or that Section 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when hee should have encountred Darius in battell heere excused Catoes sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-Murder BVt laying all these excuses aside I cannot much marvell at this sleeping of Alexander he being so young in the flower of his age and so more subject to sleepe besides being so puffed up with the fortunate successes of his affaires which made him have so high a conceit of himselfe as to whom sayth one fortune gave up townes captive and to whose pillow whilest he slept victories were brought as I must admire that strange sleepe of Cato who after Caesars Conquest of the field at Pharsalia despairing of the liberty of his enslaved Countrey resolved to kill himselfe rather then behold the ensuing alteration which Caesars government would bring with it He then I say having put all his domestick affaires in order expecting newes of the departure of his Colleagues from the Port of Vtica fell in so sound a sleepe that his servants in the next roome overheard him to snort extreamly yet after that sleepe which as it should seeme would have opened the eyes of any mans reason and understanding so farre as not onely to abhorre his first so ill-sett resolution but totally to extirpate a future thought of so damned an intention he awaked so strongly confirmed in his former intent that forthwith he stabbed himselfe And sleepe is sayd to mollifie and mitigate fury or rage in any mans minde Praeter Catonis invictum animum Now though this man whom his many other excellent vertues had made famous and many other worthy men amongst the ancients did imagine for the like deathes to be highly commended for courage yet Saint Augustine and with him every good Christian reputeth it rather to be an infallible
his trunck from the Pole Artick from the North and East to the Antartick South West stretching forth the left Arme to the Mediterranean the other to the West-Indian-Seas now the Ocean as the lungs of this imagined body worketh by Systole and Diastole on the neerer parts to it maketh a flux and reflux where its force faileth in the extremities the hands and feet the Mediterranean and Indian Seas Quest. How is that possible that you admit no flux nor reflux to the West-Indian-Seas seeing their Histories informe us that at Magellanes-strait that same West Sea doth glide through the firme land of America into the Mare Del Zur and that with such rapiditie and vertiginousnesse that no Ship is able with Wind or Art to returne from that South-Sea backward Answ. That must not be thought so much a flowing as the course of Nature whereby the Heavens Sun Moone and Stars yea and the Sea doe course from East to West as that Strait doth run I may joyne to this the Easterly-wind which of all others bloweth most commonly as elsewhere so there also which furthereth that violent course and of this opinion is Peter Martyr in his Decads upon the Historie of that Countrey Quest. Admit all be true you say but what have you to say to this that the Mare Del Zur hath flux and reflux and yet your West-Indian-Seas have little or none as you confesse how then can the Moone be the cause of the universall Seas ebbing and flowing seeing they two under one Moone both are neverthelesse so different in Nature and yet so neere in place Answ. Seeing Ferdinando Oviedes who was both Cosmographer Hydographer leaveth that question undilucidated as a thing rather to be admired than solved leaving to the Reader thereby in a manner to adore the great Maker in the variousnes of his works I thinke much more may I be excused not to pry too deepely in it Quest. What is the cause then seeing the Moone is alike in power over all waters that Lakes and Rivers flow not and ebbe not as well as the Sea doth Answ. Because these waters are neither large nor deepe enough for her to worke upon and so they receive but a small portion of her influence Quest. What is the reason why seeing the Sea is salt that the Rivers and Fountaines which flow from her for we all know that the Sea is the Mother of all other waters as to her they runne all back againe exinde fluere saith the Poet retro sublapsareferri are not salt likewise Answ. Because the Earth through whose veines and conduits these waters doe passe to burst forth thereafter in springs cleanseth and mundifieth all saltnesse from them as they passe It seemeth that your former discourse maketh way for answer to such as aske why the Sea doth never debord nor accreace a whit notwithstanding that all other waters doe degorge themselves into her bosome the reason being because there runneth ever as much out of her to subministrate water to springs and rivers as she affordeth them But is it possible which is reported that our late Navigators have found by experience that the Seas water so many fathomes below the superficies is fresh so that now they may draw up waters to their shippes by certaine woodden or rather yron vessells which ovally closed doe slyde thorough the first two or three fathomes of the salted superfice downe to the fresh waters where artificially it opens and being filled straight shutteth againe and so is drawne up which they report to have but small difference in tast from the waters of fresh Rivers which if it bee true is a strange but a most happily discovered secret Answ. Yea it is possible for probably it may be thought that the Sunnes raies which before are granted to bee the cause of the Seas saltnesse penetrate no further than the first superfice like as on the contrary the coldnesse of the Northerne windes freezeth but the uppermost water congealing them into Ice or the reason may better be the perpetuall and constant running and disgolfing of Rivers brookes and springs from the earth into it And verily I could be induced to thinke the Mediterranean sea the Sound of Norwey and such like which lye low and are every where encompassed with the higher land except where they breake in from the greater Ocean that such Seas should be fresh low in regard of the incessant currents of large Rivers into them and in respect they doe not furnish water back again to the springs rivers and fountaines seeing they are low beneath the earth yea it hath troubled many braines to understand what becommeth of these waters which these Seas dayly receave but it cannot bee receaved for possible that the waters of the great Ocean are fresh at least drinkably fresh under the first two or three fathomes it being by God in natures decree made salt for portablenesse Sect. 7. That the Mountaines and valleys dispersed over the earth hindreth not the Compleatnesse of its roundnesse Of burning mountaines and Caves within the earth BVt leaving the Sea thus much may be demaunded concerning the earth why it is said to be round since there are so inaccessible high mountaines and such long tracts of plaine valleys scattered over it all Answ. These mountaines and valleys are no more in respect of the earth to hinder its roundnesse then a little flie is upon a round bowll or a naile upon a wheele to evince the rotunditie of it for the protuberances of such knobs deface not the exact roundnesse of the whole Globe as not having a comparable proportion with it But what signifie these burning mountaines so frightfull to men which may be seene in severall places of the earth as that of Island called Hecla in Sicilie called Aetna besides the burning hills of Naples which I have seene one in Mexico in our new found lands of America so formidable as is wonderfull If the earth be cold as you give it forth to be then how can these mountaines burne so excessively or if they bee chimneys of hell venting the fire which burneth there in the center of the earth or not Answ. No question but as there are waters of divers sorts some sweet others salt and others sulphureous according to the minerall veynes they run thorough right so there be some partes of the earth more combustible then others which once being enflamed and kindled either by the heate of the Sunnes beames or by some other accident and then fomented by a little water which rather redoubleth the heate then extinguisheth it as we see by experience in our farriers or smiths forges where to make their coales or charco ales burne the bolder they bedew or besprinkle them with water they hold stil burning the sulphureous ground ever subministrating fewell to the inflammation But they and the like do not hinder the earths being cold no more than one or
poore condemned caitive who fled into his denne and cave because he pulled out of his pawe the thorne which molested him but likewise fed him by killing beasts of all sorts and bringing them unto him whereof Gellius at length and out of him Du Bartas If I should follow forth here all other questions of Natures secrets the taske were long and tedious and peradventure lesse pleasant to the Reader than painfull to me as why the Adamant-stone which of its owne nature is so hard that neither fire nor Iron can bruise or break it is neverthelesse broke in peeces in a dishfull of hot Goates-bloud soft bloud being more powerfull than hard Iron Whether fishes doe breath or not seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath What can be the cause of the Loadstones attractive power to draw Iron unto it Why some Plants and Herbes ripen sooner than others Or what makes a member of a Man or Beast being cut from the body to dye presently and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long within them Whether or not there be such affinity and to say love amongst plants and herbes that some will more fruitfully increase being set planted or sowen together then when mixed amongst others according to that of the Poet Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat nutant ad mutua palmae Foedera populeo suspirat populus ictu c. To which questions some others hereafter to be handled for me to give answer were no lesse presumption and foole-hardinesse than a demonstration of my grosser ignorance since Cardan and Scaliger are so farre from agreement in these matters as may be seen in Scaligers Exercitations yet having propounded these questions and to say nothing of my owne opinion touching the solution of such Riddles as wee call them were someway an imputation and I might be equally blamed with those who leade their neighbour upon the Ice and leave him there wherefore thus I adventure And first why the Adamant which for hardnesse is able to abide both the force of the fire and dint of any hammer yet being put in Goates-bloud parteth asunder Answ. Howbeit Scaliger in his 345. Exercitation Sect. 8. giveth no other reason than that absolutely it is one of the greatest miracles and secrets of Nature and therein refuteth their opinions who alleage the Analogie and agreement of the common principles of Nature which are common to the bloud and to the Adamant together to be the cause yet I thinke for my owne part that if any naturall reason may be given in so hidden a mystery it may be this That Goates as we all know live and feed usually on cliffie Rocks wheron herbs of rare pearcing and penetrative vertues and qualities grow neither is the derivation of that herbes name Saxifrage other than from the power it hath to breake stones asunder Goates then feeding on such rockie-herbes as these no wonder that their bloud having Analogie and proportion to their food be penetrative and more proper to bee powerfull in vertue than otherwayes convertible in fatnesse for wee see them of all grazing Beasts the leanest Quest. Now by what power draweth the Loadstone Iron unto it Answ. Aristotle in the 7th Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their similitude and likenesse of substances for so you see they are both of a like colour and that must be the cause how the false-Prophet Mahomet his Chest of Iron wherein his bones are doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing because either the pend or some verticall stone of the Vault where it is kept is of Loadstone and thus with Iulius Scaliger Exercitatione 151. I disallow Caspar Bartholinus his opinion who alleageth that the Loadstone doth not meerely and solely by its attractive faculty draw Iron unto it but for that it is nourished and fed by Iron for nothing more properly can bee said to feed than that which hath life Therefore c. Here also it will not be amisse to adde the reason why the Needles of Sea-compasses as these of other Sun-Dyals being touched by the Loadstone doe alwayes turne to the North and this is the most received That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issueth forth in foure Currants answerable to the foure corners of the Earth or the foure winds which place if the Seas have a source must bee thought to be its spring and this Rock is thought to be all of Loadstone so that by a kinde of affinity it would seeme by a particular instinct of nature it draweth all other such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it So that the reason of the Needles turning to the North in Compasses is that Nigra rupes of Loadstone lying under our North Pole which by the attractive power it hath draweth all things touched by it or it s alike thither Section 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breath seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified Quest. BVT whether and after what manner can Fishes be said to breath seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath Answ. This question hath beene agitated many Ages agoe both pro contra as we say Arist. cap. 1. De respiratione denying that they can breath Plato and divers others of his Sect affirming the contrary they who maintaine the negative part do reason thus Creatures that want the Organs and Instruments of breathing cannot be said to breath or respire but such are all fishes therefore c. The opposites on the other side doe thus maintaine their breathing all living creatures not onely breath but so necessarily must breath that for lack of it they dye as experience sheweth nay that the very insects or as you would say demi-creatures they must breathe but fishes are living Creatures therefore they must breathe The Aristotelians answering this distinguish the major proposition restraining the universality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire whereas there is no Ayre in the water the nature of it not admitting place for Ayre as the Earth doth which being opened with any Instrument as with a Plough or Spade may admit Ayre whereas the waters will fill all the void presently againe as we may see by buckets boxes or any other materiall thing being put into the water and taken out againe doe leave no vacuum behinde them for the waters doe straight wayes reincorporate seeing then there is no Ayre in the Fishes Element they cannot nor need not be said to breath for contrariwise wee see that being drawne from the waters to the Ayre they doe incontinently dye For answer to both extreames I could allow for fishes a kind of respiration called refrigeration which improperly
matter whereof the Heavens are composed with the confutation of various opinions of Philosophers concerning it Pag. 4 Sect. 2. Of the Starres their substance and splendor where also of the Sunnes place in the Firmament 8 Sect. 3. Of the Moone her light substance and power over all sublunary bodies 10 Sect. 4. Of the Element of Fire whether it be an Element or not and of its place 12 Sect. 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences Sect. 6. That the Earth and Waters make but one Globe which must bee the Center of the World Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the Mediterrancan and Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur 18 Sect. 7. That the mountaines and valleyes dispersed over the earth hindreth not the compleatnesse of its roundnes Of burning mountaines and caves within the Earth 25 Sect. 8. Of time whether it be the producer or consumer of things Of the wisedome and sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is mollified of the Needle in the Sea Compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. 28 Sect. 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breathe seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified 34 Sect. 10. Of fishes and their generation How fowles are generated in the waters If gold can be made potable and of the matter of precious stones 40 Sect. 11. Of the Earth its circumference thicknesse and distance from the Sunne 43 A TABLE OF THE SECOND BOOKE OF METEORS Chapt. 1. THe definition of Meteors their matter substance place and cause 46 Chap. 2. Where Meteors are composed of Clouds where they are fashioned together with the solution of some questions concerning the middle Region 52 Chapt. 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the ayre and other such â—â—ery Meteors 55 Chapt. 4. Of Comets their matter forme nature and what way they portend evill to come 61 Chap. â— Of Râ—ine Dew Hâ—are-frost and their cause 69 Chap. 6. Of Snow its cause matter and nature 73 Chap. 7. Of Windes their true cause matter and nature c. 75 Chap. 8. Of Earth-quakes their cause and nature 79 Chap. 9. Of Thunder Lightning Haâ—le and certaine other secrets of Nature with their solution 82 Chap. 10. Of Rivers Fountaines and Springs their sources and causes 88 A TABLE OF THE Third Booke OF ARMIES AND BATTELS Sect. 1. THat greatest Armies have not alwayes carried away the victory the reason of it two examples of Semiramis and Xerxes 97 Sect. 2. Examples of Greeke Roman and Brittish Battels where the fewer number have overcome the greater 100 Sect. 3. Whether it bee requisite that Princes hazard their Persons in field or not of the encouragement that their presence giveth to the Souldiers When a King should venture to the field and what Lievtenants are to be deputed by him all exemplified 102 Sect. 4. Of the Romans prudencie and foresight in sending two Commanders abroad with their Armies and why the Grecians conjoyned two in their Embassies and of the danger of too strict Commissions 105 Sect. 5. Difference betweene Battels and Duels that Generals may refuse challenges with some passages betwixt Hannibal and Scipio in their warres 108 Sect. 6. That the exploits of our moderne Warriours have bin every way comparable to those of the Ancient with some examples to that effect 111 Sect. 7. The different betwixt the ancient manner of warfare and the moderne how farre the moderne engines of Warre exceede those of the ancient Greekes and Romans 113 Sect. 8. That the Ancients in their warres had greater opportunities to try their prowesse in battell than the modernes have 115 Sect. 9. The manner how the Greekes and Romans ordered their battels both by sea and by land the battels of Cannas and Trasimenes described 116 Sect. 10. A Maxime in Militarie discipline inferred to confirme Pompeys oversight at the battell of Pharsalia 119 Sect. 11. That the French what within their owne Countrey and abroad have fought more battels of late times than any other Nation and of their successe in them 120 Sect. 12. That Emulation amongst the Princes in France rather than Religion was the cause of the many Civill-warres there 122 A TREATISE OF DVELS and COMBATS Sect. 1. OF Combats by Champions for cleering of Queenes honours Combats betwixt Ladies betwixt Church-men and betwixt Iudges Combatants rewarded by Kings their spectators and S. Almachius kill'd for declaiming against Duels c. Sect. 2. A recitall of two memorable duels the one in France betwixt Monsieur de Creky and Don Philippin the other in Spaine betweene Pedro Torrello and Ieronimo Anca both of Arragon in the presence of Charles the fifth 129 Sect. 3. How Combats may be thought permissible the relation of a Combat betwixt Iarnacke and Chastigneray in the presence of King Henry the second of France citations of the Canon Law against Combats Examples of a Combate where the innocent was killed that the decision of all such questions whereupon Duels were permitted ought to be left to God 133 Sect. 4. Severall objections for the tolleration of Duels and Combats confuted Cajetans opinion of Duels wherein also the lawfulnesse of Battels is allowed 136 Sect. 5. Cajetans reason for referring the event of Battels to Monomachie where also is inserted the story of the Horatii and Curiatii 139 Sect. 6. That Kings and Generals of Armies for saving of the greater bloud-shed of their Souldiers have fought single for victories Examples of both A quarrell and challenge betwixt the Emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first King of France how it tooke no effect 141 Sect. 7. A discourse of a combate where thirteene French Knights fought against so many Italians wherein the French were overcome and some observations thereupon 144 Sect. 8. A memorable Polymachie betwixt two kindreds in the High-lands of Scotland betwixt whom there had beene a long and mortall enmity for the totall extirpation of the one of them fought before Kiâ—g Robert the second at Perth in Scotland 147 Sect. 9. A combate appointed by two French Barons the one of Gasconie the other of Poictou which was taken up of their own accord in the field the end of this Title 149 A TREATISE OF DEATH And of divers Orders and Ceremonies of Burials Sect. 1. The remembrance of death requisite in all men Ceremonies for the remembrance of it some documents against the feare of it what death Iulius Caesar wished of Autocides of selfe-murtherers c. 153 Sect. 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life 156 Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients Of Alexander of Sylla How
the people of Vraba did use their dead Customes of Finland Lapland Greece and other places concerning Burialls 158 Sect. 4. Other severall Customes of interring the dead amongst Egyptians Romans and Indians that the manner of Christians interrements are preferrable to all other 162 Sect. 5. That the Church of Rome reapeth great commodity by their funerall ceremonies as by their Bels Cymbals Torches Processions of order and the rest silent obsequies condemned A story of a woman whose Ghost haunted her Husband and family after death and the cause thereof 164 A TREATISE OF Mentall reservation Sect. 1. THe Decree of the Councell of Constance That no faith is to be kept with Hereticks and enemies is agitated the commendation of peace that a necessary and just warre is to be preferred to it a story of Augustus Caesar. 167 Sect. 2. Montall reservation defined All fraudulencie in making peace or taking truce condemned for which purpose are instanced examples of Grecians Romans and others 170 Sect. 3. The integrity of the Ancients commended in making peace and their other pactions A story of P. Corn. Scipio to that purpose Graeca fides what and wherefore used Of the dishonest dealing of Pope Alexander and his Nephew Caesar Borgia c. 172 Sect. 4. The difference betwixt the ancient and the moderne Romans in uprightnesse of dealing instanced by a story of Pompey the Great and Augustus Caesar. 175 Sect. 5. Of the breach of faith to enemies treacherie at a siege of Capua treacherie and cruelty committed by the Spaniards at a siege of Genoa the strictnesse of Generalls over common Souldiers exemplified c. 176 A TREATISE OF Laughing and Mourning Sect. 1. THe benefits and content that all men reape by the workes and labours of Writers and Travellers 181 Sect. 2. Of sudden deaths that have happened unto men amidst their feasting and other jolliâ—ies exemplified with stories both sacred and prophane 182 Sect. 3. Stories of severall worthy and brave men that upon occasions have shed teares of the sensible griefe of some Horses Dogges and Hawkes upon the losse of their Masters 184 Sect. 4. Risus Sardonicus what and how to be taken Of the holy teare kept in the Abby Church at Vandesme in France 187 Sect. 5. Of weeping for the dead how to be moderated The matter of teares of laughing and weeping for one and the same thing moderation in both commended 188 A TABLE OF THE fourth Booke Of Curiosities c. Sect. 1. THe difference betwixt factions and seditions a rebellion of the coÌ„mon people of Rome against the Senate and Patricians Emulation a principall producer of great exploits the harme that followeth Curiositie and that Church-men are not exempt from it 177 Sect. 2. How Curiosities have wonderfully disturbed the peace of the Church a recitall of some impertinent curiosities in Religion with some also of Subtilis Scotus and Thomas Aquinas c. 179 Sect. 3. A continuation of some other Theologicall and Metaphysicall subtilities and curiosities 181 Sect. 4. Of Curiosities in Logick the relation betwixt the Creator and the creature to what Heaven the Prophets Enoch and Elias were wrapt what place is said to be Abrahams Bosome 182 Sect. 5. The curiositie of the Millenarii with many other curiosities more frivolous than necessary 184 Sect. 6. That the Planets and other celestiall bodies have not that power over the natures of men and women that Astrologers ascribe unto them that the starres are innumerable Of the number and greatnesse of some in Via lactea where the center of the earth is its circumference Of Aetna Hecla Saint Patricks hole and the like 186 Sect. 7. To search out the secrets of Nature allow able if men be not too curious in them Eudoxus wish Plinius killed on the Mountaine of Vesuvius Aristotle drowned in Euripus Too much curiosity is a plague sent down from heaven on men the Poet Simonides acknowledged his ignorance of God how the heathenish Gods were pourtrayed 190 Sect. 8. Too great curiosities condemned and a moderation to be used in them prescribed 193 Sect. 9. How God disppointeth the expectations of the most curious and that the most subtill spirits runne into greater errours than the meaner doe 194 Sect. 10. An inducement to the studie and search of the secrets of Nature Of the Needle in the Sea compasse Of the inundations of the River of Nilus and from whence it hath its source and beginning Of the severall dispositions of men Why continuall burning Hils and Mountâ—ines doe not diminish c. 190 Sect. 11. Of Christopher Columbus his practicall curiosity in his discovery of the new World or America 199 Sect. 12. The conclusion of this Treatise of Curiosity conteining a singular curiosity of Livia Tiberius Caesars wife 203 Of divine Philosophy and Mans Felicity Sect. 1. THe Sunne and Moone in the Heavens compared to the Vnderstanding and Will of Man Aristotles definition of happinesse The distinction in Vnderstanding and Will and wherein ancient Philosophers placed their chiefe felicity 205 Sect. 2. That our felicity consisteth in the actions of our Will is confuted Aristotles opinion hereupon A theologicall solution on it seconded with a Philosophicall and an agreement of both to solve the difference 207 Sect. 3. Which of the three faculties of the soule Vnderstanding Memorie and Will is the most excellent 218 Sect. 4. Liberty and compulsion defined that the will is prompted by the understanding and that the adequate object of it proceedeth from thence At what the will and understanding chiefly ayme proved to bee the glory of God 219 Sect. 5. That all Philosophicall precepts have come short to demonstrate true felicity Philosophicall distinctions to know what is good of it selfe in Sciences yet all weake to illustrate wherein mans true happinesse consisted which is philosophically agitated 221 Sect. 6. That wealth and honour cannot be esteemed to bee our supreame good or felicity and the reason therefore Philosophers confuted by their difference of opinions Opinions of severall Sects of Philosophers concerning felicity instanced to that effect 223 Sect. 7. The later Philosophers have aymed neerer the definition of true felicity than the more ancient and their opinions specified the finall and true scope of mans felicity is illustrated with an exhortatory conclusion to all men for endevouring to attaine unto it The Consonancie and Agreement of the ancient Philosophers with our Christian Professours Sect. 1. THe difference betwixt the Physiologer and Physician compared to that betwixt the Metaphysician and Divine Some of Plato's opinions not farre dissonant from our Christian The multiplicity of Heathenish gods that Plato came neere the definition of the Trinity 229 Sect. 2. Of Gods creating and conserving of all things in an orderly order Plato's reasons that the world hath a life Aristotles opinion of God he is praised and at his dying preferred before many doubtfull Christians 231 Sect. 3. Plato's opinion concerning the creation of the world seconded by Socrates and Antisthenes Opinions of
that falls and the most ignorant then perceive the harshnesse of his note He feedes all the world with large promises of some rare worke to proceed from him ere long and thereby hee so long feedes and drinkes till both he and it and his name doe all die and none to sing his requiem Now being loath to resuscitate so peccant a humour I leave him too without an Epitaph in hope never to heare of his succession or his ghost wandring after this For the ignorant Reader hee hath such a qualitie to make himselfe appeare wittie that he will commend every thing that he doth not understand and so I am sure of his approbation but Landâ—â—iab indocto vituperari est Wherefore I leave him to admire and wish for better proficiencie Lastly to the view of all in generall I expose this booke into the world upon this confidence that if the most discreet and Iudicious give it but that auspicious approbation that many worthy and learned gave it before it sufferd the Presse for the rest my care is taken yet shall I to all but in a different manner ever be A Well-wisher D. P. The Authors Friend to the Booke GOe ventrous booke thy selfe expose To learned men and none but those For this carping age of ours Snuffes at all but choycest flowers Cul'd from out the curious knots Of quaint writers garden plots These they smell at these they savor Yet not free from feare nor favour But if thou wert smel'd a right By a nose not stuft with spight Thou to all that learning love Might'st a fragrant nosegay prove So content thee till due time Blazethy worth throughout this Clime To the curious Reader THough in the former leaves you may descry The Sum of all this Book drawne to your eye In succinct perspective yet if you trace A little farther and survey each place As it in all dimensions colours Art Is measured out O! then it would impart That true content that every man enjoyes Betwixt things Reall and fine painted toyes Most Sciences Epitomized heere Are as the Noone dayes light set down most cleere With other rarities to yeeld delight If thou but daigne to reade the same aright How er'e thou think or speake my comfort 's this They 'le speak themselves wel though thou speak amisse ERRATA What Errors have Escapt in this booke either in the Quotations Omission of Words transplacing or the like let them be imputed to the Transcriber And shall be mended Godwilling PErcurri librum hunc cui inscriptio est Varieties c. nihilque in eo contra Catholicam fidem aut bonos more 's inveni THOMAS WEEKES R. P. D. Epo. Lond. Ã Sacris The first Booke of Varieties CONTAINING A DISCOVRSE AND DISCOVERIE OF some of the Rarest and most Profitable secrets of naturall things whether in Heaven Aire Sea or Earth As of The Heavens Sunne Moone and Starres their Matter Nature and Effects c. The Ayres Regions and their effects c. The Seas saltnesse deepenesse and motion The Earths circumference and distance from the Heavens by way of Question and Answer The Preface to the following questions wherein is set downe the Praise Effects Vses Ends and Parts of Philosophy SEEING Philosophy which is the love of Wisdome and of the knowledge of divine and humane things by auncient Philosophers and Wise men in their severall ages was accounted not an invention of mortall men but a precious Iewell and an inestimable propine sent downe from the Gods above Thereby in a manner to make men partakers of their divine knowledge which made the Poets feigne Minerva the patronesse and president of wisdome to have issued from Iupiter's braine and the Muses nurses of learning to be his daughters it is no wonder that Plato in his Timaeo and M. T. Cicero do so highly extoll the knowledge of it giving to it the Attributes of the Searcher of vertue the Expeller and chaser away of vice the Directer and guider of our lives the Builder of Cities Assembler of men for before that knowledge they strayed through Wildernesses like bruit Beasts the Inventer of Lawes Orderer of manners Promover of discipline Instructer of morall good living and the meane to attaine a peaceable and quiet death Finally seeing by it we arrive at the perfect understanding at least so farre as humane wit can reach of all the secrets that Mother Nature containeth within her imbraces whether in the Heavens Aire Seas Earth and of all things comprehended within or upon them What time can we better spend here on Earth than that which we imploy in the search of her most delightfull instructions for thereby every sort of men whether Moralist or Christian may have his knowledge bettered which made Saint Paul and before him Aristotle confesse that by the knowledge of these visible things we might be brought to the knowledg admiration and adoration of our great and powerfull GOD the Maker of Nature for the knowledge of naturall things and of their causes leadeth us as it were by the hand to the search of their Author and Maker This the Poet points at when he sang Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum There is nothing so meane in Nature which doth not represent unto us the Image and Power of the Maker and argue that none but He could have been their Former And it is this sort of Knowledge which properly we call Philosophy or Physick which in this Treatise I intend most to handle and by which as by one of the principall parts of Philosophy the reader may have an insight in the Cabals and secrets of Nature The Philosophers and Learned sort reserved in a manner to themselves the other parts of Philosophy as not being so absolutely necessary for all to understand except a very few and these pregnant wits only For Logicke the first and lowest of all is but as an Instrument necessary for the other parts wherewith to serve themselves by subministring grounds and wayes of reasoning thereby to inforce conclusions of the precedents which they propounded Metaphysicks againe contrary to the Physicks medleth with things transcendent and supernaturall wherto every reader is not called and wherof al alike are not capable neither are the Mathematicks befitting every spirit giving hard essayes even to the most pregnant wits all not being alike capable of the dimensions and mensurations of bodily substances no more than all are for the Military precepts and Architecture Printing Navigation Structure of Machins and the like which are things consisting in Mechanick and Reall doings neither are all alike able for Musick Arithmetick Astronomy Geometry c. whereas all men as fellow-inhabitants of one World and the workmanship of one Hand by an inbred propensenes w th a willing desire are carried to the search of things meerely Naturall though as in a Citie Common-wealth or Principality all in-dwellers are not alike neither in honour dignity nor charge If in the
Quest. What causeth some Fountaines to last longer than others certainly that must proceed from the copiousnesse and aboundance of the veine and and waters such long-lasting ones have above the others Or finally if it be demanded what can be the cause that some Rivers and Springs which formerly did flow in large swift currents do lessen and sometimes totally dry up That must not be imputed to the scituation or change of the Starres as some suppose by which say they all places in the world are altered but rather unto the decay of the veine peradventure because the earth preasing to fill up voidnesse hath sunke down in that place and so choaked the passage and turned the course another way Neither can there be a fitter reply given unto those who aske what maketh two Springs or Fountaines which are separated onely by a little parcell of ground to bee of a contrary nature yea one sweet and fresh the other brackish and salt one extreame cold another neere adjoyning to it to bee luke-warme Then the diversity of Oares or Metals through which these waters doe runne which is the cause of their different tasts and temperatures as on one parcell of ground some flowers and herbs salutiferous and healthfull others venemous and mortall may grow The Moone is often said to bee the efficient cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea now if so be as universally all the Learned hold what is the cause seeing shee is universally seene by all Seas in a manner and I may say equally that therefore all Seas flow not and ebbe not alike To this I thinke no better reply can be given than that some Seas there are which be rather Lakes in a manner and of fresher water than Seas in respect of the incessant running of endlesse Rivers into them whereof they make no account againe to say so by subministring matter to Rivers Fountaines Brookes or Lakes as the Ocean doth the invironing bankes and shoares being higher almost than they such are all Sounds Gulphs and it may be the Mediterranean Sea also Or yet we may say that the profundity and deepenesse of some Coasts hindereth the flowing more then it doth upon shallow and ebbe sands and other valley and low bankes Now the cause of our hot Baths neere Bristoll in Flanders Germany France Italy and else where is onely the sulphureous and a brimstony Oare or Metall through which their waters runne as the salt earth through which some waters doe runne is the cause of their saltnesse such as the Salt-pits in Poland and Hungarie out of which Salt is digged as our Pit-coales and stones are digged out of Quarries And no question but these waters are heated too by running through such earth These and the like are the reasons given by Philosophers for such secrets of Nature as either here before I have touched or may handle hereafter and howbeit by humane reason men cannot further pry into these and the like yet no question but the power of the great Maker hath secrets inclosed within the bowels of Nature beyond all search of man To learne us all to bend the eyes of our bodies and minds upward to the Heavens from whence they flow to rest there in a reverent admiration of his power working in by and above nature and that by a way not as yet wholly manifested unto mortall men By all which and many more we may easily espie as the power so the wisdome of this our Maker in disposing the forme of this Vniverse whether the great World or the little one MAN in both which there is such a harmony sympathy and agreement betwixt the powers above which wee see with our eyes as the Heavens and the distinguished Regions of the Ayre in the greater World with the Earth and Seas or of the soule minde life and intellect of Man the heaven in him comparatively with his body the Earth and such like of the one with the other that is the great and little world together as is a wonder For as in the Ayre how the lower parts are affected so are the superiour and contrarywise as the superior is disposed right so the inferiour So we see that not onely a heaven of Brasse maketh the Earth of Iron but likewise waterish and moist earth causeth foggy and rainy ayre as a serene or tempestuous day maketh us commonly either ioyfull or melancholy or as a sad and grieved minde causeth a heavie and dull body but contrariwayes a healthfull and well tempered body commonly effecteth a generous and jovially disposed minde OF VARIETIES THE THIRD BOOKE CONTEINING FIVE TREATISES OF 1. Armies and Battels 2. Combats and Duels 3. Death and Burials 4. Laughing and Mourning 5. Mentall Reservation BY DAVID PERSON OF Loughlands in SCOTLAND GENTLEMAN Et quae non prosunt singula multa juvant LONDON Printed by RICHARD Badger for Thomas Alchorn and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Greene Dragon 1635. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS Earle of Hadington LORD Privy Seale of Scotland and one of His Majesties most HONOURABLE Privy Counsell in both KINGDOMES Right Honourable IF writers of books in former ages have made a gratefull commemoration in the front of their workes of worthy men who for their brave deeds either in Peace or War Church or Common wealth were renounced thereby to enternize their fame and by their examples to extimulate others to the imitation of their vertues nothing could expiat my trespasse if I should passe over your Lordships most accomplished rare vertues thereby to deprive posterity of so excellent a President especially amongst your other many exquisite perfections you being in this barren age so worthy a patterne and Bountifull Patron of letters and literate men Let antiquity boast it selfe of the integritie of a Greeke Aristides in the gravity and inflexibilitie of a Roman Cato and the rest yet our age may rejoyce to have all these accumulated on your Lordship alone Envy cannot conceale with what credit and generall applause as through the Temple of Vertue to the Sacrary of Honour you have past all the orders of our Senatoriall Tribunall even to the highest dignity where like an Oracle you strike light through most foggie and obscurest doubts The continued favour of Kings the aggrandizing of your estate by well managed fortune the peopling by the fecunditie of your fruitefull loynes not only your owne large stocke but many of the most ancient and honourable families in our nation may well set out your praises to the world but the true Panegyrick which I if able would sound abroad your Honours due deserving merits to which in all humility and reverence I offer this small pledge of my entirer affection hoping ere long to present them with something more worthy the studies and travels of Your Lordships in all dutifull obedience D. PERSON OF ARMIES AND BATTELLS VVherein by the way our moderne VVarfare is compared with
the fortune of the fight favouring the weaker for the time to wit Iarnak sent his adversary if not from the field to the grave yet so sore wounded that within few dayes thereafter he dyed I might have alleadged moe of former ages but that the neerer our owne dayes things fall out they bring with them the greater credit to the present times Charles the fifth his example may bee thought to be tolerable and though by the constitutions or rather permissions of some Princes Duells have beene tolerated as particularly when the notoriousnesse of a fact as of murther can neither be proved by witnesses nor oathes of parties and such other legall wayes which sort of proofes the Civilians call a vulgar sort of probation as in the Decretalls lib. 2. quest 5. cap. consuluistis cap. De Monomachia is apparent Neverthelesse the civill lawes as well as the Canon do absolutly condemne them because say they it is a fallacious proofe the order of nature favouring commonly the stronger above the innocent As in the Decretalls cap. supra citato de purgatione vulgari is manifest by a case propounded of two who upon accusations of theft challenged each other to Combat where the stronger having overthrowne the weaker was found neverthelesse guilty for the goods in question were at last found in the Victors house To say here What shall a Prince doe when hee is importuned by one for Iustice of such or such a man for this or the like crimes but to referre it to a Monomachy or Duell seeing other proofes faile I answer that by such meanes both God and the King are tempted for if God hath reserved to himselfe the discovery of what by all searching cannot be discovered is not that an intolerable importunity to pry or search any farther in that but that the Magistrate all legall proofes being used doe absolve him whom secundum allegata probata hee findeth innocent and refer to the all-seeing and all knowing God the punishment of him who is guilty seeing in his owne time he can by meanes unsearch'd by men bring about a punishment on him whom peradventure the civill Iudge hath absolved for otherwise it should seeme that we were suing after a miracle by permitting a Combat for proofe as was used in Linonia or Lapland in like cases as may bee seene in the aforesaid Chapter De probatione Vulgari in the Decretalls for there saith the Canonist If any crime such as that could not be proved and that the accused or suspected cryed that he was innocent and so stood forth in the avouching of his innocency hee was forced for the more and farther proofe thereof either bare footed to tread on hot yron or else to wash his hands in hot boyling water For notwithstanding all the circumspection of Iudges in prescribing equality of armes and all the objections which can be thought on either for prescribing equall quarters to both or to save both from such treachery and circumvention Yet can neither of these caveats be so punctually and judiciously set downe but â—hat the one part may be weaker than the other neiâ—her yet have we assurance that God will ever show his justice in such Combats because it is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Sect. 4. Severall objections for the tolleration of Duells and Combats confuted Cajetans opinion of Duells wherein also the lawfulnesse of Battells is allowed IF it be said here that David did fight in single Duel with GOLIAH That maketh not against us for that was done by the instinct of the HOLY Ghost Neither are all the deeds of the Saints to be obtruded as exemplary for all men to imitate they are rather to bee admired than followed for then Abraham his going to sacrifice his beloved and only Sonne Isaac might be an instance too for imitation But with Demosthenes we should live by Lawes not examples albeit examples are more moving at some times then lawes I find indeed that Cardinall Cajetan admits them but upon two considerations first when two Armies are ready for the shocke and yet where the most equitable part hath the fewest forces in that case saith he the event of the battel may be referred to a Duell of one of both armies for avoyding of greater bloudshed for in that case si bellum sit licitum quid ni duellum Next when any private man accused of a crime whereof he is innocent is neverthelesse borne downe by power of adverse parties if then by the Magistrates authority to whom he complaineth a Duell be offered to decide the question in that case hee admits these fights to bee permissible for why saith hee if we may safely fight with a Rogue who would rob us of our goods why not with him who would doe so with our honour it being alike to him at least the odds not being great whether he dye by his adversaries hand or by the sword of the Magistrat it being a lot of chance experimented in the person of Ionas As all the Canonists save Cajetan only in the causes and cases above-mentioned do disallow Duells so the Civilians approve them not for in the F. de gladiatoribus L. Constant. it is said that Cruenta spectacula in otio civili non placent Then Leo and Anthemius Titulo de Feriis L. Dies festos command ut lachrymosa spectacula ferarum tollantur Now if such sanguinolent and bloudy showes and baitings of Bores Leopards Bulls and Lions either amongst themselves or else of condemned persons with them yea and sometimes of venturous fellowes to try their strength and daringnesse with them were for these unnaturall sights prohibited much more thinke I should these of men one with other bee absolutely discharged Now if it be objected here that in the civill law wee find the Emperours themselves to have promised immunity and impunity to the gladiators who either had vanquished their Commerad or peradventure killed him in such fights as ad Aquiliam L. Qua actione § Si quis is evident To that I answer and not without the same Law That such killing when it did happen amongst these Luctators which were men appointed to wrestle and fight together for sport to the people who beheld them barter strokes and exchange blowes in the bottome of the Amphitheatre called Arena whilest they sate in security was not injuriae causâ or by any premeditated malice but only by meere accident without the deliberation of him qui intulit damnum whereas in these combats or Duells they flye to it on intention and resolution either to kill or to bee killed and the intention judgeth our actions not the events Neither need I for this be reputed an Anabaptist though I refute the lawfulnesse of duells by the afore-said reasons as though I therefore denied the lawfulnesse of necessary Warres because they are founded upon some apparent grounds of Scripture for out of the same we have many Warrants
more inforcing besides examples where the Lord of Hosts hath showne his power and approbation in favouring of battels undertaken for his cause To say si bellum sit licitum quidni duellum if a War be lawfull why not a Duell It followeth not for howsoever Majus and Minus change not the species and kinds of things as we say in the Schooles yet is there great discrepance betwixt the two for battels are approved by the authoritie of God nature and Nations provided the causes bee lawfull and just as pro aris focis for the other there are none at all for David and Golias their fight carry no example for imitation But if any Nations have tollerated them it hath beene but such Quos sol obliqua non nisi luce videt Not the Greeks Latins Assyrians Aegyptians and the like Sect. 5. Cajetans reason for referring the event of Battels to Monomachie Where also is inserted the story of the Horatii and Curiatii AS for the first condition admitted by Cajetan for Duells which is when two armies are ready to joyne for preventing of greater bloud-shed he averreth that it is better to referre the event of a battell to a Monomachy of two then otherwise to hazard all There is nothing more memorable in all the Roman History then the experience of this in that notable not so much Monomachy as Polymachy of three brethren Romans called Horatii against other three brethren of the Alban side called Curiatii and those partly of kinne and alliance to which the decision of the victory of either of the armies by the Roman and Alban Kings with their whole armies consent was concredited Those sixe in the middle of both Armies valourously fighting for their owne private lives and credit their countreys fame and liberty having so glorious a Theatre to act so important and tragicall a combat upon did so bravely on both sides that the panting armies were in no lesse anxiety for the event of their tryalls then the perplexed combatants themselves at length the victory which seemed dubiously disposed in favours of either side begun to incline to the Albans first and that by the death of two of the Roman brethren whereupon the Roman Survaior counterfeits to fly and so was pursued by the other three but turning to the formost of his pursuers he set so furiously upon him that hee forthwith killed him then turning to the second with like fury rewarded him after the same manner Now the Survaiour of the Curiatii being brother in Law to this victorious Roman received the same lot that his brothers had from his valorous hands which afterwards caused the death of his owne Sister the last killed Albans Spouse as in the Roman Historie may be read at large Section 6. That Kings and Generals of Armies for saving of the greater bloudshed of their Souldiers have fought single for victories Examples of both A quarrell and challenge betwixt the Emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first King of France how it tooke no effect VVHEN I say then that neither the Greeks nor Romans admitted single combats it must bee understood except in time of just warres in which either one or moe souldiers may single out a combate with one of the adverse party with permission of the Generall or else one Generall with another for saving the bloud-shed of many as Cassius and Marcellus did each of them fight with their adverse Generals yea and sometimes Kings one against another have done so for sparing the bloud of their subjects As Alexander the great did combate single with Porus King of the Indians Godfrey of Bovillon against Arnold King of the Saxons Romulus with one of the Kings of Latium and Hundick King of Saxony with a King of Denmarke and of fresher memory Charles of Aniou challenged Peter of Arragon to duell where at Burdeaux in Aquitany before the Prince of Wales for the time with swords they should have tried the right and claime that they both pretended to the Crowne of Naples but they met not just on the day and place appointed whose default it was their diverse Histories agree not like as the Histories of France and Spaine dissent upon the challenge given in a manner and accepted by Charles the 5th Emperour for the time and King of Spaine with Francis the first of that name King of France albeit Guicchardin neutrall to both and reputed as another Cornelius Tacitus for his impartiality in his History of Italy following forth the circumstances of the battell at Pavie sheweth at length how the French King Francis was beaten there and taken prisoner by the Viceroy of Naples Generall of the Imperiall forces from whence by sea he was conveighed into Spaine and how after a long and strait imprisonment he was put to so high and invaluable ransome as lightly hath not beene heard of moreover the quitting of the best branch of the patrimony of his Crowne the rites titles and interests he pretended to the Kingdome of Naples the Dutchy of Milan for the which then they had beene a swaggering His rights and soveraignties of Artois Brabant Hainault and so forth yea to the mariage of Eleonora Widow of the King of Portugall and sister to the said Emperour a ransome which he was as unwilling to pay as agree to any of the former Articles her favour being as it was unfavourable to him who otherwise was an amorous Prince and although the distressed King subscribed to all and confirmed the Articles with his promise yet it was so that often he protested even there neither did he smother it that promise what he would performe them he could not neither legally might he So that being set at liberty his two sonnes accepted in hostage for him and returned home he was charged by the Emperour for the performance of the points subscribed by him whereto he answered That it was not in his power no more than in any other Kings to alienate things belonging to the Crowne without the consent of his whole States obtained thereunto And for his promises he said That seeing extraordinary conditions had extorted them from a Prince in close prison and his consent to them violently wrung from him they must consequently be infirme for promises accessory to such like compulsions cannot be of better force and value Which with the like and better replyes when they came to the Emperours eares he forthwith challenged the King by his Heraulds of breach of faith and offered in single combate to fight with him in the quarrell which the French king accepting desired him to appoint day and place giving him the lye as often as he would say that he had falsified his promise But as their severall stories disagree upon the particulars so every one doth vindicate their owne Prince from all aspersion and staine of breach Section 7. A discourse of a combate where thirteene French Knights fought against so many Italians wherein the French
they doe dry as we doe fishes the bodyes of their dead which thereafter they hang up round about the Walls of their inner roomes adorning their heads shoulders and upper lips with Gold and Pearle And Ortelius in his Cosmographie speaking of Find-land or Lapland which he calls Livonia where there is no Religion almost at all because after the manner of the Heathen they worship the Sunne Moone and Serpents c. I find I say that when any one of great esteeme dieth his friends sit round about his corps laid on the earth but not yet covered with any mould and make good cheere and drinke to his farewell and putting the Cuppes in his hand as if he could pledge them they quaffe about a long time in end they lay him in the grave with store of meate and drinke by him and put a peece of money in his mouth and a sharpe Pole-axe fast by him then they shout aloud in his eares and give him in Commission that when he shall come to the other world whither they had victualled him and given him mony to defray his charges that he faile not whensoever he meete with any Dutch man to correct him as well as they had thralled him and theirs in this world which custome but after a more solemne manner and sumptuous they of China Cathay and Tartarie keepe almost in all points The like wherof that same Author observeth done in Ternessare a Citie of the East Indies but not to a like enemy In Greece yet as of old at least in such parts of it as are under the Turkish Empyre whensoever any remarkable person dieth all the women thereabouts after their old heathen custome meete together about the house of the deceased and there choosing the lowdest and shrillest voices to beginne betimes in the morning they make lamentable howlings and cryes weeping and tearing the haire from their heads beating their teats and breasts with their nailes defacing their cheekes and faces they conduct him to his grave singing by the way his praises and recounting what memorable things he had done in his life Which custome Aëtius an ancient Historian of our Country observeth to have beene used of Old amongst our British and yet in our Highlands is observed The Poets in their Luctus neniae make mention of this and the like as Ovid Horace Iuvenall Catuallus Tibullus Propertius amongst the Greekes Sophocles Musaeus Aristophanes Phocyllides and the rest whereof Ennius speaking of himselfe Nemo me lachrymis decoret nec funera flet◠Faxit Cur volito vivus per ora virum Sect. 4. Other severall Customes of interring the Dead amongst Aegyptians Romans and Indians that the manner of Christian Interrements are preferreable to all other NOw what hath beene the Curiosity of the Aegyptians for the keeping of their dead their Momies can testifie where the whole and intyre bodyes of some of their Princes and great men were to bee seene of late who died many thousand yeares agoe whereof who pleaseth to reade may consult Diodorus Siculus Ammianus Marcellinus Strabo Herodotus and others the Athenians and after their example the Salaminians saith Sabellicus lib. 5. Aeneid 2. used to interre their dead with their faces turned to the Sunne setting not to the rising with the Megarians and apparently Catullus was of their opinion when he said Nobis cùm semel occidit brevis lux nox perpetua una dormienda est But of the severall fashions of burying the dead I finde two most remarkable the one of some Greeks and Romans and not used but by those of the better sort which was in burning the Corps of the deceased after this manner There was either an Eagle or some other great fowle tyed unto the top of the Pyramide of Wood wherein the dead body lay This Pyramide being kindled by some of the most intire friends of the deceased amongst the cloud of smoke the Fowle being untyed which was tyed before was seene to flutter and flye away which by the Spectators was taken to be the soule of the deceased flying to Heaven the Ashes then of this burnt body they collected and kept in an Vrne and of this the Poets almost every where make mention The other was the Indians in eating the dead bodyes of their Parents and friends as they did in ire to those of their foes thinking that they could give them no more honorable Sepulchre abhorring the others burning into ashes as a thing unnaturall which might well be seene at the time that Alexander had conquered them for he willed both Greekes and Indians to doe alike but they upon no condition would condiscend to that the power of custome being so strong as it was impossible for any Novations though never so good to alter it Amongst al fashions above rehearsed I think that of our Christian interments to be most consonant to nature seeing of earth we are and that to it we must returne againe As for the Greekes howling weeping renting their cloathes haire and faces it seemeth that Saint Augustine in his worke De cura pro mortuis habenda aymed at them for in that whole worke I perceave nothing that maketh much for praying for them but chiefly he willeth all men to moderate extraordinary Griefes mournings and howlings for them seeing they rest from their labours and his conclusion is good that if prayers for the dead be not meritorious for them yet at least that they are some way comfortable for the living Si non subsidia mortuorum saith hee tamen solatia sunt viventium Indeede I will not deny but that Father and others also in their writings allow prayer for the dead as Peter Martyr Vermillius also in his loco 9. lib. 3. in the Title De Purgatorio denyeth it not but onely he refuseth such prayers to have beene subsidiary or helpfull to them but rather congratulatorie for that they were released from all their miseries which he instanceth by the funerall Oration of Saint Ambrose upon the deaths of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian where there is no mention of praying for their soules to ease or shorten their paines in Purgatory Section 5. That the Church of Rome reapeth great commodity by their funerall ceremonies as by their bells Cymballs Torches processions of order and the rest silent obscquies condemned a story of a woman whose Ghost haunted her Husband and family after her death and the cause thereof NOw for all this as there is nothing whereby the Church of Rome reapes more commodity then by their prayers for the dead for it is called the Friers kitchen So it is there is nothing wherein their pompous solemnities and their devotion appeareth more than in their accompanying their dead to the grave with the sound of Bells and Cymballs Tapers Torches prayers musicke Church Ornaments solemne processions of the fraternities and not without contention of precedence of orders all which ceremonyes as they bred a kinde of pious compassion in
up the vastnesse of the firmament so unmeasurably large as they doe for by their calculation though a man ride fourty myles a day yet shall he not see so much ground in many thousands of yeares as the firmament goeth about the earth in twenty foure houres So learned Clavius calculateth in his Commentary upon Sacroboscus But withall to know whether or not the Moone be inhabited or hath mountaines vallies and champion ground within her body and so forth and whether the rest of the planets as she be likewise inhabited considering say these curious fellowes that these vast bodies cannot be framed for light onely if not for this use also but being wearyed with these and alike more curious then profitable questions I leave them Section 7. To search out the secrets of Nature allowable if men be not too curious in them Eudoxus wish Plinius killed on the Mountaine of Vesuvius Aristotle drowned in Euripus Too much curiosity is a plague sent downe from Heaven on men The Poet Simonides acknowledged his ignorance of GOD How the Heathenish gods were pourtrayed IF any curiosity may be allowed I thinke the inquiry of the hidden and abstruse secrets of nature are agreeable and pleasing for a curious spirit provided that their curiosity carry them no further then to a reverent and respectfull admiration of the power of God working in Nature by them But if once such curious and inquisitive braines doe transgresse these limits and after the meditation of these things doe begin to drawe out of the secrets of Nature that which is unprofitable being knowne and so doe become transgressors of the old Law Non altum sapere not to be too inquisitive then I say their curiosities become vitious such as this was the curiosity of Eudoxus who desired at the hands of the gods to be so neere the Sun as to discerne the matter of it which was in question amongst his fellow Philosophers for the time although it should bee to the hazard of his life Such curiosity as this cost Plinius his life while too curiously he approached to the top of the Mount Vesuvius by Naples which I did with the hazard of mine also from thence to look down to the body of the hollowed hill to see if he might discerne the cause and matter of that fyre which bursting up in flames now and then had made it hollow within for then being choakt with a flash of a suddayne flame hee dyed So the river Euripus did requite Aristotle his curiosity with the like punishment although not drowning or overwhelming him with waves yet causing in him such melancholy for not comprehending its nature as procured his death We have warrant from holy Scripture that too much curiosity to knowe things is sent downe upon men as a plague in so farre that Herod esteemed Saint Paul distracted through his too much learning and they are scarce otherwise who thinke by their shallow capacity to comprehend the height length and depth of GODS workes which are so much the rather His by how much the lesse we understand them And it is observable that our beliefe is setled upon things incredible to humane reason to which a humble submission of spirit attayneth sooner then a curious inquiry Thus Saint Augustine esteemed GOD better to be adored bene sentiendo quà m multum loquendo In such sort that Simonides the Poet who was desired to describe God required first one day to thinke upon the subject and then another lastly a third and in the end confessed ingeniously that the more he studied it the further he was from comprehending it and the more he searched into that Theame the lesse he understood it which gave us well to understand how wisely the Aegyptian Priests Indian Brachmians the Persian Magi the French Druides and all the old Philosophers and wise men did who caused to mould and pourtrayte their gods with their fingers upon their lippes to teach men their Adorers not to bee too curious inquirers after their Nature or rashly blabbe forth what ever they imagine of them least that being discovered they should have beene found in the end to have beene but men either worthy in their time for warre or peace and after their death deified Micat inter omnes Iulium fidus velut inter ignes Luna minores Whereas the Nature of our great God-head is so profound a gulfe and hid mystery that as the Sun beames dazeleth our mortall eyes being too stedfastly fixed upon them even so doth over-curious inquiry after God and such other abstruse mysteries obfuscate the dim eyes of our understandings And as the Sun cannot bee seene but by his owne light So no more can God be knowne but by himselfe Section 8. Too great curiosities condemned and a moderation to bee used in them prescribed THus then as in Divine and heavenly mysteries wee should not be too curious but should rather content us with what is revealed So should we not in our worldly affaires busie our selves too curiously and perplexedly For as Gods secrets are not disclosed to the highest and most eminent amongst men but to the meaner and ignorant sort even so fortune and chance of this world falleth and followeth not alwayes the wisest and most curious but on such as for the most part doe not pursue them and these we doe tearme foole happy or more happy then wise Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt When I blame the extremity of curiosity as a master-vice it is not for that we should with the Stoicks â—ull our selves asleepe and cast off even allowable care concerning the events of our affaires in this life as to remitt and put over all to destiny which is no lesse blame-worthy then with the Epicureans to eate and drinke as if the morrow we were to die For as the golden mediocrity and commendable vertue consisteth betwixt extreames even so I say avoyding both evills this meant good may be admitted to be curious after all such things as concerne our vocation and trade of life And for this indeed wee have warrant but so that we referre the event of all to the alseeing providence who best knoweth our wants and can best helpe them Section 9. How GOD disappointeth the expectations of the most Curious And that the most subtill spirits runne into greater errors then the meaner doe I Wonder since neither the subtilties of this present age nor the wisdom of our predecessors neither Prophets of old nor preaching of new no not theirmost curious inquiries could rippe up the causes and notions of things which it hath pleased the Everliving to worke both above and below the concavity of the Moone in a manner to dazell mens eyes and to make their profoundest wits stoope under the wonders of His workes Why then should our curious Spirits rack their braines about the resolution of such questions which as they are difficult to be solved so are they dangerous
I may say and impious to be propounded And it is great presumption for mortall men to reduce under the precinct of humane sciences those things the knowledge of which GOD out of His infinite wisedome hath thought fit not to impart to mortalls For as God is above nature so worketh He after His owne will either supernaturally or else by some secret power of Nature unknowne to us To which point the most subtile of all the Ancient Philosophers some times were driven And yet these great spirits who could not content themselves but w th the speculation of such things as fell not under the reach and capacity of the weaker and meaner sort did sometimes in the meaner subjects stumble most miserably So while they ranne above the heavens roaving and tormenting themselves with their numbers matter force motions sounding depths and centre yea and turning the circumference of the earth overskimming the Seas saluting the Antipodes and bringing novells from their Courts and of their Caballs dreaming with themselves as Archimedes did that they might remove the Globe of the universe out of its owne place and turne it about if they had whereon and wherein to fixe their machins they in the end I say doe stumble and fall in grosse absurdities like those men who peradventure having sailed the better part of their lives upon the stormy Ocean and past her greatest dangers may neverthelesse at last be drowned in a little Brooke Medium tenuere Beati Section 10. An inducement to the studie and search of the secrets of Nature Of the Needle in the Sea compasse Of the inundations of the River of Nilus And from whence it hath its sourse and beginning Of the severall dispositions of men Why continuall burning hills and Mountaines doe not diminish c. BVt on what more fertill and spacious a field can curious Spirits extend and expatiate the wings of their fancies then the discovery and searching out of the secrets of Nature as in those things which are obvious to our outward senses leaving those contemplative mysteries afore spoken of to the omniscious Author of them for when mans curiosity hath reached or rather dived into the depth of the secrets of the heavenly bodies and their changes then the Creator to checke as it were their curiosities and presumption altereth that orderly course that they presumed to have gathered thereby which made Dionysius Areopagita seeing the Sunne Ecclipsed at full Moone when our LORD and SAVIOUR suffered contrary to their Astronomicall position to cry out that either the God of Nature suffered at that time or the course of Nature was inverted or the Machine of the universe was to dissolve with other the like examples knowne to all that are versed in the Scripture Now to speake a little more of the incertainty of these curiosities Mercator and other more moderne Geographers hold that the needle in the compasse doth vary more or lesse from the Pole as the place of observation is more or lesse distant from the Azorick Meridian from whence it hath its longitude Whereas the more ancient tooke its longitude to be from the Canaries Meridian Some againe as Herodotus will the River of Nilus to take its source and beginning from the forked top of the Mountaine Sienna in Ethiopia from whence saith he doe surge two admirable Currents one towards the South and Ethiopia the other toward the North and Aegypt I call these currents admirable because the Whirlepooles and bublings in these waters are so great violent and absorping that though a Boate were there tyde with most strong Cables yet they would suck it in and ingurgitate it Others will have its inundations and Increment to issue from the hills of the Moone in Arabia A montibus lunae Arabia-Australis whereupon such abundance of Snow falleth that it liquifying and melting runneth so abundantly and violently downe that it procureth these wonderfull inundations Plinius againe if Sabell mistake not lib. 3. Eneid 1. maketh its source and deboarding to flow from Affrick crossing Media as the Danube doth Europe Or else from Mauritania the lesser instancing for possibility that the melted snow discending from thence causeth the overflowings in Aegypt from whence say they serpenting and gliding through a vast tract of ground in the bowels of the earth that striving as it were to be refreshed with new aire it bursteth out in Mauritania Caesariensi where it runneth the space of twenty dayes journey againe under ground from whence it issueth againe and plentifully stretcheth it selfe through Ethiopia with many meandres and turnings and separateth Aegypt from the rest of Africk where finally through most rockie Precipitious and Declivous Mountaines with most hideous rumbling and terrible noyse it casteth it selfe down where the Catadupae dwell and running through Aegypt disburdeneth it selfe into the Mediterranean Sea Others againe not without great contradiction doe variously picture out the severall dispositions of men according to their severall Countryes whereof read Bodinus in his sixth Chapter lib. 5. of his Republick where he saith that those who are borne towards the South are more humane ingenious and affable then those towards the North with severall other distinctions which hee setteth downe in that Chapter Some too give the reason why so many great hills in severall places of the earth doe incessantly burne without great diminution of the earth or their greatnesse to be because the Sea winding it selfe in by secret Conduits doth continually arrouse or water the Sulphureous vaine which subministrates fewell to their flame as the endlesnesse of the combustible matter is the cause of the not diminishing of the earth with many of the like as may bee read in severall authors Wherefore thus much for the contemplative and coniecturall curiosity Now to the Practick Section 11. Of Christopher Columbus his Practicall Curiosity in his discovery of the new World or America NOw lastly to conclude this treatise with Practicall curiosity instead of many I will onely touch that so fortunate and so much famed one of Columbus in the discovery of America He was an Italian borne in Genoa whose most pregnant curious and searching wit farre excelled all that ever were before him in the like attempts This worthy Columbus I say imagining that since the Globe of the universe the celestiall Spheares Aire Waters and all superior bodies were round concluded with himselfe that the earth could not bee triangular as in a manner it then was when hee knew no other lands but Europe Africk Asia but circular and round also as the rest of the Elements and so consequently that there behooved to be some vaste tract of land yet unknowne which should extend it selfe from South West to North West Which conception of his he thus fortified That seeing of three hundred and sixty degrees which the world containeth in longitude there being onely one hundred eighty filled up with land that the Almighty Creator would not have
by reason that neither lesser nor greater care bee taken about any thing then the cause requireth and that things belonging to liberality and honour be moderated There are three principall duties belonging to every Christian in this life to live in piety and devotion towards God Charity towards our Neighbours and Sobriety towards our selves There are also three subalterne and lesse principall to use respect to our superiours clemencie to our inferiour and gravity to our equalls Wee offend God three wayes with mouth heart and hands by hand heere I understand all our senses for which to him wee ought to make amends three other wayes by Confession Contrition and Satisfaction Three degrees of Christs humiliation his Incarnation life and death three of his exaltation his Resurrection ascention and sitting at the right hand of the Father There are three things incident to unregenerate Nature Ambition Avarice and Luxury There are three wayes to know God Negatively whereby what evill is in man is denied to be in God then by way of excellencie whereby what good is in man we acknowledge to be in God most eminently above man and in the abstract of it Lastly by way of causality whereby we acknowledge God to bee the efficient cause of all things Gods word was written by Prophets Evangelists and Apostles David for numbring his people had choyce of three things Plague Sword and Famine Salomon had choyce of three blessings Wisdome Wealth and length of dayes Three great enemies continually assaile man the Devill without him the World about him and the Flesh within him Against which hee should be armed with these three weapons Fasting Praying and Almes giving Love three fold Divine Worldly and Diabolicall Moreover we are tyed to a three-fold Love Of God our neighbour and our selves A three-fold feare also possesseth us a Naturall feare for our lives and goods a Civill for our honour and fame and a Conscientious for our soules So wee are said to see with three kinde of eyes of our bodies reason and faith The Popes Mitre is engirt with three Crownes SECT 4. Of Politick Government Of living Creatures and of duties belonging to men of severall professions as Physicians Iudges and Lawyers c. with some Physicall observations all Tripartite THere are three kindes of Government Monarchy of Kings Aristocracie of Nobility and Democracie of Commons as our State consisteth of Clergie Nobility and Commons Phylosophers Physicians and Divines doe severally prescribe dyet for living to all men the first a moderate the second a sparing the third a most strict continencie There were principally three kinde of Creatures ordained for the use of man living in three severall Elements Fowle in the Ayre Beasts on the Earth and Fish in the Sea Three kinde of living things Intellectuall Sensitive and Vegetable as Men Beasts and Plants There are three Principles of Physick Matter Forme Privation There are also three things requisite in a Physician to restore health lost to strengthen it being weake and to preserve it when it is recovered Even so the Lawyers parts are three-fold to recover meanes lost to preserve them when they are purchased and to purchase such onely as wee have right to which three the Canonists performe in purchasing of Benefites recovering those which are lost and in conserving those which are once obtained A Iudge should have these three qualities not to be delaying mercenary nor ignorant Lawes of men are three-fold of Nature of Nations and of Cities and the Lawes of God are Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall Three things chiefly are to bee observed in Iudgement Examination Consultation and Sentence Three things too are requisite in a good Chirurgian an Eagles eye a Lyons heart and a Ladies hand Three thingâ— required in an Oratour to speake fitly ornately and copiously or as some will have it demonst ratively deliberatively and judicially and in every of these the Circumstances are to bee observed Time Place and Persons There are three objects of the whole Civill Law Things Persons Actions Amongst Latine Poets three kindes of Verses are chiefly used Heroick Elegiack and Lyrick under Lyrick are comprehended Saphick Iambick and the rest Three species of sicknesse wherewith we ate affected which are of quality humour and substance which againe resolve in three kinde of feavers Simple Corrupt and Pestilentious Simple feavers too are three-fold Quotidian Tertian Quartan Corrupt or Hectick Feavers three-fold the first being in the consumption of our ordinary humour the second in our Balmie or oyly substance both curable the third which consumeth our noble parts called Marasmus past cure Of all measurable bodies there are three dimensions length breadth and deepnesse Three things especially the Persians taught their children to ride shoote and speake truth The day is divided into Morning Noone and Evening Every Moone hath her increase full and wane and Post triduum mulier fastidit hospes imber SECT 5. Memorable observations comprehended within the Number of Seven as of the age of the World and mans generation THe Number of Seven by many learned men hath beene held the most mysticall and by some entituled the most sacred of Numbers as on it many most remarkeable matters have happened God created the world in six dayes and rested the seventh and therefore amongst the Iewes every seventh moneth and seventh yeare were appointed to â—est and in how great reverence was their great Iubilee which every seventh yeare being multiplied by seven fell out every 49 yeare The age of the world is divided into seven the first from Adam to Noahs flood the second from that to Abrahams time the third from Abraham to the freeing of the people of Israel from their Captivity in Egypt the fourth from their comming out of Egypt to the building of Salomons Temple the fifth from that to the Babylonish Captivity at what time Ieremie writ his Lamentations the sixth was the time betwixt that and the comming of our blessed Saviour the seventh from our Saviours time to the end of the world And some have given forth that the world shall take end the six thousand yeare of its age and rest the seventh The first seven dayes after conception the seede of man in the wombe becommeth Embrion the seventh weeke there-after it becommeth faetus and quickneth and the seventh moneth after that it is partus and is brought into the world SECT 6. How the seven Planets are said to rule severally over the seven ages in the life of man AStrologians who will have the life and constitution of man to depend on the force of the starres and celestiall bodies no wayes depriving God of his Soveraigne and absolute power have divided the age of man into seven parts ascribing to every part one of the seven Planets which ruleth over it The first they call Infancie over which they place the Moone which is
as Suarez noteth writing upon this place in his Index locupletissimus in Phisicam lib. 12. cap. 7. yea he seemeth to have beene ravished with the sweetnesse of this heavenly contemplation It is no wonder that Davâ—d in the 104 Psalme vers 34. said My meditation of him that is of God shall be sweete aud â— wâ—ll bee glad in the Lord. For if Aristotle found such sweetnesse in the contemplation of God as hee is Pater mund or Pater entium what sweetnesse yea what heavenly what ravishing joy may a man living within the Church have in the contemplation of God as he is Pater Ecclesiae and Pater misericordiarum 2 Cor. 1. 3. SECT 7. The secoâ—d Respect for the dignity That the consideration of the soule of man belongeth to the Metaphysicks with severall Reasons for the proofe thereof THere are some who thinke that not onely the contemplation of God and of the Angels doe belong unto the Metaphysicks but also the contemplation De anima humana seu rationali and that because it is a spirituall or immateriall substance Suarez in the first Tome of his Metaphysicks Disput. 1. Sect. 2. Parag. 18. most justly condemneth this opinion and that 1. because consideratio totius consideratio partium ejus ad unam eandem scientiam pertinet Now the consideration of man himselfe belongeth not to Metaphysick but to Physick and therefore the consideration of the soule of man which is a part of man belongeth also to Physick or naturall Philosophy 2. Albeit the soule of man be an immateriall substance in it selfe and although in the reall beeing of it it hath not a necessary dependencie from bodily matter yet God hath appointed that the ordinary and naturall existence or beeing of it as also the operation of it should be in materia corporea It is farre more probable that which is affirmed by Ruvins and Conimbricenses in the Frontispiece of their Treaties de anima separata à corpore and in their first questio prooemialis before their disputes de anima that the consideration of the beeing and operation of the soule in statu separationis à corpore after death untill the day of the generall resurrection doth belong not to Physick but in some respects to Theologie and in other respects to Metaphysick For the handling of these questions An status separationis à corpore sit animae rationali naturalis an anima à corpore separata habeat naturalem appetitum redeundi ad corpus an anima separata specie ab Angelis differat quas facultates seu potentias quas species intelligibiles quos habitus quem modum cognoscendi habeat anima separata à corpore the handling I say of these questions doth belong properly to Metaphysick neverthelesse these same Authors whom I have now cited as also Suarez in the place already spoken of affirme that the Tractatus de anima separata may most commodiously be added to the Bookes de anima not as a proper part of the Science de anima but as an Appendiâ— to it SECT 8. The third Respect for the Vsefulnesse Of the great use Metaphysick is towards the furthering of all Divines in Controversies and other things A Conclusion THirdly and lastly this Science exceedeth all the rest indignity in respect of the great use it hath in all other Sciences and Arts especially in Theology it selfe I neede not to insist in the confirmation of this for it is very well known that by the grounds of Metaphysick wee may demonstrate against Atheists that there is a God against Pagans that this God is one against Cerdon Marcion and the Manichaean Hereticks that there are not duo principia but unum summum primum principium against the Stoickes that there is not such a fatall necessity in all events as they dreamed of against that damnable and detestable Heretick Conradus Vorstius that Deus est infinitus immensus indivisibilis simplex totus in qualibet re in qua est aeternus quoad substantiam suam quoad ejus decret a immutabilis omnium accidentium expers for that wretched and madde Doctor denied all these things In many other Questions and Controversies which the Church hath against Hereticks ancient and moderne there is great use of Metaphysick But I feare to weary the Reader with these Generalls For I intend hereafter God willing to put forth a small Treatise of Metaphysicks wherein you shall finde that noble Science more perspicuously delineated FINIS The praise of Philosophy Effects of Philosophy Vses and ends of Philosophy Of Logick Of Metaphysicks Of Mathematicks The Authors Apologie Questions concerning the World The way how these questions are propounded Diverse opinions of the heavens substance What is the true matter substance of the firmament The earth rolled about with the heavens What is the substance of the stars What maketh them so cleare The Sun placed amiddest the Planets why What light the Moone thineth with what signifieth the black spots in the face of the Moone The Moones power over sublunarie bodies Reasons that there is not an lement of fire Comparison of a Mirrour to variety Why Commets are seene and not the Element of fire Knowledge of Meteors fit for men of spirit The remotest cause of Meteors The neerest cause Their remotest matter Matter and cause of the moist Meteors Difference betwixt fumes and vapours Great differences of the Meteors What are our S. Anthonies fires The earth and waters not seâ—cred like the other elements but linked together Quest. Why the waters are not about the earth Quest. Quest. Why lakes and running flouds are not salt Why some fountaines savour of brasse or salt c. Quest. Of the Seas ebbing and flowing Why the Mediterranean West-Indian Seas have no flux or reflux Of Magellanes Strait what maketh so violent a tyde there Why the Mare Del Zur hath flux and not the neighbouring Sea Why Lakes Rivers ebbe not nor flow not Why the Sea wâ—xes never more nor lesse for all the waters runne to and from it Quest. If the Seas be fresh some fathomes below he superfice The probability that certaine Seas may be fresh low Quest. Reason for the burning hiâ—ls which are in divers Countries The true cause of earth-quakes The comparison of the earth and mans a body Reasons why there is no time The Reasons confuted What things are said to be in Time Aristotles opinion that Time is the ruine of things how to be expounded Quest. Of the wittinesse of Dogs â—nd Horses Of the love of a Dog to his Master Discourse of a Dogs memory Distinction between things done by reason and a naturall inclination That certaine plants herbs vvill grow hiâ—dlier together than others The true cause how the hard Adamant is dissolved in a dish of Goats bloud What maketh the Loadstone draw Iron What maketh the Needle in a Sea compasse turne ever to the North. Reasons prâ— and contra
that fishes breath What way fishes may be said to breath If herring can â—â—ie How herring may be engendred in the Aire A sea-sawing râ—â—â—on why herring 〈◊〉 site Apodes or fowles without feet or Plumes Of Claick Geese Diverse kindes of Insects Sea Insects Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat What middle Creatures are How fishes can be said to live by the Sea seeing their flesh is more firme then the water whereof they are geneâ—â—ted How fowles are brought forth in waters The cause of the firme flesh of fishes That Gold cannot bee made potable The matter of precious stones Quest. Two Philosophicall wayes to know things What leeteth that We cannot aright give up the supputation of the Earths cricumference Diversity of opinions concerning the worlds Compasse The earths circumference or compasse The thicknesse of the earth Distance of the earth from heaven The most approved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun Definition of Meteors their matter substance and height of formation Meteors severally considered by Philosophers and naâ—uralists A comparison of these Vapors â—nto the body of man chiefly to the venâ—â—icle and head Whether there be any exhalaâ—ions from the lowest Region of the ayre The lowest region of the aire is hot and moist both by nature and accident The uppermost region hot and dry The middle region is only cold at least respectively In what region of the Ayre the Meteors are composed What clouds are Clouds are fashioned in the middle region Concerning the middle â—â—gion Solution The foggy vapours which we see like clouds skimming our lakes are but ascending to frame the cloud The matter and forme of fiery Meteors from whence they proceed What are our falling-stars What maketh them fal dovvn seeing they are light Solution Of thunâ—er the matter whereof and place where The matter forme of thâ—se which we call pretty Dancers Fower sorts of vapors ascend from the earth and waters which arâ— the neerest mâ—tter of all Meteors Ayre what Raine what wind Quest. What is the cause that the falling Stars make no noyse as the Thunder seeing one matter is common to both What meaneth these fiâ—es wee see by night before us or by us when we ride at some times Why are they not seene in the day time What be these complainings and laughing which sometimes are heard in the ayre They are Aereall spirits The nature forme of comets The reason of their long hayre or beard Sometimes they are round Halos 1. area What are the Circles about the Moone which we call broughes What course the Comets observe Answer for the diverse courses of Comets What maketh the Comets commonly move from the South to the North. The place of their abode commonly Whether or not they can portend evill to come The Philosophers deny it admitting them but as naturall things The Philosophicall reason why not Other of their reasons why they can portend no evill to come Other reasons of theirs The contrary is seene by experience Lamentable accidents which have followed after the appearing of Comets The reasons which our Astronomicall Philosophers give that Comets may portend change of States Examples of Comets appearing before desolâ—tion Answer to the former objections Conclusion of comets with a particular observation The first matter of raine The way how raine falleth downe The matter manner how dew is engendred What is that which in France we call Serene The matter manner how Hoare-frost are fashioned The place where dew and hoare-frost are framed Some more good observations of dew and Hoar-frost What Snow is Much Snow in the Northerne climats and Why Difference betwixt the Snowy cloud and the rainy one The matter and cause of winde The beginning of wind is but small but it encreaseth in blowing A place of Scripture concerning winds solved What maketh raine commonly follow winde And what after raine What maketh some windes cold other hot seeing one matter is common to both What maketh that in the heat of Summer there are fewest winds seeing then there should be most The way how the wind bloweth Againe the way how the wind bloweth The matter and forme of Earthquakes What makes the Southerne countries most subject to these earthquakes The odâ— betweene wind earthquakes A very fit comparison As our bodies are stirred with a hot ague even so the earth with an inclosed wind A remarkable question Solutions both Philosophicall and Theologicall What is the matter of lightnings The right cause of the noyse of thunder after the lightning Why we see the lightning before wee heare the noyse And why doâ—â— it descend seing it is light The cause of the admirable effects of thunder Why the thunder of blacke clouds are more terrible then those of White Why those that be thunder beaten smell of brimstone The true matter of thunder The reason why the thunder of black clouds are most dangerous All weake Meteors have one common matter Their difference in forme and place Why haile is round Why raine falleth in drops From whence fountains have their courses That there is waters within the earth The Sea the mother of fountaines How Fountaines are on the tops of mountaines How mountaine furnisheth water unto fountains Why some springs cease running What maketh two fountaines a little distant one hot and another cold The veines through which the waters run maketh them salt hot or cold Gods power outreacheth mans wisdome The comparison of the great little world A worthy similitude Greatest armies have not alwayes done great Semiramis innumerable army defeated by a very few under an Indian Prince Xerxes alio overthrowne by a handfull of Greekes and Salamines The battaile of Thermopilae Iohn King of France overthrowne by Edward the black Prince of England Edward Carnarvan of england overthrowen by Bruce at Bannak-burne Scanderbeg with a handfulâ— overthrew Mahomet If Princes may hazzard their persons in a field or not Queene Elizabeth on the front of her armie in 88. The countenance of a King a great incouragement unto souldiers When a King should be in proper person in a field Why powerful subjects are not alwâ—yes fiâ—est to bee elected Generals of armies One Generall â—itter not two How the Romans and Grecians send two Commanders with their armies abroad Their foresight and prudence herein Fabius and Marcellus contrary dispositions Why the Grecians did send alwayes two in ambassage or to field The limitating of Generals Commission dangerous Great ods betwixt battels and duels To shun fighting at times is no disgrace unto a General Hannibal sueth for peace at Scipio Hannibals speech unto Scipio Sr. Fr. Drakes stratageme in 88. Hannibals stratagem A comparison of drawing up of our armies with the Old Romans If the Roman field malice exceeded ours yet our beleaguring instruments of warre exceed theirs The terriblenes of our pieces How the Romans had a fitter occasion of trying their valour then we The battell of Lepanto surpasseth all the Romans Sea-fights
terminate with a subject If there be multiplicity of formes in one selfe same matter If formes of matters be extracted out of the potentialitie of the matter If Angels be species or individualls Curiosity in Logick to know what sort of relation betweene the creature and the Creator What Heaven the Prophet Enoch was wrapt unto What and where Abrahams bosome If beasts herbs plants will bee renewed with man after the resurrection If there be degrees of glory in heaven What language in heaven Curiosity in Physicke to know whether there be more worlds then one If there was one before this The Starres and heavenly lights force not our inclinations The inclination of Parentâ— more mooveth children naturally then the Starres doe The number and greatnesse of certain Stars in the via lactea Diversities of opinions Via Lactea differently given up The enquiry of the secrets of nature convenient food for a curious Spirit Eudoxus craved to be neere the Sunne although it should be with the hazard of his life as that hee might knowe it Because curiosity to know is a plague therefore our faith is settled upon things incredible to human reason The Gods of the Ancients were pourtraited with their fingers upon their mouthes and why As in Divine mysteries we should not be too curious So should we not in any worldly businesse As we should not bâ— over-curious â—o should we not be lâ—sse curious with the Stoicks referring all to destiny As the most curious craftsman is not ever either the wisest or the Wealthiest So the most curious heads are not they to whom God manifests his seâ—rets God as hee is above Nature so worketh he beyond Nature some times Great and sublime spirits stumble more vilely then the meaneâ— sort Dion Areopagita's observation of the Ecclipse at our Saviours suffering Opinions of the needle in the compasse Of Nilus her sourse and inundation Mens dispositions Burning hills and Mountaines Columbus first intention and motive to his voyage Columbus his reason His voyage His policy The cause of dearth since Columbus voyage Columbus's worth depraved His vindication Columbus denomination of Americus conferred on Vespucius Here againe vindicated Another aspersion on him Livias curiosity The understanding and reason in man is as the Sunne in the firmament Will as the Moone which should have no light cut from her Sun reason What happines is according to Aristotle By our understanding we know God by our will we love him What and wherein consisteth the old Philosophicall felicity so much spoken of being that whereof we now treate That our feliciâ—â— cannot consist in the actions of our will It would seem that our happinesse did not coâ—sist in the actions of our reason and understanding but in these of our will Reasons in favours of Will The actions of the will the object of it seemes to bee more noble then these of the intellect Will and understanding how coincident This question of felicity consisting in will and understanding is coincident with that Theologicall question of Faith good workes The end of all Sciences is to know which the Philosopher saith is good of it selfe The properties of our Soveraigne happinesse The greatest property of our feliâ—iâ—y is as to crave nothing more so not to feare the losse of that which wee have Wealth and honour cannot be our happinesse The different opinions of the Philosophers upon this purpose Happinesse wherein it did consist according to Socra The Epicureans and Stoicks their opinions The latter Philosophers have refuted al others establishing their owne Finally what our true felicity is and wherein it doth consist By this soveraine felicity a man liveth in tranquility and dieth in peace A Simile Difference betwixt Platonick and Christians Multiplicity of Gods amongst the heathen The Trinity shadowed by Plato Plato his reasons why the world liveth His opinion of God Some of the Hebrews of the same mind Platos opinion of propagation and continuance of all things Platos termes not far different from Moses words Comparison of the old Roman Philosophers with the Roman Church now The Hierarchie of blessed Spirits Sleepe mainteiner of all living creatures Perseus dyed for want of sleepe Causes of sleep Secondary Thirois murther Alexander the great his sleep Augustus his Alexanders great fortune Catoes sleepe His death A digression against selfe murder In his booke de Senectute Division of dreames Natural which Accidentall Divine Diabolicall Severus dream of Pertinax Severus causeth to be cast the manner of his dreame in brasse Henry the 5 th his admirable dreame Cicero's dream of Octavianus Antiquity superstitious in the observance of numbers The use of number Three Heavens Three Hells Heathnick superstitions Poeticall fictions Theologicall and Morall Vertues Of Sinne. How our appetites are bridled Christian duties How wee offend God an how to appease him Christs humiliation and exalation How to know God David Salomon Mans Enemies Love Of Feare Degrees of government About dyeâ—â— What Creatures God ordained for mans use Physicians Lawyers Iudges Division of Lawes Chirurgian Oratour Civilian Poets Physicall observations Customes amongst the Persians The seven ages of mans life attributed to the seven Planets Seven Wonders Two kindes of Miracles False Miracles which True Miracles Difference betwixt true and false Miracles Why God permitteth false miracles When miracles were most necessary The piety of the ancient Romans after any remakeble Prodigies Christians blamed A River raâ— blood The institution of the Novâ—ndiâ—lia sacra The heavens burned Three Moones A childe of a moneth old spake Men seene in the skie Two moones at once A greene Palme tree tooke fire of it selfe Rivers runne blood An Oxe spake It rained stones Ensignes sweat blood 〈…〉 The â—arth rend asunder A Statue wept The Capitoll destroyed by fire from heaven Images in Temples sweat blood Instruments heard to play where none were An Oxe spake A Comet like a sword hang over Ierusalem An Oxe calâ—ed Formidable Thunders Earth-quakes The deboarding of Tyber ominous to Rome A blazing starre The sea cast out monsters It rained blood three dayes A huge stone fell from heaven A great piece of Ice fell in Rome Conclusion 〈…〉 His meeting with an Herâ—â—te His proficiencie in the Art of Chimestrie His Present to the Senate Restored to favour He is suspected of Treachery Hee flyes to Bavaria He is hanged on a gilded Gybbetâ— The plenty of gold which the West Indians have The true matter of gold Ripleus c. 3. P. 74. Iodoc. Grenerus p. 36. â—los Flor. p. 35. 37. Thom. Aquin ad fratrem c. 1. Tauladan p. 28. Rosarum p. 18. Libaniuâ— Mullerus Aquinase 3. Daustricus p. 16. Monachus p. 16. Benedictus p. 5â— 57 58. c. Moâ—iennes two principless Solut. coagulat Moriennes Theob Arnaldus 〈◊〉 p. 61 62. Exercet 3. in tu bam Arnald in specie Scala philosoph p. 103 Mulletus de lap philosoph Rosarium p. 189. Libanius Arnaldus Iullius p. 116. Arnaldus Mullerus Miracula chymica Libanius Isaacus Lullius Calid c. 6. Rolinus p. 283. Dastinâ—s p. 30. Mullerus Libanius Scotus p. 61. â—â—1 Agurâ—lls Three speciall points wherewith the ancient Philosophers was most perplexed The opinions of the old Philosophers concerning the nature of the Gods The philosophers not only admitted their Gods aâ— inventers of good but fomenters of evill also The Philosophicall errour concerning the discent and progenie of their Gods The errours touching the descent of their soules Divers opinions of the philosophers concerning the substance of their soules The different opinion concerning the event of soules after their separation from their bodies Their reasons why there were moâ— worlds than one Opinions concerning the Eternitie of the World The Gymnosophists answere concerning the Eternitie The Philosophicall differences concerning the beginning of the World The fond conceites of those who imagined all things to be by the encounter of Atoms A theological observation upon the premisses Our Christian beleefe touching the Worlds beginning and ending Three wayes of knowing God A briefe description of the World The division of the heavens and Coelestiall Spheares The Plannets and their retrodations in their proper spheares Cause of the Moones change Different motions of the Starres What the great Platonick Starre was The Waters and Earth make but one Globe Why the Seas debarr'd from overflowing the Earth Division of the Earth Of America What maketh all things so deare now Of our old known world the third part is not Christian and that as yet different amongst it selfe Division of Asia The West and East parts Turkish professors divided amongst themselves A litle description of America and the New-found-lands What time of the yeare the world was created When probably it may be thought to take an end Copernick his opinion that the Earth did move rejected Why the change of Triplicities cannot be a ground for change of States The starrie firmament devided in so many Asterismes Bodin his triplicitâ—ie is not such The changing of triplicities notable to change the nature of things and Why Diversities of peoples natures conformeable to the positure of the heavenly Plannets The naturall disposition of the Plannets argueth the Inclination of people over which they are planted If people be changed from that which they were wont to be Why and How If some Countries be barren others plentifull Why and How Man compared to the World Qualities of the Northern and Easterne people The three faculties of the Soule Conclusion Metaphysick first called Sapientia 2 Phylosophia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Prima Philosophia 4 Philosophia Theologica 5 Metaphysica and why Whereof it treateth Two causes why Metaphysick is added to the other Sciences The first The second cause Metaphysick excelleth other Sciences A supposition resolved First Reason Second Reason Third Reason That Metaphysick is free from all subjection to other Sciences Reason Why the Science of Metaphysick is most honourable Comparison Christian Philosophers Aristotle Fonseca Suarez That the consideration of mans soule and not himselfe belongeth to Metaphysick Ruvins his opinion The benefit of the knowleâ—ge of the Metaphysickâ— Controversies
Sunnes place in the firmament Quest. But I passe from the motion of the heavens and their matter which you hold to be a quintessence and so a thing distinct from the foure elements Now I crave to understand what is the matter of these twinckling Starres which we see glancing in the face and front of this heaven Answ. Of that same matter whereof the heavens are because in simple and not composed bodyes their parts doe communicate with that same nature and matter whereof the whole is so that the heaven being a most simple body and the Starres her parts or a part of it no wonder that they communicate both of one essence and of this opinion is the Philosopher himselfe in his second booke De coelo chap. 7. Quest. But if so be as you say the starres are of a like matter with the body of the heavens how then is it that they are a great deale more cleare and glauncing where they appeare then the rest of the heaven is Answ. Because they are the thicker part and better remassed together and of a round Spherick forme and so more susceptible of light Now round they must be for besides that we discerne them so with our eyes the Moone and Sunne are found to bee round But so it is that all Starres are of a like forme and matter but the lesser and the bigger differ only by the lesser or greater quantity of their matter condensed or conglobed together Quest. But whether doe they shine with their own innate or inbred light or is their splendor borrowed from any other beside Answ. Some such light they have of their owne howbeit but little whatsoever Scaliger saith to the contrary in his sixtie two exercitation But indeed the brightnesse of the Starres light floweth from the Sun the fountaine of all light and that this is either lesser or more according to their diversitie of matter and their equality and inequality there is no question For which cause the Sunne is placed in the midst of all the moveable Starres as in the midway betwixt the starrie firmament and the first region of the aire from thence to communicate his light unto all so that those which are nearer unto him above and to us below doe seeme brighter than these higher above as may be seene in Venus Mercurie and Luna Sect. 3. Of the Moone her light substance and Power over all sublunarie bodyes Quest. NOw resolve mee if the Moone hath not more light of her selfe then the rest Answ. Yea she hath a glimps of light indeed of her selfe but that is dimme and obscure as may be seene in the sharp-new as we say but as for the fulnesse of that light wherewith shee shineth unto us at the quarters or full she borroweth that from the Sun But we may better conceive the weaknesse of her light in her eclipses when the earths shadow interposed betwixt the Sun and her directly vaileth and masketh her face which then appeareth blackishly browne yet not altogether destitute of light Now as the light of the Sunne is the fountaine of warmenesse by day even so no question but the winter and Summer nights are at a full Moone warmed more then during the first or last quarters Quest. But is it true which is usually reported that in the body of the Moone there be mountaines and valleys and some kinde of spirituall creatures inhabiting which Palingenius an Italian Poet describeth at length Answ. It is certaine and our Mathematicians have found out that in the Moone there are some parts thicker some thinner which make her face not to looke all cleare alike for that dimmer blackenesse in the middle of it vulgarly called the Man in the Moone is nothing else but a great quantitie of the Moones substance not so transparent as the rest and consequently lesse susceptible of light which black part of it with other spots here and there Plinius lib. 2. cap. 9. of his Naturall historie taketh to be some earthly humors attracted thither by her force and attractive power which I hardly give way to in respect of the weaknesse of her force to draw to her any heavy dull and earthly humor which never transcend the regions of the aire above all which the Moone is Quest. Now finally hath the Moone no power over particular sublunary bodies for I heare much of the influence and power of the Planets over the bodies of Men Beasts and Plants Answ. As for the power and efficacy of the other Planets over us I have something in the title of Necromancie As for the Moones power experience sheweth that the ebbes and flowes of the Sea how different so ever the Coasts be depend totally and constantly on the full and change of the Moone for accordingly her waters swell or decrease Moreover the braines and marrow in the bones of Man and beast doe augment or diminish as the Moone increaseth or waneth as doe likewise the flesh of all shell fishes Dayly experience too hath taught your Pruners of trees gelders of cattell gardners and the like to observe the Moones increase and decrease all which is strongly confirmed by Plinie in his second booke De Historia animalium and Aristotle lib. 4. cap. 41. De generatione animalium Sect. 4. Of the Element of Fire whether it be an Element or not and of its place Quest. LEaving the heavens their number matter Sun Moone and Starres I come lower unto the foure Elements whereof the Philosophers will all things below the Moone to be framed and made First then I adhere to Cardan and Volaterans opinion that betwixt the sphere of the Moone and the first region of the aire where the Philosophers place this fire to be which they make the first element it cannot be and so that it cannot be at all because that if it were there we should see it with our eyes for the Comets and these lancing Dragons and falling Stars c. whereof many are neighbours with this Ignean-sphere we visibly see and the fires which burne on earth also Answ. There is not a point of Philosophy which if you reade judiciously and peruse the Authors treating thereupon but you shall finde such controversie concerning the establishing of it amongst themselves that one to an hundred if you find two or three jumpe together Quest. But yet as a Mirrour or Glasse giveth way unto diverse faces and representeth unto every one their owne visage although never so farre different from other while it of it selfe remaineth unchanged or unaltered So it is with truth how different soever the opinions bee of the searchers out of it in any Science yet this verity it selfe abideth in them all and is alwayes one and alike in it selfe and so in this point what ever be Volateran or Cardans opinion yet sure it is that the Element of fire is there and the cause why it is not seene as are our materiall and grosly composed fires of all the
Elements mixt together is the purenesse subtilenesse and simplicity if I may say so of that Element Which reason may serve too against them when they say that if it were there it should burne all about And which likewise may serve for answer to the objection of the Comets which are seene seeing they are of a terrestriall maligne exhalation and so having in them that earthly mixture and being inflamed by the neighbour-heate of that fiery Element no wonder though they bee seene and not it her subtile purenesse being free of all combustible matter and so the lesse conspicuous to our eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive perspicuum nisi condensetur est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia visum non terminat Iul. Scal. Exer. 9. There is no such question about the second Element which is the Aire for of it all agree that it hath three regions wherein all these you call Meteors are fashioned as clouds haile snow thunder wind and dew yea and higher than all these in the first and supreme Region these blazing Comets although other men place them above the Moone which are so formidable to ignorants who know not the causes of their matter Quest. Is this so as you give it forth Answ. It is of verity that the first Element which we call the Element of fire is disputable and hath beene denied by many but as for the Ayre none to my knowledge ever called it in question neither is there in all our Philosophy a subject more fitting a man of spirit to know than the discourse of the Meteors therein framed of all which although you have a tractate hereafter by it selfe yet one word here more to make you understand their nature and matter the better Section 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences THE great Creator hath so disposed the frame of this Vniverse in a constant harmony and sympathy amongst the parts of it that these Heavenly Lights which wee see above our heads have their owne force power and influence upon this Earth and Waters whereon and wherein we live marying as it were these two so farre distant Creatures both in place and nature by the mediation of this Ayre above spoken of which participateth of both their qualities warmenesse from the Heavens and moistnesse from the Earth and Waters Nature then but Melior naturâ Deus or GOD better than Nature hath ordained the Sunne Fountaine of light and warmth to be the physicall or naturall cause yea and the remotest cause as wee say in the Schooles of these Meteors as Aristotle himselfe in his first Book of his Meteors cap. 2. observeth When I speak of the Sun as most principall I seclude not the Stars and these celestiall bodies which rolling about in a per-ennall whirling and rotation doe lance forth their power upon the Earth also The neerest Physicall or naturall cause againe must be understood to be cold and heate heate from these heavenly bodies to rarifie or attenuate the vapors of the Earth whereby they may bee the easier evaporated by the Sunne or heate to draw fumes and vapours from the Earth upward cold againe to condensate and thicken those elevated vapours in the Ayre to thicken them I say either in clouds raine or snow or the rest Thus as the Meteors have a twofold cause as you have heard so have they a two fold matter The first and remotest are the two Elements but of them chiefly Earth and Water the neerer cause or matter are exhalations extracted from these former two Which exhalations I divide in fumes and vapours fumes being a thin exhalation hot and dry elevated from the Earth and that of their most dried parts by the vertue of the heavenly Starres and the Sunnes warmenesse elevated I say by the vertue and warmnesse of the Sunne and Stars from the driest parts of the Earth even the Element of fire from whence and of which our Comets fiery-Darts Dragons and other ignean Meteors doe proceed although later Astronomers have found and give forth some of the Comets formation to be above the Moone Whereas vapours are exhalations thicker and hotter swifter drawne up from the Seas and Waters by the power of the Sun and Stars of which vapors thither elevated are framed our raines snow haile dewe wherewith they falling back againe the Earth is bedewed and watered When I say that these vapours are hot and moist thinke it not impossible although the waters their mother be cold and moist for that their warmnesse is not of their owne innate nature but rather accidentall to them by vertue of the Sunne and Starres warmnesse by whose attractive power as the efficient cause they were elevated Now then as of fumes elevated to the highest Region of the Ayre the fiery Meteors are composed so of their watery vapours which are drawne no higher than the middle Region proceeds raine clouds snow haile and the rest or if they passe not beyond this low Region wherein we breath they fall downe into dew or in thick mysts Thus you see that these vapours are of a middle or meane nature betwixt the Ayre and the Waters because they resolve in some one of the two easily even as fumes are medians betwixt fire and earth in respect that they are easily transmuted or changed in the one or the other And thus as you have heard the efficient and materiall causes of Meteors So now understand that their forme dependeth upon the disposition of their matter for the materiall dissimilitude either in quantity or quality in thicknesse thinnesse hotnesse drinesse aboundance or scarcity and so forth begetteth the Meteor it selfe different in species and forme as if you would say by the aboundance of hot and dry exhaled fumes from the Earth and the most burnt parts thereof are begot the greater quantity of Comets winds thunders and contrary-wayes by the aboundance of moist vapours elevated by the force of the Sunne from the Seas and waters we judge of aboundance of raine haile or snow or dew to ensue according to the diverse degrees of light in the Ayrie Region whither they are mounted Now when I said before that hot exhaled fumes are ever carried aloft to the highest Region of the Ayre take it not to be so universally true but that at times they may be inflamed even in this low Region of ours here and that through the Sunnes deficiency of heate for the time for as the uppermost Region is alwayes hot the middle alwayes cold so is the lower now hot now cold now dry and againe moist according to the Sunnes accesse or recesse from it as Aristotle lib. 1. Meteo cap. 3. noteth And of this sort are these even visible inflamations which in the Seas are seene before any storme flaming and glancing now and then as I my selfe have seene yea and sometimes upon the tops of Ships masts Sterne and Poope or such as in darke nights now