Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	natural_a	spirit_n	vital_a	2,146	5	10.9559	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49991	A discourse upon Sr Walter Rawleigh's great cordial by N. le Febure ... ; rendred into English by Peter Belon ...; Discours sur le grand cordial de Sr Walter Rawleigh. English	Le Fèvre, Nicaise, 1610-1669.; Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618. Confectio Raleghana.; Belon, P. (Peter)	1664 (1664)	Wing L928; ESTC R8971	35,851	126

since that this change of a corrupted matter into a substance of a sweet favour and of great efficacy inwardly and outwardly teacheth Art to follow Nature's tracks for the bettering and correcting of things But we shall speak more fully of this when we shall reason of the beauty of the perfection of our Sovereign Remedy We shall here content our selves to relate in general the virtues of Musk which have oblig'd our Author to give it place in his Composition It heats gently it dries attenuates and dissipates what there is of gross and malignant in the body it is Cordial Alexitery and Cephalick it is specifick against all the Affections of the Heart and specially against the Palpitations it maintains recreates and restores the animal and vital Spirits it excites to Love and re-furnisheth the natural Heat it recreates the Senses and strengthens Memory which shews that it is most worthy of our Great Cordial The counsel and approbation of Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir Alexander Fraiser his Majesty's chief Physician hath made us adde to the number of the Ingredients of this Remedy the Flesh the Heart and the Liver of Vipers though the first prescription doth not mention them But this Reptil is replenished with so many rare virtues and possesses a volatil Salt so much an enemy to Poisons which attach the Heart and the Brains that it is with most just reason that it has been added The Viper is a kind of Serpent the most venomous of all which heats and irritates it self easily so that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye it drives from the Vesicle or Bladder of its gall to the gums a Poison so spirituous and so subtil by an almost imperceptible Chanel when it is angry which insinuates and communicates it self so suddenly to our Spirits and to the natural Heat that it as suddenly stupifies the part that has been bit which communicates it self immediately to the Heart and from thence to the Brain by the means of the Circulation But if this venom is astonishing and surprising the remedy which is had from the same Animal is as it were divine and miraculous which doth not onely combat its proper Poison but beats off and enervates the strength and efficacy of all the other venoms that both the Families of Vegetables and Minerals do furnish provided it be well prepared and administred in time and place We must give notice by the bye that Vipers glide and thrust themselves between stones and in holes of the Earth yearly in the end of Autumn whenas their pasture fails them there to abide till the beginning of the Spring and that then they are stupid and languishing by reason of the thickness and hardness of their skin but as soon as they have relished and digested the blades of Herbs and the Sun and Air have furnished them with heat and aliment they slide and rub themselves against rugged places to strip off their old skin which is no sooner off but that this Animal is presently possest with the pride thereof for it crawls nimbler then before and signifies by its gaiety by the quickness of its motions and by the beautious colours of its new skin that it is really renew'd and that the remedy which it yields may also produce in us Renewing Principles and Faculties The general and principal virtues which the Viper possesses are to combat strongly the Venoms and above all that of the Plague and of all the malignant and venomous diseases it is good against Leprosie and the Venereal disease against Consumptions and the Hectick Fever and finally against the Scurvy by reason that the volatil Salt of this Animal drives out powerfully the malignant Serosities which infect the mass of the Bloud and which are the cause and maintenance of this popular disease which makes such strange wastes in all the maritime Countries and especially in England so that it is lawfully placed in this Cordial We are now come to the Pearls which constitute another part of this Great Cordial and that augment really its rare qualities We shall mention in this place nothing but their origine their choice and their virtue to speak of them more exactly when we shall reason upon the Preparation Pearls are nothing else but the concretion into a Stone of the purest substance of the muscilaginous slime that the Oyster or Fish that inhabits two shells which he hath appropriated and formed for his abode and for his conservation ingenders Now this Animal draws to himself for his maintenance the purest part of the Sea-water which contains the embryonated Salt which is the balsam of Nature and as it were the principle of all generations which is found impregnated and replenish'd with the light of the Sun and of the Stars which is communicated to it by means of the Air. It seems also as if this poor Fish had drain'd himself of the purest portion of his life and natural balsam when he has ingendred several Pearls since that this precious Jewel is found but in the rugged and unequal Shells whose inward Fish is languishing and flabby by reason that he is deprived of that sweet sulphureous milk and of that volatil insipid and inodorous Salt which make together the coagulation of that beautiful object of Luxury and Curiosity but which is much more considerable for its fine Physical Properties which it incloses in it self Since that both the ancients and moderns acknowledge Pearls for one of the noblest Cordials which is capable of freeing the natural Balsam from oppression to re-establish the dissipated and abated strength to rejoyce the Spirits augment Courage resist Poisons the Plague and the corruption of the Humors and finally to wipe out and abolish the evil Characters both of the fix'd and running Gout by reason that they kill by the sweetness of their Milk and Sulphur the ill Impressions of the sharp Pontick and saline Serosities which prick and irritate the membranous and nervous parts that serve for sensibility and motion which they perform by the resolution of their bodies communicating then that virtue which sweetens and wipes out the acid sharpness that did cause those diseases which thing they also efficaciously produce in Rheumatisms and the Scurvy It is this defective and dead-seeming Power and Efficacy that Paracelsus speaks of in the sixth Book of his Archidoxes We have thought fit to put the Amber-griece next to the Pearls both because it comes from the Sea and that we can place it neither in the Classis of Animals nor in that of Vegetables no more then in that of Minerals because it seems as it were a roving Individual which cannot be lawfully comprised in either of these three Categories For Amber-griece is nothing else but the most precious of Bitumens that come from the bottom of the Sea where according to some it is liquid but hardens digests and concocts it self both by the coagulative facultie of the maritime Salt and by the action of the heat of the

Sun which resolves into vapours what there is in it of most subtil and that works and concludes the reduction of the Amber-griece to that condition it is found in on the surface of the Sea-water in the East-Indies and sometimes also in America It is with a great deal of knowledge and light that our Author hath inserted this noble Bitumen in his Great Cordial since it is one of its principal Ingredients and that its virtues are to heat to dry up and resolve to strengthen the Heart and the Brains to recall re-establish and augment the vital and animal Spirits by the sweet and pleasant exhalation of its volatil and sulphureous Salt which communicates joyns and unites it self mildly and immediately to our nature and that penetrates into the very last digestions by the Organs of Respiration and by those of the Circulation of the bloud and spirits It is the true comforter of the Viscera and is very useful to facilitate Generation since it is capable to correct those defects which happen by that subject both in male and female because it heats strengthens and rejoyces the one and that it dries the moistures and ordinary superfluities of the other when it is well and duly prepared and administred with an exact knowledge Let us come to the parts of the Vegetables which help to the fabrick and virtue of our Great Cordial and begin with the Roots which we shall name in particular and we shall not speak of their virtues but in general except there be some remarkable thing worthy reflexion which will oblige us to regard it to render by that means this Remedy and its Author the more recommendable to those at present living and to posterity hereafter We have ten Roots that enter this Composition which are the Angelica the round Birth-wort the Fraxinella or white Dittany the Carline the Contra-Yerva the Gentian the Serpentary of Virginia the Tormentil the Valerian and the Zedoary One may boldly say that these few Roots contain what there can be of virtue in almost all the others and especially in what concerns the Cordial virtue and the Counter-poison for they all together and every one in particular tend to the Author's aim by their efficacy for they are Bezoardic and Cordial in the highest degree because they abound in Spirit in Salt and in Sulphur which are volatil and piercing as their smells and bitterness witness They provoke Sweat they are Vulneraries they open the Obstructions of the Womb cause the dead Child to issue out and appease its Irritations and Suffocations they are good against all Poisons and admirable against all malignant Diseases and especially against the Plague they are excellent against the bitings of mad Dogs and kill universally all sorts of Worms that ill Nourishment or want of Digestion may breed in us Above all we may admire the strength and virtue of three Roots which have been added to this Remedy which are the Carline the Contra-Yerva and the Serpentary of Virginia according to the sense and approbation of two excellent persons here above mentioned For the Carline is a real gift from Heaven against the Plague and malignant Diseases It serves also as a Philtre and Loadstone to attract the strength of those that suck in the Air which is fill'd with the odour and vitious atoms which those that have eaten some of it breath forth The Contra-Yerva is not less considerable since it beareth this Spanish name which signifies Counter-poison but for the excellency of its virtues and of the wonderful effects it doth produce Monardes a Portuguez Physician says to its commendation that it is not onely useful to drive away all manner of Poisons Corrosive sublimate onely excepted and hinder their malignity but moreover that this Root is able to unbind and root up the charm and tie of the amorous Philtre We cannot well specifie the virtue of the Serpentary of Virginia because it has not as yet been written and that Experiments have not been made of all its faculties it sufficeth that its odour and taste do sufficiently manifest its virtues besides those which have been found by those that have put it in practice or them that have learn'd it viva voce from the Inhabitants of the American Islands amongst whom it is in great request against Poisons and Fevers but especially against the bitings of venomous and malignant Serpents in which these Islands abound The time for gathering the Roots we have here is in the beginning of the Spring when they are as it were big with the Idea of all the Plant which they then contain with all its principal virtues it sufficeth then to know them by a little bud proceeding from the Earth The second Classis of the Plants which make part of this Remedy are six in number namely the Betony the Carduus Benedictus the Dittany of Creet the Marjoram the Mints and the Water-Germander All these Plants are chosen for this Cordial with an exquisite judgment for there is not one of them but hath some specifick virtue besides what they possess of Cordial and Alexitery in common with the others For the Betony is Vulnerary and particularly dedicated to the Wounds of the Head although it be Hepatick as also Splenetick and Hysterick because it opens Obstructions and drives out by Urines what is gross and impure The surname of holy or blessed that has been given to the Carduus that enters in this Remedy witnesses enough how much it is recommendable amongst the Physicians and with the vulgar and chiefly in Germany where the common people imploy it with very great success against most part of those Diseases which assault them taking it in powder in warm wine which provokes very much Sweat and Urine But I find that the English people do use it also very efficaciously in those drinks which they call Possets In fine its bitterness doth witness the abundance of its essential Salt when as yet it is juicy and the quantity of its volatil Salt when it is grown up and that this Plant is between its flowers and seed for it is properly from thence that it derives its cordial sudorifick antivenomous virtue which is particular and specifick to it There are but few Poets and Rhetoricians that have not made use of the virtues of the Dittany and of the Hart's instinct in seeking it after he is wounded by which to make some rich Comparison for we must acknowledge that it is an admirable Plant in its effects since there is attributed to it that of attracting and driving the strange bodies out of Wounds of being a great Counter-poison of hastning the difficult delivery in Child-birth and being a remedy against the Insultations of the Womb. It was not in the first Receit no more then the white Dittany or Fraxinella root but these two Simples have been added to it upon counsel by reason of their specifick Excellencies and Proprieties The agreeable odour of the Marjoram which pleases equally all those

portion of Metalls which are the fruits of the Mineral predestination It is doubtless the most perfect of those Children of the Earth It is most solid yellow compact and close in it self and is compounded with principles that are digested in the most sovereign degree and which are by consequence fix'd and permanent as its Incorruptibility proves The Chymists give it the name of the Sun because that they believe it hath some correspondency and harmonical relation not onely with the Celestial Sun of the Great world but also by reason that it has a sympathetical affinity with the Sun of the Little world which is the Heart of Man They call it also the King of Metalls because it is their Prince as that which is the most pure and most fix as also that which possesses the most eminent and most necessary virtues since that it is wholly dedicated to the Heart which is the King of the noblest Functions of Life For Gold is held for the most sovereign Cordial because it re-establishes and augments the radical Moisture and the natural Heat which have their principal seat in the Heart which is the reason that it may be given with success in all diseases in which the Spirits are dissipated and the strength weakned It purifies also the mass of the Bloud since that it dissipates and drives out by sensible and insensible Inspiration that which there was of naught and corrupted in that which is called the Humours and which are to speak properly nothing else but those things which result from the diversity of the alterations of the Bloud that tends by this ill disposition to Corruption and Rottenness and by consequence to the destruction of the Subject which it nourishes and vivifies But this noble Metall must be so prepared and decorporated that it may doe the Emanation of the rays of the virtue of its Central Sulphur as we shall reason upon it when we shall discourse of the Preparation The last we are to treat of is the Unicornu Minerale otherwise called White Load-stone and some would have it to be the Unicorn's Horn. But we must speak but merely of its generation and virtues in no wise medling with that diversity of opinions that the most eminent Authors have had concerning this Subject For the most skilfull and best knowing have thought it fit that this Mineral production should be added to the Great Cordial though it was not inserted in the first Descriptions notwithstanding those wonderful properties it is endow'd with render it most worthy This wonderful Mineral Drug is nothing else but the Concretion or Petrifaction of a fluid milky substance which contains in it self the congealing and lapidifying ferment which slides and insinuates it self in the Cavities of the womb of the Earth where it invests it self with the figure odour colour and consistence according to the nature of the things that it finds there as it is proved by the Collections that the most curious observers of Nature have made of it as also by the experience of its rare virtues which are equal with those of the Oriental Bole and those of the Sealed Earth since the Grandees are agreed that it resists Poisons the Plague and malignant Fevers insomuch that a Physician of this Age did make the pouder of this mixt pass for a Specifick against all Fevers and got repute in the City of Paris by several rare effects We shall speak no more of it to prevent tedious repetitions and so pass from the description of all the Ingredients of our Remedy to what we have promised to say concerning its General and Particular Preparation If we have had hitherto just cause to praise Sir Walter Rawleigh for having caus'd so many good things and which possess so many virtues to enter into his Cordial we must nevertheless confess that we have far more reason to augment his Elogies by reason of the Science and Experience which he hath shewn in the Preparation and perfecting of this grand Remedy But considering that it is composed of things which are of different natures and that are more or less fix or volatil it has been necessary to work with a great deal of Art and with a most exact reflexion upon all that composes this Remedy to preserve that which ought to be of good in the most subtil and withall to extract the essential virtue which was concentred in the grossest Now we have said heretofore that there were three Classes in this Composition which contain the Animal the Vegetable and the Mineral We must also now make appear those reasons which have oblig'd our celebrated Author to prepare them in that manner to which we shall adde also the Meditations and Thoughts that we have had on this Subject for the better preserving the volatil and to open the most fix that the union of the virtue of the productions of these three Families should be made with all the exactness therein required according to his Majesty's Command and the Intentions of those Illustrious Persons which we have formerly named Whereas no intire Animals do enter into our Cordial therefore we shall not speak here but of the parts of those Animals which contribute to this brave and sovereign Composition We shall treat therefore of the preparation of Harts-horns of that of Vipers of that of Musk and Pearls and in fine of that of Amber-griece We shall not say any thing concerning the Bezoar-stone since we have already said that it is a Magisterium perfected in the Ventricle of that Animal which produces it and that besides this Stone has no need of any other preparation then to be reduced into an impalpable Pouder for this Operation Now whereas the Receipt of this Remedy requires Harts-Horn burn'd or calcin'd to whiteness we cannot wonder enough at this way of proceeding since that those of the least capacity know that the Calcination carrieth away the volatil Salt from the calcined body and that by consequence it strips it from all its cordial virtue which cannot be contain'd but in this Sulphureous and volatil Salt For the most skilful Naturalists and the most experienced of all Artists who have grown old in the meditation and in the labour to make the Anatomy of Natural things thereby to know the better the virtue say all with one voice That the Soul and Virtue of all these sublunary Mixts resides properly and perfectly in what they contain of volatil Salt and that it is particularly and chiefly in the Animals that this is found since the proof of it is clearly evident in their Distillations which furnish a great abundance of Spirit Oil and volatil Salt and which leave behind nothing in the bottom of the Retort after the last action of Fire but that which may be called legitimately a mere Caput mortuum or dead Earth since that this calcined body contains nothing that participates of the Saline nature which is the Foundation and the Centre of all the powers and virtues by reason