up the vastnesse of the firmament so unmeasurably large as they doe for by their calculation though a man ride fourty myles a day yet shall he not see so much ground in many thousands of yeares as the firmament goeth about the earth in twenty foure houres So learned Clavius calculateth in his Commentary upon Sacroboscus But withall to know whether or not the Moone be inhabited or hath mountaines vallies and champion ground within her body and so forth and whether the rest of the planets as she be likewise inhabited considering say these curious fellowes that these vast bodies cannot be framed for light onely if not for this use also but being wearyed with these and alike more curious then profitable questions I leave them Section 7. To search out the secrets of Nature allowable if men be not too curious in them Eudoxus wish Plinius killed on the Mountaine of Vesuvius Aristotle drowned in Euripus Too much curiosity is a plague sent downe from Heaven on men The Poet Simonides acknowledged his ignorance of GOD How the Heathenish gods were pourtrayed IF any curiosity may be allowed I thinke the inquiry of the hidden and abstruse secrets of nature are agreeable and pleasing for a curious spirit provided that their curiosity carry them no further then to a reverent and respectfull admiration of the power of God working in Nature by them But if once such curious and inquisitive braines doe transgresse these limits and after the meditation of these things doe begin to drawe out of the secrets of Nature that which is unprofitable being knowne and so doe become transgressors of the old Law Non altum sapere not to be too inquisitive then I say their curiosities become vitious such as this was the curiosity of Eudoxus who desired at the hands of the gods to be so neere the Sun as to discerne the matter of it which was in question amongst his fellow Philosophers for the time although it should bee to the hazard of his life Such curiosity as this cost Plinius his life while too curiously he approached to the top of the Mount Vesuvius by Naples which I did with the hazard of mine also from thence to look down to the body of the hollowed hill to see if he might discerne the cause and matter of that fyre which bursting up in flames now and then had made it hollow within for then being choakt with a flash of a suddayne flame hee dyed So the river Euripus did requite Aristotle his curiosity with the like punishment although not drowning or overwhelming him with waves yet causing in him such melancholy for not comprehending its nature as procured his death We have warrant from holy Scripture that too much curiosity to knowe things is sent downe upon men as a plague in so farre that Herod esteemed Saint Paul distracted through his too much learning and they are scarce otherwise who thinke by their shallow capacity to comprehend the height length and depth of GODS workes which are so much the rather His by how much the lesse we understand them And it is observable that our beliefe is setled upon things incredible to humane reason to which a humble submission of spirit attayneth sooner then a curious inquiry Thus Saint Augustine esteemed GOD better to be adored bene sentiendo quà m multum loquendo In such sort that Simonides the Poet who was desired to describe God required first one day to thinke upon the subject and then another lastly a third and in the end confessed ingeniously that the more he studied it the further he was from comprehending it and the more he searched into that Theame the lesse he understood it which gave us well to understand how wisely the Aegyptian Priests Indian Brachmians the Persian Magi the French Druides and all the old Philosophers and wise men did who caused to mould and pourtrayte their gods with their fingers upon their lippes to teach men their Adorers not to bee too curious inquirers after their Nature or rashly blabbe forth what ever they imagine of them least that being discovered they should have beene found in the end to have beene but men either worthy in their time for warre or peace and after their death deified Micat inter omnes Iulium fidus velut inter ignes Luna minores Whereas the Nature of our great God-head is so profound a gulfe and hid mystery that as the Sun beames dazeleth our mortall eyes being too stedfastly fixed upon them even so doth over-curious inquiry after God and such other abstruse mysteries obfuscate the dim eyes of our understandings And as the Sun cannot bee seene but by his owne light So no more can God be knowne but by himselfe Section 8. Too great curiosities condemned and a moderation to bee used in them prescribed THus then as in Divine and heavenly mysteries wee should not be too curious but should rather content us with what is revealed So should we not in our worldly affaires busie our selves too curiously and perplexedly For as Gods secrets are not disclosed to the highest and most eminent amongst men but to the meaner and ignorant sort even so fortune and chance of this world falleth and followeth not alwayes the wisest and most curious but on such as for the most part doe not pursue them and these we doe tearme foole happy or more happy then wise Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt When I blame the extremity of curiosity as a master-vice it is not for that we should with the Stoicks â—ull our selves asleepe and cast off even allowable care concerning the events of our affaires in this life as to remitt and put over all to destiny which is no lesse blame-worthy then with the Epicureans to eate and drinke as if the morrow we were to die For as the golden mediocrity and commendable vertue consisteth betwixt extreames even so I say avoyding both evills this meant good may be admitted to be curious after all such things as concerne our vocation and trade of life And for this indeed wee have warrant but so that we referre the event of all to the alseeing providence who best knoweth our wants and can best helpe them Section 9. How GOD disappointeth the expectations of the most Curious And that the most subtill spirits runne into greater errors then the meaner doe I Wonder since neither the subtilties of this present age nor the wisdom of our predecessors neither Prophets of old nor preaching of new no not theirmost curious inquiries could rippe up the causes and notions of things which it hath pleased the Everliving to worke both above and below the concavity of the Moone in a manner to dazell mens eyes and to make their profoundest wits stoope under the wonders of His workes Why then should our curious Spirits rack their braines about the resolution of such questions which as they are difficult to be solved so are they dangerous
his trunck from the Pole Artick from the North and East to the Antartick South West stretching forth the left Arme to the Mediterranean the other to the West-Indian-Seas now the Ocean as the lungs of this imagined body worketh by Systole and Diastole on the neerer parts to it maketh a flux and reflux where its force faileth in the extremities the hands and feet the Mediterranean and Indian Seas Quest. How is that possible that you admit no flux nor reflux to the West-Indian-Seas seeing their Histories informe us that at Magellanes-strait that same West Sea doth glide through the firme land of America into the Mare Del Zur and that with such rapiditie and vertiginousnesse that no Ship is able with Wind or Art to returne from that South-Sea backward Answ. That must not be thought so much a flowing as the course of Nature whereby the Heavens Sun Moone and Stars yea and the Sea doe course from East to West as that Strait doth run I may joyne to this the Easterly-wind which of all others bloweth most commonly as elsewhere so there also which furthereth that violent course and of this opinion is Peter Martyr in his Decads upon the Historie of that Countrey Quest. Admit all be true you say but what have you to say to this that the Mare Del Zur hath flux and reflux and yet your West-Indian-Seas have little or none as you confesse how then can the Moone be the cause of the universall Seas ebbing and flowing seeing they two under one Moone both are neverthelesse so different in Nature and yet so neere in place Answ. Seeing Ferdinando Oviedes who was both Cosmographer Hydographer leaveth that question undilucidated as a thing rather to be admired than solved leaving to the Reader thereby in a manner to adore the great Maker in the variousnes of his works I thinke much more may I be excused not to pry too deepely in it Quest. What is the cause then seeing the Moone is alike in power over all waters that Lakes and Rivers flow not and ebbe not as well as the Sea doth Answ. Because these waters are neither large nor deepe enough for her to worke upon and so they receive but a small portion of her influence Quest. What is the reason why seeing the Sea is salt that the Rivers and Fountaines which flow from her for we all know that the Sea is the Mother of all other waters as to her they runne all back againe exinde fluere saith the Poet retro sublapsareferri are not salt likewise Answ. Because the Earth through whose veines and conduits these waters doe passe to burst forth thereafter in springs cleanseth and mundifieth all saltnesse from them as they passe It seemeth that your former discourse maketh way for answer to such as aske why the Sea doth never debord nor accreace a whit notwithstanding that all other waters doe degorge themselves into her bosome the reason being because there runneth ever as much out of her to subministrate water to springs and rivers as she affordeth them But is it possible which is reported that our late Navigators have found by experience that the Seas water so many fathomes below the superficies is fresh so that now they may draw up waters to their shippes by certaine woodden or rather yron vessells which ovally closed doe slyde thorough the first two or three fathomes of the salted superfice downe to the fresh waters where artificially it opens and being filled straight shutteth againe and so is drawne up which they report to have but small difference in tast from the waters of fresh Rivers which if it bee true is a strange but a most happily discovered secret Answ. Yea it is possible for probably it may be thought that the Sunnes raies which before are granted to bee the cause of the Seas saltnesse penetrate no further than the first superfice like as on the contrary the coldnesse of the Northerne windes freezeth but the uppermost water congealing them into Ice or the reason may better be the perpetuall and constant running and disgolfing of Rivers brookes and springs from the earth into it And verily I could be induced to thinke the Mediterranean sea the Sound of Norwey and such like which lye low and are every where encompassed with the higher land except where they breake in from the greater Ocean that such Seas should be fresh low in regard of the incessant currents of large Rivers into them and in respect they doe not furnish water back again to the springs rivers and fountaines seeing they are low beneath the earth yea it hath troubled many braines to understand what becommeth of these waters which these Seas dayly receave but it cannot bee receaved for possible that the waters of the great Ocean are fresh at least drinkably fresh under the first two or three fathomes it being by God in natures decree made salt for portablenesse Sect. 7. That the Mountaines and valleys dispersed over the earth hindreth not the Compleatnesse of its roundnesse Of burning mountaines and Caves within the earth BVt leaving the Sea thus much may be demaunded concerning the earth why it is said to be round since there are so inaccessible high mountaines and such long tracts of plaine valleys scattered over it all Answ. These mountaines and valleys are no more in respect of the earth to hinder its roundnesse then a little flie is upon a round bowll or a naile upon a wheele to evince the rotunditie of it for the protuberances of such knobs deface not the exact roundnesse of the whole Globe as not having a comparable proportion with it But what signifie these burning mountaines so frightfull to men which may be seene in severall places of the earth as that of Island called Hecla in Sicilie called Aetna besides the burning hills of Naples which I have seene one in Mexico in our new found lands of America so formidable as is wonderfull If the earth be cold as you give it forth to be then how can these mountaines burne so excessively or if they bee chimneys of hell venting the fire which burneth there in the center of the earth or not Answ. No question but as there are waters of divers sorts some sweet others salt and others sulphureous according to the minerall veynes they run thorough right so there be some partes of the earth more combustible then others which once being enflamed and kindled either by the heate of the Sunnes beames or by some other accident and then fomented by a little water which rather redoubleth the heate then extinguisheth it as we see by experience in our farriers or smiths forges where to make their coales or charco ales burne the bolder they bedew or besprinkle them with water they hold stil burning the sulphureous ground ever subministrating fewell to the inflammation But they and the like do not hinder the earths being cold no more than one or
may be said to be respiration but since nothing properly can be said to breath but that which hath lungs the instruments of breathing which indeed fishes have not The conclusion is cleare That they have rather a sort of refrigeration then respiration Quest. But is it of truth which wee heare of our Navigators that in the Southerne seas they have seene flying fishes and herring like a foggie or moist cloud fleeing above their heads and falling againe in the Seas with a rushing and flushing Answ. Yea I thinke it possible for the great Creator as he hath created the foules of the Aire the beasts of the earth and the fishes of the Sea at the first creation in their owne true kindes So hath hee made of all these kindes Amphibia And as there are foure footed beasts and fowles of double kinds living promiscuously on land and water why may there not be fishes of that nature also of which hereafter So hath hee indued the Aire as the more noble element of the three with that prerogative that in it either fowles or watery creatures might be engendred out of vapors either moist or terrestriall or extracted from standing lakes stanckes marishes myres or the like oyly and marshie places which waters elevated to the Aire by the violent operation of the Sunnes beames either from the Seas or the fore-said places by the benefit of the warme Aire where they abide as in the fertile belly of a fruitfull mother doe there receave the figure either of frogge or fish according to the predominancy of the matter whereof that vapor is composed from whence again as all heavie things doe tend downeward so doe they also Which hath made some suppose that herrings by them called flying fishes doe descend from the aire their place of generation where indeed more truly the error commeth this way the Herrings in their season doe come in great shoales as Sea men say upon the superfice of the waters where scudding along the coasts some sudden gale of wind they being elevated upon the top of some vaste wave may chance to blow them violently so farre till they encounter and light on a higher billow which hath made Marriners thinke they flie Quest. What have you to say to this that as there are fishes extraordinary so I have heard of fowles without either feete or plumes Answ. Fowles they cannot be because fowles are defined to be living creatures feathered and two footed and since these are not such fowles they cannot be And yet Iulius Scaliger exercitatione 228. sect 1. 24. maketh mention of them calling them Apodes which Greeke word is as much as without feete Quest. But leaving the various diversities of fowles as the Geese who hatch their egges under their paw or foote and the like how doe those claick geese in Scotland breed whereof Du Bartas maketh mention as of a rare work of nature Answ. Their generation is beyond the ordinary course of nature in so much that ordinarily one creature begetteth another but so it is that this fowle is engendred of certaine leaves of trees out of which in a manner it buddeth and ripeneth Now these trees growing upon the bankes of lakes doe at their due time cast these leaves which falling into the lake doe there so putrifie that of them is engendred a Worme which by some secret fomentation agitation of the waters with the Suns helpe groweth by little and little to be a fowle somewhat bigger than a Mallard or wild Duck and in those waters they live and feed and are eaten by the inhabitants thereabouts First then I resolve their questions who argument against the possibility of this generation and then I shall cleare you of that doubt you have proposed thus it standeth then with these Argumentators when Aristotle in his last chapter of his third booke De generatione animalium before he had dissenssed the materiall causes of all kind of perfect creatures In the end falleth upon the materiall cause of insects and so of the lesse perfect one kinde of them he maketh to be produced of a Marish clay an earthie and putrified slimie substance whereof wormes froggs snailes and the like are produced the Sun beames as the efficient cause working upon that matter The other sort is more perfect and these are our Bees waspes flyes midges and so forth which are engendred of some putrified substance as peradventure of a dead horse oxe or asse out of which by the operation of the environing aire and the internal putrefaction together they are brought forth The insects of the Sea are said to have the like generations whereof Aristotle De historia Animalium lib. 1. cap. 1. Et in libro de respiratione and lately the learned Scaliger Exercitatione 191 sect 2. Notwithstanding the venerable testimony and authority of such famous Authors yet our beleevers of miracles doe reason thus both against the generation of the Claik Geese and of the Insects also Every thing begotten must be engendred of a like unto it selfe as men horse Sheepe Neat c. engender their life and this by the warrant and authoritie of Aristotle else where but particularly cap. 7. Meteor Text 2. Quest. But so it is that the body of the heavens the Sun and his heate are no wayes similia or alike unto these Insects produced and procreated from the slymie and putrified matters above rehearsed And therefore that cannot be the way of their generation Thus they Answ. To this answer must be made Philosophically in distinguishing the word alike to it selfe for things may be said alike unto other either of right or univoce as they say in the Schooles That way indeed our Insects are not a like to the putrified earth or beast they came of but Analogice they may be said to be alike that is in some respect in so farre as they communicate in this that they are produced of the earth and by the warmenesse of the Sun which are things actually existing Quest. Now to cleere the question concerning fowles wanting feete and feathers whether may such things be or not Ans. Yea for as the great Creator hath ordained in nature betwixt himselfe and us men here Angels yea good and bad spirits betwixt sensitive and insensitive Creatures mid creatures which wee call Zoophyta and Plantanimalia as the Fishes Holuthuna stella marina Pulmo marinus c. Even so betwixt fowles and fishes nature produced middle or meane creatures by the Greekes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or beasts of two lives partly living by waters partly by earth And of this sort these fowles must be as betwixt land beasts and fishes are frogs and Crocodills and some others the like Sect. 10. Of fishes and their generation How fowles are generated in the waters If gold can be made potable and of the matter of precious stones Question BVt you have not as yet sufficiently enough satisfied my minde of that scruple