one hundred and and forty yeeres old There were also at Parma 3 men of an hundred and twenty yeeres of age and 2 one hundred and thirty yeeres old At Bruxels there was an old man aged one hundred twenty five yeeres and another at Placentia an hundred twenty one yeeres old and an old woman aged an hundred thirty two yeeres was living at Fluentia and in the ancient towne Velleiacium seated on the hills neare Placentia were sixe men aged an hundred and ten and foure an hundred and twenty Lastly at Rimino one M. Aponius was an hundred and fifty yeeres old The fortune disposition and qualities of the former persons being signes of long life to such as be endued with the like are in a true and briefe character described and no examples of long life under fourescore yeeres of age have beene or shall be mentioned 16. Of the Roman Grecian French and German Emperors being almost two hundred some onely attained to fourescore yeeres of Age. The Emperours Augustus and Tiberius living seventy eight and seventy sixe yeeres might have reached fourscore yeers had they not beene poyson'd by Livia and Caius Augustus lived seventy six yeeres being a moderate Prince somewhat hasty in action but of a faire and pleasing carriage temperate in dyet lascivious and very fortunate and about 30. yeeres of age falling into a dangerous sicknes was restored to health by Antonius Musa and cured by cold medicines instead of hot applications used by other Physitians as agreeable to his disease Tiberius was by two yeeres longer-liv'd than Augustus His Words as Augustus sayd stucke in his jawes being a Prince of a flow speech but sterne and bloody a drinker and 〈◊〉 in dyet yet very carefull of his health being wont to say that every one after 30. yeeres of age was a foole or a Physitian Gordian the elder lived sixty yeeres then being made Emperor he fell into a violent sicknesse and dyed He was a brave famous man learned and a Poet constant in the whole course of his life and a little before his Death fortunate The Emperour Valerian lived seaventy sixe yeeres before hee was taken prisoner by Sapor King of the Persians seaven yeeres afterward suddainely fell sicke and dyed He was or an ordinary temper and not very valiant and though weake in desert was by generall opinion conceived worthy to be 〈◊〉 Emperor Anastasius sirnamed Dicorus was fourescore yeeres of age being a quiet mild superstitious 〈◊〉 man Amicius iustinianus lived fourescore and foure yeeres affecting glory famous by his Captaines successe not his owne valour uxcrious and by others governed Helena of Britaine the mother of Constantine the great lived fourescore yeeres being no States-woman but wholly devoted to Religion yet of an high spirit and alwayes happy Theodora the Empresse sister to Zoes the wife of Monomachus who after her decease reigned lived above fourescore yeeres a 〈◊〉 woman stately fortunate 〈◊〉 credulous 17. After these Examples of long-liv'd Heathen men the Ages of principall Ecclesiasticall persons shall bee related St. Iohn our Saviours beloved Apostle and Disciple lived ninety three yeeres whose divine 〈◊〉 and burning charity were shadowed forth by the Embleme of an Eagle drawne neare his Picture Luke the Evangelist was fourescore and foure yeeres of age an eloquent man and a traveller St. Pauls constant companion and a Physitian Simoon Cleophas called Christs brother was Bishop of Ierusalem and lived an hundred and twenty yeeres before hee was martyred being a couragious constant charitable man Polycarp the Apostles Disciple and Bishop of Smyrna attained to an hundred yeeres of Age and was then martyred A high minded man of heroicall patience and laborious Dionysius Areopagita in the Apostle Pauls time living ninety yeeres was called the Bird of Heaven being an excellent Divine and famous for Life and Doctrine Aquila and Priscilla the Apostle Pauls Hosts and afterward fellow-helpers lived to an hundred yeeres of age being in Pope Xistus time an ancient married couple wholly given to good workes the Churches first Founders being commonly to their great comfort fortunate in Marriage St. Paul the Hermite lived in a Cave an hundred and thirty yeeres with intollerable poore hard dyet spending his life in meditation being not illiterate but learned St. Anthony the first founder or restorer of the Order of Monkes attained to an hundred and five yeeres of age and being a devout contemplative man of an austere and severe life governed his Monkes in such a glorious solitude that hee was visited by Christians and Philosophers and adored as a living Image of Sanctity and Holinesse Athanasius a man of invincible constancy commanding Fame and yeelding not to fortune bold with great personages popular a stout Champion in controversies dyed above 80. yeeres old St. Ierome above 90. yeers old being an eloquent writer learned in Languages and Sciences a Traveller and toward his old age of an austere life his high minde shining in a private life like a Starre in obscurity 18. But of two hundred and one and forty Popes five onely attayned to fourescore yeeres of age and upwards The age of many of the first Popes being shortened by Martyrdome Pope Iohn the 23 th lived ninety yeeres compleate A man of an unquiet disposition and an Innovator bringing in many alterations and changes some for the better but a great hoarder of Wealth and Treasure Gregory the twelfth by a factious Election created Pope dyed at ninety yeeres of age his short Papacy affording nothing worthy of observation Paul the third lived eighty one yeeres being of a quiet disposition and profound judgement a learned Astrologer carefull of his health and like the old Priest Ely a father of his family Paul the fourth being fourescore and three yeeres of age was of a severe disposition high-minded and imperious of a working fancy and an eloquent ready speech Gregory the 13 th living also fourescore and three yeeres was a good man politicke temperate and charitable 19. The Examples following are promiscuously set downe together Arganthonius King of Cadez in Spaine lived 130. or 40 yeeres reigning 80. yeeres his manners kind of life and the time wherein he lived are unknowne Cyniras King of Cyprus accounted then a happy pleasant Island lived one hundred and fifty or sixty yeeres Two Kings of the Latines 800. and 600. yeeres Some Kings of Arcadia 300. yeeres but the inhabitants long life in this healthfull Countrey is but an invented fable It is reported that in Illyricum one Dardanus lived five hundred yeeres without any infirmity of age The Epians a people of AEtolia were generally all long-liv'd 200 yeeres being a common age and amongst the rest the Gyant Litorius was 300. yeeres old On the top of the mountaine Tmolus anciently called Tempsus many men attain'd to 100 and 50. yeeres of age The Sect of the Esseans in Iudea liv'd above 100. yeeres keeping a very poore Pythagorean dyet Apollonius Tyaneus being above an hundred yeeres old had a fresh
doe cause long life 80. By exceeding great joy the spirits are made thinne loose and weake but by familiar common Recreations they are not loosened but strengthened 81. Joy arising from sensuall pleasure is bad but the remembrance of former ioy or the apprehension of ioy to come conceived onely in the imagination is good 82. An inward conceived ioy sparingly vented doth comfort the heart more than a vulgar immoderate expression of ioy 83. Sorrow and Griefe beeing without Feare and not too heavy and Grievous doe prolong Life by Contracting the Spirits which is a kinde of Condensation or Thickning 84. Great Feares doe shorten Life for though Sorrow and Feare doe both contract the Spirits yet Sorrow doeth onely contract but Feare mingled with Care and Hope doth heate and Vexe the Spirits 85. Anger being close and suppressed is a kinde of vexation making the spirits devoure the moisture of the body but being vented and getting forth doth strengthen the heate of the spirits 86. By Envy the worst passion the Spirits and by them the Body are hurt and weakned beeing alwayes in Action and Working for Envy is sayde to keepe no Holy-dayes 87. Pitty and Compassion of anothers misery whereinto wee cannot possibly fall is good but Pitty reflecting backe and exciting Feare of beeing in as bad a case is bad 88. Shame lightly at the first drawing in the spirits and afterwards sending them forth againe doth make blushing bashfull Folkes commonly long-liv'd But shame arising from Reproach and continuing long doth contract and choake the spirits 89. Love not unfortunate nor wounding too deepe being a kind of joy is governed by the rules prescribed for joy 90. Hope being the best of all the Affections and Passions is very powerfull to prolong Life if like a nodding Nurse it doe not often fall asleepe and languish but doe continually feed the fancy with beholding good Obiects And therefore such as propound certaine ends and purposes to be compassed thriving and prospering therein according to their desire are commonly long-liv'd but having attayned to their highest hopes all their Expectitions and desires being satisfied doe not live long afterward 91. Admiration and light contemplation are very good to prolong Life keeping the spirits busied in 〈◊〉 matters and in a peaceable quiet gentle temper So that all Philosophers and observers of the Wonders of Nature as Democritus Plato Parmenide Apollonius were long liv'd Also Rhetoricians tasting onely matters following the light of speech not obscure dark Philosophy were also long-liv'd as Gorgias Protagoras I socrates Seneca Andas old men are Talkative so Talkative men doe often live to bee old men For Talkativenesse is a signe of a light Apprehension not binding or vexing the spirits but subtile acute studies wearying and weakening the spirits doe shorten life So much of the motion of the spirits by the pafsions of the minde some generall Observations not included in the former Division doe follow 92. The spirits must not bee often loosed nor made thinne being thereby loosed for the spirits being once extenuated loosened and made thinne are not easily collected and thickned The spirits are loosed by excessive Labour exceeding violent passions of the minde much sweating much Evacuation warme Baths and intemperate or unseasonable Venery also Care Griefe doubtfull expectation sicknesse sorrow and payne doe dissolve and loosen the spirits and should therefore bee avoyded and shunned 93. The spirits delight in Customes and Novelties for customes not used untill they grow wearisome and Nove'ties much desired and then enjoy'd doe wonderfully preserve the vigour of the spirits Therefore Judgment and Care should bee shewed in leaving off Customes before they become loathsome and contemptible and in making the desire of Novelties stronger by restraint and in altering and changing the course of our life lest the spirits imploy'd in one setsed kind of Life should grow heavy and dull For though Seneca sayd well A foole doth alwayes beginne to live yet this Folly and many other doe lengthen life 94. It is observable contrary to common custome that the spirits being in a good quiet sound temper discerned by the quietnesse and inward joy of the minde should bee cherrished not changed 95. Ficinus saith that Old men should comfort their spirits with the actions of their childhood and youth being a Recreation proper to Age. Therefore the remembrance of former Education together is pleasant in conversation and the place of Education is beheld with delight So that the Emperour Vespasian would not alter his Fathers house being but a meane building because the old House did put him in remembrance of his Childhood and besides on festivall Dayes hee would drinke in a Silver-tip'd wooden Cup which was his Grand-mothers 96. Also an alteration of life for the better is acceptable and delightfull to the Spirits Therefore Youth and Manhood having beene spent in pleasures proper and peculiar to those Ages Old age should enjoy new delights especially moderate ease Therefore Noble-men in their Age should live a retired kind of life as Cassiodorus having beene in great favour with the Gothish Kings of Italy and accounted the soule and life of their Affaires at fourescore yeeres of age retired to a Monastery living there to 110. yeeres of Age and there dyed But such Retyrement should be before the body bee decayed and diseased for then all changes though for the better doe hasten death and a retyred life being undertaken their minds and thoughts should not be addicted to idlenesse but imploy'd in pleasant delightfull studies or in building and planting 97. Lastly the spirits are recreated by labour willingly undertaken but consumed by action or labour performed with unwillingnesse Therefore a free kind of life by Art contrived to bee at our owne disposing and an obedient minde not resisting but yeelding to the power of fortune doe prolong life 98. And for the better governing of the Affections the body must not bee soluble or loose for on all the affections except those arising from melancholy as Drunkennesse and Melancholy such laxativenesse and loosenesse hath more power than on the heart or braine 99. This operation of making the spirits continue youthfull and lusty not mentioned by Physitians hath beene more diligently handled because the readiest and most compendious way to prolong Life is by renewing the Spirits working suddainly on the body as vapours and passions doe worke on the spirits in a direct not indirect manner The Operation on the exclusion or keeping out of the Ayre 2. The History 1. THe Exclusion or keeping out of the Ayre doth in two respects lengthen life First because the outward Ayre animating the spirits and being healthfull doth next unto the inward spirits devoure the moysture of the body growing thereby dry and withered 2. Secondly by the Exclusion and keeping out of Ayre the body being shut and closed and not breathing forth at the pores the detayned spirits by their working doe soften the hardnesse of the body 3. The reason
being a Bird that eateth any kind of meate chews his food changes his Bill and is of a churlish angry disposition and hath black flesh 31. The Peacocke hath a slow pace and white flesh living twenty yeers and being three yeeres old his tayle is with Argus eies speckled and adorned 32. The Cocke is leacherous a couragious fighter and short-liv'd having white flesh 33. The Turky-cocke or Indian Cocke somewhat longer liv'd than the Cocke is a testy angry bird and hath very white flesh 34. The Ring-Dove being an ayery Bird loving to build and sit high is long-liv'd fifty yeeres being her age But Pidgeons and Turtles are short-liv'd their Age being eight yeeres 35. Pheasants and Partridges live sixteene yeeres being great breeders but blacker flesh'd than chickens or Pullets 36. The lascivious loud whistling Black-bird is of all small birds longest liv'd 37. The Sparrow is short-liv'd the Cocke-sparrow shortning his life by wanton lasciviousnesse The Linnet and Finch though no bigger than the sparrow doe live twenty yeeres 38. The Estredges age is uncertaine life not long as by tame Estreges it is observ'd The age of the Bird 〈◊〉 being long-liv'd is unknowne 39. The age of Fishes lesse observ'd because living under the water is more uncertaine than the age of Beasts Some of them breath not their vitall spirits being kept close and cooled by their gills but not so constantly as by breathing 40. The ayre dries not nor decayes their bodies because the water wherein they live encompassing them pierceth into their pores having a greater power than encompassing ayre to shorten their lives 41. They are ravenous devourers of their owne kind having cold blood and soft flesh not so firme as Beasts flesh but fatter an infinite quantity of oyle being made of the fat of 42. Dolphins live thirty yeeres for some whose tayles were cut off thirty yeeres afterward being taken were knowne they grow tenne yeeres 43. It is observable and very strange that Fishes bodies doe grow slender with age their tayle and head retaining their former bignesse 44. In Fish-ponds belonging to the Roman Emperour Lampreys living threescore yeers by long keeping were made tame one of their deaths being therefore by the Orator Crassus lamented 45. The Pike of all fresh-water fish is longest liv'd forty yeeres being his age hee is a ravenous devourer and his flesh in eating is dry and firme 46. The Carpe Breame Tench and Eele live not above tenne yeares 47. Salmons are of a suddaine growth but short liv'd and also Trouts but the Perch groeth slowly and lives longer 48. The age of the Whale Sea-Calfe Sea-hog and other Fishes is unknowne 49. The long-liv'd Crocodile alwayes growing is a devouring cruel creature that layeth Egges and the Water pierces not his skinne beeing scaly and hard The age of other shel-fishes is unknowne Greater Observations COncerning the length and shortnesse of the life of living Creaturer hitherto negligently observed and proceeding from divers causes insteed of certayne Rules hard to find these notes following may be added 1. Birds are longer-liv'd then Beasts as th' Eagle Vulter Pellican Kite Raven Crow Swan Goose Storke Crane Ib is Parret Ringdove c. though they are lesser and in one yeare at their ful growth For Birds are long-liv'd because they are wel clothed with warme Feathers to keepe out cold and doe live in the free open Aire as Mountayners doe or because when they flye they are carryed by the Ayre their Wings this mixt motiō makes thē helthful or because Birds are not pin'd for want of nourishment or thrust in the belly of their old Bird by turnes laying her eggs but especially because Birds partaking more of the Hennes substance than of the Cocks have not such sharpe and hot spirits 2. It is a Position that living creatures begotten by a greater quantity of the Dammes seed as Birds are than of the Sires and lying longer in their Dammes belly partaking more of the Dammes seed than the Sires are therefore longer liv'd And it is observeable that men being in visage and countenance liker their mother than their father doe live longest as those children doe which sound and healthfull men beget on young Wives 3. Living creatures may receive much hurt or good in their first breeding for such as lye not too close together in the belly of the Damme but have sufficient nourishment are long-liv'd as the egges of Birds laid by turnes and the young of Beasts bringing but one at a yeaning have roome enough and nourishment 4. Long bearing in the mothers wombe and the Dammes belly is forthree respects a cause of long life First the of-spring hath more of the mothers or Dammes substance Secondly it becomes a stronger birth Thirdly it better endures the Ayres power Lastly it denotes that Nature intended such a Birth for the Center of a large circumference of many yeeres The short life of Oxen and Sheepe Calves and Lambs lying sixe moneths in their Dams belly before they are calved yeaned proceeds from other causes 5. Grazing Cattle are short-liv'd but Beasts feeding on flesh live longer and Birds which do eate seeds and fruits For halfe the long-lived Harts foode growes as they say above his head and the Goose feeding not onely on Grasse finde some foode in the Water 6. Another cause of long life is warme cloathing and keeping out immoderate heat and cold whereby the Body is much weakned and decay'd as Birds cloathed with warm Feathers are therefore longer liv'd But Sheepe having thicke Fleeces are not longliv'd being subject to many Diseases and feeding onely on grasse 7. The Head is the principall seate of all the Spirits beeing great wasters and consumers of the Body so that the great abundance or sharp inflamatiō of the Spirits shortens Life Therefore Birds having little heads inrespect of their bodies are long liv'd and men having very great heads live not long 8. The best kind of motion for prolonging of Life is to be born and carried as the Swan and other swiming water Fowle are and all Birds flying more painfully with their wings and fish whose Age and long life is unknowne 9. Slow comming to perfection both for Growth and ripenes signifies long life in al creatures for teeth private haire and a Beard are degrees of maturity or ripenesse preceding Manhood 10. Milde meeke ereatures as Sheepe and Doves are not long-liv'd the gall being like a whetstone whereon natures faculties are sharpened and fitted to performe their offices 11. Creatures having white flesh live not so long as those whose blacker flesh shewes that their Bodies moisture is finner and more compact 12. As a great fire is lasting and not soone extinguished and a little water soone evaporates so quantity and bignesse preserve corruptible bodies a twigge withering sooner than the body of a Tree and all great Beasts living longer than lesser Beasts Nourishment and the waies of Nourishing The History 1. NOurishment should bee of an inferiour nature
comming of Christ fulfilled in the new Testament 5. Tobias the Elder lived 158. yeares and the yonger Tobias 127. yeares being mercifull and charitable men Many Iewes that returned from the Captivity of Babylon lived long and could remember the building of both the Temples the latter being builded seaventy years after the other Many Ages afterward when our Saviour was borne Simeon was an old Religious Faithfull man And Anna the Prophetesse lived then to an hundred yeares of Age shee having bin first a Mayde then a married wife seaven yeares a Widdow eighty foure yeares and afterward a Prophetesse of our Saviours Incarnation Shee was a holy Woman that spent her Life in prayer and Fasting 6. The long lives of men mentioned in Heathen Authours are fabulous narrations and deceitfull calculations of ages Those Egyptian Kings that raigned longest lived not above fifty or five and fifty yeares a common moderne age But it is fabulously supposed that the Kings of Arcadia lived to a great age because their Countrey was Mountaynous and both they and their people being for the most part Shepheards kept a temperate Dyet But as Pan was their god so all these Relations are but Pannicke vaine Fables 7. Numa King of the Romans lived to eighty yeares of age beeing a peaceable studious and Religious man Marcus Valerius Corvinus was Consull sixe and forty yeares after his first Consulshippe and lived an hundred yeares being both in Warres and private affaires very powerfull of a popular Disposition and alwayes fortunate 8. Solon the Athenian Law-maker and one of the wise Sages lived above fourescore yeares beeing a Valiant man but popular a lover of his Countrey learned and somewhat voluptuous 〈◊〉 of Creete reached unto 157. yeares of age and lived fifty seven of those yeeres in a Cave Halfe an age afterward 〈◊〉 Calophonius having at twenty yeeres of age left his Countrey after 77 yeeres travaile returned againe and lived in all 102. yeers or longer This man being a traveller had also a wandring minde and for holding many opinions was called 〈◊〉 orthe wanderer instead of Zenophon yet certainely his conceite and fancy was large and infinite 9. Anacreon the wanton voluptuous Poet reached to fourescore yeeres of Age and upwards and Pindar of Thebes a Poet of an high fancy witty in a new way of writing and a religious adorer of the gods lived fourescore yeeres compleate Sophocles the Athenian attained to the same Age an eloquent Tragicall Poet and a great Writer but carelesse of his family 10. Artaxerxes King of 〈◊〉 lived ninety foure yeeres being a man of a dull Wit not laborious nor painefull but affecting ease more than glory Agesilaus was a moderate King and a Philosopher a great Souldier and Polititian but ambitious of honour and aspired to fourescore and foure yeeres of Age. 11. Gorgias Leontinus lived an hundred and eighty yeeres This man was a Rhetorician a publicke Schoole-master and a Traveller and before his death he sayd that Protagoras the Abderite being a Rhetorician a Polititian and as great a traveller as Gorgias lived ninety yeeres Socrates the Athenian multiplying his life reached to ninety nine yeeres of age hee was a modest Rhetorician that would never plead in open Court but kept a private Schoole Democritus of Abdera drew out his time of life to an hundred yeeres being a great naturall Philosopher and a learned Physitian and Practitioner in Experiments so that Aristotle objected against him that his Observations were grounded more on Comparison than Reason being not prooved by Logicke but by Similitude the weakest kind of Argument Diogenes Synopeus allowing others liberty but strict in private government delighting in poore dyet and patience lived ninety yeeres Zeno Citteus lacking but two of an hundred yeeres old was high-minded and a contemner of opinions and had an excellent wit not offensive but rather alluring than cōpelling affection Seneca afterward had the like wit Plato of Athens lived 81 yeers a man affecting quietnesse and high contemplation of a civill handsome behaviour not light but pleasing and majesticall Theophrastus Etesius using a sweet kind of cloquence mingled with plentifull variety gathering onely the sweete Roses of Philosophy not the bitter worme-wood attained to fourscore and five yeeres of age compleat Carneades of Cyrene many yeeres afterward lived untill hee was fourescore and five yeeres old a fluent eloquent man delighting in variety of knowledge which made his conversation pleasing and acceptable But in Cicero's time Orbilius no Philosopher or Rhetorician but a Grammarian lived almost an hundred yeeres being first a Souldier then a Schoolemaster of a proud disposition and a whipping rayling writer even against his own schollers 12. Q. Fabius Maximus having beene sixty three yeeres Augur and more respected for his Nobility than Age was above fourescore yeeres old when he dyed He was a wise man that ripened actions by delaying their execution being all his life-time moderate courteous and grave Masinissa King of Numidia lived above 90. yeeres and being above fourescore and five yeeres old had a sonne This man was valiant and confident in Fortune whose changes his younger yeeres having experienced hee afterward lived in constant happinesse Marcus Porcius Cato lived above 90 yeeres being a man of an iron body and minde of a sharpe speech and contentious addicted also to husbandry and to himselfe and his family a Physitian 13. Terentia Cicero's wife living an hundred and three yeeres suffered many troubles and afflictions by her husbands banishment and putting to death and by the gout Luceia playing the part of a young maid afterward of an old wife upon the stage lived an hundred yeeres Also Galeria Copiola being at first an Actresse was 99 yeeres afterward at the dedication of Pompeyes Theater brought forth as a miracle of Age and afterward was a spectacle in Playes made in Honour of Augustus Caesar 14. Livia Iulia Augusta wife to Augustus Caesar and Mother to Tiberius living but ninety yeeres was a more famous Actresse than the former For Livia being a courteous stately and pragmaticall matron complying with her Husband by dissembling obedience and with her Sonne by majesticall courage was certainely an excellent Actresse in the Comedy of Augustus life whereunto himselfe spoke a commanding Epilogue charging his friends to applaud it after his Death Iunia wife to C. Cassius and sister to M. Brutus being ninety yeeres old and living sixty foure of those yeeres before the Philippicke Battaile was rich and though unfortunate in her Husband and Kindred yet a noble Widdow 15. In Vespasians Reigne Anno 76. in the part of Italie lying betweene the Appenine and the River Po men of an hundred yeeres old and upward were ceassed and put into the Subsedy-booke namely 124. of one hundred yeeres of age 54 an hundred and twenty yeeres old 57 aged one hundred twenty five yeeres 2 aged one hundred twenty five yeeres 4 one hundred and thirty 4 others one hundred and thirty five or seven and 3 that were
violent but naturall by defect of Nature doth enter at certaine common doores The History 1. THE living spirit subsists by due motion temperate cooling and fit nourishment A flame needs onely motion and Nourishment being a simple substance the Spirit a compounded substance destroyed by approaching neerer to the nature of flame 2. A flame as Aristotle well no ted is by a greater stronger flame extinguished much more the spirit 3. The flame of a Candle being put into a Glasse and kept very close is extinguished by the Ayre enlarged by heate and thrusting the flame together And fewell lying too close in a Chimney burnes not with a bright flame 4. Fire also by thrusting pressing together is extinguished and a coale of fire being trodden Or crush'd with the Tongs 5. But concerning the spirits blood or fleame getting into the Ventricles of the Braine doe cause suddaine Death the spirit having no place of residence or motion Also violent Fractures and beating of the head doe cause suddain Death by straightning the spirits in the ventricles of the Braine 7. Opium and other strong Drugs procuring unsensiblenesse doe by thickning the spirits deprive them of motion 8. Venemous vapours beeing hateful to the spirits are deadly poysons by whose malignant quality the spirits are opprest deprived of their motion and made unable to resist so strong an enemy 9. Extreame Drunkennesse and Gluttony have caused sudaine Death the spirits not with thicke or malignant vapours proceeding from Opium or poyson but with aboundance of Vapors being opprest 10. With the suddain apprehension of Griefe and Feare conceived at the relation of unexpected bad tidings some have suddainly Dyed 11. The Excessive compression and inlarging of the Spirits are both deadly 12. Great and suddaine ioyes have deprived many of their life 13. Greater Evacuations of water by Dissections for the Dropsie or violent and suddaine Fluxes of Blood are Deadly the Blood and spirits doe avoyde vacuity or emptinesse and fill up the emptie places repaying hither slower Fluxes of Blood procuring want of nourishment but no powring backe of the spirits So much of the compression and effusion of the spirits causing Death 14. Stopping the breath is through defect of cooling deadly by choaking and strangling the motions of the spirits being not hindred but cooling defective for excessive hot Ayre drawne in for breath doth choake as soone as stopping of the Breath As by burning charcoale or by the smell of new whited walles in a close chamber Iustinian and others have beene choaked Fausta the wife of Constantine the great was strangled by the steame of an exceeding hot Bath 15. For breath is drawne in by the Lungs and breathed forth againe every third part of a minute 16. The beating of the Pulse and of the Heart both by the systole or backward motion or Dyastole or forward motion is thrice as swift as breathing for the beating of the Heart could it be without stopping being stayd would cause Death sooner than strangling 17. Delian Dyvers and PearleFishers through continuall use will hold their Breath tenne times longer than another 18. Living Creatures having Lungs hold their breath a shorter or longer time as they neede more or lesse cooling 19. Fishes neede lesse cooling than other creatures cooling and breathing themselves at their Gills And as other creatures cannot endure a hot close ayre so Fish in water quite frozen over and long covered with Ice are choaked and strangled 20. The naturall heate of the Spirits is by another more violent heate oppressed being unable to endure them both without cooling as may bee seene in burning-feavers naturall heate being extinguished and Dissipared by hot putrified Humors 21. Want of Sleepe is a want of cooling For motion doth rarifie make thinne sharpen and encrease the heat of the Spirits But by sleep their motion is allayd and their wandring restrayn'd For sleepe doth strengthen and excite the working of the inward parts and Spirits and all outward motion but maketh the living spirit rest from motion Every 24. houres nature requires 5. or 6. houres sleepe Thogh some have miraculously refrained from sleepe for Mecaenas slept not a great while before hee dyed 22. Nourishment is a third want of Nature suffered by the parts of the Body not the living spirit subsisting in Idenity and Beeing without succession or renewing And the reasonable Soule proceeding not from Generation needs no reparation beeing not subject to Death as the Animall and Vegative soule differing both in Essence and Forme from the reasonable Soule For their confusion without distinction was the Originall of transmigration and many heathen hereticall opinions 23. A healthfull body doth every day require food enduring not to fast three dayes together unlesse enabled by custome but sicke folkes can easily fast and sleepe doth nourish as Exercise makes the body require nourishment And some miracles of Nature have lived a long time without meate or drinke 24. Dead bodies being kept from putrefaction will not a long time decay But living bodies cannot above three dayes subsist this speedy consumption being the worke of the living spirit repairing it selfe or making the parts neede repairing and therefore living creatures by sleeping endure longer without food sleepe being the reception and collection of the living Spirit 25. A continuall Flux or voyding of blood by the Piles or by vomiting of Blood some veyne within being opened or broken or by wounds doth cause speedy Death For the Blood of the veines doth supply and feed the blood of the Arteries and the blood of the Arteries doth feed the spirits 26. Meate and Drinke received twice daily is not all voyded by Extrements vrine or sweating the rest being converted into the moysture substance of the body the body growing not bigger as the repaired spirits are not in quantity increased 27. Nourishment must be so prepared and Dressed that the spirits may worke thereon For the flame of a Torch is not maintayned and kept burning by the staffe unlesse it bee covered with waxe lights and hearbs alone are no nourishing flood This doth cause the decay in Age the Spirits cloathed with Flesh and Blood being few and thinne and the moysture and blood old and hard are unable to nourish 28. The ordinary necessities of Nature are these continuall motion of the Spirits in the ventrieles of the Braine beating of the heart every third part of a moment Breathing every moment Sleepe and Food within three Dayes the decaying after fourscore years of age of the faculties of Digestion these Defects beeing not seasonably supply'd Death will ensue So that Death hath three Doores the spirits fayling in motion cooling and nourishing The living spirit is not like a flame continually lighted and extinguished without certaine duration and continuance A flame doth live in a flame being by contrary qualities only extinguished But all parts of the Body beeing to the living Spirit friends and servants are also comfortable and serviceable Therfore the living Spirit
is of a middle Nature betweene flame beeing a momentary substance and Aire beeing a fixed Substance The Destruction of the Organs of the spirits either by Diseases or violence is another Doore of Death And so much of the Forme of Death 29. Convulsions of the Head and Face with deepe deadly sighing being a kind of Convulsion and the extreame quicke beating of the Pulse the Heart trembling with the pangs of Death and sometimes againe beating weakely and slowly as the heate beginnes to faile and faint are two chiefe Signes of Death 30. The immediate Signes of Death are great unquietnesse tumbling and striving raking with the hands as if gathering lockes of Wooll striving to take hold and holding fast hard shutting of the Teeth ratling in the 〈◊〉 trembling of the under-lip pale countenance confused memory speechlesnesse cold sweats stretching out the Body lifting up the white of the eyes and an alteration of the whole Face the Nose becomming sharp the eyes hollow and the cheekes falling with the Contraction and Convulsion of the Tongue and coldnesse of the lowest parts and sometimes issuing of Blood or seede loud shreeking short breathing the falling of the lower jawes and the like 31. After Death there follows immediately a privation or depriving of the Sense and motion of the Heart Arteries Nerves and Sinewes inability of standing upright stiffenesse of the Nerves and limbs coldnesse putrefaction and stinke 32. Ecles Serpents and Flyes cut in pieces will a great while after moove and stirre Countrey people supposing they would if suffered joyne together againe And the bodies of Birds their heads beeing cut or pluckt off will afterward leape and flutter I remember that I say a Traytor emboweled whose heart beeing cast into the fire leaped five foote high and afterward lower for the space of seaven or eight minutes Also the old tradition of a sacrificed Oxe that in embowelling lowed deserves to 〈◊〉 beleeved thogh it be more 〈◊〉 that a man executed and embowelled after his hart was pluckt out and in the hang mans hand was heard to utter three or foure words of his prayers beeing more likely than the relation of the 〈◊〉 Oxe the friends of the partie executed usually feeing the executioner for a suddayne dispatch out of payne by the quicke performance of his office but the Priests were not feed speedily to dispatch their Sacrifices 33. To rayse and recover to life such as faint and fall into a swond in which fits many without helpe would expire use hot waters bend the Body forwards stoppe the mouth and nostrils hard bend and wring the fingers plucke off hayre from the Beard or head rub and chafe the Body especially the face and outward parts cast cold water suddainly in the face shrecke out aloud hold Rose-water and vinegar to the nostrils burning feathers and woollin cloath for the mother also the smoak of a hot frying pan is good in sounding and keeping the body close and warme 34. That many laid forth coffin'd buried were only in a sound hath bin discovered by digging them up agayne and finding their heads beaten and bruised with striving in the Coffin Of such a living funerall Iohn Scotus that subtle Scholler was a memorable example who by his servant absent at his buriall but acquainted with those 〈◊〉 wherein hee falling was supposed to bee Dead and so buried being digg'd up againe 〈◊〉 found in the aforesayde manner with his head and other limbes beaten and 〈◊〉 A Player also acting Death to the Life in a sound thought to put a ieast upon Death but was buried in earnest at Cambridge as many can well 〈◊〉 who were then 〈◊〉 I remember that a 〈◊〉 desirous to make 〈◊〉 of the paine suffered by prisoners at their execution told me that in hanging 〈◊〉 getting upon a stoole and casting himselfe off from 〈◊〉 hee swung a while about and then thought to recover the stoole but could not without the helpe of his friend then present who asking him what hee suffered He answered that hee felt no payne but first saw a fire or a flame then a kinde of black greene mist and lastly a pale Sea-blew colour usuall visions in sowning Also a Physitian having hang'd a man halfe an houre recovered him to life by rubbing and hot Baths professing also to recover any man after halfe an houres hanging his necke at the first falling downe beeing not broken The Differences of youth and Age. 1. THE Scale or Ladder of Mans life hath these steps 〈◊〉 Quickning in the 〈◊〉 Birth Sucking 〈◊〉 feeding on Pap and Spoon-meat in Infancy 〈◊〉 of teeth at two yeares old secret haire at twelve or foureteene ability for 〈◊〉 flowers hayre on the 〈◊〉 and under the arme-holes a budding Beard full growth full strength and agility Graynesse Baldnesse 〈◊〉 of flowers and of 〈◊〉 ability inclining to 〈◊〉 a creature with three feete Death The periods and courses of the minde as slipperinesse of memory and such like not described by yeeres shall be hereafter mentioned 2. The Differences of Youth and Age are these following In youth the skinne is moyst and smooth in age dry and wrinkled especially about the fore-head and eyes the flesh in youth is tender and soft in age hard youth is strong and nimble age weake and unwealdy in youth good Digestion in age weake the Bowels in youth are soft and moyst in age salt and dry in youth the body is straight in age bowed and crooked the finews in youth are steddy in age weake and trembling cholericke humours in youth and hot blood in age Phlegmatick melancholy humours and cold blood youth prone to Venery age slow in performance the moysture of the Body in youth oyly in age raw and waterish in youth many swelling spirits in age few and weake in youth spirits thicke and lively in age sharpe and thinne in youth sharpe and sound senses in age dull and decaying in youth strong sound Teeth in age weake worne and falling out in youth colour'd haire in age the former colour turnes grey Haire in youth in Age Baldnesse Quicke and strong Pulse in youth in Age weake and flow in Youth sharpe 〈◊〉 Sicknesses and Diseases in Age tedious and incurable Wounds heale soone in youth in age slowly in youth fresh-coloured checkes in Age pale or of a deepe fanguine red Youth not much troubbled with Rheumes Age Rheumaticke the Bodie growes fatter onely in Age than Youth Perspiration and Digestion in Age being bad and fatnesse being the aboundance of nourishment over and above that which is perfectly assimilated and converted into the substance of the Body And the Appetite is sometimes in Age increased by sharpe humours digestion being then weaker this and the rest being by Physitians ascribed to the decay of naturall heate and radicall moysture but drynesse in the 〈◊〉 of Age doth precedo coldnesse and the lusty heat of flourishing Youth declines 〈◊〉 then to coldnesse 3. The affections also of youth and age differ I remember in