motion we must first discover their nature which is the principle of motion Now the particular nature of every thing is unknown to all men as well as the proportion of the mixture of their substances whereon their occult properties depend as the manifest qualities do on the mixtion of their first qualities which we are wont to call manifest not but that the reason of them is as difficult as of the rest but because they are more ordinary Which indeed has caus'd us to give them the name e. g. of lightness to the fire heaviness to the earth though no person has hither to assign'd the cause thereof Give but a name to this quality which the Iron hath of moving towards the Load-stone it will be as manifest as the motive virtue which carries a stone towards its centre We may indeed alledge the final cause of both and say in general that 't is the good of the thing mov'd that sets it in motion or on the contrary the good of the thing whereunto it tends that moves and attracts it but the formal cause which we here inquire is equally unknown The Sixth said That Iron is carri'd to the Load-stone as to its good and as the stone to its centre and hence it is that the Iron turns towards the North which is the native place of the Magnet For being a natural not a violent motion the motive faculty must be in the Iron which moves it self the goodness of the object attracting only by a metaphorical motion which supposes a motive faculty in the thing mov'd CONFERENCE LII I. Of a Point II. Whether other Animals besides Man have the use of Reason I. Of a Point IF it be true that there are more wonders in a Hand-worm then in an Elephant because all the faculties which are extended and have their manifest causes and instruments in the latter are found compendiously Epitomiz'd in the former and as it were independent of their organs there will be more wonders in a Point then in all the rest of the bodies which are compos'd of it Indeed there 's nothing so small as a Point and yet 't is the object of most Sciences Grammar treats of the Point of distinction Natural Philosophy of the Point of reflection and that which serves for the Centre of the Earth Astrology of the vertical points Zenith and Nadir and makes use of them to compute the motions of the Celestial Bodies Geography hath its four Cardinal Points All Sciences and Arts borrow this word to give some order to the things whereof they treat Lastly it serves for a principle to Geometry which begins its first Propositions with it And because if we believe Plato every beginning is divine a Point which is the principle of a line as this is of a surface this of a body an instant of time and an unite of number hath something of Divinity which Trismegistus for that reason calls a Centre or Point whose Circumference is no where and therefore they who hear us speak of a Point must not think that it is of an inconsiderable matter The Second said Although much is not to be argu'd from our manner of speaking in which the word Point with us French signifies a negation yet it seems to imply that if it be something it wants but little of being nothing For to speak truth a Point is the mean which is found between nothing and something 'T is not an accident for it doth not betide befall or arrive to a substance but is before and inseparable from the same Nor is it a substance since a substance is infinitely divisible but a Point is that which hath no parts that is to say is indivisible We cannot compare it to an instant in respect of time for the time past hath been instant or present and the future shall be so but a Point is not and never shall be a quantity nor to a Unite in regard of Number since Number is made of Unites and an Unite added to the greatest number whatever renders the same yet greater whereas a hundred Millions of of Points together make but a Point because that which hath no quantity of it self cannot give any Nevertheless 't is most probable that a Point exists really since 't is the foundation of all other quantities and two Spheres exactly round touch one another but in a Point The Third said As there is no mean between contradictories so neither can there be any between nothing and something Entity and Non entity Now a Point being the term of a line and every where in it must consequently be some thing Yea I maintain that it is a body and divisible by this argument One sole Being is not finite to wit the Creator all others to wit the Creatures and every part of them are finite Every finite thing is compos'd of parts being compos'd of ends or extremities and a middle For it would be as ridiculous to say that a thing is finite with out ends as to say that a thing is long without length or hot without heat A mathematical point is a finite thing Therefore 't is compos'd of parts To say that it is finite negatively and not positively cannot hold For as every mensurable solid is compos'd of and terminated by Mathematical surfaces these by lines and lines by points so a point is compos'd of and terminated by its ends which are its parts and extremities these again being compos'd of parts external and internal are also finite and consequently divisible to infinity Therefore a Point is not finite by negation which is nothing since nothing is not the term of a Point Neither is it terminated by it self since every thing is bounded by some term which is without it and if nothing cannot measure it self much less can it bound or perfect it self For 't is so true that every solid how small soever is divisible to infinity that the Naturalists maintain that if by Divine Omnipotence Humane and Angelical power being too short a grain of Millet should be divided into a hundred millions of parts every moment from the Creation to the end of the World the progression would never come to an Indivisible Point This is justifi'd by the Section of a Circle or Globe For if the Diametre of a Circle be divided into two equal parts the Centre of it which is a point will be semblably into two equal parts for it must not be all on one side otherwise the division would be unequal nor must it be turn'd into nothing since 't is not possible for any thing to be annihilated naturally But if those two Semidiametres were re-united as at first the two parts of the divided Point would be rejoyn'd into one point which would make the Centre again In like manner if a Globe perfectly round touch'd a perfect plain all agree that it would be in a Mathematical point which is not indivisible For the point of the plain hath parts since it hath
with Affirmation or Negation The Third is a right disposing of those Propositions and their Consequence which if it be necessary it is call'd Demonstration And the Fourth is the Series of those Demonstrations in such manner that those on which others depend are the first as it is seen in the Elements of Euclide Also the Lord Montagne's Method was alledg'd who learnt the Latine Tongue from the Cradle no person speaking to him but in that Tongue So was the Cyropaedia of Xenophon where the Lessons are the Practice of Political and Military Vertues which serve more to form the Judgement of Children then the Memory II. Of Entity The First Hour being spent in these Remarks the Second was imploy'd in discoursing concerning Entity which was explicated by this Series so much the more agreeably to the Company for that they observ'd such a Contrivance of it that the end of the preceding Period is the beginning of the ensuing All Power requires to be reduc'd into Act Act is a Perfection Perfection is the accomplishment of that which is wanting There is wanting to Man Felicity Felicity is to be united to his Principle He is united to his Principle when he is made like unto it He is made like unto it by Science Science is acquir'd by Demonstration Demonstration is the knowledge of a thing by its cause To know a cause it is requisite to seek it It is sought when we admire it We admire that of which we are ignorant We are ignorant because of difficulty Difficulty among other causes ariseth from Disproportion Disproportion procedeth from hence that our Mind is one and finite and the things which it ought to know are various yea infinite Wherefore it ought to reduce all things to one general which is Entity called by the Latines Ens Which being known and subdivided imparteth to us the distinct knowledge of all things which depend thereon The second added That Entity is that which is For the knowing of it 't is requisite to consider its Principles its Proprieties and its Species Principles are of two sorts viz. Either of Cognition or of the Thing A Principle of Cognition is That which causeth us to know a thing As That the Whole is greater then it's Part. The Principle of a thing is that which constitutes it as the Rational Soul and the Humane Body are the Principles of Man The Principle of the Cognition of Entity which is the sole Principle in Metaphysicks is this It is impossible for one and the same thing to be and not to be at the same time The Principles of the Thing are Essence and Existence Essence is that which causeth a Thing to be that which it is As Reasonable Animal or Living-creature is the Essence of Man because it causeth a Man to be a Man Existence effecteth that a Thing exists forth of its causes The Proprieties of Entity are Three One True and Good One that which is not divided in it self but is different from every Thing else True is that which falleth under knowledge Good that which is convenient or sutable to each thing Entity is divided into Real and Imaginary Real Entity is either actually or in power Actual Entity is either Increated or Created Created Entity is either Substance or Accident Substance is that which subsisteth by it self Accident that which cannot be naturally but in another Substance is either Incomplete which is but a part or Complete which is a Whole The Incomplete are the Matter and the Form The Complete that which is compounded thereof As the deduction of each of the above-mention'd points was going to be made it was Remonstrated That these Matters being not easie to be apprehended nor otherwise express'd then in Scholastick termes which we would avoid it seem'd meet to pass to things more pleasant running over the rest as lightly as possible And yet to pursue both the Methods above mention'd The Company therefore concluded to treat Of Principles and Of the End of all things in general at the next Conference At the hour of Inventions one presented himself and made this overture I offer to cause any one whatsoever Man or Woman of competent age to comprehend in eight hours viz. one hour a day for avoiding the ryring of the Mind a perfect Logick wherein shall be contained all the Precepts of well Defining Dividing and Arguing All the kinds of Arguments and the places from whence they are drawn Namely the Definitions and Divisions of the Vniversals of the Causes of the Opposites of the Whole c. Their Axiomes and the limitations of the same with an Abridgement of Categories I offer likewise to teach perfectly the Sphere and all the Principles of Geophraphy in two hours so that afterwards the person shall be able to make use of Maps and Books for knowing the Circles Zones and Climates besides the Parallels and Meridians for finding the degrees of Longitude and Latitude and other things pertaining to Geography I will also teach Moral Philosophy in twelve hours Metaphysicks in ten but for Natural Philosophy I ask four times as much time Another said That to let pass these Undertakings which he judg'd very daring there is a great difference between VVisedom and Knowledge Memory principally contributing to the Latter as Judgement to the Former That he propos'd a Method to instruct a Child in Wisedom the Guide and Sterne of Humane Actions That all things in the World are either Necessary or Contingent The former are immutable the Rules concerning them few the seeds of them within our breasts consequently soon learnt and easie to retain Provided the unconstant and irregular multitude of contingent things come not to interrupt the Production and Growth thereof As it happens by the thornes of Sciences which Solomon for this reason saith were invented to serve for a vain Labour to Men. Sciences in which there is alwayes room for disputing because if you except their Principles which they borrow from that Wisedom all the rest in them is but probable and problematical I conceive therefore that the true Method of Instructing a Child is to begin by informing his Judgement with the Rules of things Necessary For which purpose he must be taken void of all bad impressions between six and seven years is a fit Age. In the smooth Table of this Mind is to be written in good order the service of God and the King Honour Justice Temperance and the other Virtues When this Mind hath been educated in the Maximes appertaining to each of those Heads As That nothing is hidden from God That 't is better to dye then to revolt from the service of the King That after Honour there is no more loss It will be requisite to draw for him out of History Examples of such as have been rewarded for performing the same and punish'd for failing therein In the mean time care must be taken that no evil or dishonest thing be spoken or done before him if it happen otherwise
the interval during which the Sun running through the twelve Signes of the Zodiack comes again to the same point from whence he set forth the other is Lunar being the space of time in which the Moon is twelve times in conjunction with the Sun for otherwise the Lunar year properly taken is but one moneth which year is of 354 days eight hours and some minutes by consequence less then the Solar by about eleven days whereof the difference and reduction is call'd the Epact So that it must be known in the first place of what year the Question is to be understood For if the Solar year be meant as it seems to be it must begin by the minute in which the Sun enters the first point of the Ram who is for that reason said to open the year with his horns The Second said The Year is a Circle for that cause hieroglyphically represented under the figure of a Serpent biting his own tail and nam'd by the Greeks Eniautos that is to say In it self and by the Hebrews Schanah which signifies Reiteration As therefore there is neither beginning nor end in a circle so neither is there properly in a year each moment whereof may be its beginning and its end Yet God's command to the Jews to begin the year with the moneth of March joyn'd to the probability that the world was then created would make me to begin it so had not Christians more reason to begin theirs by the day on which they receiv'd their most signal benefits from the hand of God namely our Saviours Nativity Yet not by Christmas day but on that of the Circumcision ' on which the Son of God began to effect the mystery of our Redemption by the effusion of his blood as the same Christians compute their years not from the Creation of the World but from the Mystery of the Incarnation The Third said There are six terms by which we may commence the year namely the Apogaeum and Perigaeum of the Sun the two Solstices and the two Aequinoxes The two first cannot be proper for it because they are not fix'd points but moveable according to the trepidation of the Firmament Nor the Solstices since they are different according to the several Nations For our Summer Solstice is the Winter Solstice to our Antipodes who dwell in the Southern temperate Zone and on the contrary our Winter Solstice is their Summer Solstice It follows then that the year must be begun by that of the Aequinoxes in which the Sun first mov'd at the Creation being the Spring-time in which the earth according to God's command produc'd the Germen or tender Grass and green Herb. And this likewise is the time when the State of Heaven is such that the Astrologers make their surest Predictions from it of the whole constitution of the year ensuing The Fourth said That the year may with more reason be begun at Autumn as being rather the Season when the world was created for that the Trees are at this time laden with fruit and God was no less provident to prepare food for man then he is for children new born to whom their mothers no sooner give life but they have nourishment ready for them in their breasts The Fifth said That being the Aequinoxes and Seasons of the Year happen not always at the same time in respect of all people they cannot be a general rule for the beginning of the year which 't were more expedient to refere to the moment of the Creation But because only he that knows the end of it knows the beginning of it there remains nothing to men but light conjectures The fruits which appear'd upon the Trees concluding no more necessarily for Autumn then the tender Grass of the earth for the Spring or the nakedness of our first Parent for Summer and the sterility of the earth immediately after his sin for Winter Yea were the instant of the Creation known to us we should be still in doubt whether to begin the year from the day of the Creation which was Sunday or from the fourth day which is Wednesday on which the Sun and Moon were created since the year depends upon their Revolution or lastly from the sixth which is Fryday on which Adam was created who alone was capable among all creatures to compute their motions I should therefore judge it best to take the Apogaeum of the Sun or the moment wherein he is most elevated above the earth as the most noble and eminent place in which he is found during the whole course of the year being then as in his throne from whence he makes himself conspicuous to all the world rather then in any other place of Heaven and consequently may then better serve for a signal of the end of one year and the beginning of another And although the years would not be perfectly equal in duration yet the difference would be but small and they would be computed by all men after the same sort which is the thing requir'd The Sixth said The commencement of the year is as various as that of the day which the Persians and Babylonians began at the rising of the Sun the Arabians from one Noon to another as the Astrologers still do to find the Houses of the Sun and other Planets the Jews from Sun-set or from one evening to another according to what is said in Genesis that the Evening and the Morning were one day which way of counting the hours is still practis'd in Italy Bohemia and Silesia The remainder of Christians reckon their day from one mid-night to another because the night was before the day as we read in Genesis that in the beginning darkness cover'd the face of the deep but chiefly because our Lord was born at mid-night So that 't is an indifferent thing both where the natural day be begun provided its revolution be always of twenty four hours and where each people begins the Solar year provided they agree upon the revolution of the Sun and end it at the same point where they began it The Seventh said Although nothing be more certain then the measure of the Sun's course composing the Astronomical year which is divided into Conversional or Tropical and Sydereal Yet being this course is not concluded in an intire number of moneths days nor yet of hours for some minutes must be added to it hence ariseth the difficulty to regulate the years the confusion whereof has been encreas'd by the divers political and civil years establish'd by Legislators who have endeavour'd to comply in this point with the vulgar which likes nothing but what is intire and easie to comprehend Romulus began his year at the Vernal Aequinox and compos'd it of 304 days divided into ten moneths Numa observing that the course of the Sun and the Lunations did no agree and that the cold weather was often found in Summer and Harvest in Winter added January and February to it The progress of time having shewn that
same with perfect freedom CONFERENCE LXVIII I. Of the Magnetical Cure of Diseases II. Of Anger I. Of the Magnetical cure of Diseases 'T Is requisite to agree upon the Facts before inquiry into Right Now many Authors report that wounds have been cur'd by the sole application of a certain Unguent which for this reason they call Armarium to the instrument or offensive weapon that made it And Goclenius a German Physitian affirms that he saw a Swedish Lady cure one of her servants so that had been hurt by a blow with a knife by his companion and that this cure is very common having been practis'd in presence of the Emperour Maximilian Yea that 't is ordinary for the Peasants of his Country to cure hurts in their feet by sticking the nails or thorns which made them in Lard or Bacon Many Farriers cure prick'd horses by digging up as much ground as their foot cover'd Behold the ordinary composition of the aforesaid Oyntment Take an ounce of the unctuous matter that sticks on the inside of the Scull of one hang'd and left in the air let it be gather'd when the Moon encreases and is in the Sign either of Pisces Taurus or Libra and as neer as may be to Venus of Mummie and man's blood yet warm of each as much of man's fat two ounces of Lin-seed-oyl Turpentine and Bole Armenick of each two drams mingle altogether in a Morter and keep the mixture in a long-neck'd glass well stop'd It must be made while the Sun is in the Sign Livra and the Weapon must be anointed with it beginning from that part which did the mischief from the point to the hilt if it be a thrust and from the edge if it be a cut or blow Every morning the Patient must wash his hurt with his own Urine or else with warm water wiping away the pus which would hinder unition The weapon must be swath'd as the wound uses to be and kept in a temperate place For otherwise they say the Patient will feel pain If you would hasten the cure the weapon must be dress'd often and if you doubt of the part which did the mischief it must be dip'd all over in unguent If the hurt be small 't will be enough to dress the weapon every other day washing the hurt every morning and evening But this is not to be practis'd in wounds of the Arteries Heart Liver and Brain because it would be to no purpose Now by the nature of the ingredients and their conformity with us their effect seems to be natural and grounded upon the sympathy that there is between the blood issu'd from the wound and remaining on the weapon and that which is left in the wounded body so that the one communicates to the other what good or evil it receives although it be separated from the whole As they affirm that those whose leg or arm is cut off endure great pains when those parts that were lop'd off corrupt in the earth Which happens not if they be carefully embalm'd So the Bee the Viper and the Scorpion heal the hurts made by themselves Of which no other reason is alledg'd but this correspondence and similitude of the parts to their whole the bond of which is very strong although to us invisible The Second said There 's no need of recurring to these superstitious remedies since Nature of her own accord heals wounds provided they be not in the noble parts and be kept clean from the impurities generated in them through their weakness which hinder unition which is an effect of the natural Balsam of the blood and therefore not to be attributed to those Chimerical inventions which have no affinity with the cure whereunto they are intitl'd For every natural agent is determin'd to a certain sphere of activity beyond which it cannot act so the fire burns what it touches heats what approaches it but acts not at any remote distance whatever Moreover time and place would in vain be accounted inseparable accidents from natural motions if this device held good considering that contact is requisite to every natural action which is either Mathematical when surfaces and extremities are together or Physical when the agents touch the Patients by some vertue that proceeds from them Neither of which can be unless the body which heals touches that which is heal'd For all Medicinal effects being to be referr'd to Elementary qualities there is none of them more active then heat which being circumscrib'd within its bounds even in the aliment of fire can be no less elsewhere The Third said That the doctrine of the common Philosophy which teacheth that natural agents always touch one the other is erroneous or else ill explain'd and dependent upon other false principles which attribute all actions to elementary qualities which are taken for univocal causes whereas themselves are but equivocal effects of other supream causes the first of which is Heaven For when God created the world immediately with his own hands he was pleas'd to commit the conduct of natural causes to the Heavens that he might not be oblig'd to make every day new miracles as were those of the Creation For this end he fill'd them with spirits sufficient to inform all sorts of matters whose mixture requir'd some new form and change This made the Philosopher say that the Sun and Man beget Man and Hermes in his Smaragdine Table that the things which are below are as those which are on high And the Astrologers hold that there is nothing here below but hath some proper and peculiar Star some of which appear but far more appear not in the Heavens in regard of their disproportion to our sight or their neer conjunction as in the milky way But if the respective correspondencies of all the Celestial Bodies be not so clearly evident in other sublunary bodies as that of the Pole-star is with the Load-stone of dew with the Sun of this and the Moon with the Heliotrope and Selenotrope yet are they no less true 'T is credible therefore that the Weapon-salve hath such sympathy with the Constellation which is to make the cure of the wound that by its magnetick vertue it attracts its influence from Heaven and reunites it as a Burning-glass doth the Sun-beams at as great distance by which means it is deriv'd to the instrument that made the wound communicating its healing vertue to the same as the Sun likewise communicates his heat to the earth which heats us afterwards and thus this instrument being indu'd with a sanative vertue communicates the same to the wound made by it the cure of which besides the form and connexion of the instrumental cause with the effect is further'd by Nature which always tends to preserve it self and the imagination of the wounded person which induces Hippocrates to require that the Patient have hope and confidence in his Physitian for this as its contrary ruines many by dejecting their strength doth miracles towards a recovery
Souldier of his Army pass by one after another Wherefore 't is no wonder if men who affect nothing so much as eternity and to be like God desire to know things as God doth to whom the future is present Moreover this inclination being natural to all persons they must have a power to exercise it in this life lest it be in vain Which is done principally when the Soul is loosned from the Body as in sleep extasie deep contemplation and the agonies of death in which dying persons commonly foretell things to come CONFERENCE LXXXI I. Of Chiromancy II. Which is the noblest part of the Body I. Of Chiromancy CHiromancy is Divination by inspection of the hand and consideration of its substance quantity quality and other accidents whereby the same affords indications of things past or to come It was practis'd by Sylla and Caesar this latter having by it discover'd the false Alexander who pretended himself Herod's Son from the true And an old Chiromancer of Albert of Mirandola Cousin to the great Picus fore-told the Duke of Nevers Nephew to Lewis XII being at Carpi in Italy ready to fight with the Vice-roy of Naples that he should win the battle but lose his own life as it came to pass So Paulus Jovius relates that Antiochus Tibertus of Cesena by this means advertis'd Guido Balneo of the death which befell him by one of his familiars and that Horatius Cocles fore-told Lucas Gauricus that he should be put to death by John Bontivoglio Prince of Bononia Many having seen Criminals lead to the gallows have observ'd that the two extremes of the line upon the last joynt of the thumb terminated at the root of the nail which is taken for the sign of the halter as when this line reaches not the nail but on one side it presages onely danger of hanging Now as diversity of outward shapes distinguishes species so it doth also individuals especially that of the hand the instrument of every one's fortune and the most temperate part of the Body whence the hollow of it is accounted the organ of Touching The Second said That the hand the subject of Chiromancy is compos'd as all other organical parts of three dissimular parts the wrist palm and fingers In the palm the Chiromancers consider the lines and eminences or hills The lines are those parts which variously divide the hand the five chief of which are the line of the wrist the line of life the natural mean the liver-line and the table-table-line The wrist-wrist-line is that which divides the hand from the arm and is commonly double sometimes trebble and quadruple The line of life or of the heart begins at the bottom of the tumour under the fore-finger and ends at the wrist-line having sometimes another line paralle call'd the sister of the line of life The natural mean or line of the head begins near the line of life under the fore-finger and passes over-thwart the hand to the hill of the Moon or pommel of the hand which line is thwarted by another call'd the liver or stomack-line and these two lines with the line of life form a triangle whose base is the liver line call'd the triangle of Mars which appears not in their hands whose middle line terminates at the table line or line of fortune which begins under the hill of Mercury at the bottom of the little finger and ends under the fore-finger with one two or three branches 'T is call'd the table line because the space between it and the middle line represents the table whence 't is call'd the table of the hand and line of fortune because it affords the certainest tokens of good or bad fortune The hills or risings of the hand are seven according to the Planets to which they are attributed namely the mount of Venus under the thumb indicating Love the mount of Jupiter under the fore-finger for Honours that of Saturn under the third or middle finger for felicities or misfortunes that of the Sun under the fourth or ring-finger for Riches that of Mercury under the little finger for Arts and Sciences that of the Moon which is in the pommel of the hand for afflictions and maladies of the mind lastly the mount of Mars in the foresaid triangle compriz'd under the lines of life the middle line and the liver line denotes war-like exploits And because the four principal fingers have twelve joynts which make as many sinuosities therefore the Chiromancers attribute to each of them a sign of the Zodiack and to each finger a season of the year as to the fore-finger the Spring and to its three joynts the three signes of that season assigning the uppermost joynt to Aries c. By which signes 't is known in what moneths the effects fore-told by the lines of the hand will happen The Third said That Chiromancy is a Conjectural Art not founded upon indubitable principles of eternal truth but upon many experiences from which the general precepts of this Art are deduc'd The chief whereof are that the rectitude continuity and lively colour of the lines and the eminence of the mounts are good signes as also the branching of these lines upwards towards the mounts of the fingers on the contrary their obliquity intersection livid or blackish colour and branching downwards are of ill augury The wideness of the table and the angles of the triangle of Mars well shap'd denote good Many lines cutting the chief which are in the palm of the hand shew a man intangled in affairs The lines of the wrist signifie that the person is to live so many times twenty years A double line of life is a sign of one very fortunate The lines which cross it are so many misfortunes and their breaking shews death or dangerous sickness One o in it denotes the loss of an Eye and two oo total blindness which Johannes de Indagine saith he found true in many and by his own experience Crooked lines upon the table line threaten water 'T is an ill sign when one of the chief lines especially the table line is wanting and when it hath inciâ—ions 't is a mark of various fortune Lines between the table line and middle line are so many diseases but not mortal And infinite such other rules The nails also are consider'd by the Chiromancers as to their colour shape largeness and little spots among which the round and white denote friends the others ill-willers The Fourth said That 't is requisite to prediction by the hands that nothing be on them but what is natural And if the lines of one hand suffice not recourse must be had to the other and if both agree the effects signifi'd by them are less doubtful When they differ these of the left hand are chiefly taken notice of both because 't is nearest the heart and because 't is less disfigur'd by working Yet 't is to be remember'd that as one sign evidences not the constitution and few diseases have one certain pathognomonical
receive more benefit from it then any others Moreover Nature hath provided for other habits and complexions by the various mixtures of mineral-waters having compos'd hot baths of Salt Bitumen Sulphur and other Minerals through which they pass which strengthen the nerves and joynts cure Palsies as sea-water doth scabs But bathing chiefly regards fresh water It takes away weariness tempers the heat of weather causes sleep and is one of the most innocent pleasures of life But he that would know all the commodities of it must have try'd what ease it gives in the greatest pains especially in Colicks of all sorts whence 't is call'd Paradise by those that are tormented therewith Wherefore to take away bathing is to reject one of the best remedies in Physick and one of the greatest benefits of life The Fifth said That the Ancients having not yet the use of linen to free themselves from the soil contracted upon their bodies chiefly in wrastling and exercising naked upon the sand were oblig'd to the use of Bathes which became so easie and of so little cost to the multitude that they paid but a farthing a time whence Seneca calls the Bath rem quadrantariam And it cost them nothing after Antoninus Pius had caus'd a stately Bath to be built for the publick as Capitolinus reports But at length their use grew into abuse after women came to bathe themselves with men the Censors were fain to forbid them under penalty of Divorce and loss of Dowry II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Upon the second Point it was said That the Poet of our time who said that he would marry his Mistress that so he might love her less imply'd thereby that we less love what is already obtain'd But he determines not the Question who is soonest weary of loving or who loves most the Husband or the Wife where love must be distinguish'd from friendship being a passion of the Concupiscible appetite tending towards sensible good apprehended such by the Phancy whereas friendship is a most perfect vertue leading the will to honest good known such by the Understanding the former many times being opposite to the latter inasmuch as the Passions of the Appetite disturb Reason and by excess rise up to jealousie whereas the latter can have no excess for the more it is excessive the more it deserves the name of friendship 'T is therefore necessary that the woman whose phancy is stronger and intellect less perfect have more love and less friendship the husband on the contrary more friendship and less love Which extends also to children whom the mothers love with more passion and tendernss but the fathers more solidly which affection may serve for a proof and evidence of that in question The Second said That the praise of constancy in love is due to man whose mind is more perfect and consequently less mutable And whereas love proceeds from knowledge it will follow that men who understand more do also love more And want of affection would be more blameable in the man then in the woman as presupposing his defect of judgement in being mistaken in his choice men usually chusing their wives and the wives only accepting of the husbands who address to them For there 's great difference between the liberty our will hath to be carried to what object it pleases and only the turn of approving or rejecting what is offer'd to it So that the woman who loves not her husband may say that she was mistaken but in one point namely in accepting what she should have refus'd but the husband in as many as he had objects in the world capable of his friendship Besides 't would be shameful to the husband the head and master of the family to be inferior to his wife in the essential point which renders their marriage happy or unfortunate And Gracchus's choosing death that his wife Cornelia might live having slain the male of two Serpents whom he found together upon the Augur's assuring him of the said effect as it came to pass shews that we want not examples for proof of this truth as that of Semiramis who having the supream authority committed to her but for one day caus'd her husband who had granted the same and been indulgent to her all his life to be put to death and the 49 daughters of Danaus who all slew their husbands in one night prove the same The Third said That amity being begotten and encreased by necessity the woman as the weaker hath more need of support and protection from the man and so is more oblig'd to love him and therefore nature hath providently implanted in her a greater tenderness and inclination to love because all her happiness depends on her husbands good or ill treatment of her which is commonly according to her love to him To which end also the woman is endu'd with beauty and a more delicate body and consequently more apt to give and receive love then men whose exercises require a temper more hot and dry whereby to undergo the travels of life And if examples be needful the contest of the Indian wives who should cast her self into her husband's funeral fire together with whatever most precious thing she hath in testimony of greatest love suffices to prove this conclusion no men having ever been seen to burn for love of their wives Yea when anciently one man had abundance of wives a custom still practis'd amongst the Turks 't was impossible for the husband to have as much love for his wives as they had for him being in all ages contented with one alone and consecrating to him their whole affection which the more common it is is so much the less strong CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences I. Of Respiration ALthough our natural heat be of a degree more eminent then the elementary yet 't is preserv'd after the same manner namely by addition of new matter and emission of fuliginous vapours ever resulting from the action of heat upon humidity both which are done by the means of respiration which is the attraction of air by the mouth or nostrils into the Lungs and from thence into the Heart where the purest part of this air is chang'd into vital spirits which are also refresh'd and ventilated by it For though as much goes forth by exspiration as is taken in by inspirations yet the air we breathe is nevertheless turn'd into our spirits for that which issues forth is not air alone but 't is accompani'd with hot gross vapours streaming from the heart the furnace of our heat And as respiration is proper to perfect animals so the imperfect have only transpiration which is when the same air is attracted by the imperceptible pores of the body Which is sufficient for animals whose heat is languid as Insects the Child in the womb and hysterical women in whom also hereupon the pulse ceases for
by expulsion of the noxious humours Moreover humidity revives Plants and Animals and Man Nature's perfectest work abounds most with it to which cause Cardan refers his greater sagacity And being life is nothing else but the Prime Humidity thence thirst comes to be the greatest bodily inconvenience and diseases caus'd by a dry intemperature are generally incurable Rheum is not so dangerous as an Hectick Fever and experience shews us that land too moist may be render'd fertile but there 's no remedy for the droughts of Africa humane Art being puzled to preserve a Garden during those of Summer Lastly Physick takes the opportunity of moist weather for purgations as most convenient for health The Third said That all the first qualities are active but heat and moisture more then the other two whence the air being imbu'd with humidity alters our bodies more sensibly then when 't is charg'd with dry exhalations For our radical moisture is aerious oyly and benigne and the extraneous moisture is aqueous maligne and pernicious a capital enemy to that balsame of life as extraneous heat is to our vital heat which is suffocated by abundance of excrements collected by humidity which stops the pores but dissipated by dryness which opens them Which made the Prince of Physick say Aph. 15. Sect. 3. that of the seasons of the year droughts are more healthy and less fatal then rainy and moist weather in which happen long Fevers Fluxes Epilepsies Apoplexies and divers others putrid maladies Though 't is impossible to determine the question absolutely because 't would be requisite to consider siccity and humidity separate from other qualities and in their own nature wherein they are not to be found being never separated from cold or heat which render their natures and consequently their effects various The Fourth said That the pleasure we take in a thing is the surest evidence of the good or hurt it does us Hence rain is always more grateful to us in droughts then the contrary Besides Death and old age which leads to it is nothing but a desiccation and dry diseases are most perillous because they are either conjoyn'd with heat which encreases them and makes them very acute or with cold which generates Schirrusses and other maladies accompani'd with obstruction which are not cur'd but by humectation Summer and Autumn are the sickliest and dryest seasons of the year but we are more healthy in Winter and the Spring And do's not the humidity of the night repair the loss caus'd by the siccity and actions of the day as in the morning the most humid part of the day our minds are more serene then all the rest of the day whence it was call'd the friend of the Muses The Brain the mansion of the soul and its divinest faculties is not only most humid but the seat of humidity as choler melancholy fear and all other passions common to us with beasts have their seat in the Gall the Spleen and the heart which are dry parts But although humidity seems more a friend to nature then siccity yet the question must be voided by the distinction of temperaments of which the melancholy and the bilious especially receive very great incommodity from droughts and benefit from moist seasons which on the contrary much torment the phlegmatick II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active Upon the second Point 't was said That man being born to live in society and employment the contemplative life seems incongruous to this end and our first Parent was plac'd in the earth to Till it and eat his bread in the sweat of his countenance not to live idly and look about him Moreover the end is more noble then the means which tend to it but we generally contemplate only in order to act In Divinity we consider God's Commandments in order to perform them In Mathematicks Lines Surfaces Solids Numbers and Motions to make use thereof for Fortifications Carpentry and the Mechanicks In Natural Philosophy its Principles and Causes to refer the same to Medicine In Law Right to apply it to Fact In Morality the Virtues in order to exercise them Consider what difference there is between the contemplation of an empty brain and solid action that is to say between theory and practice you will find the former only a chimera and the other a reality as excellent and profitable as the first is useless except to feed the phancy with vain imaginations and fill the mind with presumption there being none but thinks himself a greater master then others before he hath set his hand to the work and yet 't is by their works that our Lord tells us we shall know every one and not by their discourses which are as much below them as effects and things are more then words The Second said Contemplation is as much more excellent then action as the soul is then the body and to compare them together is to equal the servant with her mistress For not to speak of the raptures of an extasi'd soul nor of eternal blisse which consisting in contemplation that of this world must do the like in reference to natural things Nature alone teaches us that things which are for themselves are more excellent then those which are for others But the contemplation and knowledge of truth hath no other end but it self action the common uses of life Whence contemplation less needs external things then action which requires the help of Riches Honours Friends and a thousand other circumstances which hinder a contemplative person more then they help him who therefore delights most in Desarts and Solitudes Moreover the end is to be prefer'd before the means and the end of active life is to bring us rest as the military life is in order to establish and the civil to preserve peace therefore the rest of the contemplative life being the end of the turbulent active life it is much more noble then its means As appears also by its duration which is greater then that of transient and transitory action but contemplation is durable and permanent which is a sign of the Divinity of the Intellect that produces it infinitely more excellent then all the other inferior powers the principles of actions Contemplation being abstracted from matter and earthly things wearies not the body as actions do which require corporeal organs and therefore the pleasure of it is most pure and simple and constant in regard of its object those sublime things which wisdom contemplates whereas that of action is never intire by reason of the inconstancy of its object which are political things continually mutable The contemplative man finds full satisfaction in himself without going abroad to beg approbation and rewards from men without which virtues languish and are imperfect Moreover the pleasure of contemplation is peculiar to men and not competent to brutes who have not only external actions as well as we as Speaking Singing Dancing Fighting Spinning Building and other Works