Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	arm_n	belly_n	leg_n	2,979	5	10.3355	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01075	A comparatiue discourse of the bodies natural and politique VVherein out of the principles of nature, is set forth the true forme of a commonweale, with the dutie of subiects, and right of soueraigne: together with many good points of politicall learning, mentioned in a briefe after the preface. By Edvvard Forset.	Forset, Edward, 1553?-1630.	1606 (1606)	STC 11188; ESTC S102531	69,814	116

A COMPARATIVE DISCOVRSE OF THE BODIES NATVRAL AND POLITIQVE Wherein out of the principles of Nature is set forth the true forme of a Commonweale with the dutie of Subiects and the right of the Soueraigne together with many good points of Politicall learning mentioned in a Briefe after the Preface By EDVVARD FORSET LONDON Printed for Iohn Bill 1606. To the Reader THe Commonweale with all her parts orders qualities and requisites whatsoeuer is for better apprehension illustration set forth by sundry fit resemblances as by the architecture of an house by the swarming and cohabiting of Bees in an hiue by a ship floating on the sea and such like but by none more properly than eyther by the vniuersall masse of the whole world consisting of all the seuerall subsistances in that great frame by the high wisdome and might of God compact and vnited or else by the body of man being the lesser world euen the diminitiue and modell of that wide extending vniuersall And by the way it were a paynes well bestowed to obserue the good correspondence betweene euery the particular parts or faculties in man and the other distinct parts powers and operations of that bigger bulke which seemeth to haue beene both sweetly and soundly conceaued by that thrice renowmed Philosopher Trismegistus when he imagined an huge and mightie Gyant whose head was aboue the firmament his necke shoulders and vpper parts in the heauens his armes and hands reaching to East and West his belly in the whole spaciousnesse vnder the Moone his legges and feet within the earth But for that the discourse or discouery of this secret with the agreeable references to arise therof falleth not within the line wherwith I haue listed and bounded this Treatise I wil only from this obseruation of Gods owne imitating of himselfe in the likenesse of the lesse with the greater gather and infer that which giueth groundworke vnto my purpose That the incōprehensible wisdome of God in the composing ordering of his works in nature hath so dignified them with all perfection as that they be left vnto vs as eminent and exemplary patterns as well for the consolidating as for the beautifying of that wee worke by arte or policie as well for conioyning of all discordances into firmenesse as also for the applyablenesse of particulars in their many seruices for the vse and benifit of the whole It is beyond the compasse of any contradiction that in the morall vertues Christes actions are our instructions and no lesse may the like rule hold that in the contriuing of a prudent gouernment the impressions and footsteps of Gods wisdome which in things naturall wee contemplate by study be in the poynt of regiment our directories for imitation Wherefore seeing that the vttermost extent of mans vnderstanding can shape no better forme of ordering the affayres of a State than by marking and matching of the workes of the finger of God eyther in the larger volume of the vniuersall or in the abridgement thereof the body of man I account these two to be the two great lights for enquiry and meditation concerning this businesse and doe worthily omit all other worthlesse presidents as inferiour starrelights which oftentimes seduceth by their dimnesse and at their best are but deriuatiue and subalterne vnto these And of these two also as not daring to gaze too much vpon the Sunne and vnable in mine own weakenesse to run the round of such a large cōpasse I haue made my choyce to pursue only those applyances which from the so skilfull workemanship of God in man may bee well apted to the ciuill gouernment of the assemblies of men which being of more facilitie to bee vnderstood as deduced from a more familiar example and equalling the other both in dignitie hauing the same authour and in certayntie respecting the fitnesse of their relation may also sort both agreeably with other mens likings as bred in their bosomes and with mine intentions which seeketh wholy a demonstratiue plainenesse This similitude was both fitly and fortunatly enforced by Menenius Agrippa who being imployed in the appeasing and persuading of the seditious reuoulting commons of Rome did by a very tale of this proportionable respectiuenes of the parts in mans body and the mutualitie of kindnes and ayd afforded from each to other so sensibly shew them their errour that surseasing their malignant enuy wherewith they were inraged against their rulers whom they accounted as the idle belly that swallowed the labors of their hands they discerned at the last that their repining against and their pining of that belly whence was distributed vnto them their bloud and nourishment necessarily tended to their owne destruction and were thereuppon forthwith reclaymed into their bounds of obedience The like comparison is most diuinely enlarged by a much better Orator and in a much more important poynt of the vnseparable vnion of the members of Christ with their head and of the necessary communion of their distinct gifts and works amongst themselues yea it hath pleased God himselfe for the manifestation in some measure of his vnmeasurable infinitenesse the incomprehensible nature of his dietie to vouchsafe vnto vs as it were some glimse thereof by this selfe same well agreeing semblance drawne and borrowed from our weak mortall and sinfull bodies His omni-science is set forth by an all-seeing eye his omnipotencie by a mightie and outstretched arme his mercy by the cheerefulnesse of a louing countenance his bountie by the opening of his hand and filling of all things with his blessings by which so apt tipes he openeth for our more easie vnderstanding the profoundnesse of his attributes and as I may say the mysteries of his essence I need not spend any speech in the praise of such familiar and well pleasing illustrations looke but vpon that exsuperant and not attainable by humane powers wisdome of Salomon is not the brightest apparance thereof in comparatiue parables but behold a greater than Salomon who without parables spake nothing to them as if both the depth and delicacie of wits inuention for either prouing or persuading consisted chiefely in such equipolling and Parabolicall applications It remayneth that before I proceed to the producing or presenting vpon the Stage of State the similitudes themselues to be scanned and considered of which I wish may proue themselues right paralele I do for aduantage enterline first a Caution then a Limitation My Caution is That no man in streyning too hard do force the bloud where he is offered milke It is easie for a curious obiector euen in the fittest comparisons to make disseuerance by inferring different respects and inequallitie The dissimilitudes of things be infinite and rometh with errour in the circumference where the well apted likenesse setleth in the center of truth and is compacted closely in one onely point of good congruitie from the which it may neither be drawne awry without wrongfull wresting nor enlarged too

tell whether the contrarie sternenesse in haughtily shunning or repulsing their aspect will not haue in the euen eye of a well regarding policie the greater disallowing Now let vs passe on to peruse the comparisons taken from the head Plato imagined man to be an heauenlie plant his head to be the roote his bulke the stocke his armes and leggs the branches and his root to draw his sapp from the heauens to feede therewith the vnder parts spreading downeward towardes the earth Such a plantation do I conceiue in the institution of a State politique the soueraign head to be designed inspired depending and protected from aboue and the body with the out-growing parts thereof to receiue nourishment strength florishing and fruitfulnes from that root of a rightfull regiment If the root thriue sucking abundantly of his heauenlie nutriment the plant must needes prosper and cannot do amisse but if the root be destitute of grace as depriued of his sapp it induceth vpon the whole stocke of the State a withering decay and pining barrennesse In the head is the first wheele string of motion giuing force and order to the whole frame the first fountaine of sence streaming from thence to the other cesterns and the high erected pallace where the mind keepeth his court shining in his greatest Maiestie The head is by the order and instinct of nature so dearely esteemed and honored of the bodie as that euery part will not onely seek his ease and health but euen expose it selfe to any perils for his sake and safetie the inferior parts do susteine and beare him vp mouing at his beck and fast bound when he taketh rest the hands and armes do readily receiue vpon themselues the strokes and wounds intended against the head yea any part doth endure paine by incision scarifying ligature or issue to remedie the greeuances of the head These good duties of kindly subiection to kingly power I leaue to the consideration and conscience of euery true subiect wishing him to make his best vse thereof by contemplating and applying of the same in the performance of like offices of alleagiance loue and loyaltie We see the head naturally endued with a fellow feeling of any the griefes in the whole bodie in so much as there is scant any disease so weake or small in any part as doth not affect and disturbe the head also yea it holdeth such a sympathie with the verie foot as that a little wet or cold taken in that remotest place hath forthwith a readie passage to the head Gracious Soueraignes haue the like compassions and compunctions in the distresses of their subiects and be in the same sort deeply peirced perplexed with any wrong or distemperatures hapning to the meanest of their people I haue learned of the Phisitions that most of the diseases of the head are originally arising and caused from the bodie and I think that I may thus thereof infer That many the escapes of Soueraignes by omission or comission may thus far by this excuse be extenuated as more imputable to the people than to them Therefore when from the head a fluxe of humours shall annoy and enfeeble the whole or any part I wish it should be remembred that such as is our offering such should be our suffering Many and verie dangerous be the euils that from a distempered heat be distilled into the bodie I might laboriously enlarge what harmes he may do to his subiected members by his seuerall excesses or defects the disorder and vneuen cariage wherof filleth the whole with remedilesse mischiefes Yet let vs marke this withall That in the naturall bodie there was neuer any parts so far digressing from their natiue nature of alleageance and their indissolluble band of obedience forgetting as well the good which they otherwise receiue as the wrong whereby they continually infest him as did once presume to oppose or but repine against their head much lesse seeke or attempt to shake him off the shoulders How much more kind be those subiects who out of their owne dutious loue be content to haue the blame of the faults or ouersights likely to blemmish their Soueraigne transferred imposed vpon themselues It may seeme by a drunkard in Plautus that the head thought himselfe priuiledged as it were with a point of prerogatiue to charge the inferior parts with the shame of his owne distemper Siccine fit hoc pedes statin an non Nam hercle si cecidero vestrum erit flagitium Here leauing the head in his vnresistable right of ruling ouer the bodie I will to the Soule againe taking a farther view thereof as sitting in his other principall seat the hart when I behold the intricate net or curious web of vaines spread from it ouer all the bodie me thinketh I may well liken it to a little spyder placed in the middest of her work where she so caringly and cunningly ordereth the matter that she presently feeleth the least shake or touch in any though the farthest part of her webb No lesse feelingly doth the hart perceiue and partake with any iniurie done vnto his veines Sometimes hee sendeth forth the bloud and spirits with a full flush replenishing all parts plentiously other while he rerireth them home with all speed to his little sconce to comfort and fortifie it selfe It is admirable to see the swift and sudden recourse of bloud now stirred outwardly at a start like lightning and anon posting backe in feare of daunger to the hearts succour leauing a palenesse and trembling in the outward parts The heart is the well of life the furnace of heat the center of bloud the first liuing and the last dying part Agreeably to these vertues or efficacies of the heart let it be confessed that euerie commonweale acknowiedgeth a soueraigne power from the which it drew his first beginning of which it receiueth his dearest life bloud with which it is quickened as with a liuing fire to the which it wholy trusteth and returneth for refuge by which it is imployed and directed in all intentions and without which it fayleth of continuance and is incontinently dissolued Then to such a Gouernour which both imparteth to al parts the vaines and artiries of their surest welfare and hath a sence of any their griefs and wrongs as of his owne what and how regardant thankfulnesse seruice and obseruance is deseruedly due by the faythfull performance with the vttermost strayne of the very heart-strings of all obedience to his commaunds and authoritie The heart is of all other the firmest flesh yet not fed with bloud by any vaynes and from it all other flesh deriueth by veynes his borrowed liuing I haue heard it argued that a King in like sort is alone firmely and absolute stated in and to the lands of his realme and that all other owners take from him by the veynes and conueyances which he passeth to them That which Aristotle saith of