that as Plumeor Stone-allume is an eternally incombustible Wiek provided it be supply'd with new Oyl when the former is spent this Earth may do the like Unless we had rather that wise Nature dispenses combustible matter in the bellies of Mountains after the manner of Vitruvius's his Lamps which need filling but once a year and those Water-Receptacles for Birds which are supply'd with fresh as fast as the former Water is spent Or else that Nature excepting the extraordinary eruptions which seldome happen to these flammivomous Mountains and then only when the Fire cannot get issue but by violence makes what the curious often aspire to an inextinguishable Fire or perpetual Light by resolving again into oyly and combustible matter that which was evaporated by Inflammation as Water elevated in vapour by heat falls down again in the same form The Architect Nature finding Cavities great enough in those vast Mountains to facilitate what Art finds impossible by reason of the smalness of Vessels which extinguish Fire when it hath not Air or suffer its Matter to exhale when it hath although S. Austin and Lodovicus Vives make mention the former of a Lamp in the Temple of Venus which could not be extinguish'd or consum'd though neither Oyl nor Wiek were put to it and the latter of another burning Lamp found in a Sepulchre where it had been fifteen hundred years but upon admission of Air forthwith went out Although without recurring to this subtilty that of Fire and its activity is sufficient to attract or fetch in its sulphureous food which being only an excrement of the Earth and like the soot of our Chimneys is found every where but especially in Mines which are repair'd in less time than is believ'd and whose various qualities make the variety of these Subterraneous Fires of their duration continuity and interval which some have compar'd to Intermitting Fevers excited in our Bodies by an extraneous heat which holds the same place in us as Fire doth in the Earth Upon the Second Point it was said That Age is the measure of the Natural Mutations to which Man is subject by the Principles of his Being and which differ according to every ones Nature some being Puberes having a Beard and gray Hairs and such other tokens sooner than others according to the diversity of their first conformation whence arises that of their Division Aristotle following Hippocrates divides them into Youth Middle-age and Old-age that is to say the Beginning Middle and end Or according to Galen into Infancy Man-hood and Old-age According to most into Adolescence Youth Age of Consistence and Old-age Adolescence comprehends Infancy which reaches to the seventh year the Age of Puerility to the fourteenth Puberty to the eighteenth and that call'd by the general name Adolescence to the twenty fifth Youth which is the flower of Age reaches from twenty five to thirty five Man-hood and Consistence from thirty five to fourty eight when old-Old-age begins which is either green middle or decrepit These four Ages are the four Wheels of our Life whose Mutations they mark out The first next the primordia's of generation is hot and moist symbolising with Blood the second hot and dry with Choler the third cold and dry with Melancholy the fourth cold and moist with Phlegm which being contrary to the primogenial humidity leads to death Now if it be true as 't is said That Life is a Punishment and a Summary of Miseries Old-age as neerest the haven and end of Infelicities is the most desirable Moreover being more perfect by experience and alone fit to judg of the goodness of Ages which it hath run through we must refer our selves to the goodness of its judgment as well in this as in all other Points The Second said Since to live is to act the most perfect and agreeable of all Ages of Life is that in which we best exercise the functions of Body and Mind namely Youth which alone seems fit to dispute the Prize with Old-age not only in regard of the health and vigour of the Body wherein it surpasses that declining feeble Age but also of the actions of the Mind which is much more lively in young inventive and industrious Persons than in the aged whose Spirit wears and grows worse with the Body which hath given place to that most true Proverb That Old-men are twice Children For 't is to give Wisedom a shameful Extraction and to make it the issue of Infirmity to call that ripe which is rotten and to believe that good counsels proceed only from defect of natural heat since according to his judgment who hath best decypher'd Wisdom this Old-age traces more wrincles in our Minds than Faces and there are few Souls which by growing old become not sowr and rancid and acquire not many vices and ill habits of which Covetousness alone inseparable from Old-age and an Argument of weakness of Mind in heaping up with so much solicitude what must soon be parted with is not much less prejudicial to the State than all the disorders of Youth But if the Chief Good consists in the Sciences the Cause of Young-men is infallible for acuteness of Wit strength of Phancy and goodness of Memory which wholly abandons Old-men and ability to undergo pains and watchings must contribute to their acquisition And if it consist in the secret delight we take in exercising virtuous Actions Young-men who according to Chancellour Bacon excel in Morality will carry it above Old it being certain That the best actions of our Lives are perform'd between twenty and thirty or thereabouts which was the Age at which Adam was created in Paradise as our Saviour accomplish'd the Mystery of our Redemption at the Age of thirty three years which shall be likewise the Age at which the Blessed shall rise to Glory in which every one shall enjoy such a perfect Youth as we ascribe to Angels and put off old-Old-age which not much differing from Death may like it be term'd the Wages of Sin since had our first Parent persisted in Innocence we should have possess'd a perpetual Youth Moreover 't is at this Age that the greatest Men have appear'd Few Old Conquerours have been seen if any he hath this of Alexander That he aspires to the Conquest of another World not having long to live in this Wherefore instead of pretending any advantage over other Ages Old-men ought to be contented that we use them not as those of Cea and the Massagetes did who drown'd them or the Romans who cast them from a Bridg into Tyber thinking it a pious act to free them from life whose length displeas'd the Patriarchs the Scripture saying That they died full of or satiated with days The Third said That the Innocence of Children should make us desire their Age considering that our Lord requires us to be like them that we may enter into his Kingdom Moreover Nature unable to perpetuate Infancy hath found no sweeter Anodyne for the miseries
Melancholly in regard of their heat and driness which resolve and dissipate the animal Spirits as a vapourous humidity hinders their effusion by the obstruction which it causeth in the original of the Nerves or which is most probable because the clouds of those vapours occupying the ventricles of the Brain by their humidity moisten and relax the animal Spirits which remain immovable till they be deliver'd from the importunity of those vapours which moreover more easily ascending when the Body is at rest it happens that Sleep is frequently caus'd not only by watchings cares labour bathing heat and other things which dissipate the Spirits but also by sounds gentle murmurs of water frictions and motions silence and darkness unless we had rather say That the animal Spirits being most subtle and luminous bodies retire inwards during the darkness which is contrary to them The Sixth said That Sleep being not only a depravation but a total privation of actions since a thing exists but so far as it acts at the same proportion that we love our own Being we ought to hate Sleep and love Watching The great George Castriot the scourge of the Turks never slept more then two hours and the Poets had reason to term Sleep The Image of Death which the Scripture also expresses by Sleeping As therefore Death is to be avoided as much as possible so also ought Sleep were it not that both of them being inevitable evils all we can do is to keep as far off them and suffer our selves to be led as little to them as may be The Poets themselves seem willing to imprint in us a horror of Sleep when they feign it the Son of Hell or Erebus and Night the brother of Death the father of Morpheus and that his Palace was amidst the darkness of the Cimmerians Moreover the most imperfect Animals sleep more then others which is the reason Zoophytes or Plant-animals as the Sponge Coral and Oisters sleep continually Snails and some Flys three or four months Bears longer then other Animals and amongst these Birds as partaking more of the nature of Heaven sleep less then four-footed Beasts A Child so long as it approaches a bestial life in its Mothers belly and for the first years sleeps more than when 't is grown to Manhood and being again become by Age a Child sleeps more than formerly till he comes to the last sleep of death which reduces him to nothing Women phlegmatick persons drunkards and block-heads sleep more then Men sober and witty persons For we are no more to refer to the abuse of these Times in sleeping very much then to other Vices of the Age amongst the rest Idleness Eating and Drinking wherein there is none sober at this day but exceed their just measure Upon the Second point it was said That Strength as well as most other things in the World hath not an absolute but only a relative Being a thing being called strong in comparison of others which are less so Thus Antaeus was strong in respect of all other men but weak compared to Hercules And as Achilles was invulnerable in every other part saving the heel so Nature seems to have left in us a certain weakness and defect in some parts wherein some are more tender then others So that 't is hard to find one thing alike powerful towards all men since by reason of our several inclinations every one is differently affected The Ambitious will hold for Honours the Amorous for Women the Drinker for Wine and Truth which in the Scripture was judg'd strongest by King Darius who propos'd the present Problem to his four Courtiers would possibly be deemed the weakest in the Judgment of the most for to them that should take her part the same question might be put which Pilate ask'd our Lord What is Truth It is so frequently disguis'd by lying in moral matters so invelop'd in darkness and subject to the deceit of our Senses in natural things that as it is the least understood so we may say 't is the least follow'd our inclinations never tending towards an unknown object The strongest thing therefore is that which hath most power to incline our Will towards it self which Will following the counsel of the Understanding as again this acts not but by the species wherewith the Imagination supplies it 't is to the Imagination that I ascribe the greatest strength in the world since all other things borrow all their power from the Imagination by the opinion of Honour Profit and Pleasure which that Faculty makes us conceive therein and on the contrary the same Imagination ruines and destroys the force of all things accounted the most powerful whilst it considers them with a different biass 'T is by it that one abhors nothing more then Women whom so many others idolatrize Pleasures Honours Riches and all the Goods of Fortune are but so many crosses and punishments to those who have conceiv'd an aversion against them Death it self as terrible as it is oftentimes is despis'd and sought after out of a powerful consideration of Honour this too being nothing else but a Fancy magnifi'd by the opinion rais'd of it in the world Even Virtue draws all her power from Imagination alone for many a one thinks he embraces her quite naked whilst like Ixion he embraces nothing but a cloud and a phantasm and yet is as well satisfi'd with this as if he had a perfect fruition of her The Second said That the solution of this Problem depends upon the understanding of the term Strength If it be taken for a certain quality and power which renders things active that must be the strongest thing in the world which acts with most efficacy and power upon the most excellent things But forasmuch as there are as many sorts of agents as there are degrees of Being in Nature in Morals and in Transcendants and we may compare things together which are of a different genus yet there being no congruity and proportion but between those which are of the same species 't is hard to know absolutely which is the strongest thing since every one hath a vertue wholly peculiar because it hath a proper nature which is the principle and cause of the diversity of motions and actions According to which distinction I am of opinion That of agents purely natural Fire is the strongest since it alters and destroys all natural Bodies and its quality Heat is the most active of all Amongst living things Man is the strongest inasmuch as he renders himself master of all the fiercest Animals which he knows how either to subdue or tame Amongst men Kings are the strongest since they dispose of our Goods Lives and Wills Moral agents are different in force and activity according to the divers constitution of subjects upon which they act and make a different impression Honesty alone acts upon very few spirits Pleasures upon most Interest upon all Nevertheless since they act only by the opinion which they
remov'd from the place the very next day a great Fire happened in the same City For if every thing below is as that which is above and the effects of inferiour things proceed from the various configuration of the Celestial Bodies as of the different combinations of the Letters of the Alphabet are compos'd infinite Books there may be some proportion and correspondence between those Celestial Figures and such as are made upon fit and suitable materials the knowledg of which sympathetical Correspondences is the true Magick which is by the testimony of J. Picus Mirandula the highest point of humane Knowledg marrying Heaven with Earth as black Magick is detestable shameful and ridiculous The Fifth said That every thing acts in the World by the first or second Qualities or by its Substance whence proceed occult Properties and Sympathies But Talismanical Figures cannot act by any of these ways for 't is certain that they act neither by heat cold hardness softness or such other first or second Quality no more than by their Substance which is different in Talismans of Copper Iron Stone c. Although the Authors of this Art ascribe the same virtue to all provided they be graven with the same Figures and under the same Constellations and Aspects of the Starrs from whom alone they make them derive their strange virtues alledging as a Principle That there is nothing in the World but hath both its Contrary and its Like as well in Heaven as on Earth where we see not only the Marigold and the Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun the Selenotrope that of the Moon the Cock proclaims the approach of the Sun As also on the contrary Dogs commonly run mad in the Dog-days and Lions under the Sign Leo But also some Persons beheld with an evil eye by some Planets others being propitious So to cure hot and dry Diseases they engrave their Talismans under a Constellation contrary to the Evil as cold and moist having regard to the Signs whereunto every Malady and diseas'd Part is referr'd which is an Invention of Paracelsus who fancies Poles a Zenith a Nadir an Equator a Zodiack and other phantastical Figures in our Bodies answering to those of Heaven without the least proof of his sayings Upon the Second Point it was said Since Man is compos'd of Body and Soul the best Life he can lead is that which is most proper for the perfection and good of both Such is the Country-life being accompanied with the Goods of the Body Fortune and the Mind Those of the Body as Health and Strength are possess'd with advantage by Rusticks who know not so much as the Names of Diseases the cause whereof is their Exercise and Labour which dissipates and resolves the humours that produce most Diseases as also the purity of the Air they breathe which is the more healthful in that it hath free motion and is less confin'd for which reason Physitians send their recovering Patients to confirm their Health in the Air of the Country Which also supplies the Goods of Fortune the true and natural Riches to wit the Fruits of the Earth and the Spoils of Animals Gold Silver and other artificial Goods being but imaginary and useless without those first whereunto they are subservient But above all the Goods of the Mind which consist in Knowledg and Virtue the two Ornaments of its two chief Faculties the Understanding and the Will may be acquir'd much more easily in a Country-life in regard of the purer Air which begets like Spirits as these frame purer Species and Phantasms on which depend the actions of the Understanding which besides cannot meditate nor improve without rest and silence scarce found in a civil and tumultuary Life as that in Cities is which hold our Minds as well as Bodies in captivity depriving us of the free aspect of Heaven the rising and setting of the Sun and Stars and of the means of considering the Wonders of God in the production of Flowers Fruits and Plants Hence the Poets feign'd the Muses the Goddesses of the Sciences living in the Mountains of Helicon and in Woods not in the inclosure of Cities where Virtues are also more difficultly practis'd than the Sciences nothing of them being left there but shadows and phantasms which under veils of Dissimulation Hypocrisie Complements and other testimonies of Virtue cover Injustices Sacriledges Impieties and other Crimes unknown in the Country where Simplicity and Innocence are sure tokens of true Virtue which is also better retain'd amongst the Thorns and Sweats of the Country than in the Luxury and Idleness of Cities And if things may be judg'd of by their beginnings the Sacred History tells That Cain the first Murtherer was the first that built a City named Henoch after the Name of his Son as a little after did the first Tyrant of the World Nimrod who built Niniveh On the contrary all holy Personages have lead a Country-life Adam was a Husband-man and so was Cain as long as he continu'd in the state of Innocence which as soon as he lost he desir'd to become a Burgess Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs his Sons were Shepherds as also the Kings Saul and David and the Prophets Amos Elisha and many others in imitating whose example we cannot erre The Second said That Man being a sociable and political Animal the habitation of Cities is as consentaneous to his Nature as the Country-life is repugnant to the same And therefore Men had no sooner discover'd the inconveniences of the Rustick-life but they unanimously conspir'd to build Cities to the end to supply one anothers Necessities and defend themselves from wild Beasts and their Enemies to whose fury they were expos'd before they liv'd in some Town which is a Sacred Society or Unity of Citizens all aspiring to the conservation of the State to the maintaining of the Laws and Justice and to the publick Ornament and Glory making Arts and Disciplines flourish and procuring Safety to all People by the distribution of Rewards to Virtue and Punishment to Vices which have not their effect but in publick For our Lives would not differ from those of Brutes if we were oblig'd to dwell in Dens or wander up and down Woods as the Barbarians of the new World do whose Brutality Irreligion Cruelty Ignorance and Misery compar'd with the Politeness Devotion Humanity Knowledg and Happiness of others sufficiently manifest what difference there is between a City and a country-Country-life CONFERENCE CIX I. Of Volcano's or Subterranean Fires II. Which Age is most desirable THe effects of Volcano's and Subterranean Fires are no less manifest than their cause is unknown although the desire of teaching us the same occasion'd the death of Pliny by haying too neer approach'd the Fires of Mont Gibel or Aetna and made Empedocles cast himself head-long into them But the former did not attain it and the latter left us nothing but his Pantofles The Artifice of Man hath indeed excavated the
another Understand this Equalness only of Qualities not of Elements for were there as much Fire as Water as much Air as Earth the more active fire would consume the rest and reduce into ashes all living things whose dissolution shews us that they consist more of Earth and Water then of the other Elements The other call'd Temperament according to Justice is found in every sort of compound-substances amongst which there is one that serves for the rule or standard to all individuals compris'd under it and possesses in perfection the temper require requisite to the functions of its nature Thus amongst Animals the Lyon is hot the Swine moist the Salamander cold the Bee dry but Man is temperate and amongst his parts the Bones Cartilages and Ligaments are cold and dry the Blood Spirits Muscles Heart and Liver are hot and moist the Brain Phlegm and Fat are cold and moist each of them being temper'd according to Justice The Skin alone especially that in the Palm of a well-temper'd mans hand being moderate in all the Qualities and seeming a texture of the Flesh and Nerves is equally cold and hot soft and hard and consequently the prime Organ of Touch and the judge of all other Temperaments The unequal Temperament which nevertheless lyes within the latitude of Health is either simple or compound The former wherein one of the four Qualities prevails over its contrary while the other two remain in a mediocrity is of four sorts Hot Cold Dry and Moist The second wherein two excell is likewise of four sorts according to the four combinations which the qualities admit viz. Hot and Moist Hot and Dry Cold and Moist Cold and Dry for Hot and Cold Dry and Moist cannot subsist in one and the same subject And though the heat incessantly consuming the moisture and the cold collecting plenty of humid excrements hinder the hot and moist and cold and dry tempers from subsisting long in the same state yet they may continue therein for some time though they become chang'd by succession of ages Now of the nine sorts of Tempers to wit the four simple four compound and one perfectly temperate this last seems to me the most laudable and perfect a body thus temper'd being neither fat nor lean hot nor cold dry nor moist but of a square and indifferently fleshy constitution not inclining to one extream more then another being in an exquisite mediocrity and consequently more laudable then any of those which approach nearer the always vicious extreams The Second said If there be such an exquisite Temperament as reason seems to demonstrate then since there is no passing from one extream to another but by the middle when a Child changes the heat and moisture of his infancy into the cold and dryness of old-old-age that middle equal Temper must pass away as swift as lightning and it's duration will be almost insensible Wherefore though it be the most perfect and desirable yet since 't is only the standard and rule of all others I am for Hot and Moist as most sutable to life which consists in those two qualities as Death and its forerunner old-Old-age are cold and dry This is the Temperament of Child-hood allotted to us by Nature at the beginning of our life and therefore the most perfect answering to the Spring the most temperate of Seasons and to Blood the most temperate humour whence 't is call'd Sanguine as the cold and dry is Melancholick the hot and dry Bilious the cold and moist Phlegmatick Which is not to be understood of the excrementitious but of the natural humours contain'd in the mass of Blood which follow the principles of our Generation Moreover 't is proper not only for the functions of life whereof health is the foundation and joy the most sweet support which the Blood produces as Melancholy doth sadness Phlegm slothfulness Bile fury and anger but also for those of the Mind which depending upon the pureness of the Animal Spirits as these do upon that of the Vital and Natural which are more benigne in the Sanguine their conceptions must be likewise more clear and refin'd The Third said If Heat and Moisture are sutable to the actions of the Vegetative Soul Generation Accretion and Nutrition they are no less prejudicial to those of the Rational the seat whereof is therefore remote from the two Organs of Concoction the Ventricle and the Liver lest the fumes of the Food coming to be mix'd with the Animal Spirits might offuscate and cloud the phantasms and ideas wherewith those Spirits are charged and consequently hinder the operations of the Understanding which depend upon those phantasms so long as it is linked to the Body For all Souls being alike their operations differ only according to the diverse temper of the Brain which causes that of the Animal Spirits which must be subtle and luminous but not so far as to be igneous like those of the cholerick and frantick whose motions are precipitate and impetuous but in the just proportion observ'd in the Melancholick temper which being cold and dry that is to say less hot and moist is most proper for Prudence and Wisdom which require a setled compos'd Spirit like that of old men who owe not their Wisdom so much to the experience of many years as to the coldness and dryness of their Brains which makes men grave and sedate All brave men have been of this temper which gives patience and constancy without which nothing grand and considerable can ever be perform'd And as the hot and moist temper is most subject to corruption so by the reason of contraries the cold and moist must be least obnoxious to diseases as amongst Trees and Animals the dryest and hardest are least offended by external injuries upon which account the Melancholy is not only most desirable but also because it most contents the mind of him that possesses it who being at his ease makes more reflection upon the benefit he injoys unless otherwise diverted by contemplation The Fourth said That that is the most laudable temper which is most adapted to the functions both of body and mind between which there is so great a disproportion that what agrees well with the one seems prejudicial to the other The Sanguine is the most excellent for the operations of life and good habit of Body but incommodious for those of the Mind partly through the softness and mildness of that humour which cannot suffer strong attention and partly through its excessive humidity which filling the Imagination with vapours cannot supply fit matter to the Animal Spirits whose temper must be dry for producing Wisdom whereunto Melancholy is by some judg'd conducible but were it so 't is too contrary to the health and good constitution of the body to be desirable The phlegmatick temper is proper neither for the health of the Body nor the goodness of Wit But the Bilious is for both being less repleat then the Sanguine and less attenuated and dry'd then
but also of a different Species as the Apple-Cyon on a Colewort which Plants being of different durations the graft becomes of a middle duration between them namely longer-liv'd then a Colewort and shorter then another Apple-tree And S. Hierom is not positive that the Centaur which appear'd to S. Anthony was an illusion but doubts whether it were a true Centaur such as Antiquity spoke of or whether 't was not the Devil appearing in that shape to frighten that holy Person And Plato in convivio sapientum relates That a Shepheard having presented to Periander a Foal born of a Mare of his that had the head neck and hands of a Man the rest of an Horse and the voice of a Child Diocles affirm'd that this Prodigy presag'd Seditions and Divisions of Minds But Thales reply'd 'T was a natural thing and for preventing the like again advis'd him to have no other Hors-keepers but what were married Pliny likewise in the seventh Book of his Natural History saith That in the Country of the Cratadulones amongst the Indian Mountains Satyrs are found very swift Creatures running sometimes on two feet sometimes on four and having the shape of a Man And Plutarch tells in Sylla's life That as he return'd into Italy a Satyr was brought to him like those describ'd by ancient Authors half-man and half-goat and being askt what he was answer'd nothing that resembled a humane voice but with a tone mixt of that of Goats and the neighing of Horses Whereupon Sylla having compassion on him appointed guards to carry him back S. Hierom in the above-mention'd place describes another Satyr which he saith was of a middle stature having a crooked Nose horned front and Goats feet and brought Dates yet hanging on a Palm-branch to S. Paul the Hermit The Saint askt him what he was and he answer'd that he was a Mortal one of the Inhabitants of that Hermitage whom the abused Pagans adore for Fauns Satyrs and Incubes and I come saith he as deputed to you from our Company to desire you to pray for us to your and our God whom we know to be come into the World for the common Salvation After which words this light Animal took its course and fled away And lest this Relation might seem strange I shall add That under Constantine a living one was brought to Alexandria and shewn there to the People afterwards being dead it was called and carried to Antioch to be seen by the Emperor Pausanias records also That he was inform'd by one Euphemius who he saith was a man worthy of credit how that sailing into Spain he was driven by storm into certain Islands full of savage Men having hairy bodies long tails like those of Horses and red hair whom they could not keep off from them but by blows and a Woman being expos'd on the shore by the Mariners these Satyrs abus'd her with all outrages imaginable So that to doubt of the existence of Satyrs after so many Testimonies is to ascribe too much to our own senses and too little to the witness of the Ancients CONFERENCE CCV Of the Phoenix IF ever there were cause to admire the simplicity and credulity of the Ancients 't is the story of the Phoenix which is feign'd a Bird that lives many ages after which repairing to the City Heliopolis in Aegypt it builds its nest or rather funeral pile there of aromatick wood which by reason of its high situation being fir'd by the Sun-beams she dyes and immediately another arises out of her ashes it being as impossible for Nature to be without a Phoenix as the Phoenix to have a Companion In which Relation the Historians have imitated the Poets and chosen rather to tell strange things than true For first this Nativity of this imaginary Bird is a manifest impossibility because nothing is more abhorr'd by Nature than voluntary death and that orderly Governess would rather have given the Phoenix a Female as well as to all other Creatures than have put her self thus upon the necessity of a miracle Nor can any thing be more contrary to the generation of Animals than ashes which are dry dryness being altogether opposite to life and to the corruption which is antecedent to every generation Next its progress is equally absurd For they say this little Bird no sooner attains its just bigness which is equal to that of an Eagle having its head cristed with divers colours the neck gold-colour the rest of the feathers purple saving that the tail is mixt of scarlet and sky-colour but it prepares it self to pay the last duties to the bones of its deceased parent But how consistent is this with the Bird 's being reduc'd to ashes Which bones she lays upon her back and flyes from Aegypt with them to Arabia where she places them upon an Altar dedicated to the Sun upon which the same Bird before her death had made an offering of the Neast which was to be her fatal pile After these funerals it flies towards Heaven where 't is fed with dew and the fumes of Incense and Amomum and instead of drink makes use of the vapors which arise from the Sea abhorring all kind of grain and food common to other Birds According to Aelian it lives five hundred years according to others six hundred and according to others more in places apart from the commerce of Men but so highly reverenc'd by all other Birds that they follow it with great respect and admiration insomuch that Birds of rapine forget their prey and others the fear of being taken As many fictions as words even if Lucretius's opinion be true who admits not that any single Animal can generate Wherefore 't is not without reason that to avoid rendring account of the many absurdities arising from these false suppositions the Historians make it to be hid from our sight so many Ages foreseeing that if there was but one Woman found that had danc'd twice at Rome in the secular Playes there will be no witnesses found to attest the nativity life and death of this Animal The Second said That we ought not to condemn the absent under pretext that they are unknown for the Nativity of this Bird is defended by that of Barnacle which is bred of the putrefaction of a Ship and of another call'd Ephemeron which by Aristotle's report is produc'd of the leaf of a Tree near the River Hippanis If the duration of its life be uncertain so likewise is that of all Animals with which we converse not And were the authority of Betonius suspected who confounds it with the Manucodrata yet that of Tacitus in the fourteenth Book of his Animals is authentick P. Fabius and L. Vitellus saith he being Consuls the Bird call'd a Phoenix after many Ages appear'd in Aegypt and gave occasion to many Greeks and other personages of the Country to discourse of the miracle concerning which they relate many doubtful things but worthy to be known They say this Animal is devoted to the
the prevailing Quality bears sway and makes a Temperament hot cold dry or moist In the second these Qualities being alter'd the Elementary Forms which were contrary only by their adversary Qualities unite and conspire into one particular Form the Principle of Occult Properties Sympathies and Antipathies according as their Forms are found Friends or Enemies Thus in all Medicaments there is a temperament of Qualities which is the cause that Pepper is hot Lettuce cold c. and a temperament of Forms which makes Agaric purge Phlegm Sena Melancholy Rhubarb Choler some Drugs Cardiacal others Cephalical or Splenical From the mixture of these Forms arises the action of Antidotes and Poyson and not from that of the Elementary Qualities although they accompany their Forms being their Servants and Vicegerents Otherwise did Poysons kill by excess of heat or cold Pepper and Cucumber would be Poyson as well as Opium and Arsenick and a Glass of Cold Water would be the counter-poyson of Sublimate And nevertheless there are many Alexipharmaca which agree in first qualities with the Poysons they encounter Upon the Second Point it was said Homer had reason to set two Vessels neer Jupiters Throne one full of Bitterness the other of Sweetness wherewith he compounded all the Affairs of the World Since by these contrarieties of Good and Evil Man's Life and Nature it self is divided For if the Principle of Good consist in Entity according to Aristotle and Evil in Non-Entity Privation which is the Principle of Non-entity â—nd consequently of Evil is as well rank'd amongst Natural Principles as Matter and Form which are the Foundations of Entity and Good And we see Corruptions are as common as Generations and Darkness as Light But if we consider Evil in the vitiosity of Entity then according to the Platonists who call what is material and corruptible Evil what is spiritual and incorruptible Good Man consisting both of a material and spiritual Substance will be the Center where all Goods and Evils will terminate In which respect he will be like the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil plac'd by himself in Paradise or like that to which David compares him planted by the brink of Waters which are Afflictions For his Branches and upper Parts being deck'd with Flowers Leaves and Fruits which are the three sorts of Goods which attend him his Flowers whose whiteness denotes the Innocence of his first Age are the Goods of the Body which pass away with his Spring His Leaves whose Verdure is the Symbol of Hope which never leaves him till death being fading and subject to be dispers'd by storms are the Goods of Fortune And his Fruits are the Goods of the Mind Knowledg and Virtue which are more savory and nutritive than the rest But if we behold the Roots of this Tree wherewith 't is fasten'd to the Earth and which are the original of his Evils some sticking to that Stock of Adam the source of his Original Sin which sends forth a thousand Suckers of all sorts of Vices and Passions others to that Clay from whence he was extracted and which is the Principle of all bodily Infirmities we shall find that his good things are external and communicated from elsewhere but his evil things are internal and natural and consequently more communicative For as to Vices the Evils of the Soul bad Examples corrupt more than virtuous edifie And for those of the Body Diseases are more easily gotten than cur'd and Health is not communicable to others but Epidemical Diseases are A bad Eye a tainted Grape and a rotten Apple infects its neighbour but by parity of Reason might as well be preserv'd by it The Evils of others not on'y do us ill by Compassion which is a sort of Grief but also their happiness causes in us Jealousie and Envy the cruelest of all Evils Besides Good is rare and consequently not communicative and Possession fills but satisfies not Nor is Metaphysical Good communicable being an abstracted not a real Quality And if Evil arise from the least defect of a thing and Good only from its absolute perfection then since nothing is absolutely perfect Good is not communicated to any one thing here below but on the contrary Evil is found in all The Second said That which hath no Being cannot be communicated But Evil is not any thing real and hath not any Efficient Cause as was held by the Manichees and Priscillianists condemn'd for establishing two Principles one of Good the other of Evil independent one on the other For since Good consists in the integrity and perfection of Parts and of whatever is requisite to the Nature of a Thing Evil is nothing but a Privation a defect and want of what is requisite to its perfection And being a thing is communicated according as it hath more or less of essence Good which is convertible with Being must be more communicative than Evil which is only a Being imperfect God who possesses Beeing and Goodness primarily communicates himself infinitely as doth also Light the most perfect of all created Substances Moreover the Nature of Good consisting in Suitableness and Appetibility by reason of Contraries that of Evil consists in Unfitness and Aversion and if Evil be communicated 't is always under the mask and appearance of some Good which alone is communicative by nature The Third said Good is more difficult than Evil which is commonly attended with Profit and Delight and consequently more communicative For Nature having implanted in us a love of our selves doth also instigate us to seek after all means that may tend as well to the preservation of our Nature as to our Contentment namely Riches Honour Beauty and all other Goods either real or imaginary which not being in our power but almost all in others hands cannot be much desir'd without sin nor possess'd without injustice much less acquir'd by lawful ways much rarer and longer than the unlawful and bad which are many and easie and consequently more frequent CONFERENCE CXII I. Why Animals cry when they feel Pain II. Whether it be expedient to have Enemies AS Speech was given Man to express the thoughts and conceptions of his Mind so was Voice to all Animals to signifie the motions and inclinations of their Nature towards good and evil But with this difference That Voice is a Natural Sign having affinity with the thing it signifies which Speech hath not being an Artificial Sign depending on the will and institution of its Author Hence it comes that there is great variety of Languages and Dialects among Men but one sole fashion of forming the same Voice amongst Animals who being more sensible of Pain than of Pleasure the former destroying Nature the latter giving only a surplusage of Goodness when the Evil is so great and pressing that they cannot avoid it impotence and weakness makes them send forth Cries to implore the help and assistance of their Fellows For Nature having imprinted in all Creatures a Knowledg of Good
pores being more open cannot retain those volatile substances So that had the Fat less heat as they have not for plenty of fat argues plenty of blood the purer and more aiery part whereof distilling like dew through the coats of the Vessels and passing through the Muscles when it comes to the Membranes is by them condens'd into that whitish substance rather by their density and natural property then by their coldness yet this Heat being better dispens'd and less alter'd in the Fat then in the Lean must consequently cause fewer diseases and last longer The Third said Life is the continuance of Heat in Humidity not aqueous and excrementitious as that of fat people is but oleaginous and aerial and the longer this Heat subsists therein the longer doth life last Now it continues longer in the Fat whose more open pores let out the fuliginous excrements rais'd by Heat which in fat bodies whose passages are stopt by the coldness or clamminess of pituitous humors stagnate and choke the heat like fire that wants free transpiration so necessary to life that it cannot subsist a moment without this action whereby the soul attracts air in at all parts of the body especially the mouth for refreshing and ventilating the heat and recruiting the spirits and by the same passages emits the fuliginosities necessarily following all consumption of humidity by Heat Which causes of Death being internal and consequently necessary and inevitable are much more considerable then the external whereto lean people are subject and which may be more easily avoided and remedied The fourth said That Fat persons have a more moderate and less consuming heat its activity being allay'd by the humidity of their Constitution and therefore 't is more durable than that of lean people whose heat already violent of it self is render'd more active by siccity which is a spur to it Hence they indure fasting with more trouble than the Fat whose moist substance both moderates and feeds their heat which appears to the touch very gentle and temperate as that of lean persons is sharp and pungent Moreover Diseases of Inanition to which the lean are subject are more difficult to cure than those of Repletion incident to the Fat. And old age which continually dries us up is the tendency to Death which is siccity it self The Fifth said Health being a Disposition according to Nature which renders a man capable of performing the offices of life aright and this disposition consisting in a due proportion of the first qualities which makes a harmony and laudable temper of the four humors the principal evidence thereof is a good state and habit of the body call'd by the Physicians Euexia and that Extreme which comes nearest this is the most healthy and fittest for long life The functions of life are Natural Vital and Animal all which are better perform'd by the lean than the fat First the Natural which are Nutrition Growth and Generation because the hotter flesh of the lean attracts more than that of the fat which may indeed imbibe the nutritive juices but cannot perfectly concoct and assimilate the same for want of sufficient heat whence they produce abundance of crude flegmatick excrements which render them pale and bloated For their more fatness proceeds from want of heat to consume superfluities Secondly growth being an effect of heat the Fat grow less because they are less hot than the Lean. For heat rarefies subtilises dilates and make the parts mount upwards as its defect makes the humors settle downwards hence women are never so tall as men and their lower parts are grosser whereas the upper parts of men as the head and breast are more large Thirdly the lean are more apt for generation because their spirits are more refin'd and their seed more concoct and plentiful than that of the fat the purest portion of whose blood is turn'd into fat instead of seed whence all guelded Animals become fat and according to Aristotle fat women are for the most part barren bear seldom who also as well as men of the same habit are more inclin'd to love but we are commonly most led to that which we perform best Then the Vital Functions too are more perfectly perform'd in the lean as appears by their large respiration their strong and great pulse the nimbleness in their motions and passions Lastly so also are the Animal to wit outward and inward sensation by reason of the pureness and subtlety of their spirits which likewise causes goodness of wit and of the disposition of their Organs more purifi'd and less burden'd with clouds and excrementitious humidities which render the fat more heavy both of mind and body CONFEERNCE CXXIV Whether we may better trust one whom we have oblig'd or one that hath oblig'd us COnfidence being the fruit of Friendship yea the sweet bond wherewith this Virtue unites Hearts it may seem we ought to have most in him that loves most perfectly namely he that hath oblig'd us For as 't is harder to give then to receive because we cannot give without depriving our selves of what we enjoy which is contrary to our natural inclination so it is a more virtuous action and argues a greater kindness the receiver of a benefit finding no difficulty in this action of receiving it Moreover we cannot doubt of his good will who obliges us by his benefits but we may of his that receives For it frequently happens to those that do good as it did to the Sower in the Gospel part of whose seed fell in stony places part amongst thorns part in the high-way and was devoured by birds and the least part upon good ground and brings not forth fruit but in its own time Yea there are many that hate nothing so much as the remembrance of those that have done them good as if their presence were an Universal Reproach notwithstanding that a second benefit revives the first and a third or fourth cannot but mind them of the preceeding But when you have obtain'd of them to remember it yet many regret nothing more then to pay a debt because constrain'd thereto either by Law or Duty and Man being of his own Nature free hates nothing so much as to do any thing by constraint Hence if he requites an Obligation 't is not with that freeness and cheerfulness which is requisite to good Offices and becomes a Benefactor in whom therefore we have more reason to confide then in another The Second said The little fidelity now in the world even amongst nearest Relatives makes it reasonable to enquire Who may be trusted And if the fear of Ingratitude the most vulgar crime though in shew much detested by all the world is the cause why he who hath done good to another yet dares not trust him the receiver thereof hath oftentimes no less doubt of his Benefactor 's intention For though he hath receiv'd a seeming testimony of his kindness yet the motives of benefits proceeding sometimes from an other cause
by the Sensitive Actions which may also have another cause For the infusion of the Reasonable Soul after forty days cannot be proved by actions proper to it for it reasons not till long after nor by the actions of a Soul simply for then you must grant that it is there before Organization which is an action proper to animated things Moreover the Soul must be admitted in the Body as soon as it may be there which is at the beginning of conception because even then there wants no fit disposition to this Soul which needs not any different Organs for the barely Vegetative Actions which she then performs no more then Plants do nor are different Organs necessary to her absolute exsisting since God hath created her immaterial and without any dependance and we see the similary parts of the Body are animated so that the dispositions wherewith the Soul can subsist and which suffice to retain her in the Body are also sufficient to introduce her thereinto Now these dispositions are no other then the same which are requisite for the actions of the Vegetative Soul For whatever indisposition happen to the Organs of Sense and Motion the Soul abides in the Body till the heat be dissipated or extinguished the Organs of Sense and Motion being not necessary to retain the Soul in the Body saving in as much as they contribute to respiration Even the Apoplexie which abolishes all the noble dispositions which the Philosophers hold necessary to the Soul never drives her away unless it be by accident since a Child in his Mothers belly may have that disease without incommodity saving when it comes to need respiration Now though Organization be not a disposition requisite to the introduction of the Soul yet she requires certain others some whereof we know not as that unexplicable character imprinted in the Seed besides the temperament which suffices perfectly to determine the matter for introdudion of this form and exclusion of all other The conformation of Organs being not a disposition which determines necessarily seeing amongst humane bodies some differ more from the generality of men in respect of the principal parts then they do from certain other Animals but 't is the temperament alone which arising in the first days after the mixture of the two seeds and according to Hippocrates the foetus having in the first seven days all that he ought to have this opinion is more pious and expedient for repressing the criminal license of those who without scruple procure abortion within the first forty days The Third said Though the Reasonable Soul be of a much sublimer nature then the souls of other Creatures yet being created with reference to the Body 't is not introduced thereinto till the same be fitted for its reception as no other natural form is ever received into a subject not previously fitted with all due dispositions And since the Soul is the principle of all actions hence she needs Organs and Instruments for performing them and the more sublime she is the greater preparation doth she require then the Sensitive Soul as this also doth then the Vegetative which demands only a certain mixture of the first qualities besides which the sensitive requires a more exquisite temperament of the two Principles of Generation Seed and Blood endued with a vital Spirit capable of producing Sense and Motion So that the Reasonable Soul ought not to be infused till after the conformation is in all points completed The Fourth said Since there is no proportion but between things of the same nature the Immortal Reasonable Soul cannot have any with the corruptible Body and so not depend more on the matter in its infusion then in its creation which is probably the third day after conception at which time the actions of life appear in nutrition growth alteration and configuration of the parts Which actions must proceed from some internal and animated principle which cannot be the Soul either of Father or Mother since they act not where they are not inherently nor yet the spirit of the Seed which is not a principal agent but only the instrument of a Soul nor the formative vertue which is only an accident or temper of qualities and in like manner the instrument of some more noble agent 'T is therefore the Soul contained in the bosom of the matter which produces all these actions therein They who hold the Reasonable Soul not introduced till after the two others consider not that Forms receiving no degrees of more or less cannot be perfected or changed one into another much less annihilated seeing corruption is caused only by contraries and Forms have none It follows therefore that the Reasonable Soul is the principle of all these functions which she performs according to the dispositions she meets with and that she is the architect of her own habitation CONFERENCE CXLIII Of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls THough Metemphychosis or the Transmigration of Souls be rather imaginary then true yet because there is nothing which more inriches the Field of Philosophy then liberty of reasoning we shall here inquire whether the Heathen guided only by the light of Nature had any reason to maintain this extravagance which was first taught in Greece by Pythagoras who had learn'd it of the Egyptians by whom and most other Nations of antiquity it was believ'd not only that souls departed out of some bodies re-entered and animated others but also that all things after a certain revolution of Ages should resume the same state wherein they had formerly been This was also the opinion of Plato saving that he was more rational then Pythagoras who making three Souls of the same quality said that those of men after death went to animate the bodies of Men Beasts or Plants for which reason he abstained from the flesh of Animals and could hardly resolve to eat Beans for fear of biting his Fathers head But Plato held the Transmigration of Rational Souls only into humane Bodies Which opinion though less absurd then the former which destroys it self by the confusion it introduces amongst all natural beings yet it hath its inconveniences too since the Soul being an incompleat form making one whole with its other half the Body it can never meet with one in all points like the first besides that were it in another it would have an inclination towards the first and so would not be in such body in quality of a form but in a state of constraint and violence The Second said That the Pythagorical Metemphychosis is not more absurd in regard that being the form gives a determinate and specifical being to every thing if humane souls past into the bodies of Beasts or Plants these Creatures would be Men then that of Plato seems probable nothing hindring but that a humane soul may enter into another humane body after the dissolution and ruine of the former For if there be any thing to hinder it it must be because there is no return
there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating
deadly to Men is not warranted by any Example Antiquity whose Judgement is venerable even in doubtful things allowing this Beast capable of doing mischief only in the place where he resides CONFERENCE CCIX. Whether a Dead Body can be preserv'd naturally many years THis Question is divided in two points First Whether a dead Body can be kept without art Secondly Whether it can be so by art Nature being here oppos'd not to Art but to what is supernatural The first is hard every Carkase having in it self the principles of Coruption because the harmony of qualities which caus'd to subsist being dissolv'd it advances of it self to an annihillation And Nature should cease her continual motion if her subject depriv'd of animal life should always remain in one and the same state Yea if Nature should stop her course in dead Bodies and not be able to resolve them into other works the Influences of the Heavens would be useless in respect of them as also their motion which is in order to generations which would cease if there were no more corruption whence the destruction of the Universe in its parts would follow Nor would the Elements act any more one against another remaining pure and simple and incapable of any generation since siccity could no more act upon humidity nor heat upon cold It remains to enquire Whether a dead Body may be preserv'd by art which seems possible because we may by art destroy the activity of the Elements and reduce them to a just and equal temperament capable of long preservation For if impurities and superfluities lead mixt Bodies to Corruption 't is easie to separate them by Chymistry otherwise this art would be incapable of reducing them as it doth every day to a just Temperament Yea if we consider the Principles of Preservation it will appear that those of Art are more powerful than those of Nature in regard of the means and Instruments it employs to separate them which Nature cannot do because She mixes things without choice and depuâ—ation and consequently since Art hath so much power in so many Agenâ—s 't is possible to preserve a dead body for many years Moreover our own Experience and that of Antiquity teach us that Balms are able to preserve bodies a long time as appears in the Mummies of Aegypt and in some Embryo's which â—re preserv'd long in spirit of Salt and other Liquors repugnant 〈…〉 The second said That a dead body may be preserved long not only by 〈◊〉 but also naturally as that of a Lady deceased fifty six years ago which was found lately intire and gave occasion â—o this Conference Whence it may be presum'd That Women are not so easily corruptible because their bodies are made of flesh more elaborate then that of man which was immediately taken from the dust and consequently is more prone to return into its first Original Now the way to preserve dead bodies from corruption is to prevent the dissolution of their parts which is done by maintaining the connexion of humidity with driness to which end all extrinsical heat and moisture must be kept from them as much as possible Hence it is that dead bodies are plac'd in subterraneous places and inclosed in leaden Coffins to the end the cold and dry vapours symbolizing with the qualities of Saturn which the Chymists make as justly preservative as the Poets make it destructive may withstand extrinsecal heat and moisture and maintain the marriage of 〈◊〉 with humidity which is also the scope of the Gums and Spices we employ to imbalm bodies which having some heat with a certain Unctuousness suck up the superfluous moisture and preserve the Natural Moreover the Sex Age and Temperament are considerable in this matter A Habit of body moderately fleshy which Galen accounts the most laudable and which denotes a good Constitution is fittest for this purpose and 't is probable that the bodies of those that die of a sudden death resist putrefaction longer than those that have been extenuated by a longer Sickness or brought to the Grave by a Feaver because in these cases the body is in a great tendency to putrefaction even before Death CONFERENCE CCX Of the Remora T Is a small Fish half a foot long called by the Greeks Echeneïs and by the Latins Remora because 't is thought to stop the motion of Ships by means of two scales wherewith it closely imbraces the keel This common belief is founded upon many experiences reported by Authors worthy of Credit Pliny writes That Periander having sent a Ship to Gnidos with orders to castrate all the principal Children of that Island it was stopp'd in the main sea so long time as was requisite to send for other Orders contrary to the former by another Ship and that in remembrance of this happy retardment the two scales of this little fish were in his time seen hanging up near the Altar of Gnidia and Venus The like happen'd to a Pretorian Ship of Anthony at the battel of Actium so that he could not advance to give Orders to his Naval Army The Emperor Caligula having set sail from Asturia with a Gally of five banks was likewise constrain'd to stay by the way with his Vessel the other Ships not suffering the same obstruction at which this Prince was so incens'd that he presently commanded divers to seek out the cause who at length found this Fish sticking to the helm of the Vessel which they shew'd him about the bigness of a Snail and he was more surpris'd when he saw that it had not the like effect within the Ship as without as 't is said the foot of a Tortoise being in a Vessel makes it move slowly Plutarch in the second book of his Symposiacks affirms That this Fish was found sticking to the Ship which he hired to sail into Sicily and Rondeletius saith That the Cardinal of Tourain being imbarked for Rome in a Vessel of three banks was a long time stopp'd in a place at Sea by this little Fish which being taken was serv'd up to his table though others write that it is not fit to eat But what they add That its vertue of retarding is such that it is made use of to hinder the Judgment of a Law-suit whereof the issue is fear'd and also in filtres to retain a Lover that despises his loving Mistris is as hard to believe as 't is to find considerable reasons for it without having recourse to the ancient asylum of those who despair to find any which is the specifick form of this Fish which hath the same faculty of stopping Ships that a Diamond hath of retaining the Vertue of the Loadstone and Garlick of hindering it to act as the Ship appeaseth the fury of the Elephant the Fig-tree that of the Bull and many other such things which though small in bulk are yet very great and virtuous as they make appear in their Qualities which are as sensible in their Effects as they are occult in their
health incline to corruption The hot and dry is also too easily inclinable to be enflam'd as the cold and moist is too much subject to defluxions and withal to sharp Diseases such as are putrid Feavers for the first Burning Feavers for the second and Apoplexies Palsies and Dropsies for the last On the other side cold and drought are enemies to corruption and by those very qualities which are contrary thereto they more powerfully oppose external injuries by reason of the solidity of the skin and the density of its parts as the dispositions of melancholy persons are not subject to the passionate disturbances of the Cholerick the inconstancy of the Sanguine the slothfulness of the Phlegmatick and communicate the same Stability which is in them to the Spirits which act answerably thereto Of this Constitution were all those laborious and studious people and all the great Persons whose assiduous employments have made them famous in their own and subsequent Ages The Second said That if we may believe the same Galen in the sixth Book of the preservation of Health the hot and moist Temperament is the most healthy as being the most proper to man's nature and he-further writes That those who are very moist are long-liv'd and when their bodies are come to their full strength they are more healthy then others and are more robust and hardy then other men of the same Age and so continue till they grow old And thence it is saith he That all the Physicians and Philosophers who have diligently examined the Elements of man's body have commended that Temperament For as Aristotle affirms in his Book of a long and short life Our life consists in heat and moisture as cold and drought dispose us towards death and the sooner the animal grows cold and dry the sooner it grows old and dies But these two contrary sentiments of Galen may be reconcil'd well enough by affirming his meaning to be that exrernal heat and moisture are enemies to health whereas on the contrary the natural heat and radical moisture are friends to it inasmuch as these are never chargeable with excess but always moderate one serving for aliment to the other and they are so far from being capable of receiving any distemper that what results from them serves for a rule whereto all the other Temperaments are referred which the Vulgar improperly calls by the name of the four Humours that are predominant in them but that abuse being fortify'd by custom we must follow it though for no other reason then that we may be the better understood Whence it follows that the Sanguine Temperament is the most healthy as being the most conformable to life This Temperament is also the likeliest to produce a good Wit inasmuch as it exercises better then any other the functions of the Rational Soul which being distributed between the natural vital and animal Faculties and these being better exercis'd when they most abound with clear and purify'd spirits it is certain that the Sanguine Temperament the only treasury of the Spirits supplies more plentifully and with such as are more pure those in whom it is predominant then it can be imagin'd to do others in whom that blood is either puffed up by an excessive froath of Choler or drown'd in the waterishness of Phlegm or bury'd in the mud of Melancholy And this may be observ'd in the gentileness and the singular sleight nay the easiness wherewith persons of a sanguine Constitution demean themselves in all things they undertake betraying such a smiling chearfulness in their eyes and countenance as discovers their interiour joy and satisfaction and is no less delightful to those that are present then the impetuous sallies of the Cholerick give distate the sluggish delays of the Phlegmatick are tedious and the profound reveries of the Melancholy hateful and importunate But as for the inconstancy the only Objection which the other Temperaments make against the Sanguine it is not to be accounted vicious in them but look'd on as a divertisement wherewith they are pleas'd and which they put themselves upon only that their labours may by that ohange be the more delightful to them Which change is so much the more excusable in them that they court it not to the end they should be idle but they may apply themselves to some other employment which suits better with their humour such as the over-long contemplation thereof might not dry up that noble blood which runs in their veins and by converting it into dregs turn the sanguine into a melancholick Constitution to which the obstinacy wherewith it persists a long time in the prosecution of one and the same design is a greater discommendation than the inconstancy imputed to the sanguine is to that inasmuch as the latter makes advantage of it to wit that of attempting and many times executing several designs together especially when it undertakes such as it is sure to master such as may be Dancing Musick Courtship well-concontriv'd Stories and such other pleasant things And indeed it is impossible to exercise the functions of the mind well when the body is indispos'd as on the contrary when the body is in perfect health the mind acts its part so much the better The Third said That it were very unjust to deprive of the honour due to them the Heroes and Worthies of the World whose temperament must needs have been cholerick by attributing to any of the others the great and noble actions of the mind which belong to them Now to demonstrate that the temperament of the Heroes consisted of heat and drought we need bring in no further evidence than the suddenness and expedition wherewith they undertake and execute all their designs as it were complying with the activity of Fire which hath the supremacy among the Elements as they have the preheminence amongst men Nay it may be urged that great enterprizes would never be executed without some degree of choler which serves as it were for salt to all humane actions This premis'd as out of all dispute we now come to consider whether the hot and dry Temperament be the most consistent with health I affirm then that it is more consistent with it than the Phlegmatick which abounds in excrements then the Sanguine which easily admits of alterations nay also then the Melancholick whose gross humours are more subject to obstruction then Choler is the vivacity whereof is to be seen upon all occasions those of the Cholerick Constitution having always their Vessels large and as such much more unlikely to be stopp'd up The Fourth said that so far as the soul and body are different so far are also their qualities such From which consideration Aristotle took occasion to affirm That robust bodies are design'd to obey as the weak are to command inasmuch as commonly they are the receptacles of a stronger soul This rais'd a persuasion in some that the most imperfect bodies have commonly the most perfect souls alledging to that purpose