the orbs we shall find it measured by another number for being performed in four twenty hours it is made up of 4 times 6 and this is the measure and standard of other parts of time of months of years Olympiades Lustres Indictions Cycles Jubilies c. Againe months are not onely Lunary and measured by the Moon but also Solary and determined by the motion of the Sun that is the space wherein the Sun doth passe 30. degrees of the Eccliptick by this month Hippocrates computed the time of the Infants gestation in the wombe for 9. times 30. that is 270. dayes or compleat 9. months make up forty weeks the common compute of women and this is to be understood in his booke De octimestripartu when he saith 2. dayes makes the fifteenth and 3. the tenth part of a month this was the month of the ancient Hebrewes before their departure out of Aegypt and hereby the compute will fall out right and the account concurre when in one place it is said the waters of the flood prevayled an hundred and fifty dayes and in another it is delivered that they prevailed from the seventeenth day of the second month unto the seventeenth day of the seventh and as for weeks although in regard of their Sabboths they were observed by the Hebrewes yet is it not apparent the ancient Greeks or Romans used any but had another division of their months into Ides Nones and Calends Moreover months howsoever taken are not exactly divisible into septuaries or weeks which fully containe seven dayes whereof foure times do make compleatly twenty eight for beside the usuall or Calendary month there are but foure considerable that is the month of Peragration of Apparition of Consecution and the medicall or Decretoriall month whereof some come short others exceed this account A month of Peragration is the time of the Moones revolution from any part of the Zodiack unto the same againe and this containeth but 27. dayes and about 8. howres which commeth short to compleat the septenary account The month of Consecution or as some will terme it of Progression is the space betweene one conjunction of the Moon with the Sun unto another and this containeth 29. dayes and an halfe for the Moone returning unto the same point wherein it was kindled by the Sun and not finding it there againe for in the meane time by its proper motion it hath passed through 2. signes it followeth after and attaines the Sun in the space of 2. dayes and 4. howres more which added unto the account of Peragration makes 29. dayes and an halfe so that this month exceedeth the latitude of Septenaries and the fourth part comprâ—hendeth more then 7. dayes A month of Apparition is the space wherein the Moone appeareth deducting three dayes wherein it commonly disappeareth and being in combustion with the Sun is presumed of lesse activity and this containeth but 26. dayes and 12. howres The Medicall month not much exceedeth this consisting of 26. dayes and 22. howres and it made up out of all the other months for if out of 29. and an halfe the month of Consecution we deduct 3. dayes of disappearance there will remaine the month of Apparition 26. dayes and 12. howres whereto if wee adde 27. dayes and 8. howres the month of Peragration there will arise 53. dayes and 10. howres which divided by 2. makes 26. dayes and 22. howres called by Physitians the medicall month introduced by Galen against Archigenes for the better compute of Decretory or Criticall dayes As for criticall dayes such I meane wherein upon a decertation betweene the disease and nature there ensueth a sensible alteration either to life or death the reasons thereof are rather deduced from Astrology then Arithmetick for accounting from the beginning of the disease and reckoning on unto the seventh day the Moone will be in a Tetragonall or Quadrate aspect that is 4. signes removed from that wherein the disease began in the 14. day it will bee in an opposite aspect and at the end of the third septenary Tetragonall againe as will most graphically appeare in the figures of Astrologers especially Lucas Gauricus De diebus decretoriis Againe beside that computing by the medicall month the first hebdomade or septenary consists of 6. dayes 17. howres and an halfe the second happeth in 13. dayes and eleven howres and the third but in the twentieth naturall day what Galen first and Aben-Ezra since observed in his Tract of Criticall dayes in regard of Eccentricity and the Epicycle or lesser orbe wherein it moveth the motion of the Moone is various and unequall whereby the criticall account must also vary for though its middle motion be equall and of 13. degrees yet in the other it moveth sometimes fifteene sometimes lesse then twelve for moving in the upper part of its orbe it performeth its motion more slowly then in the lower insomuch that being at the height it arriveth at the Tetragonall and opposite signes sooner and the Criticall day will be in 6. and 13. and being at the lowest the criticall account will be out of the latitude of 7. nor happen before the 8. or ninth day which are considerations not to be neglected in the compute of decretory dayes and manifestly declare that other numbers must have a respect here in as well as 7. and fourteene Lastly some things to this intent are deduced from holy Scripture thus is the yeare of Jubilie introduced to magnifie this number as being a yeare made out of 7. times 7. wherein notwithstanding there may be a misapprehension for this ariseth not from 7. times 7. that is 49. but was observed the fiftieth yeare as is expressed Levit. 25. And you shall hallow the fiftieth yeare a Jubilie shall that fiftieth yeare be unto you answerable whereto is the exposition of the Jews themselves as is delivered by Ben-maimon that is the yeare of Jubilie commeth not into the account of the years of 7. but the forty ninth is the Release and the fiftieth the yeare of Jubilie Thus is it also esteemed no small advancement unto this number that the Genealogy of our Saviour is summed up by 14. that is this number doubled according as is expressed Mat. 1. So all the generations from Abraham to David are foureteene generations and from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are foureteene generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteene generations which neverthelesse must not be strictly understood as numerall relations require for from David unto Jeconiah are accounted by Matthew but 14. generations whereas according to the exact account in the history of Kings there were at least 17. and 3. in this account that is Ahazias Joas and Amazias are left out for so it is delivered by the Evangelist And Joram begat Ozias whereas in the Regall genealogy there are 3. successions betweene for Ozias or Uzziah was the son of Amazias Amazias of Joas Joas of Azariah and Azariah of Joram so
Ganivetus and Guido Bonatus have delivered Againe in regard of the measure of time by months and years there will â—e no small difficulty and if we shall strictly consider it many have been and still may bee mistaken for neither the motion of the Moone whereby months are computed nor of the Sunne whereby yeares are accounted consisteth of whole numbers but admits of fractions and broken parts as we have declared of the Moone That of the Sunne consisteth of 365. dayes and almost 6 houres that is wanting eleven minutes which 6 houres omitted or not taken notice of will in processe of time largely deprave the compute and this is the occasion of the Bissextile of leapyeare which was not observed in all times nor punctually in all Common-wealths so that in 63. yeares there may be lost almost 18. dayes omitting the intercalation of one day every fourth yeare allowed for this quadrant or 6 houres supernumerary and though the same were observed yet to speake strictly a man may be somewhat out in the account of his age at 63. for although every fourth yeare we insert one day and so fetch up the quadrant yet those eleven minutes whereby the yeare comes short of perfect 6 houres will in the circuit of those yeares arise unto certaine houres and in a larger progression of time unto certaine dayes whereof at present wee finde experience in the Calender we observe for the Julian yeare of 365. dayes being eleven minutes larger then the annuall revolution of the Sunne there will arise an anticipation in the Aequinoxes and as Junctinus computeth in every 136. yeare they will anticipate almost one day and therefore those ancient men and Nestors of old times which yearly observed their nativities might be mistaken in the day nor that to be construed without a graine of Salt which is delivered by Moses in the Booke of Exodus At the end of foure hundred yeares even the selfe same day all the hoast of Israell went out of the land of Aegypt for in that space of time the Equinoxes had anticipated and the eleven minutes had amounted far above a day and this compute rightly considered will fall fouler on them who cast up the lives of Kingdomes and summe up their duration by particular numbers as Plato first began and some have endeavoured since by perfect and sphericall numbers by the square and cube of 7 and 9 and 12 the great number of Plato wherein indeed Bodine hath attempted a particular enumeration whereby notwithstanding beside the mistakes committible in the solary compute of yeares the difference of Chronologie disturbes the satisfaction and quiet of his computes some adding others detracting and few punctually according in any one yeare whereby indeed such accounts should be made up for the variation in one unity destroyes the totall illation Thirdly the compute may be unjust not only in a strict acception or few dayes or houres but in the latitude also of some yeares and this may happen from the different compute of yeares in divers Nations and even such as did maintaine the most probable way of account their yeare being not only different from one another but the civill and common account disagreeing much from the naturall yeare whereon the consideration is founded Thus from the testimony of Herodotus Censorinus and others the Greeks observed the Lunary yeare that is twelve revolutions of the Moone 354. dayes but the Aegyptians and many others adhered unto the Solary account that is 365. dayes that is eleven dayes longer now hereby the account of the one would very much exceed the other A man in the one would account himselfe 63. when one in the other would thinke himselfe but 61. and so although their nativities were under the same houre yet did they at different yeares believe the verity of that which both esteemed affixed and certaine unto one The like mistake there is in a tradition of our dayes men conceiving a peculiar danger in the beginning dayes of May which are set out as a fatall period unto consumptions and Cronicall diseases wherein notwithstanding wâ— compute by Calenders not only different from our ancestors but one another the compute of the one anticipating that of the other so that while wee are in Aprill others begin May and the danger is past unto one while it beginneth with another Fourthly men were not only out in the number of some dayes the latitude of a few yeares but might be wide by whole Olympiades and divers Decades of yeares for as Censorinus relateth the ancient Arcadians observed a yeare of three months the Carians of six the Iberians of foure and as Diodorus and Xenophon de Aequivocis alleadgeth the ancient Aegyptians have used a yeare of three two and one month so that the Climactericall was not only different unto those Nations but unreasonably distant from ours for 63. will passe in their account before they arive so high as ten in ours Nor if we survey the account of Rome it selfe may we doubt they were mistaken and if they feared climactericall yeares might erre in their numeration for the civill yeare whereof the people took notice did sometime come short and sometimes exceed the naturall for as it appeares by Varro Suetonius and Censorinus their yeare consisted first of ten months which comprehended by 304. dayes that is 61. lesse then ours containeth after by Numa or Tarquine from a superstitious conceit of impariety were added 51. dayes which made 355. one day more then twelve revolutions of the Moone and thus a long time it continued the civill compute exceeding the naturall the correction whereof and the due ordering of the leap-yeare was referred unto the Pontifices who either upon favour or malice that some might continue their offices a longer or shorter time or from the magnitude of the yeare that men might bee advantaged or endamaged in their contracts by arbitrary intercalations they depraved the whole account of this abuse Cicero accused Verres which at last proceeded so farre that when Julius Caesar came unto that office before the redresse hereof he was faine to insert two intercalary months unto November and December when he had already inserted 23. dayes unto February so that that year consisted of 445. dayes a quarter of a year longer then that we observe and though at the last the year was reformed yet in the meane time they might be out wherein notwithstanding they summed up Climactericall observations Lastly one way more there may be of mistake and that not unusuall among us grounded upon a double compute of the yeare the one beginning from the 25. of March the other from the day of our birth unto the same againe which is the naturall account Now hereupon many men doe frequently miscast their dayes for in their age they diduce the account not from the day of their birth but the yeare of our Lord wherein they were borne so a man that was borne in January 1582. if hee live to fall sicke
to preserve a long time incorrupted hath been the assertion of many stands yet confirmed by Austine De Civitate Dei by Gygas Sempronius in Aldrovand and the same experiment we can confirme our selves in the brawne or fleshy parts of Peacocks so hanged up with thred that they touch no place whereby to contract a moisture and hereof we have made triall both in the summer and winter The reason some I perceive attempt to make out from the siccity and drines of its flesh and some are content to rest in a secret propriety thereof As for the siccity of the flesh it is more remarkable in other animals as Aegles Hawkes and birds of prey And that it is a propriety or agreeable unto none other we cannot with reason admit for the same preservation or rather incorruption we have observed in the flesh of Turkeys Capons Hares Partridge Venison suspended freely in the ayre and after a yeare and a halfe dogs have not refused to eat them As for the other conceit that a Peacocke is ashamed when he lookes on his legges as is commonly held and also delivered by Cardan beside what hath been said against it by Scaliger let them beleeve that hold specificall deformities or that any part can seeme unhansome to their eyes which hath appeared good and beautifull unto their makers The occasion of this conceit might first arise from a common observation that when they are in their pride that is advance their traine if they decline their necke to the ground they presently demit and let fall the same which indeed they cannot otherwise doe for contracting their body and being forced to draw in their foreparts to establish the hinder in the elevation of the traine if the foreparts depart and incline to the ground the hinder grow too weake and suffer the traine to fall And the same in some degree is also observeable in Turkyes 3. That Storkes are to be found and will onely live in Republikes or free States is a pretty conceit to advance the opinion of popular policies and from Antipathies in nature to disparage Monarchicall government But how far agreeable unto truth let them consider who read in Plinie that among the Thessalians who were governed by Kings and much abounded with Serpents it was no lesse then capitall to kill a Storke That the ancient Aegyptians honoured them whose government was from all times Monarchicall That Bellonius affirmeth men make them nests in France And lastly how Jeremy the Prophet delivered himselfe unto his countreymen whose government was at that time Monarchicall Milvus in Coelâ— cognovit tempus suum Turtur Hirundo Ciconia custodierunt tempus adventus sui Wherein to exprobrate their Stupiditie he induceth the providence of Storkes Now if the bird had been unknown the illustration had been obscure and the exprobation but improper 4. That a Bittor maketh that mugient noyse or as we terme it Bumping by putting its bill into a reed as most beleeve or as Bellonius and Aldrovand conceive by putting the same in water or mud and after a while retaining the ayre by suddenly excluding it againe is not so easily made out For my own part though after diligent enquiry I could never behold them in this motion Notwithstanding by others whose observations we have expresly requested we are informed that some have beheld them making this noise on the Shore their bills being far enough removed from reed or water that is first strongly attracting the aire and unto a manifest distention of the neck and presently after with great Contention and violence excluding the same againe As for what others affirme of putting their bill in water or mud it is also hard to make out For what may bee observed from any that walketh the Fenns there is little intermission nor any observable pawse between the drawing in and sending forth of their breath And the expiration or breathing forth doth not onely produce a noise but the inspiration or haling in of the ayre affordeth a sound that may bee heard almost a flight shoot Now the reason of this strange and peculiar noise is well deduced from the conformation of the windepipe which in this birde is different from other volatiles For at the upper extream it hath no Larinx or throttle to qualifie the sound and at the other end by two branches deriveth it selfe into the Lunges Which division consisteth onely of Semicircular fibers and such as attaine but half way round the part By which formation they are dilatable into larger capacities and are able to containe a fuller proportion of ayre which being with violence sent up the weazon and finding no resistance by the Larinx it issueth forth in a sound like that from cavernes and such as sometimes subterraneous eruptions from hollow rocks afford As Aristotle observeth in a Problem of the 25. Section and is observable in pichards bottles and that instrument which Aponensis upon that probleme describeth wherewith in Aristotles time Gardiners affrighted birdes 5. That whelps are blinde nine dayes and then begin to see is the common opinion of all and some will be apt enough to descend unto oathes upon it But this I finde not answerable unto experience for upon a strict observation of many I have not found any that see the ninth day few before the twelfth and the eyes of some will not open before the fourteenth day And this is agreeable unto the determination of Aristotle who computeth the time of their anopsie or invision by that of their gestation for some saith he do go with their yong the sixt part of a yeer a day or two over or under that is about sixty dayes or nine weekes and the whelps of these see not till twelve dayes some goe the fifth part of a yeer that is 71. dayes and these saith he see not before the fourteenth day Others doe goe the fourth part of a yeer that is three whole months and these saith hee are without sight no lesse then seventeen dayes wherein although the accounts be different yet doth the least thereof exceed the terme of nine dayes which is so generally receaved And this compute of Aristotle doth generally overthrow the common cause alleadged for this effect that is a precipitation or over hasty exclusion before the birth be perfect according unto the vulgar Adage Festinans canis coecos parit catulos for herein the whelps of longest gestation are also the latest in vision The manner hereof is this At the first littering their eyes are fastly closed that is by coalition or joyning together of the eyelids and so continue untill about the twefth day at which time they begin to separate and may be easily divelled or parted asunder they open at the inward canthis or greater angle of the eye and so by degrees dilate themselves quite open An effect very strange and the cause of much obscurity wherein as yet mens enquiries are blinde and satisfaction acquirable from no man What ever
the site of the fixed starres is alterable and that since elder times they have suffered a large and considerable variation of their longitudes the longitude of a starre to speake plainly is its distance from the fiâ—st point of numeration toward the East which first point unto the Ancients was the vernall aequinox Now by reason of their motion from West to Eâ—st they have very much varied from this point The first starre of Aries in the time of Meton the Athenian was placed in the very intersection which is now elâ—ngated and removed Eastward 28. degrees insomuch that now the signe of Aries possesseth the place of Taurus and Taurus that of Gemâ—â—i which variation of longitude must very much distract the opinion of the Dogge-starre not onely in our dayes but in times beâ—ore and after for since the world began it hath arisen in Taurus and before it end may have its ascent in Virgo so that wee must place the canicular dayes that is the hottest time of the year in the spring in the first Age and in the Autumne in the ages to come Thirdly the starres have not onely varied their longitudes whereby their ascents have altered but have also changed their declinations whereby their rising at all that is their appearing hath varied The longitude of a starre wee call its shortest distance from the Aequator Now though the poles of the world and the Aequator be immoveable yet because the starres in their proper motions from West to East doe move upon the poles of the Eclipticke distant 23. degrees and an half 〈…〉 poles of the Aequator and describe circles parallel not unto the Aequator but the Eclipticke they must be therfore sometimes nearer â—ometimes removed further from the Aequator All starres that have their distance from â—he Eclipticke Northward not more then 23. degrees aâ—d an halfe which is the greatest distance of the Eclipticke from the Aequator may in progression of time have declination Southward and move beyond the Aequator but if any starre hath just this distance of 23. and an halfe as hath Cappella on the backe of Eâ—icthonius it may hereafter move under the Aequinoctiall and the same will happen respectively unto starres which have declination Southward and therefore many starres may be visible in our Hemisphere which are not so at present and many which are at present shall take leave of our Horizon and appeare unto Southerne habitations and therefore the time may come that the Dogge-starre may not be visible in our Horizon and the time hath beene when it hath not shewed it selfe unto our neighbour latitudes so that canicular dayes there have beene none nor shall be yet certainely in all times some season of the yeare more notable hot then other Lastly wee multiply causes in vaine for the reason hereof wee need not have recourse unto any starre but the Sunne and the continuitie of its action For the Sunne ascending into the Northerne signes begetteth first a temperate heat in the ayre which by his approach unto the solstice he intendeth and by continuation increaseth the same even upon declination for running over the same degrees again that is in Leo which hee hath done in Taurus in July which he did in May he augmenteth the heat in the later which he began in the first and easily intendeth the same by continuation which was well promoted before So is it observed that they which dwell between the Tropicks and the Aequator have their second summer hotter and more maturative of fruits then the former so we observe in the day which is a short yeer the greatest heat about two in the afternoone when the Sunne is past the Meridian which is his diurnall Solstice and the same is evident from the Thermometer or observations of the weather-glasse so are the colds of the night sharper in the summer about two or three after midnight and the frosts in winter stronger about those houres so likewise in the yeare we observe the cold to augment when the dayes begin to increase though the Sunne be then ascensive and returning from the winter Tropick and therefore if wee rest not in this reason for the heat in the declining part of summer we must discover freezing stars that may resolve the latter colds of winter which who ever desires to invent let him studie the starres of Andromeda or the nearer constellation of Pegasus which are about that time ascendent It cannot therefore unto reasonable constructions seeme strange or savour of singularity that we have examined this point since the same hath beene already denyed by some since the authoritie and observations of the Ancients rightly understood doe not confirme it since our present computes are different from those of the Ancients whereon notwithstanding they depend since there is reason against it and if all were granted yet must it be maintained with manifold restraints farre otherwise then is received and lastly since from plaine and naturall principles the doubt may be fairely salved and not clapt up from petitionary foundations and principles unestablished But that which chiefly promoted the consideration of these dayes and medically advanced the same was the doctrine of Hippocrates a Physition of such repute that he received a testimony from a Christian that might have beene given unto Christ The first in his booke de Aeâ—e Aquis locis Sydâ—rum ortus c. That is wee are to observe the rising of Starres especially the Dogge-starre Arcturus and the setting of the Pleiades or seven Starres from whence notwithstanding wee cannot in generall inferre the efficacie of these Stars or coefficacie particular in medications probably expressing no more hereby then if hee should have plainely said especiall notice wee are to take of the hottest time in Summer of the beginning of Autumne and winter for by the rising and setting of those starres were these times and seasons defined and therefore subjoynes this reason Quoniam his temporibus morbi finiuntur because at these times diseases have their ends as Physitions well know and hee else where affirmeth that seasons determine diseases beginning in their contraries as the spring the diseases of Autumne and the summer those of winter now what is very remarkable whereas in the same place he adviseth to observe the times of notable mutations as the Aequinoxes and the Solstices and to decline Medication tenne dayes before and after how precisely soever canicular cautions be considered this is not observed by Physitions nor taken notice of by the people And indeed should we blindly obey the restraints both of Physitions and Astrologers we should contract the liberty of our prescriptions and confine the utility of Physicke unto a very few dayes for observing the dog-Dogdayes and as is expressed some dayes before and likewise tenne dayes before and after the Aequinoctiall and Solsticiall points by this observation alone are exempted above an hundred dayes whereunto if we adde the two Aegyptian dayes in every moneth the interlunary
Flax was bolled but the Wheat and the Rye were not smitton for they were not growne up And thus we see the account established upon the arise or descent of the starres can be no reasonable rule unto distant Nations at all and by reason of their retrogression but temporary unto any one nor must these respective expressions be entertained in absolute considerations for so distinct is the relation and so artificiall the habitude of this inferiour globe unto the superiour and even of one thing in each unto the other that generall rules are dangerous and applications most safe that runne with security of circumstance which rightly to effect is beyond the subtilty of sense and requires the artifice of reason CHAP. IV. Of some computation of dayes and diductions of one part of the year unto another FOurthly there are certaine vulgar opinions concerning dayes of the yeare and conclusions popularly deduced from certaine dayes of the month men commonly beleeving the dayes encrease and decrease equally in the whole yeare which notwithstanding is very repugnant unto truth For they encrease in the month of March almost as much as in the two months of January and February and decrease as much in September as they doe in July and August For indeed the dayes encrease or decrease according to the declinaâ—ion of the Sun that is its deviation Northward or Southward from the Aequator Now this digression is not equall but neare the Aequinoxiall intersections it is right and greater neare the Solstices more oblique and lesser So from the eleventh of March the vernall Aequinox unto the eleventh of Aprill the Sun declâ—neth to the North twelve degrees from the eleventh of Aprill unto the eleventh of May but 8 from thence unto the 15 of June or the Summer Solstice but 3 and a halfe all which make 23 degrees and an halfe the greatest declination of the Sun And this inequality in the declination of the Sun in the Zodiacke or line of life is correspondent unto the growth or declination of man for setting out from our infancie we encrease not equally or regularly attaine to our state or perfection nor when we descend from our state and tend unto the earth againe is our declination equall or carryeth us with even paces unto the grave For as Hippocrates affirmeth a man is hottest in the first day of his life and coldest in the last his naturall heate setteth forth most vigorously at first and declineth most sensibly at last And so though the growth of man end not perhaps untill 21. yet in his stature more advanced in the first septeâ—ary then in the second and in the second more then in the third and more indeed in the first seven yeares then in the fourteene succeeding for what stature we attaine unto at seven yeares we do sometimes but double most times come short at one and twenty And so do we decline againe for in the latter age upon the Tropick and first descension from our solstice wee are scarce sensible of declination but declining further our decrement accelerates we set apace and in our last dayes precipitate into our graves And thus are also our progressions in the wombe that is our formation motion our birth or exclusion For our formation is quickly effected our motion appeareth later and our exclusion very long after if that be true which Hippocrates and Avicenna have declared that the time of our motion is double unto that of formation and that of exclusion treble unto that of motion as if the Infant bee formed at 35. dayes it moveth at 70. and is borne the 210. day that is the seventh month or if it receaves not formation before 45. dayes it moveth the 90. day and is excluded in 270. that is the 9. month There are also certaine popular prognosticks drawne from festivals in the Calendar and conceaved opinions of certaine dayes in months so is there a generall tradition in most parts of Europe that inferreth the coldnesse of succeeding winter from the shining of the Sun upon Candlemas day according to the proverbiall distich Si Sol splendescat Mariâ— puriâ—icante Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante So is it usuall amongst us to qualifie and conditionate the twelve months of the yeare answerably unto the temper of the twelve dayes in Christmasse and to ascribe unto March certaine borrowed dayes from Aprill all which men seeme to beleeve upon annuall experience of their own and the receaved traditions of their forefathers Now it is manifest and most men likewise know that the Calenders of these computers and the accounts of these dayes are very different the Greeks dissenting from the Latins and the Latins from each other the one observing the Julian or ancient account as great Britaine and part of Germany the other adhering to the Gregorian or new account as Italy France Spaine and the united Provinces of the Netherlands Now this latter account by ten dayes at least anticipateth the other so that before the one beginneth the accout the other is past it yet in these severall calculations the same events seeme true and men with equall opinion of verity expect and confesse a confirmation from them both Whereby is evident the Oraculous authority of tradition and the easie seduction of men neither enquiring into the verity of their substance nor reforming upon repugnance of circumstance And thus may diverse easily be mistaken who superstitiously observe certaine times or set downe unto themselves an observation of unfortunate months or dayes or howres As did the Aegyptians two in every month and the Romans the dayes after the Nones Ides and Calends And thus the Rules of Navigators must often faile setting downe as Rhodiginus observeth suspected and ominous dayes in every month as the fiâ—st and seventh of March the fift and sixâ— of Aprill the sixt the twelfth and fifteenth of February For the accounts hereof in these months are very different in our dayes and were different with severall nations in Ages past and yet how strictly soever the account be made and even by the selfe same Calender yet is it pâ—ssible that Navigators may be out For so were the Hollanders who pâ—ssing Wâ—stward through fretum le Mayre and compassing the Globe upon their returne into their owne Countrey found that they had lost a day For if two men at the same time travell from the same place the one Eâ—stward the other Westward round about the earth and meet in the same place from whenâ—e they first set forth it will so â—all out that he which hath moved Eastward against the diurnall motion of the Sun by anticipating daylie something of its circle with his owne motion will gaine one day but he that travelleth Westward with the motion of the Sun by seconding its revolution shall lose or come short a day and therefore also upon these grounds that Dâ—los was seated in the middle of the earth it was no exact decision because two Eagles let
That pluâ—â—sies are onely on the left side chap. 3. Of the fourth finger of the left hand whereon we weare our Rings chap. 4. Of the right and left hand chap. 5. Of swimming that some men swimme naturally that men drowned doe sloâ—â— the ninth dâ—y when their gall breaketh women 〈…〉 upon their bâ—cks chap. 6. That men weigh heavier dead then alive and before meate then after chap. 7. That there are severall passages for meate and dâ—inke chap. 8. Of the custome of saluting or blessing upon sneeâ—ing chap. 9. That Iews stinke chap. 10. Of Pygmies chap. 11. Of the great Climactericall yeare that is 63. chap. 12. Of the Canicular or Dogâ— dayes chap. 13. THE FIFTH BOOK Of many things questionable as they are described in â—ictures OF the 〈◊〉 of the Pelecan chap. 1. Of the picture of Dolphiâ—s chap. 2. Of the 〈◊〉 of a Grâ—sschoppâ—r chap. 3. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Sâ—â—pent tempting Eve chap. 4. Of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Eve with Naveâ—s chap. 5. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Iews and Easâ—erne Nations at their feasâ—s and our Saviour 〈◊〉 the Passcover chap. 6. Of the 〈◊〉 of our Saviour with long haire chap. 7. Of the picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac chap. 8. Of the pâ—cture of Moses with hornes chap. 9. Of the 〈◊〉 of the twelve Tribes of Israel chap. 10. Of the pictures of the Sybils chap. 11. Of the pâ—cture describing the death of Cleopatra chap. 12. 〈…〉 pictures of the nine Worthies chap. 13. 〈…〉 picture of Iâ—ptha sacrificing his daughter chap. 14. 〈…〉 picture of Iohn the Baptist in a Camels skin chap. 15. 〈◊〉 the pâ—cture of the Christopher chap. 16. Oâ— the picture of S. George chap. 17. Of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 chap. 18. 〈…〉 chap. 19. 〈…〉 chap. 20. Compâ—ndâ—â—â—sly of many popular customes opinions 〈◊〉 pâ—â—ctises and observaâ—ions Of an â—are crâ—ssing the hâ—gh way Of the 〈…〉 Owles and Ravenâ— Of the salling of saâ—t Of breâ—king the Eggâ—shell Of the true lovers knoâ— Of the cheek burning or 〈◊〉 Of speaking under the Rose Of smoâ—k following the fairest Of sitting crosse-leg'd Of haire upon Moll 's Of the set time of payring of nayles Of Lions heads upon spouts and cisternes Of the saying ungirt unblest Of the picture of God the Father Of the picture of Sun Moone and the Winds Of the Sun dancing on Easter day Of the silly Howe or covering about some childrens heads Of being drunk once a month Of the appearing of the Devill with a cloven hoofe Of Moses his rod in the discovery of Mines Of discovering of doubtfull matters by hooke or staffe chap. 21. THE SIXTH BOOK Concerning sundry Tenents Geographicall and Historicall COncerning the beginning of the world that the time thereof is not precisely knowne as commonly it is presumed chap. 1. Of mens enquiries in what season or point of the Zodiack it began that aâ— they are generally made they are in vaine and as particularly incertaine chap. 2. Of the divisions of the seasons and foure quarters of the yeare according unto Astronomers and Physitians that the common compute of the Ancients and which is still retained by some is very questionable chap. 3. Of some computation of dayes and diductions of one part of the yeare unto another chap. 4. A Digression of the wisdome of God in the site and motion of the Sunne chap. 5. Concerning the vulgar opinion that the earth was slenderly peopled before the floud chap. 6. Of East and West and properties respectively ascribed unto Countries chap. 7. Of the seven heads of Nile chap. 8. Of the greatnesse of Nile Of its Inundation and certaine time thereof That it never rayneth in Aegypt c. chap. 8. Of the Red Sea chap. 9. Of the blacknesse of Negroes chap. 10. Of the same chap. 11. A digression of Blacknesse chap. 12. THE SEVENTH BOOK Concerning many historicall Tenents generally received and some deduced from the history of holy Scripture THat the forbidden fruit was an Apple chap. 1. That a man hath one Rib lesse then a woman chap. 2. That Methuselah must needs bee the longest liver of all the posterity of Adam chap. 3. That there was no Rainebow before the fâ—oud chap. 4. Of Sem Ham and Iaphet chap. 5. That the Tower of Babel was erected against a second deluge chap. 6. Of the Mandrakes of â—eah chap. 7. Of the three Kings of Collein chap. 8. Of the food of Iohn the Baptist in the wildernesse chap. 9. Of the conceit that Iohn the Evangelist should not dye chap. 10. Of some others more briefly chap. 11. Of the cessation of Oracles chap. 12. Of the death of Aristotle chap. 13. Of the wish of Philoxenus to have the neck of a Crane chap. 14. Of the lake Asphaltites or the dead Sea chap. 15. Of divers other Relations Of the woman that conceived in a Bathe Of Crassus that never laughed but once That our Saviour never laughed Of Surgius the second or Bâ—cca de Porco That Tamerlane was a Scythian shepheard chap. 16. Of divers others Of the poverty of Belisarius Of fluctius Decumanus or the tenth wave Of Parysatis that poysoned Statyra by one side of a knife Of the woman fed with poyson that should have poysoned Alexander Of the wandring Iew. chap. 17. More briefly That the Army of Xerxes drank whole Rivers dry That Haniball eate through the Alpes with Vinegar Of the death of Aeschylus Of the cities of Tarsus and Anchiale built in one day Of the great ship Syracusia or Alexandria Of the Spartan boyes chap. 18. Of some others chap. 19. Of some Relations whose truth we feare chap. 20. THE FIRST BOOK OR GENERALL PART CHAP. I. Of the Causes of Common Errors THE first and father cause of common Error is the common infirmity of humane nature of whose deceptible condition although perhaps there should not need any other eviction then the frequent errors we shall our selves commit even in the expresse declarement hereof Yet shall wee illustrate the same from more infallible constitutions and persons presumed as farre from us in condition as time that is our first and ingenerated forefathers from whom as we derive our being and the severall wounds of constitution so may wee in some manner excuse our infirmities in the depravity of those parts whose traductions were pure in them and their originalls but once removed from God Yet notwithstanding if posterity may take leave to judge of the fact as they are assured to suffer in the punishment were grossely deceived in their perfection and so weakly deluded in the clarity of their understanding that it hath left no small obsecuâ—ity in ours how error should gaine upon them For first they were deceived by Satan and that not in an invisible insinuation but an open and discoverable apparition that is in the form of a Serpent whereby although there were many occasions of suspition and such as could not easily escape a weaker circumspection yet did the unwary apprehension of Eve take no advantage thereof
who having received excellent endowments and such as will accuse the omissions of perfection have yet sat downe by the way and frustrated the intention of their habilities For certainely as some men have sinned in the principles of humanity and must answer for not being men so others offend if they be not more Magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus would commend those These are not excusable without an Excellency For great constitutions and such as are constellated unto knowledge do nothing till they outdoe all they come short of themselves if they go not beyond others and must not sit downe under the degree of worthies God expects no lustre from the minor stars but if the Sun should not illuminate all it were a sin in Nature Vltimus bonorum will not excuse every man nor is it sufficient for all to hold the common levell Mens names should not onely distinguish them A man should be something that men are not and individuall in somewhat beside his proper nature Thus while it exceeds not the bounds of reason and modesty we cannot condemne singularity Nos numerus sumus is the motto of the multitude and for that reason are they fooles For things as they recede from unity the more they approach to imperfection and deformity for they hold their perfection in their simplicities and as they neerest approach unto God Now as there are many great wits to be condemned who have neglected the increment of Arts and the sedulous pursuit of knowledge so are there not a few very much to be pittied whose industry being not attended with naturall parts they have sweat to little purpose and roled the stone in vain which chiefly proceedeth from naturall incapacity and geniall indisposition at least to those particular wayes whereunto they apply their endeavours And this is one reason why though Universities bee full of men they are oftentimes empty of learning Why as there are some which do much without learning so others but little with it and few that attaine to any perfection in it For many heads that undertake it were never squared nor timbred for it There are not onely particular men but whole nations indisposed for learning whereunto is required not onely education but a pregnant Minerva and teeming constitution For the wisdome of God hath divided the Genius of men according to the different affaires of the world and varied their inclinations according to the variety of Actions to be performed therein which they who consider not rudely rushing upon professions and wayes of life unequall to their natures dishonour not onely themselves and their functions but pervert the hâ—rmony of the whole world For if the world went on as God hath oâ—dained it and were every one implyed in points concordant to their Natures Professions Arts and Common-wealths would rise up of themselves nor needed we a Lanthorne to finde a man in Athens CHAP. VI. Of adherence unto Antiquity BUt the mortallest enemy unto knowledge and that which hath done the greatest execution upon truth hath beene a peremptory adhesion unto Authority and more especially the establishing of our beliefe upon the dictates of Antiquities For as every capacity may obseâ—ve most men of Ages present so superstitiously do look on Ages past that the authorities of the one exceed the reasons of the other Whose persons indeed being farre removed from our times their woâ—ks which seldome with us passe uncontrouled either by contemporaries or immediate successors are now become out of the distance of envies And the farther removed from present times are conceived to approach the neerer unto truth it selfe Now hereby me thinks wee manifestly delude our selves and widely walke out of the tracke of truâ—h For first men hereby impose a thraldome on their times which the ingenuity of no age should endure or indeed the presumption of any did ever yet enjoyne Thus Hippocrates about 2000. yeare agoe conceived it no injustice either to examine or refute the doctâ—ines of his predecessors Galen the like and Aristotle most of any yet did not any of these conceive themselves infallible or set downe their dictates as verities irrefragable but when they either deliver their owne inventions or rejâ—cted other mens opinions they proceed with Judgement and Ingenuity establishing their assertion not onely with great solidity but submitting them also unto the correction of future discovery Secondly men that adore times past consider not that those times were once present that is as our owne are at this instant and wee our selves unto those to come as they unto us at present as wee rely on them even so will those on us and magnifie us hereafter who at present condemne our selves which very absurdity is dayly committed amongst us even in the esteeme and censure of our owne times And to speake impartially old men from whom wee should expâ—ct the greatest example of wisdome do most exceede in this point of folly commending the dayes of their youth they scarce remember at least well understood not extolling those times their younger yeares have heard their fathers condemne and condemning those times the gray heads of their posterity shall commend And thus is it the humour of many heads to extoll the dayes of their fore-fathers and declaime against the wickednesse of times present which notwithstanding they cannot handsomely doe without the borrowed helpe and satyres of times past condemning the vices of their times by the expressions of vices in times which they commend which cannot but argue the community of vice in both Horace therefore Juvenall and Perseus were no prophets although their lives did seeme to indigitate and point at our times There is a certaine list of vices committed in all ages and declaimed against by all Authors which will last as long as humane nature or digested into common places may serve for any theme and never be out of date untill Doomes day Thirdly the testimonies of Anâ—â—qâ—ity and such as passe oraculously amongst us were not if wee consider them alwayes so exâ—ct as to examine the doctrine they delivered For some and those the acutest of them have left unto us many things of falsitie controulable not onely by criticall and collective reason but common and countrey observation Hereof there want not many examples in Aristotle through all his booke of animals we shall instance onely in three of his Problemes and all contained under one Sâ—ction The first enquireth why a Man doth cough but not an Oxe or Cow whereas notwithstanding the contrary is often observed by husbandmen and stands confirmed by those who have expresly treated de re Rustica and have also delivered diverse remedies for it Why Juments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he termes them as Horses Oxen and Asses have no eructâ—tion or belching whereas indeed the contrary is often observed and also delivered by Columella And thirdly cur solus homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why man alone hath gray hayres whereas it cannot escape the eyes and ordinary observation
unseconded shapes of wormes whereof we have beheld some our selves and reade of others in medicall observations and so may strange and venemous Serpents be severall wayes engendered but that this generation should be regular and alway produce a Basilisk is beyond our affirmation and we have good reason to doubt Againe it is unreasonable to ascribe the equivocacy of this forme unto the hatching of a Toade or imagine that diversifies the production for Incubation alters not the species nor if wee observe it so much as concurres either to the sex or colour as evidently appeares in the eggs of Ducks or Partridges hatched under a Hen there being required unto their exclusion onely a gentle and continued heate and that not particular or confined unto the species or parent so have I knowne the seed of silke-wormes hatched on the bodies of women and so Pliny reports that Livia the wife of Augustus hatched an egge in her bosome nor is onely an animall heate required hereto but an elementall and artificiall warmth will suffice for as Diodorus delivereth the Aegyptians were wont to hatch their eggs in ovens and many eye witnesses confirme that practise unto this day and therefore this generation of the Basilisk seemes like that of Castor and Helena he that can credit the one may easily beleeve the other that is that these two were hatched out of the egge which Jupiter in the forme of a Swan begat on his Mistris Leda The occasion of this conceit might be an Aegyptian tradition concerning the bird Ibis which after became transferred unto Cocks for an old opinion it was of that Nation that the Ibis feeding upon Serpents that venemous food so inquinated their ovall conceptions or egges within their bodies that they sometimes came forth in Serpentine shapes and therefore they alwayes brake their egges nor would they endure the bird to sit upon them but how causelesse their feare was herein the daily Incubation of Ducks Peahens and many other testifie and the Stoâ—ke might have informed them which bird they honoured and cherished to destroy their Serpents That which much promoted it was a misapprehension in holy Scripture upon the Latiâ—e Translation in Esay 51. Ova aspidum ruperunt telas Aranearum texuerunt qui comedent de ovis corum morietur quod confotum est erumpet in Regulum from whence notwithstanding beside the generation of Serpents from egges there can be nothing concluded but what kind of serpents are meant not easie to be determined for translatioÌ„s are very different Tremellius rendring the Asp Haemorrhous the Regulus or Basilisk a Viper our translation for the Aspe sets down a Cockatrice in the text and an Adder in the margine Another place of Esay doth also seeme to countenance it chap. 14. Ne Lateris Philistaea quoniam diminuta est virga percussoris tui de radice enim colubri egredietur Regulus semen ejus absorbens volucrem which ours somewhat favourably rendreth out of the Serpents Root shall come forth a Cockatrice and his fruit shall be a fierie flying Serpent But Tremellius è radice Serpentis prodit Haemorrhous fructus illius Praester volans wherein the words are different but the sense is still the same for therein are figuratively intended Vzziah and Ezechias for though the Philistines had escaped the Minor Serpent Vzziah yet from his stock a fiercer Snake should arise that would more terribly sting them and that was Ezechias CHAP. VIII Of the Wolfe SUch a Story as the Basilisk is that of the Wolfe concerning prioritie of vision that a man becomes hoarse or dumb if a Wolfe have the advantage first to eye him and this is in plaine language affirmed by Plinie In Italia ut credâ—â—ur â—uporum vâ—sus est noxius vocemque homini quem prius contemplatur adimere â—o is it made out what is delivered by Theocritus and after him by Virgil Vox quoq Moerim Iam fugit ipsa Lupi Moerim videre priores And thus is the proverbe to be understood when during the discourse the partie or subject interveneth and there ensueth a sudden silence it is usually said Lupus est in fabulâ which conceit being already convicted not only by Scaliger Râ—olanus and others but daily confutable almost every where out of England we shall not further refute The ground or occasional original hereof was probably the amazement and sudden silence the unexpected appearance of wolves do often put upon travellers not by a supposed vapour or venemous emanation but a vehement fear which naturally produceth obmutescence and sometimes irrecoverable silence thus birds are silent in presence of an hawk and Plinie saith that dogs are mute in the shadow of an Hyaena but thus could not the spirits of worthy Martyrs be silenced who being exposed not onely unto the eyes but the mercilesse teeth of Wolves gave lowd expressions of their faith and their holy clamours were heard as high as heaven That which much promoted it beside the common proverb was an expression in Theocritus a very ancient Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—Edâ—re non poteris vocem Lycus est tibâ— visus which Lycus was Rivall unto another and suddenly appearing stopped the mouth of his Corrivall now Lycus signifying also a Wolf occasioned this apprehension men taking that appellatively which was to be understood properly and translating the genuine acception which is a fallacy of Aequivocation and in some opinions begat the like conceit concerning Romulus and Remus that they were fostered by a Wolfe the name of the nurse being Lupa and founded the fable of Europa and her carryage over Sea by a Bull because the Ship or Pilots name was Taurus and thus have some been startled at the proverb Bos in linguâ confusedly apprehending how a man should be said to have an Oxe in his tongue that would not speake his minde which was no more then that a piece of money had silenced him for by the Oxe was onely implyed a piece of coine stamped with that figure first currant with the Athenians and after among the Romanes CHAP. IX Of Deere THe common opinion concerning the long life of Animals is very ancient especially of Crowes Chaughes and Deere in moderate accounts exceeding the age of man in some the dayes of Nestor and in others surmounting the yeares of Artephius or Methuselah from whence Antiquity hath raised proverbiall expressions and the reall conception of their duration hath been the hyperbolicall expression of others From all the rest we shall single out the Deere upon concession a long lived Animal and in longaevity by many conceived to attaine unto hundreds wherein permitting every man his owne beliefe we shall our selves crave libertie to doubt and our reasons are these ensuing The first is that of Aristole drawne from the increment and gestation of this animal that is it 's sudden arrivance unto growth and maturitie and the small time of it's remainder in the wombe his words in the translation of Scaliger
or the number of one and three have not been only admired by the heathens but from adorable grounds the untiy of God and mystery of the Trinity admired by many Christians The number of foure stands much admired not only in the quaternity of the Elements which are the principles of bodies but in the letters of the name of God which in the Greeke Arabian Persian Hebrew and Aegyptian consisteth of that number and was so venerable among the Pythagoreans that they swore by the number foure That of six hath found many leaves in its favour not only for the dayes of the Creation but its naturall consideration as being a perfect number and the first that is compleated by its parts that is the sixt the half and the third 1. 2. 3. which drawnâ— into a sum make six The number of ten hath been as highly extolled as containing even odde long and plaine quadrate and cubicall numbers and Aristotle observed with admiration that Barbarians as well as Greeks did use a numeration unto Ten which being so generall was not to be judged casuall but to have a foundation in nature So that only 7 and 9 but all the rest have had their Elogies as may be observed at large in Rhodiginus and in severall Writers since every one extolling number according to his subject as it advantaged the present discourse in hand Again they have been commended not only from pretended grounds in naâ—ure but from artificiall casuall or fabulous foundations so have some endeavoured to advance their admiration from the 9 Muses from â—he 7 Wondeâ—s of the Woâ—ld and from the 7 gates of Thebes in that 7 Ciâ—ies contended for Homer in that there are 7 stars in Ursa minor and 7 in Charles wayne or Plaustâ—um of Ursa major wherein indeed alâ—hough the ground be naturall yet either from constellations or their remaâ—kable parts there is the like occasion to commend any other â—umber the number 5 from the starres in Sagitta 3 from the girdle of Oâ—iâ—n and 4 â—â—om Equiculus Crusero or the feet of the Centaure yet are â—uch as these clapt in by very good Authors and some not omitâ—â—d by Philo. Nâ—r arâ— thâ—y only exâ—olled from Arbitrary and Poeticall grounds but fâ—om â—oâ—â—dations and principles either false or dubious That womâ—n are mâ—nstâ—uant and men pubescent at the year of twice seven is accounted a punctuall truth which period nâ—verthelesse we dare not precisely deteâ—mine as having observed a variation and latitude in most agrâ—eâ—bly unto the heat of clime or temper men arising variously unto virility according to the activity of causes that promote it Sanguis menstruosus ad diem ut plurimum septimum durat saith Philo whâ—ch notwithstanding is repugnant unto experience and the doctrine of Hippocrates who in his booke de diaeta plainly affirmeth it is thus but with few women and onely such as abound with pituitous and watery humors Iâ— is further conceived to receive addition in that there are 7 heads of Nyle but we have made manifest elsewhere that by the description of Geographers they have beene sometime more and are at present â—ewer In that there were 7 wise men of Greece which though it be generally received yet having enquired into the verity thereof we cannot so readily determâ—ne it for in the life of Thales who was accounted in that number Diogenes Laâ—rtius plainly saith Magna de corum numero discordia est some holding but foure some ten others twelve and none agreeing in their names though according in their number In that there are just seven Planets or errant Starres in the lower orbs of heaven but it is now demonstrable unto sense that there are many more as Galileo hath declared in his Nuncius Sydereus that is two more in the orbe of Saturne and no lesse then foure more in the sphere of Jupiter and the like may be said of the Pleiades or 7 Starres which are also introduced to magnifie this number for whereas scarce discerning six we account them 7 by his relation in the same booke there are no lesse then forty That the heavens are encompassed with 7 circles is also the allegation of Philo which are in his account The Artick Antartick the Summer and Winter Tropicks the Aequator Zodiack and the milky circle whereas by Astronomers they are received in greater number for though we leave out the Lacteous circle which Aratus Geminus and Proclus out of him hath numbred among the rest yet are there more by foure then Philo mentions that is the Horizon Meridian and both the Colures circles very considerable and generally delivered not only by Ptolomie and the Astronomers since his time but such as flourished long before as Hipparchus and Eudoxus So that for ought I know if it make for our purpose or advance the theme in hand with equall liberty we may affirme there were 7 Sybills or but 7 signes in the Zodiack circle of heaven That verse in Virgill translated out of Homer O terque quaterque beati that is as men will have it 7 times happy hath much advanced this number in criticall apprehensions yet is not this construction so indubitably to be received as not at all to be questioned for though Rhodiginus Beroaldus others from the authority of Macrobius so interpret it yet Servius the best of his Comments conceives no more thereby then a finite number for indefinite and that no more is implied then often happy Strabo the ancientest of them all in the first of his Geography conceives no more by this expression in Homer then a full and excessive expression whereas in common phrase and received language hee should have tearmed them thrice happy herein exceeding that number he called them foure times happy that is more then thrice and this he illustrates by the like expression of Homer in the speech of Circe who to expresse the dread and terrour of the Ocean sticks not unto the common forme of speech in the strict account of its reciprocations but largely speaking saith it ebbes and â—lows no lesse then thrice a day terque die revomit fluctus iterumque resorbet and so when ' â—is said by Horace faelices ter amplius the exposition is sufficient if we conceive no more then the letter fairely beareth that is foure times or indefinitly more then thrice But the maine considerations which most set of this number are observations drawne from the motions of the Moone supposed to bee measured by sevens and the criticall or decretory dayes dependent on that number As for the motion of the Moon though we grant it to be measured by sevens yet will not this advance the same before its fellow numbers for hereby the motion of others are not measured the fixed Starres by many thousand yeares the Sunne by 365. dayes the superiour Planets by more the inferiour by somewhat lesse and if we consider the revolution of the first Moveable the daily motion from East to West common unto all
be catched from the arise of the Dog-starre must we conceave the same a meere effect thereof Nor though Scaliger from hence be willing to inferre the efficacy of this starre are wee induced hereto except because the same Philosopher affiâ—meth that Tunny is fat about the rising of the Pleiades and departs upon Arcturus or that most insects are latent from the setting of the 7. starres except I say he give us also leave to inferre that these particular effects and alterations proceed from those stars which were indeed but designations of such quarters and portions of the yeare wherein the same were observed Now what Pliny affirmeth of the Orix that it seemeth to adore this star and taketh notice thereof by voyce and sternutation untill wee be better assured of its verity wee shall not salve the sympathy Secondly what slender opinion the Ancients held of the efficacy of this starre is declarable from their compute for as Geminus affirmeth and Petavius his learned Comment proveth they began their account from its Heliacall emersion and not its cosmicall ascent The cosmicall ascension of a starre we terme that when it ariseth together with the Sun or the same degree of the Ecliptick wherein the Sun abideth and that the â—eliacall when a starre which before for the vicinity of the Sun was not visible being further removed beginneth to appeare for the annuall motion of the Snn from West to East being far swifâ—er then that of the fixed stars he must of necessity leave them on the East whilst he hastneth forward and obscureth others to the West and so the Moone who performes its motion swifter then the Sun as may be observed in their Conjunctions and Eâ—â—ipses gets Eastward out of his rayes and appeares when the Sun is set if therefore the Dog-star had this effectuall heat which is ascribed unto it it would afford best evidence thereof and the season would be most â—ervent when it ariseth in the probablest place of its activity that is the cosmicall ascent for therein it ariseth with the Sun and is included in the same irradiation but the time observed by the Ancients was long after this ascent and in the Heliacall emersion when it becomes at greatest distance from the Sun neither rising with it nor neere it and therefore had they conceived any more then a bare signality in this Star or ascribed the heat of the season thereunto they would not have computed from its Heliacall ascent which was of inferiour efficacy nor imputed the vehâ—mency of heat unto those points wherein it was more remisse and where with lesse probability they might make out its action Thirdly although we derive the authority of these dayes from observations of the Ancients yet are our computes very different and such as confirme not each other for whereas they observed it Heliacally we observe it Cosmically for before it ariseth Heliacally unto our laâ—itude the Summer is even at an end Againe we compute not onely from different ascents but also from divers starres they from the greater Dog-star we from the lesser they from Orioâ—s we from Cephalus hiâ— dog they from Sâ—irius we from Procyon for the beginning of the dog-Dog-dayes with us is set downe the 19. of July at which time the lesser Dog-star ariseth with the Sun whereas the starre of the greater Dâ—g ascendeth not untill about the 31. of July in the 18. degree of Leo and the joynt compute by both is onely justifiable in the latitude of 30. degrees where both these starres arise together So that their observations confirme not ours nor ours theirs but rather confute each other computing from different foundations and translating at pleasure the effects and power of one starre unto another Fourthly which is the Argument of Gemâ—â—us were there any such effectuall heat in this starre yet could it but weakly evidence the same in Summer it being about 40. degrees distant from the Sun and should rather manifest its warming power in the winter when it remaines conjoyned with the Sun in its Hybernall conversion for about the 29. of October and in the 16. of Scoâ—pius and so againe in January the Sunne performes his revolution in the same parallell with the Dogge-starre Againe if wee should impute the heat of this season unto the cooperation of any starres with the Sunne it seemes more favourable for our times to ascribe the same unto the constellation of Leo where besides that the Sunne is in his proper house it is conjoined with many starres whereof two of the first magnitude and in the 8 th of August is corporally conjoyned with Basiliscus a starre of eminent name in Astrologie and seated in the very Eclipticke Fifthly if all were granted that observation and reason were also for it and were it an undeniable truth that an effectuall seâ—vour proceeded from this starre yet would not the same determine the opinion now in question it necessarily suffering such restrictions as take of generall illations for first in regard of different latitudes unto some the caâ—icular dayes are in the winter as unto such as have no latitude but live in a right Sphere that is under the Aequinoctiall line for unto them it aâ—iseth with the Sunne about the Tropicke of Cancer which seasâ—â— unto them is winter and the Sunne remotest from them nor â—ath the same position in the summer that is in the Aequinoctiall points any advantage from it for in the one point the Sunne is at the Meridian before the Dogge-starre ariseth in the other the starre is at the Meridian before the Sunne ascendeth Some latitudes have no canicular dayes at all as namely all those which have more then 73. degrees of northerne Elevation as the territory of Nova Zembla part of Greenland and Tartarie for unto that habitation the Dogge-starre is invisible and appeareth not above the Horizon Unto such Latitudes as it ariseth it carrieth a various and a very different respect unto some it ascendeth when Summer is over whether we compute Heliacally or Cosmically for though unto Alexandria it ariseth in Cancer it ariseth not unto Biarmia Cosmically before it bee in Virgo and Heliacally about the Autumâ—all aequinox even unto the Latitude of 52. the efficacy thereof is not much considerable whether we consider its ascent Meridian altitude or abode above the Horizon for it ariseth very late in the yeere about the eighteenth of Leo that is the 31. of Iuly Of Meridian Altitude it hath but 23. degrees so that it playes but obliquely upon us and as the Sun doth about the 23. of January and lastly his abode above the Horizon is not great for in the eighteenth of Leo the 31. of Iuly although they arise together yet doth it set above 5. houres before the Sun that is before two of the clock after which time we are more sensible of heat then all the day before Scondly in regard of the variation of the longitude of the starres we are to consider what the Ancients observed not that
standing by is famous amongst Christians and upon this description dependeth a solemne story how by this atchieveme he redeemed a Kings daughter which is more especially beleeved by the English whose Protector he is and in which forme and history according to his description in the English Colledge at Rome he is set forth in the Icons or Cuts of Martyrs by Cevallerius Now of what authority soever this piece be among us it is I perceive received with different beliefes for some men beleeve the person and the story some the person but not the story and others deny both That such a person there was we shall not contend the indistinction of many in the community of name or the application of the act of one unto another have made some doubt there was no such man at all For of this name we meet with more then one in history and no lesse then two of Cappadocia the one an Arrian who was slain by the Alexandrians in the time of Julian the other a valiant Souldier and Christian Martyr beheaded in the reigne of Dioclesian And this is the George conceived in this picture who hath his day in the Romane Calender on whom so many fables are delivered whose story is set forth by Metaphrastes and his myracles by Turonensis As for the story depending hereon we cannot make out the verity thereof and conceive the literall acception a meere mistake of the symbolicall exppession apprehending that a veritable history which was but an emblem or peece of Christian posie And this Emblematicall construction hath been received by men who are not forward to extenuate the acts of their Saints as from Baronius Lipellous the Carthusian hath delivered in the life of St. George Picturam illam St. Georgii quâ effingitur eques armatus qui hastae cuspide hostem interficit juxta quam etiam virgo posita manus supplices tendens ejus explorat auxilium Symboli potius quam historiae alicâ—jus censenda expressa Imago consuevit quidem â—t equestris militiae miles equestri imagine referri Now in the picture of this Sâ— and Souldier was implyed the Christian Souldier and true Champion of Christ A horseman armed Cap a pe intimating the Panoplia or compleat armour of a Christian combating with the Dâ—agon that is with the Divell in defence of the Kings daughter that is the Church of God and therefore although the history be not made out it doth not disparage the Knights and noble order of St. George whose cognisance is honourable in the emblem of the Souldier of Christ and is a worthy memoriall to conforme unto its mystery nor were there no such person at all had they more reason to be ashamed then the noble order of Burgundy and Knights of the golden Fleece whose badge is a confessed fable CHAP. XVIII Of the Picture of Ierome THe Picture of Jerome usually described at his study with a Clock hanging by him is not to be omitted for though the meaning bee allowable and probable it is that industrious Father did not let slip his time without account yet must not perhaps that Clocke be set downe to have been his measure thereof For Clocks are Automatous organs and such whereby we now distinguish of time have found no mention in any ancient Writers but are of late invention as Pancirollus observeth and Polydore Virgil discoursing of new inventions whereof the authors are not knowne makes instance in Clocks and Guns now Jerome is no late Writer but one of the ancient Fathers and lived in the fourth Century in the reigne of Theodosius the first It is not to be denyed that before the dayes of Jerome there were Horologies and severall accounts of time for they measured the hours not only by drops of water in glasses called Clepsydrae but also by sand in glasses called Clepsammia there were also from great antiquity Sciotericall or Sun Dialls by the shadow of a stile or gnomon denoting the houres of the day an invention ascribed unto Anaximenes by Pliny hereof a very memorable one there was in Campus Martius from an obelisk erected golden figures placed horizontally about it which was brought out of Aegypt by Augustus and described by Jacobus Laurus And another of great antiquity we meet with in the story of Ezechias for so it is delivered Kings 2. 20. That the Lord brought the shadow backward ten degrees by which it had gone down in the Diall of Ahaz that is say some ten degrees not lines for the houres were denoted by certaine divisions or steps in the Diall which others distinguished by lines according to that of Persius Stertimus indomitâ—m quod despumare Falernum Sufficiat quintâ dum linea tangitur umbrâ That is the line next the Meridian or within an houre of noone Of latter yeares there succeeded new inventions and horologies composed by Trochilick or the artifice of wheeles whereof some are kept in motion by weight others performe without it now as one age instâ—ucts another and time that brings all things to ruine perfects also every thing so are these indeed of more generall and ready use then any that went before them by the water-glasses the account was not regular for from attenuation and condensation whereby that Element is altered the houres were shorter in hot weather then in cold and in Summer then in Winter as for Sciotericall Dialls whether of the Sunne or Moon they are only of use in the actuall radiation of those Luminaries and are of little advantage unto those inhabitants which for many months enjoy not the lustre of the Sun It is I confesse no easie wonder how the horometry of Antiquity discovered not this Artifice how Architas that contrived the moving Dove or rather the Helicoscopie of Archimedes fell not upon this way surely as in many things so in this particular the present age hath farre suâ—passed Antiquity whose ingenuity hath been so bold not only to proceed below the account of minutes but to attempt perpetuall motions and engines whose revolutions could their substance answer the dâ—signe might outlast the examplary mobility and out measure time it selfe for such a one is that mentioned by John Dee whose words are these in his learned Presace unto Euclide By wheeles strange works and incredible are done A wondrous example was seen in my time in a certaine Iaâ—trument which by the Inventer and Aâ—tiâ—icer was sold for twenty talents of Gold and then by chance had received some injury and one Janellus of Cremona did mend the same and presented it unto the Emperour Charles the siâ—t Jeronymus Cardanus can be my witnesse that therein was one wheele that moved in such a rate that in seven thousand yeares onely his owne period should be finished a thing almost incredible but how far I keep within my bounds many men yet alive can tell CHAP. XIX Of the Pictures of Mermaids Vnicornes and some others FEw eyes have escaped the Picture of the Mermaids that is according to Horace
from the Hieroglyphicall description of the Aegyptians who to expresse their Eâ—eph or Creator of the world described an old man in a blew mantle with an egge in his mouth which was the embleme of the world Surely those heathens that notwithstanding their exemplary advantage in heaven would endure no pictures of Sun or Moone as being visible unto all the world and needing no representation do evidently accuse the practise of those pencils that will describe invisibles And he that challenged the boldest hand unto the picture of an Echo must laugh at this attempt not onely in the description of invisibility but circumscription of Ubiquity and fetching under lines incomprehensible circularity The pictures of the Aegyptians were more tolerable and in their sacred letters more veniably expressed the apprehension of Divinity for though they implyed the same by an eye upon a Scepter by an Eagles head a Crocodill and the like yet did these manuall descriptions pretend no corporall representations nor could the people misconceive the same unto reall correspondencies So though the Cherub carryed some apprehension of Divinity yet was it not conceived to be the shape thereof and so perhaps because it is metaphorically predicated of God that he is a consuming fire he may be harmlesly described by a flaming representation yet if as some will have it all mediocrity of folly is foolish and because an unrequitable evill may ensuâ— an indifferent convenience must be omitted we shall not urge such representments wee could spare the holy Lamb for the picture of our Saviour aâ—d the Dove or fiery Tongues to represent the holy Ghost 15. The Sun and Moone are usually described with humane faces whether herein there be not a Pagan imitation and those visages at first implyed Apollo and Diana we make some doubt and wee finde the statua of the Sun was framed with rayes about the head which were the indiciduous and unshaven locks of Apollo We should be too Iconomicall to question the pictures of the winds as commonly drawne in humane heads and with their cheeks distended which notwithstanding wee finde condemned by Minutius as answering poeticall fancies and the gentile discription of Aeolus Boreus and the feigned Deities of winds 16. We shall not I hope disparage the Resurrection of our Redeemer if we say the Sun doth not dance on Eâ—ster day And though we would willingly assent unto any sympathicall exultation yet cannot conceive therein any more then a Tropicall expression whether any such motion there were in that day wherein Christ arised Scripture hath not revealed which hath beene punctuall in other records concerning solary miracles and the Areopagite that was amazed at the Ecclipse tooke no notice of this and if metaphoricall expressionâ— goe so farre we may be bold to affirme not onely that one Sun danced but two arose that day That light appeared at his nativity and darkenesse at his death and yet a light at both for even that darknesse was a light unto the Gentiles illuminated by that obscurity That 't was the first time the Sun set about the Horizon that although there were darkenesse above the earth there was light beneath it nor dare we say that hell was darke if he were in it 17. Great conceits are raised of the involution or membranous covering commonly called the silly how that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth and is therefore preserved with great care not onely as medicall in diseases but effectuall in successe concerning the Infant and others which is surely no more then a continued superstition for hereof we reade in the life of Antoninus delivered by Spartianus that children are borne sometimes with this naturall cap which Midwives were wont to sell unto credulous Lawyers who had an opinion it advantaged their promotion But to speake strictly the effect is naturall and thus to be conceaved the Infant hath three â—eguments or membranous â—ilmes which cover it in the wombe that is the Corion Amnioâ— and Allantois the Corion is the outward membrane wherein are implanted the veynes Arteries and umbilicall vessels whereby its nourishment is conveyed the Allantois a thin coat seated under the Corion wherein are received the watery separations conveyed by the urachus that the acrimony thereof should not offend the skin The Amnios is a generall investment containing the sudorous or thin serosity perspirable through the skin Now about the time when the Infant breaketh these covâ—â—ings it sometime carryeth with it about the head a part of the Amnios or neerest coat which saith Spiegelius either proceedeth from the toughnesse of the membrane or weakenesse of the Infant that cannot get cleare thereof therefore herein significations are naturall and concluding upon the Infant but not to be extended unto magical signalities or any other persâ— 18. That 't is good to be drunke once a month is a common flattery of sensuality supporting it selfe upon physick and the healthfull effects of inebriation This indeed seemes plainly affirmed by Avicenna a Physitian of great Authority and whose religion prohibiting Wine could lesse extenuate ebriety But Averroes a man of his owne faith was of another beliefe restraining his ebriety unto hilarity and in effect making no more thereof then Seneca commendeth and was allowable in Cato that is a sober incalescence and regulated aestuation from wine or what may be conceived betweene Joseph and his brethren when the Text expresseth they were merry or dranke largely and whereby indeed the commodities set downe by Avicenna that is alleviation of spirits resolution of superfluities provocation of sweat and urine may also ensue But as for dementation sopition of reason and the diviner particle from drinke though American religion approve and Pagan piety of old hath practised even at their sacrifices Christian morality and the Doctrine of Christ will not allow And surely that religion which excuseth the fact of Noah in the aged surprisall of six hundred yeares and unexpected inebriation from the unknowne effects of wine will neither acquit ebriosity nor ebriety in their knowne and intended perversions And indeed although sometimes effects succeed which may relieve the body yet if they carry mischiefe or perill unto the soule we are therein restraineable by Divinity which circumscribeth Physick and circumstantially determines the use thereof From naturall considerations Physick commendeth the use of venery and happily incest adultery or stupration may prove as physically advantageous as conjugall copulation which notwithstanding must not bee drawne into practise And truly effects consequents or events which wee commend arise oft times from wayes which all condemne Thus from the fact of Lot we derive the generation of Ruth and blessed Nativity of our Saviour which notwithstanding did not extenuate the incestuous ebriety of the generator And if asit is commonly urged we thinke to extenuate ebriety from the benefit of vomit oft succeeding Aegyptian sobriety will condemne us who purgeth both wayes twice a month without this perturbation
ascent or approximation but unto the latitude of Cancer or the Summer Solstice it had been Autumne for then had it it beene placed in a middle point and that of descent or â—longation And if wee shall take it literally what Moses described popularly this was also the constitution of the first day for when it was evening unto one longitude it was morning unto another when night unto one day unto another and therefore that question whether our Saviour shall come againe in the twilight as is conceived he arose or whether he shall come upon us in the night according to the comparison of a thiefe or the Iewish tradition that he will come about the time of their departure our of Aegypt when they eate the Passeover and the Angell passed by the doores of their houses this Quere I say needeth not further dispute for if the earth be almost every where inhabited and his comming as Divinity affiâ—meth must needs be unto all then must the time of his appearance bee both in the day and night For if unto Jerusalem or what part of the world soever he shall appear in the night at â—he same time unto the Antipodes it must be day if twilight unto them broad day unto the Indians if noone unto them yet night unto the Americans and so with variety according unto various habitations or different positions of the Spheare as will be easily conceived by those who understand the affections of different habitations and the conditions of Antaeci Perieci and Antipodes and so although he appeare in the night yet may the day of Judgement or Doomesday well retaine that name for that implyeth one revolution of the Sun which maketh the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the day and night and that one naturall day and yet to speake strictly if as the Apostle affirmeth we shall be changed in the twinckling of an eye and as the Schooles determine the destruction of the world shall not be successive but in an instant we cannot properly apply thereto the usuall distinctions of time calling that twelve houres which admits not the parts thereof or use at all the name of time when indeed the nature thereof shall perish But if the enquiry be made unto a particular place and the question determined unto some certaine Meridian as namely unto Mesopotamia wherein the seat of Paradise is presumed the Quaery becomes more seasonable and is indeed in nature also determinable yet positively to define that season there is I conceive no slender difficulty for some contend that it began in the Spring as beside Eusebius Ambrose Bede and Theodoret some few years past Henrico Philippi in his Chronologie of the Scripture Others are altogether for Autumne and from hence doe our Chronologers commence their compute as may be observed in Helvicus Jos. Scaliger Calvisius and Petavius CHAP. III. Of the Divisions of the seasons and foure quarters of the yeare according unto Astronomers and Physitians that the common compute of the Anciâ—nts and which is still retained by some is very questionable AS for the divisions of the yeare and the quartering out this remarkable standard of time there have passed especially two distinctions the first in frequent use with Astronomers according to the cardinall intersections of the Zodiack that is the two Aequinoctials and both the Solsticial points defining that time to be the spring of the yeare wherein the Sunne doth passe from the Aequinox of Aries unto the Solstice of Cancer the time between the Solstice and the Aequinâ—x of Libra Summer from thence unto the Solstice of Capricâ—â—â— Autumne and from thence unto the Aequinox of Aries againe Wintâ—â— Now this division although it be regular and equall is not universall for it includeth not those latitudes which have the seasons of the year double as have the Inhabitants under the Aequator or else between the Tropicks for unto them the Sunne is verticall twice a yeare making two distinct Summers in the different points of verticallity So unto those which live under the Aequator when the Sunne is in the Aequinox it is Summer in which points it maketh Spring or Autumne unto us and unto them it is also Winter when the Sun is in either Tropick whereas unto us it maketh alwayes Summer in the one And the like will happen unto those habitations which are between the Tropicks and the Aequator A second and more sensible division there is observed by Hippocrates and most of the ancient Greekes according to the rising and setting of divers starres dividing the yeare and establishing the account of seasons from usuall alterations and sensible mutations in the ayre discovered upon the rising and setting of those starres accounting the Spring from the Aequinoxiall point of Aries from the rising of the Pleiades or the severall starres on the backe of Taurus the Summer from the rising of Arcturus a starre between the thighes of Bootes Autumne and from the setting of the Pleiades Winter of these divisions because they were unequall they were faine to subdivide the two larger portions that is of the Summer and Winter quarters the first part of the Summer they named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second unto the arising of the Dog-star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from thence untothe setting of Arcturus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Winter they divided also into three parts the sirst pare or that of seed time they named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the middle or proper Winter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last which was their planting or grasing time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this way of division was in former ages received is very often mentioned in Poets translated from one Nation to another from the Greeks unto the Latines as is received by good Authors and delivered by Physitians even unto our times Now of these two although the first in some latitude may be retayned yet is not the other in any to be admitted For in regard of time as we declare in the Chap. of canicular dayes the starres do vary their longitudes and consequently the times of their ascention and discention That starre which is the terme of numeration or point from whence we commence the account altering his site and longitude in processe of time and removing from West to East almost one degree in the space of 72 yeares so that the same starre since the age of Hippocrates who used this account is removed in consequentia about 27 degrees which difference of their longitudes doth much diversifie the times of their ascents and rendereth the account unstable which shall proceed thereby Againe in regard of different latitudes this cannot be a setled rule or reasonably applyed unto many Nations for whereas the setting of the Pleiades or seven starres is designed the terme of Autumne and the beginning of Winter unto some latitudes these starres doe never set as unto all beyond 67 degrees and if in severall and farre distant latitudes we observe the same starre as a common terme
slyâ— East and West by Jupiter their meeting fell out just in the Island Delos CHAP. V. A Digression of the wisdome of God in the site and motion of the Sun HAving thus beheld the Ignorance of man in some things his error and blindnesse in others that is in the measure of duration both of yeares and seasons let us a while admire the Wisdome of God in this distinguisher of times and visible Deity as some have termed it the Sun which though some from its glory adore and all for its benefits adâ—ire we shall advance from other considerations and such as illustrate the artifice of its Maker nor doe wee thinke we can excuse the duty of our knowledge if we onely bestow the flourish of Poetry hereon or those commendatory conceits which popularly set forth the eminency of this creature except we ascend unto subtiler considerations and such as rightly understood convinsively declare the wisdome of the Creator which since a Spanish Physition hath begun wee will inlarge with our owne deductions and this we shall endeavour from two considerations that is its proper situation and wisely ordered motion And first we cannot passe over his providence in that it moveth at all for had it stood still and were it fixed like the earth there had beene then no distinction of times either of day or yeare of Spring of Autumne of Summer or of Winter for these seasons are defined by the motions of the Sun when that approacheth neerest us wee call it Summer when furthest off Winter when in the middle spaces Spring or Autumne whereas remaining in one place these distinctions had ceased and consequently the generation of all things depending on their vicissiâ—udes making in one hemisphere a perpetuall Summer in the other a deplorable and comfortlesse Winter and thus had it also beene continuall day unto some and perpetuall night unto others for the day is defined by the abode of the Sun above the Horizon and the night by its continuance below so should we have needed another Sun one to illustrate our hemisphere a second to enlighted the other which inconvenience will ensue in what site soever we place it whether in the poles or the Aequator or betweene them both no sphericall body of what bignesse soever illuminating the whole sphere of another although it illuminate something more then halfe of a lesser according unto the doctrine of the Opiticks His wisdome is againe discernable not onely in that it moveth at all and in its bare motion but wonderfull in contriving the line of its revolution which from his artifice is so effected that by a vicissitude in one body and light it sufâ—iceth the whole earth affording thereby a possible or pleasurable habitation in every part thereof and that is the line Eclyptick all which to effect by any other circle it had beene impossible For first if we imagine the Sun to make his course out of the Eclyptick and upon a line without any obliquity let it be conceaved within that Circle that is either on the Aequator or else on either side for if we should place it either in the Meridian or Colures beside the subversion of its course from East to West there would ensue the like incommodities Now if we conceave the Sun to move betweene the obliquity of this Eclyptick in a line upon one side of the Aequator then would the Sunne be visible but unto one pole that is the same which was nearest unto it So that unto the one it would be perpetuall day unto the other perpetuall night the one would be oppressed with constant heate the other with unsufferable cold and so the defect of alternation would utterly impugne the generation of all things which naturally require a vicissitude of heate to their production and no lesse to their encrease and conservation But if we conceive it to move in the Aequator first unto a parallell sphere or such as have the pole for their Zenith it would have made neither perfect day nor night for being in the Aequator it would intersect their Horizon and be halfe above and halfe beneath it or rather it would have made perpeâ—uall night to both for though in regard of the rationall Horizon which bissecteth the Globe into equall parts the Sunne in the Aequator would intersect the Horizon yet in respect of the sensible Horizon which is defined by the eye the Sun would bee visible unto neither For if as ocular witnesses report and some doe also write by reason of the connexity of the Eâ—rth the eye of man under the Aequator cannot discover both the poles neither would the eye under the poleâ— discover the Sunne in the Aequator And thus would there nothing â—ructifie either neare or under them the Sunne being Horizontall to the poles and of no considerable altitude unto parts a reasonable distance from them Again unto a right sphere or such as dwell under the Aequator although it made a difference in day and night yet would it not make any distinction of seasons for unto them it would be constant Summer it being alwayes verticall and never deâ—lecting from them So had there been no fructification at all and the Countries subjected would be as inhabitable as indeed antiquity conceived them Lastly it moving thus upon the Aequator unto what position soever although it had made a day yet could it have made no yeare for it could not have had those two motions now ascribed unto it that is from Eâ—st to West whereby it makes the day and likewise from West to East whereby the yeare is computed for according to Astronomy the poles of the Aequator are the same with those of the Primum Mobile Now it is impossible that on the same circle having the same poles both these motions from opposite termes should be at the same time performed all which is salved if we allow the Sunne an obliquity in his annuall motion and conceive him to move upon the poles of the Zodiack distant from these of the world 23 degrees and an halfe Aâ—d thus may we discerne the necessity of its obliquity and how inconvenient its motion had been upon a circle parallell to the Aequator or upon the Aequator it selfe Now with what providence this obliquity is determined we shall evidently perceive upon the ensuing inconveniences from any deviation for first if its obliquity had been lesse as instead of twenty three degrees twelve or the halfe thereof the vicissitude of seasons appointed for the generation of all things would surely have been too short for different seasons would have hudled upon each other and unto some it had not been much better then if it had moved on the Aequator but had the obliquity been greater then now it is as double or of 40. degrees severall parts of the earth had not been able to endure the disproportionable differences of seasons occasioned by the great recesse and distance of the Sunne for unto some habitations the
is it delivered that Job had a thousand she Asses that the Midianites lost 61000. Asses for horses it is affirmed by Diodorus that Ninus brought against the Bactrians 280000. horses after him Semiramis 500000. horses and Chariots 100000. even in creatures sterill and such as do not generate the length of life conduceth much unto the multiplicity of the species for the number of Mules which live farre longer then their Dammes or Sires in countries where they are bred is very remarkable and farre more common then horses For animals multifidous or such as are digitated or have severall divisions in their feete there are but two that are uniparous that is Men and Elephants in whom though their generations be but single they are notwithstanding very numerous The Elephant as Aristotle affirmeth carryeth the young two yeares and conceaveth not againe as Edvardus Lopez affirmeth in many after yet doth their age requite this disadvantage they living commonly one hundred sometime two hundred yeares Now although they be unusuall with us in Europe and altogether unknowne unto America yet in the two other parts they are abundant as evidently appeares by the relation of Gorcias ab Horto Physitian to the Viceroy at Goa who in his Chapter de Ebore relates that at one venation the King of Sian tooke foure thousand and is of opinion they are in other parts in greater number then heards of Beeves in Europe And though this delivered from a Spaniard unacquainted with our Northerne droves may seeme very farre to exceed yet must we conceave them very numerous if wee consider the number of teeth transported from one Countrey to another they having onely two great teeth and those not falling or renewing As for man the disadvantage in his single issue is the same with these and in the latenesse of his generation somewhat greater then any yet in the continuall and not interrupted time thereof and the extent of dayes he becomes at present if not then any other species at least more numerous then these before mentioned Now being thus numerous at present and in the measure of threescore four score or an hundred years if their dayes extended unto sixe seven or eight hundâ—ed their generations would be proportionably multiplied their times of generation being not onely multiplyed but their subsistence continued for though the great Grandchild went on the Tycho or first Originall would subsist and make one of the world though he outlived all the termes of consanguinity and became a stranger unto his proper progeny So by compute of Scripture Adam lived unto the ninth generation unto the dayes of Lamech the father of Noah Methuselah unto the yeare of the floud and Noah was contemporary unto all from Enoch unto Abraham So that although some dyed the father beholding so many discents the number of survivers must still be very great for if halfe the men were now alive which lived in the last Century the earth would scarce conâ—aine their number whereas in our abridged and septuagesimall ages it is very rare and deserves a distich to behold the fourth generation Xerxes complaint still remaining and what he lamented in his Army being almost deplorable in the whole world men seldome ariving unto those yeares whereby Methuselah exceeded nine hundred and what Adam came short of a thousand was defined long agoe to be the age of man Now although the length of dayes conduceth mainely unto the numerosity of mankinde and it be manifest from Scripture they lived very long yet is not the period of their lives determinable and some might be longer livers then we account that any were For to omit that conceit of some that Adam was the oldest man in as much as he is conceaved to be created in the maturity of mankinde that is at 60. for in that age it is set downe they begat children so that adding this number unto his 930. he was 21. yeares older then any of his posterity that even Methuselah was the longest lived of all the children of Adam we need not grant nor is it definitively set downe by Moses Indeed of those ten mentioned in Scripture with their severall ages it must be true but whether those seven of the line of Caine and theiâ— progeny or any of the sons or daughters posterity after them outlived those is not expressed in holy Scripture and it will seeme more probable that of the line of Caine some were longer lived then any of Seth if we concede that seven generations of the one lived as long as nine of the other As for what is commonly alledged that God would not permit the life of any unto a thousand because alluding unto that of David no man should live one day in the sight of the Lord although it be urged by divers yet is it me thinks an inference somewhat Rabbinicall and not of power to perswade a serious examinator Having thus made manifest in generall how powerfully the length of lives conduced unto populosity of those times it will yet be easier acknowledged if we discend to particularities and consider how many in seven hundred yeares might discend from one man wherein considering the length of their dayes we may conceave the greatest number to have beene alive together And this that no reasonable spirit may contradict wee will declare with manifest disadvantage for whereas the duration of the world unto the â—loud was above 1600. yeares we will make our compute in lesse then halfe that time nor will we begin with the first man but allow the earth to bee provided of women fit for marriage the second or third first Centuries and will onely take as granted that they might beget children at sixty and at an hundred yeares have twenty allowing for that number forty yeares Nor will we herein single out Methuselah or account from the longest livers but make choice of the shoâ—test of any wee finde recorded in the Text excepting Enoch who after hee had lived as many yeares as there be dayes in the yeare was translated at 365. And thus from one stock of seven hundred yeares multiplying still by twenty we shall finde the product to be one thousand three hundred forty seven millions three hundred sixty eight thousand foure hundred and twenty Centurie 1 20. 2 400. 3 800. 4 160,000 5 3,200,000 6 46,000,000 7 1,280,000,000 The product  1,347,368,420 Now had wee computed by Methuselah the summe had exceeded five hundred thousand millions as large a number from one stock as may bee conceaved in Europe especially if in Constantinople the greatest City thereof there be no more then Botero accounteth seven hundred thousand soules which duely considered wee shall rather admire how the earth contained its inhabitants then doubt its inhabitation and might conceave the Deluge not simply penall but in some way also necessary as many have conceaved of translations if Adam had not sinned and the race of man had remained upon earth immortall Now whereas some to make good
land So is it exceeded by that which by Cardan is termed the greatest in the world that is the River Oregliana in the same Continent which as Maginus delivereth hath beene navigated 6000. miles and opens in a Channell of ninety leagues broad so that as Acosta an ocular witnesse recordeth they that sayle in the middle can make no land of either side Now the ground of this assertion was surely the magnifying esteem of the Ancients arising from the indiscovery of its head For as things unknowne seeme greater then they are and are usually receaved with amplifications above their nature So might it also be with this River whose head being unknowne and drawne to a proverbiall obscurity the opinion thereof became without bounds and men must needs conceat a large extent of that to which the discovery of no man had set a period And this an usuall way to give the superlative unto things of eminency in any kinde and when a thing is very great presently to define it to be the greatest of all whereas indeed Superlatives are difficult whereof there being but one in every kinde their determinations are dangerous and must not be made without great circumspection So the City of Rome is magnified by the Latiâ—s to be the greatest of the earth but time and Geography enforme us that Cairo is bigger then ever it was and Quinsay in China farre exceedeth both So is Olympus extolled by the Greeks as an hill attaining unto heaven but the enlarged Geography of after times makes slight account hereof when they discourse of Andes in Peru or Teneriffa in the Canaries So have all Ages conceaved and most are still ready to sweare the Wren is the least of birds yet the discoveries of America and even of our owne Plantations have shewed us one farre lesse that is the Humbird not much exceeding a Beetle And truly for the least and greatest the highest and the lowest of every kinde as it is very difficult to define them in visible things so is it to understand in things invisible Thus is it no easie lesson to comprehend the first matter and the affections of that which is next neighbour unto nothing and impossible truly to comprehend God who indeed is all things and so things as they arise unto perfection and approach unto God or descend to imperfection and draw neerer unto nothing fall both imperfectly into our apprehensions the one being too weake for our conception our conception too weake for the other Thirdly divers conceptions there are concerning its increment or inundation The first unwarily opinions that this encrease or annuall overflowing is proper unto Nile and not agreeable unto any other River which notwithstanding is common unto many currents of Africa For about the same time the River Niger and Zaire do oveâ—flow and so do the Rivers beyond the mountaines of the Moone as Suama and Spirito Santo and not onely these in Africa but some also in Europe and Asia for so it is reported of Menan in India and so doth Botero report of Duina in Livonia and the same is also observable in the River Jordan in Judea for so is it delivered Josuah 3. that Jordan overfloweth all his banks in the time of harvest The effect indeed is wonderfull in all and the causes surely best resolvable from observations made in the Countries themselves the parts through which they passe or whence they take their originall That of Nilus hath beene attempted by many and by some to that despaire of resolution that they have only referred it unto the providence of God and the secret manuduction of all things unto their ends but divers have attained the truth and the cause alledged by Diodorus Seneca Strabo and others is allowable that the inundation of Nilus in Aegypt proceeded from the raines in Aethiopia and the mighty source of waters falling towards the fountaines thereof For this inundation unto the Aegyptians happeneth when it is winter unto the Aethiopians which habitations although they have no cold winter the Sun being no farther removed from them in Cancer then unto us in Taurus yet is the fervour of the ayre so well remitâ—ed as it admits a sufficient generation of vapours and plenty of showres ensuing thereupon This theory of the Ancients is since confirmed by experience of the Modernes as namely by Franciscus Alvarez who lived long in those parts and hath left a description of Aethiopia affirming that from the middle of June unto September there fell in his time continuall raines As also Antonius Ferdinandus who in an Epistle written from thence and noted by Condignus affirmeth that during the winter in those Countries there passed no day without raine Now this is also an usuall course to translate a remarkable quality into a propriety and where we admire an effect in one to opinion there is not the like in any other with these conceits do common apprehensions entertaine the antidotall and wondrous condition of Ireland conceaving in that Land onely an immunity from venemous creatures but unto him that shall further enquire the same will be affirmed of Creta memorable in ancient stories even unto fabulous causes and benediction from the birth of Jupiter The same is also found in Ebusus or Evisa an Island neere Majorca upon the coast of Spaine With these opinions do the eyes of neighbour spectators behold Aetna the flaming mountaine in Sicilia But Navigators tell us there is a burning mountaine in Island a more remaâ—keable one in Teneriâ—â—a of the Canaries and many vulcano's or fiery hils elsewhere Thus Crocodiles were thought to be peculiar unto Nile and the opinion so possessed Alexander that when he had discovered some in Ganges he fell upon conceit he had found the head of Nilus but later discoveries affirme they are not onely in Asia and Africa but very frequent in some Rivers of America Another opinion confineth its inundation and positively affirmeth it constantly encreaseth the seventeenth day of June wherein notwithstanding a larger forme of speech were safer then that which punctually prefixeth a constant day thereto for first this expression is different from that of the Ancients as Herodotus Diodorus Seneca c. delivering only that it happeneth about the entrance of the Sunne into Câ—ncer wherein they warily deliver themselves and reserve a reasonable latitude So when Hippocrates saith Sub Cane ante Canem difficiles sunt purgationes there is a latitude of dayes comprised therein for under the Dogstar he containeth not onely the day of its ascent but many following and some ten dayes preceding So Aristotle delivers the affections of animalls with the wary termes of Circa magna ex parte and when Theodorus translateth that part of his Coeunt Thunni Scombri mense Februario post Idus pariunt Iâ—nio ante Nâ—nas Scaliger for ante Nonas renders it Iunii initâ—o because that exposition affordeth the latitude of divers dayes For affirming it happeneth before the Nones he alloweth but one day
that is the Calends for in the Romane account the second day is the fourth of the Nones of June Againe were the day definitive it had prevented the delusion of the Devill nor could he have gained applause by its prediction who notwithstanding as Athanasius in the life of Anthony relateth to magnifie his knowledge in things to come when he perceived the rains to fall in Aethiopia would presage unto the Aegyptians the day of its inundation And this would also make uselesse that naturall experiment observed in earth or sand about the River by the weight whereof as good Authors report they have unto this day a knowledge of its encrease Lastly it is not reasonable from variable and unstable causes to derive a fixed and constant effect and such are the causes of this Inundation which cannot indeed be regular and therefore their effects not prognosticable like Ecclipses for depending upon the clouds and descent of showres in Aethiopia which have their generation from vaporous exhalations they must submit their existence unto contingencies and endure anticipation and recession from the moveable condition of their causes And therefore some yeares there hath been no encrease at all as Seneca and divers relate of the eleventh yeare of Cleopatra nor nine yeares together as is testified by Calisthenes Some yeares it hath also retarded and came far later then usually it was expected as according to Sozomen and Nicephorus it happened in the dayes of Theodosius whereat the people were ready to mutiny because they might not sacrifice unto the River according to the custome of their Predecessors Now this is also an usuall way of mistake and many are deceived who too strictly construe the temporall considerations of things Thus bookes will tell us and we are made to beleeve that the fourteenth yeare males are seminificall and pubescent but he that shall enquire into the generality will rather adhere unto the cautelous assertion of Aristotle that is bis septem annis exactis and then but magna ex parte That Whelps are blinde nine dayes and then begin to see is generally beleeved but as we have elsewhere declared it is exceeding rare nor doe their eye-lids usually open untill the twelfth and sometimes not before the fourteenth day And to speake strictly an hazardable determination it is unto fluctuating and indifferent effects to affixe a positive type or period for in effects of far more regular causalities difficulties doe often arise and even in time it selfe which measureth all things we use allowance in its commensuration Thus while we conceive we have the account of a year in 365 dayes exact enquirers and computists will tell us that we escape 6 houres that is a quarter of a day and so in a day which every one accounts 24 houres or one revolution of the Sunne in strict account we must allow the addition of such a part as the Sunne doth make in his proper motion from West to East whereby in one day he describeth not a perfect circle Fourthly it is affirmed by many and received by most that it never raineth in Aegypt the River supplying that defect and bountifully requiting it in its Inundation but this must also be received in a qualified sense that is that it raines but seldome at any time in the Summer and very rarely in the Winter But that great showres do sometimes fall upon that Region beside the assertion of many Writers we can confirme from honourable and ocular testimony and that not many yeares past it rayned in Grand Cairo 8 or 9 dayes together Beside men hereby forget the relation of holy Scripture as is delivered Ex. 9. Behold I will cause it to raine a very grievous haile such as hath not been in Aegypt since the foundation thereof even untill now wherein God threatning such a raine as had not happened it must be presumed they had been acquainted with some before and were not ignorant of the substance the menace being made in the circumstance Now this mistake ariseth from a misapplication of the bounds or limits of time and an undue transition from one unto another which to avoid we must observe the punctuall differences of time and so reasonably distinguish thereof as not to confound or lose the one in the other For things may come to passe Semper Plerumque Saepè or Nunquam Aliquando Raro that is Alwayes or never for the most part or Sometimes Oftimes or Seldome Now the deception is usuall which is made by the misapplication of these men presently concluding that to happen often which happeneth but sometimes that never which happeneth but seldome and that alway which happeneth for the most part So is it said the Sunne shines every day in Rhodes because for the most part it faileth not So we say and believe that a Camelion never â—ateth but liveth only upon ayre whereas indeed it is seen to eat very seldome but many there are who have beheld it to feed on flyes And so it is said that children borne in the eighth moneth live not that is for the most part but not to be concluded alwayes nor it seems in former ages in all places for it is otherwise recorded by Aristotle concerning the births of Aegypt Lastly it is commonly conceived that divers Princes have attempted to cut the Isthmus or tract of land which parteth the Arabian and Mediterranâ—an Sea but wherâ—in â—pon enquiry I finde some difficulty concerning the place aâ—tempted many with good authority affirming that the intent was not immediatly to unitâ— these Seas but to make a navigable channell betweene the Red Sea and the Nile the markeâ— whereof are extant to this day it was first attemptâ—d by Sersostris after by Dâ—â—iâ—s aâ—d in a feare to drowne the Country deserâ—ed by them both but was long after re-attempted and in some manner effected by Philâ—dâ—lphus and so the Grand Signior who is Lord of the Country conveyeth his Gallyes into the Red Sea by the Nile for he bringeth them downe to Grand Cairo where they are taken in pâ—â—ces caâ—â—yed upon Camels backs and rejoyned together at Suâ—s his port and navall station for that Sea whereby in effect he acts the designe of Cleopatra who after the battell of Actium in a different way would have conveyed her Gallies into the Red Sea And therefore that proverbe to cut an Isthmus that is to take great paines and â—ffect noâ—hing alludeth not unto this attempt but is by Erasmus applyed unto severall other as that undertaking of Câ—idians to cut their Isthmus but especially that of Corinth so unsuccessefully attempted by many Empâ—rors The Cnidians were deterred by the peremptory disswasion of Apollo plainly commanding them to desist for if God had thought it fit hee would have made that Country an Islâ—nd at fiâ—st But this perhaps will not be thought a reasonable discouâ—agâ—ment unto the activity of those spirits which endeavour to advantage nature by Art and upon good grounds to promote any part of the
Grand Signior and most observable in the Moores in Bâ—aâ—ilia which transplanted about an hundred years past continue the tinctures of their fathers unto this day and so likewise faire or white people translated into hotter Countries receive not impressions amounting to this complexion as hath been observed in many Europeans who have lived in the land of Negroes and as Edvardus Lopes testifieth of the Spanish plantations that they retained their native complexions unto his dayes Fourthly if the fervor of the Sunne were the sole cause hereof in Aethiopia or any land of Negroes it were also reasonable that inhabitants of the same latitude subjected unto the same vicinity of the Sunne the same diurnall arch and direction of its rayes should also partake of the same hue and complexion which notwithstanding they do not For the Inhabitants of the same latitude in Asia are of a different complexion as are the Inhabitants of Cambogia and Java insomuch that some conceave the Negroe is properly a native of Africa and that those places in Asia inhabited now by Moores are but the inâ—rusions of Negroes ariving first from Africa as we generally conceave of Madagascar and the adjoyning Islands who retaine the same complexion unto this day But this defect is more remarkable in America which although subjected unto both the Tropicks yet are not the Inhabitants black betweeâ—e or neere or under either neither to the Southward in Brasilia Chili or Peru nor yet to the Northward in Hispaniola Castilia del Oro or Nicaraguava and although in many parts thereof it be confessed there bee at present swarmes of Negroes serving under the Spaniard yet were they all transported from Africa since the discovery of Columbus 〈◊〉 are not indigenous or proper natives of America Fifthly we cannot conclude this complexion in Nations from the vicinity or habitude they hold unto the Sun for even in Africa they be Negroes under the Southerne Tropick but arâ— not all of this huâ— either under or neere the Northerne So the people of Gualata Agaâ—es â—aramantes and of Goaga all within the Northerne Tropicks are not Negroes but on the other side about Capo Negro Cefala and Madagascar they are of a Jetty black Now if to salve this Anomaly wee say the heate of the Sun is more powerfull in the Southerne Tropick because in the signe of Capricorne falls out the Perigeum or lowest place of the Sun in his Excentrick whereby he becomes neerer unto them then unto the other in Cancer wee shall not absolve the doubt And if any insist upon such nicities and will presume a different effect of the Sun from such a difference of place or vicinity we shall ballance the same with the concernment of its motion and time of revolution and say he is more powerfull in the Northerne hemisphere and in the Apogeâ—â— for therein his motion is slower and so his heate respectively unto those habitations as of duration so also of more effect For though he absolve his revolution in 365. dayes odde howres and minutes yet by reason of his Excentricity his motion is unequall and his course farre longer in the Northerne semicircle then in the Southerne for the latter he passeth in 178. dayes but the other takes him 187. that is eleven dayes more so is his presence more continued unto the Northerne Inhabitant and the longest day in Cancer is longer unto us then that in Capricorne unto the Southerne habitator Beside hereby we onely inferre an inequality of heate in different Tropicks but not an equality of effects in other parts subjected to the same For in the same degree and as neere the earth he makes his revolution unto the American whose Inhabitants notwithstanding partake not of the same effect And if herein we seek a reliefe from the Dogstarre we shall introduce an effect proper unto a few from a cause common unto many for upon the same grounds that Starre should have as forcible a power upon America and Asia and although it be not verticall unto any part of Asia but onely passeth by Beach in terra incognita yet is it so unto America and vertically passeth over the habitations of Peru and Brasilia Sixtly and which is very considerable there are Negroes in Africa beyond the Southerne Tropick and some so far removed from it as Geographically the clime is not intemperate that is neere the cape of good Hope in 36. of Southerne Latitude Whereas in the same elevation Northward the Inhabitants of America are faire and they of Europe in Candy Sicily and some parts of Spaine deserve not propâ—rly so low a name as Tawny Lastly whereas the Africans are conceaved to be more pâ—culiarly scorched and torrified from the Sun by addition of drinesse from the soyle from want and defect of water it will not excuse the doubt For the parts which the Negroes possesse are not so void of Rivers and moisture as is herein presumed for on the other side the mountaines of the Moone in that great tract called Zanzibar there are the mighty Rivers of Suama and Spirito Santo on this side the great River Zaire the mighty Nile and Niger which doe not onely moysten and contemperate the ayre by their exhalations but refresh and humâ—ctate the earth by their annuall inundations Beside in that part of Africa which with all disadvantage is most dry that is in site betweene the Tropicks defect of Rivers and inundations as also abundance of sands the people are not esteemed Negroes and that is Lybia which with the Greeks carries the name of all Africa A region so desâ—rt dry and sandy that travellers as Leo reports are faine to carry water on their Camels whereof they finde not a drop sometime in 6. or 7. dayes yet is this Countrey accounted by Geographers no part of terra Nigritarum and Pâ—olomy placeth herein the Leuco Aethiopes or pale and Tawney Moores Now the ground of this opinion might bee the visible quality of Blacknesse observably produced by heate fire and smoake but especially with the Ancients the violent esteeme they held of the heate of the Sun in the hot or torrid Zone conceaving that part unhabitable and therefore that people in the vicinities or frontiers thereof could not escape without this change of their complexions But how farre they were mistaken in this apprehension moderne Geography hath discovered And as wee have declared there are many within this Zone whose complexions descend not so low as blacknesse And if we should strictly insist hereon the possibility might fall into some question that is whether the heate of the Sun whose feâ—vor may swarâ—e a living part and even black a dead or dissolving flâ—sh can yet in animals whose parâ—â— are successive and in continuall flâ—x produce this deepe and perfect glosse of Blacknesse Thus having evinced at least made dubious the Sunne is not the Author of this blacknesse how and when this tincture fiâ—st began iâ— yet a Riddle and positively to determine it surpasseth my presumption Seeing
compage of bones wee shall readily discover thaâ— mâ—n and women have foure and twenty ribs that is twelve on each side seven greater annexed unto the Sternon and five lesser which come short thereof wherein if it sometimes happen that either sex exceed the conformation is irregular deflecting from the common rate or number and no more inferrible upon mankinde then the monstrosity of the son of Rapha or the vicious excesse in the number of fingers and toes and although some difference there be in figure and the female â—s inominatum be somewhat more protuberant to make a fayrer cavity for the Infant the coccyx sometime more reflected to give the easier delivery and the ribs themselves seeme a little flatter yet are they equall in number And therefore while Aristotle doubteth the relations made of Nations which had but seven ribs on a side and yet delivereth that men have generally no more then eight as he rejecteth their history so can we not accept of his Anatomy Againe although we concede there wanted one rib in the Sceleton of Adam yet were it repugnant unto reason and common observation that his posterity should want the same for we observe that mutilations are not transmitted from father unto son the blind begetting such as can see men with one eye children with two and criples mutilate in their owne persons do come out perfect in their generations For the seed conveigheth with it not onely the extract and single Idea of every part whereby it transmits their perfections or infirmities but double and over againe whereby sometimes it multipliciously delineates the same as in Twins in mixed and numerous generations And to speake more strictly parts of the seed do seeme to containe the Idea and power of the whole so parents deprived of hands beget manuall issues and the defect of those parts is supplyed by the Idea of others So in one graine of corne appearing similary and insufficient for a plurall germination there lyeth dormant the virtuality of many other and from thence sometimes proceed an hundred eares and thus may bee made out the cause of multiparous productions for though the seminall materialls disperse and separate in the matrix the formative operator will not delineat a part but endeavour the formation of the whole effecting the same as farre as the matter will permit and from devided materials attempt entire formations And therefore though wondrous strange it may not be impossible what is confirmed at Lausdun concerning the Countesse of Holland nor what Albertus reports of the birth of an hundred and fifty and if we consider the magnalities of Generation in some things wee shall not controverâ—â—â— possibilities in others nor easily question that great worke whose wonders are onely second unto those of the Creation and a close apprehension of the one might perhaps afford a glimmering light and crepusculous glance of the other CHAP. III. Of Methâ—selah VVHat hath beene every where opinion'd by all men and in all times is more then Paradoxicall to dispute and so that Methuselah was the longest liver of all the posterity of Adam we quietly beleeve but that he must needs be so is perhaps below Paralogy to deny For hereof there is no determination from the Text wherein it is onely particular'd hee was the longest liver of all the Patriarchs whose age is there expressed but that he outlived all others we cannot well conclude For of those nine whose death is mentioned before the flood the Text expresseth that Enoch was the shortest liver who saw but three hundred sixty five yeares but to affirme from hence none of the rest whose age is not expressed did dye before that time is surely an illation whereto we cannot assent Againe many persons there were in those dayes of longevity of whose age notwithstanding there is no account in Scripture as of the race of Caine the wives of the nine Patriarches with all the sons and daughters that every one begat whereof perhaps some persons might outlive Methuselaâ— the Text intending onely the masculine line of Seth conduceable unto the Genealogy of our Saviour and the ante-diluvian Chronology And therefore we must not contract the lives of those which are left in silence by Moses for neither is the age of Abel expressed in the Scripture yet is he conceived farre elder then commonly is opinion'd and if wee beleeve the conclusion of his Epitaph as made by Adam and so set downe by Salian Posuit maerens pater cui à silio justius positum foret Anno ab ortu rerum 130. ab â—bele nato 129. we shall not need to doubt which notwithstanding Cajetan and others confirme nor is it improbable if wee conceive that Abel was borne in the second yeare of Adam and Seth a yeare after the death of Abel for so it being said that Adam was an hundred and thirty yeares old when he begat Seth Abel must perish the yeare before which was one hundred twenty nine And if the account of Cain extend unto the Deluge it may not bee improbable that some thereof exceeded any of Seth nor is it unlikely in life riches power and temporall blessings they might surpasse â—hem in this world whose lives reâ—erred unto the next for so when the seed oâ— Jacob was under affliction and captivity that of Ismael and 〈…〉 and grew mighty there proceeding from the one â—welve Princes from the other no lesse then foureteene Dukes and â—ight Kings And whereas the age of Cain and his posterity is not delivered in the Text some doe salve it from the secret method of Scripâ—â—e which sometimes wholly omits but seldome or never deliveâ—s the entire duration of wicked and faithlesse persons as is observable in the history of Esau and the Kings of Israel and Judah And thereâ—ore that mention is made that Ismael lived 137. yeares some conceive he adhered unto the faith of Abraham for so did others who were not descended from Jacob for Job is thought to be an Idumean and of the seed of Esau. Lastly although we rely not thereon we will not omit that conceit uâ—ged by learned men that Adam was elder then Methuselah in as much as he was created in thâ— perfect age of Man which was in those dayes fifty or sixty yeares for about that time wee reade that they begat children so that if unto 930. we adde sixty yeares he will exceed Methuselah And therefore if not in length of dayes at least in old age he surpassed others he was older then all who was never so young as any for though hee knew old age he was never acquainted with puberty youth or Infancy and so in a strict account he begat children at one yeare old and if the usuall compute will hold that men are of the same age which are borne within compasse of the same yeare Eve was as old as her husband and parent Adam and Cain their son coetaneous unto both Now that conception that no man did ever attaine
and pleniluary exemptions the Eclipses of Sunne and Moone conjunctions and oppositions Planeticall the houses of Planets and the site of the Luminaries under the signes wherein some would induce a restraint of Purgation or Phlebotomy there would arise aboue an hundred more so that of the whole year the use of Physicke would not be secure much above a quarter now as we doe not strictly observe these dayes so need we not the other and although consideration bee made hereof yet might wee preserve the nearer Indications before those which are drawn from the time of the year or other caelestial relation The second Testimony is taken out of the last peece of his Age and after the experience as some thinke of no lesse then an hundred years and that is his booke of Aphorismes or short and definitive determinations in Physicke the Aphorisme alleadged is this sub Cane ante Canem difficiles sunt purgationes sub Cane Anticane say some including both the Dogstarres but that cannot consist with the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor had that Criticisme been ever omitted by Galen now how true this sentence was in the mouth of Hippocrates and with what restraint it must be understood will readily appeare from the difference between us in circumstantiall relations And first concerning his time and Chronologie he lived in the reigne of Artaxerxes Longimanus about the 82. Olympiade 450. yeares before Christ and from our times above two thousand Now since that time as we have already declared the Starres have varied their longitudes and having made large progressions from West to Eâ—st the time of the Dogstars ascent must also very much alter for it ariseth later now in the yeare then it formerly did in the same latitude and far later unto us who have a greater elevation for in the dayes of Hippocrates this Starre ascended in Cancer which now ariseth in Leo and will in progression of time arise in Virgo and therefore in regard of the time wherein he lived the Aphorisme was more considerable in his dayes then it is to us or unto his country in ours The place of his nativity was Coos an Iland in the Myrtoan Sea not far from Rhodes described in Mappes by the name of Lango and called by the Turkes who are masters thereof Stancora according unto Ptolomie of Northerne latitude 36. degrees that he lived and writ in these parts is not improbably collected from the Epistles that passed betwixt him and Artaxeâ—xes as also between the Citizens of Abdera and Coos in the behalfe of Democritus which place being seated from our latitude of 52 16 degrees Southward there will arise a different consideration and we may much deceive our selves if we conforme the ascent of Starres in one place unto another or conceive they arise the same day of the moneth in Coos and in England for as Petavius computes in the first Julian yeare at Alexandria of laâ—itude 31. the Starre arose cosmically in the twelfe degree of Caâ—cer Heliacally the 26. by the compute of Geminus about this time at Rhodes of latitude 37. it ascended cosmically the 16 of Cancer Heliacally the first of Leo and about that time at Rome of latitude 42. cosmically the 22. of Cancer and Heliacally the first of Leo for unto places of greater latitude it ariseth ever later so that in some latitudes the cosmicall ascent happeneth not before the twentieth degree of Virgo ten dayes before the Autumnall Aequinox and if they compute Heliacally after it in Libra Againe should we allow all and only compute unto the latitude of Coos yet would it not impose a totall omission of Physicke for if in the hottest season of that clime all Physicke were to be declined then surely in many other none were to be used at any time whatsoever for unto many parts not only in the Spring and Autumne but also in the Winter the Sun is nearer then unto the clime of Coos in the Summer The third consideration concerneth purging medicines which are at present far different from those implyed in this Aphorisme and such as were commonly used by Hippocrates for three degrees wee make of purgative medicines The first thereof is very benigne nor far removed from the nature of Aliment into which upon defect of working it is oft times converted and in this forme do we account Manna Cassia Tamarindes and many more whereof we finde no mention in Hippocrates the second is also gentle having a familiarity with some humor into which it is but converted if it faile of its operation of this sort are Aloe Rhabarbe Senna c. whereof also few or none were knowne unto Hippocrates The third is of a violent and venemous quality which frustrate of its action assumes as it were the nature of poyson such as are Scammoneum Colocynthis Elaterium Euphorbium Tithymallus Laureola Peplum c. of this sort it is manifest Hippocrates made use even in Fevers Pleurisies and Quinsies and that composition is very remarkable which is ascribed unto Diogenes in Aeius that is of Pepper Sal Armoniac Euphorbium of each an ounce the Dosis whereof foure scruples and an half which whosoever should take would finde in his bowells more then a canicular heat though in the depth the Winter many of the like nature may be observed in Aetius Tetrab 1. Serm. 3. or in the book De Dinamidiis ascribed unto Galen which is the same verbatim with the other Now in regard of the second and especially the first degree of Purgatives the Aphorisme is not of force but we may safely use â—hem they being benigne and of innoxious qualities and therefore Lucas Gauricus who hath endeavoured with many testimonies to advance this consideration at length concedeth that lenitive Physicke may bee used especially when the Moone is well affected in Cancer or in the watery signes but in regard of the third degree the Aphorisme is considerable purgations may be dangerous and a memorable example there is in the medicall Epistles of Crucius of a Roman Prince that dyed upon an ounce of Diaphaenicon taken in this season from the use whereof we refraine not only in hot seasons but warily exhibit it at all times in hot diseases which when necessity requires we can performe more safely then the Ancients as having better wayes of preparation and correction that is not onely by addition of other bodyes but separation of noxious parts from their own But beside these differences between Hippocrates and us the Physitians of these times and those of Antiquity the condition of the disâ—ase and the intention of the Physitian holds a maine consideration in what time and place soever for Physicke is either curative or preventive Preventive we call that which by purging noxious humors and the causes of diseases preventeth sicknesse in the healthy or the recourse thereof in the valâ—tudinary and this is of common use both at the Spring and Fall and we commend not the same at this season