disposition and condition of an Atheist to be happie as the state of freedome and libertie but now the Atheist hath no sparke at all of superstition whereas the superstitious person is in will and affection a meere Atheist howbeit weaker than to beleeve and shew in opinion that of the gods which he would and is in his minde Moreover the Atheist in no wise giveth any cause or ministreth occasion that superstition should arise but superstition not onely was the first beginning of impietie and Atheisme but also when it is sprung up and growne doth patronise and excuse it although not truely and honestly yet not without some colourable pretence for the Sages and wise men in times past grew not into this opinion that the world was wholly voide of a divine power and deitie because they beheld and considered any thing to be found fault withall in the heaven some negligence and disorder to be marked some confusion to be observed in the starres in the times and seasons of the yeere in the revolutions thereof in the course and motions of the sunne round about the earth which is the cause of night and day or in the nouriture and food of beasts or in the yeerely generation and increase of the fruits upon the earth but the ridiculous works and deeds of superstition their passions woorthy to be mocked and laughed at their words their motions and gestures their charmes forceries enchantments and magicall illusions their runnings up and downe their beating of drums tabours their impure purifications their filthy castimonies and beastly sanctifications their barbarous and unlawfull corrections and chastisements their inhumane and shamefull indignities practized even in temples these things I say gave occasion first unto some for to say that better it were there had bene no gods at all than to admit such for gods who received and approoved these abuses yea and tooke pleasure therein or that they should be so outragious proud and injurious so base and pinching so easie to fall into choler upon a small cause and so heard to be pleased againe Had it not beene farre better for those Gaules Scythians or Tartarians in old time to have had no thought no imagination no mention at all delivered unto them in histories of gods than to thinke there were gods delighting in the bloudshed of men and to beleeve that the most holie and accomplished sacrifice and service of the gods was to cut mens throates and to spill their bloud and had it not beene more expedient for the Carthaginians by having at the first for their law-givers either Critias or Diagoras to have beene perswaded that there was neither God in heaven nor divell in hell than to sacrifice so as they did to Saturne who not as Empedocles said reprooving and taxing those that killed living creatures in sacrifice The sire lists up his deere belooved son Who first some other forme and shape did take He doth him slay and sacrifice anon And therewith vowes and foolish praiers doth make but witting and knowing killed their owne children indeed for sacrifice and looke who had no issue of their owne would buie poore mens children as if they were lambes young calves or kiddes for the saide purpose At which sacrifice the mother that bare them in her wombe would stand by without any shew at all of being mooved without weeping or sighing for pittie and compassions for otherwise if shee either fetched a sigh or shed ateare shee must loose the price of her childe and yet notwithstanding suffer it to be slaine and sacrificed Moreover before and all about the image or idoll to which the sacrifice was made the place resounded and rung againe with the noise of flutes and hautboies with the sound also of drums and timbrels to the end that the pitifull crie of the poore infants should not be heard Now if any Tryphones or other such like giants having chased and driven out the gods should usurpe the empire of the world and rule over us what other facrifices would they delight in or what offrings else and service besides could they require at mens hands Antestries the wife of the great Monarch 〈◊〉 buried quicke in the ground twelve persons and offred them for the prolonging of her owne life unto Pluto which god as Plato saith was named Pluto Dis and Hades for that being full of humanitie unto mankind wise and rich besides he was able to enterraine the soules of men with perswasive speeches and reasonable remonstrances Xenophanes the Naturalist seeing the Egyptians at their solemne feasts knocking their breasts and lamenting pitiously admonished them verie fitly in this wise My good friends if these quoth he be gods whom you honor thus lament not for them and if they be men sacrifice not unto them But there is nothing in the world so full of errors no maladie of the minde so passionate and mingled with more contrarie and repugnant opinions as this of superstition in regard whereof we ought to shunne and avoide the same but not as many who whiles they seeke to eschue the assaults of theeves by the high way side or the invasion of wilde beasts out of the forcst or the danger of fire are so transported and caried away with feare that they looke not about them nor see what they doe or whither they goe and by that meanes light upon by-waies or rather places having no way at all but in stead thereof bottomlesse pits and gulfes or else steepe downe-fals most perilous even so there be divers that seeking to avoid superstition fall headlong upon the cragged rocke of perverse and stif-necked Impietie and Atheisme leaping over true religion which is feated just in the mids betweene both OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT The Summarie THere is not a man how well soever framed to the world and setled therein who can promise unto himselfe any peaceable and assured state throughout the course of his whole life but according as it seemeth good to the clernall and wise providence of the Almightie which governeth all things to chaslise our faults or to try our constancy in faith he ought in time of a calme to prepare himselfe for a tempest and not to attend the mids of a danger before he provide for his safetie but betimes and long before to fortifie and furnish himselfe with that whereof he may have necd another day in all occurences and accidents whatsoever Our Authour therefore in this Treatise writing to comfort and encourage one of his friends cast downe with anguish occasioned by his banishment sheweth throughout all his discourse that vertue it is which maketh us happie in everie place and that there is nothing but vice that can hurt and endamage us Now as touching his particularising of this point in the first place he treateth what kinde of friends we have need of in our affliction and how we ought then to serve our turnes with them and in regard of exile mone particularly he adjoineth this advertisment
as if they thought to hide themselves within the bodies of the blacke storkes called Ibides of dogges and haukes passeth all the monstrous woonders and fixions of tales that can be devised Likewise to hold that the soules of those who are departed so many as remaine still in being are regenerate againe onely in the bodies of these beasts is as absurd and incredible as the other And as for those who will seeme to render a civill and politicke reason heereof some give out that Osiris in a great expedition or voiage of his having divided his armie into many parts such as in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say bands and companies he gave unto every of them for their severall ensignes the portractures and images of beasts and each band afterwards honored their owne had in reverence as some holy and sacred thing Others affirme that the kings who succeeded after Osiris for to terrify their enimies went forth to battell carying before them the heads of such beasts made in gold and silver vpon their armes Some there be againe who alledge that there was one of these their subtile and fine headed kings who knowing that the Aegyptians of their owne nature were lightly disposed ready to revolt and given to change and innovations also that by reason of their great multitude their power was hardly to be restrained and in maner invincible in case they joined together in counsell and drew jointly in one common line therefore he sowed among them a perpetuall superstition which gave occasion of dissention and enmity among them that never could be appeased For when he had given commandement unto them for to have in reverence those beasts which naturally disagreed and warred together even such as were ready to eat and devour one another whiles every one endevored alwaies to succor and maintaine their owne and were moved to anger if any wrong or displeasure were done to those which they affected they sell together themselves by the eares ere they were aware and killed one another for the enmity and quarell which was betweene those beasts whom they adored and so fostered mutuall and mortall hatred For even at this day of all the Aegyptians the Lycopolitans onely eat 〈◊〉 because the wolfe whom they adore as a god is enimy unto sheepe And verily in this our age the Oxyrinchites because the Cynopolites that is to say the inhabitants of the city Cynopolis eat the fish named Oxyrinchos that is to say with the sharpe becke whensoever they can entrap or catch a dogge make no more adoe but kill him for a sacrifice and eat him when they have done Vpon which occasion having levied warre one against the other and done much mischiefe reciprocally after they had beene well chastised and plagued by the Romans they grew to attonement and composition And for as much as many of them doe say that the soule of Typhon departed into these beasts it seemeth that this fiction importeth thus much that every brutish and beastly nature commeth and proceedeth from some evill daemon and therefore to pacific him that he doe no mischiefe they worship and adore these beasts And if paradventure there happen any great drowght or contagious heat which causeth pestilent maladies or other unusuall and extraordinary calamities the priests bring forth some of those beasts which they serve and honor in the darke night without any noise in great silence menasing them at the first and putting them in fright Now if the plague or calamity continue still they kill and sacrifice them thinking this to be a punishment and chastisement of the said evill daemon or else some great expiation for notable sinnes and transgressions For in the city verily of Idithya as Manethos maketh report the maner is to burne men alive whom they called Typhony whose ashes when they had boulted through a tamise they scattered abroad untill they were reduced to nothing But this was done openly at a certaine time in those daies which are called Cynades or Canicular Mary the immolation of these beasts which they accounted sacred was performed secretly and not at a certaine time or upon perfixed daies but according to the occurrences of those accidents which happned And therefore the common people neither knew nor saw ought but when they solemnize their obsequies and funerals for them in the presence of all the people they shew some of the other beasts and throw them together into the sepulcher supposing thereby to vex and gall Typhon and to represse the joy that he hath in doing mischiefe For it seemeth that Apis with some other few beasts was consecrated to Osiris howsoever they attribute many more unto him And if this be true I suppose it importeth that which we seeke and search all this while as touching those which are confessed by all and have common honors as the foresaid stroke Ibis the hauke and the Babian or Cynecephalus yea and Apis himselfe for so they call the goat in the city Mendes Now their remaineth the utility and symbolization heereof considering that some participate of the one but the most part of both For as touching the goat the sheepe and the Ichneumon certaine it is they honor them for the use and profit they receive by them like as the inhabitants of Lemnos honor the birds called Corydali because they finde out the locusts nests and quash their egges The Thessalians also have the storkes in great account because whereas their country is given to breed a number of serpents the said storks when they come kill them up all By reason whereof they made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a storke should be banished his country The serpent Aspis also the wezill and the flie called the bettill they reverence because they observe in them I wot not what little slender images like as in drops of water we perceive the resemblance of the Sunne of the divine power For many there be even yet who both thinke and say that the male wezill engendreth with the female by her care and that she bringeth forth her yoong at the mouth which symbolizeth as they say and representeth the making and generation of speech As for the beetils they hold that throughout all their kinde there is no female but all the males doe blow or cast their seed into a certaine globus or round matter in forme of bals which they drive from them and roll to and fro contrary waies like as the Sunne when he moveth himselfe from the west to the east seemeth to turne about the heaven cleane contrary The Aspis also they compare to the planet of the Sunne because he doth never age and wax old but mooveth in all facility readinesse and celerity without the meanes of any instruments of motion Neither is the crocodile set so much by among them without some probable cause For they say that in some respect he is the very
and mighty men in the little houses of meane and poore folke in Kings Courts and in the bed-chambers of new wedded wives it is inquisitive in all matters searching aswell the affaires of strangers and travellers as negotiations of Lords and Rulers and other-while not without danger of his owne person For much like as if a man upon a kinde of wanton curiositie will needs be tasting of Aconite or Libard-baine to know forsooth the quality of it commeth by a mischiefe dieth of it before he can know any thing therof so they that love to be prying into the faults of great persons many times overthrow themselves before they come to any knowledge For such as can not be content with the abundant raies and radiant beames of the Sunne which are spread so cleere over all things but will needs strive and force themselves impudently to looke full upon the circle of his body and audaciously will presume and venture to pierce his brightnesse and enter into the very minds of his inward light commonly dazzle their eies and become starke blinde And therefore well and properly answered Philippides the writer of Comedies upon a time when King Lysimachus spake thus unto him What wouldest thou have me to impart unto thee of my goods Philippides What it pleaseth your Maiesty quoth he so it be nothing of your secrets For to say a truth the most pleasant and beautifull things simply which belong to the estate of Kings do shew without and are exposed to the view and sight of every man to wit their sumptuous feasts their wealth and riches their magnificent port and and pompe in publike places their bountifull favours and liberall gifts But is there any thing secret and hidden within Take heed I advise thee how thou approch and come neere beware I say that thou do not stirre and meddle therein The joy and mirth of a Prince in prosperitie can not be concealed hee cannot laugh when he is disposed to play and be merry but it is seene neither when he mindeth and doth prepare to shew some gracious favour or to be bountifull unto any is his purpose hidden but marke what thing he keepeth close and secret the same is terrible heavie stearne unpleasant yea ministring no accesse nor cause of laughter namely the treasure house as it were of some ranckor and festered anger a deepe designe or project of revenge Jealousie of his wife some suspicion of his owne sonne or diffidence and distrust in some of his minions favorites and friends Flie from this blacke cloud that gathereth so thicke for when soever that which is now hidden shall breake foorth thou shalt see what cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning will ensue thereupon But what be the meanes to avoid it mary even as I said before to turne and to withdraw thy curiositie another way and principally to set thy minde upon matters that are more honest and delectable Advise thy selfe and consider curiously upon the creatures in heaven in earth in the aire in the sea Art thou delighted in the contemplation of great or smal things if thou take pleasure to behold the greater busie thy selfe about the Sunne seeke where he goeth downe and from whence he riseth Search into the cause of the mutations in the Moone why it should so change and alter as it doth like a man or woman what the reason is that she looseth so conspicuous a light and how it commeth to passe that she recovereth it againe How is it when she hath beene out of sight That fresh she seemes and doth appeere with light First yoong and faire whiles that she is but new Till round and full we see her lovely hew No sooner is her beautie at this height But fade she doth anon who was so bright And by degrees she doth decrease and waine Untill at length she comes to naught againe And these truly are the secrets of nature neither is she offended and displeased with those who can find them out Distrustest thou thy selfe to atteine unto these great things then search into smaller matters to wit what might the reason be that among trees and other plants some be alwaies fresh and greene why they flourish at all times and be clad in their gay clothes shewing their riches in every season of the yeere why others againe be one while like unto them in this their pride and glorie but afterward you shall have them againe like unto an ill husband in his house namely laying out all at once and spending their whole wealth and substance at one time untill they be poore naked and beggerly for it Also what is the cause that some bring foorth their fruit long-wise others cornered and others round or circular But peradventure thou hast no great mind to busie thy selfe and meddle in these matters because there is no hurt nor danger at all in them Now if there be no remedie but that Curiositie should ever apply it selfe to search into evill things after the maner of some venemous serpent which loveth to feed to live and converse in pestilent woods let us lead direct it to the reading of histories and present unto it abundance and store of all wicked acts leawd and sinfull deeds There shall Curiositie finde the ruines of men the wasting and consuming of their state the spoile of wives and other women the deceitfull traines of servants to beguile their masters the calumniations and slanderous surmises raised by friends poisoning casts envie jealousie shipwracke and overthrow of houses calamities and utter undoing of princes and great rulers Satisfie thy selfe herewith to the full and take thy pleasure therein as much as thou wilt never shalt thou trouble or grieve any of thy friends acquaintance in so doing But it should seeme that curiosity delighteth not in such naughtie things that be very old and long since done but in those which be fresh fire new hot and lately committed as joying more to beholde new Tragedies As for Comedies and matters of mirth she is not greatly desirous to be acquainted with such And therefore if a man do make report of a mariage discourse of a solemne sacrifice or of a goodly shew or pompe that was set foorth the curious busie-bodie whom we speake of will take small regard thereto and heare it but coldly and negligently He will say that the most part of all this he heard alreadie by others and bid him who relateth such narrations to passe them over or be briefe and cut off many circumstances Marie if one that sits by him chance to set tale on end and begin to tell him there was a maiden defloured or a wife abused in adulterie if he recant of some processe of law or action commenced of discord and variance betweene two brethren you shall see him then not to yawne and gape as though hee had list to sleepe you shall not perceive him to nod hee will make no excuse at all that his leisure will not
other have ought to say and object against it by way of accusation ready we are and disposed to give him the hearing Yes mary quoth Solon unlesse we would be reputed of lesse judgement and understanding than the Aegyptians who ripping open the belly of a dead bodie shew it unto the sunne and cast away the guts and entrails together with the paunch into a running river but afterwards when they have thus rid away the garbage and cleansed the corps the rest they imbaulme and be carefull of for to say a trueth these inwards be the very pollution and inquination of the flesh and to speake properly the very hell of our bodie for so they say that the place of the damned is full of I wot not what horrible rivers and winds confused together with fire and dead carcases For no creature living is nourished with any food that liveth but we in killing those creatures which have soules or in destroying plants herbs and fruits which participate likewise of life inasmuch as we see them to be nourished and grow do evill and sinne very grievously forasmuch as whatsoever is transmuted and turned into another loseth that nature which it had before and wholly is corrupted for to become nourishment to another As for abstinence from eating of flesh as by report Orpheus did in olde time is rather a subtile shift of Sophistrie than any perfect shunning or forbearing of those sinnes which are committed in delicious fare and superfluous gormandize but the onely way to avoid enormitie in this behalfe and the meanes to keepe a mans selfe perfectly pure and undefiled according to the absolute rule of justice is to be content with that which is within himselfe and to live without desire of any thing without whatsoever but he that is by God framed to that nature and condition that without the dammage and hurt of another he can not possibly preserve his owne being and safetie unto him he hath given a nature which will continually move him to injustice to commit wrong Were it not then my good friend Diocles very meet and requisit to cut off together with injustice and sinfulnesse the belly stomacke and liver yea and all other such parts which give unto us the appetite of nothing in the world that is honest but resemble partly the instruments of a cooke and vessels of the kitchin to wit chopping-knives cawdrons pots and kettles and in part are like unto the utensils of a mill of a chimney oven or furnace or such tooles as serve either to digge pits or be used in bake-house and pastrie for to say a trueth you may plainely see and perceive that the soule in many men lieth hidden within the bodie as it were in a certeine mil-house turning round continually as one would say about a querne in pursute after the necessities thereof even as we here ere-while perceived by experience in our owne selves when we neither saw nor heard nor regarded one another but every one of us inclining forward and stouping downe to our victuals served our owne need looked to our food but now when the tables be taken up as you see having chaplets of flowers on our heads we take delight in devising together holding honest discourses we rejoice in fellowship good company we passe the time away in ease repose being once come to that point that we have no more any desire or need of nourishment If then we could hold us so still continue while we live in this present state so that we neither feared wāt poverty nor yet knew what was covetousnes desire of riches should we not lead thinke you a blessed and easie life as having leisure to converse together and joy in our mutuall societie For know wel this that looking after the needles 〈◊〉 immediately ensueth upon the appetite and desire of things necessarie But whereas Cleobulus is of this opinion that needes there must be meat food to the end that their might be tables and standing cups upon them that men may drinke one to another also that they might sacrifice to dame Ceres her daughter Proserpina another man may as well and truely say There ought to be warres and battels to the end that we may have wals and fortifications for our cities arcenals for our navy and armories also that for the killing of an hundred enemies wee might in thankesgiving to the gods offer sacrifices thereupon called Hecatomphonia according as they say there is a statute importing so much among the Messenians Or all one it were as if some other should be angrie or offended with health saying It were great pitie if because there are none sicke any more there should be no use of easie beds fine linnen sheets soft pillowes and coverings nor any need to sacrifice unto Aesculapius or other gods to divert and turne away our maladies and so the art of physick with all the tooles instruments drugs and medicines belonging thereto be cast aside and neglected without honor and regard For what ods is there betweene the one and the other considering that we receive food as a medicine to cure our hunger Besides all they that keepe a certaine diet are said to cure themselves using this remedie not as a pleasure delightsome and desireable but as meanes to content and satisfie nature For surely we may reckon more paines than pleasures that come unto a man by his feeding or to speake more truely the pleasure of eating hath but a little place and continueth as small a while in mans bodie but the trouble and difficultie which it hath in providing and preparing with how many shamefull inconveniences and painefull travels it pestereth us what should I relate unto you for I suppose that in regard of all these vexations Homer took upon him to proove that the gods died not by this argument that they received no food For neither eate they bread in heaven nor pleasant wine to drinke Thus bloodlesse since they be we them immortall name and thinke As if by these verses he would give us to understand that our eating and drinking is not onely the meanes of our life but also the cause of our death for thereupon a number of diseases take hold of our bodies which are gathered within the same and proceed no lesse from fulnesse than emptinesse and many times we have more adoe to concoct consume and dissipate our foode than we had to get and provide it And much like as if the daughters of Danaus were in doubt what to do and what life to lead or how to be emploied after they were delivered and freed once from their servile taske imposed upon them for to fill their tunne boared full of holes even so doubt we in case we were come to this passe as to cease from stuffing and cramming this unsatiable flesh of ours which will never say Ho with all sorts of viands that land or sea may affoord what we should do and al
reasons in the defence of other Philosophers I have before-time put downe in writing but forasmuch as after the lecture and disputation of this matter ended there passed many speeches in our walke against that sect I thought it good to collect and gather the same yea and to reduce them into a written treatise if for nothing els yet for this cause to give them at leastwise to understand who are so ready to note censure and correct others that a man ought to have heard and read with great heed and diligence and not superficially the works and writings of those whom he taketh upon him to reprove and refute and not to picke out one word here another there or to take hold of his words delivered by way of talke conference and not couched and set down precisely in writing thereby to repell and drive away the ignorant and such as have no knowledge of those things For when as we walked forth after the lecture as our maner was out of the schoole into the common place of exercise Zeuxippus mooving speech began in this wise Me thinks quoth he that this discourse hath beene delivered much more mildly and gently than becommeth franknesse and libertie of speech beseeming the schooles which is the reason that Heraclides and his followers be departed from us as discontented and displeased yea and much more bitterly nipping and checking us without any cause given on our part than either Epicurus or Metrodorus Then Theon Why said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoth he that Colotes in comparison of them is the most modest and fairest spoken man in the world For the most foule and reprochfull tearmes that can be devised for to raile and slander withall to wit of sacrileges scurrilities vanities of speech talkative babbling glorious and vanting arrogancie whoremonging murders counterfeit hypocrites cousiners cursed creatures heavie headed brainsicke tedious and making their braines ake who reade them these I say they have raked up together and discharged as it were haile-shot upon Aristotle Socrates Pythagoras Protagoras Theraclides Hipparchus and whom not of all the most renowmed and principall Philosophers in such sort that how well and wisely soever they have carried themselves otherwise yet in regard of their foule mouthes slanderous speeches and beastly backbitings they deserve to be sequestred farre off and put out of the range and number of wise men and Philosophers for envie emulation and jealousie ought not to enter into this divine dance and heavenly quire being so weake and impotent that they can not dissemble and hide their griefe and discontent Heereat Aristodemus Heraclides quoth hee who by profession is a Grammarian in the behalfe of all the poeticall rabble for so it pleaseth the Epicureans to blason them and for all the foolish and fabulous vanities of Homer hath well requited Epicurus or because Metrodorus in so many places of his writings hath reviled and abused that prince of poets but as for them ô Zeuxippus let them goe as they are and whereas it was objected in the beginning of the speech against those men That there was no living at all after their precepts and rules why doe not we our selves alone by our selves taking unto us Theon for our associat because this man here is wearie go in hand to prosecute the same thorowly Then Theon made him this answere This combat hath before us beene Perform'd by others well I weene And therefore propounding to our selves if it please you another marke and scope to aime at let us for to be revenged of the injurie done unto other philosophers proceed after this forme of processe and assay to proove and shew if it be possible that according to the doctrine even of these Epicureans men can not live in joy and pleasure Say you so quoth I then and laughed heartily withall now surely me thinks you are leapt upon their bellies and be readie to trample then with both your feet certes you will enforce these men to fight for their verie owne flesh if you bereave them of pleasure who doe nothing els but crie out and sing this note We are in deed no champions brave In fight with fists no grace we have neither are we eloquent oratours wise magistrates or prudent governours and rulers of cities or States But for to feast and make good cheere To eat and drinke we have no peere We love I say to banquet alwaies and make merie to give our selves contentment and all the delightfull motions and pricks of the flesh if haply any pleasure and joy thereby may be transmitted and sent into the soule so as you seeme to me not to deprive these men of joy and solace onely but also of their very life in case you doe not leave them a pleasant and jocund life How then quoth Theon if you thinke so well of this subject matter why do not you set in hand to it at this present For mine owne part said he again content I will be to heare you and answer againe if you request so much but begin you first to set us in the traine thereof for I will yeeld unto you the superioritie and presidence of this disputation Now when Theon seemed to pretend some small excuse Aristodemus O what a compendious ready faire plaine way quoth he have you cut us of for to come unto this point in not permitting us first to make inquisition unto this Epicurean sect and to put them to their triall as touching vertue and honestie for it no easie matter nay it is impossible to drive these men from a pleasant and voluptuous life so long as they suppose and set downe this That the supreame end of all humane felicitie lieth in pleasure wheras if we could once have brought this about That they lived not honestly presently and withall they had bene put by their pleasant life for they themselves confesse and say That a man can not live in joy unlesse he be honest for that the one may not stand without the other As touching that point quoth Theon we will not sticke in the progresse of our discourse to handle it but for the present we will take that which they grant and make our use of it this therefore they holde That the sovereigne good whereof we speake consisteth in the bellie and the parts thereabout as also in those other passages and conduits of the bodie thorow which pleasure entreth into it no pain at all and they are of opinion that all the fine devices subtill and wittie inventions in the world were put in triall and practised for to please and content the bellie or at leastwise for the good hope that she should enjoy contentment according as the wise Philosopher Metrodorus hath said and written And verily by this their first supposition without going any farther it is easie to be knowen and seene my good friend what a slender poore rotten and unsteadie foundation they have laied to ground upon it their sovereigne good considering that even
did rest or settele upon them Much more probable it is that when these waters and raines together with their ventosities heats occasioned by thunders lightnings come to pierce deepe into the earth it turneth and rolleth round and by that meanes are ingendred therein such like nodosities and knobs soft and apt to crumble which we call Mushromes like as in our bodies there breed and arise certeine flatuous tumors named Kirnels or Glandules formed by occasion of I wot not what bloudy humors and heats withal for a Mushrome seemeth not to be a plant neither without rain moisture doth it breed having no root at all nor any sprout springing from it it is wholly entire of selfe round about and holding upon nothing as having the consistence onely of the earth which hath bene a litle altered changed And if you thinke this reason to be but slender I say unto you more that the most part of those accidents which follow upon thunder and lightning are of the like sort and therefore it is especially that in these effects there is thought to bee a certeine divinitie Then Dorotheus the oratour who was in the companie Truth it is quoth he that you say for not onely the vulgar sort of simple and ignorant people are of that opinion but some also of the philosophers and for mine owne part I know as much by experience that the lightning which of late fell upon our house wrought many strange and woonderfull things for it emptied our sellers of wine and never did hurt unto the earthen vessell wherein it was and whereas there lay a man a sleepe it flew over him yea and flashed upon him without any harme at all to his person or sienging so much as his clothes but having a certeine belt or pouch wherein were certeine pieces of brasse money it melted and defaced them all so confusedly that a man could not know by the forme or impression one from another the man went thereupon to a certeine Pythagorian philosopher who as happe was so journed there and demaunded of him what the reason might bee thereof and what it did presage But the philosopher when hee had cleered and assoiled his minde of scrupulous feare and religion willed him to ponder and consider of the matter apart by himselfe and to pray unto the gods I heare say also that not long since there was a souldiour at Rome who keeping the Centinell upon one of the temples of the citie chaunced to have a flash of lightning to fall very neere unto him which did him no hurt in the world in his body but onely burnt the latchets of his shoes and whereas there were certeine small boxes and cruets of silver within wooden cases the silver within was found all melted into a masse in the bottome and the wood had no injurie at all but continued still entire and sound But these things a man may chuse whether he will beleeve or no. Howbeit this passeth all other miracles which we all I suppose doe know very well namely that the dead bodies of those who have beene killed by lightning continue above ground and putrifie not for many there be who will neither burne nor enterre such corses but cast a trench or banke about and so let them lie as within a rampar so as such dead bodies are to be seene alwaies above ground uncorrupt convincing Clymene in Eurypides of untruth who speaking of Phaethon said thus Beloved mine but see where dead he lies In vale below and there with putrifies And heereupon it is as I take it that brimstone taketh the name in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the resemblance of that smell which those things yeeld that have beene smitten with lightning which no doubt have a fierie and piercing sent and this may bee the reason likewise in my conceit that dogges and fowles of the aire forbeare to touch any dead bodies which in this sort are striken from heaven Thus farre foorth have I laid the first stone for a ground-worke of this cause as also of the Bay-tree Now let us intreat him heere to finish and make out the rest for that he is well acquainted with Mushromes lest haply that befall unto us which sometimes to the painter Androcydes did for whē he painted the gulfe Scylla he portraied more naturally to the life the fishes all about than any thing else besides whereby men judged that hee shewed more affection therein than cunning of his art for that naturally he loved to feed upon good fishes and even so some one might say that we have discoursed so much of Mushromes the breeding and generation whereof is so doubtfull as you see for the pleasure and delight that we take in eating of them Considering now that in these points our discourse seemed to carrie some probabilitie and that everie man was perswaded well enough that the cause and reason thereof was cleere and withall my selfe began to speake and advise that it was now time as the manner was in comedies to set up those engins devised for to counterfet thunder so to inferre a disputation at the table of lightning to which motion all the company condescended but passing over all other points very desirous and earnest they were to heare a discourse as touching this one What the reason might be that men a sleepe be never smitten or blasted with lightning Now albeit I saw well enough that I should gaine no great praise in touching a cause whereof the reason was common yet I beganne to set to it and said That the fire of lightning was fine and subtill as that which tooke the originall and beginning from a most pure liquid and sacred substance which if there had beene in it any moisture or terrestriall grosenesse mingled among the celeritie of motion is such that it would have purged and cast it foorth Nothing is smitten with lightning quoth Democritus that cannot resist the fire from heaven and therefore solide bodies as iron brasle silver and gold be corrupted and melted therewith by reason that they hold out and withstand it contrariwise such as bee rare full of holes spungious soft and lux lightning quickly pierceth through and doth them no harme as for example clothes or garments and drie wood for such as is greene will burne because the moisture within maketh resistance and so catcheth fire withall If then it be true that those who lie a sleepe be never stricken dead with thunder and lightning surely wee must search heere for the cause and never goe farther for the bodies of men awake are stronger more firme and compact yea and able to make more resistance as having all their parts full of spirits by which ruling turning and welding the naturall senses and holding them together as it were with an engine the living creature becommeth strong fast knit and uniforme whereas in sleepe it is slacke loose rare unequall soft and as it were all resolved by reason that the
calling one Atropos another Lachesis and a third Clotho for as touching the motions and revolutions of the eight heavenly Sphaeres hee hath attributed as presidents unto them so many Syrenes in number and not Muses Then Menephylus the Peripateticke comming in with his speech There is quoth hee some reason and probabilitie in the Delphians saying but surely the opinion of Plato is absurd in that unto those divine and eternall revolutions of the heavens he hath assigned in stead of Muses the Syrenes which are daemons or powers not verie kinde and good nor beneficiall either leaving out as he doth the Muses altogether or els calling them by the names of the Destinies and saying they be the daughters of Necessitie for surely Necessitie is a rude thing and violent whereas Perswasion is gentle and gracious by the meanes of Muses amiable taming what it will and in my minde Detesteth more the duritie And force of hard necessitie than doth that grace and Venus of Empedocles That is true indeed quoth Ammonius it abhorreth that violent and involuntarie cause which is in our selves enforcing us to doe against our evils but the necessitie which is among the gods is nothing intollerable nor violent nor hard to be obeied or perswaded but to the wicked no more than the law of a citie that unto good men is the best thing that is which they cannot pervert or transgresse not because it is impossible for them so to do but for that they are not willing to change the same Moreover as touching those Syrenes of Homer there is no reason that the fable of them should affright us for after an aenigmaticall and covert sort even he signifieth very well unto us that the power of their song and musicke is neither inhumane nor pernicious or mortall but such as imprinteth in the soules which depart from hence thither as also to such as wander in that other world after death a vehement affection to divine and celestiall things together with a certeine forgetfulnesse of those that be mortall and earthly deteining and enchanting them as it were with a pleasure that they give unto them in such sort as by reason of the joy which they receive from them they follow after and turne about with them now of this harmonie there is a little echo or obscure resonance commeth hither unto us by the meanes of certeine discourses which calleth unto our soule and putteth into her minde such things as then and there are whereof the greatest part is enclosed and stopped up with the abstructions of the flesh and passions that are not sincere howbeit our soule by reason of the generositie wherewith it is endued doth understand yea and remember the same being ravished with so vehement an affection thereof that her passion may be compared properly unto most ardent and furious fits of love whiles she still affecteth and desireth to enjoy but is not able for all that to loosen and free her-selfe from the bodie howbeit I doe not accord and hold with him altogether in these matters but it seemeth unto me that Plato as he hath somewhat strangely in this place called the axes and poles of the world and heavens by the names of spindels rocks and distaves yea tearmed the starres wherves so to the Muses also he hath given an extraordinarie denomination of Syrens as if they related and expounded unto the soules and ghosts beneath divine and celestiall things like as Ulysses in Sophocles saith that the Syrenes were come The daughters who of Phorcis were That doth of hell the lawes declare As for the Muses they be assigned unto the eight heavenly sphaeres and one hath for her portion the place and region next to the earth those then which have the presidences charge of the revolution of those eight sphaeres do keepe preserve and mainteine the harmony and consonance aswell betweene the wandering planets and fixed starres as also of themselves one to another and that one which hath the superintendence of that space betweene the moone and the earth and converseth with mortall and temporall thinges bringeth in and infuseth among them by the meanes of her speech and song so farre forth as they be capable by nature and apt to receive the same the perswasive facultie of the Graces of musicall measures and harmonie which facultie is very cooperative with civile policie and humane societie in dulsing and apeasing that which is turbulent extravagant and wandering in us reducing it gently into the right way from blind by-pathes and errors and there setleth it but according to Pyndarus Whom Iupiter from heaven above Vouchsafeth not his gracious love Amaz'd they be and flie for feare When they the voice of Muses heare Whereto when Ammonius had given acclamation alluding as his maner was unto the verse of Xenophanes in this wise These things doe cary good credence And to the trueth have reference and withall mooved us every one to opine and deliver his advice I my selfe after some little pause and silence began thus to say That as Plato himselfe by the etymologie of names as it were by traces thought to finde out the properties and powers of the gods even so let us likewise place in heaven over celestial things one of the Muses which seemeth of the heaven to to be called Urania Certes it standeth to great reason that these heavenly bodies require not much variety of governmēt for that they have but one simple cause which is nature but whereas there be many errors many enormities trespasses thither we must transfer those eight one for to correct one sort of faults and disorders and another for to amende reforme another and for that of our life one part is bestowed in serious grave affaires and another in sport game throughout the whole course thereof it hath need of a moderate temperature musicall consent that which in us is grave serious shall be ruled and conducted by Calliope Clio and Thalia being our guides in the skill and speculation as touching gods and goddesses as for the other Muses their office and charge is to support and hold up that which is inclined and prone to pleasure plaie and disport not to suffer it through weaknesse and imbecillity to runne headlong into loosnesse and bestiality but to keepe in represse and hold it in good and decent order with dauncing singing and playing such as hath their measures and is tempered with harmonie reason and proportion For mine owne part considering that Plato admitteth and setteth downe in every one two principles and causes of all our actions the one inbred and naturall to wit a desire and inclination to pleasures the other comming from without foorth to wit an opinion which covereth the best insomuch as the one he calleth sometime Reason and the other Passion and seeing that either of these againe admitteth distinct differences I see certainly that both of them require a great government and in verie
maner of Gods service and worship declare the same unto us after three sorts the first naturall the second fabulous and the third civill that is to say restified by the statutes and ordinances of every city and State the naturall is taught by philosophers the fabulous by poets the civill and legall by the customes of ech citie but all this doctrine and maner of teaching is divided into seven sorts the first consisteth in the celestiall bodies appearing aloft in heaven for men had an apprehension of God by starres that shew above seeing how they are the causes of great symphonie and accord and that they keepe a certeine constant order of day and night of Winter and Summer of rising and setting yea and among those living creatures and fruits which the earth beneath bringeth forth whereupon it hath bene thought that heaven was the father and earth the mother to these for that the powring downe of showers and raine seemed in stead of naturall seeds and the earth as a mother to conceive and bring the same forth Men also seeing and considering the starres alwaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holding on their course and that they were the cause that we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say beholde and contemplate therefore they called the sunne and moone c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say gods of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to run and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to behold Now they range the gods into a second and third degree namely by dividing them into those that be prositable and such as are hurtfull calling the good and profitable Jupiter Juno Mercurie and Ceres but the noisome and hurtfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say maligne spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say furies and Ares that is to say Mars whom they detested as badde and violent yea and devised meanes to appease and qualifie their wrath Moreover the fourth and fifth place and degree they attributed unto affaires passions and affections namely love Venus lust or desire and as for affaires they had hope justice good policie and equitie In the sixth place be those whom the poets have fained for 〈◊〉 being minded to set downe a father for the gods begotten and engendred devised and brought in such progenitors as these To wit 〈◊〉 Ceus and Crius Hyperion and Iapetus whereupon all this kind is named Fabulous But in the seventh place are those who were adorned with divine honors in regard of the great benefits and good deeds done unto the common life of mankind although they were begotten and borne after the maner of men and such were Hercules Castor Pollux and 〈◊〉 and these they said had an humane forme for that as the most noble and excellent nature of all is that of gods so of living creatures the most beautiful is man as adorned with sundry vertues above the rest and simply the best considering the constitution of his minde and soule they thought it therefore meet and reasonable that those who had done best and performed most noble acts resembled that which was the most beautifull and excellent of all other CHAP. VII What is God SOme of the philosophers and namely Diagor as of the isle of Melos Theodorus the Cyrenaean and Euemerus of Tegea held resolutely that there were no gods And verily as touching Euemerus the poet Callimachus of Cyrene writeth covertly in Iambique verses after this maner All in a troupe into that chapell go Without the walles the city not farre fro Whereas sometime that old vain-glorious asse When as he had the image cast in brasse Of Jupiter proceeded for to write Those wicked books which shame was to indite And what books were they even those wherein he discoursed that there were no gods at all And Euripides the tragaedian poet although he durst not discover set abroad in open 〈◊〉 the same for feare of that high court and councell of Areopagus yet he signified as much in this maner for he brought in Sisyphus as the principall author of this opinion and afterwards favourizeth even that sentence of his himselfe for thus he saith The time was when the life of man was rude And as wilde beasts with reason not endu'd Disordinate when wrong was done alway As might and force in ech one bare the sway But afterwards these enormities were laied away and put downe by the bringing in of lawes howbeit for that the law was able to represse injuries and wicked deeds which were notorious and evidently seene and yet many men notwithstanding offended and sinned secretly then some wise man there was who considered and thought with himselfe that needfull it was alwaies to blindfold the trueth with some devised and forged lies yea and to perswade men that A God there is who lives immortally Who heares who sees and knowes all woondrously For away quoth he with vaine dreames and poeticall fictions together with Callimachus who saith If God thou knowest wot well his power divine All things can well performe and bring to fine For God is not able to effect all things for say there be a God let him make snow blacke fire cold him that sitteth or lieth to stand upright or the contrary at one instant and even Plato himselfe that speaketh so bigge when he saith That God created and formed the world to his owne pattern and likenesse smelleth heerein very strongly of some old dotards foolerie to speake according to the poets of the old comedie For how could hee looke upon himselfe quoth he to frame the world according to his owne similitude of how hath he made it round in manner of a globe being himselfe lower than a man ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the first bodies in the beginning stood still and stirred not but then the minde and understanding of God digested and aranged them in order yea and effected the generations of all things in the universall world PLATO is of a contrary mind saying That those first bodies were not in repose but that they moved confusedly and without order whereupon God quoth he knowing that order was much better than disorder and confusion disposed all these things but as well the one as the other have heerein faulted in common for that they imagined and devised that God was entangled and encumbred with humane affaires as also that he framed the world in regard of man and for the care that he had of him for surely living as he doth happy immortal acomplished with all sorts of good things and wholly exempt from all evill as being altogether implored and given to prefer and mainteine his owne beatitude and immortallity he intermedleth not in the affaires and occasions of men for so he should be as unhappy and 〈◊〉 as some 〈◊〉 mason or labouring workman bearing heavie burdens travelling and sweting about the 〈◊〉 of the world Againe this god of who they
opinion that the Winde is a fluxion of the aire when as the most subtile and liquid parts thereof be either stirred or melted and resolved by the Sunne The STOICKS affirme that every blast is a fluxion of the aire and that according to the mutation of regions they change their names as for example that which bloweth from the darknesse of the night and Sunne setting is named Zephyrus from the East and Sunne rising Apeliotes from the North Boreas and from the South Libs METRODORUS supposeth that a waterish vapour being inchafed by the heat of the Sun produceth and raiseth these winds and as for those that be anniversary named Etesia they blow when the aire about the North pole is thickened and congealed with cold and so accompanie the Sunne and flow as it were with him as he retireth from the Summer Tropicke after the 〈◊〉 Solstice CHAP. VIII Of Winter and Summer EMPEDOCLES and the STOICKS do hold that Winter commeth when the aire is predominant in thickenesse and is forced upward but Summer when the fire is in that wise predominant and is driven downward Thus having discoursed of the impressions aloft in the aire we will treat also by the way of those which are seene upon and about the earth CHAP. IX Of the Earth the substance and magnitude thereof THALES with his followers affirme there is but one Earth 〈◊〉 the Pythagorean mainteineth twaine one heere and another opposit against it which the Antipodes inhabit The STOICKS say there is one Earth and the same finite XENOPHANES holdeth that beneath it is founded upon an infinit depth and that compact it is of aire and fire METRODORUS is of opinion that Earth is the very sediment and ground of the water like as 〈◊〉 Sunne is the residence of the aire CHAP. X. The forme of the Earth THALES the STOICKS and their schoole affirme the Earth to be round in maner of a globe or ball ANAXIMANDER resembleth the Earth unto a columne or pillar of stone such as are seene upon the superficies thereof ANAXIMENES compareth it to a flat table LEUCIPPUS unto a drum or tabour DEMOCRITUS saith that it is in forme broad in maner of a platter hollow in the mids CHAP. XI The 〈◊〉 of the Earth THe disciples of THALES maintaine that the Earth is seated in midst of the world XENOPHANES affirmeth that it was first founded and rooted as it were to an infinite depth PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that fire is the middle as being the hearth of the world in the second place he raungeth the Earth of the Antipodes and in the third this wherein wee inhabit which lieth opposite unto that counter earth and turneth about it which is the reason quoth he that those who dwell there are not seene by the inhabitants heere PARMENIDES was the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who set out and limited the habitable parts of the Earth to wit those which are under the two Zones unto the Tropicks or Solsticiall circles CHAP. XII Of the bending of the earth PYTHAGORAS is of opinion that the earth enclineth toward the Meridionall parts by reason of the 〈◊〉 which is in those South coasts for that the Septentrionall tracts are congealed and frozen with cold whereas the opposite regions be inflamed and burnt DEMOCRITUS yeeldeth this reason because of the ambient aire is weaker toward the South quoth hee the Earth as it groweth and encreaseth doth bend to that side for the North parts be 〈◊〉 whereas contrariwise the Southeren parts are temperate in which regard it weigheth more that way whereas indeed it is more plentifull in bearing fruits and those growing to greater augmentation CHAP. XIII The motion of the Earth SOme hold the Earth to be unmoveable and quite but PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that it moveth round about the fire in the oblique circle according as the Sunne and Moone do HERACLIDES of Pontus and Ecphantus the Pythagorean would indeed have the Earth to move howbeit not from place to place but rather after a turning manner like unto a wheele upon the axell tree from West to East round about her owne center DEMOCRITUS saith that the Earth at first wandred to and fro by reason as well of smalnesse as lightnesse but waxing in time thicke and heavie it came to rest unmoveable CHAP. XIIII The division of the Earth and how many Zones it hath PYTHAGORAS saith that the earth is divided into five Zones proportionably to the sphaere of the universall heaven to wit the Artick circle the Tropick of Summer the Tropick of Winter the Aequinoctiall and the Antartick Of which the middlemost doth determine and set out the verie mids and heart of the earth and for that cause it is named Torrida Zona that is to say the burnt climat but that region is habitable as being temperate which lieth in the mids betweene the summer and the winter Tropick CHAP. XV. Of Earthquakes THALES and DEMOCRITUS attribute the cause of Earthquakes unto water The STOICKS thus define and say Earthquake is the moisture within the earth subtiliated and resolved into the aire and so breaking out perforce ANAXIMENES is of opinion that raritie and drinesse of the earth together be the causes of Earthquake wherof the one is engendred by excessive drougth the other by gluts of raine ANAXAGORAS holdeth that when the aire is gotten within the earth and meeteth with the superficies thereof which it findeth tough and thicke so as it cannot get forth it shaketh it in manner of trembling ARITSTOTLE alledgeth the Antiperistasis of the circumstant cold which environeth it about on everie side both above and beneath for heat endevoreth and maketh hast to mount aloft as being by nature light A drie exhalation therefore finding it selfe enclosed within and staied striveth to make way through the cliffs and thicks of the Earth in which busines it cannot chuse but by turning to and fro up and downe disquiet and shake the earth METRODORUS is of mind that no bodie being in the owne proper and naturall place can stirre or moove unlesse some one do actually thrust or pull it The earth therefore quoth he being situate in the owne place naturally mooveth not howsoever some placesthereof may remove into others PARMENIDES and DEMOCRITUS reason in this wise for that the earth on everie side is of equall distance and confineth still in one counterpoise as having no cause wherefore it should incline more to the one side than to the other therefore well it may shake onely but not stirre or remoove for all that ANAXIMENES saith that the Earth is caried up and downe in the aire for that it is broad and flat Others say that it floteth upon the water like as planks or boords and that for this cause it mooveth PLATO affirmeth that of all motions there be six sorts of circumstances above beneath on the right hand on the left before and behind Also that the earth cannot possibly moove according to any of these differences for that on everie
what it will be is not some accident or passion of any motion but it is the cause the puissance and the principle of that proportion and order that conteineth and holdeth together all things according to which the nature of the world and this whole universality which also is animate doth move or rather the very same proportion it selfe and order which doth moove is the thing that we call time For walke it doth with silent pace In way where as no noise is made Conducting justly to their place All mortall things that passe and fade And verily according to the minde of auncient philosophers the substance of the soule was defined to be a number mooving it selfe which is the reason why Plato said That time and heaven were made together but motion was before heaven at what time as there was no heaven at all for why there was no order nor measure whatsoever no nor any distinction but an undeterminate motion like as the matter was rude without forme figure but after that nature once had cast this matter into a colour and had shaped it with forme and figure and then determined motion with periodicall revolutions she made withall both the world and time both at once which two are the very images of God to wit the world of his substance and time of his eternitie for God in that he mooveth is time and in that he hath being is the world This is the reason why he saith That both of them comming together shall likewise both be dissolved together in case that ever there will be any dissolution of them For that which had a beginning and generation cannot be without time no more than that which is intelligible without eternity in case the one is to continue for ever and the other being once made shall never perish and be dissolved Time then being so necessarily linked and interlaced with the heaven is not simply a motion but as we have said already a motion ordeined by order which hath a just measure set limits and bonds yea and certeine revolutions of all which the sunne being superintendent governour and directour for to dispose limit and digest all for to discover set out and shew the alterations and seasons the which bring foorth all things as 〈◊〉 saith confessed it must be that he is a workeman cooperant with that chiefe and sovetaigne God the prince of all not in petie base and frivolous things but in the greatest and most principall works that be 8 PLato in his books of common-wealth having excellently well compared the symphony of the three faculties powers of the soule to wit the reasonable the irascible concupiscible unto the musicall harmony of the notes Mese Hypate and Nete hath given occasion for a man to doubt whether hee set the irascible or reasonable part correspondent to the meane seeing that he shewed not his meaning in this present place for according to the situation of the parts of the body wherein these faculties are seated surely the couragious and irascible is placed in the middes and answered to the region of Mese the meane but the reasonable is ranged into the place of Hypate for that which is aloft first and principall our auncestours used to call Hypaton according to which sense Xenocrates calleth Jupiter or the aire that I meane which converseth above where all things continue the same and after one sort Hypatos like as that which is under the moone Neatos And before him Homer speaking of the soveraigne God and prince of princes saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say our soveraigne and supreme of all rulers And in trueth nature hath by very good right given unto the best part of the soule the highest place in lodging the discourse of reason as the governour of the rest within the head but hath remooved farre from thence to the base and inferior members the concupiscible for the low situation is called Neate according as appeereth by the denomination of the dead who are tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say inferior or infernall and for this cause some therebe who say that the winde which bloweth from beneath and out of places unseene that is to say from the pole Antarticke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the south Since then it is so that there is the same proportion of contrariety betweene concupiscible and reasonable parts of the soule as there is betweene lowest and highest last and first it is not possible that reason should be the highest and principall and not withall correspondent to Hypate but to some other note in musicke for they who attribute unto her as unto the principall faculty and power Mese that is to say the meane see not ignorant as they be how they take from her that which is more principall to wit Hypate which cannot fit well either with ire or lust for both these the one and the other are made for to follow and be commanded by reason and not to command or goe before reason Moreover it should seeme by nature that anger ought to have the meane and middle place considering that naturally reason is to command and anger both to command and be commanded as being on the one side subject to the discourse of reason and on the other side commanding lust yea and punishing it when she is disobedient to reason And like as in grammar those letters which wee call semi-vowels be of a middle nature betweene mute consonants and vowels for that as they sound more than the one so they sound lesse than the other even so in the soule of man wrath is not simply a meere passion but hath many times an apparence of duty and honesty mixed with desire of revenge And Plato himselfe comparing the substance of the soule unto a couple of horses drawing a chariot and guided by a chariot man who driveth them and understandeth by the driver guide as every man well knowes the discourse of reason now of the two steeds that of lusts and pleasures is frampold skittish flinging winsing unruly altogether and unbroken stiffenecked deafe hardly caring either for whip or spurre where as the other of 〈◊〉 is for the most part tractable and obeisant to the bridle of reason yea and ready to joine with it in execution of good things And like as in a chariot with two horses the driver or chariot-man is not in vertue and puissance the middle but rather one of the horses which is woorse than the chariot man and better than his 〈◊〉 that draweth with him even so likewise hath not he given the middle place unto that part which doth rule and governe in the soule but unto that wherein there is lesse passion than in the first and more reason than in the third for this order and disposition observeth the proportion of the irascible to the reasonable part as is of 〈◊〉 to Hypate and to the
in order the qualitie and maner thereof howsoever there be many that thinke it very strange and absurd to search thereinto I say therefore that Destiny is not infinite but sinite and determinate however it comprehend as it were within a circle the infinitie of all things that are and have beene time out of minde yea and shall be worlds without end for neither law nor reason nor any divine thing whatsoever can be infinite And this shall you the better learne and understand if you consider the totall revolution and the universall time when as the eight sphaeres as Timaeus saith having performed their swift courses shall returne to the same head and point againe being measured by the circle of The same which goeth alwaies after one maner for in this definite and determinate reason all things aswell in heaven as in earth the which doe consist by the necessitie of that above be reduced to the same situation and brought againe to their first head and beginning The onely habitude therefore of heaven which standeth ordeined in all points aswell in regard of it selfe as of the earth and all terrestriall matters after certeine long revolutions shall one day returne yea and that which consequently followeth after and those which are linked in a continuity together bring ech one by consequence that which it hath by necessity For to make this matter more plaine let us suppose that all those things which are in and about us be wrought and brought to passe by the course of the heavens and celestiall influences all being the very efficient cause both of that which I write now and also of that which you are doing at this present yea and in that sort as you do the same so that hereafter when the same cause shall turne about and come againe we shall do the very same that now we do yea and after the same maner yea we shall become againe the very same men And even so it shall be with all other men and looke whatsoever shall follow in a course or traine shall likewise happen by a consequent and dependant cause and in one word whatsoever shall befall in any of the universall revolutions shall become the same againe Thus apparent it is as hath already beene said That Destiny being in some sort infinite is neverthelesse determinate and not infinite as also that according as we have shewed before it is evident that it is in maner of a circle for like as the motion of a circle in a circle and the time that measureth it is also a circle even so the reason of those things which are done and happen in a circle by good right may be esteemed and said to be a circle This therefore if nought els there were sheweth unto us in a maner sufficiently what is destiny in generality but not in particular nor in ech severall respect What then is it It is the generall in the same kinde of reason so as a man may compare it with civill law For first and formost it commaundeth the most part of things if not all at leastwise by way of supposition and then it compriseth as much as is possible all matters apperteining to a city or publike state generally and that we may better understand both the one and the other let us exemplifie and consider the same in specialty The civill or politique law speaketh and ordeineth generally of a valiant man as also of a run-away coward and so consequently of others howbeit this is not to make a law of this or that particular person but to provide ingenerall principally and then of particulars by consequence as comprised under the said generall for we may very well say that to remunerate and recompense this or that man for his valour is lawfull as also to punish a particular person for his cowardise and forsaking his colours for that the law potentially and in effect hath comprized as much although not in expresse words like as the law if I may so say of Physicians and of masters of bodily exercises comprehendeth speciall and particular points within the generall and even so doth the law of nature which first and principally doth determine generall matters and then particulars secondarily by consequence Semblably may particular and individuall things in some sort be said to be destined for that they be so by consequence with the generals But haply some one of those who search and enquire more curiously and exactly into these matters will hold the contrary and say that of particular individuall things proceed the composition of the generals and that the generall is ordeined and gathered for the particular Now that for which another thing is goeth alwaies before that which is for it but this is not the proper place to speake of these quiddities for wee are to referre them to some other howbeit that destiny doth not comprehend all things purely and expresly but onely such as be universall and generall is resolved upon for this present and serveth for that which we have to say heereafter yea and agreeth also to that which hath beene delivered somewhat before for that which is finite and determinate properly agreeable to divine providence is more seene in universall and generall things than in particular of this nature is the law of God and such is likewise the civill law whereas infinity consisteth in particulars After this we are to declare what meaneth this tearme By supposition for surely destiny is to be thought such a thing We have then called By supposition that which is not set downe of it selfe nor by it selfe but supposed and joined after another and this signifieth a sute and consequence This is the law or ordinance of Adrastia that is to say a decree inevitable unto which if any soule can associate it selfe the same shall be able to see by consequence all that will ensue even unto another generall revolution and be exempt from all evill which if it may be able alwaies to doe it shall neither susteine any damage nor doe harme Thus you see what it is that we call By supposition in generall Now that Fatall destiny is of this kind evidently appeereth as well by the substance as the name thereof for it is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as much as dependant and linked and a law it is and ordinance for that things therein be ordeined and disposed consequently and in maner of those which are done civilly Heereunto is to be annexed a treatise of relation that is to say what reference and respect hath Fatall destiny unto divine providence as also unto fortune likewise what is that which is in us what is contingent and such like things Moreover we are to decide wherein and how it is false wherein also and how it is true that all things happen and come to passe by Fatall destiny for 〈◊〉 it import and imply thus much That
like as what is done by nature must needs succeed and come after nature Semblably what is done by fatall destiny is after fatall destiny of necessity must be more new moderne and therfore the supreme providence is the ancientest of all excepting him alone whose intelligence it is or wil or both twaine together to wit the sovereigne authour creatour maker and father of all things And for what cause is it saith Timaeus that he hath made framed this fabricke of the world for that he is all good and in him being all good there can not be imprinted or engendred any envie but seeing he is altogether void and free from it his will was that as much as possibly might be all things should resemble himselfe He then who shall receive and admit this for the most principall and and proper originall of the generation and creation of the world such as wise men have delivered unto us by writing is in the right way and doeth very well For God willing that all things should be good and nothing at all to his power evill tooke all that was visible restlesse as it was and mooving still rashly confusedly irregularly and without order which he brought out of confusion and ranged into order judging this to be every way farre better than the other for neither it was nor is convenient and meet for him who is himselfe right good to make any thing that should not be most excellent and beautifull Thus therefore we are to esteeme that providence I meane that which is principall and soveraigne hath constituted and ordeined these things first and then in order such as ensue and depend thereof even as farre as to the soules of men Afterwards having thus created the universall world hee ordeined eight sphaeres answering in number to so many principall starres and distributed to every one of them a severall soule all which he set ech one as it were within a chariot over the nature of the whole shewing unto them the lawes and ordinances of Fatall destiny *** What is he then who will not beleeve that by these words he plainly sheweth and declareth Fatall destiny and the same to be as one would say a tribunall yea a politicke constitution of civill lawes meet and agreeable to the soules of men whereof afterwards he rendreth a reason And as touching the second providence he doeth after a sort expresly signifie the same in these words saying Having therefore prescribed all these lawes unto them to the end that if afterwards there should be any default he might be exempted from all cause of evill he spred and sowed some upon the earth others about the moone and some againe upon other organs and instruments of time after which distribution he gave commandement and charge to the yoong gods for to frame and create mortall bodies as also to make up and finish that which remained and was wanting in mans soule and when they had made perfect all that was adhaerent and consequent thereto then to rule and governe after the best and wisest maner possible this mortall creature to the end that it selfe should not be the cause of the owne evils and miseries for in these words where it is said That he might be exempt and not the cause of any evill ensuing afterwards he sheweth cleerely and evidently to every one the cause of Fatall destiny The order also and office of these petie-gods declareth unto us the second providence yea and it seemeth that in some sort it toucheth by the way the third providence in case it be so that for this purpose these lawes and ordinances were established because he might not be blamed or accused as the author of any evill in any one afterwards for God himselfe being cleere exempt from all evill neither hath need of lawes nor requireth any Fatall destiny but ech one of these petie-gods led and haled by the providence of him who hath engendred them doth their owne devoir and office belonging unto them That this is true and the very minde and opinion of Plato appeereth manifestly in my conceit by the testimonie of those words which are reported by the law-giver in his books of lawes in this maner If there were any man quoth he so by nature sufficient or by divine fortune so happily borne that he could be able to comprehend this he should require no lawes to command him for no law there is nor ordinance of more woorth and puissance than is knowledge and science neither can he possibly be a servile slave or subject to any who is truely and indeed free by nature but he ought to command all For mine owne part thus I understand and interpret the sentence of Plato For whereas there is a triple providence the first as that which hath engendred Fatall destiny in some sort comprehendeth it the second being engendred with it is likewise wholly comprised in it the third engendred after Fatal destiny is comprised under it in that maner as That which is in us and fortune as we have already said for those whom the assistance of the power of our Daemon doth aid according as Socrates saith expoūding unto Theages what is the inevitable ordinance of Adrastia these I say are those whom you understand well enough for they grow and come forward quickly with speed so as where it is said that a Daemon or angell doth favour any it must be referred to the third providence but that suddenly they grow and come to proofe it is by the power of Fatall destiny And to be short it is very plaine and evident that even this also is a kinde of destiny And peradventure it may seeme much more probable that even the second providence is comprehended under destiny yea and in summe all things whatsoever be made or done considering that destiny according to the substance thereof hath bene rightly divided by us into three parts And verily that speech as touching the chaine and concatenation comprehendeth the revolutions of the heavens in the number and raunge of those things which happen by supposition but verily of these points I will not debate much to wit whether we are to call them Hapning by supposition or rather conjunct unto destiny considering that the precedent cause and commander of destiny it selfe is also fatall And thus to speake summarily and by way of abridgement is our opinion but the contrary sentence unto this ordeineth all things to be not onely under destiny but also according to destiny and by it Now all things accord unto the other and that which accordeth to another the same must be gran-to be the other according then to this opinion contingent is said to be the first that which is in us the second fortune the third accident or casuall chance and adventure the fourth together with all that dependeth thereupon to wit praise blame and those of the same kinde the fifth and last of all may bee said to be the praiers unto the
susceptible of folly But wherefore should any man be offended and scandalized hereat if hee call to mind that which this philosopher wrote in his second booke of Nature where he avoucheth That vice was not made without some good use and profit for the whole world But it will be better to recite this doctrine even in his owne words to the end that you may know in what place they range vice and what speech they make thereof who accuse Xenocrates and Speusippus for that they reputed not health to be an indifferent thing nor riches unprofitable As for vice quoth he it is limited in regard of other accidents beside for it is also in some sort according to nature and if I may so say it is not altogether unprofitable in respect of the whole for otherwise there would not be any good and therefore it may be inferred that there is no good among the gods in as much as they can have none evil neither when at any time Jupiter having resolved the whole matter into himselfe shall become one shall take away all other differences wil there be any more good considering there will be no evill to be found But true it is that in a daunce or quier there wil be an accord measure although there be none in it that singeth out of tune maketh a discord as also health in mans body albeit no part thereof were pained or diseased but vertue without vice can have no generation And like as in some medicinable confections there is required the poyson of a viper or such like serpent and the gall of the beast Hvaena even so there is another kind of necessarie convenience betweene the wickednesse of Melitus and the justice of Socrates betweene the dissolute demeanor of Cleon and the honest 〈◊〉 of Pericles And what meanes could Jupiter have made to bring foorth Hercules and Lycurgus into the world if he had not withall made Sardanapalus and Phalaris for us And it is a great marvell if they 〈◊〉 not also that the Phthisicke or ulcer of the lungs was sent among men for their good plight of bodie and the gout for swift footmanship and Achilles had not worne long haire unlesse Thersites had beene bald For what difference is there betweene those that alledge these doting fooleries or rave so absurdlie and such as say that loosenesse of life and whoredome were not unprofitable for continence and jniustice for justice So that we had need to pray unto the gods that there might be alwaies sinne and wickednes False leasing smooth and glosing tongue Deceitfull traines and fraud among in case when these be gone vertue depart and perish withal But will you see now and behold the most elegant devise and pleasantest invention of his For like as Comoedies quoth he carrie otherwhiles ridiculous Epigrams or inscriptors which considered by themselves are nothing woorth how be it they give a certaine grace to the whole Poeme even so a man may well blame and detest vice in it selfe but in regard of others it is not unprofitable And first to say that vice was made by the divine providence even as a lewd Epigram composed by the expresse will of the Poet surpasseth all imagination of absurditie for if this were true how can the gods be the givers of good things rather than of evill or how can wickednes any more be enemie to the gods or hated by them or what shall we have to say and answere to such blasphemous sentences of the Poets sounding so ill in religious eares as these God once dispos'd some house to overthrow Twixt men some cause and seeds of strife doth sow Againe Which of the gods twixt them did kindle fire Thus to contest in termes of wrath andire Moreover a foolish and leawd epigram doth embelish and adorne the Comedie serving to that end for which it was composed by the Poet namely to please the spectatours and to make them laugh But Jupiter whom we surnamed Paternall Fatherly Supreame Sovereigne Just Righteous and according to Pindarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the best and most perfect artisan making this world as he hath done not like unto some great Comedie or Enterlude full of varietie skill and wittie devices but in maner of a city common to gods and men for to inhabit together with justice and vertue in one accord and happily what need had he to this most holy and venerable end of theeves robbers murderers homicides parricides and tyrans for surely vice and wickednesse was not the entry of some morisque-dance or ridiculous eare-sport carrying a delectable grace with it and pleasing to God neither was it set unto the affaires of men for recreation and pastime to make them sport or to move laughter being a thing that carrieth not so much as a shadow nor representeth the dreame of that concord and convenience with nature which is so highly celebrated and commended Furthermore the said lewd epigram is but a small part of the Poeme and occupieth a very little roome in a Comedie neither do such ridiculous compositions abound overmuch in a play nor corrupt and marre the pleasant grace of such matters as seeme to have beene well and pretily devised whereas all humane affaires are full thorowout of vice and mans life even from the very first beginning and entire as it were of the prologue unto the finall conclusion of all and epilogue yea and to the very plaudite being disordinate degenerate full of perturbation and confusion and having no one part thereof pure and unblamable as these men say is the most filthy unpleasant and odious enterlude of all others that can be exhibited And therefore gladly would I demaund and learne of them in what respect was vice made profitable to this universall world for I suppose he will not say it was for divine and celestiall things because it were a mere reciculous mockery to affirme that unlesse there were bred and remained among men vice malice avarice and lesing or unlesse we robbed pilled and spoiled unlesse we slandered and murdered one another the sun would not run his ordinary course nor the heaven keepe the set seasons and usuall revolutions of time 〈◊〉 yet the earth seated in the midst and center of the world yeeld the causes of winde and raine It remaineth then that vice sin was profitably engendred for us and for our affaires and haply this is it which they themselves would seeme to say And are we indeed the better in health for being sinfull or have we thereby more plenty and aboundance of things necessary availeth our wickednesse ought to make us more beawtifull and better favoured or serveth it us in any stead to make us more strong and able of body They answere No. But is this a silent name onely and a cretaine blinde opinion and weening of these night-walking Sophisters and not like indeed unto vice which is conspicuous enough exposed to the view of the
upon him with this contradiction and say that he may aswel hold that whatsoever is beneath the Primum mobile or starrie firmament ought to be called Below In summe how is the earth called The middle and whereof is it the middle for the universall frame of the world called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is infinit and this infinit which hath neither head nor foot how can it in reason have a navill for even that which we call the mids of any thing is a kinde of limitation whereas infinitie is a meere privation of all limits and bounds As for him who saith it is not in the mids of that universalitie but of the world he is a pleasant man if he thinke not withall that the world it selfe is subject to the same doubts and difficulties for the said universall frame leaveth not unto the very world a middle but is without a certeine seat without assured footing mooving in a voidnesse infinite not into some one place proper unto it and if haply it should meet with some any other cause of stay and so abide stil the same is not according to the nature of the place And as much may we conjecture of the Moone that by the meanes of some other soule or nature or rather of some difference the earth 〈◊〉 firme beneeath and the Moone mooveth Furthermore you see how they are not ignorant of a great errour and inconvenience for if it be true that whatsoever is without the centre of the earth it skils not how is to be counted Above and Aloft then is there no part of the world to be reckoned Below or Beneath but aswell the earth it selfe as al that is upon it shal be above aloft and to be short every bodie neere or about the centre must go among those things that are aloft neither must we reckon any thing to be under or beneath but one pricke or point which hath no bodie and the same forsooth must make head and stand in opposition necessarily against all the whole nature besides of the world in case according to the course of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say above and beneath be opposite And not onely this absurdity will follow but also all heavie and ponderous bodies must needs lose the cause for which they bend and incline hither for bodie there will be none toward which it should move and as for this pricke or centre that hath no bodie there is no likelihood neither would they themselves have it so that it should be so puissant and forcible as to draw to it and reteine about it all things And if it be found unreasonable and repugnant to the course of nature that the world should be all above and nothing beneath but a terme or limit and the same without body without space and distance then this that we say is yet more reasonable namely that the region beneath and that above being parted distinctly one from another have neverthelesse ech of them a large and spacious roume to round themselves in But suppose if it please you it were against nature that terrestriall bodies should have any motion in heaven let us consider gently and in good termes not after a tragicall maner but mildly This prooveth not by-and-by that the Moone is not earth but rather that earth is in some place where naturally it should not be for the fire of the mountaine Aetna is verily under the ground against the nature of it howbeit the same ceaseth not therefore to be fire The winde conteined within leather bottles is of the owne nature light and given to mount upward but by force it commeth to be there where naturally it ought not to be Our very soule it selfe I beseech you in the name of Jupiter is it not against nature deteined within the body being light in that which is heavie being of a firie substance in that which is colde as yee your 〈◊〉 and being invisible in that which is grosse and palpable do we therefore denie that the soule is within the bodie that it is a divine substance under a grosse and heavie masse that in a moment it passeth thorowout heaven earth and sea that it pierceth and entreth within flesh nerves and marrow and finally is the cause together with the humors of infinit passions And even this Jupiter of yours such as you imagine and depaint him to be is he not of his owne nature a mighty and perpetuall fire howbeit now he submitteth himselfe and is pliable subject he is to all formes and apt to admit divers mutations Take heed therefore and be well advised good sir lest that in transferring and reducing every thing to their naturall place you doe not so philosophize as that you will bring in a dissolution of all the world and set on foot againe that olde quarrell and contention among all things which Empedocles writeth of or to speake more to the purpose beware you raise not those ancient Titans and Giants to put on armes against nature and so consequently endevour to receive and see againe that fabulous disorder and confusion whereby all that is weightie goeth one way and whatsoever is light another way apart Where neither light some countenance of Sunne nor earth all greene With herbs and plants admired is nor surging sea is seene according as Empedocles hath written wherein the earth feeleth no heat nor the water any winde wherein there is no ponderosity above nor lightnesse beneath but the principles and elements of all things be by themselves solitary without any mutuall love or dilection betweene them not admitting any society or mixture together but avoiding and turning away one from the other mooving apart by particular motions as being disdainfull proud and carying themselves in such sort as all things do where no god is as Plato saith that is as those bodies are affected wherein there is no understanding nor soule untill such time as by some divine providence there come into nature a desire and so amity Venus and Love be there engendred according to the sayings of Empedocles Parmenides and Hesiodus to the end that changing their naturall places and communicating reciprocally their gifts and faculties some driven by necessity to moove other bound to rest they be all forced to a better state remitting somewhat of their 〈◊〉 and yeelding one to another they grew at length unto accord harmony and societie For if there had not beene any other part of the world against nature but that ech one had bene both in place and for quality as it ought naturally to be without any need of change or transposition so that there had beene nothing at the first wanting I greatly doubt what and wherein was the worke of divine providence or whereupon it is that Jupiter was the father creator and maker For in a campe or field there would be no need of a man who is expert and skilfull in ranging and ordering of battell
light of the Sunne commeth to wit the Aaire the Moone and the earth we see that one of them is by him illuminate not as the aire but as the earth we must of necessity collect that those two be of one nature considering that of the same cause they suffer the same effects Now when all the companie highly commended Lucius for this disputation Passing well done of you Lucius quoth I you have to a proper discourse annexed as prety a comparison for we must give you your right and not defraud you of that which is your due With that smiled Lucius I have yet quoth he a second proportion which I will adde unto the other to the end that we may prove by demonstration that the Moone wholy resembleth the earth not only by this that she suffreth togtheer with the earth from the same cause the same accidents but also because they both doe worke the like effects upon the same object For this I am sure you will yeeld and grant unto me that of all those things which are observed about the Sunne none doe so much resemble one another as his eclips doth his setting or going downe if you will but call to minde that meeting of Sunne and Moone together which hapned of late daies and beginning immediatly after noonested caused many a starre from sundry parts of the skie to be seene and wrought such a temperature or disposition in the aire as is of the twilight evening and morning But if you will not grant me the said supposition in this our Theon here will cite and bring I trow Mimnermus Cydias Archilochus and besides them Stesichorus and Pindarus lamenting that in eclipses the world is robbed of their greatest light which they bewaile as if it were enterred saying that midnight was come at noone day and that the radiant beames of the Sunne went in the way and path of darkenesse but above all he will alledge Homer saying that in an eclips the faces and visages of men were overcast and seized upon with night and darkenesse also that the Sunne was quite lost and missing out of the heaven being in conjunction with the Moone ************** And this hapneth by a naturall cause according as Homer sheweth in this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What time as Moones their interchange begin As one goes out another commethin As for the rest in mine advise they be as certaine and doe conclude as exactly as the demonstrations of the Mathematicians to wit that as the night is the shadow of the earth so the eclipse of the Sun is the shadow of the Moone when as the sight returneth upon it selfe For the Sunne going downe is hidden from our sight by the earth and being eclipsed is likewise darkened by the Moone and both the one and the otherbe offuscations of darkenesse that of the Sunne setting by the earth and the other of the Sunne eclipsed by the Moone by the reason that the shade 〈◊〉 our sight of which premises the conclusion evidently doth follow For if the effect be like the efficients also be semblable because necessary it is that the same accidents or effects in the 〈◊〉 subject must come from the same efficient Now if the darkenesse occasioned by the eclipses be not so deepe nor affect the aire so forcibly as doth the night we are not to marvell thereat for the substance of that bodie which maketh the night and of it that 〈◊〉 the eclipse may wel be the same although the greatnesse be not equall For the Aegyptians I suppose doe hold that the Moone is in bignesse the 72. part of the earth And Anaxagoras saith it is just as big as Peloponnesus Aristarchus writeth that the overthwart line or Diamiter of the Moone in proportion to that of the earth is lesse than if 60. were compared with nineteene and somewhat more than if a hundred and eight were compared with 43 and thereby the earth bereaveth us of all sight of the Sunne so great it is For it must be a great obstacle and opposition betweene which continueth the time of a night and the Moone albeit otherwhile she hideth all the Sunne yet that ecclipse neither lasteth not so long nor is so universall for there appeareth alwaies about his circumference some light which will not permit the darknesse to be so blacke and deepe and altogether so obscure Aristotle also I meane the ancient Philosopher of that name rendring a reason why there happen ecclipses of the Moone oftener than of the Sunne among other causes brings in this for one that the Sunne is ecclipsed by the obstruction of the Moone and the Moone by that of the earth which is much greater and more spacious and so by consequence is opposed very often And Posidonius defined this accident thus The ecclipse of the Sunne quoth he is the conjunction or meeting of the Sunne and the Moone the shadow whereof doeth darken our eie-sight for there is no defect or ecclipse of the Sunnes light but unto those whose sight the shadow of the Moone hath caught and so hindreth them from seeing the Sunne Now in confessing that the shadow of the Moone reacheth downe unto us I know not what he hath left himselfe for to alledge Certes impossible it is that a starre should cast a shadow for that which is voide altogether of light is called a shadow and light maketh no shadow but contrariwise naturally riddeth it away But what arguments besides were alledged to this purpose quoth he The Moone quoth I then suffereth the same ecclipse Well done quoth he of you to reduce this into my memorie But would you have me to prosecute this disputation as if you had already granted and set downe that the Moone is subject to ecclipses when she is caught within the shadow of the earth or that for a subject and argument of some declamation and demonstration unto you I first rehearse all the arguments one after another Mary do so I pray you quoth Theon bestow your labour in such a discourse I had need verily quoth he of some perswasion having onely heard say that when these three bodies to wit the earth the Sunne and the Moone are directly in one right line then happen ecclipses for that either the earth taketh the Sunne from the Moone or the Moone taketh him from the earth for the Sunne is in defect or ecclipse when the Moone and the Moone likewise when the earth is in the mids of them three whereof the one falleth out in conjunction the other in the opposition or full Moone Then quoth Lucius these be in a maner all the principall points and the very briefe of those that which hath beene delivered but to begin withall if you thinke so good take in hand that firme argument which is drawen from the forme and figure of the shadow which indeed is a Conus or Pyramis resembling a sugar loafe with the sharpe end forward namely when a great fire or great light being round
whereas flames are but the setting on fire and fluxions of some nutriment or matter which is of a rare substance and by reason of feeblenesse is quickely resolved and consumed In so much as there were not another argument so evident to prove that the Moone is solid and terrestriall as this if the proper colour therof resemble a coale of fire But it is not so my Pharnaces for in her eclipse she changeth diversly her colours which Mathematicians in regard of time and place determinatly distinguish in this sort If she be eclipsed in the West she appeareth exceeding blacke for three houres and an halfe if in the middle of the heaven she sheweth this light reddish or bay colour resembling sire and after seven houres and an halfe there ariseth a rednesse indeed Finally when this eclipse 〈◊〉 in the cast and toward the Sunne rising she taketh a blew or grayish colour which is the cause that the Poets and namely Empedocles calleth her Glaucopis Considering then that they see manifestly how the Moone changeth into so many colours in the shaddow they doe very ill to attribute unto her this colour onely of a burning or live coale which intrueth a man may say to be lesse proper unto her than any other and rather to be some little suffusion and 〈◊〉 of light appearing and shining through a shaddow and that her proper and naturall colour is blacke and earthly For seeing that here below whereas the lakes and rivers which receive the Sunne beames and by that meanes seeme in their superficies to be some time reddish and otherwhiles of a violet colour the shaddowy places adjoining take the same colours and are illuminated starting backe by reason of reflexions divers rebated splendures What wonder is it if a great river as it were or flux of shadow falling upon a celestiall sea as a man would say of a light not firm stedy quiet but stirred with inumerable starres walking over it and besides which admitteth divers mixtures and mutations doth take from the Moone the impression of sundry colours and send the same hither unto us For it cannot be avowed that a starre of fire should appeare through a shaddow either blacke blew or violet but hils plaines and seas are seene to have many and sundry resemblances of colours by reflexion of the Sunne running upon them which are the very tincttures that a brightnesse mingled with shaddowes and mists as it were with painters drugges and colours bringeth upon them which tinctures Homer went about to expresse in some sort and to name when one while he calleth the sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of a violet colour or deepered as wine and otherwhile the waves purple in one place the sea blew greene or grey and the colour white as for the tinctures and colours appearing upon the earth diversly he 〈◊〉 let them passe as I suppose for that they be in number infinit So it is not like that the Moone should have but one plaine and even superficies in maner of the sea but rather resemble naturally of all things especially the earth whereof olde Socrates in Plato seemeth to fable whether it were that under covert words and oenigmatically he ment this here of the Moone or spake of some other For it is neither incredible nor wonderfull if the Moone in it having no corruption nor muddinesse but the fruition of 〈◊〉 light from heaven and being full of heat not of furious and burning fire but of such as is milde and harmelesse hath also within her faire places and marvellous pleasant mountaines also resplendant like bright flaming fire purple tinctures or zones gold and silver likewise good store not dispersed heere and there in the bottome thereof but arising up to the upper face of the said planes in great aboundance or else spred over the hils and mountaines even and smooth Now say that the sight of all these things commeth unto us through a shaddow and that after divers and sundry sorts by reason of the variable and different mutation of the circumstant aire yet looseth not the Moone for all that the venerable opinion that goeth of her and the reputation of her divinity being esteemed among men a celestiall earth or rather a feculent and troubled fire as the Stoicks would have it and standing much upon lees or dreggish matter For the very fire it selfe hath barbarian honers done unto it among the Medes and Assyrians who for very feare serve and adore such things as be noisome and hurtful hallowing consecrating the same above those things which are of themselves good and honorable As for the name of the earth there is not a Greeke but he holdeth it right worshipfull sacred and venerable in so much as it is an ancient costome received throughout all Greece to honour it as much as any other god whatsoever And far is it from us men to thinke that the Moone which we take to be a celestiall earth as a dead body without soule or spirit and altogether void of such things which we ought to offer as first fruits to the gods For both by law we yeeld recompence and thankes giving unto it for those good things which we have received and by nature we adore the same which we acknowledge to be the most excellent for vertue and right honourable for puissance and therefore we thinke it no 〈◊〉 at all to suppose the Moone to be earth To come now unto the face that appeareth therein like as this earth upon which we walke hath many sinuosities and valleis even so as probable it is that the said heavenly earth lieth open with great deepe caves and wide chinks or ruptures and those conteining either water or obscure aire to the bottome thereof the light of the Sunne is not able to pierce and reach but there falleth and sendeth to us hither a certeine divided reflexion Then Apollonides Now I beseech you good sir even by the Moone herselfe thinke you it is possible that there should be shadowes of caves gulfes and chinkes there and that the same should be discovered by our sight heere or doe you not make reckoning of that which may come thereof What is that quoth I Mary I will tell you quoth he and albeit you are not ignorant thereof yet may you give me the hearing The Diameter of the Moone according to that bignesse which appeareth unto us in the meane and ordinary distances is twelve singers bredth long and every one of those blacke and 〈◊〉 shadowy streaks therein is more than halfe a finger that is to say above the foure an twentieth part of the said Diameter Now if we suppose the whole circumference of the Moone to be thirtie thousand stadia and according to that supposition the Diameter to be ten thousand every one of those obscure and shadowy marks within her will not be lesse than five hundreth Stadia or thereabout Consider then first whether it
image representing god as being the onely creature in the world which hath no tongue for as much as divine speech needeth neither voice nor tongue But through the paths of Justice walks with still and silent pace Directing right all mortall things in their due time and place And of all beasts living within the water the crocodile onely as men say hath over his eies a certeine thinne filme or transparent webbe to cover them which commeth downe from his forehead in such sort as that he can see and not be seene wherein he is conformable and like unto the sovereigne of all the gods Moreover looke in what place the female is discharged of her spawne there is the utmost marke and limit of the rising and inundation of Nylus for being not able to lay their egges in the water and affraid withall to sit far off they have a most perfect and exquisit foresight of that which will be insomuch as they make use of the rivers approch when they lay and whiles they sit and cove their egges be preserved drie and are never drenched with the water A hundred egges they lay in so many daies they hatch and as manie yeeres live they which are longest lived And this is the first and principall number that they use who treat of celestiall matters Moreover as touching those beasts which are honored for both causes we have spoken before of the dogge but the Ibis or blacke storke besides that it killeth those serpents whose pricke and sting is deadly she was the first that taught us the use of that evacuation or clensing the body by clistre which is so ordinarie in Physicke for perceived she is to purge clense and mundifie her-selfe in that sort whereupon the most religious priests and those who are of greatest experience when they would be purified take for their holy water to sprinckle themselves with the very same out of which the Ibis drinketh for she never drinks of empoisoned and infected water neither will she come neere unto it Moreover with her two legges standing at large one from the other and her bill together she maketh an absolute triangle with three even sides besides the varietie and speckled mixture of her plume consisting of white feathers and blacke representeth the Moone when she is past the full Now we must not marvell at the Aegyptians for pleasing and contenting themselves in such slight representations and similitudes for even the Grecks themselves as well in their pictures as other images of the gods melted and wrought to any mould used many times such resemblances for one statue in Creta they had of Jupiter without eares because it is not meant for him who is lord governour of all to have any instruction by the hearing of others Unto the image of Pallas Phidias the Imager set a dragon like as to that of Venus in the city of Elisa Tortoise giving us by this to understand that maidens had need of guidance and good custodie and that maried woman ought to keepe the house and be silent The three-forked mace of Neptune signifieth the third place which the sea and element of water holdeth under heaven and aire for which cause they called the sea Amphitrite and the petie sea gods Tritons Also the Pythagoreans have highly honored the numbers and figures Geometricall by the gods names for the triangle with three equal sides they called Pallas borne out of Jupiters braine and Tritogenia for that it is equally divided with three right lines from three angles drawen by the plumbe One or unitie they named Apollo As well for his perswasive grace as plaine simplicitie That doeth appeere in youthfull face and this is unitie Two they termed Contention and Boldnesse and three Justice For whereas to offend and be offended to doe and to suffer wrong come the one by excesse and the other by defect Just remaineth equally betweene in the middes That famous quaternarie of theirs named 〈◊〉 which consisteth of foure nines and amounteth to thirtie sixe was their greatest oth 〈◊〉 in every mans mouth they called it the World as being accomplished of the first foure even numbers and the first foure odde compounded into one together If then the most excellent and best renowmed Philosophers perceiving in things which have neither body nor soule some type and figure of deitie have not thought it good to neglect or despise any thing herein or passe it over without due honour I suppose we ought much lesse so to doe in those properties and qualities which are in natures sensitive having life and being capable of passions and affections according to their inclinations and conditions And therefore we must not content our selves and rest in the worshipping of these and such like beasts but by them adore the divinitie that shineth in them as in most cleere and bright mirrors according to nature reputing them alwaies as the instrument and artificiall workemanship of God who ruleth and governeth the universall world neither ought we to thinke that any thing void of life and destitute of sense can be more woorthy or excellent than that which is endued with life and senses no not although a man hung never so much gold or a number of rich emerauds about it for it is neither colours nor figures nor polished bodies that deitie doeth inhabite in but whatsoever doeth not participate life nor is by nature capable thereof is of a more base and abject condition than the very dead But that nature which liveth and seeth which also in it selfe hath the beginning of motion and knowledge of that which is proper and meet as also of that which is strange unto it the same I say hath drawen some influence and portion of that wise providence whereby the universall world is governed as Heraclitus saith And therefore the deitie is no lesse represented in such natures than in works made of brasse and stone which are likewise subject to corruption and alteration but over and besides they are naturally voide of all sense and understanding Thus much of that opinion as touching the worship of beasts which I approove for best Moreover the habilliments of Isis be of different tinctures and colours for her whole power consisteth and is emploied in matter which receiveth all formes and becommeth all maner of things to wit light darknesse day night fire water life death beginning and end But the robes of Osiris have neither shade nor varietie but are of one simple colour even that which is lightsome and bright For the first primitive cause is simple the principle or beginning is without all mixture as being spiritual intellegible Whereupon it is that they make shew but once for all of his habiliments which when they have done they lay them up againe and bestow them safe and keepe them so straightly that no man may see or handle them whereas contrariwise they use those of Isis many times For that sensible things be in usage and seeing they are
by that meanes maintaine a continuall streame that never resteth which is the reason also that great rivers when they are full and doe overflow the banks run with a more swift and violent streame and contrariwise when there is but a little water in the chanell they glide more slowly because the aire before doth nothing so much give place for that they are more feeble neither is there so great an antiperistasis to urge and presse them forward and even so the spring waters must of necessity boile and rise upward for that the outward aire entering closely into the void hollow places within the ground sendeth up againe the water forth The paved floore of a darke close house conteining in it a great deale of still aire without any winde from without entring into it if a man doe cast water upon it engendreth presently a winde and colde vapour by reason that the aire is displaced and removed out of his seat by the water which fell and is thereby beaten and receiveth the stroake and dint thereof For this is the nature of them to drive one another and likewise to give place one to the other interchangeably admitting in no wise any emptinesse wherein the one of them should be so setled as that it did not reciprocally feele the change and alteration of the other To come now unto the above named symphonie and consonance himselfe hath declared how it is that that sounds and voices do accord for the small and treble is quicke and swift whereas the bigge and base is heavie and slow And thereupon it is that small and shrill sounds do move the sense of hearing before others but if when these begin to fall and decay the 〈◊〉 and base begin to succeed and receive then the mixture and temperature of them both by a kind of conformitie yeeldeth a delight and pleasure to the eare which they call a symphonie or accord And that here of the aire is the instrument it may evidently appeare by that which we have said already for voice is a stroake or percussion by the aire of that which the eare doth heare for as the aire is smitten by motion so it striketh againe the auditorie organ forcibly if the motion be quicke and gently if the same be slow and that which is stricken forcibly with a violence commeth first into the sense of hearing but afterwards turning about and meeting with that which is more slow it followeth and accompanieth the sense 7 What is the meaning of Timaeus when he saith That the soules are dispersed and sowen as it were upon the ground the moone and all other instruments of time what soever IS it because he was of opinion that the earth did move like unto the sunne moone and other five planets which he calleth the instruments of time because of their conversions and held besides that we ought not to imagine the earth so framed as if it were firme and immoveable fast fixed and perpetually to the axletree or pole that passeth thorow the world but that it turneth round in maner of a wheele like as afterwards Aristarchus and Seleucus have shewed the one supposing it onely the other affirming so much flatly To say nothing of that which Theophrastus wrote namely how Plato toward the latter end of his daies repented that he had assigned unto the earth the center and middle of the world a place 〈◊〉 unfit and unmeet for it Or rather because this is directly repugnant unto many sentences which this philosopher undoubtedly held we ought therefore to change the writing of this place of 〈◊〉 by putting the dative case in stead of the genetive to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and to understand by the instruments of time not the planets or starres but the bodies of living creatures according as Aristotle hath defined the soule to be a continuall act of a bodie Naturall Organicall having life potentially so that the sentence in the foresaid place should be read thus The soules have bene disseminated and 〈◊〉 by time in organicall bodies meet and agreeable for them And yet even this also is contrary unto his owne-opinion for that not in one onely place but in many he hath called the starres instruments of time considering that he affirmeth that the very sunne was made to distinguish and keepe the number of time with other planets The best way is therefore to understand That the earth is the instrument of time not because it moveth as doe the starres but for that so continuing as it doeth alwaies firme and steady in it selfe it giveth meanes unto the starres moving round about it to rise and to fall whereby are limited the day and the night which are the first measures of time and therefore himselfe hath called it the Guardien yea the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in deed and right truely of night and day for the Gnomons in Sun dials not moving with the shadowes but standing still and keeping their place are the instruments and measures of time representing the obstacle of the earth opposite unto the Sun mooving round about it like as Empedocles saith The earth set just twixt Sun beames and our sight Shuts up the day and bringeth in the night And thus much for the enodation of this knot But haply this a man may doubt to be a strange and absurd speech to say that the Sun together with the Moone the planets were made for distinction of times for otherwise by it selfe great is the dignitie of the Sun and Plato himselfe in his books of Common-wealth calleth him the king and lord of all the sensible world like as Good he pronounceth to be the sovereign of the intelligible world And the Sun saith he is the very issue extract from that Good giving unto things visible together with their apparance being also subsistance like as Good giveth unto intelligible things this gift both to have a being and also to be knowen Now that God having such puissance and so great should be the instrument of time and an evident rule and measure of the difference that is of swiftnesse or of slownesse among the eight heavenly sphaeres seemeth not very decent no nor any consonant to reason It remaineth therefore thus much to say those who trouble themselves about these points for very ignorance are deceived supposing that time according to the definition of Aristotle is the measure of motion and the number in regard of prioritie and posteriority or the quantity in motion after the opinion of Speusippus or else the distance of motion and no other thing as the Stoicks describe it desining forsooth one accident but never comming neere unto the substance and power thereof which as it should seeme the poet Pindarus imagined and conceived not amisse when he said In right of age time hath this ods That it surpasseth all the gods Pythagor as also who being asked what time was answered The soule of the heaven for time be it