participating something of the temperate heat and a sufficient moisture to nourish the heat is the most proper of all the complexions to conduce to long life As for the Cholerick that continues lesse because the force and vivacity of its fire and heat cannot long endure with the drought The Phlegmatick and waterish cannot be digested by the heat because of it excessive moisture and so it easily corrupts which in the end causes death The Melancholy being earthy shortens the life by its cold disposition and drinesse which are contrary qualities to heat and moisture Wherefore it is not marvel if they shorten the life where they abound in any body Neverthelesse if choler be mingled with phlegme and that it do surmount proportionably the phlegme this complexion is abiding enough to yeeld long life Also when the bloud surpasses melancholy in a good proportion this complexion is good for the heat and moisture of the bloud tempers the cold and drinesse of the melancholy And so there are compounded complexions which are much better then the simple Sanguine to yeeld long life By that which is aforesaid we may see that the life of man is limited by the virtue and power of his complexion and by the proportion of the elementary qaalities in such fort that the diversity of proportions cause a diversity of termes or time to the life of man So it is said that a man may live as long as his naturall heat lasteth and Radicall moisture is maintained And whereas it is said that the life of man is limited beyond which it is unpossible to passe We must note that although the complexion and naturall perfection of a man may bring him and support him even to the last period yet neverthelesse of a thousand scarce one attains to that point For there are so many disasters which accidentally happen either by some disorder that the most part die before nature fails them be it by Famine Plague Poison Gluttony Whoredome ill diet or by diseases caused by infinite excess And so the true naturall term of the life of man is when nature fails so that it is unpossible to passe that point of time And so we must understand that passage in Iob where it is said Lord thou hast established the bounds which it is unposible for him to go beyond By this passage we may clearly see that man may shorten his life but not lengthen it So that we see many of good complexion that might live a great number of years which neverthelesse are short lived by some exteriour cause which hastens their days Yet this passage of Iob may be otherwise understood in regard of Gods foreknowledge who appoints to every one the term of hit life be it by his naturall complexion or by some other end that he hath assigned to the life of man And because there is nothing hidden from the wisedome of God who knows all the accidentall causes which may happen to man it is impossible for man to lengthen his life beyond what God hath ordeined although the causes be contingent And so one may say there are two terms of a mans life The one whereof depends upon the Harmony and proportion of the elementary qualities The other is according to the preordination and fore-knowledge of God Between which terms there is onely this difference that one may arrive even at the first though not go beyond it But all come to the second And although by course of nature one may passe the second yet nevertheless there is none that ever passeth it CHAP. XXXIIII How great the mischief is to desire a Revelation of things in the Life to come EVen as God who hath creatted us without us will not save us without us so hath he given us the ground of the means of our Salvation which is faith with hope of the riches which he hath promised us in the life to come by an ancient decree which is revealed unto us by his onely son which we cannot obtain without beleeving and hoping in him But mans weakness or to say rather the faith of man is so weak that when it is preached unto him the glory that God hath provided for him hereafter he will say he beleeveth it But nevertheless he will say it is a great matter of so many men that are dead there is not one returned to tell us the things of the other world The greatest sign of unbelief in the heart of man is in my judgement this great desire to have revelations from the other world For seeing that faith consisteth in believing and hoping for things that are not seen if they were revealed unto us there were no more faith and so this singular means of our Salvation were taken from us Again I say further That not onely by this Revelation Faith would be destroyed but also it would be an occasion to make us run into great errours against God as we may easily judge by this argument Put the case that our Father Mother or Brother after death should return into this world and were cloathed with the same flesh they had left behind them and that we should certainly beleeve they were the same and that they should be conversant drink and eat with us as our Saviour did with his Apostles that they might not be in doubt he was a Spirit or a Shadow and that this our Brother c. should reveal unto us the things of the other world there were no doubt but we should hearken to him and without all question beleeve that whidh he says to be true Now this must be a man because he hath Soul and Body and beleeving him we beleeve a man which by nature a Liar So by this it would follow that giving him credit we should rather beleeve a man by nature a liar than God who is soveraign and passing truth and cannot lie who hath told us and often repeated the reward which is prepared hereafter for the good and the punishment for the wicked There is none then but will confesse that this is a grievous sin if we should give credit to this Revelation so much desired by men beleeving rather the creature than the Creator Let not man then be any more desirous to know that which may turn to his Damnation And that he consider that all that God gives or all that God denies us is for our good which he seeks more than our selves And if all men ought to order themselves thus it belongs much more to Christians to whom our Saviour shews that we ought to believe that which is revealed to us by him in the Scriptures spoken by him in the parable of the Rich-man You have Moses and the Prophets hear them Imprimatur John Downam FINIS
One may gather as much out of the words of Aristotle which saith The Viper onely amongst other Serpents makes her young ones for first she forms them in her body of egs as fishes spawn then having formed them they remain three days wrapped up in a tender thâ—â— skin which in due time breaks and sets the little ones at liberty because of which Apuleus in his apologie calls them Oviperes and not Vipers that is bred of egs And many times it comes to passe that this tender skin breaking in the belly of the Viper they come forth every day one even to the number of above twenty these are the words of Aristotle In another place in the third book of beasts he saith speaking of the bringing forth of Serpents The Viper before she brings forth little ones forms the egs within her And I think from thence proceeds this opinion who say that the little ones eat themselves out of the belly of the Viper For it hath seemed to them which maintain it that when Aristotle spoke of this first coming forth they would have it that they brake and gnawed the belly of the Viper Now leaving this discourse I say the Viper as venemous as she is gives succour and help to man Diascorides saith that the flesh of a Viper sodden or dressed may be eaten safely and that it is very medicinable for the Nerves and for the fight And to dress him to eat you must cut off the head the tail then the skin being taken off and well prepared boil him in oil and wine with good store of Aniseeds He saith also that of this flesh is made a kind of salt or pouder which gives a good appetite and is prepared in this manner Take a new earthen pot and put the flesh of the Viper in it dressed as before then put in salt and figs stamped with a competent quantity of Hony and the pot being well covered set it to bake a long time in an oven till it may be beaten and brought to a powder And whosoever afterwards would use it with other meats will find it very profitable and savoury Paul Egenetta saith that the flesh of the Viper is singular good for Lepers and Lazers and for that purpose esteems much of the salt forespoken of Plinie saith there is a certain nation in the Indies that eat Vipers Diascorides saith also that those that use to eat of the flesh of Vipers live long and in health Against the biting of this beast there are many remedies But Theophrastus names one saying that to him which is bit with a Viper melodie and musick help much Galen saith that the beast eats not all the time of winter and that she keeps her self as dead hid in the earth and then if you find her touch her or handle her she bites not and when Summer comes she recovers her force again So much Plinie reports of Lisards Snakes and all other sorts of creeping Serpents Aristotle saith they keep themselves so hidden in the earth three or four moneths without eating any thing Elian saith that the Vipers which breed in the Province of Arabia although they bite their teeth are not venemous because they eat Baum and lie under the shade of it And Aristotle saith they are very desirous to drink wine and that many people take them by putting vessels of wine in places where they haunt and so they make themselves drunk then they take them sleeping There are other things to be said of the quality and property of the Viper which I leave for brevities sake CHAP. XXVII Of the admirable property of a little beast whose biting is cured by the sound of musick and also of some ather infirmities that are cured by the same means THat which is said in the former Chapter by the authority of Theophrastus that the biting of the Viper may be cured with the sound of musick will make that which we shall speak now more credible Alexander of Alexandria and Piere Gilie a modern Author affirm and say that in Poville a country in Italy therâ— is a kind of Spider which those of that country call Tatantola and some Phalange which in the beginning of Summer are so venemous that whosoever is bitten of them if he have not help presently he looses his sences and dies and if any escape death they are sencelesse and totally not themselves For which evil experience hath a remedie which is musick that which these Authors say is as a testimony of their own experience as eye-witnesses who say that as soon as any one is bitten they send presently for one that can play upon the Vian or Flute or some other instrument which play and sing divers lessons which being heard by him that is strucken by the venemous Spider he begins to dance and stir as if all his life time he had been accustomed to dancing in which sury and force of dancing he continues till the venome be dissipated and wasted And this Alexander saies that he hath seen that one that hath been wounded with this beast hath continued so long in dancing till the Musitians have been all weary and ceased and the poor dancer fall to the ground as dead having lost his strength but as soon as they began to play again he saw the poor sick man raise himself anew and begin to dance with as much force as before even untill the wound was entirely cured He saith yet further that if it happen that one that had not been well cured by Musick a short time after hearing instruments of Musick began to stir their feet and were forced to dance even till they were cured which truly is wonderfull in nature A sclepiades writes that singing and a soft sound of musick is a great help to those that are Frantick We read also that Esmineas the Thebean hath cured divers diseases and maladies by a sweet soft noise of Flutes Theophrastus and Aulus Gelius say that musick appeaseth the pain of the Sciatica and the Gout Again we find in the holy Scripture that David with musick cast out the evill spirit out of Saul Such is the great effect that proceeds from the cause of the great amity that the nature of man bears to musick And if we well consider we shal not find it strange that divers infirmities are cured by the means of musick forasmuch as we see that there are some beasts that kill laughing others weeping and others sleeping As Plutarch writes to Cleopatre CHAP. XXVIII Of a strange medicine wherewith Faustina was cured of dishonest love And of divers other remedies against that passion THat the affection and prison of the mind which is ordinarily called Love is a strong passion and of great effect in the soul let us ask of such men which by experience have known it and of such of whom examples are notorious namely of very excellent personages that have suffered their wills to have been transported even so far that some of
THE WONDERS Of the World OR Choise Observations and Passages concerning the beginning continuation and endings of Kingdomes and Commonwealths With an exact division of the several Ages of the World and the most remarkable passages and memorable accidents that have come to pass therein Also divers weighty grounds and reasons both from Scripture and natural experience why men lived longer in former Ages then at this present With the seven several ages of men The opinions of divers great Emperours and Kings touching the person of Christ and the life of mankinde with the strange events that have befaln several of them Also a discovery of divers creatures bred in the Sea and other obscure places of the World retaining the similitude and likeness of men and women Together with the miserable death that befel Pontius Pilate after that he had condemned our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The place of his birth and burial and how he appears once every year in the said place in the shape and likeness of a Judge A Work very profitable and necessary for all Written originally in Spanish translated into French and now made English by that pious and learned Gentleman JOSHUA BAILDON Imprimatur John Downam London Printed for John Andrews at the white Lion in the Old Baily 1656. The WONDERS Of the VVORLD Discovering Many secret Rarities that have been hidden since the Creation CHAP. I. Why men lived longer in former ages than now in these days ALL those that are studious in Divine Writ may read that in the time of the first age and before that for sin a generall Deluge came over the earth mans life then was longer than it is at this present It is certain that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years Seth nine hundred and twelve Cain nine hundred and ten And descending from the one unto the other the shortest of their lives was seven hundred years and in these times we see few attain to fourscore or ninety years and if some one passe that it is rare and marvellous so that we come not to the tenth of the age of former men The learned either Divines or Philosophers who have discoursed thereupon seeing that nature that brings us forth now is the same that it was in times past and that those first men lived so long by nature and not miracle became astonied thereat and have curiously searched out the causes and reasons as Marcus Varro and an infinite number of others who have found these things so difficult in natures appearance that they have thought the years in ancient times not to be the same with ours in these modern times which opinion and belief is a great and vain errour as will be made appear in this following Chapter The truth is when I see the works of others and descend to that which agrees with my opinion that the principall reason why men live not so long now a days as formerly is that the Ancients had not in their times the causes that engender now in us those diseases whereby comes so soon old age and death Then we must consider that the first Parents of all humane linnage Adam and Eve were created by the immediate hand of God without any other means or help and therfore it is presumed that he created them of a most excellent complexion perfect Sympathie and proportion of humours which caused them to live in health so long and many years By means whereof the children that proceed from Parents so full of health must needs resemble their Progenitors in the same good and healthful complexion as men descended of excellent matter even till the change of ages the property whereof is to change and impair all things all humane kind began to grow weaker and the days of men to grow shorter Now in those times there was one thing that made much toward their long life which in these times is very hurtfull and contrary to us which was their great temperance in drink both in quality and quantitie and the small varietie of meats for they had not of so many sorts as now we have nor with so many inventions of cooking We do nor find that before the Deluge men knew what it was to eat flesh besides some hold it for certain that the fruits and hearbs were of far greater virtue and substance without comparison than now they are because then they proceeded out of new earth and not as it is at this day weak weary and as it were fallow for the Deluge was the cause of taking away its fat leaving it more infertile with a salt savour lesse perfect by the inundation of the Sea which floted for many weeks over it All these reasons are and every one of them sufficient however there are more if they were all put together to prove that this is no strange thing but naturall that men lived longer then than in these times Moreover it is to be noted and we hold it for certain that Adam knew all the virtues of Hearbs Plants and precious Stones and his children learned from him more than any man could learn since This was in part for health and the support of life and to cure diseases if peradventure any should happen by using such remedies as were simple and perfect and leaving out venemous compositions used in these present times the which instead of purging and cleansing weaken and kill those that take them and which is more in those former times the life and health of man was more supported and helped by the course of the heavens and influence of the Stars more benevolent in those times than they are now because they had not passed so many aspects conjunctions eclipses and other celestiall impressions from whence are proceeded these alterations variations and changes upon the earth and amongst the elements principall occasions of life and health in those former times and on the contrary infirmities and death in these But above all that that we have said and founded upon naturall reason I maintain that the cause of the long life of men in those days proceeded from the providence of God who would have their lives such and that the occasions aforesaid might help one the other to the end that onely of two might be bred many that the earth might be filled and human kind multiplied So we see that men not living so long after the Deluge as before God suffered them to go into the ark and so saved more men and women then he did create at the first to the end that the world might be replenished more easily St. Augustine speaking of these things sayeth That our fore-Fathers had the advantage of us not onely in health and long life but also in stature of body as it is evident in many Sepulchres and bones which have been found under great Mountains so that one may verily believe they were the bones of men living before the Deluge The same St. Augustine affirms that being in Vtica a Town in
have writ hereof is true or very likely Plinie and Varro speaking of the time of mans life affirm that the learned Egyptians knew by experience that man according to the order of nature could not live above a hundred years and if any one happen to live longer it is by some particular influence and force of the stars and a thing marvellous in nature Of this they took their ground from the heart of man in which by an Anotomy they have found experimentally marvellous secrets For they say at the age of one year the heart of man weighs two of their draghms at the age of two year four and so many years as he lives so many two draghms the heart encreases so that attaining to fifty years the heart weighs a hundred draghms And from that time afterwards it diminisheth its weight every year two draghms as before it did increase So that in a hundred years the heart annihilates it self and the body dies if by some other accident it be not advanced sooner for there are so many accidental causes which may and commonly cause death that there are few men arrive half the way to make this experience If this thing seem strange to some of us yet the Egyptians hold it for certain according to divers Authors and some as Lewis Caelius alledging Diescorides to have spoken much of this amongst other notable things as also Peter Crinit in his book of honest discipline and Cornelius Agrippa I scite all these Authors because it is a thing hard to be believed Let every one then give what credit to it seems good to himself And now we are treating of the heart of man and of so many excellencies that are in it we will not speak of one alone we must understand according to Aristoâ—le that man onely hath the heart placed on the left side and that all other creatures have it in the middest of the breast which he affirms in the first book of the nature of beasts Also this is the common opinion of all naturall Philosophers That the first part which is formed in man is the heart as the root of all the members in a humane body fountain of all naturall heat and the last member that dies in man and looses its motion It is so noble and delicate a member that it cannot be touched but it is present death Plinie recites an other wonder which happens some times saying that men have been fonnd to have the heart hairy and he that hath it so is very valiant and strong of disposition which was experimented in Aristomines who killed with his own hand in battell three hundred Lacedemonians who afterwards having escaped many dangers by his great valour at last died and being opened his heart was found hairy Suetonus in the life of Caligula and Plinie also saith that if a man die of poison his heart cannot burn although you throw it in the fire which was verified by the heart of Germanicus father of Caligula So it fareth with them that die of the disease called the Cardiague or griping at the heart And we must know that among the pellicles of the heart is the seat of laughter and to this purpose the ancient Historians write that the Roman-Gladiators having by any blow the caul or pellicles of the heart strook died laughing But even as laughter and joy proceeds from the heart so melancholy proceeds from thence and likewise good and evill thoughts Speech is procreated there and divers are of opinion that it is the principall seat and residence of the soul which seems to be confirmed by Christ himself when he says that wicked and evill thoughts proceed from the heart And that which enters in at the mouth soils not for those are indifferent things So venerable Bede in his Commentaries upon Saint Mark saith The chiefest place of the soul is not in the Brain as Plato maintains but in the hearr as our Saviour Christ saith CHAP. VII Of two Women the one of which in the habit of a man was made Pope the other Empresse I Beleeve many have heard of a woman Pope But because peradventure all know not by what means and that it was one of the strangest things that could happen amongst men I will here speak of it as it is extracted out of very true Histories She was born in England and in her youth grew acquainted with a learned man of whom perceiving her self to be beloved and she loved him no lesse took the habit of a man and named her self Iohn and forsaking her Countrey went along to dwell with him in the Town of Athens where then flourished the Schools with all manner of Learning and there lived some time where by her industry she attained to so much Learning that afterwards retiring her self to Rome she read publickly in the Schools in the habit of a Doctor By which readings and publick disputes she so gained the opinion of the Auditors that she was reputed one of the most Learnedst men of all her time and obtained such favour and authority among all that in the vacancie of the Apostolick Chair by the death of Leo the fourteenth of that name in the year of our Lord Eight hundred fifty two being taken for a man she was chosen Great Bishop of Rome and Universal Pope in the Church of God and kept that Chair two years and thirty odde days But being in this estate as happens always to such ill enterprises not having care of the preservation of her Chastitie had the company of one of her Favourite Serviteurs in whom she trusted most in so much that Madam the Pope proved with Child Nevertheless she hid her great belly with such care that none but her Minion could know any thing of it Howsoever God would not suffer such wickedness to last long nor go unpunished for as she went along according to the common solemnity to visit Saint Iean de Lateran her time of bearing being come she had publick correction for her secret sin for comming near to a certain place which is between the Church of Saint Clement and the Theatre improperly called Colliseus she was delivered with great pain of a humane creature which died incontinently with the Mother so both of them together without any Pomp or mourning were put into the ground and buried And for that cause the common opinion is that all the Soveraign Bishops that have been ever since come short of that place and when they come near it turn down another street in detestation of so horrible an offence And when they choose a Pope they set him upon a thing like a Close-stool pierced through that they may secretly know whether him that the choose be a male Many Authors write of this but I find not one that assures it Platinus onely writes of the Election of Popes ever since as is before recited Of all the Authors there is Martin and Platin in the Life of Popes and Sabollicus and St. Anthony
in their Histories that write of it I find written more that in that street upon the ground there is an Image of stone that represents the Birth of a Child and the Death of that impudent and brazen faced woman Whence we must know though that did come to pass as is before recited during the time this woman held the world in abuse the Church was not maimed in Faith because in it could not be wanting the Head Christ from whom proceeds the influence of all Grace and the utmost effects of the Sacraments by means of which Head the Sacraments have not been wanting to them that received them holily and by a lively faith for Christ supplied this want in them by his Grace And put the case that this woman nor no other could be capable to receive or give any one onely Character of Orders nor absolve any person and that therefore they that have been made Ministers by her hands must be ordained a new yet it is so that Christ supplying that default in them by his grace as we have said there is no further need to do it over again the truth is she was for her wisedome to be admired in that she could for so many years cover her estate and live after that close manner But that which made Theodosia Empress of Constanninople is not lesse to be admired because the wit the one used to counterfeit her self a man the other used to make known to all that she was a woman for in the vacancy of the Empire by the death of her brother Zoe and of her husband Constantine then made a Monk she knew so well how to behave her self in the carrying through of affairs she became Empress and for the same was feared and obeyed For without the help either of father or brother or husband she governed the Empire excellently in peace and prosperity for the space of two years and no more because she lived no longer and died to the grief of all her subjects in the time of Pope Leo the ninth in the year of grace one thousand and fifty CHAP. VIII Why man goes upright why he weigheth more fasting than when he hath eaten and the cause why he weighteth more dead than alive with other pretty discourses THe contemplative matters concerning the composition of man are infinite Lactantius Firmian writes a book of them apart And so have other learned men In truth there is one thing amongst many others that deserves particular consideration to be known that is why God hath made all other creatures except man who is born the chief whose eyes for the most part look downwards towards the earth and not onely reasonable creatures but also vegitables as we see of Trees who have their head and foundation in the earth and their boughs and branches above as for man he hath created him onely with his eys towards heaven his face upwards and his body streight up And although by all reason for these things it were sufficient to alledge the will of God yet it seems this was done by a Mystery and therefore worthy of contemplation so in truth our disposing or making manifestly shews us that we were not born for the earth but we were created to contemplate high and heavenly things which are not communicated to other creatures not being capable of them and there is none but man onely that is worthy of them God hath created all beasts with their head downward to shew that man onely reigns over them One of these reasons is eloquently noted by Lactantius saying that God having determined to make man for heaven and other creatures for earth he made man streight and upright and disposed to heavenly contemplation that he might admire the effects and have in reverence the place of his originall and his native Country making all other creatures low and bowing towards the earth because they have no participation in heaven Aristotle that had no light of faith saith That man onely amongst all creatures goes up-right in respect that his substance and his parts are Celestiall and not Terrestial And the Office of the spirits is knowledge and understanding in which man could not well know how to exercise if his body were great and weighty because the charge of his body would make his understanding dull Learned St. Thomas who forgot not to discuss and to examine any thing leaves not this question undetermined for in the exposition of youth and age he saith that for two causes man was formed upright towards heaven The one that he might be the most perfect of all creatures and he which participates and comes nearest to the quality of heaven The other because in the proportion of his body he is more hot then any other creature and that the nature of heat is to advance upward other creatures keep the mean as less participating of the heavenly quality and having lesse of this heat which raiseth up For this cause they are not of the same work and disposition as man It seems in this St. Thomas would follow the opinion of the Platonists maintaining that the heat and the spirit of man in which be abounds more than any other creature considering the proportion of his body is the cause that man goeth upright and streight as he doth because by the force and vigour of the spirits the bloud he lifts himself upright being helped by the composition and harmony of the Elements whereof man is composed with such equality weight that he may lift up himself Now something is in it seeing that by that part of the soul this of the body men are put forward to the love and contemplation of heaven they ought then to consider and think of high spirituall and good things and on the contrary to despise and shun low base and earthly things And yet neverthelesse we leave our selves so to be overcome with the cares of this life and earthly considerations that most of our time we lift up our eys to heaven but our spirits and thoughts are on the earth As for the propriety of the spirit of man whereof we have spoken Plinie alledges one thing more which though it be not of such importance as the rest yet it may give a tast of satisfaction to him that knows it not or would not have thought so much though experience manifests it daily He saith that a man when he is dead weigheth more than when he was alive and that it is so in all kind of creatures and that he that hath eaten his break-fast weighs lesse than when he was fasting Erasmus in one of his Problemes saith as much and other things of note giving the same reasons that Plinie doth which are founded in the essence of thespirits and the air which doth lighten them as we said before So likewise a man that is fasting weighs more than a man that hath eaten something although one would think he should weigh less forasmuch as he that hath eaten
and inclinations I alledge that this division was the invention of the Astrologers but let every one believe what he please Now we will come to the division of the Philosophers Physitians and Poets which are of divers opinions And because in this discourse there are some things of note I will treat of some of them to exercise ingenious wits The great Philosopher Pythagoras let a mans life be as long as may be makes but four divisions of it Comparing it to the four quarters of the year saying that infancy is the spring time in which all things are in their flower begins to grow and encrease Youth he compares to Summer for the heat and force which men have in that age The Viril or mans age is to Autumn because in this time men have experience are ripe apt for good Counsel and certain knowledge in all things And he represents old age to winter a time without fruit troublesome displeasing and hath not the happinesse of any fruit but what hath been gathered in former times Varro a learned man amongst the Romans divided the life of man into five parts attributing to every one of them the space of fifteen years The first fifteen he calls Puerility belonging to childishnesse The second he calleth Adolescentia youth that is to say growing because in that time men grow The other fifteen reaches to forty five years and calleth it Iuventus which comes of the Latine word Juvare To signifie a time of help because in this age men serve in actions of war and Common-wealth affairs And this Age is the stable and confirmed time of the life From forty five to sixty he calls that the ripe age of man because in Latine such men are called Seniores that is in respect of others behind them Because in this time men decline and grow into old age which accomplisheth the rest of the life after the sixty years Thus have you Varroes division of the life of man The Philosopher Hypochras divides it into seven Ages The first and second each of them seven years which makes fourteen The third of fourteen years reacheth to twenty eight The other two each of them seven years and reach to forty two The sixt of fourteen years and reach to fifty six And the rest of the life he attributes to the seventh Age. The Philosopher Solon puts these seven parts into ten dividing the third the sixt and the seventh in the middest so that every one of the ten parts lasts seven years There is the description made by the Philosophers But Isiodore hath distinguished them into six Ages The two first agreeing with Hypocras making every one of them seven and naming the first infancy the second puerility from fourteen to twenty eight he calls Adolescentia or the growing age from twenty eight to forty he calleth youth which is the fourth in order the fifth he calls the declining age and which begins old age he makes of twenty years and are in all sixty The rest of the life he attributes to old age calling it the sixth age Horace that excellent Poet divides also the age of man but it is in four parts onely so doth Pythagoras Namely puerilty youth and the viril age and old age the which is elegantly described in his Poetick-Art with the qualities and conditions of men in every age And neverthelesse according to the Rule of the naturall Philosophers The life of man ought to be divided but in to three ages The first the growing age The second that which a man continues all in one estate The third of the declining time Because according to Aristotle All things that are engendred have augmentation a reteining of the essence and a diminution so they give to man three ages The Arabian Physitians have been of the same opinion Yet nevertheless Avicen a learned man distinguisheth our life into four ages or principal parts The first which lasts thirty years he names Adolescenâ—ia youth because in this time all things goes forward in growing The second from thirty to forty five and he names it the time of standing at a stay or the time of beauty because in this time man is in perfection From thence forward and even to sixty he calls the time of secret declination and the way to old age and all the time that a man lives afterwards he calls cleer and open old age Yet we must note that although he make this his principall division he divides the first of these four which is the thirty years and makes them into three parts so that we may say he confirms those which divide them into six Now after al considering these variable opinions I do not know which to take to for the most true nor indeed can there be any certain rule given in respect of the divers complexions and dispositions of men as also the innabiting in divers Countries Provinces and feeding upon good or naughty meats by means whereof men arrive sooner or later at old age For this cause saith Gallen we ought not to give a limitted time to ages which being wel considered wil make that all these discordances of severall Authors not to seem so strange seeing that every one of them have a divers consideration thereupon As had Servius Tullius King of Rome who according to Aulus Gelius had regard to nothing but the common good when he divided the people of Rome into five estates And separated the life of man into three parts naming the first age to seventeen Puerity and then to forty six he declared them men able and fit for war and made them be listed in writing And after forty six he named them men ripe and fit for Counsel This division contraries not the others because it is universal and incloses in it self the lesser and more particular seems to conform it self to the common divisions which divide the ages into youth ripe age and old age The Viril from the time we are born to the end of youth which continues to 45 years a little more or lesse So saith Virgil Viredisque juventus which is to say green youth The ripe age even to sixty years which Servius names wise and fit for Councel and the rest decrepit old age The which three parts may be divided into lesse and by that means confirms the truth which seems to be amongst the Authors CHAP. XIIII What a dangerous thing it is to murmure against Princes with a Commendation of their clemency THere is a very ancient saying and prized amongst the old Proverbs That Kings have large hands and very long ears inferring thereby that Kings and mighty men can take vengeance a far off upon those that have offended against them and also that they understand all things that are said against them in secret For there are so many people insinuate themselves into the love of those that command that nothing can be hid from them For this cause wise men Counsel that no man speak any thing
against the King though in secret forasmuch as in this case the walls hear and speak and Plutarch saith that the birds carry the words through the air So then we see that for speaking truth and freely men fall into danger What shall we judge then of him that murmurs against great ones The examples that we may bring to this purpose are infinite Amongst which we may read in the Greek and Latine Histories That Antigonus one of the Captains and successors to Alexander the great his Army being in the field he being a bed in his Pavillion one night heard some of his Souldiers without that murmured against him not thinking that he heard them and indeed he made no shew saving in changing his voice as if it had been some other said unto them to hold such a discourse you should draw yourselves further from the Kings Tent least he should hear you Another time this Antigonus causing his Army to march one night through a muddy and a dirty place his souldiers finding themselves weary went murmuring began to speak much evil of him thinking that he had been a great way behind and had not heard them yet being hard by them he understood many of their injurious words and discontents without being known because it was night afterwards relieving with all his power a party of those very men that had spoken evill of him spake unto them changing his voice saying Speak against the King what you please for leading of you into this mirie place but yet you ought to give me thanks and love me that I have brought you out of it again The patience of Pyrrus King of the Epyrotes was no lesse For when he made war against the Romans in Italy he and his people being lodged in the Town of Taraenta there was some of his young souldiers after they had supped together began to speak evill of him at the Table whereof being advertised and warning them before him asked them if it were true that they had spoken such words to which one of them answered boldly yes Sir we have spoken all that you charge us with and assure your self if the wine had held out at table and had not failed us we should have spoken much more willing to shew thereby in excuse of themselves that the wine induced them to speak evill of him Whereat Pyrrus was never a whit angry but fell into laughter sending them away without any reproof or punishment The Emperour Tyberius although he were a great Tyrant amongst other things hath left us to this purpose notable examples For knowing that one had made an infamous Libell against him and that many of his people murmured at his cruelties being perswaded by some to do Justice upon them answered magnanimously That Tongues ought to be free in the Town And being incited again by some of the Senate to seek out for him that was the inventer of the Libell Would not Saying he was not so out of businesse as to trouble himself with that The great mercy of Dennis the Tyrant of Sicily although he were extream cruell was marvellous kind towards an old woman for being advertised that this old woman prayed devoutly to the Gods for his health and prosperity sent out to seek for her to be brought before him and asked her for what cause she prayed so heartily for him seeing that all the rest of his people universally desired rather his death To whom the old woman made answer Know Sir that when I was young we had over us a most cruell Tyrant wherefore I prayed devoutly to God for his death and my prayer was heard After him succeeded another which Tyrannized over this Kingdome more than the former and I likewise desired his death so that by incessant prayers and request to the Gods desired that as they had heard me for the first so they would for this which came to passe and he died In whose place now you are come farre worse than the two former And because that after you I fear another may come worse than all the three I pray the Gods continually that they would maintain you in long life This free and bold answer of the old woman displeased him never a whit but let her go cheerfully and freely When Plato Prince of Philosophers who lived a long time with this Tyrant Dennis asked him leave to return to Athens and had obteined it Dennis asked him what he would say of him in the Accademie amongst the Philosophers at Athens To which Plato with great boldnesse and freedome answered Those which are at Athens are not so idle as to have leisure to speak of you or of your doings Dennis understood well that he reproved him of his evill life and yet neverthelesse bore it patiently I remember two other old women which with no lesse freedome spake to their Kings which was taken patiently One was of Macedonia to King Demetrius son of Antigonus before named and the other a Roman to the Emperour Adrian To whom both made a like answer when demanding justice to be done them It was answered by Demetrius and Adrian that they could not understand them To whom they answered that if they could not understand them they should then leave the Empire and yet neither of them both were angry at their answer but heard them and did them true justice Philip King of Macedon taking farewell of the Ambassadours of Athens and making them fair offers as it is the customes in such cases asked them if they would have him do any thing else for them to whom one of them named Democritus knowing well that Philip extreamly hated the Athenians and could not conceal his mind answered We would have you hang your self by the neck At which answer all the rest of his companions were much troubled And those also that were there present for fear least the King should do them some evill but according to his Clemency or it may be he dissembled made no other shew but turning towards the other Ambassadours said you may tell the Athenians That he that can bear such words is much more modest then the wise Athenians which have not had the discretion to hold their peace Demorates went to see this King Philip at a time when he was angry with his wife and his son Alexander And amongst other discourse Philip asked of their peace and union amongst the Towns in Greece And Demorate knowing well that the King delighted to hear of discord between those Common-wealths answered him indeed too freely considering whom he spake to Truly King because you are at discord in your own house you enquire after the discention of our Towns But if you were at peace with your own it would be more commendable than to enquire of the adversities of others And neverthelesse the King was not angry but seeing that he was justly taxed sought peace with his wife and his son And if we would have examples of Christians That of Pope Sextus
because the water that we drink is not simple in its proper nature but is mingled with earth and air but by the fire the windinesse is exhaled into vapour the earthy parts by the nature of the fire which doth refine and separate the divers natures descends to the bottome and there rests By this means water that is boiled becomes lesse windie than raw water because the windy quality that it had at the first is evaporated it is also more subtile and light being purified from the earthy parts and so much more easie to be kept and preserved so that it cool again and competently kept without much altering And by this we may know that Well-water is not so good as others because it participates more of the earth and is not purified by the heat of the Sun and therefore is more easie to corrupt yet the more water is drawn out of a Well the lesse hurtfull it is because the continuall moving hinders the accustomed corruption that fastens to waters inclosed and have no course and then nature sends new and fresh water according to the measure that hath been drawn out For this reason the waters of Lakes and standing Pools is the worst of all because for want of running they corrupt and breed evill things and many times infect the air which breeds diseases to those that live near them We must again consider that those waters which have their course towards the South are not so good as those which run towards the North because in the South parts the air is more mingled with vapours and moisture which spoils the water and endamages it And in the North parts the air is more subtile and lesse moist whereby it swels not nor is made so heavy For this cause the water that is most clear most light most subtile and most purified is the best because as we have said before it is less mingled with other elements and again being set over the fire it heats sooner then other water So it is a singular triall between two sorts of water to see which will be first hot in the same quantity by the same fire and the same space of time And also to see which will be the foonest cold for those are two arguments of the penetrable and subtile substance and forasmuch as the mingling of the earth among the water argues the weight of it it is good to choose the lightest which may be done by this experiment Take two pieces of linnen cloath both of the same weight and put one piece in one of the waters and the other in the other water and let them so remain till they be throughly wet then take them out and spread them in the air where the Sun comes not and when they are dry weigh them again and that piece that weighs most shews that water to be the heaviest Others weigh them in two neat glasse viols both of a weight Aristotle and Plinie say that the greatest cause that diversifies the quality of waters is from the substance of the earth from Stones Trees Minerall and Mettals by which Fountains and Rivers passe and this makes the one hot the other cold one sweet the other brackish Wherefore it is a certain rule that that water which hath neither smach nor smell is known to be the best All those that have writ of water maintain that that which pasteth through the Mines of gold is the best And that those Rivers are the most excellent in the world whose fine sands engender and preserve gold And now that we have spoken of Fountain and River it is fit we should speak something of rain water which is praised by some and censured by others Vitruvis Collumellus and some other Physitians give great praise of rain water when it falis clear and neat because say they it is light and not blended for so much as it proceeds of vapour which by its subtilty is mounted into the Region of the air and it is to be believed that the weighty and earthy part remains upon the earth And although some say that water that falls from the clouds corrupts presently as we see in standing pools which ingenders much impurity yet we must not say it is the fault of the water but that it is receaved in some place where either mud or some other pollution is and again by the means of that filth it carrieth along with it as it fals upon the ground when it rains aboundantly Wherefore the cause of its suddain corruption proceeds from that it is subtile and delicate and by the heat of the Sun and moisture of the water with the mixture of much filthinesse Yet if this water so subtile purged and clear were received falling from the tops of houses that were clean or at least when it falls from the clouds through the air before it touch any thing and if it were so received in clean vessels it would be better than others and would keep longer time There are some of the contrary opinion as Plinie who saith it is so unwholsome that one ought not to drink it because the vapours from whence it issues proceeds from many causes and places whence it receives much different qualities as well bad as good And shewing yet further reasons he answers those which we have before alledged and saith that the triall is not sufficient to say therefore it is good because it is lighter for being drawn out of the region of the air for such an evaporation is drawn on high by a secret violence of the Sun and by the same reason that is also vapour whereof the stonie hardnesse of hail is formed in the air which water is pernitious and likewise that of snow he saith further that besides this defect this rain water is made unwholsome by the vapour and heat of the earth than when it Rains And for an argument of its impurity we cannot but see how soon it will corrupt whereof is made a true experience at Sea where rain-water cannot be preserved For this cause we find fault with Wells and Cisterns Upon all these opinions every one may give his own as he thinks good as for me I approve lesse of rain-water then other although it be more necessary and that Plinie who finds fault with it saith That Fishes grow fat in Pools Lakes and Rivers and that when it rains they grow better and that they have need of rain-water Theophrastas saith that Garden hearbs and all others water them never so much they grow not so well as with rain-water CHAP. XXI Of divers Lakes and Fountains whose waters have great proprieties IN this Chapter the first that we will speak of shall be the Lake of Judea called Asfaltide which since hath been named Mare Mcriunm The Dead-sea Of this water is reported wonderfull things by Plinie â—oâ—umel and Diodoras First They say there is not any fish breeds in it nor any other living thing and that no living thing sinks into it So that
was born it hapned in Rome that in a publick Inne was discovered and broke forth a Fountain of pure oil which for the space of a whole day incessantly issued out in great abundance and it seemed that such a sudden spring of oil would signifie the comming of Christ That is to say anointed by which all Christians are so And the publick Inne in which all are indisterently received and lodged signifies our Mother Church the great Hostlery of Christians from whence should issue and proceed incessantly all good people Eutropius adds further That in Rome and adjacent places at high noon in a clear and fair day was seen a circle about the Sun as shining and resplendant as the Sun which shewed as much brightnesse or more than the Sun Paul Horatius writes also that at the same time the Senate and people of Rome offred to Octavus Augustus the title of Lord which he refused and would not accept of Prognosticating unknowing that a greater Lord than he was upon the earth to whom that title belonged Commestor in his scholastick history affirms That the same day the Temple in Rome dedicated by the Romans to the Goddesse Paix fell to the earth ruined And he saith that from the time it was built by the Romans they addressed to the Oracle of Apollo to know how long time it should endure Who made them answer even till a Virgin should bring forth a child which they judged impossible and by that means their Temple should last eternally nevertheless at the Virgins bearing a child the King of heaven it fell to the earth Luoas de Tuy in his Chronicle of Spain writes that he hath found in ancient histories of the Country having conferred and computed the time that the same night in which our Saviour was born there appeared in Spain at the hour of midnight a cloud which gave so great light that it seemed as midday I remember also that I have read in St. Ierom. That when the Virgin fled with her son into Egypt all the Idols and Images of the Gods which were there tombled to the ground from above their Altars And that the Oracles which hese Gods or to say better these Devils gave them ceased and never after gave them any answers This miracle alledged by Saint Jerom seems to be approved by the excellent Plutarch although he were a Pagan Who not believing any thing of these things nor knowing wherefore they were come to passe hath writ a particular Treatise of the defects of Oracles for already in his time which was a little after the death of Christ men perceived that such Oracles were wanting And in that Treaâ—â—s e could alledge no other reason but that there were some Demons dead But he said it as a man without faith because he did not understand that the spirits were immortall Neverthelesse this thing was wonderfull and truly worthy of great consideration to see so apparently that the Devil should demonstrate himself incontinently beaten down and discomfited and that after the death of our Saviour he remained so vanquâ—shed that never since he could give an answer And that the Gentiles without understanding the cause had knowledge of this defect by means whereof Plutarch writ this Treatise in which are these words whereof Eusebius makes mention writing to Theodoras as a thing of note I remember saith he to have heard say upon the death of the Demons to Emilius the Orator a prudent and an humble man That his father comming one time by Sea towards Italy and coasting by night an Island not inhabited named Paraxis as all in the ship were silent and at rest they heard a great and fearful voice which came from that Island The which voice called Ataman who was the Pilot of the ship an Egyptian born And although this voice was heard once or twice by Ataman and others yet had they not the hardinesse to answer till the third time he answered Who is there who is it that cals me what would you have Then the voice spake more high and loud and said to him Ataman I will that when you passe by near the Gulf called Laguna you remember to cry aloud and mâ—ke them understand that the great God Pan is dead At which all that were in the ship were in great fear and consulted all that the Pilot of the ship should not mind it nor speak a word of it nor stay in that Gulf at least if they could passe beyond it but go forward on their voyage but comming to the place where the voice had designed them the ship arrested and the sea was calm without wind so that they could not sail by means whereof they all concluded that Ataman should do his Ambassage and so he placed himself in the Poop of the ship and cried as loud as he could saying I do make you know that the great Pan is dead But as soon as he had spoke these words they heard so many voices cry and complain that all the air resounded again and this complaint lasted for a space of time so that those in the ship being astonied and having a prosperous wind followed on their course and being arrived at Rome told of this adventure and what happened Which being come to the ears of the Emperour Tyberius would be truly informed and found that it was truth wherefore it is evident that through all parts the Divels complained at the birth of our Saviour because it was their destruction For by the supputation of time we shall find that these things happened at the time that he suffered for us or a little before then when he chased and banished them from the world It is to be supposed that this great Pan as to the restriction of great Pan God of the Shepheards which they said was dead was some great Master Divel which then lost his Empire and power as the others had Besides these things Josephus writes in those very daies there was heard in the Temple of Jerusalem a voice though there was no living creature in the Temple which said let us abandon and go out of this Country speedily which was to say they perceived the persecution that they were to suffer and that it drew near by the death of him who was the giver of life In the Gospel of the Nazarites it is found that the day of the passion that gate of the Temple fell which was of a sumptuous and perpetual structure Behold how we find these wonderfull things which happened in that time though the Evangelists makes no mention of them as things unnecessary We must needs know that this great Eclipse of the Sun which lasted three hours whilest Christ was on the Crosse was not naturall as that which we see sometimes by the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon the Moon being interposed between the Sun and the earth And nevertheless the Eclipse which happened then at the passion was in opposition the Moon being then at full and distant from
he appeared alive unto them according as the Prophets inspired by God had foretold and prophesied of him And yet in our time the doctrine and the name of Christians continues all the world over These are the words of Josephus who writ of the destruction of Jerusalem as an eye-witnesse which hapned fourty years after the death of Christ Pilate likewise that gave the sentence of death against him neverthelesse bears witnesse of his great miracles sending word of them by letters to the Emperour Tyberius so that the Senate was put to sit in Councell to advise whether they should receive Jesus Christ for a God and although they did not assent unto it Tyberius forbad any further persecuting the Christians As for the Earth-quake and the darknesse of the Sun during the time that Christ suffered upon the Crosse we have also Ethnicks for witnesses Flegon the Greek Historiographer born in Asia of whom Suydas makes speciall mention That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiade which will meet being well accounted with the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius which was then when our Saviour suffered There was an eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was seen or found in any History and that it endured from the sixth to the ninth hour And that during this eclipse the Earth-quake was so great in Asia and Bithinia that there were an infinite number of houses fell to the ground It seems besides Flegon who lived in those times and writ this that Plinie vented and writ the same thing For he saith that in the time of the Emperour Tyberius the Earth-quake was greater than ever was any before it and saith thereby was thrown to the earth and ruined twelve Towns in Asia besides an infinite of other buildings So that the Historiographers who were Gentiles although they knew not the cause forbear not to write of the miracles of Christ The other miracle of the vail of the Temple which rent in sunder Iosephus recites it also Of the cruell death of the innocent children which Herod caused to die mention is made of it by another Jew named Filon a writer of great authority In his abridgement of time where he saith that Herod caused many children to be put to death and among them his own son because that he had heard that Christ a King promised to the Hebrews was born and this Authour was in the times of the other Herod called the Tetrark as he himself saith This History is again more amply recited by Macrobâ—us an Ethnick Historioagrapher who recites some pleasant and witty speeches of the Emperour Octavian in whose time our Saviour lived saying that the Emperour having heard of the cruelty of Herod towards his son and the other innocents said it was better in Herods house to be his hog than his child because the Jews killed no swine which witty conceit is alledged also by Dion in the life of the same Emperour So that there are many miracles whereof the Jews and the Gentiles not thinking of it be or witness to have been done by Christ besides those that the Christians make mention of What should we say any more of that the ancient Emperours have tasted of our belief and of that which they have done against the Christians The first Vicar of God St. Peter and likewise St. Paul died by the commandment of Nero the Emperour thirty six years after the death of our Saviour and then was the great persecution of the Church of which the Gentiles have not omitted to make mention And particularly Suetonus Tranquillus and Corneliâ—s Tacitus who lived in those times and of great authority Suetonus in the life of Nero speaking of some of his decrees and ordinances saith that he tormented and afflicted with great punishment a sort of people which called themselves Christians and followed a certain belief and new Religion and Cernelius Tacitus treatingon the acts of the same Nero saith that he persecuted and punished with terrible torments a sort of people which the vulgar called Christians And that the Author of this name was Christ of Jerusalem whom Pilate the Governour of Judea had caused to be crucified and by the means of his death his doctrine began to be extolled But now let us see what some other Gentiles write that are not of lesse authority Plinie in some of his elegant Epistles writes to the Emperour Trajan whose Proconful he was in Asia to know how he would that he should punish the Christians which were accused and brought before him that he might give his Lord a good account of what he found against them Amongst other things he writes that these Christians rose at certain hours in the night and assembled themselves together to sing hymns and praises to Jesus Christ whom they worshipped for God And being assembled into a Congregation they made vows to do no evil or hurt to any but promised not to steal not to be adulterers not to break their promises or vows not to deny what hath been lent or given them to keep And this Plinie saith further that they eat altogether without possessing any thing in proper By this we may know what was then the exercise of Christians and for what the world hated them and persecuted them These things were written by a Heathen and an Idolater sixty years after the Passion of our Saviour To which letters the Emperour made answer that seeing they were not accused for any excesse or other misdeeds that he should not trouble himself to punish them or make any inquisition against them Yet neverthelesse if they were accused and brought before him that he should find out a means to make them forsake their Religion but if they would not leave it yet he should do nothing to them Before this it is true that this Emperour Traian being a Heathen and deceived by accusers had persecuted the Christians To which Empire afterwards succeeded Adrian his Nephew of whom Aelius Lampridius a Heathen Historiagrapher and an Idolater writes that he began to honour the Christians suffering them to live in their belief and he himself worshipped Christ with the others and built Temples but afterwards he changed his copy and became hatefull odious and cruell towards the Christians being deceived and abused by the Masters and their false ceremonies and by the Bishops of those false Gods telling him that if he favoured the Christians all the world would be converted to their belief and they should loose the religion of their Gods This is certified by Peter Criniff It is found in the life of Saturninus that to this Empeaour Adrian there was a letter sent by Severinus the Consul where he writes that there was in Egypt divers Christians amongst which some called themselves Bishops and that none of them were idle but that all of them did work and employed themselves in some action and that there was not amongst them even those that were blind and lame that did not live
it would be long to recite them He suffered all indifferently to become Christians for whom he built sumptuous Temples and those which had been formerly dedicated to Idols he dedicated to the service of Christ and his members Since which time although the Church of God hath suffered scandals and persecutions as those of Iulian the Apostata and others yet alwaies and in many places of the world Christ hath been publickly worshipped and from thence forward all histories are full of the acts of the Saints and the greatest part of the subsequent Emperours have been faithfull Catholicks as Theodosius Iustinian and others I could bring many authorities of Ethnick Historiographers that have written of Christ but I would help my self with this small number onely because they are famous and of great authority CHAP. XXV Of the Amity and Enmity which by a secret property are in many things THe ancient Philosopher Heraclitus and divers others since him have been of opinion that all things are occasioned by concord and disconcord and that by peace and enmity which is in all things comes the generation and corruption of them of which Philosophie I will not now treat of as well because the Subject would be difficult for me as that the reader would receive little pleasure Howsoever we will speak of the love and enmity which is between many things that none knoweth truly from whence the cause proceeds which in truth is a thing very wonderfull as that which is between the dog and the cat between oyl and glew between the stag and the adder and such like whereof we will speak that naturally hate one another and yet this enmity proceeds not from the elements for the contrariety and enmity which are between things of which they are composed is most clear as we see that water is an enemy to fire because the fire is hot and dry and the water cold and moist in such sort that these elements are totally contraries The water and the earth are friends in as much as they are both cold but they are contrary in this that the water is moist and the earth dry Betwixt the fire and the earth there is some conformity because of the drinesse of them both and difference by the heat of the fire and the cold of the earth So betwixt the elements there is a contrariety and yet in part of them there is some conformity All things then being composed of the elements it must of necessity follow that amongst them must be these contradictions and conformities which the elements have whereof they are composed Wherefore that thing in which the elemenrary quality most governs takes the name from that quality and that do we call hot or cold moist or drie some in a more high degree than others according as the thing is qualified with one of these first four qualities And so it comes to passe that one thing is contrary to another causing divers effects which contradiction is most manifest and we know it so sure that now we will come to give the reasons But of this other enmity which proceeds not from the elements but from a secret or hidden propriety or superiour influence requires a deep contemplation to search out from whence the cause proceeds The dog and the cat as we have said before would do one another mischief and yet we know not wherefore we see also other things that agree and love one another and yet this love is not derived from the elements whereof they are composed The Asse desires and loves an hearb called Sagapena or Giant Fennell which is venemous to other beasts of the nature of horses The Fox is a friend to the Adder which is an enemy to all other beasts This is not of the least consideration that it is amongst men as among beasts seeing that not kowing wherefore nor how one man that seeth another at the first sight that never saw or knew one another before will contemn and loath him and another will be agreeable and pleasing unto him and sometimes so soon as he shall see one he knoweth not he will bear him affection and reverence him although he be below him Others will be dispised although they be great persons yea Lords There are others to be found that seem as though they were born to be Tutors and instructers to other as you may see two men whereof the one will suffer himself to be led and governed by the other and in this many times the Lord by his servant in such sort as it seemeth he were naturally subject unto him and we can give no reason for it In like case we see such subjection and enmity amongst beasts as between the Eagle and the Swan between the Raven and the Kite and many times we see that the Kite snatches the prey out of the Ravens claws There is also enmity between the Kite and the Owl the Eagle and the Goose so that if one mingle the feathers of the Eagle with Goose feathers the Eagles will consume them all The Stag persecutes the Adder for with a strong respiration of his breath which he makes at the mouth of the Adders hole he draws him out of his hole and eats him That it is true that there is such an enmity between them you may prove it by burning some of the Stags hair for all the Adders wil fly from the smoak of it There is also great enmity betwixt the Raven the Asse and the Bull because the Raven attempts alwaies with his beak to strike out their eyes The greatest enemies to the Wolf are the Fox the Asse and the Bull. There is also a naturall quarrell betwixt the Vulture and the Eel The Lyon is afraid and shuns the house Cock also the fire and the noise of a Waggon The Hienna is an enemy to the Panther The Scorpion hath a deadly hatred to the Tarantola whose biting or sting cannot be healed as it is said but by musick and there is so much enmity between these two beasts that he that is stricken with the Scorpion is healed with the oil wherein Terantolaes have been steeped and suffocated The Elephant which is one of the strongest beasts fears and shuns a Snake or an Adder and also a Sheep and is amazed at the gtunting of a hog There is a kind of Faulcon which Aristotle calleth Tico that hath a great war and debate alwaies against the Fox and as often as he can beats and persecutes him Elian writes that there is a great enmity between the Raven and a kind of Falcon called Pelagre and between the Raven and the Turtle-Dove There is also a deadly hatred between the Owl and the Stork the Patridge and the Tortis The Pellican persecutes the Quail above all other birds And the Horse is afraid more of a Camel then of any other beast There is also great discord and enmity amongst fishes The Dolphin is an enemy to the Whale The Cougar is naturally an enemy to the
them have died Jules Capitolin amongst other examples recites that which happened to Faustina daughter to Antoninns and wife to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius who fell in love with a Master of Fence or Gladiator in such sort that for the desire which she had of his company she was in danger of death she did so consume away Which being understood by Marcus Aurelius he presently called together a great companie of Astrologians and Doctours to have counsel and find remedy thereupon At last it was concluded that the Fencer should be killed and that they should unknown to her give Faustina of his bloud to drink and that after she had drank it the Emperour her husband should lie with her This remedie wrought marvellously for it put this affection so far from her that she never afterwards thought of him And the historie saith of this Copulation that the Emperor had then with her was begotten Antoninus Commodus which became so bloudy and cruel that he resembled more the Fencer whose bloud his mother had drank at the conception of him than Marcus Aurelius whose son he was which Commodus was alwaies found amongst the Gladiators as Eutropius witnesses in the life of the same Commodus The Greek and Arabick Physitians place this disease of love amongst the grievous infirmities of the body of man and thereupon prescribe divers remedies Cadmus Milesien as Suydas reports in his collections writes a whole book treating of the particular remedies to hunt out this disease of Love Amongst other remedies which Physitians give for this discase one is That to him that is passionate in Love one should put into his hands great affairs importuning his credit and his profit that his Spirit being occupied in divers matters it may draw away his imagination from that which troubles him and they say further that they should suffer him to be merry and conversant with other women Against this heat Plinie saith it is good to take the dust upon which a mule hath tumbled and cast it upon the Lover and all to be powder him or else of the sweat of a chafed mule as Cardanus affirms in his book of Subtilties The Physitians also teach how to know what person is loved of him that is sick in Love and it is by the same Rule that Eristratus Phyfitian to King Seleucus knew the love that Antiochus bare to the Queen Stratonicus his Step mother for he being extream sick and would rather die than discover the cause of his sickness proceeding from love which he bare to his fathers wife She came into the chamber just then when the Physitian was feeling the Patients pulse which beat so strong when he saw the Queen come into the chamber that Eristratus knew that he was in love with her and that was the cause of his sickness wherefore he found the way to make the King acquainted with it by such a means as would be too tedious to recite Which being experimented by the father and seeing his son in danger if he did not prevent it thought it good though contrary to the intention of the son which chose rather death than to be healed by his fathers Ioss to deprive himself of his Queen and give her to his sick son And so indeed the age and the beauty of the Lady and likewise marriage was more proper for the son than for the father And by this means Antiochus lived well and gallantly many years with his wel-beloved Stratonicus The History is very neatly recited by Plutark in the life of Demetrius And thus you see why Physitians say that you must feel the Pulse of those that are in love and repeat to them divers names of persons and if you name the right the pulse will beat thick and strong and by that you shall know whom they love By divers other signs one may know when any is in love and with whom which I leave to speak of now CHAP. XXIX Of the strange and furious love of a young At henian And of the ridiculous love of King Xerxes And how beasts have many times loved men and women TO see men affectioned to women and women to men is a naturall thing and to be believed But here blindnesse is come to that height that that which I intend to speak of seems impossible and incredible Historiographers write it for truth that in the Town of Achens there was a young man of an honest family competeutly rich and well known who having curiously observed a Statue of Marble excellently wrought and in a publick place in Athens fell so in love with it that he could not keep himself from the place where it stood but be alwaies embracing of it and alwaies when he was not with it he was discontented and blubber'd with tears This passion came to such an extremity that he addressed himself to the Senate at Athens and offering them a good sum of money beseeching them to do him the favour that he might have it home with him The Senate found that they could not by their authority suffer it to be taken away nor to sell any publick Statue so that his request was denied which made him marvellous sorrowfull even at the heart Then he went to the Statue and put a Crown of Gold upon it and enriched it with garments and Jewels of great price then adored it and seriously beheld it musing alwaies upon it and in this folly persevered many daies that at last being forbidden these things by the Senate he killed himself with grief this thing was truly wonderfull But if that be true which is written upon Xerxes and affirmed by so many Authours indeed he excelled in folly all the men in the world They say he fell in love with a Plain tree a tree well known though a stranger in England and that he loved it and cherished it as if it had been a woman Seeing then these things happen to rationall men we may believe that which is written of bruit beasts which have loved certain men and women especially when we find it certified by great and famous writers As Glaucus that was so loved of a sheep that it never forsook him Every one holds that the Dolphin is a lover of men Elian writes in his book of beasts a case worthy to be read He saith that a Dolphin seeing upon the Sea-shore where children were a playing one among the rest which he liked very well he fell so in love with it that every time that the Dolphin see him he came as near as he could to the edge of the water to shew himself At the first the child being afraid did shun it but afterwards by the Dolphins perseverance one day after another and shewing signs of love to the child the child was encouraged and upon the kind usage of the Dolphin the child was emboldened to swim upon the water near unto the fish even to go ride upon the back of it and the fish would carry him for a good space
of time even to the bottome of the water till the child made a sign to rise again In this solace and sport they spent many daies during which the Dolphin came every day to present himself to the brink of the Sea But at one time the child being naked swimming in the Sea and getting upon the Dolphin willing to hold fast one of the sharp pricks in the Fin of the Dolphin run into his belly which wounded him so that the child died immediately in the water which the Dolphin perceiving and seeing the bloud and the child dead upon his back he swam presently to the shore and as though he would punish himself for this fault swimming in great fury he leaped out of the water carrying with him as well as he could the dead child which he so much loved and died upon the shore with him This very thing is recited by Plinie and others with examples of Dolphins which have born love to men And particularly he saith that in the time of the Emperour Octavian another Dolphin in the same manner took love to a child upon the Sea-coast near to Pusoll and that every time this child called Simon they say this fish will run at that name it came presently to the Sea brink the child mounted upon the back of it and the Child was carried into the sea as little away as he would and brought back again safe He saith also that this child dying by accident of sicknesse and the Dolphin coming divers times to the accustomed place not finding the child there died also Plinie the second Nephew to the great Plinie recites marvellous things of the Dolphin in his ninth book of his Epistles in an Epistle which begins thus Incidi in materiam veram c CHAP. XXX Why Snow being covered with straw it preserves it in its coldnesse and hot water in its heat seeing they are two contrary effects by one and the same thing with some other secrets TO men of wit and lovers of the contemplation of the works of nature there shall not any thing present it self though never so slight or of little worth but they will find something of note in it which may yield them content when they have found it out We may find many men that if we should ask them the reason and what is the cause that Snow being covered with straw is preserved a long time in its cold nature of Snow without melting they could not tell what to say To this Alexander Aphrodise an excellent Parepatetick answers That straw hath no manifest or known quality it is neither hot nor cold so that some have named it without any quality for this cause because it is so singularly temperate and delicate even to such a degree as we cannot say whether it be hot or cold and so easily converts it self unto the qualitie of the thing whereunto it is adjoined so that putting it upon snow which is cold the straw pertakes of the cold quality of it and by the means thereof aids and maintains the coldnesse of the Snow as a thing of one quality helped by another without heating it at all because it hath none so the Snow being accompanied with cold and defended from heat which the straw keeps from it preserves it self in the same being a long time and longer than if it were not covered with straw By the same reason it works a contrary effect in warm-water because being covered with straw the straw receiveth immediately the quality of heat from the water and being so heat it aids and keeps the water in its heat and defends and keeps away the air that would cool it By this reason we may understand and find out other dificulties and doubts which curious persons may put unto us like unto this We know well that besides our naturall and inward heat that which causeth heat in us in Summer is the air which in that season is much more hot then at any other times in the year so the hotter the air is the more we feel the heat If then it be so now cometh it that we find more coldnesse and freshnesse and lesse heat in giving our selves air in summer by fanning and moving it when Aristotle saith motion causeth greater heat so that the air by this agitation ought to be hot it self and heat us more than if it were left quiet and unmoved The cause proceeds from this that we have more heat in our bodies then there is in the air as well naturally as what the air worketh in us For the air coming freshly I say freshly because it is more temperate then our selves it something tempers us but being at rest about us it heats it self by our heat as we have said before of the straw it preserves nay augments this heat howbeit if it be agitated and often renewed in coming upon us more temperate than we are our selves this temperature and difference which we find of lesse heat moderates that which we have from our selves This is the answer that Alexander and Aristotle gives to this question We must notwithstanding observe and note That if the air be more hot than the heat which we have from our selves the agitation and fanning of that air will not be so good because we shall find greater heat by so doing So let us see now to come again to hot water If we put our hands into it we shall have much ado to keep them in yet if we hold our hands still we may endure it better than if we stir them up and down because the water which surrounds the cold hand tempers a little that which is about it but in stirring it in the water the water renews its heat and begets every time new force We may ask again Why is it hotter in June and althrough July the Sun being then farther from us than at the beginning of June when we are in the Solstice and longest daies in the year beats more right upon us with his rays To which Aristotle answers in the second of his Meteors that the heat of the Sun is not the cause nor do we feel it the more by being near to us but when it hath the longer time to be over us because in June July it hath had a longer time to draw near unto us so in declining it causes a greater heat for it heats again in its descent the part and track of the air which it had before heat by its rising CHAP. XXXI In what part of the Zodiack the Sun the Moon and the rest of the Planets were placed when they were made And which was the beginning of years and times AS the Philosopher saith men are naturally curious to know and again in this case such is their covetousness greedy desire of human understanding that they content not themselves alone with the things that they comprehend with ease But beyond that they search and strive with great presumption to know and understand