Comets be burnt consumed and wasted in the starrie heavens it seemeth that there is no great difference between them and things here below for if there were it might be thought that they would not suffer such earthly matter to ascend up their territories such I say as doth either wholly or in part compose them Wholly or in part I adde because perhaps even the heavens themselves may afford some matter towards the generation of them especially if they be new starres such as Aristotle never saw wherefore he writes that a Comet consisteth altogether of an hot drie and a kinde of oylie exhalation drawn from the earth and questionlesse in such as are utterly below the moon it is even so but if they â—…e higher and continue longer they as well as new starres may have some help from such matter as the heavens afford towards the generation of strange appearances which though they have yet that they have no earthly matter is not excluded because next under God the efficient cause of these things is attributed to the starres and their operation for when they are aptly and conveniently placed and aspected then by their power working upon things here below they draw up hot drie and oylie exhalations and these exhalations afford unto Comets that matter whereof they consist Ptolomie attributeth much in this kinde to Mars and Mercurie and so do many others else beside him and why the yearely aspects of these starres do not alwayes produce such effects is because they are not alwayes aspected in the same manner but sometimes in one part of the heavens sometimes in another and cannot therefore produce their intended effects without either the meeting or avoiding of apt or inconvenient occurrences But I conclude and do yet affirm that the nature of the heavens is certainly such that the waters above the heavens might passe or issue through them in the time of the Floud and yet the heavens not be dissolved nor suffer damage by their falling damage neither in corrupting them nor yet in leaving a vacant place by coming all away of which in the fourth dayes work when I come to speak of the starres I shall adde yet something more CHAP. V. How to understand the word Heavens and of the severall Regions of the aire together with a consideration of such appearances as we use to see there Sect. 1. ANd now to go on with the residue of this dayes work God saith Moses called the firmament Heavens c. By heavens in this place Moses meaneth onely the visible heavens because he speaketh onely of the visible part of the world And yet the same word which is here used is sometimes put for the aire wherein windes clouds and fowls do flie sometimes for the upper Firmament where the sunne moon and starres are set and sometimes for the high places where Angels dwell And hereupon it was that S. Paul mentioned the third heavens wherein he saw things unspeakable The first of these is like to the outward court of Solomons temple and is the most open to us The second is like his inward court lesse open and abounding with starrie lights or lamps never going out And the next is as the Sanctum Sanctorum whither he is entred once for all who is a Priest for ever and maketh intercession for us In the two lowest is no felicitie for neither the fowls nor starres are happie It is the third of these alone where the blessed Trinitie enjoyeth it self and the glorified spirits enjoy it And questionlesse in this highest part must needs be more then exceeding glorie seeing the other two within the concave of the Firmament are so full of wonder But of the one of them I shall need to speak little in this dayes work yet of the other under it as being more pertinent something must be added Sect. 2. Parag. 1. Of the Aire and the severall Regions in it VVE may therefore now if you please look into the Aire and here following the common path and separating it from the starrie heaven I must say that it is divided into three stages or Regions although I verily think as afterwards shall be shewed when I come to speak of the starres that all this space even from the earth to the eighth sphere is nothing else but aire The highest Region is said to be exceeding hot and also drie by reason of the neighbourhood that it hath with the fierie element as is said and with the starres by the force of whose beams it receiveth heat which is also much increased by following the motion of the heavens The lowest Region is somewhat contrary for it is said to be hot and moist hot chiefly by the reflection of the sunne-beams meeting with the earth and moist by reason of the proper nature of the aire and also by reason of the vapours exhaled out of the earth and water This is the qualitie which commonly is attributed to this Region But I think that we may rather say it is variable now hot now cold and sometimes temperate differing according to the times and seasons of the yeare In which regard Du Bartas writeth thus Warm-temper'd show'rs do wash it in the Spring And so in Autumne but more varying In Winter time 't is wet and cold and chill In Summer season hot and soultry still For then the fields scorched with flames reflect The sparkling rayes of thousand starres aspect The chief is Phoebus to whose arrows bright Our Globie Grandam serves for But and White Neither is it altogether variable in regard of time but also by reason of the diversitie of place some climates being more hot and drie some more cold and moist then others which cometh to passe according to their distance from the Equinoctiall towards either of the Poles Thus for these two Regions But now concerning the middle Region it is alwayes cold yet surely in its own nature it would be warmer then the Region which is here below were it not cooled by a cold occasioned by the reflection of the Sunne-beams For they reflecting upon the earth drive up above the beams of their reflection much cold from below which being daily supplied is kept as a continuall prisoner between the heat above and the heat beneath Or if you will take it thus namely that it is cold but not extreamly cold yet cold I say it is in respect of the two other Regions which are hotter then it And this coldnesse happeneth partly through the causes before expressed and partly by reason of the Aire in it which cannot follow the motion of the heavens seeing it is hindred by the tops of the mountains And hereupon it is that the Philosophers make this a rule saying that the farrenesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearnesse gives motion heat and lightnesse Which in this thing concerning the middle Region is found to be true the
devoted pilgrims count this way For sure the world is but a gaudie ball Whose quilt is vanitie no joy at all Rouze then thy minde witcht mortall from the ground Think of that place where true joyes may be found Choak not thy soul with earth for thou dost winne Nought for thy care but punishment of sinne Rouze then I say thy thoughts think what it is To be partaker of eternall blisse For when the drie-land God did make appeare 'T was not that man should think his heaven's here Sect. 4. Concerning the sprouting springing and fructification of the earth I Am now come to that which I called the third and last part of this dayes work and it is the budding and fructification of the earth For after God had discovered it and made it drie he commands it to bring forth every green thing as grasse herbs trees c. by which he caused it to change a mourning black and sad-russet weed into a green gallant rich enameled robe and ladylike to paint it self in braverie having green grassie locks whose hair doth not more adorn then profit whose rosie cheeks are not more admired then for their vertues wisht whose frank free fragrant fruitfull breasts do so nourish her own children sprung from her never resting wombe that they again adde nourishment to other things both man and beast gaining by her never ending labours For God by saying Let it bring forth did not onely give an abilitie or power of bringing forth but brought that power also into act causing this act to be so begun that it might be continued from thence to the very end of time And to this purpose we see it is that the herb must bring forth seed and the tree bear fruit For God would not that either the herb should be sterill or the tree barren but with their seeds and fruits according to their kindes by which it was and is that their kindes both were and are preserved For first we see the buds spring up these at the first are tender but afterwards growing a little older we call them herbs the herbs being of convenient growth bring forth flowers under the flowers grow and wax ripe the seeds the seeds being ripe and cast into the ground do again bring forth the tender buds and they herbs in their severall kindes and so on as before by which you may see how God hath constituted a never ending course in nature being the same in the trees also as well as in the herbs For their tender branches do not grow to be woodie but by little and little then they aspire to the height and name of trees and being trees they blossome from their blossomes arise fruits and within their fruits be seeds and in those seeds resteth the power of other sprouts or tender shoots Now some would observe from hence that here is mention made of three kinde of plants and fruits that the earth bringeth forth viz. the bud the herb and the tree which by others are distinguished into herbs shrubs and trees But I rather think the bud is to be exempted and not taken as one peculiar thing proper to a kinde of its own For as I have already shewed that which is the bud may be taken either for the tender shoot of any herb or grasse or else for the tender and unwoodie branches of shrubs and trees for that which they be in their sprouting they are not in their perfection neither are they in their perfection what they be in sprouting And is it not an endlesse wonder to see the varietie growth power and vertue of these the earths rich liveries some great some lesse some little some low some large some long some whose vertue excells in this some whose power appeares in that some hot and moist some cold and drie some hot and drie some cold and moist Of all which I purpose to give my reader a taste that thereby he may be driven to admire the rest Herbs hot and moist ANd first of all I begin with Basil in Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Ocimum Basilicum or Râ—…gium This is an herb hot in the second degree and somewhat moist Galen would not that this herb should be taken inwardly because it hath a kinde of superfluous moisture joyned to it but being applied outwardly it is good to digest distribute or concoct We in England seldome or never eat it yet we greatly esteem it because it smelleth sweet and as some think comforteth the brain But know that weak brains are rather hurt then holpen by it for the say our is strong and therefore much smelled unto it proeureth the headaeh and as the authour of the haven of health affirmeth out of Hollerius Basil hath a strong propertie beyond all these For saith he a certain Italian by often smelling to Basil had a scorpion bred in his brain and after vehement and long pain he died thereof Moreover that we shunne the eating of it is also necessary because if it be chewed and laid afterwards into the sunne it engendreth worms Mr Thomas Hill in his art of gardening testifieth that the seeds of Basil put up into the nose procure sneezing and being mixed with shoemakers black do take away warts killing them to the very roots The wilde Mallow is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a 〈◊〉 of pain and in Latine it is Malva sylvestris It hath a certain moderate and middle heat in it together with some moisture The leaves stamped with a little hony and one anointed with them shall not be stung by bees wasps or the like Borage is a common herb and yet some account a fourefold difference in it as thus Garden Borage white-flowred Borage never dying Borage so called because fair blew flowers ripe seeds and buds for new flowers may be seen all at once on it and also another kinde of Borage which is little differing from the former excepting that the flowers look fair and red This herb is hot and moist in the first degree Unto this may be joyned Buglosse which according to Dioscorides as Mr. Gerard writeth is the true Borage whereupon saith he many are of an opinion that the one is but a degenerate kinde from the other In the Greek it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Latine Lingua bubula Plinie giveth a reason of this name which is because it is like an oxes tongue Moreover he likewise calleth it Euphrosynum from the effect namely because it maketh a man merry and joyfull For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Laetitia and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth some such thing as doth laetitiam adferre or bring mirth which he witnesseth of this herb to be true saying that being put into wine it increaseth the delights of the minde Plin. lib. 25. cap. 8. The like is also said of Borage Ego Borage gaudia
as more snowie winters Whereupon Plinie affirmeth that he which saith cleare winters are to be wished wisheth no good for the trees and plants and in that regard your experienced husband man desireth that the winter may be cold and snowie rather then cleare and warm For besides this they also say that a hot Christmas makes a fat Church-yard Wherefore to see the earth do penance in a cold white sheet and the woods hang periwigd with wooll bending their boughs in token of thankfulnesse to gray-hair'd Hyems for their safetie from the cold is a sight both wished and welcome the good whereof will shew it self when liberall Nature out of her bounteous wardrobe bestows more beauteous raiment on them And note it is found by experience that it may snow on the mountains and rain in the valleys and yet both come out of one and the same cloud which comes to passe for this reason because the snow coming from the middle Region melteth after it comes into the lowest Region for here is alwayes more heat then above where the snow is generated yet not alwayes heat enough to melt the snow as it falleth neither will the congelation be alwayes so weak as to suffer it And thus also it comes to passe that we have sometimes sleet which is snow and rain together Moreover as some affirm Crystall is made of snow for when the snow melteth upon the tops of high hills and is afterwards frozen again it then becometh so hard that it is a stone and no other then that which we call Crystall Artic. 6. Of Hail HAil is said to be engendred of rain being congealed into ice the drops freezing presently after the dissolving of the cloud Or as some say a cloud resolved into water in the fall congealed maketh hail Aristotle assenteth to the same affirming that the materiall neare cause is rain the remote a cloud the efficient an Antiperistasis or a mutuall adverse strife between cold and heat as in the first book of his Meteors at the 12 chapter may be seen affirming moreover that the precedent heat of the water whereof it is made helpeth to the speedie concretion of it being agreeable to that which I said before concerning snow namely that it consisted of a warmer vapour then rain and yet not of one so warm as that from whence hail proceedeth Whereupon I think we may make this a conclusion concerning hail and say that it is an hot vapour drawn into the middle Region of the aire where by cold of that Region it is made thick into a cloud which falling down in drops like rain is presently met withall and encountered by the sudden cold of the lowest Region and so congealed into a kinde of ice Now this sudden cold thus meeting with it is in the highest part of the lowest Region and caused by an Antiperistasis of heat from below which forceth up the cold to the greater augmentation of it and so because the vapour it self at the first was also warm it doth very speedily turn it into ice for seeing as hath been said it was formerly warm it is the sooner cooled because heat having made it thin and full of passages gives leave to the cold both to pierce it more suddenly and also more soundly And this most commonly is the manner of generating hail But know that hail may sometimes also be made in the middle Region and then it is without an Antiperistasis of which sort for the most part is that small and spungie hail falling in winter when there is no such heat in any part of the aire by whose Antiperistasis it may be congealed For seeing the drops are scarcely come to the densitie of water before their congelation as also seeing they are something swollen through the spirit of the Exhalation they appeare not onely round but also light and hollow or of a spungie substance little differing from the matter of snow being generated in the middle Region as well as this kinde of hail And thus comes hail in winter But at other times of the yeare the hail being more stonie or better hardened it may well be caused by an Antiperistasis proceeding from the heat of this lowest Region which sendeth up imprisons and augments the cold above it And know that hail-stones are not alwayes of one and the same bignesse but are variable according to the quantitie of the drops whereof they be made the cause whereof is their propinquitie or remotenesse from the earth as was shewed before concerning the different drops of rain And for the most part know that they be also round because the drop is so Yet neverthelesse they be sometimes knotted and piked with many corners or else fashioned like a Pyramis the last of which shapes proceedeth from the spirit of the vapour which ascendeth to the top of the drop so soon as the lowest part of it toucheth the congealing cold and so ascending it makes it smaller above then below And as for the triangled knottie or many-cornered shapes they are caused thus viz. when many are suddenly congealed and frozen into one Note also that sometimes little straws or light chaffie stuffe is found within the stones coming thus to passe because they were at the first blown up from the earth by the winde and mixed with the vapour And again know that sometimes you may see hail-stones all icie and cleare without having within them as their centre little white round spungie parts The reason of which is because those white ones within were generated in the middle Region but in their fall justling themselves against the drops of rain which uncongealed came from the same cloud they gat a waterie substance on their outsides which being frozen to them looketh cleare like ice and so makes the whole conglomeration appeare in the shape and fashion before mentioned Moreover it hath not seldome been that hail hath done much hurt Yet evermore the greatest fear is whilest the ripe corn standeth in the eare For a violent storm of hail thresheth it so throughly that turning the words a little we may truely say Illa seges demum votis non respondet avari agricolae Such a storm was felt in many parts of this kingdome not long ago namely in the yeare 1631 which about the beginning of harvest beside the harm it did to other things untimely beat out much corn in the fields to the great damage of many people And at sundry other times also heretofore the like sad accidents have been Wherefore the ancient husbandmen amongst the heathen as Cato and Plinie mention had certain charming verses to keep hail and other dreadfull calamities from their fields in which they shewed themselves of a like minde unto those devilish enchanting haggs who made the Poet sing Carmina vel coelo possunt deducere Lunam Charms can pull even the very Moon out of heaven But this was not all For beside these Palladius
also makes mention of others who would take the skins of Crocodiles Hyena's or Sea-calves and lay them here and there about their grounds or else have a bloudie Ax lifted up in threatning manner against the heavens or an Owl set staring up with her feathers spread abroad All which are but magicall devilish and absurd practises such as even an old doting woman whose confidence is the sheers the sieve cannot but acknowledge to be void of any the least shew of reason fit therefore for heathens onely and not for Christians For let Christians know that there is a God above who can better secure their seed sowen then all those magick spells and foolish fopperies For A fruitfull land he maketh barren because of the wickednesse of those who dwell therein Or as it is in the 28 of Deuteronomie If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments c. then shalt thou be blessed in the citie and in the field Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground But if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God cursed shalt thou be in the citie and cursed in the field Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store Yea and cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land Beside adde unto this the danger of devilish practises with the unlawfulnesse of charms and incantations For thus again the Scripture speaketh There shall none such be found among you For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord as it is Deuteronomie 18. at the 10 11 and 12 verses Here then I end this discourse concerning hail and now proceed to speak of mists Artic. 7. Of Mists COncerning which I like their division best who make two kindes of mist the one ascending the other descending That which ascendeth saith Dr. Fulk goeth up out of the water or earth as smoke but seldome spreads it self any thing farre being most of all seen about rivers and moist places The other saith he namely that which goeth down towards the earth is when any vapour is lifted up into the aire by heat of the Sunne which not being strong enough to draw it so high that the cold may knit it suffereth it to fall down again after it is a little made thick and so it filleth all the aire with grosse vapours obscuring the Sunne from shining on us Now this last kinde of mist may be two-fold either congealed or incongealed That which is congealed comes neare to the nature of that matter whereof white frosts consist and is never but in a very cold time it often also stinketh which perhaps comes to passe in that the matter whereof it is made was drawn out of lakes or other muddie and stinking places Or thus the matter of this mist hath much earthy substance in it which the hindering cold suffereth not to be consumed and from this comes an unpleasant and an unwholesome smell This water as also the water of dissolved frost is very bad for cattell to drink for it will quickly rot them Neither can it be good for any one to walk abroad in such a mistie time For by breathing we draw this unwholesome vapour into our bodies and so corrupt our lungs extreamly But for incongealed mists they are in warmer and more temperate seasons coming neare the nature of that matter which is the matter of dew Some call it a sterill vapour hanging neare the earth being neither moist enough to drop like rain nor yet hot enough to be carried up on high into the aire Yet as sterill as it is sometimes we finde that it is but the forerunner of rain For when it departeth if it ascendeth then rain followeth if it descendeth then expect a hot and fair day And here an end concerning mists Artic. 8. Of our Ladies threads or those things which fly up and down the aire like spiders webs FOr mine own part I must confesse I have not seen many who have writ any thing concerning this cobweb-like kinde of Metcor and therefore at the first I rested doubtfull not knowing whether it were best for me to speak any thing of it or no. But at the last finding that some false tenents were engrafted amongst the ignorant as if they perfectly knew what thing it was I thought good to adde something whereby their fond opinion might be taken away who as in a dream suppose it to be spunne from out the spiders bowels which cannot but be a strange absurditie For it is evident that some one of these threads containeth more matter then many spiders their bodies not being big enough to afford a thing so copious neither are their webs at any time of such a length or their threads of such a thicknesse as these thus flying about the aire This Meteor therefore since it is a Meteor may rightly be supposed to proceed out of a through-boyled or digested vapour being mixed with earthy and slimie Exhalations and although it be no spiders web yet the temperature of it little differeth from that viscuous humour and slimie excrement which they in their spinning send out from them As for the time it appeareth neither in Summer nor in Winter but in the Spring and Autumne because it requireth a temperate heat and temperate drinesse Yet the chief time is Autumne because the Aire hath then some drie relicks of the late Summers Exhalations left and they are very necessary towards the tempering and generation of this Meteor And thus I end not onely this Article but the whole Paragraph also coming at length to speak of that third kinde of Meteor which in the beginning I propounded to be handled last Sect. 2. Parag. 7. Of Aiery Meteors wherein is shewed the naturall cause of windes Artic. 1. Of the divers opinions concerning winde IN the former Paragraphs and Articles pertinent to the second Section of this chapter I spoke at large as is apparent of every sort both of fierie and waterie Meteors now therefore if you please you may go along with me to those which are called aierie wherein I purpose to speak concerning the generation of windes shewing upon what causes they depend And by the way I would have you observe a packet of opinions which have been posted to and fro as if they were pertinent to the purpose 1. For some in the first place may be found who immediately referre the motion and generation of windes unto God because the windes are said to be brought out of his treasures as you may reade Psal. 135. 7. And in the 4. of Amos at the 13 verse He formeth the mountains and createth the windes To which I make this answer that they who send us concerning these and the like things to God and to his decree in nature or to the might of his power have said indeed that which
no such luckie flouds there it is found that these bounteous watrie bodies yeelding vapours do purchase for them such dropping showers of rain that the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing and therefore these are great benefits challenging most humble thanks as it is Psal. 107. The third is that they can quell the rage of the hottest element and keep our mansions from cinders or a flamie conversion into ashes The fourth is that they yeeld us an easinesse and speedinesse of conduct and traffick by which each place partaketh of the blessings of every place Yea these and many more are the benefits of water without which the life of man could not be sustained But here I contract my sails and end this question for by coming on the shore I shall the better view that which remaineth concerning this liquid element Wherefore it followeth The next and last question propounded was concerning the fluxion and refluxion of the sea wherein I purpose as neare as I can to shew both why seas have that alternate motion as also why such murmuring brooks and rivers as do not ebbe and flow are destitute of the foresaid courses The motion of the sea is either naturall or violent The first is performeth on its own accord the other it doth not but by some externall force compelling it The first being a naturall motion is such as is in every other water namely that all waters do evermore flow into the lowest place because they have an heavinesse or ponderositie in them And thus the ocean naturally floweth from the North where it is highest unto the South as the lower place for there in regard of the great cold the waters are not onely kept from drying up but also increased whilest much aire is turned into water whereas in the South by reason of great heat they are alwayes sucked up and diminished Now this motion is called a motion of Equation because it is for this end namely that the superficies of the water may be made equall and distant alike on every side from the centre of gravitie The other being that which dependeth upon some externall cause is such as may be distinguished into a threefold motion One is rapt and caused by force of the heavens whereby it floweth from East to West The second is a motion of Libration in which the sea striving to poise it self equally doth as it were wave from one opposite shore to another And note that this is onely in such as are but strait and narrow seas being a kinde of trepidation in them or as I said before a motion of Libration just like a rising and falling of the beam of an equall-poised balance which will not stand still but be continually waving to and fro The third and last is Reciprocatio or Aestus maris called the ebbing and flowing of the sea The cause of which hath added no little trouble nor small perplexitie to the brains of the best and greatest Philosophers Aristotle that master of knowledge helps us little or nothing in this question And yet Plutarch affirmeth that he attributed the cause to the motion of the sunne Others have gathered from him that he seemed to teach it was by certain exhalations which be under the water causing it to be driven to and fro according to contrary bounds and limits But howsoever he taught or whatsoever he thought this we finde that nothing troubled him more For as Coelius Rhodiginus writeth when he had studied long about it and at the last being weary he died through the tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Negropont or Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion ebbing and flowing seven times a day at the least adding before that his untimely and disastrous precipitation these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quandoquidem Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem That is Although Aristotle hath not taken Euripus yet Euripus shall take Aristotle meaning that that should end him whose cause could not be comprehended by him But leaving Aristotle we shall finde as little help from his master Plato who as did also the Stoicks attributed the cause to the breath of the world Such also have been the fancies of others among whom Kepler may not be forgotten who in good earnest affirmeth and beleeveth that the earth is a great living creature which with the mightie bellows of her lungs first draweth in the waters into her hollow bowels then by breathing respires them out again A prettie fiction this and well worthy the pen of some fabling poet rather then to be spoken in good sober sadnesse and affirmed as a truth Others would have the cause to be by reason of waters in the holes of the earth forced out by spirits which comes something neare to that before concerning the breath of the world A third sort attribute the cause to the circular motion of the earth affirming that there is a daily motion of the earth round about the heavens which it performeth in 24 houres the heavens in the mean time onely seeming to move and not moving in very deed This opinion came first from the Pythagoreans and is defended by the Copernicanians as an effect of the foresaid motion As for example the earth moving swiftly round the water not able to follow the motion is left behinde and caused to flow to and fro like as in a broad shallow vessel may be seen for put water in such a vessel and let it be swiftly pulled forward and then you shall see that by being left behinde it will beat it self against the one side before the other can at all partake of its company and so it is also in the earth leaving the waters behinde whilest it moveth But if this opinion be true first tell me how it comes to passe that the sea doth not ebbe and flow alwayes at one and the same time but altereth his course and is every day about one houre later then other Secondly shew me why the tides are at one time of the moneth higher then at another Thirdly let me be informed why broad lakes and large rivers do not flow as well as seas Fourthly let me be rightly instructed how it comes to passe that things tend to the earth as their centre if the sunne as Copernicus and his followers imagine be the centre of the world Fifthly shew me why the aire in the middle Region is not rather hot then cold for surely if the earth should move round with a diurnall motion as they maintain then the middle Region must be either farre higher then it is or else the aire would be so heated by going round that the coldnesse in it would be either little or none at all for it is a ruled case that Remotio à motu circulari dat quietem frigiditatem et gravitatem sicut
which will drown bastard children that be cast into it but drive to land them that be lawfully begotten Or is not this strange which he also mentioneth of a certain well in Sicilia whereof if theeves drink they are made blinde by the efficacie of the water The like I finde in other authours concerning certain fountains in Sardinia for it is said that they have this marvellous propertie namely that if there be a cause to draw any one to his oath he that is perjured and drinketh thereof becometh blinde and the true witnesse seeth more clearely then he did before Solinus and Isiodore report it Solinus also and Aristotle make mention of a water called the Eleusinian or Halesinian spring which through the noise of singing or musick is moved as if it danced or capered up and down whereas at other times it is still and quiet But I conclude and as that honoured Poet cannot but say Sure in the legend of absurdest fables I should enroll most of these admirables Save for the reverence of th' unstained credit Of many a witnesse where I yerst have read it And saving that our gain-spurr'd Pilots finde In our dayes waters of more wondrous kinde Unto which in things that are strange and not fabulous let this also be added that God Almighty hath proposed infinite secrets to men under the key of his wisdome that he might thereby humble them and that seeing what meer nothings they are they might acknowledge that all are ignorant of more then they know for indeed this is a rule Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of those things which we know not Sect. 3. Of the drie-land appearing after the gathering of the waters THe waters were no sooner gathered but the drie-land then appeared and this may be called the second part of the third dayes work For the end of the gathering of the waters was that the earth might shew it self and not onely so but that also it might appeare solid and drie Two things therefore saith Pareus did the earth in this act principally receive one was that it might be conspicuous the other that it might be solid and drie and both depended upon the law of great necessitie For first had it been continually covered with waters how could it have been a place for habitation either man must have been otherwise then he is or else the earth must as it was be uncovered Secondly were it uncovered and not also drie and solid it could not conveniently have bore up those living creatures weights and other things which tread and presse upon it Whereupon Expositours well witnesse that earth is so named from the Hebrew Erets which say they implieth a thing trod and runne upon by the creatures on it and heavenly orbs about it The same word spoken of particular places is englished land as the land or earth of Canaan and the like Here then it appeareth that this was that time when the earth received her proper elementarie qualitie which it had potentially before but not actually till now Now therefore it being not onely uncovered but also made drie it might easily be distinguished from the other three elements of fire aire and water For the proper qualitie of the fire is heat of the aire is moisture of the water is coldnesse and of the earth is drinesse These qualities I say are most proper and peculiar to them yet so as the aire is not onely moist but of a moderate heat as being nearest to the element of fire the water not onely cold but also moist as coming nearest to the nature of aire and the earth not onely drie but something cold as being hoast or landlord to the water and upon these terms the elements are combined together there being in all an harmonious order pointing to him who in number weight and measure hath constituted all things I will not go about to prove that the earth is the centre of the world for fear I should be like to him who disputed whether snow were white onely I will adde that even as an infant is potentially rationall by nature but is made rationall in act by youth or yeares so it was with the earth both before and after the drying of it Unto which let this also be joyned that the earth is not so arid or drie that it is void of all moisture for then it would be dissolved and fall into dust But it is arid and dry that it might be solid and firm retaining in the mean time even in the solid parts of it such a conveniencie of humour that all parts may both be glewed together and also have sufficient nutriment for the things which like to a teeming mother she either bringeth forth or nourisheth in her wombe Thus was the earth prepared and thus was it made a fit habitation for man to dwell on But as if man were not alwayes worthy to tread upon such a solid foundation we see it often shakes and quakes and rocks and rends it self as if it shewed that he which made it threatened by this trembling the impietie of the world and ruines of those which dwell upon the earth For though the efficient materiall and formall causes of an earthquake be naturall yet the finall is the signification of an angry God moved by the execrable crimes of a wicked people according to that of David in the 18 Psalme at the 7 verse The earth trembled and quaked the very foundations of the hills also shook and were removed because he was wroth Fear chills our hearts What heart can fear dissemble When steeples stagger and huge mountains tremble The Romanes in times past commanded by publick edict that prayers and supplications should be made in time of an earthquake but they must call upon no god by name as on their other holy-dayes for fear they mistook that god unto whom it belonged And the most ancient of the Grecians called Neptune the shaker and mover of the earth because they supposed that the cause proceeded from the fluctuations and flowings of waters up and down in the hollow places under ground Others thought that the shaking proceeded from the downfalls of subterranean dens or caves and that sometimes whole mountains sunk in and they caused the trembling But by that which I said before in the generation of windes it appeareth that what it is which is the cause of windes above the earth is also the cause of trembling and shaking in the earth For when it happeneth that aire and windie spirits or Exhalations be shut up within the caverns of the earth or have such passage as is too narrow for them they then striving to break their prisons shake the earth and make it tremble Now this imprisonment is said to be caused thus namely when the earth which is dry by nature
Aire in it being cold because it is hindred from following the circular motion of the heavens But as I said it is not absolutely cold but respectively For if it were extream cold then the heat of the Sunne would never passe through it to this Region here below neither would there be grasse herbs and such high trees as are upon the tops of the mountains But to proceed 1. In the highest Region and oft times above it be generated Comets or Blazing starres and such like fiery Meteors of divers sorts 2. In the middle Region Clouds Thunder Rain Windes Storms c. 3. In the lowest Region we have Dews Mists Hoar-frost Ice and Frost As also here is your Ignis fatuus or foolish fire with other Lights burning about graves or such like fattie places where there is store of clammie or fat oylie substance for their matter These Lights are seen also in fields and are driven by a gentle winde to and fro untill their matter be consumed Now these and every one of these seeing they have their causes in nature let us a little view them both how and what they are For they who send us to God and his decree in nature have indeed said what is the true cause but not how it is by naturall means effected For the manner of producing these things doth no lesse amplifie the power and providence of God then the things themselves when they are produced Sect. 2. Parag. 2. Of Meteors first in generall then how they are divided in particular ANd these things of which we now speak seen in any of the Regions by a generall name are called Meteors And the matter of Meteors as it is remote is from the Elements but as it is propinque or neare it consisteth of Exhalations And Exhalations are of two kindes 1. There is Fumus 2. Vapor If it come from the earth or some sandy place it is Fumus a Fume or a kinde of Smoke If it come from the water or some watry place it is Vapor For this is a rule that A Fume hath a certain earthly nature in it and yet is not earth and a Vapour hath a certain watry nature in it and yet it is not water Or if you had rather take it thus Fumus est mediae naturae inter terram ignem Vapor verò inter aquam aërem That is A Fume is of a middle nature between earth and fire but a Vapour is of a middle nature between water and aire And further all vapours are warm and moist and will easily be resolved into water much like the breath that proceedeth out of a mans mouth or out of a pot of water standing on the fire and these are never drawn higher then the middle Region of the Aire for there they are thickened and conglomerated by the cold into clouds And why vapours are warm being drawn from that which is cold is not from any internall propertie of their own but they receive this qualitie from the power and influence of the stars For after that the matter is by them attenuated or made thin their beams cannot but warm it although it proceed from that which is cold Again all fumes are as smokes which be hot and dry which because they be thin and lighter then vapours they often passe the lowest and middle Regions of the Aire being sometimes carried even beyond the highest Region it self And thus we see how there are two kindes of Exhalations Th' one somewhat hot but heavy moist and thick The other light drie burning pure and quick Moreover these Exhalations being the matter of Meteors as hath been said are either from the Earth or Water As for the Fire and Aire they are mixed with this matter as with all other things but not so abundantly that they may be said to be the materiall cause of any Meteor although without them none can be effected And thus much generally But now more particularly And in coming to particulars it may be found that these kinde of Meteors concerning which I speak are of three sorts either Fierie Waterie or Aierie Fierie are of two sorts either such as are in very deed fired or else such as onely seem to burn which are therefore called Phasmata In which regard it may be said that these Fierie ones are either Flames or Apparitions And again in respect of their matter if they be such as burn in very deed then they be either more or lesse pure Their place where we see them is according to the abundance and scarcitie or rather qualitie of the matter whereof they consist for if it be heavie and grosse it cannot be carried high but if it be not so grosse but rather light and more full of heat then it aspires and transcends so much the higher by how much it is the lighter sometimes above the highest Region of the Aire even into the starry heaven it self which is witnessed by our best modern Astronomers who have observed many Comets above the Moon Furthermore these Fiery impressions according to the diverse disposing of their matter are of severall fashions and thereupon they have severall appellations being called according unto the names of those things unto which they seem to be like As 1. Torches 2. Burning Beams 3. Round Pillars 4. Pyramidall Pillars 5. Burning Spears Streams or Darts 6. Dancing or leaping Goats 7. Flying Sparks 8. Shooting Starres 9. Flying Launces 10. Fires either scattered or else as if all the aire burned 11. Flying Dragons or Fire-drakes 12. Wandring Lights 13. And also licking or cleaving fire sticking on the hairs of men or beasts Now all these kindes of which I have mentioned thirteen I take to be such fierie Meteors as are said to be pure and not mixt Then again have you those which are said to be mixt and lesse pure As 1. Comets of all sorts 2. All kindes of lightening 3. Unto which must be joyned thunder as an adjunct And now of these severally before I mention any more of another kinde whether waterie or aierie Sect. 2. Parag. 3. Of such fierie Meteors as are pure and not mixt 1. FAx which is a Torch or Fire-brand or as a lighted candle is an exhalation hot and drie drawn beyond the middle Region of the aire where being arrived it is set on fire as are all exhalations that come there partly by their own heat and partly by the heat of that place and because the matter of the exhalation is long and not broad and being equally compact and fired at the one end it burneth like a torch or candle untill the whole whereof it consisteth be consumed And why it should burn at the one end rather then at the other is found to be because it is long and standeth upright having the most of its aspiring matter in the top and in this station ascending up it comes to passe that when the upper end doth present it self to the
heat of the upper Region it is fired and so consumeth by degrees even as by degrees it ascendeth or peepeth into that hot place 2. Trabs ardens a burning Beam is an exhalation hot drie drawn beyond the middle Region of the aire the matter of which exhalation being long not very broad makes it seem like a beam or logge and because it is more grosse and heavie on the under part from the one end unto the other and on the upper part hath much aspiring matter equally dispersed it is transversly carried up and so being fired it lieth at length and standeth not upright 3. Round Pillars are of the same nature unlesse perhaps their light and heavie matter is not so equally or in like order disposed but rather heavier towards the one end then the other which makes it be carried up or presented in perpendicular fashion and also having the hottest and driest and most combustible matter driven to the superficies or out-side of it by reason of a contrary qualitied substance within it which makes it therefore be fired on all sides alike and appeare like a burning Pillar 4. Pyramidall Pillars are nothing differing from the other unlesse that the exhalation have more earthly matter in it below and not so much above for when the lighter and thinner parts are ascended to the top then the grosser heavier and thicker are left in the bottome which makes it therefore of fashion great beneath and small above 5. Burning Streams Spears or Darts is that Meteor which is called Bolis or Iaculum and is an Exhalation hot and drie meanly long whose thick and thinner parts are equally mixt and thereupon being fired in the highest Region it flameth on the thin or subtil part which neverthelesse because the matter is well mixed doth also send fire to the other parts insomuch that it seems to runne like a dart from the one unto the other Or if you will this Meteor or one very like it is thus generated viz. when a great quantitie of hot and drie Exhalations which indeed may fitly be called a drie cloud is set on fire in the midst and because the cloud is not so compact that it should suddenly rend as when thunder is caused the fire breaks out at the edges of it kindling the thin Exhalations which shoot out in great number like to fierie spears or darts the streaming or flashing being so much the whiter by how much the Exhalation is the thinner Such like coruscations as these we use to see many nights in the North and North-east parts of the skie 6. Caprae saltantes or dancing Goats are caused when an Exhalation hot and drie is so compact that on the one side or other it hath some parts which appeare as the appendices of it or joyned to the main Exhalation by an other kinde of Exhalation farre thinner then the main one so that the fire running on the main part and as it were outright by the way it cannot but seem to skip unto those parts on the sides inflaming them also which because it is variously and nimbly performed makes the flame seem to leap or dance just as wanton goats use to do when they are dancing or playing 7. Scintillae volantes or flying Sparks are caused when the matter of the Exhalation is not onely thin but in all parts thin alike but not compacted or knit together and not being closely joyned but interrupted by small spaces those parts which come up first into the highest Region are fired before the other that follow and thereupon they flie abroad like sparks out of a chimney even as when saw-dust or any such like matter is cast into the fire This Meteor by some is called Stipula ardens or Burning stubble 8. Stellae cadentes Shooting or Falling starres are caused when an Exhalation hot and drie is gathered as it were on a round heap but not throughly compacted nor yet so apt to ascend as other Exhalations which makes it therefore be beaten back again when it comes neare the cold confines of the middle Region and so hovering aloft by an Antiperistasis or repulsion by the contrary to it on every part it is set on fire and then sliding away it appeares as if a starre fell down or were thrown to the earth For shooting starres these some do fondly call As if those heavenly lamps from heaven could fall Moreover sometimes it is generated after another manner which is but in respect of the disposing of the matter and then the Exhalation is more long and narrow which being kindled at the one end burneth swiftly to the other even like a piece of waxed thread being lighted in a fire or candle Again some think that this Meteor is not so much set on fire as directly under some starre or other which gives it a shining But how this can be I cannot well perceive seeing it shooteth obliquely as oft as directly downwards 9. Lancea ardens or volans A burning or flying Launce is another fiery Meteor kindled in like sort that the former was and hath this name because the matter of it is so disposed that when it is fired it seems to be like a Launce 10. Illuminations or Fires scattered in the Aire and appearing in the highest part of the lowest Region are caused when very dry and hot Exhalations are drawn up and meeting with cold clouds are sent back again which motions to and fro do set them on fire and then their parts not being thick in equall proportion but as it were unjoyned together do seem as though Fires were scattered in the Aire Thus one way But sometimes the matter of this Exhalation is more nearely conjoyned and then if the Exhalation be large it is as if the whole Aire were on fire as appeared on the 15 day of November in the yeare of our Lord God 1574 in which yeare about the last day of March the strange star in Cassiopea's chair vanished and disappeared 11. Draco volans or a flying Dragon called by some a Fire-drake is a Fierie Exhalation whose matter is thick and as it were hard tempered together or rather not so hard as conglutinously conjoyned which lump ascending to the Region of cold is forcibly beaten down or back again by the force of which motion it is set on fire and not onely fired but also bent and violently made crooked For as hath been said the matter of it hangeth so conglutinously together that the repulse divides it not but by a strange encounter moulds it into such a fashion as seen afarre off looks much like a Dragon This is the opinion of the most But some say that it is done into this fashion between two clouds of differing natures the one hot the other cold and so perhaps it is sometimes made 12. Ignis fatuus or foolish Fire so called not that it hurteth but feareth or scareth fools is a fat and oily
before when there was onely light in those thinne parts in stead of fire And thus have I shewed you the naturall cause of all fiery Meteors Sect. 2. Parag. 6. Of watery Meteors and their severall kindes NOw it followeth that I speak something of watery Meteors and shew after what manner they are generated They be called watery because they consist most of water their substance being that kinde of Exhalation which we call Vapor and not Fumus And that which in the first place offereth it self is Nubes a Cloud Artic. I. Of Clouds I Begin therefore with clouds And a cloud is a vapour or Exhalation cold and moist drawn from the earth out of wet or watery places by heat of the Sunne into the middle Region of the aire where by cold it is so thickened and knit together that it hangeth untill either the own weight or some resolution causeth it to fall If it be a great cloud it is Nubes if it be but a little one it is called Nubecula The name comes ab obnubendo id est operiendo coelum from hiding or covering the heavens because a cloud through the thicknesse that the vapour is condensed into hindereth that a lesse portion of the heavens is conspicuous then otherwise would be It is also two-fold either fertill or barren A fertill or fruitfull cloud affordeth rain but a barren cloud doth not because it is at length by the blasts of winde and vertue of the heavenly bodies turned into thin aire And to either of these clouds belong motion colour Their motion is caused by the winde most commonly through whose force they are driven to and fro But if the windes blow not then they are drawn along by the Sun and made a companion with him in his travels alwayes moving that way which the Sunne goeth Concerning their colours I spake before in Paragraph 5. Article 2. And therefore here you may expect the lesse yet let me say that they are either simple or mixt Black or white are simple because they consist of no other colours But red green and the rest are mixt They appeare white when the vapour is thin for then it is easily pierced by the light which disperseth it self into it But when they appeare of a black colour then the vapour is thick and more closely condensed insomuch that the beams of light cannot be admitted As for their rednesse it may be caused two wayes according to Goclenius either through the adustion of the aire magno aestu incensum as he saith Or propter retusum radium Solis by reason of the beams of the Sunne beat back again which falling upon a watery cloud that is thickly condensed pierceth not but being doubled causeth rednesse as in the morning and this is a signe of rain but the other is not For the other rednesse is in such a cloud as sheweth the drinesse and adustion of the aire the cloud it self consisting of a smokie humid substance unto which is joyned a kinde of drie and adust matter This therefore is a signe of fair weather being seen in the evening towards the place of Sun-setting according as it hath been said of old Serò rubens coelum mané indicat esse serenum Concerning green clouds they are altogether watery and as it were already resolved into water which receiving into them the light appeare green like unto water in a great vessel or in the sea and deep rivers Blew clouds come something neare to the nature of black excepting that the black are thicker And note If when the Sunne sets there appeare or arise black dark clouds it portendeth rain Also observe the place opposite to the Sunne at his setting viz. the East and see if that be cleare for if it be pestered with black clouds there is but small hope of fair weather that night or the next day The common opinion is that the height of the clouds is not above nine miles But it is agreeable to no reason at all why any certain height should be determined for they are of unequall heights differing both according to the matter of their composure and also according to the time of the yeare being lower in winter then in summer for when the sunne hath the greatest force they then ascend the higher and in his smaller force they hang the lower By which it appeareth that the sunne helpeth to uphold them and keepeth them although heavier then the aire even in the aire for they sometimes also follow his motion But note that it is not the sunne alone which upholds them for the aire it self is also a cause of their not falling and that both within the clouds and also without them within the clouds for the clouds are of a spungie nature and full of pores which are filled with aire leâ—…t there should be vacuum and this aire heaveth them up causing them to aspire without the clouds also because they do as it were float up and down in the aire as some heavie things do in the water and yet not sink unlesse their substance be too earthie and heavie Artic. 2. Of Rain FRom clouds I proceed to speak of rain And rain is nothing else but as it were the melting of a cloud turned into water Or according to Aristotle it is the flux of a fertill cloud resolved by the heat of the sunne into distilling drops of water which being depressed with their own weight fall down to the earth For when the matter of the cloud being a cold vapour and earthly humour is drawn from the earth and waters into the middle Region of the aire and there thickened through the cold dwelling in the confines of that place it is at the last dissolved and cannot therefore but fall down in drops which drops if they be great are caused either by the quick resolution of the cloud or else by the little distance of it from the earth But if they be smaller then either the great distance or slow resolution maketh them of no ample quantitie The first of these is named nimbus the other is called imber And note that the dissolution as hath been said proceedeth out of heat which is not onely of the sunne but of windes also of an hot temper as is seen in the southern winde which bloweth up rain sooner then any other winde And as for rains which come from cold coasts and at cold times of the yeare if the cloud be not at such times as some may think dissolved through the heat of any winde it dissolveth it self through its own weight being a little holpen by the sunne for it continueth in the aire even whilest it can stay no longer And at these times also if we consider all aright we shall finde that the winde somewhat helpeth although not so speedily as from hotter coasts for naturally there is a kinde of heat in every winde because it is an Exhalation hot and drie although by accident as from
Zanchius his opinion was not much differing for speaking of strange rains he confessed concerning some of them that they were produced by such causes or the like as I before alledged concluding for the rest which were more occult that they were truely prodigious and caused either by the power of God as portenders of his wrath or else by the sleights of the devil through Gods permission Artic. 3. Of Dew DEw offers it self in the next place as being a neare kinsman to rain For it consisteth of a cold moist vapour which the sunne draweth into the aire from whence when it is somewhat thickened and condensed through cold of the night and also of the place whither the sunne exhaled it it falleth down in very small and indiscernible drops to the great refreshment of the earth And this is certain that the morning and the evening are the onely times when it falleth the reason being in regard of the sunne which both positively privatively causeth it Dew at night is caused privatively dew in the morning positively At night or in the evening privatively because when the sunne setteth the lowest part of the vapour not being high enough to hang in the aire falleth down through absence of the sunne And in the morning positively because at the return of the sunne the residue of the vapour together with the augmentation of it haply by some condensed aire caused by cold of the night is dissolved by his approaching beams and so made fit to fall rather then hang any longer For look what vapours are about the Horizon at the rising of the sunne are dispersed by his first approach and so it comes to passe that the morning as well as the evening affordeth dew But know that if the vapour be not conveniently placed that is if it be very high above the Horizon or in a loftie station of the aire then the sunnes approaching beam neither dissolveth nor disperseth it whereupon we have no dew but rather look for rain because the matter of dew is still in the aire staying there till it be turned into a cloud and so into rain And now by this you may see what is the materiall what the efficient what the formall and lastly what the finall cause of dew The materiall cause is a subtil and moist vapour being the thinnest of all vapours The efficient cause is the temperate cold of the night together with the absence and approach of the sunne The formall cause is the sprinkling of most thin drops which the hand can scarcely perceive And the finall cause that without rain the earth may have some refreshment Yet neverthelesse this I finde concerning dew as it is of a calorificall nature that rorilentas segetes collectas putrefacit because every externall heat is putrefactive Also dew is a great enemie to sheep begetting a deadly rot in them or a dangerous flux of the bellie which cometh to passe in regard of the humour being of much viscositie and not throughly refined or purged Wherefore your carefull and skilfull shepherds will never drive out their sheep to feed untill the sunne or the winde have licked the tops of the grasse and flowers Also know that a windie night hindereth the falling of dew Some say three things hinder it viz. winde great heat and cold for the most temperate and calm times afford it when other times want it As for the kindes of dew I cannot but joyn with them who divide them into three For there is first common dew secondly sweet dew and thirdly bitter blasting dew The common dew is ordinary Sweet dew is threefold 1. Manna 2. Mel. 3. Ladanum Manna is said to be white like sugar by some it is called Coeli sudor The matter of it is a fat and pure vapour not tainted with any putrid or corrupt Exhalations Or according to some it is roris melliti genus sed concreti a kinde of hony-sweet dew but concrete or compact more close together it falleth in the East parts Arabia Syria c. As for that Manna which God rained to the Israelites in the wildernesse some think that it was altogether miraculous others that it was ejusdem speciei cum Manna vulgari of the same kinde with common Manna which I also think because Iosephus in his third book and first chapter writeth that in his dayes there was great store of it in that part of Arabia wherein Moses was 40 yeares with the Israelites What should hinder this opinion I see not unlesse because the common Manna is of a purging qualitie and therefore to be taken for a medicine rather then for food To which I finde an answer that haply at the first it might work the like effect on their bodies also till it expelled the humours proceeding from the onyons and leeks that they eat in Egypt but afterwards through custome it might not work at all upon them or else God for their good that they might be fed might allay that qualitie in it by his mighty power for God resting from all his works on the seventh day created no new species of anything afterwards Fuohsius a learned Physician testifieth that there falleth great store of Manna upon the mountain of Libanus which is eaten without harm although they take it in plentifull abundance Yet neverthelesse it cannot be denied but that the Israelites had many things miraculous in theirs as that they could not finde it on the Sabbath day that he which gathered little and he which gathered much had alwayes sufficient for his eating and the like All which proclaimed the power of God In which regard he saith that he fed them with Angels food Not that the Angels eat of it but because it was cibus excellentissimus a most excellent kinde of meat insomuch that were the Angels to be fed with bread they might be fed with this In which sense we also call that which is daintie meat meat for a King or a Prince intimating the goodnesse of it So also the poets called their Myrrhina or their Nectar the drink of the Gods because it was a liquour of such excellencie But besides this the Scripture in like manner saith that it was bread from heaven as well as Angels food Not that it came from heaven if heaven be taken in a strict sense but because it was a symbole of Christs descending from heaven as it is John the 6. Moses gave you not that bread saith our Saviour but I am that bread of life come down from heaven Or else it is said to come from heaven because it came out of the aire for so the word signifying heaven is often used as the fowls of the aire are said to flie in the open firmament of heaven Gen. 1. 20. The clouds are called the clouds of heaven and the windes the windes of heaven although they be but in the aire Dan. 7. And thus much concerning Manna
The other kinde of sweet dew is Mel or an Hony-dew Now this falleth not onely in other countreys but also here in England and we cannot give it a more significant name then a Mel-dew being both as sweet and also of the same substance that hony is Some suppose that it is drawn out of sweet herbs and flowers which I also beleeve acknowledging that there is a kinde of resudation of juice proceeding from them at a certain convenient time of their growth which juice is either drawn up as a vapour and so sweeteneth the dew in the aire by such time as it falleth or else issuing of it self from the said flowers and plants but not ascending it sweeteneth the dew after it is come down or fallen on them although the said dew be but ordinary for when ordinary dew falleth upon any of those leaves which yeeld such a resudation or sweat it cannot but be sweetened although none of the sweet liquour be drawn into the aire as a vapour with it Now of these two choose which in your judgement is the most probable Plinie witnesseth that these dews are most common at the shining of Syrius or the great Dog-starre and that before the rising of Virgiliae or the Seven starres in the morning with the Sunne they cannot at all be Ladanum is another kinde of sweet dew Arabia hath great plentie of it and no other countrey as Plinie writeth unlesse it be Nabathaea bordering on the Arabick coast of Syria It is called Ladanum because it is a vapour falling upon the herb Ladon or Ledum and is sweetened by the juice issuing from the leaves of the said herb mixing it self with the vapour Goats hairs are often found amongst it because the Goat feeding upon that herb scattereth some of his hairs which are incorporated with the vapour and the juice of Ladon whilest like gumme it is hardened by the Sunne And thus much of sweet dews Now followeth that which I called bitter blasting dew The Germanes say it is Mildaw which is an improper name if it hath relation to that which we call Mel-dew For Mel-dew as before I shewed is an hony-sweet dew and not a bitter dew This therefore may be rather named Ros noxius or bitter blasting dew because it hurteth and killeth such herbs and plants as it falleth on and sticketh or cleaveth to This vapour hath much earthly matter in it and therefore it remaineth white when the moisture is gone It is also corrupted which comes to passe as 't is conjectured through the often change of the Aire which being tainted or infected through varietie of differing Exhalations sendeth down noysome and unwholesome dews falling sometimes even in the day time it self And here an end concerning dew Artic. 4. Of white hoar-frosts I Come now to speak of Frosts for as dew claimed kindred of rain so white hoar-frost is of the house and linage of dew As for example thus When a vapour drawn into the aire is congealed before it can be turned into dew then we have Pruina in stead thereof or a white hoar-frost so that such a frost is nothing else but dew congealed by overmuch cold Aristotle affirmeth the like shewing among other things that both in respect of matter and place of generation they do well agree to which is also pertinent the calmnesse clearnesse and quietnesse of the time wherein either of them falleth For both of them consist of subtill thin vapours and are generated in the lowest region of the aire because upon some high hills there is neither hoar-frost nor dew to be seen the vapour as it seemeth ascendeth not so high And as for a windie obscure time it is an enemie to them both The difference being that hoar-frost is congealed in the vapour before it can be turned into water The one caused in a season that is temperately warm the other when it is cold The materiall cause therefore of hoar-frost is a subtill thinne vapour The formall is the congealing of it by which it differeth from dew The efficient is the autumnall or winter cold for those are the most common and ordinary times peculiar to it although sometimes it comes as an unwelcome guest in the spring and summer when the aire through cold is forward to send it And last of all the end or principall effects when it cometh not out of season or the finall cause is the contraction or shutting up of the pores or breathing holes of the earth and about the roots of plants that thereby their spirits being the chariots of heat may be contained in their own bowels for the good of such things as they give life unto And thus much concerning frost Artic. 5. Of Snow THere is no great difference between the matter of snow and matter of rain and hail excepting as some think that the vapour for snow is of an hotter qualitie then the vapour for rain and yet not so hot as that which is the materiall cause of hail For it is a tenent amongst Philosophers that hot things being cooled are apter for congelation then cold as is seen in warm water taken from the fire which will more suddenly and throughly be frozen then that which never felt the heat And this comes to passe in regard of the pores or passages made into the water through heat into which the cold entring it both cooleth it the sooner and congealeth it the more Neither is there any difference between white frost and snow excepting that frost is made of a vapour before it be turned into a cloud and snow of a cloud before it can be turned into water Snow therefore is a cloud congealed by great cold before it be perfectly resolved from vapours into water For if it should come to the densitie of water before the congelation then it could not fall so like locks of wooll as it doth but would be more closely compacted or joyned together having little or no spunginesse in it As for the whitenesse it proceedeth not from its own proper colour but rather in respect of those parts which are more aierie then the rest whereupon I finde some authours who determine the case thus namely that the white is by receiving the light into it at those many small parts even as in froth and fome is seen For say some Nix est spuma quaedam Snow is a kinde of froth and when it loseth part of its frothie nature and begins to melt it loseth also part of that whitenesse which at the first it retained To this also may be added the coldnesse that is infused into it when it is congealed as being a cause of whitenesse even as in phlegmatick bodies and cold countreys may be seen For such people are alwayes whiter of complexion then others cold being the cause of that their whitenesse Such winters as are void of snow are not so good for the fruits of the ground
this they prove because the blast bloweth not farre but is like the winde that cometh out of a pair of bellows strong neare the coming forth but farre off is not perceived Upon thought of which let it also be known that the blowing of the winde sometimes one way and sometimes another way dependeth upon no other cause then upon the situation of the place from whence the exhalation ariseth and that it is sometimes stirred up one where sometimes another where proceedeth from the operation of the heavens Also know that windes diametrally opposite cannot blow together under one and the same Horizon with a continued blast For if they be of equall strength the one will be as powerfull as the other and so not one give place to either Or if their forces be unequall then the one will overcome the other and so the conquered must upon necessitie give place to the conquerour and rather joyn unwilling forces with him then be against him Yet neverthelesse if they be obliquely contrary they may blow together and by how much they are the more oblique by so much they stirre up the greater strivings and tempestuous blasts But if the exhalation be little tenuous or thin then we have onely a pleasant whisking winde such as may be called aura by which the aire is gently moved Also know that it is as possible to see the winde as the aire their substances being too tenuous to be perceived unlesse in a storm-winde whose matter is an exhalation so thick that it darkens the aire of which more shall be spoken afterwards as also of whiâ—…lwindes and the like Last of all as it is observed and found by experience the generall profit of winde by the unspeakable wisdome of the eternall God is wonderfull great unto his creatures For besides the alteration of the weather and change of seasons from drinesse to rain from rain to drinesse from cold to heat from heat to cold with frost and snow which all are necessary there is yet an universall commoditie that riseth by the onely moving of the aire which were it not continually moved and stirred would soon putrifie and being putrified would be a deadly poison and infection to all that breathe upon the earth Wherefore although we know not the particular place from whence it is raised or where it is laid down as Christ meaneth John the third yet it teacheth the admired providence of the Almightie insomuch that we may worthily crie out with the Psalmist and say Oh Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome thou hast made them all Artic. 3. Of the division of windes and of their names and number THe Ancients as Plinie witnesseth observed onely foure windes East West North and South but the following ages added eight making the whole number to be twelve Foure whereof were principall and called Cardinall windes because they blew à quatuor mundi cardinibus from the foure quarters of the world The other eight they called Laterall because they were as it were side companions with the former foure The Cardinall were called by these names 1. Solanus Subsolanus or the East winde 2. Notus Auster or the South winde 3. Zephyrus Favonius or the West winde 4. Aquilo Septentrio or the North winde And again the laterall were called by these names that follow and thus placed from the Cardinall As first the East hath on the Southern side Eurus or Vulturnus and on the Northern side Coecias or Hellespontus Secondly the South winde hath on the East side Phoenix or Euronotus and on the West side Lybonotus or Austro-Africus so called because it declineth from the South something towards Africa Thirdly the West hath on the South side Lybs or Africus so called from Lybia and Africa the Regions from whence they proceed and on the North side there is Corus or Caurus called also Iapix and Olympias because it bloweth from the mountain Olympus Fourthly the North hath on the West side Cyrcius called also Thraschias from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 converto because it useth to overturn many things with it The Spaniards call it Gallicus because it is observed to blow from the coasts of new Gallicia a Mexicanian province And 〈◊〉 the East side of the North point there is blustering Boreas which is a bellowing winde blowing with a loud hollow sound and is therefore derived by Aulus Gellius in his Attick nights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This division Aristotle also assenteth unto making three windes in every quarter as in the second book of his Meteors at the sixth chapter may be seen But the mariners make 20 more besides these insomuch that the whole circumference of the Horizon is divided into two and thirtie equall parts which they call and distinguish by severall names And now observe in this division that there be foure Cardinall windes as before foure middle windes which are just in the middest between each Cardine eight laterall already mentioned and sixteen collaterall making in the whole summe the aforesaid number of two and thirtie Know therefore that the Cardinall and middle windes are properly the principall the other being lesse principall and subordinate divided therefore into laterall and collaterall as hath been mentioned And as for those middle ones they be such as we call South-west South-east North-west and North-east windes Notolybicus is the South-west winde and Notapeliotes the South-east Borrholybicus is the North-west winde and Borrhapeliotes the North-east The rest being sixteen in number and collaterall have their places one between each of the other and so the circumference is divided into 32 parts as before I shewed Now the names of these sixteen are borrowed from those lateralls with whom they have the greatest neighbourhood by adding Meso and Upo to them For Meso comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medius because it is in the middle between a principall and a laterall winde and Upo comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub because it is as it were subject to that laterall winde next unto which it is placed and from whence it taketh the name As for example Eurus is a laterall winde a little from the East towards the South and this hath on each side of it one collaterall That which is between Notapeliotes or the South-east winde and it is called Mes'eurus being middle between a principall and a laterall But that which is between the East and it is called Up'eurus as being subject unto Eurus And by observing this order you may give names unto all the rest for Meso and Upo will compound them Yet neverthelesse ordinarily the mariners name them thus As North North and by West North North West North West and by North North West North West and by West West North West West and by North West West and by South West South West South West and by West South West South West and by South South South West South and by West
how the sea comes to be salt It followeth to shew why rivers be not salt as well as seas Now for the better explaining of this the first thing considerable will be concerning the originall of fountains and rivers Aristotle handled them amongst Meteors of a watry kinde because he supposed that there was the same originall of rivers within the earth which was of watry Meteors in the aire above the earth For if this aire saith he coming neare to the nature of a vapour is by cold turned into water then the aire which is in the caverns of the earth may be by the same cause condensed into water also According to which grounds we cannot but make this the originall of fountains and rivers namely that they are ingendred in the hollow concavities of the earth and derive both their birth and continuall sustenance from the aire which piercing the open chinks or chasma's of the earth and congealed by the cold of those places dissolveth into water as we see the aire in winter nights to be melted into a pearlie dew sticking on our glasse windows and being grown to some quantitie it will either finde a way or make a way to vent its superfluitie All which agreeth very well to the nature of the aire which seeing it is hot and moist the heat being gone it is thickened and so easily turned into water And as for a continuall running of rivers caused by this water it is saith Aristotle by a perpetuall succession of new aire But to this opinion we may not absolutely make subscription for although aire may be thus converted into water yet the sole matter of rivers cannot come from hence it may haply be an helping cause but not a prime or principall cause For first sith the aire is a thin subtil bodie there is necessarily required an abundance of aire to make but a little quantitie of water insomuch that it is not doubted by some without cause whether the dennes and hollow places of the earth be vast enough to receive so much aire as can make water enough to runne along untill it break out into a river or spring Secondly there be many fountains which have as it were a kinde of ebbing and flowing at certain direct and set times which they keep as constantly as the very sea it self As for example among other strange rivers Plinie makes mention of Dodon Jupiters fountain which evermore decreaseth from midnight untill noon thence it increaseth untill midnight again And in the island Delus the fountain of Inopus as he also affirmeth keeps his course with Nilus Also he makes mention of a little island in the sea over against the river Timavus or Brenta in Italie having certain fountains in it which increase and decrease according to the ebbing and flowing of the vast bodie of Amphitrite or the sea Wherefore the wise man Siracides thought more truely Ecclus. 40. 11. concerning these things affirming that all things which are of the earth shall turn to the earth again and that which is of the waters doth turn again into the sea Which saying of his I do not say is much strengthened but absolutely confirmed by one more authentick then it self namely by that of Solomon Eccles 1. 7. where it is witnessed that all rivers runne into the sea yet the sea is not full unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again Which testimonie makes it plain that the sea is the principall cause of all rivers and if therefore Aristotles aëriall vapours have any thing to do in this generation it is as much as nothing yet that which they are able to do I imagine they perform joyning themselves with the currents which come from the sea and so they runne together in the veins of the earth either untill free leave be given them to come abroad or that like Hannibal in the Alps they work themselves a way Now in this there is little or no difference between Solomon and Plato together with the ancient Philosophers before him although Aristotle dissenteth For that which Solomon calleth the sea Plato calleth the great gulf of the earth saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Ad illum hiatum omnes fluvii confluunt ex hoc vicissim omnes effluunt that is Into this gulf all rivers do both flow or assemble themselves and also by their courses come or flow out again But what need more words It is without controversie that rivers have their first originall from the sea that is the fountain-head from whence all fountains have their heads Neither can the saltnesse of the sea and freshnesse of rivers stop this current For concerning springs it is true indeed that they are fresh and this freshnesse notwithstanding their salt originall may be ascribed to percolation and straining through the narrow spungie passages of the earth which makes them leave behinde as an exacted toll the colour thicknesse and saltnesse So that you see sea water though in it self of a salt and brackish savour by passing through divers windings and turnings of the earth is deprived of all unpleasantnesse and by how much the spring-heads of rivers are remote from the sea by so much are their waters affected with a delightfull relish yea and why they ascend up to the highest mountains already hath been declared Unto which may be added that they come not with a direct course from the sea unto those hills neither do they ascend directly upwards on the sudden but by degrees and so winding themselves through many crooked passages and turnings they do as it were scrue themselves up to the convenientest place of breaking out and cannot go back because the sea is a farre heavier bodie then the vein that cometh from it even as the bloud in our veins is nothing in proportion to the liver from whence each vein of bloud hath its first beginning But I draw towards a conclusion adding in the last place that of waters be they seas or rivers we have a threefold use and benefit First that out of them drink may be afforded to man and beast as it is Psal. 104. 11. They give drink to every beast of the field the wilde asses quench their thirst c. Secondly that running through the earth as bloud through the bodie by interlacing it and sometimes overwhelming it they make the earth able to produce those fruits which are necessary for the life of man which benefit of overflowing so fattens the whole land of Egypt that the priests of that countrey did thereupon ascribe the beginning of time or of every thing that now is to that time of the yeare when their Nilus overflowed or when it first began to lift up it self above the banks and diffuse an ample portion of manuring bountie into the lap of the land which is as good to them as if Iupiter should descend in a golden shower And for other places where there be
likewise many islands such as were never seen before And thus there may be five severall kindes of earthquakes Know also that an earthquake hath both his Antecedentia and Subsequentia The Antecedentia are the signes which go before it and shew that it will be The Consequentia or Subsequentia are the effects which follow after it and shew that it hath been As for the Antecedentia or signes they be of these sorts chiefly First a great tranquillitie or calmnesse of the aire mixed with some cold the reason of which is because the exhalation which should be blowing abroad is within the earth Secondly the sunne is observed to look very dimme certain dayes before although there be no clouds the reason of which is because the winde which should have purged and dissolved the grosse aire is taken prisoner and enclosed within the bowels of the earth Thirdly the birds flie not but sit still beyond their ordinary wont and seem as if they were not fearfull to let any one come neare them the reason of which is because either the pent exhalation sendeth some strange alteration into the aire which slenderly breatheth out of some insensible pores of the earth which it may do though the exhalation comes not out or else it is that they are scarce able to flie for want of some gentle gales for their wings to strike upon it being a thing well known that birds flie more willingly and cheerfully when the aire is of such a temper Fourthly the weather is calm and yet the water of the sea is troubled and rageth mightily the reason of which is because the great plentie of spirits or winde in the bottome of the sea beginneth to labour for passage that way and finding none is sent back again whereupon soon after it shaketh the land This is evermore a certain signe Fifthly the water in the bottome of pits and deep wells is troubled ascending and moving as if it boyled stinking and is infected the reason of which is because the exhalation being pent and striving to get forth moveth some stinking mineralls and other poisonous stuffe to the springs of those waters and they with the strugling exhalation stirre and attaint them Sixthly there is a long thin cloud seen in a cleare skie either a little before sunne-setting or soon after now this is caused by reason of the calmnesse of the aire even as Aristotle observeth that in a quiet sea the waves float to the shore long and straight I do not think that this alone can be any more then a very remote signe unlesse it be joyned with some of the other signes already mentioned for although such a cloud may be seen yet every calm brings not an earthquake neither are all places alike subject to them The last signe and that which cannot but be infallible is the great noise and sound which is heard under the earth like to a groning or very thundering And yet some say that this is not alwayes attended with an earthquake for if the winde finde any way large enough to get out it shaketh not the earth Now this noise is made by the struggling of the winde under the earth Next after the Antecedentia the Consequentia of earthquakes would be considered and these as I said be their effects which indeed be not so much the effects of the earthquake as of the exhalation causing the earthquake The first whereof may be the ruine of buildings and such like things together with the death of many people About the 29 yeare before the birth of Christ was an earthquake in Iurie whereby thirtie thousand people perished In the fifth yeare of Tiberius Emperour of Rome thirteen cities of Asia were destroyed in one night by an earthquake Some say but twelve Lanq. chron In the 66 yeare of Christ three cities of Asia were also by the like accident overthrown namely Laodicea Hieropoliâ—… and Colossus Again in the yeare of Christ 79 three cities of Cyprus came to the like ruine and in the yeare following was a great death of people at Rome And in the yeare 114 Antioch was much hurt by an earthquake at which time the Emperour Trâ—…jan being in those parts escaped the danger very difficultly Eusebius placeth it in the second yeare of the 223 Olympiad and Bucholcerus setteth it in the yeare of Christ one hundred and eleven Eusebius makes mention of another before this in the 7 yeare of Trajan this was that which in Asia Greece Calabria overthrew nine severall cities About the yeare of Christ 180 or 182 the citie Smyrna came to the like ruine for the restauration whereof the Emperour remitted ten yeares tribute About the yeare of Christ 369 Eusebius again telleth of an earthquake which was in a manner all over the world to the great damage of many towns and people The like was in the yeare 551 at which time a quave of the earth swallowed a middle part of the citie Misia with many of the inhabitants where the voice of them that were swallowed was heard crying for help and succour He also in the yeare 562 mentions another wherewith the citie Berintho was overthrown and the isles called Câ—…y grievously shaken Again he writeth of a great tempest and earthquake in the yeare 1456 wherein as he hath it out of Chronica chronicorum there perished about Puell and Naples 40 thousand people Also in the yeare 1509 the citie of Constantinople was sorely shaken innumerable houses and towers were cast to the ground and chiefly the palace of the great Turk insomuch that he was forced to fly to another place Thirteen thousand perished in this calamitie Again in the yeare 1531 in the citie Lisbon a thousand foure hundred houses were overthrown or as some say one thousand five hundred and above six hundred so shaken that they were ready to fall and their churches cast unto the ground lying like heaps of stones This earthquake was attended with a terrible plague and pestilence And thus do these examples confirm the first effect A second is the turning of plain ground into mountains and raising up of islands in the sea as Thia in the time of Plinie and Therasia which as Seneca witnesseth was made an island even in the sight of the mariners or whilest they were looking on Thus also Delos Rhodos and sundry others came to be islands A third effect is the throwing down of mountains and sinking of islands and such like Thus perished the Atlantick island as I shewed before yea thus also perished by the breach of the earth those famous cities of Achaia viz. Helice and Buris of which Ovid writeth thus Si quaras Helicen Burin Achaeidas urbes Invenies sub aquis Et adhuc ostendere nautae Inclinata solent cum moenibus oppida mersis If thou would'st Helice and wish'd Buris finde Th'Achaean cities never lost in minde The water hides them and the shipmen show Those
good to be drunk for pissing the bed Of Tabaco or as it is commonly called Tobacco there be principally two kindes saith Mr Gerard one greater the other lesse The greater was first found in those provinces of America which we call the West Indies The lesser comes from Trinidada an island neare unto the continent of the said Indies To which some have added a third sort And since the first discovery there have been plantations made in other places The people of America call it Petum Others Sacra herba Sancta herba and Sanasancta Indorum The reason being as I take it because when the Moores and Indians have â—…ainted either for want of food or rest this hath been a present remedie unto them to supply the one and help them to the other And some have called it Hyosoyamus Peruvianus or Henbane of Peru which also Mr Gerard assenteth unto verily thinking that it is a Species Hyoscyami for there be more kindes of Henbane then one chiefly in regard of the qualitie because it bringeth drowâ—…inesse troubleth the senses and maketh a man as it were drunk by taking of the fume onely Of some it is named Nicâ—…tiana exotica and by Nicholas Monardis it is named Tabaco Which said Monardis witnesseth that it is hot and drie in the second degree The Physicall chirurgicall uses of it are not a few and being taken in a pipe it helpeth aches in any part of the bodie being good also for the kidneys by expelling winde But beware of cold after it neither take it wantonly nor immoderately And know that some commend the syrupe before the smoke yet the smoke say they physically taken is to be tolerated and may do some good for rheums and the forenamed maladies which whilest some might cure they make them worse For we see that the use is too frequently turned into an abuse and the remedie is proved a disease and all through a wanton and immoderate use For Omne nimium vertitur in vitium To quaffe roar swear and drink Tobacco well Is fit for such as pledge sick healths in hell Where wanting wine and ale and beer to drink Their cups are fill'd with smoke fire fume and stink I remember an excellent salve which I am taught to make of green Tobacco the receipt whereof is thus Take the leaves of Tobacco two pounds hogges grease one pound stamp the herb small in a stone mortar putting thereto a small cup full of red or claret wine stirre them well together cover the mortar from filth and so let it rest untill the morning then put it to the fire and let it boil gently continually stirring it untill the wine be consumed then strain it and set it to the fire again putting thereto one pound of the juice of the herb of Venice turpentine 4 ounces boil them all together to the consumption of the juice then adde thereto two ounces of round Aristochia or Birthwort in most fine powder with wax sufficient to give it a bodie and so thou hast made an accurate salve for wounds or for old filthie ulcers of the legs c. The women of America as Gerard mentions in his Herball do not use to take Tobacco because they perswade themselves it is too strong for the constitution of their bodies and yet some women of England use it often as well as men And questionlesse those natives amongst whom it groweth may take more at once then any one of us It is said that Sir Francis Drakes mariners brought the first of this herb into England in the yeare 1585 which was in the 28 yeare of Q. Elizabeth and 3 yeares before Tilburie camp Betonie in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Betonica and Vetonica is hot and drie in the second degree This herb hath an infinite number of soveraigne vertues being very good for the head taken by some in a pipe as Tobacco and not seldome mixed with Tobacco it helpeth also the bitings of mad dogs by drinking the juice or powder of it and by binding the green leaves to the bitten place Plinie relateth a strange propertie pertinent to this herb for saith he if fell serpents be enclosed round about with it they fall at such oddes that they kill each other presently This herb is also good to help women in their travail And thus hitherto I have spoken of such parcels of dame Tellus store as are onely hot of temper unto which I might adde yet thousands more whether they be such as are pleasant in shew sweet in smell delicate in taste wholesome in operation and the like but the earth you know is large and because I am to see something every where I cannot stay long any where lest the fourth day dawn before the third be finished These herbs following are cold and moist IN the next place therefore I must bring to your admirations some other parcels of another temper wherein you may likewise see Gods wisdome flourishing for at which soever we look there is a secret vertue that he hath infused into every one In which regard divine Du Bartas thus Good Lord how many gasping souls have scap't By th' aid of herbs for whom the grave hath gap't Who even about to touch the Stygian strand Have yet beguil'd grim Pluto's greedie hand Oh sacred simples that our life sustain And when it flies can call it back again 'T is not alone your liquour inly tane That oft defends us from so many a bane But even your savour yea your neighbourhood For some diseases is exceeding good As for example Yarrow as most men say when the leaves are green and chewed doth help the tooth-ach Also the leaves being put into the nose do make it bleed and is a remedie for the megrim a pain in the head It is an herb meanly cold in temper and called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Achillea because it was first found out by Achilles the disciple of Chiron and with it he cured his wounds Vide Plin. lib. 25. cap. 5. Sowthistle is cold the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sonchi If it be given in broth it increaseth milk in nurses breasts causing the children nursed by them to have a good colour and cleare complexion Groundsell is said to have mixt faculties for it cooleth and withall digesteth The Latines call it Senecio because it quickly waxeth old some also call it Herbutum The leaves of this herb stamped and strained into milk and drunk are good against the Red-gum and frets in children Comfrey is somewhat cold of qualitie and of a clammie and gluing moisture It is highly commended of the learned for curing of wounds especially of the intrals and inward parts and for burstings and ruptures insomuch that they affirm the slimie substance of the root made in a posset of ale and given to
desire to speak a word or two of things growing under ground and within the earth which as briefly as I can shall be handled in the following Appendix An Appendix to the two former Sections discoursing somewhat concerning Metalls and such like things as are under ground IN the second dayes work I had occasion to speak of Fiery Aierie and Watery Meteors all which by the Philosophers are named bodies imperfectly mixt being but a little durable And now being to speak of things under ground I am come to bodies more perfectly mixt and of a longer continuance because they consist of a more solid and constant concretion of Elements Their names in generall are either Mineralia Mineralls Fossilia or Metalla They are Mineralia because they are generated in Mines that is in the veins pores and bowells of the earth They are Fossilia from Fodio to dig because they are digged out of the earth And they are Metalla Metalls from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to search or finde out because with much labour and cost they are sought out of the veins and bowells of the earth That name which I insist upon is this last And that the kindes of Metalls may the better be remembred this short table would be observed Metalls are either Principall which are of themselves as Sulphur and Mercurie being as it were the father and mother of all metalls Lesse principall derived from the principall more pliable pure more Gold Silver lesse having either more Brimstone or Quicksilver lesse pliable Hard stones common solid shining not shining full of pores as the Pumex and Tophus precious more noble shining more lesse noble shining lesse Brittle or of a friable nature easie to be brought into crumbes And these are all kindes of precious earths and sucks of the earth as Terra Lemnia Samos Bitumen Sal c. Of these kindes I purpose to speak a word or two which shall be as it were to explain the table to such as know it not The first or principall metalls are Sulphur and Mercurie These are of themselves because other metalls do not help to make them but they help to make other metalls Sulphur or Brimstone is said by some to be the fat of the earth with fiery heat decocted unto his hardnesse which is the cause that it so speedily is enflamed and burneth even in water Or thus Sulphur is a metallick substance or matter consisting of a more subtill Exhalation fat and unctuous shut up within the veins of the earth It will burn sooner then the fat of beasts for although it be fatter then Brimstone yet it is farre colder Mercurie or Quicksilver is a slimie water mixt with a pure white earth which metall for the matter whereof it doth consist is thin cold and heavie Or thus Quicksilver is a metallick matter consisting of a waterie vapour more subtil then ordinary which is mixed with earth to conglutinate or knit it together and by the heat of Sulphur it is digested into what it is It pierceth metalls because of the extream thinnesse which together with the heat of it makes it be in continuall motion and the motion by a Metaphor causeth it to be called Quicksilver Moreover it is also called Mercurie because as Mercurie is joyned to all the Planets so this to all metalls or as Mercurie is moved many wayes so this is apt for any motion The lesse principall metals are derived from these first I call them lesse principall because they are not of themselves but produced by the help of the other two These I divide into two sorts the pliable and the lesse pliable Pliable metals are pure and that either more or lesse The more pure are Gold and Silver Gold is the onely purest of all metals and is composed of a most pure red Sulphur and of the like Quicksilver they are red but not burning This metall is onely perfect all other be corruptible It is perfect because it is concocted with sufficient heat and mixture of Sulphur whereas all other metals either are not so well concocted or else they have not the due quantitie of brimstone and as it is affirmed by the Alchymists because nature in all her works seeketh the best end she intendeth of all metals to make gold but being hindred either for want of good mixture or good concoction she bringeth forth other metals although not so precious yet in their severall uses every way as profitable if not more for it is scarce a question f whether there be more use to the necessitie of mans life in Iron and Lead then is in Gold and Silver Gold never rusteth both because of the purenesse of its parents free from poisonous infection and also because it is so solidly composed that no aire which causeth all things to corrupt can be received into it This perfection together with the rarenesse and beautie of it hath caused fond mortals to doat so much upon it as they do Nay will not one pound or ounce of this go further then ten either ounces or pounds of honestie The Poets saying agreeth to it Aurea nunc verè sunt secula plurimus auro Venit honos This is the golden age not that of old For now all honour 's to be bought with gold And hereupon I think it is that most men dispraise this metall and yet but few who would not have it Diversas hominum videam cùm sparsa per artes Ingenia est cunctis ars tamen una viris Omnibus idem animus gratos sibi quaerere nummos Omnis inexhaustas undique poscit opes When I behold the wits of men inclin'd To divers arts I all of them do finde In this one art to meet they shun no pain Wish'd wealth to heap up and augment their gain Nay they are not common fetches and plots but strange and bloudie damned practises which are often used to get and obtain the riches of the world Which Ovid could discern a long while since and therefore he saith Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum Iámque nocens ferrum ferróque nocentius aurum Riches those fond enticements unto ill Are digged up and iron which doth kill But Gold it is which doth more harm to men Then iron blades though steel'd though sharp though keen Or as another saith Aurum deâ—…tructor vitae princépsque malorum O quà m difficiles nectis ubique dolos O utinam natum nunquam mortalibus esses Dulcia suppeditas quae nocumenta viris Gold lifes destroyer and of mischiefs chief Oh what strait wiles dost thou knit past belief Would thou hadst ne're been born to mortall wights Sith harm to men rests in thy false delights These are the complaints But it is neither in Gold nor Iron or the like that these evils rest the causes of ill ought rather to be imputed to the devil and wicked men For true it is All goods are good to good men that well
use them But they are bad to fools who do abuse them And thereupon saith Du Bartas I know to man the earth seems altogether No more a mother but a step-dame rather Because alas unto our losse she bears Bloud-shedding Steel and Gold the ground of cares As if these metals and not mans amisse Had made sinne mount unto the height it is To pick a lock to take his neighbours purse To break a house or to do something worse To cut his parents throat to kill his prince To spoil his countrey murder innocence For as a cask through want of use grown fustie Makes with his stink the best Greek malmsey mustie So Gods best gifts usurpt by wicked ones To poison turn through their contagions What pains do not men take to winne gold every man hath one way or other to hunt after it but the Alchymist despising all other wayes as slow unnaturall and unprofitable laboureth either to help nature in her work as of unperfect metals to make perfect or else to force nature to his purpose by his quintessences and Elixers so that what by purging what by concocting what by mixing of Sulphur and Quicksilver and much other like stuffe at length he turneth the wrong side of his gown outward all the teeth out of his head and his bodie from health to a palsie and then he is a Philosopher and so he must nay will be called It is said of Gold that it waxeth cold towards day-light insomuch that they who wear rings of it may perceive when the day is ready to dawn Silver is the most pure metall next unto Gold it hath an indifferent good concoction but it wanteth sufficient heat in the mixture and thereupon it looketh pale It is a metall begotten of pure white Mercurie and of cleare white Brimstone or Sulphur The lesse pure pliable metalls consist some of them of more Brimstone some of more Quicksilver neither are any of these two so pure as those in the mixture of Gold and Silver Brasse is an impure metall consisting most of a red and thick Sulphur and of a little Quicksilver something impure that which cometh from Cyprus is called Copper and is the purest as being of best digestion and nearest unto Gold Brasse Latten and such like being no other then divers kindes of Copper In ancient time this metall was in greater esteem then Iron for they did not onely make their armour of it but their bucklers also and their lances because they would not be worn either with age or use Copperas is a minerall of a neare nature unto Brasse or Copper it is said by some to be mixed of humours strained by drops into small holes And perhaps it is nothing else but the more raw and impure substance of that which is the matter of Copper with lesse Quicksilver in it and that also of a baser qualitie It is hot and drie in the fourth degree vehemently binding being of great force to season and preserve raw flesh as some affirm and is also good to beget sound flesh in festered sores and to stench bloud It is of a green yellow and a skie colour but the best hath white spots in it See more afterwards in Vitriol Iron is a common metall necessary for the use of mans life engendred of a most impure Quicksilver mixed with a thick Sulphur impure and adust Or thus It is an impure metall consisting of much crude earthie adust Sulphur and a modicum of filthie and bad Mercurie This saith the Philosopher although it be hard yet by daily use it is worn and wasted the reason being in regard that it hath in it least of Mercurie and most of an earthie Sulphur The quenching it in water makes it harder and harder but if it be quenched in the juice of bean-shells or mallows it becometh soft and so also doth the often heating it and cooling it without quenching Plinie calleth it optimum pessimúmque vitae instrumentum the best and worst instrument of life Steel is a kinde of Iron but the purest and the hardest or Iron refined Naturall steel which we call Chalybs in times past was gotten out of a place in Thracia where the people called Chalybes inhabited their use was to go naked and digge this metall out of the earth Metalls consisting most of Mercurie are these Lead and Tinne Lead is a raw and indigested metall but of better digestion then commixtion for it is mixed with a grosse earthie substance which causeth it to be in colour so black and so ready to foul It is begotten of much unpure thick and drossie Mercurie and by refining is made whiter The kindes of this are varied by reason of the matter whereof it consisteth and by reason of the heat by which it is decoâ—…ted and thereupon it comes to passe that we have one sort which we call Black-lead another farre whiter and clearer as being better concocted and more purely composed It is of a cold and binding nature and if it lie in the wet moisture will increase the weight England hath store of it Tinne whereof great plentie also groweth in the West parts of England in beautie and colour cometh nearest unto Silver and of Silver wanteth nothing but soliditie and hardnesse Some think that it is composed of Silver and Lead but the more common opinion is that the greatest part of it is Mercurie white without and red within having a portion also of Brimstone or Sulphur not well mixed being as it were Lead whited with Silver for it is a raw and undigested metall very porous and uncompact which causeth it to crash when it is either broken or bitten And thus farre of metalls pliable The lesse pliable as I shewed in the table are either hard or brittle cannot be easily hammered wrought or melted to a desired form The hard ones are all kinde of stones And of stones together with bodies friable or brittle it is doubted whether they be in the number of metalls or no because there is great difference in the matter of their composure c. To which it is answered that although they be not in the number of such kinde of metalls as are pliable and will melt nor yet abound with that matter of mixture which they do neverthelesse they may bear the name of metalls according to that generall name specified in the derivation of the word Metalla And in that regard I made a difference of metalls and drew them out in the former table Wherefore I proceed and following them who derive stones after this manner I say that stones are bodies perfectly mixt without life hard of a drie and an earthie exhalation mixed with a certain unctuositie and by the durance of time together with the force of heat and cold and a minerall vertue conglutinated or knit together Or thus they be engendred of a watrie moisture and fat earth mixed hard together By which
it appeareth that the matter of stones is a watrie humour and a thick unctuous earth which is not so to be understood as if the other two elements were separated from their mixture but because they have not such precedencie as the former And for their efficient causes besides the minerall vertue it is said to be heat and cold Heat bringeth the slow humid unctuous matter through the thin parts of the earth as the Philosophers affirm and cold condenseth it and makes it thick They live not with a vegetative life as plants and trees which have their nourishment from within but their augmentation proceeds from an outward accretion by the 〈◊〉 of particulars adhering to them when they lie in place convenient and in time their vertues may be abated by being long out of their right Ubi in which regard some supposed that they had life and died The common stones are of a more impure and grosse matter then the other Some whereof are solid some more full of pores In the solid the parts are more continued and better compacted yet so as some have a kinde of shining in them others are dark and dull The shining solid stones are chiefly all kinde of marbles of which I finde three sorts 1. Alabaster which is of colour very cleare and white The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and about Thebes in Egypt it is especially found there being the greatest plentie of it 2. Ophites which is a kinde of marble having spots like a serpent 3. Porphyrites which is the red marble mixed or interlaced with white spots The not shining solid stones are these and the like 1. The Flint 2. The Marchasite or that whereof they make milstones which being struck with Steel procures fire like to the Flint 3. Cos which is of power to sharpen edgetools wherefore we commonly call it a whetstone 4. Corticula or Lydius lapis which is of force to trie the truth in metalls we therefore call it a touch-stone 5. Smiris which is an hard stone wherewith glasiers cut their glasse some call this an Emery 6. Those which we name wheaten stones or any kinde of rockie stone or such as may be comprehended under the word Saxum Common stones lesse solid are the Pumex and Tophus 1. The Pumex is of a spungie nature and is apt to swimme by reason of the light matter whereof it consisteth 2. The Tophus is a sand or gravell stone that may easily be rubbed to crumbes But come now to precious stones and amongst them we have the noble and the lesse noble both which sorts are begotten of a more subtil and thin matter then common stones and fostered with a more singular influence of the heavens My task were in a manner endlesse to reckon all sorts yet some must be remembred The more noble precious stones are 1. The Adamant or Diamond the most precious of all stones and the hardest insomuch as it cutteth glasse and yeeldeth not either to stroke of hammer or fire notwithstanding it is softened with Goats bloud being warm soon after she hath eaten paâ—…sley or drunken wine Plinie maketh 6 kindes of Adamant The 1. is Adamas Indicus being neare akin to crystall for in colour and clearenesse it is much like it and in quantitie it is in bignesse as a filbert or hasell nut The 2. is Adamas Arabicus like to the other excepting that it is something lesse The 3. is called Cenchros answering in bignesse to the grain of Millet The 4. kinde is Adamas Macedonicus and this is like to the seed of a Cucumber The 5. is Adamas Cypricus this is found in Cyprus and tendeth somewhat to the colour of brasse The 6. is called the Siderite which although it be heavier then the other yet it is of lesse vertue and esteem the colour whereof is like to the colour of iron And this as also that of Cyprus are tearmed by Plinie degenerate kindes because they will be broken by the hammer or otherwise with blowes and may also be cut or rased by other Adamants All these kindes the two first onely excepted are said to have their place of generation amongst the Gold and in golden Mines 2. The Saphire is a very cleare gem very hard and of a skie colour growing in the East and specially in India the best sort hath in it as it were cloves enclining to a certain rednesse This stone is said to be of a cold nature and being drunk it preserveth chastitie corroborateth the heart helpeth against the stinging of serpents poyson and pestilence 3. The Smaradge is of a green transparent colour making the aire green neare about it The qualitie of this stone in physick is much like to the former or of more vertue for it is said to defend the wearer from the falling sicknesse And so greatly doth it favour chastitie that if it be worn whilest the man and the woman accompanie themselves together it breaketh in the very act 4. The Hyacinth is of a watrish colour or rather something blew like a violet It is exceeding hard and cloudy in the dark but pure and cleare by day like unto a false flattering friend whose blithe looks are onely seen in time of prosperitie but gone when the cloudie night of dark adversitie beginneth to approach For where true friends are knit in love there sorrows are shared equally and best are they perceived in a doubtfull matter Si fueris felix multos numerabis amicos Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris Whil'st thou art happy many friends thou hast But cloudie times those many friends do waste Moreover this stone is of a cold qualitie moderating the spirits of the heart and of the other parts also it causeth mirth and being worn obtaineth favour as some report 5. The Amethyst is a gem or precious stone which in colour resembleth a deep claret-wine and as some suppose it hath power to resist drunkennesse 6. The Carbuncle of which Plinie writeth in his 37 book and 7 chapter is a gem shining with a light like fire representing a flame Some say it is the noblest and hath most vertues of any precious stone 7. The Calcedon is of neare nature to the Carbuncle it is of a purple colour and shineth like a star it is said to expell sadnesse and fear by purging and chearing the spirits it also hindreth ill and fearfull visions or dreams in a mans sleep 8. The Rubie is a red gem shining in dark like a spark of fire it cleareth the sight and expelleth sad and fearfull dreams 9. The Chrysolite is a stone of a golden colour and shining but brightest in the morning It is good against melancholy and fire is much hurtfull unto it 10. The Astarite is a cleare shining Crystalline stone having in the midst the image of a full moon or
This pitchie earth is of two kindes For it is either Hard or Liquid The Hard is more strongly concreted then the other being like unto clods of the earth or coals Or as some affirm it is tough and moist at the first swimming on the water but being taken forth it waxeth hard Of this kinde is 1 Asphaltus 2 Pissasphaltus 3 Succinum Asphaltus is a black Bitumen hard like stone-pitch cleare and smelling scarce so ill as Pitch It is found throughout Babylon and especially in the lake Asphaltites neare unto which stood those cities of Sodome and Gomorrah that were consumed with fire and brimstone and where also do as yet grow apples which according to Solinus are fair and fresh without but within are full of Sulphur and being handled they fall all to ashes In which they are Emblemes of the vanities of this world alwayes seeming more then they are Pissasphaltus is said to be Mummie or a kinde of Bitumen somewhat differing from Asphaltus and is not seldome found in clods rolling from mount Ceravine to the Sea as authours witnesse In stead of this it is supposed that we have counterfeit Mummie often out of Syria Egypt and some other places which is taken from poore mens bodies that die there For in stead of Myrrhe Aloes Cassia c. which the rich men have in their burialls and embalmings the poore are dressed and stuffed up with Bitumen This therefore which is but counter feit is nothing else but a corrupted humour taken out of old tombes which there droppeth from embalmed bodies and most ridiculously in my opinion do they erre who say it is made of mans flesh boyled in Pitch It is hot in the second degree and good against all bruisings spitting of bloud and divers other diseases Succinum is a Bituminous suck or juice of the earth being hard as if it were a kinde of stone It is of three colours White Yellow and Black The White and Yellow are called Amber and the Black is Iet They make beads of Amber And some would have this Amber to be rather a gumme growing on a tree then to be a suck of the earth The tree by some is called Ibex Romana But as others report out of Dioscorides it falleth in manner of a liquour from Poplar trees into the riuer Po in Italie where it congealeth and becometh hard in that form as we see it Iet hath more plentie of fatnesse in it then Amber and therefore it will burn like a candle and smelleth like the Pine-tree It hath an attractive vertue in it to draw chaffe straws and such other light stuffe unto it especially if it be rubbed till it be hot And these are the kindes of Hard Bitumen The Liquid and soft is like an oyly moisture flowing and is of divers colours according to the varietie of the place but the white is said to be most precious And for the kindes the chief are these Naphtha and Amber of Arabia Naphtha is a liquid Bitume like unto chalkie clay or as it were the fat of Bitume whereunto if fire be put it kindleth in such wise that if a little water be cast thereon it burneth more vehemently And indeed it hath in it such a fiery force that it will draw fire unto it although it be farre off When it is found to flow out of rocks then it is called Naphtha Petreolum and by some taken for oyl In the island Sicilie are fountains from whence great store of this liquour floweth which they frequently burn in Lamps Amber of Arabia is Bitume of an ash colour and of a fragrant sweet smell desired and sought after as a most precious merchandise It is found in Arabia felix neare unto a town which is called Sichris Howbeit Olaus Magnus calleth that Amber which is Sperma Ceâ—… but then it is Ambergreese and rather the spawn then the seed 12. From Bitume I come to Alume which is said to be a salt sweat of the earth according to Plinie congealing it self with a glutinous earth and water It is either white or black The white is either cleare or thick The cleare is softer and fatter then the other This is Roch-Alume and if paper be washed with this it will bear ink very well although it be bad The thick is more hard and of a grayer colour Black Alume is found in Cyprus and with this gold is purified and purged They that desire more may reade Plinie in his 35 book at the 15 chapter 13. Vitriol is a suck of the earth concreted obtaining the perspicuitie of glasse some call it Chaâ—…canthum which word may signifie either Copperas or Vitriol This suck is very poysonous 14. Salt is called Sal à saliendo because when it is put into the fire it skippeth and danâ—…eth It is a friable metall begotten of a waterish and earthie moisture mixt and decocted together the efficient cause whereof is the heat of the sunne and other starres who out of a salt matter drawing away the thinner and the sweeter parts leave the earthie still behinde which being throughly rosted by heat become salt For there be two things requisite in a salt savour The first are drie and earthie parts The other is an adustion of the said parts as Philosophers witnesse Salt hath force to binde to scowre and purge to disperse make thin and the like which thing Physicians can best declare There be 2 kindes Naturall and Artificiall The Naturall is digged Salt The Artificiall is made or boiled Salt Digged Salts are gotten either from the earth or from the waters as some distinguish Salts digged out of the earth be principally of foure kindes The first is Salt Ammonaick This is found in Africa under sand and is something like unto alume It is said to be hot and drie in the fourth degree and serveth to purge slimie humours Some affirm that that which Apothecaries sell in black clods is made of Camels stale and because store of Camels be in Armenia it is called Armâ—…niack The second is Salt of Indie of which you may reade in Plinie lib. 31. cap. 7. that it is digged out of mount Oramene and that the King hath there a greater yearely pension or custome then out of gold and precious stones The third is called Salt-gem which is a kinde of glittering Salt white and shining after the manner of Crystall Sometimes it is also called stonie marblie Salt Salt Dacian or Sarmatick Salt The fourth is called Salt-nitre and this is that which we call Salt-peter found in drie places under ground and in hollow rocks Of this is made that fatall dust called Pulvis Bombardicus or Gunne-powder the invention whereof was after this manner A Germane Monk or Frier of the order of S. Francis whose name was Bertholdus Swart being very studious in Alchymie was one evening for the finding