XVIII To what we ought to ascribe amongst such multitudes of men the great dissimilitude of forme and the manifold difference that is between man and man in their faces countenances eyes and other parts so that sometimes Brothers and Sisters are not one like the other AS there is in Nature a wonderful gracious variety so there is the same in the form and shapes of men in their colours contenance eyes lineaments and in their faces there is found an admitable and numberlesse disparity and dissimilitude To What must be ascribed dissimilitude in men Some refer this to the influence of the Starrs but I think to referr it more properly and rationally to the nature of the Seed and the Mothers Imagination For being that the woman in the very conception and all the time she goes with Child The Womans imagination doth many things even for nine months hath divers thoughts in her mind and every moment is drawn this way and that way by thinking on divers things and her eyes being still fixed upon such objects she lights upon it falls out that those things she sees and are fastest rivered in her imagination are communicated to her Child For when the Nature of the woman is carefully intent in framing the Infant and thinks on nothing but a fair and well proportioned Child and all her forces are bent thereunto if any shape or Image be represented to the sight this soon reflects upon the of-spring who participates of it Moreover Mothers so soon as the Child is born do the best they can that the Child may have a decent comely well proportioned body fitly distinguished in all the parts of it The faults of Nature may be amended For Childrens bodies are ductile and pliable as Clay or Wax and may be bended any way Wherefore if the mouth stand awry and is uncomely they forge frame and order it into a decent posture and if the face be frowning and lowring they will make it pleasant and amiable and beautifull they make the eyes very handsome and lovely and of gray eyes or blunket which Infants commonly have by reason of moysture they make them black by abundantly feeding them with milk and chiefly if the Nurse be of a hot temper and the Child be kept in a dark place For a light Chamber where the Sun shines in much or a great fire hurts the render eyes But squint rolling gogle eyes and such as turn the wrong way That the balls of the eyes may grow black are reduced to their right posture by bending the sight the contrary way for the Muscles will be brought to their naturall places by wresting them to the otherside and being turned about will come right they raise and set eaven the nostrills that are crooked and fall down by a gentle way of handling them but they reduce Eagle noses and such as are with beck by pressing them down to a decent figure that the perpendicular of the nose may be stretched forth from the forehead and eybrows unto the hollow part in the upper-lip like a gnomon or right line or style that stands upon Sun Dialls What forme of Nose is comely neither set on bending outward or inward Likewise if the lips be swoln or fat which is usuall with the Aethiopians as also if the nose that is crooked be pressed down they handle these artificially and they often presse them that they may grow lesse and sink down lower by the same way they frame into a comely fashion a chin that sticks out or is drawn in the forehead head cheeks or eybrows that are deformed and decently order by art what is not seemly So if nature limp on any part and is gon off from the best forme and proportion Whence comes deformity of the body as some have wry necks crooked gowty ill favourd legs or bunch backs that makes them ugly all these errours are easily mended in those that are Children and such members as are wrested or disjoynted or out of their places are for right by the care and industry of man So the diligent care of Nurses makes Children grow up handsomely and so are obnoxious to no deformities of their limbs But the negligence of many Mothers and great idlenesse makes Children not onely to grow up unhandsomely and ill favour'dly but they become bunch-backr lame squint eye'd bull-headed and not comely to look on for they are departed from the dignity and excellency that is in man's body Some Nurses are over diligent and too officious who bestow some labour also on the Childrens privy parts that serve them them to make water with and in time shall be usefull for propagation of Children that they may be ripe betimes and not fail of hopes of getting Children and when they come to be marryed they may not be a shamed for ill performing the matrimoniall duty when they observe bitter contentions and quarrels to arise amongst kindred for this very cause that they will threaten to divorce their Sons in Law unlesse they can shew their manhood and please their wives the better yet I use to dislike and discommend this effeminate and lascivious office used by Nurses for young youths by reason of pulling them thus by their yards before their time or that they come to be of age or have mans strength they are prone to venery and so consume those helps and vent out those humours and vitall spirits wherewith afterwards they might be able to procreate lusty and lively Children whereas by unseasonable venery The discommodities of untimly venery they either get no Children or if they beget any they are lither and not so long lived Therefore I think it is good not to let young people marry too soon untill their forces bestrong and confirmed and that they can endure any hardnesse in matrimoniall society which tender years cannot do for they will presently wax faint and effeminate It is then better that the secret parts should swell out of their own accord naturally than that they should be drawn forth by any allurements CHAP. XIX Many kinds of Animals Fishes Birds Insects are bred without Seed as also Pants and many Animals and small Birds by an unusall way without the copulation of Male and Female do conceive DAily examples shew that many things come forth and are propagated by nature of their own accord and withovt any embracings of others or generation onely from filth corruption as Dormice Rats Snails Shell-fish Carterpillers Grass-Worms Wasps Hornets Weevils Froggs Moths Toads Eels Many things breed from corruption In mens bodies Worms though these have seed within them whereby afterwards they propagate abundantly Also many plants grow forth from the muddy moysture of the earth and fatnesse of it no seed being sowed or plants set in the ground before as are Darnel Cockle Nettles wild Olives Weeds and grasse that spring up of themselves Also there are some Crows in the Low-Countries that conceive by their
14th year of their age or somewhat later shew some signes of maturity their courses then running so that they are fit to conceive which force continues with them till 44 yeares of their age and some that are lusty and lively will be fruitfull till 55 as I have observed amongst our Country women When a womans courses stop I know that the flowing of the terms is extended farther in some women of good tempers but that is rare nor doth allwaies that excrementitious humour flow from a naturall cause Wherefore their opinion must be examined who say that as there is no certain time of womens termes to end so neither of their conception nor cannot any set bounds be prefixed for these things For though some have their courses at 60 yeares old yet that proceeds not from a naturall cause but from some affect that is contrary to Nature which also hinders all conception For anger indignation wrath and sudden fear may cause the vessels and passages to open and cleave asunder so by a violent concourse of humours such a thing may run out many by falls and accidents having the fibres of the veins pulled asunder But since women for the most part about the yeare 45 or at the most 50 have their termes stopt and no hopes are to be had of Children by lying with them Old wives should not marry young men they do contrary to the law of Nature that marry young men or men that for greedinesse of mony woe and marry such old women For the labour is lost on both sides just as if a man should cast good seed into dry hungry lean ground It is more tolerable for a full bodied lively old man that he should marry a very young Mayd in her green and tender years For from that society they may hope for some benefit for posterity because a man is never thought to be so old and barren and exhausted but that he may get a Child But what is the Nature of man and how long the force lasts in him to get Children must be shewed by the way For since young men as Hippocrates saith are full of imbred heat about the age of 16. or somewhat more they have much vitall strength and their secrets begin to be hairy How long a man is fruitful and their chins begin to shoot forth with fine decent down which force and heat of procreating Children increaseth daily more and more untill 45 yeares or till 50 and ends at 65. For then for the most part the manhood begins to flag and the seed becomes unfruitfull the naturall spirits being extinguished and the humours drying up out of which by the benefit of heat the seed is wont to be made There are indeed some strong lusty old men who have spent their younger dayes continently and moderately who are fruitfull untill 70 yeares and subsist very manly in performing nuptiall duties examples whereof there are sufficient in Brabant and amongst the Goths and Sweeds A History done so I heard a trusty Pilate relate that when he traficked at Stockholme when Gustavus the Father of the most invincible Ericus who now reigns ruled the Land he was called by the King to be at the marriage of a man that was a hundred years old who married a Bride of 30 years old and he professed sincerely that the old man had many Children by her For he was a man as there are many in that Country who was very green and fresh in his old age that one would hardly think him to be 50 yeares old The Brabanders live very â—old Also amongst the Tungri and Campania in Brabant where the Ayre is wonderfull calme and the Nation is very temperate and frugall it is no new thing but allmost common that men of 80 yeares marry young Mayds and have Children by them wherefore Age doth nothing hinder a man forgetting of Children unlesse he be wholy exhausted by incontinence in his youngest dayes and his genitall parts be withered and barren wherefore the Dutch have a scoffing Proverb against such that are worn out A Proverb against such as are spent A simile from horses exhausted and quite broken by venery Vroech hengst Vroech ghuyle the comparison being taken from horses who if they back Mares often or too soon they will quickly grow old and will never be fit for any warlick service But what difference there is between men and women or what cause or reason there is in it that a woman is sooner barren than a man and ceaseth to eject her seed if any perhaps should require to know I say it is the natural hear wherein a man excells For since a woman is more moyst than a man A man is hotter than a woman as her courses declare and the softnesse of her body a man doth exceed her in native heat Now heat is the chief thing that concocts the humours and changes them into the substance of seed A man is longer fruitfull than a Woman which aliment the woman wanting she grows fat indeed with age but she grows barren sooner than a man doth whose fat melts by his heat and his humours are dissolved but by the benefit thereof they are elaborated into seed Also I ascribe it to this that a woman is not so strong as a man nor so wise and prudent nor hath so much reason nor is so ingenious in contriving her affairs as a man is CHAP. XXV Who chiefly take diseases from others And how it comes about that children grow well when Physick is given to the Nurse SInce contagious diseases infect all that come in the way of them yet they infect no men sooner than such whose Natures are of much affinity one with another as are Parents and Children Sisters Brothers Cousins who are in danger almost on all hand and the disease spreads amongst them And the nearer any man is of bloud and kindred the sooner he catcheth this mischief from others by reason of Sympathy that is consanguinity and agreement in humours and spirits Kindred soonest infected Wherefore when the Plague is hot and contagious diseases rage I use to speak to people of one blood to stay one from another and live something farther from them least the pestilent Ayre should infect them that will sooner lay hold of acquaintance and kindred than strangers and such as are not allyed Nurses infect children though none be free from danger The same reason serves for Nurses and children sucking at their brests for when the Nurse is sick all the force of the disease comes to the child and the Nurse is helped by it and escapes the danger For the force of the disease being diffused through the veins that are the receptacles of bloud and milk useth to be made exactly from bloud the child draws forth the worst and impure aliment whence it falls out that the whole force of the disease rests upon the child because the bloud which is the substance
the enemies Habbakuk explained in that place having his whole thoughts fastned upon God and relying upon him he opposeth himself against the enemy A simile from watch in camps Luk. 12. Math. 24. 1 Thes 5. 2 Pet. 3. and stops his way Our Saviour brings most evident comparisons whereby he warns every one of us of our duties taken from the watch kept in Armies from a thief coming to rob in the night from the sudden pangs of a woman in travel from a Bridgroom who goeth to adorn his Marriage from the secret and uncertain coming home of a Lord or Master of a Family Luk. 12. Math. 25. from sudden calamity and war from famine and want coming suddenly upon men from a figtree shooting forth blossâ—m and green figs Mark 11. from the day of death and last Judgment and many more such similitudes wherewith he gives us warning and makes us to stand in readinesse and to take care of our Salvation Christ gives young men an excellent example how to lead their lives from the first entring into it who grew himself daily in age and Wisdome Luk. 2. Christs youth commended and favour with God and men by reason of his meeknesse and integrity of life and it is fit we should principally imitate him and by his example make our selves approved to all of what estate and condition soever Jesus when he was twelve years old gave a large testimony of his goodnesse to all cordial men Christ is the mark and example of our â—ives he spake many things seasonably and to the purpose being asked questions he answered meekly and lowly without any shew of pride or boasting which are the vices arrogant and insolent young men use to be guilty of I collect from hence that there is great reason that all young people taking example from Jesus so soon as they put forth any argument of their towardnesse and ingenuity should shew something of vertue in them to their Parents and other they converse with But since there is need of some leader or guide that may shew them the way in which they ought to walk and what examples of life they ought to imitate I will shew in my discourse what Arts they ought to learn and what Patterns they ought to follow that they may attain the chief learning and may come up to the top of vertue or very near unto it CHAP. XII What Authors are fit to read to learn Eloquence of speech and soundnesse of Iudgment and what Arts are principally to be learned MAke such choice of Authors that you may have the best to read and imitate We must imitate the best A fimile from grafting of Trees For it is folly in imitation and emulation of study not to follow the best The very sowing of Corn teacheth us thus much in nature when we choose the best Wheat to sow in the ground and the art of grafting and inoculating teacheth as much for we graft the best sciences upon Trees and such as are very fruitfull the same may be observed in Painting Limming Musick Poetry and Oratory wherein the curious Scholler will endeavour to imitate the most cunning Masters in those professions The Apostle Paul will have the same thing to be done in Godlinesse and the gifts of the spirit 1 Cor. 11. By the Apostles rule we must strive for the best that men should contend for the best gifts For he that so orders his life shall never repent himself of his time spent therein as they commonly do who first enter upon a superstitious and vain course of Life and such whose speech is unseemly and are not accustomed to words that are used by learned men who must to their great trouble unlearn again what they have learned And herein Italy the Nurse of learning The commendation of Greece and Italy and learned Greece seems to be worthy of much commendation whose example is followed by France and the Low Countries in propounding to youth the knowledge of the best things For by this means it comes to passe that young men being furnished with purity of words and elegant language do seasonably attain to the knowledge of things CHAP. XIII A Censure upon the Heathen Writers THough there are some who do not justly judge of things who speak against We must embrace such Writings as will make us Eloquent in speech and banish prophane Authors as they improperly call them and would have no examples fetcht from them either for Eloquence of speech or direction of life yet I think they are not to be despised For Poets Oratours Comedians Tragedians Historians are a great help to youth to attain thereby the knowledge of words and things and to teach them the liberal Arts and solid learning unto which they make a ready and easie way What more polite learning can effect But these studies are deservedly called by the titles of humane and polite learning because they teach young people civility curtesy and good manners And from these also men in years receive honest delights and drive away the tedious cares of their lives which commonly compasse men about by reason of many businesses they are troubled with which thing is the reason that the orthodox Saint Basil In Epist ad Nepot Surnamed the Great diligently invited his Nephews to the reading of Poets and Oratours CHAP. XIV The office of a Poet and what helps he brings to studious youth and to those that are of ripe years The design of a Poet. L. 2. Epist ad Augustum HOrace shews in most elegant Verse how exact a Tutour a Poet is for language and manners being next kin to an Oratour and for this cause he is styled the Master that reacheth men the liberal Arts and how to regulate their lives A Poet is an exact teacher of manners A Poet frames the tender stutting Tongue And from ill words doth wrest the Ear that 's young And with good precepts doth inform the mind Correcting anger Envy makes men kind Relates the truth examples gives for time To come delights the Poor and sick with Rime Also a Poet inculcates some other wholesome precepts not severely or commandingly not by threatning lest they should fall away from what they have entred upon but pleasingly flatteringly sweetly and handleth all things with Art and moderation as a Horseman that tames Horses teacheth them to curvet and pranse and amble nimbly by soothing them and smacking with their mouth For to rebound and amble very fast Virg. Georg. 3. And not onely these delightfull studies raise spirit and vigour in the minds of young men but they are also usefull for men of riper years when they have time to breathe themselves from more serious and weighty matters of crabbed laws Poetry iâ— the most antient Art L. 10. c. 1. Now besides Theophrastus Cicero and Fabius testify that the Generation of Poets was the most antient and highly commended of old times For
keeping the old Channel by the shores of the Island Scheld Caesar l. 6. Comment it rowls into the Ocean with a violent and vast stream and from the old name it is called the Scheld the Hollanders usually call it Schelt the French L' Escault whence this Island is called Scheld commonly Schowe of which River the chief and main passage and deepest place Marriners usually call the Channel that the Ships must sail in that they stick not upon fords and stay in shallow places The skillfull Seamen of Zealand And at this time the people that live thereabouts know it exactly and call it by its name shewing the place where some years past it was wont to fall into the Ocean so that not in the most tempestuous night do our Marriners turn from it or sail the wrong way as sometimes it falls out with those that are not well skilled in Navigation When the roarring of the Scheld fore-shews a Tempest to the great losse of their wares and Passengers But in these places there are heard terrible noyses and roarings either when the tide goes out or else cornes in and the violence of the Sea exasperated by the winds strives against the stream of the River this useth to happen commonly when after North-winds South winds blow so that those that live neere perceiving above a mile off the roaring of the Sea and the Scheld will tell of a tempest to come more than three days before But when the mouths of the Sea were formerly narrower and the passages into the Continent nothing so wide the Scheld was seen more plainly running into the Sea but the Sea floods growing yearly the mouths and passages are enlarged thereby and their creeks are made greater as it falls out with gluttons whose throats are stretched with abundance of drink A simile from gluttons that have their throats made greater hence it comes that this River is drownd in the larger Salt water and its course whereby it runs into the Ocean can hardly be seen Shell-fish whence so called Some deceived by the affinity of the name thought that that kind of Fish which I once thought was Pliny his Haddock took his name from this River and from Schelt should Schelvish be called so because in the mouths of the Sea where this River disembog's and unloads her selfe that fish is caught with hooks or nets whereas it is I think so called rather from its scales in Dutch Scellen for Scelps are attributed to shell-fish and not to fishes wherewith it is covered very close all over and fenced as with a coat of Male Therefore when it must be sod for it will not be broyled all the scales must be scraped off with a knife otherwise than cod fish called Cabbelian commonly that is smooth with a soft skin Cabbelian without scales and is not catcht in the mouths of the Sea it runs into but in the deep far within the Sea though I am not ignorant that some Sea-fish oft times come into the very mouths of the Sea allured by fresh water and they grow extreame far by it as Salmons that swim out of the British and Scotish Seas against the stream into the Rhein Mase Eeles love Salt-water as also the Trissae Alosae Lacciae commonly called Elft the Mullets Harder Accipenser or Sturgion But the Eele contrary to Sea-fish swims to the Sea and having tasted that grows wonderfull nimble and not so slippery and more wholesome for meat whence it is that about the flood-gates for the fallings of the waters we call them Slusen from shutting that in Winter when the fields are full of water let this water out violently into the Sea Eeles mighty great are taken in nets and weils but of these I shall speak somtime more at large when Conrade Gesner a very learned man hath received satisfaction from me Conrade Gesner commended and when by way of recompence I have finished my compendium of lesser fishes names which I have dedicated to him But this River where it comes upon the borders of Schowe and from hence falls into the Ocean it parts the Eastern Islands of this Country from the Western whereof those that lye toward the East are called Beoester Schelt by the Inhabitants but those that are toward the South and Flanders are called Bewesterchelt as you would say the upper and nether or the neerer and farther Schowe Some are over the Scheld Zealand is divided into two questor-Ships others on this side the Scheld Now by these names are signifi'd two notable Questorships to which belongs a Praetorian dignity and Dictators power so that the governours of these places have power and right all the Country through besides the free Cities where the Consuls are Presidents and superintendents to punish wicked men with Kingly authority to correct wanderers and Vagabonds to imprison Knaves sturdy Rogues Beggars Cutters Oppressours and to examine them by torments and to cut off their heads whereby all things are very quiet and at peace and no man on his journey need fear any hostility The most illustrious Hieron à Seroskerka Hieron à Seroskerka a noble Gentleman of the equestrian order and to be esteemed highly in many more respects had this Office many years and he executed it inoffensively and worthily to his great honour Jodocus à Vuervia hurting no man And Jodocus à Vuervia a most magnificent man the governour of the Country in all our Island not without the expectation of the greatest dignities doth augment his Father in Law 's honour and greatnesse with an equall splendour of his descent and nobility Some years past this River running between the Zealanders that are in the same Earldome with the Hollanders and the Flemings raised most fierce contentions and bloody battels Both these people calls and honours their Princes by the name of an Earle Whence are Counts call'd adding some glorious titles to him which command arose from this because the prime nobility did in Warrs and dangerous designes accompany their Emperours and Cesars and did help them with all their might they are called by us commonly Graven which power and large title first grew in Justinians days and had that name given to it Then under Berengarius and Ottho that were competitors it was derived to posterity it was next in order to the Emperour for place and concomitancy But in the year 863 when Charls the bald was Emperour this principality began to be erected in Holland and Zealand that is next to the Hollanders and to be called an Earldome And the first Earl that was created and bore this name was Theodoricus Son to Sigisbert Prince of Aquitan and he held that command 38 years and he made Theodoricus the second his Son and Heir successour to him and so unto our dayes From him is this Kingly power by a long series of noble men devolved unto the most invincible Philip King of Spain and goes under
especially in the month of March Whence comes the Nails Also this Infant that was a Female wanted her nails upon her fingers and the utmost joynts of her fingers upon which from the musculous or cartilaginous matter of the skin nails that are very smooth do come forth and grow hard there appeared hardly any marks or prints of nails and they were not so hard as horn but soft as thin skin But on the joynts of their feet there were not resemblance of nails because those parts are not so hot as the hands and are farther from the heart the Fountain of heat for the joynts of the hands that are fastned to the brest by the Armes by the benefit of the heat that is diffused from the heart have more apparent signes on the fingers than any other parts The judgement of Physitians concerning Child birth with no favour or disfavour unto any Wherefore the Physitians observing many naturall causes and depending on solid reasons with favour or disfavour to neither side but as the matter would beare it if he would be so content that was in question to set his integrity and honesty upon it pronounced before the Judges to whom that tryall was commited by them that amongst the Dutch are the King of Spains vicegerents at Brussels that this Infant was to be taken for a Child not of nine but of seven months birth the time the woman went with Child being 27 weeks and such a Child must be accounted born in seven months though the time was not quite finished and one or two weeks were wanting and some dayes to make the time compleat But in this businesse the Moons circuit must be observed The Moon makes the months for women with Child that is perfect in four weeks that is in lesse than 28. days in which space of her revolution the blood being agitated by the force of the Moon the courses of women flow from them which being spent and the matrix cleansed from the menstruall blood as it useth to be oft times on the fift or seventh day Naturall conception is after the courses if after that time a man lye with a woman the conception proves to be most naturall so that the Infant born after seven or nine months is most healthfull and free from diseases to which Children use to be obnoxious For Children use to be troubled with many diseases by reason of the menstruall blood The Epilepsie is Childrens diseases that stays in the Matrix at the time of conception as are the Measils that is lively eruptions commonly called Measils and small-Pox in low dutch Maeselen ende Pocken and other red or wan Pushes that are contracted by the menstruall foulnesse and in the Spring or Summer thrust themselves forth into the outward parts of the body To this we may add the Epilipsie or Falling-sicknesse the Dutch call it Vallende Siecte which disease because it hath many differences the superstitious Gentiles of old were wont to referr it to certain Gods before the light of the Gospel was revealed to men whereas it proceeds from naturall causes and chiefly from clammy and tenacious flegme Moreover in the mouths of young Children there breed almost so soon as they are born some blisters about their throats and Palates the Araâ—â—ans call them Alcolam the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dutch dan Sprowe What is Alcola and uâ—der rheir tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly call'd the Frog What the Frog is in low Dutch Spanare which either by incision or with ones naile or rubbing with Salt as I use to do when they fear the iron instrument or Oxymel of Squils is taken away to say nothing of Hydrocephalon A spongy head that is a head swoln with a spongy watry humour and of many other collections of humours that come from vitious milk and menstruall blood which also use to accompany men in yeares and when they seem to be gon they will come oft times again Therfore both in tilling and sowing of ground A simile from tilling of ground as also in copulation with women and manuring that ground and proâ—reation of Children even by Moses law the Moons motion was to be observed by force whereof at set times womens courses run or are stopt The Moons circuit is performed through the Zodiack in 27 dayes and in one third part of a day which dayes comprehending lesse than four weeks make a Lunar month In how many dayes the Moon peâ—fects her course especially if you take away that time that this planet lyeth hid and is not seen for she is three dayes more or lesse in conjunction that is as they say conmonly the time she is invisible See Galen of decretory dayes in which time she doth not exercise her force upon the earth and is not fit to alter them But when she begins to shew her selfe and is new and when she is full that is she is in opposition to the Sun and shews round she hath wonderfull force in conception and many other things for she both augments Corn and fruits and shell-fish and flesh that hangs to the roofs of houses is corrupted by the beams of it shining upon it such as sleep or continue long in the Moon light she makes pale and trembling and heavy headed brings the Epilepse to Children as also stupidnesse and the Palsey and many more things she doth not that she exceeds the other Planets but she doth it by being so neere to us For she being so placed in the lowest Orb The Moon is a Planet next the Earth and next to the earth she doth so guide the beginnings and increase of things that by the effect of her even after conception of the seed the Child in the Mothers Womb by the Mothers blood that nourisheth it is augmented and made to grow The time of carrying the Infant is to be referred to the course of the Moon Also all the time a woman goes with Child whether you please to measure it by dayes or months or weeks as great bellyed women commonly use to reckon must be referred and counted by the age of the Moon But she shews her forces more effectually upon the body either when first she meets with the Sun begins to be enlightned by him or when she is round and full but when she is but a halfe Moon she hath lesse forces and least of all when she is crooked and by degrees fades and is obscured For at that time there is no concourse of waters in the Ocean no abundance of humours in the bodies of men no collection of marrow in the bones so that then it is fit for tender bodies to leave off copulation and to make a League with it But I oft times use to foretell to women great with Child when their travel shall be easie When the birth will be easie and so to raise their minds to hope very well if they chance
Church Moreover in the administration of houshold affairs and in setling and confirming our private estates that they fall not to decay all things must be so moderated that we may not incur the names of prodigals or spend-thrifts or of covetous dry holdfasts that are too sparingly niggards It is Parsimony that preserves a mans estate and thereby it increaseth and grows greater Moderation to be used in all things yet you must not be so straight-fisted as to defraud your belly and to starve your families as some sordid rich men do again you must not as wasters do make havock of what you have and consume your possessions joyning with you some companions of this strain who will perswade you to do it and lead you on in riotous courses Now as Terence saith he that seeks for gain must spend So Plautus tells us that there can be no gain where the expence is greater than the gain The Low Dutch speak that sentence thus A Proverb commending frugatily Stelt 〈◊〉 teringhe naer 〈◊〉 neringhe Whereby they mean that a man must so moderate his expences that he may not waste his estate by immoderate profusenesse but that there should be an equal proportion between our wealth and our expences wherefore it is the part of an industrious house-keeper sometimes when it is requisite to bring forth out of his treasury what is needfull and again when it is time to lay up For as the Proverb is Late parsimony is hurtfull Parsimony is too late at the bottom The Law that Amasis king of the Egyptians made and which Solon the Athenian Law-giver practised is not from our purpose nor from the profit of the Common-wealth and preservation of private families whereby there was provision made as Herodotus testifies L. 3. Enterpe that the people and inhabitants should give an account every year to the Governours of Provinces how they lived and what way they used to gain their food and they who could not make that appear and shew that they came honestly by what they had should be put to death Amasis his Law against idle persons By the severity of which law he strove to restrain idle persons that they might have no occasion to rob and steal to which they commonly fall who have spent their fathers estates in gaming and riot and whoring and have totally exhausted their patrimonies From hence I suppose was that Law instituted amongst the Corinthians against prodigal people and such as carelesly consume their estates or feast more costly and sumptuously than their yearly annuities and rents will bear Which since Diphylus in Athenaeus relates it and Erasmus L. 6. who hath deserved much in all Arts hath put it into Verse I am willing to set it down here whereby the Magistrate may enter upon a course that may effect and hinder Cities and suburbs and places near to Cities from being so much robbed and spoiled by thieves and robbers who night and day go about to steal away mens goods that are kept in safety and who violently and barbarously torment those that will not discover where their treasures lye hid The meaning of this Law is expressed in these Verses The Law of expence amongst the Corinthians The Corinthians had a Law Which was when they any man saw Live at high rates him to demand What great estate he had or Land What he did for to recompence The costs he made and vast expence If he could then just reason give Of what he had they let him live But if they found by his account That his expences did surmount They gave him warning that no more He should spend as he did before If he their counsel did reject He was fin'd for his neglect But if one who had no estate Chanced to live at a great rate Him they tortur'd for that he From doing mischief was not free For he must either robor steal And damnifie the Common-weal Or joyn with such or else forswear Himself or else false witnesse bear Now they that live amongst this rout As dung from this place we cast out The Apostle Paul was no lesse severe an exactor of duties 2. Thes 3. Saint Paul commands idle persons to work who commands that sluggards and idle persons shaking off lazinesse should work with their own hands that they may be able to maintain their families and he would have this so strictly observed that he denied to give them any meat who refused to work and were not carefull to provide for their houshold but lived like drones to eat up the honey the Bees labour for living idly on other mens liberality and bounty being employed in no businesse but their own curiosity Saint Pauls admonishment to thieves Ephes 4. Saint Paul also gives the same strict rule to thieves who rob other mens estates whom he not onely admonisheth to abstain from robbing but that they should labour honestly that they might have something to give to those that were in need so when a man hath contracted a blemish by an ill life he may wash it off by good works and liberality to the poor Such an example we have in Zachaeus who distributed to the poor what he had got by usury Luk. 19. For by this means the errours and defects of the former part of our lives are blotted out when we make recompence by our vertuous behaviour our affections being quite turned a contrary way and our old vicious depraved custome being laid a side CHAP. XXVI Moderation in sleeping and waking Moderation in sleeping and waking STudents and Magistrates amongst other things must take care for their sleeping and watching For if these be moderate and used seasonably they are of great concernment to establish and maintain health For beside that they make the body lightsome and lively they make the mind more ready and cheerfull to effect any duty Immoderate sleep makes men stupid sluggish witlesse forgetfull and these men hardly come up or attain to any famous Arts. Wherefore men of this condition are alwaies to be provoked to take pains to shake off sleepinesse and drowsinesse and to bethink themselves of something that may be worthy of a man that is free and at his own disposal When sleep at noon doth hurt What concerns sleep about noon and in the day time I would not have young men to use it unlesse they be tired with heat and labour or they have eat or drank disorderly or watched too long the night before for then without any dammage they may sleep at noon otherwise it weakneth the memory and clouds the mind and makes the head heavy and the eyes dark especially when they sleep with full bellies and moreover this inconvenience follows it that when they wake they nauseate and yawn and stretch themselves with open arms that is they retch their lims every way the vapours being diffused all over their bodies What it is to stretch by reason of a faint
of drives away Caterpillars and it kills Moths and cloathflies as Wormwood Rue wild Mints Southernwood Savory Walnut-leafs Fern Lavender Gith Coriander being green Fleawort Bean trifoly kills fleas and Wiglice either put under the beds or sprinkled upon the bedsteads with the decoction of the vinegar of Squils It is observed that in our times and also in our Ancestors days the seed of Navews that the Low-Countrey factors make so great profit of hath a wonderful force in killing Weezels not by any venomous quality but by the sweetnesse of it For it is sweet and oyly and the Weezels will leave the Corn and eat greedily on this till they be killed with Sweet things sometimes kill Worms And the same thing happens to them when they get into frails of Raisins So I know by experience that eating many Raisins will kill the Worms in Children if they eat them fasting without any thing else eaten with them For as bitter so sweet things taken abundantly will kill worms For they swell and burst with eating too much sweet meats So the stomach of a man will swell and be tortured if he cram in too much sweet things CHAP. XXII The cunningnesse of Worms in Mans body and what it portends when they come forth by the Mouth and Nostrils IT hath been seen sometimes miraculously that long and round Worms especially have crambled upwards and crept forth at the mouth and the nostrils and they do this by an imbred natural motion if a man be long fasting For then they bite the stomach Worms creeping out at the Nostrils and seek for meat and when they find none to satisfie them and preserve their lives they creep upwards and hunt for meat as far as the very throat For they by their natural instinct perceive that the food comes in that way and the nostrils being open to the very throat almost they creep thither and tickle the part or else they are cast forth by sneesing or are pulled forth with ones forefingers I have oft-times observed this in sound people and when I shewed them the cause of it I gave them content I have seen this also happen in sick people but not without some imminent danger foreshew'd by it For so great is the putrefaction and inflammation of humours in such bodies that the Worms cannot endure the deadly force of the disease wherefore they break forth of themselves not urged by any Crisis or naturally but from the malignity of the disease But when the violence of the disease abates and they are carried downwards with other excrements Hippocrates holds that to be healthfull but to come forth of their own accord L. 2. Aph. 18. and not forced by any faculty as we see in people that are dying is ill for the patient for by a sagacity of nature they find the body ready to fail and that they shall want their food and therefore they leave their habitation Mice forsake old houses So it is observed that Rats and Mice will forsake ruinous houses three moneths before they fall For they naturally perceive that the frame of the house begins to part and that the house will shortly fall So Lice and Fleas where they find mens bodies decay and that the blood fails in every part they either leave the body or lay hold on those parts that the blood and naturall heat stay longest in Experience from the sagacity of Lice For it is approved by those that search and bury the dead that they will hide themselves in that pit of the stomach where the breast blade ends or in that grisle that lyes upon the vocal arterie For those parts being next the heart are hot untill the last breath which when some related unto me that were employed about sick people I said presently That it was a certain sign of death and that the Soul was ready to breathe forth But since we formerly made mention of Worms I thought fit to add this That many things will kill all worms and drive them forth But nothing is better than Worms dryed upon a tile at the fire and the powder given to those that are full of worms will presently drive forth all within the body As Pliny and other searchers of Natural things assert that a man being stung by a Scorpion L. 10. c. 2. the remedy is to drink in oyl or wine the ashes of Scorpions So our Countrey-men say that the biting of a mad-dog is cured by the burnt hairs of the same creature drank in wine For it drives forth the venome and keeps off all the danger of it and makes the body that is bit that it is of force to attract and overcome the venome So sometimes two contrary poysons mingled do cure and not kill As Ausonius wittily sets down in an Epigram concerning a woman that would have poysoned her husband with Wolfs-bane A whorish Wife her jealous Husband to Gave poyson yet she fear'd it would not do Wherefore Quicksilver intermingled shee Thought for to hasten death which set him free For if apart these poysons you shall give They kill but joyn'd together make him live Laevinus Lemnius a Physitian of Zirizea CONCERNING Hidden and Natural Questions The Second Book CHAP. I. That humours and not bad Angels cause diseases yet the aereal spirits do mix themselves therewith and increase the diseases by adding fire unto them THere are some amongst us that are but moderately versed in the Works of Nature and know not the causes of diseases their original progresse and symptoms that follow or accidents and because they cannot attain to the reason of them they refer all to evil Angels and say they are bewitcht since the Devils do constantly employ themselves to hurt us Plenty and malignity of humours is the beginning of diseases So they that are sick of a Tertian Ague the humours entring the veins every third day are said to be troubled with an evil spirit and the like is said for quartans and continent feavers as quotidians diurnals and all burning Feavers But how unreasonable and absurd this is any man can tell that is moderately versed in the Secrets of Nature For since man's body consists of the mixture of the four Elements and hath as many humours which from the faculty of the seed partake of four qualities hot moyst cold dry what can be said more than that diseases arise from the distemper of these by defect or excesse and from thence they take their original It is proved because we see they grow mild and quiet by vomit sweat opening a vein cupping-glasses set to the part affected by the opening of the Terms and Emrods also by the giving of Glysters and Suppositaries But God for his inestimable Wisdome hath appointed orderly motions in the nature of things and would have nothing done rashly or by chance but all things in a decent order and continued series So the Stars the Elements the Sea the times of the year
Natures order and progresse and the Skies of Heaven have their motions and changes and move by a certain order The humours are under the like law for they have certain motions and effects and periods in mans body that every humour keeps its turn according to the variety of the four parts of the year and exercises it faculties and forces on mans body so it is that the blood in the spring is in force and breeds feaver and diseases of its own nature so choler every other day in summer with cholerick burning causeth a tertian Flegm The humours keep their times corrupting in the winter quarter causeth a quotidian intermitting and melancholly when Autumn comes makes a quartan So a diary ends in one day or a little more because that consists not in the putrefaction of humours but with an aereal spirit enflamed And all these are effected by the same law as the rising and setting of Stars are as also is the flux and reflux of the Sea and the pleasant change of hearbs and plants springing forth But that is admirable that the four humours make choise of certain hours and times of the day The motion of the four humours in the body and divide the artificial day and night amongst them by twelve temporal hours which to be true I have found by experience for by observing them I use to pronounce certainly when the feaver will come For the blood is vigorous as Soranus Ephesius testifies Math. 20. which like the Evangelists measure the times and spaces of day and night by equal hours from nine at night till three in the morning Mans mind more lively in the morning from the vapour of bloud in which time the blood is concocted and elaborated in the Liver Hence it is that the mind before day break is more chearfull and all people both sound and sick are more light-hearted by reason of the sweet vapour of the blood but yellow choller hath its turn from three in the morning till nine in the morning in which time the natural faculty doth part the choller from the blood and sends it to the Gall bladder hence it is that a man is then more prone to anger and will be easily offended but black choler or melancholique juice doth its office from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon and sits at helm In this time the Liver is cleansed of this grosse humour which is sent to the Milt by nature hence it is that in those hours the understanding of man is clowded and his mind is sad All the humours are vigorous at certain hours by the dark grosse fumes that arise from thence Flegme moves from three at night till nine at night for then supper being ended concoction begins in the stomach to be perfected and the meat to be boyled and turned to juice Hence it is that flegme swimming on the stomach and carried to the brain makes a man sleepy Now if you exactly count the manner of all these you shall find that the very hours that the several humours take their turns Feavers begin to assault the sick and as the spaces are ended that serve for the several humours if they be simple and without mixture the diseases are terminated also So continent Feavers and as many as proceed from blood come upon us in the morning tertians about nout noon that is at the sixth hour which is to us the twelfth hour both of day and night Quartans come about the ninth hour which is to us three in the afternoon The quotidian comes from flegme about the first watch of the night But if the humours overflow and are mingled one with another as they are wont to be then they keep not their lawfull times and orders for they are more sharp A simile from the concours of the Winds and continue longer For as winds coming together raise more grievous tempests When East and West Aeneid 1. and rainy South do roar Roling the mighty billows to the shoar So a disease is more violent by concours of humours and diseases joyned to cruelly torture mans body For in one body Ovid. Metam l. 1. cold hot moist and dry Soft hard light heavy strive for victory It is frivolous to refer the causes of these things to ill spirits For all these things consist in the corruption or inflammation quality or quantity of the humours For it is these things that make the fits shorter or longer Why blood causes continual feavers But when bloud much abounds in the body it causeth but one continual fit because that putrefaction and inflammation is in the receptacles of the veins in which the bloud runs as through Conduit Pipes Wherefore nature like a wise and faithful consul in a Civill and intestine war is alwaies at work and without intermission to cast forth the disease But flegme A simile from the Wisdome of a Consul yellow choller and black because they are not in so great quantities and are without the straightnesse of the veins they do not constantly molest but with intermission and diseases that arise from these humours are not so deadly because they have not so open a passage to the heart and principall parts and therefore cannot easily do so much hurt Yet some of these Feavours last long partly because the humour abounds and partly because of the clamminesse thereof that it can hardly be melted and concocted Wherefore Melancholiqe men are seldome merry Melancholique people not easily drunk unlesse they drink deep and of strong wine for that humour is wonderfull cold and dry Men of this constitution are like Iron that must have a great strong fire to make it hot A simile fit for melancholique people from burning Iron that it may be hammer'd For they want much strong Wine and they can well endure it and when they are well whittled they will play the mimicks and make sport and dance like Camels For being crabbed by nature when they are in drink they desire to seem very merry Melancholique Natures when they are hot with wine and pleasant And as they are hardly overcome with drink so they can as hardly be recovered of drunkennesse For when they drink abundantly and eat excessively it falls out that the thick grosse vapours stick faster to the brain so that the day following melancholique Imaginations grow more upon them For from the Wine the day before not digested and discussed their whole body sends up stinking vapours For it happens to them as it is with houses set on fire which though they are not wholly consumed by fire nor quite burnt up yet a burnt smell affects our nostrils and brain A good Simile from houses on fire so making ill favoured sents and vapours arising from the drink the day before are very offensive unto them and trouble their brain and minds and when they cannot discusse these and that they perceive their phantasms to increase they fall