invisible Power whose body is the Air This is the Sense by whose directions all the Beasts and Creatures who have kept Gods Law do distinguish and choose their Foods viz. what to eat and what to forbear this Sense penetrates to the very Center of each thing and doth distinguish the good and evil Qualities and presents them to the Judge and if good they embrace them if evil they refuse them this all the undergraduated Creatures do perform without touching oâ—… tasting which noble distinguishing Power Man hath least of anâ—… thereby the Sense of Feeling is wounded by receiving Meats and Drinks that produce Diseases and Pains for all the Disordeâ—…s Intemperances and Errours of the other four fall or centre oâ—… the Sense of Feeling whence springs such a multitude of Diseases in the Body and Mind This Sense is a faithful Centinel or Guard that presents all Comers and Goers to the distinguishing Powers and Judge which gives certain and true Judgment if it be not corrupted and blinded by degenerate Courses and unclean Methods of Life otherwise it is capable to determine by its Touchstone the Complexion of each thing if it be cold as a stone then it turns it by as unfit for communication because of his weight and hardness the Central fire being locked up in the cold Watry Coâ—…lation or strong Bond of the Saturnine property and thereâ—… it is only good for such uses as Building to withstand the wrath of the Elements and to shelter Man from their fierceness also if any thing be presented in which the strong fierce heat is kindled it puts that by and tells its various uses for which it is good and the contrary the Truth of this may be further demonstrated by several Arts Trades and Employments The judgment whereof chiefly depends on this Sense of Feeling for by handling it is known whether work be welldone and compleat It s smoothness closeness thickness thinness c. are represented to the Understanding and determined according to what it finds whether it be good or evil It is likewise farther to be noted that this Sense of Feeling is the ground or original to all Corporality for though the Mind or Soul do contain all Principles Forms and Powers which do all lie in the sleeping or silent Magia even as all forms and qualities of Nature do in the Earth which could never be known or become manifest if the Husbandman by Manuring and Cultivation did not stir up and awaken the innate Powers and Qualities which do as it were stir up and wrestle with each other from whence proceeds a lively brisk motion of heat and vigour which is called growing or vegitation and then the hidden or incorporeal Forms and Qualities become visible being manifested in corporeal and individual Bodies for none of the Magical Forms and Powers can be known before they become Cloathed with suitable Bodies For every Spiritual Power or Quality when it is stirred up or agitated by circular motions and the russling or rubbing together of contrary Principles which do generate and open the Gates of heat and moisture which lie hid under such Spiritual or Magical Power and Form and is capable to attract proper and agreeable matter for a Cloathing or Body and according to the Governing or Predominant quality in the Spirit or Magick fire whether it be the bitter sour salt or sweet such a Body Shape or Form that thing obtains and is accordingly Vitious or Vertuous For in all Corporal Beings the Flegm or Body is the House wherein the hidden or Spiritual Beings become manifest and therefore so soon as the Spiritual substance that is surrounded and skinned over hath obtained its highest limit then there is no longer a Progression or Vegitation but all falls into Retrogradation Now the Flegm or Body doth by degrees dye and the inward power strength vertue and spirit of the thing loseth its House or Cloathing and so sinks into its Original and becomes again mingled with the hidden Powers and Spiritual Beings of the Elements and so much difference and variety you see in the Shapes Forms and Colours in the Animal Vegitable and Mineral Kingdoms which is beyond all human numeration The same variety there is in the Complexions of the Spiritual Powers and Qualities each Spiritual matter that hath the Government gives the Shape and Colour and as the Operations of the hidden Nature are in the Creating Generating and bringing to Manifestation the deep and wonderful Powers of the Vegitable and Mineral Kingdoms The very same is to be understood in the Animal Kingdom there being no difference but that the last is higher graduated The Body of Man is the human Ground or Earth which is as it were a Circle in which is contained all the Spiritual Powers Forms and Principles of Nature if this were not so Man could not nor ought not to be stiled or called the Image or Likeness of God so that in Man lyes hid all the wonderful Mysteries and Magick Powers of things even as they do in the Earth Now the Will is the Husbandman who can and doth by the assistance of the five great Powers and Councellors the Senses stir up and awaken the sleeping Magick Powers unto a sensible Feeling Tasting Seeing Smelling and Hearing of each other And this is Sensation or a stirring feeling Power For all the hidden inwardmost Principles and Powers of the Body are Magical Spiritual and Invisible the Body is but the Flegm or Cloathing of the said Powers as the gross body of Vegitables are the Cloathing or Covering of the Spiritual Sal-Nâ—…tral Virtues and Powers and keeps the said Virtues from evaporation For no Spiritual Power can be or ever is contented or satisfied when once it is awakened or stirred up out of its silent Magia or quiet Rest till it obtains a body without which it cannot become manifest to its self nor to the rest of the Corporal or Visible Powers for all the hidden Principles or Qualities are not satisfied till they are invested with proportionable bodies that thereby they may obtain an individual Being Therefore from Words each Man doth proceed to Actions or Works which doth compleat all the gradual proceedings and birth of Nature by which they become essential and substantial so that Principle Quality or Power that was in its first original ground a Naked or Magick thought is by the working moving Powers and contrary Qualities brought into a visible substance or Corporeal Body so that from the Nothing or invisible Spiritual Powers the Visible and Corporal Bodies and Substances of all things have taken their birth and therefore it was well and truly said by the ancient Seers and Wisemen that God made all things out of nothing For the original ground or unchangeable and incomprehensible Being is a Nothing in comparison to Corporality or Corporeal Bodies and therefore no Magick Powers or Spiritual Being can be manifest to its self or become individual as before mentioned till it Cloaths it self with
or as it were unknown Operation Mankind is changed either for the better or for the worse all according to the nature and ruling Property or Complexion of those things they work in or communicate with so that most or all Men immerse or plunge themselves into many great Troubles Vexations and Miseries and all for want of Understanding and distinguishing the variety of those Forms and Principles they are made and compounded of which is the highest degree of Depravation and a Calamity much to be Lamented for what evil is greater than for any person to lessen the true use and to be ignorant of himself and consequently is blind and ignorant of all other things for true understanding and distinguishing takes its Birth within his own Circle he being an Epitome of the whole Creation and of the variety of all the wonderful Beings therein contained that is the Original and Grand Principles and Fountain-spirits are Essentially in him and he is the very Thing or else Man could not contain the true Nature and Property of all visible and invisible Powers or obtain the name of being truly stiled or called the Likeness and Image of the Great Creator who is All in and through All. Now Scents and Smells that do advance Health and preserve the finer Spirits both Externally and Internally are as followeth viz. Of all Scents and Smells clean sweet Airs such as are free from the Commuâ—… the crouds of Men and more particularly those by running Rivers and hilly dry Fields that lies or joins to them where Flowers Trees and various sorts of fragrant Herbs send forth their most pleasant and oderiferous Scents and Smells which do incorporate with the fine Spirits of the Air and by the thinner Fumes proceeding from the Powers of the Element of Water impregnate or endue such Airs with a powerful and penetrating Virtue which Persons do find by Experiencing a lively Briskness and sharp Appetite The like is to be understood in all moist Seasons provided there be not too much Rain but moderate which when the moisture is temperate doth with its natural Key gently and softly open the inward and secret Gates of each thing freeing the finer Spirits so that they are thereby on the Wing rendring them capable to incorporate with the common Air impregnating it with its fine refreshing Virtues the truth of this all Persons do find when Exercised in the open Air in such Seasons and therefore all such as are troubled with or subject to any kind of Obstructions of the Breast or to Languishing Consumptive Diseases may be relieved and the Diseases in a great degree remedied by a constant Exercise of Walking and the like by River-sides or in such Seasons or whether the Air being the most sublimest of Elements and as it were the true Original of Life and therefore the finener and more free it is from Defilements the greater are the administring Virtues and Powers both to the Health of the Body and Mind the Magick Spirits and invisible Powers are the true and original Life of all Bodies according to the fineness thinness and unity of the Spirit And so on the contrary such is its Body and it hath its Form Figures and Qualifications from thence and the Element of Air being the finenest and thinest of all others as was mentioned before so the inward Virtue and Spiritual Powers thereof are in proportion more especially when it is defiled by Uncleanness chiefly such as proceed from the Putrifaction of the Animal Kingdom which is the grossest and more pernicious than any that proceed from the Vegetables more particularly from Slaughtered Beasts likewise the Airs of Gardens and Fields where Flowers and Herbs of various kinds grow are filled with the sweet odoriferous Virtues and Fumes of them and such places are thereby made very pleasant healthy and wholsome Now the best Perfumes and Sweets are such that grow in our own Climate and under the Elevation and Influences of our own Stars and Elements all being most agreeable to our Constitutitutions some being more suitable having a nearer Affinity to one Person than to another even as it is in Eatables or Foods the Complexions of Smells or Scents are as various and there is as great a variety in them as there is in Complexions Forms and Inclinations of Mankind by which means all Scents and Smells are agreeable to one or another and disagreeable to others all according to the degrees of the Sal Nitral Virtues or Magick Spirits so that what is a pleasant delightful Smell to one is a distasteful unpleasant Scent to another which is only to be understood in the Vegetable World and not in the Animal all is gross there and it is very rare that their Slaughtered Limbs do send forth Scents that are pleasant except to such as have their Senses depraved by the Use and Communication of gross things for the Scent or Smell of the best Flesh or Fish when prepared by Fire which opens all the Body and sends forth the inward Virtues as one may call it are strong and fulsome except to those as was mentioned before who are used to the eating of them whose Spirits and Bodies are daily made subsist and are continued by them but to others who do Live on cleaner Foods their Smells and Scents are no better than a strong stinking Fume or Vapour more especially when the Housewife or Cook hath not Judgement or doth not distinguish the Operation of things and the Method of preserving the Spirits and the contrary which is very rarely done by Preparers of Foods And it is to be noted that as all or most of the Animals and the Foods made thereof do naturally send forth gross loathsom Smells Scents and Fumes so on the contrary all or most of the Vegetables do as naturally breath forth sweet pleasant delightful Smells more especially all Eatables and many other of most delicate and fragrant Scents therefore they have been called by the Honourable Name of Angelical Food not only from their Fragrancy but Innocency of Birth and harmless Operation both on the Body and Spirits Cleanness and Fragrancy being two of the most valuable Virtues which Uncleanness and Depravity have almost Banished out of the World now Herbs that are pleasant and their Smells or Fumes most healthy are these viz. Southern-wood Hysop Tyme and Mother of Tyme Winter-savory Mint Penny-royal Sage Bawm and several other Sweets but these are the principal the next Sweets are Flowers some of the material are as followeth Pinks Gilly-flowers of several sorts Carnations Jessemy c. likewise a great number of Field Flowers which are less sweet but more Virtuous as to the Fumes sent forth into the Air as the Blossoms of several sorts of Grains and Fruit-trees which do fill or impregnate the Air with odoriferous Fumes There are likewise several other sorts of Herbs whose Smells and Scents are very delightful to some and healthful to all as Tansy Worm-wood Featherfew and all other bitter
under his Father's and Mothers Conduct from four or five years old and upwards whereby as a farther conveniency they have not only the Education of their own Children but do prevent and save the great Charges we Europeans are at to put them Apprentices to others where we cannot overlook their Actions as they can but expose them to the Governance of Strangers many of whom take them more for the Money they have with them than for any real benefit they design them And here tho' it be digressive give me leave to observe Is it not a Paradox that when a Father and Mother have through their foolish Conduct Sown Seeds of Disobedience in their Children insomuch that they cannot rule nor keep them in order for them to imagine that others will take that off their Hands for a little Money and that Strangers should do more for their Children than they are willing to do themselves especially when the Seeds of mismanagement are sprouted up and grown too sturdy and strong whereas the Parents had the Fore-Horse by the Bridle and might have nipp'd Vice in the Bud. But to return to our purpose what the Blacks in the East Indies do in the Manufacturing of Cotton the like is perform'd by the Europeans in the management of their Flax and Wool â—…or the first of which we need only cast our Eye upon our Neighbour Nations in Flanders Holland Germany and France where the Thread which is made into sundry sorts of Laces Holland and Cambrick could never have been brought to that curious fineness had they not taught their Children very early to Spin it And as for the other which is the Manufactury of England let me observe that whereas our Woollen Cloath about an Hundred and Fifty years since was all very course and came short of our common Prizes now so that there is as much difference between the Cloath now and then as there is between the Fustian we now make for Hammocks and Stockings and East India Callicoes As soon as Navigation Trade and Rack-renting came on all Trade was encouraged and ever since the Natives have made it an Employment to get Money and their Bread thereby The management of all our Growth hath every Year and Age been advanced in more excellent performances which have been wonderfully increased within these Fifty or Sixty Years more especially as to the above mentioned Woollen Manufactury and England perhaps now as much exceeds in the Spinning and Weaving of Woollen Cloth as Flanders France Holland and the East Indies do in their Linnen and Callicoes and it is worth our noting and makes much for your Argument that we have attained to this Excellency since many hundreds of poor Families have thro' necessity trained up their Children in Spinning Carding and other Works about the said Cloathing Trade from Five or Six years of Age so that we find by experience they can now draw almost as fine a Thread as in Silk or Linnen from whence it is manifest that early cultivation and sowing Seed in due Season is greatly necessary to bring the same to perfection Children are like white Paper at first before it be sullied or ill Customs and Characâ—…s stamped upon them so that you may Sow what Seed you please and according to each Childs Genius they will arrive to a happy Maturity Now Sir that the West Indian Colonies are able to cope with the East Indies in the Manufactury of Cotton may be made to appear from many Considerations but more particularly First your Young Children can get more than their Bread as well as theirs do before they are able to perform any of the Servile Work that belongs to the making of Sugar Secondly Meat Drink and Cloathing is as cheap with you as in the East Indies or at leastwise might be so if you did but pursue the Methods laid down for you in my former Letter Thirdly the Commodity made is of more value than in the East Indies Goodness for Goodness Fourthly what is proposed is an easy and a soft Employment that neither hinders Growth nor wastes Strength Fifthly it preserves more especially the Females as well as their Off-spring from many cruel Diseases that hard Field Labour subjects them unto which have and do prove no small detriment to your Sugar Plantations they being by nature not of so robust a Constitution as the Males besides they are naturally subject to an Hundred Weaknesses that Men are not which is the reason that all Nations by their Laws and Customs more especially those that have had regard to the Health and flourishing state of their Posterity have allotted the easiest and finest Employments to their share And give mâ—… leave to tell you Sir nothing has been more hurtful and injurious to your Plantations than the unkind Usage and hard Labour you put your Black Women to whose preservation health and strength you ought to have made your main Study But you on the contrary have doubled their Burdens and what you unwarily design for their preservation manifestly leads to their Destruction for tho' after those intollerable Works and Fatigues you give them Rum which at present is a little refreshing yet you cannot but know it is destructive to Nature wasting the Vitals and an Enemy to Propagation So much of it in respect to the Women Kind I am loath to be particular with you Sir in respect to the Negro Men and your plying of them with this destructive Liquor and that upon Sundays too to very bad purpose And tho' your Intention herein be to perpetuate their Servetude c. the very Methods you take to do it by such indulging of them in this excess of Drinking at the same time proves very frequently your Disappointment and their Death And as you cannot but be convinced of the truth hereof so I appeal to your own experience whether your allowing of Polygamy or plurality of Wives to your Black Slaves doth any ways answer your end in the multiplication of Servants thereby I very much doubt the contrary and that 't is the ready way to lose both Root and Branch nothing being more destructive to Humane Nature than the immoderate use of Venery which upon the persecuting of a fresh Object c. is usually provoked beyond all due bounds to the manifest enervation and decay of the Man from whom no vigorous Issue can be expected and if any at all seldom or never comes to Maturity Many things might be said upon this Head as to the practice both of former and latter Ages but not to multiply Instances its remarkable to consider the difference between the Turkish Empire and the other Kingdoms and States of Europe that whereas the first allows of Polygamy in the utmost extent thereof and notwithstanding the greatest part of the Turks Dominions is in it self exceeding rich and fertile and was anciently full of Populous Cities and Inhabitants it s now so thin of People that in many places for Thirty or Forty Miles