a septenary gradation For we have understood that whatsoever there is besides God it is either an Element or a Vapour or a Concrete or a Plant or an Anâ—â—all or a Man or an Angell and that the whole multitude of creatures is ranked into these seven Classes or great Tribes In every of which there is some eminent virtue flowing from the essence of the Creatour yet every latter including the former For In Elements Being is eminent Vapours Motion Concretes Figure or Quality Plants Life Living creatures Sense Men Reason Angels Understanding See the house which Wisdome hath built her having hewn out her seven pillars Prov. 9. 1. See the seven Stairs which the King of Heaven hath placed in the entry of his inner house Ezek. 40. 22. The six first degrees are of visible creatures the seventh of invisible Angels After the same manner as there were nine dayes wherein God wrought and rested the seventh six Planets in heaven of inferiour light the seventh of extraordinary brightnesse the Sun six baser metals on earth The seventh exceeding all in perfection gold c. And as Salomons Throne had six inferiour steps to every of which there were six inferiour Leoncels adjoyned after all in the seventh place stood the Throne and by it two Lions 1 King 10. 19 20. So the King of eternity when he built him a visible throne of glory erected six visible degrees of corporeous creatures to every of which he added their Leoncels that is their virtues and their powers and last of all about the throne on high he placed the strongest of the creatures the Angels mighty in power Psal. 103. 19 20. But now what mean the seven planets in heaven what mean the seven continents on earth the seven kinds of meteors seven kinds of metalls seven kinds of stones c the seven combinations of tangible qualities the seven differences of taste the seven vitall members in man the seven tones in musick and other things which we meet with throughout all nature yea and in the Scripture the number of seven is every where very much celebrated and sacred For what do the seven dayes of the week point at what are the seven weeks betwixt the Passeover and Pentecost what the seventh year of rest what the seven times seventh of Jubilee what do all these portend I say but that it is the expresse Image of that God whose seven eyes passe through the whole earth Zach. 4. 10. and whose seven spirits are before his Throne Apoc. 1. 4. yea who doth himselfe make a mysticall eighth with every degree of his creatures For in him all things live aud move and have their being which live and move and have a being Acts 17. 28. and he worketh all in all 1 Cor. 12. 6. and all these are as it were him himselfe Eccles. 43. 27. and yet none of them is he himselfe Job 12. 9. 10. but because all these have some effigies of the divine essence and operate that which they operate by virtue thereof hence it is that he being above all without all and beneath all is the true mysticall eighth of all Of whom that Syracides may conclude our meditation though we say much we shall not yet attain thereto The sum of the doctrine is that he is all For what ability have we to praise him For he is greater then all his works The Lord is terrible and very great marvellous is his power Extol the Lord in praise as much as you can For yet he wil be greater then all praise Eecl 43. 30. c. Therefore let every spirit praise the Lord Hallelujah Psal. 150. And thou my soul praise the Lord Psal. 103. 1. Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of his glory Isai. 6. 3 Hallelujah A Short APPENDIX TO PHYSICKS Touching the Diseases of the Body Mind and Soul and their generall Remedies I. A Disease is the corruption of an Entity in some part thereof and a disposition of it to totall perishing that is death Therefore both the Body Mind and Soul hath its diseases II The diseases of the body are various scarce to be numbred and oft-times mâ—â—t A disease added to a disease is called a ymptome of a disease III A disease of the body is either by solution of that which is continued or by distemper of humours IV Solution of that which is continued is either by a rupture or a wound A rupture is prevented by bewaring falls and violent motion A wound is avoided by shunning of those things which can cleave cut prick rent tear or bruise or hurt anyway and both are to be cured by the Chirurgion N. W. The cure of a Wound is desperate if any vitall member be hurt as the heart the brain the liver the entrals c. For then the vitall actions are hindred and soon after cease 2 If any member be quite lost it cannot be set on again because the spirit hath not wherewithall to passe into the part that is severed V The distempers of the humours and the diseases that come from thence always proceed from some of these 6 causes namely either from 1 Crudity 2 Inflation 3 Distillation 4 Obstruction 5 Putrefaction 6 Inflammation VI Crudity in the body is nutriment not sufficiently concocted namely either Chyle or bloud which comes I from the quality of meat and drink when they are taken too raw flegmatick unwholesome which the concoctive faculty cannot well subdue 2 from the quantity when more meat and drink is put in then it is able to alter and assimilate unto the body For hence undigested and not assimilated humours burthen the body like strangers and not pertaining thereunto 3 For want of exercise when the naturall heat is not stirred up nor strengthened to perform its office lustily in the concoction of meats From such like crudities diverse inconveniences follow For 1 if the crudity be in the stomack it causes loathing of food for so long as the first food is not digested there can be no appetite to any other Again children have an appetite to eat earth chalk coales c. according as the crudities are turned into the likenesse of any matter For like desireth like 2 If there be a viscous crudity adhering in the ventricle or in the guts being warmed it takes spirit and is turned into wormes which gnawing the bowels stir up evill vapours by their motion whence also come phartasies very hurtfull to the head Lastly ctudity under the skin in the bloud and flesh begets palenesse and when it is collected and putrified scabs ulcers c. Crudity is prevented by a temperate diet as to Food Sleep and daily exercises and cured 1 by violent expurgation 2 by strong exercises 3 by the use of tart meats and drinks 4 by comforting the stomack with such things as heat both within and without VII Inflation is much and grosse vapour exhaling from the crudities that are gathered together and stretching the members And
that either without pain as when it causeth yexing or belching in the ventricle panting in the heart giddinesse in the head when being prohibited to go any further it is carried in a round lazinesse and stretching in the whole body or else with pain as when it causeth aches in the bowels straightning the spirits that lie between in the Fibres and shurp or else blunt prickings in the muscles according as it is more grosse or subtile It is cured 1 by strong exercise that the vapour being attenuated may go out at the pores opened 2 by expurgation of the humours by which they are generated VIII Distillation is the condensation of crude vapours into rheume which is the cause of many evils For crude vapours gettting up to the head when as by reason of the abundance and grossenesse of them they cannot be expurgated by the ordinary passage they become rheume flowing severall wayes and rausing diverse diseases For 1 If they run abundantly and 〈◊〉 at the nose they cause the Murre or Pose 2 If the distillation fall into the jawes it causes the Catarrhe 3 If into the kernels of the jawes the Quinsie 4 If into the lungs difficulty of breathing and the Asthma 5 If the distillation be salt and sharp ulcerating the lungs it causes the Cough 6 Which if it be done oft and the lungs be filled with apostemes it causes the consumption For when the ulcerous lungs cannot with dexterity enough perform their office of cooling the heart the vitall spirit is generated more hot then it should be which doth not cherish but feed upon the flesh and bloud and at length burns out the very workhouse it self of the bloud which is the liver whence for want of bloud which is as it were the food followes the consumption of the whole body 7 If the distillation flow in abundance and grosse down the marrow of the back it causeth the Palsie by hindring the animall spirit that it cannot be distributed by the nerves springing from the back bone 8 If it fill the nerves of the muscles only it becomes the Spasma or Convulsions that is when the nerve is contracted like as a chord being wet and dried again is wont to be contracted and become shorter 9 If it flow subtle and penetrating the nerves it is at length gathered together in the extremities of the members and there raises sharp pains which in the feet are called the Gout in the hands Chiragra or the Hand-gout in any of the joynts of the bones Erthritica the running gout in the hip it is called Ischias or the Hip-gout commonly the Sciatica 10 Lastly if those kind of runnings stay in the head they procure divers diseases as when they are subtle the Head-ach 11 Too raw and flegmatick the Lethargie 12 Salt and cholerick the Phrensie 13 Grosse and mixt with a melancholy humour the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness when as the spirits diffused through the whole body making haste to relieve the spirits befieged in the brain make most vehement stirs and fight till they either overcome and repell the disease or else faint and are extinguished 14 But if the grosse phlegmatick humours have occupied all the vessels of the brain at once it becomes the apoplexie that is a privation of all sense and motion whence also the vitall fire in the heart is soon after extinguished All these diseases are both prevented and also if they go not too farre cured 1 by exercise 2 by rectification of the brain by good smels 3 by a thin hot and sulphury air 4 by thin light meat and drink But the peculiar cure of every disease is committo the physiciaus IX Obstruction is a stopping of the bowels by thickned flegme whence it comes to passe that they cannot execute their office For example when the entrals are stopt that they cannot void it is the Volvuls or wringing of the guts when the liver is stopt the dropsie For the Chylus being not turned into bloud flowes through the veins and members and is not turned into members When the bladder of gall is stopt the Yellow Jaundise when the Spleen the Black Jaundise For in the first the choler in the other the melancholy when it cannot be voided diffuseth it selfe through the bloud But when the urine pipes or the 〈◊〉 or the bladder are stopped that is by reason of the breeding of Tartar which they call the Stone which stopping the passages by its sharpnesse pains the Veins and Nerves The cure is 1 by purgations 2 by medicines attenuating or breaking cutting and driving out the grosse humours which Physicians know X Putrefaction is the corruption of some humour in the body namely either of flegme or of choler or of melancholy which putrifying either in or out of their vessels produce feavers or ulcers The cure is 1 Expurgation of the place affected 2 A good diet 3 Motion XI Inflamation is a burning of the vitall spirit N. vitall or of the bloud caused by too much motion either of the body by wearying it or of the mind by musing and anger or else by putrefaction or else by obstruction For it is known out of the physicks that motion doth heat even unto firing and that by obstruction doth 〈◊〉 an Antiperistasis exasperate the heat included even in these things that are watry and pâ—trid so that at length it breaks out violently hay laid up wet when it cannot get transpiration doth shew When the bloud is kindled within it becomes a feaver when under the skin S. Anthonies fire The generall cure is the opening of a vein and cooling But of feavers being that it is a most common disease and of divers kinds something more is to be said XII The feaver so called from its fervency or heat is of three kinds 1 The Ephemera 2 The Putrid 3 The Hectick The first burns the spirits the second the humours the third the solid parts The first like a raging hot wind scorching all it meets with the second like boiling water poured into a vessell which it heats with it selfe The third like unto a hot vessell heating the water poured into it with it selfe For the Hectick occupies the bones and membranes and eats and consumes them with an unnaturall heat by degrees almost insensibly till at length it causeth death It is very like the Consumption But the putrid or rotten feaver occupies the bloud and humours by which the whole body grows hot The Ephemera is a more subtle flame feeding upon the spirits only and therefore it scarce endures one or two days til the peccant cause be consumed by the spirit it self Hence either health or death usually follows within two or three dayes and therefore it is called the Ephemera or diary Feaver also the Maligne feaver Of which sort also is the pestilentiall infection for it comes after the same manner Putrid feavers are most usuall but with very much difference for when the humours putrifie within their vessels or workhouses especially
by reason of a dark superficies Every of these colours hath under it diverse degrees and species according to the various temperature thereof with the others which we leave to the speculation of Opticks and Painters XXIV There remains a quality which is perceived by two senses touch and sight namely FIGURE whereby one body is round another long another square c. but the consideration of this is resigned to the Mathematicks Of an occult quality XXV An occult quality is a force of operating upon any otber body which notwithstanding is not â—iscovered but by its effâ—ct For examp that the loadstone draws iron that poisons assaile and go about to extinguish nothing but the spirit in bodies that antidotes again resist poison and fortifie the spirit against them that some herbs are peculiarly good for the brain others for the heart others for the liver and such like Such kind of occult qualities as these God hath dispersed throughout all nature and they yet lie hid for the better part of them but they come immediately from the peculiar spirit infused into every creature For even as one and the same matter of the world by reason of its diverse texture hath gotten as it were infinite figures in stones metals plants and living creatures so one and the same spirit of the world is drawn out as it were into infinite formes by various and speciall virtues known to God and from these occult qualities sympathies and antipathies of things do properly arise CHAP. V. Of the mutations of things generation corruption c. FRom the contrarieties of the qualities especially of cold and heat For these two qualities are most active those mutations have their rise to which all things in the world are subject which we shall now see I Mutation is an accident of a body whereby its essence is changed Namely whither a thing passe from not being to being or from being to not being or from being thus to being otherwise II All bodies are liable to mutations The reason because they are all compounded of matter spirit and fire which three are variously mixed among themselves perpetually For both the matter is a fluid and a slipperie thing and the spirit restlesse always agitating it self and heat raised every where by light and motion doth eat into rent and pluck asunder the matter of things From thence it is I say that nothing can long be permanent in the same state All things grow up increase decrease and perish again Hence also the Scriptures affirm that the heavens wax old as doth a garment Psal. 10â— v. 27. III The mutation of a thing is either essentiall or accident all IV Essentiall mutation is when a thing begins to be or ceases to be the first is called generation the other corruption For example snow when it is formed of water is said to be generated when it is resolved again into water to be corrupted V An accident all mutation of a thing is when it increases or decreases or is changed in its qualities the first is called augmentation the next diminution the last alteration which we are now to view severally how they are done Of the generation of things VI Generation is the production of a thing so that what was not begins to be Thus every year yea every day infinite things are generated through all nature VII To generation three things are required Seed a Matrix and Moderate Heat These three things are necessary in the generation of living creatures plants metals stones and lastly of meteors as shall be seen in their place VIII Seed is a small portion of the matter having the spirit of life included in it For seed is corporall and visible therefore materiate and it is no seed except it contein in it the spirit of the species whose seed it should be For what should it be formed by therefore seeds out of which the spirit is exhaled are unprofitable to generation IX The Matrix is a convenient place to lay the seed that it may put forth its vertue Nothing is without a place neither is any thing generated without a convenient place because the actions of nature are hindred Now that place is convenient for generation which affordeth the seed 1 a soft site 2 circumclusion least the spirit should evaporate out of the seed being attenuated 3 veins of matter to flow from elsewhere N. W. And there are as many matrixes or laps as there are generations the aire is the matrix of meteors the earth of stones metals and plants the womb of living creatures X Heat is a motion raised in the seed which attenuating its matter makes it able to spread it self by swelling For the spirit beng stirred up by that occasion agitateth it self and as it were blowing asunder the attenuated parts of the matter disposeth them to the forme of its nature This is the perpetual processe of all generation and none other From whence hereafter under the doctrine of minerals living creatures plants many things will appear plainly of their own accord yet we must observe that some things grow without seed as grasse out of the earth and worms out of slime wood and flesh putrified yet that is done by the vertue of the spirit diffused through things which wheresoever it findeth fit matter as a matrix and is assisted by heat presently it attempts some new generation as it were the constitution of a new Kingdom But without heat whither it be of the sunne or of fire or the inward heatof a living creature it matters not so it be temperate there can be no generation because the matter cannot be prepared softned or dilated without heat Of the augmentation of things XI Everything that is generated increaseth and augmenteth it self as much as may be and that by attraction of matter and â—ssimilation of it to it self For wheresoever there is generation there is heat and where there is heat there is fire and where there is fire there is need and attraction of fewell For heat because it always attenuateth the parts of the matter which exhale seeks and attracts others wherewith it may sustein it self as we see it in a burning candle and a portion of matter being attracted and applyed to a body taketh its form by little and little and becomes like unto it and is made the same For by the force of heat of heterogeneous things become homogeneous the spirit of that body in the mean time attracting also to it self somewhat of the spirit of the universe and so multiplying it self also So stones minerals plants living creatures c. grow Of diminution XII Whatsoever hath increased doth at some time or other cease to increase and begin to decrease and that for and through the arefaction of the matter Namely for because the heat increased with the body increasing doth by little and little and little consume the thin and fat parts thereof and dry up the solid parts so that at last they are not able to
motion bodies were to be framed which might performe a free motion and these are called Animalia or Animantia living creatures from the soul which powerfully evidences life in them 2 Therefore mobility is in all living creatures but after divers manners For some move only by opening and shutting not stirring out of their place as oisters and cockles Others creep by little and little as snailes earth-wormes and other wormes some have a long body which creeps with winding it selfe about as snakes some have feet given them as lizards beasts birds but these last have wings also to flie through the air Which fishes do imitate in the water performing their motion by swimming III The moving principle in a living creature is the vitall soul which is nothing else but the spirit of life thick and strong mightily filling and powerfully governing the bodies which it inhabiteth IV Now because a voluntary and a light motion cannot be performed but in a subtle matter living creatures have bodies given them far more tender then plants but far more compound For they consist of spirit flesh blood membranes veins nerves gristles and lastly bones as it were props and pillars lest the frame should fall Understand this in perfect living creatures For more imperfect living creatures in which we contemplate onely the rudiments of nature have neither bones nor flesh nor bloud nor veins but onely a white humour covered with a skin or crust as it were with a sheath which the spirit included doth stir or move as it appears in worms snails oisters c. But to perfect living creatures 1 That they might have a more subtle spirit bloud and brains were given 2 And that these might not be dissipated they had vessels and channels given them veines arteries nerves 3 That a living creature might be erected bones were given him 4 And left the bones as also the veins arteries nerves should easily be hurt all was covered either with fat or flesh 5 And that the members might move tendons and muscles were interwoven throughout 6 And least in moving the bone the bones should wear one against another cause pain in the living creature a gristle which is a softer substance being as it were halfe flesh was put between the joints 7 And lastly that the frame might hang firmly together in its composure it was compassed with a hide or skin as also all the members with their membranes Therefore a living creature consists of more similar parts then a plant but of far more dissimular parts or members of which it followes V The bodies of living creatures were furnished with many members as with diverse organs for diverse actions The head indeed is the principall member of a living creature wherein the whole spirit hath its residence and shews all its force but because a living creature was intended for divers actions it had need of besides 1 Vivifying organs supplying the living creature with heat life and motion that is brains and heart 2 Moving organs that is feet wings feathers c. 3 And left one thing should run against another or fall into precipices it was necessary to furnish them with sight also with a quick hearing and touch Lastly because the earth was not to supply nutriment immediately to a living creature as to a plant fixed in the earth but it was left them to seek there was need of smelling and tasting that they might know what was convenient to their nature Hence eyes ears nostrils c. 4 Now because a living creature was not to be fixed in the ground with a root because of his free motion more perfect organs of nutrition were requisite for that cause there was given him a mouth teeth a stomack a liver a heart veins c. 5 And because they were not to spring out of the earth as plants by reason of the same motion to and fro Divers Sexes were given them to multiply themselves and distinct genitall members 6 And because living creatures were to be alwayes conversant with others of their own or of a divers kind they had need of some mutuall token even in the dark they had a tongue given them to form sounds 7 Lastly because it could not be but that a living creature should sometimes meet with contraries they had as it were shields and armes given them Hares bristles scales shels feathers likewise horns clawes teeth hoofs c. VI Therefore the whole treatise concerning a living creature is finished in the explication I Of the nutritive faculty II Of the vitall III Of the sensitive IV Of the loco-motive V Of the enuntiative VI Of the defensive VII And lastly of the generative For he that knoweth these seven knowes the whole mysterie of nature in living creatnres For whatsoever is in the body of a living creature serveth those faculties if it do not serve them it is in vain and maketh a monster It is to be observed also that the first three faculties are governed by so many spirits The nutritive faculty by the naturall spirit the vitall by the spirit of life the sensitive by the animall spirit the other four by those three spirits joyntly Of the nutritive Faculty VII Every living creature standeth in need of daily food to repair that which perisheth of the substance every day For life consists in heat And heat being that it is fire wants fuell which is moist spirituous and fat matter Heat in a living creature being destitute of this sets upon the solid parts and feeds on them And hence it is that a living creature as well as a plant without nourishment pines away and dies But if it be sparingly fed it therefore falls away because the heat feeds upon the very substance of the flesh VIII That nourishment is convenient for a living creature which supplies it with a spirit like its own spirit For seeing that life is from the spirit the matter of it selfe doth not nourish life but a spirituous matter And indeed the spirit of the nourishment must needs be like the spirit of the living creature Therefore we are not nourished with the elements as plants are for as much as they have only a naturall not a vitall spirit but we are nourished with plants or with the flesh of other â—iving creatures because those afford a vitall spirit Nay further there is a particular proportion of spirits by reason of which a â—orse chuseth oates a swine barley a wolfe flesh c. Nay an hog hath an appetite to mans excrements also because it yet findeth parts convenient for it IX Nourishment turneth into the substance â—f that which is nourished That appears 1 because he that feeds on dry meats is dry of complexion he that feeds on moist is flegmatick c. 2 because for the most part a man reteins the qualities of those living creatures on whose flesh he feeds as he that feeds on beefe is strong he that feeds on venison is nimble c. If any one have the brains
it selfe vvhatsoever it perceiveth that is too grosse and earthy in the bloud and by little veins sends it again into the entrals and by that means disburdens it selfe of that dreggy humour and last of all the gall attracteth those parts of the bloud that are too sharp and fiery vvhose little bag hangs at the liver and by strings sends them again mixt into the entrals whence the bitternesse and ill sent of dung XXI The vessels of membrification are 1 veins 2 every particular member 3 pores For the veins proceeding from the liver spread themselves over all the parts of the body like boughs and sending forth little branches every way end in strings that are most tenacious from which every member apart sucketh and by a slow agglutination assimilates it to it selfe so that the bloud flowing into the flesh becomes flesh that in the bones turns into bone in a gristle to a gristle in the brain to brains just after the same manner as the juice of a tree is changed into wood bark pith leaves fruits by meer assimilation The excrements of this third most subtle concoction are subtle also namely sweat and vapour which alwayes breaths out through the pores If any more grosse humour remains especially after the first and second concoction not well made it breeds scabs or ulcers or the dropsie XXII For the furthering of nourishment there is a spur added that is appetite or hunger and thirst which are nothing but a vellication of the fibres of the stomack arising from the sharp sucking of the Chylus For the members being destitute of the juice wherewith they are watered solicite the veins of bloud and the veins by the motion of continuity sollicite the liver the liver the Mesenterie that the entrals the entrals the stomack which if it have nothing to afford contracts and wrinkles it selfe and the strings of it are sucked dry from whence proceeds first a certain titillation and that we call appetite simply and afterward pain and this we call hunger and if solid meat be taken but dry because coction or vaporation cannot be made by reason of drinesse there is a desire that moisture should be poured on and this vve call thirst It appears then why motion provokes appetite and why the idle have but little appetite c. XXIII The whole body is nourished at once together by the motion of libration To vvit after the same manner as the root in a plant doth equally nourish both it selfe and the stock and all the boughes Therefore no member nourisheth it selfe alone but others vvith it selfe and so all preserved Otherwise if any member rob the rest of their nourishment or again refuseth it there follows a distemperature of the vvhole body and by and by corruption at length death XXIV A living creature being 〈◊〉 nourished is not onely vegetuted but also as long as his members are soft and extensive augmented the superficies of the members yielding by little and little and extending it selfe but as soon as the members are hardened after youth the living creature ceaseth to grow yet goes forward in solidity and strength so long as the three concoctions are rightly made But when the vessels of the concoctions begin to dry up also the living creatures begins to wither away and life grows feeble till it fail and be extinguished Of the vitall faculty XXV Life in a living creature is such a mixture of the spirits with the bloud and members that they are all warme have sense and move themselves Therefore the life of living creatures consists in heat sense and motion and it is plain for if any creature hath neither motion nor sense nor heat it lives not XXVI Therefore every living creature is full of heat sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker For every living creature is nourished How it appears out of that which went before the nourishment is not made but by concoction but reason teacheth that concoction is not made but by heat and fire It comes therefore to be explained whence a living creature hath heat and fire and by what means it is kindled kept alive and extinguished which the two following Aphorismes shall teach XXVII The heart is the forge of heat in a living creature burning with a perpetuall fire and begetting a little flame called the spirit of life which it communicates also to the whole body Hence the heart is said commonly to be the first that lives the last that dies XXVIII The vitall spirit in the heart hath for its matter bloud for bellowes the lungs for channels by which it communicates it selfe to the whole body the arteries Our hearth fire hath need of three things 1 matter or fuell and that fat 2 of blowing or fanning whereby the force of it is stirred up 3 free transpiration whereby it may diffuse it selfe the same three the maker of all things hath ordeined to be in every living creature For the heart seated a little above the liver drinketh in a most pure portion of bloud by a branch of the veins which being that it is spirituous and oily conceives a most soft flame and left this should be extinguished there lies near to the heart the lungs which like bellowes dilating and contracting it selfe blowes upon and fans that fire of the heart perpetually to prevent suffocation Now being that that inflammation of the heart is not without fume or vapour though very thin the said lungs by the same continuall inspiration exhaleth those vapours through the throat and drawing in cooler air instead thereof doth so temperate the flame of the heat whence the necessity of breathing appears and why a living creature is presently suffocated if respiration be denied it And that flame or attenuated and most hot bloud is called the spirit of life which diffusing it self through the arteries that accompany the veins every way cherisheth the heat both of the bloud that is in the veins and all the members throughout the whole body Now because it were dangerous to have this vitall spirit destroyed the arteries are hid below the veins only in two or three places they stand forth a little that so the beating of that spirit as well as of the heart it selfe when the hand is laid upon the breast may be noted and thence the state of the heart may be known Of the sensitive faculty XXIX Sense in a living creature is the perception of those things that are done within and without the living creature XXX That perception is done by virtue of a living spirit which being that it is most subtle in a living creature is called the Animall spirit XXXI That perceptive virtue consists in the tendernesse of the animall spirit for because it is presently affected with whatsoever thing it be wherewith it is touched For all sensation is by passion as shall appear hereafter XXXII The seat and shop of the animall spirits is the brain For in the brain there is not only greatest store of that spirit residing but
contracted of necessity and the tendon followes the muscle contracting it self and drawes with it the head of the next bone by the motion of continuity all with inexplicable quicknesse 5. It appears also that this local motion either of the whole living creature or of some member is made about something immoveable with various enforcings 6. And because it is with enforcing it cannot be without wearinesse 7. And because it is vvith vvearinesse there is sometimes needs of rest vvhich is given in three kinds 1 Standing 2 Sitting 3. Lying Standing is a resting of the feet but with an inclination of the body to motion therefore it is done by libration Sitting is rest in the middest of the body whereby the other parts are the more easily preserved in Aequilibrio Lying is a total rest That is a prostrating of the body all along But as too much motion brings wearinesse so too much rest causeth tediousnesse because the spirit loves to stir it self And the same position of the members a long while together by rest is alike troublesome both for that the lower members are pressed with the vveight of the upper and also for that the spirit desires to move it self any way Hence it is in that vve turne us oft in our sleep Of the enuntiative faculty That a living creature might give knowledge of it self by a voice the animal spirit doth that at the direction of the phantasie but it hath these Organs the Lungs the rough Arterie and the Mouth LVII To every living creature fishes excepted there was given lungs to coole the heart with a gristly pipe called the rough arteterie Which notwithstanding serves withall to send forth a voice because that in the upper part of it it hath the forme of a pipe wherewith the aire being stricken may be divided and sent sounding forth LVIII And that the voice might be both raised and let fall that pipe is composed of gristly rings the lowest of which if it oppose it self to the aire as it passeth by there is a deep repercussion that is a grave voice but if the highest there is an high repercussion that is a shrill voice every one may make triall of that in himself LIX And that the sound may be articulate as in speech and the singing of some birds that the tongue beating the sound too and fro also the lips the teeth and nostrils and the throat performe Of the defensive faculty LX. The animall spirit if it perceive any hostile thing approach unto it hath presently recourse to its weapons whereby either to defend it self setting up its haires bristles scales prickles or to offend and hurt its enemies using its hornes nailes wings beak hands c. Which by vertue of what strength it is done may already be known out of what hath been said before Of the generative faculty Seeing that living creatures as well as plants are mortal entities they must of necessitie be multiplied for the conservation of their species touching which marke the Axiomes following LXI Because that the generation of living creatures by reason of the multitude and tendernesse of their members could not commodiously be performed in the bowels of the earth they had a different sex given them And it was ordained that the new living creature should be formed in the very body of the living creature it self As the sun by its heat doth beget plants in the wombe of the earth so it may also those living things whose formation is finished with in some few dayes as wormes mice and diverse insects which is done either by the seed of the same living creatures falling into an apt matter scattered or by the spirit of the universe falling into an apt matter But more perfect living creatures which consist of many and solide members and want much time for their formation as a man an horse an elephant it cannot beget For being that the Sun cannot stay so long in the same coast of heaven the young one would be spoiled before it could come to perfection I herefore the most wise Creatour of things appointed the place of formation to be not in the earth but in the living creature it self having formed two sexes that one might do the part of the plant bearing the seed the other of the earth cherishing and as it were hatching the seed This alone and none other is the end of different sexes in all living creatures Wo be to the rashnesse and madness of men which abuse them as no beast doth The members whereby the sexes differ are the same in number site and form and differ in nothing almost unless it be in regard of exterius and interius to wit the greater force of heat in the male thrusting the genitals outward but in the female by reason of the weaker heat the said members conteining themselves within which Anatomists know LXII The spirit is the directour of all generation like as in plants which being heated in the seed first formes it selfe a place of abode that is the brains and head and thence making excursions formes the rest of the members by little and little and gently and again retiring to its seat rests and operates by turns whence the original of waking and fleeping Therefore the formation of a living creature doth not begin from the heart as Aristotle thought but from the head for the head is as it were the whole living creature the rest of the body is nothing but a structure of organs for divers operations And that appears plain for some living creatures as fishes have no heart but none are without a head and brains Of the kinds of living creatures Thus much of a living creature in generall the kinds follow LXIII A living creature according to the difference of its motion is 1 Reptile 2 Gressile 3 Natatile 4 Volatile LXIV Reptile or a creeping thing is a living creature with a long body wanting feet yet compunded of joynts or gristly rings by the contraction and extension of which it windes up and reacheth out it selfe as are wormes and serpents LXV Gressile is that which hath feet two or more and goeth as a lizard a mouse a dog c. LXVI Natatile is that which passeth through the water by the help of finnes it is called a fish amongst which crabs also and divers sea-monsters are reckoned LXVII Volatile is that which moves it selfe through the air by the shaking of its wings and is called a bird The lightnesse of birds to flie is from their plumosity For every plume or feather not only in the stalk but through all its parts and particles of its parts is hollow and full of spirit and vapour And for this cause no birds pisse because all their moisture perpetually evaporates into feathers It is impossible therefore for a man to flie though he fit himselfe with wings because he wants feathers to raise him and those which he takes to him are dead and void of heat and spirit LXVIII Small living