Influence of the Sun's Rayes which produce and conserve it CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life NAture not contented to produce all things hath given them a desire of Self-preservation Even Inanimate Bodies redouble their activity at the approach of their destructive contraries whence proceeds Antiperistasis But this desire appears chiefly in Animals and above all in Man being grounded upon the Love he bears to himself Which extream Love instigating him to seek all good things contributary to his contentment makes him likewise desire long Life whereby he may continue his other enjoyments and consequently avoid all occasions of Death as that which interrupts the course of this Life and makes him cease to be Hence as by general consent Death is the most terrible of terribles so by the reason of Contraries Life is the most agreable and consequently most desirable and best thing in the World and not desirable only by all Men who are endued with Knowledg but also by all living things each after its mode and according as they are capable of desiring Plants attracting their nourishment and Animals seeking their Food with difficulty and carefully avoiding all dangers that lead to Death For though Nature loves change whereof she is the Principle yet 't is onely that of Generation or of a less into a more noble substance that of Corruption and Death she abhorrs being not further pleased in the vicissitudes of mutations than she gains by the change but she is a loser by Death which separates the Body from the Soul in the union whereof she hath all that she can wish She may disguise her self and changing of shape and countenance but can never light upon any more agreable than that which she makes appear in the Marriage of a Body with a Soul which are so perfectly united that after their dissolution our Souls alwayes retain an Inclination toward their ancient Mates which they once animated The Second said If the sentiment of Nature makes us conceive long Life desirable Reason which evinceth it full of Miseries and Calamities teaches us that the shortest is best and that we may justly wish either never to have been or to have dy'd as soon as we came into the World This was the Judgement not onely of the greatest Sages of Pagan Antiquity many of whom cheerfully quitted Life to escape its Miseries but the sometimes famous Republick of Marseilles gave Licence to the miserable to take Poyson which was kept in a publick Store Yea even the holiest Personages have been of the same Advice as Job amongst others who calls Man's Life a warfare upon Earth and curses the day of his Birth Moses and Elias who pray'd to God they might dye and Saint Paul who desires nothing so much as to be loos'd from this miserable Body in which as in a dark prison the Reasonable Soul is enclos'd and remains against its will since being of a Celestial Nature and so continually longing after the place of its extraction Death which delivers it from its fetters must be as desirable to it as contrary to the Body which having nought to hope for after this Life but to be the food of worms and corruption hath all reason to dread it and avoid the occasions of it as accordingly all such do who live onely for the Body resenting no other motions in themselves but of desire to live long Whereas Reason instructs us that here we never possess the Good whereof the Immortal Soul is capable by its two Powers the Understanding and the Will which never find any Truth or Goodness in the things of this World but what is sophisticate it makes us also conceive Life as a violent state and contrary to the Felicity of our better part The Third said Since Life is the duration of Being which undoubtedly is the greatest of all Goods Entity and Good being convertible that must be the most desirable which is of greatest continuance because it comes nearest infinity and eternity under which all Perfection is compris'd and which being therefore passionately desir'd by all Men but not attainable by any they endeavor to partake as much of it as they can by prolongation of Life which is the foundation not onely of the Goods of the Body and Fortune whose sweetness makes amends for some Evils of Life but also of the Mind in which Natural Felicity consists whereunto amongst other conditions long Life is requisite both for attaining of Knowledge and Virtue not to be gotten without long time which renders Men knowing and prudent as for making others taste the fruits of an exemplary Life The Fourth said That Beasts and even Stones having the good of Existence as well as we that alone is not sufficient to render Life desirable in regard Non-existence is much rather to be wisht than a Being alwayes miserable what ever some say to the contrary since even our Saviour saith It had been better for Judas never to have been born then to have fallen into the crime of Treason Moreover Seneca saith No person would accept of Life if he knew how dear it must cost him Hence we enter into the World weeping as if it were against our consent and as our Lives begin with tears so they are continu'd with labor and ended with pain Nor have we more reason to desire long Life for the Goods of the Mind which consist in Virtue alone For if we be vicious 't is expedient both for our selves and the Publick that we live but little for fear of corrupting others by our evil Examples If virtuous 't is much to be fear'd lest we be corrupted by the converse of the wicked who are very numerous which was the cause why God by a special favour took away Enoch in the midst of the course of his Life and transported him into the Terrestrial Paradise The fifth said If a long Life were less desirable than a short God should have deceiv'd those that honour their Parents by promising them a bad salary in recompence of a good Action Nor ought Physick to trouble it self and those that use it by so many Rules and Receipts were a short Life that is to say a speedy death so desirable nor would the Laws punish Criminals with Death if what they give them were better than what they take from them Moreover as the long-liv'd Oak and Palm-Tree are more excellent than the Mushrome Hysop and the Rose Stags Elephants Eagles Ravens and the Phoenix more perfect than Butterflies and those Insects which they call Ephemera because they live but one day so amongst Men those that live long seem to have some advantage above those that are of a short Life having the Principles of their Generation more vigorous wherein nevertheless the Sex Temperament Climate Habitation and manner of living make a notable difference Sanguine Men and the Inhabitants of Temperate Regions commonly living longer than Women cholerick Persons and such as live under intemperate Climates The Sixth
said Reason having been given Man to correct the Inclinations of the Sensitive Appetite 't is that alone must judge whether it be expedient for him to live long not Sense which makes us judge like beasts That nothing is dearer than Life But Reason illuminated either by Faith or by Philosophy teaches us that this World is the place of our banishment the Body the Soul's Prison which she alwayes carryes about with her Life a continual suffering and War and therefore he fights against Natural Light who maintaines it expedient to prolong so miserable a State For besides the incommodities attending a long Life which after 70. years as David testifies is onely labour and sorrow long Life is equally unprofitable towards attaining Knowlege and Virtue He that lives long can learn nothing new in the World which is but a Revolution and Repetition of the same Effects produc'd alwayes by the same Causes not onely in Nature whose course and changes may be seen in the Revolution of the Four Seasons of the Year but even in Affairs of State and Private Matters wherein nothing is said or done but what hath been practis'd before And as for Virtue the further we are from Childhod the less Innocence and Sanctity we have and Vices ordinarily increase with years The long Life of the first Men having according to some been the probable Cause of the depravation of those Ages CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy AS the Brain is the most eminent and noble of all the parts being the Seat of the Understanding and the Throne of the Reasonable Soul so its diseases are very considerable and the more in that they do not attaque that alone but are communicated to all the other parts which have a notable interest in the offence of their Chief ceasing to diffuse its Animal Spirits destinated to Motion Sense and the Function of the Inferior Members Which Functions are hurt by the Lethargy which deprives a Man of every other Inclination but that to sleep and renders him so forgetful and slothful whence it took its Greek name which signifies sluggish oblivion that he remembers nothing at all being possess'd with such contumacious sleepiness that she shuts his Eyes as soon as he ha's open'd them besides that his Phansie and Reasoning is hurt with a continual gentle Fever Which differences this Symptom from both the sleeping and waking Coma call'd Typhomania the former of which commonly begins in the Fits of Fevers and ends or diminishes at their declination but the Lethargick sleeps soundly and being wak'd by force presently falls a sleep again The latter makes the Patient inclin'd to sleep but he cannot by reason of the variety of Species represented to him in his Phansie The signes of this Malady are deliration heaviness of the Head and pain of the Neck after waking the Matter taking its course along the spine of the back frequent oscitation trembling of the Hands and Head a palish Complexion Eyes and Face pufft up sweatings troubled Urine like that of Cattle a great Pulse languishing and fluctuating Respiration rare with sighing and so great forgetfulness as sometimes not to remember to shut their Mouths after they have open'd nor even to take breath were they not forc'd to it by the danger of suffocation The Conjunct and next Cause of this Malady is a putrid Phlegm whose natural coldness moistens and refrigerates the Brain whilst it s put refactive heat kindles a Fever by the vapors carry'd from the Brain to the Heart and from thence about the whole Now this Phlegmatick Humor is not detained in the Ventricles of the Brain for then it would cause an Apoplexy if the obstruction were total and if partial an Epilepsie wherein the Nerves contract themselves towards their original for discharging of that Matter But 't is onely in the sinuosities and folds of the Brain which imbibing that excessive humidity acquires a cold and moist intemperature from whence proceeds dulness and listelesness to all Actions For as Heat is the Principle of Motion especially when quickned by Dryness so is Cold the Cause of stupidity and sluggishness especially when accompanied with humidity which relaxes the parts and chills their Action In like manner Heat or Dryness inflaming our Spirits the Tunicles of the Brain produce the irregular Motions of Frenzy which is quite contrary to the Lethargy although it produce the same sometimes namely when the Brain after great evacuations acquires a cold and moist intemperature in which case the Lethargy is incurable because it testifies Lesion of the Faculty and abolition of strength But on the contrary a Frensie after a Lethargy is a good sign resolving by its Heat and dissipating the cold humors which produce the same The Second said That coldness being contrary to put refaction Phlegm the coldest of all humors cannot easily putrifie in the Brain which is cold too of its own nature much less acquire a Heat sufficient to communicate it self to the Heart and there excite a Fever it being more likely for such adventitious Heat to cause in the Brain rather the impetuous motions of a Frenzy than the dulness and languor of a Lethargy Nor is it less then absurd to place two enemy-qualities in the same Subject to wit Cold and Heat whereof the one causes sleep the other a Fever which I conceive to precede not to follow the Lethargy and which having raised from the Hypochondres to the Brain a Phlegmatick blood mixt with gross vapors there causeth that obscuration of Reason and sluggishness of the whole Body but especially the abolition of the Memory the sutable temperament for which is totally destroyed by excessive humidity Indeed the troubled Urine liquid Digestions Tumors and pains of the Neck bloated Flesh and other such signs accompanying this disease argue that its matter is more in the rest of the Body than in the Brain which suffers onely by Sympathie The Third said If it be true that sleep is the Brother of Death then the Lethargy which is a continual drowsiness with a Fever and Delirium seemes to be a middle Estate between Life and Death which is known by the cessation of Actions most of which fail in those afflicted with this Evil which nevertheless is less then the Carus wherein the sleep is so profound that the Patient feels not when he is prickt or call'd by name but is depriv'd of all Sense and Motion saving that of Respiration which scarce appears in the Catoche or Catalepsie a stranger symptom than any of the former wherein the Eyes remain wide open the whole Body stiff and in the same state and posture wherein it hapned to be when it first seiz'd the same The Cause whereof most say is a cold and moist humor obstructing the hinder part of the Brain but I rather ascribe it to a sudden Congelation of the Animal Spirits as I do the Lethargy to narcotick and somniferous vapors which are the sole Causes of Inclination to sleep which cannot
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
Faculty the Chirurgion the Animal and the Apothecary the tal so that to divide them is as much as to separate the Liver Heart and Brain of one and the same Man and Theory being never well understood without practice 't is no wonder if their dis-union hath occasion'd the setting up many Ignorants and Empericks The Second said If Man's Life be short in respect of the Art of Physick according to the saying of Hippocrates the Prince thereof then 't is the way to shorten it more even by two thirds to assign it three Arts and Exercises each of which requires the whole Man The Egyptians were of another Judgment not only distinguishing Physicians from Operators and Preparers of Medicaments but also having particular Physicians for each considerable part of Man as for the Eye Ear c. which render them more expert because we do nothing well but what we do often and what difference there is between one that exercises more Arts and him that is contented with one appears by comparing Country-Apothecaries and Chirurgians who practise all three parts of Physick and those of great Cities Moreover the alliance between the Body and the Soul is such that while the one is employ'd about some work the other cannot intend its cogitations else-where as it ought to do in this Case And therefore to require a Physician to let blood set a bone or prepare a medicine is all one as to expect that a General should both give Orders and perform the Office of a common Souldier For if the Mind that is at rest be esteem'd the more wise and capable of reasoning whence our Judges sit Physicians consult and the Greeks would have adoration perform'd in that posture what good advice can be expected from a Physician who is always out of breath with his preparations and operations Besides 't is not seemly for a Physician to visit his Patient with his Hands smelling and dy'd with drugs and the confidence of the Patient in him being much conducive to the Cure it cannot but be better trusting to three persons than to one And indeed supposing a Physician were so wicked as to have ill intentions against his Patient's Life which yet is hard to imagine and there are very few Examples of such it would be harder for him to execute them when others prepare his remedies than when he prepares them himself As likewise the Apothecary may play the Villain more securely when he hath not the inspection of the Physician over him Wherefore 't is best that Physick remain distributed into three Professions which like an Harmonious Trade assist and uphold each other the Physician being as the Head and the other two as his two Hands All the business is that this Harmony and Proportion be so well observ'd that the Hands think not themselves to be the Head which happens but too frequently to the great dishonor of Physick and damage of the sick CONFERENCE CLXXXI Whether there be any Real Evil besides Pain THings have either an absolute Essence or a Relative the former are Real as to be a Man the latter which have no Being but from the Respect they have to our Phansie depend upon the same as to be glad or troubled at certain News These two Heads contain all Entities but because the weakness of Humane Judgement often confounds them taking an imaginary thing for a real hence the inquisition of their difference hath furnish'd the Schools with various Questions That of the Stoicks was so far from admitting any other Real Evil besides Pain that it allow'd not Pain it self to be an Evil. On the contrary Epicurus held there was no other Evil but Pain nor any other Good but Pleasure its opposite Indeed by adjoyning Vertue to that Pleasure and assigning the pre-eminence to the pleasure of the Mind it will be easie to make Good and Pleasure convertible whence it will also follow that Evil and Pain must be reciprocal The Third said That Evil being the Privation of Good and Privation no real Entity to enquire whether there be any real Evil is the same as to ask whether a Privation be a Habit. But to comply with the terms of the Question which seems to be Whether there be any other sufferings of that kind which the Vulgar calls Evils causing sensible displeasure in us as necessarily as bodily Pain doth In answer whereunto I say First that there is both a spiritual and a corporeal grief or pain of either of which some persons are more or less sensible then others Secondly That all people desire pleasure as a good and shun pain as an evil for even the inflictions of some Religious persons upon themselves are done in hope of a future good and lastly that both the one and the other are excited by several and oft-times contrary ways and means For as the bitterness of Succhory hurts and displeases some but is agreeable to others so also the same accident may cause pleasure in some minds and sadness in others this variety proceeding from the different temper of Minds Besides corporeal and spiritual pain differ in that every one is a capable judge of the former but not of the latter whence as Aristotle saith all run after pleasures of the Body because they ignore those of the Soul and so likewise most only reckon their bodily pains true Evils because they have no experience of griefs of the Mind But he that well weighs how infinitely the Intellect excels the Body easily finds that the evils that attaque the same are also far greater since 't is that by which the Body is render'd susceptible both of pain and pleasure and receives impressions of both upon the countenance wherein particularly the Eye is term'd the Mirror of the Soul for no other reason but because it represents her Passions and Affections And to shew how much grief and displeasure of Mind surpasseth that of the Body we see some redeem the loss of their Honour with that of their Lives which cannot be without suffering the pain of death The Third said 'T is not the Question whether the griefs of the Body or the Mind be greatest since every one judges variously thereof according to his humor As the Miser prefers his profit before the pains of Hunger and Thirst and the Ambitious person ventures his life in the Field rather than endure the Lye But the Question is Whether there be any reality in the Evils which the Mind of man undergoes besides Pain of which alone we see all other Animals are sensible Nature teaching Man thereby that she hath left it to his own conduct how much his natural condition is worse then theirs whilst he is not only lyable to the same bodily evils but becomes ingenious to his own hurt and an expert Artificer of his own bad fortune An instance whereof we have in the Swine that was eating his food peaceably in a Tempest whilst all the Passengers fearing every moment to split against the Rocks dy'd
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
CL. Whether Alterations of States have natural Causes 195 CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful To become warm by the Fire or by Exercise 198 CONFERENCE CLII. Whether Wine helps or hinders Digestion and why 201 CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than any other time of the Night or Day 203 CONFERENCE CLIV Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds 206 CONFERENCE CLV Whether Courage be natural or acquir'd 209 CONFERENCE CLVI Whether Men not having learn'd of others would frame Language to themselves 112 CONFERENCE CLVII Whether is better to guard the Frontier or carry the VVar into the Enemies Country 215 CONFERENCE CLVIII Whence diversity of Opinions proceeds 218 CONFERENCE CLIX. Why there is more VVind at Sea than at Land 221 CONFERENCE CLIX. Whether it be easier to procure Obedience by Gentleness than by Terrour 224 CONFERENCE CLX VVhether Trading derogate from Gentility 225 CONFERENCE CLXI VVhy the French are so much incensed with the Lie 128 CONFERENCE CLXII VVhy every one thinks himself well enough provided with VVit and some better than others 231 CONFERENCE CLXIII How Animals are bred of Putrefaction 234 CONFERENCE CLXIV Of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals 237 CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms 240 CONFERENCE CLXVI Which is to be preferred Company or Solitude 242 CONFERENCE CLXVII Whether Birds or four-footed Animals or Fishes be most Intelligent 245 CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases 248 CONFERENCE CLXIX What Bodily Exercise is the most healthful 252 CONFERENCE CLXX Whether Vertue consists in Mediocrity 255 CONFERENCE CLXXI. Whether the Imagination be able to produce and cure Diseases 258 CONFERENCE CLXXII Of Fascination or Bewitching 261 CONFERENCE CLXXIII Of Amulets and whether Diseases are curable by Words Tickets or other things hang'd at the Neck or applyed to the Body of the Diseased 264 CONFERENCE CLXXIV Whether Fruition diminishes Love 266 CONFERENCE CLXXV Whether 't were better to know all that men now know or all that they ignore 269 CONFERENCE CLXXVI Whether Musick doth more hurt or good 272 CONFERENCE CLXXVII Whether Barrenness is most commonly the fault of Husbands or of Wives 275 CONFERENCE CLXXVIII Whether Complaisance proceeds from Magnanimity or Poorness of Spirit 279 Touching the means of re-establishing Commerce 282 CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore 288 CONFERENCE CLXXX Whether more hurt or good hath proceeded from sharing the parts of Physick between Physitions Apothecaries and Chirurgions 291 CONFERENCE CLXXXI Whether there be any Real Evil besides Pain 293 CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether man be most diseas'd of all Creature and why 295 CONFERENCE CLXXXIII Of the Greeness of Plants 298 CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. 300 CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females 302 CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences 304 CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same Subject 306 CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why 308 CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains 310 CONFERENCE CXC Whence proceed good and bad Gestures Gracefulness and ill Aspects 313 CONFERENCE CXCI. Which is most proper for Study the Evening or the Morning 316 CONFERENCE CXCII Who are the most Ingenious of the World 319 CONFERENCE CXCIII Of the Fraternity of the Rosie-Cross CONFERENCE CXCXIV What Paracelsus meant by the Book M. 326 CONFERENCE CXCV. Of the Art of Raimond Lully 329 CONFERENCE CXCVI. Why a Needle Touch'd by a Loadstone turns towards the North 332 CONFERENCE CXCVII What Sect of Philosophers is most to be follow'd 334 CONFERENCE CXCVIII. Why Mules breed not 336 CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake 338 CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear 343 CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of S. Germain's Fair. 345 CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers 350 CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn 353 CONFERENCE CIV Of Satyrs 357 CONFERENCE CCV Of the Phoenix 360 CONFERENCE CCVI. Of the Sensitive Plants 362 CONFERENCE CCVII. Of the Bezoar 365 CONFERENCE CCVIII Whence proceeds the sudden Death of Men and Animals upon descending into certain Pits 371 CONFERENCE CCIX. Whether a Dead Body can be preserv'd naturally many years 373 CONFERENCE CCX Of the Remora 375 CONFERENCE CCXI. Of Negroes 377 CONFERENCE CCXII. Of Ecstacies 380 CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing 388 CONFERENCE CCXIV. Of the Sibyls 392 CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why 399 CONFERENCE CCXVI Of the Silk-worm 402 CONFERENCE CCXVII Why Ice being harder than Water is yet lighter 406 CONFERENCE CCXVIII Of Masks and whether it be lawful for any to disguise themselves 409 CONFERENCE CCXIX. Of Fables and Fictions and whether their conveniences or inveniences be greater 413 CONFERENCE CCXX VVhether it be better to go to Bed late and rise betimes in the Morning or do the contrary 416 CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother 420 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether is harder for a Vertuous Man to do that which is Evil or for a Vicious Man to do that which is good 423 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether a piece of Iron laid upon the Cask prevents Thunder from marring Wine contain'd within it and why 427 CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not 431 CONFERENCE CCXXV. Whether that Temperament of the Body which conduces most to Health be also the most convenient for the Mind 434 CONFERENCE CCXXVI Whether it be more expedient for a Man to have only one Friend or many 438 CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of the Oracles 442 CONFERENCE CCXXVIII Of the Tingling of the Ears 447 CONFERENCE CCXXIX Of Philtres and whether there be any proper Remedies for the procuring of Love 451 CONFERENCE CCXXX Of Atoms 454 CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why 458 CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration 462 CONFERENCE CCXXXIII Of Natural Magick 465 CONFERENCE CCXXXIV Of the moles and marks appearing in the Face 468 CONFERENCE CCXXXV Of Auguries and Auspices 473 CONFERENCE CCXXXVI Whether those Children who are born with Cawls about their whole or some parts of their Bodies are always fortunate and why 478 CONFERENCE CCXXXVII Of Antiperistasis 482 CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder 486 CONFERENCE CCXXXIX Whether there be any such Creatures as the Ancients conceiv'd the Satyrs to be 489 CONFERENCE CCXL Whether it be better to bury or to burn the bodies of the Dead 493 PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCES Part II. CONFERENCE CI. I. Of Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World AS Nature is the Principle of Motion so she is also of Rest and Sleep which is the cessation of the actions of an Animal to whom alone it hath been assigned in
those of Paracelsus against the Pestilence and infinite others render their effects as common as their existence certain Which is prov'd also by the example of Gamahés or Camaien's which are Stones naturally figur'd by the impressions of the Stars which consequently may have influence upon Artificial Figures For as the Sun may lighten or heat a mans Picture as well as a Man so may the Stars give their influences to the Figure of a Thing as well as to the Thing it self especially when the subject is fitted thereunto as the Talisman is not only by its metallick matter symbolizing with that of the Star both in colour and solidity but especially by the Figure imprinted on it which is like the Sign whose influences it receives For though the Constellation be not very like that Figure yet in regard the Qualities of the Animal which the Figure represents are like those of the Sign whence the Constellations of the Zodiack are call'd The Ram the Bull c. not for the resemblance of such Animals parts with those of those Signs the Figure of the Animals attracts them of the same Sign much more powerfully by sympathy And indeed we see many things have qualities consentaneous to the Figure they bear as the Stone call'd Ophites for the small veins which cut it in form of little Serpents cures their poyson as also the Stones of Maltha do which bear the Figure of a Serpents-tongue and the Herb call'd by that name The Squill and the Poppy which resemble the head asswage the pains thereof Wild Tansey and Eyebright cure the Eye whereto they are like But if it be said That 't is not the Figure that acts in them but a particular virtue depending on the temper of their Qualities since losing their Figure either by distillation or infusion they cease not to act yea more effectually than before I answer That in the spirits of those same active qualities remains always the Form and Figure as some Chymists have resuscitated Roses and other Flowers by holding their ashes in a glass Phial over a Candle The Second said That Talismans cannot produce the effects attributed to them whether you consider them in their Matter and Substance or in their Figure Not in the former for any sort of Matter as Wood Wax Stone Metal c. are made use of for cutting of these Talismans which besides lose their Name when they produce an effect by the virtue of their Matter as a Scorpion engraven on a Bezoar-stone would not cure the bitings of that venomous Animal by its Talismanical Figure no more than any other but 't is an effect depending on the Stone it self Nor do Simples cure by the resemblance between the Parts of our Body and their external Figure of which we speak here but by the virtue and property of their Substance which remains when they are powder'd and despoil'd of their Figure which moreover is a Quality indeed but no active one being only a certain situation and disposition of Parts and a mode of quantity which depending on Matter a purely passive thing is as uncapable of any action by it self as the Figure which terminates it But though the artificial Figure of a Talisman could act it could produce no natural effect because beyond its power much less upon the Will to incite Love or Hatred as is pretended For 't is a ridiculous and groundless vanity to imagine a sympathetical Commerce between a Constellation and a Figure of an Animal graven upon Copper or such other Matter which is much less fit to receive the influences of the Stars to which such Animal is subject than the Animal it self whose skin stuff'd with straw were more proper to drive away other Beasts of the same kind there being nothing Living-creatures dread so much as the dead Bodies of their own kind The Third said It needs not to seek Reasons and Authorities to prove Talismans either in Art or Nature since Man himself may be said to be the Talisman and Perfection of God's Works plac'd by him at the Centre of the Universe as of old Talismans were plac'd at the Foundations of Cities His countenance being a Medal imprinted with all the Characters of the Stars the two brightest of which are at the Eyes Saturn at the Eye-brows the Seat of Severity Jupiter at the Fore-head the place of Honour Mars at the Nose where Anger resides Mercury in the Mouth where Eloquence lies Venus at the Chin and rounding of the Cheeks the pourfit of the grace of this Medal which serves him for an Universal Talisman in its Beauty to procure Love in its Majesty to cause Respect not only to drive away Flies or Frogs but to reign over all Animals by the prerogative of this Face before which they tremble Are not his Hands the Artificers of his Felicity Talismans noted with the Characters of the Signs and Planets which the Rules of Chiromancy uncypher In the Right Hand are his Days and Years saith the Wiseman the Talisman of his long life in the Left are Riches and Honours the Talisman of his good Fortune In short Is not his Soul the Talisman of his Immortality which at the instant of its Creation receiving all the influences of the Deity and retaining the Image thereof hath been inserted into this Work not to preserve it from Thunder and Tempests which can touch only the least part of it but from Corruption and Extinction to which all other Creatures are subject The Fourth said He 's too sensual that impugns the truth of things under pretext that they fall not under our Reason which though very weak and uncertain abusing the principality which it usurps over all the Faculties hath turn'd its denomination into Tyrannie Whence if Experiences be alledg'd she denies them because not able to accord them with the weakness of her Judgment Witness what is seen in all the admirable works of Nature and Art in the Magnetical cure of Wounds and that of Diseases by Amulets or Periapts and what Cicero and all Antiquity affirms of Gyges's Ring upon turning of the Stone whereof inwards he became invisible and returning it outwards was perceiv'd Such also was Minerva's Shield wherewith Perseus combated the Gorgons which was of Glass through which one might see without being seen as also the Rings of those Mistresses of Alexander the Great and Charlemain For if it be said of the first That Olympias shewing her self stark naked to him made him confess That the great Beauty of all the parts of her Body was the only Talisman wherewith she enchanted Alexander The same cannot be said of the latter since after his death the Talismanical Ring found under her Tongue caus'd Charlemain to love not only her but also the Lake of Aix-la-Chapelle whereinto it was cast and that which was found in the Foundations of the Walls of this City of Paris under Chilperic where there was a Fire engraven upon a Brass-plate a Serpent and a Rat which having been
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
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-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
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
from privation to habit That which hath sometimes been can no more be such as it was and 't is impossible for a soul which hath once informed a body to re-enter it again and there exercise the functions of life after having been once totally thence expelled But these Reasons hinder not seeing the soul may be introduced anew into some body wherein it is not now but hath been formerly as Gangraenous and wholly mortified members may be again vivified by a powerful effect of the soul and the goodness of temperament Moreover it is not less possible for that which never was to begin to be then for that which hath formerly been to exsist again in nature seeing both being equally pure nothing they are objects sufficient to be created by God as the first matter which is almost nothing is the object of Nature his inferior and natural bodies are the objects of Art which is below Nature So that not only souls after having informed one body may pass into an another by Metempsychosis but which seems more difficult the same soul may again inform the same body The Third said 'T is impossible for one and the same thing which hath been to be a new for then it should be twice and have two durations and consequently two existences and so not be one and the same thing seeing singularity depends upon existence So neither can the same soul return into the totally deserted body although it may re-animate some parcels of it nor yet into other bodies For in the first place as for the souls of Plants and Beasts there is no more reason to believe that these forms disappearing upon destruction of the Organs whereby they exercise their functions go to animate other bodies of the same species then that when my wood is burnt the same form of fire goes to seek another faggot and kindle the same as soon as fit dispositions thereunto arise if it were so the Woodmongers should have a very dangerous Trade Moreover this transmigration of souls is either absolutely necessary that is bodies are animated no other way but this and so there will be no other new generation but the supernumerary souls must wait till their turn come according as the Platonick poet Virgil represents them in the sixth Book of his Aeneis for if there be more bodies then souls there will be no production whatever disposition be found in the matter and then though we sow the Ground never so much with Corn nothing will come of it in case more be sown then there are Vegetative Souls to animate it whence we should be in great danger of Famine As for the Reasonable Soul since there is no animated body whose outward figure is not an Index of its inward form were there such a thing as Metempsychosis the soul of a Horse should be under the outward form of a Man and so all knowledg from external shape should be deceit and delusions far from serving for Physiogmony Moreover the Ancients introduced this Opinion partly to frighten the wicked by making them believe that after death their souls should do penance in the bodies of Beasts whose manners they had imitated Cowards becoming Hares and cruel persons Wolves till after repurgation by the River Lethe they should again become men and partly to excite the good with hopes that their souls should be received into the bodies of Heroes and Demi-gods such fabulous stories serving to keep the more ignorant sort within their duty The Fourth said That the separated soul carries along with her only three powers the Understanding Will and the Motive Faculty by means whereof she is carried towards what she desires by a real local-motion whereof she is as well capable without as within the body Now she desires nothing so much as to be united to the body with whom she hath formerly been conjoyned And consequently she cannot but return thither of her own accord seeing when the desire and power meet the effect must necessarily follow especially when the desiring is in a violent state contrary to its own Nature as that of the separated Soul is and therefore since nothing violent is of long duration the Soul's separation from her Body cannot be perpetual The Fifth said If it be true that nothing is made which hath not already been and that according to Origen there was a certain number of Souls produced in the beginning of the Creation after which it is said That God rested from all his Works and that he creates nothing since he put the last hand to the perfection of the World which it borrows from the forms or beauties which it contains it may seem consentaneous to the ornament of the Universe to say that it was at first stor'd with all the forms where-with the Matter is informed according as it comes to have fit dispositions thereunto And that these forms having no contraries and consequently being incorruptible upon forsaking their first Subject through default of fit dispositions to maintain them are received into other Subjects like the first and consequently as capable of receiving such form which of it self is indifferent to one Subject as well as to another but since the Rational Soul cannot have any particular Inclination towards the Body it formerly animated which after Death being no longer Organical nor capable of being so but onely Dust and Ashes 't is more probable that when separated it resents motions if it have any towards some Body duly organized and not yet furnished with a form there being besides less incovenience in saying that one and the same Soul can animate divers Bodies one after another than that it can animate divers at the same time and in divers places which nevertheless is the Opinion of most Philosophers For when it is separated it remains still an Act and a Form capable of informing any sort of well disposed Body without affecting any in particular into which it enters not ignorant since Knowledge follows Immaterality and the Species and Notions being to the Soul what accidents are to their Subjects from which they are inseparable they must accompany her where-ever she goes although by reason of the Clouds and humidities of the Body which she informes she is not actually knowing in Infancy but onely proportionably as in time the Body comes to be dried and the humidities absumed the Species which were ingraven in the Soul begin to appear and as it were to be produced a new by Reminiscence which necessarily follows Metempsychosis CONFERENCE CXLIV Whether there were braver Men in any preceding Age than in the present ALthough this Question being rather of Fact than of Right might best be discuss'd by comparing all the great Men of every Age between themselves or those of each Age with ours yet that way would be too long by reason of the great number of Illustrious Men who have flourish'd downwards to our Age which is the fifty seventh since the Creation of the World the duration whereof
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
Liquors represent which Masses he holds between his teeth incorporated with some gum which fastens them there so that as the Water he drinks passes impetuously between his teeth it derives colours and odors from the same Which is the reason why the water he first casts forth is most colour'd whereas if the Dye proceeded from his Stomack it would be deeper at last of all as having acquir'd more digestion by a longer infusion The Sixth said That Histories are full of several particular Constitutions of the Natural Parts witness the example of the Maid mention'd by Cardan who drinking but two pints of water a day piss'd twenty and that of the Emperor Maximinus who commonly eat forty pound weight of meat with proportionable drink and sweat so abundantly that he fill'd 'T is said That Theagenes the Thasian eat a Calf for his dinner and Milo the famous Wrastler of Croton devour'd a 100. pound of Flesh a Hogshead of Wine and Bread proportionable Such was that Parasite who one day at the Table of the Emperor Aurelius eat a Boar a Sheep a Pig and an hundred Loaves and drunk half a tun of Wine All which stories render less strange the quantity of this Maltese's Drink whose colour possibly afterwards he disguises with powders hid in his Handkerchief which he handles so often or by the help of a double Glass of which his Vessels are made or by some other trick whereto he ha's inur'd himself for many years The Seventh said That mineral waters are usually drunk with more ease in great quantity by half than common water can be because their tenuity makes them pass immediately into the habit of the Body And if you consider that this fellow drinks only out of small vessels and those not always full as also with what nimbleness he dispatches his work you will much abate the opinion that he drinks so much as is generally believed Besides though his pail be of a middle size yet 't is never quite full and he spends much water in washing his mouth and his glasses and some too is left behind Nor is it absurd to think that before his shewing himself to drink he swallows a bolus of Brazil or of Alkanet or Fearn Root or of red Sanders or Indian Wood or some such other thing in powder after which drinking two or three glasses of water he interposes some interval that the same may be the better tinctur'd in his Stomack which time being pass'd he drinks about two quarts of water which soon after he brings up red appearing so both in the Air and in the glasses Which colour being weak for want of time to be well imbib'd by the water is wholly lost when the same is powr'd into a vessel wherein there is a little Verjuice Vinegar juice of Citron Spirit of Vitriol or other such acid liquor which is proper to consume the said color And 't is observable that the last water he vomits is continually paler than the first the tincture being diminisht by the quantity of water Add hereunto that 't is likely his glasses are smear'd with some essences which seem transparent to the Spectators for though he makes shew of washing them he only passes the brims dextrously over the water and lets none of it enter into them As for the violence wherewith he spouts forth the water it must be confess'd that the fellow hath a great natural propensity to vomiting which by frequent repetition is become habitual to him Custom being capable to produce such effects that I have seen a Beggar about fifty years old by being exercis'd thereunto piss as high as a pike CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers HOnest Antiquity was so desirous of knowing the Truth that when natural and ordinary proofs fail'd they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary Such was the Jews water of Jealousie which made the otherwise undiscoverable Adulterer burst in sunder the innocent Vestal's Sieve in which being accus'd of Incest she carry'd water without shedding Such also were the Oaths made upon Saint Anthonie's arm of so great reverence that 't was believ'd the perjur'd would burn a year with the fire of that Saint and in our time the excommunication of Saint Geneviesue which those that incurr are commonly reckon'd not to out-live a year In like sort the zeal of Men against that horrid crime of Murder hath made them cherish a perswasion that a Carkase will bleed before its Murderers though most slain Bodies bleed when they are stirr'd that so the Conscience of the Actors being disturb'd they might either by word or gesture be brought to make discovery of themselves For indeed the Blood which was congeal'd in the Veins presently after death becomes liquid again after two or three dayes when it is in its tendency to corruption which Liquefaction and the Inquisition after the Murderer hapning commonly at the same time 't is no wonder if the Body bleed in the Murderer's presence since it doth so frequently when he is absent Yet because this false perswasion from the co-incidence of times ceases not sometimes to have its effect and to discover Truth therefore Legislators have thought fit to authorize it and to use it as an Argument at least to frighten the Murderer though indeed 't is no conclusive one to condemn him The Second said That 't is not credible that Courts of Justice who often admit this proof to good purpose could so continue in ignorance of Natural Causes as not to discern the effusion of Blood ensuing upon its putrefaction in the Veins from that which happens upon confrontation of a Murderer 'T is better therefore to seek further for the cause than to question the effect which some attribute to some secret Antipathy of the murder'd person's blood to that of his Murderer or else to their mutual emission of spirits which still seeking the destruction of each other's person those of the Murderer being the strongest because still living cause a commotion in the Blood of the dead which thereupon breaks forth at the out-let of the wound Campanella attributes it to the sense where-with all things are indu'd and which still remains in these dead Bodies so that having a sense of their Murderers and perceiving them near hand they suffer two very different motions Trembling and Anger which cause such a commotion in the Blood that it flows forth at the wound For the spirits which during life had such perceptions as were necessary for their receiving and obeying the Soul's commands retain somewhat thereof after death and are capable of discerning their friends and their enemies The Third said If this opinion concerning the emanation of spirits whether by Sympathy or Antipathy be true it will follow That one who hath done a Murder with gun-shot cannot be discover'd by this sign and that one slain in his Wife's arms and in a crowd of his friends that endeavor'd to defend his life will bleed rather in
the presence of his friends than of his Murderer whose spirits are more inwardly retir'd through fear of punishment whereas those of his friends are sent outwards by Anger and desire of Revenge Yea if the Murderer had been wounded before he should rather bleed than the dead because his Blood is more boyling and capable of commotion by the spirits issuing out of the Carkase And had they any Sympathy they could not discover the Murderer for want of sense which they never had for the spirits which are in the Blood scarce deserve that name being purely natural and void of all sense even during life and specifically different from the animal spirits The vital spirits which are a degree above them vanish together with life whence the Arteries that us'd to contain them are empty And those that serve for Sensation cannot remain in a dead Body because they are easily dissipable and need continual reparation whence we see all the senses fail in a swoon because the Heart recruits them not by a continuity of their generation Besides should they remain after death they would be unactive for want of fit dispositions in the Organs Moreover natural causes act necessarily when their object is present but sometime t is known that Murderers have thrust themselves more diligently into the crowd of Spectators than any other persons for avoiding suspition and no such bleeding hath hapned in their presence and that Executioners take Criminals the next day from the Gallows or the Wheel and not a drop of Blood issues from their wounds And why should not a dead Sheep as well fall a bleeding afresh in the presence of the Butcher that kill'd it Or a Man mortally wounded when he that did it is brought unknown into his Chamber For 't is hard to imagine that we have less sense and knowledge whilst life remains than after death that a wounded person must die that he may become sensible In short t is easie to see that this effect is not like other wonders which have a cause in Nature because though we cannot assign the particular causes of these yet they are prov'd by some demonstrative or at least some probable reasons And as for Antipathy it should rather concenter all the dead person's Blood in his Murderer's presence and make it retire to the inward parts Wherefore I conclude that not only the causes of this miracle are not yet found but also that 't is impossible there should be any natural one of it at all The Fourth said That according to the opinion of Avicenna who holds That the Imagination acts even beyond and out of its Subject this faculty may cause the effluxion of Blood the Criminal's Phansie working mightily when the person slain by him is objected before his Eyes And the nitrous vapors arising out of the Earth upon digging up the Body together with the heat of the Air greater than that of the Earth and increas'd by the conflux of Spectators may in some measure contribute to the new fermentation of the Blood But the truth is after all our inquiries this extraordinary motion cannot be better ascrib'd elsewhere than to God's Providence who sometimes performs this miracle for the discovery of Murder which would otherwise be unpunisht but not always And 't is no less impiety to deny that Divine Justice comes sometimes to the aid of that of Men than 't is ignorance and rusticity to be satisfi'd in all cases with universal causes without recurring to particular ones which God employes most ordinarily for the Production of Effects yet does not so tye his power to the necessity of their operations but that he interrupts the same when he pleases even so far as to give clay power to open the Eyes of the blind CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn THere are no greater impostures in the Art of Physick than those which relate to Antidotes and Preservatives from Poyson such as the Unicorn's Horn is held to be And I am mistaken if it be not a popular error First because the opinions of all Authors are so contrary concerning it Philostratus in the life of Apollonius saith that the Animal of this name is an Ass and is found in the fenns of Colchis having one single horn in the fore-head where-with he fights furiously against the Elephant Cardan after Pliny saith 't is a Horse as 't is most commonly painted only it hath a Stag's head a Martin's skin a short neck short mane and a cloven hoof and is bred only in the Desarts of Aethiopia amongst the Serpents whose Poyson its horn which is three cubits long resists Garsius ab Horto saith 't is an Amphibious Animal bred on Land near the Cape of good Hope but delighting in the Sea having an Horses head and mane a horn two cubits long which he alone of all Authors affirms to be moveable every way Most agree that it cannot be tam'd and yet Lewis Vartoman saith that he saw two tame ones in Cages at Mecha which had been sent to Sultan Solyman Almost all confess it very rare and yet Marcus Sherer a Renegado German afterwards call'd Idaith Aga and Embassador from the same Solyman to Maximilian the Emperor affirms that he saw whole troops of them in the Desarts of Arabia And Paulus Venetus the same in the Kingdom of Basman where they are almost as big as Elephants having feet like theirs a skin like Camels the head of a Boar and delighting in mire like swine Nor are Authors less various concerning its manner of eating some alledging that being unable to feed on the ground by reason of his horn he lives only on the boughs and fruits of Trees or on what is given him by the hands of Men especially of fair Virgins of whom they say he is amorous though others think it fabulous Some believe that there was once such an Animal but not now the whole race perishing in the Deluge and that the horns we find now for the most part in the earth have been kept there ever since And if there be such variety in the description of this Animal there is no less in the horns which they tell us are those of the Unicorn That at Saint Dennis in France is about seven foot high weighs thirty pound four ounces being wreath'd and terminated in a point from a broad base Yet this is not comparable to that Aelian mentions which was so thick that cups might be made of it That at Strasburg hath some conformity with this of Saint Denis but those of Venice differ from both as that describ'd by Albertus Magnus doth from all For 't is saith he solid like a Hearts horn ten foot high and very large at the base The Swisses have one which was sometimes found on the bank of a River near Bruges two cubits long yellow without white within odorous and apt to take fire That at Rome is but one foot high having been diminish'd by being frequently rasp'd in order to be imploy'd against
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
not be attributed to the Heaven but to the Earth which produceth all other varieties of Animals especially of men as is observ'd in the Patagons who are Gyants To whom are oppos'd the Pigmies which their soil likewise produceth And to shew that the tincture of the skin is not the only particularity observable in Negroes they have many other Properties whereby they are distinguish'd from other Nations as their thick lips saddle-noses coarse short hair the horny tunicle of the eye and the teeth whiter than the rest of men Besides they are not only exempted from the Pox and other Venereous Maladies but their Climate alone airs the same Not to mention the Qualities of their minds which are so ignorant that though they have plenty of Flax yet they want Cloth because they want skill how to work it they abound with Sugar-canes yet make no trade of them and esteem Copper more than Gold which they barter for the like weight of Salt and are wholly ignorant of Laws and Physick Which ignorance renders their spirits more base and servile than those of other Nations and they are so born to slavery that even free men among the Abyssins the most considerable people of all Aethiopia when they are employ'd by any one take it not ill to be lash'd with a Bull 's Pizzle provided they be paid and when their Priests exhort the people they whip them till the blood comes for the better inculcating of their Instructions those being held in most reverence who whip them most severely though they were the first Pagans who were converted to the Faith by Queen Candace's Eunuch who was instructed by S. Philip. And as pusillanimous persons are commonly the most treacherous these two vices having both the same principles and presupposing ignorance of the point wherein true Honour consists so the Moors are ordinarily base and unfaithful to their Masters as is verifi'd by abundance of Histories which meanness and poorness of Courage reaches from the second next the King's person to the most inferior amongst them all bowing down and touching the ground with their hand when they hear the name of their King Prete-Jun before whose Tent they make a Reverence though he be not there and flatter him so excessively that if one of their Kings happen to lose an Eye or other member they deprive themselves of the same too Moreover they are so credulous that they perswade themselves that this King is descended in a direct line from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba who they say was nam'd Maqueda when she came to see him as they report for some other cause besides admiring his Wisdom The Third said That the case is the same with the Negroes in respect of the color of their skin and the other above-mention'd particulars as with the long heads of the Children of Paris which Nature produceth at this day of herself ever since the Midwives had form'd the first after that manner upon a belief that this figure was more becomming and suitable to the functions of the Soul than roundness So likewise the heat of the Sun first blacken'd the skin of the Moors of either Sex by little and little amongst whom the blackest hides the thickest lips and most evers'd being in esteem every Mother endeavor'd to make her Childrens lips and nose of that figure and Nature helpt by their Imagination mov'd by the occurrence of like objects hath produc'd such ever since But 't is no wonder if the people of some Countries under the same parallels and latitude indeed but defended from the heat of the Sun by opposite Mountains are exempt from the effect of that heat as there are places in France where upon the same reason fruits are a month or two later in ripening than those of their Neighbors Moreover the frisl'd short hair of Negroes is an effect of the same heat as also their being exempted from the Pox which being a phlegmatick cold poyson as appears by its invading the spermatick parts and the encreasing of its pains in the night more than day 't is more reasonable that the Temperaments opposite thereunto such as theirs whose flesh is very dry and void of Phlegm be free from the same Now that Negroes abound not in Phlegm and Moisture appears in that they never spit in their Churches not only out of custom but express Law which would never have been made if it had not been easie to observe Moreover the whiteness of their teeth is augmented by the blackness of their faces And as for their wits Scaliger thinks them not really dull but only out of design and craft which always argues wit Whence Geographers who reckon Southern people amongst the most ingenious say They could never be brought to their duty by Reason but suffer themselves to be rul'd only by Religion Because where Humane Reason holds not as in matters of Faith there the greatest wits are oblig'd to become subject to the less when they speak to them as from God Besides their Characters are handsomer and more agreeable than either the Arabick or Turkish They are addicted to Navigation and have a Military Order under the protection of Saint Anthony to which every Gentleman is bound to design one of his three Sons except the eldest which serves for their King's Guard and amounts to 12000. Horsemen And if there be no other reason to esteem them ignorant but their having no wrangling Lawyers many other Nations would be happy if they had none neither And though Physick be not reduc'd to an Art nor taught by a Method amongst them as neither was it of old amongst us yet they want not Remedies useful for health Their want of Linnen proceeds from their abundance of Cotton and the comparison of Gold and Copper depends upon Phansie And lastly the paucity of the people finding food enough at home have less cause to be eager upon Trade abroad CONFERENCE CCXII. Of Ecstacies THough the union between the Body and the Soul be so strict as to serve for a model to all other unions observable in Nature yet is it not so strong but that sometimes it admits of a dissolution which the Philosophers conceiv'd possible both those parts continuing entire This separation is call'd an Ecstacy wherein the Platonists who first brought it into Vogue plac'd the Summum Bonum or greatest Felicity inasmuch as they pretended that mens minds were thereby disengag'd from all material things nay from their very Bodies by the clouds and humidities whereof they imagin'd that the mind was disturbed in its functions which being equally spiritual are the more compleatly perform'd the more the Understanding whereby they are produc'd is disengag'd from this corporeal mass Whence it comes that old men especially such as are near death or in their sleep have clearer visions and more certain predictions than young men and those who are in perfect health of a moist Temperament who are waking and perform all their other functions And whereas there is
and after a long continu'd looking upon it the Visual Spirits being by degrees dissipated brought his Soul into a Vertigo or Dizziness which occasion'd the Ecstacy The Fourth said That the opinion of Bodin which allows a separation between the Souls and Bodies of Witches and Sorcerers having been invented only to render a reason of what they affirm they had seen during the time their Bodies had been immoveable is not to be believ'd without some further proof since it is impossible even by that to explicate the Relations which they make of those places where they say they had been and the things they had there done inasmuch as they positively affirm that they had made those progresses with their Bodies and all their members and that they had made use of them in eating drinking and performing such other actions as are purely corporeal and cannot be imagin'd done in a state of separation as being not compatible to separated Spirits which being immaterial stand in need of Bodies to assume corporeal affections and perform those beastly Actions whereof Sorcerers talk so much To this may be added that this separation cannot be wrought without death and that suppos'd it were impossible the Souls should re-enter into their Bodies otherwise than by a real resurrection which is an act that God hath so reserv'd to himself that the Devil is not capable of doing it Nay though it were in his power it is rather to be imagin'd that he would be far enough from taking souls out of their bodies and disrobing them of their sensual inclinations inasmuch as he does all lies in his power to involve the Souls of Men more and more into their Bodies and make them wallow in sensuality and render all their affections corporeal Accordingly great and generous Souls such as are most disengag'd from the Body are not fit for that purpose since Agrippa and all the other Masters of that detestable profession require Simplicity in those who would be Sorcerers as a necessary and previous disposition So that if the Souls of Sorcerers which are at first engag'd and afterwards continu'd in the Devil's service only in prosecution of the concerns of the Body came to be devested of that heavy mass whereby they are encompassed and stripp'd of the inclinations of the Body no doubt they would break off so disadvantagious a bargain at least they would not find any delight in the divertisements where-with the Devil does amuse them It is therefore more probable that the Devil should sometimes cast Sorcerers into a certain sleep and bind up their common sense so as that they are rendred incapable of receiving external impressions and that in the mean time he should joyn together the different species of Memory and raise in the Imagination such representations thereof as are conformable to the truths which are made else-where So that the Understanding not receiving any thing from without which might undeceive it is wholly taken up with the species it hath within the apprehension of Sorcerers being much like those of some persons who having their brains either weakned by Diseases or naturally receive such an impression from their dreams that when they awake they are hardly able to distinguish them from the things they have seen That therefore which is commonly called a Diabolical Ecstacy deserves not the name since it is only the casting of one into a dead sleep Those Diseases which Physicians call Ecstacies as Catalepsies and Madness are only such improperly and the same thing is to be said of those kind of swoundings which have frequently been taken for Ecstacies in some persons who having continu'd their Contemplations beyond the strength of their Bodies and thereupon swounded out of pure weakness have upon the recovery of themselves imagin'd that their Minds had been transported into real Ecstacies and yet can give no account of what had pass'd during the time of their Trance The precedent stories and those which may be thereto added of Socrates Archimedes and some others do not prove that naturally there can be any Ecstacy for either those stories seem to be palpably fabulous or only shew that the Souls of those Ecstatical Persons had not broke off all correspondence with the Body nor quitted the assistance of the senses and their Organs that they might be wholly involv'd in themselves and so resign themselves to Meditations purely Intellectual For he who shall examine the example of Socrates as it is related in Plato will look upon that action rather as a tryal which Socrates made of his own Patience than as a real Ecstacy especially since Socrates is imagin'd standing a posture requiring the motion of the Muscles which presupposes sentiment in the exterior parts Accordingly dead bodies as also those wherein the action of the Soul is check'd and hindred are not found standing though the Athenians have shuffled in among their stories a tale of one of their men who stood upright after he had been kill'd The other Instances are of persons who meditated with such earnestness and attention on their own thoughts and directed their minds with so much violence towards that sense whereof they had most occasion that the other senses were destitute of Spirits and without action not discerning their own proper objects if they were not extreamly violent which is no real Ecstacy inasmuch as otherwise we must call Sleep an Ecstacy And indeed the most refin'd and subtilest Meditations which we derive from those Ecstacies smell so strong of the Body and Matter that it is probable they were not the pure productions of the Soul no way diverted by the disturbances of the Body and the internal senses on which she objectively depends even in the inorganical actions she does it being a thing impossible for her to meditate alone since that in her direct actions she stands in need of the Imagination and must be excited by Phantasms but above all she cannot be without Memory which always furnishes her with the matter of her speculations and reserves the species of them Besides those who are of opinion that all the faculties of the Soul while she is in the Body are organical cannot imagine any Ecstacy wherein the Soul meditates by her self without any commerce with the Body and its sentiments and those who conceive that the faculties of the Understanding and Will borrow nothing of the Organs but the objects of their actions do nevertheless inferr that the Soul stands in need of the senses in order to the doing of her actions and is not over-earnest in the doing of them but when she is excited by the Phantasms for the stirring whereof the Animal Spirits are absolutely necessary which takes away all conceit of Ecstacies And those who imagine that in Ecstacies the Soul hath no correspondence with them and makes no use of them in her actions do by that means instead of establishing destroy the Ecstacy since it must be inferr'd that the Soul during the time of those retir'd
meditations leaves the Spirits in the Organs whose function it is in the mean time to receive the impressions of the external objects and convey them into the common Sense and thence into the Imagination and Memory whereas 't is expected that the Ecstacy should leave the Body without action Whence therefore I conclude that there is not any at all in regard that an Ecstacy signifying a state of the Soul besides that which is natural to her and besides the natural consequence there is between the actions of the senses and those that are proper to the Rational Soul it may be affirm'd that such a state never happens and that the Soul shall not be absolutely freed from the incumbrances and distractions of the Body till after Death And this hath been sufficiently acknowledg'd by Socrates in Phoedon notwithstanding all the Ecstacies attributed to him and Aristotle whose thoughts were more abstracted and transcended those of all others would not by any means admit of Ecstacies from a natural cause but attributes them all to God Which procedure of his hath been approved by Scaliger and many others CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing THe Germans being engag'd upon an expedition of War had some reason to carry a Cock along with them to serve them for an incitement and example of Vigilance Thence haply proceeded the custom which some Mule-drivers and Waggoners still observe of having one fasten'd to the leading Mule or Horse and sometimes for want of that adorning them with a plume of his or some other feathers 'T was upon this account that Phidias's Minerva had a Cock upon her head-piece unless it be attributed to this that the said Goddess had also the presidency and direction of War where there is no less need of Vigilance than Industry though that Bird belongs to her sufficiently upon the score of his other qualities as being so gallant and courageous as many times rather to lose his Life upon the spot than quit the desire of victory and when he is engag'd fighting with such fury that Caelius Aurelian relates that one who had been peck'd by a Cock in the heat of fighting grew mad upon it For the Passion of Anger being a short fury 't is possible it may extreamly heighten the degree of heat in a temperament already so highly cholerick that in time the body of the Cock becomes nitrous and upon that consideration is prescrib'd to sick persons for the loosening the belly and that after he hath been well beaten with a wand and the feathers pluck'd while he is alive before he is boyl'd It may be further urg'd that this Courage of the Cock was the motive which inclin'd Artaxerxes King of Persia to grant him who kill'd Prince Cyrus the priviledge of carrying on his Javelin a little Cock of Gold as a singular acknowledgement of his Valour Whereupon the Souldiers of the Province of Caria whereof he who had the aforesaid priviledge of the Cock was a Native in imitation of him instead of Corslets wore Cocks upon their head-pieces whence they had the name of Alectryons or Cocks in Latin Galli which possibly is the reason that gave the French that name And whereas the Cock commonly crows after he hath beaten another it came also to be the Hieroglyphick of Victory and that haply gave the Lacedaemonians occasion to sacrifice a Cock when they had overcome their Enemies This Creature was also dedicated to Mars and the Poets feign that he had sometime been a young Souldier whom that God of War order'd to stand sentinel when he went in to Venus to give him notice of Vulcan's return but he having slept till after the Sun was risen and by that neglect of duty Mars being surpriz'd with her he was so incens'd that he metamorphos'd him into a Cock whence it comes say they that being ever since mindful of the occasion of his transformation he ever crowes when the Sun approaches our Horizon This fable how ridiculous soever it may be thought is as supportable as that of the Alcaron which attributes the crowing of our Cocks to one which it saies there is in Heaven a Cock of such a vast bulk that having his feet on the first of the Heavens the head reaches to the second and this Cock crowing above awakens and incites all those upon Earth to do the like as these last set one another a crowing as if they all crow'd at the same instant all over the world The Cock was also dedicated to the Sun and Moon to the Goddess Latona Ceres and Proserpina whence it came that the Novices and such as were initiated in their mysteries abstain'd from the eating of it It was also the same to Mercury in regard that vigilance and early rising are requisite in Merchants And thence it came that he was painted under the form of a Man sitting having a Crest or Comb on his Head Eagle's claws instead of Feet and holding a Cock upon his fist But there was a particular consecration made of him to Aesculapius which oblig'd Socrates at his death to entreat his Friends to sacrifice a Cock to him since the Hemlock where-with he was poyson'd had wrought well The Inhabitants of Calecuth sacrifice him to their divinity under the form of a he-goat And Acosta after Lucian affirms that anciently the Cock was ador'd as a God which Christianity not enduring hath order'd them to be plac'd upon Churches on the tops of steeples and other very high structures that by their turning about they might tell the beholders which way the Wind blew unless haply some would refer it to the repentance of Saint Peter at the second crowing of one of them As concerning the crowing of this Creature it is commonly attributed to his heat and may be a certain discovery of his joy at the approach of the Star of the same temperament with him And whereas he is more susceptible than any other of the impressions of the Air whence it comes that being moisten'd by the vapors he crows with a hoarser voice which Labourers look on as a prediction of Rain it may be thence consequent that he is the first sensible of the coming of the Sun Moreover whereas there is a Solar Animal such as is also the Lyon but in a lower degree than he the species of Birds being hotter and dryer as being lighter than that of four-footed Beasts it thence follows that the Cock hath an ascendent over the Lyon which no sooner hears his crowing but it awakens in his Imagination those species which cause terror to him Unless we would rather affirm that the spirits of the Cock are communicated to the Lyon by that more than material voice and as such more capable of acting than the spirits issuing out of the Eyes of sick persons which nevertheless infect those who are well and look on them nay if we may believe the Poet bewitch even innocent Lambs The Second said That
to another they make several mixtures as when they come to separate after their union they are the causes of the corruption of mixt bodies And these bodies have so much the more Resistance which is the last property of these Atoms the more dense and solid these last are as on the contrary when they are less dense and solid by reason of the vacuity there is between their parts the bodies consisting of them have so much the less vigour and force to oppose external injuries The Fourth said That there is not any better instance whereby the nature of Atoms can be explicated then those little Motes which move up and down the air of a Chamber when the Sun-beams come into it at some little hole or cranny For from this very instance which is so sensible it may easily be concluded not only that they are bodies which have a certain bulk and quantity how little and indivisible soever it may be but also that they are in continual motion by means whereof as those little corpuscula or Motes incessantly move and strike one against another and are confusedly intermixt one among another so the Atoms by their perpetual agitation and concourse cause the mixtures and generations of all natural things So that all consider'd it is as ridiculous on the other side to affirm that they are only imaginary principles because they are not seen as to maintain that those little Motes are not in the air because they are not perceiv'd to be there in the absence of the Sun-beams which we must confess renders them visible but with this assurance that they are nevertheless there even when they are not discern'd to be there The Fifth said That it is certain there are abundance of bodies in Nature which are in a manner imperceptible to our senses and yet must be granted to be real bodies and consequently endow'd with length breadth profundity solidity and the other corporeal qualities Such as these are among others the sensible Species which continually issue out of the Objects and are not perceiv'd by the senses but only so far as they are corporeal and material especially the Odours exhaling from certain bodies which after their departure thence in process of time decay and wither Of this we have instance in Apples and other Fruits which grow wrinkled proportionably to their being drain'd of those vaporous Atoms whereof they were at first full which evaporate in a lesser or greater space of time the more closely those little bodies stick one to another or the more weakly they are joyned together Nay the intentional Species how sublimated soever they be by the defaecation made by the agent Intellect are nevertheless bodies as are also the Animal Spirits which are charged therewith and the vital and natural whereby the former are cherish'd In like manner Light the beams of the Sun and of other Stars their Influences their Magnetick Vertues and other such Qualities observable in an infinite number of things between which there is a mutual inclination and correspondence or antipathy cannot be imagin'd to act otherwise then by the emission of certain little bodies which being so small and subtile that they are incapable of further division may with good reason be called the Elements and material Principles of all Bodies since there is not any one but consists of them The Sixth said That the concourse of these Atoms being accidental if we may credit Epicurus we cannot attribute thereto the causes of the generations happening in this World inasmuch as an accidental cause not being able to produce a regular effect such as is that of Nature in Generation it is ridiculous to attribute it rather to these Atoms than to some other cause which is such per se and always regular in its operations such as is Nature her self But what further discovers the absurdity of that opinion is this that it thinks it not enough to refer the diversity of the other effects which are observ'd in all natural bodies to that of the Atoms whereof they consist but pretends also by their means to give an account of that of our Spirits which those Philosophers would represent unto us made of those orbicular atoms and accordingly easily mov'd by reason of that round figure and that those in whom it is most exact are the most ingenious and inventive persons as others are dull and blockish because their Spirits have a lesser portion of those circular Atoms But this speculation may be ranked among pure chimaera's since that the functions of our Understanding being absolutely spiritual and immaterial have no dependence on the different constitutions of those little imaginary bodies nay though there were any correspondence between them and the actions of our minds their round figure would not be so much the cause of our vivacity as might be the pointed or forked as being more likely to penetrate into and comprehend the most difficult things than the circular which would only pass over them without any fixt fastning on them CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why THough this noisom Disease sometime fastens on several parts of the body yet is there not any more sensible of its malice than the neck which by reason of its being full of glandules is extreamly troubled therewith which happens as well by reason of their thin and spongy constitution as their nearness to the brain from which they receive the phlegmatick and excrementitious humours more conveniently than any of the other parts can be imagin'd to do which are at a greater distance from it And yet these last notwithstanding that distance are extremely troubled therewith nay sometimes to such excess that if we may credit Johannes Langius in the first Book of his Medicinal Epistles a Woman at Florence had the Evil in one of her Thighs which being got out weigh'd sixty pound and a Goldsmith of Amberg had another of the same bigness in a manner neer his Knee And what is much to be observ'd is that though the Evil seems to be only external yet is it commonly preceded by the like swellings which ly hid within and whereof those without are only the marks which observation is confirm'd by the dissections made of those who are troubled with it in whose bodies after their death there are abundance of these Evils whereof the Glandules of the Mesenterium and the Pancreas which is the most considerable of any about Man's Body are full and which are commonly produc'd by Phlegm the coldness and viscosity whereof do indeed contribute to their rebellion but it is very much augmented by the external and common Causes such as are Air Aliment and Waters infected with some malignant qualities which render it Endemious and peculiar to certain Nations as for instance the Inhabitants of the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains especially the Spaniards who are more infected with this foul disease than any others which is also
to keep no Grooms but such as were married 'T is also the advice of Pliny who in the seventh Book of his Natural History affirms that in the Country of the Cartadulones among the Mountains of the Indies there are Satyrs a sort of very swift Animals running sometimes on two feet sometimes on all four having a humane shape and such as by reason of their activity are never taken till they are old or sick Plutarch also affirms in the Life of Sylla that in his return from Italy there was brought him a Satyr like those describ'd by the Ancient Authors half-man and half-goat which had been taken sleeping Being ask'd who he was his Answer was in such a Dialect as favour'd nothing of Man's Language but in an articulate voice between that of Goats and the neighing of Horses and the result was that Sylla taking compassion of him sent a Guard to conduct him to the place from whence he had been brought The same Author makes mention of the death of the God Pan who was a Satyr Saint Hierom in the place before cited affirms that another Satyr spoke and he gives a description of him saying that he was of a middle stature having a crooked Nose hornes on his fore-head and feet like those of a Goat and that he brought Saint Paul the Hermit some Dates not taken off the bough on which they had grown Which kindness obliges the Saint to ask him Who he was Whereto he made Answer that he was a mortal and one of the Inhabitants of that Hermitage whom the abus'd Pagans adored for Fawnes Satyrs and Incubi I come to you continu'd he as a Deputy from the rest of our Company intreating you to pray for us to your God and ours whom we acknowledge to be come into the world for the common salvation of all Having with those words concluded his Embassie the light-footed Animal ran away And that this Relation may seem the less strange we have this further to add that in the time of Constantine there was one of them brought alive to Alexandria which was expos'd before the people at the publick Shews and afterwards dying his Body was salted and transported to the City of Antioch to be shewn to the Emperour Pausanias also relates that he had heard it of one Euphemius who he sayes was a person worthy of credit that sailing into Spain he was hurry'd by a Tempest to certain Islands full of a savage kind of men who had their bodies all over hairy long tails like those of Horses and red hair which they could not force away from about them otherwise then with blows and that one of the Women-savages having been left upon the shore by the Mariners those Savages abus'd her with all imaginable violences So that to doubt whether there be any Satyrs after so many Testimonies that there are were to have too great a complyance for our own Senses and too little for the Testimonies of the Ancients CONFERENCE CCXL Whether it be better to bury or to burn the bodies of the Dead ALL the World seems to be very much concern'd in this business inasmuch as there being not any man but his coming into this world necessarily infers his departure out of it and that consequently a separation of Body and Soul every man ought accordingly to consider what will become after death of that other part of himself unless he hath discarded all sentiments of humanity and hath assum'd the humour of the Cynick whom his friends having asked where he would be dispos'd after his death he desir'd they would leave him in the place where he died without troubling themselves any further Whereupon they demanding of him whether he was not afraid his body might be devour'd by Dogs he answer'd that he should be no more sensible of their bitings then of the gnawings of worms if he were put into the earth but however they would do well to lay his staff by him to frighten those Dogs that should come near his body There are whole Nations who have made choice of the bowels of these Animals for their burial especially the Hyrcanians who kept Dogs purposely that they might be devour'd bp them after their departure The like was done heretofore by the Medes and Parthians who thought it less honourable to be interr'd then to be devour'd by Dogs and Birds of prey especially Vultures to which the Inhabitants of Colchos and Iberia expos'd the Carcases of those who in their life-time had done gallant actions but always burnt those of the cowardly Nay what is absolutely inhumane though Chrysippus an ancient and eminent Philosopher approves it in a discourse upon that Subject some were so barbarous as to eat the flesh of their Fathers and Mothers and best Friends out of a perswasion that it was one of the greatest demonstrations of piety to give their nearest Relations a burial in their own bellies The Persians religiously preserv'd them in their Houses after they had enclos'd them in wax to prevent putrefaction which was better done by the Aegyptians with honey salt bitumen rosin cedar aloes myrrh and such perfumes which have preserv'd their Mummyes to this time The Scythians did the same with ice and snow wherewith they cover'd the bodies of the deceas'd to secure them from corruption The Pythagoreans us'd to the same purpose the leaves of Poplar Myrrh and Aloes wherewith they cover'd their dead after which manner M. Cato desir'd to be buried as Lycurgus was in Olive-branches The Aethiopians inclos'd theirs in Glass the Thracians and Troglodites put theirs under heaps of stones the Hyperboreans and Icthyophagi buried them in the waves of the Sea the Poeonians in Lakes and the Inhabitants of Caria though no Sepulchre more honourable for those who died for their Country then that of their own Arms wherein they buried them as they did Persons of Quality in the High-ways that they might be the more conspicuous and especially in Mountains which were only for the burial of Kings whence came the custom of erecting Obelisks and Pyramids on their Tombes But though there were a great diversity in this kind of burying yet it consisted principally in this that some made choice of the Earth others of the Fire for their sepulture The former is not only more natural and more rational but also more advantageous than the latter since there is nothing more consonant to natural reason then to return to the earth those bodies which having been fram'd thereof cannot be better consign'd then to the bosom of that Mother wherein being once enclos'd they infect not our Air with corruption and malignant exhalations as they may when cast into the fire the heat whereof forcing the fumes and infected vapours of those Carcases to a great distance they may corrupt the purity of the Air and prejudice their health who are present at those funeral Piles which for that reason the Law of the Twelve Tables expressly forbad to be set on fire within the City