dislikes the Title given by Ortelius to Nilus when he calls it the greatest river of the world But Ortelius was not mistaken in calling it so for it is the greatest though not perhaps in length because it may be some are longer the which are not certainly known yet in breadth when it overflowes the whole Countrey in which respect it may be called rather a Sea then a River and so it was called by the Ancients as Pior Valerius sheweth Nile saith Basil is liker a Sea then a River and some esteem the length of it a thousand German miles or 35. degrees having Summer at the springs thereof and Winter at the other end the same time It is also the greatest in regard of use and benefit for no River doth so much enrich a Countrey as Nilus doth Egipt It is the greatest also in same for no River is so renowned in Writers By the world also is meant so much as is known to us for the Rivers of America are known rather by hearsay then otherwise The greatness of this River was of old Hieroglyphically expressed by the vast body of a Giant There is a Statue of Nilus in the Vatican the picture whereof is in Sands his Travels the greatest of Poets by way of excellency calls this the Great River In magno maerentem corpore Nilum Again the Doctor will have Rome magnified by the Latines for the greatest of the earth to be lesser then Cairo and Quinsay to exceed both But he is much mistaken for Cairo as Sands tells us who was there is not above 5. Italian miles in length with the suburbs and in bredth scarce one and a halfe whereas Rome was almost fifty miles in compasse within the walls and the circuit of the suburbs much more as Lipsius de mag Rom. l. 3. c. 2. hath collected out of divers Authors He shewes the greatnesse of it also by the number of the people therein for there were three and twenty thousand poor which was maintained upon the publick charge then if we reckon the multitude of rich men and their train which was not small for divers of the great persons maintained families of foure hundred persons if we look upon the multitude of Artificers of Souldiers of Courtiers of strangers from all parts flocking thither as to the great Metropolis and shop of the World we shall find there were no lesse then four millions or fourty hundred thousand people which is more then can be found in many large provinces Heliogabolus collected the greatness of this City by the Cobwebs found in it which being gathered together did weigh ten thousand pound Another argument of its greatness may be collected out of Eusebius his Chronicle who reckons that for many dayes together there were buried of the plague ten thousand daily Not without cause then was Rome called the Epitome of the world by Aristides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earths workhouse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worlds Citadel or Castle by Saint Iohn the great Citie and the great Babylon by Virgil Maximum rerum And it stood with reason that Rome should be the greatest of Cities being the Queen and Mistress of the greatest Empire of such large Territories and full of people Cities and Nations Rome then was every way the greatest Citie both in extent in power in people in glory in magnificence What Citie ever had that multitude of stately Palaces Temples Theaters Olisks triumphant Arches Baths and other publick buildings as Laurus sheweth As for Quinsay in China we have a fabulous narration in M. Paulus Venetus that is was an hundred miles in compasse but his narrations have been found erroneous and if the Kingdome of China comes far short of the greatnesse of the Roman Empire surely Quinsay must fall short of Rome which as the Poet saith Inter alias tantum caput extulit urbes Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressâ— As for Quinsay now it is not thirty miles in compasse as Nicolas de Contu sheweth who was there Again he saith That this anuall overflowing is not proper unto Nile being common to many currents in Africa I answer It is so proper to Nile that no other River doth so orderly so frequently so fully overflow their banks as this doth Crocodiles saith he are not proper to Nile Answ. They are so proper that no river either in Africk Asia or America hath such Crocodiles as Nilus if either we consider the magnitude multitude or fiercenesse of them Other Crocodiles chiefly the American are gentle the AEgyptian fierce and cruel which is the cause that Dogges are so afraid to drink out of Nilus whence arose that proverb Canis ad Nilum The greatest Indian Crocodiles exceed not twenty foot in length as Scaliger shewes but those of Nile are three hundred foot long whose jawes are so wide that one of them can contain a whole heifer at a time some have been found there of 25 and above 26. cubits in bigness as AElian reports The Romans to shew how proper this beast was to Nile represented AEgypt by a Crocodile in that Coin on which Augustus stampt a Crocodile tied to a palm-tree with this Inscription Primus relegavit for he subdued AEgypt and restored peace to them Again he saith That the Causes of Niles inundation are variable unstable and irregular because some yeares there hath been no increase at all Answ. He may as well say that the causes of all natural effects are variable because sometimes they faile But all naturall causes operate for an end therefore are constant regular and stable so are not Chance and Fortune which Aristotle excludes from naturall causes Are the causes of rain and storms irregular variable and unstable because sometimes it rains more in Summer then in Winter Or is generation irregular because sometimes women miscarry Naturall causes alwayes produce their effects or for the most part so that they faile but seldome and that upon the interposition of some impediment whereas fortuitall causes produce their effects seldome The causes then of Niles overflowing are not contingent but certain constant regular and stable because they never faile or but seldom upon some impediment in the producing of that effect As for the AEgyptian raines I have spoken elsewhere animad on Sir Walt. Raleigh Now because of this regular constant and beneficial inundation of Nilus it was called Iupiter AEgiptius and divine honours were given to it its annual festival was kept about the Summer Solstitial when it overflows the land This was called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests used to carry the water of Nile on their shoulders with great solemnity to their temples falling down on their knees and lifting up their hands gave solemne thanks to Iupiter Nilius to whose honour they dedicated a certain piece of coin with this Inserâ—ption Deo Sancto Nilo CHAP. XIV 1. The cause of Niles inundation 2. Lots wife truly transformed into a salt Pillar 3. Hels
in the air because one who went down a hundred fathom into the sea returned with Coral in each hand affirming it was as hard at the bottom as in the air Answ. Boetius in his second Book of stones and gems c. 153. tels us that Coral doth not harden or grow stony till it be dead it seems then whilst it is alive its soft under water and therefore this Diver lighted upon a dead Coral but because that was hard it will not follow that all Coral under water is hard except all under water be dead There is also a difference between old and young plants the older the plant grows the harder it is perhaps this was not only dead but also an old plant It s no wonder then if Coral petrifie when taken out of the sea for then it dieth being separated from its matrix and element in which it had life and vegâ—tation and it seems by the same Boetius that the substance of Coral at first is wood for he saw some which was partly wood and partly stone not being throughly petrified which might proceed from some internal impediment it is therefore no more wonder for a sea-plant to petrifie in the air then for a landplant to petrifie in the sea or other waters This is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say ston-tree or stone-plant and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it petrifieth when it is touched by the hands and because the Gorgons were turned into stones therefore in Pliny Coral is called Gorgonia 5. He likes not the opinion of the Ancients concerning the generation of Viscum or Misseltoe to wit that it is bred upon trees from seeds let fall there by thrushes and ring-doves his reasons are because it grows only upon some trees and not in Ferrara where these birds are found and because the seed thereof being sown it will not grow again and in some trees it groweth downwards under the boughs where seed cannot remain Answ. That Viscum is begot of seeds let fall by birds as the Ancients thought may be true and that it is an excreâ—cence of viscous or superflous sap as Scaliger writes may be true also Many things are procreated both with and without seeds there is an equivocall generation both in vegitables and animals which the learned Poet knew when he writ of this Viscum saying Soletfronde vivere nova quod non sua seminat arbos Now the reason why it groweth not upon all trees and in all Countries is because as the same Poet saith Non omnia fert omnia tellus there is not a disposition in the matter of all trees to receive this form nor in the climate or soile to animate this seed Yet Mathiolus observes that in Hetruria where is greatest store of Thrushes there is greatest pleny of Misseltoe which shews that this plant hath its originall from the seeds mixed with the excrements of those birds and therefore the old proverb was not untrue Turdus sibi malum cacat even in the literall sense and so where this Viscum is meerly an excrescence it may grow downwards under boughes where no seeds can come or remain 6. He can deny that a Snake will not endure the shade of an Ash Pliny and other ancients affirm it perhaps upon surer grounds then the Doctor denies it for though here in these cold Countries our Snakes may accord with our Ashes yet it may be otherwise in hot Regions where the Serpents are more venemous and the Ash-leaves more powerfull why may there not be somewhat in the shade of an Ash repugnant to the Serpent whereas the leaves and juice thereof are such Antidotes against poyson as Dioscorides and Mathiolus shew Cardan tels us That in Sardinia the shadow of the Rododaphne is pernitious to those that sleep under it making them mad He instanceth the dangerous qualities proceeding from the shadowes of some other trees and Lucretius affirms That the shade of some other trees procure pains in the head and other dangerous effects Arboribus primum certus gravis umbra tributa est Vsque adeo capitis faciant ut saepe dolores Si quis eas subter jacuit prostratus in herbis CHAP. XX. What the Ancients have written of Griffins may be true Griffins mentioned in Scripture Grypi and Gryphes Perez and Ossiâ—rage â—haâ— THe Doctor denies there be Griffins that is dubious animals in the fore part resembling an Eagle and behind a Lion with erected ears foure feet and a long tail being averred by AElian Solinus Mela and Herodotus Answ. AElian tells us That Griffins are like Lions in their pawes and feet and like Eagles in their wings and head Solinus saith onely that they are very fierce fowls Mela that they are cruell and stubboâ—n animals Herodotus onely mentions their names when hee shewes the Arimaspi takes away their gold from them Sâ— Philostrates shewes That in strength and bignesse they are like Lions So Pausanius speaks of them but neither he nor the others named tell us in plain terms that they are like Lions behind and Eagles in the fore-part For Pliny and somâ— others doubt of this as fabulous 2. Suppose they had thus described Griffins as mixt and dubious animals yet this is not sufficient to prove them fabulous for divers such animals there are in the World Acosta tells us of the Indian Pacos which in some parts thereof resemble the Asse in others the Sheep Lerius speakes of the Tapiroussou in â—rasill which resembles both an Asse and an Heifer Many other sorts of mixt animals we read of as flying Cats and flying Fishes and some kind of Apes with Dogges heads therefore called Cynocephali Our Bats are partly birds and partly beasts They flye like a bird with two feet they walk like a beast with four They flye with their feet and walk with their wings saith Scaliger And which is a greater wonder there are Plant-animals or Zoophits partly plants and partly animals But he saith In Bats and such mixed animals there is a commixtion of both in the whole rather then an adaptation of the one lâ—to the other Here he is deceived for in Bats and such like Animals it is easily â—een what parts are of the bird what of the beast which we could not discern if there were a commixtion it is rather an adaptation then This is most apparant in that Indian beast which hath the forepart of a Fox the hinder part of an Ape the eares of an Owl and a bag or purse under its belly wherein its young ones hide themselves in time of danger Neither is it fabulous that these Griffins are greedy of gold which they preserve hide in the earth for I â—â—ve seen Magpies doe the like I have observed one which stole money and hid it in a hole and perhaps it may be from this that Plautus calls Griffins Mag-pies Picos divitiis qui colunt aureos montes supero In Aulul And yet I am
there is no necessity that we should call these miracles for as it is no miracle for a Cat to see in the dark nor for a musk-Cats sweat to smell sweetly nor for a Basilisk to kill with his eye or rather with the poisonsome vapour of his eye or breath of his mouth nor is it a miracle for an Eagle or Raven to see at such a distance these effects flowing from the natural temper and constitution of these creatures of which temper might these men now mentioned be I could alledge many other strange qualities of men as of one who could move his ears like an Horse of another whose spittle was poison and of one who never laughed c. but these are sufficient to let us see the power and wisdome of God and the dexterity of his Handmaid Nature both in the fabrick and divers temperaments of mens bodies FINIS The Second BOOK Of the strange Diseases and Accidents of MANS BODY Wherein divers of Dr. Browns vulgar errors and assertions are refuted and the ancient Tenents maintained CHAP. I. 1. Divers ways to resist burning 2. Locust eaters the lowsie disease the Baptist fed not on Locusts 3. Mans flesh most subject to putrifaction and the causes thereof How putrifaction is resisted Mumia 4. The strength of affection and imagination in dying men Strange presages of death 5. Difference of dead mens skuls and why THAT some mens bodies have endured the fire without pain and burning is not more strange then true which may be done three manner of ways 1. By divine power as the bodies of Shadrach Meshech and Abednego received no hurt or detriment in the fiery furnace 2. By a Diabolick skill so the Idolatrous Priests among the Gentiles used in some solemn sacrifices to walk securely upon burning coals as the Prince of Poets shews AEn lib. 11. Medium freti pietate per ignem Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna And as the men in the Sacrifices of Apollo so women in the Sacrifices of Diana used to walk upon burning coals as Strabo witnesseth lib. 12. Of this custome Horace also speaks Hâ—r 1. Od. 1. Incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso So Propertius Pro. El. 5. l. 1. Et miser ignotos vestigia ferre per ignes And so it was used as a Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk upon coals when a man undertook any dangerous businesse The Scripture also sheweth that the Gentiles used to make their sons and daughters passe through the fire They used also in swearing to take a burning Iron in their hands without hurt as Deliro sheweth in his Magick Pliny and Sueton write that Pyrrhus his thumb and Germanicus his heart could not be burned 3. The body is made sometimes to resist fire by natural means as by unguents so those Hirpiae or Hirpini in Italy of whom Pliny Varro and others make mention used to anoint the soles of their feet with this unguent that they might walk on the fire Bushequius Epist. 4. was an eye-witnesse at Constantinople of what was done in this kind by a Turkish Monk who after dinner took an hot burning iron out of the fire held it in his hand and thrust it in his mouth so that his spittle did hisse without any hurt whereas one of Busbequius his men thinking this Monk had onely deluded the eye takes the same iron in his hand which so burned his palm and fingers that he could not be healed again in many days This was done by the Monk saith Busbequius after he had put some thing in his mouth when he went â—orth into the Court pretending it was to seek a stone The same Authour witnesseth that he saw at Venice one who washed his hands in scalding lead and why may not the body be made to resist the fire as well as that kind of Linum called therefore Asbetinum by the Greeks and Linum vivum by the Latines Pancerol de Lin. vivo in which they used to wrap their Emperours bodies when they buried them that their ashes might not be mingled with the ashes of their fire this Linum being incombustible The Salamander also liveth sometime in the fire though not so long as some have thought Pyrausâ—â— are gendred in the fire So Aristotle and Scaliger Nor must we think it fabulous as Dr. Brown too magisterially concludes Of Errors 7. Book c. 18. What is written of the Spartan Lad and of Scaevola the Roman who burned their hands without shrinking he doubts of the truth of this and yet makes no doubt of that which is more unlikely to wit of Saint Iohns beingâ— in the Chaldron of scalding oyl without any hurt at all Book 7. c. 10. he that will question the truth of Scaevola's burning his hand and of Gurtius leaping into the burning gulf may as well question the broiling of Saint Lawrence on the Grediron or the singing and rejoycing of other Martyrs in the midst of their flames II. That in Ethiopia there is a people whose sole food are locusts is witnessed by Diodorus and Sâ—rabo l. 4. c. 16. these from their food are called Acridophagi they are a lean people shorter and blacker then others they are short lived for the longest life among them exceedeth not 40 years Their Countrey affordeth neither fish nor flesh but God provides them locusts every Spring which in multituds are carried to to them from the Desart by the West and South-west winds these they take and salt for their use These wretched people die all of one disease much like our lousie sicknesse A little before their death their bodies grow scabby and itchy so that with scratching bloody matter and ugly lice of divers shapes with wings swarm out of their belly first then from other parts so that they pine away and die in great pain This disease doubtlesse proceeds partly from the corruption of the aire and partly from the unwholesomnesse of their diet which turns to putrid humours in their bodies whence the disease is Epidemical This vermin breeds most in those who are given to sweat to nastinesse and abound with putrified humours between the flesh and skin whose constitutions are hot moist as children and according as either of the four humours are predominant so is the colour of lice some being red some white some brown some black sometimes they burst out of all parts of the body as in Herod and in that Portugal of whom Forestus speaks l. 4. de vitiis capitis out of whose body they swarmed so fast that his two men did nothing else but sweep them off so that they carried out whole baskets full Sometimes they breed but in some parts onely as in the head or arm-pits Zacuta mentioneth one who was troubled nowhere but in his eie-lids out of which they swarmed in great numbers Some have voided them by boils and imposthumes Forestus speaks of one who had them only in his back whom he advised to hold his naked back so close to the
which much troubled the Physitians not knowing the cause thereof till they opened one of the dead bodies in whose brain they found a red worm yet alive This they tried to kill by divers medicaments such as are prescribed against worms but noâ—e of them could kill it At last they boiled some slices of Radish in Malago wine and with this it was killed He shews also that one being cured of the French malady was notwithstanding still tormented with the head-ach till his skull by advice was â—pâ—nâ—d under which upon the Dura mater was found a black woâ—m which being taken out and killed he was cured Brasavola records in 16. Aphoris l. 3. Hippocr that an old man of 82 years by a potion made of Scordium and sea-moss voided five hundred worms which was the more strange in so old a man whose body must needs have been cold and dry yet it seems he wanted not putrified matter enough to breed themâ— Alexander Benedict speaks of a young maid who lay speechless eight days with her eyes open and upon the voiding of forty two worms recovered her health lib. de verit rerum Cardaâ— records that Erasmus saw an Italian who spoke perfect Dutch which he never learned so that he was thought to bee possessed but being rid of his worms recovered not knowing that he ever â—pake Dutch It is not impossible in extasies phrensies and transes for men to speak unknown tongues without witchcraft or inspirationâ— if we consider the excellency and subtilty of the soul beinâ—â— sequestred from corporeal Remora's and so much the rather if with Plato we hold that allâ—onr knowledge is but reminiscency Ambrose Parry lib. 19. c. 3. sheweth that a woman voided out of an imposthume in hâ—r belly a multitude of worms about the bigness of ones finger with sharp heads which had pierced her intestins Forestus l. 7. Obs. 35. tells us of a woman in Delph who in 3 several days voided 3 great worms out of her navel and not long after was delivered of a Boy and then seven days after that another Thad Dunus speaks of a Switzer woman who voided a piece of a worm five ells long without head and tail having scales like a Snake After this she voided another bred in her bowells which was above twenty ells long This poor woman was tortured so long as she was fasting but when she ate she had some ease I â—ould set down here many other stories of Worms voided out of mens bodies some having the shape of Lizards some of Frogs some hairy and full of feet on both sides some voided by the eyes some by the ears some by vomiting some by the stool some by urine some by imposthumes but I will not be tedious these may suffice to let us know of what materials this body of ours which we so much pamper is composed and how little cause vve have to be sollicitous for the back and belly and vvithal let us stand in awe of God vvho vvhen he pleaseth can for our sins plague us vvith vermin in our bodies vvhiles vve are yet alive V. I said before that divers Countries had their peculiar diseases the French sickness as vve now call it vvas peculiar to the Americans and not known to this part of the vvorld but Christopher Columbus brought it from America to Naples Now it is become common and yet no disease more pernicious and vvhich breeds more dangerous symptoms and tortures in the body This is that great scourge with which God whips the wantonnesse of this lascivious age not without cause is this called the Herculean disease so hard to be overcome and the many headed Hydra the poison of it is so subtile that not only it doth wast the noble parts and spoils the skin even to the losse of all the hairs both of head beard and eye-brows besides the many swellings and bunches it causeth it pierceth also into the very bones and rots them as Fernelius fully describes De abdit rer causis l. 2. I have read of some who have been suddenly struck blind with the infection thereof Zacuta mentions one who was so blinded that he could never recover his sight again And another who was troubled with an Ophthalmy the poison of which was so viâ—lent and subtile that it infected the Chyrurgion that cured him Prax. mira l. 2. by which it appears this disease is infectious at a distance There is another peculiar disease in Brasile called the Worm which comes with an itch and inflammation of the fundament if this be taken in time before the Fever comes it is easily cured by washing the place affected with the juice of Lemmons whereof that Countrey abounds but if it be neglected till it come to a Carbuncle it is harder to be cured and not without the juice of Lemmons and Tobacco But if this by carelesnesse be omitted no help will then prevail and so the party dieth with a thirst or fever which is strange Not unlike to this is that disease which Zacuta speaks of one who was tortured with a terrible pain in his Hip and Fundament with a violent Fever upon this he openeth the outward ancle vein out of which gushed scalding blood and with it a living Worm the breadth of ones palm and so the party was cured It seems the poison of this Worm had reached into the Hemorrid veins in the fundament which caused that pain Linschoâ—en in his voiages makes mention of another disease familiar to the Brasilians called Pians proceeding from their letchery it maketh blisters bigger then the joynt of a mans thumb which run over the whole body and face CHAP. III. 1. Centaurs proved what they were 2. Why the sight of a Wolfe causeth obmutescency 3. Pigmies proved Gammadim what 4. Giants proved they are not monsters 5. The strange force of Fascination The sympathies and antipathies of things The Loadstones attraction how hindred Fascination how cured Fascination by words THat there have been Centaurs that is Monsters half Horses and half Men in the world I make no question though Dr. Brown Book 1. c. 4. reckons this among his Vulgar Errors who should have made a distinction between Poetical fictions and real truths For Centaurs are Monsters and aberrations from nature not the common nature of all things which intends and effects Monsters to shew Gods wrath against sin but from the particular nature of those creatures of which they are ingendred Therefore S. Ierome in the life of Paul the Eremite speaks of a Centaur seen by Paul Pliny Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 3. was an eye-witnesse to this truth For he saw in Thessaly a Centaur which was brought out of Egypt to Claudius Caesar. Ambrose Parry l. 15. de Monstris speaks of a Centaur which in the year â—254 was brought forth at Verona there is no doubt then but Centaurs as well as other Monsters are produced partly by the influence of the stars and partly by other causes as the ill disposition of the
Marius The Leprosie called Elephantiasis appeaâ—ed first in Italy in the time of Pompey He speaks also of other diseases which not long before his time sprung up in Italy A kind of Fever called Coqueluche by the French invaded their country anno 1510. England was plagued with a new sweating sicknesse anno 1529 The French malady appeared first at Naples anno 1492. The Scorbutus is but a new disease in those parts Many strange kinds of vermin have been bred in mens bodies in this last Age not known before in this part of the world Of these and many more new diseases Fernelius Fracostorius Sebizius and others do write Now it is no wonder that there are new diseases seeing there are new sins 2. New sorts of foods and gluttony devised 3. New influences of the Stars 4. New Earthquakes and pestiferous exhalations out of the Earth 5. New temperaments of mens bodies 6 Infections of waters malignant meteors and divers other causes may be alledged for new diseases but none more prevalent then the food which is converted into our substance therefore in eating and drinking wee should regard the quantity quality and seasons II. It is strange to consider the diversitie of colours caused in the same Individual body of man by the same heat the chylus milk sperm and bones are white the blood and liver red the choler yellow the melancholy green the spleen blew a part of the eye black the hairs of divers colours and yet none blew or green And as strange it is that in some the skin is tauny in others white and in others black all which is effected by one and the same Sun which as it produceth all things by its heat so it giveth colour to all things for what giveth the essence giveth also the consequences yet Dr. Brown Book 6. c. 10. will not have the Sun to be the caus of the Negro's blacknesse 1. Because the people on the South-side of the River Senaga are black on the other only tauny 2. Other animals retain their own colours in that clime 3. In Asia and America men are not so black I answer that it will not follow that the Sun is not the cause of blacknesse for he doth work upon each Subject according as it is disposed to receive his impression and accordingly produceth diversity of colours Hence in the same hot climat men are black Parrets and leaves of trees are green the Emmets as some report are white the Gold is yellow and every thing there hath its own peculiar colour and yet all are produced by the same Sun nay the same man that hath a black skin hath white teeth the same Sun at the same time in the same Garden doth cloath the Lily in white the Rose and Cherry in red and divers fruits in black it is observed that the Sun whiteneth those things which are inclined to be hard and blackneth soft things so he makes the Ethiopians teeth white the skin black he makes the green corn turn white and hard with his heat and at the same time makes the plumb black and soft women that blanch or whiten their linnen in the Sun know that he can â—an their skins but whiten their cloth â—gain the air may be more temperate and greater store of refreshing windes and exhalations on the one side of the river Niger then on the other and so the Suns operation may bee hindred which is the cause that in America and Asia under the same parallel men are not so black as in Africk where there is more heat and greater drought For it wants those fresh Winds and great Lakes and Rivers which are in Asia and America The Suns heat then is the cause of blacknesse in such as are capable of it whether the clime be torrid or frigid Hence in cold countries we finde black crowes and in hot white Swans Besides this narration is suspicious for on both sides of the River men have been seâ—n equally black and there be some in Asia as black as in Affrica He objects again That Nigro's transplanted into cold countries continue their hue therefore the Sun is not the sole cause of this blacknesse Ans. The question is not if the Sun be the sole cause but whether a cause at all which the Doctor in his former objections seemed to deny 2. I say that the Sun is the sole primary cause if there be any other causes they are secâ—ndary and subordinate to the Suns heat and influence 3. Hee may as well infer the Sun is not the cause of greennâ—sse in leaves grasse or plants in the Torrid Zone because these being transplanted into cold climats retain their hues Book 6. c. 12 And indeed he seems to make the spirit of Salt peter in the Earth the cause of viridity because in a glasse these spirits project orient greens I should like his reasons well if the verdure of the plant were not more real then that of Salt-peter in the glasse but what will he say to that Earth where is no Salt-peter at all and yet the â—earbs are green Or is there Salt-peter in a glasse of pure water where I have seen green leaves bud out of the stem of an hearb Besides I finde urine out of which Salt-peter is made to spoil the greennesse of the hearbs 4. If the impression of black which the Sun causeth in a hot clime must alter in a cold then may the other qualities also which the Sun by his heat procureth be lost in a cold countrey and so what is hard in Ethiopia must bee soft in England and the heat of Indian spices must here grow cold He objects again that there are Negroes under the Southern Tropick and beyond which are colder countries I answer that these Negroes were colonies out of hotter countries and not Aborigines or Natives at first And he confesseth there be Plantations of Negroes in Asia all which retain their original blacknesse Lastly he objecteth That in the parts where the Negroes possesse there be rivers to moisten the air and in Lybia there are such dry and sandy desarts as there is no water at all but what is brought on camels backs and yet there are no Negroes therefore drinesse cannot cause blacknesse I answer 1. It cannot be proved that the Neâ— groes who dwell neere rivers had their originall there 2. Though there may be some moist exhalations yet it seems they are not so abundant as to qualifie the Suns heat 3. Though the desarts of Lybia be dry yet they are not so hot as under the Line It is the excesse of heat and siccity together that causeth blacknesse and not one of these alone 4. We see men grow tauny here by conversing much in the Sun And further South more tauny and still as the heat increases the degrees of blacknesse increase also to deny this were to deny our senses and we see dead bodies hung in the Sun grow black the same would befall to living bodies if they continued
more then others 2. The capacity of the vessels may be the cause of this differance for in men and beasts the veins arteries and nerves wherein the spirits and blood are contained be larger then in birds and therefore in them is a more sudden eruption of the blood spirits and consequently a shorter motion then in birds 3. The weight of the bodies in men and beasts farre exceed the weight of birds bodies and therefore are not so apt to be moved His Lordship is pleased to call The opinions of sympathies and antipathies ignorant and idle conceits and a forsaking of the true indications of causes Felix qui potuit rerum cognosere causas God will have us in some things rather admire his wisdom then know his secrets and because we cannot attain the true reason of many things we are to submit our judgments to a reverend admiration of his goodness who can give the reason of that sympathy between the loadstone and the iron Between the same stone and the pole We see there is a sympathy between some simples and some humors and between some parts of our bodies and some drugs What other reason properly can be given why Faltick draws choler Agaric fleghm Epithymum melancholy Why Selenites as Fernelius observeth being applied to the skin stayeth bleeding Why should Cantharides work onely on the bladder Why doeth Hemlock and Henbane poyson men which nourish birds How do cats come to the knowledge of Nip and dogs of grasse who taught the Chicken to fear the Kite or the Lamb the Wolfe And why have some men strong Antipathies with some meats Why are some sounds some smels some sights grateful to us some again odious If there be no sympathies and antipathies why are water and fire so averse to each other The Vine will not prosper if the Colewort grow near it he gives a reason for this Because the Colewort draweth the fattest juyce of the earth and where two plants draw the same juyce their neighbourhood hurteth This reason may be as well rejected as admitted for otheâ— plants that are set neare and among Cole-worts fare not the worse for their vicinity except it be Rue and not onely doth this Antipathy last between the Vine and Colewort when they are alive but when they are dead and separated from the earth for they write that Coleworts hinder inebriation and suffer not the wine to fume into the head and why is not the vine as strong to draw its nourishment from the earth as the Colewort seeing it hath more spirits and extends it selfe to a greater circuit and height But when he saith That Rue being set by a Figtree becometh stronger because the one draweth juice fit to refult sweet the other bitter I would know how one and the same piece of earth can afford sweet juyce to the one bitter to the other at the same timeâ—punc and how the fetide juice of the earth goeth into the Garlick and the odorate into the Rose when they grow together Sure these are whimzies for no piece of earth can have so many contrary qualities at the same time nor can there be severall juyces in one bud as he saith afterward neither is the earth any thing else but the common matrix of the plants affording them moisture and nourishment which my Lord acknowledgeth proceeds rather from the water then from the earth when he saith That white Satyrion bean flowers c. are very succubent and need to be scanted in their nourishment he contradicts his former assertion when he said That white was a penurious colour and where moisture is scant And yet he saith That white plumbs are the worst because they are over-watry So it seems that white is both a penurious and a super-plentifull colour where moisture is scant and yet over-watry The opinion that an Oke bough put into the earth will put forth wild Vines is rejected by him upon this ground â—t is not the Oke saith hee that turneth into a Vine but the Oke bough putrifying qualifieth the earth to put forth a vine of it selfe If the earth could put forth a vine of it selfe what need it to be qualified by the putrified Oke bough If it be of the putrified Oke bough as doubtlesse it is that the vine is generated then the earth doth not of it selfe send forth the vineIt is naturall for one thing to be generated out of the corruption of another but for plants to be generated of the earth alone without either seed boughes or some putrified materials of other things were miraculous He saith That transmutation of species is in the vulgar Philosophy pronounced impossible but this opinion is to be rejected What he means by vulgar Philosophy I know not but this I know that the Philosophy which is vulgarly received by all learned and wise men hold the transmutation of species impossible not to God who could transform Lots wife into salt Nebuchadnezzar into a beast waters into blood a rod into a serpent and water into wine but to Art or Nature which cannot transform species whether we understand the word in the extent and universality or as it may signifie the individuall nature under such a species For every individual consists of a matter and a forme the whole composition cannot be transformed into another composition nor the form to another specificall form nor the matter into another matter not the first for generation is not the changing of one composition into another but an introduction of a new form into the matter not the second for one form alwayes perisheth by corruption upon the introduction of another by generation not the third for the matter which is the common subject of all mutations must be alwayes the same in substance though it receive some alterations in qualities Transmutation then of species is impossible to Nature not to Chymists who think to transform silver into gold not to the Roman Church which holds a transubstantiation of bread into Christs body not unto Poets who sing of so many metamorphoses and transformations of men into beasts nor of those who think Witches can transform themselves into Cats Hares and other creatures He tells us That Mushroms cause the accident which we call Incubus or the Mare in the stomack If this were true in Italy and Africa where these are ordinarily eaten this disease would reign most but we find that the Northern Countries are more subject to the Incubus then the Southern Many then eat Mushroms who never were troubled with this disease many are troubled with it who never eat them But indeed the Incubus or Mare is no disease of the stomack as he saith but of the Diaphragma and lungs which being oppressed by a thick flegme or melancholy send up gross vapours into the throat by which speech is hindred and into the brain by which the imagination is disturbed It is reported saith he that grain out of the hotter Countries
of AElians opinion That it is not so much for the gold they fight as for their young ones which men use to carry away vvhen they search the Countrey for gold Neither was Aristaeus the first that affirmed these Griffins as the Doctor saith for we read of them in Leviticus and Deuteronomy which though Tremellius and wee use not but the word Ossifrage yet the Hebrew word Peres is translated Griffi by the Septuagints by the old Latin by Ierom and Pagmin by Arias Montanus and by the Italian version And if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to break then may the word Ossifrage be meant of the Griffin for no bird so sit to break bones as this fierce and strong animall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then signifieth properly a Griffin and not a kind of Eagle with a hooked Bill for both birds with hooked Bills and men with Aquilan noses are called Gryphi not Gryphes Hence then it appeares that the negative testimony of Michovius is not sufficient to overthrow the received opinion of the Ancients concerning Griffins especially seeing there is a possibility in nature for such a compounded animall For the Gyraffa or Camelopardalis is of a stranger composition being made of the Libbard Buffe Hart and Camell Besides though some fabulous narrations may be added to the story of the Griffins as of the one-ey'd Arimaspi with whom they fight yet it follows not that therefore there are no Griffins If any man say That now such animals are not to be seen I answer It may be so and yet not perished for they may be removed to places of more remotenesse and security and inaccessible to men for many such places there are in the great and vast Countries of Scythia and Tartaria or Cathaia vvhither our Europeans durst never nor could venture CHAP. XXI 1. The existence of the Phoenix proved by divers reasons and the contrary objections refelled the strange generation of some birds 2. The Ancients cleared concerning the Phoenix and whether the Phoenix be mentioned in Scripture Divers sorts of generation in divers creatures The Conclusion with an Admonition not to sleight the Ancients opinion and Doctrine BEcause the Doctor following the opinion of Pererius Fernandus de Cordova Francius and some others absolutely denies the existence of the Phoenix I will in some few positions set down my opinion concerning this bird 1. I grant that some passages concerning this bird are fabulous as that he is seen but once in 500 years that there is but one onely in the World or if there be two that the old Phoenix is buried by the younger at Heliopolis 2. These fabulous narrations doe not prove there is no such bird no more then the fables that are written of Saint Francis prove that there was never any such man 3. Nor doth it follow that there is no such bird because some write they never read of any who had seen a Phoenix for though these few vvho vvrite of this bird did never see him in a picture yet the AEgyptians from whom they had the knowledge of the Phoenix did see him Tacitus writes That no man doubts but that this bird is sometime seen in AEgypt Aspici aliquando in AEgypto hanc volucrem non ambiguitur Ann. l. 6. There are some creatures in Africa and the Indies that were never seen by any of those who writ their histories the knowledge whereof they have onely by relation from the inhabitants 4. Though AEgypt vvas the mother of many fictions as Pererius sheweth yet it vvill not follow that the Phoenix is a fiction or that AEgypt vvas not also the School of many truths for the Graecians from thence had the their knowledge and vvisdom Orpheus Homer Musaeus the Poets Lycuâ—gus and Solon their Law-givers Plato Pythagoras their Philosophers Eudoxus and other Mathematicians were all Scholars in AEgypt 5. That there is but one Phoenix is not against Philosophy and Logick which teacheth us That the species can be preserved in one individuall Pererius sheweth That this is only true in things incorruptible as in the Sun and Moon but I say That this is true also in things subject to corruption for in these though the individuals be corruptible yet the species are eternal and it skils not how few the particulars be so long as the species can be preserved in one and though there be no individuall actually existent yet the species can be preserved for in Winter the species of Roses is not perished though there be no individuall Roses actually existent for even then they have their being and essence though their existence be but potentially in the ashes as the forms of the elements are in the mixed bodies or as the form of a cock is in the egg which by the heat of the hen or Sun is actually educed 6. Whereas Pâ—rerius holdeth it inconvenient that so noble a species as the Phoenix is should have but one individual subject to so many dangers I answer That in all beasts and birds the nobler the species is the fewer are the individuals there are not so many Eagles as Doves nor Elephants as Rabbets and Nature is so provident in the conservation of the species that vvhere there be few of the kind they live long and have their abode in some remote rocks mountains Islands and Desarts from the dangers they are subject to by men as Eagles and the Phoenix which is seen but seldom Now multitude of individuals doth not argue the nobility of the species but rather imperfection for it proceeds from the division of the matter whereas unity noteth perfection as issuing from the act and form of things 7. Whereas Fernander sheweth it 's a miracle that the Phoenix can never be taken dead or alive I answer It is a miracle in nature and we know there be many naturall secrets and miracles is it not a miracle that the Manucodiata or bird of Paradise is found dead sometâ—mes but was never seen alive neither was there ever any meat or excrement found in his bâ—lly how he should be fed where his abode is from whence he cometh for his body is found somtime on the sea somtime on the land no man knows the Phoenix is somtime seen alive but seldome because provident Nature hath given him that instinct for the preservation of his kind that he appears to man the great tyrant over the creatures but seldome for had Heliogabalus that Roman Glutton met with him hee had devoured him though there were no more in the world Nature hath given to each creature so much policie as to preserve thâ—mselves â—rom danger and the fewer there be of that kind the more wary and cautelous they are and if it be true that Pliny and others write of the Ravens that their nests can never be found it is a great miracle which perhaps may be so in Italy yet in the rocks of Norway Shetland and other Northern places their Nests â—re found But it