of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
Mountains on the South are very healthy especially if they lye towards the East the Winds whereof are most healthy And this is the cause of the diversity observ'd in Countries lying in the same Climat which experience not the same changes as the Isle of France is very temperate and yet lyes in the same Climat with Podolia a part of Poland where the cold is extreamly rigorous and in the Islands Bornaio and Sumatra men live commonly 130 years and are not black as the Africans whose life is very short and yet they lye in the same Climat namely under the Aequinoctial Line The Sixth said That Life being the continuance of the radical heat in Humidity that Climat must be properest for Longaevity which will longest preserve that conjunction The violent heat of the Climats near the Equator consumes the radical moisture and makes the natural heat languish although under the Line the coolness of the nights twelve hours long renders it more supportable whereas in our longest summer-Summer-days when the Sun is in Cancer he is no more then 18 degrees from the Horizon and so diffuses his rays upon the vapours hovering about the Earth which reflecting the same after a refraction make the nights almost always light and consequently hot there being no light without heat On the contrary the Northern parts towards the Pole receiving the Suns rays only obliquely are very cold and unfit for long-life combating the heat and desiccating the radical moisture But the temperately hot are the most healthy especially if the air of greatest necessity to Life be pure and not corrupted by vapours CONFERENCE CXVII Which is most necessary to a State and most noble Physick or Law THese two Professions are not absolutely necessary to the subsistence of a State but only suppose some evil which they undertake to amend Physick the disorder of the humours in Mans body and Law that of Manners in the body of the State So that if all people were healthy and good both would be useless But the misery of our Nature having made us slaves to our Appetite and tributaries to Death and Diseases which lead thereto this adventitious necessity hath given rise to two powerful remedies against those two evils Physick to oppose the diseases of the Body and Law to repress the disorders of our Passions which being the sources of all mischiefs Law which restrains their course seems to have as much pre-eminence above Physick as the Body which the latter governs is inferiour to the Mind which the former regulates Moreover Health the end of Physick is common both to Men and Beasts who have a better share thereof and have taught us the best secrets of Physick but to live according to right reason which is the aim of Law is peculiar to man although oftentimes neither the one nor the other obtain its end The Second said These Disciplines are to be consider'd either according to their right use or as they are practis'd Physick consider'd in its right administration is the art of curing Diseases and preserving Health without which there is no pleasure in the World Law taken also according to its institution is that Tree of the Garden of Eden which bears the knowledg of Good and Evil Right and Wrong as Physick is the Tree of Life Now if we compare them together the latter which maintains the precious treasure of Health is as the foundation upon which Law builds its excellent Ordinances for without Health not only the administrations of Justice but all employments of Arts and Exercises cease And though Laws and Justice serve for the ornament of a State yet they are not absolutely necessary to its conservation there being society among Robbers and many States having begun and subsisted by Rapines Violences and other injustices but none without Health which is the foundation of all goods preserving the absolute Being of every thing and by that means maintaining all the faculties of Body and Mind Wherefore Physick is profitable not only to the Body but also to the Soul whose nature faculties and actions it contemplates But if these Arts be consider'd as they are practis'd now a days 't is certain that if there are Mountebanks Ignorants and Cheats who practise Physick amongst a good number of good Physitians there are also Champertors Forgers and other such black souls who live by fraud which they exercise under the mask of justice We must likewise distinguish the bad judgments of certain Nations from the truth For if the Romans sometimes banish'd their Physitians and Chirurgians this might be done out of ignorance as when they saw the Gangren'd Leg of one of their Citizens cut off And though they were for some time without Physitians yet they were never without Physick at least natural The Third said Law hath the pre-eminence above Physick upon account of the great benefits it brings to a State by delivering the same from greater more troublesome and more incurable evils And good according to the Moral axiom being the more divine by how much 't is more common and diffus'd it follows that Law is more divine then Physick For by checking our passions and obstructing the career of illegal Ambitions and Usurpations it does good not only to private persons as Physick doth but also to the whole Publick which is engag'd by particular passions whence Law-sutes Seditions Wars and other evils arise which being publick are of more importance then those to which Physick is design'd whose whole business is about the four humours either to keep them in a just temper or reduce them to their natural state from which Diseases debauch them Besides Physick only cures the Body whereas Law represses the mind's disorders and even the intentions Lastly the evils Physick defends us from are of easie cure having all sensible indications but Law remedies such as depend upon the thoughts and counsels of men impenetrable by sense Moreover Physick regards only particular persons but Law maintains a moral union and good intelligence between all the parts of a Commonwealth namely men of several conditions and keeps every one within the bounds of his own quality and station and so is like a Universal Spirit or Intelligence presiding over all our motions hindring ruptures and dissensions the bane of a State as that doth vacuity which tends to the destruction of the World The Fourth said That as the multitude of Physitians in a City is a sign of a multitude of diseases reigning therein so the multitude of Laws and Judges argues corruption of manners Wherefore both these Professions may seem equally useless to a State free from wicked and miserable persons And indeed we see many Nations have wanted both at Rome Physitians were unknown for divers ages and are so still in some Countries and most States of the World dispense very well with the want of Lawyers whose contrary opinions are as destructive to the State and particular persons as the number of Physitians is to the Sick
't is fed by Exhalations plentifully supply'd from the Earth whence they are attracted and fired by the Stars in this place For if this Milky-way were of the nature of Comets or other lucid Meteors it could not always subsist but only while its matter lasted which besides would be more copious in some seasons then in others as in Spring and Autumn then in the droughts of Summer or frosts of Winter which closes the pores of the earth and so it would not have the same permanent position and figure no more then density rarity latitude and equality of its parts so constant that on the side of Cassiopaea it always appears alike winding and likewise in other places though we should grant the earth capable to supply fumes enough for feeding this so spacious circle which yet the disproportion of this point of the World compar'd to the vast extent of that circumference palpably prov'd to be in the Firmament allows not For besides that the diversity of Parallaxes would represent it under several Stars to the Inhabitants of several places if it were in the air as it happens to Comets and other aerious impressions and yet 't is always seen in the same place and equally distant from the fix'd Stars its proper motion from West to East whereby it moves one degree in a hundred years demonstrats that 't is in the eighth Sphere whose particular motion is the same And Galileo's Glasses which have discover'd abundance of Stars in this part convincingly manifest that 't is nothing but an assembly of almost innumerable small Stars which not being great enough to transmit their light to us distinctly the same is confounded and united together as 't is proper to all qualities and so of Light to associate it self to other light and thus produces that whiteness which is a weak and imperfect light For 't is not enough that an object be luminous it must be great and large or else near the eye to be visible the Stars as well as all other natural agents having a sphere of activity beyond which their action is not sensible hence the Planets and of them the Moon as nearest us seem greater than the fix'd Stars whose rayes being weakned by their distance cannot come directly to us as those of the Planets do but twinkle and sparkle Now though Astrologers make but six sorts of fix'd Stars according to their six different magnitudes those of the first being 170 times greater then the Earth and those of the last and sixt 18 times yet Tycho Brahe Americus Vesputius and divers others have discover'd some much less and less luminous then these last Nor are they to be credited who have limited their number to 1022 which the Scripture saith is infinite and known to God alone to whom the Prophet attributes it as a prerogative to number them and call them by their names The Third said There are two sorts of Milky-ways one in the Air and the other in the Heaven The first of which alone Aristotle spoke is a light produc'd by exhalations either fired or irradiated as in Comets from which this milky way differs only upon account of its great extent caus'd by the plenty of Exhalations attracted by a great number of Stars which are neer Cassiopaea and the Poles where also this Way is brighter then in other places The other Milky Way is part of the Heaven or Firmament equally dividing the same in two as other Circles do although 't is rather a Zone or Space then a Circle as well as the Zodiack with whom it agrees in that it hath breadth as that hath and is oblique to the Aequinoctial having other Poles than those of the World but differs in that 't is not so broad the Zodiack having sixteen degrees and this commonly between eight and ten for 't is neither equally broad nor luminous in all its parts and its obliquity is much greater than that of the Zodiack the middle of which recedes not from the Aequinoctial above 23 degrees and a half but this about 56 degrees and a half towards the North and neer 63 degrees towards the South It differs also from all the great Circles in that it changes position according to the motion of the Firmament so that 't is mov'd with two Motions namely that of the First Mover from East to West upon the Poles of the World making an intire revolution in one day and another proper to it self from West to East upon the Poles of the Ecliptick in the same time with the Firmament which motion the other Circles have not being either not mov'd at all as the Horizon and Meridian or only by the motion of the First Mover as the Aequinoctial Ecliptick Tropicks and Colures Upon the Second Point it was said That the Earth produces Metals to be imployed for several uses in order to humane Commerce and Society which being founded upon Hope and Fear Reward and Punishment Gold and Iron the two most powerful Metals are highly instrumental to the establishing of the same Gold which an Ancient call'd the Sun of the Earth being the Star which gives light to our hope and the sweet influences of Reward And Iron by its obscure and livid colour being the dark Star of our fear and of death whereof 't is the most usual Instrument But as Fear is without comparison stronger than Hope for the one tends to the preservation of Being the other only to Well-being so Iron the Instrument of Terror must likewise have more powerful effects than Gold which is only the object of Hope Moreover the Law relieves such as the Just Fear of Iron may have constrain'd to any thing as being the greatest violence in the World but not those whom the desire of Gold or hope of Gain hath engaged to any Affair And indeed all Earthly Powers are measured only by the point of the Sword Arms and Iron seem to be the share of Kings and all the Nobility as Gold that of Merchants and the Vulgar from whom all Sovereigns know how to get it when they think fit Besides since Gold hath need of Iron not only for the digging of it out of the entrails of the Earth but also for defending and preserving it an evidence of its weakness it may be said the prey of him who knows how to manage Iron best And Solon had reason to contemn the vanity of Croesus who made a shew of his riches as of his greatest power foretelling him that it would become the booty of him that should have a sharper sword And Philip of Macedon never conquer'd so many places by trucket with Mules laden with Gold as his Son did whole Kingdoms by the Sword But what power can we give to Gold which weakens and enervates its possessors as appears by the Lacedemonians who were masters of Greece whilst Iron alone was in use with them and were corrupted by the Gold which Lysander brought thither The Captain in Tacitus had reason to believe
Moon which manifestly exercises its empire over all Humid Bodies the flux and reflux following the Lunar Periods and Motions not onely every six months to wit during the two Aequinoxes when their Tides are very high but also every month in the Conjunction and Opposition of the Moon and also every six hours of the day almost all Seas have their flux and reflux except some which make the same in more or less time and are longer in their reflux than their flux or on the contrary according to the declivity and various winding of the Lands the greatness or smallness of Creeks the Streights of the Seas narrowness of banks and other differences of situation The Second said That the Sea being a simple body can have but one natural Motion viz. that of its own weight which makes it flow into places lower than its source which it can never surmount Amongst the other three Motions proceeding from without that from East to West is discern'd by the time spent in Voyages at Sea which is much longer from West to East than from East to West because in the first they move contrary to the Motion of the Sea and in the second with it Now the cause hereof is the impression of the First Mover upon all the Orbes and Inferior Bodies which follow the rapidity of its daily Motion from East to West upon the Poles of the World That from North to South is likewise seen in most Seas and chiefly in the Euxine which being fill'd by the Palus Maeotis and the Tanais discharges it self by the Aegaean into the Mediterranean Sea which were it not for the high sluces of Africa would continue the same Motion Southwards Which sometimes hindred Darius and Sesostris from digging that space of Land which is between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean for fear lest this latter should overflow those Southern Countries The Cause of this Motion is the multitude of Waters towards that Pole whose coldness not raising so great a quantity of Vapors and Rains as towards the South the Waters come to be greater there and so are forc'd to fall towards the lower places Or rather since there is the same cold under the Antarctick Pole and consequently the same quantity of Waters and Rains this descent of the Waters Southwards must be attributed to the Elevation of the Earth in the North or to the narrow mouths or gulphs of those Seas which make the waters descend out of them more easily than they enter into them As to the flux and reflux which is a Compounded but regular Motion it cannot proceed from Vapors or from inconstant and irregular Winds but from the Motion Light and particular Influence of the Moon which attracting the Sea in the same manner that the Load-stone doth the Iron is the Cause of its accumulation or swelling and increase which makes the flux And then her Virtue abating by her elongation the Waters by their proper weight resume their level and so make the reflux And because all Seas are continuous the Moon when under our Horizon ceases not to cause the same Motions in our Seas as when she is above it the Waters necessarily following the motion of those which are next them which would be alike in all did not some variation arise from the different situations of Lands which is the cause that the flux and reflux of the Ocean is more sensible then the Mediterranean and in this the Adriatick then the Tuscan by reason that Sicily and the point of Italy makes the Sea enter impetuously into the Gulph of Venice wherein is observ'd another particular motion call'd Circulation whereby the Mediterranean flowing by its proper motion from East to West and meeting immediately at the entrance of that Gulph the Coast of Macedonia discharges it self impetuously thereinto and continues its motion to the bottom of the Gulph whence being repercuss'd it returns by the opposite Coast of Calabria to the other point of the Gulph by which it enters into the Tuscan Sea Hence to go from Venice to Otranto they take the Coast of Galabria and to return back that of Macedonia The Third said Nothing so strongly argues the mobility of the Earth as the motions of the Sea and Rivers for what else were it but a miracle if water contain'd in an immoveable vessel should agitate and move it self That of Rivers proceeds not from their weight which makes them fall into a place nearer their Centre seeing that in a declivity requisite to the course of a River for 200 leagues there must then be a depression more sensible then the altitude of the highest Mountains of the Earth nor could the Sea remit the waters to their Springs as the holy Scripture saith it doth if those Springs were higher then it But supposing the motion of the Earth 't is easie to render a reason of that of the Water As for Rivers almost all which run westward the Earth having its Diurnal Motion from West to East according to the Hypothesis of Copernicus may cause this their contrary motion by subtracting it self from the fluidity of the waters liquid bodies not exactly following the motion of solid as the water in a Tub rises in the side opposite to that towards which you sway the Vessel By the same reason also the Sea shall have its course from East to West which is therefore very sensible between the two Tropicks where the rapidity of the Earths motion is greater then under the Poles Hence upon this account Navigation is very easie Westward the Currents very violent the Tides great towards the Coast of America as is observ'd chiefly in Magellan's Streight where the refluxes of the Northern and Eastern Sea are advanc'd above 70 leagues and the Mar del Sur scarce goes to 25 and that weakly but about the Poles the Sea hath no other motion but that which is caus'd by Winds and Tempests As for the flux and reflux of the Sea according to the same supposition of its motion compounded of the annual in the Ecliptick where others make the Sun circulate and the Diurnal upon its own Axis and proper Centre there arises a certain irregular motion sometimes slower and sometimes swifter which is the cause of that flux and reflux for as in a Boat mov'd at first swiftly and then caus'd to move somwhat slower the water contain'd therein swells in its extremities till by continuation of that motion it recover its level and the Boat being again driven with the same velocity the water swells again upon the change of the motion the same comes to pass upon the unequal motion of the Earth mixt of the annual and diurnal But because the Moon being annex'd to the Earth exactly follows its motions therefore most Philosophers have taken the Moon for the cause of the flux and reflux although she be only the sign of it The Fourth said That according to this Hypothesis 't is easie to render a reason of two things very remarkable in
Danubius and Nilus The first which runs from West to East is observ'd in Hungary to move slower about Noon then at other hours of the day as appears by the Water-mills which grinde less at that time because the motion of the Earth being then contrary to that of the Ecliptick it consequently appears more slow And as for the other effect namely the increase and inundation of Nilus which begins at the Summer Solstice this River running directly from South to North from one Tropick to another which is just the middle part of the Earth when it comes to incline its Axis and return the Antarctick part to the Sun the stream of this River which is contrary to that motion waxes slower and being besides augmented by the continual Rains of Summer swells and overflows the Plains of Egypt Which made some Ancients imagine that the North Winds blew again the stream at that time and forc'd the water back upon themselves CONFERENCE CXLVIII Whether is better to Love or to be Lov'd THe same Nature which by an instinct common to us withall things in the world causes us to seek our own good obliges us likewise to Love when we meet Goodness or Beauty in an object capable to render us happy by its possession which consisting in being united to the thing lov'd 't is in this union that the Lover places his greatest felicity and accordingly goes out of himself to joyn himself to what he loves the motions of the will of whose number Love is differing in this point from the actions of the Understanding that these are perform'd by the Species receiv'd by mediation of the Senses into the Intellect which cannot know any thing but what comes home to it but the Will when it Loves must go out of it self and become united to the thing it Loves to the end to beget somthing for Eternity And because things are not known by the Understanding till they have been first purifi'd from the grossness of their matter by the illustration and abctraction which the Agent Intellect makes of their Phantasms or Species hence the notions of the foulest and most dishonest things are always fair and laudable being spiritualis'd and made like the Faculty which knows them On the contrary the Will in loving renders it self like the object which it Loves is turn'd into its nature and receives its qualities if the object be unlawful and dishonest it becomes vicious and its love is criminal Which seems to argue that the Lover is less perfect then the Loved into which he is transform'd as food is less perfect then the body into which it is converted And as that which attracts is more excellent then what is attracted because the stronger draws the weaker so the thing Loved must be more excellent and noble then the Lover whom it attracts to it self Moreover Love according to Plato is a desire of Pulchritude which desire implies want and therefore he that Loves shews thereby that he wants some perfection which renders the thing Lov'd amiable since the Will is never carri'd to any object but what hath some goodness either apparent or real Only God loves not his Creatures for their goodness since they have none of themselves but his will being the cause of all things he renders them good by loving them and willing good to them The Second said Since friendship consists in the union of two or at most of three Wills whose mutual correspondence makes that agreeable harmony and those sweet accords which make ravishing Lovers dye in themselves to live in what they love there is no true love but what is reciprocal which is the reason why none can be contracted with inanimate things no more then with Beasts or Fools And Justice commanding us to render as much as is given us 't is a great injustice not to love those that love us yea if we may believe the Platonists 't is a kind of homicide of the Soul since he that loves being dead in himself and having no more life but in the thing lov'd if that refuses his love by means whereof it should live also in him as he in it he is constrain'd either to dye or languish miserably And whereas he that loves is no longer his own but belongs to the thing lov'd to whom he hath given himself this thing is oblig'd to love him by the same reason that obliges it to love it's self and all that pertains thereunto But though perfect love be compos'd of these two pieces to love and to be lov'd yet the one is often found without the other there being many Lovers wounded with the Poets leaden Arrows who instead of seeing their love requited with love have for all recompense nothing but contempts and refusals 'T is true that it being harder to love without being lov'd then to be lov'd without loving there is no body but would chuse rather to be lov'd then to love upon those terms because nothing flatters our ambition so much as to see our selves sought unto Yet loving is a nobler thing then to be lov'd since honor being more in the honorer then the honored the honor receiv'd by the lov'd thing reflects upon him that loves who for that reason being commended by every one that esteems a good friend as a good treasure and not he that is lov'd is also more excellent and hath more vertue inasmuch as he hath more honor and praise which are the attendants of vertue Moreover the Lover acts freely and therefore more to be valu'd then the lov'd person who is forc'd to suffer himself to be lov'd For though desire commonly follow Sensual Love yet Love is not a desire nor consequently a sign of Indigence otherwise it should cease with the desire and expire after enjoyment which is false for Mothers love their dead Children and even before they came into the world not by a desire but by a motion of Nature which causes us to love what appertains to us and the more if it cost much pain which is the reason why Mothers who contribute more to the birth of their Children and have better assurance that they are their own love them also more tenderly then Fathers do The Third said That to compare the lov'd person with the Lover is to equal the Master with the Servant for the amorous assuming to themselves the quality of Servants of the Ladies whom they call their Mistresses manifest sufficiently thereby that they yield them the pre-eminence And although they be the most interessed in this cause yet they will never have the vanity to prize themselves above what they love which would be to condemn their own choice and their love of defect of judgment which making them sigh after the enjoyment of the object they adore argues their want and indigence not to be supply'd by possession of the good they expect from it which herein like the Intelligences which move without being mov'd themselves excites passions and motions in the
her throat and without whom she would dash against the shore by the Pike which keeps company with the Tench whose sliminess serves to close his wounds by the Tunnies who always set their good eye toward the shore and move well order'd in a cubick squadron by the Sea-Urchins which presaging a tempest lade themselves with stones for fear of being carry'd away by the waves and by all Fishes in general which swim against the wind lest it should open their scales excepting one whose scales are set the contrary way CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases CRisis if you consider its derivation from a word which signifies either to judge or to separate or to encounter agrees in some sort to every of those significations for a Disease is judg'd by it it separates the good humors from the bad and that after a combat between Nature and the Disease But 't is commonly defin'd a mutation of a Disease either to Health or Death for better or for worse We must first consider in it the term of its commencement which is the Augmentation of the Malady whence acute ones have their Crisis sooner then Chronical the very acute being sometimes judg'd in four days in which time very malignant Fevers sweep men away but commonly within seven days acute Diseases are judg'd by the 14th or 20th day and sometimes not before the 40th Chronical Diseases extend to the 120th after which term they count no longer by days but by moneths and years The term it ends at is either Health or Death or the change of one Disease into another The term through which it passes is the space of time employ'd by Nature in the coction separation and excretion of the peccant Humours The Agent or Motor is Nature which must be assisted in imperfect Crises not in such as are perfectly made Lastly we must consider what is mov'd namely the Humors for Crisis hath place only in humoral Diseases A perfect Crisis judges the Malady perfect either to Health or Death and hath had its indices of coction the fourth day for the Crisis on the seventh the eleventh for that on the fourteenth and the seventeenth for that on the twentieth it must also be manifest either by evacuation or abscess for those that mend without apparent cause relapse and fall upon critical days without any dangerous symptom and after such evacuation the Patient must be manifestly better especially if it be universal and sutable to his Nature Age and Malady Long Diseases are judg'd by Abscesses acute by Evacuation In young persons Fevers are judg'd commonly by Haemorrhage or some flux of blood in old men by that of the belly Now besides those Critical and Indicative days there are others call'd Intercidents which judge imperfectly and others also Medicinal because in them purgatives may be adminished which days are sometimes Critical but always unfaithful and commonly mischievous which will better appear by this general application The first day is reckon'd from the hour of the first invasion felt by the Patient in acute Diseases and from the time of his decumbiture in Chronical Yet in women newly deliver'd we begin not to reckon from the time of parturition unless it were precipitated but from the time of the Fever and this first day judges no other Disease but a Febris Ephemera or one-day Fever The second day is vacant and without effect The third is Intercident call'd by some Provocant because it irritates and provokes Nature to make excretions before the time for being odd it causes some motion in the morbifick matter but imperfectly as not following the order of Nature mention'd hereafter neverthess t is Critical in very acute Maladies and such as disorder the Laws of Nature The fourth is an index of the seventh and shews what is to be expected that day by either the Concoction or Crudity of the Urin and other excrements no laudable Crisis hapning without Concoction precedent Which holds good not only in continual Fevers but also in the fits or accessions of Intermitting ones for the fourth day being the middlemost between the first and the seventh it foreshews the design and strength or weakness of Nature and what she is able to do on the seventh The fifth resembles the third being likewise provocatory in Diseases wherein Nature hath made an unprofitable attempt on the third which she then endeavours to repair but unsuccessfully too this Crisis being most commonly imperfect The sixth is also Intercident but ordinarily very badly critical Whence Galen compares it to a cruel and faithless tyrant which precipitates the Patient into evident danger of life if it do not kill him It hath place chiefly in cholerick Diseases for in sanguine ones salutiferous Crises happen on this day which is even the Blood being observ'd to move on even days On the contrary the seventh resembles a just and gentle King or Magistrate for neither precipitating nor deferring too long the judgment of the Patient it gives him time of consideration judging him after its Indices fully and perfectly safely manifestly and without danger 'T is call'd Radical as being the root and foundation of all the other Critical Days and the end of the first week The eighth is of kin to the sixth but not quite so dangerous The ninth is the greatest Intercident and comes nearest to the nature of the Critical though it be not of their number The cause whereof is its being compos'd of odd numbers wherein we have said that morbifick humors are commonly mov'd or else because 't is equally distant from 7 and 11. The tenth resembles the eighth in danger and other circumstances The eleventh is an index of the fourteenth to which it hath the same reference that the fourth hath to the seventh saving that the second week is less active then the first and the third then the second The twelfth is not of any consideration and Galen saith he never observ'd any Crisis good or bad on it The like of the thirteenth The fourteenth follows the seventh in dignity and judges those Diseases which the seventh did not being the end of the second week and in this consideration odd The fifteenth and sixteenth are not any-wise remarkable The seventeenth is an index of the twentieth till which the intervening are insignificant and this twentieth is taken by Physicians for the end of the third week because they make the same begin from the fourteenth inclusively From the 20th to the 40th which is the end of Crisis in acute diseases every seventh day is critical But after the 40th Diseases are call'd Chronical and have their Crisis every 20th day to 120 so much the more obscure as they are distant from the beginning Of all which changes the Moon seems rather to be the cause then the other Planets or the vertue of Numbers as being more active by reason of her proximity and various apparitions The Second said That the reason upon which Astrologers
attribute Crisis to the Moon viz. her moving by quaternaries and septenaries her notablest changes hapning every seventh day is too general For though she rules over Moistures or Humidities and a Crisis is only in Humoral Diseases yet she cannot introduce any change in the above-mentioned Critical Days rather then in others because then she must have this power either from her self or from some other and the several Aspects of the Sun Not from her self for then no change would happen in the Moon her self nor consequently in us by her means since things which are of themselves in some subject continue always the same Not from the Sun for then these alterations in Diseases should happen onely at certain postures of the Moon and not in all Now suppose Alexander fall sick to day and Aristotle to morrow yet neither of them shall have a Crisis but on the seventh day Besides the opposition of the Moon being less at the seventh then at the thirteenth day the Crisis should be rather on the latter then on the former And the same effect of the Septenary in the Conception Life Nutrition and Actions of Animals which is not observ'd hitherto the stomach digesting not better on the seventh day and the seed not being stronger that day in the matrix then on any other and the eighth day wherein the Moon is further from the first then she was on the seventh should cause the Crisis and not the seventh In brief the septenaries of diseases rarely agree with the Septenaries of the Quarters of the Moon whose motions being unequal according to the different elevation of her Epicicle would render Crisis uncertain Wherefore Galen not finding his reckoning hit with the Lunar Motion feign'd a Medicinal Moneth consisting of six and twenty days and some hours but he hath had no followers therein Fracastorius went a better way attributing the cause of Crises to the motion of Melancholly which is on the fourth day but as the bilious humor moving alone on the third day without melancholly doth nothing so melancholly alone produceth not any Crisis on the fourth day The fifth hath also the motion of Bile alone and consequently is without effect The sixth is quiet in reference to these humors being the day of neithers motion but on the seventh these two Biles concurring together make a great critical agitation But if the matter be not then sufficiently fermented and concocted the Crisis will not come till the fourteenth when the same motion of those two humors is again repeated The Third said That this opinion of Fracastorius makes Crises fall upon dayes not critical as the tenth thirteenth sixteenth ninteenth and two and twentieth contrary to all antiquity and daily experience and is founded in an errour namely that one humor cannot putrifie in the body whilst the rest remain pure seeing Quotidian Fevers are caus'd by Phlegm alone Tertians by Choler alone and Quartans by Melancholly alone and that no other reason can be given of the regular motion of Crisis but that of the motion of the Heavens CONFERENCE CLXIX What Bodily Exercise is the most healthful WHat motion is to the Aire and Water yea and to Fire too which it maintains that is it to our Bodies Ease makes them heavy and of the nature of the Earth which of all the Elements alone delights therein For the Body consisting of the Elements it necessarily without motion falls into the corruption which Rest introduces into them and the excrements remaining after nutrition either recoile back into the masse of Blood or else resting in that part of the body which is satiated with them overcharge the same and cause that plenitude which is so much suspected by Hippocrates On the contrary Motion awakens the natural heat drives out the excrements collected by ease strengthens the Members and renders all the Faculties more vigorous provided onely that it be us'd after evacuation of the grosser Excrements and before meat because then rest is necessary otherwise the food in the Stomach will be subverted and the motion of the outward parts will too soon attract from the inward the food undigested whence many diseases arise And this right use of Exercise is so necessary to health that the Athenians purposely dedicated a place for exercises call'd Gymnasiun to Apollo the God of Physick for which word the Art which treats of exercises is call'd Gymnastica and the Sorceries of Medea may be better understood of Exercises which make young and strengthen bodies formerly soft and effeminate than of Herbs wherewith she stuffed the bodies of old men whom she had jugulated an Art without which Plato and Aristotle thought a Commonwealth could not be good and to which chiefly is to be attributed the difference found between our modern Souldiers and the Roman Legionaries yea between the good habitude of their bodies and the weakness of ours who have so intermitted their exercises that onely the names of many are left Now since motion which to deserve the name of exercise must alter the respiration of the Animal is violent to it and of violent things we cannot take too little I conceive that such exercise as holds the mean between rest and extream motions is the best As Riding or going on Horseback which giving us motion diminishes the labour thereof and stirs all the parts of the body which happens not when only one part of the same body is exercis'd and the rest remain unmov'd The Second said That Exercise which is a voluntary motion and agitation of the Body with respiration increas'd whereby 't is distinguisht from the labour of Artisans and Labourers and from Actions accompany'd with no striving as playing on Instruments was transferr'd to the use of Physick by one Herodicus according to Plato in the third Book of his Republick and 't is taken two wayes either for that which is made by the proper motion of the Body or for such motion as is external to it as Swinging the Petaurum of the Latins Navigation going in a Coach or Litter As for those made by the Body alone they are of three sorts Athletical Military and Ludicrous or Pass-times The Athletick though the ancientest yet to me seem the most unprofitable serving onely to harden the surface of the body and the extream parts as the Armes and Legs such were Wrastling which is still in use among our Britains and at Constantinople before the Grand Seignior's Gate amongst some Tartars whom they call Pluyanders Acrochirism which consisted onely in keeping the fingers interlac'd one within the other Fifty-cuffs call'd anciently Pugilatus and imitated at this day by the Gondoliers at Venice Cae'stus wherein the hands were arm'd with plates of Copper and Pancratia which was compounded of Wrastling and Pugilate Of this sort were also Running commended by Seneca in his fifteenth Epistle for the Chief of Exercises and by Plato in the eighth Book of his Republick Leaping on high and in length either on both Feet or on
to bear or carry comes from the seed of Men hanged on Gibbets or broken on the Wheel which dropping upon the ground already fat and unctuous by the multitude of hanged Bodies produceth this Anthropomorphite-Plant so term'd by Pythagoras and alledg'd as an Instance to prove his Metempsychosis Which Conceit is also strengthened by the production of Beans which the same Pythagoras and many others hold to be produc'd of dead Bodies for which reason he not only abstain'd from eating them but had them in such reverence that he suffer'd himself to be kill'd in a field of Beans through which he might have escap'd but would not for fear of hurting them So likewise of the Urine of a Dog is produc'd the Herb Orrach of an Elephant's Blood suckt and vomited by a Dragon Sanguis Draconis of the Bodies of Serpents Serpentana and of the seed of Stags the Mushroms call'd Boleti Cervini So that though this Plant be not seen it doth not follow that there is no such thing it being no more absurd to credit the voice of the vulgar in this matter than in many others The Second said There are three sorts of Plants that bear the name of Mandrake the Etymologie whereof may be taken from the Latin word Mandra which signifies a Cave or a shady place because this Plant loves to grow in the shadow and cannot long endure the heat of the Sun The first sort is call'd Mandragoras mas or white Mandrake hath on the top of its Root great leavs spread on the ground like those of broad-leav'd Lettice but somewhat long shining and smooth in colour resembling those of Bete to wit of a pale green the Flower is likewise pale whereunto is annexed a round Apple of the bigness of a small Lemon of a pale Saffron colour and full of a succulent pulp wherein are pale or blew kernels like those of a Pear saving that they are not pointed but flat like a kidney It s root is lasting and dyes not yearly as most others do long and so thick that it can scarce be grasp'd with one Hand 'T is usually divided into two of colour outwardly between white and red within white carnose juicy and of taste between sweet and bitter The whole Plant sends forth a strong smell especially the Apples whose juice is som what vinous but bitterish and burdens the Head both smelt and tasted The second sort call'd Mandragoras niger or Female Mandrake hath leavs like the Male but less and straiter like those of small-leav'd Lettice of a dark green bearing Apples as big as our little Medlars Its root is less but otherwise in smell taste and figure like the former only 't is black without and white within and sometimes divided into three The third kind is call'd by some Herbarists Morion or Mandrake of Theophrastus touching which though all agree not yet the opinion of Codrus whom we follow here is that it hath great roots a high stalk and leavs of a middle size between Solanum and Female Mandrake its Flower is black and so also is its Fruit equal to a big Grape and of a vinous juice which Plant some call Solanum Mortiferum the Italians Bella Donna which grows likewise in shadowy places as the former also do in many parts of Italy especially in Apulia and sometimes is set in Gardens the Apples are ripe in August Galen accounts them cold in the third degree and all Authors agree that they are very moist All their parts are somniferous and of great use in Physick according to Dioscorides The most active is the bark of the Root The ancient way was to peel the root press out the juice and thicken it in the Sun or else to boil the root in new Wine till a third part were consum'd or to infuse it without coction of this liquor they administred one or two glasses to such as could not sleep and three to such as were to have a limb cut off They us'd it likewise in inflammations of the eyes some feminine diseases and to suppurate Phlegmons having such a mollifying faculty that in six hours boiling the Root with Ivory they say the same becomes plyable and apt to take any impression At this day scarce ought but the leaves and roots are in use except that the apples are sometimes boil'd in oil but all externally not by the mouth 'T is also thought alexipharmacal against Serpents and good to cure Tetters being bruis'd and apply'd with vinegar All which effects have made it admir'd but as humane Nature is prone to Superstition though this Plant be indu'd only with Vertues common to other Plants the soporiferous Quality being found in Lettice Poppy Henbane and more eminently in Opium and that of being proper to Women in the Aristoloches yet because its root resembles a man's legs and its trunk in some sort his body without arms hence Mountebanks have by their frauds and tricks brought people to believe their strange Stories of it even that it eats like a man and performs his other natural functions Which imposture though less prevalent upon strong minds becomes less credible by the prodigious manner they relate it to be produc'd for 't is impossible to imagine that any generation can proceed from sperm destitute of spirits and out of the proper natural subject destinated to its reception The Third said That indeed no Univocal Generation can be made after the loss of the spirits of Sperm but equivocal such as this is may whereunto Nitre contributes very much which salt not being lost by death nothing hinders but a fertile soil being determin'd by some form or other a Plant may arise out of it to which production fewer conditions are requisite than to that of an Animal And 't is the less incredible if the Experiment deliver'd by some Authors be true That the salts of Rosemary Sage Mint and some other strong-sented herbs being extracted according to Art and frozen in a Glass exhibite the image of those Plants therein and if sown in well-prepared earth produce the Plants of same Species The Fourth said That not only the means of the production of this imaginary Plant are so too but also the supernatural vertues ascribed to it are ridiculous yea those said to be natural to it are very hard to be justifi'd for to be soporiferous and to promote Procreation in Men and Women of several tempers is inconsistent because these things require Simples of very different Qualities and also are the causes of Sterility This error of its being prolifick proceeds from a false supposition taken out of Genesis where 't is said that Reuben the Son of Leah one of Jacob's Wives having brought Mandrakes to his Mother her Sister Rachel could not obtain them of her but upon condition that Jacob who despis'd her for Rachel the fairer of the two but barren should lie with her that night which bargain was made between them Now because Rachel had Children afterwards hence some Interpreters infer
a Platonical Commonwealth And that discourages men very much when they find the course and customs of the World to be contrary to what they had taken so much pains to read Whereas the young man will be the less startled to find himself hiss'd by his Auditors when he speaks well and slighted by Fortune when he does well while the ignorant and the wicked are her greatest Favourites after he hath read in History of many Persons of worth so treated than he would be if he thrust himself into affairs having never seen any thing but examples of Vice punish'd and Vertue rewarded CONFERENCE CCXX Whether it be better to go to bed late and rise betimes in the Morning or do the contrary THough it be a kind of recession from the common opinion to prefer going to bed and rising late before the opposite yet is it to be noted by the way that most Persons of great affairs and the more judicious sort observing that course of life are of that judgment since that to approve a thing is to do it Now we see that all the great Lords and Ladies about the Court the most refin'd spirits and such are best able to judge of all things nay most men who have any thing more than an ordinary burthen of affairs for the most part go to bed late and rise late whereof several Reasons may be assign'd The first and most ordinary me-thinks are the affairs themselves which insensibly steal away the time from us and that the more unperceivably the more delightful that business is about which we are employ'd the time sliding away faster from him who takes a pleasure in the doing of a thing then it does from another who is in some trouble of mind or body Whence it comes that a tedious Tale and a bad Book are ever thought too long They therefore are to be thought the happiest who if they had their own wills would go to bed latest not only for that reason which made a certain King of this part of the World say That he would be King as long as he could inasmuch as when he slept there was no difference between him the meanest of his Subjects but also for this that night surprizing them before they had done all their business the Supper or Collation must be the later and consequently the going to bed The second reason is deduc'd hence that there ought to be a correspondence between the tranquillity of the mind and that of the body It being therefore necessary that he who would take a good sleep should not be subject to any disturbance of mind that indisturbancy being procured only by that order which every one hath taken in his affairs it is to be imagin'd that the later a man goes to bed the more business he hath dispatch'd and consequently there remains the less to be done Upon this score is it that Merchant's Suppers are accounted the most quiet for having spent the whole day in trudging up and down about their Trade they then enjoy themselves with greater serenity In the third place a man should not go to bed till digestion be pretty well advanc'd from the want or slowness whereof hideous Dreams Crudities Ventosities nay sometimes Apoplexies do proceed Now this digestion is so much the more advanc'd the later a man goes to bed which difference will be best observ'd by those who go just from the Table to their beds and lie down as soon as the meat is out of their mouths Fourthly that Custom is ever the best from which it is in a man's power most easily to wean himself and in the change whereof he will be subject to least inconvenience Now he who hath contracted a habit of going to bed late will find it a less inconvenience to go to bed betimes that so he may rise betimes or upon some other Motive then he shall who hath accustomed himself to go to bed betimes for he will be sleepy and unfit for the doing of any thing as soon as his bed-time is come Fifthly Hippocrates would not have a man enslave himself to an over-strict course of life grounding his advice on this that such regular persons find it the greater difficulty to support the miscarriages which oftentimes cannot be avoided in the ordinary course of life as those who walk upon ropes are more apt to fall at least find it a harder matter to keep on then those who walk on the plain ground Now those who go to bed betimes are commonly more regular in the hours of Supper and all the other actions of the day upon the exact observance whereof that of their bed-time does depend Now it is obvious to any one who shall consider the difference of professions that there are but few that leave a man at liberty to observe so exact a rule as this is So that being sometimes necessitated to make a breach of it the consequence will be that those who have the more strictly engag'd themselves to the observance of the rule of going to bed betimes must needs receive a far greater inconvenience from the neglect of it than they ordinarily do who go to bed late Sixthly the same reason that obliges phlegmatick persons and such as are subject to Catarrhs to content themselves with little sleep which is this that their humidity joyn'd with that of sleep it self augments their distemper besides that Sleeping which moistens and cools is not so well procur'd in that part of the day which is most cold and moist that is from nine at Night till three in the Morning but rather towards the Morning at which time the Blood begins to be predominant inasmuch as in so doing he abates somewhat of its Heat and being to dilate it self till ten in the Morning at which time Choler begins to be predominant moderates its acrimony as all those will acknowledge which Sex soever they be of who are subject to the Megrim who find very great ease by that Morning sleep which accordingly is found to be the most delightful and hath this further advantage attributed to it that the Dreams thereof are prophetical and will come to pass in a short time whereas the others are accounted superfluous by those who have been Professors in that Art Moreover those who rise too early in Morning are subject to the Headach in the Afternoon and more easily transported with Anger all the rest of the day to effect which the consideration of the Temperament does very much conduce For as sleeping in the day time is born with in Old Men and Children and that in both by reason of their weakness and for the recruit of their Spirits and particularly in Old Men to take off somewhat of the acrimony of that serous phlegm which is predominant in them so the greater part of Men being subject to Choler whence haply proceeded the error of some Physicians who talk of nothing but refrigeration in all diseases and the coolness and moisture of
it comes that our Cellars are warm in Winter and cool in Summer as are also all other ground-rooms and low places That Water shrinks up and frames it self into little drops when it is spilt on dry ground whereas it spreads abroad and is diffus'd in moist places That Lime is set on fire by the casting of water upon it That the fire burns better in frosty than in hot weather That Wine drinks more cool out of a Glass that had been warm'd That the coldness of Snow causes an extraordinary heat in their hands who handle it and That generally all tactile qualities are rendred more active by the opposition of their contraries by reason of the concourse and the assistance they then receive from that general Cause which concerns it self in their preservation Of this we may give an instance in Politicks affirming that the procedure of the forementioned Cause is much like that of great Potentates who in a war between some petty Princes or neighbouring States if they find one party ready to be absolutely ruin'd supply it with such forces as shall enable it to recover it self so to bring the several interests into an Aequilibrium whereof there is as great a necessity in Nature which is kept up by that proportion wherein all things find their subsistence as their destruction proceeds only from their disproportion and inequality The Fifth said That we are not to look for the reason of Antiperistasis any otherwhere than in the Subjects themselves wherein we find the action whose intenseness and augmentation are to be referr'd not to that of the degrees of the active qualities but to their compression and reinforcement which renders them more sensible in regard they are more material as may be seeen in a red-hot iron the heat whereof burns much more violently then that of a fire of Straw or Aqua-vitae The sixth said That according to the principles which allow all things to participate of a certain degree of sentiment this condensation or compression of the degrees of heat or cold ought to be the effects of a sensitive Agent which having a knowledge of what may be hurtful or beneficial to it withdraws within it self the qualities which preserve it intire when it is press'd upon by others that are more violent and such as the meeting whereof might be prejudicial thereto which it forces from it in order to Action And herein it is that the good of every thing consists inasmuch as every thing hath being only so far as it hath action when it is assisted by friendly qualities and the like and by this means it is that Cold and Heat act more vigorously when they are oppos'd one to the other and that our cavities are hotter in Winter by reason of the compression of the Spirits and the natural Heat which are the more diffus'd in Summer in regard this latter goes to meet with its like as a little fire is put out by a great one and a weaker light obscur'd by a clearer CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder THough this Powder be now as much out of esteem as it was in vogue soon after the first finding of it out for the expeditious curing of wounds yet will it haply be a business of some advantage to examine their Motives who first made and publickly sold it as also those of such as have sometimes made use of it with good success And whereas novelty procures a certain esteem to Remedies as well as to other things so this Sympathetical Powder found so great belief at its first coming abroad among Persons addicted to a military life who were immediately flatter'd with a speedy and easie curing of their most mortal wounds by the means thereof without any trouble of making incisions or dilatations many times more painful then the hurt it self that we have had some persons these last Campagnes though destitute of learning and experience who had the subtlety to raise such a mist before the eyes of the generality with this Powder that they concluded this remedy to be true balm and the only Panacea or All-heal of all wounds But time having discover'd the vanity of it as also the impostures of those by whom it was so highly recommended it hath been clearly found out that there are few people in this age but are either deceiv'd themselves or make it their main business to deceive others For in fine this Powder is as much cry'd down at present as ever it was cry'd up and there is nothing left of it but the insolent name of Sympathetical impos'd upon it by the Authors thereof in imitation of the Unguent of the same name wherewith Goclenius and some other Physicians endeavour'd to make good the Magnetick cure of wounds wherein they only dress'd the arms or other instruments by which they were given and apply'd the convenient remedies thereto But in regard they could not always come at the arms which had done the mischief to keep up their practise and to make the cure yet more easie these upstart Doctors be thought themselves some years since of another expedient to compass their designs that is found out a remedy wherewith they make it their boast that they will cure all sorts of hurts only by applying this powder to some piece of Cloth which had been us'd either to bind up or make clean the wounded part And whereas there are two kinds of wounds one simple which makes a solution of continuity in the soft and fleshy parts of the body such as are the veins the arteries the nerves and the muscles the other compound which happens ih the solid parts especially where bones are broken these Gentlemen have accordingly two different kinds of Sympathetical Powder to wit a simple and a compound The former is made with Roman Vitriol which is our green and transparent Coppress which they beat or pound not over small and disposing it upon papers in such quantities as they think fit lay it in the Sun when he makes his entrance into the first degree of the Sign Leo and leaving it there for the space of three hundred and sixty hours which make just fifteen days answerably to the like number of degrees which that Planet travels over in the space of a year in the Zodiack During this time it is calcin'd into an exquisite whiteness and then they take it in and keep it carefully in some temperate place that is not too moist that is such as may not be likely to melt it for fear it should by that means lose its vertue for which reason also it is taken in during its calcination in the cool of the evening and in the night-time and when the air is inclinable to rain or over-moist But there must be a great care taken that it be not stirr'd with any instrument of iron when this powder is either in the preparation or ready made up these Authors affirming that it takes away its vertue instead whereof they order