Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A54667
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A brief historical discourse of the original and grovvth of heraldry demonstrating upon what rational foundations, that noble and heroick science is established / by Thomas Philipot ...
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Philipot, Thomas, d. 1682.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing P1991; ESTC R6107
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61,810
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152
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which in Winter when the Sun is in his recess or Apogaeum lies folded up in the entrails of the Earth Pluto or Plutus is painted with Wings when he abandons us but halting when he approaches us to intimate that Wealth is slow in coming but swift in departing Pluto was denominated the Deity of the departed Manes or Ghosts either because he first discovered the Method of burying the Deceased who before lay uninterred or it is probable the Rights Obsequies and Ceremonies of Funerals entitled themselves to his original Institution Priapus was stiled the God of Gardens because he was the Son of Bacchus that is the Sun and of Venus that is Moisture to demonstrate that Fruits Herbs Flowers Plants and Trees are engendred and improved by the Suns Heat and their own radical Moisture Some make Priapus the Son of the Nymph Nais others of Chion which signifies Snow by which is insinuated that Moisture in Summer and Snow in Winter by Cloistring up the natural Heat of Herbs and Plants are the Causes of Fertility Prometheus it is probable was an Astronomer who continually and curiously beholdding the Celestial Fires that is the Stars and upon Caucasus observing the Suns Motion was said to be chained to that Mountain and to have his Heart corroded and gnawn by the Eagle of Care and Study Prometheus was a Philosopher who diligently observing lightning Comets and other flaming Meteors was said to steal Fire from Heaven and was the first that found out the use of Fire for the benefit of Mankind for which after his decease he was honoured with Altars Sacrifices and Festivals in which to enhaunse the Memory of this Important Invention Men in the Night traversed the Streets with lighted Torches Prometheus made up his Man of the parts of other Creatures and by consequence of their qualities also to intimate that Man alone hath in him the noxious dispositions of the wildest Beasts the Foxes subtilty the dissimulation of the Crocodile who is said to weep when Death lies bathing in his Tears the Goats Salacity the Bears or Wolves cruelty the Lions fierceness and Anger and the Tygers Rapacity By Rhea the Ancients understood the Earth deduced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to flow because she flows with all things either necessary or superfluous or rather because all Springs and Rivers are continually flowing in her and upon her she was stiled Ops either from Wealth or Help either because she contributes Riches or else is subservient to us under the pressure of Danger or Necessity Rhea was painted like an ancient Matron attired in a branched or flowry Vesture with a Crown like a Tower on her Head with a Scepter in one Hand and a Key in the other her visage did signifie the Earths Antiquity her flowry Superficies her Circular or Orbicular Figure the Castellated Crown her Strength in supporting so many Towers and Cities as likewise her Dominion over all Creatures for the Earth in their composition is most predominant and her Key doth suggest that sometimes she is open as in Summer and Spring when Plants and Trees bud out of her Entrails and sometimes shut as in Winter her Chariot was drawn with Lions which may denote either Earthquakes or Inundations which are indeed the two great winding Sheets of Nature Saturn was by Antiquity represented in the pourtraicture of an Ancient Man bareheaded in a ragged garment holding a Hook and a Key in his Hand and devouring his Children by which they signified the Antiquity and long duration of time his bare head intimated that Time unvails the most gloomy secrets his ragged Vesture insinuated that time corrodes and consumes all things which was also understood by his devouring his Children as also by his Hook and Sickle his key declared that Time unlocked all those Mysteries that lay wrapped up in the dark Cabinet of Fate Saturn was likewise described with Six Wings and woollen feet to suggest to us that time seems to glide away silently and slowly whereas indeed he flies away swiftly Saturn devoured all his Children except Jupiter Juno Neptune and Pluto to signifie that Time destroyed all compounded bodies but the four Elements to wit Fire Air Water and Earth which by reason of their simple Nature are not liable to corruption Saturns Genitals were cut off by Jupiter and cast into the Sea and of them and of the Marine Froth was Venus engendered by which may be discovered that the coldness of Saturn is attempered by the Heat of Jupiter and so Venus was produced for there can be no procreation where Heat does not qualifie Cold or else by this was insinuated that Saturn Jupiter and the Sea are required to the production of Venus that is to say that Time the Influence of Heaven and Moisture are obliged to concur to the accomplishment of Generation By Scylla Charybdis Palaephatus understands two such Pyratical Ships and Gallies in the Tirrhene Sea pillaging all Merchants that traded that way which from their swiftness in sailing and the Rapacity of the Pirats within them were affirmed by Antiquity to be transformed into a Sea Monster composed of Dogs and Wolves These Vessels Vlysses by the conduct of a successful Gale of Wind outstript and so declined all prejudice Natalis Comes and others by Scylla and Charybdis assert two dangerous Rocks between Sicily and Italy to be signified which being hollow and the Tides gliding through them produced an horrid Noise resembling the howling of Wolves or barking of Dogs and because there were divers Monstrous Fishes that lurked within their Cavities and devoured the bodies of those who had suffered the angry Fate of Shipwrack the luxuriant Fictions of Poets delivered that these were monstrous Women above and Dogs and Wolves below Scylla Daughter to Nisus King of the Megarenses betrayed his fatal Hair to Minos that is her Fathers most intimate Counsels to his Capital Adversarie In that Nisus was metamorphosed into an Hawk which still pursued Scylla transformed into a Lark we may discover the nature of a guilty Conscience which abandons a Man not in Death but is distorted with the Agonie and Torture of its own Conviction and affrightment wheresoever it resides Some understand Sphynx to be an Amazonian woman but an eminent Robber infamous for her Rapine and Effusion of Blood who lurked amongst in hospitable and almost inaccessible Rocks who with a collected body of Outlaws made frequent excursions from the Hill Sphingius upon the Thebans but at last was subdued and destroyed by Oedipus The Thebans were accustomed to bear the pourtraicture of Sphynx on their Ensigns Minerva placed it on her Helmet and the Aegyptians at the Entrance of their Temples to intimate that wise men Souldiers and Priests should be cautious and circumspect and so involve their Words and Actions that they might not be too open or despicable to the prejudice of the State or Religion The Syrens were said to be the Daughters of Achelous the River either in reference to that melodious
Improvement from Water Oceanus was stiled the Son of Coelum and Vesta that is of Heaven and Earth because the Sea entitles its preservation and motion to the Heavens and by them is encompassed and is supported by the Earth as a Child is sustained by its Mother Oceanus was denominated Father of all the Gods to declare that all things ascribe and denote their Original to moisture without whose concurrence there could be neither Generation nor Corruption Oceanus was likewise affirmed to be Father of all the Nymphs because all Springs and Rivers attribute their first pedigree and extraction to the Ocean All the Gods are said to be carressed and feasted by Oceanus perchance this Fiction was established to confirm the Ancient Opinion of the Stoicks who asserted that the Stars being of a fiery constitution were not only attempered but likewise fed by those moist Vapours which were exhaled from the Sea Oceanus was by Antiquity painted with a Bulls head either to insiâ—â—ate the impetuous rushing of the Ocean against the adjacent shores or else to manifest the Bellowing and Clamor of its Waters when they are breathed upon and discomposed by intemperate and tumultuous Winds Juno is said to be nourished and educated by Oceanus to denote that correspondence the Air maintains with the Ocean both by Situation and Nature for the Water is easily converted into Air and that again into Water the Clouds are ingendered of marine Vapours and those melt and dissolve again into the Lap of the Ocean Tethis Wife to Oceanus was anciently painted with Gray Hairs and a white Garment either to signifie the Antiquity of Navigation or else to demonstrate the Fears and Cares of Navigators and therefore Thetis is said to have been married to Peleus who it is probable was some Island Prince and an experienced Navigator Orion is a constellation composed of seaventeen Stars which usually arises in Winter at which season violent storms are excited and Cataracts of Rain descend therefore in relation to that darkness of Air caused by Orion by muffling it up in such a quantity of gloomy Exhalations that engender Tempests Rain and Thunder he is said to obscure the Celestial powers themselves and because much Rain entitles its production to his influence therefore he is affirmed to be engendered of the Urine of the Gods He was destroyed by Diana's Arrows because his fainter Beams are involved in the more refulgent light of the Moon Others deliver he was slain by the Scorpion for when this rises the other sinks and is obscured Orpheus was an Astronomer who instructed the Graecians in that mystical knowledge by discovering the Motion Harmony and Order which is amongst the seaven Planets typified by his Harp whose Musick did result from seaven strings for which cause they placed it amongst the Stars about which Antiquity lodged the Bull Lion and other Creatures which afforded Original to that Fiction that the most Savage Animals were charmed into softness by the entrauncing musick of his melodious Harp By Pan may be signified the Universe as the word imports therefore to improve the Fiction Antiquity affirmed he was compacted of the Sperm of all Penelope's Woers because the World is composed of the Seeds of all things his red Face was to denote the Colour of Heaven his being attired in the spotted Skin of a red Bear represented the Starry Firmament his long Beard suggested the Masculine Vertue of the Fire and Air in the production of things his Rough and Hairy Thighs and Legs insinuated the roughness of the Earth made rugged with Rocks Trees and Bushes By his Shepherds Crook in one hand may be intimated that Providence by which the World was swayed and managed by the seaven Pipes in the other hand may be typified the Harmonious Motion and Order of the seaven Planets The Ancients painted him with Wings to discover the Celerity of the Motion of the Celestial Orbs. By Pan some understand the Sun his Horns intimate his Rays his crooked Staff the Suns oblique Motion in the Zodiack his prolixe Beard his Light which he casts downwards as his Horns resembled his Beams which he darts upwards with these he illuminates the upper Region with those the lower His Wings denote the swiftness of his Motion his cloven feet signifie the two Hemispheres He was by Antiquity pourtrai'd invested with a flowry or branched Garment to discover how the Earth is attired with Herbs and Flowers at the Suns approach He is the Deity of Mountains Woods and Groves because in those recesses he was first adored He was the Tutelary God of Shepherds because they first admired the Suns Motion Influence Power and Beauty and therefore attributed divine Honours to him Pan was the inventor of the Trumpet or Cornet for War with the unacquainted sound of which the Persian Army was so astonished that they fell into the disorder of a Defeat and gave up the Day and themselves to a cheap Execution Hence sprang the appellation of Panick Terrors to express sudden Fears The Arcadians maintained a perpetual Fire in the Temple of Pan by which they represented the Sun and his constant and uninterrupted Light By the three fatal Sisters stiled Lachesis Clotho and Atropos and by a more general Title denominated the Parcae may be signified the secret decrees of Heaven concerning Mans Birth Life and Death Therefore Antiquity affirmed them to be the Daughters of Jupiter Themis or Justice because nothing attends us in this Life but by the Decree of the supream Cause established upon his Justice and because these Decrees should rather be adored than pried into the Fictions of Antiquity asserted these three Sisters to inhabit a gloomy Cave and to be the Daughters of Erebus and Night because the judegments of Heaven are inscrutable and because the Eternal Decrees are immutable therefore the Gentiles affirmed the Fates to be the Daughters of Necessity into whose Temple at Corinth it was not lawful for any man to enter insinuating that no man ought to scan or search the secret Decrees of Heaven Perseus was said to be engendered by Gold either because his Hair was Yellow or that his Mother was bribed by Gold to prostitute her body to Jupiter or lastly because a vast Stock of Wealth devolved to him from his Predecessors The Gorgons which Perseus destroyed are thought by some to be a Species of Serpents in Africa stiled Catoblepae which kill with their Eyes looking still downwards If we will be like Perseus Christian Souldiers indeed and merit a Place amongst the Stars like him we must subdue the Catoblepae or Gorgons within us even those narrow covetous Affections that are still looking downwards and fastned on Earth and Earthly Affairs By Pluto the Ancients understood the Sun he is stiled the God of Hell in relation to his being under the Earth when he gilds the Antipodes with his retired Light he is said to ravish Proserpina that is the seminal vertue which dwells in Plants Trees Herbs and Corn