to requite a good with good is evill Bad to requite with bad 's a tricke o' th' Devill Bad to requite for good is most unjust Good to requite for good is good and just But good for ill is best so judge we must Q. Which of the two is more sufferable a Tyrant or hangman A. It is an easie question and yet a question Antisthenes the Philosopher was of opinion in behalfe of the Hangman For saith hee the Hangman kills the nocent but the Tyrant the innocent Of Money Qu. VVHat and whence is money A. Let her speak her selfe for when shee speakes all mouths are stopt nay can perswade more by silence than Cicero could with his Eloquence yet this she sayes of her selfe Terra fui primum latebris abscondita diris Nunc aliud regnum flamma nomenque dederunt Nec jam terra vocor licet en me terra paretur In English thus I first was earth enclosed deepe in ground The fire for me another name hath found Through earth the earth I sway where I abound Of Meteors Qu. VVHat is the reason of the Meteors An. The word Meteor signifies a thing drawne or lifted up on high because these imperfect bodies are engendred of exhalations or of vapors of the earth water and those are called Meteors and seeing that they are engendred not onely on high but also below and within the concavities of the earth those that write of this subject are very different in opinion Qu. Wherefore is it that sometimes we seeme to see the Starres fall An. Those are not Stars but Meteors caused of exhalations which being not great in quantity and drawne up to the lower Region of the Ayre taking fire fall in the likenesse of a Starre Q. What is the cause of the Ignis fatuus that either goes before or follows a man in the night An. It is caused of a great and well compacted exhalation and being kindled it stands in the aire and by the mans motion the Ayre is moved and the fire by the Ayre and so goes before or follows a man and these kind of fires or Meteors are bred neare Execution places or Church-yards or great Kitchins where viscous or slimy matter and vapours abound in great quantity Of Hayle Q. VVHat is to be thought the cause of Hayle Ans When by vertue of the Sunne and Starres a vapour is elevated it ascends to the middle Region of the Ayre but enters no farther which the environing cold by reason of its thinnesse penetrateth and driving out the warmth beginnes to turne the parts of the vapour into water and to thicken it but the cold because it is great congeleth those parts already turned into drops and fluide into a hardnesse and generates a greater or lesser Hayle according to the diversity of the cold and the vapour Sometimes also a vapour in the middle Region of the Ayre is converted into drops which in falling are congeled in the lowest Region of the Ayre by Antiperistasis and those drops by meeting together in their falling are congeled into a three-squar'd or angular haile and not sphericall or round Q. Wherefore is it that this watry impression is more frequent in the Spring than in any other time of the yeere A. Because the Spring is hot and moist by its temperature and by consequence most apt for the generating and elevating of vapors For Summer being hot and dry dryeth up and exhausteth the vapors Winter is cold and dry Autumne likewise cold but moist and these two last Quarters of the yeere many times permit not the vapors to bee dissolved For the materia of the hayle is very hot and therefore thinne and rare and is the sooner penetrable and convertible by the encompassing cold By the same reason it is that warme water in Winter will sooner be frozen than cold Of the small Hayle and Snow Q. VVHerefore is it that in March the Haile is usually smaller than at other times A. Their generation is the same but in quantity of heate different for being elevated up into the middle middle region of the Aire but in a lower place than the greater Hayle and by the cold being converted into droppes which are congealed extrinsecally before their fall into the forme of Haile but intrinsecally or inwardly by reason of the defect of cold they are softer and of the nature and quality of snow Q. Whence then proceedes the snow A. Out of a hot and moyst vapour drawne up to the lower part of the middle Region of the aire into which vapour the encompassing cold entereth by the reason of the vapors thinnenesse melts it into water and congeleth it in time into the similitude of tosed Wooll yet many times the snow while it falls through the lowest part of the aire is dissolved into raine by reason of warmth being then there and thence it happeneth that at one and the selfe same time snow falls on the hills and raine in the valleyes Of Raine Qu. WHence is the raine produced and generated A. When by the vertue of the Sunne and other Astres or Starres a hot moyst fumous and grosse vapour is drawne up to the upper part of the lower or to the lower part of the middle Region of the ayre and is dissolved into a cloud and the cloud into water and by its weightinesse tending to its center fals as being of a watry substance and falls in drops upon the earth and falling in greater drops it is commonly called a shower but falling in a lesse ponderous manner and with longer continuation we cal it raine Q. Whence is it that sometimes the raine seemeth to be red A. By the reason of anadust and dry earthlinesse which is mingled with the vapours that are elevated in a time of warmth Of Dew Qu. VVHence then hath the dew its causes A. The Dew is generated by a vapour weakly hot grosse and moyst which is elevated not much from the lowest part of the ayre and condensated or thickned by the nightly cold and dissolved into a water even as in an Alembicke the vapour a seending is converted into a water But the Dew most commonly falleth in the evening for at that time the lowest region of the aire is of a colder temperature Q. Wherefore is it that sheepefeeding on a Dew fallen on the grasse dye of the rot A. When a vapour participates much of the ayry moysture which is slimy and sweete and is dissolved into a Dew and falling upon the grasse and hearbs by the operation of the Sunne the watry part is exhaled leaving a kinde of mealy substance like a Sugar upon the leaves of trees and herbage and that is our now Manna And by the selfe same causes Laudanum is also generated in the Aire The sheepe then being much taken with the sweetnesse eate beyond their measure and surfet whereupon the gall being over-filled with choler this kinde of dew breeding it in them so abundantly breakes and that bile or
choler gnawes and corrupts the Liver the Liver the Blood and the Blood the whole Body Sometimes by the meanes of this Dew the Liver is oppilated obstructed or stopped which is the cause of a generall disease and death in the flock Albertus Magnus testifieth himselfe to have seene these experiences Of Frost Q. WHence proceedes the Frost A. Almost in the same manner it is generated as the Dew I say almost because a greater and more intense cold is required for the production of the frost than of the Dew that it may not onely dissolve the hot vapour into water but also congeale it when it is dissolved Of Springs and Fountaines Qu. WHence have Fountains and Springs their beginnings A. The earth in its womb hath many concavityes and hollow veines and passages in which because nothing can be empty certaine vapours being raised from the earth are dissolved into water and sticking to the sides of those veines destill into drops cause little streams which meeting together from all those parts in a lower place make a current and breaking forth make a spring Qu. Wherefore is it that some springs are constant and some increase in the Winter and decay in Summer An. By the reason of the disposition of the place of their beginning and mutation of the qualities For the more solid Hills whose secret passages the exteriour ayre cannot easily penetrate doe utter more constantly their waters for the former vapours being dissolved into a fluent liquor and that there may not bee a vacuum or emptinesse other vapours succeed and are likewise dissolved But the Hills that are porous that have open orifices or passages for the exterior ayre to penetrate especially in Summer doe not containe the vapors for they are dryed up by the exsiccating quality of the Ayre Q. Wherefore is it that the springs are warme in winter and cooler in summer A. The cause is from the fortification of the coldnesse of the cavernes and holes within the earth For in winter when the pores of the earth are stopped up by the exterior cold and the hot exhalations not finding a way out are there detained and warme the vapours the vapours consequently the waters in so much that they are usually seene reake smoake but in Summer the pores being open the exhalations easily passe and are drawne out And the coldnes of the cavernes kept in by Antiperistasis by the exteriour heate cooleth the vapours and waters Q. Wherefore is it that the Bath is so warme and coole and so different in qualities A. The reason and resolution of this question Philosophy gives affirming in generall that those Baths which are warme receive their heate by passing through the veines of sulphury and burning Mineralls But the diversity of the Springs proceeds from the various and divers permixtion of the first qualities by the concurse of the influences also by reason of the diversity of the Minerals and earths by which they passe But to give a reason for the strange effects and qualities of some waters it is very difficult referring that to the hand Omnipotent Qu. Which kind of waters are thought to bee purest and best An. Those that are lighter in weight purer in substance not standing but continually running over a pure earth towards the East and therefore these kind of waters are more usefull in medicine than any other by reason of their purity and vertue Q. Whence then are the Rivers caused An. The causes of Rivers in respect of their beginnings are the same with the springs A River is made by the concourse of divers waters as from the spring Ior and Dan which issue out at the foote of Libanus the river Iordan is produced so likewise many famous rivers have their like beginnings and denominations and all these run into the vast body of the devouring sea Of the Sea Qu. WHerefore is it that the water of the sea is so salt A. It is a generall opinion that the saltnesse of the sea proceedeth from the mixture of the adust terrene drynesse elevated by the power of the Sunne and mingled with the moyst vapours that fall into the Sea and by the same reason the water that is streined dreaned through ashes becomes bitter moreover the heate of the Sunne continually raiseth the sweeter and lighter Waters leaving the terrestriall earthinesse But the Rivers that runne out of the Sea and as it were are streyned through sands and earth flow not to us salt or bitter but become sweet leaving their salt qualitie in the earth and sand behinde them and returning againe into the sea do much temper and abate the saltnes thereof but many are of opinion that it was salt in its first creation Q. Wherefore is it that the sea ebs and flowes A. The cause hereof is attributed to the Mistresse of moysture the Moone for at her increase or decrease it is certaine that the humours almost of all things doe change and alter Wherupon the Moon running under the Sun which happeneth in her change the light of both being hindred cannot subtiliate the ayre which being grossened is turned to water and the encrease of the Sea is augmented in substance a flowing must necessarily follow but the Moone being in opposition of the Sunne which happeneth in her ful disperseth her light all over the inferiour bodies neither is she a hindrance to the Sun for the imparting his light and power to the Sea and hereupon the water of the Sea which by the reason of its grossenesse contayneth vapours becomes thinne ascends and flowes like the droppes of warme Milke and this encrease is not in substance but by accident by the rarefaction But in the interposed quartiles of the Moone the Sea encreaseth and decreaseth by the like causes In the first quartile the Sea decreaseth in the second it increaseth accidentally by the way of rarefaction In the third it decreaseth by the rarefaction by the decreasing of the light In the fourth the Moone comming nearer the Sunne the substance of the Sea againe increaseth by the thickenning of the ayre As for the foure quarters of the day naturall the Sea imitates the motion of the Moone For while the Moone upon the Horizon ascends towards the middle of the Heaven the Sea increaseth and floweth But the Moone declining from the middle of the Heaven towards the West the Sea decreaseth and ebbes Againe the Moone going forward to the West-ward towards the corner of the night the Sea increaseth and flowes but the Moone ascending from the corner of the night towards the East it decreaseth and ebbes Which when the Grand Syre of Philosophy Aristotle could not comprehend and conceive cast himselfe into the Sea saying If Aristotle cannot comprehend Euripe Euripe shall comprehend Aristotle Of the Earthquake Qu. VVHerefore is it that the Earth many times trembles which we cōmonly call Earthquakes An. When in the bowels and entrailes of the Earth a great abundance of vapours being included cannot finde
very waters and thence come our naturall Baths Of Comets or blazing Starres Q. VVHerefore is it that many times there appeare blazing-starres An. The Comets or blazing-starres are of a hot and dry matter but thicke and as it were fat oyly viscous and gluy which is the cause they keepe fire the longer and according as it thickens more or lesse it is also the more or lesse cleare Qu. Whether are they naturall Starres orno An. No although many ancient Philosophers as Seneca and others and the ignorant vulgar to this day esteeme to be naturall For being of a matter as aforesaid elevated on high takes the resemblance of a celestiall body and that ignorance is grosse because the Stars are in the Heavens and these in the ayre a great distance below the Moone and is discovered by Astronomicall instruments Moreover the Starres follow one certaine and infallible course and motion neither increase or diminish nor change or alter as the Comets doe Q Wherefore are they called Comets A. Because the word Comet signifies both in Greeke and Latin Cometa quasi stella Comata that is to say hayry or shaggy because they have ordinarily divers branches which by reason of their height and distance seeme to us to be no bigger than a thred or haire Q. What do the Comets portend A. There are in the Comets two remarkable things their long continuance and the evills that they presage As for the durance or continuation it cannot bee determined how long or short because that dependeth upon the matter already gathered together and raised up as aforesaid Plynies opinion is that they continue at the most 80 dayes and at the least 7. Seneca remarks that in Nero's time there appeared a Comet for the space of 6 moneths and Iosephus writeth that the Comet which threatned Hierusalems totall destruction and extreame desolation flamed over that miserable City a whole yeares space before Titus came before it and beleagurd it Q. Wherefore are they held prodigious A. That the Comets are prodigious signes and presages of some great Monarch King or some great or eminent person of Pestilence Famine all Authors of note have ever observed it yea even the Vulgar it selfe holds this for such a certainty that in Nero's time a Comet beginning to appeare the Commonalty as Tacitus mentioneth suddenly began to stirre and to talke of no other affaires than who should succeede in the Imperiall Crowne Wee read also in the History of France that a little before the famous conflict of Carolus Murtellus against the Sarracens where there were of the Sarracens more than 365000 slaine two Comets appeared one which followed the Sunne rising and another the Sunne setting in the evening and because Histories are full of these relations it is contrary to my intent to bee Historicall but to continue in the causes of things Naturall Century 3. Qu. BVt wherfore is it that they presage all these evills A. Certainely this is a great secret and to affirme securely as I thinke wee must referre those signes to the threatnings of divine vengeance which gives us that notice before it afflicteth and punisheth us Neverthelesse as far as naturall reason dictateth wee may say that the Comets cannot generate nor be generated or be nourished and preserved any long time without a very great quantity of exhalations by the attraction wherof the earth is extreamely dryed by the extream heat and inferiour bodies also are participant of that aridity so that a scarcity of fruits followeth through the want of necessary moisture thence famine frō famine dearth an ill nourishment from that the intemperance of the aire concurring also a general sicknes or Pest and many other maladies and a mortality Q. But again wherefore is that by long experiēce of precedent ages it is observed that Comets are particularly messengers of the death of some Monarch or great personage A. The reason of this is either the courages of great persons are also more susceptible or capable of all impressions and by living more delicately are more subject to sharp maladies or else that the death of inferior persons is not so remarkable as that of Princes and therefore they seeme to threaten them more particularly than others Of Minerals Qu. WHat is to bee held concerning those which are called Minerals A. This that there are 3 principall sorts of Minerals Metals Stones and a third pecies which comprehends many kinds of Minerals different one from another which Species as yet hath no name proper Q. What doth nature determine touching the generation of Metals A. The common matter of Metals are exhalations and vapours inclosed within the entrailes of the earth which comming together doe conglutinate and adhere one to another by cold which fastneth stones and other hard and solid bodies one to another for vapors enclosed and condensed by cold first resolve into water and the exhalations by the means of the heate of the Sun which penetrates even into the bowels of the earth a kind of burnt earth mingling with them and by such concretions and mixtures is the generation of Metalls which by this meanes are nothing else but water condensed by cold with some terrene matter Q. Wherefore is it then that they are so hard An. That the water giveth them the better part of their generation it is easily judged because being heated they are fluide like water and by cold they are againe condensed into hardnesse And if they were of earth onely they would by fire become harder as earth doth Qu. Wherefore is it then that the Chynicks hold that Metalls in generall are generated of Sulphur and Mercury A. 't is true they hold so and say they because they are ever found in Mynes joyning to the Metalls and moreover that metalls are resolved into them But these reasons are as fallible as their Authors For moreover than that Sulphur and Quicksilver which they tearme their Mercury are not alwayes found joyning with the Metalls by the same reason Stones and other minerals should bee the matter of Metalls Qu. Wherefore is it that Metalls being melted and running doe not moysten or wet according to their watry quality An. Because they participate with drought which hinders humectation or moystning and by the same cause they running over moysture drinke up none because the due mixture of droughth resisteth it There are many curious considerations upon this subject concerning the third species of Mineralls which are Sulphur Alume Vitriol Arsenicke Orpment Salts of all sorts as Salt Saltpetre Salgemme Sal Armoniack Sal-nitre and Bitumen also Christall and glasse in many famous Authors as Pliny l. 33. 34. Albert. Mag. demineralib and Cardanus lib. 5. subtil to whom I referre the curious Reader Of Vegetables not sensitive Qu. VVHerefore are Hearbes Trees and the like tearmed Vegetables insensitive An. Because they are different from the sensitive as Man and other Animals which are sensitive Vegetables which is to say they have
and it unlesse the Midde-wife bee more knowing and diligent Q. Wherefore is it that the infant cryeth as soone as it is borne A. Because it feeleth an unwonted cold and is payned with the handling of hands be they never so delicate and soft even as a Wound in a mans flesh is payned with a least touch whereupon the infant being dipped in warm water is quieted Or else perhaps because it Prophetically lameneth the future miseries of a troublesome life to ensue whereupon it is observed that the Male cryeth A and the Female E as if they did inculpate or blame our first Protoplastes or Sires Adam and Eve for that they lost to themselves and us the first originall justice and brought us into these miseries Q. Was there ever any born laughing A. Onely one as St. Austin de civitat Lib. 21. cap. 14. testifieth Zeroastes by name who was borne laughing neither did this his unnaturall mirth portend any such felicity to him for hee was the inventor of Magick which Art of his could not establish his vaine felicity of this present life nor secure him against his enemies for hee being King of the Bactrians was utterly vanquished by Ninus King of the Assyrians Mans life is divided into 1. An Infant from the birth till seaven yeares of age 2. A boy till 14 then beginning to be apt to procreate 3. A stripling till twenty eight 4. A young man in full strength and prime till fifty 5. A grave man now declining to age till seaventy two 6. And the time after how long soever he liveth is decrepit old age To know these things concerning the being of Man is necessarily usefull but not to know them were shameful ignorance I referre the more curious for further satisfaction concerning this argument to that learned Fernelius his Treatise De Hominis procreat Of growing and growth Qu. WHat is held concerning growing An. This that it is the enlarging of all the parts of the body untill it attaine to the limited and proportioned quantity which parts are either Homogenes or like or Heterogenes unlike which the Physitians call Similares and Dissimilares like and unlike Qu. What are the Homogenes or Similar An. They are such as being divided or cut in peeces every peece of them hath the same name and nature as the whole part hath As for Example the peece of a bone is bone a peece of flesh is flesh and so likewise of braines nerves arteries rendons blood skinne fat cartilages and marrow Qu. What are called Heterogenes or Dissimilar A. Those parts which being divided the peeces have not the same name and nature as a peece of the head the arme the leg is not a head an arme a leg c. This being presupposed it is to be observed that the Homogenes or Similar parts are the cause of the growth of the Heterogenes or Dissimilar for wee say that a mans arme is smaller at ten than at twenty yeares of age because the flesh the bone the sinewes and veines of his arme are growne and enlarged Q. How is it that the Homogenes doe grow A. The increasing or growing of the Similar parts or the Heterogenes is made by the nourishment in animated bodies as well sensible as not For the one and the other have a certaine humor which the Physitians cal the Humidum radicale the Radicall moysture because it is as it were the roote of life which preserveth in them naturall heate even as oyle in a Lampe nourisheth the the fire and as that diminisheth and wasteth so doth the naturall moysture grow weaker and when it is spent naturall heate is also extinguished and death most consequently follows Q. Wherefore is it generally that children and young folkes have good stomacks A. Because as long as they are young by the reason of the vigour of the naturall heate which broyles as it were in them their appetite is great and covets and receiveth more food and nutriment than is necessary for the conservation of the Humidum radicale and the over-plus serves for the growth of all Homogenes or similar parts Qu. Wherefore then serves that nourishment which was for growth after that growing is past An. After that the body is growne to its full and certaine period of quantity as every thing that growes in the world hath a limited and determinate quantity otherwise they would grow infinite the nourishment then serves onely for the conservation of the Radicall moysture and if more nutriment bee received than naturall heate is able to digest in liew of benefitting the body it greatly annoyeth it Qu. Why is digestion so necessary An. Because digestion or concoction according to the Physitians is a mutation of substance into a better estate of nature for the concoction doth not onely change the qualities but also the very substance it selfe of food for the preservation of the creature Of the Eyes Qu. VVHerefore doe our Eyes seeme to sparkle in the darke and when we are in choler and why some animals doe see perfectly in the darke An. Not because they are fiery or contayne any part of fire in them but because this clearenesse and bright sparkling proceedeth from hot spirits which are not seated onely in the eyes but diffused over all the parts of the body and are more apparent in the eyes than in any other part by reason of their chrystalline humour which is cleare and polite and fit for the property of glistening And because this humour is quicker in some Animals and more enabled by those hot spirits their eyes appeare glaring and fiery as it were nature having given them such eyes the better to seeke their prey and necessary food Qu. Wherefore is it that we see not the object that toucheth our sight An. Because the object being applyed quite contrary to the sense the sense is hindered And even so a visible object being applyed close to the eyes hindereth their sight by subtracting from them the medium or meanes of seeing which is the illuminated ayre Qu. Wherefore is it that clouds and mists seeme thicke and impenetrable to the sight An. Because in rare and thinne bodies a farre off the parts seeme contiguous close and united and consequently thicke which is by reason of the great distance And by the same reason we perceive not the admirable swiftnes of the Sun and Planets because of the great distance frō our view Q. Wherefore is it that a Woman having her naturall purgations doth blemish a Looking-glasse with looking or seeing her selfe in it An. It is not so that by her onely eyes shee staineth the glasse for the eyes doe not dart out their rayes to the object as divers contentiously have sought to affirme but by the corrupted vapours which proceed from her whole body Qu. Wherefore is it then that the Basiliske or Cockatrice killeth with his onely eyes An. That likewise is generally held to be false but by the infecting of the ambient Ayre neare him with the