that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
blemish Cato's reputation by making him appear 46 times in full Senate to justifie himself from the accusations Envy had charg'd upon him made him more famous And the poyson which it made Socrates drink kill'd his body indeed but render'd his memory immortal The truth is if the Greek Proverb hold good which calls a life without envy unhappy Envy seems in some manner necessary to beatitude it self Whence Themistocles told one who would needs flatter him with commendations of his brave actions that he had yet done nothing remarkable since he had no enviers The Fourth said 'T is such an irregular passion that it seems to aim at subverting the establish'd order of nature and making other laws after its own phancy yea so monstrous that 't is not a bare grief for another's good or a hatred of choler or such other passion but a monster compos'd of all vicious passions and consequently the most mischievous and odious of all CONFERENCE LXXIV I. Whence comes trembling in men II. Of Navigation and Longitudes I. Whence comes trembling in men THe correspondence of the great to the little world requir'd that after the tremblings of the earth those should be spoken which happen to men some of which seize but one part of the body as the head lips hands or legs some the whole body with such violence sometimes that Cardan relates of a woman taken with such a trembling that three strong persons could not hold her 'T is a symptom of motion hurt in which the part is otherwise mov'd then it ought being sometimes lifted up and sometimes cast down For in trembling there are two contrary motions One proceeds from the motive faculty endeavouring to lift up the member which is done by retraction of the muscles towards their original which by shortning themselves draw their tail to the head and at the same time what is annex'd thereunto This motive power serves also to retain the elevated member in the posture wherein we would have it continue the abbreviation of the Muscles not suffering it to return to its first situation The other motion is contrary to the will and to that of the motive power the member being depress'd by its own gravity From which contrariety and perpetual war of these two motions arises trembling one of them carrying the part as the will guides it and the other resisting thereunto which is done more speedily then the pulse and with such short intervals that the senses cannot distinguish any middle and makes us doubt whether there be two motions or but one as a ball sometimes returns so suddenly towards him that struck it that the point of its reflexion is not perceiv'd The causes are very different as amongst others the debility of the part and of the animal faculty as in decrepit old men impotent persons and such as are recovering out of long and dangerous diseases or who have fasted long the weakness of the Nerve the instrument of the animal spirits its obstruction contraction or relaxation the coarctation of the Arteries which send the vital spirits to the Brain there to be made animal spirits and proper for motion as in fear which puts the whole body into an involuntary trembling An Ague also do's the same the natural heat which resides in the arterial being carri'd to the relief of the labouring heart and so the outward parts particularly the nerves whose nature is cold and dry becoming refrigerated and less capable of exercising voluntary motion The Second said That the actions of the motive faculty as of all others may be hurt three ways being either abolish'd diminish'd or deprav'd They are abolish'd in a Palsie which is a total privation of voluntary motion They are diminish'd in Lassitude caus'd either by sharp humors within or by tension of the muscles and tendons or by dissipation of the spirits They are deprav'd in trembling convulsion horror and rigor or shivering Convulsion is a contraction of the muscles towards their original caus'd either by repletion or inanition Rigor shaking and concussion of all the muscles of the body accompani'd with coldness and pain is caus'd according to Galen by the reciprocal motion of natural heat and its encounter with cold in the parts which it endeavours to expell or according to some others by any sharp mordicant and troublesome matter which incommoding the muscles and sensitive parts the expulsive faculty attempts to reject by this commotion Horror differs not from Rigor but in degrees this being in the muscles and that only in the skin produc'd by some matter less sharp and in less quantity But trembling being a depravation and perversion of motion cannot be known but by comparison with that which is regular Now that voluntary motion may be rightly perform'd the brain must be of a due temper for supplying animal spirits and the nerves and parts rightly dispos'd Hence the cause of tremblings is either the distemper of the brain or the defect of animal spirits or the defect of animal spirits or the bad disposition of the nerves and parts A fitting temper being the first condition requisite to action every intemperature of the brain but especially the cold is the cause it cannot elaborate spirits enough to move all the parts But this defect of spirits comes not always from such bad temper but also from want of vital spirits which are sent from the heart to the brain by the arteries to serve for matter to the animal spirits These vital spirits are deficient either when they are not generated in the ventricles of the heart through the fault either of matter or of the generative faculty or are carri'd elsewhere then to the brain by reason of their concentration or effusion As in all violent passions these spirits are either concentred in the heart as in fear and grief or diffus'd from the centre to the circumference as in joy and not sent to the brain and in these cases the motive faculty remains weakned and uncapable of well exercising its motions Lastly the nerves being ill dispos'd by some distemper caus'd either by external cold or other internal causes or else being shrunk or stop'd by some gross humors not totally for then there would be no motion at all they cause tremblings which are imperfect motions like those of Porters who endeavouring to move a greater burthen then they are able to carry the weight which draws downwards and the weakness of their faculty which supports it causes in them a motion like to those that tremble The Third said That to these causes Mercury Hellebore Henbane Wine and Women must be added For they who deal with Quick-silver who have super-purgations use stupefactives and things extreamly cold and Venery in excess and Drunkards have all these tremblings according to the diversity of which causes the remedies are also different Gold is an Antidote against Mercury which will adhere to it Repletion against the second Heat Continence and Sobriety against the rest Galen saith that blood
sign so neither is an effect to be infer'd from one line so and so but from many together although they are commonly fallacious too unless the inclinations likewise be known by Physiognomy and Astrology The Fifth said All effects are either natural or free those come from a necessary and infallible which hath no affinity with the lines of the hand erroneously alledg'd to signifie the same and these being from the Will cannot be caus'd by a concurrence of lines differing either fortuitously or according to the various situations of the bones or several foldings of the child's hands in his mothers belly or by different exercises and variety of Climates they of hot Countries having scorch'd skins and more lines otherwise configurated then Northern people and Artisans then Courtiers and idle people And so there would need different rules of Palmistry according to Countries and qualities which is absurd The truth is if any thing may be conjectur'd 't is from the parts which contribute something to what they are signes of So a large fore-head may be the note of good capacity because it shews that the Ventricles of the Brain are large and a bony and sinewy man is with reason judg'd strong But the hand can afford no indication if you except its largenesse or thicknesse by proportion of which with the other parts that are not seen one may judge of its strength 'T is therefore a fallacious Art which takes that for a cause and a sign which is nothing lesse The sixth said Chiromancy is of two sorts Physical or Astrological The former is grounded upon the same principles with Physiognomy and is a part of it discovering by the several accidents of the hand it s own temper with that of the whole body and consequently the manners and inclinations Hence the Chiromancers affirm with great probability that those that have thick hands have the other parts which are unseen alike and consequently a dull wit and so on the contrary But that which is purely Astrological and is founded upon imaginary principles seems not only faulty but very ridiculous yea and pernitious too and therefore is prohibited by Laws both Humane and Divine II. Which is the noblest part of the Body Upon the Second Point 't was said That man's body being a structure compos'd of many parts not onely similary as in plants and stones but organical destinated to each action which being their end will also be the measure and standard of their noblenesse as Officers and Ministers of State or Family are esteem'd according to their imployment Now an Animals noblest action is Life and therefore the Heart the author thereof and source of heat and spirits is the noblest of all parts Moreover Aristotle sayes it lives first and dyes last and is in the little world what the Sun is in the great imparting light and motion to all the parts of the body as the Heavens do to all sublunary things Therefore many Animals want other parts but none a heart which is so absolutely necessary that its least wound is mortall The Second said Whether Nobility betaken from Antiquity or necessity the Liver is the noblest of all For the Animal at first lives the life of a Plant and so needed nourishment first the supplying of which being the Livers office it is therefore form'd before any of the entrails Nor could we exercise our senses or reasonable actions if we were not nourish'd the functions of all faculties ceasing as soon as the Livers provision is spent Yea no animal action can be perform'd without spirits the matter of which is blood elaborated in the Liver Which as 't is the cause of the four humours and consequently of Health or Sicknesse so 't is the seat of Love the noblest of all the passions The Third said As much nobler as the species is then the Individual comprehended under it so much are the parts serving to its conservation nobler then others which conserve onely the particular Therefore Galen reckons them among the principal parts They serve to enliven the body whose temper colour beauty voice and other qualities their deprivation not only destroys but also changes the manners of the Mind and extinguishes Courage as appears in cocks when castrated Add hereunto that they are hardest to be tam'd and therefore most noble The Fourth said That Generation being common to men not onely with beasts but also with plants being an action of the natural faculty it cannot be the noblest action of man but rather the Understanding which being exercis'd in the brain the seat of the Rational Soul this without dispute is the noblest of all whence 't is call'd Heaven by Homer a divine member by Plato and generally accounted the mansion of wisdom and temple of divinity which appears chiefly in the structure of its rete mirabile labyrinth and ventricles Moreover all the parts were made for the brain For man was born to understand and the intellectual faculty holds its seat in the brain To understand well it needed phantasmes and species which were to be receiv'd by the senses plac'd for that purpose in the head and to judge of the diversity of sensible objects it ought to have local motion and in order thereunto muscles tendons nerves and bones These actions of the Understanding are perform'd by help of the Animal Spirits the matter whereof are the vital of the Heart as the matter of these are the natural whence learned men are commonly lean and unhealthy because their natural spirits go to the brain instead of being carry'd to the parts in order to nutrition The Fifth said That to omit Aesop's opinion who prefer'd the tongue before any other part and found it most powerful to do either good or evil the hand seem'd to him as much more excellent then the brain as the active is to be estimated above the contemplative Therefore Aristotle calls it the Organ of Organs and 't is the symbol of faith strength and civility whence remain still the termes of kissing the hands CONFERENCE LXXXII I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature THe power of Nature and Art cannot be better judg'd then by their opposition yet how should any be between them whilst Art can do nothing without Nature For if the hand be off of Industry 't was Nature that made it a hand If the Sword be valued for the Art which fashion'd it and brought it into a condition to give Law to him that hath none 't is to the Iron produc'd by Nature in the Mines that it owes its matter And thus making the same induction through all disciplines 't will be found that they cannot be imagin'd without Nature not Logick without natural reason nor Grammar without speech nor Speech without a tongue nor writing without ink and paper nor these without the matter whereof they are made no more then a
Jeremy Constantine saw S. Peter and S. Paul and according to the opinion of many Samuel appear'd to Saul and foretold him of things which were to befall him though others conceive 't was a corporeal apparition which also is much more certain because souls either appear with their true bodies although this is very rare too yea and unbecoming happy souls to rejoyn themselves to putrifi'd carcases or most commonly assume bodies of air The cause of which apparitions is ascrib'd to the union which is between the soul of the dead person and that of the surviving to whom it appears whether the same proceed from consanguinity or identity of manners great familiarity and friendship which seems to make but one soul of those of two friends so that the soul finding it self in pain either through present or future evils especially when it sees it self oblig'd to the performance of some vow neglected during life God for his own glory the ease of his creature and the conversion of sinners permits it to manifest it self by ways most convenient CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness THe vulgar Maxime is not always true That a disease throughly known is half cur'd For this disease though known to the most ignorant is of very difficult cure and therefore was call'd by antiquity the Herculean disease that is to say unconquerable the Sacred disease because of its dreadful symptoms and Lunatick because those who are born either in the Full or New Moon or during its Eclipse are troubled with this malady which hath great correspondence with the motions of the Planet 't was also call'd Morbus caducus or Falling Sickness by reason that it makes the person fall to the ground and Comitialis because it interrupted Assemblies lastly 't is call'd Epilepsie because it intercepts the functions of the mind and senses 'T is defin'd the cessation of the principal actions and of sense and voluntary motion with convulsion which is not continual but by internals The true and proximate cause of it is either a vapour or an humour pricking the membranes of the brain which endeavouring to discharge the same contracts it self attracts the nerves to it these the muscles and parts into which they are implanted causing hereby those convulsive and violent agitations of the Epilepticks Sneezing and the hickcock have some resemblance of it the latter being caus'd by a sharp vapour sent from the stomack or other place by sympathy to its upper orifice which it goadeth with its acrimony and thereby forces it to contract it self in order to expell the same the former call'd by Avicenna the lesser Epilepsie differing not from the greater saving in duration is also caus'd by some vapours pricking the former part of the brain which contracts it self to expell the same by the nostrils The Second said That the unexpectedness of this malady and the Patient 's quick recovery may justifie the vulgar for thinking that there is something divine in it Since nothing amazes us more then sudden uncomprehended alterations Therefore in Hippocrates days they us'd to make expiations and incantations for this disease which he derides saying that the bad Physitians promoted this false conceit that they might get the more honour for the cure or be more excusable for not effecting the same The Third said That the Epilepsie and Apoplexie differ onely in degree both having the same cause namely abundance of gross humours either phlegmatick or melancholy which if it wholly fills the brains ventricles and makes a total obstruction so that the Animal Spirits the instruments of voluntary motion and sense be obstructed it causes an apoplexie which is a total abolition of sense and motion in the whole body with laesion of the rational faculty The Heart continues its pulse for some time till the consumption of what Animal Spirits were in the Nerves serving to the Muscles for respiration But if the obstruction be not perfect and the crass humour over-loads the ventricles then they contract themselves and all the Nerves which depend upon them whence comes that universal contraction of the limbs as one cover'd in bed with too many clothes pulls up his legs bends and lifts up his knees to have more air and room under the load which presses him The Fourth said That as the brain is the moistest of all the parts so it abounds most in excrements the thinnest of which transpire by the sutures pores but the grosser meeting in great quantity in the brain melt its substance into water which coming to stop the Veins and Arteries hinder the commerce of the spirits whether this pituitous matter be deriv'd from the paternal or maternal geniture or whether the part of seed which makes the brain happen not to be well purg'd in the womb where the rudiments of this malady are first laid or whether the brain purge not it self afterwards sufficiently by its emunctories and the scabs usual to Children Hippocrates saith this malady cannot begin after twenty years of age when the constitution of body is become more hot and dry and many Children are cur'd of it onely by the desiccation caus'd by the alteration of age seasons and manner of dyet The Fifth said That a gross humour cannot be the cause of those quick and violent motions of the Epilepsie nor be collected and dissipated in so short a time as the duration of a Paroxisme Therefore the cause of it must be some biting and very subtile matter for no such gross obstructive matter is found in the brain of those that dye of this malady but onely some traces or signes of some malignant vapour or acrimonious humour as black spots a swarthy frothy liquor an Impostume in the brain some portion of the Meninx putrifi'd corrosion of the bone and such other things evidencing rather the pricking of the brain then stopping of its passages The Sixth said That were the Epilepsie produc'd by obstruction it would follow that as a total one in an Apoplexie abolishes all sense and motion so the incomplete one of the Epilepsie should onely diminish not deprave motion as it doth So that the Epilepsie should be a symptom like the Palsie or Lethargy from which nevertheless 't is wholly different Nor can it be simply the mordacity or malignity of an humour since malignant and pestilential Fevers hot and dry Aliments as spices mustard salt garlick onyons and the lke biting things cause not this Evil. The truth is there is a specifical occult quality of the humours particularly disposing to this disease the Chymists call it a Mercurial Vapour that is an acid penetrating and subtile spirit a Vitriolike Spirit a biting and corrosive salt which makes not men onely but Quailes Dogs Sheep and Goats subject to it And as some things beget this malady by an occult Epileptical quality as Smallage Parsly a goats liver roasted and stinking smells as horn pitch
receive more benefit from it then any others Moreover Nature hath provided for other habits and complexions by the various mixtures of mineral-waters having compos'd hot baths of Salt Bitumen Sulphur and other Minerals through which they pass which strengthen the nerves and joynts cure Palsies as sea-water doth scabs But bathing chiefly regards fresh water It takes away weariness tempers the heat of weather causes sleep and is one of the most innocent pleasures of life But he that would know all the commodities of it must have try'd what ease it gives in the greatest pains especially in Colicks of all sorts whence 't is call'd Paradise by those that are tormented therewith Wherefore to take away bathing is to reject one of the best remedies in Physick and one of the greatest benefits of life The Fifth said That the Ancients having not yet the use of linen to free themselves from the soil contracted upon their bodies chiefly in wrastling and exercising naked upon the sand were oblig'd to the use of Bathes which became so easie and of so little cost to the multitude that they paid but a farthing a time whence Seneca calls the Bath rem quadrantariam And it cost them nothing after Antoninus Pius had caus'd a stately Bath to be built for the publick as Capitolinus reports But at length their use grew into abuse after women came to bathe themselves with men the Censors were fain to forbid them under penalty of Divorce and loss of Dowry II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Upon the second Point it was said That the Poet of our time who said that he would marry his Mistress that so he might love her less imply'd thereby that we less love what is already obtain'd But he determines not the Question who is soonest weary of loving or who loves most the Husband or the Wife where love must be distinguish'd from friendship being a passion of the Concupiscible appetite tending towards sensible good apprehended such by the Phancy whereas friendship is a most perfect vertue leading the will to honest good known such by the Understanding the former many times being opposite to the latter inasmuch as the Passions of the Appetite disturb Reason and by excess rise up to jealousie whereas the latter can have no excess for the more it is excessive the more it deserves the name of friendship 'T is therefore necessary that the woman whose phancy is stronger and intellect less perfect have more love and less friendship the husband on the contrary more friendship and less love Which extends also to children whom the mothers love with more passion and tendernss but the fathers more solidly which affection may serve for a proof and evidence of that in question The Second said That the praise of constancy in love is due to man whose mind is more perfect and consequently less mutable And whereas love proceeds from knowledge it will follow that men who understand more do also love more And want of affection would be more blameable in the man then in the woman as presupposing his defect of judgement in being mistaken in his choice men usually chusing their wives and the wives only accepting of the husbands who address to them For there 's great difference between the liberty our will hath to be carried to what object it pleases and only the turn of approving or rejecting what is offer'd to it So that the woman who loves not her husband may say that she was mistaken but in one point namely in accepting what she should have refus'd but the husband in as many as he had objects in the world capable of his friendship Besides 't would be shameful to the husband the head and master of the family to be inferior to his wife in the essential point which renders their marriage happy or unfortunate And Gracchus's choosing death that his wife Cornelia might live having slain the male of two Serpents whom he found together upon the Augur's assuring him of the said effect as it came to pass shews that we want not examples for proof of this truth as that of Semiramis who having the supream authority committed to her but for one day caus'd her husband who had granted the same and been indulgent to her all his life to be put to death and the 49 daughters of Danaus who all slew their husbands in one night prove the same The Third said That amity being begotten and encreased by necessity the woman as the weaker hath more need of support and protection from the man and so is more oblig'd to love him and therefore nature hath providently implanted in her a greater tenderness and inclination to love because all her happiness depends on her husbands good or ill treatment of her which is commonly according to her love to him To which end also the woman is endu'd with beauty and a more delicate body and consequently more apt to give and receive love then men whose exercises require a temper more hot and dry whereby to undergo the travels of life And if examples be needful the contest of the Indian wives who should cast her self into her husband's funeral fire together with whatever most precious thing she hath in testimony of greatest love suffices to prove this conclusion no men having ever been seen to burn for love of their wives Yea when anciently one man had abundance of wives a custom still practis'd amongst the Turks 't was impossible for the husband to have as much love for his wives as they had for him being in all ages contented with one alone and consecrating to him their whole affection which the more common it is is so much the less strong CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences I. Of Respiration ALthough our natural heat be of a degree more eminent then the elementary yet 't is preserv'd after the same manner namely by addition of new matter and emission of fuliginous vapours ever resulting from the action of heat upon humidity both which are done by the means of respiration which is the attraction of air by the mouth or nostrils into the Lungs and from thence into the Heart where the purest part of this air is chang'd into vital spirits which are also refresh'd and ventilated by it For though as much goes forth by exspiration as is taken in by inspirations yet the air we breathe is nevertheless turn'd into our spirits for that which issues forth is not air alone but 't is accompani'd with hot gross vapours streaming from the heart the furnace of our heat And as respiration is proper to perfect animals so the imperfect have only transpiration which is when the same air is attracted by the imperceptible pores of the body Which is sufficient for animals whose heat is languid as Insects the Child in the womb and hysterical women in whom also hereupon the pulse ceases for
in this manner First Loves it in it self with a Love of Friendship and then afterwards judging it amiable applies it to it self and desires it So that there is a two-fold convenience or agreableness in every thing that is lov'd even with the Love of Concupiscence First the convenience of the Good with its proper subject And Secondly the convenience of the same Good with the thing or person whereunto it is desired The first convenience excites the Love of Friendship The second that of Concupiscence Wherefore it is more natural to Love without Interest then for it Besides Love follows Knowledge and we know things simply and in themselves sooner then such as are compounded and refer'd to another Lastly the Love of Friendship is the end of the motions of our Hearts which acquiesce and stop there The Love of Concupiscence is for the means which are posterior in the intention of Nature and as servants employ'd for the End The Third said That Love being one of the most noble acts of the Will or rather of the Soul which is created after the Image of God it hath some lineaments of that Divine Love Now God loves all things for his own sake In like manner we see all reasonable Creatures have an instinct and sympathy to such as are convenient to themselves and an abhorrence or antipathy to their contraries Moreover the Nature of Good which is the Object of Love shews that Love always precisely regards him that loves there being no Absolute Good but all is with convenience or relation without which it would not move us to affect it For no Love can be assign'd how perfect soever in which the person that loves hath not some interest Q. Curtius deliver'd Rome from an infection of the Pestilence by plunging himself into a great Vorago in the Earth but it was with a desire of glory and to be talk'd of A Father loves his Children but it is that he may perpetuate himself in them We love Virtue for the sweetness and delectation which it brings with it yea even Martyrs offer themselves couragiously to death that they may live eternally with him for whose sake they suffer And if seeing two Men play at Tennis both of them alike unknown unto me I yet wish that one may win rather then the other this proceeds from some convenience or agreeableness between us two though the reason of it be not then manifest to me The Fourth said That Disinterested Love which is the true intirely terminates in the thing lov'd purely and simply for the natural and supernatural goodness which is in it But that which reflects upon the person who loves for his Honour Profit or Pleasure is false and vicious Now although since the depravation of our Nature by sin the former sort of Love be very difficult yet is it not impossible For since there is a Relative Love there must also be an Absolute which serves for a contrary to the other It is much more hard to love an Enemy a thing commanded by God then to love another with a Disinteressed Love And though it be true that Pleasure is so essential to Love that it is inseparable from it whence one may infer that such Pleasure is an interest yet provided he who loves doth it not with reflection to his Pleasure or for the Pleasure which he takes in loving his Love is pure and simple and void of all interest So though he who loves goes out of himself to be united to the thing lov'd which is the property of Love and becomes a part of the whole which results from that union and consequently interessed for the preservation of the same Nevertheless provided he do not reflect upon himself as he is a part of that whole his love is always without interest The fifth said That as Reflex Knowledge is more excellent and perfect then direct So reflected Love which is produc'd by knowledge of the merits and perfections of the thing lov'd is more noble and judicious then that which is without any reflection and interest Gods Love towards Men ought to serve them for a rule Therefore Plato saith that when God design'd to create the World he transform'd himself into Love which is so much interessed that he hath made all things for his own Glory The Sixth said That true Love is like Virtue contented with it self and he that loves any thing for his particular interest doth not properly love that thing but himself to whom he judgeth it sutable In which respect Saint Bernard calls such kind of Love mercenary and illegitimate because true and pure Love is contented simply with loving and though it deserves reward yet that is not its motive but the sole consideration of the excellence and goodness of the thing lov'd Nor is this true Love so rare as is imagin'd there being examples of it found in all conditions of Men. Cleomenes King of Lacedaemon disguis'd himself on purpose to be slain as accordingly he was thereby to expiate to the Fate which was destinated to the loss either of the Chiestain or his Army Gracchus dy'd that his Wife Cornelia might live The Wife of Paetus slew her self for company to sweeten death to her Husband Histories are full of Fathers and Mothers that have prefer'd their own death before that of their Children At the Hour of Inventions One offering to speak of Amulets Philtres and other means to procure Love and mentioning the Hippomanes or flesh which is found in the fore-head of a young Colt whereof Virgil speaks he was interrupted by this intimation That the two most effectual means for causing Love were the graces of the Body and the Mind and to love those by whom we would be lov'd And these two points were propounded First Whether Melancholy persons are the most ingenious Secondly Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment I. Whether Melancholy Men are the most ingenious THe First said That according to Galen Humane Actions to speak naturally depend on the complexion or composition of the Humours Which Opinion hath so far prevail'd that in common Speech the words Nature Temper and Humour signifie not onely the Inclination but the Aptitude and Disposition of persons to any thing So we say Alexander the Great was of an Ambitious and Martial Nature Mark Anthony of an Amorous Temper Cato of a severe Humour Of the Humours Melancholy whereof we are to speak is divided into the Natural wherewith the Spleen is nourish'd and that which is Preternatural called Atrabilis or black choler The one is like to a Lee or Sediment the other to the same Lee burnt and is caus'd by the adustion of all the Humours whereof the worst is that which is made of choler Again it is either innate or acquir'd by abuse of the six things which we call Non-natural
Hope which is by the testimony of Aristotle a species of Love contemnes and surmounts all difficulties which hinder its attaining to its Good Here one objecting That Anger which arises from Hatred and inward Grief hath more violent effects then Hope and the other Passions It was answer'd that Anger consists of a mixture of Love and Hatred therefore Homer sayes that to be angry is a thing more sweet then Honey For Anger tends to Revenge and ceaseth when we are reveng'd for the wrong we apprehend done to us Now Revenge seemes a Good and delectable thing to the person that seeks it and therefore all the great Ebullitions and Commotions observ'd in Anger ought to be referr'd to the Love and Desire of Revenge Besides the Motions which attend Hatred are Motions of Flight as those which accompany Love are Motions of Pursuit and Anger being rather a Pursuit and seeking of Revenge then a Flight from any evil it is more reasonably to be rank'd under Love then under Hatred Again we see amorous persons are more easily put into heat then even those which are drawn up in battalia and ready to kill one another In fine if Hatred and all the Passions attending it have any force and violence Love is the prime cause thereof we hate no thing but because we love some thing and that more or less proportionably as we love Wherefore the Philosophers who would introduce an Apathy and banish all the Passions should have done well rather to extinguish Love For he who loves no thing hates no thing and when we have lost any thing our sadness and resentment is proportionable to the Love we had for it He that loves no thing fears no thing and if it be possible that he do's not love his own life he do's not fear death It is not therefore to be inquir'd which excites the greatest Commotions Love or Hatred since even those which Hatred excites proceed from Love The Third said That the Acts or Motions of the Appetite are called Passions because they make the Body suffer and cause an alteration in the Heart and Pulse Such as aim at Pleasure enervate the Motion of Contraction because they dilate the Spirits and augment that of Dilatation Whereas on the contrary those which belong to Sadness diminish the Motion of Dilatation because they further that of Contraction We may consider the Passions either materially or formally the former consideration denotes the Impression which they make upon the Body the latter the relation to their Object So Anger consider'd materially is defin'd An Ebullition and Fervour of the Blood about the Heart and formally A Desire of Revenge This being premiz'd I affirm That Hatred is much more powerful then Love if we consider them materially not as alone but as leaders of a party viz. Love with all the train of Passions that follow the same towards Good and Hatred with all its adherents in reference to Evil. For either of them taken apart and by it self make very little impression and alteration in the Heart Love is a bare acknowledgement of and complacency in good and goeth no further as Love Hatred is nothing else but a bare rejection disavowing and aversion of Evil. In verification of which conception of the Nature of those Passions it is evident that the Effects ascrib'd to Love as Extasie Languishing are the Effects not of Love but of Hope weary and fainting through its own duration Now these Passions being thus taken Love causeth less alteration upon the Body then Hatred For its highest pitch is Delight which is materially an expansion of the Spirits of the Heart towards the parts of the whole Body wherein appeareth rather a cessation from Action then any violence But Hatred which terminates in Anger makes a furious havock It dauseth the Blood to boyle about the Heart and calls to its aid the same Passions that are subservient to Love as Hope and Boldness conceiving it a Good to be reveng'd on the present Evil. The Case is the same also if they be consider'd according to their formality For the Object of Love is a Good not absolute but according to some consideration seeing the good of an Animal is its preservation to which that kind which is called Delectable Good or the Good of Delight is ordain'd as a means to the end But the Object of Hatred is the Evil which destroyes an Absolute and Essential being of an Animal For which reason it moves more powerfully then Good The Fourth said That for the better judging of the Question we must suppose that these two Passions are two Agents which tend each to their different End For the end of Love is a good Being That of Hatred which repels what destroyes our Being is the preservation of Being simply Now Being is much more perfect naturally then better being though morally it is not so perfect and the preservation of Being is of the same dignity with Being On the other side it is true that Love is the cause of Hatred and that we hate nothing but because we love Yet it doth not follow that Hatred is not more powerful then Love seeing many times the Daughter is more strong and fair then the Mother Now if they are brutish Passions they must be measur'd by the standard of Brutes But we see a Dog leave his Meat to follow a Beast against which he hath a natural animosity And Antipathies are more powerful then Sympathies for the former kill and the latter never give life Nevertheless sometimes Love prevailes over Hatred For a Man that loves the Daughter passionately and hates the Father as much will not cease to do good to the Father for the Daughters sake The shortness of the dayes and the enlargements upon this Subject having in this and some of the former Conferences left no room for Inventions every one was entrealed to prepare himself for the future and these two Points were chosen for the next day seven-night CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather than any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick I. Of the severall fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour THe First said That the greatest part of Man-kind excepting some Barbarians lamented the death of their friends and express'd their sadness by external Mourning which is nothing but the change of Habit. Now they are observ'd to be of six sorts The Violet is for Princes The weeds of Virgins are white in reference to purity Sky-colour is in use with the people of Syria Cappadocia and Armenia to denote the place which they wish to the dead namely Heaven The Yellow or Feuille-morte among those of Aegypt to shew say they that as Herbs being faded become yellow so Death is the end of Humane Hope The Grey is worne by the Aethiopians because it denotes the colour of the Earth which receives
natural Thirst 't is not necessary there should be any to produce Thirst which I account more or less supportable according to the several habits of Body to the fat Thirst and Hunger to the lean II. Whether a General of an Army should endanger his person Upon the Second Point That the value which Men put upon Valour which is nothing else but a contempt of dangers shews that those who would partake most of honour must also have the greatest share in the danger according to the Proverb None triumphs without fighting and if we take the opinion of Souldiers who are the best judges in this case they never so willingly resign themselves to any Leader as to him that freely ventures his life with them it being no less incompetible for a General to advance himself and get credit and Reputation in Armes without indangering his person then for a Pilot to saile well upon the Sea without incurring the hazard of shipwrack So that we may say of war what is commonly said of the Sea He that fears danger must not go to it The Civilians have the same meaning when they commit the charge of guardianships to those that are most qualifi'd to succeed and there can be no honour without a charge whence the words are promiscuously us'd in our Language Moreover as no Sermon is more eloquent then the exemplary life of the Preacher so no Military Oration is so perswasive or so well receiv'd by an Army as the example of its General when they see him strike the first blow as on the contrary if he testifies any fear every one taking his actions for a rule and conforming thereunto will do the same he will not be obey'd but with regret and through a servile fear of punishment not out of a gallant sense of honour because he that is most honor'd in the Army is most remote from blows at least the other Leaders and Officers will do as much and all the Souldiers in imitation of them In brief we need but consider how not only the Marcelli the Camilli the Scipio's Hannibal and many other Generals of Armies but Alexander Caesar and in our time Henry the Great and the King of Sweden all Sovereign Princes were sufficiently venturous of their persons and that it was not by not taking part in dangers that they triumph'd over their enemies The Second said That to know how to command well and how to execute well are two several Talents and depend upon several abilities they who are born to command being unfit to execute and on the contrary they who are proper to obey being incapable of commanding Wherefore the Head of an Army who gives Orders and Commands must cause them to be executed by others So the Judge pronounces the Sentence and appoints Serjeants to put it in execution the Physitian commands his Patient who obeys his prescriptions the Pilot the Officers of the Ship but himself Steers not But that which should most restrain a General from acting in person is that he cannot in this occurrence preserve the prudence which is absolutely necessary to him For the heat of Courage heightned by that of the Charge and the Encounter being wholly contrary to the coldness of Prudence which is inconsistent with the violent motions caus'd by the ardour of fury commonly attending Valour renders him precipitate inconstant and incapable for the time to deliberate of fit means to chuse them and cause them to be executed Moreover the General being the Chieftain of the Army ought to resemble the Head which derives sense and motion to the parts yet stirs not for their defence but on the contrary employs them for its own So the prime Captain ought to sway and manage the body of his Army by his Counsels and Orders but not put his own person in danger because upon his safety depends that of all the rest who being destitute of a Chieftain remains like a body without a head and an unprofitable trunk Therefore Generals of Armies are compar'd to the heads of Cypress-Trees which being once lop'd off the stem never thrives afterwards The Third said The highest point of judgement is to distinguish appearence from truth and in all professions 't is very dangerous though in appearence more honorable to be carri'd to extreams but especially in War where there is not room for many mistakes The General who exposes his life cannot be excus'd from ambition or imprudence from the former if he do's it without necessity from the latter if for want of having rightly order'd his affairs he sees himself reduc'd to that point Whereas as in Artificial Engines the piece which gives motion to the rest is immoveable so the General who gives order to the main of the Army ought to have the like influence upon it as the heart in the middle of the body and the brain in the middle of the head to transmit life and spirits to the whole body and to occur to accidents both foreseen and unexpected Otherwise should the principal parts not be contented to follow the body but change their natural situation all the parts would be doubly inconvenienc'd both because they would not know where to find them when they needed their direction and because the least offence of the nobler parts being mortal their hurt would redound not only to themselves but also to the rest of the body Moreover if the General act the Souldier who shall act the Captain how will the Corporal and common Souldier do They will all think themselves become equal to their superiors they will no longer do any thing but in their company and 't will be no wonder if disorder slides into all the member when it has begun at the head If they be blam'd for not knowing how to obey their excuse will be ready That they have to do with Leaders who know not how to command Besides the General hath the same relation to his Army that the First President hath to a Parliament Now what would you say if the First President should manage the cause and undertake to plead it although the Advocates acquitted themselves ill Even Domestick Government may serve for a rule in this case the head of a Family losing his credit among his servants when he sets himself to do their work For whereas almost all the affairs of men depend upon opinion when the respect which arises from the authority of the superior over his inferiors is once shaken as it is by the too great familiarity which the society of dangers begets contempt will be apt to justle out duty And the common Souldier looks upon his General but as another man when he sees him partake of the same hardships with him Upon this account were invented the Diadems Scepters Crowns and other ornaments of Sovereigns and their Magistrates the meanest of which instructed by experience are jealous of their authority which they keep up by separating themselves from the commerce of the vulgar but lose it
And as gesture is more expressive then words so á contempt signifi'd by it touches more to the quick then any other because he that contemns us with a simple gesture accounts us unworthy of all the rest Now if this contempt be offer'd in the presence of those that honour us or by whom we desire to be valu'd and admir'd it excites our choler the more if it be truth which always displeases us when it tells our defects especially by the mouth of our enemy But none are so soon provok'd as they that are desirous of some good For then the least things incense because desire being of an absent good cannot subsist with the least present evil the object of anger because of their contrariety importuning the actions of the soul which is troubled in the pursute of good by the presence of evil Whence saith Aristotle there needs but a small matter to anger Lovers sick people indigent those that miscarry in their affairs and are excruciated with hunger or thirst 'T is therefore an error to say that choler is the cause of anger and 't is vain to purge this humour in order to remedy this passion since the cause is external not internal and is form'd first in the brain by the imagination of an injury receiv'd after which the Soul desirous of revenge stirs the motive power this the blood and spirits which cause all the disorders observ'd in angry persons The Fourth said That disorders caus'd by Anger are not to be wonder'd at since 't is compos'd of the most unruly passions love hatred grief pleasure hope and boldnesse For the source of anger is self-love we hate him that doth the injury we are troubled at the offence and receive contentment in the hope of being reveng'd and this hope gives boldnesse Now Anger is one of the most deform'd and monstrous passions so violent that it enervates not onely the contractive motion of the Heart by dilating it too much and sending forth the blood and spirits which cause an extraordinary heat and force in all the members and sometimes a Fever but also that of dilation by shutting it too much in case the grief for the evil present be great and there be hopes of revenging it The Countenance looks pale afterwards red the Eye sparkles the Voice trembles the Pulse beats with violence the Hair becomes stiff the Mouth foams the Teeth clash the Hand cannot hold the Mind is no longer in its own power but is besides it self for some time Anger not differing from Rage but in duration Which made a Philosopher tell his servant That he would chastise him were he not in Anger And the Emperor Theodosius commanded his Officers never to execute any by his command till after three dayes and the Philosophers Xenodorus to counsel Augustus not to execute any thing when he found himself in choler till after he had repeated softly the twenty four letters of the Greek Alphabet The truth is if this passion be not repress'd it transports a man so out of himself that he is incens'd not against men onely but even against beasts plants and inanimate things such was Ctesiphon who in great fury fell to kicking with a mule and Xerxes who scourg'd the Sea Yea it reduces men to such brutality that they fear not to lose themselves for ever so they may but be reveng'd of those that have offended them as Porphyrie and Tertullian did the former renouncing Christianity and the other embracing Montanus's Heresie to revenge themselves of some wrong which they conceiv'd they had receiv'd from the Catholicks And our damnable Duels caus'd by this passion have oftentimes to satisfie the revenge of one destroy'd two Body and Soul CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting I. Of Life THe more common a thing is the more difficult it is to speak well of it witnesse sensible objects the nature whereof is much in the dark to us although they alwayes present themselves to our senses Thus nothing is more easie then to discern what is alive from what is not and yet nothing is more difficult then to explicate the nature of Life well because 't is the union of a most perfect form with its matter into which the mind of man sees not a jot even that of accidents with their subject being unknown although it be not so difficult to conceive as the first Some have thought that the form which gives life is not substantial but onely accidental because all except the rational arise from the Elementary Qualities and accidents can produce nothing but accidents But they are mistaken since whereas nothing acts beyond its strength if those forms were accidents they could not be the causes of such marvellous and different effects as to make the fruits of the Vine Fig-tree c. and blood in Animals to attract retain concoct expell and exercise all the functions of the Soul which cannot proceed from heat alone or any other material quality Besides if the forms of animated bodies were accidents it will follow that substance which is compounded of Form as well as of Matter is made of accidents and consequently of that which is not substance contrary to the receiv'd Axiom Therefore Vital Forms are substances though incomplete whose original is Heaven the Author of Life and all sublunary actions The Second said That the Soul being the principle of Life according to the three sorts of Souls there are three sorts of Life namely the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational differing according to several sublimations of the matter For the actions of attracting and assimilating food and the others belonging to Plants being above those of stones and other inanimate things argue in them a principle of those actions which is the Vegetative Soul Those of moving perceiving imagining and remembring yet nobler then the former flow from the Sensitive Soul But because the actions of the Intellect and the Will are not onely above the matter but are not so much as in the matter as those of Plants and Animals being immanent and preserv'd by the same powers that produc'd them they acknowledge for their principle a form more noble then the rest which is the Rational Soul the life of which is more perfect And as the Plantal Life is the first and commonest so it gives the most infallible vital tokens which are nutrition growth and generation Now that all three be in all living bodies For Mushrooms live but propagate not as some things propagate yet are not alive so bulls blood buried in a dung-hill produces worms others are nourish'd but grow not as most Animals when they have attain'd their just stature yea not every thing that lives is nourish'd for House-leek continues a whole year in its verdure and vivacity being hung at the seeling Nor dos every thing grow alike for we see Dodder which resembles Epithymum clinging to a bunch of grapes or other fruit hanging in the Air grows prodigiously without drawing any nourishment from it
countenance Yet besides this change of the natural colour which is red it hath divers other symptomes whereof the chief are a perverse appetite call'd Malacia or Pica Nauseousness Tension of the Hypochondres faintings and palpitations of the heart difficulty of breathing sadness fear languishing weakness and heaviness of all the members an oedematous humour or bloatiness of the feet and the whole face of which accidents those of the alteration of colour being the most perceptible and the pathognomonical signes of this disease have with the vulgar given the denomination to it This malady is not to be sleighted as people imagine being sometimes so violent that the peccant humours being carri'd to the head render the Maidens distracted and mad yea sometimes they dye suddenly of it the heart and its vital faculty being stifled and oppress'd by it For this symptome hurts not only the functions of one part or faculty but invades the whole oeconomy causing an evil habit which degenerates into a Dropsie especially that which the Physitians call Leucophlegmatia or Anasarca when the flesh like a spunge imbibes and attracts all the aqueous and excrementitious humidities The antecedent and prime cause of this malady is the suppression of the menstrual blood the conjunct and proximate is the collection of crude and vicious humours in all the parts of the body which they discolour Now when the blood which serves in women for the principle of generation becomes burdensom to nature either by its quantity or its quality which happens commonly at the age of puberty she expells it by the vessels of the womb which if they be stop'd that blood mingled for the most part with many other excrementitious humours which it carries along with it as torrents do mud returns the same into the trunk of the hollow Vein from thence into the Liver Spleen Mesentery and other Entrails whose natural heat it impairs and hinders their natural functions as concoction and sanguification and so is the cause of the generating of crude humours which being carried into all the parts of the body are nevertheless assimilated and so change their natural colour Of which causes which beget those obstructions in the Vessels of the Matrix the chief are a phlegmatick and viscous blood commonly produc'd by bad food as Lime Chalk Ashes Coals Vinegar Corn and Earth which young Girles purposely eat to procure that complexion out of a false perswasion that it makes them handsomer Yet this malady may happen too from a natural conformation the smalness and closeness of the aforesaid Vessels whence the fat and phlegmatick as the pale are are more subject to it then the lean and brown The Second said 'T is an opinion so universally receiv'd that the Green-sickess comes from Love that those who fight under his Standards affect this colour as his liveries But 't is most appropriate to Maidens as if nature meant to write in their faces what they so artificially conceal and supply for their bashfulness by this dumb language Whereunto their natural Constitution conduecs much being much colder then that of men which is the cause that they beget abundance of superfluous blood which easily corrupts either by the mixture of some humour or for want of free motion like standing waters and inclos'd air and infects the skin the universal Emunctory of all the parts but especially that of the face by reason of its thinness and softness And as obstructions are the cause so opening things are the remedies of this malady as the filings of Steel prepar'd Sena Aloes Myrrhe Safron Cinamon roots of Bryony and Birth-worth Hysope wild Mecury the leaves and flowers of Marigold Broom flowers Capers c. The Third said That the vulgar opinion that all Green-sickness is from Love is a vulgar errour For though the Poet writes that every Lover is pale yet hatred causes paleness too and the consequence cannot be well made from a passion to a habit Besides little Girles of seven and eight years old are troubled with this disease and you cannot think them capable of love no more then that 't is through want of natural purgation in others after the age of puberty for women above fifty yeers old when that purgation ceases have something of this malady Yea men too have some spices of it sometimes and yet the structure of their parts being wholly different from that of females allows not the assigning of the same cause in both Yea did the common conceit hold good that those who have small vessels and as such capable of obstruction are most subject to it yet the contrary will follow to what is inferr'd to their prejudice For they will be the less amorous because the lesser vessels have the lesser blood which is the material cause of Love to which we see sanguine complexions are most inclin'd II. Of Hermaphrodites Upon the second Point 't was said That if Arguments taken from the name of the thing be of good augury Hermaphrodites must have great advantage from theirs as being compounded of the two most agreeable Deities of Antiquity Mercury or Hermes the Courtier of the Gods and Venus or Aphrodite the Goddess of Love to signifie the perfection of both sexes united in one subject And though 't is a fiction of the Poets that the Son begotten of the Adultery of Mercury and Venus was both male and female as well as that of the Nymph Salmacis who embrac'd a young man who was bathing with her so closely that they became one body yet we see in Nature some truth under the veil of these Fables For the greatest part of insects and many perfect animals have the use of either sex As the Hyaena by the report of Appian one year do's the office of a male and the next of a female as the Serpent also doth by the testimony of Aelian and as Aristotle saith the Fish nam'd Trochus and 't is commonly said that the Hare impregnates it self Pliny mentions some Nations who are born Hermaphrodites having the right breast of a Man and the left of a Woman Plato saith that Mankind began by Hermaphrodites our first Parents being both Male and Female and that having then nothing to desire out of themselves the Gods became jealous of them and divided them into two which is the reason that they seek their first union so passionately and that the sacred tye of Marriage was first instituted All which Plato undoubtedly learn'd out of Genesis For he had read where 't is said before Eves formation or separation from Adam is mention'd That God created Man and that he created Male and Female The Second said That Natural Reason admits not Hermaphrodites for we consider not those who have onely the appearances of genital parts which Nature may give them as to Monsters two Heads four Arms and so of the other parts through the copiousness of matter but those who have the use and perfection of the same which consists in Generation For Nature having