done among others by the Marigold which for that reason is called Heliotropium for the great correspondence there is between it and that all-enlivening Star Nay that correspondence is also so remarkably obvious in the other Plants that those who have observ'd them most exactly affirm that there is not any herb so despicable but it hath an interiour character answerable to that of some Star which communicates its vertues and qualities to it and thence it comes to be called a terrestrial Star Why therefore should it come into dispute whether Man hath such a Priviledge as that he may be sensible of what is prejudicial or advantageous to him by that tingling of the Ear which may well be the sign thereof though the cause be not absolutely manifest For experience it self and the effects consequent to the observation do very much confirm it for those being commonly answerable to what had been conceiv'd by those to whom that kind of Divination by the Ears had happened there is as much ground to give it some credit as there is to deduce any thing from some other less considerable accidents from which the like conjectures are made such as are for example among others the twinkling of the Eyes sneezing the meeting of something extraordinary especially a Negro an Eunuch or some other defective person and the striking of ones feet against the threshold of his own door which prov'd fatal to C. Gracchus who was murther'd the very day that such an accident had happened to him as also to Crassus the day he was defeated by the Parthians In all which signs there is much less likelihood of declaring the accidents which some would attribute thereto than may be imagin'd in the Tingling of the Ear as being the seat of the Memory which the Ancients for that reason were wont to stir up by plucking the tip of it and if it be true what Plato saith that all our Knowledge is but Reminiscence and that we only remember the Species of things which had been before in our Understanding it will be no hard matter to find out some ground for this praesension The Fourth said That there was no other conjecture to be drawn from this Tingling of the Ear than that the Person subject thereto hath a weak and ill-dispos'd Brain which breeding abundance of ill humours if they come to make any stoppage in the passages of the Ear its action is vitiated and obstructed by that Tingling which is a symptom of a deprav'd Hearing and causes the party to hear an importunate sound or noise though there be not any made without and that there be not any application of the hollowness of the hand to the Ear in which case it hears some such noise 'T would therefore be ridiculous to look after any other causes thereof than what may be in the disposition of the Brain and the excrements it produceth on the diversity whereof as also on that of their Motion in the Ears that Tingling depends as do also the Breathing the Ringing the Buzzing and the Swimming of the Ear which are Symptoms of a deprav'd Hearing the breathing or blowing being done by a little blast which gets out gently the Tingling by the interruption of its motion the ringing proceeds from a more gross vapour and such as blows more strongly as the resounding does from an impulsion yet more vehement and lastly the Swimming is caus'd by the agitation of these as well vaporous as spirituous matters which being different and differently moved produce those different sounds And therefore it is absurd to derive any other marks of what should happen to us then those laid down in Medicine which teaches us that they who are subject to these frequent tinglings and ringings of the Ears are in their way to Deafness by reason of the danger there is that these vaporous humours should make so strong an obstruction in the organs of Hearing that the auditory air cannot get into it to make sensation and if this happen in a burning Feaver together with dimness of the eyes it is a certain presage of the distraction or madness which ordinarily follows that noise of the Ear. CONFERENCE CCXXIX Of Philtres and whether there be any proper Remedies for the procuring of Love THere is not any thing so pleasant and delightful as to be belov'd To procure that it is requisite there should be some perfection which being conceiv'd such by the person whose favour is courted it prevails so far upon his Inclinations that he cannot forbear being in Love with it Thus is it that a known Truth doth so fully satisfie our Understanding that it cannot deny its consent thereto Thus is the Will so strongly engag'd upon the pursuance of a Good which seems delightful to her that it is hardly in her power to gain-say it nay she is of her self inclin'd thereto not needing any other Charms to induce her thereto than those she meets with in the goodness of the Object which she loves These are real Philtres which never fail to raise Love in those that have them there is no necessity of looking after other Remedies all which are us'd either to a bad end or to none at all Deianira desirous to make use of them in order to her being better belov'd by her Husband Hercules prov'd the occasion of his death by the means of a garment which she sent him dy'd with the Blood of the Centaur Nessus Another Woman as Aristotle affirms in his greater work of Ethicks brought her Husband to the same Fate after she had made him take a Medicine of that kind Lucilia administring such a Philtre to the Poët Lucretius her Husband put him into such a distraction that he kill'd himself The like was done by the Emperour Lucilius after he had taken such a one from the hands of Callisthenes as also by Caligula after he had drunk off one of these potions into which there had been put a piece of that flesh which is found on the fore-heads of young Colts as soon as they are cast called in Latine Hippomanes an ingredient particularly recommended among these Medicaments In which Receipts we find also the brains of Cows when they would go to Bull and those of young Asses the bones of a green Frog the little Fish called the Remora the Matrix of the Hyaena and the little Bird call'd Motacilla the Wagtail from its continual wagging of the tail which it seems is so effectual a Remedy for the procuring of Love that Pindar in his fourth Ode of the Nemaea acknowledges that his Heart was so strongly drawn away and charm'd by the means thereof that he could not forbear Loving But though it were granted that these Remedies had some particular Vertues to excite Love in those to whom they had been administred yet would it not follow thence that they should make that Love mutual by obliging them to love those by whom they are belov'd For those to whom they are given commonly not
think 't is from some hideous Phantasms irregularly conceiv'd in the Brain as a Mola or a Monster is in the womb which Phantasms arising from a black humor cause Sadness and Fear a Passion easily communicable because conformable to the Nature of Man who consisting of a material and heavy Body hath more affinity with the Passions that deject him as Fear doth than with those which elevate him as Hope and Ambition do The moral cause of Panick Terror is Ignorance which clouds and darkens the light of the Soul whence the most ignorant as Children and Women are most subject to this Fear and Souldiers who are the more ignorant sort being taken out of the Country and from the dregs of the people become easily surpriz'd with it and by the proneness of Men to imitation upon the least beginning it finds a great accession and familiarity in Humane Nature The Fifth said That the cause of this Terror may be a natural prescience our Souls have of the evil which is to befall us which is more manifest in some than in others as appear'd in Socrates who was advertis'd of what-ever important thing was to befall him by his familiar Spirit or good Angel Now if there be any time wherein those Spirits have liberty to do this 't is when we are near our End our Souls being then half unloos'd from the Body as it comes to pass also at the commencement of a battel through the transport every one suffers when he sees himself ready either to die or overcome CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of Germain's Fair. THis Person is of a middle Stature hath a large Breast as also a Face especially his Fore-head very great Eyes and is said to be sixty years old though he appears to be but about forty He was born in the Town of Nota in the Island of Maltha and is nam'd Blaise Manfrede They that have observ'd him in private Houses and upon the Theatre relate that he makes his experiment not only every day but oftentimes twice in one afternoon Moreover vomiting so freely as he does he is always hungry when he pleases His Practise is very disagreeing from his publish'd Tickets wherein he promises to drink a hundred quarts of water but he never drinks four without returning it up again His manner is thus He causes a pail full of warm water and fifteen or twenty little glasses with very large mouths to be brought to him then he drinks two or three of these glasses full of water having first washt his mouth to shew that there is nothing between his teeth Afterwards for about half a quarter of an hour he talks in Italian which time being pass'd he drinks three or four and twenty more of the said glasses and thereupon spouts forth of his mouth with violence a red water which seems to be wine but hath only the colour of it This water appears red as it comes out of his mouth and yet when it is spouted into two of his glasses it becomes of a deep red in one and of a pale red in the other and changing the situation of his glasses on the left side of his mouth to the right and of those on the right to the left these colours always appear different in the same glass namely the one of a deep red and the other yellow or Citron-color Some of the water is of the color of pall'd wine and the more he vomits the clearer and less colour'd the water is He hath often promis'd to bring up Oyl and Milk but I never saw nor heard that he did it This done he sets his glasses to the number of fifteen or sixteen upon a form or bench to be seen by every one After which he drinks more water in other glasses and brings it up again either clear water or Orenge flower water or Rose-water and lastly Aqua Vitae which are manifest by the smell and by the burning of the Aqua Vitae having been observ'd to keep this order always in the ejection of his liquors that red water comes up first and Aqua Vitae last He performs this Trick with thirty or forty half glasses of water which cannot amount to above four quarts at most then having signifi'd to the people that his Stomack although no Muscle which is the instrument of voluntary motion obeys him he casts the same water up into the Air with its natural colour so impetuously that it imitates the Casts of water in Gardens to the great admiration of the Spectators who for six weâ—ks together were seldom fewer than three hundred daily For my part I find much to admire in this action For though men's Stomacks be of different capacities and some one person can eat and drink as much as four others yet I see not possibly where this fellow should lodge so much water And again he seems rather to powr water into a Tun than to swallow it though the conformation of the Gullet doth not consist with such deglutition Besides vomiting is a violent action and yet most facile in this Drinker And as to the order of this Evacuation 't is certain that all things put into the Stomack are confounded together therein so that Concoction begins by Mixtion and yet this fellow brings up what-ever he pleases as 't were out of several vessels so that he undertakes to eat a Sallad of several sorts of Herbs and Flowers and to bring them up all again in order Moreover what can be more prodigious than this mutation of Colours Smells and Substances And indeed they say he hath sometimes fear'd to be question'd for Sorcery But the greatest wonder is that smartness and violence wherewith he spouts out water from his Stomack not laterally which is the ordinary manner of vomiting but upwards which is a motion contrary to heavie bodies as water is Some speculative person that had read in Saint Augustin that a Man's being turn'd into a Horse by the power of Imagination might refer the cause of all these wonders to that faculty which daily producing new shapes upon the Bodies of Children in their Mothers womb may with less strangeness produce in this Man the above-mention'd alteration of one colour into another And as for his facility of bringing up what-ever he hath swallow'd I can find no better Reason for it than Custom which in him is turn'd into Nature The Second said That Ignorance being the Mother of Admiration we begin less to admire as we proceed to more Knowledg Now if this Maltese were a Magician he would do more marvellous things and of more than one sort whereas all his power is confin'd only to the vomiting up of liquors which he drunk before and the faculty of his Stomack being determin'd to this single kind of action the same must be natural because that is the definition of natural powers Moreover no action ought to be accus'd of Magick till good Reasons have evinc'd it to surpass all the powers of Nature
and not finding the same in the Cannon issues forth to seek it by the same reason that an Exhalation inflam'd in the middle Region of the Air disengages it self from its prison by breaking the Cloud which holds it inclos'd in its belly thereby forming the Lightnings and Thunders whereof the shots of the Cannon are true Images upon Earth where nothing comes nearer Thunder and consequently the Power of God who oftentimes imploys those Arms to punish the crimes of men Whence Pagan Antiquity assign'd indeed severally a Trident a Sythe a Bow a Helmet a Lance a Club a Sword and such other Instruments to their false Deities but all attributed Thunder to the mightiest of the Gods CONFERENCE CV I. Of Blood-letting II. Which is the most Excellent of the Soul 's three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment BLood-letting whose invention is fabulously attributed to the Sea-horse who finding himself too full of Blood rubs himself against the sharp points of Reeds or Canes and afterwards stops the wound with mud is celebrated either in the Arteries and is call'd Arteriotomie or in the Veins and is term'd Phlebotomie which Physitians by good right hold with Galen in the Book which he writ thereof against Erasistratus for a singular remedy and one of the readiest for all sorts of Diseases especially Inflammations Fevers Revulsions or Derivations griefs of the Eyes difficulties of Urine Pleurisie Peripneumonie Squinancy Epilepsie Fractures Luxations and all acute Pains and Diseases And as there are two general and most frequent causes of Diseases namely Plethora or Repletion and Cacochymia or depravation of the Humours Blood-letting is the remedy of the former and Purgation of the latter But Blood-letting is the best and safest causing less agitation and disturbance in the Oeconomy of the Body than Purgatives which are ordinarily violent and enemies of Nature yea it serves not only to evacuate the juices which abound in excess but sometimes remedies their depravation by correcting the hot and dry Intemperies of the Bowels which is the cause of Cacochymie because Bleeding of its own Nature evacuates and makes revulsion but by accident refrigerates and takes away obstructions Therefore Avicenna and all his followers enemies of Blood-letting are ridiculous alledging That the Blood being Fraenum Bitis the bridle of choler this becomes exasperated and enflam'd the less Blood there is to restrain it For if there be any Humour that keeps Choler in order it must be Phlegm which is contrary thereto and not Blood which symbolises with it by heat But Blood-letting checks the impetuous motions of Choler which it evacuates with the Blood if it be in the greater Vessels and if out of them as about the cavities of the Liver it tempers them correcting the ardent constitution of the Liver which produces it The Second said That by reason of Contraries affections against Nature as well as Health have their seat in the Parts Spirits and Humours The Parts are the seat of Maladies the Spirits of Symptoms and laesion of Functions and the Humours of the Morbifick causes either antecedent or conjunct And as these humours which are the source and leven of most Diseases being in a natural state are in their proper place in the quantity and quality requisite to their Nature so in a state against Nature they are out of their due place and offend either in quantity or quality To these three defects Physick opposes Revulsion Alteration and Evacuation this latter is done either by evacuating only the bad by convenient ways in Purgation or the good with the bad Blood-letting which is defin'd an Evacuation of all the humours of the Body by section of the Vessels For though the Blood be the Treasure of Life the Source of all Passion and if we believe Galen the Seat of the Soul nevertheless its corruption as that of the best things of the World being so much the more dangerous as it is the most perfect and temperate of all the Humours it must be presently evacuated out of the Body not only in plenitude where Nature requires nothing but to be discharg'd but also in depravation of the Blood by mixture of the other Humours corrupted of which the less there is the more easily they are subdu'd by Nature which wants not strength to re-produce more laudable Blood than that from which she was unburden'd But regard must chiefly be had to the distinction of Veins according to the diversity of Diseases So the most apparent Veins of the arms are open'd when the Body is plethorick without affection of any Part If it be so by suppression of the Moneths or Hemorrhoids the Vein of the Foot must be open'd If it be by Choler then that of the right arm If by Melancholy then that of the left arm in regard of the situation of the Liver and Spleen as for the various communication of the Vessels the Cephalick Basilick or Median are chosen Hippocrates opens the Vein of the Forehead call'd Praeparata in pains of the Hinder part of the head that of the Occiput in fluxions of the Eyes the Hypoglottides or Veins under the Tongue in the Squinancy for derivation that of the tip of the Nose or great Canthus of the Eye in its Inflammations the Jugulares and Salvatella those of the Temples and in brief all others are open'd according to the sundry intentions of the Physitian The Third said That Blood-letting is the greatest of Remedies there being none sooner communicated to all the Parts which having need of nourishment which is carried to them by the Veins you cannot evacuate any one sensibly but that motion will be communicated with all the Blood in the other Veins that is to say over all the Body It s use was anciently so rare that Galen and the Greeks made conscience of letting Children blood before fourteen years of Age and Avenzoar was accounted too ventrous in Phlebotomising his own Son at seven Hippocrates appoints it in four cases in Inflammation Metastasis Repletion and Obstruction 'T is above all necessary when the Body is too replete evidenced oft-times by spontaneous evacuations at the Nose and Hemorroids whether this Repletion respect the Vessels which are too full and in danger of breaking or the natural strength oppress'd under the weight of the humours But it seems to me impertinent and unprofitable in case of Cacochymie without Repletion which requires Purgatives to purifie the sanguinary mass and not this bleeding Remedy For there being three principal seats of Cacochymie to wit the First Region the Veins and the Habit of the Body Blood-letting is alike unprofitable to them all As for the First Region which is the sink and channel of the humours Blood-letting cannot reach thither without emptying all the Blood of the Body and should it penetrate thither it would draw those excrementitious humours into the Veins where they would corrupt the laudable Blood But Cacochymie residing in the Region of the Veins Purgation which only eliminates the
the Womb where she wraps it up in two membranes which receive the Urine Sweat and other Excrements of sanguification as the Intestines do the grosser excrements but assoon as it is born she expells its immundicities by blisters scurfs scabs tumors of the head and other purgations which Hippocrates saith preserve from diseases especially from the falling sickness Nor can the Malignity of the Air be the Cause as Fernelius holds alledging that the difficulty of respiration heaviness of the head inflammation of the face and such other concomitant symptoms seem to be caus'd by the viciousness of the air which infects the heart and by that means hurts the other Functions For then the Small Pox would be as Epidemical as the Pestilence or any other contagious maladies and seize upon all men indifferently not excepting such as have once had them Wherefore the matter of this disease is a serosity accompanied with the humours which make the Pox appear of several colours sometimes Red Yellow Black or White according as the Blood Choler Melancholy or Flegm flow thither Wind or Water only cause bladders or blisters Nevertheless it must be confessed that this serosity acquires some particular malignity as appears by the deformity caused by the pustules which not only pit the skin and flesh but sometimes even corrode and rot the bones The Fifth said That the Small Pox is a new and hereditary disease and that as all other new maladies of these last ages have always had their causes but only wanted fitting dispositions without which nothing is produced so the causes of the Small Pox have always been existent but the particular dispositions of bodies not lighting upon the point requisite for its production it hath not appeared till these late times whether through the influence of Heaven or through the Malignity of the Air or the intemperance of men the most apparent cause of most diseases formerly unknown or else through contagion and contact by which way the great Pox is communicated For the Small is likewise contagious and which is remarkable more amongst Kindred than Strangers because they being issued of the same blood have greater affinity of dispositions than Strangers CONFERENCE CXXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples AS there is nothing so hard as to judg of the worth of things so it is the highest point of prudence to understand the goodness of the means that may conduce to some end Precepts and Examples are the two Means to attain Vertue 't is demanded which is the best and most proper At first view Example seems to have the same advantage over Precept that the Whole hath over the Part for a Good Example besides being of its own nature a vertuous action holds the place of a Moral Rule but a Precept is only a General Maxim not necessarily follow'd by a particular Action whence it follows that Precept regards only the Understanding whereto it affords some light but Example makes impression upon both Faculties together the Understanding and the Will by an order necessary in civil life which is regulated by the example of others Therefore Great Persons are oblig'd to good Example which derives its dignity from that of the giver Moreover Moral Propositions are so reasonable and conformable to the instinct we have of good that all the World assents to them as consider'd in the General There is no body but acknowledges that what belongs to each man ought to be render'd to him that we ought not to do that to another which we would not have done to our selves yet in the circumstances and particular cases we do not always apply those precepts because then they appear clog'd with difficulties to which our passion or interest give birth Wherefore Example beng Particular is more considerable in Morality wherein people are govern'd more by opinion then reason but Precept is Universal and affects the mind only at a distance our actions being oftentimes contrary to the secret dictates of the Understanding In Example we feel the force and application of a precept in a particular subject and know not only that which ought to be done but how it ought to be done by seeing it practis'd Experience it self shew us that Doctrine alone is weak and little perswasive unless it be animated by the examples of a good life whose silence is more eloquent than all precepts Moreover we are like those with whom we live and the maladies of the body are not so contagious as those of the mind which notwithstanding may as well profit by bad examples as good the Understanding being able to turn bad food into good nourishment And as a brave Action excites good Motions in us by its beauty resulting from its conformity to Reason so a bad Action by its deformity and contrariety to Reason gives us aversion against it and an inclination to its opposite Socrates judg'd no Lesson so fit to moderate Anger as for a Man to behold himself in a glass when he is agitated with that Passion Which cannot be said of a bad Precept for this being a bad seed can never produce any fruit but of the same Nature On the other side Men are such Lovers of Pleasures that Virtue separated from Delight stumbles them and seemes too severe But Precept is a pure Rule of Duty without any attractive whereas Example which appears to our Eyes and is an Action cloth'd with circumstances perswades us more sweetly because we are naturally prone to Imitation whence it comes to pass that Comedies are so charming And Example is the subject of Imitation but Precept cannot be so for it is general of it self and all Moral Actions are singular The Second said That if it be true as the Stoicks say that Virtue is nothing else but a Science then Precepts must be the foundations as of Science so also of Virtute which indeed being a habit of a reasonable Faculty must be more promoted by Precepts which are infallible verities and supply light to that Power than Examples which have no force to convince a strong Mind They who follow Virtue by Example and not by Reason have more of the Ape than of the Man and all the power Example hath is onely to move the Will to admire and desire Virtue but not to teach the way of attaining it as Precept doth which besides being invariable and always alike to its self is more easie to be applyed than Example which puts on a new face according to the circumstances of times places and persons there being no Actions how contrary soever but have Examples to countenance their goodness Moreover they are either of the time past and so move us not much or of the present in which there are few of Virtue besides that they are of less duration than Precepts which are eternal If vicious Examples attract more powerfully to Vice than vicious Precepts the same cannot be said of the practice of Virtues since these have not all the External
Appetite of Cold and Moist cannot be extinguish'd by Wine which is Hot and so more apt to inflame it The Life of the first Patriarch before the use of Wine namely before the Deluge was much longer than it hath been since and no doubt the principal defect in Man and the Cause of most Diseases is bad Digestion The Second said That Digestion being perform'd by the conflux of Spirits elaborated in the Spleen and Wine which is more spirituous and consequently furnishes more matter for our Spirits than any other Aliment cannot but powerfully promote the same Which clearly appears by old men in whom Wine hath the same Effect that Milk hath in Children and preserves these latter from Worms Whence possibly Hippocates gave it not onely in Quotidian but also in Continual Fevers the hurtfulness to be fear'd from its heat were it conjoyn'd with dryness being secur'd by its humidity which makes it symbolize with blood Yet all Wines are not hot small green Wines especially the White and Sharp have more of coldness than of heat and other Wines drunk in small quantity with much water refresh more than water alone because opening the Pores they insinuate into the remote parts which plain water presently closes Yea Wine as hot is a friend to the Stomack and Bowels whose membranous substance being cold and dry needs the contrary qualities of Wine wherefore Wine helps Digestion which water hinders being indigestible it self and so unable to give what it hath not God's discovering Wine to Men after the Flood as a remedy to the defect left thereby in all Creatures serving for their food being rather an evidence of its utility than hurtfulness And there is as little reason to accuse it of shortning our dayes as Guaicum of causing the Pox upon pretence that the use thereof was not known till that Malady appearing needed it for its Cure The Third said That the sole reason of the difficulty we find in digesting Wine is the great resemblance of its qualities with those of Blood both being Hot and Moist But there can be no proper Physical Action without contrariety For since every principal Agent induces Alteration in the subject which receives its Action this change cannot be effected but by depriving it of its former State and the qualities which maintain'd the same Which cannot be done but by contesting with and destroying them by contrary qualities and so according to more or less contrariety the Action is stronger or weaker Hence in the Digestion of Aliment which is a proper Physical Action wherein the Natural Heat destroyes the Food in order to turn it into another Form there must be contrariety and such Food as ha's least gives the Heat least hold to work against it it not being easie for the Natural Heat and Moisture to act against an Aliment Hot and Moist by reason of the resemblance between them as a Friend hardly combats and destroyes his Friend Wherefore Wine being of the same quality our Heat becoms idle in order to its Concoction Possibly too its abundance of Spirits make it hard to be digested stifling the Spirits employ'd for Concoction by reason of the too great resemblance between those of the one and the other The Fourth said That onely a disproportionate quantity of Wine is of difficult Digestion a small quantity promoting it Which holds good in all repletions but particularly of Wine which relaxing the Fibres and Tunicles of the Stomack weakens the Retentive Faculty provokes the Expulsive by its Acrimony either in the Superior Orifice whence arise Hick-cocks or in the Inferior whence proceed loathings and vomitings Therefore the Apostle saith Drink a little not drink much Wine Nor would the inconvenience be less if the best Aliments in the World were taken in Excess For when their mass is too great to be constring'd and embrac'd by the Stomack the Natural Heat is it self alter'd instead of over-mastering that in order to Assimilation The Fifth said That the Question is to be determin'd by the difference of Wines and Stomacks Strong Wines such as are sweet and piquant are improper for Hot and Cholerick Stomacks which must have only small green Wines or other beverages of neer quality to common water On the contrary Phlegmatick and Cold Stomacks and Melancholy Tempers are strengthened by Wine but prejudic'd by water and other cold drinks not that Heat is the cause of Digestion for the hotter a Fever is the more it hinders the same but because 't is a Medium whereof our Natural Heat serves it self The Sixth said That indeed the diversity of Subjects makes some change in the Hypothesis yet hinders not but we may pronounce upon the Thesis whether Wine helps or hurts Digestion I believe the latter because Digestion cannot be perform'd unless all the Meats of one meal be digested at the same time else the Chyle will be part well elaborated namely that made of the Food which hath had a convenient stay in the Stomack and part too much concoct and adust made of that which stay'd in the Stomack too long and after Digestion and part also too little proceeding from Meats requiring more Concoction and yet hurried away with the rest Now 't is certain that Wine being sooner digested than other Aliments by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen who hold that it asswages Thirst and is distributed sooner than they it will produce a confusion and hotch-potch in the nature of the Chyle which should be uniform But Water serving only for a Vehicle agrees better with variety of Meats being like the Menstruum of the Chymists and the Uniting Medium of the Lullists which serves to re-unite all different Bodies into one alone patiently attending their disposition without corrupting as Wine and Vinegar doth and without leaving behind in the Kidneys the tartar or lee of Wine which is the seed of the Stone where-with Water-drinkers are not so commonly troubled partly for the abovesaid reason and partly because that tartar is not dry'd in them as having less Heat than others CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than at any other time of the Night or Day IF Cold be a real quality then the greater distance there happens to be between it and the Source of Heat and Light the Sun the greater must the Cold be And if it be only a privation of Heat then mid-night is darker then either the Evening or Morning because oppos'd directly to the Light of the Sun it may seem that the Cold ought be greater likewise at that time because the same is opposite to Noon when the Sun's Heat is greatest yet the cool of the Morning argues the contrary being so ordinary that it fore-tells Day-break more certainly than the crowing of the Cock Unless you will attribute the cause to this that at Morning before Sun-rise 't is longer since the Sun inlightned the Horizon than at mid-night at which time the Air and other Elements still retain some of the preceding
Causes The Second said That the Remora worketh the same Effect upon the Ship that the Torpedo doth upon the hand of the Fisher which becomes stupid when he toucheth the same with a long pole Now of this effect of Remora is not hard to be accounted for if we follow the Principles of Campanella and those who allow sense to all even the most gross corporeal things But this opinion being little received 't is better to say that whereas all natural things subsist only by the vicissitude of motion and rest wise Nature who is the principle of both hath judiciously dispenc'd them that they are found differently in some things and in others and that for the good and ornament of the Universe which requires that as they are bodies immoveable by reason of their scituation or use to wit the Earth and the Poles of the Heavens others always in motion to wit the Heavens Rivers Air and Fire and others endued with an attractive vertue as the Loadstone and Amber so She hath given others a Quality contrary to this Namely the Remora that of stopping the motion of a Ship and because motion and rest are contrary one to the other their principles are no less as well those that are effective of motion as those which cause rest but 't is better to explicate them by their sensible and indubitable effects than by reasons ordinarily frivolous and impertinent The Third said 'T is no rare thing for Ships to be staid in the main Sea whatever pains the Mariners take to make them go forward and how favourable soever the Wind may be the cause whereof is no other but the contrary motion of the waves of the Sea especially in streights and narrow places where there are strong Currents which probably stopp'd Caligula's Ship and those other mentioned in History rather than this little Fish which 't is credible can send so strong a Vertue from its small body as to fix and check the far greater and oftentimes irresistible force of the Winds and Sea Unless you had rather attribute this retardment to the mucosity and other foulnesses wherewith Ships are crusted in long Voyages which hinder their advancing and this Fish being sometimes found in those mucous humidities people mistake it for the cause though it no wise contributed thereunto The Fourth maintain'd according to the opinion of Francastorius That 't is not possible for so small a Fish as the Remora to stop a great Ship at full sail but that this Effect is occasion'd by Rocks indu'd with a Quality like that of the Loadstone upon which this Fish using to reside when a Ship passes near them their Adamantine Vertue attracts the same towards them whence the same thing happens by these two violent motions viz. that wherewith the Vessel is driven along in the main Sea and the attraction of these Rocks as when two equal forces draw a weight two several ways the thing remains unmov'd so that this fish is not the cause but only the sign of this retardment The fifth said That if there were any such magnetical vertue in this case the nails and iron-works of the Ship so stay'd would rather be taken away than its course stopt the latter being more hard to do than the former since a little force sufficeth to pull a nail out of a Ship whose impetuous motion 't is not possible to withhold whence Archimedes's his drawing of a Ship out of the Port into the Market-place by his endless serue pass'd for one of the goodliest secrets of the Mechanicks though indeed it be nothing to the present enquiry And the truth is this strange effect may best be attributed to a hidden property and singular quality of this Fish which being always found sticking to the stopped Ships is more probably the cause of that impediment than any unknown Rocks which ought to do the like to all Vessels that approach them if there were any such For t is a vanity condemn'd by the most intelligent in the secrets of Nature to presume to give valid reasons thereof whilst we have none for the most sensible and ordinary effects for want of knowing the last and proximate differences which constitute every thing in its Essence and distinguish it from others it being easie to know that the Remora after the example of many other which act by a propriety of their form produceth this effect without being needful to trouble our selves to find out the means it imploys in order thereunto CONFERENCE CCXI. Of Negroes NAture loves variety so well that she is not contented with producing a great number of Species of all sorts of Animals differing chiefly according to the Climates which produce them but she hath also pleas'd her self in an innumerable diversity of individuals especially as to colour as cannot be call'd an Accident in Blackamores but an inseparable property which distinguishes them from other men and constitutes the nature of Negroes in whom the Sun's heat produceth an effect contrary to that of his light this brightning the other obscuring the subject upon which it acts Yet it acteth not alike upon all Subjects since the same Star Aethiopian whitens linnen and wax but this blackness happens to the Aethiopians because moisture exceeds and in a manner extinguisheth heat just as we see it come to pass in Charcoals Gangreens and the parts of man's body when struck with Lightning For if the first Quality would take colours no doubt cold would be white as we may judg by Water Ice Snow Gray Hairs and the Animals that live under the Artick Pole which are all white though of the same Species with ours of another colour as Bears and Hares Which is further prov'd by Herbs which grow white under ground and lose as much of their heat and bitterness as they partake of such whiteness witness the stalks of Hartichoaks and Savoury Hot things would be red and of the colour of Fire which we see gives that colour to faces formerly pale to hot Iron and burning Wood but a superfluous humidity supervening stifles and extinguishes this heat and leaves behind it the colour of corruption as we see the whitest skin grows black by heat upon travelling Southwards the contrary happening to those that go Northwards The Second said That if heat alone made Blackamoors those that are most expos'd to the Sun-beams should be the blackest but they are not so there being many Nations of the New World where it is so hot that they go all naked of an olive colour whereas in Guiney Aethiopia and other places inhabited by Moors they are cloth'd and feel more cold And because this colour may be ascrib'd to the reciprocation of heat and cold which is more likely to alter men's bodies in all other qualities than in a permanent one there are found both black and white people under the same parallels and elevation of the Pole as in the Isle of Sumatra where the Inhabitants are white Wherefore this colour must
most occurrences of humane life as we see that in syllables diversly transpos'd and put together all things in the world may be found The Third said That the Ancients are not be thought so credulous as to attribute such authority to the Sibylls if there had not been some young Maids and Women who had effectually fore-told things to them True it is chance may be fortunate in one or two cases as a blind Archer may casually hit the mark but it is very unlikely that one who cannot shoot at all should have the reputation of a good Archer all the world over And yet Authors are full in asserting the authority wherein the answers made by those women were Virgil grounding his discourse on that common perswasion says Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas And the Satyrist confirms what he had said with another verse to wit Credite me vohis folium recitare Sibyllae And it was ordinary to inscribe on Monuments the names of those who were appointed for the keeping of those books of the Sibylls and took care for the Sacrifices which the Romans offered up to appease the wrath of the Gods according to the counsel which as occasion requir'd they took from their verses Nay there was such a strict prohibition that any should have them in their private Libraries that one of those who were entrusted with the custody of the Sibylline Books named Marcus Atilius was sown up in a bag and cast into the Sea for lending Petronius Sabinus one of those Books to be transcrib'd or as some affirm only their simple Commentary containing the secrets of the Sacrifices which were made according to them Upon the same consideration that it pleas'd God to sanctifie Job though out of the Judaick Church the only one wherein salvation was then to be found I may say there is no inconvenience to imagine that he might as well bestow the Spirit of Prophecy on those Virgins at least commonly accounted such And consequently what is said to the contrary deserving rather to pass for adulterate and supposititious then that there should be any question made of what divers of the holy Fathers have affirmed of them the gift of Prophecy having been communicated also to Balaam and God having miraculously opened the eyes and unloos'd the tongue of his Ass What remains to this day imprinted in the minds of a great number of persons concerning Merluzina and other Fairies contributes somewhat to the proof of what hath been said some illustrious Families deriving their origin thence For as to the inserting of some supposititious verses into the body of their Works it should be no more prejudice to them then it is to those of the most excellent Authors among which the spurious productions of others are sometimes shuffled in And if it be true that Homer's Verses were at first confusedly pronounced by him and that it hath been the employment of others to reduce them into that noble order wherein we read them Why should the same observance of order be censur'd in the disposal of the Sibylline Verses Plato in his Theagines affirms That Socrates acknowledged them to be Prophetesses and in his Phoedon the same Socrates shews by their example That extravagance or distraction of mind does many times bring great advantages to Mankind Aristotle in the first question of the thirtieth Section of his Problems affirms That Women become Sibylls when the brain is over-heated not by sickness but through a natural distemper And elsewhere he describes the subterraneous Palace of a Sibyll whom he affirms according to the common report of her to have liv'd a long time and continu'd a Virgin Plutarch in his Treatise Why the Prophetess Pythia renders not her Answers in verse affirms that by a particular favour of God a Sibyll had spoken things during the space of a thousand years and elsewhere that she foretold the destruction of several Cities that were afterwards swallow'd up the fire of Mount Gibel and divers other things setting down near the time when what she had said should come to pass Pausanias affirms that the Sibyll Herophila had certainly foretold the bringing up of Helen at Sparta and that it should occasion the destruction of Troy Justin having related what account Plato made of persons who foretold things to come who he says deserve the name of Divine though they do not themselves comprehend the great and certain things which they predict says That that is to be understood of the Sibylline Verses the Writers whereof said he had not the same power as the Poets have to wit that of correcting and polishing their works inasmuch as the inspiration ceasing they do not so much as remember what they had said though some have been of opinion that the agitation of Mind wherewith they have prophesy'd seem'd to be the Effect of the evil Spirit producing as a confirmation of this opinion one of the Sibyls who sayes of her self that for her enormous crimes she was condemn'd to the fire Yet allowing these Verses to be ranked among the supposititious there is still a greater probability inclining us to judge otherwise of them when we consider the good instructions given us and the mysteries of our Salvation contain'd therein it being not the function of Devils and evil Spirits to encourage us to piety But however it be this is clearly evinc'd that there have been Sibyls and that they fore-told things to come CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why OF Natural Bodies some move from the Centre to the Circumference as Fire others from the Circumference to the Centre as the Earth others are in the mean between both as Air and Water the latter whereof inclines downwards but both of them are principally design'd to fill the Vacuum Whence it comes that the Air descends as much nay faster to the bottom of a Well when it is dry'd up than the Water had done before which consideration hath given occasion to some to attribute a mean or circular Motion to those two Elements as they have done a direct Motion to the two first And whereas these two kinds of Local Motion to wit the direct and the circular are the Principles of the Mechanicks the most profitable parts of the Mathematicks and that among the said Motions that which tends downwards which proceeds from weight is the most ordinary Agent and such as is the most commonly us'd in Machins or Engins where it is the most considerable either for the assistance it gives to fixt and setled instruments or for the obstruction it gives those which are moveable thence comes that famous dispute there is concerning the causes of Motion from above to beneath Which since it must needs proceed from one of these three to wit the weight of the Body descending and lightness of the mean through which the descent is made or from the impulsion of the said mean Or lastly from the
which is in Caves and places under ground where it continues in its own nature is not frozen Nor yet that which lies expos'd to the influence of a cold air especially when it may easily insinuate it self into it Whence it comes that to cause water to freeze in a short time it must be warm'd before it be expos'd to the Air which finding its pores open by the heat so much the more speedily insinuates it self into it For as to what is maintain'd by some Physicians to wit that the Air is hot and moist seems to have been advanc'd by them rather to make a correspondence of the four possible combinations of qualities to so many Elements than for any convictive reason since the Air is never hot if it be not warm'd by some other heat then it hath in it self such as is that of Fire or the Sun-beams and these too must be reflected by the Earth On the contrary when it continues in its own nature as it does in the night-time during the absence of the Sun it is actually cold nay even in the greatest heats of Summer it keeps its coolness provided there be no application made to a hot body as may be seen in our Ladie 's Fanns who forcing away the Air from their hot faces are refresh'd by its coolness which then cannot proceed from any other principle than the proper nature of Air inasmuch as motion would be more likely to imprint heat on them then cold And this is further confirm'd by the Air we breathe the reciprocation whereof cools our Lungs whereas it should warm them if it were hot as the Peripateticks would have it It happens therefore that the Air for that reason call'd by some Philosophers primum frigidum the first cold insinuating it self into the Water produces therein the effect which Aristotle attributes to it to wit that of congregating all things as well of the same as of several kinds And whereas our common water what simplicity soever there may be in it consists of all the Elements especially Earth and Air the Air joyning it self to what it meets withal of its own Nature does in the first place render that cold and being by that means united to the other parts viz. to the Earth unperceivably intermixt with the Water and to the Water it self contracts and compresses them so as that they take up less space then they did before as may be seen in a Bottle fill'd with water and frozen up which though it had been full is nevertheless found to contain air in its upper part And yet this compression cannot be so well made but that there remain several particles of Air enclos'd in the Spaces of the Ice which were it not for that air would be vacuous and this by reason the surface as was said before freezing up first it from thenceforward hinders from making their way out those parts of air which either were got in before or caus'd by the avoiding of vacuity when the Center and other parts of the Water are forc'd by the Cold to take up less place then they did before We conclude therefore and say that though the Ice be dense and hard by reason of that compression of all its parts yet is lighter than Water because there is air enclos'd within it which cannot return to its sphere as that does which gets into the Water which by reason of its liquidity makes way for it So that it is no more to be wondred at why Ice is lighter than Water then that cork being harder is lighter than the same water Otherwise had the Ice no Air inclos'd within it as it happens to that engendred in Mines which in process of time comes to be Crystall it would fall to the bottom of the water as the other does The same thing may be instanc'd in porous wood which swims upon the water whereas Ebony by reason of its solidity and want of pores will sink The Second said That whether the Air be granted to be light or not or that it pass only for a body less weighty than the water as this latter is less heavy than the earth certain it is that the intermixt Air not that comprehended within the concavities but that diffus'd through the least parts of the Ice is that which makes it lighter inasmuch as it augments its sinnuosities as may be observ'd in a bottle fill'd with water which breaks when the water is congeal'd in regard that being converted into Ice the bottle cannot contain it So that as Snow is lighter than Hail so this latter is lighter than Ice and this last is lighter than water in regard it contains less matter in an equal space Accordingly it is the Air that freezes the water yet dos it not follow thence that it should be the primum frigidum as the Iron which is red hot burnes more vehemently than the elementary fire yet is not that red hot Iron the primum calidum that distinction proceeding from the difference of matter which as it must be the more compact in order to a greater burning so the cold for its better insinuation into all the parts of the water requires the conveyance of the Air. As to the lightness of Ice it seems to be the more strange upon this consideration that Physicians explicate lightness by heat as they do heaviness by cold But the fiery vapors which are in the water as may be said of that which hath been warm'd contribute very much to that lightness it being not incompatible that these contrary qualities should be lodg'd in the same Subject considering the inequality of the one in respect of the other and it is not to be thought a thing more strange that there should be potentially hot Exhalations in the water than that the Nile should abound in Nitre which is of an igneous nature Now from what matter soever the cold proceeds 't is evident by its action that it is not a privation of heat as some Philosophers would have maintain'd since that which is not as privation cannot have any effect But those who have referr'd freezing as well as thawing to the Constellations seem to have come near the mark in as much as those making certain impressions in the Air which serves for a mean to unite the Influences of the celestial bodies to the inferior diversly affect them one while contracting another dilating them according to the diversity of matter there being some not susceptible of congelation as the Spirit of Wine and Quintessences either upon the account of their heat or simplicity The Third said That if the first qualities of cold and heat were the Causes of freezing and thawing they would always happen accordingly the former when it is most cold and the other when the cold diminishes Now many times we find the contrary there being some dayes without any frost on which thaws we are more sensible of cold and sometimes we perceive it yet without any perceivable remission of the
The same thing was said by one of the Satyrists but much more pleasantly for being as we say here upon the Save-all that is ready to give up the last gasp he cry'd out to his friend Draw up the Curtain the Play is done For the greatest part of our Complements being only so many fictions and flatteries Traffick and negotiations being so many disguises and humane life consisting in those actions the consequence is that all the world is under a Mask and that the less dangerous since there are some make it their Profession to be mask'd as do also Ambassadors and other persons of quality in some places of Italy when they have a desire not to be known And as to what hath been said against Painting it seems to be a little too severe to blame that pardonable curiosity which the women are only guilty of to preserve and heighten their greatest Treasure that is their Beauty upon the account whereof they are principally recommendable to men who were it not for that would be apt to sleight them much more than now they do For what do the poor women do more in that than is daily done in Medicine whereof one part treats of Cosmeticks that is of Painting and is brought in for the reparation of the defects and deformities of Nature The Third said That the Mask or Vizzard by the Latines called Persona either upon this consideration that it changes the condition of the person causing him to be taken for some other or haply à per-sonando by reason of the new sound he gives the words pronounc'd through the Vizzard This invention of Vizzards as also that of speaking Prologues before Playes is by some attributed to one Thespis an Athenian Poet of whom it is said Et plaustris vexisse poemita Thespis Quae canerent agerentque peruncti foecibus ora By others to Aeschylus the Tragidian Post hunc personae pallaeque repertor honestae Aeschylus At first they painted with divers colours the faces of those Comedians who were carry'd about the streets in Chariots but that humour not taking so well because the same Actor by that means found it very troublsome to act several parts they found out the convenience of Masks and Vizards made as near as they could like those whom they were to represent till such time as the Macedonians became formidable in Greece For these meeting with some persons in Vizards who resembled them the Actors were somewhat at a loss how they should handsomely come off whereupon the business being taken into deliberation it was resolv'd that those made thence forward should be for the representation of extravagant or ridiculous persons or such as might frighten the Spectators such as were those which the Greeks called Mormolycea bug-bears and Oxyodontas and the Latines Larvas wherewith the Mothers threatned their little Children Gumias Lamias Sillos c. These last represented the countenances of ridiculous and abhominable women Cum personae pallentis hiatum In gremio matris formidat rusticus infans She was also Magno manducus hiatu They were at first made of the leavs of the Fig-tree then of a certain herb that had large leavs and from its being us'd upon that occasion called personata Afterwards the said Vizards were made of the bark of Trees whence came this expression Oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis And at last they came to be of wood whence this other Vt tragicus cantor ligno tegit ora cavato Whence it may be inferr'd that the design of using Masks and Vizards upon the Stage where it is most us'd is in order to imitation and to heighten the confidence of the Actors who by that means are not known And the convenience and decency of that custom is such that one of the greatest reproaches lying on the memory of Nero is that having brought some persons nobly descended upon the Stage for to be Actors he caus'd them to put off their Vizards while they play'd on the Flute and forbad the Comedians to appear vizarded upon the Stage To this may be added that according to the Counsel of the Holy Fathers women and young maids when they walk abroad nay when they go to Church ought to be not only mask'd but also veil'd to prevent the temptations which the full sight of them might cause in men and the destraction of their own and the others devotion Now the female sex making up above one half of the world we cannot upon any rational grounds universally find fault with that thing or custom the use whereof is allow'd to the greater part CONFERENCE CCXIX. Of Fables and Fictions and whether their conveniences or inconviences be greater OF all the flowers of Rhetorick lying is one of the worst and withal so much the more pernicious the more full it is of artifice For if the saying of Aristotle be true That the lyar always deserves to be blamed there is a certain resemblance between him who simply tells a lie and him who simply takes away another man's life by poyson inasmuch as the latter infects the Heart and the former viciates and corrupts the source of our Ratiocination the end whereof is only to come to the knowledge of Truth As therefore the poysoning of a man is always a heinous and punishable crime but that Steward who should poyson his Master when he gave somewhat to eat or drink when the other pretended to be exteamly hungry or dry would be the greatest villany in the world and deserve a far greater punishment So he who simply tells a lie is not so much to be blamed as he who covers and disguises his lie under the appearance of some probable history which is clearly receiv'd by our understanding and this thus drawn in by the liklyhood of the relation grows less distrustful of it than of the other kinds of falshood which are deliver'd without any artifice So that lying and consequently Fables and all the species thereof have the same proportion to our Understanding as Monsters have to Nature our Understanding cannot endure them whereas Truth is its sustenance Thence it comes that those Fables which are destitute of the ornament of Truth which is probability are not heard with any patience such as are old Wives Tales and the like absurd relations which are so ridiculous that only the ignorance of Children is capable of entertaining them with any pleasure but with so much the greater danger to themselves in regard that those tender Tables receiving the impression of some false perswasion will not afterwards so easily part with it nay on the contrary it commonly continues there to the end at least some part of it as if Time were not able so fully to eat it out but there may be seen some lines of the first draught Whence it comes that some eminent persons do account it a great oversight in the education of Children to entertain them with Tales and Stories instead whereof those weak minds wherein as in
the Night correcting that hot and dry distemper it is the more convenient that Sleep should do as much in the Day time by taking off then somewhat of their Choler The Second said That the retrival and restauration of the Spirits obliges the Animal to sleep which ought to continue at least for such a space of time as amounts to the third part of that a man hath been waking and should never exceed the one half of it Far is it therefore from being imaginable that Nature should be able to endure what is affirmed of the seven Sleepers or the long nap of Epimenides which lasted fifty years Nor are we to give any more credit to what is related to us concerning a Plant in the Low-Countries which will keep people waking many nights and dayes together without any inconvenience but the time when we should begin or end our sleep being left to our own discretion 't is requisite we should accommodate our selves to the order prescrib'd by Nature which hath appointed the day to labour and the night to rest in Nay it is also the advice of Hippocrates Galen and all Physicians who think it not enough to direct rest in the night and waking in the day but also conceive very great hopes of those who in the time of their sickness are so irregular therein Add to this that darkness silence and the coldness of the night being fit to recruit the Spirits and promote their retirement within whereas light noise and the heat of the day are more proper to occasion their egress for the exercise of actions which granted he who observes not this rule charges Nature with an erronious proceeding And that this is her way is apparent hence that those Animals which are guided only by her motion which is as certain as our reason is ordinarily irregular go that way to work Cocks and other Birds go to their rest and awake with the Sun if any of our Domestick Creatures do otherwise our irregularity is the cause thereof and that perversion is of no less dangerous consequence than that of the Seasons which is ever attended by diseases And who makes any doubt but that the greatest perfection of the Heavens consists in their regular motion the principal cause of their duration Which order since we are not able to imitate it is but requisite we should come as near it as we can in our actions among which sleeping and waking being the hindges on which all the others of our life do hang if there be any irregularity in these confusion and disorder must needs be expected in all the rest as may be seen in the lives of Courtiers of both Sexes who turn night to day and day to night a course of life much different from that which is observ'd by the Superiours and Members of regulated companies Besides it is the Morning that not only holds a stricter correspondence with the Muses but is also the fittest time for the performance of all the functions of Body and Mind Then is it that Physicians prescribe exercises in regard that the Body being clear'd of the Excrements of the first and second concoction is wholly dispos'd for the distribution of Aliment and evacuation of the Excrements of the third So that he who spends that part of the day about his affairs besides the expedition he meets with does by that means maintain the vigour of his Body and Mind which is commonly dull'd by sleeping in the day time which fills the Head with vapours and when exercise comes to succeed it in the warmest part of the day the heat which is then commonly greatest makes it less supportable Therefore Nature who is a sure guide inclines us to sleepiness in the Evening there being not any thing but the multiplicity and distraction of Civil Affairs which depriving us of that Function as it does of divers others makes the Life of Man so much the less certain the more he is involv'd in Affairs whereas the duration of that of Animals and next to them of Country-people and such as comply with the conduct of Nature is commonly of a greater length and more certain CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother IF our Fore-fathers may be conceiv'd wise enough to have known the nature of things it is to be acknowledg'd that the Child derives most from the Father since that they thought fit to bestow on him his name rather than that of the Mother and that the name is the mark and character of the thing Besides the Male being more perfect larger and stronger than the Female which indeed is an imperfection and default of Nature whose constant design it is to make a Male and is not disappointed but through want of heat vigour and temperament it is but rational that what proceeded from these two should have the denomination from the more perfect of them Thus a Regiment is known by the name of the Colonel a City by that of its Founder a Law and Ordinance by that of the Law-giver and a Receipt the Composition whereof consists of two simple medicaments hath most of the nature of the stronger and that which is of greatest virtue This is further confirm'd by the common Comparison which is us'd to express the difference there is between the Father and the Mother in the business of generation For the Mother and particularly the Matrix is compar'd to a field and the paternal seed to the grain which is sown in that field which serves well enough in order to its sprouting and shooting forth but supplies it only with matter which is determinated by the form of the grain from which the Plant produc'd of it receives its being So that the present Question amounts to no more than if a Man should ask Whether an ear of Wheat deriv'd more from the ground or from the seed that had been sowne in it A further proof hereof may be deduc'd from the instruments of generation which being more apparent in the man than in the woman are a silent insinuation that the former contribute more thereto than the latter And the greatest and most remarkable difference that there is between the Children being that of the Sex the experiment alledg'd by Physicians that if the right Testicle be bound Males will be produc'd as Females will if the contrary clearly shews that by the Father's part the Sex is determinated and consequently it is from him that there do also proceed the least individual differences and circumstances wherein the likeness or unlikeness of Children to their Fathers and Mothers either in Mind or Body doth consist For if the Males especially should retain more from the Mothers than they do from the Fathers that proverbial saying would prove false which affirms that Fortes creantur fortibus in regard that most women are chargeable with a want of Courage And daily experience makes it apparent that one of the greatest and most common causes of
they are much more fond of their Children than the Fathers which fondness is a sign that there may be more of the Mothers observ'd in the Children than of the Fathers For the love we have for our selves is so great that God would have it to be the measure of that which we ought to bear unto our Neighbour and that which we bear to God himself hath some reference to his affection towards us Those therefore who would insinuate themselves into the favour of any one have no surer way to do it than by complying with his humor and as much he can become conformable to him CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether is harder for a Vertuous Man to do that which is Evil or for a Vicious to do that which is Good BEfore we come to the Resolution of this Question we are to consider two things the former that Man consists of two parts the Superiour which is the Soul and the Inferiour which is the Body and whereas these two parts have different objects and such as which contradict one the other there happens to be a great Conflict the body being strongly inclin'd to sensuality and the Soul endeavouring to raise her self up to spiritual things But in regard the Organs she makes use of are material such as are also the Senses which assist her in her operations it is not to be thought she can overcome without great pains inasmuch as the instruments which she stands in need of for the exercise of Virtue hold a greater correspondence with the Body and as they derive their Being from matter so they betray the Resolutions of the Soul reducing her under a Tyrannical Subjection Whence it follows that the wicked or vicious person finds it the greater difficulty to do well inasmuch as being enslav'd to vice and sin he cannot shake off that yoke as having a constant inclination to evil The Second thing to be consider'd is good and evil in it self for according to Nature there is no evil in Humane Actions inasmuch as in appearance they are all good otherwise the Will the object whereof is that which is Good and pleasing would not be inclin'd thereto since good is that which all things desire There are therefore two sorts of good and as many of evils one Natural and the other Moral the Soul is easily enclin'd to the Moral good and the Body to the Natural and consequently it is much more easie for the Vicious person to do a Moral good than it is for the Virtuous Man to do a Moral Evil. The Second said That it is harder for a good Man to do evil in regard that to the virtuous man Virtue seems so fair and taking that he finds it the greatest difficulty in the world to forsake her and so to embrace Vice which he looks upon as a hideous Monster inasmuch as Beings and Substances are more amiable than Privations are odious in regard that as Love respects the things that are amiable and aversion is not extended to that which is not in like manner Vice is not so much shun'd as Vertue is belov'd Whence it follows that it is a greater trouble for the good man to do that which is evil in regard he knows the perfection of good as much as the vicious person is ignorant of it and from that ignorance there must needs proceed a difficulty and backwardness of embracing it The Third said That the vicious person finds it a harder task to do well in regard that Nature is strongly bent towards that which is evil and consequently the virtuous person when he does that which is evil easily falls down into the bottom according to the descent of humane inclinations and the vicious person when he does that which is good climes up a high Mountain full of Rocks and Precipices and engages against Nature her self being in open hostility against the sensual Appetite and according to the Scripture We do not the good which we would do but the evil we would not do that we do To shew that the difficulties men find in the pursuance of good are so great that Saint Paul himself complains of his having a Law within him which rebelled against the Law of God This Nature of ours being full of the imperfections conceiv'd in Original Sin hath so great a repugnance to good that there was a necessity of a Law of Grace to regenerate it in order to the pursuit of good a complyance with the true sentiments of Religion and the knowledge of God not to urge that Pleasure hath so great attractions and charms that it is almost impossible to over-master them Thence it came that Vlysses order'd himself to be bound to the mast of his Ship and caus'd his ears to be stopp'd that he might not hear the harmonious voices of the Syrens otherwise his Reason would not have been so strong as to over-master his sensual Appetites which must be either destroy'd or so fetter'd that the Soul may not be drawn away by pernicious temptations The Fourth said That Virtue was natural to Man before Adam's Transgression and from the time of his rebellion against God Vice hath seated it self in her place so that when Innocence forsook our first Parent all vices and imperfections possess'd themselves of his Mind and are become so naturaliz'd there that it begat a necessity of establishing Divine and Humane Laws whereof some were for the eradication of Vices others for the punishment of Crimes all which trouble might have been spar'd if there had not been so much difficulty in the doing of that which is good The Fifth said That it being suppos'd as indeed it is true that Humane Nature is more inclin'd to Vice than to Virtue for the reasons before alledg'd yet is there a certain means to frustrate and destroy that Inclination and advance the Soul to a sovereignty over the Body by abolishing and destroying the Senses and those intellectual powers whereby the Organs are govern'd For if the Body have the Mastership the Soul will be forc'd to obey but if the Soul commands she will bring the Body into subjection to all the vertuous actions she pleases her self And then the Vertues will be naturaliz'd in man and the Question propos'd will meet with a contrary Solution for in that Case it will be much more hard for the vertuous man to do that which is evil than for the vicious to do well inasmuch as the virtuous person by that mortification of the Senses will be in a manner reduc'd to the state of original innocence and restor'd to the glorious condition Man was in before the Fall The Sixth said That such a moral regeneration is a great Cabalistical Secret unknown to all the learned that such a mortification and destruction of the Senses as was propos'd is a work not yet well discover'd to the Curious as transcending all common rules For if the Soul acts not without the assistance of the Organs and the interior and exterior Senses the weakning
a Fore-teller of the Sun's approach That the Fish called a Remora stops Ships under sail That the eye of a Dog prepar'd after a certain way keeps others from coming near the person that hath it That the powder of Crab-shells prepar'd draws out Arrows and Bullets shot into the Body That there is a certain Stone got out of the Snake which cures such as are subject to the Dropsie That Serpents are not found within the shade of Ash-trees That the Marygold follows the motion of the Sun That the precious Stone called a Topaze put into seething water immediately stayes the seething of it That the Emerald the Saphire the Turqueis Stone and Coral change their colours upon the happening of certain accidents to those who have them about them That there are certain Herbs which chase away spirits as well as Musick does and that the dispositions of a black and adust choler invite and entertain them Now from all these instances it may be deduc'd that as it is a great presumption to think to give reasons of all things so does it argue a certain weakness of mind to doubt of all that hath been alledged so great are the abysses and inexhaustible treasures of Nature whose operations transcend humane belief in thousands of other things as well as in the Question now under dispute CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not HUmane Life is travers'd by such a vicissitude of distractions and disturbances that not only the Civil but also the Ecclesiastical Magistrates have unanimously concluded it necessary that men should have some divertisements whereby their minds and bodies not able to undergo continual labour might receive some relaxation for want whereof they would be crush'd under the burthen of their affairs Now among those relaxations there is not any brings greater delight with it then what is perform'd on the Theatre that is Plays which represent unto us things past heighten'd with all the circumstances they are capable of which cannot be done by History as being a thing dead and not animated by Voice Gestures and Habits But if we add thereto that this innocent divertisement is attended by those advantages which may be deduc'd from excellent Sentences and Instructions we must conclude him who finds fault with it to be of a more than Timonian humour and a profess'd enemy to civil Society The proof hereof is deriv'd from the Use of it the true Touch-stone whereby good and profitable things are to be distinguish'd from such as are hurtful and unprofitable For there have been an infinite number of things taught by Men which have been smother'd as soon as brought forth and there are others also which the Inventors of them have out-liv'd but when an Invention finds a kind entertainment through many Ages it is the best argument that may be of its goodness And such is that of Comedy which how weak or ridiculous soever it might be at the beginning at which time Thespis got himself drawn through the Streets in a Chariot as he recited his Poems presently met with those who made it their business to cultivate and heighten it to that pitch of perfection whereto it is now come which is such that it is no wonder the greatest minds should yield to the charms of it For as those things that are sensible are more apt to move and make impressions on the spirits of men then such as are purely intelligible so Plays exposing to our eyes all things with a greater circumspection decorum and order then is observable in the actions of men commonly disturbed by unexpected emergencies and the unconstancy of their passions accordingly raise in us a greater aversion for crimes and greater inclinations to vertue Nay these cause more apprehensive emotions in our souls than they are apt to receive from any other representations whatsoever not excepting even the precepts of Philosophy it self which are weak enough when they are destitute of their examples imprinting in us such Characters as can hardly be blotted out in regard they force their passage into our Minds through several of our senses and as History prevails more by its Examples than the reason of its Precepts so Playes have the advantage of History in this regard that in the former things act upon us with greater efficacy This Influences it hath on us in captivating our Senses and Understanding is the more remarkable in that the greatest Witts are incapable of other reflections while they behold what is represented on the Stage Besides if the great business of the world be truly consider'd it is but a Stage-Play wherein every one acts a part he who would avoid Plays and not see the vanity of humane actions must find out some way to get out of the world Nor are all persons in a capacity to learn how they should demean themselves by Books and Precepts but all are susceptible of some instruction by Playes since that in these there are such sensible Lessons that the most ignorant may find in them certain encouragements to Vertue which on the Stage appears to them in her lustre and attended by those honourable rewards which the Poets bestow on Heroick Actions And as Geographical Maps cannot so well acquaint those who study them with the dispositions of people together with all the circumstances of places as Travels and Relations may In like manner Philosophy smites not the Senses as those passages do which are represented on the Theatre where such as are in Love the ordinary subject thereof may observe their own Adventures personated and take notice of their vain pursuits and the unhappy events of those which are carried on by unjust wayes In fine if immortality flatters ours labours with promises to transmit our Memory to Ages yet at a great distance from us what greater satisfaction can there be than to hope that our noble actions shall be represented on Theaters before Princes and Magistrates The Second said That Humane Nature being more enclin'd to evil than to good those confus'd representations which are made on the Stage of all sorts of good and bad things are more likely to make impressions of evil in the minds of men than to render them more inclinable to that which is good Whence it is to be inferr'd that the danger and inconveniences of Plays will outweigh their advantages This consideration occasion'd the banishing of them out of several States And whereas the Subjects of them are commonly taken from the Loves of some extravagant persons and the crimes attending them the end thereof must be answerable to the means which are lewd Artifices whereby it is compassed and where-with mens minds are imbu'd and so inclin'd to wicked actions and such as are most likely to promote the execution of their pernicious designs which would not happen were they ignorant of them Nay to go to the original of this kind of entertainments the most ancient of them acted in the time of Romulus was
the example of the crooked and ill-shap'd Tree which supplies us with the best of Liquors Wine whereas the strait and fair-spreading Oaks bear nothing but acorns for the feeding of Swine Besides as the word spirit or mind is sometimes taken for the Invention which principally consists in the Imagination sometimes for the Judgment or Understanding and might be also taken for the Memory among which this last requires a hot and moist temperament as the first is pleas'd with a hot and dry and the second to wit the judgment consists in the dry and cold which makes men staid and settled so is it accordingly requisite that we should distinguish of which of these three faculties the question is to be understood But generally speaking it is not easily imaginable that there should be a well-fram'd mind in a much-indispos'd body inasmuch as there is the same proportion between them as there is between the mold and the figure cast in it a Palace and him who dwells in it The same thing may much more rationally be said of the humours from which the spirits being drawn bring their quality along with them so that the Temperament which is most convenient in order to health will also be the most convenient for the functions of the Soul CONFERENCE CCXXVI Whether it be more expedient for a Man to have only one Friend or many SInce Man is no further to be called so then as he is sociable and that there is no Society more delightful then that of Conversation which cannot be better maintain'd then by the relation and correspondence there is between such as are of a like disposition which presuppose a Friendship it should seem that it is not grounded only on Reason but also on Nature her self which subsists altogether by that Union as she is absolutely destroy'd by discord And this is principally made apparent in civil life wherein Friendship is so powerful that being religiously observ'd there will be no need of Justice since every one would voluntarily render that to another which is due to him which is the proper Work of that Vertue which being in like manner well administred that of Fortitude would also be unnecessary and it would be superfluous to use the rigour of the Laws to oblige men to the doing of a thing which they exercised without any compulsion Hence it came that the wisest Law-givers as Aristotle affirms in his Ethicks took more pains in establishing the Laws of Friendship among their Citizens then those of Justice inasmuch as these latter take place only upon the non-observance of the former which are so much the more durable in regard they are grounded upon the pure freedom of the Will without any other obligation then that which our own choice hath impos'd on it self of its own accord in a legal friendship It s nature also is as much conceal'd as its effects are manifest which are so convincing that those who have spoken most advantageously of them affirm that to take away Friendship were to deprive the World of the light of the Sun and that humane Society may as well be without it as want the use of Fire and Water Nor is it their meaning to speak of that irregular Passion produc'd by the motion of the concupiscible Appetite which is inclin'd towards a delightful good and which only flattering the Senses those who are carry'd away with it are called amorous Persons and not Friends but of that Queen of Vertues which is enthron'd in the rational Appetite excited by a vertuous Good which being conceiv'd as amiable and proportion'd to the Will she loves and strictly embraces it causing such a perfect union between him who loves and him who is belov'd that they are but one heart and one soul which for that reason is said to be rather where it loves then where it lives So that it being not to be imagin'd that such an union can be among many neither can true friendship be among many but only between two whose mutual correspondence being the greater their Friendship is consequently more firm and durable And it is more compleat between these two Relatives then it can be among many whose correspondence being more difficult for want of the conditions requisite to Friendship which are not so easily met with in a greater number it is possible they may have a certain kindness and good-will one towards another but not a solid and sincere Friendship which looks on a friend as a second Self a relation that hath place only between two whom Antiquity for that reason order'd always to go by Couples The Second said That Friendship could not continue long only between two friends in regard that there being not any one but is chargeable with some imperfection it is impossible but that it should produce some coldness and indifference in his apprehensions who takes notice of it and that in time will come to an alienation as it commonly happens in Friendship And this is yet the farther from being wel-setled upon this accompt that continual familiarity coming to discover the weaknesses of one or the other it can never be long without some punctilio's and disputes which are many times advanc'd to such a height that there is a necessity of a third person to compose their differences Now this must be done by one who is a common friend to both and consequently to establish a permanent friendship it is requisite there should be three a number the more highly to be esteemed in that the Graces consist of it without which Friendship will be but of a short continuance Upon that accompt it was that the Tyrant Dionysius wish'd that he might make up the third with those two intimate friends Damon and Pythias The Scythians also as Lucian affirms to make up a perfect friendship requir'd that there should be three persons who drunk together out of a Vessel into which they had spilt some drops of their blood wherewith they dy'd the points of their swords The Third said That Friendship in respect of our Will was as Science in respect of our Understanding For as this latter hath a natural inclination to Knowledge so the Will is endu'd with such another to Love inasmuch as in it she finds her soveraign good Thence it comes that as there are some spirits so sublime that not content with one only knowledge they embrace several whereas there are others so circumscrib'd and confin'd that only one Science wholly takes them up so as that they are not able to make any progress into others so are there some Souls so limitted in their affection that it can be dilated but to one object which checks and makes them incapable of loving any more as those generous and heroick hearts do which have so strong a bent to do well and to love that not satifi'd with one object they diffuse their affections to all those whom they think worthy thereof And so the decision of the question should depend on
Xenophanes on the two latter joyntly Hippon on Fire and Water Parmenides on Fire and Earth Empedocles and most of the other Naturalists on those four Elements together which yet as some affirmed could not execute the function of Principles without the assistance of other Superiours such as Hesiod maintains to be Chaos and Love Antiphanes Silence and Voice the Chaldaeans Light and Darkness the Mathematicians Numbers and among others the Tetrad which the Pythagoreans affirm to be the source of all things the Peripateticks Matter Form and Privation Anaxagoras the Similar Parts and Democritus his Atoms so called by reason of their smalness which renders them invisible and incapable of being distinguish'd and divided into other lesser Particles though they have quantity and are of so great a bulk as to be thereby distinguish'd from a Mathematical Point which hath not any as being defin'd to be what hath not any part and what is so imperceptible and small that it can hardly fall under our External Senses but is only perceivable by reason The same thing may also be said of the other qualities of these Atoms which Epicurus who receiv'd them from Democritus as he had the knowledge of them from Leucippus and he again from one Moschus Phoenician who liv'd before the Trojan Warr made it not so much his business to lay them down for the first Causes and general Principles of Natural Things as to take away the four common Elements since he does not deny but that these are constitutive parts of the world and whatever is comprehended therein But his main work is to maintain that they not the first seeds and immediate Principles thereof as consisting themselves of Atoms or little Bodies so subtile and small that they cannot be broken or made less and being the most simple and next pieces whereof mixt bodies are made up and whereto they are afterwards reducible by dissolution there is some reason to give them the denomination of the first material and sensible principles of natural bodies The Second said That if these Atoms be allow'd to be the principles of natural bodies these last will be absolutely unknown to us as being made up of infinite principles which being incapable of falling under our knowledge it will be impossible for us to come to that of the mixt bodies which are to consist of them Whence it will follow that though the Atoms should be such as the Philosophers would perswade us they are yet would not our Understanding which cannot comprehend any thing but what is finite be ever the more satisfy'd since it would not be able to conceive them nor consequently the things which should be produc'd of them Nor is it to be imagin'd that those things would differ among themselves since that according to their sentiment those little chimerical bodies are not any way distinguish'd but all of the like nature and of the same substance The Third said That though there be not any essential difference in the Atoms yet is it certain That they make remarkable diversity in the production of things by the properties and different qualities that are in each of them whereof there are two kinds Common and Proper The proper are Largeness of Bulk Figure Motion and Resistance the common are Concourse Connexion Situation and Order which are generally competible to all Atoms as the four others are proper and particular to them Their bulk is not to be consider'd as if they had any considerable quantity there being no Atom how great soever it may be but is infinitely less then the least body in the World being for that reason so imperceptible that it is impossible for the sight to distinguish it Yet does not that hinder but that they are bodies and consequently have quantity which is a property inseparable from bodies as Mites Hand-worms and such other little Animals which by their extreme litleness elude our sight do nevertheless consist of diverse parts miraculously discoverable by Magnifying-glasses nay to the observance of Veins Arteries Nerves and such like obscure parts answerable to those which reason obliges us to admit though our senses cannot attain thereto It being the property of figure to follow quantity which it determinates and qualifies it is necessary that if the atoms are different as to bulk they should be the same also as to figure which being observable when bodies are broken into great pieces and those appearing with superficies angles and points diversly figur'd they must still retain some figure even after they are pounded in a mortar into small parcels and particles though our senses by reason of their weakness are not able to comprehend it To the same weakness it is to be attributed that we are not able to discern the diversity of figures in grains of corn and other seeds which seem to be in a manner alike though they are not such no more than the leaves of Trees and Plants Nay even in Drops of water and Eggs though in appearance there is a likeness so great that it is come into a Proverb yet is there so remarkable a diversity when it is strictly observ'd that there were heretofore in the Island of Delos certain people so expert that among several Eggs they would tell which had been laid by such or such a Hen. The hair of our heads a thing to some would seem incredible have particular figures whereby they are distinguish'd one from another The figures of Atoms are of that rank as are also those of the Moats which are seen playing and dancing up and down in the beams of the Sun when darted in at a narrow passage for though they seem to be all round yet examin'd with that instrument which magnifies the species of things we find in them an infinite number of other figures In like manner is it requisite that the Atoms should have the same difference of figures that they may the more fitly concur to the mixture and generation of Bodies To that end the maintainers of this opinion affirm that some are round some oval some oblong some pointed some forked some concave some convex some smooth and even some rough and rugged and of other such like figures as well regular as irregular in order to the diversity of their motions Of these there are three kinds assigned according to the first the Atom moves downwards by its own weight according to the second it moves upwards and according to the third it moves indirectly and from one side to another These two last are violent motions but the first is natural to the Atom to which Epicurus attributes a perpetual motion which causing it to move incessantly towards the lowest place it still makes that way of its own nature till such time as in its progress it hath met with other Atoms which coming to strike against it if they are the stronger they force it upwards or of one side according to the part of it which had receiv'd the shock and so clinging one
true it were absurd to look for the Causes of it in Nature whose forces are not able to attain an Effect so transcendent and so much above her reach It must therefore be a supernatural gift which God bestows on certain persons out of a pure gratuitous favour and more for the ease and comfort of others than out of any advantage to those who receive it as are also the gifts of Prophecy and doing Miracles For it is a demonstration of God's Omnipotence not to heal diseases only by ordinary means the dispensation whereof he hath left to Physicians who to that end make use of natural remedies but to do the same thing without any assistance of Nature by extraordinary and supernatural means in the application whereof he sometimes uses the Ministery of Angels as in the curing of Tobit and those sick people who came to the Pool at Jerusalem after the water had been stirr'd by the Angel sometimes by the Saints of whom it is written that the very shadow of their Bodies hath many times been effectual to that purpose as was that of Saint Peter and oftentimes those of other persons to whom he had communicated the gift for reasons unknown to us as he granted that of Divination to the Sibyls though they liv'd in Idolatry The Fourth said That Man was potentially all things and that consisting of a Body exactly temperate and of such a Soul as is the most perfect of forms he comprehended in an eminent degree within himself all the vertues of things as well corporeal as animate Whence comes it then that he shall not have the vertues and properties which are observable not only in stones wherewith he participates Being but also in Plants which are capable of Vegetation as well as he Animals with whom he hath motion sense and life and lastly in the separated Spirits as having answerably to them certain powers that are spiritual and remov'd from materiality And so since the Vertue of healing Diseases is found in most Beings which are of some nature with Man it is but reasonable he also should have the same one such as is the gift of healing the Evil which happens principally in the Seventh Male-child by reason of the perfection of his nature which performs all the most compleat functions in that number which Hippocrates upon that occasion affirms to be the dispenser of life Nay if there have been some who have had the Vertue of communicating several Diseases by their sight and touching as it is related of the Psylli Tribales Illyrians and other Nations who bewitch'd those whom they touch'd and of him whom Philostratus makes mention of in the life of Apollonius who kill'd with his very aspect as the Basilisk does far greater reason is there that there should be some to communicate health For though this latter requiring more preparations and conditions is so much the more difficultly transferr'd from one Subject to another then sickness is yet the reason of contraries will have it so that if the one is the other may be communicated and that with the greater justice inasmuch as health participating of the nature of good ought to be more communicative from one subject to another then sickness CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration THere is as much fault to be found with the excessive curiosity of those who would know all things as there is with the unsufferable stupidity of some others who are not any way touch'd with that natural desire of Knowledge for as these latter by renouncing that accomplishment deprive themselves of the greatest satisfaction of life so the others being transported beyond the limits prescrib'd to the mind of Man wander they know not which way and precipitate themselves into the abysses of errours and impieties That of the Necromancers who make it their boast that they can command out of their Tombs the Souls of the deceas'd that they may be by them inform'd of what they desire to know is so much the more enormous in that they have made an Art of it call'd by them the Black Art or the Art of Conjuration a name as ridiculous as the precepts whereof it consists which having no ground but what they derive from the capriccio's and fantastick extravagances of those Impostors they sufficiently destroy themselves so as there needs nothing else to discover their palpable vanity no more then there is to make appear the errour of those who to confirm that diabolical invention maintain that there are abundance of effects above those of Nature which are to be attributed to those souls separated from their bodies especially that of foretelling things to come and informing those thereof who consult them it being consider'd that besides the gift they have of Science which is common to them with all spirits disengag'd from matter they have a particular inclination of doing good to men by advertising them of those things which so much concern them But this is not only absurd in it self but also impious and contrary to Christian Faith which teaching us that there are but three places where these souls have their abode to wit Paradice Hell and Purgatory it is to be believ'd that those which are confin'd to the last never come out thence but upon a special permission of God which he sometimes grants them that they may sollicit the suffrages of the Living those of the damned are further from being in a capacity to get out of that infernal prison to which Divine Justice hath condemn'd them to be there eternally tormented And the Blessed Spirits are yet more unlikely to quit their blissful State and the joys of Paradice wherewith they are inebriated to satisfie the vain curiosities of those who invocate them and for the most part make use of them rather to compass the mischievous Sorceries and such like Crimes whereof that Black Art makes profession then to procure good to any one or if it happen that at any time they do any 't is in order to the doing of some greater mischief afterwards such as may be that of Superstition and Idolatry whereto these spirits inclining those who invocate them and requiring of them such Sacrifices and Adorations as are due only to the Deity it is more then a presumption that they cannot be the souls of the Blessed but downright Devils who transform'd into Angels of Light impose upon those who are so willing to be seduc'd The Second said That as the employments of the Devils are different so is there also a remarkable difference in their natures which depends principally on the places of their abode according to which if we may believe Orpheus some of them are Celestial or Fiery some Aery some Watery and some Terrestrial and Subterraneous and among those the Aerial to whom Plato attributes the invention of Magick are by the Students of that Art accounted to be the most ingenious to deceive men by reason of their more easie putting on of the grosser parts of the air and
it comes that our Cellars are warm in Winter and cool in Summer as are also all other ground-rooms and low places That Water shrinks up and frames it self into little drops when it is spilt on dry ground whereas it spreads abroad and is diffus'd in moist places That Lime is set on fire by the casting of water upon it That the fire burns better in frosty than in hot weather That Wine drinks more cool out of a Glass that had been warm'd That the coldness of Snow causes an extraordinary heat in their hands who handle it and That generally all tactile qualities are rendred more active by the opposition of their contraries by reason of the concourse and the assistance they then receive from that general Cause which concerns it self in their preservation Of this we may give an instance in Politicks affirming that the procedure of the forementioned Cause is much like that of great Potentates who in a war between some petty Princes or neighbouring States if they find one party ready to be absolutely ruin'd supply it with such forces as shall enable it to recover it self so to bring the several interests into an Aequilibrium whereof there is as great a necessity in Nature which is kept up by that proportion wherein all things find their subsistence as their destruction proceeds only from their disproportion and inequality The Fifth said That we are not to look for the reason of Antiperistasis any otherwhere than in the Subjects themselves wherein we find the action whose intenseness and augmentation are to be referr'd not to that of the degrees of the active qualities but to their compression and reinforcement which renders them more sensible in regard they are more material as may be seeen in a red-hot iron the heat whereof burns much more violently then that of a fire of Straw or Aqua-vitae The sixth said That according to the principles which allow all things to participate of a certain degree of sentiment this condensation or compression of the degrees of heat or cold ought to be the effects of a sensitive Agent which having a knowledge of what may be hurtful or beneficial to it withdraws within it self the qualities which preserve it intire when it is press'd upon by others that are more violent and such as the meeting whereof might be prejudicial thereto which it forces from it in order to Action And herein it is that the good of every thing consists inasmuch as every thing hath being only so far as it hath action when it is assisted by friendly qualities and the like and by this means it is that Cold and Heat act more vigorously when they are oppos'd one to the other and that our cavities are hotter in Winter by reason of the compression of the Spirits and the natural Heat which are the more diffus'd in Summer in regard this latter goes to meet with its like as a little fire is put out by a great one and a weaker light obscur'd by a clearer CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder THough this Powder be now as much out of esteem as it was in vogue soon after the first finding of it out for the expeditious curing of wounds yet will it haply be a business of some advantage to examine their Motives who first made and publickly sold it as also those of such as have sometimes made use of it with good success And whereas novelty procures a certain esteem to Remedies as well as to other things so this Sympathetical Powder found so great belief at its first coming abroad among Persons addicted to a military life who were immediately flatter'd with a speedy and easie curing of their most mortal wounds by the means thereof without any trouble of making incisions or dilatations many times more painful then the hurt it self that we have had some persons these last Campagnes though destitute of learning and experience who had the subtlety to raise such a mist before the eyes of the generality with this Powder that they concluded this remedy to be true balm and the only Panacea or All-heal of all wounds But time having discover'd the vanity of it as also the impostures of those by whom it was so highly recommended it hath been clearly found out that there are few people in this age but are either deceiv'd themselves or make it their main business to deceive others For in fine this Powder is as much cry'd down at present as ever it was cry'd up and there is nothing left of it but the insolent name of Sympathetical impos'd upon it by the Authors thereof in imitation of the Unguent of the same name wherewith Goclenius and some other Physicians endeavour'd to make good the Magnetick cure of wounds wherein they only dress'd the arms or other instruments by which they were given and apply'd the convenient remedies thereto But in regard they could not always come at the arms which had done the mischief to keep up their practise and to make the cure yet more easie these upstart Doctors be thought themselves some years since of another expedient to compass their designs that is found out a remedy wherewith they make it their boast that they will cure all sorts of hurts only by applying this powder to some piece of Cloth which had been us'd either to bind up or make clean the wounded part And whereas there are two kinds of wounds one simple which makes a solution of continuity in the soft and fleshy parts of the body such as are the veins the arteries the nerves and the muscles the other compound which happens ih the solid parts especially where bones are broken these Gentlemen have accordingly two different kinds of Sympathetical Powder to wit a simple and a compound The former is made with Roman Vitriol which is our green and transparent Coppress which they beat or pound not over small and disposing it upon papers in such quantities as they think fit lay it in the Sun when he makes his entrance into the first degree of the Sign Leo and leaving it there for the space of three hundred and sixty hours which make just fifteen days answerably to the like number of degrees which that Planet travels over in the space of a year in the Zodiack During this time it is calcin'd into an exquisite whiteness and then they take it in and keep it carefully in some temperate place that is not too moist that is such as may not be likely to melt it for fear it should by that means lose its vertue for which reason also it is taken in during its calcination in the cool of the evening and in the night-time and when the air is inclinable to rain or over-moist But there must be a great care taken that it be not stirr'd with any instrument of iron when this powder is either in the preparation or ready made up these Authors affirming that it takes away its vertue instead whereof they order
that the Artist should make use of a little Willow-stick which is of great efficacy in these magnetick cures The compound Sympathetical Powder is made of the same Vitriol prepar'd after the same manner and the Gum called Tragacantha exactly pulveriz'd mixt together in equal quantities instead whereof others put Gum-Arabick Sarcocolla the roots of the great Comfrey and the five-leav'd Tormentile or such other vulnerary and astringent Plants However these kinds of Sympathetical Powder may differ as to the composition of them yet in the use of them they observe the same circumstances For though the simple wound require the powder of the same name and the compound where there is any fracture requires the compound powder yet is the manner of employing them still the same And to that end as well in wounds newly receiv'd as those that are of some standing and degenerated into ulcers they apply a clean cloth made of hemp or flax to receive the blood from them or the matter wherewith being imbibed they cast the powder upon it then fold up the cloth inclosing it in another and being thus wrapp'd one in the other they are laid up in some temperate place unless it be when the wound is extreamly enflam'd or very cold If either of these happen they remove the cloths from the place where they were first laid disposing them into some cold place such as may be a Cellar or some other cool room if the part affected be excessively hot and on the contrary into an Oven or Stove if it be threatned with a Gangrene or the extinguishing of the natural heat and they dayly continue the dressing of these wounds after the same manner till they are perfectly cur'd till which time they carefully preserve all the cloaths imbu'd with the blood or matter that came from them But what palpably discovers the vanity of this practice is that they affirm the wound to be perfectly cur'd by this means how great a distance soever there may be between the wounded part and the Sympathetical Powder which they say equally produces its effect afar off as near at hand Which is contrary to Reason whereby we are instructed that every agent being confin'd to certain limits in its action beyond which it can do nothing it is impossible that this powder should at so disproportionate a distance produce the effect which they would attribute thereto nay though it were granted it might if it were immediately apply'd to the place affected The Second said That if all Agents were oblig'd to follow that general Rule whereby they are restrain'd from acting otherwise then upon the Subjects they touch either by themselves or by some vertue issuing from them it would be a very hard matter to give a reason of the action of that Sympathetical Powder upon the wounds it cures without making use of the assistance of common Surgery which are many times more insufferable then the hurts about which they are employ'd But since there is a great number of the like instances in Nature it will be no harder task to find satisfaction in the causes of this then in those of all the rest which act at a distance without any sensible transmission from the Agent to the Patient as for instance of the Loadstone which draws iron to it of the North-Star which does the same with the Loadstone of the Moon 's causing the ebbing and flowing of the Sea of the Sun 's concocting Metals and Minerals in the bowels of the Earth and of an infinite number of others which act upon subjects at a distance by certain occult qualities Which qualities in regard they are manifest and sensible in the Loastone are commonly call'd Magnetick such as is also the cure consequent to the application of this powder on the blood or matter taken from the wound which is thus treated sympathetically and whereof the action is withall animated by that universal Spirit whose general interposition and concurrence being requisite to all Agents in order to the prosecution and advancement of their operations it may be concluded that he does express it in this Powder whose vertue he conveys to the wounded part by means of the blood which issu'd from it which though separated from the body there is however some conformity and correspondence between it and its whole The Third said That he thought it a very strange humour to attribute to Roman Vitriol and the Gum Tragacantha the vertue of curing that at a distance which they cannot do near at hand and that being apply'd to the wounds about which they are employ'd True it was that they were sometimes cur'd by that kind of procedure but that it was not to be look'd on as a miracle wrought by the Sympathetical Powder but as a pure effect of Nature on which the curing of maladies principally depending as Hippocrates affirms there needs no more for the effecting that of a wound then to take away all heterogeneous bodies to reunite the gaping of the wound and to keep it clean and at ease for the natural heat with its balm the radical moisture and the Spirits will advance the cure in that condition more then all the suppurating mundifying cathoeretick and epuletick medicines which Art commonly makes use of Thence it comes that the Masters of this new doctrine give a great charge to those who would make use of their Sympathetical Powders to keep the wounds very close after they have wash'd them with Urine Sal-water or Wine and to take away the splinters of the broken bones as also the clotted and congeal'd blood and the other heterogeneous bodies which might hinder the re-union And this indeed is no hard matter for them to do in the simple fleshy wounds but they never could do it in those which are accompany'd with fractures openings of great Vessels hurts in some considerable part of the body or such other extraordinary accidents Otherwise that effect being above the reach of the remedy which is incapable of producing that cure if it happen by that means and after that manner it cannot be wrought otherwise then by vertue of a secret compact with the evil Spirit who will be forward enough to promote the welfare of the body in those who should make use of this remedy conditionally that they may run the hazard of destroying their souls CONFERENCE CCXXXIX Whether there be any such Creatures as the Ancients conceiv'd the Satyrs to be NOvelty and things extraordinary if we may credit the Professors of Artificial Memory have so great a power and influence over our minds that they do not only force them to attention when the objects are present but do also much more excite and better conserve the species then ordinary things can This it was that oblig'd diverse Poëts and Historians to speak of Hydra's Chimaera's Basilisks Satyrs Centaurs and several other things invented out of pleasure or wantonness such as have no ground in truth and are pure poetical fictions For those who have