never put into the same subject an internal and radical principal of two contrary desires as that of Man is to that of Woman the one consisting in action the other in passion the one in giving the other in receiving they cannot belong to one single individual which should also be both Agent and Patient contrary to the common Axiom founded upon the first Principle that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time Moreover the qualities of the Genitures being contrary that of the Woman cold and moist and that of the Man hot and dry they cannot meet in the same subject in so excellent a degree as is requir'd to generation For the strength divided is never so vigorous as united especially when its subjects are different No Hermaphrodites ever us'd both sexes perfectly but at least one of them weakly and abusively and consequently they are justly punish'd by the Laws For were both parts equally fit for Generation 't were contrary to policy to hinder them from using the same propagations being the chief Nerves of a State But these people are oblig'd to make choice of one Sex that by this election it may be konwn which they exercise best and may be prohibited the abuse of the other The Third said There 's nothing in Nature so disunited but is rejoyn'd by some medium As there are Spirits apart and Bodies apart so there are animated Bodies consisting of both Amongst beasts Leopards Mules Doggs and many others partake of two different Natures the Bat is between a beast and a bird as Frogs Ducks and other amphibious creatures partly Fish and partly Terrestial Animals The Bonaretz is a plant and an animal the Mushrome is between earth and a plant So since there is Man and Woman there may also be some nature containing both As to the cause of them besides nature's general inclination to reunite different things it seems that the same which produces monsters produces also Hermaprodites especially when the matter is more then needs a single Man or Woman and too little for two Nature herein imitating a Founder who casting his metal in a mould if there be any over-plus it sticks to the Piece which he intended to form Unless you had rather say that if both the seeds be of equal power and neither predominant over the other the Formative Virtue then produces both sexes which it would have distinguish'd into two Twins had there been matter sufficient for two Twins Whereunto also the Imagination of the Mother may also contribute For since some have been born with Virilities sticking at the end of their Nose and other places of the Countenance Nature seems less extravagant when she places them in their true situation there being no likelyhood in the Astrologers account that the conjunction of Mercury and Venus in the eight house which they assign to births is the cause hereof The Fourth said That Hermaphrodites being of those rare and extraordinary effects which fall no more under Law then under Reason 't is very difficult to assign the true natural causes of them Yea if there be nothing less known then forms and their original even when Nature acts regularly we cannot but be more at a loss in the combinations of forms and species and coupling of sexes which are deviations from the rule of Nature Hermaphrodites who have both sexes are of four sorts for they have Virilities in the ordinary place and muliebrities either in the perinaeum or the scrotum or else the feminine parts being in their right place the masculine appear above them as is seen many times in Goats or lastly the Virilities lying hid in the middle of the other at length come forth as ha's hapned to many Girls and Women turn'd into Men as to Marie Germain by the relation of Montagne to Arescon a Native of Argos who was sirnam'd Arescusa according to Martianus And Hippocrates affirms in 6. Epid. that a Woman nam'd Phaetusa who after she had had Children by her Husband Pytheus the Abderite this her Husband being long absent from her she came to have a beard and the other badges of virility The same he also testifies to have hapned to Namysia the wife of Gorippus in the Isle of Thasus Of which effects we shall easily find the reason if we say with Galen that Woman is an imperfect Animal and a fragment of Mankind and so 't will be no wonder to see a Woman become a Man then to see all other things acquire the perfection due to their Nature which they ought to attain lest their inclination thereunto be in vain Moreover 't is certain that a Woman desires a Man as Matter doth Form Power Act Imperfection Perfection Deformity Beauty in a word the Female the Male Nature affording us many examples of these changes of sexes and metamorphoses So Metals and Elements are turn'd one into another Wheat into Cockle Rye into Wheat Barley into Oats Origanum into Wild Thyme Sisymbrium into Mint Which caus'd Anaxagoras to say That every thing is in every thing According to which principle the Male is actually in his Female and Hermaphrodites are no more saving 't is more conspicuous So that the Ancients left us some truths under the figures of a god Lunus and the Moon and of a bearded Venus to whom the Dames of Athens sacrific'd in mens clothes The Fifth said That the transmutation of sexes is impossible by reason of the diversity of the Genitories in Men and Women which is greater then is here fit to be display'd But those Maidens who have been thought to change their Sex were Hermaphrodites who retain'd the marks of the Feminine sex onely till a certain age as that of Puberty when the increased heat driving the Virilities forth did the same thing as it doth in Children whom it enables to speak at a certain age Unless you will say that the Clitoris caus'd the mistake by its resemblance as it happens in that symptome call'd by Aegineta Cereosis or Cauda which makes Tribades pass for Hermaprodites The change of Men into Women not like that of Nero and Sardanapalus but of Tiresias mention'd by the Poets is more impossible unlesse they suppos'd that some causes destroying the heat of the Genital parts and weakning the strength the Virilities came to wither and retire inwards as the Umbilical vessels do after the faetus is born and that Nature conform'd to the cold temper superven'd in the whole body FINIS Ludus Literarius Ludi-Magistri Nihil est ex omni parte beatum Jupiter est quodcunque vides quodcunque movetur Lucan Id quod inserius est sicut illud quod est superius You may see the figure of these Parhelij in Des Cartes Meteors Splen ridere facit Mundus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornatus Eclesiasticus Sign Weeping Oderint dum mutuant * Guy fig. Misletoe
not by rarity alone or local extension but by formal extension or internal quantity and consequently that a little matter under a great internal quantity is the principle cause of tenuity rarity and transparence to which the evenness of surfaces is also requisite in gross bodies So that Light consists in a proportion between the quantity and the matter of its subject and Light is great when the matter is little under a great quantity as in the Heavens on the contrary the body is dark when a very small quantity is joyn'd to a great deal of matter as is seen in the Earth To prove this you must observe that all simple bodies are luminous excepting the Earth which is opake and we find Light in sundry animated bodies as in the Eyes of Cats and of those Indian Snailes which shine like torches and in our Gloe-wormes whose Light proceeds from their Spirits which being of a middle nature between the Body and the Soul are the least material thing in the world Whence it follows that Light is a form with the most of essence amongst sensible formes as obscurity hath the least The Second said The wonder of Marsilius Ficinus was with reason how 't was possible that nothing should be so obscure as Light For if Transparence be the subject of it why doth Crystal heated red hot in the fire come forth more luminous and less transparent then it was The same may be said of Rarity for we see that Air and Aqua Vitae are well rarify'd by the fire which inflames them but cease to be transparent as soon as they are made more rare and luminous which is an evident sign that rarity and transparence are not causes nor yet conditions of Light So the whole remainder of Heaven is lucid but onely the less rare parts and such as you might call vapours in respect of the pure Air. And the light which proceeds from the Sun the most luminous of all those celestial bodies would never be visible but be depriv'd of all its effects which are heating and enlightning if it were not reflected by some solid body Then it not onely appears but exerts its activity And if things be produc'd by the same causes which preserve and multiply them the solidity of burning mirrors made of Steel the hardest of all metals which make the Sun-beams do more then their own nature empowers them to shews sufficiently that their Light cannot arise from a rare and diaphanous cause Nor may the Light of rotten wood be assign'd to its rarity alone since many other bodies of greater rarity shine not at all nor that of Gloe-worms and Cats Eyes to their spirits since the flesh of some animals shines after their death as 't is affirm'd of Oxen that have frequently eaten a sort of Moon-wort and not onely the scales of divers fishes shine after separation from their bodies but sparkles of fire issue from the hair of some persons in great droughts whereunto the spirits contribute nothing Which would perswade me to believe that Light is a Form to the introduction whereof several conditions are requisite according to the diversity of subjects just as we see the Souls of some irrational creatures need great dispositions for their reception a Brain a Heart and a Liver with their dependances whereas others as Insects require lesse and are contented with something that may supply this defect some are generated in an instant without any apparent preparation as Frogs in a summer showre and therefore to assign the cause of Light is to seek the reason of Formes which is unknown to us Which similitude the vulgar speech confirmes for the people say The Candle is dead when it is extinguish'd presupposing that it had life before as an Animal hath so long as its form is conjoyn'd with its body Moreover Fire hath a Locall Motion as Animals have to obtain its food The Third said Light is a substance for it was created by God but 't is a Sixth Essence more subtile then that of Heaven which is call'd a Quintessence in respect of the Four Elements A substance which subsisted before the Sun having been created three dayes before it and nothing hinders but it may be communicated in a moment from Heaven to Earth since the intentional species of visible things is so Indeed whereunto shall we attribute the effect of Light which heats at distance and blinds being too great which colours and gives ornament to the Universe if it be not a substance And the Penetration of Dimension objected hereunto is salv'd by saying that it hath no more place here then when an Iron is red hot with the Fire which yet none will affirm to be an accident and neverthelesse it enters into the whole substance of the Iron and Light with it for 't is transparent and luminous at its centre when 't is throughly heated in the Fire The Fourth said The excellence of Light appears in that nothing hath greater resemblance with the Deity Which made some Heathen Philosophers say that Light is Gods Body and Truth his Soul Moreover the Scripture teaches us that God dwells in inaccessible Light And the blessed Spirits are stil'd Angels of Light as Daemons Spirits of darknesse Light enlivens and animates all things it rejoyces all Creatures by its presence Birds begin to sing and even flowers to display their beauties at its arrival And because Nothing gives what it hath not therefore some have conceiv'd that Light the enlivener of all the world is it self indu'd with life and that 't is the Universal Spirit and the Soul of the whole world Whence Plato in his timaeus brings no other argument to prove that Fire is an Animal but that it is luminous And in the sixth Book of his Common-wealth he makes the Sun who is the known Father of all living things the son of Light without which Pythagoras forbad to do any thing Moreover it hath no contrary Darkness being oppos'd to it onely privatively For its being is so excellent that Nature found not her self so able to make any thing that might be equall'd with it that might alter and corrupt it as the nature of Contraries require whereas all Qualities have each their particular enemy And 't is upon this very reason that Light acts in an instant because having no contrary quality to expel from its subject it needs no time or successive motion which is necessary to other qualities as to heat to warm cold water The Fifth said Light is a real form produc'd in the medium by a luminous body Aristotle calls it the act of the Perspicuum as it is Perspicuum This Form is accidental and falls under the head of Patible Qualities because 't is sensible by it self which is the property of accidents alone whereas substance is not sensible that is falls not under the perception of sense but by means of accidents and as it is the principle of action which belongs onely to a Quality For it cannot
oblig'd by right of their birth to pay to it but in requital for the same they have a Proverb against them That a rolling stone gathers no moss they little improve their fortunes The Third said Every Nation produces not every thing and all climates have inhabitants excelling in some particulars Since therefore there 's no such learning as by examples and travels afford the most it follows that it 's necessary for an ingenuous man to survey foreign manners institutions customs laws religions and such other things upon which moral prudence is superstructed Whence Homer calls his wise Vlysses the Traveller and Visiter of Cities Moreover 't was practis'd in all ages not only by our ancient Nobility under the name of Knights errant but also by the greatest personages of antiquity Pythagoras Socrates Plato Pliny Hippocrates and we ow to the Voyages of Columbus Vesputius Magellane and some others the discovery of America and other new Lands formerly unknown and abundance of Drugs and Medicaments especially Gold and Silver before so rare not to mention the commodities of commerce which cannot be had without Voyages The Fourth said That for seven vagabond errant Stars all the rest of the firmament are fix'd and stable sending no malignant influence upon the earth as the Planets do And the Scripture represents Satan to us as a Traveller when he answers God in Job to the question whence he came I come from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it The Fifth said We must distinguish persons places times and other circumstances pertaining to voyages For if you except Embassies in which the good of the State drowns all other considerations those that would travel must be young and strong rich and well born to get any good by their travels otherwise they will be but like sick persons who receive no ease but rather inconvenience by tumbling and stirring the injudicious and imprudent returning commonly worse then they went because they distract their minds here and there Of which one troubled with the same disease of travelling asking Socrates the reason he answer'd him that 't was because he did not leave himself behind when he chang'd place and that he ought to change his mind and not the air in order to become wise it being impossible but he that is a fool in one Country can become wise by passing Seas and running from one Province to another As for places 't is certain that before the voyages of Italy and some other climates the disease of Naples and other worse things were not only not so much as heard but most contagious diseases have by this means been transfer'd into the remotest Countries So that if ever it were reasonable for a man to be wise at another's cost 't is in the matter of travels in which those that have perform'd most commonly bring home no other fruit but a troublesome talkativeness wherewith they tire peoples ears and a sad remembrance of what they have suffer'd CONFERENCE LXXXVIII I. Which is the best sect of Philosophers II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names I. Which is the best Sect of Philosophers ONe of the greatest signs of the defects of the humane mind is that he seldom accomplishes his designs and often mistakes false for true Hence ariseth the incertainty and variety in his judgements For as there is but one straight line from one point to another so if our judgements were certain they would be always alike because Truth is one and conformable to it self whereas on the contrary Error is always various This variety is of two sorts one of the thing the other of the way to attain it For men were no sooner secur'd from the injuries of the air and provided for the most urgent necessities of the body but they divided themselves into two bands Some following outward sense contented themselves with the present Others would seek the causes of effects which they admir'd that is to say Philosophize But in this inquisition they became of different judgements some conceiving the truth already found others thinking it could never be found and others labouring in search of it who seem to have most right to the name of Philosophers The diversity of the way to arrive to this truth is no less For according as any one was prone to vice or vertue humility or pride the probable cause of diversity of Sects he establish'd one sutable to his own inclination to judge well of which a man must be of no party or at least must love the interest of truth most of all But the question is which is Truth no doubt that which comes neerest the Judge's sentiment and has gain'd his favour as Venus did the good will of Paris And because the goodness of a thing consists in its sutableness the contemplative man will judge Plato's Philosophy better then that of Socrates which one delighted with action and the exercise of vertues will prefer before all others the indifferent will give the preeminence to that of the Peripateticks who have conjoyn'd contemplation with action And yet speaking absolutely 't is impossible to resolve which is the best of all For as we cannot know which is the greatest of two lines but by comparing them to some known magnitude So neither can we judge which is the best Sect of Philosophers unless it be agreed wherein the goodness of Philosophy consider'd absolutely consists Now 't is hard to know what this goodness is unless we will say 't is God himself who as he is the measure of all beings so he is the rule of their goodness So that the best Philosophy will be that which comes neerest that Supream Goodness as Christian Philosophy doth which consists in the knowledge of one's self and the solid practice of vertues which also was that of S. Paul who desir'd to nothing but Jesus and him crucifi'd which he calls the highest wisdom although it appear folly in the eyes of men The Second said That the first and ancientest Philosophy is that of the Hebrews call'd Cabala which they divided into that of Names or Schemot and of things call'd by them Sephiroth Whose excellency Josephus against Appion proves because all other Philosophies have had Sects but this always remain'd the same and would lose its name if it were not transmitted from Father to Son in its integrity 'T was from this Cabala that Pythagoras and Plato sirnamed Moses Atticus took their Philosophy which they brought into Greece as 't was from the Indian Brachmans and Gymnosophists that Pythagoras took his Metempsychosis and abstinence from women and animals and learn'd weights and measures formerly unknown in Greece Some of these Indian Philosophers use to stand upon one foot all day beholding the Sun and had so great respect for every thing indu'd with a soul that they bought birds and other animals and if any were sick kept them in hospitals till they were cur'd and then set them free The Persians
hunt for profit and by the contentment of possessing what they sought besides the consideration of the subtilty of the Fox and Wolf the trouble which the Hare gives her displeas'd pursuers The Second said 'T is the only pleasure which does wrong to no person but delivers Countries from the injuries and depredations of beasts And though 't is the most laborious of all pleasures yet 't is least follow'd by repentance and instead of wearying those that are once addicted to it makes them love it in excess for which reason 't is prohibited to the meaner sort of people All the Heroes are represented under the form of Hunters as Perseus who first hunted the wild Goat Castor who taught the management of the horse before wild to chase the Stag Pollux who first trac'd beasts with Lime-hounds Meleager who invented the Spears to assault the Boar Hyppolytus Toyles Hayes and Nets Orion Kennels and Leashes which were so admir'd in his age that the Poets translated him into Heaven where he makes a glorious sign as they put Castor and Pollux among the Gods and feign'd a Diana the Goddess of Hunters Moreover the holy Scripture gives Nimrod the first King in the world no greater title then that of Mighty Hunter And the good man Isaac would not give his blessing to his son Esau till after he had brought him of his Venison The Third said That Man being since the loss of his dominion over the beasts by his sin oblig'd to defend himself against their invasion this gave rise to hunting which is consequently as ancient as the world There are three sorts of it according to the three sorts of animals which it pursues in the air on the earth and in the waters namely Hawking Hunting properly so call'd and Fishing Hawking is the pursuit of Birds by Birds and it s of divers kinds according to the diversity of Hawks and quarries Hunting is the chase of four-footed beasts which are either great as Lyons Bears Stags Boars or small as Wolves Foxes Badgers and Hares Both the one and the other is perform'd by Dogs of which there are good of all sizes and colours and some peculiar to one sort of Game Fishing is the venation of Fishes whereof Plato makes two kinds one by the Line and the other by Nets the more recommendable in that 't was practis'd by the Apostles and our Lord himself who was figur'd by the first Christians under the Hieroglyphicks of a Fish with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they explicated thus by the first Letters of that Language Jesus Christ God our Saviour The Fourth said That Hunting being as various as men's conditions its variety makes it as agreeable as necessary gunning which is the least instructs the Souldier to shoot exactly to be patient and fits him for war especially the hunting of the Badger who makes head in his entries then fights from trench to trench and at length retreats to his last fort where he practises all the sleights of war usual in besieg'd Cities till he be taken by the undermining of the Pioneers For Pythagoras his prohibition to kill animals is no less light then his Metempsychosis or his reason to forbear fishing or eating of fish out of respect to their silence The objection that God permitted our first Parents to eat the fruits of the earth not the flesh of animals and that during two thousand years none was eaten concludes nothing from a Negative Authority and Abel spar'd not the life of the Lamb of his flock which he offer'd to God then God had done that of the beasts of whose skins he made Coats for Adam and Eve And God's prohibition to the Jews to eat any thing taken by a beast as Dogs or Birds being abolish'd together with other ceremonies Moreover all animals being made for man they have no reason to complain if they be apply'd to that end but especially the hunting of mischievous beasts is profitable II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Upon the second Point 't was said That in this Question to justifie weeping we have the example of our Lord whom we read not ever to have been seen laughing not even at the marriage feast whereat he was present but he lamented the death of Lazarus though he knew that himself was going to raise him up again And he compares the entrance into Paradise to the gate of a Judge which a good woman cannot get open nor move the Judge to do her justice but by many complaints and tears and he pronounceth the house of mourning blessed saying that GOD abides there on the contrary laughter and rejoycing not onely were the forerunners of the Deluge but at present occasion a thousand offences against God our Neighbour and our Selves Moreover all the Exhortations and Sermons of Preachers tend only to move tears of contrition and some observe in the trial of Witches and Conjurers that they never weep which is a certain argument of an ill nature especially in women and children And Dido speaking of the ingrateful Aeneas more resents his not weeping when he bid her adieu then all the rest For we are naturally inclin'd to weeping as being the most humid of all animals and nature seems to have made the brain only for the eyes which being always moist have also a glandule in the greater corner call'd from its office Lachrymalis which is a spungy flesh full of little holes serving to attract the moisture of the brain which furnishes the matter of tears and disperses it drop by drop lest falling too much together the brain should be left dry which is a temper contrary to its natural one Now as for objects without us 't is evident there is more cause of weeping then of laughter For if we look under our feet there the ground presents it self which sooner then every one hopes is to bury every on 's ambition and afford him but six foot of earth if on each side of us there appear so many miseries that the Spaniards who are accustom'd thereunto say proverbially that they who are afflicted with the miseries of others bear the whole world upon their shoulders If upwards what a cause of sadness is it to see that so great and vast a Kingdom is at this day in less esteem then the meanest part of this valley of tears the earth and to see God dishonour'd so many ways Come we down to our selves the infirmities of the body the afflictions of the mind all the passions of the soul and the crosses of fortune have made those that have most tasted the pleasures of this life acknowledge that it is nothing but thorns and miseries and with the wise man nothing but vanity of which not to speak a word were to be insensible to laugh impiety and to imitate Aesop's Snails who laugh'd at their cost It remains therefore that 't is wisdom to bewail them The Second said There is a time
Principles II. Of the End of all Things Page 5 CONFERENCE III I. Of Causes in general II. Whence it is that every one is zealous for his own Opinion though it be of no importance to him Page 12 CONFERENCE IV I. Of the First Matter II. Of Perpetual Motion Page 18 CONFERENCE V I. Of Resemblance II. Whether it behoveth to joyn Armes to Letters Page 24 CONFERENCE VI I. Of Fire II. Of the Vniversal Spirit Page 31 CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves Page 38 CONFERENCE VIII I. Of Water II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers Page 44 CONFERENCE IX I. Of the Earth II. What it is that makes a Man wise Page 51 CONFERENCE X I. Of the Motion or Rest of the Earth II. Of two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body which are to be seen in this City Page 57 CONFERENCE XI I. Of the little Hairy Girl lately seen in this City II. Whether it is more easie to resist Pleasure then Pain Page 64 CONFERENCE XII I. Of three Suns II. Whether an Affection can be without Interest Page 71 CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment Page 77 CONFERENCE XIV I. Of the Seat of Folly II. Whether a Man or Woman be most inclin'd to Love Page 83 CONFERENCE XV I. How long a Man may continue without eating II. Of the Echo Page 89 CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred Page 95 CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick Page 103 CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition Page 109 CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour Page 115 CONFERENCE XX I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition Page 121 CONFERENCE XXI I. Of Dreams II. Why Men are rather inclin'd to Vice then Virtue Page 127 CONFERENCE XXII I. Of Judiciary Astrologie II. Which is least blameable Covetousness or Prodigality Page 133 CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory Page 139 CONFERENCE XXIV I. Which of the Five Senses is the most noble II. Of Laughter Page 144 CONFERENCE XXV I. Of the Diversity of Countenances II. Whether Man or Woman be the more noble Page 150 CONFERENCE XXVI I. Whether it be lawful for one to commend himself II. Of Beauty Page 157 CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie Page 163 CONFERENCE XXVIII I. What is the greatest Delight of Man II. Of Cuckoldry Page 169 CONFERENCE XXIX I. Whence the saltness of the Sea proceeds II. Which is the best Food Flesh or Fish Page 174 CONFERENCE XXX I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Page 180 CONFERENCE XXXI I. Whether the Life of Man may be prolong'd by Art II. Whether 't is better to be without Passions then to moderate them Page 185 CONFERENCE XXXII I. Sympathy and Antipathy II. Whether Love descending is stronger then ascending Page 191 CONFERENCE XXXIII I. Of those that walk in their sleep II. Which is the most excellent Moral Virtue Page 197 CONFERENCE XXXIV I. Of Lycanthropy II. Of the way to acquire Nobility Page 203 CONFERENCE XXXV I. Of feigned Diseases II. Of regulating the Poor Page 209 CONFERENCE XXXVI I. Of the tying of the Point II. Which is the greatest of all Vices Page 214 CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the Truth ought always to be spoken Page 220 CONFERENCE XXXVIII I. Of the Period called Fits of Fevers II. Of Friendship Page 226 CONFERENCE XXXIX I. Why all men naturally desire knowledge II. Whether Permutation or Exchange be more commodious then Buying and Selling Page 230 CONFERENCE XL I. Of Prognostication or Presaging by certain Animals II. Why all men love more to command then to obey Page 238 CONFERENCE XLI I. Of Comets II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Page 244 CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great stature or a small Page 251 CONFERENCE XLIII I. Of the Philosophers stone II. Of Mont de piete or charitable provision for the Poor Page 256 CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly Page 262 CONFERENCE XLV I. Whether the Heavens be solid or liquid II. Whether it be harder to get then to preserve Page 268 CONFERENCE XLVI I. Of Vacuity II. Of the Extravagance of Women Page 274 CONFERENCE XLVII I. Of the Virtue of Numbers II. Of the Visible Species Page 280 CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage Page 286 CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness Page 292 CONFERENCE L I. Whether Colours are real II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well Page 298 CONFERENCE LI I. At what time the year ought to begin II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Page 309 CONFERENCE LII I. Of a Point II. Whether other Animals besides Man have the use of Reason Page 315 CONFERENCE LIII I. Whether there be more then five Senses II. Whether is better to speak or to be silent Page 319 CONFERENCE LIV I. Of Touch. II. Of Fortune Page 325 CONFERENCE LV I. Of the Taste II. Whether Poetry be useful Page 331 CONFERENCE LVI I. Of the Smelling II. Of Eloquence Page 337 CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony Page 343 CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting Page 349 CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. Page 355 CONFERENCE LX I. Of Quintessence II. Which is the most in esteem Knowledge or Virtue Page 361 CONFERENCE LXI I. Which is hardest to endure Hunger or Thirst. II. Whether a General of an Army should endanger his person Page 367 CONFERENCE LXII I. Of Time II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Page 373 CONFERENCE LXIII I. Of Motion II. Of Custome Page 379 CONFERENCE LXIV I. Of the Imagination II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear Page 384 CONFERENCE LXV I. Of the Intellect II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humour Page 390 CONFERENCE LXVI I. Of Drunkenness II. Of Dancing Page 396 CONFERENCE LXVII I. Of Death II. Of the Will Page 402 CONFERENCE LXVIII I. Of the Magnetical Cure of Diseases II. Of Anger Page 408 CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting Page 414 CONFERENCE LXX I. Of Climacterical Years II. Of Shame Page 419 CONFERENCE LXXI I. Why motion produces heat II. Of Chastity Page 425 CONFERENCE LXXII I. Of Thunder II. Which of all the Arts is the most
differs from Principle because every Cause is real and imparts a being different from its own which Privation being a Principle hath not And so every Cause is a Principle but every Principle is not a Cause Now a Cause is That which produceth an Effect There are Four Matter Form the Agent and its End Which Number is not drawn from any real distinction between them Seeing many times one and the same Thing is Form Agent and End in several respects So the Rational Soul is the Form of Man the Efficient Cause of his Ratiocination and the next End of the Creation But it is drawn from the four wayes of being a Cause which are call'd Causalities whereof one susteineth the Forms to wit the Matter An Other informeth that Matter and is the Form A Third produceth that Form and uniteth it to the Matter and is the Agent or Efficient Cause The Fourth by its goodness exciteth the Agent to act and is the Final Cause The Second said That the Causes are handled diversly according to the diversity of Sciences The Logician speaks of them so far as he draws from them his Demonstrations Definitions and Probable Arguments The Natural Philosopher inasmuch as they are the Principles of all kind of Alterations hapning in natural bodies The Metaphysitian as Cause is a Species of Entity which is generally divided into Cause and Effect In which consideration Supernatural Things have also some Causes but not all Wherefore in my Judgement said he Cause taken in general cannot be divided into the Four Species above mention'd because Spirits have no Material Cause but it ought to be first divided in reference to Immaterial things into Efficient and Final and into the four abovesaid in respect of Material That Efficient Cause is the first principle of Motion and Rest and is of two sorts viz. Vniversal or Equivocal and Particular or Vnivocal The former can produce several effects of different Species whether it depend not on any other as God and is then call'd the First Cause or depend on some other and is call'd a Second Cause As the Sun which together with Man generates Man The Particular otherwise Univocal Cause is that which produceth one sort of effect alone As Man generateth Man The Material Cause is that of which something is made The Formal Cause is that which causeth the Thing to be that which it is whether Essentially as the Soul makes the Man or Accidentally as a round form makes a Bowle The Final is that which incites the Agent to act as Gain doth the Merchant to Traffick The Third said Matter and Form being parts of the whole cannot be Causes thereof because then they would be Causes of themselves which is absurd Neither is the End a Cause but onely the term and rest of the Cause Besides there are some Ends which are impossible to obtain and are nothing of reality such as a Cause ought to be as when Heliogabalus propounded to himself to become a Woman others to fly to become invisible and the like absurdities So that there is but the Efficient Sole Cause of all Things which is the Internal Idea in God which is nothing else but that Fiat which created the World 'T is that very Cause which produceth all things in all different times and places and acts upon Art Nature and Nothing whence it is that All Entity conformable to that Increated Exemplar beareth those three Characters Truth Goodness and Vnity which all things are bound to represent under the Penalty of becoming Nothing out of which they were produced 'T is a Circle according to Trismegist whose Centre is every where and Circumference no where which possibly mov'd Galen to term Man the Centre of Mixt Bodies and all Antiquity a Little World and made Saint Thomas say that Man hath been united hypostatically to God the Son who is the Idea of the Father for the rejoyning of all the productions of the world to their first Principle Here he fell into Divinity but he was admonish'd to observe the Rules appointed by this Assembly to keep as far off as possible from such Matters and so he ended when he had mention'd the order that is observ'd in the actions of that Idea which said he acteth first upon the Intelligences as nearest approaching to its pure Nature they upon the Heavens these upon the Elements and these upon mixt bodies The Fourth added That that Idea is a Cause not onely in Natural Things but also in Artificial As in the building of a House the Idea which the Architect hath in his Mind excited his Will and this commands the Motive-faculty of the Members or those of his Laborours to dispose the Stones Timber and Morter which entring into the Composition of the Building cannot for the Reason above-mention'd be Causes of it as neither can the proportion and form An Other said That if the Idea be a Cause which cannot be but in Artificial Things it must be the Formal and not the Efficient since it is nothing else but an Original in imitation of which the Artificer labours and since the work derives its form from that Idea which is the Copy It was added by a Sixth That the Idea is not Cause but the true Essence of Things and the first objective Verity which precedes all Knowledge Humane but not Divine and is onely hereby distinct from Nothing in that it is known by God which suteth not with Nothing from which any thing cannot be distinguish'd but it must be if not in Act at least in Power The Seventh amplifying touching Ideas said That upon the Knowledge of them depend all Sciences and Arts but especially all what Men call Inventions which are nothing less then such because 't is no more possible to invent some thing new then to create some substance and make some thing of nothing But as all things are made by Transmutation so no Novelty is produc'd by Imitation either of things which are really existent or which our Mind frames and connects as of a Mountain and Gold it makes a Golden Mountain Thus the four most Excellent Inventions of the Modern Ages The Compass the Gun Printing and Perspective-glasses the two former were deriv'd from Experiments of the Load-stone from the effect of shooting Trunks and Fire As for Printing what is the Matrice wherein the Founders cast their Characters or those Characters compos'd in a flat Form as also Copper-cuts but a perfect Exemplar and Idea which is communicated fully to all its individuals And Perspective-glasses are nothing but ordinary ones multiply'd Another said That Causes cannot be known at all whence it comes to pass that we have no certain Knowledge Now to know is to know a thing by its Causes For the Vniversal Efficient Cause is above us and surpasseth the capacity of our Understanding and hence all the other inferiour and subordinate ones are unknown because their Cause is not known The Final is not in our power and being not so
follow For in such cases there are instances of great forgetfulness or Folly as Gaza forgot even his own Name It is divided into Deliration Phrensie Melancholy and Madness Though the word Deliration be taken for all sorts of Folly yet it more strictly signifies that which is caus'd by rising of the hot humours and vapours to the Brain and frequently accompanies Fevers and Inflammations of the internal parts Phrensie is an Inflammation of the membranes of the Brain caus'd by the bilious blood or humour usually with a Fever and a languid Pulfe in regard such phrenctick persons are intent upon other things whereby their respiration is less frequent Melancholy both the Ideopathical which is in the Vessels of the Brain and the Sympathetical or Hypochondrical which ariseth from the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery ariseth from that humour troubling the Brain and by its blackness making the patients sad and timerous or as Averroes will have it by its coldness because Heat emboldens and Cold makes fearful as we see in Women As this humour causeth Prudence and Wisedom when it is in its natural quality so when it is corrupted it produceth Folly there being as little distance between the one and the other as between the string of a Lute stretch'd up to the highest pitch and the same when it is broken Which made Montaigne say That there is but one turn of a peg between Wisedom and Folly If this Melancholy humour be moveable and bilious it will cause imaginations of various absurd things like to those of Dreams Wherefore Aristotle compares the fame to waters in motion which alwayes represent objects ill If it be more fix'd it causeth insuperable Opiniastry As is observ'd in those who phancy themselves Pitchers Cocks Geese Hens Glass Criminals Dead Damned and so in infinitum according to the diversity of Phancies Conditions and Inclinations The Folly of Love is of this kind which hath caus'd desperation and death to many Lastly Mania or Madness is an alienation of the Mind not mingled with fear and sadness as Melancholy is but with boldness and fury caus'd by the igneous and boyling Spirits of the other Choler which possessing the Brain and at times the whole Body by their immoderate heat render Men foolish furious and daring Such a heat that they are insensible of cold in mid Winter though stark naked sometimes so excessive that it degenerates into Lycanthropy rage and many other furious diseases By the induction of all which species of Folly it appears that whence soever the matter which causeth Folly ariseth it makes its impression in the Brain For though the Soul be as much in the heel as the head yet it is improper to place Wisedom in the heel but it may reasonably be assign'd to the Brain Yet to circumscribe it to a certain place excluding any other me-thinks ought no more to be done then to assign some particular corner of a Chamber to an Intelligence of the Nature of which the Soul participates The Third said Melancholy is the cause of Prudence onely by accident hindring by its dryness the too great mobility of the Blood and by its coldness checking the too impetuous sallies of the Spirits but it is by it self the cause of Folly and also of the two other Syncopies Eclipses and Alienations of the Judgement which are observ'd in the Apoplexy and the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness If Melancholy abound in the Brain it either possesses its ventricles or predominates over its temper If it be in the ventricles it either molests them by its malignity and acrimony and causeth the Epilepsie or else it fills them and causeth the Apoplexy For as we put Oyl upon a piece of Wine that is prone to decay and sowre which Oyl being aerious and consequently humid by its subtile and unctuous humidity keeps its particles so united that the Spirits of the Wine cannot penetrate through it and so being cover'd by it they are restrain'd and tarry in the Wine In like manner Melancholy by its tenacious and glutinous viscosity like black shining pitch keeps its particles so conjoyn'd that the Spirit contain'd in the ventricles cannot issue forth into the Nerves to serve for voluntary motion and the functions of sense whence followes their cessation But if the Melancholy Humour presseth the ventricles by its troublesome weight then they retire and by their retiring cause that universal contraction of the Nerves If this Humour prevail over its temper then it causeth deliration or Dotage and that in two manners For if it exceed in dryness which is a quality that admits degrees then by that dryness which is symbolical and a kin to heat it attracts the Spirits to it self as it were to make them revolt from their Prince and to debauch them from their duty employes them to fury and rage and causes madness making them follow its own motions which are wholly opposite to Nature For being cold dry black gloomy an enemy to light society and peace it aims at nothing but what is destructive to Man But if the cold in this humour exceed the dry then it will cause the disease called Melancholly which is pure Folly and makes the timerous trembling sad fools for cold not onely compresseth and incloseth the Spirits in the Brain and stupifies them so as to become unactive but hath also a back blow upon the Heart the reflux of its infection exhaling even to that seat of life and streightning it into it self whereby its Spirits become half mortifi'd Moreover this Humour sometimes piercing through the Brain comes about with a circumference and lodges amongst the Humours of the Eye placing it self before the pupil and the Crystalline under the Tunicles which cover it by which means the Melancholy persons seem to behold dreadful Objects abroad but it is within his Eye that he sees them As for the same reason they who have the beginning of a suffusion imagine that flyes flocks of wool or little hairs because of the Humour contain'd there which if it be Blood they seem red if Choler yellow if Melancholy black But in all the cases hitherto alledg'd me-thinks the Seat of Folly is the same with that of Imagination which is the Brain and not any of the ventricles in particular for since the Intellect acteth upon the phantasmes of the Imagination this upon the report of the Common Sense and this upon the information of the External Senses which are diffus'd throughout all the Brain and each possesseth a part of it the whole Brain must necessarily contribute to Ratiocination II. Whether Women or Men are more inclin'd to Love Upon the Second Point the First said Women are of a more amorous complexion then Men. For the Spirits of Women being more subtile according to Aristotle's Maxime That such as have more tender flesh have more subtile Spirits they are carri'd with more violence to amiable Objects And Love being according to Plato the off-spring of Plenty and Indigence that of Women
the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd
tyr'd with one season because another soon succeeds it On the contrary we see variety of Food raiseth the languishing Appetite the diversity of Odors which succeed one another delight the Smelling Nothing is more acceptable to the Sight then a Meadow checker'd with several colours or a garden variegated with Tulips and other Flowers of all sorts and hues which the Spring discloses Harmony proceeds from the variety of Notes and the Orator who would move his Auditors must not speak too long upon the same thing in the same words he must alter his gesture and voice and the pauses which distinguish his action are very serviceable to that purpose But as there is nothing more swift then the Sight so no Sense is sooner weary with the semblance of its objects The reason whereof is this being a most active sense its operation doth not make it self perceiv'd by the Eye but by the changing of the object So that when it beholds alwayes the same thing it seemes to it self as if it beheld nothing Look upon the Earth all cover'd with Snow or a Chamber wholly hung with Black or some other single colour the Sight is offended therewith If Green offends us less it is because it is compounded of Yellow and Blew and the best blended of all the Colours and as such reunites the visual rayes between its two extremes yet it affordeth nothing near the delightfulness that ariseth from the variety of Tapistry I conceive therefore that the chief end of the diversity of Countenances is Distinction and lest the same thing should betide Women that did Alcmena in Plautus who suffer'd Jupiter to quarter with her because she took him for her Husband Amphitryo But the subordinate end is the Contentment which Man finds in this variety As for other causes the Efficient indeed doth something for Children commonly resemble their Fathers and Mothers But the Material contributes very much hereunto so that they who for example are begotten of a Masculine and Feminine Geniture wherein the sanguine temper is equally prevalent resemble one another and have a ruddy and well shap'd Countenance But because 't is next to impossible that the said temper should be equally found in two different subjects thence ariseth the variety of Complexions and Lineaments The Second said There is as great variety in all natural things as in Faces though it be not so remarkable to us For we see Birds and Beasts distinguish one another very well Now the Final Cause of this Diversity seemes to me to be the ornament of the World which otherwise would have nothing less then the importance of its name Musick and Painting receive graces from things which in reality are nothing namely Pauses which are onely privations of Notes and shadows which are defects of light This diversity of Visages which ariseth from that of the persons and their inclinations is as well contributary to the splendour and beauty of a state as of nature For if all things were alike there would be a confus'd identity and general disorder not much different from the ancient Chaos Nothing would be acted in Nature for action is not between things like but between things contrary Nor would there be Beauty in the Countenance if there were not diversity in the parts but all the Face were Eye or Nose For Beauty ariseth from Proportion and this from the correspondence of many different parts Very little would there be amongst Men if all were alike there being no Beauty when there is no deformity whereunto it may be compar'd and who so takes away Beauty takes away Love of which it is the foundation This divine link of humane society would be destroy'd for Love is a desire to obtain what we want and another possesseth and therefore it cannot exist but between persons unlike Nor could a State consist longer because all Men being externally alike would be so internally too all would be of the same profession and no longer seek to supply one anothers mutual necessities Now this diversity of persons proceeds from the divers mixture of the four Humours which being never found twice temper'd in the same sort each one having his peculiar constitution which the Physitians call Idiosyncrasie they never produce the same person twice nor consequently one and the same surface or external shape alike If the Matter design'd to constitute and nourish the bones be in too great quantity the Man is born robust large and bony if it be defective he becomes a dwarf and a weakling Again this Matter according as it carried to every bone in particular gives a differing conformation to the same which is also derived to the Muscles spread over those bones from which they borrow the external figure which they communicate to the skin The Third said He found two Causes of the Diversity of Countenances One in Heaven The other in the Heads of Women namely in their Imaginations Heaven is never found twice in the same posture by reason of the manifold Motions and Conjunctions of the Planets and yet 't is the Sun and Man that generate a Man and what is said of the Sun ought likewise to be understood of the other Coelestial Bodies It is necessary then that this variety in the Cause produce also variety in the Effect Hence it is that Twins have so great resemblance together as having been conceiv'd and born under the same Constellation As for the Imagination 't is certain that of the Mother which intervenes at the time of Conception more powerfully determines the shape and colour of the Foetus then any other Cause as appears by the marks which Infants bring with them from their Mothers Womb who well remember that such things were in their Phancy and that they had a vehement apprehension of the same So that as many different Imaginations as Women have when they conceive make so many Countenances and other parts of the Body different II. Whether is the more noble Man or Woman Upon the Second Point it was said That in times of old there was found at Rome a Widower that had buried two and twenty Wives and at the same time a Widow that survived her two and twentieth Husband these two the people of Rome constrain'd to marry together after which both Men and Women awaited which of the two would dye first at length the Woman dy'd first and all the Men even to the little Boyes went to her interment every one with a branch of Lawrel in his Hand as having obtaind the victory over that Sex This Question of the nobleness and dignity of the one above the other is of greater consequence then that other in which not onely Women very frequently get the better there being more old women then old men through the sundry dangers whereunto men are expos'd and from which women are exempted but also Stags and Ravens which live hundreds of years much surpass either of them But one of the greatest difficulties arising in the
men have phancied to themselves Prototypes and Parallels to serve instead of patterns and models in Policy an accomplish'd Commonwealth such as Plato Sir Thomas More and some others have delineated in Physick a Temperament most perfect and exquisite to a grain call'd temperamentum ad pondus in Eloquence a perfect Orator so they who have undertaken to speak of Beauty have imagin'd a perfect one which leaving women to set down the conditions which they require in handsome men we will make to consist as to them in thirty one particulars which go to the making up of a handsome woman The 1. of those Points is Youth which renders even the coursest animals agreeable The 2. is a Stature neither too large nor too small 3. A middle size of corpulency because too fat or too lean are counted amongst imperfections 4. Symetrie and proportion of all the parts 5. Long fair and fine hair 6. A skin soft and smooth through which appear small veins 7. A lively whiteness of Lillies blended with Roses 8. A smooth forehead pleasingly arched and always serene 9. Temples not hollow 10. Two black lines arch-wise in stead of Eye-brows Two blew eyes well set in the head well open'd and fix'd with a sweet glance 12. A nose well shap'd and rightly set on 13. Cheeks a little rounded making a dimple 14. A graceful smile 15. Two lips of Coral 16. A little mouth 17. Small Pearls smooth and well ajusted in stead of teeth 18. A sweet breath 19. A well tun'd voice 20. A chin dimpled somewhat round and fleshy 21. Ears small ruddy and well joyn'd to the head 22. A neck of Ivory 23. A bosome of Alabaster 24. Two snow-balls 25. A hand white something long and plump 26. Fingers ending by little in a Pyramide 27. Nails of mother of Pearl turn'd into an oval 28. A gesture free and not affected 29. Soft and smooth flesh 30. A modest gate The last point may be more easily imagin'd then honestly nam'd The second said that Beauty hath no more but an imaginary Being or at least is more in the phansie then in Nature Which they acknowledge who set conditions for it never to be found in any subject whatever Moreover every real Entity if it fall under the cognisance of the Senses is conceiv'd in the same manner by all people in the earth when the Organ is not hurt the medium alike and the distance equal and all other circumstances are found the same Thus Honey is every where acknowledg'd by the same sweetness and the Sun by the same light But one and the same Beauty is not conceiv'd in the same fashion nor esteemed such by all the people of the world for the judgements thereof are found different not only according to the diversity of Nations but also in reference to the same people yea the same person at several times Our ancient Gaules wore large foreheads because in those days they accounted the same handsomest and we see also to this day old Pictures representing handsome women in that sort whence arose the reproachful word Effrons Frontless denoting one that hath no forehead or shame At this day women think they cannot have too little they take so much pains to hide the same with their head-tire and men after their example Much hair is at present recommendable in many places especially in France The handsomest of the Pagan Deities was call'd Intonsus Apollo And the Scripture principally sets forth the beauty of women by their long hair without which the comeliest would be terrible Nevertheless in the latter ages in France 't was a shameful thing for men to have much hair In New France the greatest past of the people wear no hair but on one side The women of Camboya cut off theirs close to their ears The Perusians have none but a lock on the top of the head and the Romans of old ador'd Venus Calva Our Ladies shape their Eye-brows into arches The Africans paint theirs into the figure of a Triangle Some like an Aquiline and rising Nose yet the flattest are counted most graceful amongst the Abyssines Here eyes pretty prominent and of a middle size are esteem'd in China little eyes are most priz'd The Lybians love a large mouth and lips turn'd backwards here little ones are the most commendable 'T is one of the most agreeable parts that our Ladies shew and yet the Arabians esteeming the same indecorous cover it as carefully as their backside The Japonnois black their teeth and every where else the whitest are most valued Our Virgins streighten their bosomes the most they can on the contrary the Aethiopian women account those the most graceful breasts which they can cast over their shoulders Youth is elsewhere lov'd yet in the West Indies the oldest women are the handsomest In Aethiopia and many other places the blackest are counted the handsomest and in painting a Devil they make him all white as we do black In brief there is not one of the assigned Characters of Beauty which is not controverted by some Nation and therefore there is no reality in it but it depends upon our Phancie as Fashions do What is beauty then 'T is in my judgements what pleases us For whatever deformity or defect there be in the thing we love yet we account it handsome Et quae Balbinum delectat Polypus Agnae The third said 'T is too great a disparagement to the Goods of Nature to say that Beauty which is the most excellent of them is only imaginary its admirable effects being such that it perswades whatever it pleases 't is the surest commendatory Letter and hath influence not only upon rational souls but even Elephants are transported with joy as Aelian saith when they meet a fair woman And reason tells us that every thing which is goodly is good because it is desirable which is the essential qualification of good things The beauty of the body is not only the token of that of the soul which seems to be ill lodg'd when it is found in an ugly body but 't is also a sign of the body's health and good constitution Yea the very beholding of Beauty conduceth to health and continues it whence it is that handsome Nurses and Governesses are assigned to Children because the soul even from the cradle being a Forreigner and retaining in it self the idea of its Creator's beauty is marvellously pleas'd at the sight of every thing that approaches that beauty and harmony and rejoyces at its meeting acknowledging it her kindred and alley Moreover Plato saith that Beauty is produc'd when the Forme predominates over the Matter which is of it self foul and deformed Which he affirmeth to have place also in the beauty of the soul which he makes to consist in the advantage of the Intellectual part which holdeth the place of Forme in man over the Sensitive which correspondeth to Matter Aristotle will not allow it possible for Felicity to be perfect without the beauty of the Body
considerations which pertain to them in this matters in which they are much puzzled to apply a Rule to so many different Climates Seasons and Persons we may here make comparison of Flesh and Fish in the other three Cases In regard of the state of Physick and the Table All which have this common That it cannot be pronounc'd as to one of them which of the two is best Flesh or Fish because 't is requisite to have regard to places and persons To begin with Policy 'T is true a time must be left to fowls to lay their egges hatch and bring up their young to other animals to suckle theirs otherwise the earth and the air would soon be depopulated which time is usually the spring But being this season and all others follow the course of the Sun in the Zodiack which renders it various according to the diversity of Climates we cannot find a time equally and universally proper for that release of Animals Besides there are Countries as England and Holland so abounding with fish and persons addicted to fishing that nature offering them fish of her own accord and their land not producing enough of other food for its inhabitants the meaner people could not live of their industry unless they were oblig'd by political Rule to live a certain time with Fish and abstain from Flesh. As on the contrary there 's such a defect of fish in the middle parts of Spain that they keep fast with the least nutritive parts of Animals Feet and Entrails Wherefore a general political rule cannot be establish'd but as in most other things of the world we must make use of a leaden Rule and conform it to the stone Secondly for Physick the Case is much the same For by reason of the variety of Tempers fish will not only be wholsome but also appointed by the Physitians to some persons as to the Cholerick whose stomacks need refreshment True it is there are found more to whom Fish do's hurt then otherwise But this proceeds from satiety and too great repletion which would not be so frequent if we liv'd in the ancient Frugality For we see they who eat no supper receive less hurt from fish then others do But 't is always true that fish cannot be absolutely pronounc'd wholesome or unwholsome As for the goodness of Taste that is yet more controverted as depending on the several phancies of men The Second said That to judge this Question well the same conditions are to be observ'd as in Juridical Sentences in which alliances or friendships are allowable causes of exception and credit is not given to those whose converse and particular inclination to one of the Parties renders their judgements suspected No doubt he who had been fed with Stock-fish from his youth and lov'd it so much that being arriv'd to the Pontifical Dignity even then made his most delicious fare of it would have concluded for fish On the contrary most others whose stomacks agree not so well with fish will give the advantage to flesh 'T is true If it be here as 't is in petty Courts where he who cries loudest carries the Cause then fish to whom nature has deny'd the use of voice must lose it unless we maturely weigh their reasons 1. The value and delicacy of Meats is usually rated according to their rarity and the scarcity of getting them and therefore Heliogabalus never ate flesh but on the main Sea nor fish but when he was very distant from it Now Nature has separated fish from the habitation of men and divided the one from the other as much as the water is from the Earth 2. There 's no kind of taste upon land which is not found in the water nor any terrestrial animal but hath its like in the Sea But we cannot say the same of Fishes that there are terrestrial animals which have all their several tastes and this proceeds from the almost infinite number of Fishes good to eat whereas the Kinds of land-animals serviceable for man's food are very few To that we may answer such as ask whether there be more delicacy in Flesh or Fish as those who should ask whether Table is more delicious that of a Citizen cover'd only with his ordinary fare or that of Lucullus abounding besides with all imaginable rarities You have some fishes who have nothing of fish but the name having the consistence colour smell and taste of flesh and the Hashes and Bisques made of them differ not from others But you have no flesh which hath the taste of fish 3. Animals more subject to infirmities and diseases ought less to delight our taste and make us more afraid of them Now land-animals are more sickly then fish whose healthiness occasion'd the Proverb As sound as a Fish 4. Our taste is chiefly delighted in variety Now there is not only incomparably more sorts of Fishes then of other Animals but each of them is prepar'd after many more fashions then Flesh there being some Fish which is dress'd five several ways whereas when you have roasted a Partrich or made a hash Capilotade or the Cook is at the end of his skill 5. That which cloyes most is less delicate as we see the most delicious things are those which whet instead of satiating the Appetite presently Now Fish fills less then Flesh. 6. 'T is a more friable food and easier to be grownd by the teeth then the flesh of land-animals and consequently more delicate 3. The Third said There 's no flesh how delicate soever which comes neer the odour and savour of the little Pulpe the fish Spaga taken in Sicily the Tunny and Atolle of Phrygia of those little fishes call'd Cappes found in the stones in Marca d' Ancona and infinite others so esteem'd by the ancients that they reckon'd amongst their greatest Delights Ponds and Conservatories of Fish which they nourish'd even with the bodies of their Slaves to the end they might be more tender and delicate as 't is reported of Lucullus and Pollio who caus'd theirs to be devour'd by Lampreys Nor is fish less nutritive then flesh seeing there are whole Nations as the Ichthyophagi which have no other bread but fish of which dry'd in the Sun and reduc'd into powder they make a bread as nourishing as ours By which means Fish serves both for bread and for meat which Flesh cannot be made to do The Fourth said That the more affinity food hath with our nature the more agreeable it is to us it being the property of aliment to be like the thing nourish'd Now 't is certain there 's more resemblance between our bodies and those of land-animals then those of fish considering that the former breathe the same air with us and are nourish'd with the same things Besides aliment the more concocted and digested is also the more delicate raw flesh is not so delicate as dress'd nor boil'd as roast upon which the Fire acts more and the parts of animals neerest the heart
afforded before God had curs'd it and so inseparably connected man's labour with those fruits that now a days to express a hundred acres of Land we commonly say A hundred acres of Labour And as a place ceases to be the Court when the King is no longer in it so the Divine Benediction withdrawn from the Earth it ceas'd to be Paradise Yea Adam having ceas'd to be King of it and by his sin lost the Dominion which he had over all even the fiercest Creatures the Earth became no longer a Paradise to him But if I be requir'd to assign a particular place to this Paradise leaving the description of places which I never saw to the belief of Geographers I find none more fit for it then France Its Climate is temperate especially towards the East and South It hath four Rivers which bring into it Gold and all the other Commodities attributed unto Paradise by the first Historian It so abounds with all sorts of flowers that it hath taken three Lillies for its Arms And with fruits that it hath for it self and its Neighbours yea above any other it produces every Tree fair to look upon and good for food to use the Scripture-words One interpos'd That he should think 't was Normandie so fruitful of goodly Apples were it not that no Vines grow there whose fruit is so pleasant to behold The fourth said As there is no great certainty in the consequences drawn from Allegories so neither are Allegories very successfully drawn from Histories and substituted in their places I know not what History is if that of our first Father be not nor where to stop if people will subtilize upon the first circumstance of his Creation and what he did afterwards But if we find difficulty in according the Geographical Tables of the present time with the truth of that why do not we likewise make Allegories of the Creation and all its sequels which are so many Miracles If we see no Angel that guards the access to it no more did Balaam see that which stood in his way though visible to his Asse And being the space of the Garden of Eden is not determinately set down nothing hinders but that it might be of very vast extent and this takes away the scruple of those who object the distance which is between all those great Rivers Besides being Enoch and Elias were since Adam's fall transported into this Paradise where they must be till the coming of Antichrist 't is a certain Argument of its real subsistence II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Upon the second point it was said That the Ancients were much more careful then we not only to preserve the Images of their Fore-fathers but also to keep their Bodies which they variously embalmed The Grecians wash'd them in Wine mingled with warm Water and then put them them into oyl of Olives Honey or Wax The Aethyopians first salted them and then put them into Vessels of Glass In the Canary Islands they season them in the Sea and afterwards dry them in the Sun The Scythians place them upon Mountains cover'd with snow or in the coolest Caves Indeed every one knows there is a Cave at Tholouze which hath a particular virtue to preserve carkasses from corruption and in which is seen at this day the entire body of the fair Saint Baume and many others dead above 200 years ago The Indians cover'd them with ashes The Aegyptians conceiving that bodies corrupted rose not again and that the Soul was sensible of the Bodies corruption did not yield to any people in curiosity of preserving them they fill'd with Myrrhe Cinamon and other Spices or with Oyl of Cedar then they salted them with Nitre whose aerimony consumes all the superfluous humidities which cause putrifaction 'T is from these bodies that we have that excellent Mummie whose admirable effects I ascribe to sympathy But concerning what is affirm'd that being transported by Sea they cause tempests and strange agitations in the Ship 't is an effect which is to be attributed to a more occult cause The Second said Man is so admirable an Edifice that even his Ruines have their use His Fat is one of the most excellent Anodynes His Skull serves against the Epilepsic This liquor which is drawn from his Tomb hath several vertues and the reasons of the great and admirable effects imputed to it as the healing of inwards Ulcers and Contusions of Blood arriving to such as have fallen from on high seem to me imputable to three Causes a Spiritual a Celestial and an Elementary The first ariseth hence that so perfect a Form as the reasonable Soul having inform'd part of this Compositum which by the mixture of some Ingredients as Myrrhe and Aloes hath been preserv'd from corruption the same thing arrives to it which the Chymists say doth to their white Gold when they have extracted its Sulphur and Tincture For being re-joyn'd to other Gold it easily resumes the same form and is sooner and more inseparably combin'd with it then any other thing as having been of the same species So when you put Mummie into a body of the same species it takes part with the nature whence it proceeded and siding with it incounters the disease and its symptomes like Succour coming to relieve a besieged City with provisions and ammunition The Celestial cause is drawn from the Heavens for that the light and influence of superiour bodies act upon all the sublunary but by the consent of all none is so susceptible of their actions as man and if his soul be not subject thereunto yet his body is undoubtedly to each part of which each part of Heaven not only answers as some hold but the whole to all Whence is seen the diversity of disposition inclinations and manners such and so great that 't is a palpable mistake to attribute the same to the meer mixture of the Elements Now Mummie having receiv'd not only while it was animated but afterwards all the influences whereof the humane body is susceptible it becomes as it were the abstract of all the Celestial powers and better then Talismanical figures communicates the same to him that uses it The last reason drawn from the mixture of the Elements and their qualities might suffice alone without the preceding For Man being the abridgement of the world ought also to contain all the faculties of it and his Mummie being inanimate but having liv'd the life of a plant an animal and a man it contains all these natures eminently The Third said That Man affecting nothing so much as immortality because he fears nothing more then death and being unable to secure himself from it do's all that he can to perpetuate himself in some fashion since he cannot wholly The desire of supporting his Individual person and defending it from all inconveniences which may abridge his life makes him count nothing difficult In Propagation he seeks the eternity of his species And though he is assur'd by Reason of
temper a great quantity of subtile and brisk spirits quickness of wit a habit custom of doing some action as the Postilion who sadled bridled and rid his horse asleep and after making some careers brought him back to the Stable The Second said Though according to Aristotle in the 5. Book of the Generation of Animals there is some difference between a dream and this affection which causes men to walk in their sleep because saith he a dream is when the sleeper takes that for true which is presented to him though it be not so But when one dreams that he is in a place and is there indeed and doth really that which he imagines 't is rather a vision then a dream Nevertheless methinks their extraordinary motions may as well be referr'd to dreams as any other motions which are made in sleep considering that they come from the same cause are made by the same organs and differ not but in degree The one being made by a bare representation of the species and the other by a strong impression So that 't is no more wonder to see a man rise out of his bed walk get upon the ridge of a house climb a tree and do other like things without waking then 't is so see another dreamer speak in his sleep laugh cry stir his arms and legs both of them being led thereunto by the same means The Third said He wonder'd not so much to see a man walk in his sleep considering that 't is ordinary enough to those which travel provided they walk in a plain and even way as Galen records to have hapned to himself he having gone almost a league in that manner and not waking till he stumbled at the foot of a tree But he wonder'd indeed how they perform'd their actions better in the night then in the day and with more courage and wake not during those violent motions and stirrings The cause whereof is as I conceive that being awake they have a Reason which contradicts their Imagination and Appetite and which having an eye over all their actions the same are not so sure because they are less free in sleep at which time the faculties of the Understanding being as 't were consopited the others are carried towards their objects with more certainty then when they are controll'd and restrain'd by that superior faculty as we see servants are more brisk in their motions when they are out of their masters presence They act also with more boldness because having no knowledge of the present dangers they do not apprehend the same Which is observ'd in fools and children who do themselves less hurt in dangers because they apprehend them less Lastly the cause why they wake not during those great motions although they swim over rivers proceeds from the great quantity of those thick and glutinous vapours which stop the pores serving to the commerce of the spirits during the long time that they are dissipating according as 't is observ'd in drunkards or those that have taken somniferous medicaments who by reason of the excessive vapours of the wine or drugs awake not whatever be done to them Whence the melancholy temper is most prone to this affection because black choler which hath the consistence of pitch sends its gross vapours up to the brain and they are the most difficult to be resolv'd The Fourth said If men left themselves to be conducted by their natural inclination without making so many reviews and reflections upon what they do their actions would be much better and surer For as where two Masters are neither is obey'd so both the superior and inferior appetite striving to command in man neither the one nor the other is perfectly master Besides 't is an establish'd order of nature that things which have most proprieties and faculties have less certainty those which have most certainty have fewest proprieties Thus the Swallow makes its nest with more certainty then the Architect doth a house The Vine more assuredly makes the Grape then the Swallow its nest the stone more infallibly descends towards its centre then the Vine-makes the Grape because a stone hath only the first step of being the Vine besides hath a Vegetative being and the Swallow a Sensitive but Man who besides all these degrees hath Reason endeavours to make use of all these several Utensils and consequently makes use of none imperfection as he who is skill'd in sundry Crafts discharges not any so well as he who addicts himself but to one Now whilst a man is awake the variety of objects and of the powers which are mov'd in him hinder him from performing so perfect an action as when all the other faculties are bound up by sleep the sensitive alone remains mistress The Fifth said As there is but one straight line and infinite crooked so there is but one right manner of acting and infinite oblique The right line is that a man perform all his animal functions only awake the vital and natural as well asleep as awake Deviation from this rule happens a thousand several ways One is asleep when he should wake another is unquiet when he should sleep In a third inquietudes are only in the spirits the body remaining asleep In some both the spirits and the body are agitated only the judgement and reason are bound up Some Morbifick causes go so far as to inflame the spirits whence comes the Ephemera others more vehement alter and corrupt the humours whence the diversity of Fevers and amongst them Phrensies in which you see bodies scarce able to turn in the bed cast themselves out at a window run through the streets and hard to be restrain'd by the strongest So great a force hath the soul when she gets the head of Reason which serv'd as Bit and Cavesson to her Indeed if Naturalists say true that a spirit is able to move not only a Celestial Sphere but the whole world it self were it not restrain'd by a greater power 't is no wonder if the same spirit have a great power over a body which it informs when it hath shaken off the dominion of Reason as it happens in sleep-walkers The Sixth said 'T is probable that the more causes contribute to one and the same effect the more perfectly it is done Man being awake hath not only the action of all his parts but that of all his senses strengthned by the concourse of spirits renders his parts much more strong and vigorous then when his is asleep Reason assisted by daily experience avoucheth that he acts better waking then sleeping and yet we see the contrary in the persons under consideration Wherefore their agitation cannot be attributed to the soul alone which informs the body but to some spirit good or bad whether such as they call aerial Hob-goblins or others which insinuating into the body as into a ship whose Pilot is asleep governs and guides it at pleasure and as a thing abandon'd to the first occupant carries
consequent of a servile spirit Hence the Persians were not contented to cause the children of their Kings to be instructed above all things always to speak the truth but they erected Temples and Altars to this Vertue as to a Deity and ador'd it under the name of Oromagdes which signifies the God of Truth And therefore 't is my judgement that truth ought always to be spoken although it be to one's own damage The Second said If it be necessary always to speak truth and that it be the conformity of our words with our thoughts mine is that it is not always to be spoken This Nature teaches us whilest she discovers to us only the surface of the earth but hath hid all the treasures of it as all the parts of man especially the more noble are conceal'd under the skin That which vilifies mysteries is the publishing of them call'd Prophanation That which hinders the effect of State-Counsels whereof secrecy is the soul is the letting of them be discover'd which is Treason That which takes away the credit from all arts and professions is the rendring them common And Physick amongst others knows the advantage of concealment whilst the welfare of the Patient many times depends upon his ignorance Would you see what difference there is between a wise man and a fool a Civil Man and a Clown it do's not consist in knowledge for they oftentimes have the same thoughts and inclinations but the Fool speaks all that he thinks the Wise man doth not as the Clown will declare by Gesture and if he can do every thing that comes into his phancie but the better bred man uses restraint upon himself The Comoedian therefore wanted not reason to say that Truth begets Hatred and the Scripture teaches us that God built houses for the wise Egyptian women who ly'd to Pharaoh when they were commanded to murther the Hebrew children at the birth but obey'd not For though some hold that God pardon'd them the lye in regard of the good office which they render'd to his Church and that 't was for this good office that God dealt well with them yet leaving this subtilety to the Schoolmen 't is evident that their dissimulation was approv'd in this case The Third said There 's great difference between Lying and not speaking all the truth which is expected from us the former being vicious the other not whence S. Athanasius being ask'd by the Arrians who pursu'd him whether he had seen Athanasius told them that he went that way a little while since but did not tell them that himself was the person And S. Francis being ask'd whether he did not see a robber pass by shew'd his sleeve and said that he did not pass that way The Fourth said As only weak and distemper'd eyes are unable to bear the light of the Sun so none but weak and sickly minds cannot suffer the lustre of truth All men are oblig'd to speak it but particularly that which is dictated from God's mouth and we ought rather to choose Martyrdom then renounce the belief of it Less ought they to conceal it who are bound to it by their condition as Preachers and Witnesses provided they have regard to place time and persons Without which circumstances 'tis as inacceptable and absur'd as to carry a Queen to an Ale-house Yet in two cases particularly the telling of truth may be dispens'd with I. when the safety of the Prince or good of the State is concern'd for which Plato in his Commonwealth saith it is lawful to lye sometimes and the Angel Raphael told Tobias that 't is good to hide the secrets of Kings II. When our own life is concern'd or that of our Father Mother and Kindred against whom although we certainly know them guilty of a Crime we are not oblig'd to declare it provided nevertheless that it be with the respect due to the Magistrate and that we beware of speaking lyes whilst we intend onely to decline discovery of the Truth 'T is the opinion of the Civilians and amongst others of Paulus in l. 9. ff de Test. that a Father cannot be constrain'd to bear witness against his Son nor a Son against his Father except in the case of High Treason The Fifth said That these three things must not be confounded To lye To speak or tell a lye and to do or act one To lye is to go against our own meaning as when I know a thing and not onely conceal it but speak the contrary This action according to some is alwayes evil inasmuch say they as 't is never lawful to do evil that good may come of it According to others 't is qualifi'd according to the diversity of its end For he who tells a lye to save a Traveller's life who is pursu'd by Thieves seemes to do better then if he expos'd him to their Cruelty by his discovery The Physitian who dissembles to his Patient the danger of his disease and thinks it enough to acquaint his domesticks therewith do's better then if he cast him into despair by a down-right dismal prognostication and when he chears him up in fitting time and place by some pleasant made Story what he speaks can scarce be reckon'd amongst idle words But he who lyes for his Profit as most Trades-men do sins proportionably to the deceit which he thereby causes but he is most culpable who lyes to the Magistrate One may tell or speak a lye without lying namely when one speaks a false thing conceiving it to be true To do or speak a lye is to lead a life contrary to ones profession as he who preaches well and lives ill Whence I conclude that many precautions are requisite to lye without committing an offence that a lye is to be spoken as little as possible and never to be done or acted at all CONFERENCE XXXVIII I. Of the Period called Fits of Fevers II. Of Friendship I. Of the Fits of Agues A Fever is a Heat contrary to Nature kindled in the Heart and from thence sent by the Arteries and Veins into the whole Body with a manifest laesion or disturbance of the action It is so inseparable from the Heart in case of any injury that being we cannot dye without the Heart be mis-affected therefore many have thought that we cannot dye without a Fever though 't were of a violent death And for that there are three subjects which receive this Heat viz. the Parts the Humours and the Spirits thence ariseth the distinction of Fevers into three kinds the Hectick the Humoral and the Ephemera or One-day Fever The first is in the solid parts and is call'd Hectick or Habitual because it resides in the whole habit of the Body and is of very long continuance yea ordinarily lasts till Death The second call'd Humoral is when the Humours are enflam'd either through a bare excess of Heat without other alteration in their substance or with corruption and putrefaction which happens most frequently The third
which of the two is absolutely to be preferr'd before the other but it lies in the power of prudence to determine according to the variety of cases CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a good stature or a small I. Of the diversity of Languages WE have two notable examples in the Scripture one of God's displeasure when the Builders of the Tower of Babel were separated by the confusion of their Language the other of his favour when the Apostles were at the feast of Pentecost as it were united and incorporated into all Nations by the gift of Tongues Here we only adore Mysteries but fathom them not we seek the natural causes of the variety of speech and whether as there was but one at the first so the same may be recover'd again or any other found that may be universal to all people As to the first the variety alone of the Organs seems sufficient to diversifie speech Those Nations whose wind-pipes were more free easily retain'd the Hebrew aspirations if so be this Language were the first and not the Syriack as some hold alledging that its characters speak greatest antiquity or the Samaritane because the Thorath which is the law of God was written in it as also the most ancient Medals found in Palestine were stamp'd with it They whose breasts were more robust fram'd the German and other Languages which are pronounc'd with greater impetuosity the more delicate made the Greek Tongue the middle sort the Latine and their posterity degenerating the Italian which is pronounc'd only with the outer part of the lips and so of all the rest Whence it is that strangers never pronounce our Language perfectly nor we theirs which caus'd Scaliger to tell a German who spoke to him in Latine but pronounc'd it after his own way that he must excuse him for he did not understand Dutch Now every one of these Original Languages was chang'd again proportionably to the distance from its centre as circles made by a stone cast into the water lose their figure as they become wider Afterwards hapned the transplantations of Nations who with the confusion of blood and manners brought also that of speech for the Conquerours desiring to give Law to the vanquish'd as well in this as in all other things and the Organs of the people being unapt for the pronuntiation of a forreign tongue hence of the mixture of two arose a third Thus much for the first point But as for the second which is to reduce all Languages to one I hold the thing impossible For all things which are meerly of humane institution as Language is are as different as opinions are And if one and the same Tongue hath sundry very different Idiomes and Dialects as the French hath the Breton the Gascon the Poitevin the Parisian and many others as different as the French from the Italian which hath in like manner the Roman the Tusean the Neapolitan and the Sicilian all very differing with much more reason shall Nations divided by Seas and Climates speak diversely The opinions of men even of Philosophers themselves touching the same subject could never be reconcil'd and can it be imagin'd that all tongues should ever agree Nature affects nothing so much as variety which serves for discrimination of individuals Two men never writ or spake alike and we see that even the gestures and postures of others cannot be perfectly imitated by those who use their utmost care therein how then shall conformity be found in the expression of our thoughts besides there being no connexion or affinity between things and words which not onely signifie several things in several Languages but have different acceptions in the same Language witness Homonymous words 't is loss of time to think of such a designe The Second said That to judge of a River it must be taken at its source Languages are the several ways of interpreting or declaring our conceptions and these are the means which our mind makes use of to conceive the species or images of things It knows them according as they are represented to it and they are represented to it according to the truth of the object when the conditions requisite to sensation or perception by sense concur namely a due disposition of the object medium and Organ As therefore when all these conditions are right it cannot be but all persons of the world must agree in one and the same judgement and all say e. g. that this Rose is red and that other white so it may seem that men should agree together in the copy and transcript since they do so in the Prototype that is have one and the same Language since they have one and the same conception Otherwise as to this communication with his own species man will be inferior to other animals who signifie their passions and inclinations so plainly and intelligibly among themselves that they answer one the other afar off Moreover abundance of words are the express and natural image of the things designed by them as Taffata to hisse to creak or clash to bounce to howle or yell and many others There are words which keep the same number of letters in all the learned Languages particularly the name of God which holds also in some modern as in the French Dutch c. but not in ours There are others which vary not at all but are one and the same among all Nations as the word Sac. Many things express'd by the same characters in writing are read by each people in their own Tongue as Figures or Cyphers which are read and pronounc'd otherwise in Hebrew and Greek then in Latine or French and yet they are taken by all to signifie the same thing The same may be said of the Hieroglyphicks and letters of China yea of all the figures of the Mathematicks For every one knows a Circle a Triangle and a Square although each Nation denominate the same diversly What hinders then but as all Nations have conspir'd and agreed together in those visible words so they may do too in those which are pronounc'd The Third said That to the end words may make things understood by all the world they ought to be signs of them either natural as smoak is of fire or by institution depending upon a very intelligible principle or occasion as when a Bush denotes a Tavern As for the first many dumb persons express their conceptions so genuinely by signs that all the world understands them and the Mimicks and Pantomimes of Rome were so excellent in this kind that Roscius one of them sometimes bid defiance to Ciero that he would express as perfectly by his gestures and postures whatsover he pleas'd as that incomparable Orator could do by his words And as those who are not given to writing have the best memories so those who have not that use of speech are more excellent then others in speaking by signs and understanding them there being
would mingle it self with the substance of the Heavens which by this means would be no longer pure and free from corruption nor consequently eternal yea it might happen that such Meteors as should be form'd in the Heavens would disorder the motions of the Planets which we behold so regular And besides 't is not possible that the Stars of the Firmament should not have come nearer one another in these 6000. years and the Planets have been so exact in their wandrings unless the Heavens were solid The Third said That because the weakness of our reasoning cannot conceive how the creatures obey the Creator otherwise then by such wayes as Artificers use who fasten nails in wheels to make their motion regular therefore Men phancy the like in Heaven As if it had not been as easiy to God to have appointed a Law to the Stars to move regulary in a liquid space as fishes do in the water yea in a Vacuum if there were any in Nature as to have riveted and fix'd them to some solid body For 't is true we cannot make a durable Sphere but of solid matter But if Children make aiery spheres or balls with water and soap could not God who is an infinitely more excellent work-man make some of a more subtile matter Moreover The supposition of liquid Heavens serves better to interpret these openings of Heaven mention'd in the Scripture then if they be suppos'd solid The melted brass to which Job compares the Heavens proves the contrary to what is usually inferr'd from it for immediately after this comparison made by one of Job's friends God reproves him and taxes his discourse of ignorance Whereas it is said that Heaven is God's throne which is stable and which God hath established in the Heavens and also that it is called a Firmament the same construction is to be made of these expressions as of that in the beginning of Genesis where the Sun and the Moon are styl'd the two great Lights of Heaven not because they are so in reality but because they appear so But that which to me seemes most conclusive for the liquidity of the Heavens is That Comets have been oftentimes observ'd above some Planets which could not be were the Heavens solid Besides that all the Elements are terminated by themselves and need no vessel to be contain'd in The Fourth said If the matter of the Heavens were as firm as glass or crystal or onely as water our sight could no more perceive the Stars then it doth things in the bottome of a deep water how clear soever it be for the visual rayes or species of things cannot penetrate so thick a medium But although the Stars are exceedingly remote from us yet our eyes discern their different magnitudes colours and motions and distinguish such as twinckle from others Besides those who should behold the same Star from different places would perceive it of different magnitudes as it happens to those who look upon the same body through water or glass in regard of the diversity of the medium which is thicker in one place then in another Nor is it harder to conceive how the Stars hang in the Air then to imagine the same of the Terr-aqueous Globe The Fifth said Liquid is defin'd that which is hardly contain'd within its own bounds and easily in those of another which is the true definition of Liquid and not of Humid since Quick-silver Lead and all metals melted are difficultly contain'd in their own bounds and easily in those of another yet are not humid the Heaven must be solid and not liquid for it is contain'd within its own bounds yea according to the Scripture it upholds the Supercelestial Waters The Sixth said The great diversity found in the motions of the Celestial Bodies and especially in the Planets makes very much for the Fluidity of the Heavens For Astronomers observing that the Planets not onely go from East to West by their diurnal motion common to all the celestial bodies but have a particular one of their own after a sort contrary to the former which makes them stray from their situation whereunto they return onely at a certain time therefore they will have them to be turn'd about by a Heaven term'd by them Primum Mobile but add that each of the Planets hath a sphere of its own which is the cause of its second motion Moreover observing the Planets to be sometimes nearer and sometimes further off from the Earth therefore they assign'd them another sphere call'd an Excentrick But what needs this multiplication of spheres when as it may reasonably be affirm'd that God hath appointed to every Star the course which it is to observe as he hath assign'd to every thing its action what ever variety be found in Planetary bodies there being more in other Bodies If it be said That the wonder lies in their Regularity I answer There is nothing here below but ha's and keeps a rule Whence Monsters are so much wonder'd at Nor is there less wonder in the natural instincts of things and all their various operations which they alwayes inviolably observe then in Uniformity which hath much more ease in it as it is a more facile thing for a stone to move alwayes downwards then for an Animal to move according to all the diversities of place and exercise so many several actions The Seventh said The matter of the Heavens if they have any is according to Empedocles a most pure and subtile Air and that of the Stars is Light Wherefore they cannot be either solid or liquid Moreover the Centre of the World is most compact and it grows more and more subtile still towards the Circumference which therefore must be immaterial as Light is Now the Stars are onely the thicker parts of their Orbes like the knots in a Tree which density renders them visible to us multiplying and fortifying the degrees of Light by this union as on the contrary the rarity of the intermediate space between the Stars doth not terminate or bound our sight either because the species which it sends forth are not strong enough to act upon the Eye and cause perception which is the reason why we see not the Elementary Fire though we see the same Fire when it comes to be united and condensed into an igneous meteor or into our culinary flames The Heavens therefore may be more or less dense but not solid in that sence as we attribute solidity to Crystal Diamonds or other hard bodies which resist the touch But indeed we may call them so if we take the word solid for that which is fill'd with it self and not with any other intermix'd thing all whose parts are of the same nature according to which signification not onely the Water but the Air yea the Light it self if it be material may be said to be solid II. Whether is it easier to get or to keep Upon the Second Point it was said That the difficulty of acquiring and preserving is
made for man the greatest happiness that can befall them is to serve him in something though by the loss of their lives But this is rather a fair excuse to cover our cruelty and luxury seeing Animals are no more proper then Plants to nourish man Witness our first Fathers before the flood who were so long-liv'd although they liv'd not of flesh Whence 't is inferr'd too that inanimate things may nourish us better then Plants For the taste is an ill judge in this cause the Eele amongst animals and the Peach amongst fruits affording the worst nourishment though they rellish most deliciously The Similitude of substance is of little consideration for Animals live not of their like and the Cannibals are ordinarily all Leprous That a thing may be food 't is sufficient that it have an humidity or substance proportionate to ours in what order of things soever it be found And nature has had no less care of nourishing an animal then of healing it but she has endu'd all sublunary bodies with properties medicinal to man Lastly we cannot reckon among Plants those excrescenses which we call Truffes and are held to be produc'd by thunder in some kinds of earth whence they are gather'd and yet they nourish extremely The Sixth said When that which enters into the Stomack is alter'd by it 't is call'd aliment for heat is the chief Agent by which it is united and assimulated whence it comes to pass that according to the diversity of this heat Hemlock serves for nourishment to the Starlings but kills man Now to judge whether that which hath had life be more proper for nutrition then that which hath not we need only consider upon which of the two the natural faculty which disperses this heat acts most powerfully which no doubt it doth upon that which hath had life since it hath the conditions requisite to food being in some sort like as having been alive and also qualifi'd to become so again because when a form forsakes its subject it leaves dispositions in it for a like form to ensue 't is also in some sort unlike being actually destitute of life Wherefore as that which hath life really cannot nourish a living thing because of its total resemblance and there is no action between things alike otherwise a thing might act against it self since nothing is more like to any thing then it self So that which never had life cannot nourish an animal by reason of its intire dissimilitude and because between things wholly unlike there is no action II. Of Courage Upon the second Point If 't is worthy admiration that amongst Animals a little dog gives chase to a multitude of Oxen whence the Hebrews call a Dog Cheleb that is to say All heart in regard of his courage 't is more to be wonder'd that amongst men who are of the same species and fram'd after the same manner one puts to flight three others greater stronger and oftentimes more dextrous then himself The cause hereof is attributed to heat but besides that we see many sufficiently heated in every other action but cold when it comes to fighting as they say there are good Grey-hounds of all sizes so there are great courages of all tempers and although the hair complexion stature and habit of body are the most sure witnesses yet every body knows that there are valiant men found of all hairs and statures yea of all Ages the seeds of courage being manifest in children and the remainders in old men It seems therefore that courage proceeds from the fitting and well proportion'd temper and structure of the heart and arteries for when these are too large the spirits are more languid and the actions less vigorous either to repell present dangers or meet those which are future Yet the Cholerick are naturally more dispos'd to magnanimity the Phlegmatick and Melancholy less and the Sanguine are between both Education also and custom are of great moment as we see Rope-dancers and Climbers perform strange feats with inimitable boldness because they have been us'd to walk upon Ropes and climb the Spires of Churches from their youth So a child that has been accustom'd to dangers from his infancy will not fear any Moreover Honour and Anger are great spurs to valour especially when the latter is sharpned by the desire of revenge which is excited by injury derision or ingratitude Exhortations too are very effectual And therefore when ever Caesar's Souldiers did not behave themselves well he observes that he had not had time to make a speech to them Nor is Necessity and the consideration of present danger to be omitted for the greatest cowards oftentimes give proofs of courage upon urgent occasions when there 's no hope of flight and one of the best wiles of a General is to take from his Souldiers all hope of retreat and safety otherwise then in victory Example also prevails much both as to flying and to fighting Wherefore those that run first ought to be punish'd without mercy as they who first enter a breach or are farthest engag'd amongst the enemies deserve great acknowledgement of their vertue But particularly amongst persons acquainted and mutually affectionate courage is redoubled by the presence of the thing belov'd witness the sacred Legion of the Thebans But the desire of honour and hope of reward are the most powerful incitements to valour Upon which account the King's presence is always counted equivalent as all his Troops together The Second said Courage is a vertue plac'd between boldness and fear Yet it is chiefly conversant in moderating fear which is an expectation of evil Amongst the evils and adversities which cause terrour to men some are to be fear'd by all and cannot be slighted by a vertuous man as ignominy punishment for a crime or other infamy Others may be fear'd or despis'd without blame if our selves be not the causes of them as Poverty Exile and Sickness And yet a man is never the more couragious for not fearing them For a Prodigal is not couragious for not fearing Poverty an impudent fellow that hath lost all shame may easily despise banishment as Diogenes did and a Sot will be insensible of an incurable disease which a wise man supports patiently Lastly some evils are to be contemn'd as all dangers and misfortunes which necessarily come to pass in life and death it self in the despising of which the greatness of courage principally appears especially in that which happens in the wars fighting for one's Prince and Country as being the most honourable and glorious of all The Third said No vertue can keep us from fearing death which gave so great apprehension to the most wise and to our Lord himself and which Aristotle deservedly calls the most terrible of terribles the same Philosopher also teaching us that a vertuous man infinitely desires to live and ought to fear death because he accounts himself worthy of long life during which he may do service to others and he knows
well that death will deprive him of all the goods of this world since well-being presupposes being Therefore courage do's not wholly take away the fear of death no more then the sense of pain which is natural otherwise a couragious man ought to be insensible and stupid But he governs this fear in such sort that it do's not hinder him from overcoming his enemy although it render him more prudent and circumspect in seeking fit means to attain thereunto Herein he differs from the rash person who casting himself into dangers without having foreseen and maturely consider'd them becomes faint-hearted in the chiefest of the brunt The Fourth said A couragious man is known by what he attempts without rashness and accomplishes without fear for he always represents to himself the danger greater then it is to the end to arm himself with strong resolutions which once taken 't is impossible to make him retract His courage proceeds neither from experience nor necessity nor desire of gain ignorance or stupidity but having well consider'd the danger and judg'd it honourable to resist it he doth so upon the sole account of vertue and shews himself indefatigable in undergoing toils and invincible even in death 'T is not enough that his cause be good he will end it by lawful means and had rather lose his right then attempt such as are unjustifiable and displeasing to his Prince Therefore our Duellists must conclude that they abandon solid honour to follow its shadow since honourable and just are inseparable The sword is his last remedy and he uses it more to defend then to assault but always with some kind of constraint and yet none wields it with more sureness and grace fear not causing him to make unseemly gestures He hates nothing so much as vice He speaks little but acts much liking rather to be seen then heard He chuses not the kind of death but receives that which is offer'd in which nothing troubles him saving that it deprives him of the means to do his King and Country more service If his ill fate make him a slave he will not employ death to deliver himself from servitude as Cato of Vtica did shewing thereby a figure of cowardize rather then of courage but he will so deport himself as to seem free in his bondage yea to have dominion over those who command him In fine whether he be conqueror or conquer'd he loses nothing of his magnanimity but remains always like himself firm in his resolutions To attain to which greatness of spirit 't is not enough that the structure of the body be large or the heat of temper as great as that of Leonidas the Spartane Matthias the Emperour or the Pirate burnt alive at Gradisca by the Venetians the hearts of which three were found hairy there must be moreover an heroick soul informing this body The Fifth alledg'd that the Original of courage is to be sought in the nobleness of extraction whether it be known or not For though there seem to be some intervals in illustrious families proceeding from malignant influences or other impediment yet there is observ'd generally no less resemblance of children with their Ancestors in mind then in body Eagles never producing Doves nor Doves Eagles CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease MEn in imitation of Nature always seek the shortest way For which purpose they have thought fit to make maximes of every thing whereas to speak truth there is no maxime of any thing since by the most certain rule of all there is none so general but hath some exception yea some have so many exceptions that 't is dubious on which side to make the rule Nevertheless the minde of man forbears not to make axiomes in all Sciences especially in Physick whose Office being to govern Nature it involves in certain general laws all diseases with their causes symptomes and remedies although as in the Law so in Physick two Cases are never alike But when these rules come to be apply'd to practice every one confesses that he finds them not wholly correspondent to what he expected Now this is chiefly to be understood of particular Diseases and Specificks as the Pleurisie Cataract or Gout For geral Infirmities as simple Intemperatures may be cur'd by general Remedies endu'd with contrary qualities The Second said Specifick is that which is determin'd to some one thing and hath above it the Generick and below the Individual It is demanded here whether there be Remedies so determined to one species or sort of disease as that they sute to that alone I conceive that since there are diseases of all forms as Pestilential Venomous and Malignant there are also Remedies so too and experience shews in many admirable Cures that there are Remedies whose effects depend not on the first Qualities as that Rheubarb purges that Mugwort is good for the Mother and Bezoar a Cordial comes not from heat and dryness in such a degree for then every thing that hath the same temperament should be likewise purgative hysterical and cordial which is not true But nothing hinders but a Remedy may be specifical to one particular Distemper by its occult qualities and yet profitable and sutable to others by its manifest qualities as the same thing may be both food and physick The Third said That this Question depends upon another namely whether mixt bodies act only by their temperature and first qualities or by their substantial forms or specifick vertues For if the action of every thing depends not on the various mixture of its qualities but on its whole form and substance Medicines will never cure as they are hot or cold but by a particular specifick vertue arising from their form wholly contrary to that of the disease For understanding whereof 't is to be observ'd that as the natural constitution of every mixt body consists in a perfect mixture of the four Elementary Qualities in the good disposition of the matter and in the integrity of the form so the same may suffer mutation in either of these three manners either according to its temperature or according to its matter or according to its form Whence it follows that every mixt body as medicaments are may act upon our Nature by its first second and third faculties The first proceed from the sole commixtion of the four Qualities according to the diversity whereof the compound is either Hot as Pepper or Cold as Mandrakes or Moist as Oyle or Dry as Bole Armenick not in act but in power And by this First Faculty alone which follows the Temperament a Medicament acts chiefly upon the Temperament of Bodies Their Second Faculty arises from the various mixture of the same Qualities with the Matter For a Hot Temperament joyn'd to a matter dispos'd according to the degree of Heat will be opening cutting corrosive or caustick and so the rest
melancholy the latter least of all in regard of the solidity and dryness of their brain and the thickness of their blood Although there is a sort of melancholy not-natural much abounding in serosities and for that reason styl'd Aqueous by Hippocrates Now weeping is caus'd in this manner A sad subject seising upon the Heart the Arteries carry the fuliginous vapours thereof to the brain which discharging the same into the sink call'd the Infundibulum or Tunnel they seek issue at the next passages which are the mouth the nose and the eyes at the great angle or Canthus where the Glandula Lachrymalis or Weeping Kernel is seated which hath a hole like the point of a needle This Glandule is made very small whereas the Spleen which causeth Laughter and the Liver which causeth Love are very large because Man might possibly want subjects for the two former and consequently ought to be provided for but not matter of sadness The Second said As amongst Animals Man hath the greatest brain so he needs the most Aliment and consequently makes more excrements then any other these are collected in the anterior Ventricles and between the membranes where they remain till the Expulsive Faculty incommoded by their too great quantity or pungent quality expells them by the usual passages and thus they supply wax to the Eares mucosity to the Nose and tears to the Eyes Whereby it appears that tears are not alwayes signes of Pusillanimity since they proceed from causes which no body can avoid Moreover Joy as well as Sorrow expresses tears though by means wholly contrary For Joy dilating and opening the passages by its heat causes those humidities to issue forth and Grief compressing the passages forces the same out as a spunge yields forth the water which it had imbib'd if you either dilate it or squeeze it Their saltness bitterness and acrimony is common to them with all the serosities of the body which they acquire by their continuance they make in the brain as their heat by the spirits which accompany them For the tears both of Joy and Sadness are hot or rather tepid though those shed in Joy seem cold because the cheeks are warme in Joy which draws the heat and spirits from the centre to the circumference and in Sadness they appear hot because they drop upon the cheeks which are cold through the absence of the heat and spirits caus'd by sadness to retire inward But those Tears which proceed from a disease as from a defluxion or distillation are really cold because they are caus'd by the crudity of the humours The Third said That Tears of sorrow come not from compression for we cannot weep in a great sadness but from a particular virtue which grief hath to send them forth For Nature being willing to drive away the cause of Grief sends the heat and spirits towards it which heating the external parts attract the humours thither Hence it is Onyons lancinating the Eyes by their sharp spirits cause weeping as smoke likewise doth and the steadfast beholding of an object and too radiant a light by the pain which they cause to the sight Nor do's this hold good onely in pain but in grief particularly in compassion which is a grief we resent for anothers misery For the consideration of a sad object setting the humours in motion and attenuating them causeth them to distill forth by the Eyes mouth and nose This is also the reason why those who run impetuously on horse-back or afoot sometimes drop rears for the heat excited by this motion draws sweat forth over all the body and tears to the Eyes being of the same nature with sweat Unless you rather think that this may be caus'd by the coldness of the new Air which condenses and presses forth these humidities Wherefore we cannot absolutely pronounce that tears are Symptomes of Pusillanimity seeing 't is not in our power to restrain them what ever courage we have and oftentimes example no less invites us then duty obliges us to let this torrent take its course The Fourth said If it be true that the most couragious are of the hottest constitution 't will follow that tears are rather a sign of Magnanimity then of Cowardice since they are most frequent to such as abound in heat and moisture For as water issues out of green wood heated by the fire so tears are forc'd out of the Eyes by the internal heat excited by Joy Grief Anger or other disorderly motion For through the immoderateness of this heat the coldness of the Brain is increas'd by Antiperistasis and endeavours to with-stand it for which purpose it collects together abundance of cold vapours which the heat over-powering causes that cloud of humour condens'd by cold to distill by the Eyes in a showre of tears Yet if this be done too often then the same happens to the man as doth to a stick or cudgel which being too much bow'd one way and the other is at length broken In like manner a couragious person often provok'd so farr as to weep at last becomes relax'd and softned through the loss and consumption of his spirits which are the instruments of Courage Therefore to weep too often is a sign of Pusillanimity and softness never to weep is stupidity to weep sometimes for the miserable estate whereinto this valley of tears reduces us 't is necessity Indeed Our Lord wept often Saint Peter so courageous that he struck the onely blow mention'd in the Gospel wept bitterly And Alexander wept for the death of Darius as his own Triumphs caus'd Caesar to weep in whom it was accounted Humanity that he wept at the sight of Pompey's head as David did for the death of Saul The Fifth said That as griefs are diminish'd by weeping so it may seem that tears should soften the courage which proceeds from anger as most doth And as pity is opposite to revenge so tears seem contrary to valour since they are so both to revenge and choler which are the effects of magnanimity Add hereunto that we live by example and therefore seeing tears more frequent to weak and effeminate persons then to others we easily draw a general consequence although the same admit many exceptions CONFERENCE L. I. Whether Colours are real II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well I. Whether Colours are real THe knowledge of men is never compleat what they know in one manner they are ignorant of in another Nothing is so manifest to the sense as colour nothing so obscure to the Understanding which doubts whether it hath a real existence or whether it only appears such to us according as bodies variously receive the light Indeed Green and Blew seem all one by a candle and the same colour seems different from what it was by day-light which again makes the species vary according to its diversity for we judge of them otherwise in the twilight in the Sun and in the shadow otherwise beholding them slopingly directly
obstruction hinders the afflux of the spirits to it as in a Gutta Serena there is no vision made An Evidence that seeing is an action of both and consequently the Senses are as many as the several Organs which determine and specificate the same But the Taste being comprehended under the Touch by the Philosophers definition must be a species thereof and therefore there are but four Senses as four Elements the Taste and the Touch which it comprehends being exercis'd in the earth gross as themselves the Sight in Water in which its Organ swims and of which it almost wholly consists the Smelling by the Fire which awakens odours and reduces them out of power into act and the Hearing in the Air which is found naturally implanted in the Ear and is the sole medium of this sense according to Aristotle the hearing of Fishes being particular to them in the Water and very obscure The Third said He was of Scaliger's mind who reckons Titillation for the sixth sense For if the Taste though comprehended under the Touching as was said constitutes a distinct sense why not Titillation which is a species of Touching too considering that it represents things otherwise then the ordinary Touch doth and hath its particular Organs as the soles of the Feet the palmes of the Hands the Flanks the Arm-pits and some other places Yea Touching may be accounted the Genus of the Senses since all partake thereof The Fourth said That those actions which some Animals perform more perfectly then we as the Dog exceeds us in Smelling the Spider in Touching the Eagle in Seeing and many in presaging the seasons and weather seem'd to be the effects of 6 7 or 8 Senses there being no proportion between such great extraordinary effects and their Organes the structure whereof is the same with those of other Animals which come not near the same Yea that 't is by some supernumerary sense found in each Animal that they have knowledge of what is serviceable or hurtful to them in particular For example who teaches the Dog the virtue of Grass the Hart of Dittany their ordinary Senses cannot Nor is it likely that so many occult properties have been produc'd by Nature to remain unknown But they cannot be understood unless by some Sense which is not vulgar considering that all the Senses together understand not their substance The Fifth said There are five external Senses neither more nor less because there needs so many and no more to perceive and apprehend all external objects And as when one of our Senses is deprav'd or abolish'd another cannot repair it nor succeed it in all its functions so if there were more then five the over-plus would be useless there being no accident but falls under the cognisance of these five Senses And although each of them is not sufficient thereunto severally yet they serve well enough all together as in the perception of motion rest number magnitude and figure which are common objects to divers Senses Now if there were need of more then five Senses 't would be to judge of objects wherein the others fail So that the supernumeraries being unprofitable 't is not necessary to establish more then five And as for substance 't is not consistent with its Nature to be known by the external Senses The Sixth said Man being compos'd of three Pieces a Soul a Body and Spirits of a middle Nature between both the five Senses suffice to the perfection and support of these three parts Knowledge which is the sole Good of the Soul is acquir'd by invention and discipline for which we have Eyes and Ears Good Odours recreate and repair the Spirits The Touch and Taste are the Bodie 's guards the first by preserving it from hurtfull qualities which invade it from without and the second from such as enter and are taken in by the mouth And therefore 't is in vain to establish more The Seventh said Since according to the Philosophers Sense is a passive quality and Sensation is made when the Organ is alter'd by the object there must be as many several Senses as there are different objects which variously alter the Organs Now amongst Colours Odours and other sensible objects there are many different species and the qualities perceiv'd by the Touch are almost infinite Nor is it material to say that they all proceed from the first qualities since Colors Odours and Tasts are likewise second qualities arising from those first and nevertheless make different Senses The Eighth said Although it be true that Faculties are determin'd by objects yet must not these Faculties be therefore multiply'd according to the multitude of objects So though White and Black are different nevertheless because they both act after the same manner namely by sending their intentional species through the same medium to the same Organ the Sight alone sufficeth for judging of their difference The Ninth said Since four things are requisite to Sensation to wit the Faculty the Organ the Medium and the Object 't is by them that the number of Senses is determin'd The Object cannot do it otherwise there would not be five Senses but infinitely more Nor can the Faculty do it being inseparable from the Soul or rather the Soul it self and consequently but one and to say that there is but one Sense is erroneously to make an external Sense of the Common Sense Much less can the Medium do it since one and the same Medium serves to many Senses and one and the same Sense is exercis'd in several Mediums as the Sight in the Air and the Water It remains therefore that the diversity proceed from that of the Organs which being but five make the like number of Senses II. Whether is better to be silent or to speak Upon the Second Point it was said 'T is a greater difficulty and consequently more a virtue to hold one's peace then to speak the latter being natural to Man and very easie when he has once got the habit of it but the former is a constrain'd Action and to practise which handsomely the Mind must be disciplin'd to do violence to the itch of declaring it self every one conceiving it his interest that the truth be known And there are fewer examples of those that have sav'd themselves by speaking then of those that have lost themselves by not keeping Secrecie justly term'd the Soul of the State and of affairs which once vented of easie become impossible Whence arose the name of Secretaries for principal Ministers and Officers of States and great Houses and indeed 't is at this day a title affected by the meanest Clerks testifying thereby in what esteem they have Silence And the unworthiest of all Vices Treachery ordinarily takes advantage of this defect of Secrecie which renders Men full of chinks and like a sieve so that many can more easily keep a coal in their mouths then a secret On the contrary Silence is so much reverenc'd that the wisest persons when they are
to speak or write come the nearest it they can by their brevity and that upon this account the fool so long as he holds his peace differs not from the wise Therefore Pythagoras made it the chief point of his Philosophy leaving his Scholars for five years to do nothing else but hear and abstain from eating fish out of the particular esteem he had thereof for its taciturnity All Monastick persons account it one of their highest virtues and the introduction to all others and the Pagans made a God of Silence nam'd Harpocrates whose Statue held a finger upon its mouth And both the sacrifices of this god and all their other mysteries which word implyes Secrecie were perform'd without speaking Therefore Alexander meaning to teach Hephaestion that he that would serve his King well must know well how to be silent clap'd the seal of his Ring upon his lips The greatest talkers are commonly the least actors God having as 't were put in balance words on one side and effects on the other as the leaves and flowers there and the fruits here The Second said As the corruption of things is the greater by how much the more excellent they are so speech being the fairest ornament of Man the abuse thereof is the most dangerous and the rather for that too much speaking is an incurable malady since it cannot be cur'd but by the counsel of those that reprehend it whereof great speakers are incapable it being their custome not to hear any body In requital for which they are avoided by all the world For every Man thinks himself concern'd to uphold the truth and is therefore displeas'd when he meets one that would arrogate this right to himself and frustrate all others of the glory which follows that action But which is worse no credit is given to them although belief is the end of speech For Man affects nothing so much as to be esteem'd true and honest because the perfection of his being consists in these two points and therefore he employes his utmost endeavours to make himself believ'd such whereas a babler finding no belief amongst Men and goodness and truth walking with the same foot he is acounted to have neither the one nor the other Indeed great speakers are ordinarily great lyers because words are not true but so far as they are weigh'd and balanc'd in the Mind which being finite cannot know many things at once but successively and with time which the talker allows not to himself And as Truth is in Unity so is Lying in Multiplicity but especially in confusion which is a diversity without order and is almost inseparable from great discourses and produces the like in the Minds of the Hearers and consequently unbeliefs The Third said A Man should take no greater care then to govern his Tongue because 't is a member the easilest mov'd and never weary Hence old men are so much delighted with talking because they have onely this member at their devotion Which Nature fore-seeing and that Man would have frequent and long use of it hath given it a strong Ligament ten Muscles and three couple of the seven pair of Nerves which are diffus'd through the rest of the Body Besides Man being a sociable Animal is naturally much inclin'd to discourse which is the bond of humane society 'T is requisite therefore that Reason which should govern all Man's inclinations govern this of speech chiefly to which the ought not give liberty except when the same may be beneficial to the speaker or to the hearer or to some other Nevertheless to speak generally as action is more noble then Privation and Motion then Rest so to speak is a thing more excellent then to hold one's peace The Fourth said The moderation of speech call'd Taciturnity is a species of Temperance and hath its two extremes equally vicious namely immoderate talking and dull silence when one holds his peace although a just cause obliges him to speak as the acknowledgement of a truth or of some benefit and when our own interest or friends is considerably engag'd or also when an occasion makes some discourse to be expected from us as in a publick assembly feast or other place of rejoycing in which case silence is no less shameful then too much speaking is every where distateful This Virtue which holds the middle shews where when how how much we ought to speak and be silent what things are fit to be spoken and to what persons As for things they must be true honest and approved by us within before they are expos'd and lay'd abroad the Tongue must follow and not go before the Mind whose interpreter it is as the Hand is the Tongue 's Secretary and for this purpose is lay'd upon the Heart out of whose abundance it alwayes speaks unless dissimulation alter the case And as the constitution and temper of the Tongue is taken by Physitians for a certain signe of that of the internal parts so the words are of the inclinations and habits of the Soul which has its throne in the Tongue to make it self understood as in the Eyes to render it self visible Now the Tongue being the principal Organ of speech hereby serves to put a manifest discrimination between Man and brutes some of which make a sound as Grashoppers others have a voice as all those that have Lungs but none have speech As for other circumstances we must refrain as much as possible from speaking with fools of wicked persons notoriously known such and a little before persons of age and authority or who understand more then our selvs as also from speaking of a serious matter amongst mirth or of a ridiculous matter in grave and serious affairs we must take care to be silent in places destinated onely to hear as in the Church and in Judiciary Courts Which injunction lies most upon Women Children and Servants In brief 't is one of the greatest points of Prudence to know when 't is a fit time to speak and when to be silent The Fifth said The Reason of Man is that Universal Spirit which is the Soul of the world giving activity and motion to every thing 't is this that turns about the Celestial Spheres and moves the inferior Elements by an innate principle It makes it self understood by speech and writing the nobleness of one whereof above the other seems to determine the question Now Reason is more in controversie between us and beasts then speech and speech then writing for some admit a certain degree of Reason and Judgement in brutes and many of them whose Tongues are soft large and free perfectly imitate our speech but they have nothing that comes near writing which is solely peculiar to Man Moreover by Reason we are onely wise to our selves by speech we are so to some few others who hear us But by writing our Wisedom is communicated to all the world and lasts to eternity 'T was by writing with the finger in the dust that
the subtilest sense to wit the Sight The Fifth said That the nobleness of the Touch appears principally in that 't is the most infallible of all the senses as the most honourable persons are accounted most worthy of credit Therefore our Lord being to convince S. Thomas at that time incredulous caus'd him to feel his side and manifest things are call'd palpable because the Touch is the last sense that is deceiv'd Whence they who dream do not frequently find their errour till putting forth their hands to the phantasin they begin to be convinc'd that it is nothing but air The Sixth said That as 't is a common vice to all the Senses to be deceiv'd so that of Touch is not more exempt from it then the rest and the less because it judges of the quality of its objects only by comparison according to the diversity of which one and the same thing diversly affects it and is sometimes apprehended one way sometimes another A man that comes out of a hot Bath shivers in the same air which he accounted warm before he enter'd into the water and when he that learns to dance puts off his leaden soles he thinks his feet lighter then he did before he put them on The Seventh said The Touch is an external sense terrestrial and gross it perceives hot and cold dry and moist heavy and light hard and soft smooth and rough or unequal acide viscous or slippery thick and thin tough and friable or brittle and other such tactile and earthy qualities For as there are five simple Bodies in Nature namely the Heaven and the Elements so each of the five external Senses corresponds to one of them the Sight to Heaven in regard of its transparence and lucidity the other four to the Elements of which the Earth symbolizeth with the Touch because every thing that is felt must have some solidity and consistence which proceeds from the Earth otherwise it could not make it self felt by it self but only by some predominant quality as we feel not the air when it touches us unless it be extreamly cold or hot The Organ of Feeling is inward skin which incompasses the whole body of a creature by reason of its so perfect and equal temperature that it is neither hot nor cold dry moist but equally partakes of all these qualities a requisite condition in the Organs of the senses which must be unprovided of all the qualities whereof they are to judge So the Crystalline humour is without colour the tongue without sapour the nostrils without scent the ears without any sound And the skin is neither hard like the bones nor soft like the flesh but of a temper between both being therefore call'd a Nervous flesh and a fleshy Nerve which skin never so little touch'd feels perfectly which would not come to pass if it were not the Organ of the Touch. 'T is therefore woven of infinite nerves terminated in it and bringing the animal spirits to it which are the efficient causes of the Touch as well as of all the other Senses For what the Philosopher saith That a sensible object apply'd upon the Organ is not perceiv'd must be understood only of the three Senses which are for the convenience of an animal to wit the Sight Hearing and Smelling not of the other two which are for its absolute necessity upon which consideration Nature hath appointed them to judge more neerly exercising these two Senses by a medium internal and inseparable from the Organ II. Of Fortune Upon the second Point it was said Fortune is a cause by accident in things which are done for some end by an Agent that makes use of Reason So 't is fortune when one walking for his health or divertisement finds a Purse but chance hazard or adventure is in things which act for some end without election as brutes mad people and children who are not fortunate or unfortunate unless in hope The difficulty of understanding the nature of Fortune ariseth from the infinite abundance of things which may be causes of things which befall men And as 't is proper to man to admire what he understands not upon the observation of the many strange and unforeseen accidents in the world some say that they come to pass by a fatal destiny necessarily guiding every cause to its effect others that they fall out by chance to which the ancient Philosophers ascrib'd so much that Empedocles accounted the situation of the Elements fortuitous Democritus and Leucippus thought the production of all things was effected by the casual concourse of their atomes flying in the vacuum insomuch that out of a blind superstition they erected Temples and Altars to Fortune For indeed there is nothing divine in Fortune since there is not any cause by it self but may be a cause by accident and consequently Fortune Nor is it the Divine Providence since that which is foreseen cannot be call'd fortuitous But we give the appellation of Fortune to any cause which missing of its proper effect produceth another which it intended not The Second said 'T was the ignorance of men that invented Fortune which hath no other existence but in their imagination For every thing that is hath a certain cause determined to its effect But Fortune and Chance are uncertain and indeterminate therefore not causes And although the proximate cause of every thing be unknown to us yet 't is not the less certain for all that in respect of God who ignores nothing Therefore if there be a fortune in respect of us 't is an effect of our ignorance The Third said We must establish in Nature either Destiny or Fortune The former seems to fasten man to Ixion's wheel which permits him not to do any thing of himself and takes from him the commendation of good and blame of evil rendring him by this means guiltless of whatever he do's and laying all upon universal causes whatever distinction may be made of God's will in general and particular it not being conceivable that two contrary wills can at the same time proceed from the same source The second is more correspondent with the daily events which produce effects whereof no necessary cause can be found Indeed if effects are to be divided according to their causes 't is certain that some are necessary and some contingent whereof the latter being fortuitous cannot be referr'd to any thing but to Fortune Yea of the things which come to pass in the world some always arrive in the same manner as day and night when the Sun rises and sets others fall out ordinarily but not always as that a child is born with five fingers on a hand there being some that have six and others on the contrary arrive very rarely as Monsters But if this variety of causes and effects hath place in natural things 't is found much oftner in humane actions whose constancy is unconstancy it self there being not any whose effect is certain For what man can promise himself
that when he labours he shall infallibly become rich that when he fights he shall have the victory that when he serves he shall be acceptable or that when he loves he shall be lov'd Whereas on the contrary we see many persons enrich'd without labour honour'd without fighting and acceptable without performance of any services and which is more many times hated by those they love and lov'd by those they hate Of all which we must either assign some cause or confess that there is no other cause thereof but hap or mishap which they call Fortune The Fourth said That Dionysius the younger the Tyrant of Syracuse was not of their judgement who disclaim Fortune assigning the cause of his not being able to preserve the Estates of his Father That he left him Heir of all excepting his Fortune Now the Ancients had Fortune in great reverence and put her amongst their domestick Gods And the Emperours religiously kept her Statue of gold which they sent as a badge of Empire to those whom they intended to design their successors Thus Antoninus Pius being ready to dye sent it to Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher and Severus sent it to his two sons Bassianus and Geta. Moreover because it visibly bears the chief stroke in gaming even in those Games to which she gives not the addition of her name and depend not upon skill there are found some at this day who think they can fix her to some thing which they wear about them while they are at play others attribute it to a particular situation of their bodies in respect of the Planets But all agree that Caesar ow'd more to his valour then to his fortune that if she could not make an Orator of a Consul or the contrary yet she can make a poor man rich by play and he must be a great Rhetorician that can perswade those who have good or bad luck that there is no Fortune The Fifth said 'T would be too much presumption in us to accuse all antiquity of ignorance which observ'd not only certain persons and places but some days and hours fortunate and unfortunate noting the happy days with chalk and the other with a black stone Moreover Philosophers divide goods into those of the Mind the Body and Fortune comprizing under the latter Friends Lineage Reputation Honours and Riches which are the things men make most account of in this world And riches are so commonly attributed to her that they are frequently denoted by the name of Fortune So that to maintain that there is no such thing is to go about to overthrow common sense and to correct Calepin But her efficiency is chiefly prov'd by the employments which happen to many contrary to all apparence according to the diversity of which every one makes progress or not in riches and honours For he that labours in little things takes most pains and gets least and so on the contrary which cannot be attributed to any thing else but fortune no more then the contracts bargains and other actions of men which are made almost always by chance Whence arose the Proverb There is nothing but good luck and bad luck in the world In War such a great Captain is constantly unfortunate whereas Timotheus was always the contrary in whose Nets Cities came to be taken whilst he slept In Physick such a Doctor is always accounted lucky whereas 't was enough to kill a sick man but to have seen Hermocrates in a dream not to mention what the Lawyers themselves call the hazard of Judgements The Sixth said The Ancients did like the Gouty person mention'd by Montagne who ate Saucidges and Gammons and drunk of the best that he might have whom to lay the fault upon They phancy'd Fortune that they might have whom to blame for evil events or rather to blaspheme against the Deity She is a pure fiction of the Poets who represented her upon a wheel one half whereof always ascends and the other descends to shew the volubility and continual vicissitude of humane things blind to signifie that good or evil doth not always befall us according to desert but oftentimes without distinction sometimes a man and sometimes a woman but principally the latter to denote her inconstancy all this mysteriously as all their other fables to take which literally were to do worse then the learned Pagans themselves The Seventh said Every one is the Artificer of his own fortune and all the Deities are present where Prudence is though we rank Fortune among the Gods Of whom we may say what Hercules said to the bemired Waggoner who invok'd him but touch'd not the wheel Help thy self and God will help thee none having ever obtain'd the title of fortunate but by great pains watchings and industries means which the vulgar not observing so much as their effect attribute it to a Deity Moreover dextrous men affect the title of lucky because the vulgar esteems them the more for it and the great est States-men hiding their counsels and the instruments they make use of to accomplish their designes give occasion to this errour Therefore when Zeno had lost all his wealth by Shipwreck he should not have said Fortune thou hast done well to bring me to this short cloak but rather have accus'd his own imprudence in having ventur'd all his estate at sea For since there is nothing in the world but hath its cause and fortune is that which is done by no cause it follows that there is no such thing as fortune CONFERENCE LV. I. Of the Taste II. Whether Poetry be useful I. Of the Taste THe right handling of a subject requiring the knowledge of its differences an Apicius might seem fitter to discourse of Taste then a Philosopher in whom too exact a knowledge of Sauces would be accounted blameable yet the word of Sapience or Wisdom among the Latines taking its name from Sapours the Sages who profess it may seem oblig'd too to be expert in this matter Besides this Sense supplies Physitians with the surest evidence of the faculties of every medicament by their Sapours which are second Qualities resulting from the various mixture of the four first whereof the Taste is an external sense discerning Sapours by help of the moisture in the mouth and the Nerve of the third Congjugation which is expanded upon the tongue whose flesh is therefore spungy and porous the more easily to imbibe the same Thus the object of the Taste is sapour or rellish the Organ is the Nerve the medium is the flesh of the tongue the condition without which it is not exercis'd is the humour either internal as that of the mouth supply'd by the Tonsils or Almonds or external as the moisture which all bodies have either in act or in power Whence they whose tongue is dry cannot taste that which is so nevertheless the humidity must be moderate since its excess no less depraves the taste then its defect The Second said Since the Organ ought not to
Cannons and see the field strow'd with Carcases and so in all other subjects which he treats Wherefore to be a good Poet one must know every thing in perfection which makes Poetry so difficult and consequently so rare and admirable that few succeed well in it For there are many Versifiers but few Poets The Third said There need no other Judges to condemn Poetry then Poets themselves who call their highest conceits Fury that is to say Folly whether it arrive to them from their fabulous gods or more truly from the fumes of Wine which cause them to make the best Verses as they tell of Ennius the frequentation of which is one of the greatest crimes that Cato imputed to Marcus Nobilior in the survey that he made of his Province and 't is observ'd that there is so great affinity between Poetry and Folly that the best Poets have very odd actions and postures while they are making their works and retain something thereof in their ordinary carriage The Fourth said Variety of Wit has not appear'd in any Science more then in Poetry For it has not only different laws according to the diversity of Nations which makes it doubted what sort of Verses those of Job are considering that they have no resemblance with the Greek and Latine no more then these have with ours But neither were ours which consist of certain numbers of feet and consonances or rithmes such as those in Caesar's time in which he reports that the Gauls versifi'd and within a thousand years that our rithme began in imitation of the Prose of the Church French Poetry hath been so often diversifi'd that the Poets of one age would not be so in another And yet sometimes under the name of Rithmers sometimes under that of Devisers and Poets they have been always very acceptable to great persons And Charle magne prefer'd the Poems containing the exploits of his Predecessors before their Histories The Fifth said That Plato and sundry other Politicians accounted Poety not only so useless but so hurtful to their Common-wealth that they utterly banish'd it from thence because Poets by their shameful relations of the vices of the gods intic'd men to commit the like conceiving they did not offend when they had the example of a god and for that Verses are more proper for loose loves then the Sciences of which the confinements of Poetry are not capable besides that the enthusiasm of Poets cannot consist with the gravity of Philosophy seldom with the probity of manners and never with a setled judgement the Italian Proverb being almost always found true Di buona terra cattiva Gente Di buon Poeta cattiva mente Whence Aristophanes saith that when Bacchus desir'd to find Euripedes or some other good Poet he went down to Hell because he could not any in Heaven Moreover their too great liberty of Satyrical detraction made them sometimes be driven out of Rome Their dangerous doctrine has caus'd the reading of them to be forbidden to Christians by the Canons and render'd them so infamous that Philip the first Christian Emperour in the third Law at the title of Professors and Physitians in the Cade grants no immunity to them as he doth to all others Indeed one may get his living in all professions with honour except in Poetry and if it always less fills the Poets Purses with Crowns then their heads with presumption so as it happens in all other Conceits or Pastimes it may be found sometimes proper for the divertisement of those few that have leisure to read them but 't is most unprofitable to the Authors for few or none are advanc'd by it but rather many have been hindred by this art of versifying from making their fortune otherwise Yea their profession is so vile and abject that whereas others count it an honour to be styl'd Physitians Advocates or the like these are offended with the name of Poet. And that with good reason considering that of all other Arts Poetry alone glories in disguising the truth For which cause it begins to be banish'd even from Theatres to which alone it was destinated and Prose is come in request in sundry places being preferr'd for gracefulness and naturalness by which means this Art is in danger to be confin'd to the corners of streets to serve only for Songs and Balladâ— Hence it was that Ovid was so severely punish'd by his father to make him leave off this Art which prov'd so unlucky to him that for writing his Book of the Art of Loving he became of a rich Roman Knight a miserable exile amongst Barbarians The Sixth said 'T is to be a sworn enemy of excellent things or rather as Scaliger saith to renounce being man to think of banishing Poetry out of States which is slighted only by the ignorant and hated by those that have irregular minds For melody is natural not only to man but to all things in the world which God hath created in number and measure Which made the Pythagoreans say that not only the Celestial Bodies make a most agreeable consort but also the Plants by their proportions and the beasts by their motions chant measured Odes in praise of their Creator Therefore with more reason must man whose soul is a number moving of it self be delighted with numerous language which is Poetry the most sensible effect of that divine Harmony which is infus'd into his body And we may make the same judgement of good from vulgar wits by their delight or disaffection to Poetry as by the recreation which they take in Musick Indeed if a wise man ought to be regular in all his actions why not in his words the image of his Reason as Reason is of his soul. As if you should say that the well regulated dance of a Ball ought to be less priz'd then the ordinary walk or a Country dance Moreover Poetry hath such power over mens minds Tyrtaeus animated his Souldiers to fight by the rehearsal of his Verses which was also the custom of the Germans when they were to charge their enemies Moses David and many other Prophets accounted nothing more worthy then Poetry to sing the praises of God And the first Poets as Musaeus Orpheus and Linus were the Divines of Paganisme Yea the gods of antiquity affected to deliver their Oracles in Verse and so did Legislators their Laws to render them more venerable Besides they greatly help the memory their cadence or measure serving as a rule to the mind to keep it from being at a loss Poetry alone amongst all the Arts supplies praise to vertue the rampant stile of Rhetorical discourse though it borrow its fairest flowers and square periods from Poetry being not comparable to that of Poetry which is far more sublime and consequently more fit to immortalize the memory of Heroick actions Upon which account the Muses were believ'd the Daughters of Mnemosyne or Memory Now if Poets have been sometimes expell'd out of States so have Philosophers Physitians
be a corporeal substance and Democritus and Epicurus conceiv'd saying that Light is an Emanation of particles or little bodies from a lucid body or as they who make it a species of fire which they divide into That which burnes and shines That which burns and shines not and That which shines but burns not which is this Light For no natural body is mov'd in an instant nor in all sorts of places as Light is but they have all a certain difference of position or tendency some towards the centre others towards the circumference and others circularly The Sixth said 'T is true Light is not of the nature of our sublunary bodies for it is not generated and corrupted as they are It is not generated since generation is effected by corruption of one form and introduction of another But we have instances of incorruptible Light even here below as that in the Temple of Venus which could not be extinguish'd nor consum'd though neither oyle nor wick were put to it and that other found in a Sepulchre where it had burn'd for fifteen hundred years but as soon as it took Air went out And indeed the subtilety and activity of Fire is such that it may be reasonably conceiv'd to attract the sulphurous vapours for its subsistence which are in all parts of the Air but especially in Mines whose various qualities produce the diversity of subterraneal fires as to their lasting continuance and interval which some compare to the intermitting fevers excited in our bodies by a praeternatural heat II. Of Age. Of the Second Point it was said That Age is the measure of the Natural Changes whereunto Man is subject by the principles of his being which are various according to every ones particular constitution some being puberes having a beard or grey haires or such other tokens sooner then others according to the diversity of their first conformation Whence ariseth that of their division Aristotle following Hippocrates divides them into Youth Middle Age and Old Age or according to Galen into Infancy or Child-hood vigour or Man-hood or old age or according to most they are divided into Adolescence Youth the Age of Consistence and Old Age. Adolescence comprehends Infancy which reacheth to the seventh year Puerility which reacheth to the fourteenth year Puberty which reacheth to the eighteenth and that which is call'd by the general name Adolescence reaching to the five and twentieth Youth which is the flower of Age is reckon'd from twenty five to thirty three years of age Virile and Consistent Age from thirty five to forty eight where Old Age begins which is either green middle or decrepit These Four Ages are the Four Wheeles of our Life whose mutations they denote the First being nearest the original hot and moist symbolizing with the blood the Second hot and dry with Choler the Third cold and dry with melancholy the Fourth cold and moist with Phlegme which being contrary to the radical humidity leads to death Now if it be true that they say that life is a punishment and an Abridgement of miseries Old Age as being nearest the haven and the end of infelicities is the most desirable Moreover being the most perfect by its experiences and alone capable to judge of the goodnesse of Ages 't is fit we refer our selves to the goodnesse of its judgement as well in this point as in all others The Second said Since to live is to act the most perfect and delightful of all the Ages of life is that in which the functions of body and mind whereof we consist are best exercis'd as they are in Youth which alone seems to dispute preheminence with Old Age not onely by reason of the bodily health and vigor which it possesses in perfection and which supplies Spirits and Courage for brave deeds whereof that declining Age which is it self a necessary and incurable malady is incapable but also in regard of the actions of the mind which is far more lively inventive and industrious in young persons then in old whose wit wears out grows worse with the body whence came that so true Proverb That old men are twice children For 't is a disparagement to the original of wisdom to deduce it from infirmity to name that ripe which is rotten and to believe that good counsels can come only from the defect of natural heat since according to his judgement who hath best described wisdom old age causes as many wrinkles in the mind as in the face and we see no souls but as they grow old smell sowre and musty and acquire abundance of vices and evil habits of which Covetousness alone inseparable from old age which shews its weakness of judgement to scrape together with infinite travel what must shortly be forsaken is not less hurtful to the State then all the irregularities of youth Now if the supream good be in the Sciences then the young men must infallibly carry the cause since sharpness of wit strength of phancy and goodness of memory of which old men are wholly destitute and ability to undergo the tediousness of Lucubration are requisite to their acquisition If it consists in a secret complacency which we receive from the exercise of vertuous actions then young men who according to Chancellor Bacon excel in morality will carry it from old men it being certain that the best actions of life are perform'd between twenty and thirty years of age or thereabouts which was the age at which Adam was created in Paradise as our Lord accomplish'd the mystery of our Redemption at the age of 33 years which shall also be the age at which the blessed shall rise up to glory when every one shall enjoy a perfect youth such as given to the Angels and put off old age which being not much different from death may as well as that be call'd the wages of sin since if our first Parent had persisted in the state of Innocence we should have possess'd the glory of perpetual undeclining Youth Moreover 't is at this Age that the greatest personages have manifested themselves we have seen but few old Conquerors and if there be any he hath this of Alexander that he aspires to the conquest of another world not having long to live in this Wherefore in stead of pretending any advantage over the other ages old men should rather be contented that people do not use them as those of Cea and the Massagetes who knock'd them on the head or the ancient Romans who cast them head-long from a Bridge into Tiber accounting it an act of piety to deliver them from life whose length was displeasing to the Patriarchs the Scripture saying that they dy'd full of days The Third said That the innocence of Infants should make us desire their age considering that our Lord requires that we be like them if we would enter into his Kingdom and the Word of God speaks to us as we do to children Moreover since Nature could not perpetuate infancy she
and their duration is their age the second are successive whose duration is time For duration follows the existence of every thing as necessarily as existence follows essence Existence is the term of production Duration is the term of conservation So that to doubt whether there be such a real thing in Nature as Time is to doubt of the duration and existence of every thing although the Scripture should not assure us that God made the day and the night which are parts of time Moreover the contrary reasons prove nothing saving that time is not of the nature of continuous beings but of successive which consists in having no parts really present This Time is defin'd by the Philosopher The Number of Motion according to its prior and posterior parts that is to say by means of time we know how long the motion lasted when it begun and when it ended For being Number may serve for Measure and Measure for number therefore they are both taken for one and the same thing Indeed when a thing is mov'd 't is over some space whose first parts answer to the first parts of motion and the latter parts of the space to the latter parts of the motion and from this succession of the latter parts of the motion to the former ariseth a duration which is time long or short according to the slowness or quickness of this motion And because by means of this duration we number and measure that of motions and of all our actions therefore it is call'd Number or Measure although it be onely a Propriety of Time to serve for a Measure and no ways of its essence The Fourth said That to understand time 't is requisite to understand the motion and two moments one whereof was at the beginning of that motion and the other at the end and then to imagine the middle or distance between those two extreams which middle is Time Therefore man alone being able to make comparison of those two extreams only he of all animals understands and computes time Hence they who wake out of a deep and long sleep think it but a small while since they first lay down to rest because they took no notice of the intermediate motions and think the moment wherein they fell asleep and that wherein they wak'd is but one single moment The same also happens to those who are so intent upon any action or contemplation that they heed not the duration of motions Now not only the motions of the body but those of the mind are measured by time Therefore in the dark he that should perceive no outward motion not even in his own body might yet conceive time by the duration of his soul's actions his thoughts desires and other spiritual motion And as Time is the Measure of Motion so it is likewise of rest since the reason of contraries is the same And consequently motion and rest being the causes of all things time which is their duration is also their universal cause The Fifth said That 't is ordinary to men to attribute the effects whereof they know not the causes to other known causes though indeed they be nothing less so they attribute misfortunes losses death oblivion and such other things to Heaven to Time or to place although they cannot be the causes thereof Hence some certain days have been superstitiously accounted fortunate or unfortunate as by the Persians the third and sixth of August in regard of the losses which they had suffer'd upon those days the first of April by Darius and the Carthaginians because upon the same day he had lost a Battle to Alexander and these were driven out of Sicily by Timoleon who was always observ'd to have had some good fortune upon his birth day Moreover the Genethliacks affirm that the day of Nativity is always discriminated by some remarkable accident for which they alledge the example of Charles V. whose birth day the 24th of February was made remarkable to him by his election to the Empire and the taking of Francis I. before Pavia Such was also that day afterwards solemniz'd in which Philip of Macedon receiv'd his three good tidings But as there is no hour much less day but is signaliz'd by some strange accidents so there is not any but hath been both fortunate and unfortunate As was that of Alexander's birth who saw Diana's Temple at Ephesus burnt by Herostratus and the Persians put wholly to the rout Yet the same Alexander as likewise Attalus Pompey and many others dy'd upon the day of their Nativity so did Augustus upon that of his Inauguration Wherefore 't is no less ridiculous to refer all these accidents to Time then to attribute to it the mutation oblivion and death of all things whereof it is not the cause although for this purpose Saturn was painted with a sickle in his hand with which he hew'd every thing down and devour'd his own children For Time as well as Place being quantities which are no ways active they cannot be the causes of any things The Sixth said Time is diversly taken and distinguish'd according to the diversity of Professions Historians divide it into the four Monarchies of the Medes the Persians the Greeks and the Romans and the States and Empires which have succeeded them The Church into Working-days and Festivals the Lawyers into Terms and Vacations the Naturalists consider them simply as a property of natural body Astronomers as an effect of Heaven Physitians as one of the principal circumstances of Diseases which they divide into most acute acute and chronical or long which exceed 40 days and each of them into their beginning augmentation state and declination as distinguish'd by the common indicatory and critical days II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Upon the second Point it was said That Force being that which first caus'd obedience and admiration in the world the strongest having ever over-mastered others it cannot enter into comparison with a thing that passes for a Vice and even amongst Women as sleight and and subtlety doth and crafts in any action otherwise glorious greatly diminisheth its lustre So Hercules is more esteem'd for having slain the Nemaean Lion with his club then Lysimachus for having taken away the life of another by dextrously thrusting his hand wrap'd up in a piece of cloth into his open'd throat and so strangling him of which no other reason can be given but that the former kil'd him by his cunning and the other by plain strength Moreover General things are made of Particular duels and single fights are little pictures of battles Now every one knows what difference there is between him that overcomes his Enemy without any foul play and another that makes use of some invention or artisice to get advantage of him For though Duels are justly odious to all good men yet he that hath behav'd himself gallantly therein even when he is overcome gains more Honour then he that by some fraud
have been seen to make good Verses others to discourse learnedly of the sublimest matters some to speak languages and tell things to come Which may naturally proceed from the souls being capable of it self to know every thing the past by help of the memory the present by all the senses and the future by the Understanding and meeting with a brain whose temperature is by disease render'd proper for such actions the same being possible to befall it by such accidents as happens by age which changing the temper of the body is also the cause of the diversity of actions Therefore children cannot perform the functions of the reasonable soul because they are of a hot and moist temper unapt for the actions of the actions of the Understanding as on the contrary very fit for the actions of the vegetative and sensitive soul. So that if men were born cold and dry they would come into the world perfectly wise and judicious but because they acquire this temperature of brain only with time therefore they are not knowing but with time II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humor Upon the second Point it was said That it might be handled either physically or morally If it be demanded upon the former principles whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same temper 't is answer'd that as Nature hath distinguish'd the Sex so she hath assign'd to either its peculiar temperament if a woman which should be cold and moist be hot and dry she is unapt for generation as the husband also is when being ill qualifi'd with hot and dry he falls within the Law de Frigidis But if it be question'd morally whether conformity of manners be more requisite to Matrimony then their diversity and difference then since diversity of actions is necessary in a family the office of the husband being other then that of the wife it seems they ought to be as different in manners as they are in the temper which produces such manners and these the inclinations and actions The Second said Those Philosophers who held that the Male and Female were each but one part of man which name is common to both would have concluded for resemblance of humours and manners for they said that either sought his other half till they found it Which made the friendships so boasted of in pass'd ages and so rare in this and likewise marriages of which they that take more notice find that but few married couples have no resemblance even in their countenance Moreover marriages being made in heaven and the most considerable accidents of life the same influence which makes the marriage of the husband must also make that of the wife and if all actions here below borrow their force from the heavens as Astrologers hold the husband and wife having the same universal cause of so great and notable a change whereon depends almost all the welfare and misery of either cannot but resemble one another And therefore those who resemble one another most will agree best with their universal cause and consequently the Stars will find less resistance to produce their effects upon them and so they will live more sweetly then if by contrariety of manners they should do as the Traveller at sea who walks in the ship contrary to its course or who attempts to sail against wind and tyde or rather like those that draw several ways whereby the cord is sooner broken then any advancement made of the load so during this contrariety of manners nothing can go forward in the management of domestick affairs Hence the Proverb that we must eat many a bushel of Salt with a man before we chuse him for a friend is interpreted that by semblance of food a similitude of manners with him must be acquir'd which if requisite between two friends how much more between two married persons who ought not to have greater friends then they are one to the other being in society of all the goods and all the evils of this life Imagine one of a pleasant the other of a melancholy humour one loving company the other solitude the opposition of these contrary inclinations will render the presence of the one as insupportable to the other as Musick and Dancing are displeasing to a sad man or tedious complaints for one dead are to him that is dispos'd to mirth For by this disproportion the mind receives a check which is very disagreeable to it If one be young and the other old one handsome the other deformed one of an amorous complexion and the other not the mischiefs which follow thereupon are too common to be enumerated If one be nimble and the other slow the actions of the one will displease the other whereas that which pleases being or appearing good and nothing next our selves being so acceptable to us as what resembles us two persons who shall agree to do something or not to do it shall have peace and tranquillity of mind The Third said That in Oeconomy as well as Policy there ought to be a harmony which consists in diversity and not in unisonance or identity which is every where disagreeable and dull This made Aristotle desire that the man were at least ten years elder then the woman the disparity of age causing that of humours and this makes the difference which is found between individuals one of the greatest wonders of the world Therefore the husband and wife ought to be unlike in their manners and actions to the end either may keep their station the one above the other below one command the other obey Moreover the husband and wife that always agreed would have no matter to talk of Be the man a great talker and the woman too the house will be always full of noise on the contrary the silence of the one will give place to the other's talkativeness and excuse it If both be knowing or skilful they will not esteem one another but if one admire the other there will be greater love between them If both be prodigal they will quickly see the bottom of the bag whereas the thriftiness of the one will make amends for the expensiveness of the other If one be sad the other being pleasant will divert him if not they will both fall into the excess either of sadness or joy If one be prophane the party that is devout will convert him by good example In brief if one be severe 't is good that the other be gentle if one be passionate that the other be patient otherwise the house will be always in an uproar The Fourth said If Justinian or rather his Wife Theodora had not abolish'd the laudable custom of divorcing wives introduc'd by Spurius Carrilius to abate their pride and malice or at least if the wives of these times were of the humour of those Roman women who having displeas'd their husbands ask'd them pardon in the Temple of a Goddess call'd for that reason Viriplaca it would not
is most plenty and most vent Wherefore 't is one of the best expedients to invite the most excellent Artists from all parts of the world by immunities priviledge and rewards As to the Soul Religion bears a great stroke in this matter obliging men to Voyages Pilgrimages Offerings and other devotions in some places rather then others And next are Academies and Universities all sorts of Sciences and Disciplines The Second said That a City being an assembly and union of many persons in order to live happily filling it with people is not so necessary as exact observation of Laws which consisting only in order are commonly neglected in places where multitude causeth confusion Hence Solon Lycurgus and most ancient Legislators limited the Inhabitants of their Cities to a certain number which Hippodamus the Milesian restrain'd to ten thousand men and at this day in some Cities as Lisbon and Naples 't is not lawful to erect new buildings which hath also been frequently prohibited at Paris For the same reason many Nations have discharg'd themselves of their people by colonies or sending them to the conquest of other Territories as did sometimes the Gauls under Bremus the Goths Huns Alans Hernles and Vandals under Attila and Alaric and the Swisses are at this day in the service of most Princes and States The Third said That the true strength of a State both for offence and defence consists in the number of men and therefore a City flourishes according to its populousness The small number of inhabitants limited by Legislators hath sometimes been the losse of their Republicks that of Sparta in the battle of Leuctra and Athens in one single battle against Philip as it would also have been of the Roman Empire at the defeat of Cannae where 50000. Romans dy'd upon the place without the supply which they found in the almost innumerable multitude of the Citizens of Rome render'd populous by the residence of Kings Consuls and Emperors and the supreme Tribunal of Justice which the Senate dispens'd thence to all the world with whose spoils it was inrich'd Whose increase was also promoted by the rigorous laws against coelibacy and the priviledges granted to such as had many children for propagating which before Christiauity they permitted polygamy and divorce and authoriz'd concubinage by legitimation of natural issues Moreover the felicity of a City lying in the plenty and sufficiency of all things which is not found except amongst a great number of inhabitants who interchangeably communicate their commodities the most populous City is the most happy And experience manifests that the Laws and Justice are better administred in great Cities then in hamblets and villages especially when Concord whereby small things grow is maintain'd therein CONFERENCE LXXVI I. Of Madness II. Of Community of goods I. Of Madness SInce Man by his treason first destroy'd the goodly order establish'd by God in nature endeavoring to advance himself above his Creator the beasts have also in just punishment of his crime shaken off his yoke some offending him by their breath others by their sight some with the voice most with biting which if venomous as that of Serpents and mad Dogs imprints a malignant quality in the whole habit of the Body whose temper it destroys That of mad-dogs although less painful then any yet more horrible and so much more dangerous in that it oftentimes seizes upon the noble parts without being perceiv'd till the madness be at the height The signes for knowing this Evil in its birth in order to prevent it are not taken from the wound which is altogether like other wounds but from the dog that made it For if he be mad he neither eats nor drinks although he thirst extremely he pants and blows hangs out his tongue which is yellow and tinctur'd with choler he casts forth dry and clotted froth at the mouth and nose hangs down his ears looks wildly with sparkling eyes flyes at known and unknown and bites without barking he is lean carries his tail between his legs clinging to his belly he runs fast and stops suddenly hits upon every obstacle without going out of his way and other dogs avoid him But if the dog cannot be seen then bruised nuts or hot bread must for some hours be lay'd upon the wound or else meal temper'd with the blood running from it given to a hungry dog or hen who will dye if the wound were made by a mad dog The Second said Madness is a malady oftentimes with deliration caus'd in an Animal by a particular poyson communicated to Man with extreme aversion against all liquors especially water It happens to Wolves Oxen Horses Cats and almost all Animals but most frequently to Dogs either by reason of their melancholy temper or a particular inclination which they have to madness as the swine hath to leprosie For 't is an Evil that is not known but by its effects 't is a poyson particularly apt to be communicated to Man by biting by the slaver foam or feeding of an enrag'd Animal not depending on the first qualities but acting with its whole substance As appears in that it reigns in great colds and excessive heats but is cur'd with medicines which act not by their first qualities but by their whole substance as the ashes of fresh-water Crabs and Mithridate and according to Dioscorides 't is contracted by qualities altogether occult as to sleep very long in the shadow of a Service Tree and he saith he saw a Carder of Wool become mad onely by having long beaten his wool with a wand of Cornel Tree The same is affirm'd of a plant call'd Dog-berry Tree Yet the most part with Matthiolus and Fernelius hold that these causes may awaken the hidden evil and augment it but not produce it unless in such as have been mad before But how comes this poyson to lie hid so long that Fracastorius saith it seldome appears before the one and twentieth day commonly after the thirtieth in many after four or six moneths and sometimes after divers years seeing all poysons being an enemy to the Heart should be carry'd thither suddenly by the Arteries This seems to proceed from the proportion of the Agent and Patient and their several resistance differing according to the degrees of the poyson the diversity of tempers or food climates or the part hurt For poyson being contrary to our nature by particular malignity cannot be wholly subdu'd by our natural heat and so may preserve its malignity in the body a long while without manifesting it self till it have first introduc'd dispositions requisite to its reception which happens to be sooner or later according to the good or bad temper of the body whence in several persons bitten by the same dog madness appears in some sooner in others later As some have the small pox when they are well in years others in their infancy though most Physitians agree that 't is an Ebullition of some venemous matter contracted by every one in
famous Simon Magus as Saint Clement reports seem'd to create a man in the Air render'd himself invisible appear'd with several faces flew in the Air penetrated rocks turn'd himself into a sheep and a goat commanded a sickle to reap corn as it did more alone then ten labourers and by this means deluded the eyes of all the world except those of Saint Peter Such was also in the dayes of our Fathers one Trisulcan who to defame his Curate made him think that he was playing at cards whereas he was turning over his breviary whereupon he flung it upon the ground and M. Gonin being hang'd on a gibbet the first presidents mule was seen hanging in his place Their transports are sometimes real sometimes imaginary the Devil keeping them in a deep sleep all the while The Third said That the power of Evil Spirits whose instruments Sorcerers are is so limited that they cannot either create or annihilate a straw much lesse produce any substantial form or cause the real descent of the Moon or hinder the Stars motion as Heathen Antiquity stupidly believ'd Indeed they are able to move all sublunary things so they cause Earthquakes the Devil either congregting Exhalations in its hollownesses or agitating the Air included therein Sopater having been put to death for so tying up the winds that no merchandize could be transported to Byzantium And Philostratus relates that Apollonius saw two tubs or tuns among the Brachmans which being open'd there arose most vehement winds and rain and shut again the Air became calm and serene Olaus also testifies the like of the Laplanders and Finlanders who sold winds to Merchants Moreover the Devils are call'd by the Apostle Princes of the Air they cause Hail Thunder Rain and Fire to fall where they please yet alwayes conditionally that God lets the bridle loose to them as he did when he burnt Job's servants and flocks and overthrew the house wherein his children were with a whirl-wind So in the year 1533. a Sorcerer burnt the whole Town of Silthoc in Sweden to the ground And as they can obscure so they can infect the Air and more easily the waters stopping them and making them run backwards which Pliny saith himself saw in his time They kill Animals by infecting them or their pastures or else suffocate them by entring into them as they did the swine of the Gadarenes They can also extinguish the plenty of a Country by transporting the fatness of it elsewhere not by virtue of the Sorcerers words much lesse is it by those that they introduce flies grashoppers and catterpillars or other insects into a place either assembling them together or producing them out of congruous matter The Fourth said That the effects of Nature and Art are to be distinguish'd from those of enchantments for want of which satisfaction some juglers pass for Sorcerers among the vulgar who are apt to apprehend supernatural means when they are ignorant of the natural or artificial causes For removing of which calumny C. Furius Cresnius being accus'd of having bewitch'd his neighbours fields and transported all their fertility into his own brought his servants his oxen and plough into the Senate declaring that these were all his charms Moreover many times the sterility imputed to Sorcerers proceeds from Gods anger who makes the Heaven iron and the Earth brass for their wickedness So when a private person arrives to great honour or estate suddenly though it be by his merit yet the generality of people the meanest of which account themselves worthy of the same fortune attribute such extraordinary progresses to the Devil And yet 't is a rare thing if ever heard of that any one was enrich'd by the Devil either because he reserves his riches for Antichrist wherewith to seduce the Nations or because God doth not suffer it lest men should forsake his service for that of Devils and the good should be too sorely afflicted by the wicked II. Of Amorous Madness Upon the Second Poynt it was said That Love being not very wise of it self 't is no hard matter for it to become extravagant for it cares not for mediocrity and consequently is subject to most tragical accidents It s Excess is call'd Erotick or Amorous Madness which is a species of melancholy deliration caus'd by the continual representation of the thing lov'd which possesses the Phancy of the poor Lovers that they can think of nothing else and many times forget to eat drink and sleep and the other necessary actions of life 'T is different according to diversity of temper of brain and body the degree of the melancholly humour and the profession of those that are possess'd with it Hence melancholy persons are fullest of flatuosities and Spirits and the sanguine as having most blood are most subject to it They are known by their hollow and languishing eyes inequality of pulse and visage especially when the party lov'd is spoken of or seen by which means Galen discover'd the Love-sickness of a Roman Lady and Erasistratus that of Seleuous's Son for his Mother in law Stratonice This distemper is the more dangerous because 't is pleasing to those that are tormented with it and hard to cure because they fear nothing more then their cure being fond of their fetters But being a disease of the Mind the surest remedy is to divert from the thought of what they love and to avoid idleness the mother of lasciviousness The body also must be conveniently purg'd from its predominant humours according to which these patients differ the sanguine are merry and laugh continually and oftentimes alone love songs and dances the cholerick are froward and so furious that some have kill'd themselves through the violence of their passions and Romances are full of such persons The melancholy are pensive solitary and sad that dull and cold humour hebitating the souls motion If this distemper proceed from abundance of geniture remedies must be us'd which extinguish it as Rue Purslane Lettice Water-lilly Willow-leaves Coriander seeds Agnus Castus Camphir and Mint The Second said As Love is the original so 't is the Abridgement of all Passions You may see these poor Lovers in the same hour love and hate fly and desire rejoyce and sorrow fear and dare be angry without a cause and be pacifi'd again with less reason in brief never to have their Minds setled any more then their bodies in the same posture and complexion alike Whence many have thought this malady produc'd by enchanted Drinks or Philtres which may indeed make one amorous but not determine him to a certain person besides that these Drinks cannot act upon our Will which is incorporeal nor captivate its liberty to a particular object unless the Devil have a hand in the business The Third said That the famousest of all Philtres is Hippomenes powder'd and taken knowingly by the Lover 'T is a little black and round piece of flesh about the bigness of a dry fig found upon a Colt's fore-head new
of the Island of Tenos can endure wine CONFERENCE LXXXIII I. Of Baths II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife I. Of Baths 'T Is not in vain that Physitians examine the nature of the places wherein man's body is contain'd For the ambient air water or earth as in Dropsies hath great influence upon the same Now Baths are either total for the whole body or partial for some members such as the Half-bath where the head breast and arms are remaining out of the water fomentations pumpings and the like This Bath was in such request among the Romans that their Emperors were at great care and charge in building them not only at Rome but even in this City of Paris where the Emperor Julian made one Its benefits are great when us'd in due time and place and its effects different according to its divers composition For it always moistens more or less but it heats cools or tempers according as 't is hot cold or temperate It opens the pores by removing the scurfe which stop'd them and dilating them by its heat whereby it insinuates into the inward parts especially the muscles which by this means it swells up and by colliquating the humour corrects their dryness and repairs the emptiness introduc'd thereinto by lassitude Whence us'd moderately it takes away weariness and repairs strength but continu'd too long and being hot it draws forth the strength of the party too much and causes faintings a cold Bath cools the parts it touches but by accident and consequence heats them by obstructing the pores and passages of the spirits Hence they that come out of this Bath are very hungry and Hippocrates saith that the Convulsion is cur'd by casting cold water upon the shoulders which moves nature to expell its enemy So in fainting nothing recovers the spirits and revives the heart more then cold water cast on the face where the skin is thinnest and the spirits abound most The Second said That those at Rome anciently pass'd through three places In the first where the air was well warm'd like the Stoves of Germany they put off their clothes In the second a little more heated by fire underneath or on the sides they sweat the water which steam'd from the heated vessels sticking to their naked bodies and being thence gently wip'd off all the filth was brought off with Curry-combs of Ivory Here also they were anointed with Oyle either before the Bath of warm water when they would not relax the pores nor evaporate the spirits as in those that newly recover a sickness or are exhausted by labour or after the Bath to hinder the sweat which follows For the oyl stops the pores of the skin and so hinders transpiration In the third place was the water luke-warm or something more where they bath'd themselves afterwards plung'd into cold water or a little less hot which was on the side of the same place to fortifie the relaxed members Lastly they return'd to the second place there to sweat and be rub'd repassing by the first to avoid the sudden mutation from hot air to cold the danger of which Alexander found when being too hot he went into a river falling into shiverings and convulsions wherewith he had perish'd had it not been for his Physitian Philip. Whereby it appears that a Bath profits or hurts according as it is well or ill administred and that our wise Ancestors were more circumspect in it then we which possibly is the cause why it was in so frequent use that Galen speaks of divers of his time who commonly bath'd themselves twice a day the good which we receive from any thing being the inducement to the frequent practice of it The Third said That unless upon urgent necessity and a medicinal account bathing is not only superfluous but very hurtful to men For besides that 't is unnatural not water but air being man's element it opens the body and makes it susceptible of any bad qualities of the air for which reason 't is forbidden in time of pestilence For as Oke lasts longer then Fig-tree because 't is more solid so soft bodies are more unhealthy and short-liv'd then firme as those of peasants are who arrive to ages without experience of any of those delicacies For so many conditions are requisite to a Bath that 't is commonly more hurtful then profitable It must be vari'd according to the diversity of seasons and complexions which Galen confesses he understood not And one and the same day will be of different temper as it happens in Autumn so that one and the same Bath will be proper and not proper Besides 't is prescrib'd to be as hot as milk from the Cow which it cannot be for two moments but is immediately alter'd by the ambient air If it be said that the body suffers well the same variations of the air I answer that it is not expos'd naked to the air whose excessive qualities are abated by our clothes Otherwise every one would be inconvenienc'd therewith unless he were accustom'd to it from his birth as the Savages are Besides the air adheres not to the skin and so makes but a transient impression It must be us'd after digestion we know not when this is ended the body being purg'd which it seldom is as it ought otherwise it excites fluxions in such as are full-bodied and subject to catarrhs It fills the head with vapours it relaxes the nerves and ligaments so that some have never felt the Gout but after bathing It kills the infant in the womb even when it is too hot 'T is an enemy to those that have Tetters or Erysipelas to fat and full bodi'd persons and generally to all that are not accustom'd to it as if this element were not innocent but as the most mischievous things are when made familiar by custom As for bathing in rivers those that swim therein as most do strain themselves more then do's them good besides the incommodities which they receive from the air whereunto they are expos'd So that if you add the loss of time to the rich the charge to the poor and incommodity to all you will not wonder that most men abstain from them and that Seneca chose no fitter place to dye in then a Bath The Fourth said That a Bath being one of the things call'd by the Physitians not-natural that is whose right or ill use hurts or do's good no more distinction need be us'd in it then there is in eating drinking sleeping waking and such other things But the advantages of a Bath rightly us'd have none equal to them First it cleanses the body and gives a man a new skin opens the pores to let out the fumes and steams of the vessels which also are temper'd by the water 's sweet and mild quality It corrects dryness the enemy of life which consists in humidity reducing the same to a just temper whence lean and hectical persons
That every thing that disturbs the publick quiet is to be repress'd concludes that the Seditious are to be punish'd So 't is not enough for a Mathematician to know that equal things added to equal things are likewise equal unless he apply this universal principle to particular lines surfaces and bodies Which is done either by the Synthetical or by the Analytical way which nevertheless must be follow'd by the Synthetical Now 't is in the application of these general rules to particulars that errour is committed even in the most certain Sciences The Seventh said That there are few Sciences because there are few Principles and Proposition's demonstrable as the contingent and the absolute are not Whence it is that the future is not demonstrable and hence follows the incertainty of Politicks Wherefore only necessary Propositions whereof the truth is permanent and eternal are demonstrable and all these are necessarily demonstrable because they have infallible principles yet only such of these whose principles are known by men are demonstrable by men So 't is certain that the Inundation of Nilus and the flux and reflux of the Sea are not demonstrable because men know not the principles are not known Whereby it appears how ridiculous they are who undertake to demonstrate every thing CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body THe extream variety of men's actions and manners cannot proceed from the diversity of their souls which are accounted all equal but from that of the bodies wherein according to the various tempers thereof the soul produces that variety of manners And as in natural and animal actions one and the same Soul digests in the stomack makes blood in the Liver and Veins sees by the Eyes and reasons in the Brain so likewise it is sometimes sad when the melancholy humour predominates in the body sometimes cheerful when blood abounds and sometimes also froward or angry when the choler is agitated The Second said That the soul being the form as the body is the matter it must be the cause of all humane actions not the body which receives them since the soul informs and perfectionates the body and begets in it the habit which produces the manners and actions As the horse governs not the rider but the contrary and 't is to the rider that the honour or blame of the course is to be imputed And were the soul but a quality as the most prophane have ventur'd to affirm yet the same priviledge must be reserv'd to it which is allow'd to the predominant quality in every compound which gives it not only the denomination but also the action as in compound medicaments the most active simple carries the credit from the rest Besides if the body and the humours thereof were the author and cause of manners an ignorant person could never become learned and a single Lecture of Xenocrates had never made a Drunkard cast off his chaplet of flowers and turn a Philosopher The examples of many grand personages sufficiently ill furnish'd with graces of the body evidence what certainty there is in arguing from the out-side of the corporeal structure to the furniture of the soul and that the signs of malice remark'd in some as in Zoilus from his having a red beard a black mouth and being lame and one-ey'd of Thersites and Irus from their having sharp heads rather shew the malice or ignorance of such as make these remarks then prove that these dispositions of body are the true cause of malice we see people of the same temper hair stature features and other circumstances very different in their manners and inclinations And the same is observ'd in horses For since the Stars the most powerful agents do not constrain but only incline certainly the humours cannot do more True it is their inclination is so strong that no less grace of Heaven is needful to resist the same then strength to retain a man that is rolling down the declivity of a hill Yet Socrates remaining unmov'd by the embraces of a Curtezan whom his Scholars contriv'd into his bed to try him although he was naturally very prone to vice justifies that how hard soever it be to stop the slipping foot when it is once going yet 't is not impossible and therefore the manners of the soul do not always follow the constitution of the body Not considering the power which the fear of God hath over our wills the effects whereof I here meddle not with as being supernatural since they have sometimes destroy'd all the maximes of nature witness those that give themselves to be burnt for the faith The Third said That the body must needs contribute to the soul's actions as being its instrument But it contributes only what it hath namely its temperament and other proprieties Therefore 't is from this temperament that the same are diversifi'd The soul sees no longer when the eyes are shut or blinded 't is wise in a well temper'd brain not only in a dry as Plato in his Timaeus conceiv'd because he saw children grow more prudent as their brain was desiccated 't is stupid in a too moist brain and foolish or furious in one inflam'd as in deliration or madness 'T is also forc'd to leave its body when a violent Fever hath so deprav'd the humours thereof that there remains not the temper necessary to its reception Therefore it follows the temper of the humours Thus because we see fire introduc'd into any combustible subject and extinguish'd when the same is consum'd we say fire follows combustible matter and becomes of the same nature quantity and other qualities Moreover Hippocrates saith Nations are warlike or cowardly laborious or not of good or bad nature according to the diversity of climates and soils they inhabit which render them diversly temper'd Hence in Asia where the air is temperate and less subject to changes then Europe and Africa men are more healthy and handsome their manners more equal and laudable on the contrary in Countries more cold or hot the inhabitants are either more cruel or more boisterous more hardy or more timerous and Mountaineers are more industrious as on the contrary those who live in a fertile soil are commonly more slothful Hence amongst the Greeks the Thebans and all the Baeotians whose Country was rich and the air very thick were very dull and the Athenians very subtle which was the cause that 't was said people were born Philosophers at Athens on the contrary 't was a prodigious thing to see one wise Anacharsis among the Scythians Hippocrates addes the seasons too according to the change whereof men's manners are also found divers But all these cannot act upon the soul but by the organ of the body changing its humours and introducing new qualities into the parts thereof The Fourth said Even sucking children give some tokens to what their
likewise had their Magi the Egyptians their Priests the Chaldeans and Babylonians their Astrologers and Sooth-sayers the Gaules their Druyds and Bards But the Greeks had more plenty and variety then any Their ancientest Philosophy was that of Musaeus Linus Orpheus Hesiod Homer who cover'd the Science of natural and supernatural things under the veil of Poetry and Fiction till the time of Pherecydes the master of Pythagoras who first writ the same in Prose Their Philosophers may be distinguish'd according to the diversity of subjects whereof they treat whence they who amuz'd themselves about ratiocination were nam'd Logicians the first of whom was Zeno. They who contemplated Nature Naturalists the first of whom was Thales they who soar'd to supernatural speculations Metaphysitians wherein Aristotle excell'd those who regulated manners Moralists of whom Socrates was the principal who was the son of a Sculptor and a Midwise But their principal division is of their different Sects which though in great number may be reduc'd to these following I. The Academick so called of the place where 't was taught so famous that all places destinated to instruction in Liberal Sciences retain the same name at this day 'T was divided into three namely the old Academy whereof Socrates and Plato were authors the middle which ow'd its institution to Archesilaus author of the famous Epoche or suspension of judgement concerning all things whom for that reason Tertullian calls Master of Ignorance and the new founded by Carneades and Lacides who held that there is something true but 't was incomprehensible which was almost the same Sect with the Scepticks and Pyrrhoneans II. The Cyrenaick introduc'd by Aristippus the Cyrenian disciple of Socrates who first took money for teaching others and held it as one of his principal maximes not to refuse any pleasure which presented it self to him yet not to seek it III. The Magarian establish'd by Euclides of Magara which proceeded by interrogations IV. The Cynick founded by Antisthenes Master to Diogenes and Menippus V. The Stoick whereof Zeno Cyttiensis Auditor of Crates the Cynick was author VI. The Epicurean of Epicurus the Athenian who conceiv'd that every thing was made by chance and that the chief good consisted in pleasure some say of the body others of the mind VII The Peripatetick instituted by Aristotle 'T would be endless to relate the extravagances of all particular persons But I conceive that of the Cynicks was the most dishonest that of the Stoicks most majestical that of the Epicureans most blameable that of Aristotle most honourable that of the Academicks most safe that of the Pyrrhoneans or Scepticks the most easie For as 't is not very creditable so nothing is easier when any thing is ask'd of us then to say that we are incertain of it instead of answering with certainty or else to say that we know nothing of it since to know our ignorance of a thing is not to be wholly ignorant of it The Third said That the Sect of the Scepticks had more followers then any other doubters being incomparably more numerous then Doctors and is the more likely to be true For compare a Gorgias Leontinus or other Sophister of old time or one of the most vers'd in Philosophy in this age who glory of knowing all and of resolving all questions propounded with a Pyrrhonean the first will torture his wit into a thousand postures to feigen and perswade to the hearers what himself knows not and by distinctions cast dust in their eyes as the Cuttle-fish vomits Ink to soil the water when it finds it self caught On the contrary the Sceptick will freely confess the debt and whether you convince him or not will always shew that he has reason to doubt Nevertheless though this Sect be the easiest 't is not in every thing the truest For as 't is temerity and intolerable arrogance to pronounce sentence confidently upon things which are hid to us and whereof we have not any certain knowledge as the quadrature of the circle the duplication of the cube the perpetual motion the Philosophers Stone so 't is too gross stupidity to doubt of the existence of things to judge whereof we need no other help but perfect senses as that it is this day when the Sun shines that the fire burns and that the whole is greater then its parts The Fourth said That Philosophy being the desire of Wisdom or rather Wisdom it self which is nothing else but a store of all the virtues Intellectual and Moral that is the perfectest Philophy which renders those addicted to it most sure in their knowledge and inclin'd to virtue And because there was never sect but had some defect neither in the theory or the practice the best of all is not to be any but to imitate the Bee and gather what is good of each sort without espousing it which was the way of Potamon of Alexandria who as Diogenes Laertius records founded a Sect call'd Elective which allow'd every one to choose what was best in all Philosophies 'T is also the way that Aristotle held in all his Philosophy especially in his Physicks and Politicks which are nothing but a collection of opinions of the Ancients amongst whom he hath often taken whole pages out of Hippocrates though he name him not Nor are we more oblig'd to embrace Aristotle's Philosophy then he did that of his Predecessors it being free for us to frame one out of his precepts those of Raimond Lully Ramus and all others The Fifth said That amongst all sects the most excellent as also the most severe is that of the Stoicks whom Seneca ranks as much above other Philosophers as men above women Their manner of discoursing and arguing was so exquisite that if the Gods said one would reason with men they would make use of the Logick of Chrysippus the Stoick Their Physicks treated partly of bodies partly of incorporeal Beings Bodies according to them are either principles or elements which are ours Their principles are two God and Matter which are the same with the Unity and Binary of Pythagoras the fire and water of Thales They call God the cause and reason of all things and say that he is fire not the common and elementary but that which gives all things their being life and motion And they believ'd that there is one God supremely good bountiful and provident but that he is single in his essence herein following Pythagoras who said that God is not so much one as Unity it self Seneca saith that he is all that thou seest all intire in every part of the world which he sustaines by his power Briefly they conclude their natural knowledge of God as the sovereign cause by his Providence by Destiny which he hath establish'd in all things and by the Genii Heroes and Lares whom they constitute Angels and Ministers of this Supreme Providence The Second Principle Matter they make coeternal to God grounding their doctrine upon the Maxime of Democritus that as
nothing can be annihilated so nothing can be made of nothing Which was likewise the error of Aristotle who is more intricate then the Stoicks in his explication of the first matter which he desines to be almost nothing True it is they believ'd that every thing really existent was corporeal and that there were but four things incorporeal Time Place Vacuum and the Accident of some thing whence it follows that not onely Souls and God himself but also the Passions Virtues and Vices are Bodies yea Animals since according to their supposition the mind of man is a living animal inasmuch as 't is the cause that we are such but Virtues and Vices say they are nothing else but the mind so dispos'd But because knowledge of sublime things is commonly more pleasant then profitable and that according to them Philosophy is the Physick of the Soul they study chiefly to eradicate their Vices and Passions Nor do they call any wise but him that is free from all fear hope love hatred and such other passions which they term the diseases of the Soul Moreover 't was their Maxime that Virtue was sufficient to Happiness that it consisted in things not in words that the sage is absolute master not onely of his own will but also of all men that the supream good consisted in living according to nature and such other conclusions to which being modifi'd by faith I willingly subscribe although Paradoxes to the vulgar II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names Upon the Second Point 't was said That a name is an artificial voice representing a thing by humane institution who being unable to conceive all things at once distinguish the same by their differences either specifical or individual the former by appellative names and the other by proper as those of Cities Rivers Mountains and particularly those of men who also give the like to Horses Dogs and other domestick creatures Now since conceptions of the Mind which represent things have affinity with them and words with conceptions it follows that words have also affinity with things by the Maxime of Agreement in the same third Therefore the wise to whom alone it belongs to assign names have made them most conformable to the nature of things For example when we pronounce the word Nous we make an attraction inwards On the contrary in pronouncing Vous we make an expulsion outwards The same holds in the voices of Animals and those arising from the sounds of inanimate things But 't is particularly observ'd that proper names have been tokens of good or bad success arriving to the bearers of them whence arose the reasoning of the Nominal Philosophers and the Art of Divination by names call'd Onomatomancy and whence Socrates advises Fathers to give their Children good names whereby they may be excited to Virtue and the Athenians forbad their slaves to take the names of Harmodius and Aristogiton whom they had in reverence Lawyers enjoyn heed to be taken to the name of the accused in whom 't is capital to disguise it and Catholicks affect those of the Law of Grace as Sectaries do those of the old Law the originals whereof were taken from circumstances of the Bodie as from its colour the Romans took those of Albus Niger Nigidius Fulvius Ruffus Flavius we those of white black grey red-man c. from its habit Crassus Macer Macrinus Longus Longinus Curtius we le Gros long tall c From its other accidents the Latines took Caesar Claudius Cocles Varus Naso we le Gouteux gowty le Camus flat-nos'd from Virtues or Vices Tranquillus Severus we hardy bold sharp from Profession Parson Serjeant Marshal and infinite others But chiefly the names of places have been much affected even to this day even since the taking of the name of the family for a sirname And if we cannot find the reason of all names and sirnames 't is because of the confusion of languages and alteration happening therein upon frequent occasions The Fourth said That the cause of names is casual at least in most things as appears by equivocal words and the common observation of worthless persons bearing the most glorious names as amongst us a family whose males are the tallest in France bears the name of Petit. Nor can there be any affinity between a thing and a word either pronounc'd or written and the Rabbins endeavour to find in Hebrew names which if any must be capable of this correspondence in regard of Adam's great knowledge who impos'd them is no less an extravagance then that of matters of Anagrams In brief if Nero signifi'd an execrable Tyrant why was he so good an Emperor the first five years And of that name import any token of a good Prince why was he so execrable in all the rest of his life CONFERENCE LXXXIX I. Of Genii II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable I. Of Genii PLato held three sorts of reasonable natures the Gods in Heaven Men on Earth and a third middle nature between those two whose mansion is from the sphere of the Moon to the Earth he calls them Genii from their being the causes of Generations here below and Daemons from their great knowledge These Genii whom his followers accounted to be subtile bodies and the instruments of Divine Providence are according to them of three sorts Igneous Aereous and Aqueous the first excite to contemplation the second to action the third to pleasure And 't was the belief of all Antiquity that every person had two Genii one good which excited to honesty and virtue as the good Genius of Socrates whom they reckon'd in order of the Igneous and the other bad who incited to evil such as that was which appeard to Brutus and told him he should see him at Philippi Yet none can perceive the assistance of their Genius but onely such whose Souls are calm and free from passions and perturbations of life Whence Avicenna saith that onely Prophets and other holy Personages have found their aid in reference to the knowledge of future things and government of life For my part I think these Genii are nothing else but our reasonable souls whose intellectual and superior part which inclines us to honest good and to virtue is the good Genius and the sensitive inferior part which aims onely to sensible and delightful good is the evil genius which incessantly sollicites us to evil Or if the Genii be any thing without us they are no other then our good and evil Angels constituted the former to guard us the second to make us stand upon our guard Moreover 't was expedient that since inferior bodies receive their motion from the superior so spiritual substances inherent in bodies should be assisted in their operations by superior spirits free from matter as 't is an ordinary thing in Nature for the more perfect to give law to such as are less in the same kind And not onely men but also all other parts of the world have Angels deputed
recedes from a perpendicular falling upon the common surface of the two mediums as on the contrary entring into a less diaphanous medium out of one more diaphanous it breaks and Cones neerer a perpendicular then it would have done had it continu'd directly Secondly 'T is to be observ'd that bodies which cause reflection or refraction are either smooth or unequal and rough Smooth bodies make reflection and refraction with order and the reflected or refracted image resembles its object although it may be alter'd by the various figures of the reflecting or refracting bodies as convex Looking-glasses diminish it hollow enlarge it whereas on the contrary convex Perspective Glasses enlarge and concave lessen the object but both the Looking-glasses and the other represent the Image perfect Unequal and scabrous bodies reflect or refract confusedly without distinct representation of the Image because these Bodies being terminated with infinite little imperceptible surfaces looking every way they also reflect every way as is seen in stones wood and other bodies of different ruggedness and so causing different reflections and refractions in the third place we must observe some prime properties of Looking-glasses as That if a species fall perpendicularly upon the surface 't is likewise perpendicularly reflected and consequently upon its own object as when the Eye beholds it self in the glass But if the species fall obliquely upon the glass it will be reflected as obliquely the other way making the angles of the incidence equal to those of reflection as when the Eye beholds something else then it self in the glass And an Eye constituted in the place where it may receive the reflection shall see the image of the object by help of the glass But if the mirror reflect no species to the place where the Eye is then the surface of the mirror shall appear so much more dark as the mirror is exact that is smooth and more opake the greater the light is As the Eye being in the place of reflection cannot bear the Sun-beams reflected from the mirror no more then the Sun it self but being in another place it shall see nothing but darkness and take the glass for a hole especially if it lie upon the ground Moreover a Convex Spherical glass hath this property that it represents the image very small and more small when the Eye and object are remote from the mirror which is small or appears such In which glasses also the Image never takes up the whole plane of the glass but a very small part of it Lastly Every object which appears lucid and not by its own light transmits light to us either by reflection or refraction after having receiv'd the same from some other luminous object From these truths here suppos'd but clearly demonstrated in the Catoptricks I conclude necessarily That the body of the Moon is not smooth but rough or scabrous For 't is manifest by its various faces that it borrows from the Sun the greater light of the two which appear in her the least whereof namely that which appears in the part which the Sun enlightens not in the increase and decrease many think to be her own which borrow'd light increases or diminishes according as she removes farther from or comes nearer to the Sun whence the diversity of her faces From which diversity of faces 't is concluded further that the figure of the face towards us is spherical convex either rough or smooth But smooth it cannot be because then it would represent the very Image of the Sun to us very small and in a small part of its face the rest remaining dark by the aforesaid observations of Looking-glasses wherefore it must be rough or unequal because the whole face appears lucid when 't is beheld by the Sun at the full and no image of the Sun appears distinctly in it For 't is certain that the Moon sends her borrow'd light by reflection and not by refraction otherwise she should be diaphanous and would appear most illuminated when near the Sun and be full in her conjunction and obscure in her full because she 's lower then the Sun and so in conjunction his light would appear through her and in her full which is her opposition the Sun's light would pass through her towards Heaven not towards us Wherefore as to the spots of the Moon it may be said in general that she is unequally seabrous and the dark parts are nearest smoothness and so make a more orderly reflection but another way then to the Earth the Angles of Incidence and Reflection being not dispos'd thereunto But they are not perfectly smooth because they transmit a little light to us which they could not do being perfectly smooth unless at a certain time when the Sun were so dispos'd as that his Image might be seen in those parts as in a Spherical Mirror The other more scabrous parts making a disorderly and irregular reflection are seen on all parts as if you fasten pieces of glass marble or the like smooth bodies to a wall enlighten'd by the Sun the rough parts of the wall will appear very bright and the smooth obscure But because we know not truly what is the matter of the Heavenly Bodies we can onely say for proof of this unevenness in the Moon 's body that the rougher parts are more hard and the less rough are liquid for then the liquor surrounding the centre of the Moon as the water doth about that of the earth will have a surface more approaching to smoothness as the water hath and this without inferring it compos'd of earth and water but of some celestial matter like to our elementary and whose fluidity or hardness doth not prejudice its incorruptibility those who hold the Heavens solid or liquid holding them equally incorruptible Unless we had rather say that the body of the Moon being all of the same hardness may nevertheless have parts unequally rough and smooth The Third said That he apprehended two causes of these spots First the diverse conformation of these celestial bodies which being no more perfectly round then the earth which nevertheless would appear spherical to us if it were luminous make shadows inseparable from bodies of other figure then the plain Secondly from the weakness of our Sight which as it phancies colours in the clouds which are not in them no more then the Air is blew though it appear to us and we paint it such so being dazled by a luminous body and the visual ray being disgregated it makes sundry appearances therein which can be onely dark and obscure in a thing which is lucid For I would not attribute these spots which represent the lineaments of a face to such a phancy as that of Antiphon who saw his own picture in the Air since they are observ'd by all people after the same manner but the weakness of our Sight may contribute something thereunto For if we say that every celestial body is an earth and that the bright part is
the terrestrial mass and the dark the water or the contrary it will be necessary that this earth also have its Heaven that its stars and so to infinity The Fourth said That they who have imagin'd spots in the Sun had them in their Eyes it being improbable that there is any defect of light in that Star which is the fountain of it but they are produc'd by the vapours between the Sun and the Eye and therefore appear not at full noon and change with the vapours and clouds As for those which appear in the Moon 's face there is great diversity of opinions as of the Rabbines and Mahometans of the ancient Philosophers reported by Plutarch in his treatise thereof and of the moderns The first are ridiculous in believing that Lucifer by his fall and the beating of his wings struck down part of the light of this great Luminary or that the same was taken away to frame the Spirits of the Prophets Those Philosophers who attributed the cause to the violence of the Sun-beams reflected from the Moon to our Eyes would conclude well if the like spots appear'd in the Sun as do in the Moon because the rayes coming directly from the Sun to the Eyes have more brightness and dazle more then those reflected by the Moon Nor can these spots be the Images of the Sea and its Streights for the Ocean surrounding the Terrestrial Globe that part of it which remains in the lower part of the Globe cannot send its species so far as the Moon whilst she enlightens the upper part the Moon being able to receive onely the species of that part which she enlightens according to the principles of Theodosius who teaches us that from the Zenith of one Hemisphere right lines cannot be drawn to the other Hemisphere by reason of the solidity of the Globe the caliginous fire the wind the condensation of the Air and the like opinions of the Stoicks and other ancient Philosophers though erroneous yet seem to me more probable then those of some Moderns who will have the Moon inhabited not considering that 't is too small to make an habitable earth her body being the fortieth part of the Terrestrial Globe and its surface the thirteenth of that of the Earth or thereabouts besides that she comes too near the Sun whose Eclipse her interposition causeth They who make the Moon and the Earth to move about the Sun may indeed with Copernicus explicate the most signal motions and phaenomena But the stability of the Pole and the Stars about it requires a fix'd point in the Earth with which the inequality of the dayes and seasons could not consist if the Sun were stable and in one place Moreover the difference of dayes proceeds from the obliquity of the Ecliptick which is the cause that the parallels of the Solstice are nearer one to another and the dayes then less unequal then at the Equinoxes which cannot hold good in this Scheme But 't is less reasonable to say that the hollow places in the Moon seem dark for by the rules of perspective they should remit the Sun's rayes redoubled by their reflection by reason of the cone which is form'd in hollow parts nor can they be eminences which appear obscure because in this case the spots should not appear so great or not come at all to us being surpass'd by the dilatation of the rayes redoubled by the conical figure of the cavities of the Moon 'T is therefore more probable that as a Star is the thicker part of its Orbe so the Moon hath some dense then others which are the most luminous as those which are more diaphanous letting those beams of the Sun pass through them which they are not able to reflect for want of sufficient density seem more obscure and make the spots The fifth said The spots of the Sun cannot be from the same causes with those of the Moon which experience shews us changes place and figure those of the Sun remaining always alike and in the same figure whereby we may also understand the validity of what is alledg'd by some That the Sun moving upon his own Centre carries his spots about with him For granting this motion yet if these spots interr'd in the Sun they would always appear in the same manner and at regular times by reason of the Sun 's equal and uniform revolution Nevertheless the most diligent observers find that some of them are generated and disappear at the same time in the Solar face Which would incline me to their opinion who hold those spots to be generated out of the body of the Sun in the same manner that exhalations are out of the bosom of the earth did not this derogate from the receiv'd incorruptibility of the Heavens For it cannot be any defect of our sight mistaking the vapours between the eye and the Sun for spots inherent in his body since they are seen by all almost in the same number and figure which should alter with the medium if this were the cause of them and 't is impossible that vapours should follow the Sun in his course for so many days together as one of these spots appears for it must move above 6000 leagues a day though it were not much elevated above the earth Nor do our Telescopes deceive us since without them we behold these spots in a Basin of water or upon a white paper in a close Chamber whereinto the Sun is admitted only by a small hole Nor Lastly are they small Stars call'd by some Borboneae and Mediceae because we perceive both their nativity and their end II. Whether 't is best to use â—â—verity or gentleness towards our dependents Upon the second Point 't was said That he who said a man hath as many domestick enemies as servants imply'd that we are to use them as such converse with them as in an Enemy-Country and according to the Counsel of good Captains build some Fort therein for our security Which Fort is severity and its Bastions the reasons obliging us to this rigour The first of which is drawn from the contempt ensuing upon gentleness and familiarity and from the respect arising from severity and gravity especially in low and servile souls which being ill educated would easily fall into vice to which men are more inclin'd then to vertue if they be not restrain'd by fear of punishment which makes deeper impression upon their minds then the sweetness and love of virtue wherewith they are not acquainted Besides that servants are apt to grow slack and luke-warm in their duties unless they be spurr'd up by severity And 't is a great disorder when a servant becomes equal to his master as it happens by mildness nor was Paganism ever more ridiculous then in the Saturnalia when the servants play'd the masters It must likewise be confess'd that severity hath a certain majesty which exacts such honour and service as gentleness cannot obtain By this virtue Germanicus became so considerable and was
incessantly assault it And if we compare it to other Sciences it overthrows most of their Principles by establishing the Mysteries of Faith This is it which made the wisest of men and who perfectly understood all Sciences to say That they were but vanity And were this union possible he hath so highly recommended sobriety of knowing that 't would be a kind of intemperance to desire to know every thing no less presumptuous by exceeding the bounds set by God to each of our capacities then ridiculous by attempting to make a necessary and infallible thing of many contingent and uncertain and not yet agreed upon The Third said That Unity which is one of the Transcendents co-eternal and co-essential to Good ought to be the attribute of all good things and consequently of Discipline which likewise being the good of the Understanding which is one cannot be comprehended by it but by their becoming conformable the one to the other If any reply That 't is enough that things enter into it successively and so need not be one which would be inconsistent with their nature I answer That the series and order which is found in those things belongs to one single Science otherwise they would have no conection together and by this means could not be made use of to purpose And since all our Notions depend one of another our Discourse being but a continual Syllogism whose Conclusions depend upon the Premises it follows That the Syllogism being the subject but of one Science they all pertain but to one Science whence Philosophy is defin'd the knowledge of things divine and humane that is to say of every thing Indeed since all moral Virtues are so connected together that 't is impossible to possess one without possessing all the Sciences which are the intellectual virtues must be streightly united likewise and the more for that they have but one most simple subject to wit the Uderstanding And since the means of Being are the same with those of Knowing every thing that is in the world having the same Principles of existence must also have the same principles of knowledg and so make one sole Science because Sciences differ only by reason of their principle all which too depend upon one Metaphysical principle namely That one and the same thing cannot be and not be which proves all others and therefore it follows That there must be one sole Science general comprehending all the rest For to say That every several manner of handling a thing makes a distinct Science is to imitate him who would make an Art of every Simple Lastly Nature would not have given us a desire of knowing every thing if this desire could not be accomplished But it is impossible to be so whilst the Sciences remain so diffuse as they are at present CONFERENCE XCV I. Of the diversity of Wits II. Of New-years Gifts I. Of the diversity of Wits DIversity is found in all things but no where more remarkably then in man for not to speak now of Bodies that of Minds is so great that none have been ever found to have the same inclinations or motions or that have been so much as like to themselves the Mind being an indefatigable Agent varying postures every moment according to the several occurrences of new objects to which it becomes like But though the division of Wits be so unequal and disadvantageous to some that there 's observ'd as great difference between one man and another as between some men and a brute yet all are well pleas'd with their lot and every one thinks he hath enough to spare and to govern and instruct others so conceited are we of what belongs to our selves Now the cause of this diversity of Spirits and Inclinations seems to be the various constitution of bodies whose temper the motions and inclinations of the Soul follow and this temper being incessantly mutable by causes internal and external not only in the four seasons of the year but also in the four parts of the day hence ariseth the diversity of the actions and inclinations of the Mind which is so great that the same thing pleases and displeases us in a little space of time The Second said That the Faculty which they call Ingenium or Genius cannot proceed meerly from the temperament of the four qualities For we see those that come nearest the temperament of man are the most stupid and Ages Seasons and Aliments changing those qualities continually should also incessantly change mans wits But 't is a quality or ray of the Reasonable Soul which finding the four qualities variously mix'd in every one makes use thereof in different operations and so this difference is only accidental not essential Moreover we see that whatever difference be conceiv'd in Minds yet their fundamental inclinations are alike the hatred and aversion of evil things and the desire and prosecution of good if the means imploy'd to these purposes be different this proceeds from a particular imagination caus'd by the constitution of the humours which makes this difference appear as through a colour'd glass So the choler of the Souldier puts him upon seeking honour and profit in Arms the Advocate is mov'd to seek them in the Sciences either by his more moderate temper or by the example and pleasure of his Ancestors Yet this Proportion cannot change the essence of Wits but only the appearance as a Painter out of the mixture of four or five colours makes infinite others which differ only in shew The Third said There are many partial causes of this variety and they may be various to infinity according to the various haps they meet with like the letters of the Alphabet diversly combin'd yet they may be referr'd to three principal Nature Art and Fortune The Nature of Man is the Soul and the Body Souls cannot differ specifically as some hold for then a species should be part of an individual since the Soul makes a part of man which is absurd because the species must be predicated of many individuals Yet I think there is some individual difference between our Souls not wholly depending upon the conformation of the organs or the temper of humours because excellent Souls have been found to lodg in ill-made Bodies as those of Socrates and Aesop and the contrary Art may also contribute much to this diversity especially in Youth when wits are more flexible some very dull ones having been incredibly improved by study So also may Fortune and Occasion amongst others the place of residence as the fertility of Palestine in Pasturage made the Jews Shepherds and the plains of Aegypt fitted for tillage by the inundation of Nilus made the Aegyptians Plow-men Those that inhabit the coasts of the Sea are Merchants in regard of the conveniency of transportation And necessity which forces our wits upon sundry things makes the Arabians who live in an unfertile soil for the most part Thieves as sterility has constrain'd others to make war upon their
neighbours The diversity of Climates Winds Waters Diets Exercises and generally all external and internal things making some impression upon the temper makes likewise some diversity in Wits The Fourth said That diversity of actions cannot proceed but from diversity of forms and therefore those of men must be unequal 'T is likely the Souls of Aristotle Socrates and the like great Philosophers were of another stamp then those of people so stupid that they cannot reckon above five And who dares say that the Soul of Judas was as perfect as that of our Lord Moreover the Wise man saith Wisd. c. 8. that he receiv'd a good Soul Plato distinguishes Wits into as many Classes as there are Metals And experience shews us three sorts in the world some few are transcendent and heroical being rais'd above the rest others are weak and of the lowest rank such as we commonly say have not common sense others are of an indifferent reach of which too there are sundry degrees which to attribute wholly to the various mixture of elementary material qualities is to make a spiritual effect as the action of the Understanding is depend upon a corporeal cause between which there is no proportion And 't were less absurd to ascribe these effects to the divers aspects of the stars whose influences and celestial qualities are never altogether alike The Fifth said That wit is a dexterity or power of the soul seated in the Cognoscitive rational faculty not in the Appetitive or Sensitive 'T is a certain capacity of the Understanding to know things which is done either by invention or instruction of others Invention requires acuteness of wit and judgement Learning docility and likewise judgement Memory serves as well to invent as to learn And thus three things are requisite to Wit namely Memory Acuteness and Judgement The first furnishes matter and sundry things without supply whereof 't is impossible to have a good wit The Judgement disposes things in order resolving the whole into its parts when 't is requisite to learn or teach and reducing the parts to their whole when 't is requir'd to invent which is the more difficult our mind finding it of more facility to divide things then to compound them Whence Inventors of Arts and things necessary to life have been plac'd in the number of the gods But because each of these three faculties require a contrary temperature Memory a hot and moist as in children Acuteness of wit a temper hot and dry as that of Poets and Magicians Judgement a cold and dry proper to old men hence it is that a perfect Wit which excells in all three is rarely found II. Of New-years Gifts Upon the second Point 't was said That the Poet who said that he who begins a work well hath already done half of it spake no less judiciously of humane actions then those who advise to have regard to the end For as this crowns the work so 't is not to be doubted but a good beginning makes half of this wreath and that both joyn'd together perfect the circle the Hieroglyphick of the revolution of years Hence we see antiquity contriv'd to begin them with some festival solemnities with intent thereby to consecrate their first actions to the Deity The Hebrews had their most remarkable feasts in the moneth Nisan the first of the year answering to our March and amongst others that solemn Passover when they invited their Neighbours to the feast of the Lamb. The Greeks began their Olympiads with Games and Sacrifices to Jupiter and the superstitious Egyptians not only took omens from what they first met every day but made it their god for that day And being next the divine assistance men value nothing more then the favour and good will of their friends 't is no wonder if after sacrifices and publick ceremonies they have been so careful to continue this mutual friendship by feasts and presents at the beginning of the year which some extended to the beginnings of moneths which are Lunar years as the Turks do at the beginning of each Moon of which they then adore the Croissant And if they who make great Voyages after having doubled the Cape of Good Hope or some other notable passage have reason to make feasts and merriment for joy of the happy advancement of their Navigation those who are embarqu'd together in the course of this life and whom the series of years which may be call'd so many Capes and Points mark'd in the Chart of our Navigation transports into new Countries ought to rejoyce with their friends for the dangers which they have escap'd and felicitate them for the future by presents and wishes in the continuation of this journey Or else considering the difference of years as great as that of Countries we renew our correspondencies by presents as hospitalities were anciently by those which they call'd Xenia which is still the name of our New-years Gifts since in respect of the great alterations hapning in those years we may be said to be new Guests or Hospites of a New-year The Second said That this laudable custome was founded upon reason and example our Druides being wont to gather with great ceremonies the Misletoe of the Oak which they consecrated to their great Tutates and then distributed to the people as of great virtue Whence our New-years Presents are still call'd in many places Guy-l'an-neuf But the first day of the year was not the same with all Nations some of our first Kings began it at Martin's day as appears by the dates of some old Ordinances and the yet continu'd openings of our Parliaments whence possibly remains the fashion of making good cheer on this day The Romans us'd this custom sometimes in March which was the first moneth of the year when the year had but ten moneths each of 36 days and afterwards on the Calends and first day of January which was added with February to the other ten by Numa And ever from the foundation of Rome Tatius and Romulus appointed a bundle of Verven to be offer'd with other presents for a good augury of the beginning year Tacitus mentions an Edict of Tiberius forbidding to give or demand New-years Gifts saving at the Calends of January when as well the Senators and Knights as all other Orders brought presents to the Emperor and in his absence to the Capitol Of which I observe another rise in the cense or numeration of the people which was made in the beginning of the Lustres or every five years and began under Ancus Martius at which time money was cast amongst the people as the Emperors did afterwards when they review'd their Armies at the beginning of each year honouring the most eminent Souldiers with presents Now reason too is joyn'd with this practise for as we take presages from the first occurrences of a day week or year so none are more acceptable then gifts which gratifie the more because they come without pains or expence The Third said