and these being dissipated by age the species put forth themselves by little and little as Characters engraven on wood or stone cover'd over with wax appear proportionably as it melts off And therefore he term'd all our knowledge a remembrance but although he err'd herein yet reason'd better then Aristotle who admitted the Metempsychosis but deny'd the Reminiscence both which are necessary consequents one of the other The Second said That the operations of the Intellect are so divine that not being able to believe the same could proceed from it self it refers them to superiors For it invents disposes meditates examines and considers the least differences it compounds and divides every thing apprehends simple termes conjoynes the subject and the attribute affirms denyes suspends its judgements and alone of all the Faculties reflects upon it self yea by an action wholly divine produces a word For as in speaking a word is produc'd by the mouth so in understanding is form'd the word of the Mind Yet with this difference that the former is a corporeal patible quality imprinted in the Air and not the latter for intellection is an immanent operation Hence some have thought that all these divine actions were perform'd by God himself whom they affirm'd to be that Agent Intellect which irradiating the phantasmes produces out of them the intelligible species which it presents to our Intellect Others ascrib'd them to an Assisting Intelligence Some to a particular genius But as I deny not that in supernatural cognitions God gives Faith Hope and Charity and other supernatural gifts in which case God may be said to be an Agent Intellect I conceive also that in natural and ordinary knowledge of which alone we speak now no concourse of God other then universal is to be imagin'd whereby he preserves natural causes in their being and do's not desert them in their actions ' This then the Understanding it self which performes what ever it thinks surpasses its strength which it knows not sufficiently and the Agent and Patient Intellect are but one being distinguish'd onely by reason As it formes that species 't is call'd Agent as it keeps and preserves them Patient For as the Light causes colours to be actually visible by illuminating them together with the Air with their medium so the Agent Intellect renders all things capable of being known by illustrating the phantasmes separating them from the grosness of the matter whereof they have some what when they are in the Imagination and forming intelligible species of them Otherwise if these phantasmes remain'd still in their materiality the Understanding being spiritual could know nothing since that which is sensible and material remaining such cannot act upon what is spiritual and immaterial Besides the species of the Phancy representing to us onely the accidents of things it was requisite that the Intellect by its active virtue subliming and elevating those species to a more noble degree of being should make them representative species of their own essence Which it doth by abstraction of the individual properties of their subject from which it formes universal conceptions which action is proper to the Intellect This supreme Faculty being so noble that it ennobles all beings rendring them like to it self The Third said That the Intellect is to the Soul such as the Soul is to the body which it perfectionates And as it knows all corporeal things by the senses so it knows incorporeal by it self This Faculty serves for a medium and link uniting all things to their first cause and 't is Homer's golden chain or Jacob's ladder which reaches from Earth to Heaven by which the Angels that is the species and most spiritual notions ascend to the heaven of man which is his brain to inform him and cause the spirits to descend from thence to reduce into practice the excellent inventions of the Understanding Now as Reason discriminates men from brutes so doth this Intellect men amongst themselves And if we believe Trismegistus in his Pimander God has given to all men ratiocination but not Understanding which he proposes for a reward to his favourites Aristotle saith 't is the knowledge of indemonstrable principles and immaterial forms Plato calls it Truth Philo the Jew the chief part and torch of the Soul the Master of the little world as God is of the great both the one and the other being diffus'd through the whole without being mix'd or comprehended in any part of it The fourth said That the humane is a substance wholly divine and immortal since it hath no principle of corruption in it self being most simple and having no contrary out of it self Eternal since 't is not in time but above time Infinite since its nature is no-wise limited and is every thing that it understands changing it self thereinto not by a substantial mutation but as the First Matter is united with the formes remaining alwayes the same Matter the wax remaining entire receives all sort of figures So the intellect is not really turn'd into the things which it understands but only receives their species wherewith it is united so closely that it is therefore said to be like to them As likewise though it be call'd Patient when it receives them 't is not to be inferr'd that it is material since these species are material and acting upon the Intellect alter it not but perfectionate it Moreover it hath this peculiarity that the more excellent these species are the more perfect it is render'd whence after the highest things it can as easily comprehend the less An assured token of its incorruptibility and difference from the senses which are destroy'd by the excellence of their objects But as the soul being freed from the body hath nothing to do with sensitive knowledg because then it ratiocinates no more but beholds effects in their proper causes commanding and obeying it self most perfectly exempted from the importunity of the sensitive appetite so while it is entangled in the body it receives some impressions resulting from the parts humours and spirits destinated to its service being in some sort render'd like to them So the soul of one born blind is ignorant of colours the cholerick are subject to frowardness and the melancholy timerous by reason of the blackness of that humour The Fifth said All actions of men depending on the temper those of the Understanding so long as it is entangled in the bonds of the body are not free from it For as that of Plants gives them the qualities proper to attract concoct and convert their aliments and generate their like and beasts having a temper sutable to their nature are lead as soon as they come into the world to what is convenient for them without instruction So men are lead of their own accord to divers things according as their souls meet dispositions proper to certain actions yea they are learned without ever having learn'd any thing as appears in many phrantick and distracted persons amongst whom some although ignorant
In a word where ever there is Sea there is Land but not on the contrary So that taking the sixt part of the compass of the Terrestrial Globe for its Semidiametre according to the ordinary proportion of the circle to its ray the Earth will be found several times greater then the Water the Springs that are found in opening it being not considerable in comparison of the rest of its bulk II. What it is that makes a Man wise He that spake first upon the second point said that he wonder'd not that Wisedom was taken for a Subject to be treated of in so good company since 't is the point which all desire most not onely in themselves but also in others with whom they are to converse But it behoveth to distinguish the same according to its several acceptions For anciently Wisedom was taken for the knowledge of things Divine and Humane before Pythagoras call'd it Philosophy At present it is confounded with Prudence and is either infused or acquired The former which springeth from the knowledge and fear of God joyn'd with a good life is obtain'd by begging it of God and rendring one's self worthy to receive it Such was that of Solomon which brought to him all other goods The latter of which we now speak is obtain'd by Precepts Experience or both Whereunto Travel is conceiv'd greatly to conduce according to the testimony of Homer who calls his wise Vlysses a Visitor of Cities and according to the opinion of the ancient French Gentry who would not have had a good opinion of their Children unless they had seen Italy and other forreign Countries It is also divided according to Sex Conditions and Age. For there is difference in the Wisedom of a Woman of a Child of a Man grown and of an Old Man and so there is in that of a Father of a Family of his Domestick of a Captain of a Souldier of a Magistrate of a Citizen of a Master of a Varlet and of infinite others who may become wise by several yea sometimes by contrary means For Example a wise Souldier ought to expose himself to all dangers and events of War quite the contrary to a wise Captain who ought to preserve himself the most he can A Prince a Magistrate a Master a Father are wise if they command as is fitting Whereas a Subject a Burgess a Servant and a Child are esteemed such in obeying them Besides Precepts and Experience Example serves much to the acquiring of Wisedom whether the same be drawn from the reading of Books or from converse and conference with wise persons or sometimes too from the sight of undecent things As of old the Lacedemonians taught their Children Sobriety by shewing their Helots drunk The Example of Animals is not useless thereunto and therefore Solomon sends the sluggard to the Pismire and Lycurgus taught the same Lacedemonians that Education alone made the difference between Men by shewing them two Dogs of the same litter run one after a Hare the other to his Meat Fables likewise have many times their use But true it is that Nature layeth the great Foundations Whence Cold and Dry Tempers such as the Melancholly have a natural restraint which participateth much of Wisedom Whereas the Sanguine by reason of their jollity and the Cholerick in regard of their hastiness have greater difficulty to attain the same as Socrates confessed of himself The Second said That the true Moral Wisedom of a Man consider'd alone consisteth in taming his Passions and subjecting them to the Command of Reason which alone serveth for a Rule and Square to all the Actions of Life whereas the common sort leave themselves to be govern'd by the Laws And the ancient Philosophy had no other aim but that Apathy That of a Master of a Family consisteth in the management of the same That of a Polititian in the Administration of the State punishing the evil-doers and recompencing the good establishing wholesome Laws and maintaining Trade The Third said That He alone deserves to wear the name of Wise who seeketh and embraceth the means whereby to be in favour with him who is the Chief Wisedom Those means are two First That his Understanding be duely inform'd of what he ought to know and what he ought to be ignorant of Secondly That his Will be dispos'd to what he ought either to love or hate As for the first he must be ignorant of Humane Sciences since they shake and undermine the foundations of true Wisedom their Principles being for the most part opposite to the Articles of our Faith For of the ancient Philosophers the Pythagoreans are full of Magical superstitions The Platonists hold a Matter coeternal to God Democritus and all the Epicureans have thought the same of their Atomes not to mention their Voluptuous End The Stoicks have made their Sage equal and sometimes superiour to God whom they subjected to their celebrated Destiny or Fate The Pyrrhonians have doubted of every thing and consequently of the truth of Religion The Cynicks publickly made Virtue of Vice The Peripateticks are as much to be fear'd as the former with their Eternity of the World which destroyeth all Religion and gave occasion to Saint Ambrose to say in his Offices That the Lycaeum was much more dangerous then the gardens of Epicurus Moreover the Principles of the Sciences do not accord with those of Faith And Saint Thomas said with good right that Humane Reason greatly diminisheth it And that happens oft times to those who busie themselves about those goodly principles which the Poets relate fabulously of Bellerophon who attempting to fly up to Heaven Jupiter angry at him sent onely a Fly which overturned the winged Horse-man So those vain-glorious wits puff'd up with some Humane Knowledge venturing to hoise themselves into Heaven and penetrate into the secret Cabinets of the Divine Providence it gives them up to a thousand dubious Controversies which precipitate them into the darkness of Confusion and Errour Moreover Solomon the pattern of Wisedom saith that after having lead his Mind through all Nature he perceiv'd that all was nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit And Saint Paul saith that Knowledge puffeth up and swelleth with Pride that this Humane Wisedom is nought but Folly before God by which he admonisheth us to beware of being deceived and that if any one will be wise let him profess Ignorance and become a fool since the Folly and Ignorance of the world is the true Wisedom and Knowledge in the sight of God who loveth the poor of spirit that is the simple ideots and ignorant As for what our Understanding ought to know for becoming wise 't is To know that Chief Wisedom and the Christian Doctrine by the example of the same Saint Paul who would not know any thing besides Jesus and him crucisi'd For the Second means which regardeth the Will of Man it will be disposed to that which is to be lov'd or hated when it hath submitted it self
of the Ascendant and the Middle of Heaven in the Nativity which are the principal significators of the inclinations and actions of a Man The Fourth said That to attribute that property and Virtue to the Humours to make Men wise and intelligent is to prejudice the Rational Soul which being immaterial needeth no material instrument for the performing of its actions but as it is wholly Divine and the Image of God it is perfectly intelligent of its own Nature and by Reason the noblest of its Faculties of it self knows what ever is most hidden in Nature For if the actions of Knowledge and Prudence depend on the Temper of the Humours then that which now produceth ratiocination in me should have been the food which I took yesterday And so those things which whilst they were alive had no other actions but vegetative or sensitive should when they are dead produce intellectual The Spirits alone put our Humours in motion and action and when those fail these remain without any Virtue Nevertheless those Spirits onely the vehicles of the Rational Soul are not the Cause either of Knowledge or Prudence but onely of Life much less can those excellent Qualities be attributed to the Humours II. Whether is more necessary in a State Reward or Punishment Upon the Second Point the First said That Reward and Punishment are the two pillars of a State one for the satisfying of Merit and encouraging Men to Virtue the other for restraining Malefactors and turning them from Vice That consequently they are both necessary and almost inseparable Nevertheless Reward seemes to have some degree of necessity above the other because though Punishment with its eight species which are Fine Imprisonment Stripes Retaliation Ignominy Banishment Servitude and Death serves for Example and for satisfaction to Distributive Justice whose end is to extinguish Crimes and reform them and secure the Good against the Bad whence the Wise-man commandeth Magistrates to break off Iniquity and govern with a rod of Iron yet is it not good in all times nor in all places And Sylla did prudently in not punishing his Souldiers who slew the Praetor Albinus in a Sedition On the contrary Reward is alwayes necessary and every where welcome being the wages of Virtue as the other is of Vice 'T is for that the Labourer cultivates the Earth that the Souldier goes to the War and that good Wits employ their time in excellent and profitable inventions Darius preserv'd his Kingdom by having rewarded Zopyrus And on the contrary Philip lost the City of Damas for want of gratifying Milesius by whose means he had won it So that it is with good reason that Pliny saith in his Panegyrick That the recompences of good and bad deeds make Men good or bad The Second said That in the beginning of the World when our Nature was created in the perfection of a lust Aequilibrium we had on the one side the inferior part of the Soul wholly subject to the superior and on the other this superior Soul absolutely submissive to the Divine Will But the first Man having broken that Aequilibrium by his sin and turn'd the balance towards the side of Evil this Counterpoise which like infectious Leven is left in the flesh of Adam hath given us all a tendency and inclination to Evil. Hence it is that Men are lead into all sorts of Vices and because 't is the property of sin to blind the Mind and cloud the Memory with the Reason they have also forgotten the way which they ought to keep that they might live like reasonable Men. For remedy whereof not onely God who from all Eternity purposed our Reparation but also Men most vers'd in the knowledge of Good and Evil have establish'd Laws to restore Man to his Aequilibrium and contain him in his duty both towards God and Humane Society But because Original Sin powerfully inclines us to Evil from our Nativitie and it is very rare if not impossible to find any one that erres and perseveres so wilfully without fear or hope therefore God and Kings have appointed two powerful counterpoises Rewards and Punishments the former for good and virtuous actions the latter for the Transgression of their Laws Since then Punishment is onely for Transgression of Laws and Reward for those who besides observing them proceed further to virtuous actions and such as are profitable to the publick It is certain the former of the two is most necessary in a State as that to which Men are most prone For it is most true that Men are naturally more inclin'd to Evil then to Good because they are corrupted by Original Sin and we know the most part would willingly desire to grow great by the loss of others and to plunge themselves in Pleasures and Riches if they were not restrain'd by the rigor of Laws This is further confirmed because the Laws of Men are better observed then the Divine Laws not but that Men are as ready to infringe those as these of God who forbears and is patient after the sin of Man but because the penalties of Humane Laws are appointed for this Life and we behold Criminals publickly executed Wherefore Punishment is the most necessary in a State Nevertheless Reward is not unprofitable because it serves to excite to well doing and is frequently propos'd in the Divine Laws the corruption of our Nature not permitting us to be lead to do good for the sake of good alone Moreover our own necessity constrains us to seek the support of our Life by our Labours and to eat our Bread in the sweat of our Countenances as our Sentence importeth But to determine whether it be alwayes fit to reward or punish when there is occasion this depends upon many circumstances of Times Places and Persons wherein a good part of the skill of a States-man consists Yet when Reward or Punishment tends to the good of the publick or the honour of the Prince neither the one nor the other ought to be omitted in my opinion so far as is possible The Third said That the Distick which imports That the good hate sin out of the love of Virtue and the wicked out of the fear of Punishment voids the question For since the good have nothing to do with any other Reward but what they find in their own satisfaction knowing otherwise that they are oblig'd to do well and the wicked need no other salary but the Punishment due to their Crimes it seemes Punishment is not onely necessary but alone necessary in a State Not but that Reward serves for ornament and for its better being as Sauces do to raise the languishing Appetite But in reference to absolute necessity no person can say that they are to be compar'd together For although Plato calls Reward and Punishment the two grand Daemons of Humane Society yet it is not thence to be infer'd that the one ought to be parallel'd with the other which is better understood by experience For compare
it perfect and Masculine as on the contrary the even imperfect and Feminine Indeed we observe that the Birth of Man happens for the most part in an odd moneth to wit the seventh or ninth in the rest the Infant seldome comes forth alive Also most of the alterations of our bodies happen according to the septenary number whence the number 83. call'd for this reason the grand Climacterical is so greatly fear'd because 't is produc'd by seven multiply'd into nine Physicians never appoint Pills in an even number Good Crises alwayes happen on an odd day and he that loses his Ague at an even fit necessarily falls into a relapse Which cannot be attributed to any thing but number For such effects as are produc'd by the quality or quantity of the matter appear with it and therefore if these caus'd the Crisis it would not be wholly at once but begin and proceed by degrees according to the augmentation of the matter as fire is increas'd by new wood cast upon it But the motion of Crises is alwayes sudden and many times against all appearance The Fourth said As the beginning of all things is a most simple essence so all Numbers spring from Unity which is no Number of it self but the beginning of Number Osellus calls it the Symbol of Peace and Concord because it is indivisible and with the Philosophers Unity Verity Goodness and Essence are one and the same thing Whence it follows that the Binary is the first of all numbers wherewith Nature is so highly delighted that she ha's exactly observ'd it in the structure of Man the Organs of whose senses and almost all his members are double and therefore 't is also so carefully observ'd by Architects But the Ternary concerning which Ausonius writ an entire volumne being the first odd number is of more efficacy it is competent to the Deity and his works the world is distinguish'd into three Ages there are three sorts of Souls in Nature three Faculties in Man and three principal parts in his Body Which caus'd Aristotle to say in his first Book De Coelo Chapter 1. That all things are comprehended under this Number Tria sunt Omnia The Qaternary dedicated to Mercury is the first even and square number highly esteem'd by the Pythagoreans because it contains the grand number of Ten for 1 2 3 4 put together make Ten and by the Jews upon the Art of the Divine Tetragrammaton or Name of four Letters Moreover there are four Elements four Seasons four Humours four Ages and four Cardinal Virtues As for the Quinary we see there are five most Simple Bodies in Nature five Senses and five Fingers on a Hand The Senary according to Saint Jerome contains the mysterie of the Creatures because it arises from the double proportion of the quaternary to the binary Nevertheless the Septenary ha's been accounted the most mysterious of all because 't is compounded of the first odd number and first even Square namely three and four And 't is held that by virtue of this number the seventh Son born of the same Mother without any interposition of the other sex hath a particular gift of doing cures Orpheus so esteem'd the Octonary that he swore onely by it and the Eight Deities to wit the four Elements the Sun the Moon Light and Darkness This number was alwayes held for the Emblem of Justice because 't is the first Cube and hath a most perfect equality in all its parts The Novenary being compounded of three Triads the first odd and most perfect number is also of great efficacy whence the Heavens the Muses and the orders of Angels have been compriz'd in it Lastly the Denary which is the first conjoyned number includes all the preceding By all which it appears that there is some efficacy not onely in numbers in general but also in every one in particular The Fifth said That which is most considerable in number is that 't is the most sensible exemplar of the Deity of whom you cannot conceive so many perfections but there will still remain more to be imagin'd as you cannot ad so many numbers together but you may yet add more This is peculiar to it that there is a least number to wit two but no greatest because you may alwayes assign a greater Yet there 's no number how great sover but may be expressed For set down a thousand figures in a row and as many below them multiply the one by the other the sand of the sea do's not equal this number What will it be then if you multiply the same again which you may do as often as you please Here writing will surpass speech for you cannot count it It s perfection is also manifest in that the Philosophers knew not how to express the formes and essences of things better then by comparing them to numbers For as every number is so perfect and complete a total in it self that you cannot add or diminish any thing from it and it remain the same number so are the essences of things Moreover t is particular to Man for he alone amongst all Creatures reasons speaks and computes Whence Amphistides was adjudg'd a fool because he could not count above five And Pythagoras assignes no other cause of the ratiocination of Man but this that he understands how to compute or reckon For Number is made by order and connexion of many unites which actions cannot be perform'd but by the Understanding The Sixth said Number being nothing in it self but a simple work of the Understanding cannot produce any real effect And supposing it could yet Parity and Imparity are but accidental not substantial formes and therefore incapable of rendring a number more or less active Which made Galen doubt whether Pythagoras could attribute so much power to it and yet be wise For as for Plato 't is very probable he ascrib'd this virtue to Formes and Essences which he termes Formal and Rational numbers rather then to real and true numbers abstracted from Essence Whereas some have divin'd prosperous and sinister accidents by the imparity or parity of the syllables in some person's name or whether should live longest the Husband or the Wife by the greater or less number of their letters this is rather to be referr'd to Chance then to any thing else The Seventh said Nature makes all her works in Number since she makes them in Time which is the number of Motion Yet 't is not Number that acts but Nature alone For Number is incapable of all action having no essence of it self but by accident and not so much as an essence of reason For the Understanding conjoyning many unites together which are indivisibles and consequently negations frames a number And if many unites of substance cannot make a real total it self much less can many unites of Quantities II. Of the Visible Species Upon the Second Point it was said That there is nothing barren in Nature but every thing incessantly produces its
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
chastisement and blame ought to follow the Offenders This being done then onely when the precepts which were necessary to his education shall have taken such deep root in his Mind as not to be stifled by the multitude of others My Method proceeds to furnish him with those of the Liberal Sciences But with this order again that for the same reason the Rules be not confounded to him with Exceptions but that these latter be then onely taught him after he ha's well comprehended the former For conclusion there was an overture of a Way to teach by Playing from the A B C to the sublimest Sciences The Proposers reason was that the best Method of Sciences is that which takes away Difficulties the principal of which is The tediousness of Study That there is nothing less tedious then Play for the sake of which both great and small oftentimes lose their rest and food That 't was the intention of the first Authors that Children should learn as it were playing instead of the great rigors which cause them to study against their inclination with the loss of time and other inconveniences observ'd therein That hence the Place of Learning retains still in Latine the name of the Play of Letters and the Regents Masters of the Play Then he desired of the Company of Commissioners to receive their Judgement upon the Book which he had made upon this Subject and the same was deliver'd into their hands for them to make their report thereof that day seven night After which all were desired that they would please to report there at the following Conferences the Inventions which they conceiv'd likely to profit the publick with assurance that the honour and benefit thereof should be secur'd to themselves and so the Company was dismiss'd CONFERENCE II. I. Of Principles II. Of the End of all Things I. Of Principles THese five several acceptions of Principle were first considered I. As it is taken for a Cause especially the Efficient even that of all Things and which hath no Beginning namely God who also being the End of all is upon that account called Alpha and Omega II. For the beginning of quantity as a point is the beginning of a Line III. For the beginning of some Action as the first step is the beginning of the race IV. For that which is not made of it self nor any other but of which all things are made V. For that of which a thing is made is compos'd and is known Which definition comprehendeth the Principles of Generation Composition and Cognition For according to the Order of Nature a thing is made before it is and it is before it is known The Second said That the Principles of Entity and Cognition are the same For in that they constitute the thing they are called the Principles of Entity and inasmuch as Conclusions are drawn from them they are called Principles of Cognition Nevertheless deriving their original the one from the other As from this Principle of Cognition Nothing is made out of nothing it is concluded That then there must be a First Matter The Third said That that distinction of the Three Principles of Generation viz. Privation Matter and Form whereof the first and the last are contraries two onely of Composition viz. the two last do's not signifie that there are three Principles of the thing which is made Seeing that in the instant that a thing is made to be making fieri and to be made factum esse are the same Since then the thing made hath but two Principles that which is in making hath no more Privation being but a Condition requisite to Generation as the Agent the End and some other External Principles are The Fourth said That our Mind alone doth not make distinction between those three Principles but they differ in reality Those who say Privation is more a Principle of Generation then the rest are mistaken in that they make Generation participate more of Non-entity then of Entity But it is not seeing it ariseth out of the former to tend to the latter being in truth neither the one nor the other He added that the Principle of Cognition is either First or Second The First proves all and is prov'd by none 't is the basis of all Sciences and hath two conditions namely that it can neither be deny'd nor prov'd As it cannot be deny'd That of two Contradictories one is true and the other false Neither can the same be prov'd because there is nothing beyond it or more clear and evident The Second Principles are those of the Sciences which they prove as themselves are prov'd by the first Principle For example That Principle of Physick Contraries are cured by their Contraries proves this Evacuation cureth the diseases caused by plenitude and it self is proved by that other Principle of Natural Philosophy to which it is subordinate that Action is onely between Contraries which is again prov'd by this That Action tendeth to render the Patient like to the Agent Which if it be deny'd 't is answer'd that if the Agent do not render the Patient like to it self then this latter would not be altered and so not be a Patient Which cannot be by the first Principle of Knowledge That a thing cannot be and not be at the same time The Fift divided Principles into those of Logick which constitute a Definition viz. The Genus and the Difference into those of Physicks which constitute corporeal things viz. Matter and Form into those of Metaphysicks which are Act and Power Essence and Existence and the Nature and Inherence in all Accidents And lastly into Principles Mathematical which are a point in continu'd quantities and an Vnite in Numbers The sixth fram'd this Question Since every thing that hath a Beginning hath also an End how is Number which hath a Unite for its Beginning Infinite It was answer'd by another That that infinity of Number is not in Act as its Beginning is but onely in Power For when 't is said That there is no Number so great but may be made greater to infinity this ought not to be accounted more strange then that other Proposition which is also true viz. That a Quantity which hath a Beginning may be divided without End There being no Body so small but may be divided again into a less For that some thing cannot be resolv'd into nothing as of nothing cannot be made some thing naturally This matter was ended with another division of Principles into General and Particular The General said they are some times but indiscreetly confounded with Causes and Elements For every Principle is not a Cause nor every Cause an Element nor any Element a Principle Although every Element be a Cause and every Cause be a Principle External or Internal That every Principle is not a Cause appears by Privation which is a Principle notwithstanding what hath been otherwise argu'd by the Maxim above alledg'd That Action is onely between Contraries Principles then
as big which greatness seemes to proceed from an Oedema or Inflation occasion'd by the posture of his head which is alwayes pendulous and supine and this defluxion of humours joyn'd with his Brother's negligence hath caus'd some sores upon him He hath the countenance of a Man but a most dreadful one by the disproportion of all its parts He is deaf blind dumb having great teeth in his mouth by which he casts forth spittle and breathes very strongly rather then by the nose which is close stop'd within His mouth is otherwise useless having never drunk nor eaten nor hath he any place for evacuation of excrements His eyes are alwayes shut and there appears no pupil in them He hath but one thigh one leg and one foot extremely ill shap'd and not reaching to the knee of the other But he hath two armes very lean and disproportionate to the rest of the body and at the end of each of them instead of hands a thumb and two fingers very deformed too At the bottome of his belly there is a little membranous appendix without a passage His pulse is manifest in either arm as also the beating of his heart though the external figure of his breast and the divarication of his jugular veines have very little of the ordinary structure and situation Whereby it appears that each of them hath a brain heart and lungs distinct but they have both but one liver one stomack and one set of Intestines For one of them sleepes sometimes while the other is awake one hath been sick while the other hath been in health The greater hath been blooded above twenty times in three grievous diseases but no Physitian hath ventur'd to purge him lest the purgative medicament passing through those unusual windings should produce unusual effects to his prejudice He lives after the common manner exercising all his rational vital and natural faculties in perfection And they who have been to see him in this City as almost every one runs to see this Wonder of Nature may judge of his management and conduct of his affairs Yet the negligence of the greater in supporting the less and holding him in a convenient posture is not to be pass'd over without notice for though he breathes as I said above yet he alwayes keeps his head cover'd with a double linnen cloth and his cloak and although by his great weight he continually stretches the skin of his belly yet he endeavours not to ease either his Brother or himself Yea the custome of carrying this load hath render'd it so light to him that he performes all ordinary exercises and playes at Tennis like another Man All which consider'd it seemes this Monster is one of the most notable Errours of Nature that hath appear'd in this Age and perhaps in any preceding Besides the causes alledg'd above some extraordinary conjunction of the Stars happening at the time of his conception may have had some influence in this irregular production Moreover it appears that the less draweth nourishment from the greater by the Anastomosis or Insertion of his Vessels with those of his Brother as the Child sucks the Maternal Blood by the Vmbilical Vein there being in both but one principle of sanguification But it is otherwise as to Life Motion and Feeling which being distinct in them cannot proceed from one and the same principle The Fourth said That it may be doubted whether this be a Monster or no their union being not sufficient for that denomination For we frequently see two trees grow together in the middle and otherwise separate Nor is the deficiency of parts in the one any more monstrous then if one single man should be born without Armes and Legs Moreover he inherited the same from his Father which doth not come to pass in Monsters The Fifth said That according to Plato the case is the same with Nature as with Virtue All that exceeds their ordinary rules is called monstrous As deformity of the Mind is Vice so is also that of Nature That the cause of this instance is like that of an Egg with a double yelk out of which the pellicles being broken that separated them are produc'd two Chickens joyn'd together or else one with four wings four feet or other such irregularities So these Twins having been divided in the Womb at the place where they co-here either by the acrimony of humours or some other violent cause Nature which loves nothing so much as Union forthwith assembled its spirits and humours to unite that which was separated Which design of Nature is apparent in the cure of wounds and burnes the fingers and other parts uniting together one to the other contrary to its first intention the figure and use of the same parts But the difficulty is whether there be two Souls in these two Bodies For my part considering that they have two Brains wherein the Soul is held to reside and the external humane shape they may be rightly call'd two Men who consequently have two Souls Now if that which is in the less doth not exercise its functions the reason is because the Organs are not fitly dispos'd and proportion'd no more then those of little Children Ideots and Mad men and through this Nature's having been hinder'd by the rebellion of the Matter to receive such dispositions from the Agents which are Heat and the Spirits which also being too languishing have not been able to impart to their subject all the degrees of necessary perfection The Sixth said That he compar'd the framing of this Monster to the Workmanship of a piece of Tapistry upon which two persons are imploy'd The more diligent of the two finishes his task first the more slothful finding all the material spent is constrain'd to leave his business imperfect and fasten it to the other as well as he can So the spirits being in too great abundance to attend the fabricating of one single Child undertook two and began each from the Head The more vigorous had done first and the other finding no more stuff made but half a Man who by reason of the continuity of the Matter became connected to the first Now whereas it may be said that the Definition of Monsters brought by the Civilians doth not appertain to it the answer is That the same thing may be a Monster Physically inasmuch as it deflecteth from the Laws of Nature as this doth though it be not one Politically in that it is capable to make a Will Inherit Contract and to do all other Actions civil The Hour of Inventions was spent in Replies and Comparisons of other Monsters particularly that of mention'd by Buchanan in the fifteenth Book of his History born in Northumberland with two heads four armes two breasts and onely two leggs It was instructed in Musick so that each head sung its part melodiously and discours'd together pertinently They dy'd one fifteen dayes before the other the latter by the putrefaction of his inseparable Companion At length
in this manner First Loves it in it self with a Love of Friendship and then afterwards judging it amiable applies it to it self and desires it So that there is a two-fold convenience or agreableness in every thing that is lov'd even with the Love of Concupiscence First the convenience of the Good with its proper subject And Secondly the convenience of the same Good with the thing or person whereunto it is desired The first convenience excites the Love of Friendship The second that of Concupiscence Wherefore it is more natural to Love without Interest then for it Besides Love follows Knowledge and we know things simply and in themselves sooner then such as are compounded and refer'd to another Lastly the Love of Friendship is the end of the motions of our Hearts which acquiesce and stop there The Love of Concupiscence is for the means which are posterior in the intention of Nature and as servants employ'd for the End The Third said That Love being one of the most noble acts of the Will or rather of the Soul which is created after the Image of God it hath some lineaments of that Divine Love Now God loves all things for his own sake In like manner we see all reasonable Creatures have an instinct and sympathy to such as are convenient to themselves and an abhorrence or antipathy to their contraries Moreover the Nature of Good which is the Object of Love shews that Love always precisely regards him that loves there being no Absolute Good but all is with convenience or relation without which it would not move us to affect it For no Love can be assign'd how perfect soever in which the person that loves hath not some interest Q. Curtius deliver'd Rome from an infection of the Pestilence by plunging himself into a great Vorago in the Earth but it was with a desire of glory and to be talk'd of A Father loves his Children but it is that he may perpetuate himself in them We love Virtue for the sweetness and delectation which it brings with it yea even Martyrs offer themselves couragiously to death that they may live eternally with him for whose sake they suffer And if seeing two Men play at Tennis both of them alike unknown unto me I yet wish that one may win rather then the other this proceeds from some convenience or agreeableness between us two though the reason of it be not then manifest to me The Fourth said That Disinterested Love which is the true intirely terminates in the thing lov'd purely and simply for the natural and supernatural goodness which is in it But that which reflects upon the person who loves for his Honour Profit or Pleasure is false and vicious Now although since the depravation of our Nature by sin the former sort of Love be very difficult yet is it not impossible For since there is a Relative Love there must also be an Absolute which serves for a contrary to the other It is much more hard to love an Enemy a thing commanded by God then to love another with a Disinteressed Love And though it be true that Pleasure is so essential to Love that it is inseparable from it whence one may infer that such Pleasure is an interest yet provided he who loves doth it not with reflection to his Pleasure or for the Pleasure which he takes in loving his Love is pure and simple and void of all interest So though he who loves goes out of himself to be united to the thing lov'd which is the property of Love and becomes a part of the whole which results from that union and consequently interessed for the preservation of the same Nevertheless provided he do not reflect upon himself as he is a part of that whole his love is always without interest The fifth said That as Reflex Knowledge is more excellent and perfect then direct So reflected Love which is produc'd by knowledge of the merits and perfections of the thing lov'd is more noble and judicious then that which is without any reflection and interest Gods Love towards Men ought to serve them for a rule Therefore Plato saith that when God design'd to create the World he transform'd himself into Love which is so much interessed that he hath made all things for his own Glory The Sixth said That true Love is like Virtue contented with it self and he that loves any thing for his particular interest doth not properly love that thing but himself to whom he judgeth it sutable In which respect Saint Bernard calls such kind of Love mercenary and illegitimate because true and pure Love is contented simply with loving and though it deserves reward yet that is not its motive but the sole consideration of the excellence and goodness of the thing lov'd Nor is this true Love so rare as is imagin'd there being examples of it found in all conditions of Men. Cleomenes King of Lacedaemon disguis'd himself on purpose to be slain as accordingly he was thereby to expiate to the Fate which was destinated to the loss either of the Chiestain or his Army Gracchus dy'd that his Wife Cornelia might live The Wife of Paetus slew her self for company to sweeten death to her Husband Histories are full of Fathers and Mothers that have prefer'd their own death before that of their Children At the Hour of Inventions One offering to speak of Amulets Philtres and other means to procure Love and mentioning the Hippomanes or flesh which is found in the fore-head of a young Colt whereof Virgil speaks he was interrupted by this intimation That the two most effectual means for causing Love were the graces of the Body and the Mind and to love those by whom we would be lov'd And these two points were propounded First Whether Melancholy persons are the most ingenious Secondly Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment I. Whether Melancholy Men are the most ingenious THe First said That according to Galen Humane Actions to speak naturally depend on the complexion or composition of the Humours Which Opinion hath so far prevail'd that in common Speech the words Nature Temper and Humour signifie not onely the Inclination but the Aptitude and Disposition of persons to any thing So we say Alexander the Great was of an Ambitious and Martial Nature Mark Anthony of an Amorous Temper Cato of a severe Humour Of the Humours Melancholy whereof we are to speak is divided into the Natural wherewith the Spleen is nourish'd and that which is Preternatural called Atrabilis or black choler The one is like to a Lee or Sediment the other to the same Lee burnt and is caus'd by the adustion of all the Humours whereof the worst is that which is made of choler Again it is either innate or acquir'd by abuse of the six things which we call Non-natural
a certain person having been cur'd by a fast of that duration it cannot be said that all dye of that wherewith some are cur'd II. Of the Echo Upon the Second Point it was said The Echo is a reflected multiply'd and reciprocal sound or a repercussion of sound made by hollow rocks or edisices by the windings of which it comes to be redoubled as the visible species is reflected in the Mirror It is made when the sound diffus'd in the Air is driven into some hollow smooth and solid Body which hinders it from dissipating or passing further but sends it back to the place from whence it came as the wall makes the ball rebound towards him that struck the same against it According as the sound is violent and the space little or great it returns sooner or slower and makes an Echo more or less articulate It may be hence gather'd whether Sound is produc'd by the Air or some other Body since fish have the use of their Ears in the Water and the voice passeth from one end of a Pike to the other without resounding in the Air. And which is more strange strike as softly as you please with your singer upon the end of a Mast lay'd along he that layes his Ear to the other end shall hear it better then your self and a third that doth the like at the middle shall hear nothing at all In the Church de la Dorade at Tholouze he that whispers at one end of the wall is heard at the other by reason of its smoothness On the contrary it is reported that in Scotland there is a stone call'd the Deaf-stone because they which are on one side of it hear not the noise no not of Trumpets sounding on the other the stone sucking up the sound as a sponge doth Water The Second said That the Image which we see of our selves in a Looking-glass being as it were alive and yet dumb is less admirable then the Echo which we hear not and yet hear complain sing and talk with us without Body and without understanding This Echo is not onely a resilition or reflexion of the sound or voice or rather the voice it self so reflected and sent back by the opposition of some solid Body which makes it return whence it came and stops its course and flux For then it would follow that as often as we speak we should hear Echoes seeing we never speak but there is made some resilition of our voice by means of the opposition of solid Bodies near us and encompassing us on every side And yet we seldom hear any thing but our bare voice or some confus'd murmur as it happens in new houses in Churches under a vault before a wall and other such places in which we ought to hear a very articulate Echo since the voice is reflected better there then elsewhere I think therefore then the Echo is made in the same manner as the reflection of the Sun 's light or of the rayes of any other fire whatsoever by hollow mirrors which unite that light and those rayes and so produce another fire For as fire cannot be produc'd by plain or convex mirrors which reflect but one ray in one and the same place and all sorts of concave or hollow mirrors cannot be proper for it because it is necessary that the cavity be dispos'd and made in such manner that it may be able to reflect a sufficient quantity of rayes in one and the same place which being conjoyn'd and united together excite again and re-kindle that fire from which they issu'd which seem'd vanish'd by reason of the dissipation of its heat and rayes So the Echo which is nothing but the same voice reanimated and reproduc'd by the concourse and reunion of several of its rayes dissipated and afterwards reflected into one and the same place where they are united and recollected together and so become audible a second time cannot be produc'd by bare walls and vaults which do not reflect and recollect a sufficient quantity of those rayes into one and the same place but onely resemble many of them near one another whence ariseth a murmuring or inarticulate Echo Now as Art imitates Nature and sometimes surpasses her so we find there are Burning Mirrors which re-unite the rayes of fire and in like manner there may be made Artificial Echoes without comparison more perfect then those wherewith chance and the natural situation of places have hitherto acquainted us Whereunto beside what I have already mention'd the Hyperbole the Parabole and chiefly the Oval greatly conduce with some other means which are treated of in the Cataptricks The Third said The Echo the Daughter of Solitude and Secretary of weak Minds who without distrusting her loquacity fruitlesly acquaint her with their secret thoughts teaches us not to declare our secrets to any person since even stones and rocks cannot conceal them but she especially affords entertainment to Lovers possibly because she ownes the same Father with Love namely Chance For as no Love is more ardent then that which arises from the unlook'd for glances of two Eyes from the collision of which issues a spark little in the beginning but which blown up by the violence of desires grows at length into a great flame so though Art studies to imitate the natural Echo and the pretty conceits of that Nymph yet it never equals her graces which she borrows onely from the casual occurrence of certain sinuosities of Rocks and Caverns in which she resides the rest of her inveiglements remain unknown to Men The Cause why Antiquity made her a Goddess All which we can truly say of her is to define her a reflection of the voice made by an angle equal to that of incidence Which is prov'd because the Echoes in narrow turnings are heard very near him that sings 2. Nature always works by the shortest way which is the streight therefore Reflection is made by the same 3. When the voice is receiv'd in a streight line it formes no distinct Echo because it is united with the same direct line whereby it was carry'd which by that means it dissipateth and scattereth The same happens in a convex line But if the Body which receives it be concave it will recollect it from the perpendicular of the speakers mouth towards that Body and 't is by the concourse of the voice reflected in that line that the Echo is form'd 4. The Body which receives the voice must be sonorous which none is except it be hollow From which four propositions I conceive the way may be deriv'd to imitate the Echo and tame that wood-Nymph in some manner The Fourth said Vitruvius was not ignorant of this Artifice having very dextrously imitated the Nature of the Echo by the convenient situation of some earthen vessels partly empty and observing a proportion of plenitude to vacuity almost like that which some Musicians make use of to represent their six voices And that which hath been made
that of the six sorts of Motion the Spirits can act onely by the Local how they can touch a Body to remove it locally since there is no Contact but between Bodies To the first I answer that there is no need of union such as that which joynes the Soul to the Body for joyning the Act with its true Power if there be any in us it must be that which we see is necessary for the communion of Action For when Actions cannot be exercis'd but by two parties of different Nature there is found an Union between those different Natures which is very natural and founded upon the necessity of such Action Wherefore I am so far from thinking the union of the Soul with the Body a strange thing that I should wonder more if there were none For the better understanding whereof it is to be observ'd that our Soul hath two sorts of Actions one peculiar to it self as to Will and to understand the other common with the Body as to See Hear Feel c. These latter are as much natural as the former And as if it were in a State in which it could not exercise the former that State would be violent to it and contrary to its Nature so it is equally troublesome to her while she cannot exercise the latter Since therefore it is a part of the Nature of the Soul to be able to exercise its functions it is consequently natural to it to be united to the Body seeing without such union it cannot exercise those functions Now I am no more solicitous to know what this union is then to understand what that is which unites one part of an essence with the other since the Body is in some manner the essence of the Soul making one suppositum and individual with it and the Soul hath not its Nature intire saving when it is united with the Body I pass to the Second and say that supposing two sorts of Contact one of a suppositum the other of Virtue the Spirits touch the Body which they move locally by a Contact of Virtue by impressing the force of their motive faculty upon the Body which they will move as my hand impresseth its motive virtue upon the ball which I fling which virtue though extrinsecal persists in the ball as long as it moves even when it is distant from my hand And although there is some disparity inasmuch as the hand and the ball are both corporeal which a Spirit and a Body are not yet since our Soul applyes its motive virtue to the Body which it animates it is probable there are many qualities common both to Spiritual and Corporeal Substances as is the power of acquiring habits And it is also likely that the power of moving from one place to another which is in a Spirit is not different in specie from that which is in a Horse although their Subjects differ If therefore the motive faculty of Bodies is that of the same species with that of Spirits why should we account it strange that that of a Spirit should be communicated to a Body The Fourth said That the Example of our Lord carried by the Devil to the top of a Mountain and of a pinnacle of a Temple shews sufficiently that Daemons can act upon Bodies and that all natural things falling under the cognisance of Sense are moveable in their activity yet not at once and in gross but one thing after another For an Angel not being an Informing Form ty'd and connected to any particular sensible Nature as the Rational Soul is but an Assisting Form that is an External Agent which moves and agitates it to pleasure it is indifferent and can determine to move what Body it pleases But sensible things are not subject to Spirits saving so far as Local Motion For the Devil acts either upon the Body or upon the Soul as it is in its Organs If upon the Body he either doth it alone or by the intervention of another Agent If the latter then there must be a Local Motion to apply the same to the Body upon which he causeth it to act for the tormenting or moving of it If he doth it by himself immediately and causeth pain in the parts it is either by solution of continuity or by distention of those parts or by compression of them All which is no more but dislocating them and moving them out of their right situation If he causes a Fever it is either by collecting the humours from all the parts For Example Choler which congregated together in too great quantity distempers the Body or else by restraining the perspiration of the fuliginous vapour which is the excrement of the third Concoction and being with-held within causeth the putrefaction of the humours and all this is local motion too By which also he produceth all the diseases which he is able to cause inspiring a putrid Air which like Leven sowers and corrupts the humours If he acts upon the Senses and the Passions he doth it either outwardly by some mutation of the Object or inwardly by some alteration of the Faculty If the former it is because by a Local Motion he formes a Body heaping together uniting and adjusting the materials necessary thereunto as the Air an aqueous vapour a terrene and unctuous exhalation and the heat of the Sun or some other which he employes artificially according to the experience which he hath acquired throughout so many Ages till he make them correspond to the Idea of the Body which he designes to form All the Actions of Men are perform'd in like manner by putting together conjoyning or retrenching or separating things In one word by apposition or separation If he acts internally upon the Faculty 't is either upon the Phancy or the Appetite or the External Sense Upon the Phancy either by compounding one Phantasm of many as it happens in sleeping or else by acting upon a single one to make it appear more handsome or ugly More handsome by the concourse of many pure clear refin'd Spirits which enliven and embellish that Phantasm as we see a thing appear more handsome in the Sun More ugly by the arrival of certain gloomy and dark Spirits which usually arise from the humour of Melancholy In the Appetite if he excites Love there 't is by the motion of dilatation expanding the Spirits and making them take up more room If Hatred or Sadness it is coarcting the same Spirits by compression He can also cause a subtile mutation in the outward Senses internally especially upon the sight As we see those that have a suffusion beginning imagine that they see Pismires and Flyes which others besides themselves behold not Moreover Melancholy persons often terrifi'd with various frightful representations the cause whereof is an humour extravasated between the Tunicles of the Eye under the Cornea before the Crystalline which disturbs the sight with various shapes by reason of its mobility as the Clouds appear to us of several figures
Thus and more easily can the Devil trasfer the humours and managing them at his pleasure make them put on what figure he will to cause delusion In fine all this is perform'd by the Local Motion of the parts humours or Spirits The Fifth said That the foundation of doubting is that there is requir'd proportion between the Agent and the Patient Which is prov'd because it is requisite that the patient which is in Power be determin'd by the form receiv'd and it seemeth that a spiritual thing cannot produce a form that may determine a material thing That it produceth nothing material is evident because the action and the product are of the same Nature Now the action of a Spiritual Entity cannot be material to speak naturally Yet it is certain that God acts in corporeal things though he is a pure Spirit But it may be answered That an Infinite Power is not oblig'd to the Rules of Creatures Besides that his Ubiquitary Presence sufficeth to impart Motion to all as also that he containing all things eminently is able to produce all things But if to contain eminently is to have a more perfect Being capable to do what the lesser cannot this is not satisfactory For the Question is How that more perfect Immaterial Being can produce that which Material Beings produce To which the saying that it is a more perfect Being doth not satisfie For then an Angel should be naturally able to produce all the perfections which are inferior to him which is absurd It followes therefore that the Cause must contain the Effect that it may be able to produce it and that since a spiritual Being doth not contain material things either those which we call Immaterial are not so at all or else God immediately produceth in them the effects which we attribute to them For I see not how immateriality is infer'd from immortality since there may be an incorruptible matter such as that of the Heavens is Which nevertheless is spoken rather to make way for some better thought then that I hold it as my own The Sixth said That there may be some Medium serving for the union between the Body and the Soul beside the Animal Vital and Natural Spirits to which Medium the many wonderful effects which we are constrain'd to ascribe to Occult Qualities ought to be referd'd For as they who know not that the Ring which Juglers make to skip upon a Table according to the motion of their fingers is fasten'd to them by the long Hair of a Woman attribute that Motion to the Devil So they who cannot comprehend the subtility of the Medium uniting not onely the Body with the Soul which informes it but also the other Spirits with the Body which they agitate find no proportion therein and are constrain'd to let experience cross their reason Now to understand the Nature of this uniting Medium I conceive is as difficult as to give an account of the Sympathies and Antipathies of things II. Which is more powerfull Love or Hatred Upon the Second Point the First said That Eâ—pedocles had reason to constitute Love and Hatred for the two Principles of Nature which though Aristotle endeavours to confute yet is he constrain'd to acknowledge the same thing though disguis'd under other words For when he saith that two of his Principles are contraries and enemies namely Form and Privation and nevertheless that they are united in one common Subject which is the Matter what is it else but to confess that all things are made and compos'd by the means of Love and Hatred They who own no other Principles but the Four Elements are of the same opinion when they say that all Mixt Bodies are made with a discording concord and a concording discord For as the Elements united together will never compose an Animal unless they be reduc'd to a just proportion and animated by rebatement of some little of the vigor of their active qualities so if there be no kind of War and Amity between them if the Hot act not against the Humid the Animal will never live since Life is nothing but the action of Heat upon Humidity However Amity hath something more noble and excites greater effects then Enmity For the former is the cause of the Generation and Preservation of Mixt Bodies and the latter of their dissolution and corruption Now it is much more noble to give and preserve Being then to destroy it Whence God himself found such perfection in his Creation and was so pleas'd with his Divine Work that though it frequently deserves by its crimes to be annihilated yet his Punishments have not hitherto proceeded so far This is no less true in Spiritual and Intellectual Substances then in Natural Gods Love hath more noble effects then his Hatred For to leave to Divines the consideration of that Love which had the power to draw the Second Person of the Trinity from Heaven with that which produces the Third as also to leave them to proclaim that God loves Good Actions and that the effect of this Love is Eternal Bliss that he hates Sins and that the effects of this hatred are the punishments of Hell that it is manifest that the glory of Paradise is much greater then of those Chastisements since what ever penalties God inflicts upon Man for his mis-deeds he renders Justice to him and do's not reduce him into a state inferior to or against his Nature but when he rewards with Eternal Glory he exalts our Nature infinitely higher then it could aspire let us consider Love and Hatred in Men and particularly as Passions according as the Question propounded seemes principally to be understood and no doubt Love will be found more violent then Hatred To judge the better whereof we must not consider them nakedly and simply as Love is nothing else but an inclination towards Good and Hatred an Aversion from Evil nor yet as such Good or Evil is present For in these two manners they have no violence nor any Motions since according to the receiv'd Maxime When the End is present all Motion and Action ceaseth But to know which of these two passions acts with most force and violence for the attaining of its end we must contemplate them with all the train and attendance of the other Passions which accompany them not as the one is an inclination to Good and the other an Aversion from Evil present For in this sense no doubt a Present Evil which causeth Grief is more sensible and violent then a Present Good which causeth Pleasure but as the one is a Desire of the Absent Good which is propos'd and the other a Flight from an Absent Evil which is fear'd I conceive the Passions excited by an Absent Evil have no great violence but rather partake of heaviness and stupidity as Fear and Sadness which render us rather unmoveable and insensible then active and violent in our Motions The Passions which lead towards an Absent Good are otherwise For
that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
also instanc'd to comprehend all Vices as Justice contains in it self all Virtues For he who is proud covetous prodigal or a Murtherer would not be so if he were not unjust whilst he attributes more to himself and less to others then is due And for conclusion it was said That as of the diseases of the Body those are term'd the greatest which invade the most noble part or have the most dangerous symptomes as the prick of a pin in the heart is more mortal then the cutting off of an arm and the same puncture is more perillous when Convulsions thereupon befall the whole body then a wound with a sword in some fleshy part without any accidents so Ignorance and Imprudence are the greatest vices because they possess the most noble Faculty of man the Understanding and produce all the rest At the hour of Inventions a Proposition was reported to draw Smith's-coal out of the lands of this Kingdom and in so doing to cut channels for the draining of Marshes and making rivers Navigable in order to the conveniency of transportation sacilitation of commerce feeding of Cattel and preservation of Forests This Invention besides the advantage it will bring to the meaner sort of people in reference to their domestick fuel is of much benefit for the making of Brick Tile and Lime as much of which may be made thereby in three days as is made in eight or nine with wood which is the ordinary fashion It will be a matter of great saving to the whole Kingdom especially to the abovesaid Artists who are here in great number and are forc'd to buy such Coal from England at dear rates The Proposer offer'd to continue the experience which he had made thereof at his own charges for satisfaction of the curious CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the truth ought always to be spoken I. Of the Cabala THat which hath hapned to many other words as Tyrant and Magician which at their first institution were taken in a good sense but have abusively degenerated into odious significations is found likewise in the word Cabala which according to its genuine importance signifies nothing else but Tradition and comes from the Verb Cabal denoting with the Hebrews to give or receive 'T is a mystical doctrine concerning God and the creatures which the Jews receiv'd by tradition from Father to Son If we may give credit to them it Began in Adam who had a perfect knowledge not only of the whole nature and property of things corporeal but also of the Divine nature of the mysteries of Religion and of the redemption of mankind which his Angel Raziel assur'd him was to come to pass by means of a just man whose name should consist of four letters which is the cause say they that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language wherein the vowels are no letters Adam taught these mysteries to his children they to their successors until Abraham and the Patriarchs But they say Moses learn'd it anew from the mouth of God during the forty days that he was in the Mount where he receiv'd two Laws one written with the hand of God compriz'd in the two Tables of stone the other not written and more mysterious the former for all in general the latter for the learned and skill'd in mysteries of Religion which is that which Moses taught the seventy Elders of the People chosen by himself according to the counsel of Jethro his Father-in-law and they transfer'd the same to the Prophets Doctors of the Law Scribes Pharisees Rabbines and Cabalists The Second said That in order to judge of the Cabala 't is requisite to know what the Philosophy of the Jews was as the Stoicks Peripateticks Pyrrhonians and other Philosophers had their peculiar Sects 'T is divided commonly into that of things and that of words or names The first is call'd by the Rabbines Bereschit the second Mercana That which treats of things by the Cabalists call'd Sephiroch that is to say numbers or knowledges for with them to number and to know are almost synonymous is either Philosophical or Theological The Philosophical comprehends their Logick Physicks Metaphysicks and Astronomy In Logick they treat of the ten lesser Sephiroth which are so many steps or degrees for attaining to the knowledge of all things by means of Sense Knowledge or Faith and they are divided into three Regions In the lowest which is made by the sense are 1 the Object 2 the Medium or Diaphanum 3 the External sense In the second and middle region are 4 the Internal or common Sense 5 the Imagination or Phancie 6 the Estimative Faculty or inferior Judgement In the third and supream 7 the Superior and Humane Judgement 8 Reason 9 The Intellect 10 and lastly the Understanding or Mens which performs the same office to the Soul that the Eye doth to the Body whom it enlightens For example when I hear a Cannon discharg'd the sound comes to my ears by the medium of the air then the Common Sense receiving this species of the sound transmits the same to the Imagination and the Estimative Faculty judges thereof simply as beasts would do afterwards the Judgement apprehends the essence of the sound Reason searches the causes thereof and the Intellect considers them but lastly the Understanding or Mens call'd by the Cabalists Ceter that is a Crown by way of excellence receiving light from on high irradiates the Intellect and this all the other Faculties And these are the degrees of Cabalistical knowledge In the other parts of their Philosophy they treat of the fifty gates of light Whereof the 1. is the Divine Essence the Symbol of which is the Tetragrammaton and ineffable name of God The 2. gate is the Archetypal World the knowledge of which two gates they say was hid even to Moses The 3. is the Earth 4. Matter 5. Vacuum or Privation 6. The Abysse 7. The Fire 8. The Air 9. The Water 10. The Light 11. The Day 12. Accidents 13. The Night 14. The Evening 15. The Morning And after many other things they constitute Man for the 50th gate To arrive to the knowledge of these 50 gates they have invented 32 Flambeaux or Torches to guide them into the secrets contained therein which they call the paths of Wisdom namely the Intelligence miraculous or occult Intelligence sanctifying resplendent pure dispositive eternal corporeal c. The Theological Cabala treats of God and Angles Of God by expounding the names of 12 and 42 letters yea they attribute seven hundred several ones to him and particularly the ten Divine Attributes which they term the grand Sephiroth namely Infinity Wisdom Intelligence Clemency or Goodness Severity Ornament Triumph Confession of praise Foundation and Royalty whereby God governs all things by weight number and measure Of Angels namely of the 32 abovesaid Intelligences call'd by them the paths of wisdom for they make them so many Angels and of seventy two other
said That as health is a Symmetrie and fit proportion of all the humours while they continue in society one with another so a Fever is a discomposure thereof when some one comes to infringe the obedience which it owes to the laws of the Compositum and to usurp a Tyranny over the rest In which case they do as States who apprehend their own ruine by the too great increase of a potent neighbour they unite against it and go to assail it all together Upon this shock the natural heat retires to the Heart which is the centre of the Body as if it call'd its Councel hence proceeds the cold fit of the Fever during which the extreme parts destitute of their ordinary heat fall into trembling shivering and chattering as it comes to pass upon the Earth when the Sun is very remote from it But Nature at length getting the mastery is not contented to return the Blood to the parts who were depriv'd thereof in the same condition that they lent it to her she drives it into them with a new heat acquir'd by the vicinity of the Heart which is the source thereof and augmented by the reciprocation of its motion But as no violent thing is of long continuance this heated Blood causing its sharpest serosities to pass through the skin by sweat becomes asswaged and as water remov'd from off the fire ceases to boyle it no longer extends the Veins nor stimulates the Arteries whether this Crisis perfectly terminates the disease as in Continual Fevers or the Fit onely as in Intermitting which leaving a leven of the Fever how little soever in the humours and an empyreuma or combustion in the parts the best Aliments yea the most laudable humours if any such remain in the Body are as easily turn'd into the matter of the Fever as the best Wine is spoyl'd when it is pour'd upon a corrupted lee in a musty vessel And 't is not so much to be wonder'd that this corruption is made regularly in the time of half a day in Quotidians of one day in Tertians and of two in Quartans as that the Periods of Fevers are sometimes irregular as is seen in Erratical Fevers considering that all generations and corruptions are reciprocal and have their limited time Thus 't is a less wonder that Women are ordinarily deliver'd of Children likely to live in the ninth and seventh moneths then if they were deliver'd so in all the other moneths indifferently which hath place in all other motions of Nature who doth every thing according to number weight and measure II. Of Friendship Upon the Second Point the First said Friendship is a powerfull and streight Union which conjoynes the lover and the loved party together making one whole of these two parts like that bond which in Nature unites the Matter and the Form the Accident and the Substance The cause of it is Goodness which being proportionate to the Body produceth a natural Amity to the Passions an Animal Amity to the Understanding a Rational one to the Laws a Political or Civil to Religion a Divine one This Goodness consisting in a Proportion and Symmetry is not different from Beauty and therefore we apprehend Beauty in good things and goodness and convenience in such as are handsome and gracefull The Second said besides goodness which is the cause of Friendship and towards which our will is as necessarily carry'd as the Intellect is towards Truth and all the Senses towards their proper objects Resemblance and Friendship it self are the causes of Friendship The first is founded upon the Love which we bear to our selves For as we love our selves above any thing else in this world so we love those who resemble us and symbolize with our humours and inclinations Hence it is that one of the most common courses to please is to conform our selves to those by whom we desire to be affected we never contradict their Judgement we have no other Will but theirs we frame our selves to their gestures and actions without excepting those which are imperfect Then Friendship the second means of acquiring Love is no less effectual it being almost impossible not to love them who love us Whence the Ancients feign'd Love to be the most ancient of all the gods intimating that Love hath no other Principle or Origine but Love it self And they who assign'd him a Companion which they styl'd Anteros signifi'd thereby that Friendship cannot last unless it be mutual The Third said That Friendship must be distinguish'd from Love For Love is a Passion of the Concupiscible Appetite arising from the imagination of a sensible good and is found even in brute beasts But friendship is one of the most excellent vertues or rather the fruit of accomplish'd and perfect vertue 't is indeed very rare because it hath place only amongst excellent persons who are very few uniting and making them conspire together in the exercises of vertue But being once establish'd it is very durable inasmuch as its cause and foundation Vertue always remains and may be exercis'd Therefore Seneca pronounces that the friendship which knows an end was never true Some friendships there are indeed the most whose foundation is Profit and Pleasure but they are always imperfect Whence it is that old men and young men are ordinarily accounted incapable of true friendship the former because they scarce regard any thing besides Profit and the latter because their minds are more set upon what is pleasant and agreeable then upon what is honest or vertuous Nor is it ever found amongst wicked persons For 1. a perfect friend must love another as much as himself And although the affection we bear to our selves be not true friendship because this must always have reference to another yet it is the most certain yea the measure of perfect friendship and God hath appointed it as the rule of our love to our Neighbour Now how can he be a perfect friend who doth not love himself How can he agree with another who accords not with himself and how will he do good to another who doth none to himself for a vicious man is his own chiefest enemy whilst he pursues the false and imaginary good in stead of the true vice instead of vertue the shadow for the body and many times he becomes his own murderer by intemperance and other vices He hath always a civil war within himself his Reason is never at peace with his Appetite what one desires the other rejects Consequently he hath never any inward joy but he is greatly displeas'd with being alone and for that reason always seeks the company of those like himself to divert his sad thoughts The Fourth said There is nothing comparable to Friendship which is the salt and seasoning of humane life the presever of societies and the most agreeable and sweetest consolation that persons of vertue and honour can have by help of which a man finds another self to whom he may entrust his most secret
seen in our days a dumb man who answer'd pertinently to all that was spoken to him only by beholding the motion of the speaker's lips which is also the reason why blind men attending only to improve the sense of Hearing best observe all differences of speech Whence I draw this consequence that the same may be practis'd in all other things which signifie by humane institution and so there may be an universal Language But the easiness every one finds in making himself understood by the Language and Writing which is familiar to him renders men careless of advancing this excellent Design which would be a means to spare the best time which our youth spends in learning the words of strange Tongues instead of applying themselves solely to the knowledge of things The Fourth said That the possibility of this Project appears in that there is an order in nature or at least consequent to the very nature of things according to which we may place next after the Creator the created spiritual substances then the corporeal one after another according to their dignity particularly the corporeal according to their place as the Heavens first and in them the Stars according to their dignity the Earth and its Animals the Sea and its Fishes the Plants according to their magnitudes those which are equal therein according to their vertues and other accidents doing the same with Metals Minerals bodies perfectly and imperfectly compounded by nature and by art and with the Elements then we may come to the Categories of accidents to which every thing in the world may be reduc'd and put in its right place Whereby it is evident that not only all things have their order but also that he who learns them according to this order easily avoids confusion the mother of ignorance It remains now to find out an order of words too which answers to that of things the first to the first and the second to the second which order is so natural to them that children make use of it to find out every thing which they seek in Dictionaries and Lexicons according to the order of the Alphabet And I know not whether we ought not to begin this handsome gradation and situation of all things in their rank correspondent to the order of the letters with the style that God gives himself Alpha and Omega But it cannot but be admir'd that the first combination of the letters makes Ab and Aba which signifies Father the first place being due to the Author and Father of all things II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great Stature or a small Upon the second Point it was said That largeness of body seems to be preferrable as well because the word Magnitude or Grandeur always includes some perfection in it self as because the Gods were anciently represented of a size exceeding the ordinary Which made Aristotle say that not only the greatness of the Heroes render'd them famous of old but that their Figures and Statues are venerable at this day Moreover we see that Saul the first King chosen by God for his own people was taller by the head then all the rest of the Israelites And amongst the conditions of Beauty magnitude so universally holds the first place that women advance themselves upon high Shooes and Patins that they may seem the handsomer How well shap'd soever a little man be he is never of so majestical a presence as one that is taller Whence you see little men affect to seem greater but never any tall men desire to be less Now the same Proportion which is between a Man and his habitation is found between the soul and the body which is its Mansion For as he who hath the largest house will be accounted to be better lodg'd then he who dwells in a Cottage though they be persons otherwise of equal condition so 't is probable that souls which are all equal find themselves better lodg'd in a great body then in a small and exercise all their functions with much more freedom The Second said That if magnitude put the value upon men the same should hold in animals nevertheless the Elephant yields to the Fox yea to the Pismire the Estrich to the Nightingale and the Whale is the most stupid of all Fishes Moreover nothing hinders the divine operations of the soul but the load of the body whereby the imperfection of our nature places us below the wholly incorporeal Intelligences and therefore the less the body is the neerer we approach the Angelical nature and our spirit is less impeded by the matter Hence little men are not only the most quick-witted but also the most active and nimble for that the strength is more united in them and diffus'd and dissipated in others Great and robust bodies as being fitter for labour were made to obey the small and tender which have more spirit then flesh Whence the Romans gave the Civil and Military charges to little men and sent the greater to guard the Baggage as those who gave the enemies more aim then the less Nor are the greater more proper for other Arts which made the Poet say as a thing impossible Sambucam potiùs caloni aptaveris alto And Samuel was reprov'd by God for offering to prefer the tall Stature of the eldest son of Jesse before the small size of David his youngest as if the Israelites had been displeas'd with the large body of Saul The Poets could not represent an enraged Cyclops and furious Ajax but under great bodies as on the contrary they made Vlysses very small And indeed natural Reasons agree well herein For amongst the causes of the bodie 's growth the material is a slimy or viscous humidity whence Fish grow most and in shortest time This Humidity is as it were Glew or Bird-lime to the soul hindring it from exercising its functions freely and therefore women being more humid have less wit then men and Fish are less disciplinable then the rest of animals The efficient is a very gentle heat for were it too great it would consume the matter in stead of dilating and fashioning it and dry the solid parts too much upon the increasing of which depends that of the rest of the body This is the reason why all gelt animals grow most and amongst Birds of prey the females are always greater then the males the excess of their heat being temper'd by the humidity of their Sex and young persons are found to have grown extraordinarily after Quotidian Agues which are caus'd by Phlegme so that it is not hard for such pernicious causes to produce a good effect The Third said That every thing is to be commended and esteem'd according to the use for which it is appointed Now Man being born for Reason and the functions of the Mind and having receiv'd a Body to be an instrument to him of Knowledg by making a faithfull report to him of what passes without by means of the species convey'd through the senses into
this reformation was still imperfect Julius Caesar 670 years after him assisted by Sosigenes a great Mathematician corrected the defect adding three moneths to the year in which he made this rectification which was the 708th year of the building of Rome namely two moneths between November and December one of 29 days and the other of 30 and another of 30 days at the end of December to make up the days which were pass'd So that this year Debtors had three moneths respite Then he divided the year into 365 days for this cause call'd from his name the Julian year But because the Sun is neer six hours more in accomplishing his Period he added a day every fourth year after the twenty third of February which they call'd Sexto Calendas and because in counting it twice they said bis sexto Calendas this year truth thence retain'd the name of Bissextile attributed by the vulgar to sinister and unfortunate things And to confirm the moneths to the Lunations he was contented to observe that every nineteenth year the Moon is found in the same place which was the discovery of another Mathematician of Athens nam'd Meton And forasmuch as they mark'd this number of 19 in their Kalendar with a Cypher of gold thence it came to be call'd the Gold Number The Christians took up this Calculation as the best of all But because there wants eleven minutes every fourth year to make the Bissextile or Leap-year intire it was found that from the time of Julius Caesar to Gregory XIII the Lunations and Aequinoxes had anticipated ten days which render'd the Golden Number useless and remov'd Easter and other moveable Feasts out of their true place Therefore this Pope assisted by Doctor Lilio a Physitian retrench'd those ten days throughout all Christendom except in places who are not pleas'd with novelty unless so far as it displeases the Pope Which anticipation will always oblige future Ages to use a like reformation of the Julian year which we begin from the mid-night which precedes the first Sun-rise of the moneth of January But the most sensible knowledge to be had of the duration and beginning of the Solar year is obtain'd by observing the day on which the shadow of the perpendicular needle of a Quadrant is found longest at noon being a certain sign that the Sun is then most depress'd and consequently that we must there set down the end of the preceding year and the beginning of the next which is visible by the exaltation of the Sun whose shadow will not be found equal again till after the revolution of a just year II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Had Stones life as Cardan held the solution of the second Question would be easie For the Load-stone's drawing Iron would be no more a wonder then an Animal's going to seek its food Now of those things which draw others some do it for eschewing of vacuity so water and other more ponderous bodies ascend air and other light bodies descend either of them against its proper inclination to prevent a vacuum Others do it out of desire to obtain what they need as their nourishment So Plants attract the juice of the earth the Gall-bladder Choler the Splene the Melancholy humour and every part blood Others do it by the mutual resemblance of the spirits issuing out of them such is the first motion of affection arising between two persons of the same humour and inclination But others are mov'd locally with out any manifest and corporeal cause so are the vapours and the dew drawn up by the Sun straw by Amber the womb by good smells the Load-stone by the North-star the Heliotrope and Selenotrope by the Sun and the Moon whose motions they follow Now in attraction it is requisite that the attractive vertue be stronger then the resistance of the body which is attracted The greatest resistance is from the ponderosity of a body the elevation of which without manifest cause is accounted miraculous and attributed by Divines to the Divine Power alone as when our Lord walk'd upon the water And so indeed would be the suspension of the gravity of iron attracted by the Load-stone if it were not ordinary the cause whereof may be ascrib'd to the meeting of spirits streaming out of the Iron and the Load-stone which being viscous and once joyn'd together are somewhat hard to be separated The Second said That as every body diffuses about it visible odorable and sonorous species which appear not to us unless they be reflected by some body proper to unite them the visible species by a Glass odours by heat sound by a hollow body such as makes the Echo In like manner the Load-stone and the Iron emit attractive species round about which are lost unless these of the one light upon those of the other for then their nature is so to conjoyn themselves that their union is indissoluble otherwise then by violence wherein there seems to be no greater marvel then in all other motions of natural bodies which act variously one upon another according to the disposition of the next matter So the fire acts upon combustible matter and not upon other the reason of these affects depending upon the determination of every particular cause the chain whereof is invisible and conceal'd from men The Third said The Superior bodies act upon the inferior and all motions here below proceed from those of the Celestial Bodies which are therefore purposely contiguous That of the Load-stone and Iron proceeds from the polar Stars which act so sensibly upon this Stone that being hung up in aequilibrio it spontaneously turns one part towards the Arctick and the other towards the Antarctick Pole unless in certain places where it varies between five and six degrees because 't is drawn by a stronger magnetick virtue proceeding from the Earth But this Stone draws Iron the more easily because 't is almost of the same nature with it self and the Magnet is easily turn'd into Iron in the Mines by a coction made by the virtue of the same stars For the liker things are the more inclin'd they are to unite together so Flame unites with Flame the drops of water joyn together a great Load-stone draws the less and Steel attracts the filings of steel The Fourth said As there is a civil converse between men for preservation of society so there is a natural one establish'd by God amongst the other creatures for the support of their common being consisting chiefly in their being mov'd one towards another Fire attracts unctuous exhalations and it self tends towards the Etherial fire the Air is drawn by the Lungs the Sea is drawn up by the Moon which causes its ebbing and flowing straw and dust by the Agate Iron by the Load-stone the virtue whereof together with the occult properties of all other bodies I attribute to that universal Spirit which carries every entity to its particular good The Fifth said If we would understand the causes of the
by expulsion of the noxious humours Moreover humidity revives Plants and Animals and Man Nature's perfectest work abounds most with it to which cause Cardan refers his greater sagacity And being life is nothing else but the Prime Humidity thence thirst comes to be the greatest bodily inconvenience and diseases caus'd by a dry intemperature are generally incurable Rheum is not so dangerous as an Hectick Fever and experience shews us that land too moist may be render'd fertile but there 's no remedy for the droughts of Africa humane Art being puzled to preserve a Garden during those of Summer Lastly Physick takes the opportunity of moist weather for purgations as most convenient for health The Third said That all the first qualities are active but heat and moisture more then the other two whence the air being imbu'd with humidity alters our bodies more sensibly then when 't is charg'd with dry exhalations For our radical moisture is aerious oyly and benigne and the extraneous moisture is aqueous maligne and pernicious a capital enemy to that balsame of life as extraneous heat is to our vital heat which is suffocated by abundance of excrements collected by humidity which stops the pores but dissipated by dryness which opens them Which made the Prince of Physick say Aph. 15. Sect. 3. that of the seasons of the year droughts are more healthy and less fatal then rainy and moist weather in which happen long Fevers Fluxes Epilepsies Apoplexies and divers others putrid maladies Though 't is impossible to determine the question absolutely because 't would be requisite to consider siccity and humidity separate from other qualities and in their own nature wherein they are not to be found being never separated from cold or heat which render their natures and consequently their effects various The Fourth said That the pleasure we take in a thing is the surest evidence of the good or hurt it does us Hence rain is always more grateful to us in droughts then the contrary Besides Death and old age which leads to it is nothing but a desiccation and dry diseases are most perillous because they are either conjoyn'd with heat which encreases them and makes them very acute or with cold which generates Schirrusses and other maladies accompani'd with obstruction which are not cur'd but by humectation Summer and Autumn are the sickliest and dryest seasons of the year but we are more healthy in Winter and the Spring And do's not the humidity of the night repair the loss caus'd by the siccity and actions of the day as in the morning the most humid part of the day our minds are more serene then all the rest of the day whence it was call'd the friend of the Muses The Brain the mansion of the soul and its divinest faculties is not only most humid but the seat of humidity as choler melancholy fear and all other passions common to us with beasts have their seat in the Gall the Spleen and the heart which are dry parts But although humidity seems more a friend to nature then siccity yet the question must be voided by the distinction of temperaments of which the melancholy and the bilious especially receive very great incommodity from droughts and benefit from moist seasons which on the contrary much torment the phlegmatick II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active Upon the second Point 't was said That man being born to live in society and employment the contemplative life seems incongruous to this end and our first Parent was plac'd in the earth to Till it and eat his bread in the sweat of his countenance not to live idly and look about him Moreover the end is more noble then the means which tend to it but we generally contemplate only in order to act In Divinity we consider God's Commandments in order to perform them In Mathematicks Lines Surfaces Solids Numbers and Motions to make use thereof for Fortifications Carpentry and the Mechanicks In Natural Philosophy its Principles and Causes to refer the same to Medicine In Law Right to apply it to Fact In Morality the Virtues in order to exercise them Consider what difference there is between the contemplation of an empty brain and solid action that is to say between theory and practice you will find the former only a chimera and the other a reality as excellent and profitable as the first is useless except to feed the phancy with vain imaginations and fill the mind with presumption there being none but thinks himself a greater master then others before he hath set his hand to the work and yet 't is by their works that our Lord tells us we shall know every one and not by their discourses which are as much below them as effects and things are more then words The Second said Contemplation is as much more excellent then action as the soul is then the body and to compare them together is to equal the servant with her mistress For not to speak of the raptures of an extasi'd soul nor of eternal blisse which consisting in contemplation that of this world must do the like in reference to natural things Nature alone teaches us that things which are for themselves are more excellent then those which are for others But the contemplation and knowledge of truth hath no other end but it self action the common uses of life Whence contemplation less needs external things then action which requires the help of Riches Honours Friends and a thousand other circumstances which hinder a contemplative person more then they help him who therefore delights most in Desarts and Solitudes Moreover the end is to be prefer'd before the means and the end of active life is to bring us rest as the military life is in order to establish and the civil to preserve peace therefore the rest of the contemplative life being the end of the turbulent active life it is much more noble then its means As appears also by its duration which is greater then that of transient and transitory action but contemplation is durable and permanent which is a sign of the Divinity of the Intellect that produces it infinitely more excellent then all the other inferior powers the principles of actions Contemplation being abstracted from matter and earthly things wearies not the body as actions do which require corporeal organs and therefore the pleasure of it is most pure and simple and constant in regard of its object those sublime things which wisdom contemplates whereas that of action is never intire by reason of the inconstancy of its object which are political things continually mutable The contemplative man finds full satisfaction in himself without going abroad to beg approbation and rewards from men without which virtues languish and are imperfect Moreover the pleasure of contemplation is peculiar to men and not competent to brutes who have not only external actions as well as we as Speaking Singing Dancing Fighting Spinning Building and other Works
vapour hath humidity from the water and exhalation siccity from the earth yet this siccity must be joyn'd with some unctuosity to admit the heat which acts not upon bodies destitute of all humidity as the driest ashes are not alter'd by the hottest fire The driest and least unctuous of these Exhalations are in the middle Region transform'd into winds and tempests in the entrails of the earth they cause Earth-quakes and if they be somewhat more unctuous they make subterranean fires in the upper Region they form Comets and in the lower our Ignes fatui which are different according to the divers coition of their matter in length breadth or circularly whence comes the difference of these Meteors call'd falling Stars Flames leaping Goats flying Dragons Beams Lances Javelins and other like names from the figure of their matter Yet all these differences are chiefly taken from the magnitude figure colour time motion and place of these fires Magnitude because some are large and spatious others very small Their figure comes from chance their colour from the mixture rarity or density of the matter Their time is chiefly the night being then most visible Their place from the Heaven of the Moon to the centre of the Earth Their motion according to the six differences of place and the situation of their subject Hence they pursue those that fly them and on the contrary fly before those that pursue them whereupon the ignorant vulgar takes them for evil spirits because they drive and lead them into precipices and bogs which is from their following the unctuous matters which they exhale from those places whence also they commonly appear near places of execution and Church-yards II. Of Eunuchs Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Canons make three sorts of Eunuchs the natural the factitious and the voluntary congruously to our Lords division in the Gospel that some are born others are made by men and others make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven which is no more to be taken literally then the plucking out of the eyes or the cutting off of the hands when they offend us but mystically for those who voluntarily renounce the pleasures of the flesh Their original is as ancient as the Law of Nations whereby the Conquerors giving law to the conquer'd chang'd the punishment of killing them into mutilation of some members and amongst the rest of these to make them more faithful and affectionate by depriving them of the means of getting children and more trusty in keeping of their goods and wives Hence they have come to be so highly esteem'd that not only the Emperors of Constantinople the Kings of Egypt Persia and Chaldea have entrusted them with the management of all their affairs but also in the Roman Empire an Eunuch Slave was valu'd at five times as much as another Besides that their purity has qualifi'd them amongst the Heathen for Priests of their Deities amongst which the Goddesses Isis and Cybele admitted no other which possibly by antiphrasis were call'd Galli Even in Christianity the Eunuch of the Queen Candace was the first Gentile call'd to the light of the Gospel the expressions whereof Origen understanding literally castrated himself by an example so singular that St. Jerome chose rather to admire then to blame the greatness of his courage The Second said If it be true that good consists in the perfection of all parts and evil in their least defect the deficiency of those necessary to the conservation of the species is the greatest of all since it devests us of the noble quality and character of man which an Eunuch is no longer nor yet a Woman but something less then both And as the propagation of men is an effect of the divine benediction at the beginning of the World so the barrenness and impotence of Eunuchs contrary to that fruitfulness is abhorr'd by all the world and was taken by the Jews for a curse Moreover Nature which is the principle of motions and generations seems to disown those who want the parts requisite to this action The Laws forbid them the priviledge of adoption and most Offices and Dignities God himself in the old Law prohibited them entrance into his Church and in the New the Church forbids them the use of her Sacraments namely Orders and Marriage Nor is it any wonder since every thing in nature is fruitful even accidents reproducing their species which are so many generations Wherefore finding no place among natural things nor in the Categories it follows that they are monsters The Emperor Adrian extended the penalty of the Law Cornelia against those who make Eunuchs or consent any way thereunto L. 4. S. ad L. Corn. And before him the Pretors had introduc'd divers actions touching this matter as the action of Injuries of the Edict of the Aediles and of Quadruple in the Law 27. S. ad leg Aquil. And lastly the Emperor Constantine expresly interdicted Castration in all the Empire under pain of life and others contain'd in two Laws De Eunuchis in the Code The Third said That whether you consider Eunuchs in reference to the body or the mind they are happier then others They are out of danger of being gouty and bald two maladies whereof the one extremely torments a man and the other dishonours him and it cures the most horrible of all maladies the Leprosie On the other side it puts the same difference between the manners of men as it doth between untractable horses and others Hence the Castrated are more pleasant company and to contribute thereunto Nature has afforded them the grace of a delicate voice all their lives which forsakes children as soon as they come to puberty and being exempted from the diseases which the excess of Venery brings to others they are longer-liv'd and more easily bear the excess of wine They are deliver'd from the cruel servitude of lust and all the other passions which attend it And in recompence of those parts wherewith Asses and Mules are better provided then men they are early furnish'd with wisdom and continence which as the example of Susanna's old Lovers shews happens later to man then grey hairs Moreover Eunuchs have a fit temper for goodness of wit which according to some occasion'd the Greek name Eunuch and not their charge of guarding the bed and observing the deportments of Wives whole subtilty and infidelity may delude their Husbands but could never deceive the vigilance of these Argusses who in this alone shew what they can do since they have the skill to govern that sex which is indisciplinable by all other CONFERENCE C. I. Of the Green-Sickness II. Of Hermaphrodites I. Of the Green-sickness AS women have commonly more defects in mind so their bodies are subject to more diseases then those of men amongst which this is call'd Love-sickness because it ordinarily happens to marriageable Virgins and the Green-sickness by Hippocrates Chlorosis from a colour between green and livid which it imprints upon the