otherwise yet to the framing and composition of so great an empire and puissance it is very like they had made truce and were at accord that by one joint-consent also they wrought both together and finished the goodliest piece of work that ever was in the world Neither think I that I am deceived in this conjecture of mine but am perswaded that like as according to the saying of Plato the whole world was not made at first of fire and earth as the two principall and necessarie elements to the end that it might be visible and palpable considering that as the earth gave massinesse poise and firmitude so fire conferred thereunto colour forme and motion Besides the other two natures and elements which are betweene these two extremes to wit aire and water by softning melting tempering and quenching as it were the great dissociation and dissimilitude of the said extremes have drawen together incorporate and united by the meanes of them the first matter even so time and God together intending such a stately piece of worke as Rome tooke Vertue and Fortune and those they tempered and coupled in one as yoke-fellowes to the end that of the thing which is proper both to the one and the other they might found build and reare a sacred temple indeed an edifice beneficiall and profitable unto all a strong castle seated upon a firme ground-worke and an eternall element which might serve in stead of a maine pillar to susteine the decaying state of the world readie to reele and sinke downward and finally as a sure ankerhold against turbulent tempests and wandering waves of the surging seas as Democritus was woont to say For like as some of the naturall philosophers hold That the world at the first was not the world and that the bodies would not joine and mingle themselves together for to give unto nature a common forme composed of them all but when the said bodies such as yet were small and scattered heere and there slid away made meanes to escape and flie for feare they should be caught and interlaced with others such also as were more strong firme and compact even then strove mainly one against another and kept a foule coile and stirre together in such manner as there arose a violent tempest a dangerous ghust and troublesome agitation filling all with ruine error and shipwracke untill such time as the earth arose to greatnesse by the tumultuarie concourse of those bodies that grew together whereby she herselfe began first to gather a firme consistence and afterwards yeelded in her-selfe and all about her a 〈◊〉 seat and resting place for all other Semblably when the greatest empires and potentacies among men were driven and caried to and fro according to their fortunes and ranne one against another by reason that there was not one of that grandence and puissance as might command all the rest and yet they all desired that sovereignty there was a woonderfull confusion a generall destruction a strange hurliburly a tumultuary wandering and an universall mutation and change throughout the world untill such time as Rome grew to some strength and bignesse partly by laying and uniting to her-selfe the neighbour nations and cities neere about her and in part by conquering the seignories realmes and dominions of princes sarre of and strangers be yond sea by which meanes the greatest and principall things in the world began to rest and be setled as it were a firme foundation and sure seat by reason that a generall peace was brought into the world and the maine empire thereof reduced to one round circle so firme as it could not be checked or impeached for that indeed all vertues were seated in those who were the founders and builders of this mightie State and besides Fortune also was ready with her favour to second and accompany them as it shall more plainly appeere and be shewed in this discourse ensuing And now me thinks I see from this project as it were from some high rocke and watch tower Vertue and Fortune marching toward the pleading of their cause and to the judgment and decision of the foresaid question propounded but vertue in her part and maner of going seemeth to be milde gentle in the carriage also of her eie staied and composed the earnest care likewise and desire she hath to mainteine and defend her honor in this contention maketh her colour a little to rise in her face albeit she be farre behinde Fortune who commeth apace and maketh all the haste she can now there conduct her and attend upon her round about in manner of a guard a goodly traine and troupe Of worthies brave who martiall captaines were In bloudy warres and bloudy armours beare All wounded in the fore-part of their bodies dropping with bloud and swet mingled together leaning upon the truncheons of the launces pikes halfe broken which they hud won from their enemies But would you have us to demand and aske who they might be They say that they be the Fabricii the Camilli the Lucii surnamed Cincinnati the Fabii Maximi the Claudii Marcelli and the two Scipioes I see also C. Marius all angry and chasing at Fortune Mucius Scaevola likewise is amongst them who sheweth the stump of his burnt hand crying aloud withall And will you ascribe this hand also to Fortune And Marcus Horatius Cocles that valliant knight who fought so bravely upon the bridge covered all over with the shot of Tuskan darts and shewing his lame thigh seemeth to speake from out of the deep whirle-pit of the river into which he leapt these words And was it by chance Fortuue that my legge became broken I lame upon it Loe what a company came with vertue to the triall of this controversie and matter in question All warriours stout in complet armour dight Expert in feates of armes and prest to fight But on the other side the gate and going of Fortune seemes quicke and fast her spirit great and courage proud her hopes high and haughtie she over-goeth vertue and approcheth nere at hand already not mounting and lifting up her selfe now with her light and flight wings nor standing a tiptoe upon a round ball or boule commeth she wavering and doubtfull and then goeth her way afterwards in discontentment and displeasure but like as the Spartiates describe Venus saying That after she had passed the river Eurotas she layd by her mirrors and looking glasses cast aside her daintie jewels and other wanton ornaments and threw away that tissue and lovely girdle of hers and taking speare and shield in hand sheweth her selfe thus prepared and set out unto Lycurgus euen so Fortune having abandoned the Persians and Assyrians flew quicklie over Macedonia and soone shooke off Alexander the great then travailed she a while through Aegipt and Siria carying after her kingdomes as she went and so having ruined and ouerthrowen the Carthaginians state which with much variety and change she had oftentimes upheld she approched in the end
or that which occupieth a place PLATO saith that a Body is neither heavie nor light of it selfe naturally so long as it abideth in the owne proper place but being once in a strange place it hath first an inclination and upon it a motion and impulsion either to weight or lightnesse ARISTOTLE is of opinion that earth simply is most ponderous and fire lightest that aire and water be of a middle or doubtfull nature betweene both sometime heavie and otherwhiles light The STOICKS hold that of the foure elements two be light namely Fire and Aire other two be heavie to wit Water and Earth for light is that which of the owne nature and not by any compulsion or instigation removeth from the proper middle where it is heavy also is that which naturally tendeth to the said middle but the middle it selfe is in no wise heavie EPICURUS saith that Bodies are not comprehensible that the first Bodies be simple but all the compositions of them have their weight and ponderositie also that the ATOMES doe move some plumbe right downe others at one side and some againe mount aloft and that by impulsion and concussion CHAP. XIII Of the smallest Bodies EMPHDOCLES is of opinion that before the foure elements there were certeine small parcels or fragments as one would say elements before elements and those were of semblable parts and the same all round HERACLITUS cometh in with I know not what petie scrapings or shavings exceeding small and the same not divisible into parts CHAP. XIIII Of Figures A Figure is the superficies circumscription and accomplished lineament of a bodie The PYTHAGOREANS affirme that the bodies of the foure elements be of a sphaericke or round figure onely the highest of them to wit fire is pyramidall or sharpe pointed above CHAP. XV. Of Colours A Colour is the visible qualitie of a bodie The PYTHAGOREANS called Colour the outward superficies of the bodie EMPEDOCLES defined it to be that which is fit and agreeable to the waies and passages of the sight PLATO saith it is a flame sent from bodies having certeine parcels proportionable to the eie-sight ZENO the Stoicke holdeth that Colours be the first figurations of any matter The followers of PYTHAGORAS affirme these to be the kinds of Colours White Blacke Red and Yellow and that the diversity of Colours ariseth from a certeine mixture of elements but in living creatures the same proceedeth from the varietie of their places and sundry aires CHAP. XVI Concerning the Section of Bodies THe sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS are of opinion that bodies bee passible and divisible infinitely DEMOCRITUS and EPICURUS hold that this section staieth either at the Atomes indivisible or at those small bodies which have no parts neither doth this division say they passe infinitely ARISTOTLE saith that divided they be in infinitum potentially but actually not CHAP. XVII Of Mixture and Temperature THe auncient philosophers affirme that this mixture of Elements is by way of alteration but ANAXAGORAS and DEMOCRITUS say it is done by apposition EMPEDOCLES composeth the Elements of smaller masses which he supposeth to be the least bodies and as a man would say the Elements of Elements PLATO would have the three bodies for hee deigneth not them either to bee called or to be Elements to be convertible one into the other to wit water aire and fire but as for the earth it cannot be turned into any one of them CHAP. XVIII Of Voidnesse or Vacuttie THe naturall philosophers of THALES his schoole all untill you come to Plato have generally disavowed and reprooved this Vacuitie As for Empedocles thus he writeth In all the world so spacious Nought is void or superfluous LEUCIPPUS DEMOCRITUS DEMETRIUS METRODORUS and EPICURUS hold that the Atomes be infinit in multitude and Voidnesse infinit in magnitude The STOICKS affirme that within the world there is no Voidnesse but without there is infinitie ARISTOTLE is of opinion that without the world there is no such Voidnesse as that the heaven by the meanes thereof may draw breath for that it is of the nature of fire CHAP. XIX Of Place PLATO saith that Place is that which is susceptible of formes one after another which is by way of Metaphor or translation to expresse the first matter as a nurse receiving and embracing all ARISTOTLE taketh Place to be the extreame superficies of the continent conjunct and contiguous to the content CHAP. XX. Of Roome or Space THe STOICKS and EPICURUS doe holde that there is a difference betweene Voidnesse Place and Roome for Voidnesse say they is the solitude or vacuitie of a body Place that which is fully occupied and taken up with a body but Roome or Space that which is occupied but in part as we may see in a rundlet or barrell of wine CHAP. XXI Of Time PYTHAGORAS saith that Time is the sphaere of that utmost heaven that compriseth all PLATO thinketh it to be the mooveable image of the eternitie or the intervall of the worlds motion but ERATOSTHENES affirmeth it to be the course of the sunne CHAP. XXII Of the Essence of Time PLATO saith that the Essence of Time is the mooving of heaven but many of the STOICKS hold it to be the mooving it selfe and most of them affirme that Time had no beginning of generation PLATO is of opinion that engendred it is according to our conceit and capacitie CHAP. XXIII Of Motion PYTHAGORAS and PLATO affirme that Motion is a certeine difference and alteration in matter ARISTOTLE giveth out that it is the actuall operation of that which is mooveable DEMOCRITUS saith that there is but one kinde of Motion to wit that which tendeth obliquely EPICURUS maintaineth twaine the one direct and plumbe the other side-long EROPHILUS is of opinion that there is one Motion perceptible in reason and another object to sense naturall HERACLITUS excluded all station rest and repose out of the world For this quoth hee belongeth unto the dead but perpetuall Motion agreeth to eternall substances and perishable Motion to substances corruptible CHAP. XXIIII Of Generation and Corruption PARMENIDES MELISSUS and ZENO rejected wholy all Generation and Corrpution for they thought the universall world to be unmooveable but EMPEDOCLES and EPICURUS and all those who held the world to be made of a masse and heape of small bodies hudled together bring in and admit certeine concretions and dissipations but in no wise Generations and Corruptions to speake properly saying that these come not according to qualitie by way of alteration but according to quantity by collection and heaping together PYTHAGORAS and as many as suppose matter to bee passible hold that there is properly indeed Generation and Corruption for they say that this is done by the alteration mutation and resolution of the elements CHAP. XXV Of Necessitie THALES saith that Necessitie is most potent and forcible for it is that which ruleth the whole world PYTHAGORAS held that the world was possessed and comapssed with Necessitie PARMENIDES
it such was their deformity and inequality It appeareth plainly that he maketh these bodies in some sort to have a being and subsistence before the creation of the world Contrariwise when he saith that the body is yoonger than the soule and that the world was made and created in as much as the same is visible and palpable as having a body and that all things appeare so as they are when they were once made and created manifest it is and every man may see that he attributeth a kinde of nativity to the nature of the body and vet for all that farre is he off from being contradictory and repugnant to himselfe so notoriously and that in the most maine points For it is not the same body nor of the same sort which he saith was created by God and to have bene before it was for that were directly the case of some mount-banke or jugling enchanter but himselfe sheweth unto us what we are to understand by this generation or creation For before time quoth he all that is in the world was without order measure and proportion but after that the universall world began to be fashioned and brought into some decent forme whereas he found the fire first the water the earth and the 〈◊〉 pell mell in the same places and yet having some shew and token what they were but confusedly hudled every where as a man may well thinke that every thing must needs be so where God is absent in this case as they were then God I say finding them first brought the same into frame and fashion by the meanes of formes and numbers Furthermore having said before that it was the worke not of one onely proportion but of twaine to joine and frame together the fabricke of the world a solid masse as it was and carying a depth and thicknesse with it and declared moreover that God after he had bestowed water and aire betweene fire and earth conjoined withall and framed the heaven together with them Of these things quoth he such as they were and fower in number the body of the world was in engendred agreeable in proportion and entertaining amity by that meanes Insomuch as being once thus united and compact there is nothing that can make disunion or dissolution but he alone who first limited and brought all together teaching us hereby most plainely that God was the father and author not of the body simply nor of the frame fabricke and matter onely of the world but also of that proportion measure beauty and similitude which is in the body thereof semblably thus much we are to thinke of the soule as if one were not created by God nor the soule of the world but a certaine power of motion fantasticall turbulent subject unto opinion stirring and moving of it selfe and alwaies but without any order measure or reason whatsoever The other when God had adorned it with numbers proportions convenient he ordained to be the regent governesse of the world created like as it selfe was also created Now that this is the true sentence meaning of Plato and not by a fantasticall manner of speculation and inquisition as touching the creation or generation as well of the world as of the soule this besides many others may be an argument that of the soule he saith it was created and not created of the world alwaies that it was engendred and created but never eternall and not created To proove this we need not for to cite testimonies out of the booke Timaeus considering that the said booke throughout from the one end to the other treateth of nothing else but of the generation or creation of the world And of other bookes in his Atlanticke Timaeus making his praiers nameth him who beforetime was by his worke and now by his word God And in his Politique his Parmenidian guest saith that the world being framed and made by God became partaker of many good things and in case there be any evill thing in it the same is a remnant mingled within the first habitude and estate wherein it was at first before the constitution thereof all irregular and disorderly And in his bookes of Common-wealth speaking of that number which some call the Mariage Socrates began to discourse and say thus The God quoth he who is created and engendred hath his period and conversation which the perfect number doth comptise In which place what can he call the God created and engendred but the world ***** ******************* The first copulation is of one and two the second of three and foure the third of five and six of which there is not one that maketh a quadrate number either by it selfe or by others the fourth is of seven and eight which being joined to the first make in all the square quadrat number six and thirtie But of those numbers which Plato hath set downe the quaternarie hath a more perfect and absolute generation namely when even numbers are multiplied by even intervals and uneven numbers likewise by odde intervals for first it conteineth unitie as the very common stocke of all numbers as well even as odde and of those under it two and three be the first flat and plaine numbers and after them foure and nine are the first squares then follow eight and seven and twentie the first cubique numbers putting the unitie out of this account By which it appeareth that his will was not that these numbers should be all set one above another directly in a right line but apart one after another alternatively the even of the one side and the odde of the other according to the description above made Thus shall the files or conjugations also be of like with like and make the notable numbers aswel by composition or addition as by multiplication of one with another by composition thus Two and three make five foure nine make thirteene eight and seven and twentie arise to five and thirtie For of these numbers the Pythagoreans call five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much to say as a sound supposing that of the spaces and intervals of Tone the fift was the first that spake or sounded thirteene they tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Remanent or Defect like as Plato did despairing to divide a Tone in two equall portions and five and thirtie they tearme Harmonie for that it is composed of the first numbers cubique proceeding from even and od of the foure numbers to wit six eight nine and twelve conteining an Arithmeticall and Harmonicall proportion But this will appeare more evidently by this figure here described and represented to the eies Suppose then there be a figure set downe in forme of a tile called Parallelogrammon with right angles A.B.C.D. But forasmuch as the numbers proposed affoord not places for the medieties which are inferred necessary it was to extend the numbers to larger tearmes and bondes reteining still the same proportions in regard whereof we must
strength and firme constancie not subject by meanes of reasons and good instruction to shaking I leave that to your owne consideration and mine together But now forasmuch as this total impassibilitie if I may so speake of the mind to wit a state so perfect that it is void of all affections is a great and divine thing and seeing that this profit and proceeding whereof we write consisteth in a kind of remission and mildnesse of the said passions we ought both to consider ech of them apart and also compare them one with another thereby to examine and judge the difference conferre we shall every passion by it selfe by observing whether our lusts and desires be more calme and lesse violent than in former time by marking likewise our fits of feare and anger whether they be now abated in comparison of those before or whether when they be up and enflarned we can quickly with the helpe of reason remoove or quench that which was wont to set them on worke or a fire compare we shall them together in case we examine our selves whether we have now a greater portion of grace and shame in us than of feare whether we finde in our selves emulation and not envie whether we covet honor rather than worldly goods and in one word whether after the manner of musicians we offend rather in the extremitie and excesse of harmonie called Dorion which is grave solemne and devout than the Lydian which is light and galliard-like that is to say inclining rather in the whole maner of our life to hardnes and severitie than to effeminate softnesse whether in the enterprise of any actions we shew timiditie and slacknesse rather than temeritie and rashnesse and last of all whether we offend rather in admiring too highly the sayings of men and the persons themselves than in despising and debasing them too low for like as we say in physicke it is a good signe of health when diseases are not diverted and translated into the noble members principal parts of the body even so it seemeth that when the vices of such as are in the way of reformation and amendement of life chaunge into passions that are more milde and moderate it is a good beginning of ridding them away cleane by little little The Lacedaemonian Ephori which were the high countrollers of that whole State demanded of the Musician phrynis when he had set up two strings more to his seven stringed instrument whether he would have them to cut in sunder the trebles or the bases the highest or the lowest but as for us we had need to have our affections cut both above and beneath if we desire to reduce our actions to a meane and mediocritie And surely this progresse or proceeding of ours to perfection professeth rather to let downe the lightest first to cut off the extremitie of passions in excesse and to abate the acrimonie of affections before we doe any thing else in which as saith Sophocles Folke foolish and incontinent Most furtous be and violent As for this one point namely that we ought to transferre our judgement to action and not to suffer our words to remaine bare and naked words still in the aire but reduce them to effect we have alreadie said that is the chiefe propertie belonging to our progresse and going forward now the principall arguments and signes thereof be these if we have a zeale and fervent affection to imitate those things which we praise if we be forward and readie to execute that which we so much admire and contrariwise will not admit nor abide to heare of such things as we in our opinion dispraise and condemne Probable it is and standeth with great likelihood that the Atheniansal in general praised and highly esteemed the valour and prowesse of Miltiades but when Themistocles said that the victorie and Trophee of Miltiades would not give him leave to sleepe but awakened him in the night plaine it is and evident that he not onely praised and admired but had a desire also to imitate him and do asmuch himselfe semblably we are to make this reckoning that our progresse and proceeding in vertue is but small when it reacheth no farther than to praise onely and have in admiration that which good men have woorthily done without any motion and inclination of our will to imitate the same and effect the like For neither is the carnall love of the bodie effectuall unlesse some little jealousie be mixed withall not the praise of vertue fervent and active which doth not touch the quicke and pricke the heart with an ardent zeale in stead of envie unto good and commendable things and the same desirous to performe and accomplish the same fully For it is not sufficient that the heart should be turned upside downe onely as Alcibiades was woont to say by the words and precepts of the Philosopher reading outof his chaire even untill the teares gush out of the eies but he that truly doth profit go forward ought by comparing himselfe with the works actions of good men and those that be perfectly vertuous to feele withall in his owne heart aswell a displeasure with himselfe and a griefe in conscience for that wherein he is short and defective as also a joy and contentment in his spirit upon a hope and desire to be equall unto them as being full of an affection and motion that never resteth and lieth still but resembleth for all the world according to the similitude of Simonides The sucking foale that keeps just pace And runs with dam in everie place affecting and desiring nothing more than to be wholy united and concorporate with a good man by imitation For surely this is the passion peculiar and proper unto him that truely taketh profit by the studie of Philosophie To love and cherrish tenderly the disposition conditions of him whose deeds he doth imitate and desire to expresse with a certaine good will to render alwaies in words due honor unto them for their vertue and to assay how to fashion and conforme himselfe like unto them But in whomsoever there is instilled or infused I wot not what contentious humor envie and contestation against such as be his betters let him know that all this proceedeth from an heart exulcerated with jealousie for some authoritie might and reputation and not upon any love honor or admiration of their vertues Now when as we begin to love good men in such sort that as Plato saith we esteeme not only the man himselfe happie who is temperate or those blessed who be the ordinarie hearers of such excellent discourses which daily come out of his mouth but also that we do affect and admire his countenance his port his gate the cast and regard of his eie his smile and maner of laughter insomuch as we are willing as one would say to be joined sodered and glued unto him then we may be assured certainely that we profit in vertue yea and so much the rather
to it what he thinketh good and utter his mind Then Solon That house in mine opinion is best the goods wherein were neither gotten by unjust and indirect meanes nor bred any feare suspition and doubt for the keeping ne yet drew repentance for the spending of them After him Bias opined That he held the familie best the master whereofwas of himselfe the same man within as for feare of the law abroad Then Thales Wherein the master may live at most ease and greatest leasure And Cleobulus Wherein there be more persons that love than feare the master Next delivered Pittacus his minde and said That he tooke that to be the best house wherein there was no desire of superfluities nor misse of necessaries After him came Chilo with his sentence That an house ought as much as is possible to resemble a citie or state governed by the absolute commandement of a king adding moreover that which Lycurgus answered sometimes unto one who advised him to establish in the citie Sparta the popular government Beginne quoth he first thy selfe to ordeine in thine owne house a popular estate where every one may be as great a lord and master as another After this speech also finished Eumetis and Melissa went foorth Then Periander taking a great cup in his hand dranke to Chilon and Chilon likewise in order to Bias. Then Ardalus stood up addressing his speech unto Aesope Wil not you neither quoth he let the cup come unto us seeing that they there send it round about from hand to hand among them as if it were the can of Bathycles and will not impart and let it passe to others Then quoth Solon neither is this cup so farre as I see any whit popular standing as it hath done a long time before Solon onely Whereat Pittacus calling unto Mnesiphilus by name What is the reason quoth he that Solon drinketh not but goeth against his owne Poems wherein himselfe hath written these verses The sports of Venus ladie bright And Bacchus now are my delight In musicke eke I pleasure take For why these three mens joies do make Then Anacharsis helped him out and spake in his behalfe saying He doth it Pittacus for feare of you and that severe and rigourous law of yours by which you have ordeined that whosoever by occasion of drunkennesse chanceth to commit a fault what-ever it be shall incurre a double penalty and be fined twise as much as if he had done it whiles he was sober Then Pittacus Yet neverthelesse quoth he you carie your selfe so proudly and disdainfully in mockage of this my statute that both the last yere not long since being at my brother Lybis his house whē you were drunke you demanded to have the prize therof called for the garland crown And why not quoth Anacharsis considering there was proposed a reward for the victory to him that drunke most and if I were overcharged with wine drunk with the first should not I chalenge by right the prize reward of victory or els tell me what other end is there of drinking lustily than to be drunke Pittacus hereat began to laugh than Aesope told such a tale as this The wolfe quoth he perceiving upon a time the shepheards to eate a mutton within their cottage approched unto them and said Oh what a stirre and outcrie would you have made at us if I had done that which you doe Heereat Chilon Aesope quoth he hath well revenged himselfe now whose mouth ere-while we stopped that he had not a word to say seeing at this present as he doth that others had taken the answere out of Mnesiphilus his mouth and not given him libertie to speake being demaunded the question why Solon dranke not and like it was that he should have answered in his behalfe Then Mnesiphilus rendered this reason and said That he wist well Solon was of this opinion that the proper worke of every art and facultie as well divine as humane was rather the effect and thing by it wrought than that whereby it was effected and the end thereof rather than the meanes tending thereto for so I suppose that a weaver will say that his worke is to make a web for a mantle a coat or such a robe and not to spoole winde quils lay his warpe shoot oufe or raise and let fall the weights and stones hanging to the loome Also that the worke of a smith is to soder iron or to give the temper of steele for the edge of an axe head rather than any other thing needfull to such an effect to wit the kindling of coles and setting them on fire or the preparing of any stone-grit serving for the former purpose Semblably a carpenter or mason emploied in architecture would much more complaine and finde fault with us if we should say that neither a ship nor an house were their worke but the boaring of holes in timber with an auger or the tempring of morter In like manner would the muses take exceeding great indignation and not without good cause if wee should thinke that their workes were either harpes lutes pipes and such instruments of musicke and not the reforming and institution of folks maners the dulcing and appeasing of their passions who delight in song harmonie and musicall accord And even so we must confesse that the worke of Venus is not carnall companie and medling of two bodies nor of Bacchus wine-bibbing and drunkennesse but rather mirth and solace affectionate love mutuall amitie conversation and familiarity one with another which are procured unto us thereby for these be the works indeed which Plato calleth divine and heavenly and these he saith that he desired and pursued when he grew aged and was well stept in yeeres For I assure you Venus is the work-mistresse of mutuall concord solace and benevolence betweene men and women mingling and melting as it were together with the bodies their soules also by the meanes of pleasure Bacchus likewise in many who before had no great familiaritie together nor any knowledge and acquaintance to speake of by softning and moisting the hardnes of their maners and that by the meanes of wine like as fire worketh iron to be gentle and pliable hath engendred a beginning of commixtion and incorporation one with another True it is I must needs say that when such personages are met and assembled together as Periander hath hither invited there is no need either of cup or flagon for to bring them acquainted for the muses setting in mids before them a cup of sobriety to wit their conference and speech wherein there is not onely store of pleasure and delight but also of erudition learning and serious matter doe excite drench enlarge and spread abroad by the meanes of discourse and talke the amiable joy of such guests suffring for the most part the wine pot or flagon to stand still above the cup or goblet a thing that Hesidiodus forbad expresly among such as could skill better to
is my conceit that like as light effecteth thus much that we not onely know one another but also are profitable one unto another even so in my judgement to be knowne abroad bringeth not onely honor and glorie but also meanes of emploiment in vertue Thus Epaminondas unknowne unto the Thebanes untill he was fortie yeeres old stood them in no stead at all but after that they tooke knowledge of him once and had committed unto him the leading of their armie he saved the citie of Thebes which had like to have been lost and delivered Greece being in danger of servitude shewing in renowme and glorie no lesse than in some cleere light vertue producing her effects in due time For according to the poet Sophocles By use it shineth Like iron or brasse that is both faire and bright So long as men doe handle it aright In time also an house goes to decay And falleth downe if dweller be away Whereas the very maners natural conditions of a man be marred corrupted gathering as it were a mosse growing to age in doing nothing through ignorance obscurity And verily a mute silence a sedentarie life retired a part in idlenesse causeth not onely the bodie but the mind also of man to languish grow feeble like as dornant or close standing waters for that they be covered overshadowed not running grow to putrifie even so they that never stirre nor be emploied what good parts soever they have in them if they put them not foorth nor exercise their naturall and inbred faculties corrupt quickly and become old See you not how when the night commeth on approcheth neere our bodies become more heavie lumpish and unfit for any worke our spirits more dull and lazie to all actions and the discourse of our reason and understanding more drowsie and contracted within it selfe like unto fire that is ready to goe out and how the same by reason of an idlenesse and unwillingnesse comming upon it is somewhat troubled and disquieted with divers fantasticall imaginations which observation advertiseth us daily after a secret and silent manner how short the life of man is But when the sunne with light some beames Dispatched hath these cloudy dreames after he is once risen and by mingling together the actions and cogitations of men with his light awakeneth and raiseth them up as Democritus saith in the morning they make haste jointly one with another upon a forren desire as if they were compunded and knit with a certaine mutuall bond some one way and some another rising to their serverall works and businesse Certes I am of advice that even our life our very nativity yea the participation of mankind is given us of God to this end That we should know him for unknowne he is and hidden in this great fabricke and universall frame of the world all the while that hee goeth too and fro therein by small parcels and piece-meale but when hee is gathered in himselfe and growen to his greatnesse then shineth hee and appeereth abroad where before he lay covered then is he manifest and apparent where before he was obscure and unknowen for knowldege is not the way to his essence as some would have it but contrariwise his essence is the way to knowledge for that knowledge maketh not each thing but onely shewth it when it is done like as the corruption of any thing that is may not be thought a transporting to that which is not but rather a bringing of that which is dissolved to this passe that it appeereth no more Which is the reason that according to the auncient lawes and traditions of our countrey they that take the sunne to be Apollo give him the names of Delius and Pythius and him that is the lord of the other world beneath whether he be a god or a divell they call Ades for that when we are dead and dissolved we goe to a certeine obscuritie where nothing is to be seene Even to the prince of darknesse and of night The lord of idle dreames deceiving sight And I suppose that our auncestors in old time called man Phos of light for that there is in every one of us a vehement desire and love to know and be knowen one of another by reason of the consanguinitie betweene us And some philosophers there be who thike verily that even the soule in her substance is a very light whereupon they are ledde as welby other signes arguments as by this that there is nothing in the world that the soule hateth so much as ignorance rejecting all that is obscure and unlightsome troubled also when she is entred into dark places for that they fill her full of feare and suspicion but contrariwise the light is so sweet and delectable unto her that she taketh no joy and delight in any thing otherwise lovely and desireable by nature without light or in darknesse for that is it which causeth all pleasures sports pastimes recreations to be more jocund amiable to mans nature agreeable like as a common sauce that seasoneth and commendeth al viands wherewith it is mingled whereas he that hath cast himselfe into ignorance and is enwrapped within the clouds of mistie blindnesse making his life a representation of death and burying it as it were in darknesse seemeth that he is wearie even of being and thinketh life a very trouble unto him and yet they are of opinion that the nature of glorie and essence is the place assigned for the soules of godly religious and vertuous folke To whom the sunne shin's alwaies bright When heere with us it darke night The me dowes there both faire and wide With roses red are beautified The fields all round about them dight With verdure yeeld a pleasant sight All tapissed with flowers full gay Of fruitfull trees that blossome ay Amid this place the rivers cleere Runne soft and still some there some heere Wherein they passe the time away in calling to remembraunce and recounting that which is past in discoursing also of things present accompanying one another and conversing together Now there is a third way of those who have lived ill and be wicked persons the which sendeth their soules headlong into a darke gulfe and bottomlesse pit Where from the dormant rivers bleak Of shadie night thick mists doe reak As blacke as pitch continually And those all round about doe flie ensolding whelming and covering those in ignorance and forgetfulnesse who are tormented there and punished for they be not greedy geiers or vultures that evermore eat and gnaw the liver of wicked persons laid in the earth and why the same already is either burned or rotted neither be there certeine heavie fardels or weightie burdens that presse downe and overcharge the bodies of such as be punished For such thin ghosts and fibres small Have neither flesh nor bone at all yet are the reliques of their bodies who be departed such as be capable of punishment for that belongeth
there is nothing more than that which is meet and be fitting the dignitie of each person moreover in giving that superioritie and preeminence to running fast and making most haste which is done unto vertue kinred magistracie and such other qualities in seeming to avoid the opinion of being odious or offensive to his bidden guests he draweth upon himself so much more trouble and heart-burning of others for he offendeth them in depriving everie one of that honour which he deserveth or is woont to have For mine owne part I doe not thinke if so hard a piece of worke to make this distinction as hee would have it to be for first and formost it is not ordinarie nor often seene that many men of like degree and dignitie are bidden to one and the same feast besides being as there are many honorable places a man of judgement and discretion hath good meanes to dispose of them accordingly among manie if there be occasion for one of them he may content in setting him highest and above the rest another he may please with a place in the middest to one he may doe the favour as to set him next unto himselfe another he may gratifie by placing him close to some friend or familiar of his or else fast by his master and teacher in this order I say he may satisfie many of them who seeme to be of better reputation in distributing the places also which are of more respect among them as for the rest I leave them meanes also for their contentment namely certeine gifts savors curtesies and kindnesses which may in some sort make amends for the want of some honorable place But say that their deserts and dignities be hard to be distinguished or the persons themselves not easie to be pleased marke what a device I have in such a case to serve the turne My father if he be present I take by the hand and set him in the most honourable place of all if not I do the same by my grand-sire my wives father or mine uncle by the fathers side or my colleague and companion in office or els my fellow-senatour and brother-alderman or some one of those who hath some speciall and inward prerogative above others of honour and account with the master of the feast himselfe that biddeth the guests taking this for a rule in the cases borowed out of the books of Homer which are presidents of dueties and shew what is beseeming every man to do and namely in that place where Achilles seeing Menelaus and Antilochus debating the matter very hotly about the second prize for horse-running and doubting how farre-forth their anger and contention might proceed would needs give the said prize in question to a third man pretending in word that he tooke pitie of Eumelus and that he was minded to doe him some honour but indeed and trueth it was to take away the ocasion of difference and quarrell betweene the other two As I was thus speaking Lamprias who was set close in an odde corner of the chamber upon a low pallet thundering out his words after his wonted maner demanded of the assistance or companie in this wise My masters pleaseth it you to give me leave for to reprove and rebuke a little this sottish judge here and when everie one made answer saying Good leave have you speake your mind freely spare him not And who can quoth he forbeare that philosopher who setteth out and disposeth of the places at a feast like as he would do in some theater namely according to birth and parentage wealth and rilches estate and authority in common wealth yea and as if he ordeined the seats and sitting places for to opine or give voice in that solemne assembly of the States of Greece called Amphictyones to the end that even at the very table where as wee are met to drinke wine and be merrie we should not be rid of ambition nor shake off the foolish desire of glory for surely the places at a feast ought not to be distributed so as respective to honour but rather to the ease and pleasure of the guests that are to sit in them neither is the dignity of ech one by himselfe in his degree to be regarded but rather the affection disposition and habitude of the minde one to another how they can sort and frame together like as our maner is to doe in some other things which are to meet in one common conjunction for a good architect or mason wil not I trow lay his first worke or forefront of the house with Atticke or Lacedaemonian marble before the Barbarian stone because the same is in some sort of a noble kinde and comming from the worthier place neither will a cunning painter dispose his richest and most costly colour in the principal place of his picture nor the carpenter or shipwright employ before all other timber in the stem of his ship either the pine tree wood of Pathmos in Peloponnesus or the cypresse of Candie but so they order and distribute their stone their colours and their timber that being 〈◊〉 and sitted well together one with another the common worke arising of them all may be more firme and strong faire and beautifull good and commodious And thus you see God himselfe whom our poet Pindarus calleth the best workeman and principall artisan doeth not place the fire alwaies aloft nor the earth below but according as the use of bodies compounded doth require like as Empedocles testifieth in these verses The oisters murets of the sea and shel-fish every one With massie coat the tortoise eke with crust as hard as stone And vaulted backe which arch-wise he aloft doth hollow reare Shew all that heavie earth they do above their bodies beare not in that place which nature ordeined for it in the first constitution and framing of the universall world but in that which the composition of a new worke requireth for disorder and confusion is bad enough in all things but when it commeth among men especially when they are drinking and eating together it sheweth her badnesse most of all by insolencie outrasges and other enormities that can not be numbred which to foresee and remedie is the part of a man industruous well seene in policie good order and harmonie And that is well said of you answered we but why envie you to this company that science of order proportion and harmonie and doe not communicate it unto us Surely there is no envie at all quoth he in the way in case ye will beleeve me and be ruled by me in that which I doe change and alter in the order of the seast like as you would be directed by Epaminondas if he should range a battell in good order which before was in disarray We all agreed and gave him leave so to do then he voiding first out of hall or dining-place all the boies and lackies cast his eie upon every one of us in the face and said Hearken and give
drunkennesse nor as an enemie to wine who directly calleth wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and surnameth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereupon but in mine opinion like as they who love wine if they cannot meet with the liquor of the grape use a counterfet wine or barley broth called beere ale or els a certeine drinke made of apples named cydres or els date-wines even so he that gladly would in winter season weare a chaplet of vine branches seeing it altogether naked and bare of leaves is glad of the Ivie that resembleth it for the body or wood thereof is likewise writhed and crooked and never groweth upright but shutteth out heere and there to and fro at a venture the soft fattie leaves also after the same maner grow dispersed about the branches without all order besides all this the very berries of the Ivie growing thick clustered together like unto greene grapes when they begin to turne doe represent the native forme of the vine and yet albeit the same yeeldeth some helpe and remedie against drunkennesse we say it is by occasion of heat in opening the pores and small passages in the body for to let out the fumes of wine and suffer them to evaporate and breathe forth or rather by her heat helpeth to concoct and digest it that for your sake good Tryphon Bacchus may still continue a physician At these words Tryphon staied a while and made no answere as thinking with himselfe and studying how to reply upon him But Eraton calling earnestly upon every one of us that were of the yoonger sort spurned us forward to aide and assist Tryphon our advocate and the patton of our flower-chaplets or els to plucke them from our heads and weare them no longer And Ammonius assured us for his part that if any one of us would take upon him to answere he would not recharge againe nor come upon him with a rejoinder Then Tryphon himselfe moved us to say somewhat to the question WHereupon I began to speake and said That it belonged not to me but rather unto Tryphon for to proove that Ivie was colde considering that he used it much in physicke to coole and binde as being an astringent medicine but as touching that which ere-while was alledged namely that the Ivie berie doth inebriat if it be steeped in wine it is no found to be true and the accident which it worketh in those who drinke it in that maner can not well be called drunkennesse but rather an alienation of the mind and trouble of the spirit like to that effect which henbane worketh many other plants which mightily disquiet the braine and transport our senses and understanding As for the tortuositie of the bodie and branches it maketh nothing to the purpose and point in hand for the works and effects against nature can not 〈◊〉 from faculties and powers naturall and pieces of wood do twine and bend crooked because fire being neere unto them draweth and drieth up forcibly all the native and kindly humour where as the inward and naturall heat would rather ferment enterteine and augment it But consider better upon the matter and marke rather whether this writhed-bunching forme of the Ivie wood as it groweth and the basenesse bearing still downward and tending to the ground be not an argument rather of weaknesse and bewray the coldnesse of the bodie being glad as it were to make many rests and staies like unto a pilgrim or wayfaring traveller who for wearinesse and faintnesse sitteth him downe and reposeth himselfe many times in his way and ever and anon riseth againe and beginneth to set forward in regard of which feeblenesse the Ivie hath alwaies need of some prop or other to stay it selfe by to take hold of to claspe about and to cling unto being not able of her owne power to rise for want of naturall heat whose nature is to mount aloft As touching Snow that it thaweth and passeth away so soone the cause is the moisture and softnesse of the Ivie leafe for so wee see that water dispatcheth and dissolveth presently the laxitie and spongeous raritie thereof being as it is nothing els but a gathering and heaping of a number of small bubbles couched thrust together and hereof it commeth that in over-moist places sobbed and soaked with water snow melteth assoone as in places exposed to the sun Now for that it hath leaves alwaies upon it and the same as Empedocles saith firme and fast this proceedeth not of heat no more than the fall and shedding of leaves every yeere is occasioned by colde And this appeareth by the myrtle tree and the herbe Adiantum that is to say Maidenhaire which being not hot plants but colde are alwaies leaved and greene withall and therefore some are of opinion that the holding of the leaves is to be ascribed to an equality of temperature but Empedocles over and besides attributeth it to a certeine proportion of the pores thorow which the sap and nourishment doth passe and pierce qually into the leaves in such fort as it runneth sufficiently for to mainteine them which is not so in those trees which lose their leaves by reason of the laxitie or largenesse of the said pores and holes above and the straightnesse of them beneath whereby as these doe not send any nourishment at all so the other can hold and reteine none but that little which they received they let goe all at once like as we may observe in certeine canals or trenches devised for to water gardens and orchards if they be not proportionable and equall for where they be well watred and have continuall nourishment and the same in competent proportion there the trees hold their owne and remaine firme alwaies greene and never die But the Ivie tree planted in Babylon would never grow and refused there to live Certes it was well done of her and she shewed great generositie that being as she was a devoted vassaile to the god of Boeotia and living as it were at his table she would not goe out of her owne countrey to dwell among those Barbarians shee followed not the steps of king Alexander who entred alliance and made his abode with those strange and forren nations but avoided their acquaintance all that ever she could and withstood that transmigration from her native place but the cause thereof was not heat but colde rather because shee could not endure the temperature of the aire so contrary to her owne for that which is semblable and familiar never killeth any thing but receiveth nourisheth and beareth it like as drie ground the herbe thyme how hot soever the soile be Now for the province about Babylon they say the aire in all that tract is so soultrie hot so stuffing so grosse and apt to stifle and stop the breath that many inhabitants of the wealthier sort cause certeine bits or bagges of leather to be filled with water upon which as upon featherbeds they lie to sleepe and coole their
speake of necessity either was not before the creation of the world at what time as those first bodies lay still unmoveable or stirred confusedly or else if he were before he either slept or watched or did neither the one nor the other but as the former of these we may not admit for that God is eternall so the latter we cannot 〈◊〉 for if God slept from all eternity and time out of minde he was no better than dead for what is eternal sleep other than death but surely God is not subject to death for the immortallity of God and this vicinity to death are much distant asunder and cannot stand both together but if wee say that God was awake all that while either he was defectuous in his blessed state of felicity or els he enjoyed the same complet but in the first condition God is not happy for whatsoever wanteth ought of felitity cannot be happy and verily in the second state he is not better for if he were defective in nothing before to what purpose busied he himselfe in such vaine enterprises moreover if there be a God and that by his prudent care mens affaires be governed how commeth it to passe that wicked men prosper in the world and finde fortune their 〈◊〉 mother but the good and honest suffer the contrary and feele her to be a curst stepdame for king Agamemnon as the poet faith Aprince right good and gracious A knight with all most 〈◊〉 was by an adulterer and adulteresse surprised and murdered trecherously and Hercules one of his race and kinred after he had ridde and purged the life of man from so many monsters that troubled his reposewas poisoned by Deianeira and so by indirect meanes lost his life THALES saith that God is the soule of the world ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the starres be celestiall gods DEMOCRITUS is perswaded that God is a minde of a fierie nature and the soule of the world PYTHAGORAS affirmeth that of the two first principles Unitie was God and the soveraigne good which is the very nature of one and is Understanding it selfe but the indefinite binarie is the divell and evill about which is the multitude materiall and the visible world SOCRATES and PLATO doe hold that he is one and of a simple nature begotten and borne of himselfe alone truly good All which tearmes and attributes tend unto a Minde so that this minde is God a forme separate apart that is to say neither mingled with any matter nor entangled and joined with any thing passible whatsoever ARISTOTLE supposeth that this supreme God is an abstract forme setled upon the round sphaere of the universall world which is an heavenly and celestiall body and therefore tearmed by him the fifth body or quinta essentia which celestial body being divided into many sphaeres coherent by nature but separate and distinct by reason and understanding hee thinketh each of these sphaeres to be a kinde of animall composed of body and soule of which twaine the bodie is celestiall mooving circularly and the soule reason unmooveable in it selfe but the cause in effect of motion The Stoicks teach after a more generall manner and define God to be a working and artificiall fire proceeding methodically and in order to the generation of the world which comprehendeth in itselfe all the spermaticall proportions and reasons of seed according to which every thing by fatall destinie is produced and commeth foorth also to be a spirit piercing and spreading through the whole world howbeit changing his denomination throughout the whole matter as it passeth by transition from the one to the other Semblably that the world is God the starres likewise and the earth yea and the supreme minde above in heaven Finally Epicurus conceiveth thus of the gods that they all have the forme of man and yet be perceptable onely by reason and cogitation in regard of the subtile parts and fine nature of their imaginative figures he also affirmeth that those other foure natures in generall be incorruptible to wit the atomes vacuitie infinitie and resemblances which also be called semblable parcels and elements CHAP. VIII Of Daemons and demy-gods otherwise named Heroes TO this treatise of the gods meet it is to adjoine a discourse as touching the nature of Daemones and Heroes THALES PYTHAGORAS PLATO and the STOICKS hold that these Daemons be spirituall substances and the Heroes soule separate from their bodies of which sort there be good and bad the good Heroes are the good soules and the bad Heroes the bad soules but EPICURUS admitteth none of all this CHAP. IX Of Matter MAtter is the first and principall subject exposed to generation corruption and other mutations The Sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS together with the Stoicks doe say that this Matter is variable mutable alterable and fluxible all wholly thorow the universall world The disciples and followers of DEMOCRITUS are of opinion that the first principles be impassible to wit the small indivisible bodie Atomos Voidnesse and Incorporall ARISTOTLE and PLATO doe holde that Matter is corporall without forme shape figure and qualitie in the owne nature and propertie but when it hath received formes once it becommeth as it were a nurse a molde pattern and a mother They who set downe for this Matter water earth fire or aire do not say that now it is without forme but that it is a very bodie but such as affirme that these Atomes and indivisible bodies be the said Matter make it altogether formelesse CHAP. X. Of Idea IDea is a bodilesse substance which of it selfe hath no subsistence but giveth figure and forme unto shapelesse matters and becommeth the very cause that bringeth them into shew and evidence SOCRATES and PLATO suppose that these Ideae bee substances separate and distinct from Matter howbeit subsisting in the thoughts and imaginations of God that is to say of Minde and Understanding ARISTOTLE admitteth verily these formes and Ideae howbeit not separate from matter as being the patterns of all that which God hath made The STOICKS such as were the scholars of Zeno have delivered that our thoughts and conceits were the Ideae CHAP. XI Of Causes A Cause is that whereupon dependeth or followeth an effect or by which any thing hapneth PLATO hath set downe three kinds of Causes and those are distinguished by these tearmes By which Of which and For which but he taketh the most principall to be that By which that is to say the efficient cause which is the minde or understanding PYTHAGORAS and ARISTOTLE do hold that the principall Causes be incorporall and as for other Causes either by participation or by accident they are of a corporal substance and so the world is a bodie But the STOICKS are of opinion that all Causes are corporall inasmuch as they be spirits CHAP. XII Of Bodies A Bodie is measurable and hath three dimensions length bredth and depth or thicknesse Or thus A Bodie is a masse that resisteth touching naturally of it selfe
lustie tall and strong man would needs chalenge Hercules to wrestle with him upon this condition that if Hercules could overthrow him and lay him along on the ground the ram should be his Hercules accepted the offer and when they were close at hand-gripes the Meropians certaine inhabitants of the Isle came in to succour Antagoras and the Greekes likewise to aide Hercules in such sort as there ensued a sharp and cruell fight wherein Hercules finding himselfe to be overlaid and pressed with the multitude of his enemies retired and fled as they say unto a Thracian woman where for to hide and save his life he disguised himselfe in womans apparell But afterwards having gotten the upper hand of those Meropians and being purged he espoused the daughter of Alciopus and put on a faire robe and goodly stoale Thus you may see whereupon his priest sacrificeth in that verie place where the battell was fought and why new married spouses being arraied in the habit of women receive their brides 50 Whereof commeth it that in the citie of Megara there is a linage or family named Hamaxocylysta IN the time that the dissolute and insolent popular State of government called Democratie which ordained that it might be lawfull to recover and arrest all monies paid for interest and in consideration of use out of the usurers hands which permitted sacriledge bare sway in the citie it hapned there were certaine pilgrims named Theori of Peloponesus sent in commissizzon to the oracle of Apollo at Delphos who passed thorow the province of Megaris and about the citie Aegiri neere unto the lake there lay and tumbled themselves upon their chariots here and there together with their wives and children one with another as it fell out where certaine Megarians such as were more audacious than the rest as being thorowly drunke full of insolent wantonnesse and cruel pride were so lustie as to overturne the said chariots and thrust them into the lake so as many of the said Theori or commissioners were drowned therein Now the Megarians such was the confusion and disorder in their government in those daies made no reckoning at all to punish this injurie and outrage but the counsell of the Amphyctiones because the pilgrimage of these Theori was religious and sacred tooke knowledge thereof and sate upon an inquisition about it yea and chastised those who were found culpable in this impietie some with death others with banishment and hereupon the whole race descending from them were called afterwards Hamaxocylysta THE PARALLELS OR A BRIEFE COLLATION OF ROMANE NARRATIONS WITH THE SEMBLABLE REPORTED OF THE GREEKS In the margin of an old manuscript copie these words were found written in Greeke This booke was never of PLUTARCHS making who was an excellent and most learned Author but penned by some odde vulgar writer altogether ignorant both of Poetrie and also of Grammar MAny doe thinke that ancient histories be but fables and tales devivised for pleasure For mine owne part having found many accidents in our daies semblable unto those occurrents which in times past fell out among the Romans in their age I have collected some of them together and to everie one of those ancient Narrations annexed another like unto it of later time and therewith alledged the Authors who have put them downe in writing 1 Datys lieutenant generall under the king of Persia being come downe into the plaine of Marathon within the countrey of Attica with a puissant power of three hundred thousand fighting men there pitched his campe and proclaimed warre upon the inhabitants of those parts The Athenians making small account of this so great a multitude of Barbarians sent out nine thousand men under the conduct of these foure captains namely Cynegyrus Pollizelus Callimachus and Miliiades So they strucke a battell during which conflict Polyzelus chanced to see the vision of one represented unto him surpassing mans nature and thereupon lost his sight and became blind Callimachus wounded through divers parts of his bodie with many pikes and javelins dead though he was stood upon his feet and Cynegyrus as he staied a Persian ship which was about to retire backe had both his hands smitten off Asdruball the king being possessed of Sicily denounced warre againg the Romans and Metellus being chosen lord generall by the Senate obtained a victorie in a certaine battell against him in which battell lord Glauco a noble man of Rome as he held the admirall-ship of Asdruball lost both his hands as Aristides the Milesian writeth in the first booke of the annales of Sicily of whom Diodorus Siculus hath learned the matter and subject argument of his historie 2 Xerxes being come to lie at anchor neere the cape Artemsium with five hundred thousand fighting men proclaimed warre upon the people of that countrey whereat the Athenians being much astonied sent as a spie for to view survey his forces Agesilaus the brother of Themistocles albeit his father Neocles had a dreame in the night and thought that he saw his sonne dismembred of both his hands who entring the campe of the Barbarians in habit of a Persian slew Mardonius one of the captains of the kings corps de guard supposing he had beene Xerxes himselfe and being apprehended by them that were about him was brought tied and bound before the king who was then even readie to offer sacrifice upon the altar of the Sunne into the fire of which altar Agesilaus thrust his right hand and endured the force of the torment without crying or groning at all whereupon the king commaunded him to be unbound and then said Agesilaus unto him We Athenians be all of the like mind and resolution and if you will not beleeve me I will put my left hand also into the fire whereat Xerxes being mightily afraid caused him to be kept safely with a good guard about him This writeth Agatharsides the Samian in his second booke of the Persian Chronicles Porsena king of the Tuscans having encamped on the further side of the river Tyber warred upon the Romans and by cutting off the victuals and all provision that was wont to be brought to Rome distressed the said Romans with famine and when the Senat hereupon was wonderfully troubled Mucius a noble man of the citie taking with him foure hundred other brave gentlemen of his owne age by commission from the Consuls in poore and simple array passed over the river and casting his eie upon the captaine of the kings guard dealing among other captains victuals and other necessaries supposing he had beene Porsena killed him whereupon he was presently taken and brought before the king who put his right hand likewise into the fire and induring the paines thereof whiles it burned most stoutly seemed to smile thereat and said Thou barbarous king lo how I am loose and at libertie even against thy will but note well this besides that we are foure hundred of us within thy campe that have undertaken to take away thy
industrie hath devised and found out as an appendant and accessarie Neither can it be said what time of the world it was when as man had no water nor ever read we in any records that one of the gods or demi-gods was the inventer therof for it was at the very instant with them nay what and we say that it gave them their being But the use of fire was but yesterday or the other day to speake of found out by Prometheus so that the time was when as men lived without fire but void of water our life never was Now that this is no devised poeticall fiction this daily and present life of ours doth plainly testifie for there be at this day in the world divers nations that are mainteined without fire without house without hearth or chimney 〈◊〉 abroad in the open wide aire And Diogenes the Cynicke seldome or never had any use of fire insomuch as having upon a time swallowed downe a polype fish raw Loe quoth he my masters how for your sake we put our selves in jeopardie howbeit without water there was never any man thought that either we might live honestly and civilly or that our nature would possibly endure it But what need is there that I should particularize thus and go so neere as to search farre into the nature of man considering that whereas there be so many or rather so infinit kinds of living creatures mankinde onely in a maner knoweth the use of fire whereas all the rest have their nourishment and food without the benefit of fire Those that brouse feed flie and creepe get their living by eating herbes roots fruits and flesh all without fire but without water there is not one that can live neither going or creeping on the land nor swimming in the sea not yet flying in the aire True it is I must needs say that Aristotle writeth how some beasts there be even of those that devoure flesh which never drunke but in very trueth nourished they be by some moisture Well then that is more profitable without which no maner of life can consist or endure Proceed we farther passe from those living creatures which use to feed upon plants fruits even unto the same that are by us them used for food Some of them there be which have no heat at all others so little as it can not be perceived Contrariwise moisture is that which causeth all kind of seeds to chit to bud to grow and in the end to bring forth fruit for what need I to alledge for this purpose either wine and oile or other liquors which we draw presse out or milke forth out of beasts paps which we do see dayly before our eies considering that even our wheat which seemeth to be a drie nutriment is engendred by the transmutation putrefaction and diffusion of moisture Furthermore that is to be held more profitable which bringeth with it no hurt nor dammage but we all know that fire if it breake forth get head and be at libertie is the most pernicious thing in the world wheras the nature of water of it selfe doth never any harme Againe of two things that is held to be more commodious which is the simpler and without preparation can yeeld the profit which it hath but fire requireth alwaies some succour and matter which is the reason that the rich have more of it than the poore and princes than private persons whereas water is so kind and courteous that it giveth it selfe indifferently to all sorts of people it hath no need at all of tooles or instruments to prepare it for use compleat and perfect it is in it selfe without borowing ought abroad of others Over and besides that which being multiplied as it were and augmented loseth the utilitie and profit that it had is by consequence lesse profitable and such is fire resembling herein a ravenous wild beast which devoureth and consumeth all that it commeth neere in so much as it were by the industrie and artificiall meanes of him who knoweth how to use it with moderation rather than of the owne nature that it doth any good at all whereas water is never to be feared Againe of two things that which can do good being both alone and also in the company of the other is the more profitable of the twaine but so it is that fire willingly admitteth not the fellowship of water nor by the participation thereof is any way commodious whereas water is together with fire profitable as we may see by the fountaines of hot water how they be medicinable and verie sensibly is their helpe perceived Never shall a man meet with any fire moist but water as well hot as colde is ever more profitable to man Moreover water being one of the foure elements hath produced as one may say a fift to wit the sea and the same well neere as profitable as any one of the rest for many other causes besides but principally in regard of commerce and trafficke For whereas before time mans life was savage and they did not communicate one with another this element hath conjoined and made it perfect bringing societie and working amitie among men by mutuall succours and reciprocall retributions from one to the other Heraclitus saith in one place if there were no sunne there had beene no night and even as well may it be said Were it not for the sea man had beene the most savage creature the most penurious and needie yea and the least respected in all the world whereas now this element of the sea hath brought the vine out of the Indians as farre as Greece and from Greece hath transported it unto the farthest provinces likewise from out of Phaenicia the use of letters for preservation of the memorie of things it hath brought wine it hath conveighed fruits into these parts and hath beene the cause that the greatest portion of the world was not buried in ignorance How then can it bee otherwise that water should not be more profitable since it furnisheth us with another element But on the contrarie side peradventure a man may begin hereupon to make instance oppositely in this manner saying that God as a master-workeman having the foure elements before him for to frame the fabricke of this world withall which being repugnant and refusing one another earth and water were put beneath as the matter to be formed and fashioned receiving order and disposition yea and a vegetative power to engender and breed such as is imparted unto it by the other two aire and fire which are they that give forme and fashion unto them 〈◊〉 and excite the other twaine to generation which otherwise had lien dead without any motion But of these two fire is the chiefe and hath dominion which a man may evidently know by this induction For the earth if it be not enchafed by some hot substance is barren bringeth forth no fruit but when as fire spreadeth it selfe upon it it infuseth into it a
other such particular artificers whom it suffiseth to know and understand the last and conjunct causes For so it be that a physician doe comprehend the neerest and next cause of his patients malady for example of an ague that it is a shooting or falling of the bloud out of the veines into the arteries and the husbandman conceive that the cause of blasting or Maying his corne is an hot gleame of the sunne after a shower of raine and the plaier upon the 〈◊〉 comprise the reason of the base sound is the bending downward of his instrument or the bringing of them one neere unto another it is sufficient for any of these to proceed to their proper worke and operation But a naturall philosopher who searcheth into the trueth of things onely for meere knowledge and speculation maketh not the knowledge of these last causes the end but rather taketh from them his beginning and ariseth from them to the primitive and highest causes And therefore well did Plato and Democritus who searching into the causes of heat and of heavinesse 〈◊〉 not the course of their inquisition when they came to fire and earth but referring and reducing things sensible unto intelligible principles proceeded forward and never staied untill they came unto the least parcels as it were to the smallest seeds and principles thereof Howbeit better it were first to handle and discusse these sensible things wherein Empedocles Straton and the Stoicks do repose the essences of all powers the Stoicks attributing the primitive colde unto aire but Empedocles and Straton unto water and another peradventure would suppose the earth rather to be the substantiall subject of cold But first let us examine the opinions of these before named Considering then that fire is both hot and shining it must needs be that the nature of that which is contrarie unto it should be colde and darke for obscuritie is opposite unto brightnesse like as cold to heat and like as darknesse and obscuritie doth confound and trouble the sight even so doth colde the sense of feeling whereas heat doth dilate the sense of him that toucheth it like as cleerenesse the sight of him that seeth it and therefore we must needs say that the thing which is principally darke and mistie is likewise colde in nature But that the aire above all things els is dimme and darke the very poets were not ignorant for the aire they call darkenesse as appeareth by these verses of Homer For why the aire stood thicke the ships about And no moone shine from heaven shewed throughout And in another place The aire anon he soone dispatch't and mist did drive away With that the sunne shone out full bright and battell did display And hereupon it is that men call the aire wanting light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say void of light and the grosse aire which is gathered thicke together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of privation of all light Aire also is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a mist and looke what things soever hinder our sight that we cannot see thorow be differences all of the aire and that part of it which can not be seene and hath no colour is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for want of colour Like as therefore the aire remaineth darke when the light is taken from it even so when the heat is gone that which remaineth is nothing but colde aire And therefore such aire by reason of coldnesse is named Tartarus which Hesiodus seemeth to insinuate by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the airie Tartarus and to tremble and quake for cold he expresseth by this verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the reasons 〈◊〉 in this behalfe But forasmuch as corruption is the change of anything into the contrary let us consider whether it be truely said The death of fire is the birth of aire For fire dieth aswell as living creatures either quenched by force or by languishing and going out of it selfe As for the violent quenching and extinction thereof it sheweth evidently that it turneth into aire for smoake is a kinde of aire and according as Pindarus writeth The vapour of the aire thicke Is 〈◊〉 against the smoake to kicke And not onely that but we may see also that when a flame beginneth to die for want of nourishment as in lamps and burning lights the very top and head thereof doth vanish and resolve into a darke and obscure aire and this may sufficiently be perceived by the vapour which after we are bathed or sit in a stouph flieth and steimeth up along our bodies as also by that smoake which ariseth by throwing cold water upon namely that heat when it is extinguished is converted into aire as being naturally opposite unto fire whereupon it followeth necessarily that the aire was first darke and cold But that which is more the most violent and forcible impression in bodies by cold is congealation which is a passion of water action of the aire for water of it selfe is given to spread and flow as being neither solide nor compact and fast by nature but hard it becommeth thicke also and stiffe when it is thrust close to by the aire and cold together comming betweene and therefore thus we say commonly If after South the North-winde straight do blow We shall be sure anon to have some snow For the South winde prepareth the matter which is moisture and the aire of the North winde comming upon it doth frize and congeale the same which appeareth manifestly in snow for no sooner hath it evaporated and exhaled a little the thinne and colde aire in it but immediatly it resolveth and runneth to water And Aristotle writeth that plates and plummets of lead doe melt and resolve with the cold and rigor of Winter so soone as water only commeth unto them and be frozen upon them And the aire as it should seeme by pressing such bodies together with colde breaketh and knappeth them asunder Moreover the water that is drawen out of a well or spring is sooner frozen and turned to ice than any other for that the aire hath more power over a little water than a great deale And if a man draw up a small quantitie of water in a bucket out of a pit or well and let the same downe againe into the well yet so as the vessell touch not the water but hang in the aire and so continue there but a while that water will be much colder than that which is in the bottome of the well whereby it appeareth manifestly that the primitive cause of cold is not in water but in aire And that so it is the great rivers will testifie which never are frozen to the bottome
because the aire is not able to pierce and enter so low but as much as it can take holde of with the colde either in touching or approching neere unto it so much it frizeth and congealeth And this is the reason that Barbarians when they are to passe great rivers frozen over with ice send out foxes before the for if the ice be not thicke but superficiall the foxes hearing the noise of the water running underneath returne backe againe Some also that are disposed to fish do thaw and open the ice with casting hot water upon it and so let downe their lines at the hole for then will the fishes come to the bait and bite Thus it appeareth that the bottome of the river is not frozen although the upper face thereof stand all over with an ice and that so strong that the water thereby drawen and driven in so hard is able to crush and breake the boats and vessels within it according as they make credible relation unto us who now doe winter upon the river Donow with the emperour And yet without all these farre-fet examples the very experiments that we finde in our owne bodies doe testifie no lesse for after much bathing or sweating alwaies we are more colde and chill for that our bodies being then open and resolved we receive at the pores cold together with aire in more abundance The same befalleth unto water it selfe which both sooner cooleth and groweth also colder after it hath beene once made hot for then more subject it is to the injurie of the aire considering also that even they who fling and cast up scalding water into the aire do it for no other purpose but to mingle it with much aire The opinion then of him ô Phavorinus who assigneth the first cause of cold unto aire is founded upon such reasons and probabilities as these As for him who ascribeth it unto water he laieth his ground likewise upon such principles for in this maner writeth Empedocles Beholde the Sunne how bright alwaies and hot he is beside But 〈◊〉 is ever blacke and darke and colde on every side For in opposing cold to heat as blacknesse unto brightnesse he giveth us occasion to collect and inferre that as heat and brightnesse belong to one and the same substance even so cold and blacknesse to another Now that the blacke hew proceedeth not from aire but from water the very experience of our outward senses is able to proove for nothing waxeth blacke in the aire but every thing in the water Do but cast into the water and drench therein a locke of wooll or peece of cloth be it never so white you shal when you take it foorth againe see it looke blackish and so will it continue untill by heat the moisture be fully sucked up and dried or that by the presse or some waights it be squeized out Marke the earth when there falleth a showre of raine how every place whereupon the drops fall seemes blacke and all the rest beside retaineth the same colour that it had before And even water it selfe the deeper that it is the blacker hew it hath because there is morequantity of it but contrariwise what part soever thereof is neere unto aire the same by and by is lightsome and cheerefull to the eie Consider among other liquid substances how oile is most transparent as wherein there is most aire for proofe wherof see how light it is and this is it which causeth it to swim above all other liquors as being carried aloft by the meanes of aire And that which more is it maketh a calme in the sea when it is flung and sprinkled upon the waves not in regard of the slipery smoothnesse whereby the windes do glide over it and will take no hold according as Aristotle saith but for that the waves being beaten with any humor whatsoever will spred themselves and ly even and principally by the meanes of oile which hath this speciall and peculiar property above all other liquors that it maketh clere and giveth meanes to see in the bottome of the waters for that humidity openeth and cleaveth when aire comes in place and not onely yeeldeth a cleere light within the sea to Divers who fish-ebb in the night for spunges and plucke them from the rocks whereto they cleave but also in the deepest holes thereof when they spurt it out of their mouths the aire then is no blacker than the water but lesse colde for triall heerof looke but upon oile which of all liquors having most aire in it is nothing cold at all and if it frize at all it is but gently by reason that the aire incorporate within it will not suffer it to gather and congeale hard marke worke-men also and artisanes how they doe not dippe and keepe their needles buckles and claspes or other such things made of iron in water but in oile for feare left the excessive colde of the water would marre and spoile them quite I stand the more heereupon because I thinke it more meet to debate this disputation by such proofes rather than by the colours considering that snowe haile and ice are exceeding white and cleere and withall most colde contrariwise pitch is hotter than hony and yet you see it is more darke and duskish And heere I cannot chuse but woonder at those who would needs have the aire to be colde because forsooth it is darke as also that they consider not how others take and judge it hot because it is light for tenebrositie and darknesse be not so familiar and neere cousens unto colde as ponderositie and unweldinesse be proper thereto for many things there be altogether void of heat which notwithstanding are bright and cleere but there is no colde thing light and nimble or mounting upward for clouds the more they stand upon the nature of the aire the higher they are caried and flie aloft but no sooner resolve they into a liquid nature and substance but incontinently they fall and loose their lightnesse and agilitie no lesse than their heat when colde is engendred in them contrariwise when heat commeth in place they change their motion againe to the contrary and their substance mounteth upward so soone as it is converted into aire Neither is that supposition true as touching corruption for every thing that perisheth is not transmuted into the contrary but the trueth is all things are killed and die by their contrary for so fire being quenched by fire turneth into aire And to this purpose Aeschylus the poet said truely although tragically when hee called water the punishment of fire for these be his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The water stay which fire doth stay And Homer in a certaine battell opposed Vulcane to the river and with Neptune matched Apollo not so much by way of fabulous fiction as by physicall and naturall reason and as for 〈◊〉 a wicked woman who meant cleane contrary to that which she said and shewed wrote elegantly in this wise The
commeth to passe that even with you All commeth to be but One unlesse you will use vaine words and void of sense speaking of voidnesse and fighting in vaine as with a shadow against those auncient Philosophers But these Atomes you will say are according to the opinion of Epicurus in number infinite and every thing that appereth unto us ariseth from them Beholde now what principles you put downe for generation to wit infinity and voidnesse whereof the one is without action impassible and bodilesse the other namely infinity disorderly void of reason incomprehensible dissolving and confounding it selfe for that by reason of multitude it cannot be circumscribed nor contained within limits But Permenides hath not abolished either fire or water or any rocke no nor the cites as Colotes saith inhabited as well in Europe as in Asia considering that he hath both instituted an orderly dispose digestion and also tempering the elements together to wit light and darke of them and by them absolutely finisheth all things visible in the world for written he hath at large of Earth of Heaven of Sunne Moone and starres as also spoken much of mans generation and being as he was a very ancient Philosopher he hath left nothing in Physiologie unsaid and whereof he hath not delivered both by word and writing his owne doctrine not borrowed else where passing over the repugnancie of other received principall opinions Moreover he of all others first and even before Socrates himselfe observed and understood that in nature there is one part subject to opinion and another subject to intelligence And as for that which is opinable inconstant it is and uncertaine wandring also and carried away with sundry passions and mutations apt to diminish and paire to increase also and growe yea and to be diversly affected and not ever after one sort disposed to the same in sense alike As for the intelligible part it is of another kinde For sound it is whole and not variable Constant and sure and ingenerable as he himselfe saith alwaies like to it selfe perdurable in the owne nature essence But Colotes like a 〈◊〉 cavilling at him catching at his words without regard of the matter not arguing against his reasons indeed but in words onely affirmeth flatly that Parmenides overthroweth all things in one word by supposing that All is One But he verily on the contrary side abolisheth neither the one nature nor the other but rendreth to ech of them that which is meet and apperteineth thereto For the intelligible part he rangeth in the Idea of One and of That which is saying that it is and hath being in regard of eternity and incorruption that it is one because it alwaies resembleth it selfe and receiveth no diversity As for that part which is Sensible he placeth it in the ranke of that which is uncerteine disorderly and ever mooving Of which two we may see the distinct judgement in the soule by these verses The one reteins to truth which is syncere Perswasive breeding science pure and cleere For it concerneth that which is intelligible and evermore alike and in the same sort The other rests on mens opinions vaine Which breed no true beleefe but uncertaine For that it is conversant in such things as receive al maner of changes passions mutabilities And verily how possibly he should admit and leave unto us sense and opinion and not withall allow that which is sensible and opinable a man is not able to shew But forasmuch as to that which is existent indeed it appertaineth to remaine in being and for that things sensible one while are and another while are not but passe continually from one being to another and alter their estate insomuch as they deserve rather some other name than this of being This speech as touching All that it should be one is not to take away the plurality of things sensible but to shew the difference betweene them and those that be intelligible which Plato in his treatise of Ideae minding to declare more plainly gave Colotes some advantage for to take holde of him And therefore me thinks it good reason to take before me all in one traine that also which he hath spoken against him But first let us consider the diligence together with the deepe and profound knowledge of this Philosopher Plato considering that Aristotle Xenocrates Theophrastus and all the Peripateticks have followed his doctrine For in what blinde corner of the world unhabitable wrot he his booke that you Colotes in heaping up together these criminations upon such personages should never light upon their works nor take in hand the books of Aristotle as touching the heaven and the soule nor those compositions of Theophrastus against the Naturalists nor that Zoroastres of Heraclitus one booke of Hell and infernall spirits another of Doubts and questions Naturall that also of Dicaearchus concerning the soule In all which books they are contradictory and repugnant in the maine and principall points of Naturall philosophy unto Plato And verily the prince of all other Peripateticks Strato accordeth not in many things with Aristotle and mainteineth opinions cleane contrary unto those of Plato as touching Motion Understanding the Soule and Generation And in conclusion he holdeth that the very world is not animall and whatsoever is naturall is consequent unto that which is casuall and according to fortune As for the Ideae for which Aristotle every where seemeth to course Plato and mooveth all maner of doubts concerning them in his Ethicks or morall discourses in his Physicks in his Exotericall dialogues he is thought of some to dispute and discourse with a more contentions and opinative spirit than became a Philosopher as if he propounded to himselfe for to convell and debase the Philosophy of Plato so farre was hee from following him What impudent and licentious rashnesse therefore is this that one having never knowen nor seene what these learned clerks had written and what their opinions were should coine and devise out of his owne fingers ends and falsly charge upon them those things which never came into their heads and in perswading himselfe that he reprooveth and refuteth others to bring in a proofe and evidence written with his owne hand for to argue and convince himselfe of ignorance or rash and audacious impudence saying that those who contradict Plato agree with him and they that repugne against him doe follow him But Plato quoth he hath written That horses are in vaine counted by us horses and men likewise And in what odde corner of Platoes works hath Colotes found this hidden As for us wee reade in all his books that horses be horses and men be men and that fire even by him is esteemed fire for hee holdeth every one of these things to be sensible and opinable and so he nameth them But this our trim man Colotes as though hee wanted never a jot of the highest pitch of sapience and knowledge presumeth forsooth and taketh it to be
this day Iolaus because they take him to have beene Hercules his derling in so much as upon his tombe the manner is of lovers to take a corporall oth and assurance of reciprocall Love Moreover it is reported of Apollo that being skilfull in Physicke he saved the life of Alcestis being desperatly sicke for to gratifie Admetus who as he loved her intirely being his wife so he was as tenderly beloved of him For the Poets doe fable that Apollo being inamoured for pure Love Did serve Admetus one whole yeere As one that his hir'd servant were And here it falleth out in some sort well that we have made mention of Alcestis for albeit women have ordinarily much dealing with Mars yet the ravishment and furious fits of Love driveth them otherwhiles to enterprise somewhat against their owne nature even to voluntarie death and if the 〈◊〉 fables are of any credit and may goe currant for trueth it is evident by such reports as goe of Alcestis of Protesilaus and Euridice the wife of Orpheus that Pluto obeieth no other god but onely Love nor doth what they command And verily howsoever in regard of all other gods as Sophocles saith He cannot skill of equity of favour and of grace But onely with him Iustice straight and rigour taketh place Yet he hath good respect and reverence to lovers and to them alone he is not implacable nor inflixible And therefore a good thing it is my friend I confesse to be received into the religious confraternity of the Eleusinian mysteries but I see that the votaries professed in Love are in the other world in better condition accepted with Pluto And this I say as one who neither am too forward in beleeving such fables of Poets nor yet so backward as to distrust and discredit them all for I assure you they speake well and by a certaine divine fortune and good hap they hit upon the trueth saying as they do that 〈◊〉 but lovers returne from hell unto this light againe but what way and how they wot not as wandring indeed and missing of the right path which plato of all men first by the meanes of philosophy found out and knew And yet among the Aegyptians fables there be certaine small slender and obscure shadowes of the truth dispersed here an there Howbeit they had need of an expert and well experienced hunter who by small tracts knoweth how to trace and finde out great matters And therefore let us passe them over And now that I have discoursed of the force and puissance of Love being so great as it appeareth I come now to examine and consider the bountie and liberality thereof to mankinde not whether it conferre many benefits upon them who are acquainted with it and make use thereof for notable they be and well knowen to all men but whether it bringeth more and greater commodity to those that are studious of it and be amorous For Euripides howsoever he were a great favourit of Love yet so it is that he promised and admired that in it which of all others is least namely when he said Love teacheth Musicke marke when you will Though one before thereof had no skill For he might as well have said that it maketh a man prudent and witty who before was dull and foolish yea valiant as hath 〈◊〉 said who before was a coward like as they that by putting into fire burning peeces of wood make them firme and straight where as they were before weake and tender Semblably every amorous person becommeth liberall and magnificent although he had beene aforetime a pinching snudge For this base avarice and micherie waxeth soft and melteth by love like as iron in the fire in such sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon those whom they love than they doe to take and receive of others For yee all know well how Anytus the sonne of Anthenion was inamoured upon Alcebiades and when he had invited certaine friends and guests of his unto a sumptuous and stately feast in his house Alcibiades came thither in a maske to make pastime and after he had taken with him one halfe of the silver cups that stood upon the boord before them went his waies which when the guests tooke not well but said that the youth had behaved himselfe vere proudly and malipertly toward him Not so quoth Anytus for he hath dealt very courteously with me in that when he might have gone away withall he left thus much behinde for me Zeuxippus taking ioy hereat O Hercules quoth he you want but a little of ridding quite out of my heart that hereditary hatred derived and received from our ancestors which I have taken against Anytus in the behalfe of Socrates and Philosophie in case he were so kinde and courteous in his love Be it so quoth my father but let us proceed Love is of this nature that it maketh men otherwise melancholicke austere and hard to be pleased or conversed withall to become more sociable gentle and pleasant for as ye know well enough More stately is that house in sight Wherein the fire burnes cleere and bright and even so a man is more lightsome and jocund when he is well warmed with the heat of love But the vulgar sort of men are in this point somewhat perversly affected and beside all reason for if they see a flashing celestiall light in an house by night they take it to be some divine apparition and woonder thereat but when they see a base vile abject mind suddenly replenished with courage libertie magnificence desire of honour with grace favour and liberality they are not forced to say as Telemachus did in Homer Certes some god I know full well Is now within and here doth dwell And is not this also quoth Daphnaeus tell me I pray you for the love of all the Graces an effect of some divine cause that a lover who regardeth not but despiseth in a maner all other things I say not his familiar friends onely his fellowes and domesticall acquaintance but the lawes also and magistrates kings and princes who is afraid of nothing admireth esteemeth and observeth nothing and is besides so hardy as to present himselfe before the flashing shot of piercing lightning so soone as ever he espieth his faire love Like to some cocke of cravain 〈◊〉 le ts fall Or hangs the wing and daunted is withall He droups I say his courage is cooled his heart is done and all his animositie quailed quite And heere it were not impertinent to the purpose to make mention of Sappho among the Muses The Romans write in their history that Cacus the sonne of Vulcane breathed and flashed flames of fire from his mouth And in trueth the words that Sappho uttereth be mixed with fire and by her verses testifieth the ardent and flaming heat of her heart Seeking for love some cure and remedy By pleasant sound of Muses melodie as Philoxenus writeth But Daphnaeus unlesse peradventure the
a singular good grace his pregnant wit and quicke conceit ministreth unto him matter to contradict and to propose doubts howbeit the same is not bitter and odious in his propositions nor leavened with any overthwart frowardnesse and perverse stubburnesse in his answers in such sort as a man having beene but a little acquainted with him would soone say of him Certes a lewd man and a bad He never for his father had For you know well I suppose Diogenianus the best man one of them in the world BASILOCLES I know him not my selfe Philinus howbeit many there be who report as much of this yong man But upon what occasion or cause began your discourse and disputation PHILINUS Those who were our guides conversant and exercised in the reading of histories rehearsed and read from one end to the other all those compositions which they had written without any regard of that which we requested them namely to epitomize and abridge those narrations and most part of the Epigrams As for the stranger he tooke much pleasure to see and view those faire statues so many in number and so artificially wrought But he admired most of all the fresh brightnesse of the brasse being such as shewed no filth nor rust that it had gathered but caried the glosse and resplendent hew of azur so as he seemed to be ravished and astonied when he beheld the statues of the amirals and captaines at sea for at them he began as representing naturally in their tincture and colour as they stood sea men and sailers in the very maine deepe sea Whereupon Had the ancient workmen quoth he a certaine mixture by themselves and a temper of their brasse that might give such a tincture to their works for as touching the Corinthian brasse which is so much renowmed it is thought generally and so given out that it was by meere adventure and chaunce that it tooke this goodly colour and not by any art by occasion that the fire caught an house wherein there was laid up some little gold and silver but a great quantitie of brasse which mettals being melted together so confused one with another the whole masse thereof was stil called brasse because there was more thereof in it than of the other mettals Then Theon We have heard quoth he another reason more subtile than this namely that when a certeine brasse founder or coppersmith in Corinth had met with a casket or coffer wherein was good store of golde fearing lest hee should be discovered and this treasure found in his hands he clipped it by little and little melted and mixed it gently with his brasse which tooke thereupon such an excellent and woonderfull temperature that he solde the pieces of worke thereof made passing deere in regard of their dainty colour and lovely beauty which every man set much by and esteemed But both this and the other is but a lying tale for by all likelihood this Corinthian brasse was a certeine mixture and temperature of mettals so prepared by art like as at this day artisans by tempring gold and silver together make thereof a certeine singular and exquisite pale yellow by it selfe howbeit in mine eie the same is but a wanne and sickly colour and a corrupt hue without any beautie in the world What other cause then might there be quoth Diogenianus as you thinke that this brasse heere hath such a tincture To whom Theon made this answere Considering quoth he that of these primative elements and most naturall bodies that are and ever shall be to wit fire aire water and earth there is not one which approcheth or toucheth these brasse works but aire onely it must of necessitie be that it is the aire which doeth the deed and by reason of this aire lying alwaies close upon them and never parting therefro commeth this difference that they have from all others Or rather this is a thing notoriously knowen of old even before Theognis was borne as said the comicall Poet. But would you know by what speciall propertie and vertue the aire should by touching set such a colour upon brasse Yes very faine answered Diogenianus Certes so would I to my sonne quoth Theon let us therefore search into the thing both together in common and first of all if you please what is the cause that oile filleth it full of rust more than all other liquor whatsoever for surely it cannot be truely said that oile of it selfe setteth the said rust upon it considering it is pure and neat not polluted with any filth when it commeth to it No verily quoth the yoong man and there seemeth to be some other cause else beside the oile for the rust meeting with oile which is subtile pure and transparent appeareth most evidently whereas in all other liquors it maketh no shew nor is seene at all Well said my sonne quoth Theon and like a Philosopher but consider if you thinke so good of that reason which Aristotle alledgeth Mary that I will quoth he againe Why then I will tell it you quoth Theon Aristotle saith that the rust of brasse lighting upon other liquors pierceth insensibly and is dispersed through them being of a rare substance and unequall parts not abiding close together but by reason of the compact and fast soliditie of oile the said rust is kept in and abideth thrust and united together Now then if we also of our selves were able to presuppose such a thing we should not altogether want some meanes to charme as it were and allay somewhat this doubt of ours And when we had allowed very well of his speech and requested him to say on and prosecute the same he said That the aire in the citie of Delphos was thicke fast strong and vehement withall by reason of the reflexion and repercussion of the mountaines round about it and besides mordicative as witnesseth the speedie concoction of meat that it causeth Now this aire by reason of the subtilty and incisive qualitie thereof piercing into the brasse and cutting it forceth out of it a deale of rust and skaleth as it were much terrestrial substance from it the which it restreineth afterwards and keepeth in for that the densitie and thicknesse of the aire giveth it no issue thus this rust being staied remaining still gathering also a substance by occasion of the quantity thereof putteth foorth this floure as it were of colour and there within the superficies contracteth a resplendent and shining hew This reason of his we approoved very well but the stranger said that one of those suppositions alone was sufficient to make good the reason For that subtility quoth he seemeth to be somewhat contrary unto the spissitude and thicknesse supposed in the aire and therefore it is not necessarie to make any supposall thereof for brasse of it selfe as it waxeth old in tract of time exhaleth and putteth foorth this rust which the thicknesse of the aire comming upon keepeth in and doeth so incrassate as that through the
worke as beseemed so great a king and one derived from a divine race the end whereof was not a masse of gold to be caried along after him upon ten thousand camels backs nor the superfluous delights of Media not sumptuous and dilicate tables not faire and beautifull ladies not the good and pleasant wines of Calydonia nor the dainty fish of Hyrcania out of the Caspian sea but to reduce the whole world to be governed in one and the same order to be obedient to one empire and to be ruled by the same maner of life And verily this desire was inbred in him this was nourished and grew up with him from his very infancie There came embassadors upon a time from the king of Persia to his father Philip who at the same time was not in the country but gone forth Alexander gave them honorable intertainement very courteously as became his fathers sonne but this especially was observed in him that he did not aske them childish questions as other boies did to wit about golden vines trailed from one tree to another nor of the pendant gardens at Babylon hanging above in the aire ne yet what robes and sumptuous habiliments their king did weare but all his talke and conference with them was concerning matters most important for the state of an empire inquisitive he was what forces and power of men the king of Persia could bring out into the field and maintaine in what ward of the battell the king himselfe was arranged when he fought a field much like unto that Ulysses in Homer who demanded of Dolon as touching Hector His martiall armes where doth he lay His horses tell me where stand they Which be the readiest and shortest waies for those who would travel from the coasts of the Meditteranean sea up into the high countries in so much as these strangers the embassadors wondered exceedingly and said Now surely this child is the great king and ours the rich No sooner was his father Philip departed this life but presently his heart served him to passe over the straights of Hellespont and being already fed with his hopes and forward in the preparation and provision of his voiage he made what speed he could to set foot in Asia But see heere how fortune crossed his designes she averted him quite and drew him backe againe raising a thousand troubles and busie occasions to stay hinder his intended course First she caused those barbarous nations bordering and adjoining upon him to rise up in armes and thereby held him occupied in the warres against the Illyrians and Triballians by the meanes whereof he was haled away as farre as to Scythia and the nations inhabiting along the river Danubie who diverted him cleane from his affaires intended in the high provinces of Asia Howbeit having overrunne these countries and dispatched all difficulties with great perils and most dangerous battels he set in hand againe with his former enterprise and made haste to his passage voiage a second time But lo even there also fortune excited the city of Thebes against him and laid the warre of the Greeks in his way to stop his expedition driving him to extreame streights and to a very hard exigent by fire and sword to be revenged of a people that were his owne countrymen and of the same kinred and nation the issue whereof was most grieveous and lamentable Having exploited this he crossed the seas at the last furnished with provision of money and victuals as Phylarchus writeth to serve for thirty daies and no longer or as Aristobulus reporteth having onely seventy talents of silver to defray the whole charges of the voiage For of his owne demaine and possessions at home as also of the crowne revenewes he had bestowed the most part upon his friends and followers onely Perdiccas would receive nothing at his hands but when he made offer to give him his part with the rest demanded thus of him But what reserve you for yourselfe Alexander Who answered My hopes Why then quoth he I will take part thereof for it is not reason that we should receive your goods but wait for the pillage of Darius And what were those hopes of Alexander upon which he passed over into Asia Surely not a power measured by the strong wals of many rich populous cities not fleets of ships sailing through the mountaines not whips and fetters testifying the folly and madnesse of barbarous princes who thought thereby to punish and chastice the raging sea But for externall meanes without himselfe a resolution of prowesse in a small power of armed men well trussed and compact together an aemulation to excell one another among yong men of the same age a contention and strife for vertue and glory in those that were his minions about him But the great hopes indeed and most assured were in his owne person to wit his devout religion to Godward the 〈◊〉 confidence and affiance that he had in his friends frugality continence bounty a contempt of death magnanimity and resolution humanity courtesie affable intertainment a simple nature plaine without plaits not faigned and counterfait constancie in his counsell celerity in his execution soveraignty and priority in honor and a resolute purpose to accomplish any honest duty and office For Homer did not well and decently to compose and frame the beautifull personage of Agamemnon as the patterne of a per fect prince out of three images after this maner For eies and head much like he was in sight To Jove who takes in lightning such delight God Mars in wast and loines resembled he In brest compar'd to Neptune he may be But the nature of Alexander in case that God who made or created him formed and compounded it of many vertues may we not well and truly say that he endued with the courageous spirit of Cyrus the sober temperance of Agesilaus the quicke wit and pregnant conceit of Themistocles the approoved skill and experience of Philip the valourous boldnesse of Brasidas the rare eloquence and sufficiencie of Pericles in State matters and politicke government For to speake of those in ancient times more continent he was and chast than Agamemnon who preferred a captive concubine before his owne espoused and lawfull wife as for Alexander he absteined from those women whom he tooke prisoners in warre and would not touch one of them before he had wedded her more magnanimous than Achilles who for a little money yeelded the dead corps of Hector to be ransommed whereas Alexander defraied great summes in the funerals and interring of Darius bodie Againe Achilles tooke of his friends for the appeasing of his choler gifts and presents after a mercenary maner but Alexander enriched his very enemies when he had gotten the victorie More religious he was than Diamedes a man who was evermore ready to fight against the gods whereas he thought that all victory happy successe came by the grace and favour of the gods Deerer he was to his
potable water and with that all those who are present set up a note and shout as if they had found Osiris againe then they take a piece of fatty and fertile earth and together with the water knead and worke it into a paste mixing therewith most precious odors persumes and spices whereof they make a little image in forme of the Moone croissant which they decke with robes and adorne shewing thereby evidently that they take these gods to be the substance of water and earth Thus when Isis had recovered Osiris nourished Orus and brought him up to some growth so that he now became strengthned fortified by exhalations vapors mists and clouds Typhon verily was vanquished howbeit not shine for that the goddesse which is the ladie of the earth would not permit suffer that the power or nature which is contrary unto moisture should be utterly abolished onely she did slacken and let downe the vehement force thereof willing that this combat and strife should still continue because the world would not have beene entier and perfect if the nature of fire had beene once extinct gone And if this goe not currant among them there is no reason and probability that any one should project this assertion also namely that Typhon in times past overcame one part of Osiris for that in olde time Aegypt was sea whereupon it is that even at this day within the mines wherein men dig for mettals yea and among the mountaines there is found great store of seafish Likewise all the fountaines welles and pits and those are many in number cary a brackish saltish and bitter water as if some remnant or residue of the olde sea were reserved which ranne thither But in processe of time Orus subdued Typhon that is to say when the seasonable raine came which tempered the excessive heat Nilus expelled and drave forth the sea discovered the champian ground and filled it continually more and more by new deluges and inundations that laied somewhat still unto it And hereof the daily experience is presented to our eies for we perceive even at this day that the overflowes and rising of the river bringing new mud and adding fresh earth still by little and little the sea giveth place and retireth and as the deepe in it is filled more and more so the superficies riseth higher by the continuall shelves that the Nile casts up by which meane the sea runneth backward yea the very Isle Pharos which Homer knew by his daies to lie farre within the sea even a daies sailing from the continent firme land of Aegypt is now a very part thereof not for that it remooved and approched neerer and neerer to the land but because the sea which was betweene gave place unto the river that continually made new earth with the mudde that it brought and so mainteined and augmented the maine land But these things resemble very neere the Theologicall interpretations that the Stoicks give out for they holde that the generative and nutritive Spirit is Bacchus but that which striketh and divideth is Hercules that which receiveth is Ammon that which entreth and pierceth into the earth is Ceres and Proserpina and that which doth penetrate farther and passe thorow the sea is Neptune Others who mingle among naturall causes and reasons some drawen from the Mathematicks and principally from Astrology thinke that Typhon is the Solare circle or sphaere of the Sunne and that Osiris is that of the Moone inasmuch as the Moone hath a generative and vegetable light multiplying that sweet and comfortable moisture which is so meet for the generation of living creatures of trees and plants but the Sunne having in it a pure firy flame indeed without any mixture or rebatement at all heateth and drieth that which the earth bringeth forth yea and whatsoever is verdant and in the flower insomuch as by his inflamation he causeth the greater part of the earth to be wholly desert and inhabitable and many times subdueth the very Moone And therefore the Aegyptians evermore name Typhon Seth which is as much to say as ruling lordly and oppressing with violence And after their fabulous maner they say that Hercules sitting as it were upon the Sunne goeth about the world with him and Mercurie likewise with the Moone by reason whereof the works and effects of the Moone resemble those acts which are performed by eloquence and wisedome but those of the Sunne are compared to such as be exploited by force and puissance And the Stoicks say that the Sunne is lighted and set on fire by the Sea and therewith nourished but they be the fountaines and lakes which send up unto the Moone a milde sweet and delicate vapour The Aegyptians faine that the death of Osiris hapned on the seventeenth day of the moneth on which day better than upon any other she is judged to be at the full and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans call this day The obstruction and of all other numbers they most abhorre and detest it for whereas sixteene is a number quadrangular or foure-square and eighteene longer one way than another which numbers onely of those that be plaine happen for to have the ambient unities that environ them equall to the spaces conteined and comprehended within them seventeene which falleth betweene separateth and disjoineth the one from the other and being cut into unequall intervals distracteth the proportion sesquioctave And some there be who say that Osiris lived others that he reigned eight and twenty yeeres for so many lights there be of the Moone and so many daies doth she turne about her owne circle and therefore in those ceremonies which they call The sepulture of Osiris they cut a piece of wood and make a certeine coffin or case in maner of the Moone croissant for that as she approcheth neere to the Sunne she becommeth pointed and cornered untill in the end she come to nothing and is no more seene And as for the dismembring of Osiris into foureteene pieces they signifie unto us under the covert vaile of these words The daies wherein the said planet is in the wane and decreaseth even unto the change when she is renewed againe And that day on which she first appeareth by passing by and escaping the raies of the Sunne they call an Unperfect good for Osiris is a doer of good and this name signifieth many things but principally an active and beneficiall power as they say and as for the other name Omphis Hermaeus saith that it betokeneth as much as a benefactour Also they are of opinion that the risings and inundations of the river Nilus answere in proportion to the course of the Moone for the greatest heigth that it groweth unto in the countrey Elephantine is eight and twenty cubits for so many illuminations there be or daies in every revolution of the Moone and the lowest gage about Mendes and Xois sixe cubits which answereth to the first quarter but the meane betweene about the city
Typhon but simply whatsoever in such things is out of measure extraordinary either in excesse or defect we ought to attribute it unto Typhon contrariwise all that is well disposed ordered good and profitable we must beleeve it to be the worke verily of Isis but the image example and reason of Osiris which if we honour and adore in this sort we shall not sinne or do amisse and that which more is we shall remoove and stay the unbeliefe and doubtfull scrupulosity of Eudoxus who asked the reason why Ceres had no charge and superintendance over Love matters but all that care lay upon Isis and why Bacchus could neither make the river Nilus to swell and overflow nor governe and rule the dead for if we should alledge one generall and common reason for all we deeme these gods to have beene ordeined for the portion and dispensation of good things and whatsoever in nature is good and beautifull it is by the grace and meanes of these deities whiles the one yeeldeth the first principles and the other receiveth and distributeth the same by which meanes we shall be able to satisfie the multitude and meet with those mechanicall and odious fellowes whether they delight in the change variety of the aire according to the seasons of the yere or in the procreation of fruits or in seednesse and tillings appropriating and applying therto what hath beene delivered of these gods wherein they take pleasure saying that Osiris is interred when the seed is covered in the ground that he reviveth and riseth againe to light when it beginneth to spurt And hereupon it is said that Isis when she perceiveth herselfe to be conceived and with childe hangeth about her necke a preservative the sixth day of the moneth 〈◊〉 and is delivered of Harpocrates about the Solstice of Winter being as yet unperfect and come to no maturity in the prime of the first flowers and buds which is the reason that they offer unto her the first fruits of Lentils new sprung and solemnize the feast and 〈◊〉 of her childbirth and lying in after the Aequinox of the Spring for when the vulgar sort heare this they rest therein take contentment and beleeve it straightwaies drawing a probability for beleefe out of ordinary things which are daily ready at hand And verily heerein there is no inconvenience if first and for most they make these gods common and not proper and peculiar unto the Aegyptians neither comprise Nilus onely and the land which Nilus watereth under these names nor in naming their Meeres Lakes and Lotes and the nativity of their gods deprive all other men of those great gods among whom there is neither Nilus nor Butus nor Memphis yet neverthelesse acknowledge and have in reverence the goddesse Isis and other gods about her of whom they have learned not long since to name some with the Aegyptian appellations but time out of minde they knew their vertue and power in regard whereof they have honoured and adored them Secondly which is a farre greater matter to the end they should take heed and be affraied lest ere they be aware they dissolve and dissipate these divine powers in rivers winds sowing plowing and other passions and alterations of the earth as they do who holde that Bacchus is wine Vulcan the flame of fire and Proserpina as Cleanthes said in one place the spirit that bloweth and pierceth thorow the fruits of the earth A Poet there was who writing of reapers and mowers said What time yoong men their hands to Ceres put And her with hooks and sithes by piecemeale cut And in no respect differ they from those who thinke the sailes cables cordage and anchor are the pilot or that the thred and yarne the warpe and woose be the weaver or that the goblet and potion cup the Ptisane or the Mede and honied water is the Physician But verily in so doing they imprint absurd and blasphemous opinions of the gods tending to Atheisme and impiety attributing the names of gods unto natures and things senselesse livelesse and corruptible which of necessity men use as the need them and can not chuse but marre and destroy the same For we must in no wise thinke that these very things be gods for nothing can be a god which hath no soule and is subject to man and under his hand but thereby we know that they be gods who give us them to use and for to be perdurable and sufficient not these in one place and those in another neither Barbarians nor Greeks neither Meridionall nor Septentrionall but like as the Sunne and Moone the heaven earth and sea are common unto all but yet in divers places called by sundry names even so of one and the same intelligence that ordereth the whole world of the same providence which dispenseth and governeth all of the ministeriall powers subordinate over all sundry honors and appellations according to the diversity of lawes have beene appointed And the priests and religious professed in such ceremonies use mysteries and sacraments some obscure others more plaine and evident to traine our understanding to the knowledge of the Deity howbeit not without perill and danger for that some missing the right way are fallen into superstition and others avoiding superstition as it were a bogge or quavemire have run before they could take heed upon the rocke of impiety And therefore it behoveth us in this case especially to be inducted by the direction of Philosophy which may guide us in these holy contemplations that we may woorthily and religiously thinke of every thing said and done to the end that it befall not unto us as unto Theodorus who said that the doctrine which he tendered and reached out with the right hand some of his scholars received and tooke with the left even so by taking in a wrong sense and otherwise than is meet and convenient that which the lawes have ordeined touching feasts and sacrifices we grosly offend For that all things ought to have a reference unto reason a man may see and know by themselves for celebrating a feast unto Mercurie the nineteenth day of the first moneth they eat hony and figges saying withall this Mot Sweet is the trueth As to that Phylactery or preservative which they faine Isis to weare when she is with childe by interpretation it signifieth A true voice As for Harpocrates we must not imagine him to be some yoong god and not come to ripe yeeres nor yet a man but that he is the superintendant and reformer of mens language as touching the gods being yet new unperfect and not distinct nor articulate which is the reason that he holdeth a seale-ring before his mouth as a signe and marke of taciturnity and silence Also in the moneth Mesori they present unto him certeine kindes of Pulse saying withall The tongue is Fortune The tongue is Daemon Now of all plants which Aegypt bringeth foorth they consecrate the Peach tree unto him especially because the sruit
ready and ever in hand and be subject evermore to alternative alterations therefore they be laid abroad and displaied for to be seene often But the intelligence of that which is spirituall and intellectuall pure simple and holy shining as a flash of lightning offereth it selfe unto the soule but once for to be touched and seene And therefore Plato and Aristotle call this part of Philosophie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that those who discourse of reason have passed beyond all matters subject to mingled variable opinions leape at length to the contemplation of this first principle which is simple and not materiall and after they have in some sort attained to the pure and sincere trueth of it they suppose that their Philosophy as now accomplished is come to 〈◊〉 perfection And that which the priests in these daies are very precise and wary to shew keeping it hidden and secret with so great care and diligence allowing not so much as a sight thereof secretly by the way also that this god raigneth ruleth over the dead and is no other than he whom the Greeks name Hades and Pluto the common people not understanding how this is true are much troubled thinking it very strange that the holy sacred Osiris should dwell within or under the earth where their bodies lie who are thought to be come unto their finall end But he verily is most farre remooved from the earth without staine or pollution pure and void of all substance or nature that may admit death or any corruption whatsoever Howbeit the soules of men so long as they be heere beneath clad within bodies and passions can have no participation of God unlesse it be so much onely as they may attaine unto the intelligence of by the study of Philosophy and the same is but in maner of a darke dreame But when they shall be delivered from these bonds and passe into this holy place where there is no passion nor passible forme then the same god is their conductour and king then they cleave unto him as much as possible they can him they contemplate and behold without satietie desiring that beautie which it is not possible for men to utter and expresse whereof according to the old tales Isis was alwaies inamoured and having pursued after it untill she enjoied the same she afterwards became replenished with all goodnesse and beautie that heere may be engendred And thus much may suffice for that sense and interpretation which is most beseeming the gods Now if we must besides speake as I promised before of the incense and odors which are burnt every day let a man consider first in his minde and take this with him that the Aegyptians were men evermore most studious in those matters which made for the health of their bodies but principally in this regard they had in recommendation those that concerned the ceremonies of divine service in their sanctifications and in their ordinary life and conversation wherein they have no lesse regard unto holsomnesse then to holinesse For they thinke it neither lawfull nor beseeming to serve that essence which is altogether pure every way sound and impolluted either with bodies or soules corrupt with inward sores and subject to secret maladies Seeing then that the aire which we most commonly use and within which we alwaies converse is not evermore alike disposed nor in the same temperature but in the night is thickned and made grosse whereby it compresseth and draweth the body into a kind of sadnesse and pensivenesse as if it were overcast with darke mists and waighed downe so soone as ever they be up in a morning they burne incense by kindling Rosin for to clense and purifie the aire by this rarefaction and subtilization awaking as it were and raising by this meanes the inbred spirits of our bodies which were languishing and drowsie for that in this odor there is a forcible vertue which vehemently striketh upon the senses Againe about noone perceiving that the Sunne draweth forcibly out of the earth by his heat great quantity of strong vapours which be intermingled with the aire then they burne 〈◊〉 For the heat of this aromaticall gum and odor is such as that it dissipateth dispatcheth whatsoever is grosse thicke and muddy in the aire And verily in the time of pestilence Physicians thinke to remedy the same by making great fires being of this opinion that the flame doth subtiliate and rarefie the aire which it effecteth no doubt the better in case they burne sweet wood as of the Cypresse trees of Juneper or Pitch tree And heereupon reported it is that the Physician Acron when there raigned a grievous plague at Athens wan a great name and reputation by causing good fires to be made about the sicke persons For he saved many by that meanes And Aristotle writeth that the sweet sents and good smels of perfumes ointments flowers and fragrant medowes serve no lesse for health than for delight and pleasure For that by their heat and mildnesse they gently dissolve and open the substance of the braine which naturally is cold and as it were congealed Againe if it be so that the Aegyptians call myrth in their language Bal which if a man interpret signifieth as much as the discussing and chasing away of idle talke and raving this also may serve for a testimonie to confirme that which we say As for that composition among them named Cyphi it is a confection or mixture receiving sixteene ingredients For there enter into it hony wine raisins cyperous rosin myrrh aspalathus seseli Moreover the sweet rush Schaenos Bitumen Mosse and the docke Besides two forts of the juniper berries the greater the lesse Cardamomum and Calamus All these speeches are compounded together not at a venture and as it commeth into their heads but there be read certaine sacred writings unto the Apothecaries and Perfumers all the while that they mix them As for this number although it be quadrate and made of a square and onely of the numbers equal maketh the space contained within equall to his cercumference we are not to thinke that this is any way materiall to the vertue thereof but most of the simples that goe to this composition being aromaticall cast a pleasant breath from them and yeeld a delectable and holsome vapour by which the aire is altered and withall the body being mooved with this evaporation is gently prepared to repose and taketh an attractive temperature of sleepe in letting slacke and unbinding the bonds of cares wearinesse and sorrowes incident in the day time and that without the helpe of surfet and drunkenesse polishing and smoothing the imaginative part of the braine which receiveth dreames in maner of a mirrour causing the same to be pure and neat as much or rather more than the sound of harpe lute viole or any other instruments of musicke which the Pythagoreans used for to procure sleepe enchanting by that device and dulcing the unreasonable part