and composure as flesh veins nerves arteries and bones or dissimilar made up of other particles of a different nature such are the Brain Heart Liver Lungs Kidneys Spleen c. and all Muscles for in these there is a mixture of flesh Veins Arteries Blood and spirits or thin agile particles according as the office of every member requires The Soul as it resides in the body for in that state alone it shall be considered here exercises divers faculties as Vegetation whereby the body lives is nourished and augmented and the species propagated by generation to accomplish which the meat and drink we receive being masticated and reduced into small parts in the mouth is conveyed downe into the stomach where a certain sharp and hot humor piercing into it reduces it into smaller parts and makes it slippery so that it may easily slide into the small whitish veines called from their colour Lacteal these lacteal veins intercepting the purest and juicyest part of it convey it into the hollow vein in which passage it receives much transmutation the excrementitious and lesse useful parts by vertue of certain glandulous substances which make an attrition upon it and sever the purest part from the lesse pure are conveyed to their proper receptacles For that which we call Choler is conveyed into a little bag called the Gall hanging at the Liver Urine is conveyed by the Kidneyes to the Bladder the grosser excremements slip through the entrals or Guts That which passeth through the veins staies not till it arrive at the heart where it receives a more perfect concoction and purifying and from the heart part of it is carried from the right Ventricle of the heart through a vein called the arterial vain to the Lungs whence it returnes through the venal Artery into the left Ventricle of the heart thence with the rest of the blood for so it is by this time it flowes into a great Artery called by Anatomists Aorta This Artery spreading it self into many branches distributs it to every part of the body that it may nourish enliven move every member Testiculi interim nesi omissi quasi castrati e nostra microcrosmi historiola exulent partem dicti alimenti allicientes in spumosum semen digerunt in usum peculiarem recondunt The blood by its motion through the Arteries is rarified made more hot subtil and vivid for it doth not rest or stagnate in the arteries but emptyed out of the utmost twigs of the Arteries into the veines returnes by a circular motion to the heart in its passage communicating influence vigor activity nourishment to every member and augmentation too so long as there is need but that bears date no longer than till such time as the body arrives at its Aime and consistence which is when the bones the main supporters of and rules of dimension for it are grown so hard that they are not capable of any further extention for then the rest of the parts refuse the superaddition of new matter more than what serves to repair that that decayes by continual motion and is requisite to assist them in their motions and operations As all parts of our body participate of this kind and active influence of the blood so the Brain seemes to ingrosse the purest portion of it the thicker part cannot arrive there by reason of the narrow passages through which it is percolated the Brain digests it into a thin substance called animal spirits which are dispersed in the nerves contributing sense and motion to the whole body The most remarkable motion and of most absolute necessity is respiration and is thus accomplished The animal spirits which take their way to the Muscles of the Brest through the nerves that are branched thither move and dilate the great Muscle called Diaphragma which by consequence extends the parts of the Brest whereupon the Lungs which accomodate themselves to the motion of the brest are also dilated as a pair of bellowes so is also the sharp Artery and the contagious aire which is ready to fill any concave or fistular body that hath nothing else to fill it is protruded one part rejecting the other till that next to the mouth and Nose enters but after a little pause the Lungs contracting themselves when the Diaphragma is erected in a convex figure and presses upon them send it forth and instantly receive a new supply This alternate motion is of manifold use for the intromission of cool and fresh aire and it serves to refresh the heart Lungs and Stomach in case they be too hot so especially it contributes to the production of vital spirits which participate of an aiery nature and may probaly somewhat assist the heart in that motion whereby it conveyes the blood into the Arteries and in this respect is of absolute necessity of preserve life The emission of it serves as to express our several passions so likewise to frame our speech when we sigh thereby giving a hint of some close grief we emit our breath through the artery being open not resisting or gâ—ving any collision to it with a deep and laborious breathing When we would cry loud we cause it to break forth with a smart violence and vociferation when we laugh the â—â—â—od jâ—rking nimbly from the Hâ—aâ—â— to the lungs huffe them up 〈◊〉 â—nly and by turns so as they 〈◊〉 the aire to go forth at the sharp artery with a kind of trepidation or interrupted motion and with all twitch the Muscles of the Diaphragma Brest and Face which causeth a quavering motion discernible in the countenance and a warbling inarticulate sound But in speaking there are more little engines set on work the sharp Artery alternately dilates contracts its self the larynx or upper part or lid of it intercepts or gives free passage to the aire the parts that constitute the orb of the mouth the Tongue Teeth Palat and Lips make various stops dashes and callisions upon it the various extention of the sharp Artery contributes to the diversifying of our voice into shrill or low acute or flat for if the artery be much streightned and compressed the voice becomes flat if freely dilated it proves accute the larynx by its motion serves to make the stops or distances between our words the organs of the mouth make it articulate and significative For as in a Pipe the sound extending its self in a right line would be uniform and of one tone did not the artist intercept it so would our breath cause an uniform and uselesse noise if it should freely convey its self in a direct progresse but encountering the Mouthes cavity it is obliged to assume various figures and conform its self to the configuration of the mouth The five vowels a e i o u seem to be made only by the different emission of the breath and require not any observeable action of the parts of the mouth but seem to be accomplished by the different extentions of the sharp
occluso orificio arcte amplexatur Ipsum vero semen in utero non diu adeo mor as ducit quin quam primum effluviis quibusdam subtilissimis plasticam ei virtutem indiderit contagio seu fermentatione impraegnaverit illico vel evanescit vel in vas a uteri seminalia abripitur unde brevi spatio vel ipsum semen vel humor quidam albugineus in uterum transudat in massam quandam liquidam coagulatur in cujus ipsissimo centro punctum quoddam sanguineum sen bullula saliens conspicitur quod calore nativo sensim anctum dilatatum instar vermiculi seu pusillae teredinis se motitat Divers smal Filaments or Strings which are appointed for the Veins stream from that red spot and at the end of some of them a knot of liquid matter being the rude or original draught of the head and out of that again three distinct Orbicular parts bubble forth designed to be the Brain and Eyes all these by the power of heat are still rarified and dilated afterward the main Trunk or Fabrick of the Body in which the Ribs and other Bones appear at first but as small white lines next to these the Inward parts the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen and Bowels these at first appear but as small Protuberancies or Excrescencies of the Veins and as it were hang out of the Body not yet covered with skin but at last are drawn into and rest in their particular Regions or Receptacles appointed for them by Nature The last which appear are such parts as serve only for Ornament or Defence as Skin Nails Hair and the rest The gross and less useful part of that liquid matter is thrust outward by the plastick Vertue and constitutes the Membranes wherein the Embroy is inwrapped within these Membranes is contained a certain humour transmitted into them by the umbilical Arteries of the Mother not excrementitious but nutritive for the Umbilical or Navil-veins of the Infant convey it into the hollow vein by the branches whereof it is distributed into every part of the body Now when the Infant is exactly shaped there is produced a lump of glandulous flesh which serves to prepare and concoct Nutriment for him which in all probability he sucks in at his mouth as may be conjectured by his being so exact at sucking as soon as he is born When the Members and Parts of the Infant become somwhat stiff and solid when the Brain Nerves and Organs of the Sences are finished he begins to move and tumble with some perceptible strength and then Women say they are quickned whereas before he enjoyed only a trepidation or little frisking not discernable and waxing by degrees great and strong advances himself to seek a larger Room Cujus gratia mira divini numinis providentia ossium commissurae nempe coxendicis ossis sacri synchondrosis item coccygis synneurosis ad recludendum ampliandumque uteri orificium relaxantur The Infant by calcitration and strangling many times pulls asunder the Membranes which infetter him but Eriander was found involved in them firm and entire which I record not as a Foundation whereon to build any superstitious prediction of his future Fortune but as an Argument of vivacity conceiving that such a kinde of Birth is most mature and agreeable to Natures Intention which having given maturity to her Works causes them not to be torn away but to drop off with ease from their Stem or Mother as we see in the Fruits of Trees but is often defeated by the weakness of the Mother not correspondent to the strength of the Child the confirmation of the parts or the like reasons and not seldome by the over-much expedition of busie Midwives who to accelerate as they pretend the Birth and put an end to the Torments they perceive the Mother to endure use some indecent violence that proves noxious to both the ordinary period to perfect the formation of the Infant is about forty dayes the usual time of bringing forth is about forty weeks or ten months notwithstanding the strength or weakness of the Mother or Childe may either accelerate or prolong the birth and fix an exception to this general Rule And now let the Reader allow himself a little leisure to consider upon how slender a foundation the wonderful Fabrick of this little World is erected from how pitiful yet admirable Original the greatest Grandees of the World that swell so big in their own and other mens estimation are extracted the wonderfulness of it rebates the sharpness of all Eloquence and puts it beyond the ability of expression and this may partly be the cause of that vain carelesness whereof we all have a spice we seldome take the pains to look into our selves nothing earnestly affects us but what comes under the notion of Novelty Custome and Familiarity with things blunts the edge of our Admiration The intricate and curious contrivance of our own Bodies is a work surpassing all the Mechanical Inventions in the world yet either because we are lazy and dull in our speculations or because they are not offered to us under the notion of Novelty we take no great notice of them but are more affected with a pretty piece of Clock-work Carving Painting or the like we are transported with wonder at the sight of a strange Beast and are the greatest strangers to our selves The scope of this story as I have designed it obliges me to say somewhat concerning this subject before I proceed any further because many things which are to follow cannot otherwise be well understood by Vulgar Readers to the Learned I shall not need to write any thing concerning Man who are ordinarily no such strangers to themselves Man consists of a Body and a Soul an Invisible part and a Visible by the purity and energy of the Soul he is enabled to discern and know himself and things different from himself the gross composure of the body renders him an object of Sense and both together make him sociable So he fals under a three-fold consideration viz. that of the body alone the Soul alone and both together The first is managed by Philosophers and Physicians the second by Divines and Philosophers and the third by Moralists Divines Historyans Writers of policy in whose elaborate writings may be found ample discoveryes of what I shall only glance at The body consists of parts either contayned which being tenuious and fluid are therefore bounded and kept in by such as are more tough compacted such are all the humors of the body Blood Choler Melancholy and Flegme with the spirits which are nothing else but the purer part of the blood as the other humors are the grosse and sedimentary part of it so as the various humors in the body are no more but blood diversifyed or somewhat percolated from the blood as Urine Sweat Choler Melancholy and all serose humors The parts contayning which limit and confine others are either similar of like nature
to snatch their thoughts from that which troubled them and fix them upon some other thing never to let their thoughts be too closly confined but as it were scattered and at liberty by which means they would not receive so considerable annoyance if their calamity were the product of their own errour or wickednesse no remedy he told them but repentance and a wary resolution against the like miscarriage for the future if it proceeded from poverty exile losse of freedom and the like whereunto they were not conscious that any remarkable miscarriage of their own contributed occasion he conceived it expedient for them to put off their present grievances with the hope of better adventures though hope it selfe be but a kind of pain yet it 's more gentle than despair It is not impossible for a man so to model and order his will that it shall buckle and comply with any condition the will can of its self act either way will or refuse chuse or reject without the impulsion of exterior objects A man if he will labour about it may curb his appetite with a repetition of past delights or antedate and forestal future pleasures and what felicity his condition denies frame it for himself It 's confest this may seem but a pittiful shift to be put off with an immaginary delight a feigned and supposed contentment yet it may serve to avocate the minde at the present from worse meditations and prevent despair He that will take the pains to observe may find that the mind is sometimes willing to deceive its self by framing a false and fantastical subject though against its own conceit rather than not be busy at all The Architect contrives an house the Lutanist tunes his Instrument and orders the notes in his brain when the one is not building nor the other playing on a Lute Some talk discourse about matters of importance travel into strange countries go to war and return victorious marry rich and beautiful Wives dispose of lands and great revenues manage estates which they never had nor do they themselves ever think to have them they build stately houses make pleasant Gardens and entertain their friends at delicious banquets a thousand such fancies and wakeing dreames will accompany men even against their wills and if so what hurt is it if the mind and will it self makes some use thereof by catching an opportunity of present content and since such thoughts will be stirring to solace themselves with the pleasantnesse of them I fore-see the Reader will smile at this narrative of Charinus's imaginary and conceited happinesse I have told him it is so but in good earnest joy and sorrow are but artificial devices and atcheivable by industry they are the products of our will it is not prosperity alone can make men joyful and happy but a confidence to believe that they are so Nor can adversity alone make a man miserable misery its self is no misery but a man imagins it to be so There 's neither infelicity no felicity in things but only as we entertain them with a misguided or rectified opinion But besides this Stoical resolutenesse let a man in adversity assure himself of the undoubted good successe which will at last result from honest indeavours and further consider that adversity tries him as the furnace tries mettals not to consune but refine and clear It makes men look into themselves puts them upon action unfolds many clandestine distempers which in a firme and setled condition lurked and were not noted like tempestuous weather it clears and purges the aire and as the Sun is most welcome after it hath broke through the clouds and mists that smothered his beauty from the world so is that joy most welcom which succeeds a tedious infelicity And the recollection of sorrowes amplifies the present joy nothing is here permanent not only particular men but families Cities and Countries have their vicissitudes and returns of prosperity and adversity sicknesse and health peace and war Some turbuâ—ent fellow after a long peace being designed for the scourge and plague of the age he lives in puts all into a combustion for a time kindles a whole Nation into a flame offers up the lives and estates of many thousands to the Idol of his own ambition in which grand commotions the several humors and tempers of men reveal themselves with much perspicuity some vex torment themselves for the miseries they see ready to befal themselves and the country some wast and pine away through a tedious consideration of their loss some storm and rage like bedlams others run along with the croud and right or wrong side with the prevailing party some curse execrate their enemies others cry up every hasty and mad-brain design as a pure zealous and religious work others flout and jeer at them for their egredious mistakes In the mean time a wise man is greived indeed for the miseries of his country and friends but waites with patience till these mad disturbances be sedated gathers usefull notions and observations to improve his wisdom assures himself that peace when it comes will be most welcome after the miseries of War Joy is that which every one seeks and aims at and thinks he can never have too much of it yet at some times there is need of more prudence in the managing of it than men conjecture for if it be excessive and sudden it transports a man beyond himself a man is rather oppressed than relieved by a sudden encounter of felicity as the fire is often extinguished for want of fewell so is it stifled and choaked by too much the heart is not onely oppressed by grief when the bloud and spirits are chill and stagnant and flow not freely to it but also by the impetuous agitations of joy when they flow with such violence that the heart is not able to transmit them so fast into the Arteries so that they choak and damp its natural heat which they would preserve if they flowed in a convenient quantity In such a case as this he found it conducible to meditate on the inconstancy of humane felicity and that Adversity may suddenly happen to skirmish and exercise himself with a veliâ—ation with sorrow with lusory and rebated hardship He easily removed that restless self-tormenting passion Envy by considering how many thousands were inferiour to him Poor men Slaves Vagabonds Exiles Prisoners despicable creatures and not suffering the Potentates Grandees and Nobles to stand in his light There is hardly a man to be found so wretched but his condition may administer some matter of content and that of his superiours is not so absolute as to be excused from all inconveniencies the scale of Providence stands at a more even counter-poise than the querulous World would set it we cannot be all Great Honour is distributed to one Riches to another Wisdome to another to some all these and to others none at all who yet in respect of their secure sedate