which consists in Mediocrity either extreme whereof is the Territory of Vice CONFERENCE CIII I. Of Glass II. Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks AS there is in all sublunary Bodies a vital and celestial Spirit without which neither Food nor Physick hath any virtue and which is the principle of all actions and motions of mix'd Bodies so all those Bodies have in them an incorruptible Matter partaking of a celestial Nature which the Chymists call Virgin-Earth and is the Matter whereof Glass is form'd being found in all sorts of Bodies capable of calcination and vitrification but chiefly in Nitre Saltpetre Sand Shels certain Stones Wood and Plants from which they draw Glass different in beauty according to the Matter whence it is extracted by means of a most violent fire which resolving the compound consumes all its parts except that vitreous matter which is proof against its violence We owe its Invention by Pliny's testimony to certain Merchants of Nitre who having landed in Phoenicia of Syria bordering upon Judaea near a Lake call'd Cendevia which is at the foot of Mount Carmel whence flows the River Belus or Pagida of small extent and making their Kitchin upon the Sand of this River us'd some clods of their Nitre as a Trevet for their Kettle and the heat of the fire melting the Sand and Nitre into Glass they took notice of it and publish'd the Invention Afterward Moulds were found out wherein to cast it into all sorts of figures Pipes or Tubes to run it in others to blow it and give it all sorts of Colours which almost miraculously arise from the very substance of the Glass without other mixture only by the wind and blast manag'd according to the rules of Art as also Mills to calcine and pulverise Gravel Stones or Sand amongst which that of Vilturne in Italy and of Estampes in France is most excellent for this use for which likewise they imploy the Ashes of a Plant call'd Salicot Salt-wort or Glass-wort which grows in Provence and Languedoc nam'd likewise Soude because heretofore it serv'd only to glase earthen Pots The Second said As there are but two things that can open Bodies in order to their separation namely Water and Fire which is verifi'd by the proofs made by Refiners of Gold and Silver so there are but two things to separate to wit the Volatil and the Fix'd Fire commonly separates the Volatil such as sulphureous and aqueous things are and Water separates the Fix'd as the Salt from the earthy parts Of Fix'd things some are so in part as the same Salt others intirely or altogether as Earth which is either slimy clayie or sandie which last species is made of the two former as is seen in Rivers where the Water having wash'd away the fat part nothing remains but the Sand By which means Nature renders Valleys and low Places more fruitful and men by her example have oftentimes rais'd meliorated and render'd low and marshy places formerly unprofitable fit for culture by stirring the Earth during the Rain and Floods which by this means carries away all the fat and unctuous parts from the higher places into the lower rendring the Mountains and Hills sandy and consequently unfruitful and barren For as Sand is incorruptible being neither putrifi'd by Water nor consum'd by Fire so neither can it generate any thing nor be turn'd into any other nature like other species of the Earth which serve for nutriment of Plants and some Insects and for the production of Animals On the contrary it preserves things buried in it as appears by Mummies kept in it for two or three thousand years and Fruits which are kept no way better than in Sand. Now as Sand is the Matter of Glass for any Sand melted in the Fire vitrifies so Glass suits with the nature of its Principle being like it incorruptible and eternal yea being it self one of the Principles of Nature according to modern Chymists who reckon four namely Mercury resembling Water Sulphur or Oyl corresponding to Air Salt to Fire and Glass to Earth which Glass is found clean and pure in the centre of all mix'd Bodies there being nothing but may be reduc'd into ashes and no ashes but of which Glass may be made which they call a shining and not burning Fire having affinity with that of Heaven as the Fire kindled in Sulphur and any oylie Matter is both burning and shining and that which is in Lime and Salts is burning and not shining such as is seen in Potential Cauteries but not as others have said in Coals which have some although a weak light Glass wants but one thing and that is the removing its brittleness or fragility were it not for which it would be the most precious thing in the World Of the possibility hereof a certain Artist having shewn a tryal to Tiberius hath rais'd a desire in others to make like attempts which have hitherto been unsuccessful Moreover the Transparence of Glass caus'd by the simplicity and tenuity of its parts is incompetible with the consistence which renders things ductile and malleable which is a tenacious viscosity and oleaginous humidity from whence opacity proceeds as appears by Horns and colour'd Glass which is less transparent then other by reason of the unctuosity of the Sulphur employ'd to give it that extraneous colour The Third said That Archimedes in his Fabrick of a Glass-Sphere was as judicious in reference to the matter he chose as the form since the Matter of the Heavens being incorruptible and diaphanous they cannot be represented better than by Glass which hath both those qualities Moreover all the perfectest Bodies of Nature are of a vitreous substance as amongst others the first of all the Heavens call'd the Crystalline 'T is held That the glorified Bodies are luminous and transparent and according to some of a vitreous Nature which is the utmost perfection of every Body and shall be also communicated to the Earth at the last Judgment to be executed by Fire which brings Mettals to their highest degree of excellence for by the help of Lead Gold it self is turn'd into Glass so pure and perfect that in the Apocalyps Paradise is pav'd with such Glass of Gold and in Ezechiel God's Throne is made of it the word Hamal being a fit Etymologie for our Esmah or Enamel which is nothing but Glass And the affinity or correspondence of Mettals with Glass is so great that like them it is extracted out of Sand elaborated in a Furnace receiving the alliances of Nitre Copper and the Load-stone which they mingle in its Mine to get an attractive quality of Glass as well as of Iron With purifi'd Glass call'd Sal Alcali they counterfeit the Diamond Emerald Turcoise Ruby and other precious Stones The Eye it self the noblest part of Man symbolises with Glass by that crystalline humour wherein the point of the visual ray terminates But as all things in the World like Fortune which governs them whom the Poet describes of
entrails of the Earth and descended into the Abysses of the Waters to get out their most hidden treasures yea he hath pervaded with his sight the vast expanses of Heaven there to consider the Stars But he hath not yet been able to familiarise the Fire to himself which like a Salvage-beast devours every thing it meets Now although it be found almost in all places yet Sicily nourishes it more than any having amongst others the Mont Gibel or Aetna those of Hiera Lipara and many others in the Volcanian Islands which are adjacent to it and of Stromboli twenty Leagues distant from these Such also are those of Modena and Vesuvius in Italy which smoak to this day the three burning Mountains of Hecla Sainte Croix and Helga in Ise-land which cast forth Flames only at their feet their tops being all cover'd with Snow and whose Fire is augmented by casting Water in which serves it for Fewel Such were also that which by the report of Tacitus in the fifteenth of his Annals burnt the Territory of the Vbii under Claundius Nevo and could never be extinguish'd with Water but with Stones Cloth Linnen and other dry things that mention'd by Titus Livius which in three days reduc'd into ashes three Acres of the Territory of Calena at this day Carignola in Campania that which burnt for sixteen years together a great part of Scotland and not long since the Island of St. George which is one of the Asores and divers other fat Lands near the Sea which continually supplies unctuous matter to these Conflagrations whence the most remarkable of them are seen in Islands and other maritim places The Second said That the Pythagoreans who place Fire in the entrails of the Earth as its Centre would not be so much at a loss here as those who with Aristotle hold That it is there in a violent state and contrary to its Nature which requires the highest part of the World For since nothing violent can be of long duration How is it that Fire the most active of all the Elements hath not hitherto been able to free it self out of its Prison and get out of this state of confinement 'T is better therefore to say That Fire being the principal Agent of Nature necessary to all sorts of Generations which are made in all places is likewise found every where especially in the Earth where it is most sensible and is preserv'd longest in regard of the solidity of its Matter For Fire cannot subsist without Matter which serves it for Food and Aliment Whence the Poets describ'd Vulcan the God of Fire lame intimating its need of fewel and sustenance to support it none of which being found under the Orb of the Moon above the higher Region of the Air 't is reasonable to judg that there is no other Elementary Fire on high but that of the Sun who by his heat light and other qualities concurs more perfectly to the generation of all Mixts than that invisible and imaginary Fire 'T is therefore necessary that Fire have Matter to feed upon otherwise it dies and vanishes not only in an Enemy-country and among its Contraries who endeavour to destroy it but also in its own sphere or centre wherever it be since it must needs act there otherwise it would be weaker in its Centre than out of it But it cannot act upon it self for then it should destroy it self But nothing acts upon it self and therefore it must act upon some subject besides it self Wherefore the Matter of all Fire is any oylie fat and aerious Body whence Ashes wholly despoil'd of that unctuous humidity are incombustible That of Subterranean Fires is of two sort Sulphur and Bitumen both which are observ'd plentiful in burning places The Live or Fossile Sulphur which serves for Matter to these Fires is a terrestrial fat or oyl mingled with the slime of the Earth For the other sort of Sulphur found on the surface of Stones is nothing but the purer part of the former which being sublim'd by heat is stop'd and condens'd by those solid Bodies into a Matter call'd Flowers of Sulphur by which example Chymistry makes the like Flowers The Bitumen is also a fat juice which is either liquid like Oyl call'd by some Petroleum and the Naphtha of the Babylonians so inflammable that it attracts Fire at a distance and retains it in the Water which serves it for nourishment as is seen in that Bituminous Fountain which burns four Leagues from Grenoble in Dauphine and many other which cast forth both Flames add Waters at the same Out-let There is some too of the consistence of soft Wax as that slimy Bitumen floating upon the Lake of Sodome Some other hard like the Pit-coal call'd Tourbe whereof our Marshes are full which is the most general Matter of Subterranean Fires to whose violence the Nitre found there may also contribute for as Bituminous Earth makes these Fires durable which otherwise could not subsist so long with Sulphur alone which presently is evaporated and spent So the Nitre and Saltpeter wherewith the Earth is every where impregnated and which hath been before shewn to be the cause of its fertility is the cause of their impetuosity and violence which the situation of places may also promote The Third said That the Earth as well as the Air hath three Regions in its profundity the first temper'd and alter'd either apparently or really according to the various disposition of the ambient Air The second or middle extreamly cold The third always hot and burning And as the Matter of Thunder is a Sulphureous Nitrous and Bituminous Exhalation of the Earth drawn up by the Sun to the middle Region of the Air where 't is inflam'd by Antiperistasis of the ambient cold because being in the next disposition to Inflammation the least concurrent circumstance presently reduces that Power into Act So the inclosed and difficultly evaporable heat of the Earth finding the same easily-inflammable Matter there namely the Exhalations which issue from that third Subterranean Region upon the opening of Mines which testifie by their smell thickness and other qualities how much they partake of Minerals these hot and dry Exhalations ascending to the second Region of the Earth there meet with cold Spaces which being for the most part hollow or cavernous and stor'd with Sulphur Bitumen and other fat Earths become inflam'd by the Antiperistasis of cold and the proximity of those Materials And because the Earth which feeds these Fires consists of two parts the one arid and the other unctuous this unctuosity approaching nearer the Fire coming to be consum'd the Fire must needs be extinguish'd till the heat excited by the conflagration of many years having attracted all the unctuosity of the neighbouring Earth and this having by degrees impregnated that dry Earth which the Chymists call Caput mortuum it becomes again inflammable and continues fir'd till the same be desiccated again and so forward in a circle nothing hindring but
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
't is fed by Exhalations plentifully supply'd from the Earth whence they are attracted and fired by the Stars in this place For if this Milky-way were of the nature of Comets or other lucid Meteors it could not always subsist but only while its matter lasted which besides would be more copious in some seasons then in others as in Spring and Autumn then in the droughts of Summer or frosts of Winter which closes the pores of the earth and so it would not have the same permanent position and figure no more then density rarity latitude and equality of its parts so constant that on the side of Cassiopaea it always appears alike winding and likewise in other places though we should grant the earth capable to supply fumes enough for feeding this so spacious circle which yet the disproportion of this point of the World compar'd to the vast extent of that circumference palpably prov'd to be in the Firmament allows not For besides that the diversity of Parallaxes would represent it under several Stars to the Inhabitants of several places if it were in the air as it happens to Comets and other aerious impressions and yet 't is always seen in the same place and equally distant from the fix'd Stars its proper motion from West to East whereby it moves one degree in a hundred years demonstrats that 't is in the eighth Sphere whose particular motion is the same And Galileo's Glasses which have discover'd abundance of Stars in this part convincingly manifest that 't is nothing but an assembly of almost innumerable small Stars which not being great enough to transmit their light to us distinctly the same is confounded and united together as 't is proper to all qualities and so of Light to associate it self to other light and thus produces that whiteness which is a weak and imperfect light For 't is not enough that an object be luminous it must be great and large or else near the eye to be visible the Stars as well as all other natural agents having a sphere of activity beyond which their action is not sensible hence the Planets and of them the Moon as nearest us seem greater than the fix'd Stars whose rayes being weakned by their distance cannot come directly to us as those of the Planets do but twinkle and sparkle Now though Astrologers make but six sorts of fix'd Stars according to their six different magnitudes those of the first being 170 times greater then the Earth and those of the last and sixt 18 times yet Tycho Brahe Americus Vesputius and divers others have discover'd some much less and less luminous then these last Nor are they to be credited who have limited their number to 1022 which the Scripture saith is infinite and known to God alone to whom the Prophet attributes it as a prerogative to number them and call them by their names The Third said There are two sorts of Milky-ways one in the Air and the other in the Heaven The first of which alone Aristotle spoke is a light produc'd by exhalations either fired or irradiated as in Comets from which this milky way differs only upon account of its great extent caus'd by the plenty of Exhalations attracted by a great number of Stars which are neer Cassiopaea and the Poles where also this Way is brighter then in other places The other Milky Way is part of the Heaven or Firmament equally dividing the same in two as other Circles do although 't is rather a Zone or Space then a Circle as well as the Zodiack with whom it agrees in that it hath breadth as that hath and is oblique to the Aequinoctial having other Poles than those of the World but differs in that 't is not so broad the Zodiack having sixteen degrees and this commonly between eight and ten for 't is neither equally broad nor luminous in all its parts and its obliquity is much greater than that of the Zodiack the middle of which recedes not from the Aequinoctial above 23 degrees and a half but this about 56 degrees and a half towards the North and neer 63 degrees towards the South It differs also from all the great Circles in that it changes position according to the motion of the Firmament so that 't is mov'd with two Motions namely that of the First Mover from East to West upon the Poles of the World making an intire revolution in one day and another proper to it self from West to East upon the Poles of the Ecliptick in the same time with the Firmament which motion the other Circles have not being either not mov'd at all as the Horizon and Meridian or only by the motion of the First Mover as the Aequinoctial Ecliptick Tropicks and Colures Upon the Second Point it was said That the Earth produces Metals to be imployed for several uses in order to humane Commerce and Society which being founded upon Hope and Fear Reward and Punishment Gold and Iron the two most powerful Metals are highly instrumental to the establishing of the same Gold which an Ancient call'd the Sun of the Earth being the Star which gives light to our hope and the sweet influences of Reward And Iron by its obscure and livid colour being the dark Star of our fear and of death whereof 't is the most usual Instrument But as Fear is without comparison stronger than Hope for the one tends to the preservation of Being the other only to Well-being so Iron the Instrument of Terror must likewise have more powerful effects than Gold which is only the object of Hope Moreover the Law relieves such as the Just Fear of Iron may have constrain'd to any thing as being the greatest violence in the World but not those whom the desire of Gold or hope of Gain hath engaged to any Affair And indeed all Earthly Powers are measured only by the point of the Sword Arms and Iron seem to be the share of Kings and all the Nobility as Gold that of Merchants and the Vulgar from whom all Sovereigns know how to get it when they think fit Besides since Gold hath need of Iron not only for the digging of it out of the entrails of the Earth but also for defending and preserving it an evidence of its weakness it may be said the prey of him who knows how to manage Iron best And Solon had reason to contemn the vanity of Croesus who made a shew of his riches as of his greatest power foretelling him that it would become the booty of him that should have a sharper sword And Philip of Macedon never conquer'd so many places by trucket with Mules laden with Gold as his Son did whole Kingdoms by the Sword But what power can we give to Gold which weakens and enervates its possessors as appears by the Lacedemonians who were masters of Greece whilst Iron alone was in use with them and were corrupted by the Gold which Lysander brought thither The Captain in Tacitus had reason to believe
of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
Mercury which is unctuous moisture renders them malleable and capable of extension which is an Argument of their perfection as well as colour sound and fixation or enduring Fire without alteration but not weight for then as Gold the perfectest Metal is the heaviest so Silver should be next to it in weight which is not Quick-silver being much more ponderous next Lead after which follow Silver Copper Tinn Iron and Stones whose weight is very different Whence it appears that Gravity is not an Effect of the condensation of Matter otherwise the Starrs being the denser parts of their Orbs should be heavy as they are not but it proceeds from the Form whereunto also the many wonderful Effects observ'd in Metals must be referr'd as that Gold discovers Poysons attracts Quick-silver and is attracted by the Foot of a Spar-hawk and lov'd by Gryphons as Iron is by Estriches who digest it that Tinn makes all Metals brittle where-with it is mixt Copper sinks not in the water of the Island Demonesus near Carthage and that Quick-silver though humid and alwayes fluid moistens not which some attribute to the equal mixture of siccity and humidity The Third said If ever the Opinion of Anaxagoras who held Omnia in omnibus was well grounded it was chiefly in reference to Metals whose Etymology together with the Chymists operations speak the easie transmutation of one into another imperfect Metals differing onely in certain accidental degrees from Gold and Silver which they may be turn'd into after purifying from their Leprosie and refining by Nature or Art And thus according to the opinion of some Moderns it may be said that supposing the earth a great Magnet it hath also in it self a commencement towards such metallick mutation since the Loadstone is in a manner the principle of Iron the most terrestrial of all Metals whence it is that they attract one another as do Mercury and Gold which is compos'd thereof And thus by the power of heat in the bowels of the Earth Iron the most imperfect and lightest of all Metals is turned into Steel and Copper afterwards into Tin and lastly being more depurated into Silver and Gold And since Art imitates Nature as in the fabricating of Artificial Gold you must first resolve a solid matter then volatilize and again fix and return into a solid substance so the generation of Metals may be conceiv'd to be effected by evaporation of the thinner parts of Earth and Water which being volatilized by the subterranean heat and lighting upon Rocks and hard Stones are there fixed and condensed into Metals differing according to the purity and concoction of their matter and the places it lights upon which are ordinarily Mountains The Fourth said That the different properties of Metals plainly argue the diversity of their Species since Properties presuppose specificating Forms Besides the World would have been very defective if Nature had made only Gold which may be better spared than Iron and Steel and is less hard for uses of Life Nor is it likely that Nature ever intended to reduce all Metals to Gold which then should be more plentiful than Iron and Lead since wise and potent Nature seldom fails of her intentions As for the alledged transmutation of Metals were it possible yet it proves them not all of the same Species change of Species being very ordinary and as easie to be made in Crucibles as in Mines nothing else being necessary thereunto but to open the bodies of the Metals and set at liberty what in some is most active and in others more susceptible of the Forms you would introduce Nature indeed always intends what is most perfect but not to reduce every thing to one most perfect Species as all Metals to Gold but to make a most perfect individual in every Species labouring with no less satisfaction for production of Iron and Flints then of Gold and precious Stones As for the principles of Metals all compound them of Mercury and Sulphur joyning Vitriols thereunto instead of salt to give Body to the said Ingredients but some will have Mercury to be the sole matter and understand by sulphur an internal and central heat in the Mercury concocting its crudity and by Mercury the cruder portion of its self their Salt being only the consistence whereof the Mercury is capable after Coction Others distinguish what is metallick in metals as only Mercury is from the impurities mixt therewith as earths sulphurs and Vitriols and make the perfect metals so homogeneous that 't is impossible to separate any thing from them which is a proof they say of the unity of their matter and conformity with Mercury which always retains its own nature though preparations make it appear in several shapes Moreover they inferr from the great ponderosity of Gold that it is only Mercury otherwise the less heavy bodies pretended to be mixt therewith should diminish its weight and Fusion which seems to reduce all metals into their most natural state makes them perfectly resemble Mercury in which alone the Chymists for that reason seek their Great Work Nevertheless seeing Experience teaches us that Mercurie's sulphurs and vitriols are found in all metals except Gold it must be confess'd that these three bodies are their immediate principles Nor doth it follow that they are not in Gold too though the Chymists have not yet been able to find them but so closely united as to be inseparable Coction having such power upon matters that have affinity as to unite them beyond possibility of separation as appears in Glass of which nothing else can be made but Glass though it be compos'd of different principles and in Mercury it self which is a Mixt but reduc'd to such homogeneity that nothing can be extracted out of it but Mercury Indeed Gold could not be so malleable us it is if it were all Mercury and they that know Mercury and the impossibility of depriving it of the proneness to revive will not easily believe it can without mixture of some other body acquire the form of Gold whose gravity proceeds from its proper Form and not from Mercury which can give it no more weight then it self hath Gold by being more dense not acquiring more gravity any more then Ice doth which swims upon the water CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun AS there are three simple bodies in the world possessing by right of Soveraignty Driness Cold and Moisture so there must be one primely Hot which they call Fire The diversities of Motion the four first Qualities and their possible Combinations the Humours Temperaments Ages and Seasons the Composition and Resolution of all Mixts are powerful inductions for that quaternary number of Elements Amongst which there is none controverted but Fire the variety of fires found in the world rendring it dubious which of them ought to be acknowledg'd the Element that is the natural simple first hot and dry body wherewith together with the other three all
tuft of Hair upon the Forehead 'T is cover'd with very soft Hair employ'd by the Natives to make Caps of It s Flesh resembles that of Crevices and being wounded sends forth blood being also of a very sweet taste It adheres to the earth by its root which sends forth a Stem or Stalk which is inserted into its Navil To all which wonders they adde That it lives as long as there is any green Grass about it and dyes when the same is wither'd either by time or purposely And to make the comparison full they say that of all devouring Animals Wolves alone desire to feed of it We finde also some example of this double Life in the Wood of Scotland which being humected in water is turn'd into Ducks as also in the Leaves of another Tree like that of the Mulberry which Anthony Pigafet reports to have two little feet on which they run away as soon as one touches them and live onely of Aire Such likewise are the Mandrakes of upper Hungary which grow in the axact shapes of Men and Women The Baraas mention'd by Josephus which shines in the night and whose flight cannot be stopt but by the menstrual blood of a woman The Balsam-Tree which Pliny affirms to tremble at the approach of the Iron that is to make incision in it and that other Tree which Scaliger saith grows about eight foot high in the Province Pudiferam and upon the approach of a man or other Animal contracts its boughs and extends the same again upon their departure whence it took the name of Arbor Pudica which constriction and dilatation is also attributed to the Spunge In all which effects we observe powers and faculties near of kin to those of Animals The same uniformity of nature between Plants and Animals is prov'd also in that both the one and the other live and dye have their nutrition augmentation and generation If Animals have their time of being salacious Plants have theirs of being in Sap. They have dictinction of Sex as appears particularly in the Cypress Hemp and the Palm which beareth not fruit unless planted near the Male or at least some branch thereof be fastned to it They seem too to have some kinde of respiration for besides that they love the free Aire towards which they encline when planted near a high Wall or under great Trees their Root which is their mouth hath some discernment of taste eschewing hurtful soils and spreading freely into good ground and not imbibing all sorts of liquors indifferently but onely such as are convenient for them Hence their parts have names common to those of Animals as the Marrow Flesh Veins Skin In a word they seem to want onely local-motion which yet besides the foregoing examples is found in the Herba Viva of Acosta which folds up it leaves and flowers when it is toucht as likewise Tulips do in the evening and open the same again in the morning Marigolds follow the Sun and thence have gotten the Latin name Solsequia but more manifestly the Sun-flower and the white Carline Thistle call'd the Almanack of Peasants who therefore hang it at their doors because it folds up its flowers when a Tempest is at hand 'T is notorious that the Bon-Chretien Pear-Tree and the Mulberry-Tree languish in places not frequented by men and on the contrary testifie by their vigour and fertility that they delight in their conversation Hereunto might be added the experience of Wood-Cleavers who finde that a wedge enters further at the first blow then for many following as if the substance of the Tree clos'd it self upon the first feeling it hath of its enemy But the bending of Hazle-rods towards Mines of Gold and Silver seems to denote something more in them then in Animals themselves In brief the motion of creeping Herbs may be call'd progressive amongst others that of the Gourd and Cucumber which follow the neighbouring water and shape their fruit in length to reach it CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms AS there is some middle nature between a Plant and an Animal partaking of both so there is also between a plain Mixt Body and a Plant to wit those Exuberances which grow sometimes on Trees as Agarick sometimes only out of the Earth as Mushroms and other such fungous Productions which are driven forth by the inward heat of the earth helpt by that of the Sun The matter of them is a slime or unctuous or viscous moisture fit to receive a sutable Form which is various according to the strength of Nature and the Disposition of the places through which it is driven as the Water of our Artificial Fountains puts on the shape of the pipe through which it passes And as for Trubbs 't is Cardan's Opinion That melted Snow sinking into the surface of the Earth and finding fit matter there produceth this Plant. Which the plenty of Spirits found in Snow makes me willing to assent to because they may serve for Seed to its Production The second said That he lik'd the common Opinion that Trubbs proceed from Thunder whose agitation of the Air and so of the Earth awakens the hidden Seed of this Plant as well of many others that grow of themselves or else perhaps the Rain that follows Thunder being full of Celestial Vertue proper for this Production is the Seed thereof For the Providence of Nature sometimes supplies by an Universal Efficient the Defect of particular Causes destinated to the production of other Plants which in most Trees and Herbs is the Seed which this wants as also all the ordinary parts of other Plants because 't is of the Nature of those Animals who have not their parts distinct one from another having neither stalk nor leaves nor flower nor root unless you will call it all root because it hath more appearance of than of any other part of a Plant which perhaps is the cause of its excellent taste which is neither sweet as most roots are nor sowr as most leaves are nor of any other kind of tast observ'd in the other parts of Plants but mix'd of all tasts together being very pleasant after coction hath matur'd what was terrestrial and aqueous in it As for Mushroms both their Nature and Cause is different but all proceed from an excrement which the Earth casts forth of it self and which was bred therein by the perpetual transcolation of the Humidities of the earth whence they are more or less hurtfull according to the greater or less malignity of such Humours but always of bad juice sutable to its Source and Material Cause The Third said 'T is the Rain of Autumn that makes the Mushrom the too great cold of Winter and that which yet remains in the Spring not permitting that Excrement to come forth but shutting it up as 't is the property of Cold and the heat and drought of Summer consuming the Matter that produces them as fast as it comes out of the Earth But in Autumn
the prejudice of a third Which yet hath not place in all there being found good Judges who would condemn their own Child if he had a bad Cause But to attribute to self-love the defect of clear-sightedness is to speak too Poetically since the Prince of Poets believes it not possible to deceive a Lover and the knowledge we have of others affairs hath no other foundation but that which we have of our own just as self-love is given us for a rule of that of our Neighbour The Third said That which happens most frequently being the rule and the rest the exception and the greatest part of Men resembling that Lamia who being blind at home put on her Eyes when she went abroad it must be agreed that we are less clear-sighted in our own than in others affairs Which is the meaning of the Proverb of the wallet in the forepart of which the bearer puts other Mens matters casting his own into the part behind upon his back Moreover to see clear is to see without clouds or mists such as are those of the Passions Fear Hope Avarice Revenge Ambition Anger and all the rest which suffer not the Species to be calmly represented to the Intellect which receives the same as untowardly as stirred water or a Looking-glass sullied with incessant clouds or vapors receive an Image objected to them 't is true the Passions have some effect upon it in affairs without but as themselves so their trouble is less and he is the best Judge who gives them no admittance at all which cannot be in our own affairs where consequently we are no less clear than in those of others CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains GOD having created the world in perfection it was requisite there should be Plains Mountains and Vallies upon the Earth without which agreeable variety there would be no proportion in its parts wherein nevertheless consists its principal ornament which hath given it the name of world no other beginning of Mountains seems assignable but that of the world Nor is there any possibility in attributing another Cause to those great Mountains which separate not only Provinces and States but the parts of the world all the Causes that can be assigned thereof being unequal to such an Effect Which the discovery of the inequalities of the Celestial Bodies observed in our dayes by Galileo's Tubes in some sort confirmed for by them Mountains are discerned in some Planets especially an eminent one in the Orbe of Mars which Mountain cannot reasonably be attributed to any cause but his primary construction The same may likewise be said of the Mountains of the Earth which besides having necessarily its slopenesses and declivities which are followed by Rivers and Torrents there is no more difficulty to conceive a Mountain then an elevated place in the Earth so that to say that from the beginning there was no place higher in one part of the earth then in another is to gain-say Scripture which saith that there were four Rivers in Eden each whereof had its current which could not be unless the place of their rise were higher then that whereunto they tended The Second said That the proportion from which the ornament of the World results is sufficiently manifested in the correspondence of the four Elements with the Heavens and of the Heavens with themselves yea in all compounds which result from those Elements moved by heat and the Celestial influences without fancying a craggy Earth from the beginning to the prejudice of the perfection which is found in the Spherical Figure which God hath also pourtray'd in all his works which observe the same exactly or come as near it as their use will permit as is seen particularly in the fabrick of Man's Body his master-piece whereof all the original parts have somewhat of the Spherical or Cylindrical Figure which is the production of a Circle And if the other Elements of Fire Air and Water are absolutely round and cannot be otherwise conceived though their consistence be fluid and as such more easily mutable in figure 't is much more likely that the earth had that exactly round figure at the beginning otherwise the Waters could not have covered it as they did since not being diminished from the beginning of the World till this time they are not at this day capable of covering it 'T is certain then that God gave the Earth that Spherical form it being to serve for the bulk and Centre to all the other Elements by means of which roundness the Water covered it equally but when it was time to render the Earth habitable to Animals and for that end to discover a part of it it was to be rendered more hollow in some places and more elevated in others since there is no Mountain without a Valley nor on the contrary Afterwards it came to pass that the Rain washed away whatsoever was fat and unctuous in those higher places and carrying it into Brooks and Rivers and thence into the Sea this Sea by the impetuosity of his waves makes great abyffes in some places and banks of sand in others but the great and notable change happened in the universal Deluge when the many Gulfs below and Windows on high as the Scripture speaks overflowed the whole Earth for forty days and forty nights together the Earth being thus become a Sea was in a manner new shaped by the torrents of the waters and the violence of the same waves which made Abysses in some places and Mountains in others according as the Earth happened to be more or less compact and apt for resistance Which is yet easier to be conceived of Rocks which being unapt to be mollified by either that universal rovage of waters or torrents superven'd in four thousand years since they remain intire and appear at this day as supercilious as ever over the more depressed parts round about The Third said That some Mountains were produced at the Creation others since partly by Rains and Torrents partly by Winds and Earth-quakes which have also sometimes levell'd Hills and reduced them into Valleys so that you cannot assign one certain or general cause of all For there is no more reason to believe that the ravages of waters have produced Mountains then that they have levell'd and filled Valleys with their soil as 't is ordinarily seen that the fattest portion of Mountainous places is washed away by Rain into Valleys and fertilizes the same And the smallness of the Earth compared to the rest of the world permits not its inequalities to make any notable disproportion in it or hinder it from being called Round as appears in Eclipses caused by the shadow of the Earth which she sends as regularly towards Heaven as if she were perfectly round The Fourth said That the waters of the Sea from which according to the Scripture all waters issue and return thither impetuously entring into the caverns of the Earth go winding along there till they find resistance
to bear or carry comes from the seed of Men hanged on Gibbets or broken on the Wheel which dropping upon the ground already fat and unctuous by the multitude of hanged Bodies produceth this Anthropomorphite-Plant so term'd by Pythagoras and alledg'd as an Instance to prove his Metempsychosis Which Conceit is also strengthened by the production of Beans which the same Pythagoras and many others hold to be produc'd of dead Bodies for which reason he not only abstain'd from eating them but had them in such reverence that he suffer'd himself to be kill'd in a field of Beans through which he might have escap'd but would not for fear of hurting them So likewise of the Urine of a Dog is produc'd the Herb Orrach of an Elephant's Blood suckt and vomited by a Dragon Sanguis Draconis of the Bodies of Serpents Serpentana and of the seed of Stags the Mushroms call'd Boleti Cervini So that though this Plant be not seen it doth not follow that there is no such thing it being no more absurd to credit the voice of the vulgar in this matter than in many others The Second said There are three sorts of Plants that bear the name of Mandrake the Etymologie whereof may be taken from the Latin word Mandra which signifies a Cave or a shady place because this Plant loves to grow in the shadow and cannot long endure the heat of the Sun The first sort is call'd Mandragoras mas or white Mandrake hath on the top of its Root great leavs spread on the ground like those of broad-leav'd Lettice but somewhat long shining and smooth in colour resembling those of Bete to wit of a pale green the Flower is likewise pale whereunto is annexed a round Apple of the bigness of a small Lemon of a pale Saffron colour and full of a succulent pulp wherein are pale or blew kernels like those of a Pear saving that they are not pointed but flat like a kidney It s root is lasting and dyes not yearly as most others do long and so thick that it can scarce be grasp'd with one Hand 'T is usually divided into two of colour outwardly between white and red within white carnose juicy and of taste between sweet and bitter The whole Plant sends forth a strong smell especially the Apples whose juice is som what vinous but bitterish and burdens the Head both smelt and tasted The second sort call'd Mandragoras niger or Female Mandrake hath leavs like the Male but less and straiter like those of small-leav'd Lettice of a dark green bearing Apples as big as our little Medlars Its root is less but otherwise in smell taste and figure like the former only 't is black without and white within and sometimes divided into three The third kind is call'd by some Herbarists Morion or Mandrake of Theophrastus touching which though all agree not yet the opinion of Codrus whom we follow here is that it hath great roots a high stalk and leavs of a middle size between Solanum and Female Mandrake its Flower is black and so also is its Fruit equal to a big Grape and of a vinous juice which Plant some call Solanum Mortiferum the Italians Bella Donna which grows likewise in shadowy places as the former also do in many parts of Italy especially in Apulia and sometimes is set in Gardens the Apples are ripe in August Galen accounts them cold in the third degree and all Authors agree that they are very moist All their parts are somniferous and of great use in Physick according to Dioscorides The most active is the bark of the Root The ancient way was to peel the root press out the juice and thicken it in the Sun or else to boil the root in new Wine till a third part were consum'd or to infuse it without coction of this liquor they administred one or two glasses to such as could not sleep and three to such as were to have a limb cut off They us'd it likewise in inflammations of the eyes some feminine diseases and to suppurate Phlegmons having such a mollifying faculty that in six hours boiling the Root with Ivory they say the same becomes plyable and apt to take any impression At this day scarce ought but the leaves and roots are in use except that the apples are sometimes boil'd in oil but all externally not by the mouth 'T is also thought alexipharmacal against Serpents and good to cure Tetters being bruis'd and apply'd with vinegar All which effects have made it admir'd but as humane Nature is prone to Superstition though this Plant be indu'd only with Vertues common to other Plants the soporiferous Quality being found in Lettice Poppy Henbane and more eminently in Opium and that of being proper to Women in the Aristoloches yet because its root resembles a man's legs and its trunk in some sort his body without arms hence Mountebanks have by their frauds and tricks brought people to believe their strange Stories of it even that it eats like a man and performs his other natural functions Which imposture though less prevalent upon strong minds becomes less credible by the prodigious manner they relate it to be produc'd for 't is impossible to imagine that any generation can proceed from sperm destitute of spirits and out of the proper natural subject destinated to its reception The Third said That indeed no Univocal Generation can be made after the loss of the spirits of Sperm but equivocal such as this is may whereunto Nitre contributes very much which salt not being lost by death nothing hinders but a fertile soil being determin'd by some form or other a Plant may arise out of it to which production fewer conditions are requisite than to that of an Animal And 't is the less incredible if the Experiment deliver'd by some Authors be true That the salts of Rosemary Sage Mint and some other strong-sented herbs being extracted according to Art and frozen in a Glass exhibite the image of those Plants therein and if sown in well-prepared earth produce the Plants of same Species The Fourth said That not only the means of the production of this imaginary Plant are so too but also the supernatural vertues ascribed to it are ridiculous yea those said to be natural to it are very hard to be justifi'd for to be soporiferous and to promote Procreation in Men and Women of several tempers is inconsistent because these things require Simples of very different Qualities and also are the causes of Sterility This error of its being prolifick proceeds from a false supposition taken out of Genesis where 't is said that Reuben the Son of Leah one of Jacob's Wives having brought Mandrakes to his Mother her Sister Rachel could not obtain them of her but upon condition that Jacob who despis'd her for Rachel the fairer of the two but barren should lie with her that night which bargain was made between them Now because Rachel had Children afterwards hence some Interpreters infer
the presence of his friends than of his Murderer whose spirits are more inwardly retir'd through fear of punishment whereas those of his friends are sent outwards by Anger and desire of Revenge Yea if the Murderer had been wounded before he should rather bleed than the dead because his Blood is more boyling and capable of commotion by the spirits issuing out of the Carkase And had they any Sympathy they could not discover the Murderer for want of sense which they never had for the spirits which are in the Blood scarce deserve that name being purely natural and void of all sense even during life and specifically different from the animal spirits The vital spirits which are a degree above them vanish together with life whence the Arteries that us'd to contain them are empty And those that serve for Sensation cannot remain in a dead Body because they are easily dissipable and need continual reparation whence we see all the senses fail in a swoon because the Heart recruits them not by a continuity of their generation Besides should they remain after death they would be unactive for want of fit dispositions in the Organs Moreover natural causes act necessarily when their object is present but sometime t is known that Murderers have thrust themselves more diligently into the crowd of Spectators than any other persons for avoiding suspition and no such bleeding hath hapned in their presence and that Executioners take Criminals the next day from the Gallows or the Wheel and not a drop of Blood issues from their wounds And why should not a dead Sheep as well fall a bleeding afresh in the presence of the Butcher that kill'd it Or a Man mortally wounded when he that did it is brought unknown into his Chamber For 't is hard to imagine that we have less sense and knowledge whilst life remains than after death that a wounded person must die that he may become sensible In short t is easie to see that this effect is not like other wonders which have a cause in Nature because though we cannot assign the particular causes of these yet they are prov'd by some demonstrative or at least some probable reasons And as for Antipathy it should rather concenter all the dead person's Blood in his Murderer's presence and make it retire to the inward parts Wherefore I conclude that not only the causes of this miracle are not yet found but also that 't is impossible there should be any natural one of it at all The Fourth said That according to the opinion of Avicenna who holds That the Imagination acts even beyond and out of its Subject this faculty may cause the effluxion of Blood the Criminal's Phansie working mightily when the person slain by him is objected before his Eyes And the nitrous vapors arising out of the Earth upon digging up the Body together with the heat of the Air greater than that of the Earth and increas'd by the conflux of Spectators may in some measure contribute to the new fermentation of the Blood But the truth is after all our inquiries this extraordinary motion cannot be better ascrib'd elsewhere than to God's Providence who sometimes performs this miracle for the discovery of Murder which would otherwise be unpunisht but not always And 't is no less impiety to deny that Divine Justice comes sometimes to the aid of that of Men than 't is ignorance and rusticity to be satisfi'd in all cases with universal causes without recurring to particular ones which God employes most ordinarily for the Production of Effects yet does not so tye his power to the necessity of their operations but that he interrupts the same when he pleases even so far as to give clay power to open the Eyes of the blind CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn THere are no greater impostures in the Art of Physick than those which relate to Antidotes and Preservatives from Poyson such as the Unicorn's Horn is held to be And I am mistaken if it be not a popular error First because the opinions of all Authors are so contrary concerning it Philostratus in the life of Apollonius saith that the Animal of this name is an Ass and is found in the fenns of Colchis having one single horn in the fore-head where-with he fights furiously against the Elephant Cardan after Pliny saith 't is a Horse as 't is most commonly painted only it hath a Stag's head a Martin's skin a short neck short mane and a cloven hoof and is bred only in the Desarts of Aethiopia amongst the Serpents whose Poyson its horn which is three cubits long resists Garsius ab Horto saith 't is an Amphibious Animal bred on Land near the Cape of good Hope but delighting in the Sea having an Horses head and mane a horn two cubits long which he alone of all Authors affirms to be moveable every way Most agree that it cannot be tam'd and yet Lewis Vartoman saith that he saw two tame ones in Cages at Mecha which had been sent to Sultan Solyman Almost all confess it very rare and yet Marcus Sherer a Renegado German afterwards call'd Idaith Aga and Embassador from the same Solyman to Maximilian the Emperor affirms that he saw whole troops of them in the Desarts of Arabia And Paulus Venetus the same in the Kingdom of Basman where they are almost as big as Elephants having feet like theirs a skin like Camels the head of a Boar and delighting in mire like swine Nor are Authors less various concerning its manner of eating some alledging that being unable to feed on the ground by reason of his horn he lives only on the boughs and fruits of Trees or on what is given him by the hands of Men especially of fair Virgins of whom they say he is amorous though others think it fabulous Some believe that there was once such an Animal but not now the whole race perishing in the Deluge and that the horns we find now for the most part in the earth have been kept there ever since And if there be such variety in the description of this Animal there is no less in the horns which they tell us are those of the Unicorn That at Saint Dennis in France is about seven foot high weighs thirty pound four ounces being wreath'd and terminated in a point from a broad base Yet this is not comparable to that Aelian mentions which was so thick that cups might be made of it That at Strasburg hath some conformity with this of Saint Denis but those of Venice differ from both as that describ'd by Albertus Magnus doth from all For 't is saith he solid like a Hearts horn ten foot high and very large at the base The Swisses have one which was sometimes found on the bank of a River near Bruges two cubits long yellow without white within odorous and apt to take fire That at Rome is but one foot high having been diminish'd by being frequently rasp'd in order to be imploy'd against
the name of Sensitive since being toucht they flag their leavs one sooner another more slowly and the third very leisurely which leavs return to their place after the Sun hath warm'd them again with his rayes Garsias ab Horto speaks as much of certain anonymous Plants growing in the Province of Malabar which as soon as they are toucht shrink and contract their branches by a motion contrary to the former and he adds that their leavs resemble those of Polypody and the Flowers are yellow Theophrastus in Book 4. Chap. 3. of his History of Plants attributes the same faculty to a Spinous Plant like Fearn according to Gaza's Translation or Feathers according to that of Pliny the leavs or boughs of which Plant being toucht become arid and languid close and compress themselves and after some time turn green again and resume their first vigor He saith This Plant grows at Grand Cairo and is so big that three men can scarce fathom it Apollodorus the Disciple of Democritus ascribes the like virtue to an Herb which he calls Aeschinomene or Chast-Herb because it shuns the hand of any that offers to touch it shrinking its leavs up into an heap Pliny speaks of another in the Islands of the Troglodites like Coral call'd Charito-Blepharon which seems to be sensible of the approach of him that comes to cut it becomming then as hard as horn and if he wait some time like a stone The Portugals tell in their Navigations of an Herb that grows with small roots in hot and moist places putting forth eight little branches two fingers long furnisht with leavs on each side as green as Tamarisk but resembling those of Polypody From the middle of the roots arise four small stalks each of which bears a yellow Flower like that of Cloves but without smell which being never so little toucht languish and flag but resume their first vigor upon the removal of the hand Of which Marvail a Philosopher of Malabar being unable to find the cause became a fool Monardes a Physician of Sevil having describ'd a sort of Barly in new Spain call'd Gayatene or Cevadilla wich falls flat as soon as it is toucht makes mention of another Species of the same Herb which lying spread upon the ground upon touching folds it self like crisped Colewort Lastly Nicolas Conti says that in the East-Indies between the Cities of Bisnagar and Malepur there grows a Tree without Fruit three yards high call'd Arbor Pudica which retracts its branches when any Man or Beast approaches it By all which Relations it is manifest that there are Sensitive Plants The Second said That since 't is not possible to imagine Sensitive Life without Organs these motions must not be attributed to Sense but to other Causes as to the attractive heat which is in all Plants which makes them fold up themselves according to the figure of the Body near which they are Some Animals as Oysters have indeed a more imperceptible degree of Sense yet are not they therefore Plants those whereof that have any local motion have it perhaps from the concussion of the Earth caus'd by the approaching person or from the stirring of the Air which though imperceptible drives along the Ignis Fatuus And perhaps these Flowers and Herbs are of a very rare and subtle texture Unless you had rather recurr to the Antipathy which is found between these Plants and Man which causes the skin and fiddle-strings made of Sheeps guts to break at the noise and sound made by those of a Wolf with which they will never be brought to be harmonious For this is a better way than to multiply Species without necessity as they do who establish a middle Nature between a Plant and an Animal And as for those which remove from one place to another they may perhaps find the same account of them upon inquiry that Aeneas Sylvius did who as he saith in his Description of Europe Chap. 46. asking James VI. King of Scotland touching those Tree-Birds reported to be bred there learnt from the mouth of that learned King that those famous Trees grew not there but in the Orcades Whereupon Aeneas truly and handsomely reply'd Miracula fugiunt CONFERENCE CCVII. Of the Bezoar THis word some think is deriv'd from the Hebrew Bel which signifies King and zaars Poysons as if it were the King or Master of Poysons which are subdu'd more powerfully by this than any other remedy According to Scaliger Bezohard is taken by the Arabians for that which preserves life and so the Stone will have borrow'd its name from its effect Cardan saith there is a poysonous root of this name which bears a fruit call'd Niraebri which is an Antidote to it This stone is divided into Natural and Artificial The Natural is of two sorts viz. Animal and Mineral yea Plants and every thing good against Poysons is commonly term'd Bezoardical But the Name primarily belongs to a stone found in an Animal called by the Persians Pasan or Pasar which Animal Monardes saith is of the bigness and almost of the shape of a Stag having two Horns large at the base pointed at the top and bowed over the back like those of a Goat which it resembles in the feet and something too in the form Whence some term it Trag-elaphos i. e. a Goat-Deer though this be a different Animal having short Hair and a skin between grey and red and sometimes of other colours The Indians take them in nets for the stone's sake which they sell to Merchants For though the Beast is so furious that it breaks any other link but those of Iron yet the price of this stone is so great that it makes the danger despicable He adds that it is so nimble that it casts it self down from an high Rock and lights upon its horns without any hurt and that its pace is leaping and bounding like a foot-ball All agree not in what part of the Animal the stone grows The Arabians write that this and all other sorts of Deer finding themselves old and sick by their breath draw Serpents out of their holes and devour them that so thereby they become young and well again after which finding themselves heated by this food they run into the water and stay there without drinking till their heat be over during which stay in the water this stone is bred in the corners of their Eyes whence it is taken for the uses abovesaid But Monardes more probably learnt from the Inhabitants of the Mountains of China that in the Indies near the River Ganges these Goat-Deer after their eating of Serpents go about the tops of the Mountains feeding on such Herbs as Nature hath taught them resist Poysons of the quintessence whereof mix'd with that of the Poysons the Bezoar is by some particular virtue produc'd in some cavity of their Bodies Garsias ab Horto and Acosta say in their stomack particularly in that reduplication by which they ruminate others as Fragosus in the kidneys