regard no other Creature besides becomes weary in its Operations For all Animals even the lowest degree of Insects sleep although such who have hard eyes and scales sleep more obscurely then the rest and Birds more lightly then four-footed Beasts which suck because they have a less and dryer Brain and consequently less need sleep whose use is to moisten and refresh that part Hence Man having of all Animals the largest Brain hath also need of the longest sleep which ought to be about seven hours Wherefore I cannot but wonder that Plato in his first Book of Laws would have his Citizens rise in the night to fall to their ordinary employments for this disturbing of their rest were the way to make a Common-wealth of Fools the Brain by watchings acquiring a hot and dry intemperature which begets igneous spirits whose mobility not permitting the Mind to consider the species impress'd upon them is the cause of unsteady and impetuous sallies of the Mind as on the contrary sleep too excessive fills the ventricles of the Brain wherein the Soul exercises her Faculties with abundance of vapours and humidities which offuscating and troubling the species the Mind thereby becomes slothful and dull The second said That Privations are understood by their Habits and therefore Sleep which is a privation of Sense cannot be better known than by the functions of the outward Senses which so long as an Animal exercises it is said to be awake and to sleep when it ceases to employ the same And being Sensation is perform'd by means of the animal Spirits refin'd out of the natural and vital and sent from the Brain into the Sensories which Spirits receive the species of the sensible object and carry it to the Inward Sense the common Arbiter and Judg of all external objects hence when those Spirits happen to fail or the Common Sense is bound up the other external Senses cannot discharge their offices Upon which account the Philosophers have defin'd Sleep The ligation of the First Sense or The rest of the Spirits and Blood And the Physitians The cessation of all outward Senses for the health and repose of an Animal hereby distinguishing it from the cessation of the outward Senses in Swoonings Falling-sickness Apoplexie Lethargy Carus Coma and such sorts of morbifick and praeternatural sleep produc'd by causes acting rather by an occult and somniferous property then by excess of cold or moisture otherwise Winter Ice and the coldest things should cause sleep Wine Annis Opium Henbane and abundance of hot Medicaments should not be Narcotick as experience evinces them to be But natural sleep is produc'd by vapours elevated from the aliments into the brain which moreover performing in us the office of a Ventose or Cupping-glass draws to it self those humid vapours condenses them by its coldness and resolves them into a gentle dew which falling upon the rise or beginning of the Nerves obstructs the passage to the animal Spirits the instruments of Sensation and voluntary Motion which it hinders though not Motion so much as Sensation because the Nerves of the hinder part of the Brain destinated to Motion being harder do not so easily imbibe those vapours as those of the fore-part destinated to Sensation But when the Heat and Spirits whereof there had been an absumption are again sufficiently repair'd they move anew toward the Brain where they resolve those dews which stopp'd the passage and hindred the commerce of the vital Spirits with the animal whereupon we naturally and without violence awake So likewise the violence of an extrinsecal object importunately striking the external Senses obliges the Soul to send other Spirits to the assistance of the few remaining therein and which before this supply apprehend objects only confusedly The Third said Sleep is not the Quiescence of the animal Spirits for these are active and form Dreams whilst we sleep nor of the vital which have no relaxation or rest so long as the Animal hath life much less of the natural Nutrition being perform'd best during sleep which is the cause why sleeping fattens Neither is the Brain 's humidity the cause of sleep as 't is commonly held but the defect of vital heat in the Heart in a sufficient degree for performing the functions of the outward Senses Moreover the sudden seizing and abruption of sleep which we observe cannot be produc'd but by a very movable cause such as the gross vapour of aliments is not but the vital heat is being carried into all parts of the body in an instant Whence it is that we observe the same to be more pale during sleep as having less of the said heat than during Evigilation The Fourth said That indeed the adequate cause of sleep is not a vapour arising from the aliments since it is procur'd by abundance of other causes which produce no evaporation as Weariness Musique Silence and Darkness Neither is it the above-mentioned deficience of Viâ—â—l Heat which indeed is necessary to the Organs inasmuch as they are endu'd with life but not to make them capable of sense there being sufficient in them even during sleep when the parts are found hot enough for Sensation if heat were the cause thereof as it is not But the right cause consists in the Animal Spirits for which as being the noblest instruments of the Body I conceive there is a particular faculty in the Brain which administers and governs them sending them to the Organs when there is need of them and causing them to return back in order to be restor'd and suppli'd As there is a particular faculty in the Heart over-ruling and moving the Vital Spirits as it pleases sometimes diffusing them outwards in Joy Anger and Shame sometimes causing them to retreat in order to succour the Heart in Sadness Grief and Fear The Fifth said The Empire of Sleep whom Orpheus calls King of Gods and Men is so sweet that Not to be of its party is to be an enemy to Nature 'T is the charm of all griefs both of body and mind and was given to man not only for the refreshment of both but chiefly for the liberty of the Soul because it makes both the Master and the Slave the poor and the rich equal 'T is a sign of health in young people and causes a good constitution of Brain strengthning the same and rendring all the functions of the mind more vigorous whence came the saying That the Night gives counsels because then the Mind is freed from the tyranny of the Senses it reasons more solidly and its operations are so much the more perfect as they are more independent on matter and 't was during the repose of sleep that most of the Extasies and prophetical Visions happened to the Saints Moreover frequent sleep is a sign of a very good nature For being conciliated only by the benignity of a temper moderately hot and moist the Sanguine and Phlegmatick whose humour is most agreeable are more inclined thereunto than the Bilious and
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
in words gestures and actions pass for Wisdom call the French light because they are more nimble and active then themselves and being really what others are onely in appearance affect not that false mask of Wisdom whereof they possess the solidity and Body whilst these content themselves with enjoying its shadow and ghost For 't is not the change of habits or modes that argues that of the Mind but in great Matters as Religion and State in maintaining whereof the French may be affirm'd more constant than any Nation 'T is not an Age yet since France bad reason to glory as well as in Saint Jerom's time of never having produc'd Monsters but of planting the Faith well amongst all its Neighbors whose rigorous Inquisition is less a testimony of the Constancy than of the lightness or baseness of their Spirits since they are kept in their Religion by fear of the Wheel and the Gallows Then as for the State the French Monarchy is the ancientest in the world and hath been always maintain'd amidst the ruines and downfalls of other States by the exact observation of its fundamental Laws which is an eminent Argument of the Constancy of the French the Nations who have most charg'd them with this Vice shewing themselves the most inconstant whilst this puissant body of France remains always like it self which it could not do if the members which compose it were light and inconstant the greatest Vice where-with they can asperse us For since according to Seneca Wisdom is always to will and not-will the same things Inconstance and Irresolution in willing sometimes one thing sometimes another is a certain testimony of Folly Imprudence and weakness of Mind which coming to change intimates either that it took not its measures aright nor apprehended the fit means of attaining to the proposed end or that it had not Courage and Resolution enough to go through with its designes And not onely he who hath an inconstant and flitting Spirit is incapable of Wisdom which requires a settled Mind not mutable like that of the Fool who as the Scripture saith changes like the Moon but also of all sort of Virtue which consisting in a mediocrity is not attainable but by Prudence which prescribes its Bounds and Rules and by Stability and Constance which arms the Mind against all difficulties occurring in the way of Virtue in which as well as in the Sciences and Arts the French having more share than any other Nation 't is injurious to accuse them of Inconstancy The Third said 'T is not more vanity to believe one's self perfect in all things than temerity in going about upon blind passion for his Country to exempt it from a Vice whereof all strangers who know us better than we do our selves are universally agreed Let us confess therefore that we are inconstant since in comparison of the Vices of other Neighbouring Nations this will not onely appear light but make it doubtful whether it be a Vice since 't is grounded upon Nature which is in perpetual change whereby she appears more beautiful and agreeable than in identity and rest which is not found even in the prime Bodies and universal Causes which as well as others are in a continual mobility and change which is no-wise contrary to Wisdom which requires that we accommodate our selves to the circumstances of places persons and times which alter incessantly and that we consequently alter our Conclusions according thereunto besides that change of Opinion is a testimony of a free and ingenuous Spirit as that of the French is and it may be attributed to the power of example in a people environ'd with sundry Nations extreamly different and consisting of Spirits which are imbu'd with the qualities of them all For this Country lying under the forty third degree and the forty eighth the mixture of these people which partake a little of the Southern and a little of the Northern Neighbours sometimes conforms to the modes of one sometimes to those of the other And as in the change of Colours the difference is not seen but in the two extreamities those of the middle appearing changeable and diversifi'd so France situated between the Germans Italians and Spaniards mixing and tempering in it self the qualities of those Nations which are in its extreamities appears to them changeable and uncertain The Fourth said Though the French are not more inconstant than others yet their boyling and impetuous humor and the quickness of all their Actions having made them be esteemed such by all their Neighbors I shall rather refer the Cause thereof to their abundance of Spirits which are the sole Motors and Principles of all Actions produc'd by the purity of their Air and the variety of their Aliments than to the Aspects of Heaven or such other Causes since Nations under the same parallel with France as Podolia Hungary Tartary and many others should be subject to the same Vice which was sometimes imputed to the Grecians the most fickle and inconstant of all people without referring the Cause to the Winds as Cardan held that such as are most expos'd thereunto to have volatile Spirits otherwise the French and other Nations subject to Winds should quit their levity when they came into Climates less windy CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers NOthing ravishes us more than the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Automata or Bodies moving by Artifice having in the beginning made Idolaters who were undeceived when they came to know the Springs of them But above all the Motions of the Sea seem the more marvellous in that they are very different and contrary And they are of two sorts One Internal and common to all heavy Bodies whereby the Water descends downwards the agitated Sea becomes calm by returning to its level and Rivers follow the declivity of the Lands through which they pass The other violent which is either irregular render'd so by the irregularity of the Winds or regular which again is of two sorts namely that of reciprocation in the flux and reflux of the Sea and that which depends upon the several parts of the World being either from East to West or from North to South 'T is true Water being naturally fluid and moveable and not to be contain'd within its own bounds it were more strange if this great Body were immoveable than to see it move as it was necessary it should for Navigation and to avoid corruption The wonder onely is to see in one sole Body so great a diversity of Motions whereof onely the first is natural to it the others arise from some extrinsick Causes amongst which none acting more sensibly upon the Elements than the Celestial Bodies 't is to the diversity of their Motions that those of the Sea must be imputed but particularly that of its flux and reflux which being regular and always alike in one and the same Sea cannot proceed but from as regular a Cause such as the Heaven is and chiefly the
there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating
former are compleatly form'd by the 30th day the latter not before the 40th the former move in the third moneth the latter not till the fourth those are born in the ninth moneth these some days after and besides live not if born in the seventh moneth as Males do whose periods are therefore reckon'd by Septenaries and those of Females by Novenaries After birth we see the actions of Males are perform'd with more strength and vigor then those of Females who are actually colder and suffer more inconveniences from cold They are never ambidexters because they have not heat enough to supply agility to both sides and their right side is peculiarly destinated to the Generation of Females because the Spermatick Vessel on that side derives blood from the hollow Vein which is hottest by reason of the proximity of that Vein to the Liver whereas the left Spermatick draws from the Emulgent which carrying Serose humors together with the Blood 't is no wonder if the Seed of that side be crude and cold and consequently fitter for generating Femals then Males Hence Hippocrates saith that if as Peasants tye a Bull 's left Testicle when they desire a Bull-calf and the right when a Cow-calf the same be practis'd by Man the like effect will follow Whereby 't is manifest that whatever makes the Seed more hot and vigorous both in Male and Female furthers the Generation of Males and contrarily and consequently that the Morning when 't is best concocted is more proper then the Evening for begetting Boys and the Winter then the Summer at least on the man's part The Second said That as to the production of Males rather then Females or on the contrary no certain cause hath hitherto been assign'd thereof since we see that the same man in all likelihood without alteration of his temper hath only Girles by his first Wife and only Boys by the second and on the contrary and some that could get no Children at all in their youth have had only Boys in their old Age. Others have Males first others Females and others have them alternatively Whereof no other reason can be assign'd by Chance or rather the Divine Pleasure alone in the impenetrable Secrets whereof to seek for a cause were high temerity If heat and strength caus'd the difference young marry'd people would not have Girles first as it happens most often and decrepit old men should never get Boys as daily experience shews they do Moreover some men depriv'd of one of their Testicles have nevertheless begotten both Sons and Daughters which could not be if the faculty of begetting Children of one determinate Sex were affix'd to either of those parts And as from a false Principle nothing can be drawn but false Consequences so also is it in the opinion of Aristotle That Woman is but an occasional Creature For then Nature should produce far greater abundance of Males then of Females or else she would erre oftner then hit right which is inconsistent with her wisdom and yet in all places more Girles and Women are found then Men as appears in that we every where see plenty of Maids that want Husbands and in Countries wherein Polygamy is lawful there are Women enough to supply ten or a dozen Wives to each Man And indeed Nature's design is mainly for preserving the Species as that of every individual is to preserve it self and the bare degree of heat or cold in the Seed being but an accident of an accident cannot effect a formal change in the substance Only defective heat may occasion an effeminate man and abundant heat a Virago Besides this Opinion destroys the common and true one viz. That Generation is one of those actions which proceeds from a just proportion and temperature of the humors whence excessive or feverish heat destroys the Seed in stead of furthering Generation and is an enemy to all the other functions Wherefore 't is best to say that the same difference which is observ'd between the Seeds of Plants is also found in that of Animals though not discernable therein but by the effects and as the exactest prying cannot observe in the kernel of an Almond or Pine any difference of the Trunk Leaves and Fruit of those Trees although these parts be potentially contain'd therein so also the Seed of an Animal contains in it self even the least differences of Sex albeit imperceptibly to the eye Which the Rabbins being unable otherwise to comprehend conceiv'd that our first Parent was created an Hermaphrodite because both Sexes came from him his own and that of Eve The Third said That the sole ignorance of things occasions the ascribing of them to Chance which hath no power over the wise because they understand the reasons thereof As for universal causes as the Divine is they concur indeed with particular ones but as they are becoming in the mouths of Divines and of the Vulgar so Naturalists must not stop there since by the right use of external causes the internal may be corrected by which correction not only Seeds formerly barren or which fell in an ingrateful soil are reduc'd to a better temper and render'd prolifick but such as were destinated to a female production through defect of heat are render'd more vigorous and fit to generate Males Now that young married people hit not sometimes upon this latter Sex 't is because of their frequent debauchery which cools the Brain and consequently the whole habit of the Body Which happens not so frequently to men of more advanc'd age who use all things more moderately The Fourth attributed the cause to the Constellations and Influences of the Stars which reign at the time of Conception Males being generated under Masculine and Females under Feminine Signs CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences A Language is a Multitude or Mass of Nouns and Verbs which are signs of Things and Times destinated to the explication of our thoughts There are two sorts the one perfect call'd Mother-Languages the other imperfect The Mother-Languages are the Hebrew Greek and Latine the imperfect those which depend upon them Now the French being of this latter sort we cannot learn the Sciences by it alone because being particular and the Sciences general the less is not capable to comprehend the greater Moreover our Language being not certain in its Phrases nor yet in its Words not only Ages but also a few Years changing both whereas the Sciences are certain and immutable it will follow that they cannot be taught by it Besides there may be Inventions for which our Language hath no expression or at least not so good as others and to busie our minds in the search of words is more likely to retard the mind in the acquisition of Sciences then to further it The truth is 't were well if things were generally express'd by the most proper and significant words but they are not so in any Language much less in the French
the prosecution of their designs or forc'd them to pronounce such as should be to their advantage This course was taken by Alexander the Great and Cleomenes by the former when he consulted the Pythian by the other when he consulted the Delphick Oracle both which they forc'd to say what they pleas'd themselves Thence it came that most of the ancient Philsophers exclaim'd against them and the Platonists who made a greater account of them then any of the other Sects acknowledge that they are no other then the most despicable Devils and those of the lowest rank who engage themselves in that employment which they must needs practise in desert and dreadful places to the end there might be fewer witnesses of their weakness and impostures These are apparent in their very Answers which if not false were so ambiguous or at least so obscure that many times there needed another Oracle to explain them Nor were they in vogue but during the darkness of Paganism which being dispell'd by the light of the Gospel those Oracles never durst appear in that glorious day which would have discover'd their lying and falshood The Second said That the Art of Divination being conjectural and grounded on experience as well as several others of that nature it is not to be admir'd that the Answers of those who heretofore made profession thereof were not always true and therefore it is as irrational a procedure to draw any consequences thence to its prejudice as to infer that the Precepts of Medicine are false because the Physician does not always make his Prognosticks aright The General of an Army may sometimes proceed upon wrong grounds and the expert Pilot may run upon those shelves and rocks which he most endeavours to avoid True it is that the subtilty of the Devil and depravedness of Mankind have foisted abundance of abuses into the business of Oracles especially in the erecting of those Statues to those fabulous Divinities which they commonly made of Olive-tree Lawrel Vine Cedar or some such kind of wood full of unctuous moisture which they said were the tears or sweat of their false Gods as also in the pompous Ceremonies wherewith they amused the credulous Vulgar Such were those of Trophonius among the Thebans who answer'd only those who being clad in white descended through a hole of the cave into his Temple and there offered cakes to the Spirits which inhabited it after which they were convey'd out at another place of the cave where they drunk the Water of the Fountain of Memory which caus'd them to remember whatever they had heard as they had drunk that of Lethe before they had entred into it which had caus'd them to forget all affairs of the World But we are not hence to conclude that all Oracles were false nor doubt of the validity of that sublime Art upon its being disparag'd by those who have profess'd it since it hath its grounds not only in the inclination of mens minds who having an extraordinary earnestness to know things to come there must needs be some Science for the attaining of that Knowledge otherwise Nature who had imprinted that desire in him should contrary to her custom have done something in vain but also in the dispositions of that Temperament which is subject to Melancholy or black Choler For the former of these is the Temperament of the more ingenious sort of people according to the Philsopher in his Problems and the other being more resplendent is that of persons enclin'd to Divination occasion'd by the clear representation of the Species in that humour which being bright and smooth as a Mirrour cannot so well be discover'd by those who are not of that Constitution to which Plato in his Memnon attributes the cause of Apollo's Priestesse's pronouncing the Oracles in Hexameter Verse though she had never learnt Poesie and Pompanatius in his Books of Enchantments affirms that it caus'd a Woman who never was out of Mantua where she was born to speak several strange Languages The Third said That Divination being above the reach of our Understanding as much as this latter is below the Divinity which hath reserv'd to it self the priviledge of a distinct knowledge of things to come it is to no purpose to seek for the true causes of it in our selves but we are to find them in the Heavens whence if we may believe the Professors of Astrology that quality of Divination or Prediction is communicated to Men by the interposition of the Intelligences whereby those vast Bodies are moved and that Science taught by making it appear how great a correspondence there is between the effects of the sublunary Bodies and the superior causes on which they depend and wherein they are potentially comprehended even before they are actually existent Whereto if you add the concourse of the Universal Spirit which equally animates the whole world and the parts whereof it consists and which meeting with convenient dispositions in the minds of men and the several places where Oracles have been given inspir'd those extraordinary motions which have rais'd the Spirit of man and open'd its way into effects the most at a distance from his knowledge Admitting I say such a concourse there may some probable reason be given of these Predictions not only of things whose causes being natural and necessary their effects are infallible such as are Eclipses the Rising Setting and Regular Motions of the Planets or of those whose causes are only probable as it is reported that Pherecydes foretold a dreadful Earth-quake by the boyling up of the water in his own Well and Thales foresaw the scarcity of Olives in the Territories of Athens But also of effects which having only contingent or free causes lie not so obvious to discovery and yet these being denoted by the general causes such as are the Heavens and the Universal Spirit those persons who have clear-sighted and illuminated Souls may perceive them therein even before they happen The Fourth said That there are three general causes of Oracles one Supernatural another Artificial and the third Natural and that not to speak any thing of the Supernatural whereof the Devils were the Authors and made use of it to continue still in their first Rebellion when they attempted to ascend into the Throne of God and be like him nor yet of their Artificial Cause which was certain persons devoted to their worship who retiring into Caves and Subterraneous places were incited by those evil Spirits to that sordid Ministry that so by that means they might lay snares for the simple who were easily drawn away by these false Lights The Natural Cause of those Oracles especially such as were pronounc'd out of the celebrated Caves and Grots of Antiquity was a subtile Exhalation rais'd out of those places which fastening on the Spirits of the Prophet or Prophetess already dispos'd to receive that impression had the same Influence on them as the fumes of Wine have on those who drink it to