be an error c. Hence it is clear that true Religion and the constant practice of Virtue doth chiefly consist in the true understanding and distinguishing the principles and Powers of God first in Man's self and next in other things for the great Eternal Fountain of God's Love Light and Mercy of which a very large Portion did not only dwell in the Human Body of Jesus Christ from whose Virtue and Holy Power did proceed and flow all those wonderful things he did but the very same united Fountain has been an Inhabitant amongst the Sons of Men even from the beginning and is the Eternal Son of the Great Creator by whom all things were made and by whose Power and Virtue they are preserved and as Christ himself said Except I be in you that is Except this Eternal Light and sweet Love of God reign in your Hearts You are Reprobates It is the Holy Eternal Principle and Fountain of God's Love and Power that Essentially dwells in the very Centre of all Mens Hearts and who give up their Wills and Desires to be Guided and Conducted by its Council It never failed to Reconcile and Unite their Souls to their Creator This Central and Holy Preserving Power in the Human Body of the World is in every Specifick Body or Thing respectively according to the Graduation of each Being or Creature and as each Creature is more or less dignified with a larger or lesser proportion of this Holy Virtue this Eternal Divine Power that Creature or Thing is accordingly better or worse This whole Visible World is nothing else but the Great Body of God which was made by his Eternal Love and Power and is ever sustained by the same and as God preserves the Macrocosm by his everlasting Fountain of Light and Love in the very same manner he doth the Microcosm Man or little World which contains all the true Properties of the Great so that the Power of the Eternal Son of God and Fountain of all Beings is not limited to any Specifick Body but is Incomprehensible and Unfathomable filling Heaven Inhabiting the Centre of all Bodies giving Virtue Light and Love to all according to the Graduation and Capacity of each It is therefore of great and unspeakable Advantage and Use to Mankind to know Christ or the Divine Fountain of God's Eternal Word manifested in the Human Nature that is to arrive at the true Knowledge of God in our selves for the Manifestation of Christ or the Son's Power in the Flesh is the right Distinction every Man makes in himself of God's Eternal Voice of Wisdom Love and Mercy c. that directs us in the Paths of true Virtue and secures us from the Spirit of Error Violence and Oppression Pray tell me what will it avail any Man that the Holy Divine Power of God did in an extraordinary degree and fulness dwell in the Human Body of Christ by which he performed many excellent and wonderful things and at the same time knew nothing of the Divine Manifestation of God's Eternal Love in his own Human Nature If that remains a Mystery unmanifested in and to himself he will be but little benefitted by the Divine Power and Love of God manifested in the Human Body of Christ It matters not what Names Men are pleased to distinguish themselves by God knows no Names 〈◊〉 Natures This is the true Use we are to make of the right Understanding of Jesus Christ's Humanity which it hath pleased God to manifest to many who have been willing to submit to and 〈◊〉 guided by the Voice or Principle of Divine Light which dwâ—… in the Centre of every Man's Life And certainly it is the greatest Blessing both here and hereafter to know Christ Jesus 〈◊〉 the Divine Fountain of God's Eternal Love manifested and distinguished in our Human Natures for from this Power of the Son our Gracious Lovely Fountain doth proceed Justice Merâ—… Love Compassion Cleanness Temperance Order and in 〈◊〉 doing unto all Creatures as we would be done unto it is the Eye of the Soul whereby Men are enabled to distinguish in themselves from what Principles and Fountains every Thought Word and Work doth arise and exert its self in the Humâ—… Ground or Nature Hence it is fully evident that the Knowledge of Christ or the Son of God manifested in our Flesh and Human Nature teachâ—… and powerfully inclines every one that obtains this Spring-heâ—… of Blessings to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth to 〈◊〉 his Neighbour nay his Enemies and behave himself as a 〈◊〉 and Faithful Steward in the Management of all things put undâ—… his Government to one who has the witness of this Truth 〈◊〉 fested in his Soul all Controversies Disputes and Contentâ—… cease having a firmer and better certainty in himself than 〈◊〉 can be drawn from partial and wrangling Debates It is Coâ—… ence bears him Testimony with St. Paul that all that can 〈◊〉 known of God is manifest and known in a Man's self Aâ—… this be true as undoubtedly it is wherefore do Men so fooâ—…ly enquire elsewhere and look abroad for what they may 〈◊〉 little Application readily find in themselves Therefore my Friend turn the Eyes of your Soul inward and 〈◊〉 shall find the Son 's Blessed and Amiable Power in the Centre of 〈◊〉 Life to which you must compel your Will and Affections to be 〈◊〉 and Obedient 'T is this Self-Study I recommend to your daily Prâ—… all other things are Foreign to your Interest but this Knowledge 〈◊〉 stand you in everlasting Stead and administer Infinite Comfort 〈◊〉 Satisfaction when all outward Assistances shall fail and desert yoâ—… Your truly Loving Friend T. T. LETTER XII Of an Afflicted MIND SIR I am now Reading your kind 〈◊〉 and am sensibly concerned you meet with such a heap of Troubles in your Affairs espeâ—…lly the Loss of your two Brothers which must of necessity 〈◊〉 sensibly invade your Peace and Quiet and if given way to multiply Afflictions in your Mind and Body there is no shelter 〈◊〉 such Cases but an humble and intire Submission to the Divine â—…ill and Providence which will in time afford you the best Reâ—…dy especially if you can perswade your self to lead a Philosoâ—…al and Pythagorian Life in Meats Drinks Exercises and Communications the last of these if duly observed will add â—…ndantly to the Health of your Body and the Content of your â—…ind I could heartily wish it were in my power to join with 〈◊〉 in so noble a Design nothing in the World could be more 〈◊〉 my good liking As to your Indisposition I cannot at preâ—…nt give you better Advice than I have already done when I â—…coursed you in London however I would have you if possiâ—… to exalt your Mind that your present Afflictions and Cirâ—…stances may not get Dominion over you for neither your 〈◊〉 Natural Spirits nor Body are able to endure such Fatigues â—…ations and Troubles as others who are of more sturdy Conâ—…tions Much
up and Teach the Lâ—…fulness of War and Fighting and not so much as contradict 〈◊〉 Practice of Eating the Flesh and Blood of Innocent Underâ—…ted Creatures by which means no Man is safe longer than the fear of Death and Sword of the Magistrate protects him or whilest the greater wrath Commands the lesser and keeps it in Subjection Now the only Method to cure this prevailing mischief is for every man to look down into himself and accurately to distinguish from what Principle all the Actions and Practice of Life do take their Birth for in our selves Colonel God has Essentially planted all the great Misteries of Nature and what is needful to be known the first Step to all Prudence Virtue and the Fear of God is Mercy Compassion Justice and Innocence all which Spring only from Gods Divine Kingdom of Love and Light and no man can approach and be United to the Fountain of Benignity but by the practice and Imitation of Gods Holy Law Which Consideration with others mentioned in this Epistle may I hope be sufficient to confirm you in the disgust you have taken against that Bloody and Violent profession Honoured Sir Your most Humble Servant T. T. LETTER XVI Of Employments arising from the Fountain of Darkness SIR I Haâ—…e considered the Contents of your kind and loving Letter and am glad to find your Curiosity Busied in such useful and necessary disquisitions as to be truly informed how every Man may come to understand and distinguish in himself the two Grand Fountains of Good and Evil or Gods Eternal Principle of Love as also that of Wrath. NOW you must Remember Man is a Compleat Image of all Fountains Principles Powers Qualities and Operations and altho' we have in several of our Writings already Answered this Question in the gross nevertheless as a Testimony of an hearty desire to have you fully instructed in all points that become a reasonable Creature I shall with all readiness give your thirsty Soul a more particular Account of Words Works Employments Meats Drinks Trades Arts Sciences c. from what Principle or Fountain each takes its Birth and Original in the manifested Word of God or the Principles of this Visible World which shall be presented as a Mirror or Looking-Glass for every Man to behold himself and his Actions in so that each may clearly discern the great danger he is in being prest and as it were hemm'd in on all sides with evil wholly under the power of divided forms and qualities which have their whole Operation in a Hostile way And to do our business effectually we shall first begin with Children and shew the fundemental mistakes and errors of their Education from whence all inclinations to all manner of Violence Oppression and Cruelty doth arise Mothers Nurses and those to whom generally the Care and Instruction of Children is committed do by their improper Methods and ill Conduct too often awaken and advance in the green and tender branch the three Grandsons of the Devil Gluttony Pride and Idleness continually forcing Meats and Drinks upon them neither agreeable in quality nor proportionable in quantity which general evil juices thicken and condensate the Blood and alarm the central Fires to the discomposure of the whole Body and the perpetual uneasiness of the tortur'd Child who fills the whole House with Outcries and Lamentations then no more suitable Remedy is found to quiet it but another Dose filling his Head with a deal of impertinent Tattle and Nonsense which has no better effect than adding Fewel to the Fire and augmenting the disturbance and which if it were not through folly neglect and inadvertency grown into a custom would be condemned and abhorred as sinful and abominable Then when they come to be about Three Quarters or a Year Old and begin to distinguish one thing from another the lesson of Pride is very formally and mischievously inculcated and prescribed to them by pointing and asking them where they are Fine making a great and silly noise and wonderment at new Shoes Stockings Petticoats c. till they are Seven Eight Nine or Ten Years of Age. All this while the Fathers Mothers Nuâ—…s Servants c. do not only teach countenance and cultivate the two former Vices Pride and Gluttony but double their industry to make them idle and wanton the Seeds whereof being too soon and early awakened make such deep and lasting impressions both in the outward and inward Practice insomuch that they become so fixt and central that all the tutoring and endeavouring of themselves or others can never be able to obliterate or remove them but remain as so many sealed Spells or Characters that can never be dissolved All or most Plays or Games Children in their Infancy are tolerated in with a thousand odd Postures Tricks Frolicks and impertinent Rhimes Words and insignificant and useless Inventions arising from the dark Kingdom and Fantasy Spirit of this World furnish them with fit and apt materials for Sports of an higher malignity proceeding from the Center of Wrath as Stage-plays Cudgels Ninepins Cards Dice Billiards Table Shuffleboard Racing Cock-fighting Bull-baiting Bear-baiting Dog-fighting c. whereby all sorts of enmity is taught and advanced Besides the frequent custom and practice of abusing and oppressing the Beasts and subordinate Creatures by over-working them suffering tâ—…m to want and the like doth mightily excite and strengthen the seeds of Envy Hatred and Cruelty c. Likewise all Jesting Bantering Jeering wanton Discourses and all other Essays of a little Wit and a large Impudence Passionate Railing bitter Invectives Calumnies Lying Swearing Nick-names and spending precious time in prating of things we are not concerned in or not at all edifying all formal Complements fawning Addresses Love Stories Plays and Romances be they of what kind soever do all proceed from the same Fountain and produce the same dire effects Also all Employments and Trades that bear the marks and signatures of Violence as Butchers and all Killers of Beasts Fish or Fowl Fishers Hunters Hawkers Nets Traps and Gins with abundance of other devices to betray the innocent and let the guilty go free and all that buy or sell Dead Bodies of Creatures for Funeral-Shows Embalmings c. are toucht with the like pernicious Evil All Carmen Horse-coursers Drivers Beastherds Swine-herds Seamen Miners Brick-makers and all slavish robust Employments border on the black Center which is evident from their Qualities most of them being surly rash cruel impudent Swearers and Drunkards nay even the fair Sex and most Sanguine natur'd Spirits will by the use of their gross and Saturnine Employments be quickly tainted with the Infection of the enâ—…s and spiteful Powers by reason of the latent image and resemblance of all things in the Humane Soul It is to be observed also that all Meats and Drinks proceeding from the dark Center ought to be avoided viz. Flesh and Fish which are not only gross and unclean but cannot be procured without death to the Creature
or separating Quality of the Stomach hide themselves and continue in the Arms and sweet Embraces of the uniting sweet Quality so that there is no such Division or Transmuting the Body and sweet Virtues into a fiery Principle as is done in Fermentation and Distilling therefore if the Meats and Drinks be temperate and equal in their Qualities the Nutritive Juices are the same thro' the whole Body and the Volatile Salt of such Foods influences the whole with its pleasant Virtues whence proceeds a brisâ—… lightsome Temper which is the highest pitch of Health not but that the equallest and best Meats and Drinks have the same fiery Principles hid in them as a Mystery which are not known nor perceived by the nicest and most curious Palates so long as is already hinted the Thing or Food remains entire But still they are there for they are the Father as we call it being the original of those things I mean the first and the last as is more apparent by the Excrements of all Animals and also by their Bodies when they fall into Putrefaction wherein there is a considerable quantity of Sal Petre or Nitre contained and in some more than others according as the Constitution of the Creature is hotter or colder but the hottest affords the most which being refin'd by Water and the help of Fire is separated from the phlegmy gross Parts of which Gun-powder is made that with the addition of other Sulphurs viz. Brimstone and Charcoal being the head Principle of that cruel fierce Fire which excâ—…eds all others as proceeding from grosser darker and more Excrementitious Matter and as it were generated in the very Abyss of evil Qualities wherein the Light and uniting good Qualities of Nature are wholly extinguished and as in the Art of Fermentation and Distillation all the sweet Virtues of the Vegetable Kingdom are Changed or Transmuted into a burning fiery Spirit the like Putrefaction does in the Bodies and Excrements of Animals and as this last is more heavy gross stinking and baneful so is the Production thereof And here give me leave to observe to you that there is no other way found out to separate or incircle the fiery Sal Nitral original Principles of Animals from their sweet Virtues than by Putrefaction all the Art and Skill of Man being not able to touch or unlock their Sulphur or Oily Bodies so strongly are their sweet Properties incircled by the Animal Digestion which does every moment advance and transmute Insensible into Sensible things and Inanimate into Animation by which wonderful Method and secret Operations of Nature Vegetables become higher Graduated and attain to the farthest pitch any Created thing can attain to which is a Sensitive Life and about which such a powerful and natural Circle is drawn as will admit of no farther Progression or Advance So that now it clearly follows that those things that have passed thro' the Animal Kingdom or Digestion of any sensitive Creature will not produce so clean a Nutriment and fine Spirits as Vegetables do each Production or Thing being mild or fierce and turbulent clean or the contrary according to the original from whence it proceeded and therefore I say farther 't is past the Skill of the most Ingenious Spagyricks to Extract any Cordial sweet Virtues from those original Sal Nitral Powers that all putrified Excrements or Bodies of Animals are endued with nor to cloath or reinvest them in their former Estate Beauty Virtue and Splendor that is to incircle them in the Royal Bodies of Phlegm wherein all the united Powers and four grand Qualities were contained before such Vegetations or Things had passed thro' the digesting Powers and Faculties of the Animal Kingdom that is the Stomach and all the circular Motions of Nature But this must be performed by the Progression and Hand-maid of God by whose circular Motions and Operations 't is effected For Example take some Compost or putrified Bodies or Excrements of Animals wherein is contained a considerable quantity of Sal Nitre or Salt Petre more or less according to the Disposition of the Creature for the original Salts from whence they proceed are of proportionable Complexions and therefore the Experienc'd Husband-man manages his Land accordingly some Dung being better for one sort than for anotâ—…r now lay these Excrements or putrified Matter upon poor Land wherein the Sal Nitral Qualities are weak and impotent and they do as it were in a moment by the assistance of Heat and Moisture together with the sweet Influences of the Sun and Elements mix and confederate with the fading Sal Nitral Properties of such Land whereby it brings forth considerable Crops of all sorts of Herbage Seeds Grains Trees and the like and this no Art is capable to imitate Now this degree of Equality that Vegetations have obtain'd by a gradual Progression and mystical Operation of Nature Fermentation does as it were in a moment disunite whereby the original Forms become tumultuous each Form with a rapid invading Motion laying as I may say violent Hands on the Child of Love which is the sweet Quality so that by this friction boiling and fierce Motion the whole Liquor or Thing becomes sharpned or racy which while the original Principles remain'd united to the sweet Quality all was silent and as it were asleep without Motion or Action and this is evident in the Art both of Brewing and Distilling and this turbulent Motion or Ferment is stronger or weaker according to the degrees and strength of the sweet Quality and heat of the Season Now Fermentation is an opposite and contrary Motion to Nature and so threatens the total Destruction of the whole being as it were a Death to the united Powers and uniform Principles and a prevention of all farther Progression and therefore whatever is done by Art this way can never be retrieved or the Forms and Properties of Nature united but only by the fore-mentioned way The same is to be understood in the Animal Kingdom for as soon as the four grand Qualities be awaken'd or rouz'd up then great Agonies are immediately felt according to the degrees of Fermentation and here by the way I am to observe that all Spagyrical Fermentations of Animals as aforesaid is Diametrically opposed and forbid by the Laws of God and Nature and indeed if that did not stand in Mankind's way it 's not to be doubted but he would long since have Extracted lofty high Drinks from the Blood Flesh and Fat of Animals as also from the Flesh of Fish seeing he loves such Liquors so well and consequently would have been Drunk with the Blood of his Fellow Creature and indeed there has been no Art wanting in Man to Extract the more Essential parts from the meaner that is to get the Blood and Gravey as they call it but instead of obtaining the finer cleaner Juices they have an addition of contrary Qualities that is heavy gross dull unclean Matter that is more subject to an hasty Putrefaction
exemplify others and to add divers things in divers parts of them by way of Illustration which made them spin out to such a length as you see them and was wholly designed for the Reader 's Benefit and Satisfaction but if I have been so Unhappy as to fall short of my intended Aim I am sorry for it both upon his and my own account and heartily beg his Pardon who am His highly Oblig'd and Very humble Servant Thomas Tryon THE CONTENTS LEtter 1. Of the noble Sense of Hearing with the various Uses and great Benefits thereof Letter 2. Of the Sense of Smelling with its proper Seat Nature and Uses Letter 3. Of the Sense of Tasting and wherein also the great Mysteries thereof are set forth Letter 4. Of the Sense of Seeing and of its various Uses and Benefits Letter 5. Of the Sense of Feeling with its universal Benefits and Influences over the rest Letter 6. Of Fires and the best way to make Grates whereby a less quantity of Fuel is required and yet that rendreâ—… more useful and expeditious in the Preparation of Foods and upon other occasions than our common Fires Letter 7. Of the best Methods for Tempering of Clay Making of Mortar Tyles Flooring and Bricks together with an Account of different sorts of Earths and what Herbage Fruits Seeds Grains and Trees each is applicable to Letter 8. Of Religion with the Nature and Practice thereof and that the Knowledge of God and a Man's Self is the first step to all true and undefiled Religion Letter 9. Of Dropsies and the Nature of them with some Account of what Diet and Exercises such should use as also how to Retrench Expences by a Frugal Method of Living Letter 10. Of various Opinions in Religion and the Original Cause of those great Differences Oppressions and Violences proceeding therefrom with Remedies proposed for prevention thereof Letter 11. Of the Humanity of Christ shewing the Grounds from whence the great Differences concerning it do arise how it is to be understood and the great Benefits that accrew unto Mankind from it Letter 12. Of an Afflicted Mind and shewing how it may be prevented with some other Remarks Letter 13. Of Faith Hope and Charity with the Excellency and Benefit of each and how Mankind by practising the last imitates his Creator and renders himself capable of being United to all that is Good Letter 14. Of that part of Scripture wherein God commanded or rather permitted Beasts to be Killed and Eaten with the great Error of Mankind in misinterpreting the same and how they are rightly to be understood Letter 15. Of a Soldier 's Life shewing from what Principle that Bloody Employment takes its Birth how contradictory it is to the Divine Law and destructive to the Unity and Well-being of Mankind and that all other Creatures have an equal share in those Calamities Letter 16. Of the Fountain of Darkness with the Actions Employments and Inclinations arising therefrom and how they Govern in every particular Creature when evil Principles obtain the Ascendant Letter 17. Of the Fountain of Love and Light and what Actions Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works proceed therefrom and how they Govern in each particular Creature Letter 18. Of Cleanness with the Benefits thereof and the Mischief of the contrary as also what Foods in their Nature are clean and unclean Letter 19. Of Flesh Broaths and Potages and those made of Herbs Seeds and Grains with an Account of which is most clean and affords the best Nourishment Letter 20. Of the Right and Left Hands with the great Error of Peoples teaching their Children to distinguish them by such Terms Letter 21. Of the Corpulency of the Body with the Cause thereof and how to prevent and abate it Letter 22. Of the Nature and Causes of Fevers and how in some measure to prevent them Letter 23. Of Education wherein is set forth the right true and natural way of Bringing up Children Letter 24. Of the Nature of Smells and what Scents in their Original are Clean Good and Beneficial or the contrary Letter 25. Of Predestination and how it ought to be understood Letter 26. Of Death and why all Creatures especially Mankind are unwilling to Die Letter 27. Of the Science of Astrology wherein are shewed the Causes in Nature why Persons Born at one and the same minute and under the like Constellations are of different Shapes and Forms and of various Fortunes Letter 28. Of the Perpetual Motion wherein is shewed the Impossibility of the Humane Nature's being capable of it as being Diametrically opposite to all God's Methods and Laws Letter 29. Of the noble Science of Musick with the Defects of the best Teachers of it and Methods proposed for the speediest and certainest way to attain to the highest Perfection therein to which is added somewhat concerning the Art of right Speaking and Reading Letter 30. Of Languages and the easiest way for a Person in Years to attain to the true Pronunciatiâ—… of any Foreign Tongue Letter 31. Of the Times of Eating wherein in shewed that about 8 in the Morning and 3 or 4 in the Afternoon is the most proper Season with the Reason thereof Letter 32. To a Planter of Sugar concerning the Premoting of the Cotton Manufactury in our Plantation Letter 33. To a Gentleman in Barbadoes concerniâ—… the first Settlement Growth and Decay of our Sugâ—… Plantations and the necessity they lye under of Planâ—… ing other Vegetations c. Letter 34. To a Planter touching the Manufactuâ—… of Cotton wherein the Necessity and Advantagâ—… thereof is amply considered Letter 35. Of the Making of Sugar wherein the Myâ—… stery of it from the very first Planting of the Caâ—… to its highest pitch of Refining is Explicated wiâ—… the vast Benefits that do accrew therefrom to Engâ—… land where also the Art of Distilling is handled Letter 36. Of the Burial of Birds how unaccountaâ—… it is and the Author's Conceptions thereupon Letter 37. Of Fermentation with the Nature and Oâ—… riginal Invention thereof wherein is also shewed hâ—… Pernicious and Destructive Fermented Liquors 〈◊〉 to Mankind Twenty Seven Philosophical Letters UPON Several Occasions LETTER I. Of the Sense of Hearing SIR I Perceive by your Letter that you have been mightily affected with a Consideration of the Senses in admiring the wonderful Composition of the Organs and the nice and exquisite manner of their Operation for your encouragement to proceed in so commendable and useful Speculation I shall endeavour to Suggest some hints of Meditation to you which perhaps you have not yet thought of I Shall begin with the Ear that noble and brave Sense of Hearing and descant a little upon its Use and Benefits and the great disadvantages Mankind is subjected to through the want of it it is placed in the most Intelligible part of Man It has its residence in the Head and is therefore capable to distinguish between the good and evil qualities of Sounds For Man being a compleat Image or
Extract of all Essences containing all their true Qualities or Principles that nothing might be defective he is endued with five wonderful Powers called Senses by which he is capable of judging between the good and evil Of all things the Senses are the chief carriers or conveyers of what is presented before them to the influential Principles or Magick Powers of the Soul and where they are kindled or stirred up out of their silent and quiet Magia into motion whence proceed all Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works hence they are midwifed into the World whereby all the deep hidden and silent powers become Corporal for who could tell whether he loved Musick or curious Consorts of Vocal and Instrumental Harmony if he had never been in the hearing of such things or what Child would ever speak any Language or Tongue if he had never heard it and so of all other things that are under the province of this Sense All the good and evil of words Speeches Sounds c. are conveyed to the understanding by the peculiar power of this without the intervention of any other Sense Now it must be understood that Words Sounds Tones c. are endued with all the Qualifications Virtues and Vices of the Intellectual Man only with this difference the Quality which is chiefly stirred up in the Magick Powers that stamp their Character on the Word or Sound whether good or evil It is also farther to be considered that the outward Senses are but the Instruments to convey the species of grosser things to the intellectual or silent powers principles or qualities by which means various Centers and Magick Fires are excited which before lay so occult and involved that a Man was not sensible of any such disposition to affect or dislike this or that thing residing in him 'T is by these Doors or Passages that Man becomes acquainted with himself and Foreign Objects understanding the forms of his own Composition in good and evil The multiplicity of the Senses does not at all prevent their perfection for tho' there are â—…ive in number yet each is compleat in its kind and oâ—…fice none interfering or intrenching upon the Province of another but all jointly conspiring to accomplish their own proper Work The Ear cannot judge of Colours nor the Sight of Sounds c. There is as great variety in Sounds as there is in Colours Shapes Forms or Figures oâ—… material Bodies both in their Internal and External Natures All Sounds Tones Noise or Words in Men Beasts Birds 〈◊〉 Elements do all arise from the two Grand Fountains of Gooâ—… and Evil in this visible World All words proceeding from thâ—… Meek Fountain of Gods Eternal Love are soft sweet and Melodious of a yielding Temper and penetrating to the very centeâ—… of the Magick Powers from whence the variety of inclination have their Birth But if these Harmonical Sounds c. find but a weak reception then they make but little impression on the Central Powers and Qualities and then do as it were retire not leaving any Ideas of their own forms as the old Proverb has it It goes in at one Ear and out at the other The same vice versa is to be understood of all Tones Sounds Words c. that do arise and take their Birth from the Dark Fountain of Evil c. For there is no greater evil under the Sun than for Mankind to speak Evil Words or hear lewd Discourses by this sort of Communication many Thousands of ignorant People have been utterly Ruined for if these Hostile Methods gain the Ascendant they awaken the sleeping Poisons that take such possession that they can never after be turned out of Upon this account a due regard ought to be had to Children taking care that they come within the hearing of no base words and filthy Communication because such Sounds by reason of the latent resemblance between the internal power and the outward Object stick closer to them and make such deep impressions to that degree that the Signatures can never be eradicated nor defaced neither by cultivation or any other endeavours Therefore such as would not be hurt by this Sense must shut the Gate of their Ears against all evil Sounds and Voices which will if admitted unlock the inmost Cabinets of Nature Now if Man would use the same Care and Art in managing and dressing the Humane Ground as the Husbandman or Farmer does in the Cultivation of his Common Field he would be very happy if the Seed he Sowes be good or defective his Crop is according so it is in the Humane Ground if he Sows Tares and Thistles will he expect Wheat and Barley it is preposterous and unnatural A multitude of incurable Disorders and Mischiefs arise for want of a due attendance to and understanding of these Truths the contrary is to be conceived if we admit the entrance of none but good melodious and delightful Sounds Speeches Words c. The Fabrication and Constitution of the Organs is also to be considered the form of it is wonderful and would naturally entertain none but sweet soft and Harmonious Sounds proceeding from the Fountain of Love and Goodness as is evident by experience for all harsh sudden violent fierce Noises are Ungrateful and Displeasing nay oftentimes Mischievous and Prejudicial to the Ear it self for which reason Men use to stuff their Ears with some soft Wooll or the like when they are going to Engage least the violent percussion of the Airs and Vibration should too fiercely incur upon the Organon and disturb the Timpanum by which means many have for ever lost the use of that Sense or Faculty The same Method is to be observed in all sudden and unusual Sounds as Thunder c. Now seeing what great advantage is to be made of this Noble Sense is it not a shame to go to the Coffee-house Taverns and other Publick places of resort and hardly Ten Words of serious Discourse tending to the Advancement of Virtue or Morality but all Banter Jesting Lying Scoffing c. Therefore it is fit Men should speak less or be wholly silent till they are capable of speaking better Sir I hope you will excuse the freedom I have assumed and accept these sudden and almost Extemporary Remarks upon the subject of your Contemplation as an Instance of real friendship from Yours T T. LETTER II. Of the Sense of Smelling SIR IN Return to your earnest Request of having me continue my design of Unfolding the Nature of the other Senses as I have done that of Hearing I have adventured to admit that discourse of Smelling to your Perusal as I intend also the remaining three withall Teaching you how to defend your self against ill Scents which you intimate are very prejudicial to your health THe Sense we are now to Treat of is the Image of all Qualities Powers and Principles both of Light and Darkness dwelling in the Centre of each thing and it is clean or unclean according to the
property that governs the Creature so that as soon as the Body of any thing is opened it may thereby be distinguished what Form or Principle ruled in the Center of Life and he that has the true Use of this Faculty may easily discern the Complexion of any Creature It is an invisible Power it s Body is the Air which in a very short time will convey the Scent to a considerable distance and is received into our Bodies by the Assistance and Mediation of the Air which is a thin Spiritual Body penetrating into all parts doing good or harm according to the respective Qualities that have the Ascendant incorporating with great Vigour with every thing it finds like its self upon which account gross stinking Foggs Scents and Vapours are unclean and extreamly hurtful to the Mind and Body being continually drawn into the Central parts and Wound the Health 〈◊〉 a Spiritual and Invisible manner The contrary is to be understood of good Smells and clean thin sweet Airs c. Now every Scent or Smell whether good or bad clean or unclean does by custom and continual communication beget and strengthen its Simile by which the grossest and most impure Airs become easie and familiar otherwise several stinking Trades and Employments would not be tolerable nor in any degree Healthful for as Gods Love is one and the same in all things so is his Handmaid Nature which uses all possible Endeavours to provide and Arm her self against the Assaults of her common Enemies Custom and Habit begetting their own properties and rendring those things easie which would otherwise never be endured Moreover such troublesom gross Smells are naturally more agreeable to some People than to others as being endued by their Constitutions with greater talents of suitable matter whereby they live as healthy as those who are accustomed to clean and finer Airs Nay some Mens Natures and Complexions are so agreeable to these gross Scents and thick Vapours that they find themselves Disordered when they come into more pure and subtile Airs as is evident in such who Live and are Born in Cities and great Towns A Consideration is also to be had to the Meats and Drinks any Person feeds on which prepare the Body to a better bearing of Scents or Smells whether clean or unclean for Food is the substance of each Mans Body and Spirit and for this cause London and some great Cities are as healthy and as few Dye in them as in the Country in proportion to the number of People notwithstanding the cleanness and goodness of the Air Besides the Foods in many Countries of England are grosser and worse prepared than in great Cities great part of them living on Hogs Flesh ill Ordered and Cooked eaten fresh or very little Salted also penning them up in close Sties during the time of their Fatning is very prejudicial to the Flesh which subjects the Eaters to a great number of unclean Diseases in their Bodies as Mangy Scabs Sores and Boils these things ought to be well considered because they do very much Affect the Body in order to the manner of its receiving the impressions of Airs Scents and Smells Again there is not the same likeness and affinity between the Countryman's Food and Air that he lives in as there is between the Citizens the Country Air being fine and full of Brisk Lively Spirits and the Cities the contrary neither is there the same Agreements in the Methods of living whereby the fineness of the Air is rendred of little value or benefit to them for what the one Builds up the other Destroys Now the Sense we are discoursing of is the common Officer that communicates these Airs and Scents to the whole Body whether they be good or evil and the Body nor the Mind cannot be hurt with them if this Sense will powerfully withstand and oppose them and not suffer them to enter for each Sense hath a Gate which it can open or shut as it pleases and therefore when any Person is among gross and unclean Smells he can hold his Nose But the best way is if he is forced to stay there any considerable time to draw the Air into his Mouth and expell it again the same way by keeping it open by this means a Man may in a great measure avoid the Injury which such Smells would otherwise do for neither the Taste Sight Hearing nor Feeling can be Afflicted with any evil or good Smell not communicate the evil of the bad nor the vertues of the good to the Central parts of the Body nor Affect the natural Spirits each must do its own Business they cannot Act for one another Nevertheless there are some Scents and Smells so highly graduated in the dark direful nature of sullen Saturn and fiery Mars which neither the Temper nor Constitution of Man or other Animals are able to sustain or endure They are of such a vehement subtle and resistless operation that they surprize and destroy all the Faculties and Powers of Life in a Moment Their Motion is so quick as admits no Guard or Prevention There are no Antidotes against their force neither in Foresight nor Physick Italy and Spain can give many fatal Demonstrations of this Truth who are so exquisite in the mixing preparing and compounding of Scents that they have dominion over the very Air to what Extent or Limit they please Nay they will force the Air to Conspire with their Black Designs and retain the Infection till their Mischiefs are Compleated Likewise there are several sorts of Minerals and Metals that in the Melting Refining and Separating send up such Mortal and Inimical Vapours that no Use or Custom in the World can ever render familiar and healthful the more crude and foul any Metal is the more gross and poysonous are its fumes when it passes the fluxes of the Fire as Quick-silver Lead and many other Metals On the other side the higher any Metal is in its Nature Refined and Purged the finer sweeter and more pleasant are the fumes it sends up from the Fire when Melted and Refined and consequently more healthy and agreeable to the Workman The very same is to be understood of the Fat of Beasts or other Animals 't is better or worse clean or unclean according to the Graduation or Birth of the Creature which is declared by their Shapes Forms and Figures to the distinguishing Eye also the Cries and Tones they send forth Likewise when the Flesh oâ—… Fat is Burned and the Centre of the Body opened the fume oâ—… smell informs you what property of Nature had the Principle Government in the Creature the scent of the Dung or Ordure of most Creatures will afford a manifest Discovery of their originaâ—… Qualities whether clean or unclean c. This is apparently evident let a Hog eat the same Grass Corn or Food as Sheep Oxen Cows c. yet the Swines Breath Urine and Dung will never have the same Scent or Smell with the other so that
the Rage and Fury of the Elements and violent fierce invading Powers of an Exorbitant or Adulterated Appetite Now it is likewise farther to be understood and considered that where the Sense of Seeing Feeling Hearing or the Sublime Sense of Smelling is short or not capable of discerning or judging the Innate Nature and Complexion of Animals by their Forms Shapes and Signatures This Sense of Tasting can readily open all the Doors and secret Gates of Nature's Cabinets and in a moments time find out and manifest all the hidden or central Mysteries of each thing This noble and great Sense is like Fire that has a Key in its self that can in a moments time unlock the hardest Coagulations of the Original Qualities and manifest what Principle or Property ruled in the Centre whether clean or unclean as is most manifest and clear in the Burning of various things Woollens Woods and the like the inward Power and Complexion thereof being very difficult to be understood and judged when such things remain entire This the Taste can do and therefore it may be justly stiled the Prince King or compleat Judge over Life and Death Wherefore the Creator and Preserver of all his Work hath placed this noble Officer in the principal Gate of the Microcosmical City viz. the Mouth that nothing might be suffered to pass into the Stomach or Nature's Magazin where all Foods and Drinks are promiscously Treasured up in order to sustain and support the whole Body besides the Creator hath ordained under the Conduct and Government of this Prince the Pallate several under-graduated Officers as Sentinels that are at all times ready to obey and execute the Orders and Commands of their Superior Prince viz. the Lips that can in a moment shut its Gates and withstand any thing that intrudes or is offensive the next is the Teeth which is a strong or powerful Officer or Centinel that can by its Innate power shut and keep out all the Enemies of the Body The next in order to the two former is the Attractive Power or mighty preserving Faculty of the Body for so soon as the Judge or Superior Power commands the Gates to be opened and the Teeth to macerate or break the Food to pieces but presently this third Officer the Attractive Faculty does with all power and vigour draw and Collect a fit and proper Menstruum or Moisture which doth render the Teeth Mouth and Tongue capable to Chew and Melt the Food into a soft pappy matter or substance fit for the Stomach and the better the Foods are Macerated or Chewed the easier they are of Digestion and the better Nourishment they afford unto the Body Likewise this Prince the Taste or Pallate hath another powerful Officer placed in this great Gate the Mouth or common Road that leads into the Metropolitan or Human City which is called the Expulsive Faculty by whose Innate power it can at the command of its Superiour Prince the Taste or Pallate immediately Expel or Spit forth and that with great vigour what Meat Drink or other thing is distasteful or unpleasing to the Pallate or Sense of Tasting so wonderfully hath our Creator guarded the Gate Road or common Passage that nothing might pass into the Body or Stomach but only what is proper and agreeable to sustain and preserve the Human Nature in a due regular Temperature and Union For if this Gate or common Passage be kept from being violated or forced upon by Adulterers and Thieves and that no unclean thing enters then all the whole Body and Mind is Sound Healthy and free from all cloudy Burthensom Diseases But on the other side if the Prince the Pallate or Superior Officer be adulterated and hath by intemperance and improper Meats and Drinks lost its intire and natural Taste or true distinguishing Power then presently all the under-graduated Officers and Centinels are thereby made heávy sleepy dull idle careless and impure and then this great or wonderful Gate or Road stands open to all Intruders and there is no Uncleanness nor Intemperance that is withstood but all Viciousness doth freely pass without any Examination of the said Officers or Centinels so that the Human City must needs be Defiled Wounded and Distempered For Meats and Drinks being the very Original and Substance both of the Body and Mind as we have largely discoursed elsewhere therefore the Lord hath placed so many powerful Officers and Watchmen in this Road or common Gate that thereby no unfit Meats nor Drinks might pass nor be admitted without a strict Examination of its Vertues Vices Cleanness or Uncleanness However all these Faculties and Officers must be Subservient to the higher Powers viz. the Will which is as we have said in some other Cases the Primum mobile of all the Actions of Life So that very often the Imaginative Powers being kindled or roused up by some Advice or Example either of Custom or the like that such and such things are good and profitable both for Heath and Physick whence arises and springs a potent Desire and strong Inclination and so commands the Pallate and all the Properties of the Mouth to send it into the Stomach and when it comes there your Will and Desire hath no power to call it back agree or disagree there it must abide till Nature can overcome and separate it and send the particular parts into all the Frontier Garrisons and Sally-ports where it oftentimes proves Oppressive And if the Power of the Expulsive Faculty did reside or any part of it in the Stomach as it doth in the Mouth many People would almost as frequently cast their Food up as they Eat it it being common for them to over-load their Stomachs with too large a quantity and of contrary qualities not but there is an Expulsive Faculty in the Stomach which doth as it were lye hid or sleeping and Nature doth very rarely call forth or rouse up this Property but only when she is sorely oppressed either with too great a quantity of Meats and Drinks or with things Hetrogenial or of contrary Qualities And whensoever this happens the Operations of the Stomach and all the Subservient Vessels thereof are in a meer Agonious or Tumultuous State and Condition by which it appears as clear as the Sun at Noon day that the Palate Taste and the Vessels or Servants thereunto belonging are the â—…roper and natural Judges of what is good and agreeable not only in quantity but also in quality If Order Temperance and Cleanness be observed in the use and custom of Simple Foods and natural Drinks otherwise the Taste or Palate is not a proper Judge For all the Senses and their under-graduated Officers are Servants to the Mind Will and Desire and to the Original Principles they arise and proceed from For this cause every Sense and other Quality and principle of the Body and also of the Judgment are subject to be adulterated and depraved And though there be many sorts of Meats and Drinks
that at first seem to be very burthensom and as it were contrary both to the Palate and Stomach nevertheless by a little custom they become easier and easier till at last they are coveted and desired which comes to pass by a weakning and strengthening their Similes which at the first Eating or Drinking as Smoaking of Tobacco or any other of the like things had but little footing or matter to work on and that too which was very weak and impotent and lay as it were hid in the still and sleeping Magia but so soon as a Consederate appeared or touched it then it began to start up rejoice and grow strong so that weak Properties are made strong and potent and on the other side strong Properties or Qualities become weak and impotent when their Consederates are taken away Now by these and the like methods and ways all the Senses become Depraved and Adulterated more especially the Sense of Tasting as he that is accustomed to Foods ill prepared and which are of a strong fulsom hogoa will not like that which is curiously done and he that useth himself to high relishing Foods do not care for things Temperate and such as use themselves to sweet Foods do not like those that are contrary And so of Drinks c. And as the Customs of Foods do deprave change and alter the Pallate to the like and dislike the very same is to be understood of the Stomach and in most or all the Vessels and other parts or members of the Body For each thing both in Meats and Drinks according to its own Nature and Complexion or what Quality do Govern do with the highest diligence Advance Incorporate and Nourish its own or like Property or Quality and is never quiet till it have obtained the Ascendant and Begot or Generated its own form in the Pallate and Stomach And if the Food or Drinks be unequal in its Qualifications then it proves the more difficult to make it familiar but when it is done and afterwards the same Person have a mind to leave it such a thing will and do prove harder and more difficult to leave and forsake it then it was at first to make it easie and familiar For the more unequal any thing is in its own parts the greater is the inequality such Meats and Drinks and other things begets and so soon as it hath obtained its own form and complexion then it pleaseth the Pallate and the Stomach is not contented without it which shew the tractableness of Nature out of one thing into another or rather the Increasing and Decreasing of the Forms and Qualities of Nature and that Man is like every thing and every thing like him The very same is to be understood of the Reason and all the Properties of the Mind and Intellects are subject to be altered and changed out of one thing into another both in their Opinions and Judgments by Discourses Custom and Communication if the Will and Desires admit of it or else nothing can be done And as improper and unequal Foods and unnatural Drinks becomes as it were natural by Use Habit and Custom so likewise the Mind and Understanding do admit of the like Errours And therefore Men will as heartily Plead and Uphold and Suffer for an Idle Opinion as for Truth it self so that it is clear that the Elements of the Body and Mind are as it were one Lump and Subject to be wrought on by every inferiour and unequal thing And therefore if the Understanding and Judgment have lost its way and be Adulterated by Custom false Opinion and Ignorance then the Reason is Corrupted and gets false Notions of things and the Will and Desire acts accordingly Commanding all the Inferiour Officers of Nature to its Dictates and Subjection then the palate the proper and natural Judge of all Meats and Drinks and things belonging to Nourishment loses its entire and curious distinguishing Faculty being commanded by the Will and the Judgment contrary to its Native Right to Eat or Drink this or the other thing which at first the Officers of the Palate and the Expulsive Faculty of the Mouth would willingly cast back and not have suffered them to have gone into the Stomach This little Children are often commanded too viz. To Drink and Eat things that go against their Stomachs which by a little Custom as is mentioned before becomes more easie and familiar which comes to pass sooner or later according to the degree of the Antipathy by which both the Body and Mind are depraved and all the Noble Properties of Nature are thereby brought into unequal Operations and Complexions are gotten in those Green and Tender Buds which seldom ever depart without wounding or doing some signal Evil both to the Body and Mind For all sorts of Peoples Childrens Pallates are most entire simple and perfect except those whose Fathers and Mothers have lived Irregular and Intemperate Lives which evil influences their Children cannot but partake of and so bring a Debauched Palate and several other Distempers into the World which for the mosâ—… part will stick as close to them as their Skin to their Flesh. For Diseases thus received are very rarely Cured except regular Diet and other degrees of Temperance may possibly lâ—…ve so much influence as to make their Lives tollerable For this cause it often proves Hazardous to the Health of many Children to force a custom or endeavour to make them Eat and Drink those things they are unwilling to receive as many sorts of strong Drinks which seldom fail to do Mischief and several Foods which Children would turn their Heads away from oâ—… Spit out which do seldom happen when the Food is Simple and the Drink Water The great Wound to Health is strong Drink and the Food compounded of several Ingredients that are improper and disagreeing which of late years hath been much in use so that many Children bring with them into the World compounded Diseases from that Substance and Materials the Seed is made or generated which doth according tothe Law of Nature endue the Fruit with all the parts thereof If People were sensible of what great Importance an intire Simple Life of Order Sobriety and Temperance is they would not dare to run such Hazards to humour a liquorish Palate or rather a debauched Palate as they do intailing on their Posterity a Thousand Evils The Depravation and Ignorance of the Palate in most People that are of Age is chiefly occasioned by the Custom of the place and the Command of the will by which this Noble Sense and all the undergraduated Officers lose their Government and the true Nature and Taste of things not knowing nor distinguishing their Friends from their Enemies So that every sort both of Meats and Drinks passes into the Stomach promiscuously the Sentinels and Guards being as it were Drunken or Stupified But on the contrary a perfect Palate is like a Powerful Strong Wakeful Guard of Armed Men that bravely Maintain
their Post and Defend the Microcosmical City from her Enemies For the use and office of the Palate is to distinguish whether our Meats and Drinks be equal or unequal that is whether the Bitter the Sweet the Saltish Astringent or Sour and which of these have the Governing or Predominancy in the said Foods and Drinks For these four Qualities are the very Centre and original foundation of all the wonderful and amazing Varieties not only of Tastes but of the Complexion of every individual thing or Creature both in the Animal Vegitable and Mineral Worlds or Kingdoms and according to the degrees of their Government such a Form Shape and Signature Qualification and Nature they are of either good or bad vertuous or vicious from which foundation and ruling power each Creature obtains the name either of good or evil Therefore no Man can pretend to know or understand the general nor particular Nature Effects and Operation of any thing or Creature if he be Blind and Dumb as to the Signature and distinguishing these four Grand Qualities or Mighty Powers that are as it were the very Centre and Composition of all things for if the Musician do not understand the wonderful Power and Energy of the Seven Notes which are the Basis and Central powers of Equality and Concord nor the Mathematician the true uses of the Nine Figures the first can make no Harmony nor the last cannot penetrate into the Secrets of that wonderful and demonstrative Science by which so many Wonders and Useful Trades Callings and Employments have been Midwifed into the World to the great benefit of Mankind For he that does not understand the Proportion nor the Qualities and Parts things are made and compounded of cannot have any true or certain knowledge neither of himself nor of any other thing but do speak and judge by chance and not from any intelligable or Central Knowledge or Understanding The five outward Senses are the Materials Man is Compounded of as to the Elements of the Body and which are the true House and Corporality of the five inward Mental Senses or Spiritual Powers the outward being as so many Kings and Princes who have under their Command many Officers and Centinels that have several Posts by whose Vigilancy and Diligence all the common Roads and Passages might be kept safe and free from Tumults and Disorders for the outward Senses are the Carriers or Presenters of all Objects and things to the sleeping Magick Powers of the Mind or inward Senses and therefore it is of great and infinite moment for every one to regulate and keep the five outward Senses in due order viz That they be not defiled nor adulterated by Intemperance Uncleanness and Disorders neither in Meats Drinks Employments nor Communications And therefore this great and Noble Sense the Taste or distinguisher of all Qualities Forms and Complexions is wonderfully and aptly placed in the Mouth or grand Gate or inlet that leads into the very Center of the Microcosmical City which Gate or Passage is double Guarded as is mentioned before that it may be able to bolt or shut out whatsoever shall be offered that is not profitable nor good either for the Support or Substance of the Body or Mind But if this Sense of Tasting be sâ—…llyed and most are rendred incapable of distinguishing Vertue from Vice or natural Preparations from Hetrogenials to judge better of the Nature and true Operations of Foods and Drinks than Blind Men can of Colours or Deaf Men of Musick for having lost the true use of this Noble Faculty and Precious Jewel a Man is left destitute of all conduct and there remains but one thing by which he is rendred in any degree able to resist the great Enemies of Nature Gluttony Uncleanness and Disorder viz the will and desires can by its innate Power command the Gates the Teeth and Lips to be shut and barred up to defend and keep out all Invading and Incroaching Powers that continually attempts to storm the Health and Preservation of Man Therefore it is a Vertue of great Value to command the Mouth to be shut and to deny himself the Tasting of improper Meats and Drinks and to keep the Mouth shut against the beloved Apple for by Eating Mankind is preserved both in the Harmony of his Body and Mind and by Eating he is likewise sunk into the deepest Misery and Depravity as Witness our first Parents Eating is a great Misery which few or none understand if they did there would be more Care and Caution in it then there is It was not without great Reason and inspired Thought that the Learned Moses tells us that our first Parents Fell and Degeneration came on them by eating of the Forbidden Fruit what that was we will not undertake to decide however it is not to be doubted but that it did arise and proceed from the evil Powers and divided Forms that is from the disunion of the Principles and Qualities of their own Composition for whosoever doth Eat and Drink without the Eye of Wisdom and distinguishing of God and of Nature in themselves must of necessity Eat the Forbidden Fruit for in whomsoever the Powers of the violent wrathful Spirits are stirred up and awakened the Mouth of the same black Principle is opened and with its highest diligence desires and seeks out a suitable Food this was the dark or gloomy Door that all the great â—…wils and Cruelties came in at for when the Central Blood-Hounds have gotten the Scent and tasted Blood and Wounds then all the noble Faculties the Senses especially that of the Taste becomes depraved and the Will and Desires arises and are continually Generated from the dark Magia then there is no distinction between Cleanness and Uncleanness Violence and Vertue that Form that is awakened in the sullen Magia forms the Thoughts Desires and Wills which Rules and Commands over all the Inferior Officers and Powers and Nature bows before this violent fierce and fiery Spirit as Iacob did before Esau. Now Meats and Drinks are of the same Lump and in them are contained the compleat Nature and true Property of Man be they of what kind soever every sort and particular hath its own Complexion and its whole Business and Inclination is to advance that Property which is strongest in it and doth use all Industry to subject all Forms and Powers to its Government be it either Good or Evil Violence or Patience Anger or Love for so soon as Mankind loses his Way and distinguishing Faculties then immediately a crowd of Usurpers throng in upon him in a hostile way and call for their Similes or Assistance for every sort of Food and Drink when it comes into the Stomach is presently turned to Blood Spirits Dispositions and Inclinations and if the Forms be divided and Disunion begotten then Wrath Fierceness and Violence obtains the Government and then all Meats and Drinks are changed and Converted into their own Nature and Property whether they be clean or
unclean for every specifick Body or Thing is endued with its own Magnet and its Innate Power doth draw forth such Matter Juice or Nourishment that is proper to sustain and support its own Body and at the same time the other Forms and Qualities lie as it were hid sleeping in the Magia as for Example In one Field or Pasture there are several sorts of Animals viz. Cows Sheep Horses and Swine and they all Eat one sort of Herbage or Grass which do Nourish and Sustain them notwithstanding they are of several Species or Kinds as is mentioned before the Swine Transmutes the Juices of the Grass into its own Nature viz. into gross unclean Flesh and a foul stinking Excrement very burthensome and a meer loathing to Nature the Horse to a lively strong brisk Nourishment the Dung or Excrement not at all offensive the Cow from the same Food doth Extract good clean Nutriment and a considerable quantity of Milk whose pleasant Colours do declare its Excellency and the Flesh is much finer and cleaner also the Dung is of a good Smell and some do esteem it a good Perfume thâ—… like is to be understood in all Husbandry each Grain of Seed doâ—… by a secret Power and Sympathetical Inclination attract a suitâ—…ble Matter out of the Earth to support and nourish its own Body so Curious so Mysterious so Wonderful and so Amazinâ—… are the Works of the Great Creator and Eternal Preserver of 〈◊〉 his Off-spring The very same is to be understood of the Operations in thâ—… Human Nature for since Man hath immersed his Will and Dâ—…sires into the blackest and deepest degrees of Bestiality and Depravation and Lives in and under the Lyonish Bearish and Doâ—… gish Spirits and died with the deepest Colour of Violence anâ—… Fierceness then these Rapacious Beasts and all those evil Properties and Qualities have obtained the Ascendant and Rule 〈◊〉 the Will and Desires so by the Power and Operation of theâ—… ruling Qualities a suitable Nourishment is Extracted from 〈◊〉 Meats and Drinks be they of what Nature soever clean or unclean the Commanding and Transmuting Powers standing 〈◊〉 the wrath and fierceness of the divided Forms and disunity 〈◊〉 the Natural Powers which do presently awaken and stir up a moâ—… violent Spirit in the Eaters and Communicaters of such thing for so soon as Mankind Tasted Blood together with the Flesh presently awakened and rouzed up all the dark morose uncleâ—… Spirits and dark Properties of the sullen Magia and Incorpoâ—… ted with and strengthened their Similies which did quick prepare him to do the like by his own kind viz. To Kill 〈◊〉 Slaughter and to have no more Mercy nor Compassion than had of the Beasts being both done from the same Principle Violence Eating and Tasting has a wonderful Power and Energie it bâ—…ing the very Substance of a Man's Life this Sense being an â—…ticing Faculty and when it is depraved and the Will kindlâ—… in Violence and Debauchery then it destroys many thousands poor Ignorant Mortals and sends them into the next Woâ—… therefore Temperance and Simplicity in Meats and Drinks 〈◊〉 to keep this noble Sense simple and entire is highly commenâ—…ble and as it were the Fountain of all Wisdom Many more Excellencies and Vertues the Holy Creator 〈◊〉 endued this great and noble Sense the Tasting with and 〈◊〉 cularly that of Pleasure and Delight which seems to surpass all others what Pastime Pleasure and Delight is there in the World that can be compared to a sharp entire well prepared Appetite doth it not at once compleatly Indulge and Gratify the whole For though this Sense doth not represent the curious Forms and Figures Odoriferous Smells or Scents Melodious Sounds and Harmonies yet it doth entirely afford the highest degrees of Pleasure though it must be confess'd it is short yet livelier than the other as to the Tasting part but at the same time with the help and assistance of the under-graduated Officers viz. the Teeth Liquor and Menstruum it conveys all the Substance into the Stomach the common Magazine or Store-house of Man and then its Subservient Vessels or Officers separates those Meats and Drinks and conveys or carries the finer part thereof to every Part or Member of the whole which doth refresh and strengthen every particular so that there is a melodious Agreement and lovely Consort between that great variety of all the Forms Qualities and Senses at once which does exceed all other Pleasures or Delights in the little World For what Person is there in the World that hath a well-prepared Appetite and sharp Stomach that will not leave or separate himself from all other Pleasures be they of what nature soever for a good Meals Meat and Drink when exceeding Thirst and Drought invades him Here the Senses of Life are concerned and the Support of all the parts of Nature are touched at once and there all the Parts and Members together with the Power of the Senses that do inspire and reinforce the Will and Desires insomuch that they become so very Strong and Potent that they command the Hands and Feet and all the other Parts to provide Materials for the maintaining the great Pleasure of the Palate and to furnish the Stomach or Magazine with such Matter or Food that they may sustain the whole and therefore in cases of necessity some of the Antients have counted it Lawful to Steal or Plunder for so much Food and Drink as will sustain and preserve Life So that there is a greater necessity to support and maintain the Pleasure of the Pallate than any other belonging to the Body There are three things that are for the Support of Mankind and that he cannot Live without viz. Food Houses and Cloths Now Food hath the first place Houses the second and Cloths the third And as this great and noble Sense doth afford unto Mankind the most ample and compleatest Pleasure of all others and is of the most necessity so on the other side if it be over indulged and cloyed so that it becomes depraved by an intemperate unclean Life then most or all the forementioned Delights and Pleasures are abated for the more excellent any thing is in its own Nature the greater are the Evils whenabased Therefore the Foolish and such as give themselves to Intemperance Gluttony and Drunkenness finding the natural and excelling Pleasures of this Sense they have in most Ages used all endeavours with great Labour Care and Hazard both to the Body and Mind with a thousand Inventions and unnatural or disagreeing Compositions Childishly imagining thereby to gratify the more and continue the long Pleasure and Delight of this Sense but being ignorant and mistaken in the Operations of Nature which are all Simple and Innocent most of them have Experienced the quite contrary Effects and instead of true Pleasure and Delight they have dulled cloyed or blunted the Edge of their Appetites and Palates by their often addresses they make to it Eating too much
in quantity and of disagreeing Qualities foolishly compounding many brave noble rich Ingredients together of disagreeing Qualities and Natures which do as it were at once take away and deface all the true Relish and Taste of those fine Things and Dainties which perhaps many hundreds have lost their Lives to fetch and procure besides these are not half the Evils that attend those Preposterous Inventions and Methods of Compositions and Mankind endeavouring to prolong and gratify this Sense viz. How many hundreds of cruel Diseases hath Man brought on himself and worst of all hath intailed them on his Posterity by which he hath not only destroyed and obliterated all the entire Delight and Pleasures of Life and of this noble Sense but of them all Pray tell me what Pleasure can any Person have in the hearing of curious and melodious Consorts and Airs of Musick that lies crying out with the Gout Or who can take Pleasure in brave noble and delicate Prospects or in fine Shapes Forms and rare Painting whose Body and Members are full of Diseases and hardly any part free from Pain Or what Delight and Pleasure can curious odorifirous Smells or Scents afford unto him who is Sick of a Burning Feaver or in a down-right Consumption Doth not the Scent or Smell offend such an one And what Delight can any Person have in the best and choicest Meats and Drinks when his whole Body is Indisposed or invaded by various Diseases Or what Pleasure or Delight can any one take it the Embraces and Touch of the fairest Sex and finest Objects when his Body and all his Members doth languish under various Diseases and Indispositions So that this great and important Sense the Tasting being kept entire and perfect by Order Temperance and Cleanness is as it were the compleat Delight of all the Senses and Powers of Nature and that faithful Officer and Conveyer of all Materials tâ—… the Center of Life by which the Body and Spirits are continually supplied and maintained and so long as it is in its Perfection and Simplicity it is the Original of all other natural Delights and Pleasures but being as is mentioned before sullied and adulterated by surpluss of Meats and Drinks both in quantity and quality which do not only at once destroy its own Nature Gust and Pleasure but likewise of all the other Senses and Powers both of the Body and Mind So that all the Delights of Life the Pleasure of Time and the Intellectual Speculation of the Wonders of God his Law and universal Nature is sunk which Mankind hath foolishly depraved himself of Intemperance Uncleanness Violence and Oppression which has so blunted and sullied all the noble Faculties and Functions of Nature that he hath lost that great Gift and distinguishing Power so that he hath not any true use of his natural Senses neither does he See Hear Feel Taste nor Smell the Intrinsick Vertues nor Vices of himself nor the Things he Communicates with Now this is his Fall viz. to be ignorant of those Officers and Powers he every moment Uses and Converses with and cannot do one thing without them be it of what Nature and Quality it will The deep degrees of Man's Fall is such that he is now Acted and Operated by all those great Powers no otherwise than the Beasts what he hath obtained more is a Cunning Violent Oppressive Circumventing Sense of Pollicy so Miserable Wicked and Ignorant is Mankind become notwithstanding his Creator hath dressed and endued him with so many noble and worthy Faculties What a brave Serene Quiet Delightful World would there be if Man would but turn the Eye of his Mind inwardly and Search Feell Taste See Hear Know and Find himself for to know a Man's Self is to understand all the great Mysteries and Wonders of God both Corporally and Incorporally when this Blessing attends any Person then he doth not only contemplate the Mysteries and Wonders of himself and the amazing varieties of occult Powers Forms and Principles but he is thereby inspired and the eye of each Power is so clearly open that he Sees Hears Tasts Feells Smells and Distinguishes the Magick Birth of all things in this visible World and when he looks on or beholds any Individual Form Figure or Shape he Sees and Penetrates into the Center of that thing and distinguishes the inward Nature and Complexion and what Form or Quality has the Government and Signature by which Knowledge and true Sight he can put it to that use that God and his Handmaid Nature ordained it Likewise when such an one shall hear any Discourses Words Voices Tones and Cries both of Men and Beasts he can distinguish from what Center each Sound Discourse Word Voice Tone or Cry doth arise and proceed from and what Principles oâ—… Qualities do carry the uppermost Dominion in them and the Character of that Form they are signed with and whether each did proceed from Equality or Inequality Harmony or Discord by which he is armed and fitted to Embrace that which is good and agreeable to Harmony Unity and Vertue and to resist and refuse what is evil and hurtful Also when he Tastes any particular Food or other thing he can distinguish whether it be good and proper to be Eaten how prepared mixed and compounded or simple and what are the Qualifications of it and the Form that hath the chief Ascendant in it distinguishing by the Taste for what it is good and the contrary and so be able to Embrace the Good and withstand the Evil. The like is to be understood in the other two noble Senses or Powers the Smelling and the Feeling Now this is some part of the Knowledge of a Man's Self for by the distinguishing these five great and wonderful Powers called Senses the inward Eye of the Mind is opened so that he can through those inspired Qualities See and Penetrate into the Centre of himself into the five Inward or Intellectual Senses which in all degrees answer to the five Senses before treated of which there is a large Account of in our Treatise of Dreams and Visions Now as Man hath lost the true Intrinsick Uses of these great and noble Powers the Senses by Intemperance Uncleanness and his rapacious Living on such Meats and Drinks that was not suitable unto Uniformity and his Original Innocent State so on the other side there is no method nor way to reinvest and obtain his first Condition of Unity and the understanding of himself and the Signatures of his own Composition but Temperance Cleanness and to abandon all Violence and Oppression both to Man and Beast by which the Divine Union is to be understood and enjoyed which can never be accomplished except Mankind keep God's Law which we shall farther demonstrate in our Answer to your Letter wherein you desire our Judgement touching the Operation of the five Senses in the Beasts In the intreim we send you this which please to accept as an Answer to your Question not doubting
was ordained viz. to an ill purpose and to their own damage to violate and oppress those of their own kind and all the innocent Inhabitants of the Earth breaking down all the Natural Laws and Bonds of Friendship between each other and destroying the Uniformity of all the under graduates This Sense is the greatest and most noble of all others for it makes the most hidden and mysterious things to appear and that which was and is inclosed in the very Centre of Darkness to become manifest that which was without motion to become Living that which was Cold to become Vigorous and full of Heat and Splendor by its peculiar power Mankind can as it were behold at once half the Globe Water and Earth with the wonderful Varieties and Mysteries therein contained In a word it is the Pleasure and Well-being of every Life and true Guide of all Actions The Eyes are the Gates through which the Spirits of life pass and repass having their ingress egress and regress through the whole Body on all sides by Pores but those that pass through the Eyes are more fine and transparent carrying with them a fiery powerful life and therefore if these two Gates are kept open too long the whole Body in a very little time becomes dull heavy and indisposed not being able to perform any Action or Exercise and this weight or heaviness will come on so strongly even like Death it self that all the powers of the Understanding and Mind cannot maintain the motion and vigour of the Body neither can the most choice Foods or Cordial Drinks but all become still and as it were benum'd For this cause persons may fast longer from Meats and Drinks than from Sleep therefore these Gates must be shut six or eight Hours in every twenty four or else Nature and our Bodies cannot subsist nor be able to go on with common business neither continue in a state of health so great is the necessity of Rest Therefore poor mean Meats and Drinks with a due proportion of Sleep will support and sustain Nature far bey ond the richest Foods and strongest Drinks with half the proportion of Sleep Wherefore all young People or Children ought to have their full time of Sleep and rest that making them strong lively and vigorous and fit for all Actions of Life Besides the Eye-lids are not only useful to preserve the fine thin pure Natural Spirits of Life from the usual motions by which all Actions and Exercises of life are performed but by their closing there is a kind of Cessation from their circular motions so that in this time of sleep the Spirits regain strength and vigour and thereby a new Life and Motion is Generated They likewise serve to many excellent uses in Nature so it defends this delicate tender Sight from all evils that may happen without in 50 60 or 70 years they are also of excellent use at all times or seasons to shut out the Light that the Evils Vanities Intemperances and Disorders lewd Sports and Plays that are daily Acted by Mankind to the great prejudice of himself and dishonour of God which all good Men ought to turn from and not so much as suffer this Glorious Light of Heaven to represent them to our understanding But above all to keep the Eye-lids of young People shut that they may not see the wickedness of this World at leastways as little as may be for vain things are the Pests and Distempers of every Age and whosoever avoids and shuns them as much as in him lies is the more happy And all Tutors and Parents instead of Tricking and Dressing their Children in Bravery and bringing them to Plays and Balls and Dancing Schools should represent to them all sorts of poor Tradesmen and Industrious People bringing them to places where they may see all sorts of poor indigent People who not only rise early but notwithstanding hard Labour and Pains fare very hard having ragged Cloaths and Shoes without Soles being all Dirty going about the Streets Cold and Hungry having no Food to Nourish them Also Weavers and Throwsters where great numbers of Boys and Girls are employed These and many others for want of Conduct and Education become barbarous in their Deportment Women as well as Men. These ought to be represented as Examples to those whose better circumstances will give them the advantage of Learning and Sobriety That it is not as some vainly imagine viz. Lost time to be well taught and skilled in several Arts and Sciences and that betimes too for Seeds Sown and Trees Planted in season bear the best Crop and brings forth the noblest Fruit and whatsoever thing you would not have your Children inclined to never let them see it for Children and young People use all Industry to imitate what they see Example and Precedent going beyond Precept The first is a compleat birth and substance the other but a Notion and no more than Air or Spirit without a Body which passes and repasses and is lost in an invisible breath or fume being quickly obliterated and forgot There are three degrees to be commenced before any thing in the mind of Man attains a compleat birth or come to be substantial the first degree is the Original thought or desire the second is this being modelled and banded to an fro by the five Councellors the inward Senses the Reason and Understanding being always at their Elbows to give necessary advice and this thought being represented to the Judgment to know whether it be fit or reasonable it should be Coyned into Words the next degree is putting these Words into Actions which does Crown the whole and makes the Birth substantial and compleat whether it be in the evil or in the good and can hardly ever be obliterated For instance if a Man think or imagine an evil thing and stop there he may easily repent and thereby annihilate it but if he bring this thought before the Judge by the Councellors and it is by them commanded to be Coyned into Words then if it be an evil thing it will be much harder repented of but if it proceed without Correction into Action then as is said before the case is much more difficult therefore Actions and Evil Precedents do Wound all People very deep more especially Children and young People therefore you ought not to let them see any thing that you would not have them practice as Soldiers in an Army Training fine Horses in their Furniture nor any sort of Shows or Games Fighting and Killing either of Man or Beast nor let them play with Dogs or such like Creatures for whatsoever is seen acted or practised takes deeper root than either that which is a Care Thought or Word every particular thing works on its likeness according to its power and whatsoever is done in the evil by Examples and Precedents the like is to be understood in the Vertuous and good courses of Life And were it possible to make Mankind intelligible
this great Sense of Life viz. the Feeling is universal and no part of the Body can subsist without it not so much as one moment and therefore when this Sense is Disordered or any Obstruction or Distemper invades it the whole becomes heavy dull and melancholy and Death quickly ensues so on the other side when it is in order the Motions and Circulations of the Body and Members are free from Obstructions then it is the true Pleasure of Life and all the other Senses are Subservient to this and rejoice in its Prosperity as being their Prince and King the Industry of all the others is to support and maintain this For if this Sense of Feeling sink none of the others are or can be well by the Innate Power of this Mankind and all Creatures viz. Animals distinguish between Joy and Sorrow Grief and Pain Sickness and Health Temperance and Gluttony also Hunger and Fullness Heat and Cold Weight or Lightness Hardness and Softness Fineness and Courseness Smoothness and Roughness Thickness and Thinness in a word in this Sense is apprehended and comprehended all Pleasures Touches and Embraces and as it were the very Centre of all natural Enjoyments both of the Body and Mind and therefore the great various and wonderful Powers of the whole Bows before it and with all endeavours each in its respective place to serve it with the highest diligence for the Life and Centre both of Joy Sorrow Pain and Pleasure is in this universal Sense Therefore all Powers yield their Obedience to it for this cause whensoever this Sense is Encountred or Invaded by any universal Disorder Intemperance or Uncleanness the Life of that part that suffers the Disorder immediately Perishes This the Learned call the Dead Palsy and several other Names they give this Disease which of all others is one of the most Dolorous and Melancholy which do attack and invade many Persons through disorderly Living and Intemperance Drinking and Eating both in Quantity and Quality such things that are too gross hard spirituous and of a strong fulsom Composition and Preparation from whence Juices of a proportionable Nature are Extracted which do infallibly generate thick gross Blood and impure Spirits which do as it were narrow stop and swell the Highways and natural Roads viz. The Porous Passages of the Body and the Nerves do by these thick Juices become stiff and Glewy so that the Blood and Spirits being touched with these Diseases and Infirmities cannot have their free Ingress Egress Regress and Circulation but are waylaied and stopt according to the degrees of these Obstructions the Diseases and the Distempers are more or less Now all Fumes and Vapours that many thousands of People especially Women are subject to as the Gout and all Obstructions Falling Sickness and several other cruel Maladies they are procured and likewise transferred from one Age to another for want of Wisdom Temperance and Cleanness in the Methods of Life for every Person does desire and incline to such and such Meats and Drinks Exercises and Communications according to the ruling Qualities and predominant Humours and their Equality and Inequality and the Nourishment Humours Blood Spirits and Dispositions are in proportion whence the Seed is Generated as being the Essence of all the natural Properties and Powers for this cause most or all the variety of new and old Diseases are transferred conveyed and intailed on their Posterity c. Therefore there is hardly found any Medicine capable to Câ—… them being so deeply rooted in the very Centre of Nature Now as these Diseases have encreased since Trade hath advanced so likewise have improper Compositions and Hetrogenial Preparations gotten great footing in the World bâ—… which every Age doth produce a new Off-spring of Diseases 〈◊〉 known or hardly heard of before as in this Nation since Stroâ—… Beer Ale and Wine became common Drinks and our comâ—… Foods compounded and mixed with Spices Sugar Spanish Fâ—… and several other Ingredients we say since this there aâ—… great number of cruel Distempers started up in Man's Body 〈◊〉 were not heard of before for every sort of Meat and Drâ—… hath the Key in its self to seek embrace and feel out its own likeness and hath an Innate Power in its Bosom or Centre to generate an Off-spring of its own Nature in proportion to the Nourishment such a thing affords as the Gout Stone Rhumatism Rickets and many Leprous or Scabby Diseases which within 70 80 100 or 200 years have been Midwifed into our Nation Now it is to be observed that all the other four Senses when they have gratified themselves and taken Pleasure even to the highest degree of Luxury Do slip their Necks out of the Collar as the Proverb has it leaving all their evil Works and Deeds of Darkness to this poor and most deplorable Sense of Feeling who is bound under the Iron Gates of various severe and intollerable Diseases all their malignant Influences the Taste Smell Hearing and Seeing shut their Gates and take their Rest but the Feeling is rarely ever quiet or easy Sleep and Rest gives them Resurrection and a new Life but the Feeling remains uneasy every Member and Joint akes and the whole Body is Indisposed Sleep being nothing else but a Transitory Death or an Occultation to a Renovation and therefore no Man nor other Creature can Subsist and Live except they Die near or altogether a third part of the time that is alotted them So that our Lives are a constant or continual Dying this being Matter of Fact why should Mankind be so fearful and timerous of Death seeing he that Lives 100 years is Dead more than 30 of it which time is an unaccountable to him as those that are really in Eternity where there is neither Time nor Place Near and Far off being altogether the same and no Man would be more concerned to Die than he is to Sleep if he had not broken the Law of his Maker by invading and bringing Desolation on all the Host of Heaven and Earth which is the Secret and Original of Mankinds Fear and the true cause of his Uneasiness and Perplexity for in this World there is no Creature that Lives without a continual Dying or becoming as it were Invisible Do not all the Herbs Fruits Seeds and Grains and whatever else appears in Bodies Shapes and Forms They we say do daily Die that they may be capable to reinvest themselves in new vigorous Bodies and do not all the Beasts of the Field every moment as it were enter into Death that they may be able to maintain a short Momentary Life though the Beasts do not enter so deeply into Death as Man Their Sleep being but a kind of waking in comparison of Mans for what Creature in the World is so drowsy and heavy as Man Nor is there any thing that sleeps so sound and deep or do require so much as he except some few that are called by the name of Sleepers whose Nature Original
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
a proportionable Body and doth agree with the original Spiritual Power that governed in Spirit For this cause all the Words Works and Actions of Mankind are in their Original nothing else but a Magick or Spiritual invisible transparent Power which doth move and work by several degrees of progressions circular motions and births All these Powers by the help and management of the Judge and five Grand Councellors are Midwifed into the World and become substantial so that all things are Created Made and most wonderfully Generated out of nothing its ground or original being a Magical or Spiritual Power which when understood and distinguished are all Wonderful and Amazing and therefore what Knowledge what Understanding and Distinguishing is so Noble so Great so Divine and Beneficial to Mankind as the true uses of his Senses in himself for so soon as this Divine Sight or Union is in any competent degree obtained then all the Magical and Corporal Spiritual Powers feel and gently touch each other in which consist the highest harmony and solace of the Mind which happy State or Condition of the Soul is called Regeneration or an obtaining some degrees of the first original State and Condition Man was Created in For the fall of Mankind was and is still Magical and Incorporeal viz. in the very Center of his Life for he did by and from the power of his Free Will and consent of the five Grand Councellors penetrate into stir up and awaken the sleeping poysonous fierce Original Qualities and dark Magical Fires which immediately occasioned unequal Motions and Operations whereby each form becomes discontented and invades each others right and so the union of the still quiet and Spiritual Powers became of a terrible selfish nature and being divided in their Government Domineer over each other and then was Man immediately hid from the Divine Vision and the Holy Union hid from him For so soon as these fierce invading forms and qualities had obtained the Government and broken the Simplicity and Innocency of the blessed Union each form did with the highest diligence Court and Covet all things both inwardly and outwardly that was agreeable to its own nature that it â—…ight throughly be increased and strengthened and these disunited Powers of Man's Soul would not nor could not be satisfâ—…ed but had and still have a longing strong desire after Corporality or to Cloath themselves with suitable matter or Bodies and these insulting Powers have gotten the Dominion in the Free Will which is the Primum Mobile or chief Governor of all that Microcosm Man then each Quality longed and lusted strongly and vigorously after proportionable Food that they might thereby be strengthened and increased and so become Corporeal for from this very Ground did always and doe at this day spring those voracious gross and unclean Desires and Inclinations in the Mind and Souls of Mankind for every Desire and earnest Inclination is a swift Spiritual Property or Power proceeding from the awakened Magia of evil or good according to the equality or inequality of the Forms and Powers And if this invisible Thought or Imagination be brought before the Judges and the five Councellors and not cut off or condemned to the Dark Cell of Oblivion but permitted to pass into the World viz. to be Coined into Words and from thence into Actions which do compleat the Birth and then this Desire bare Thought or incoporeal Inclination becomes substantial and Corporeal so that that which was a nothing is by the Husbandman's Management and Cultivation made substantial and becomes a gross Corporeal Body and if that bare Thought Inclination or Desire be evil in its Original Forms or Magick Powers and the Judge and Councellors do propagate it that it arrives to Actions or a compleat birth such go on in their own way and attract all evil and fierceness to its self as proper suitable Matter for every Spiritual Power or Quality when it hath Cloathed its self with a suitable body does still more violently carry on the government and innate nature of its Original and is endued with all the Qualifications and Inclinations that did arise in the first Magick Thought For all things both in the evil and likewise in the good do eternally go on in their Law if the Judge and Councellors do not prohibit the Birth and annihilate the first Thought or Intention which is in their Province to do but if they admit it to pass through all the degrees and properties of Nature and it obtains Corporality then the Law stamps its Soul or Signature on it and so it proves of great difficulty to obliterate and destroy it This was and is still the fall and depravation of Mankind from the Union of God and all united Vertues and good Powers The Magick dark Powers of his Mind and Soul he suffered to be violently awakened which as is before mentioned long after a proportionable Food that they might become Corporal Now the command that he should not eat of the Central fruit that grows in the dark Magick where each form is divided in its government having their Operations in inequalities and the Judge and Councellors concurring then the Senses agreed to the eating all gross unclean violent Foods and such that cannot be procured without Oppression Mans fall was first Magical before it could be Corporal and so is every evil or wicked Action that is done or committed and as the Fall and Man's passing out of the Union of and from God was done in the Mind and from the Central powers of the Wrath and unequal Operations of the Forms and Qualities even so and from the same Center must Regeneration begin its work And first the Eye of the Mind and all the intelligible Powers Councellors and Judges must have the distinguishing Powers made clear and manifest or else no Man can distinguish between the two grand fountains of good and evil And if this Glorious Sight be once obtained then it will be easy to reconcile the divided Forms and Magick Spiritual Powers of the Mind for as the original Disunion began in the Center of Life in that place where the Tragedy was committed must the Redemption and Reconciliation be effected The Fall of Man as was before mentioned was nothing else but breaking the Union of his own Composition when each form quality fountain and spirit advanced it self in domineering and self-will by which all the intelligible Fountains Spirits and Principles operated in Divisions and Tumultuousness so that the Body and Mind was and is filled with pain and horror And what was the first Man's Fall and Degeneration is still every Mans fall that lives in and under the divided forms and disunited powers of their Minds and where the intelligible forms and powers have lost their innate sight and distinguishing properties then the Heart akes and the whole Body and Mind becomes uneasy and in this state and condition the feeling Sense or Power loseth all its harmonical Union true Pleasure and
are all Passions and the chief Discoverers of Ignorance Blindness and Disunity but must quietly submit to God's Divine Hand that is never wanting to all such that Live within the Bounds and Limits of his Eternal and Unalterable Law All such will feel and enjoy the Pleasant Fruit of Paradice both in Time and Eternity but when the Eye of the Mind and Intellectual Powers are Dark and Ignorant and when the opposite Powers to all Cleanness Virtue and Temperance are awakened then all the Desires and Hopes do Proceed and are Generated from those Ruling Fierce Invading Violent Unclean Spirits and Powers which stir up and forces the Husband to leave his Loving Wife and Tender Children exposing-them to all kind of Ruin and Misery the Son to leave his Father and Loving Mother and open his Breast to Guns and Swords and to all manner of Cruelty and Hardship others to Rob Plunder and Steal some to undertake long hard and hazardous Voyages and a thousand difficult Enterprizes which no Man would ever do if he did not hope to escape the danger and come off well Who would be a Soldier if he were sure to be killed and had no Hopes or what Person would break open a House if he did not hope to do it and not to be taken none of these wickednesses and violences would be done if that Gentleman called Hope did not flatter them and entice them to it So that it 's most manifest that Men do hope against Reason Wisdom Understanding and all known Virtues who are all sure to Feel the Smart sooner or later LETTER VI. Of FIRES SIR I Have received yours wherein you desire to be informed the best Method of making Grates and Coal-Fires in Kitchens and Chambers the which I shall endeavour to Answer 1. TAKE two Fire-stones about 14 or 16 Inches high from the Hearth which you may fix to a Back of Bricks in Depth about 7 8 9 or 10 Inches the wideness in the Front 12 or 14 Inches in proportion to the Depth that is to say if the Depth be 7 Inches then the Front 14 Inches wide between which Stones you are to place a Grate made much in the nature of a Gridiron viz. It must stand moveable upon 4 Legs not exceeding 3 4 or 5 Inches at most from the Hearth the last of which will serve for the greatest Kitchin-Fires and the first for Chambers with 2 3 or 4 small Bars made round about the bigness of your little Finger and about 3 or 4 Inches distant from each other the uppermost Bar to be the strongest all fastned in 2 sides of Iron ascending from the 2 front Legs as high as the top of the Fire-stones which will be all flat on the top in the front the bottom Bars to lie flat and not edgeways a little distance from each other Note that the Stones at the sides and the back behind must be both made upright without any shelving as the usual Custom is and between the Grate and the 2 Stones at the sides and the back of Bricks behind you must leave the same distance as you make between the Bars at the Bottom of your Grate so your Grate will go in and come out easily which will powerfully draw the Air on all sides and behind and make the Fire Burn strong and clear so that you will have no occasion to use any Bellows to blow it the reason whereof is it being as deep or of the same compass at the bottom as on the top and the Grate not standing close either to the sides or to the back the Air freely circulates on all sides so that your Fire burns many degrees stronger than the Customary sloping Grates which are high from the bottom of the Hearth and sloping which prevents Attraction and Circulation of the Air whereas the low standing of this Grate together with the depth and upright standing of the sides and back as is mentioned before makes it burn so clear and strong that it will Heat Iron fit for Forging and Boil and Prepare any sort of Food not only in less than half the time but much sweeter and cleaner The best way of kindling this Fire is with a few small Sticks Shavings or Splinters upon which put your Cinders and a few fresh Coals then you may light it with a Candle and it will burn without blowing with Bellows for blowing weakens and destroys the Sulphur or Sal niter in the Coals for this cause Fires that are blown will not Cake or Coagulate and consequently will not burn near so strong as those that are not blown Besides this Fire will burn quicker or in a shorter time and sooner fit for use and not so apt to smoak the House nor the Foods that are prepared by it If you have not Fire-stones for the sides Bricks will perform the same and are more lasting The Charge of the Grate Stones or Bricks are much less thâ—… the common Grates and their Appurtenances the whole of the smaller sort will not cost above 12 or 14 s. the larger not exceeding 20 or 26 s. Moreover the low standing of this Grate does prevent the Chimney drawing up the heat whereby the Room is maâ—…e much warmer and the Hearth made so hot that you may Bake small things thereon provided that you place Backs to reflect the heat as is used in Roasting of Meat and warms the Legs of those that sit by them which other Fires seldom do These Fires will Boil any thing in your Pots without having Hangâ—… to them placing only 2 small moving Bars of Iron which wâ—… reach from one side to the other of the Brick-work which mâ—… all be flat and even on the top for your Pot or Vessel to stâ—… upon LETTER VII Of Bricks and various sorts of Earth SIR YOurs I have received and shall endeavour to answer your Request viz. The best and most natural way of making Bricks Tiles Mortar Plaister and Flooering Of Bricks 1. DIG up your Earth between Michaelmas and Christmas that it may have sufficient time to mellow ferment or digest which will render it more apt and fit to Temper and about March or April it will be fit to Tread or Temper which ought to be done more than doubly what is usual for the goodness of the Bricks wholly depend upon the well performance of its first Preparation for the Earth in its self before it is wrought is generally brittle and dusty and as it were without Band or Stability but by adding small quantities of Water by degrees to it and working and incorporating of it together does open the body by which the Astringent Sal nitral Power of nature does appear and tinge the whole with a tough Glewy strong Band or Substance which without these reiterated Stroaks Beatings or Temperings could not have been manifested for this Saturnine Tough Constringent Band or Oily Substance is hid and captivated in the innermost Centre even as the sweetness in Barley is not nor cannot
be manifest to our Senses till it has past through the several Fermentations and Operations of being made into Malt which manifests the hidden sweet Quality which was so central and captivated by the Martial and Saturnine Forms that without this Operation would still have lain hid or disappeared The like is to be understood in the Temperament of most sorts of Earth This is farther manifest in the Housewifes Art of making good Bread when there is a due quantity of Water put to the Meal and well wrought up together such Bread becomes not only smooth and firm without having either eyes or being subject to crumbling but it Eats sweeter and mellower and becomes easier of Concoction affording far better Nourishment than such as is over watered and not sufficiently Tempered provided the other Operations which belong to the making of good Bread be performed viz. Baking c. as we have formerly written in several of our Writings It is farther to be noted that the common Method of over watering both in the Tempering of Bricks Mortar Flooring c. proves baneful and destroys the end for which they are designed for the Labourers generally Temper their Mortar with great quantities of Water to make it easy in Working and greater dispatch in fitting it presently for use but this Method does not open the body so that the Astringent Sal nitral Powers of Nature lie hid as before in which consists the tough glewy binding Quality therefore such Mortar becoming dry is almost as brittle â—…s the Earth of which it was made and is the ruin of many noble Structures for the Labourers instead of putting on much Water at once ought to lay it on by degrees and mix and incorporate the Lime Sand and Water well together by continual Stroaks or Workings which will open their bodies and manifest the hidden sal nitral Virtues and glewy Qualities that make it tough smooth and binding for much Working makes and melts it into a soft smooth Consistency fit for Use with half the Water and raises a dewy Moisture out of its own body which knits and binds and when dry becomes as hard and as durable as the best of Stones Bricks thus Tempered become solid smooth hard and durable and one Brick thus made takes up near as much as a Brick and a half made the common way which are light full of cracks and spungy occasioned by the want of due Working and Management and the mixing of Ashes and light sandy Earth to make them work easy and with greater dispatch as also to save Culm or Coals in the Burning of them The excellency of Bricks consist chiefly in the first and last Operation for Bricks made of good Earth and well Tempered become solid and ponderous and therefore will take up a longer time in Drying and Burning than our common Bricks need Note that the well Drying of Bricks before they are Burned prevents cracking and crumbling in their Burning for when the Bricks are too wet they are then extreams which doth never well together The best way of ordering your Fire is to make it gentle at first and encrease it by degrees as your Bricks grow harder It is also to be noted that in what Earth or thing soever the sal nitral oily Virtues are weak hid or unmanifested that thing is not only dusty and brittle but consequently subject to decay as is most clear and manifest in Stones which tho' they are hard yet are very brittle and more subject to decay than the Lime made thereof for the fierceness of the Fire or Martial Violence doth loosen and open the strong cold Contraction of the Saturnine Quality which Contraction in the original arises from the Element of Water which hath as it were set the Sal nitral Virtues at liberty which were before captivated under the cold Coagulation of the original Forms so that adding a small quantity of Water to those Burned Stones or unslacked Lime will melt them down into a dusty or mealy Substance which being put into a quantity of Water will as readily impart or give forth its Virtues into the said Water as ground Malt will yield and give its sweet Virtues to the warm Liquor in the Mash Tub and leaves the Grains without Strength or Virtue The like is to be understood in slack'd Lime put into a quantity of Water which will draw forth and imbibe the Sal nitral and Oily Virtues of the Lime which will have no more Strength or Virtue than the aforesaid Grains for if you take this Lime thus Infused and join it with Sand or other Earth altho' you Temper it to a high degree yet it will never make a binding or lasting Mortar whence it appears that where the Central Powers or Sal nitral Virtues are hid or captivated or where they are drawn forth by any Art or destroyed by Accident they are of little or no Use for that thing for which they are designed If this were not so why should not Stones beaten into Powder make Mortar or Barley when broken and not Malted yield forth its Virtues into the Water Note that Water draws forth the sweet Virtues of the Barley Malted which makes various Exhilerating Liquors The like is to be understood of Water which hath imbib'd the Sal nitral Virtues and Astringent Qualities of slack'd Lime which renders it fit for many Uses both in Food and Physick viz. It is the only Ingredient that Sugar-Bakers use in the Making and Refining of Sugar for no Sugar can be made without it or its Equivalent viz. Pot-Ashes which are too Dear with us in England for without this Lime-water no Sugar could be Boiled up to a Body or Grain but would still remain a Syrup Sugar in its own Nature is an Extream viz. A compleat Sweet in which the other Qualities are wanting and for that cause cannot be raised to a Consistency and fit for Use without this or a like addition for the Sal nitral Virtues in Lime have their Original from the strong Astringent Band and might of the Fire which is wanting in the Juice of the Sugar Canes which being joined to it gives Life and Vigour to this heavy flat sweet Body and raises it to a hard sparkling Grain shining like Christial and renders it much more useful for Eating and all other Operations than otherwise Lime-water is also good taken inwardly against all inward Bleedings or Ulcerations as also outwardly to wash all Itchy and Leprous Sores and Humors a Poultice made thus viz. Take a quart of Lime-water and make it boiling hot infuse therein some Rosemary for a quarter of an hour keeping it hot but not boiling then add as much Bread to the Water and Roseâ—…ary as will make it thick with two Ounces of Refined Sugar stir it and incorporate it well together spread it on a Cloth and apply it every two or three hours and in a short time it will allay and take away any Swellings or Pains in the Head Neck
Service for the Use and Benefit of Man likewise all delicate Flowers of various and delightful Colours and fragrant Smells streight tall smooth clean Trees open Plains and Meadows also the Unity of the Elements as clean serene Airs c. do issue from the Divine Fountain from whom all Virtue and Goodness flows and according as each Thing or Creature is more or less Dignified with this Blessed Principle so they become better or worse useful or the contrary All Creatures stand in the Eternal Law and act according to their first Composition and as the Forms Principles and Qualities were seated in the first Creation so they stand fixed in all for ever except in Man who has power by the freedom of his Will and the Faculty of distinguishing between Good and Evil of Changing Encreasing or Decreasing Principles Forms and Qualities where the Principle of Light and Wisdom is weak and glimmering in the Birth he can by due Management and Cultivation augment and strengthen it Man is so wonderfully made and endued with such mighty Gifts as excel the highest Attainments of all the Creatures so that if the Eye of his Mind be open and his Will kindled in the Divine Magia his Soul has power to meliorate encrease and unite all the Forms and Qualities of his Composition into the blessed Harmony then all Works of Oppression Violence and Malignity cease all Controversies and Disputes in Religion submit and yield themselves Prisoners to his Judgment which is able now to discern the difference between Right and Wrong Truth and Falsehood then the Kingdom of Christ or the Divine Fountain commences its Reign with the Practise of all the Holy Virtues acknowledging God's good Hand of Providence in all his Dispensations Justice to himself and others Temperance in Diet Humility Charity Mercy Self-denial and in short the whole Circle of Moral and Divine Accomplishments which that you may be truly sensible of and fully endued with is the constant and hearty desire of Your Affectionate Friend T. T. LETTER XVIII Of CLEANNESS SIR I Have received yours of the 26th of August and must acquaint you that I have several times and in several Writings given a full Account of the substance of your Question yet when I consider the importunity of your desires I have prevailed upon my self to say something more to the Point in hand withal considering how difficult it is for Mankind to be perswaded of the truth of those things which they have not been sufficiently accustomed to examine and enquire into they are indeed Truths of unconceivable importance to all whose Eyes shall be enlightned to understand the Mysteries of Nature Cleanness in Foods being a thing of greater moment and value than the World usually imagins for they are the very Being Substance and as it were the Original of the Microcosm Man and in them are contained all the true Properties of him having a Simile in all Particulars with the Qualities Principles and Fountain-Spirits and being taken into our Bodies they are separated in our Stomachs by the curious and cunning Chimistry of Nature whereby they afford Support and Nourishment This wonderful Elaboration Digestion and Separation by refining purging and cleansing the Spirituous Virtues of our Food advances them to a higher pitch and degree from whence Imaginations Inclinations Dispositions Complexions Words and Works have their Birth Every thing in this Visible World doth contain the Nature and Qualities of the two Grand Fountains of Good and Evil in their very Original they are endued with an Influential Vertue or Vice according as each Form stands nearest to Unity or Discord as is apparent in their Forms Shapes and Signatures c. Now when things come to be eaten drunk or joined to any other body then every particular Quality Virtue or Vice is stirred up and awakened by a certain Secret Simpathy or Antipathy for the Original of all Motions doth proceed from the joining of contrary Qualities Principles and Powers Now if this be not throughly understood and distinguished no Man will be able to make a proper and advantagious choise in Food or any other thing The want of this Key is the back Door or Inlet of Darkness Ignorance and all the Evils attending Mankind From this Ground arise all our inordinate desires and longing after unclean and unequal Meats and Drinks for all Imaginations or Appetites are clean or unclean equal or unequal according to the degrees of Concord or Discord in each Person 's Complexion Nothing doth more demonstrate the Depravation of Mankind the depth of Darkness and Error into which he hath Ingulphed himself than a voracious desire after unclean Food especially such as cannot be procured without Violence and Injustice in destroying the Unity of God's Creatures who bear the Image of their Creator in a great measure as well as our selves This distempered Appetite of Man in coveting unclean Foods had never exerted its bloody Effects if Man had not been first Polluted in himself for no Commands of Violence Inequality and Uncleanness can spring from Equality Simplicity and Concord Desires have always proportionable Nature and Conformity with that Power from whence they are derived If this Ground of true Wisdom and Philosophy were rightly apprehended and believed how cautious and careful should we be in the choice of our Meats and Drinks What wonderful satisfaction and pleasure should we take in using clean and innocent Foods and how mightily would Concord Simplicity and Unity be generated and advanced Now if Man were not sunk down to the lowest degree of Depravation he would not only separate himself from the grosser Uncleannesses and Impurities in Eating Flesh but also from the Fruits of the Animals too though it must be confess'd they are abundantly preferrable to Flesh nevertheless they do carry with them and contain all the true Natures and Properties of the Stock or Creature from whence they proceed However seeing they are the Fruits they can spare Mankind with no great damage to themselves without any manifest Pain Trouble Injury or Oppression may be Eaten with less Harm and Prejudice than the other yet this is to be remembred that the too frequent use of Butter Eggs Milk Cheese c. do insensibly awaken and beget Bestial Inclinations and Dispositions No Man can pretend to avoid the natural Effects of God's Eternal Law No Armor is proof against the Influential Powers even of the least of Nature's Works for which reason it is highly necessary that Man should distinguish the Intrinsical Virtues and Vices of things viz. to obtain a true knowledge of their Natures Complexions and Operations for he that has gained the Blessed sight of whatsoever he looks on out of himself the same shall he find in himself in all its qualifications so that there is a Simpathetical Concatination of all things By virtue of this Divine Light and Understanding Mankind is rendred capable of discerning and applying all things that tend to the advancement of the Heavenly Kingdom
of Unity whereby the Virgin Birth is obtained Let this serve to whet your Appetite after the improvement of Wisdom and Knowledge and remain a Memorial of the unfeigned friendship of Your Humble Servant T. T. LETTER XIX Of Flesh-BROTHS SIR I Have received yours wherein you desire my judgment of Flesh-Broths or Pottages their Nature Operation and Nourishment and likewise Pottages and Gruels made of Vegetables as Fruits and Herbs without Flesh and which of the two doth afford the best finest cleanest and healthiest Aliment to the Body and Mind This Question we have answered in several of our Writings nevertheless shall endeavour to gratifie your curious Philosophical Mind and longing desire after Wisdom And first shall give you an account of Pottages made with Flesh and of the Fat Gravy and Blood of Animals THe flesh of all Animals and Beasts is gross succulent and full freighted with many impurities and uncleannesses as we have demonstrated in our Book Entituled The Way to Health c. And to say nothing of the Bestial and revengeful passion of their Mind which after Deaths painful stroke centers in the Blood and Spirits and those violent incroaching Spirits do never fail to incorporate with their Similies in the Eaters it being the natural Law of God and the way of Nature which no Art can prevent For as Man is the compleat Image and Likeness of all things Creatures and Powers on the other side all Created Powers are an Epitome and likeness of Man so that in one Degree or another Man answâ—…s to all things and all things to him and as all Meats and Drinks are made and compounded both of Body and Spirits even as Man so from our Foods our Bodies and Spirits are continued made and sustained all according to the goodness badness cleanness or uncleanness of our Meats and Drinks for from the body of the said Foods Mans Body always is Created and made and from the Spirits Mans Spirits are from time to time generated and supported and so Nature still goes on for from the Spirits are made and do proceed Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works and they better or worse clean or unclean according as the Meats and Drinks and their respective Natures and Originals are Qualities always maintain and generate their like for the Children cannot but partake and be endued with the Principles Forms and Dispositions of the Father that begot them and from whence they proceeded and though they may alter as to the degrees some stronger some weaker yet are they the compleat Image of the Father which is the eternal and unalterable Law of our great Creator So that there is nothing more clear and manifest than that all Meats and Drinks are endued with an influential Vertue and Power to generate strengthen and maintain their own form and quality having in their own Bosom a Key to open all the secret Doors and Cabinets of Nature and there to incorporate joyn and reinforce all such forms principles and powers as are most agreeable to themselves So that it is the highest degree of Blindness Ignorance and Depravation for Man to imagine and think that there is little or no difference in the Nature and Operation of Meats and Drinks and that one thing is as good as another which deplorable and miserable Estate and Condition of Mankind is much to be lamented and highly pityed for so long as this Blindness and deepest Stupidity overwhelms People there can be no inclination to true Vertue Innocency and Regeneration viz. to be made better for all things both in Body and Spirit are better or worse vitious or vertuous according to the materials of which they are made and compounded To this all Men agree that a clean thing cannot be generated or proceed from an unclean nor a strong thing from a weak This is generally understood by every Man in his own Science Art Trade and Employment and in particular this is wonderfully demonstrative in Husbandry Painting and Manuring the Earth Yet this great and valuable Truth is not understood nor at all regarden in the Cultivation and Manuring their own Earth viz. their Bodies Souls and Spirits What a strange and unheard of Paradox is it that he who preâ—…nds to have Skill and Judgment and to manage and govern the World and all things therein should be so ignorant and know so little of himself or of the powers and principles of his own Composition Will not the Husbandman tell you that such and such Land or Earth will bring forth and bear such and such Grains Seeds Herbs Trees and Fruits better than others And will not the Lime-makers and such as are Skill'd in Mortar and Building tell you that strong Lime cannot be made of Chalk and that a strong thing cannot proceed and be made of a weak one but strong binding Lime must have a strong firm Original that is hard strong Stones wherein the Sal Nitral qualities of Saturn and Mars or the original Forms are powerful And will not the Husbandman tell you that if you will have your Cattel or Horses endued with the greatest strength and agility then you must give them the finest and cleanest Foods and such as by the Sun and Elements are purged from their gross flatulent juices for in such Foods the Spirits are clean free prompt and ready not being overwhelmed and drowned in gross matter and of all such Corn hath the first place And will not Drivers and Keepers of Horses tell you that dry clean Foods will enable them to go through more Labour without damage and hurt than Grass And do not Butchers and Tallow-Chandlers agree that Cattel fed with Corn and Hay their Flesh will take Salt better and keep longer and the Candles made of such Fat will not only burn best but also endure longer and are harder and more firm The like is to be understood in all other things every particular Species carries along even through all things its original Seeds both of vertue and vice strength and weakness always enduing their Children or Off-spring with their own original qualifications so constant so true are the ways and methods of Gods Law in Nature and who dares deny these Grand Truths Now my Friend if you understand and distinguish what here we have hinted at then you will easily make a judgment between Flesh-Pottages and those made of Herbs Fruits and Grains However for your satisfaction I shall give you a more particular account of them Flesh-Broths or Pottages are various better or worse according to the sorts they are made of and the season of the Year and the Food the Creature is fed with which our Writings give a particular account of as touching that Therefore I shall not enlarge The Fat Blood Gravy or Juices of all Beasts are exceedingly crude full of gross matter and dull heavy purblind Spirits with contaminated dolorous Species and when it comes into Boyling Water the Water immediately penetrates the whole substance and naturally draws forth
Mankind may assure himself that he is not more mistaken in any one thing than in this viz. To give such unnatural and almost monstrous Directions to his Off-spring or Children from one Generation to another to deny them the proper and true Use of their principal Members the Hands from whose Use proceeds most or all the principal Actions and Curiosities that Support not only the Life but Pleasure and Beauty too This selfish Ignorance of Teaching and Whipping Children principally to the Use of that which they are pleased to call the Right Hand doth at the same time disable the other Hand wrongfully called or rather nick-named the Left so that it doth not only dwindle and become weak but as it were useless in comparison what it would be if it were equally used with the other for each Member doth grow strong or weak more or less useful as they are Exercised in Action which is the Root of Strength and Agility for Nature is neâ—…r forgetful of Supporting and Supplying her Children with what is needful and proper for their Preservation and this is evident in all her Operations and Methods Are not all sorts of Cattel and Creatures that are used and accustomed to moderate Labour do not they grow strong and fit for the Labour or Exercise that they are put to as Horses is not their Strength encreased in general through their whole Bodies and also in particular Members if any one part be put to bear more Labour or Hardship than another doth not that Member or Part if not too much oppress'd grow in some proportion strong and thereby the abler to bear it The like is to be understood in all the Parts and Members of a Man he that uses any Labour wherein the Back is chiefly concerned in the performance thereof that Part grows thereby stronger than otherwise it would and he that uses to Digg as Gardeners Brick-makers and the like are not their Legs and Arms much stronger than other Mens and that Leg or Arm that is most used or that the Labour lyes hardest on provided it be not too great that grows strongest and the other seems to dwindle and becomes weak or impotent Now one Member Arm Hand or Leg is not made more strong or apt for the doing and performing any kind of Labour Art or Science than the other but it is only Use and Custom that makes all that for each Part or Member of Man's Body doth contain and is endued with the true Nature Properties and Humors of the whole and is thereby rendred capable when Assaulted or Oppressed with Labour to send for Aid and extract Virtue and Power from all the adjacent Members and Parts of the whole Body and according to the nature of the Labour or Employment Strength is by this means Communicated Every particular Thing or created Being is an Image and Likeness of the whole with only this difference the Qualities and Principles are in one thing strong and in another weak following each other in degrees which is the Original of that wonderful and amazing variety of Complexions the Members of the Body are like the various Seeds Sowed in the Earth each being compleat that is endued with the nature of the whole only the four Grand Qualities differ in their degrees of Strength Weakness and Government so that every Seed is thereby made capable to attract Virtue and a suitable Juice or Nourishment to strengthen and support its self against all unequal Operations and fierce Invasions of the Elements This secret or mystical Method the most wonderful Creator hath centrally given to all created Beings according to the degrees and nature of each Thing or Creature for this cause the unequal Use of the Members be it in what kind it will proves detrimental to the Body in general but more especially to particular Parts 〈◊〉 that Part or Member that is most used doth become strong by drawing Virtue and Strength from its neighbouring Part or Partner and so render one Part more useful and the other less which is nothing else but an addition of Inequality which takes its Original Birth from Ignorance and the Inequality of the Mind â—…nd Intellects which doth mightily hurt Mankind rendring him much more unapt in his Trade or Employment the Arms and Hands being the chief and principal Members that are employed in most or all Arts Trades and Employments How awkard is it for Ship-carpenters or others of that Trade to perform any part of their Work with the Left Hand though it lies never so fair for that Hand and as contrary to the Right so that not having an equal Use of the one as well as the other Men are pâ—…t to a Shift and are not only longer about it but perplexed too so that most or all Men are as it were Fetter'd by being accustomed to improper and unnatural Methods for nothing can make a Man's Business so easy and familiar as the equal Use of their Hands and Arms they being the head Springs and principal Engins in all or most Business Trades and Employments whatsoever Why is our Left Hand as we use it more weak and unskilful in the performance of every Action than the Right it is for no other reason than that it hath â—…ot been used properly or rather rightly God and his Handmaid Nature have endued them with a like or proportionable Strength and Parts there being no difference but what the Mother and Nurse have made whose whole Business is to make one Lame and the other Strong so that the Right may be thereby capable to do and perform the Business of both which Method doth diametrically oppose not only Nature but render half our Members useless and of little value and as Children are equally capable of learning and speaking of one Tongue or Language as well and readily as another by hearing it spoke even so they are in the Use of their Hands both in Writing and all other Arts and Employments The Errors that arise from this and other ill Managements are almost beyond number for as is said before the too much use of one Hand or Member and the too little of another doth powerfully strengthen the one and weaken the other for as is mentioned before that which is most used doth attract Strength and draw Vertue from the whole but more especially from its Partner or Brother Member by which many young People especially of the Female Sex grow Deformed whereas if they did use their Members equally such things for the most part would be prevented more especially if the other Methods taught in our Books were observed What an unthinking untoward unknowing unskilful unmindful unregenerate unfaithful Creature Man is become as blind and dark as Hell much to be Pitied knowing little or nothing of those Principles he is compounded of or operated by neither of his Body nor Mind though he do continually communicate with both but what can be said or who is able to mend this dark Age so
long as Ignorance Blindness Selfâ—…ood Pride Vain-glory Covetousness Envy Fierceness Violence Tradition and Customs govern Mankind Nothing better can be expected Sir This being what offers from Your ready Friend to command T. T. LETTER XXI Of CORPULENCY SIR I Have yours of September the 20th 1696 and take notice that you are troubled with and subject to Corpulency or Fatness and other Concomitant Diseases and that you would have a proper Medicine to give you some Relief and Ease You likewise say you have had the Advice of the most Learned in your parts and that all Prescriptions and Medicines have proved ineffectual and that your Disease encreaseth upon you I have no inclination to be dabbling with youâ—… Purse but shall give you a plain wholsom method of Life in Meats Drinks and Exercises which if you observe will with the Blessing of God make your Life tolerable if not wholly Cure you NO Fatness can be Cured except such Persons do withdraw the Fuel and forbear such things both in Meats Drinks and Exercises that maintain and support it being a Disease that seldom goes alone but is attended with a black train of other evils their natural heat is seldom potent enough to support and digest their Foods besides the Liquor or Menstruum of the Stomach is rarely free from Crudities so that great part of their Foods and Drinks are turned into gross impure Juices which for want of warm brisk and lively Spirits and thin Blood great store of Flegmy Fat is generated in all the Members and likewise in the Vessels and Passages so that the whole Body becomes glewy and as it were stagnated which prevents the thin Juices and Humors from their free passage and circulation for all the inwardmost or central parts of Mans Body are like Spunges or fine Strainers by which the fine Humors or Spirituous Vertues of our Food and Drink pass and repass which is called a free circulation of all the Juices that serve for Nourishment for there are no large Pipes or Currents for conveyance of Nutriment as some do imagine but all the parts are like Glass that lets in the Light by reason of its transparency The like is to be understood of the passing repassing and circulation of the Nutrimental Humors Juices Blood and Spirits through the whole Body the Bladder being as it were the Sink or Bag to receive all the thin Juices or Urine which a natural motion and secret attraction Drains viz. the Superfluous or Excrementitious moisture from all parts of the Body and notwithstanding the great quantities that fall into this Bag or Sink there is no Pipe Vessel or any thing like it that conveys or carries this Liquor or Urine but all is done in a Mystical or Wonderful Method viz. by the attractive Power of that part as being its Disposition and Office to draw the thin moisture from all parts of the Body and the Bladder being Spungious the Urine penetrates through all parts of it as by way of Pores much like Sweat that is occasioned by Labour and many other ways which by motion and agitation of the Natural heat do easily penetrate through all the parts and such as Sweat much do make so much the less Urine provided the Liquors taken into the Body be in proportion The like is to be understood of most of the conveyance of all Humors and Juices from one Member or part of the Body to another so that whensoever any Member or other part becomes as it were fixed and the porousness of any of them be stopt that the fine thin Juices Blood and Spirits cannot penetrate or freely repass then presently is felt a pain or some disorder and if the Obstruction be much then that Member or part swells and is full of pain or the Distemper called the Dead Palsie falls on that part or Member but more often this sort of Obstruction proves the Gout for the Airy Windy quality in the Body which does continually penetrate and with a quick and powerful circulation run through the whole as being the central Life of the Blood which if wounded penn'd up or its circular swift motion any way hindred or obstructed then great pain or swelling attends that Member The Obstructions of this thin light airy Spirit or Quality in the Body is the Original of a great number of cruel Diseases And it is farther to be understood that all salt strong hard gross Foods that generate thick or tough Juices thick Blood and impure Spirits do mightily stop the glassy transparent or porous Vessels which do not only occasion gross Flatulent Humors and Crude Juices to lodge in several remote Members and parts but penns up and stops the circulation of this Airy quality from whence springs the Gout and all other evil windy and gross Distempers which rarely any Medicine Cures Likewise it is to be noted that the Diseases arising from those evil Obstructions are various and of as different Kinds and Natures as Complexions and Constitutions are in one it gives the Gout in another the Stone and Gravel in another a gross Flegmatick Humor and Fatness all according to the Original Humors in each Man Also these Obstructions do in many People occasion Fumes and Vapours to fly into the Head and to perplex other parts of the Body likewise some others there be that from the ill Habits of their Constitutions even from their Birth as it were Born with Obstructed Natures which they derive from their Parents ill Habits Obstructed Natures and Ill Livings for no Man of Understanding doubts but that the Seed is a compleat Image of and doth contain the true Nature and Properties of Man so the Seed becomes better or worse all according to the good or ill Habits Temperance or Intemperance Order or Disorder of the Parents so that Wisdom Understanding Temperance and Order are not only the Spring-head of Blessings to Mankind but likewise to all their Children and Posterity which is of great moment and ought to be considered by all People that pretend to fear God and keep his Laws Now the Original of those hard tough Humors and mortiferous Diseases take their Birth from the Disorders Intemperanâ—…es Gross Heavy Unclean Foods and Strong Drinks for such as the Spirits and Juices of each thing are such Humors such Blood such Spirits such Flesh such Dispositions such Inclinations such Words and Works they Generate and Maintain together with the Airs they live in and Employments and Exercises they follow Therefore such as have a mind and would be Healthy Cured or lessen the Distempers that have already invaded them must observe an orderly regular Diet and the nature of the Food they eat whether gross clean or unclean simple innocent and the like as to their Employments and Airs or else none can obtain their lost Health or make their Lives in any degree easie for every thing tends to its Original and never sails to exert its own power on all occasions and considerations with that
which hath the nearest affinity to it Now if the truth of what we have said be considered understood and distiâ—…guished then such a one will know that Temperance Order and Cleanness are the Spring-head of all Virtues and as it were under God the Original not only of Health but of every good Work and Action so great so powerful and so wonderful are the Laws of God and the innocent Methods of Nature they Crown their Observers with the Blessings of Time and Eternity I do not doubt but when you have well considered of what I have already said as to your Distemper and what I shall say but that you will incline to observe the Methods I shall propose for the Cure of your ill Habit of Body and the Diseases attending you Now the Meats and Foods that are most suitable for the preventing your Fatness and other Evils are all such as are clean in their own Nature having no manifest quality too highly exalted for every sort of Food that is unequal doth increase your Maladie and leave a Wound behind it You may eat and probably with some success too Bread Butter Cheese Herbs Roots Fruits Gruels Chocolate Paps Milk-pottage and various sorts of other clean innocent Foods but it will be better for you not to spread your Table too large but confine your self to a less compass viz. to Bread Butter and Cheese Water-Gruel and Flour-Pap only with Salt and no Butter in it and let this be your Method viz. in the morning a Pint of thin Water-Gruel with a small piece of good well Baked Bread a little toasted bite your Bread and sup your Gruell the like when you eat Pap always drinking a quarter of a Pint of Water after it presently and forget not before or after you eat your Gruel to take a walk of a Mile or two in the most clean airy place you can or by running Rivers side for all Airs are much â—…ner by running Waters than else where for by the curious moist thin Spirituous Vapours that such Rivers do send or breathe forth incorporating or mixing with the common Air it both becomes rarifyed and thereby is made more transparent thin and Spirituous so that it easily penetrates into the very center of all parts of the Body opening all the passages and moving Obstructions causing the Circulations of all the Humors Blood and Spirits to pass more freely if this were not so People that walk by such Rivers sides and others that work on it would not have such pressing sharp Appetites even far greater than those that are exercised on the higher Grounds but if any Man Swim or go into such Rivers to wash themselves or do any other thing of that nature it will sharpen and increase the Appetite to a higher degree Now this comes to pass by the fineness of such Airs and the thin Spirituous Virtues that penetrate to the Body on all sides whichare sucked in by the Pores giving a certain recruit to all the natural Spirits in the Body It is likewise to be noted that such as travel or work in Windy Rainy Weather do thereby obtain a shâ—…rper and a stronger Appetite than by the like Exercises in dry Seasons and such a one will not so often want supplys of Drink because such seasons and places do afford them a much finer moisture and more agreeable to Nature You may take your walk before or after you have eaten your Gruel and Bread then Fast till Dinner about one or two of the Clock eat a small Sallad raw made of Parsley Spinage Sorrell and a few Onions with them and eat them with a little Salt and Vinegar no Oil but with Bread and Butter or Cheese and sometimes only with Bread drink with them fresh small Ale or good Water the last being Superior to the first then fast till Supper and about Seven of the Clock eat a Pint of Water-Gruell or Pap with a little piece of Bread toasted and once or twice a week take a walk of 5 6 7 8 or 10 Miles or more as you shall find your self able and as you grow stronger increase your walks to 20 30 or 40 Miles And you must always go till you be weary but not till you be Faint for Nature will not encrease her strength if you do not in a moderate degree exert her Faculties and put her to a little Hardship for it is an undeniable rule and it always holds true that Nature endeavours to strengthen and arm herself against all Affronts and invading Powers for this cause the more you Labour the more you may and the easier it becomes to you which most attribute to Custom which is true in a Sense but give me leave to tell you so soon as you put your self to any unusual Exercise or Labour Nature useth all her endeavours and powers not only to withstand such Labours but to overcome them that she may be a Conqueror with ease and therefore if any particular Member be more used in this Trade or other Employment whether it be a Leg or an Arm that Member or part in a little time grows more potent and strong than the other and for this cause after Tradesmen have done their common days Work most of them can walk and exercise themselves in many other things with delight and not feel half the dulness and weariness as they did at their Customary Employments or Labours which had worn out or dull'd the natural Spirits that supported those parts most employed and did undergo the greatest part of the labour of that Employment or Trade But all this while other Members and parts of the Body that were not so intent or employed in the said Labour remained as it were fresh lively and full of Spirits so that when such a one comes to another sort of Exercise or Labour wherein those Members or parts were not so much concerned as is said before then they do readily lend their Aid and Assistance by which a Man does exercise himself in another Employment for some time with ease and delight notwithstanding he was weary at his usual Trade or Employment The principal cause and reason of this is every part of the Body hath its particular Offices and the natural Spirits that support and supply it with strength and vigour which lyes as it were still and doth not exert its strength nor powers till that part or Member comes to be employed This being the original Cause that a Man after he is weary and dull at the long continuance of Labour in one thing and the whole Body seems to be tired yet at another Employ or Work he shall be as was said before fresh and lively which is by the supplies of the lively Spirits that centered in such Parts and Members whose supporting Strength and Powers were not called forth in the foregoing Labour For this Cause and Reason variety of Exercises and Employments are best and least burthensome to Nature being much easier performed and with more
pleasure If this were not little weak Children could never go through a days Play with such might and vigor as they do for they are not conducted by Reason nor Interest for the obtaining a days Wages or greater Gain but follow Nature and so soon as they are dull and weary at one Sport or Pastime they presently fall to another never reasoning the Cause or studying the Point but go out of one thing into another so that when night comes they have tired all their Members and Parts of their Bodies and have left no Spirit uncalled It is therefore a grand Mistake in all Parents and Tutors of Children being a wrong Notion viz. To let their Children Play to refresh and make themselves more agil and lively whereas the very contrary is to be understood for nothing does so much unfit dull and becloud their brisk lively sporting Spirits as such various Sports which unfits and renders them uncapable for all sorts of Learning Whereas they ought to be Methodiz'd by their Tutors and Parents that is to be appointed several sorts of Learning for the day not exceeding one hour at a time for one sort of Art and though the same sort might come in the afternoon as in the morning yet they should spend but one hour at a time by which they might learn six several sorts of Arts and Sciences in one day viz. Language Writing Singing or other sorts of Muâ—…ick some useful parts of the Mathematicks and Gardening â—…itting or Sowing the meaner Arts to spend the less time in by which the whole day would be nothing but a Play or Diyersion Of all Exercises Walking or Going is one of the most strong and healthy for as we have demonstrated most Employments Trades or Arts when a Man hath Laboured all day at any of them yet he leaves some Member or Part of the Body as it were unwearied so that a Man may as it were with some kind of Delight and Pleasure exercise himself in another but Going or Walking hard does at once tire and weary all the Parts of the Body and though some are more weary and tired than others because more exercised or more weak yet all will be wearied or tired after hard Walking So that if a Man after such Going doth exercise or labour at any other thing he will presently find himself disabled and no Member or Part can supply him with fresh and lively Spirits which doth shew and clearly manifest that Walking or Going is one of the best and most natural as well as equal Exercises and for that very reason it begets the best Stomach and Appetite and is the principal Employment for Health and the encrease of good Blood strong clean Spirits and vigorous Nerves and particularly for all fat gross phlegâ—…tick People and such as are apt to be so And the more such use Going the more they may and the greater the Journeys are the better provided they come to it by degrees there being no Trade or Employment so beneficial natural and healthful though all Exercises are beneficial and good for most or all People And if going on foot were esteem'd genteel and customary many would receive great Advantages thereby and notwithstanding it is so natural so healthy and gives the Practisers thereof such strength and pleasure of Appetite nevertheless few there are that chuse it for their own sakes or the Benefits it endues the Practisers withal Riding is a good Exercise and of much motion and passing through various Airs begets good Appetites and is healthful but not to be compared with Going on foot as not being so natural nor employing the Members and Parts of the Body so equally and genteel so that Riding cannot encrease and beget such Strength nor so many powerful Spirits Indeed it is an Employment or Exercise of great motion but very unlike Nature being the motion of the Horse and not of the Man which is altogether contrary to the natural habits and motion of Going and all other Motions that Men are subject to or ever practise and as this Riding Jolting Turbulent Horse-motion is altogether contrary to any Motion or Gesture that belongs to Men or that they are subject to so it cannot be made easy but by custom and such as do not accustom them selves to Riding when Young can hardly ever make it easy in Age the greatest Use of it is that it is expeditious and genteel and Going on foot seems Poor Beggarly and Despicable even as almost all the usefullest and most innocent things in the World are a Horse is a high lofty proud Creature and may in some measure influence his Rider with such Dispositions but Going on foot is innocent simple natural and contemplative free from care having but one to take care for the fewer we have in Family the less is our Trouble Your Friend T. T. LETTER XXII Of FEVERS SIR BY yours I am inform'd of your present ill state of Health and that you are very subject to a Fever or much Indisposed by Heat which attacks you on every side and upon every small Disorder of Meats Drinks and Exercises and that you desire my Iudgment of the Original of those hot Humors and by what Method to prevent them which I shall readily do the Gifts and Talents God hath bestowed on me are all at the Service of true Seekers of Wisdom that being the end for which they were given FEvers are as various in their degrees as they are in their Natures all according to the Meats Drinks Employments Venus and Airs together with the Intemperance of the Stock or Parents this last is the most dangerous and deepest rooted of all others and hardest to be Eradicated for every Fruit is better or worse according to the temperance equality or inequality of the original Forms of that Thing or Creature both in the Animal Vegitable and Mineral Worlds or Kingdoms for the Fruit of each thing is the compleat Son or Image of all the Principles Qualities and Powers of the Father that Generated or Begot it so that all the Intemperances or unequal Methods of Life be it Meats Drinks or any other thing do centre in the Seed which contains all the Species and Essences of the Disorders both of Body and Mind and do rarely fail to engraft and entail those incroaching Properties and unequal Powers Many of these Diseases thus procured lie hid during the time of Youth or so long as Nature is vigorous and strong but so soon as Age comes or any other concurring Accident or Intemperance they start up and appear in their own Forms for which there is hardly any Medicine found that can make them tolerable Is not this most clear and manifest in all the Beaâ—…ts and Vegetables of the Earth and are not all the Young ones or Off-spring of this wonderful and amazing variety of Beings better or worse sound or unsound healthy or unhealthy strong or weak according to the temperaments and goodness of the Seed and the
have on all the Faculties of Nature no Wise man will or can deny as is before sufficiently demonstrated besides there is still another Ground and deep Original for the conveyance and generation of a great multitude of Diseases but more especially this fiery Distemper viz. the Seed being the compleat Image or Epitome of all the Properties Forms and Powers both of the Body Soul and Spirit and for this cause Man is called the Son or Off-spring of God or his Image The same is to be understood of Man when he Generates a Child is he not his Son and doth he not bear the Image and true Signature of his Father is he not endued with all the principles and powers of Body Soul and Spirits and if the Seed did not contain the true Nature and Property of the whole Father then the Fathers power or part thereof would not have an Essential Being in the Son neither would the Son be his true Image this being true as no Wiseman can doubt Then by the same rule Virtues and Vices of all Kinds are Sowed in the Seed and according as the Father and Mother are qualified and tempered in their Order Sobriety Temperance or Intemperance in their Meats Drinks and Employments Communications Imaginations Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works such is the Seed and the Fruit that is Generated Begotten and brought forth and is in Body Soul and Spirit the very same in all the principles and powers This being true what Conduct Temperance and Order what Cleanness Self-denial and Wisdom ought Parents to be endued with seeing they entail all their Virtues and Vices on their Posterity Now Mankind hath so far estranged himself from all those fore-mentioned Virtues by his gross Evils Violences Oppressions and Uncleannesses that he is run into the deepest degree of Depravity Blindness and Ignorance so that most do live under and are governed by the divided powers and forms of their own Composition where every quality and principle are at Enmity with each other so that he is hunted out of one evil into another Fierceness Violence and Oppression being his chief Delight and as it were the Pleasure and Pastime of most Men viz. Great Men study how they may destroy ruin and kill those of their own Kind and Species and the lower Ranks in hunting oppressing and killing the inferior Graduates and all the innocent harmless Inhabitants of the four Worlds and in Conformity and Proportion to these rapacious Employments are the principal Foods of Man so that there is a Concatenation and Sympathetical Agreement and Concurrence of all sorts and kinds of wrathful fierce Violence contrived and managed by the inbred fierce encroaching spiteful envious Powers which have not only sullyed but as it were obliterated the Noble light of Understanding and hath sunk Man into the deepest and darkest ignorance of himself and all that is good so that he neither sees hears nor understands any thing as he ought and thereby becomes subject to and is acted and governed by the fore-mentioned tyrannical Spirits Now there is no way or means to prevent those violent Diseases and other Distempers but by the wholsom rules of Order Temperance and Cleanness in Meats Drinks Communications Employment Words and Works which doth oppose all the fore-mentioned Customs as much as Light doth Darkness or the Day the Night by which the Observers may obtain a better Seed which will produce a Healthy and Virtuous Off-spring viz. The Foods material and suitable for this purpose are as followeth Bread and all Foods made of the Flour of Corn have the first place both for Cleanness Virtue and good Nourishment as Bread and Water-gruel Flour-pap boil'd Wheat boil'd Barley Hasty-pudding boil'd Bread and several sorts made of the Flours of Seeds and Corn Next to these are Milk Butter Cheese Eggs and a great number of other Exhilerating Foods made thereof The principal Drink alotted and ordained by God and the Law of undefiled Nature is pure clean Water Next to these are Communications which have great power over the Imaginations Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works either to encrease or advance Virtue or Vice and these Employments are very material viz. All such as are Humane free from Oppression or Violence either to Man or Beasts likewise all sorts of Husbandry or any Business in the open Air more especially such as is on or near the Water and to Travel in rainy moist Seasons Thirdly Thin or moderate Cloathing airy clean sweet Houses and Beds observing a mean in all things for Temperance and to understand the proper Measure both in Quantity and Quality are the Sinews of Health both of Body and Mind which to distinguish and understand in a Man's self is the Spring-head of all Blessings for whatsoever may or can be understood of God and of his unalterable Law is compleatly and entirely contained in Man Therefore the greatest Calamity the most miserable melancholy and deplorable Condition in the World is for a Man to be Ignorant of himself not to understand and distinguish the Powers of God and his own Composition for want of this inward true Knowledge he Judgeth of all things as a Blind Man doth of Colours and a Deaf Man of Musick all is done by Chance Trade or Custom so great and so deep is the Depravation of Man SIR Yours to Command T. T. LETTER XXIII Of EDUCATION SIR I Réceived yours of the 20th instant wherein you desire me to give you an Essential Method of Educating and Bringing up your Children they being all Young and of tender Age by which they are rendred capable of being taught and moulded into any Form Method and Government First I referr you to our Book entituled A New Method of Educating Children which I desire you would Read However I shall endeavour to gratify your Desire with those Talents the Lord hath given me not doubting but they will be thereby improved by your Prudent Conduct therefore please to observe these following Rules and Methods 1. YOU ought to understand and endeavour to be sensible that our Creator hath made Man in his own Image and a compleat Epitome of all Principles Qualities and Powers both of the Corporial and Incorporial Worlds all things have an Essential Being in Man's Soul viz. Virtue true Light and Darkness Love and Hate and if Men once come to be sensible of their own Composition and to distinguish between Good and Evil Virtue and Vice and from what Principles each takes its Birth they would hate and lament their ill Conduct both of their own Methods of Life and the bringing up of their Children it is impossible any Man should be capable to avoid the Errors of Educating Children if he doth not distinguish the two Grand Fountains of Good and Evil in himself and how the various Powers Qualities and Inclinations which do all arise and proceed from these two Fountains are to be Qualified Allaied and United for all sorts and kinds of Knowledge and Learning though it
hath to preserve his Body though intolerable Pains are always about it is a sufficient Evidence of this Truth The same thing is Essential to Brutes who dread the Shock of Violence and tremble at the Instruments of their Dissolution which proceeds from the Spirits and not from the Body and Desire of Life Wherefore it must be the highest Will to violate the Unity by puting a Period to the Lives either of ones own kind or the other Creatures being the most spiteful Opposition to the Laws of God Nature and Eternity But what can be said or who can convince the great Ignorance and Blindness of Mankind This Evil is the effect of Man's Fall in the abuse of that noble Faculty the free unbounded Will of Man given him alone by his Creator which he should have used to the Glory of God the Preservation of himself and the whole Creation But he forthwith introduced this Will into Self-hood broke the Unity and destroyed the Concord of his own Composition which was the true Image of God and an Epitome of the whole Creation Here came in that Noxious Opinion of Predestination that never could have found a room in Man but by his falling from the Unity into Discord the Operations of the divided Forms Qualities and Principles which is the true Birth of Reprobation and Predestination as is now held and maintained by some among us But 't is evident that God hath given Man a free Will or his Reason by which he surmounts Brutes had been of no use to him 't is this noble Faculty by which he is capable of knowing God and all his Greatures and preserve it from Error God hath given his Law in Nature and revealed Will whereby he is made capable of discerning whenever his Desires and Powers may exceed their Limits Had God before the Creation absolutely Predestinated Mankind he could not have varied from it but have stood in that Law even as the Beasts and all other under-Graduates do for they cannot break that Law as is very plain for did they know their Powers it were impossible for Man to Rule and Guide them and much less being so Impotent for him to Oppress and Destroy them so many ways as he doth Hence it is evident that Man is Free Will by which he Transcends all other Visible Creatures is become his greatest Curse having thereby broke the Unity and defaced the beautiful Image of the Great God by suffering his Will to enter into Discord and his Election depends on himself being accountable for all his Evils and Misfortunes For the Eternal Father of all things is always ready with open Arms to receive all that are willing to hear and observe the Laws and Dictates of the Voice of Wisdom Are not all the Works of the Creator like himself and we his Children endued with Principles Qualifications and Dispositions from himself We indeed vary by and through the Self-hood but God is eternally equal in all his Methods causing the Glorious Eye of the World the Sun and all the Fructifying Dews of Heaven with the sweet Influence of the Caelestial Bodies to fall proportionately on all One Man's Field is not Predestinated to the continual scorching Beams of the Sun and at the same time his Neighbour's to be Drown'd with Floods and Inundations of Water No the Eternal Fountain of Beings hands forth his Spiritual and Temporal Blessings without respect of Persons having equal regard to the meanest and most Noble of his Creatures none having any Character or defending Power beyond another to protect him from the wrath of the Elements Sickness or Death which made the Wise King Solomon say that one Event happened to the Wise man and the Fool. Now had the Almighty Being like some unequal Tyrant or unrighteous Prince made and appointed some of his Sons and Daughters to Eternal Misery after this Life and others to all imaginable Happiness he would never have given Laws whereby Man might govern his Will and all Preaching and Teaching had been vain and as ineffectual as to Beasts who live in their limits that is set them and as they do not particularly call any thing their property so they freely possess and use what Nature sets before them Nothing is more impious and contradictory to God than this Opinion and wicked Imagination making the most Merciful Righteous and Just God the Maker and Preserver of all things the Original cause of Evil. Every Man becomes predestinated to good or evil in this World and the World to come as he introduceth his Will or Desires into good or evil it being in the power of each Principle and Quality to predestinate and lead all those that are entred into it according to its power either into good or evil For Instance the Son Disobeys his Father and Mother takes to the High-way to Kill Rob c. and continuing in this Method the wrathful fierce Principle and Quality rules over him anâ—… will most assuredly predestinate him to Destruction Therefore my Friend turn the Eye of your Understanding inwards all the Wonders and Mysteries of God's Nature are within you you are the Thing your Self and if with Fervor and Devotion you wait at Wisdoms Altar you will quickly feel the Grace and Holy Power the Glorious Light of the Son of God arising in you and teaching you such harmless innocent Methods of Life and Love that will lead you into the Unity and convince you that as God is One and undivided having equal respect to all the Sons and Daughters of Men and whensoever the Harmony is broken it proceeds from our selves and not from God's Predestinating us and this take to be a sufficient Answer and I hope it may be as aparent to you as it is evident to Your Faithful Friend T. T. LETTER XXVI Of DEATH SIR 〈◊〉 â—…ceived yours and take notice of the Contents and in particulâ—… 〈◊〉 of your unvulgar Philosophical Question viz. You desire to know 〈◊〉 Original Cause and Grand Reason wherefore every Sensitive 〈◊〉 under Heaven doth with great earnestness desire to Live for Ever 〈◊〉 on the other side fear and dread nothing so much as any kind of 〈◊〉 or Violence that may tend towards the putting a Period to the â—…fe MY Friend all the wonderful and amazing varieties of created Beings and Creatures in this Visible World which are beyond all Humane Numbers have all proceeded and sprung from an Eternal Original and are an Epitome or Image of the 〈◊〉 and Incorporeal Worlds and Principles and these manifested Powers do contain the true Nature and Property of the Internal Worlds oâ—… Spiritual Beings for every particular or speâ—… Body or Thing doth in its Signature and Complexion carry that Eternal Stamp or Character it was Sealed with from Eternity or before it was separated from the Great Fountain of 〈◊〉 Unity Now it is to be noted and considered that the great and 〈◊〉 Powers and variety of the invisible Spiritual Beings did do and ever will long
and desire to be made manifest that is to be known to its self which cannot be any other way but by being cloathed with a Corporeal Body for a Spirit or an Inâ—…e Power cannot become Individual if it be not cloathed with a suitable Body they being like a Circle in which all the Spiritual invisible Principles and Powers do act and become â—…nown to themselves and thereby be made capable of Joy Hoâ—… Fear and Sorrow It is likewise to be understood as was before mentioned that the Spirit of each Creature is before the Body and the Desire the Cause and Original thereof and as the Learned Apostle Paul saith the Body is Dead without the Spirit and 〈◊〉 Spirit is not nor cannot be known to its self nor Enjoy or Sâ—…fer without the Body and every particular Creature or Being is endued with all the Principles Properties and Qualities of the Eternal Father or Invisible Fountain of Unity and are all the true and natural Sons thereof and therefore each Sensitive Creature doth from an Innate Disposition and Spiritual Inclination desire to be like its Father that hath Begotten it for the Son doth contain the true Nature and Properties of the Father and therefore not only Man but all other inferiour Creatures are the Likeness and Image of him from whence they proceed and had their Birth each according to its Kind and Graduation and as the Original Forms and Powers were more equal or unequal inferior or superior whence proceed the great and wonderful variety of visible Creatures both in the Animal Vegitable and Mineral Kingdoms in this World for accordiâ—… 〈◊〉 the degrees equality and inequality of the Spiritual Quaâ—… and Powers such were the Desires which did naturally 〈◊〉 vehemently attract a proportionable Matter out of all thiâ—… for a Covering our Body and that Sal Nitral or Spiritual Poâ—… and Virtue that did Predominate or had the Ascendant Sigâ—… the Body with a Character and the Inclinations Dispositioâ—… Shapes Figures and Forms were accordingly so that the â—…dation of the variety of Bodies and Complexions proceed 〈◊〉 the degrees of the Invisible or Spiritual Powers And for this Cause it is no wonder that every Creature 〈◊〉 hath obtained that high degree of Sensation and is thereby caâ—…le of enjoying or suffering either Pleasure or Pain 〈◊〉 with the highest diligence endeavour to avoid all Violence 〈◊〉 and Death and desire to Live for Ever seeing that 〈◊〉 sprung from the eternal and unsearchable Fountain of Unity for every Creatures Actions Inclinations and Desires are all â—…cording to the Composition of the Spiritual Properties and 〈◊〉 lities all which have an eternal Original whence the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desire in all Creatures do spring and arise of Living 〈◊〉 Ever and notwithstanding the Inferiors have no cause of Dread nor Sense on them of any World or being after this either Good or Evil nevertheless they fear and dread all kinds of â—…rt Violence Oppression and consequently shun and avoid â—…th with as much Cunning and Wisdom as Men and do 〈◊〉 the highest Diligence Industry and Prudence endeavour to â—…serve themselves and Off-spring nay they rather exceed 〈◊〉 besides they have not transgressed their natural Law and â—…fore they cannot be oppressed with any fear of Pain or Sorâ—… after this Life but the Original of all fear of Hurt Violence 〈◊〉 Death doth proceed from the Spirit or Spiritual Powers 〈◊〉 hath cloathed or incircled themselves in Matter or Corpoâ—… Bodies which the Spiritual Properties and Powers would preserve and keep as an Habitation for Ever for by means of 〈◊〉 Corporeal Body or Matter the variety of the Spiritual Proâ—…ties are encircled and so become a Self-subsisting Creature known to its self as was mentioned before and is thereby renâ—…ed capable both of Pain and Pleasure Joy or Sorrow for that which is Eternal doth naturally desire what is like it self 〈◊〉 therefore those Spiritual Beings and Powers that have the like motion and Sensation of all Creatures cannot by all the â—…ning Rhetorick in the World be perswaded on any account oâ—… be made willing to Die or be separated from their Bodies 〈◊〉 nothing is able to abliterate those Inclinations Dispositions and Qualifications of the Spiritual Powers cloathed with material Bodies they received from the Grand or Eternal Fountain the Father and Creator of all Beings so that the natural Disposition 〈◊〉 Desire of all Sensitive Creatures is to preserve their Bodies 〈◊〉 Ever which is like themselves and according to their Oriâ—…al Natures for no Spiritual Power can 〈◊〉 contrary to its 〈◊〉 and its Original Fountain or Father that Made or Created it And for this Cause the Under-graduates do all of them fear and dread Hurt Violence and Oppression or any thing that seems to tend to put a Period to their Lives as the like Actions 〈◊〉 Mankind and much more if it be possible for as they know 〈◊〉 Hurt nor do no Injury to their Knowledge but Live within the Limits of the Law their Creator prescribed them For this Cause all or most of the inferior Creatures do fear all kinds of Violence more than Mankind for the more harmless and innocent any Creature is the greater is the Opposition between the Species of Hurtfulness and Violence so that the Creaâ—… Fears and Calamities are thereby encreased and all Opâ—… is the harder to be undergone For this Cause the more innocent a Creature is the greater 〈◊〉 and Evil it is to Oppress that Creature and therefore Man's Violence Oppression and Killing the Beasts is an extraordinary Evil and Sin against God and his Law for Killing stands in eternal Opposition to the Creating Power of God which proceeds from Eternity to Eternity and this Eternal Spiritual preserving Power being the compleat Life and Essential Being of all Creatures whence proceeds and springs an eternal desire of Life or to Live for Ever according to its Innate Nature so that it is the greatest Sin that can be committed against that wonderful Mystery and Creating Power of God as being most opposite not only to the Creation but also to all the Eternal Spiritual Powers that are cloathed with material Bodies for the true Life Power Motion and Actions of all visible Bodies â—…esides in the Spirits which hath an eternal Original as was mentioned before and therefore not willing to be oppressed hurt oâ—… to have its Body any way destroyed for the Body is the Sâ—…rits natural Right and will not part with it unless necessity compeâ—…s And for these Reasons the highest Evil and Punishment that can be done to Mankind is to put a Period to Life and therefore the Laws of most Countries do not indict or compel Meâ—… to Die but only on the committing of great Evils The continuation of Life is strangelâ—… precious in the Central Qualities and Spiritual Powers of every Corporeal Creature and will not Man choose a miserable troubled laboâ—…ious Life of Vexation rather than a short and easy Death and this Desire and earnest
Inclination to continue a miserable Life doth not only proceed and arise from the sense Men have of Sin and the breaking of God's Law for which eternal Punishment is threatned though this seems to be sufficient cause to be the Root of each Man's fear of Death which doth not consist in his Transgressions but from that eternal Life and invisible Spiritual Power that supports and dwells in the Body which in all Creatures doth with the highest diligence imitate that Fountain from whence it proceeds 〈◊〉 it is not to be doubted that if a number of Men should be Educated and 〈◊〉 up and under Custom and Methâ—… that did not teach 〈◊〉 believe the Immortality of the Soâ—… 〈◊〉 Rewards for Virtuâ—… nor Punishments for Vice neverthelâ—… the fear and dread of all Violence Oppression and Death would be the same as now it iâ—… and with other Creatures for God's eternal Laws in Nature are the same yesterday to day and for ever or from Eternity to Eternity and Man makes Laws and imitates Customs that are varied and changed out of Evil into Good and out of Good into Evil but God's Law and 〈◊〉 in all the Operations of the Spiritual Powers are in a consâ—… fix'd Method and it is clear that the greatest Evil and 〈◊〉 thing that can be done to Man or any other sensible Creature is to put a Period to the Life before it hath obtained its highest Limit and this sort of Violence doth in all its Circumstances Diametrically oppose the Creating and likewise the Preserving Power of God and the greatest breach of Unity Now that which will make Death and the Thoughts thereof easiest is a clean harmless sober temperate and innocent Life Living within the Compass and Bounds of God's Law that is to do unto the whole Creation and Creatures as a Man would be done unto and if this was done nevertheless every one would Live eternally in this World if they could because the Spirit which is the Life of the Body hath an eternal Original and would be cloathed with a proportionable Body for no Spirit nor Spiritual Power can be known to it self or be a Self-subsisting Individual Creature or be capable of Joy or Sorrow neither in this World nor in that which is to come if it be not comprehended within the Circle of a Body and therefore the Philosophical Apostle Paul tells us that if the Dead rise not or if there be no Resurrection that is new Bodies they were the most miserable of all Creatures which is as if he had said that if after the Death of these Mortal Bodies if the Eternal Spirit or Immortal Soul did not obtain or cloath it self with a suitable Body that is an Immortal one then their Works and good Deeds could not follow them neither could the Holy Men and Saints be capable of enjoying those eternal Blessings promised to all those that observe the Laws of their Creator and keep his Commandments for if there be no new Bodies then the Soul and all the Spiritual Powers that circled and dwelt in this gross Body must of necessity at Death mingle themselves into and with the eternal Fountain and thereby be eternally Annihilated â—…s to Individuality or of being known to it self and consequently not capable either of Joy or Sorrow And note that according to the Disposition and Complexion of the Spiritual Powers such Bodies they are cloathed with and therefore it is not to be doubted but that every Man in the World to come shall be cloathed or obtain a suitable Body proportionable to the Spirit and Soul and such as in the time of the Body did freely immerse and enter into all kinds of Fierceness and Violence Killing those of their own kind and all under-graduated Creatures their new Bodies shall obtain a Figure or Form in proportion And therefore the Scripture doth say and speak of the Heavenly City and Angelical Powers without the Gates are Bears and Dogs for the Spirit is the Original of the Body and not the Body of the Spirit and according to the Equality or Ineâ—…ality of the Spirit or Spiritual Powers such a Figure or Form that obtains for the great and wonderful variety of Forms of Bodies and Figures of things do arise and proceed from the variety of the Spirits and Spiritual Powers which could not have been manifested but only by means of the Body nor be known to themselves It is likewise further to be noted that Death doth at once obliterate and put a period to the five great Princes or Councellors called Senses in which by and through whom the living Powers and Spirits of Eternity do manage and transact all material things in this Visible World or Corporeal Body and at the same time Buries them in the great Abyssal Mystery separating the loving Husband from the affectionate and tender Wife and all other visible things that are near and dear to the Senses and innate Affections and all that claims an interest to the outward Corporality the sensitive Body and Spirit of this World have a right unto and are necessitated to plunge or leap into the grand Mystery of Eternity and that which doth increase and multiply the fear and dread thereof and makes it so exceeding timerous to pass through or over this Sea into Eternity is First Mens living and acting contrary to Gods innocent Laws of Nature and the embracing of evil Customs and Traditions most of which do diametrically oppose all the innocent uniform Powers and Laws of Concord the ignorances thereof being the greatest evil in this World for it is almost impossible for any Person to obtain the Unity if he doth not distinguish the Power of God in himself and the Principles of his own Nature and Composition and for this cause many of the Justest and best of Men that have noâ—… only been soberly and religiously inclined but have as it were transacted all their Affairs with softness and equity according to the settled Religion and Custom of the Nation and Place they are Educated in nevertheless those great and unnatural Evils Violences and Oppressions most or all Nations commit against God and his Holy innocent Law do so strong and powerfully spring and boil up in the center of Mans Soul so soon as the Eternal Spiritual Powers do see and feel that their body or circle of Corporality shall be taken away or they separated from them 〈◊〉 there is a great and wonderful Consternation or Tumult all the Centers Powers and Principles being awakened and as it were grating or rubbing one against another occasioning great Disorders and Agonys between the Nature Spiritual Powers and Principles all being unwilling to shift or quit their Body or natural â—…tation and be put to seek a new one and being as is mentioned before altogether ignorant of then doth arise in the Center of the Soul various Accusations of their not doing this or the other thing or of some mis-spent time or neglect of the â—…mon Duty of
Stars and Configurations of the Heavens and yet all you say are of various Fortunes Shapes Figures Inclinations and Dispositions I answer now all that you take notice and affirm is a grand Truth and yet we must tell you that this doth not at all invalid or make void Judicial Astrology but that it is most evident that the Planets and Heavenly Bodies have an innate and powerful influence on all Suâ—…lunary Bodies or Things for it is most evident that by the circular Motions Configurations and Influences of those mighty Powers of God or Heavenly Bodies all material things are influenced altered and changed out of one thing or quality into another all the Elements bow before those great Powers and never fail to yield their Obedience and therefore as they retreat towards the Chambers of the South our fruitful Season ceases and the reviving Beams of the Great Eye of the World forsakes our Horrizon we are attended with cold Winds short Days long Nights Rainy Cloudy dark Weather with an intermixture of Frost and Snow which doth during the absence of the Sun and other ruling Constellations strip the Vegetable World of all its Ornaments so that Nature becomes like Old-Age and lies Bed-ridden till the return of this Glorious Body whose presence gives as it were a new Life Vigor and Strength unto all the Undergraduates and Off-spring of this World and for this cause no Man can or dare deny their influences conduct and power in and over visible things but as to the Forms Shapes Manners Strength Weakness Riches Poverty Honour Dishonour Healthiness and the contrary which variously do attend Persons in all Places and Countreys Born at one and the same time and under the same Stars and Constellations which as is said before doth not invalidate the Astrological Science or Influence of the Heavens on Mankind for the causes and reasons following viz. First every Seed produces or generates a Body and Spirit in some proportionable degree according to its Qualifications and Nature never failing to bring forth some new Essence that did not manifestly appear in the old Stock or Parents and although a thousand Persons should be Born at the rising of the same Constellation and under the same Elevation and Configuration of Heaven nevertheless each of these Persons will wonderfully and strangely vary both in their Shapes Forms Inclinations and Fortunes The reason is plain and as it were bare-fac'd for is there not a strange variety in the Foods Drinks Inclinations Dispositions Labours Communications Customs and Educations As for Example suppose that in one City or Town there are ten Persons have ten Sons Born at one and the same minute and they Educate and bring them up in ten several Arts and Trades every one of these Persons shall by the secret power of their Employment be influenced and subjected to the Method and Manners of those that are of the Employment Is not this clearly seen in all sorts of Business and the same is to be understood in Communication Now if those External Conversations as they may properly be termed are endued with such a mighty Energie and Power to seek out their Similies and thereby impose their propertys on the Humane Nature as in a great degree to encrease and change the Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works What then must Meats and Drinks do which are the very Essences and Substances of the Humane Nature every Son and Daughter is endued with all the Qualifications of their Parents and the Seed is made and generated from all the Qualifications of the Father and Mother First from the quality and quantity of their Meats and Drinks clean or unclean well or ill prepared proper or improper Mixtures Likewise it is influenced and as it were inspired by each Persons Employment Communication Words and Works for every Variation not only in Meats and Drinks but also in all other things or manners of Life do beget and produce variety of Shapes Forms Dispositions and Inclinations This is wonderfully manifested in the Husbandman's Art do not the mixtures of various Earths together alter and change the Vegetables for the better or worse stronger or weaker and every sort of Dung or Earth according to its quality and quantity is thereby rendred capable and do bring a newOff-spring of Vegetables called Weeds or Herbs that were never seen to appear in that spot of Land for the mixtures of Earths that are of differing qualities do alter and change the complexion of such Land or Earth by which secret power of Qualities that property that was strong becomes weak and that quality that was in the complexion weak and did as it were disappear becomes most powerful and manifest The very same is to be understood in the Art of Representation doth not a skilful Painter by an apt commixture of various Earths and Drugs most curiously represent all the wonderful variety of the Colours both of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral Worlds which is all done by the Sympathetical Power and Secret Operation of the mixtures and compounding the four grand qualities the Heavens and the Elements do continually sow and shower down Seeds of Varietys As for Example cast up Gravel or Clay that to all appearance is destitute of all the Sal Nitral or Seminary qualities of Vegetation nevertheless being for some time exposed to the Sun and common influences of the Elements such Gravel or Clay will become covered with various sorts of Herbage likewise it is farther to be observed that the Religion Customs and Manners of each Place or Countrey do powerfully alter and change the Complexions of Mankind either for the better or worse Virtue or Vice as suppose there should be a scrutiny made viz. a thousand Male Children of the most roughest fiercest cholerick Complexions should be sent to be Nursed and Educated in a Bannian Countrey where there is no Fighting Quarrelling not Killing either of Men or Beasts or of any Living Creature but all their Methods and Manners are sedate and calm where these young cholerick Sparks have nor do not see any other Precedent or Example but Clemency Mercy and an humble Deportment of their Elders to Men and Beasts esteeming it one of the greatest Sins or Crimes that Man is capable to commit against God and the whole Creation to oppress hurt or kill either Man or any Living Creature and let these Youths remain amongst them till they be 20 or 25 years of Age in which time they will be throughly grounded and fixed in their Religion and Customary Methods not letting them know from whence they came nor from what Parents they proceeded and then you may be assured that he that is fiercest by Complexion all the Rhetorick and profits or interest in the World will not be able to perswade such a one either to Kill Oppress be Drunk or go freely into the Armies of Princes to destroy those they never saw nor had no occasion of Quarrel The like is to be understood in all Religions can
any perswade a Turk to become a Christian after 20 years of Age Or on the other side a Christian to be a Turk and so of all others by which this great Truth doth appear over all that Customs Examples and Living Precedents have far greater power and influence over Mankind than the Constellation any Person is Born under Besides the wonderful and amazing Varieties both of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms are such that the Births of all Created Beings are in one degree or other manifestly unlike many Men have been curious in this matter but no Man could ever find two things in all Circumstances alike or of one dimention or complexion And the original cause of this Wonder is hid from the Eyes and Understanding of the greatest number of Men the blindness ignorance and wickedness of Mankind is so great that the Sons of Wisdom are forbid discovering of this secret Wisdom for the Unlearned would not only trample Pearls under foot but also make an ill use of them no Man doubts but according to the old Maxim of Wisemen and Naturalists that Man in Soul Body and Spirit is a compleat Epitome or Image of the Great Immense Creator and Father of all Beings and therefore in him is contained the true nature and property of all material Things or Elements and he may be fitly and properly likened or compared with the Earth in which are the Seminary Seeds and powers of all Herbs Grains Fruits and Trees of which there is amazing variety even beyond Humane number only this difference is to be understood the Sal Nitral forms and four grand qualities stand in their several respective degrees in some things one form and quality is strong another weak which doth occasion the great difference of Earths which by the understanding Husbandman and his Cultivation can be made capable to bring forth all kinds of Herbage Corn Seeds Fruits and Trees by his encreasing and decreasing of qualitys which by his Dressing Dunging and Manuring he changeth the complexion of the Ground by his apt mixtures making weak qualities strong and strong properties weaker Now can any understanding Man imagine but that there will be the like great difference in the Humane Nature for Mens Employments together with their Communications are able to vary their Complexions abating and lessening their sanguine tractable Tempers and advancing their fierce invading Tempers which before their conversing with things of the like nature could hardly be seen or known so that there is nothing more true than that every particular Trade Employment or Practice doth incircle all such that enter into such Business having a Key that opens all the secret Doors and Gates and the Complexion or Nature of that thing is never satisfied till it hath found out its Similie which in a little time and practice doth strengthen and advance by which weak Dispositions and fainty Inclinations become strong and powerful and on the other side strong Inclinations and Dispositions are mightily weakned and grow languid and drooping as if they had a Consumption Now if every Man and Woman did not contain the true nature and property of the whole then this could not be done for every particular thing must have a Friend or a Confederate in the Humane Nature or else it could have no power to encrease decrease strengthen or weaken Forms Principles and Qualitys and mould them into their Natures by impressing their Dispositions and Inclinations in a great degree alter and chang them Now if this be true of Exercises and Employments which are but External and managed with the motion of the Members of the Body then what power and influence must Meats and Drinks have on the Soul Spirit and Body which are as it were the Original or Seminary Seeds and Substance of the Humane Nature whose Operations are all Internal from which are generated Blood Spirits Inclinations Words and Works either clean or unclean better or worse all according to the nature of the Foods If Mankind and those skill'd in the Astrological Science did understand and had Wisdom to distinguish these things they would be far more afraid of the malignant influences of the Stars and Constellations that rule in that part of the Globe called the Earth that is evil Education unclean Meats Drinks Exercises Trades Employments Communication Tradition wicked Customs and Examples than from the Male Configuration of the Heavenly Bodies not but Men do by their Uncleanness and Sinful Methods most powerfully attract and draw the venemous Nature and Dispositions out of all the Stars Elements and all Undergraduated things for as is mentioned before Man is like all things and all things like him and so he is rendred capable to influence all things and all things have power to influence him either for better or worse So wonderful hath our Blessed Creator made all Creatures and Beings enduing them with an influential Power and Energie and more particularly the Humane Nature for it is not to be doubted but that Mankind is endued with an innate Power and thereby is not only rendred as capable to move and influence the Starry Coelestial and all the powers of the Elements as they are to move and influence him to that or the other thing whether it be Virtue or the contrary for the Princes Governors Magistrates of all kinds together with the Priests Prophets and Advocates are the great Stars Planets and Constellations that Govern and under whose influence all Men and other Creatures and Things are subjected to in this Sublunary World there being nothing more true and manifest that they are the Lordâ—… of every Mans Ascendant for by the power and vertue of their Commands Laws Customs and Traditions they make all bow before them let them be of what Constitution Nature or under what Constellation soever all Configurations both good or ill must yield Obedience to their Methods as we have before shewed by the Memorials Laws Customs Traditions and Religions of all Nations for this cause that which is esteemed true Virtue and Religion in one Country is Evil or Vice in another Now can any Person that wears Eyes in his Head be so ignorant as to think or believe that the powers and influences of the Coelestial Bodies are the prime Cause and Promoters of those vast Variety and Difference there is in the Religions and Manners of Mankind no no the true Original of all this amazing variety of Sentiments and Methods are the Orâ—…cles Prophets and Gods each Country doth Observe Adore and Worship be they either good or evil all both the Wise and the Simple fall Victims to their power Would not Swearing as is mentioned before and all other evil Words be they of what nature soever be as unknown and altogether as hard and impossible as for Children to learn Hebrew Greek or any other Language they never heard any speak no the Coelestial Stars and great illuminated Bodies whose Orbs or Circles they move by our demonstrative Guesser The
all their Innate Influences and Commands so that it is most clear and manifest that if the Governor of any People or Prince of this or the other Nation have a mind or desire to make War or to spoil his Neighbouring Countries he can presently command his People or Subjects into Warlike postures and cause them to march into the Field where Twenty or Thirty Thousand are Slain in a Moment so that every one is subject to the good and ill Fate and Destiny of that Star or Constellation he has made his Governor and unto whose Laws he hath subjected himself This is farther demonstrated by all the under-graduated Creatures called Beasts viz. If any Person becomes Master of a Thousand Sheep Cows Horses or any other Creatures has not our Laws and Customs made him Lord over them and doth not their good and ill Fate depend only on him being unaccountable for all his Actions towards them whether good or Evil Life or Death are in and under his Power and Influence and cannot he dispose of those innocent Creatures several ways at his pleasure one part or number to the Hang-man or Butcher to be Slain all in one hour and another number to be preserved for some years and yet for all this those Creatures are Midwifed into this World not only at several times but under as various Ascendants and governing Constellations of Heaven as Mankind is so that it is clear let any Person be Born under what Ascendant or Constellation soever nevertheless he shall be compelled by the Laws of his Sublunary Gods Customs and Traditions of the Place or Country he lives in to submit and obey them For so soon as Mankind broke himself off from the innocent Influences and Government of the Law of God and the sweet Influences of the Heavenly Powers he immediately became subject to a Foreign or Tyrannical Power so that he is become altogether ignorant of all the great Mysteries Qualities and Principles his Creator hath endued him with the Eye of his Understanding and all the wonderful Faculties and Intellectual magick Powers become encircled with a dark Cloud of Ignorance so that he is now like a Ship that has neither Pilot nor Rudder tossed to and fro by the fierce invading Waves of the Sea that has no Harbour nor Centre but he is continually drawn by the dark ignorant insulting earthy Constellations Customs and Powers out of one Evil into another seeking Content and Rest in all his Undâ—…kings Enterprizes and Methods but rarely finds any Satisfation which cannot be obtained by any other way or method but only by Virtue and the Power of Regeneration that is to return and observe the Laws of God and Nature for Mankind cannot be a Subject of Heaven till he obeys and lives in and under the Laws and Influences thereof as our great Prophet and Saviour Jesus Christ or the Divine Eye or Principle hath told us His Servants ye are whom ye Obey Accept this in Answer to yours for the present from your Friend and Servant T. T. LETTER XXVIII Of the perpetual MOTION SIR I Have received yours of the 26th of May 1699 filled with complaints of the various Indispositions and Diseases that have lately invaded the Health both of your Body and Mind and the worst of all is these Intestine Enemies have not only beset you on all sides but they are numerous and powerful so that all the helps and succours that Nature with the aid and assistance either of Meats Drinks Exercises Airs or Medicines seem too short and feeble to restore you to your former Health However we shall freely give you our Advice which will be easie to be observed and practised if you will but stem the Tide of Custom and give your Mind to it viz. First We referr you to our Writings in which we have largely discoursed of the Preservation of Health also of the qualities and quantities of Meats and Drinks also of Exercises Airs and Communications where you will find both general and particular rules for Health Secondly The Foods that may be most valuable to recover and maintain your lost Health are several sorts of Pottages or Spoon-meats as Water-gruel Milk-pottage Pap made of Water and Flour or with Milk and Water Possets Bread and Milk as it comes from the Cow several sorts of Caudle made of Oat-meal Water Ale Wine or with Eggs Chocoalate all eaten with some Bread these are the principal Foods you ought to apply your self unto being easie of Digestion and are to be preferr'd before hard strong salt fat things for the Juices and Virtues are easie Distilling their Nutritive qualities in a silent Method making no noise nor give no Disturbance from whose innocent power and sweet vertues the Blood and all the motions of the Body becomes advanced into a better state of Health Thirdly Your Drink ought to be good Water or at least ways small Ale Wine allayed with Water c. Fourthly Exercise your self in open airy places and by running Rivers sides and you must above all refrain and withdraw your self from all Sedentary Business more especially that tedious and ineffectual Study of the perpetual Motion a thing that seems altogether impossible to be obtained because it doth Diametrically oppose all Gods Methods and Laws in this Visible World which you and others ought to have considered before such a Labour had been entered upon do but survey and contemplate all visible Beings and Off-springs of God and his great Powers called Stars Constellations and Elements as Earth Air Fire and Water by whom the Great Creator works all wonderful things are not their Productions and Created Beings limited in their Motions and all their Methods of Life or can any Creature break their Circle in which Gods Law hath bounded it and if the Sons and Daughters of the Elements have their set bounds and limits and cannot pass their several Periods of Time how then is it possible that we by a certain Art or Science should out-do our selves for Art and Science is but a third Birth from the Original and consequently but Grand Children now that which is endued with a perpetual Motion Old Age never overtakes them but they are as it were always Youthful and Vigorous and therefore may have the Character of Immortal and if the Off-spring and Children of the great Immortal Being be Mortal what then must the Arts and Sciences be that are produced or flowes from them as a third Birth or can that Creature which is Mortal produce that which is Immortal or Perpetual which is one and the same There is no Creature or Being in this Sublunary World that hath an Eternal Motion but only the Original or Grand Powers of God viz. the Sun Moon and innumerable Company of Stars and Constellations together with the ever teeming Elements viz. the Fire Water Earth and Air whose generating creating and preserving Motions are perpetual but their Progenies or Off-spring whose variety and number are beyond Humane Arithmetick which
are all circumscribed to certain Bounds Limits and Periods in their Motions Generation and Growth and that is most clear and it is witnessed by innumerable living Testimonies that for any person to pretend to do or attain to that which God his Law and the whole course and method of all Created Beings forbids on the peril of Gods high Displeasure It is true Mankind by Industry and Art hath found out many curious and useful things as that of Clocks and Watches which of late have been mightily improved and it is not to be doubted but that it will be still farther advanced in all Motions and Curiosities thereunto belonging but still Gods Eternal Law and his Handmaid Nature puts Bounds and Limits so that they cannot exceed their Circles all Arts Trades and Sciences take their Birth in Nature and the better Workman or more curious any Person is the more nearer he comes to Nature but however it is but an imitation of her for all Arts and Sciences Trades and whatsoever is done and performed by Mankind the Excellency thereof doth chiefly depend on the degrees of each Persons Judgment and their distinguishing that principle form quality and nature of the thing or materials they work on and according to the degrees of each Mans Judgment and distinguishing power such a Workman he becomes either better or worse the Original Principles of all Sciences Arts and Trades are the same for ever but the Superstructures or Building thereon do strangely and wonderfully vary either for the better or worse all according to the judgment and the degrees of distinguishing in the Workman for Nature hath bounded every Man in his Gifts and Talents for Arts and Sciences are beyond all Humane Number and Capacities however there are very few if any that attain to their highest limit in either Arts Trades Sciences Health or length of Days which have come to pass by the depraved and unnatural Methods Mankind have from one Generation to another embraced For this cause the more ignorant any Person is the more he values the Works of his Hand that is the Commodity he works on or makes up and indeed no Artist is so apt to bragg or be proud of his Work as he that wants a sound Judgment and a distinguishing Understanding such a Persons Hands goes as far as his Judgment he values that which one that has Understanding and doth distinguish the principal parts of such a peice cannot but that Person that hath a sound Judgment and doth distinguish the principles and parts of the matter or thing he works on such a one is rarely proud or conceited of his Art in himself whatever he may pretend to others for the sake of Gain or his Interest because his Judgment and Understanding went before or is greater than his Hands can perform by which Eye of Distinction he sees plainly that the peice of Work be it what it will may be better performed so that such a one is less apt to boast For this cause ordinary Workmen or such as are called Bunglers are more apt to boast and to be pleased than better Artists and if the curious Workmanship of some others of the same Trade did not clip the Wings of such Persons they would be exceeding proud of what they can do Now as is hinted before there are but few People in this Nation that ever do attain to the highest limit or number or become so curious in Arts Sciences and Trades as their Genious is capable of the Original or grand causes thereof are viz. First most or all Youth are too Old before they are amongst or communicate with such People that are of the same Trade Art or Science they are put to as we have more largely Discoursed in our new Method of Education for the younger and greener Children are the more capable they are of receiving all Characters and Impressions and for this cause if little Children were but accustomed to be amongst and constantly communicate some part of each day with hard working Tradesmen and though they were not able to do or perform any part of such Labour with their Hands nevertheless their Judgments and distinguishing Faculties of Nature will as it were unknown to themselves be improved and such when they come to be put to that Trade or Art shall obtain it in a shorter time and be more curious and better Workmen Secondly There is wanting a true natural method and form in the learning and doing of most things and the well ordering of Young People both in Meats Drinks and Communications for Temperance and Order are the Spring-heads that renders Mankind capable to attain to the highest limits of his natural Genius And on the other side for want of conduct and a proper management of the Humane Earth and of the Sowing in each sort of Land the most agreeable Seeds and that too in its due Season is the chief occasion that the greatest number are so deeply Depraved Insipid Ignorant Foolish and Intemperate knowing little or nothing either of God themselves not of the wonderful Works of their Maker for to be Ignorant is the greatest Evil in the World because it puts Mankind on a thousand Projections that have no principles nor ground in Nature some in one thing some in others which do ensnare and entangle the most ingenious Persons whose Gifts and Talents would have brought Honour to God and have been serviceable unto Men but for want of Prudence and a distinguishing mind all their Toil Labour and Industry hath chiefly served to Inslave themselves both in Body and Mind and to lead their ignorant Neighbours into the same Mischiefs and Inconveniences Therefore my Friend lay aside all natural Propensity to this Study and the Reading of Authors that treat of this matter and also consider what we have here presented you with and mind your Health which is deeply wounded or invaded on all sides which is the true method and means under God to preserve your own Motions and Health both of your Body and Mind to the highest degree that God and his Handmaid Nature have allotted you I am your Friend and Servant T. T. LETTER XXIX Of MUSICK SIR YOURS of the 26th of Iuly 1698 lies before me and having seriously considered the Contents thereof importing your desire to know whether there be any better or shorter Method for Children and Young People to learn Musick than our Musicians and Masters of that Science do usually teach I do readily agree with you that their Methods are not only Intricate Laborious Chargeable and Tedious but farther when all is done amounts to little or no purpose or assurance of time whereby many Lovers of that excellent Art have been discouraged from learning themselves or having their Children instructed therein and consequently the improvement of so inspired a Branch of Mathematicks is obstructed to which the pride and insolency of many of the Masters especially such as are endued with any excellency therein has not also a
attended the second and many of the third Buyers and Settlers So difficult was the Undertaking and great the Charge of these first Settlements But notwithstanding the fore-mentioned Difficulties and Discouragements the Undertakers were buoy'd up by the great Prizes the Commodities bore and the easy Duties and Customs they paid and had it not been so it 's certain this Island could never have been brought to any Maturity which in the flourishing State thereof was the brightest Jewel in the Crown of Trade as well upon account of the great Improvement and Benefit had thereby both in that noble Science of Navigation as in Vending such considerable quantities of all sorts of English Commodities which have not been well understood and hardly at all rightly considered by our Legislators for the West India Trade employs about 1000 Sail of Ships whereof formerly about 150 went yearly from England and Ireland loaden with Provisions of Beer Ale Bread Flower Butter Cheese Beef and Fish to the Sugar Islands which by the discouraging of the Trade thither together with the high Impositions is already almost sunk and must be altogether so in a small time since the Planters do already and must Retrench in all their Expences especially such as are Extravagant for Necessity is not only the Mother of Invention but of Temperance and Order and how the Planters may still Support themselves Families and Estates under the present Circumstances of things and notwithstanding the vast Losses they have sustained during the late War they having suffered more than all other Trades put together the Loss of Barbadoes it self within the compass of one year being computed at 380000 Pounds is a Matter worthy of our Enquiry Now the first thing that should naturally fall under your consideration upon this account is whether it be advisable for you to Plant for the future but one half of the Sugar Canes you have been hitherto wont to do and Manure the other half of your Land for Provisions wherewith you may supply your Families and all your Negroes in a great measure so as that you need not Buy such great quantities of salt Fish and Flesh which are found by Experience frequently to prove injurious to the Health of your People whereas your own Produce will better support Health and Strength and are by many degrees wholsomer than the other by which means alone you will acquire many Conveniencies for then you will have Hands enough for your Concerns and be enabled to maintain your Numbers without yearly Buying which you know is a vast and constant Charge to all Plantations for all the Art of Planing and Making of Sugar is very heavy and laborious of which I need not inform you Sir who are so well acquainted with the same in all its Circumstances but the sight of the Operation in a Refining-House in London is enough to convince any that otherwise have never known any thing of the matter And now Sir if the preceding Suggestion carries such a face of Advantage to your Plantation undoubtedly the Changing and Planting your Ground with other Vegetations cannot but be extreamly Beneficial whereas one and the same sort being one year after another Planted in the same Land do cause such Vegetations to dwindle away and become poor for it 's the Nature of every thing to attract such Juices from the Earth as are proper for it and have a proportionable Nature and Assimilation with it self and tho' the Ground may be rich to another yet it becomes poor to that which has been so often Planted of which all Husband-men are very sensible who for that reason do often change their Seeds and Vegetables Now your Island being but of a small extent and you being often necessitated to Plant the same Vegetations in the same Ground must have worn it out extreamly in respect to Virtue and Strength for them which is farther and more clearly demonstrable by the depth thereof at the time of the first Settlement which was very considerable whereas now the whole Island is become a kind of a Rock the proper and natural Earth being no more than 2 or 3 Foot deep before you come to a whitish Marle somewhat like our chalky Ground in England tho' much hotter so that the Land in general is mightily wasted not only in respect to its quantity but also quality it being evident for the first 20 or 30 years after the first Planting or Settling thereof the Canes then Planted would bring forth a considerable Crop yearly from 3 years to 9 without farther Planting but only Weeding and keeping it clean for being cut they would grow from the old Stock and all this while every Acre would make double the return it doth now notwithstanding your great charge of Manuring and Dressing the said Ground amounts to near 10 times as much as it was in the Youthfulness thereof it being grown as it were Sick and so Beggarly that it will not do without yearly Dunging and Planting which requires considerably more Hands than formerly and yet produces more uncertain Crops for all that are Skill'd in the nature of Agriculture do know that when the natural Virtues or Juices are decayed as they do by frequent Tillage and that the Ground comes to be often Dunged which they call Forcing that then such Land and the Vegetations thereof will not be able to encounter or withstand the inequality of Seasons for in case the year happens to be over-dry then immediately the Veins and porous Passages of the Earth become stiff narrow and stagnated which obstructs the Canes from arriving at any happy Growth or Maturity while on the other hand if the Seasons or Years prove to be over-wet all of them become large and rank and will not ripen in due time both which of late years by reason of the Earths decay as afore-said very often happen so that now nothing but a temperate Year and Season will produce a tollerable Crop Besides all which it 's farther observable upon this Head that most Land that is often Till'd and Dung'd produce a great multitude of new and unknown Vegetables called Weeds in a manner wholly unknown to the first Planters and this arises from the variety of Dungs used in the Manure which proceeding from sundry sorts of Creatures and consequently being endued with as many different Qualities and Natures when they become mixed with the Earth thus worn out do open and penetrate to the Centre and wheresoever they meet with any agreeble Matter or Juice they unite and kindle new Essences from whence new Vegetations Herbs and Weeds are Generated Now if these things be true and are duly considered will there not be a kind of necessity for the Sugar Plantations to alter their Methods and fall to the Propagating of such other things as will be conducive to the Support of every Man's Family self Perservation being always preferable to all other Considerations and it can be no small Inducement for them hereunto who cannot
ripe then nine Pounds or a Gallon of Juice makes but three quarters of a Pound of Muscovado Sugar and the like quantity of Molosses and this very frequently comes to pass For if the Canes be planted too thick which intercepts the Heat from penetrating thro them to the Roots or if the Season be too wet then some are ripe and some are not and in such a case the Sugar is neither so much in Quantity nor so good in Quality and there is as much difference between that made hereof and of the ripe Canes as there is between Cyder made of Apples growing on the Top and the outside of the Trees and of those that grow under the shady Boughs where the Sun cannot influence them with his warming Beams therefore it must be a grand Error to plant Canes so thick especially in moist or wet Seasons Now the Scums Dregs and excrementitious Parts which are separated from the finer and more essential Parts in making of Sugar are of some value for from the same being fermented and distilled is extracted a strong Spirit which they call Rumm so that you see Sir that the Juice of the Cane by Art and extream Labour is made into three considerable Commodities viz. Sugar Treacle and Rumm beside which the Servants and Negroes make a very good Drink with Molosses Water and some Ginger worked up all together the Strength being in proportion to the Quantity of Molosses put in as our Beer or Ale is stronger or smaller according to the Quantity of Malt and this Drink is called by the Indian name of Coow woow the same being altogether as wholsom as our Ale and rather stronger than the common sort and tho' there are many other sorts of Drinks made of Molosses Sugar and the Juices of Fruits yet this is one of the best and wholsomest if it be not kept till it be too stale but it being the cheapest and most common is a sufficient Reason with most that have wherewithal to make more chargeable Liquors to reject it But to leave this and come to the principal Ingredient used in making of Sugar in all parts of the World of which all eat but so very few know the manner and difficulty of the Preparation I am to acquaint you it 's the Sal Nitre of Stones I mean Lime slacked and infused in common Water which does as readily imbibe the Salt of the Lime as hot Water does the Sweetness of Malt in Brewing now the Boiler makes his Liquor stronger or weaker according to the Goodness of the Canes and there is never any brown nor white Sugar made nor can be made without this Lime-water or its Equivalent viz. Pot-Ashes which yet is very rarely used the same being neither so good nor so reasonably cheap whereas the other is experimentally found to be the best for bringing of Sugar to its highest Perfection Now Muscovado or Brown Sugar is made sometimes with stronger Lime-water than our Sugar-Bakers or Refiners do use in Refining white Sugar for the Juice of the Canes could never be made into Sugar that is into a firm substantial Body nor obtain a sparkling Grain without the Help and Assistance of this Lime-water but the same would remain forever a dull glewy fat Substance or Syrup of an heavy gross Nature and Operation neither wholsom nor pleasant For as the Juice of the Cane is a compleat Sweet wherein the saltish Astringent bitter and sharp Qualities are weak and impotent therefore with out the Assistance of the other three it cannot obtain a Body especially without an Astringent Quality of which Stones are endued with an ample Share from whence proceeds the strong hard Body or Coagulation in them and the harder they are the stronger and more powerful are the salnitral Vertues of Lime made thereof as all Builders and Workers in Mortar experimentally find seeing good Lime by the Assistance of Water and good management in tempering will obtain as hard and strong a Consistency or Coagulation as the Stone had or be rather harder than before it was turned into Lime For the fire you must know in the burning of Lime does not at all weaken the salnitral Astringency but breaks and melts down the cold gross Coagulation opening the hard Body and frees the more essential Parts and Vertues of Nature setting them at liberty which while such stones remained entire were not useful for any such purposes For this Sal Nitre or original Salt is encircled in the innermost Center of all things both in the Animal Vegetative and Mineral Kingdoms and each specifick Thing is cloathed with a suitable Body according to the Power Strength and Nature of the Sal Nitre or astringent part thereof therefore in what Man Beast Vegetable or Mineral the Salnitral forms are weak so the Body is alwâ—… in proportion Now this Salt of Stones is of great Use and the principal thing that brings Sugar as I have already said to perfection and as the Artist cannot perform the first part of the Operation without the Assistance of this Lime-water so the brown Sugar made or refined into white Sugar must also be boiled up with a proper Quantity thereof stronger or weaker according to the Strength Goodness or Badness of the Muscovado or brown Sugar for that Body and lively sparkling Grain which the brown sugar received from the Lime-water in the first preparation is in great part lost when it comes to the Refiners Pans or Coppers and melts down into a Syrup and therefore it must again be supplied with fresh Lime-water to reduce it to a firm Grain or Consistency or else it will remain a Syrup for ever And now pray give me leave to tell you is it not strange that the Brains of the Learned and others should condemn this wholsom and beneficial Ingredient by whose Assistance alone the Juices of the Sugar-Cane you see is brought to the highest Perfection and rendred useful to Mankind and without which it could be but of very little Advantage and whereas many thousands do suppose that the dusty stony quality of the Lime remains in white and other Sugars and for that reason several of our nice Madams Learned Physicians and Apothecaries will rather eat brown dirty or clayed Sugar than Refiners white Sugar It 's a grand mistake in them not but that such Sugars are good in their kind but not to be compared with our white refined Sugars this being a general and a sure Rule that the whiter any Sugar is the cleaner finer and wholsomer it is and the more it is purged from all Grossness and Impurity when on the other side the blacker duller and moister any Sugar is the fouler and grosser it must be and consequently the more unwholsom and unhealthy For the most if not all the Operations of boyling scumming clarifying and straining performed in making the gross crude Juices of the Sugar-Cane into Muscovado Sugar is done by the Refiners even to an higher degree and with great Charge
Operation altogether contrary to the former and of but little Use and Virtue except in some particular Medicines But when any such Drinks are weak and the sweet Quality has but a small share or government in them they aâ—…ter they have attained to the highest Degree and Ripeness for drinking which they do in a shorter time than those Liquors wherein the sweet Quality is strong very frequently fall into a Flatness which is called dead Beer whereas where this great sweet Quality is prevalent the original Salts are in proportion and consequently the principle of Heat and Fire is powerful which appears as soon as the Bodies of such Fruits are opened or put into Motion by the Art of Fermentation But to confine my self as nigh as may be to the two main Things I mean Sugar and Brandies intended by this Letter give me leave to tell you Sir all sorts of Sugar are so highly graduated both by Nature and Art that the same is become the greatest Preserver and the best Cordial in the World there being nothing found that will so long preserve Crude or raw Fruits Herbs Liquors and many other things as Sugar more especially the first and second sort Sal Nitre or common Salt coming short thereof so that it seems to have obtained the Ascendenâ—… over all other things in the Vegetable Kingdom And as to its Sweetness or Operations in many sorts of Foods it is endued with many charming Properties whereby it mollifies and as it were unites all the unequal Motions and predominate Powers of the other three-domineering Qualities I mean the Asâ—…ringent or Saltish Bitter and Sour and melts them down unto a degree of Equality so that by the help hereof many Crude raw Fruits and others otherwise in a manner useless become beneficial of which there are made many brave wholsom exhileratings Foods and Liquors too tho' by the by I am to observe that such Foods wherein Sugar is mixed or compounded ought not to be frequently eaten more especially not by Children or young People since it never fails to operate and act like it self I mean to heat and warm the Blood generating many powerful brisk Sprits that for the most part prove of no small prejudice to them whereas on the contrary to most that are of advanced years the proper Mixture of Sugar in some part of their Food especially spoon Meat mightily inspires them with a chearing warming Quality giving as it were a youthful Life and Vigour to aged drooping Natures and heavy dull Spirits and are to be preferred before all spirituous Cordials and strong Drinks whatever which most aged People affect and which seldom fails to pinch and heat the Ureters to obstruct the Passages as also the free Circulation of the Blood by drying up and consuming the thin moist Vapours and dewy Qualities which old Age generally wants in a great proportion the Preservation and Support of which depends most upon spoon Meats which sweetned as already â—…entioned 〈◊〉 more suitable and homogeneal than any of those Liquors taken for that purpose And as Sugar used in Meats and Preserves is thus so very excellent the Spirits or Brandies made thereof are no 〈◊〉 so and must have the first place allowed it of all others in a manner upon all accounts tho' I must say all Brandies are useful and have as it were a kind of Operation which is an hot fiery warming restoring reviving and penetrating the whole Body with its powerful and rapid Motion which is the innate and unnatural Disposition thereof These Liquors being as it were spiritual Powers by Art divested from their natural Cloathing or crude phlegmy Bodies and therefore at the very first intermission of them into the Body penetrate to the very Center of all the Principles and Powers of Nature and joining and incorporating with the original Fire and natural Spirits makes the Person the same moment he drinks to feel a brisk lively Fire to kindle which upon some occasions proves of great Benefit as in fainting Fits Swoundding over Dulness of the natural Spirits also after hard Labour and so forth and here give me leave to note that those Brandies that are thin and less Cordial such as are distill'd from thin small Wines and old clean Cyder are more penetrating and digesting as proceeding from a meaner thinner and weaker Original and therefore their Operations are good and may be taken on Foulness and Surfeits to as good purpose as that made of Sugar but the Sugar or Treacle Brandy is more Substantial fuller and more Cordial and therefore the drinking thereof does not so soon wound and decay the Drinkers of it nor cause them to dwindle into Consumptions as the drinking of French Brandy does and this has been observed ever since both sorts have been become a common Drink for Enterment especially in the Sugar Islands and other Parts of the West Indies That when any one took to the drinking of French Brandy his Friends and Acquaintance condemned him to a short Life of Course whereas if any took to the drinking of that made of the Spirit of Molosses or Juices of Sugar-Cane they would cry he would hold out For tho' the common drinking of one or the other be a sin against God yet 't is certain the sipping of that made of Sugar does not so soon wound and destroy the radical Moisture and Digestion of the Stomach as the other does which comes from France whose thin hungry Leanness is manifested by putting a raw Piece of Flesh into it and another the like Piece into Sugar-Brandy where you will find the former as it were eaten to pieces and destroyed much sooner than that in the latter than which nothing can better set out the Eagerness Thinness and Acidity thereof For by how much the more eager thin and hungry any Liquor is the less Cordal Sweetness its Body possessed with the more it seeks after Matter breathing as it were violently with open Mouth to devour all Substances that come within its Circle or Province And further to illustrate this with an Example if you put Eggs or any other the like thing into Ale Beer Cyder Wine or Vinegar you will find that put into Ale to have the first place of keeping that of the Beer if mild next and so on so that that which is sharpest you see devours or eats up the thing first whereas the mildest fullest and most Corpial Body or that wherein the four Qualities are most equal will preserve the thing so put into it longest because all its parts are more equal But Sugar Treacle or Molosses are not useful only in the forementioned ways but also upon many other Accounts too long to be inserted And I hope Sir you are satisfyed by this time of their Natures Distinctions and different Operations and the preferrence due to Sugar both to Foods Drinks and otherwise whereunto Molosses cannot pretend to arrive For having passed thro' the several Fluxes and Operations of the Refiners and
divers things of considerable value which of themselves are of little or none witness in green raw sharp Gooseberries which by its sweet and friendly power are rendred much more preferrable to those that are ripe Fourthly There are but very few who are not sensible how mightily Sugar advances the Kings Customs not only in respect to the Imposts laid upon it self but by occasioning many Foreign Commodities to be imported which before our Sugar Settlements were not thought of as the noble Nut called the Cocoa of which the most equal and agreeable Pottage is made which if it were not for Sugar would be but of little use and several other Foreign Fruits and Drugs as Tea Coffee c. Fifthly Physitians and Apothecaries cannot but think themselves highly befriended by this noble Juice since more than half their Medicines are mixed and compounded with Sugar and a great part of our Herbs and Medicinal Flowers would be of little or no use without it there being by a modest computation above Three Hundred Medicines made up with Sugar by whose assistance their Volatile Virtues are incircled and preserved which otherwise could not be done Sixthly Then for the Confectioners what do or indeed can they do without Sugar it being manifest there are above Two Hundred several sorts of Sweet-Meats made by them with Fruits of our own Growth which are so many excellent Cordials delitious and pleasant and may be all eaten to the advantage both of health and pleasure if order and temperance be not wanting and confederated with things of a meaner quality but otherwise without Sugar they would be harsh crude sharp and subject to decay as would also great quantities of Foreign Fruits and Seeds which are preserved by them and which upon their Importation pay the King considerable Customs Seventhly It may not only be mixed and compounded with most if not all sorts of Vegetations their several Sal Nitral Virtues all proceeding from agreeable Principles but even Bread it self which with good reason is stiled the Staff of Life and esteemed the best and cleannest of all Foods if it be eaten only with a little good Sugar it inspires it with a more brisk and lively taste and is of much easier Digestion than if it had been eaten by it self But give me leave by the way to insert one Caution and that is that Sugar is not so good mixed with the Fat of Animals nor with Butter that being I may say an Heterogenious practice for the Sal Nitral properties of Vegetables cannot so easily incorporate with the Animal Sulphurs or Fat 's and consequently open the Bodies of each other and therefore all such Foods as are made up with Butter and Sugar are generally of an heavy dull and cloying nature and never fall to obstruct the Stomach and retard Digestion And this antipathy between Animal Fat 's or Sulphurs and Vegetable Sal Nitres is very manifest by what is practised in the Art of Refining of Sugar for when the Juice of the same is Boyled in Coppers with most fierce and vehement Fire such as is necessarily required for that purpose whereby the Liquor rises up with a much more turbulent and ungovernable motion than either Beer or Ale as the Syrrups do exceed in sweetness and strength and so is subject to run over the Pan to the great damage of the Refiner The only Antidote they have found out to allay and quiet it is Butter for tho' the Copper contains 2 or 3 Hundred Gallons Boyling and Swelling up in the foresaid manner yet a piece of Butter put in to the bigness of a small Nut and no more quickly makes it fall down within its circle in the Copper and all with an amazing Hush and whence should this Ascendancy proceed but that the Animal power is deduced from an higher Birth as being made and generated from sensibility and passing thro' all the Animal Digestions there is a kind of an Antipathy in the Butter to the Juice of the Vegetable as there is in other things of the like contrary kinds But for all that is said it must still be owned that the Juices of Sugar are of so generous a Nature that when they happen to be mixt with any fat things the Concoction is the easier especially in all Milk Foods which are more than twelve parts in fourteen Flegm Eightly The Use of this noble Juice has not only reached to our Raw and unripe Fruits and the vast improvement of them as before noted for common and daily Use but proper ways have been found out to keep and preserve them for Tarts and other things all the Year round whence as a farther Benefit it is come to pass in the revolution of a few years perhaps not exceeding Seventy than for every Ten Fruit Trees we had then in England there are now above a Thousand Ninthly Tho' Wine and Tobacco may be justly allowed to be two of the most principal Commodities Imported that do advance Navigation and the Kings Revenue yet the Premisses considered they come infinitely short of Sugar since they are not only confined as it were within the circle of their own Consumption but even that Consumption may in some degree be asserted to hinder our own Growth at leastwise in respect to one of them Lastly to add no more Benefits and to close the whole with a familiar Instance Does not the Queen of the Dairy by the assistance of this noble Juice vary or manufacture as I may say her Milk into more than Twenty several delicious Dishes of Food And is it also not a Friend to the Laborious Husbandman by encouraging the Consumption of a great quantity of fine Flower so that in short it spreads its generous and sweet influences thro' the whole Nation and there are but few Eatables or Drinkables that it is not a Friend to or capable to confederate with And upon the whole as there is no one Commodity whatever that doth so much encourage Navigation advance the Kings Customs and our Land and is at the same time of so great and Universal Use Virtue and Advantage as this King of Sweets more especially when by Art it has been brought to its highest degree of perfection So our Sugar Plantations should have suitable Supports and Aids from the Government which is the hearty desire of once more SIR Your humble Servant T. T. LETTER XXXV Of the Burial of BIRDS SIR I Have considered yours of the 26th of May with a more than ordinary application for the Novelty thereof but more particularly in respect to your uncommon thoughts concerning the Burial Place of Birds and in what Element or World they make their Exit tho' I find after all the Solution of your Question so extreamly difficult that for me it must yet remain a Mistery as it has done all along to Mankind who tho' they have Lived and Communicated with the great numbers and variety of these Airy Troops for some Thousands of years have hitherto remained
times and tho' they are the swiftest of any others in Motion yet none of them can hold out so long for most certain it is that the swifter and quicker the motion of any Creature is the sooner the same is tired and wants rest Wherefore it 's a weak Imagination in any to suppose that several of our Birds that are not seen in the Winter fly into Foreign Countries beyond the Seas of which Sea-faring Men and Travellers know nothing at all not but that there are various sorts of Fowls and Birds seen 500 or it may be 1000 Leagues off at Sea but then they are such whose Constitutions are more or as much Watry as Earthy and Airy and that cannot only rest on the Water but also get great part of their Food from that Element being much of the Nature of our Ducks Swans and the like so that upon the whole 't is no ways probable that our Summer Birds do remove themselves into Transmarine Countries to Winter nor to make their Exits in but rather according to their Airy Original Die in places more agreeable to their Natures as I before noted so that the wonderful and most amazing Wisdom of the Great and ever Blessed Creator appears in through and over all his Works in that every particular specifick Body and sensible Creature is made compleat and wants nothing that can render it more Happy provided it keep within the bounds of its own Circle and Law and no additions then can contribute to its farther Blessing and tho' the degrees are wonderful and various as to Virtue and the contrary and that each from their own Qualifications have obtained their Names which originally distinguished their Natures according to the Meliority of them or otherwise yet the meanest and lowest degrees of Created Beings even the Reptiles of the Earth are altogether as compleat and happy in themselves as those that are in Nature and Composition many degrees higher Graduated so that the meanest have no Inclination to change Conditions with the highest nor the highest with the lowest every individual Species being content to dwell with in its own bounds wherein its Happiness consists and upon this ground there is no sensible Creature in the World that is miserable but only such as have broken the Bounds and natural Limits of their and others that are forc'd to break it so that upon the whole Man must be the only miserable Creature under Heaven both in respect to the Depravation of his own Nature and his having by Fraud and Cunning spread his Malignity and evil Influences thro' and over all the Under-graduates of Animals forcing many of them to act and yield Obedience to his violent Hands contrary to the Law wherein God had Circumscribed and their own natural Instinct Sir If I have made any undue Excursions in this my endeavouring to answer your desire I hope you will excuse me and attribute it to the barrenness of the Subject and not to any other design in me than to serve you as becomes SIR Your Friend and Servant T. T. LETTER XXXVII Of FERMENTATION SIR T IS much more out of Complaisance to your Desires than any real Opinion I have of my own Ability I shall attempt to answer the Abstruce Questions you were pleased to propose unto me in your Letter of the 26th of September concerning the wonderful Power of Fermentation together with the Reasons why the Fat Flesh and Blood of Animals cannot be fermented nor separated as all Vegetations can be nor one Quality Changed nor Transmuted into another AND first I am to observe to you that the Animal Ferment of the Stomach is not only higher Graduated as appears by its Virtue in Turning or Transmuting the Insensible into Sensible Creatures but by not dividing or separating the Original Forms and Qualities from their natural Operations or Phlegmy gross Bodies as common Fermentation does or according to that way and manner as Artists Ferment the Juices of Herbs Fruits and Grains whereby the gross Body is destroyed or sunk into 〈◊〉 stinking Liquor that invests the Original fiery Principles of their natural or gentle Methods but only by a fiery turbulent rendring thunder-like Motion and before which all those unbounded Powers and Principles were still and quiet being incircled in the Embraces of the sweet Quality and phlegmy Body as tho' no such fierce invading Fires or Principles had been there Now this comes to pass because Fermentation opposes all the regular Motions of Nature and the Eternal Law of the Creator as being a Death and total Destruction to Multiplication and Progression and not unlike unto the Deaths of Animals which cannot be effected without terrible fierce Agonies and indeed the dividing the Spirit from the Body without such a fierce turbulent and irresistible Motion is not to be done as is clearly evinced in all sweet Liquors or Juice whatever who when their sleeping silent Powers or original Properties are disturbed as they are in a full or strong Ferment all the Art in the World cannot incircle or tame them But the Fermentation of Food in our Stomachs as well as of all Beasts is performed after another manner imperceptible to the Creature wherein all is quiet and silent provided the Meats and Drinks be of a suitable Quality and not too great in Quantity And these sweeter Juices or Spirits that Nature draws or extracts for her Support are not divested of or separated from their natural Cloathing or Bodies neither are the sweet Qualities of such Foods Transmuted into fiery Spirits or first Principles for in such Cases the Body and Life could not be supported and continued but instead thereof the Nutriment is divided and distils its Virtues into Body and Spirits that is into Blood from whence are made and generated Flesh Bones Fat Spirits Inclinations Dispositions Words and all Actions of Life and for this reason the more equal our Meats and Drinks are the better is the Nutriment and consequently all the Off-springs proceeding from thence hence it is that the frequent Eating and Drinking unequal Foods never fail to beget and lay open the fierce Gates and invading Powers of Inequality called Sickness and particularly the Drinking of strong Spirits or Brandy does always prove baneful except in a Medicinal way because the original Principles are divested of their Body and Transmuted into a fiery Circle out of which there is no deliverance or progression so that you see the Stomach or Chymical Furnace does that in a silent Method which the outward Fermentation performs in a tumultuous Manner for in the first Elaboratory Natures Fires are so mild and friendly thâ—…t they do not disinherit the original Principles and Forms of their native Right or Propriety nor divide them into self-ful Desire or Transmute their beloved Spouse I mean the sweet and most aimable Quality into original Fires as the other does no no the original fierce Principles of all Food put into the Stomach do still notwithstanding the digesting melting
about themselves wherein many Thousands have not only been accessary to their own Destruction by the venemous fumes of their own Fires but inticed others into the same Mischiefs by their Lying Volumes left behind them which have had no small influence on many very Ingenuous Persons whose Inclinations prompted them to those curious Studies together with the hopes of Gain and to become Richer than the Princes of the Earth and who tho' they have been endued with much Wit and other ingenuous Faculties yet they are void of any spark of true light or distinguishing understanding in the wonderful Operations of Nature Gods Eternal Power and fixed Methods of his Law But admit we should suppose they could attain to a proper Ferment both in the Mineral and Animal Kingdoms and Seminary Qualities whereby they could Ferment all Minerals as also the Flesh and Blood of Animals yet they shall not be able thereby to obtain the multiplying quality of Nature let their Menstruum be what it will because Fermentation wheresoever it is effected does in a moment destroy the unity of that thing and all its Seminary Qualities from whence multiplication proceeds by this fierce motion awakening the Central Principles out of their rest as already mentioned Further I say if this Fermentation could have been effected in the Mineral and Animal Kingdoms these Gentlemen would be as far off an Universal Medicine as ever neither would they be able ever to have made better Work or Medicines than there are made of Vegetations in the method of Fermentation and Distillation nor probably so good because Minerals are harder crude and harsher by much than Herbs Fruits Grains and Seeds having as it were no proportionable assimilation with the Humane Nature to which they are great Strangers and so rendred not capable of being made Homogeneal insomuch that Metals this way could be of no real benefit to Mankind but rather increase our Evils and Intemperances and our Operators instead of preparing Universal Medicines would have made Universally destructive Liquors or Spirits which no Art could ever make agreeable to Humane Nature and must be much worse than the Spirits or Brandies made of Vegetables are Again whatever could that way be drawn or extracted from the Bestial Nature of Animals must of necessity be gross and unclean in proportion to the Original from whence it proceeds for Nature never lies but is constant and true in all her Operations I will not take upon me in this place to say that the Arts of Fermentation and Distillation in any kind had been better lost than found in the World tho' it is most certain that Fermentation in the strictest and best Sense is no other than a certain vegetative and insensible Delirium or Madness and therefore all its Operations when the Fermented Liquor is strong and spirituous are in proportion and the same as I may say being Disbanded from under the Government of its Superior Officers so soon as a quantity of it is introduced into Mans Body it plunders Nature of all its sweet Virtues by drying and parching them up and at the same time breaks the Government of the Sentes turning Reason and Wisdom adrift so that the Body is in no better condition than a Ship without either Pilot or Rudder and penetrating into all parts and corners awakens and stirs up the Original Fires and by confederating with the same the whole Man becomes Mad and like one out of his Wits For which cause the Egyptians and Eastern Countries where the Art is supposed to have been invented foreseeing the Evils that would necessarily ensue did both by Laws and customs prohibit the Drinking thereof confining the said Liquors to the circle of Medicines I might take upon me were it necessary to ennumerate here the many kinds of Evils and Distempers the Drinking of such Liquors has introduced into the World but to wave that as being well known and but too sensibly felt I shall touch a little upon the other Inconveniences that do attend Fermentation and Distilling Are not most of our noble Fruits Grains and Seeds very much wasted and destroyed hereby which if otherwise managed would be considerable Preservatives For Example one Bushel of good Barley made into Malt Ground Fermented and Distilled into what they call Common Proof-Spirit makes but about Five Quarts thereof which in weight is not above Eight Pounds and an Half whereas the Barley before it was so ordered as aforesaid weighed about Forty Five Pounds and would have made Bread enough to sustain Six or Seven Persons for a whole Week with some other Foods or if the said Bushel of Malt had been Brewed into Beer or Small Ale it would have made Twenty or Four and Twenty Gallons of good Drink And tho' this last be of much less value to Mankind than the said Corn made into Bread yet it far exceeds the Five Quarts of Brandy both in quality and in all its Uses The like is to be understood in most of our other Grains and Fruits In a word Fermentation and Distillation have Midwifed into the World all the enticing Drinks and Liquors that are Drunk and tho' these Arts may be allowed to advance some particular things to an higher degree of usefulness yet they are but few and might well enough be spared Indeed Bread and Flour of Corn being of a ponderous close glewy Body Fermentation doth advance and better accommodate it to our Stomachs making it of an easier Digestion tho' at the same time this virtue of putting Ferment into our common Bread the supposed advantages thereof proceed chiefly from custom for the Ancients whose Health and long Life far surpassed ours in these latter days according to the Testimony of History used neither Ferment nor Salt in their Cakes and many of the Eastern People do follow that custom to this day And it is also remarkable that among the Iews and other Religions too after some of them came to allow Drinking Wine and Fermented Liquors yet they would not admit of Bread that was Fermented either with Leven or Lees of Wine to be eaten in their Religious Rites or Worship esteeming the same unclean in comparison to that which had no Ferment or Leaven therein and this they called clean or unleavened Bread Neither is this also to be omitted concerning our common Bread that if the Yeast be too much in quantity such Bread becomes in a very short time dry and harsh losing its sweet pleasant taste and moisture And by the by I may add in like manner that Salt is a certain and sure Enemy to Bread not only by causing it to corrupt in a short time but also it takes away and doth as it were destroy the natural pleasant sweetness thereof and indeed there is no manner of thing to be urged but custom for putting it in and 't is well known that Bread which is designed to be kept for a considerable while must have neither Salt Ferment nor Yeast in it and this
sort of Bread which is generally made for Sea is some of the sweetest And now Sir methinks I hear it objected and said that strong Fermented Liquors as Beer Ale Brandy Wine and the like are brave exhilerating Cordials and that therefore the Drinking of them must be highly Beneficial to Nature I grant it is true they are so if used as they ought to be but the contrary is practised as daily experience witnesseth for ever since Mans deep degree of Depravation and since all kinds of Intemperances and Disorders have obtained the Ascendency in his Mind and Heart he hath with all application and cunning inventions studied inequality and attracted to himself and violently desired all Meats and Drinks that have a proportionable Disposition and Similie with himself and consequently Inequality and Disorder hath been increased both in his Body and Mind beyond all due Bounds and Limits of Sobriety and Temperance for which reason it must be really conducive to his happiness to have all such strong heady Things and Liquors totally prohibited more especially since it has never yet been doubted that I know of by any Man but that Water was and is the only Drink ordained by the All-wise Creator both for Man and Beast which having no unequal nor turbulent motion therein begets none but its Operations and Influences are like it self and they that Drink it shall never want nor desire any other Drink this being the only Digesting Liquor keeping the Stomach or Subservient Vessels clean and causing a sharp and strong Appetite far beyond all Fermented Liquors who heat the Blood and are the causes of many Distempers as already noted Nay doth not experience tell us that the Natives oâ—… all those Countries that constantly Drink Water are not only Healthier but much stronger than others as in Guinea Turkey c. where their Labouring People will Travel and carry much heavier Burdens than our strong Beer Drinkers it being a commonthing for a Porter in Turkey to take upon his Shoulders one oâ—… our Pigs of Lead to the weight of 250 l. and sometimes more without any help and to carry it a good way which will make two of our Porters stagger and blow to carry it between them at a Poles end Nay it is usual for the Turkish Porters or Labourers to lift and carry Four or Five Hundred Weight and yet their Drink is all Water and Food very mean according to our estimation of it that is Bread and Grapes Bread and Herbs other Fruits they eating but a very small quantity of Flesh or Fishâ—… so that from hence it is manifest that strong Drinks and gross heavy Foods do as it were but cramp Nature in the very Bud and therefore it is that there are not near so many Die of immature Deaths in any Countries where the Natives Drink Water as in those where strong Drinks are in use and for this cause also the Natives in England Four Hundred Years ago were not only much Healthier and longer Liv'd bâ—…t much larger of Stature too so that upon the whole the use of strong Fermented Liquors is pernicious and destructive to Mankind and more particularly to those of the Female Sex to which without naming any more the terrible Vapours they themselves are subject to and the dreadful Convulsions in their Children are their Original and if there be any so temperate as to Drink little or none of these Liquors which is exceeding rare indeed yet if either of their Parents Father or Mother did frequently use them then it is Twenty to one but these Distempers are thereby conveyed and entailed on them and their Posterity Sir I could say much more upon this occasion did I think it proper for me or convenient for you but thinking there is no farther occasion for it I shall conclude with my humble Respects to you hoping you will so far oblige me as to let me have the result of your thoughts hereupon as opportunity shall offer and that you will do me the justice to believe the sincerity of my Sentiments and Intentions herein and that I am Sir Your very humble Servant T. T. POSTSCRIPT SIR I Desire you would give me leave to add a word more in this place upon the Subject matter of Fermentation as it comes just into my Head and that is the assimulation as I may say there is between all fierce and unequal Passions of the Mind and it for whether they be of Love or Hatred or the like I can conceive them to be nothing else but a stirring up the original Fires or a strong Fermented motion of the first Principles and a violation of their Law of Equity or Union and the quicker or fiercer this Ferment or turbulent Fiery motion is the more malignant are its influences and therefore in what Creature soever such a Fire is stirred up or awakened from its silent Magia or separated from the incorporating and sweet Embraces of the beloved Spouse called the Radical Humour whether the Disease be Corporal or Mental the Life is presently in danger for all such unequal motions and the continuance of them will sink Nature down to Death which is manifested in the case of Agues to go no farther wherein if the Cold Fit should continue it would quickly put a period to Life so would the Hot Fit do likewise nay the continuance of the very Sweating would do it Infallibly I might also subjoin the sad influences Fermented Liquors have to Ferment Mens Minds to the unspeakable Detriment of Human Race But to leave that I shall only farther add that what is said in Agues the like may be understood in Feavers as when a Feaver is constant and without Intermission the Life is then quickly in danger and there are rarely any Medicines found out that are capable to cure it the most Skilful Physitians then Administer at great Uncertainty but when intermitting the Danger is not so great nor the Physick so uncertain of giving Assistance The same may be also farther manifested by all the Operations of Nature and particularly in the Elements themselves whereof if any of them obtains the Ascendent the other three suffer Violence and the mischiefs are more or less according to the length of time it governs as when the Fire gets uppermost then all is Burnt up and Destroyed if the Watery part prevails the Body is Deluged and so of the other two according to their respective Natures and Properties And indeed if the Great and Adorable Creator had not set bounds and limited them by his Eternal and unalterable Law of Creation the whole System of Nature must very soon have sunk into its original Chaos or first Principles again But God hath Confined all Celestial Bodies Powers and Elements yea and the off-spring or various productions of them so as that they shall not by their fierce self-full operations and invading turbulent powers violate the Creative and Generative Method of his Law for so it is that in what thing or creature soever the Unity or Seminary Qualities are Wounded whether the same be done by the unequal operations of the Elements or by the Art and curious Fancies of Chymists or any other ways that thing is presently made uncapable to Generate or Multiply for the verity whereof the whole Creation and amazing varieties of Creatures therein are manifest Testimonies And could Mankind but understand this aright he should find upon the whole matter that the principal Business is so to Regulate the Actions of his Life that he may keep within the Bounds of Equality Unity and Concord or as near thereunto as possibly he can without which there can be neither Health of Body nor Mind in this World nor any true pleasure had in Time or Eternity Unity being the Eternal Bond of Peace in all Enjoyments Sir I Beg your Pardon heartily for my prolixity in the Postscript as well as Epistle and desire you to Believe that I am once more Your Humble Servant T. T. FINIS