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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69471	Another collection of philosophical conferences of the French virtuosi upon questions of all sorts for the improving of natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent. & J. Davies ..., Gent.; Recueil général des questions traitées és conférences du Bureau d'adresse. 101-240. English	Bureau d'adresse et de rencontre (Paris, France); Havers, G. (George); Davies, John, 1625-1693.; Renaudot, Théophraste, 1586-1653.; Renaudot, Eusèbe, 1613-1679.	1665 (1665)	Wing A3254; ESTC R17011	498,158	520

Poyson 't is also smooth and shining like Ivory Aldrovandus who writ a Treatise of this Subject saith he saw one so big at Niclasbourg that it resembled the rib of a Whale rather than a Horn. Becanus the Queen of Hungarie's Physician speaks of one at Antwerp seven foot high so fastned to the skull of the Animal that it was bow'd backwards along the back bone and could not serve to trouble the water for repelling its venenosity as Authors say it doth nor yet be of any defence which is the use of horns except by bowing down the head between the fore-legs as Bulls do in their fights It was also white and yet Aelian saith it must be black And Ctesias Physician to King Artaxerxes represents it but one cubit high purple towards the point and black at the base Which variety makes some believe that all these are the horns of Fishes or Sea-monsters there being no Element susceptible of more varieties Whereunto that Fish is to be referr'd which Albertus Magnus calls Monoceros from its having one horn in the Fore-head the opinion of those that think the Unicorn was the Rhinoceros Pliny after Ctesias affirms that some Oxen in India have but one horn and are not cloven hoof'd Aelian and Oppian report the like of others in Aonia and Caesar of others in the Hercinian Forest and Lewis Barthema that he saw such Cows in Aethiopia In brief as 't is agreed that there are Animals with one Horn so 't is impossible to know which is that whereunto Antiquity gave the Appellation of Unicorn by way of excellence which incertainty those Kings and States that have them testifie by keeping them in their treasures for shew only not for use and not making them into drinking vessels which according to Aelian retun'd the hurtfulness of all Poysons Add hereunto that 't is not credible the Romans who subdu'd most of the accessible world and were very careful to delight their people with spectacles of the rarest beasts would not have forgot to shew them Unicorns if there had been any But were there a Unicorn I should not esteem its virtues such as they are describ'd being countenanc'd by the authority neither of Galen nor Hippocrates So that Charles the Ninth's Physician said he would have taken away the custom of putting a piece of this horn into the King's Cup but that it was good to leave an opinion of its virtue in the minds of the vulgar Moreover the marks given of it are like all the rest equivocal incredible and ridiculous For they say a true is discern'd from a false by the ebullition the true one causeth in water when cast thereinto which nevertheless all porous Bodies do as burnt bones lime brick and such other things wherein there are many cavities Others discover it by giving some of it in powder after a dose of Arsenick to a Cock or a little Dog whom it will not only secure but almost revive when dead and yet all that can be gather'd upon trial is that we see those Animals that have taken this antidote die more slowly than others Which is suppos'd to happen by the astriction that all horn causeth in the mouth of the Stomack and the other Vessels whence the exhalation of the Spirits is retarded The trial of some Empericks is yet more ridiculous they boast that if a Circle be describ'd with a piece of this horn upon a Table and an Adder or Spider laid in the middle of it they can never come out of it and that these Animals die if only held a quarter of an hour under the shadow of this Horn. Some add that this horn sweats in the presence of poyson which seems absurd because in this case the counter-poison suffers from the poyson which consequently must be strongest and most active of the two In brief these numerous Contradictions Impossibilities and Incertainties make me conclude this Story of the Unicorn a meer Fiction The Second said If the Verity of things were shaken by the false conceits others have of them there would be no Physitians because there are oftentimes ignorant ones no point of Right because many know it not no true Deluge because the Poets feign'd that of Deucalion and Pyrrha no true Religion because the Pagans and others have had false ones On the contrary as the Romances concerning Charlemagne were built upon the truth of his admirable exploits so 't is credible that the marvellous effects of the Unicorn's Horn have given both great and small occasion to speak of it and out of ignorance of the Truth to feign much more then the Truth concerning it The objection taken from the verity of descriptions of the Unicorn and from that which is observ'd in several Horns of about twenty whereof found in the treasures of Princes and States of Europe there are not two altogether alike is not concluding since the same may be said of most other Animals who according to the diversity of Climats change their colour and oftentimes shape too yea in one and the same place they differ according to their Ages Moreover the Error is very excusable in Authors that have treated of the Unicorn in taking as Aristotle doth the Greek name Monoceros and the Latin Vnicornis for a Noun Adjective applicable to every sort of Animals that have but one Horn as many have not Some indeed have confounded Rhinoceros with Monoceros through the resemblance of their cadence which Rhinoceros the Romans had in their Spectacles or Shows and is describ'd by Martial so furious that he threw a Bear up into the Air as one would do a Ball But it follows not that they had no Unicorns in their Amphitheaters because there is no mention made of any an Argument drawn from Negative Authority not being demonstrative and granting it was unknown to them it follows not thence that there is no such thing in Nature not only because they knew not the greatest part of the World but also because this Animal is represented so furious that it cannot be taken alive especially in its perfect Age being fierce even to those of its own Species of either Sex and only accostable at the time of their Copulation Philo after Aelian saith That the Brachmans call it Cartazonon that 't is of the bigness of a Horse of a bay colour very nimble of body especially of the legs though without joints that it hath the tail of a Boar one horn between the eyes black streak'd like a Snail and ending in a very sharp point two cubits long that it hath a hoarse voice is less furious towards other Beasts than to those of its own Species with whom it fights incessantly unless when they are at rut There are also ancient Medals representing this Animal putting his horn into a Cup which 't is thought were Alexander's Aeneas Sylvius and Paulus Venetus affirm That Unicorns are found in the Mountains of India and Cathay though the marks this latter give them agree better to the

which have condemned them For to omit the Births of Hercules Aemas Alexander Servius Tullus and many other Heroes begotten by the false gods of Antiquity who were no other than Devils as were also the Fauni Satyrs and the chief of them Pan the prime of the Incubi called by the Hebrews Haza as the chief of the Succubae was termed Libith And to say nothing of the Giants mentioned in Genesis who according to some Fathers were begotten by Angels England hath had its Merlin a great Magician begotten by an Incubus Poitou Counts begotten of a Succuba half Woman and half Serpent called Mellusine Poland Princes of the Race of the Jagelloes issued from another in form of a Bear Hungary intire Nations called Huns born of the Arlunes Gothick Witches and Fauni Even at this day in the Island Hispaniola by the Relation of Chieza in his History of Peru a Daemon call'd by the Inhabitants Corocota hath to do with the Women and the Children proceeding from such Conjunction have horns as also among the Turks those people whom they call Nephesolians are believed to be generated by the operation of Daemons whether they borrow some humane seed which they transport almost in an instant and so preserve its Spirits from evaporation or whether it be by their proper Virtue since whatever is naturally producible as seed is may be produced by Devils For in the order of things natural the superior and more noble contain eminently and in a more perfect degree the powers of the inferior and less perfect Yea though they were not able to make true seed it follows not that they cannot produce a perfect Creature for Nature of which the Devils have compleat Knowledge may have divers wayes to compass the same end But as the Devil performs the natural actions of Animals by means supernatural as he sees without Eyes moves Bodies without Contact transports himself from one place to another without commensuration of the intermediate space because he hath no quantity so he may make a perfect Animal without observing the conditions of ordinary Agents Moreover Nature her self shews us strange transformations as of a Womans hair buried in a dung-hill into Serpents and of leavs falling into the water into Ducks wherefore there is no doubt but he who hath perfect Knowledge of all these secrets can by Application of Agents to Patients produce perfect Animals The Third said That the Devil being a Spirit of uncleanness delights not only to combat the Purity of Mankind by his illusions but will have a hand in the sin too When he hath to do with a Woman he is called Incubus when with a Man Succuba As for this latter 't is certain it cannot generate in its self for want of place fit to receive the Seed and to reduce it from power into act as also of Blood wherewith to nourish the Foetus during nine moneths 'T is harder to resolve whether an Incubus can generate in another All agree that the Devil by Gods permission without which he can do nothing hath power to move all Bodies from one place to another and can by that means form a Body of Air or some other gross matter or for want thereof take a Body lately dead animate it with an adventitious heat and give such motions as he pleases to all its parts But because Generation requires three things Distinction of Sex Copulation of Male and Female and emission of some prolifick matter containing in its self a vertue to form all the parts from whence it issued the Devil may indeed make the two first conditions meet but never the latter namely a fit and convenient seed indued with spirits and vital heat without which it is unfruitful and barren For he hath no such seed of his own because it is the result of the last concoction which cannot be made but in a body actually alive as that which he hath is supposed not to be nor can he borrow such seed elsewhere because it becomes unfruitful when once shed out of the Vessels of Nature by reason of the evaporation of its spirits The Fourth said There is nothing supernatural in the Incubus for 't is only a symptom of the Animal Faculty accompanied with three circumstances namely Respiration hindred Motion hurt and a fansie depraved The first proceeds from a phlegmatick raw and cold matter which coming to lye heavy in the bottom of the Stomack pulls down the Diaphragm whereto the Ventricle is annex'd by its upper part which being loaden and wanting its free Motion Respiration whereof it is the principal Organ is consequently hindred As also it is by gross fumes elevated from the Hypochondres and Mesaraical Veins which being the first ways of Food abound with impurities and gross vapours which coming to the hinder part of the Brain obstruct the commerce of the Spirits dedicated to the motion of all the parts but particularly that of the Diaphragm by obstructing the two couple of Nerves which issue out of the fourth and fifth Vertebrae and communicate motion to it just as in sleep Sensation is stop'd by more tenuious vapours possessing the forepart of the Brain which is more soft Hence such as sleep upon the back part of head are more subject to this Disease then those that sleep on one side Lastly the voluptuous phansie which accompanies this accident though very rarely proceeds either from the abundance or quality of the Seed which sending its Species into the phansie this Faculty frames to its self a delightful object and stirs up the Motive Power as this doth the Expulsive Faculty of the Spermatick Vessels which discharge that excrementitious matter whilst the lascivious Imagination fancies to it self the conjunction of unclean Spirits CONFERENCE CXXIX Which Animal is happiest according to Nature WHereas a man cannot so well speak of others as of himself it were to be wished that every thing which is naturally capable of felicity came hither to give its suffrage I believe the Birds would not be the last to testifie to us by their singing and agreeable warbling the most certain indication of joy and contentment as cries are of the contrary grief and sadness Indeed if there be any pleasure in the World I think Birds have it for they go not only to seek their food in the bottom of the water as Water-fowl do to whom that Element is common with Fishes they have not only the same share in the benefits of the land with four-footed Animals and both together with amphibious creatures but moreover they fly in the Air approaching Heaven nearer then we can and cleaving that Element with an innocent pleasure not to be understood but by the action it self whence Angels are painted with wings And as of all Animals the most imperfect and least capable of felicity are the Reptile such as Earth-worms little differing from this very Element so those are the happiest which remove themselves furthest from it as Birds do Amongst which I shall leave

said Reason having been given Man to correct the Inclinations of the Sensitive Appetite 't is that alone must judge whether it be expedient for him to live long not Sense which makes us judge like beasts That nothing is dearer than Life But Reason illuminated either by Faith or by Philosophy teaches us that this World is the place of our banishment the Body the Soul's Prison which she alwayes carryes about with her Life a continual suffering and War and therefore he fights against Natural Light who maintaines it expedient to prolong so miserable a State For besides the incommodities attending a long Life which after 70. years as David testifies is onely labour and sorrow long Life is equally unprofitable towards attaining Knowlege and Virtue He that lives long can learn nothing new in the World which is but a Revolution and Repetition of the same Effects produc'd alwayes by the same Causes not onely in Nature whose course and changes may be seen in the Revolution of the Four Seasons of the Year but even in Affairs of State and Private Matters wherein nothing is said or done but what hath been practis'd before And as for Virtue the further we are from Childhod the less Innocence and Sanctity we have and Vices ordinarily increase with years The long Life of the first Men having according to some been the probable Cause of the depravation of those Ages CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy AS the Brain is the most eminent and noble of all the parts being the Seat of the Understanding and the Throne of the Reasonable Soul so its diseases are very considerable and the more in that they do not attaque that alone but are communicated to all the other parts which have a notable interest in the offence of their Chief ceasing to diffuse its Animal Spirits destinated to Motion Sense and the Function of the Inferior Members Which Functions are hurt by the Lethargy which deprives a Man of every other Inclination but that to sleep and renders him so forgetful and slothful whence it took its Greek name which signifies sluggish oblivion that he remembers nothing at all being possess'd with such contumacious sleepiness that she shuts his Eyes as soon as he ha's open'd them besides that his Phansie and Reasoning is hurt with a continual gentle Fever Which differences this Symptom from both the sleeping and waking Coma call'd Typhomania the former of which commonly begins in the Fits of Fevers and ends or diminishes at their declination but the Lethargick sleeps soundly and being wak'd by force presently falls a sleep again The latter makes the Patient inclin'd to sleep but he cannot by reason of the variety of Species represented to him in his Phansie The signes of this Malady are deliration heaviness of the Head and pain of the Neck after waking the Matter taking its course along the spine of the back frequent oscitation trembling of the Hands and Head a palish Complexion Eyes and Face pufft up sweatings troubled Urine like that of Cattle a great Pulse languishing and fluctuating Respiration rare with sighing and so great forgetfulness as sometimes not to remember to shut their Mouths after they have open'd nor even to take breath were they not forc'd to it by the danger of suffocation The Conjunct and next Cause of this Malady is a putrid Phlegm whose natural coldness moistens and refrigerates the Brain whilst it s put refactive heat kindles a Fever by the vapors carry'd from the Brain to the Heart and from thence about the whole Now this Phlegmatick Humor is not detained in the Ventricles of the Brain for then it would cause an Apoplexy if the obstruction were total and if partial an Epilepsie wherein the Nerves contract themselves towards their original for discharging of that Matter But 't is onely in the sinuosities and folds of the Brain which imbibing that excessive humidity acquires a cold and moist intemperature from whence proceeds dulness and listelesness to all Actions For as Heat is the Principle of Motion especially when quickned by Dryness so is Cold the Cause of stupidity and sluggishness especially when accompanied with humidity which relaxes the parts and chills their Action In like manner Heat or Dryness inflaming our Spirits the Tunicles of the Brain produce the irregular Motions of Frenzy which is quite contrary to the Lethargy although it produce the same sometimes namely when the Brain after great evacuations acquires a cold and moist intemperature in which case the Lethargy is incurable because it testifies Lesion of the Faculty and abolition of strength But on the contrary a Frensie after a Lethargy is a good sign resolving by its Heat and dissipating the cold humors which produce the same The Second said That coldness being contrary to put refaction Phlegm the coldest of all humors cannot easily putrifie in the Brain which is cold too of its own nature much less acquire a Heat sufficient to communicate it self to the Heart and there excite a Fever it being more likely for such adventitious Heat to cause in the Brain rather the impetuous motions of a Frenzy than the dulness and languor of a Lethargy Nor is it less then absurd to place two enemy-qualities in the same Subject to wit Cold and Heat whereof the one causes sleep the other a Fever which I conceive to precede not to follow the Lethargy and which having raised from the Hypochondres to the Brain a Phlegmatick blood mixt with gross vapors there causeth that obscuration of Reason and sluggishness of the whole Body but especially the abolition of the Memory the sutable temperament for which is totally destroyed by excessive humidity Indeed the troubled Urine liquid Digestions Tumors and pains of the Neck bloated Flesh and other such signs accompanying this disease argue that its matter is more in the rest of the Body than in the Brain which suffers onely by Sympathie The Third said If it be true that sleep is the Brother of Death then the Lethargy which is a continual drowsiness with a Fever and Delirium seemes to be a middle Estate between Life and Death which is known by the cessation of Actions most of which fail in those afflicted with this Evil which nevertheless is less then the Carus wherein the sleep is so profound that the Patient feels not when he is prickt or call'd by name but is depriv'd of all Sense and Motion saving that of Respiration which scarce appears in the Catoche or Catalepsie a stranger symptom than any of the former wherein the Eyes remain wide open the whole Body stiff and in the same state and posture wherein it hapned to be when it first seiz'd the same The Cause whereof most say is a cold and moist humor obstructing the hinder part of the Brain but I rather ascribe it to a sudden Congelation of the Animal Spirits as I do the Lethargy to narcotick and somniferous vapors which are the sole Causes of Inclination to sleep which cannot