and the holiest mysteries of Religion not onely by the Delians who accompany'd all their prayers with dancing and the Indians who ador'd the Sun by dancing and imitating the course of that luminary but also by the Prophet David before the Ark and by Saul who being full of the Spirit of God fell to dancing with the Children of the Prophets as also did Miriam the sister of Moses Judith when she had kill'd Holofernes and infinite others in testimony of their thanksgiving to God The Muses themselves are painted by the Poets dancing about their fountain upon Mount Helicon Apollo is call'd dancer by Pindar and the Graces are represented dancing Proteus so celebrated by the Poets became famous onely by this Art and which he so excell'd that his nimble in strange postures gave occasion to the fable of turning himself into all kind of shapes because sometimes he counterfeited the fluidity of the water sometimes the lightness of fire the bending of trees the rage of the Leopard the cruelty of the Lyon and in brief the nature of every sort of things The Third said That Dancing is compos'd of three parts Motion Gesture and Indication For there is first a stirring up and down then a representing things by the Gestures of the Body chiefly by the Hand which Art is call'd Chironomy and those which are expert in it Chirosophers that is wise by the Hands Hence Dancing is defin'd a motion of the Body according to rule and number imitating by gesture things or persons either with singing or without As Motion 't is very delightful to Nature which is as much pleas'd therein as rest is disagreeable to it Nor is it less so as it includes an harmonious proportion of measure having this correspondence with Musick Poetry Eloquence Painting Comedy and all other Arts whose end is the delight of man But as it is an imitation it delights marvellously we loving nothing so much as to imitate or to see some thing imitated Hence works of Art please us more then those of Nature because Art doth nothing but imitate her Besides its delightfulness 't is also profitable and honest It s usefulness is sufficiently known to Physitians who make it a part of their Gymnastick Physick which treats of the exercises and motions prescrib'd in order to health and is divided into Palestrical and Saltatory Moreover Galen affirms that he cur'd many Patients by appointing them to dance which is an exercise of all parts of the body whereas walking exercises onely the legs riding the intestines bowling the reins going by ship the stomack and brain 'T is also very honest or decorous since it formes and fashions the body giving it a good grace one of the principal points of handsomeness For the Soul having the Sciences to instruct the Understanding and the Moral Virtues to rectifie the Will the body its dear partner needs some habit to regulate its defects the rather because they have influence upon the Soul it being very difficult for the motions of the Soul to be regular so long as those of the body are not Therefore Plato in the seventh book of his Laws requires that the instructers of youth have equally care of the body and the soul and for this purpose teach them Musick to regulate the motions of the Soul and dancing to frame those of the body and give it gracefulness as wrastling gives it strength CONFERENCE LXVII I. Of Death II. Of the Will I. Of Death AS Being is the first and greatest good because the foundation of all other goods so speaking absolutely upon a natural account the first and greatest of all evils is the privation of that Being which is Death so terrible that not onely brutes abhor the sight of their dead fellows through fear of the same death of which they behold an image of their carcases but men likewise although their name of Mortals be a token of the necessity of their dying yet use all the vain attempts they can to avoid that death which they fear as the most terrible of terrble things Yea all their great and violent actions and passions take their source from this fear which is so much greater as the evil is phancy'd nearer Whence old or sick persons have more apprehension of it then then those that are young and in health The vulgar commonly labours onely through fear of starving A man that is decrepit yet is willing to part with a limb if he may by the loss respite his death apprehended so terrible by some that the fear of it has kill'd some criminals before execution and carry'd others to such madness as to kill themselves for fear of dying Nevertheless he that shall consider Death more nearly will find that being but a privation it is nothing and that what we fear so much is onely the way to this death or the sequel of it the former in respect of irrational animals and both in reference to man who apprehends in the other life the judgement of the actions of this Otherwise Death being onely a poynt and a moment which hath neither quantity nor extent but approaches to Nothing hath therefore nothing in it self for which it ought to be feared For so long as the Animal hath sense it is not dead and so soon as 't is dead it hath no more And because 't is a motion and passage from Being to not Being between which two there is no medium or middle therefore 't is a pure nothing and consequently hath no foundation saving in the troubled Phancy Since upon due perpension of things that which is not is no-wise to be fear'd by those that are insensible yea that exist no more The Second said That to maintain Death to be nothing is to accuse not onely all men of folly in fearing what exists not and consequently is not capable of producing any effects or passions but likewise Nature of imprudence in having imprinted this apprehension in all creatures for their preservation As therefore Reason and Experience teach us that there are substantial generations so the same shew us the true and substantial corruptions of all compounds which corruption in a thing endu'd with life is call'd Death which is the separation of the Soul from the Body For the Platonists are ridiculous when they make two kinds of this separation namely that of the Soul from the Body which they call Extasie and that of the Body from the Soul which alone they say is to be call'd Death For they are both one and the same thing and Extasie is not a separation of essence but of power hapning when the Soul is so glu'd to an object in the contemplation whereof it employes all its powers that there remains none for corporeal functions the Eyes not perceiving what is then presented to them Whence the Soul being more where it loves then where it lives is also more where it understands Now Death is either natural or violent The former caus'd by the consumption
it self and causes them to act and move in the Matter rightly dispos'd As for the Second Like as they argue that the world is finite round and corruptible because its parts are so So also it may be said that the world hath a Spirit which enlivens it since all its principal parts have a particular one for their Conservation Action and Motion the parts being of the same Nature with the whole This Universal Spirit is prov'd by the impotency of the Matter which of it self having no activity or principle of Life and Motion needeth some other to animate and quicken it Now particular Forms cannot do that for then they would be principles of that Virtue that is to say principles of themselves which is impossible Wherefore there must be some Superiour Form which is the Universal Spirit the principle of Action and Motion the Uniter of the Matter and the Form the Life of all Nature and the Universal Soul of the World Whence it may confidently be affirm'd that the World is animated but with what Soul or Spirit is the difficulty For if we prove by Local Motion or by that of Generation that a Plant or Animal are animated why may we not say the same of all the World since its more noble and principal parts afford evidence thereof As for the Heaven and the Stars they are in continual Motion which the more â—ober Opinion at this day confesseth to produce from their Internal Form rather then from the Intelligences which some would have fastned to the Spheres as a Potter to his wheel The Sun besides his own Motion which some call in controversie gives Life to all things by his heat and influences The Air Water and Earth afford also instances of this Life in the production and nourishing of Plants and Animals Thus the principal parts being animated this sufficeth for the Denomination of the whole seeing even in Man there are found some parts not animated as the Hair and the Nails As for the Last Point which is to know what this Universal Soul is there are many Opinions The Rabbins and Cabalists say that it is the RVAH ELOHIM that is the Spirit of God which moved upon Waters Trismegistus saith that it is a Corporeal Spirit or a Spiritual Body and elsewhere calleth it the Blessed GreenWood or the Green Lyon which causeth all things to grow Plato affirmeth it to be the Ideas The Peripateticks a certain Quintessence above the Four Elements Heraclitus and after him the Chymists that it is a certain Aethereal Fire For my part I conceive that if by this Spirit they mean a thing which gives Life and Spirit and Motion to all which is found every where and on which all depends there is no doubt but 't is the Spirit of God or rather God himself in whom and through whom we live and move But if we will seek another in created Nature we must not seek it elsewhere then in that corporeal creature which hath most resemblance with the Deity The Sun who more lively represents the same then any other by his Light Heat Figure and Power And therefore the Sun is that Spirit of the World which causeth to move and act here below all that hath Life and Motion The Second said That that Soul is a certain common Form diffus'd through all things which are moved by it as the wind of the Bellows maketh the Organs to play applying them to that whereunto they are proper and according to their natural condition So this Spirit with the Matter of Fire maketh Fire with that of Air maketh Air and so of the rest Some give it the name of Love for that it serves as a link or tye between all Bodies into which it insinuates it self with incredible Subtility which Opinion will not be rejected by the Poets and the Amorous who attribute so great power to it The Third said That the Soul being the First Act of an Organical Body and the word Life being taken onely for Vegetation Sensation and Ratiocination the world cannot be animated since the Heavens the Elements and the greatest part of Mixed Bodies want such a Soul and such Life That the Stoicks never attributed a Soul to this world but onely a Body which by reason of its Subtility is called Spirit and for that it is expanded through all the parts of the world is termed Vniversal which is the cause of all Motions and is the same thing with what the Ancients call'd Nature which they defined the Principle of Motion The reason of the Stoicks for this Universal Spirit is drawn from the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies For if Rarefaction be made by the insinuation of an other subtile Body and Condensation by its pressing out it follows that since all the Elements and mixt Bodies are rarifi'd and condens'd there is some Body more subtile then those Elements and mixts which insinuating it self into the parts rarifies them and makes them take up greater space and going forth is the Cause that they close together and take up less Now Rarefaction is alwayes made by the entrance of a more subtile Body and Condensation by its going out This is seen in a very thick Vessel of Iron or Brass which being fill'd with hot Water or heated Air and being well stop'd if you set it into the cold it will condense what is contain'd therein which by that means must fill less space then before Now either there must be a Vacuum in the Vessel which Nature abhorreth or some subtile Body must enter into it which comes out of the Air or the Water which fills that space Which Body also must be more subtile then the Elements which cannot penetrate through the thickness of the Vessel There is also seen an Instance of this in the Sun-beams which penetrate the most solid Bodies if they be never so little diaphanous which yet are impenetrable by any Element how subtile soever And because a great part of the Hour design'd for Inventions was found to have slip'd away during the Reciprocation of other reasons brought for and against this opinion some curiosities were onely mention'd and the examination of them referr'd to the next Conference In which it was determin'd first to treat of the Air and then to debate that Question Whether it is expedient in a State to have Slaves CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves I. Of the Air. THe First said That he thought fit to step aside a little out of the ordinary way not so much to impugne the Maximes of the School as to clear them and that for this end he propros'd That the Air is not distinguish'd from the Water because they are chang'd one into the other For what else are those Vapours which are drawn up from the Water by the power of the Sun and those which arise in an Alembic or from boyling Water if we do not call them Air Now those Vapours are
the dead and into which they return But the most common and us'd throughout all Europe is Black which also was always worne by the Romans when they went into Mourning except during sixty years that they wore white The wearing of Mourning continu'd ten moneths at Rome the Athenians wore it but one moneth the Spartans no more but eleven dayes The reason why they have all chosen Black for denoting Sadness is because Black is the privation of White and proceedeth from the defect of Light so Death is the privation of Life and Light Possibly too the reason why the Cypress Tree was esteem'd a Funeral Tree was because the leaves were of a dark Green and the Nutts tincture Black and being cut it never puts forth again as also Beans were in regard of the blackness which appears in them and their flowers The Second said That Experience shews us sufficiently that the Black colour doth not onely put us in Mind of our griefs and sadnesses pass'd but also is apt excite new This is known to the Senses and unknown to Reason by a certain Divine Appointment which hath caus'd that what is manifest to the one is hidden to the other As appears for that nothing is so natural to the Sense of Seeing as Light and Colours But yet there is nothing in which our Mind sooner finds its weakness then in the enquiry into the Nature and properties of Colours and Light Now there are two sorts of blackness the one Internal when the Soul turning it self towards the Images upon report of which a judgement is made if that Image is Black and deform'd the Soul must conceive that the Objects represented by it are so also and thence ariseth horror and sadness the other external for the explicating of which I must crave leave to deflect a little from the ordinary opinion touching the Nature of Colours I affirm that Colour and Light are one and the same thing and differ onely in regard of the Subject so that the lustre of a simple Body is Light but the lustre of a mixt Body is call'd Colour By which account Light is the Colour of a simple Body and Colour is the Light of a mixt Body Whence Mixts approaching nearest to the simplicity of the Element predominant in them are all Luminous as precious stones which are a simple Earth and without mixture of other Element and rotten Wood which having lost the little Air and Fire it had its humidity also being absum'd by the putrefaction and there remaining nothing almost but Earth you see how it keeps its splendour amidst the darkness of the night And this in my conceit is the meaning of what Moses saith when he saith that God created the Light before the Sun For God having created the Elements in their natural purity they were sometimes in that state before mixture the Earth appeared not but the Water cover'd its whole Surface Every Element was in its own place and the purity of its Nature for which reason they had then their first Colour which is splendour But as soon as God had mingled them for the forming of Mixts their Light became clouded and chang'd into Colour And hence it was necessary to form a Sun in Heaven far from all sort of mixture and composition to the end he might alwayes preserve his Light and enlighten the world therewith The Fire preserves it self the most of all in its purity by reason of its great activity which consumes what ever approaches near it The other Elements would do so too if they could preserve themselves in their purity as well as the Fire But because they would be unprofitable should they remain such it is necessary that they be mingled one with another as well to serve for the production of Compounds as for their Aliment and several uses Hence their Light becomes chang'd into Colour which is nothing else but a Light extinguish'd more or less and accordingly we see some Colours more luminous then others The White is still wholly luminous the Red wholly resplendent the Green less and the Brown begins to grow dark Lastly the Black is nothing but Light wholly extinct and a kind of darkness and consequently hath nothing of reality but is a pure Privation which our Eyes perceive not As our Ear discerneth or perceiveth not silence but onely by not hearing any sound so neither doth the Sight behold Black and darkness but when it sees neither Colour nor Light So that to hear Silence and see darkness is to speak properly a vain attempt of the Soul which would fain exert its action of seeing and hearing and cannot Hence ariseth the sadness and terror which a deep silence and the sight of extreme blackness and darkness excites in the Soul For the Soul knows well that Life is nothing else but Exercise of its Faculties of which as soon as any thing is depriv'd there remains nothing to be expected but death She would fain exert her action and cannot she distinguishes not whether it be through default of the Object or whether her Faculty be lost but she finds a privation of her actions and represents to her self to be in the state of Death whence ariseth Sadness and Fear For as our Soul dreadeth nothing so much as Death so the least suspition the least sign and umbrage of Death is apt to put her into great dejection And this makes way for the Second Reason why the Soul becomes sad at the sight of a black Colour namely because it never appears in the Body but Death is at hand For this Colour is produc'd by the mortification and extinction of the Spirits as a Gangrene which is either caus'd by Adustion whereby Coals become black or by extreme coldness thus Old Men are of a leaden Colour tending to blackness Now the excess of heat and coldness is equally contrary to Life Wherefore as often as the Soul perceives blackness either in her own Body or in another she remembers the Qualities which produc'd it and are contrary to Life which she loves hence ariseth sadness And hence also it is that we naturally love a Countenance well proportion'd with an agreeable Colour wherein there is found a redness mingled with whiteness bright and lively with Spirits which is nothing else but an effect of the Love which our Soul bears to Life For knowing this to be the Colour of Health it affects the same even in another as on the other side it abhorreth Death Look upon a living Body it is full of brightness but a dead one is gloomy and dismal and at the instant that the Soul parts from the Body a dark shade seemes as it were to veil the Countenance Now that the Soul may understand it must become like to its Object Whence Aristotle said that the Intellect is potentially all things forasmuch as it can form it self into as many shapes as there are Objects So then it will perceive blackness it must become conformable to Black which it
hath found no sweeter Anodyne to the miseries and sadnesses of old people then the sight of children whom they extreamly love and then the memory of things done or learn'd in their non-age which the less distant it is from its source the Deity the more it partakes thereof The Fourth said Youth hath too many extravagancies to be accounted happy nor can Child-hood and Old-age deserve that title since 't would be contrary to the order of nature if the extreams contain'd more perfection then that which is in the middle where she hath establish'd the vertue of all things For as for Child-hood its weakness sufficiently shews that it hath not wherewith to content it self since it needs the help of others and is an object of pity a passion that never arises but from misery There 's no commendation in its innocence which depends upon impotence and the imperfection of the souls operations and they as much want the will and power to do well as the intention and means to do ill But true Innocence consists in the action of difficult good If Infancy hath no apprehension of the future it receives the present evil with much more pain and shews it self as sensible to the least displeasures as incapable of consolation and prudence to avoid them if it wants fear though indeed every thing terrifies it the hope of good to come never anticipates and prolongs its enjoyment In a word he cannot be happy who hath not the knowledge of his happiness which Children cannot have while they want the use of Reason which is peculiar to Man Old-age which is a second Childhood and the more to be dislik'd in that it always grows worse partakes all the defects of the first age and hath this besides that the desires awakened by the remembrance of pass'd conrentments are constantly jarring with his impotence and the ardency of getting and possessing hath a perpetual contract with the necessity of forsaking and losing pains and aches the forerunners of death daily attempt his patience and there 's no hope of other cure but the extremity of all evils not-being Infancy therefore is like the Spring which hath only flowers and expects the fruits afterwards 't is an age of hope without enjoyment Youth hath only Summer fruits of little lasting Old-age is a Winter without either flowers or fruits hath nothing but present evils in possession is to fear all and to lose all But Virility or Manhood holds the middle between them both and resembles Autumn denoted by the horn of Plenty possesses the happiness of life enjoys the present goods and by hope anticipates those to come the soul in this age commonly corresponds with the body its faculties make an agreeable symphonie with the actions hereof and the sweet union of a reciprocal complacency On the contrary in childhood the soul seems not yet well tun'd to the body in adolescence it always jars with the appetites of the Senses and in old age it altogether disagrees with it self and by a sudden departure endeavours to have its part separately CONFERENCE LX. I. Of Quintessence II. Which is the most in esteem Knowledge or Vertue I. Of Quintessence THe mind of man as it is the purer part of him so it is always pleas'd with that which is most pure In conversation it loves the most refin'd and prefers simplicity which is most pure above the windings and double-dealings of deceivers Amongst Metals it prefers Gold and Silver which are the purest above Lead Iron and other imperfect and course Minerals In food Physick and the stomack of the diseased chuse that which is most freed from its gross and unprofitable parts Among sounds the most subtile are the most charming Among artificial things we find more sprightliness in the gracefulness of small works then in others In the Sciences the more subtile a reason is the more 't is applauded But being health is the greatest yea the only true good being the foundation of all the rest and sickness the greatest yea the only real evil of our life therefore our minds have herein most sought after subtilety especially to subtilize aliments and medicaments not but that there may be a quintessence as well drawn from other things but it would not be so useful Now 't is to be observ'd that this word is taken either generally for any body depurated from its more course matter as Spirits Waters and Oyls excluding Magisteries which retain the intire substance of the bodies from whence they are taken only render'd more active by its subtilization or else it is taken properly and in this acception Quintessence is some thing different from all this and is compar'd to the soul which informs the body The Second said That in every compound body there is a mixture of substance besides that of qualities whence arise the occult properties and forms of things which is their fifth Essence 't is no Body for it takes not up place nor yet a Spirit since 't is found also in inanimate bodies but some thing of a middle nature between both and neither one nor the other Of which kind we want not examples in Nature Shadow the Image in a Glass yea all intentional species are neither body nor spirit Now that it takes not up place may be prov'd because a bottle of Wine expos'd unstop'd to the air is not diminish'd in its quantity yet lofes its taste smell and other qualities by which change it becomes another thing from what it was before an evidence that it hath lost its form which is nothing else but the Quintessence we speak of and should another body receive the same it would have the qualities the Wine lost which after separation of them is no more Wine then the carcase of a man is a man after his soul is departed Moreover that which nourishes in food is not a body but the form or quintessence of it since by the observation of the most Inquisitive 't is found that the excrements of all the concoctions equal the aliments both in weight and quantity as the Urine of Drunkards is commonly as much as the Wine they have drunk and Mineral waters are voided in the same quantity that they were taken This fifth Essence is found every where in the Elements and in compound bodies In those 't is the purest of the Element impregnated with the Universal Spirit in these 't is likewise the purest part of the compound animated by the same Spirit The Third said There is no other Quintessence but the Heaven in comparison of the Elements in the mixtion whereof the Heaven concurs as an universal Agent whose influence which is the soul of the World determining the matter informs and renders it active thus the Stars produce Metals even in the centre of the Earth Hence the world Heaven is taken by Chymists for Quintessence because of the simplicity and activity common both to the one and the other But because it cannot fall under the cognisance of
of the radical moisture of plants and animals For they alone are capable of dying as they are of living what they attribute to Fire the Load-stone and some other inanimates being purely Metaphorical Violent death is produc'd either by internal causes as diseases or by external 'T is caus'd by destroying the harmony of the parts and humours which constituted life after which destruction the Soul not finding the organs longer meet for exercising its functions as Fire that wants unctuous and combustible humidity forsakes its matter to retire into its own sphere And though the corruption of one be the generation of another there being no matter but hath alwayes some form as Bees are generated out of dead Oxen yet there is this distinction that the progress of a form less noble to one that is more is call'd generation or life as when an Egg is made a chick but when this progress is made from a more noble form to a less as from a man to a carcase then 't is call'd Corruption and Death if the form preceding were vital Thus all are wayes of Death which lead to corruption The first of these wayes is life for nothing comes under its Laws but is subject to those of Death considering the wayes that we dye as we are borne and that our end depends on our original as there is no harmony but must end in discord the latter note not being capable to accord with the first rest which is the end or death of harmony whereunto our life is not onely compar'd but may be fitly defin'd by it that Galen enlightned by Reason alone conceiv'd the Soul to be nothing else The Third said That onely in the death of men there is a separation of the Soul from the Body seeing that after the death of animals and plants there still remain faculties in their bodies which cannot depend on the sole mistion of the Elements but must be referr'd to some internal principle which can be no other then their Soul Yet with this difference that as during life these faculties were as formes in their matter so after death they are as substances in their place though without any activity for want of necessary dispositions which return afterwards by generation or the action of the celestial bodies producing wormes and other animals which come of themselves and never but from a nature formerly animated not receiving by this new generation any substantial form but onely making the Soul appear which was kept as 't were buried before this resuscitation Thus the death of plants and beasts is the privation of their vegetative and sensitive actions the principle of those actions alwayes remaining But that of men besides this privation of their actions causes the dissolution of the Soul from the Body which is properly death The inevitable necessity whereof is by Avicenna deriv'd from four chief causes I. From the Air which alters and dryes us II. From our own heat which by accident destroyes it self III. The continual motion of our bodies furthers the dissipation of that heat IV. The various Inclination of the Elements some of which are carry'd upwards others downwards and so break the union which preserves our life Albert the Great assignes a fifth cause namely the contrariety of forms and qualities death happening when humidity hath given place to drynesse But because this excesse of drynesse might be corrected by its contrary therefore the Moderns lay the fault upon the radical moisture Which some of them say we receive from our Parents and is continually impair'd without being at all recruited from the birth But this is absurd for then the Son must have infinitely lesse then his Father because he receives but a very small portion which besides cannot be distributed through a great body nor afford supply to so many actions Others more probably affirm that the Humidum which is repair'd is not of the same purity with that which we derive from the principles of our birth by reason of reaction and its being continually alter'd by our heat But that which indubitates this reason is that the Elements do not maintain themselves but by reaction notwithstanding which they cease not to be alwayes in the same state Fire as hot Air as moist as ever it was Inasmuch as the substantial forms expell all Qualities which are not suitable to themselves and recover their natural ones without other assistance Moreover when old men beget children they communicate to them an excellent radical humidity otherwise there would be no generation and consequently they can do as well for themselves as for their posterity But if they give them such as is bad and corrupt it follows that their children who live after their death re-produce much better by their nutrition then that which they had receiv'd and consequently the radical humidity may not onely be repair'd but meliorated And there 's no reason why an exact course of dyet may not keep a man from dying as the Chymists promise I had therefore rather say that as the union of the Soul with the Body is unknown to humane wit so is their disunion which I ascribe rather to the pleasure of the supreme Ruler who causes us to abide sentinel as long as he thinks meet then to any natural thing which is the reason why those that deprive themselves of life are justly punish'd because they dispose of what is not their own although it seemes to the vulgar that they do wrong to none but themselves because 't is by their own will and act The Fourth said What is compos'd of contraries between which there is continual action necessarily receives sundry changes and alterations in its being which by degrees bring it to a total corruption This is conspicuously seen in the life of man the ages and all other mutations whereof are as so many steps towards death 'T is the most worthy employment of a man to consider that he dyes every day For as Seneca saith that which deceives us is that we consider death as afar off whereas a great part of it is already pass'd for it already possesses all the time that we have been which is the cause that instead of employing our time profitably we consume a great part of it in doing nothing a greater part in doing ill and all in doing other things then ought to be which proceeds from not thinking often enough upon death as which no Preacher is so powerful For the fear it imprints in the soul vertue it self cannot wholly eradicate the sole aspect of the shades of the dead or their voices imprinting paleness upon the countenance of the most resolute Therefore the Philosopher holds that the fear of death is not only competible with courage but that he who fears it not at all rather deserves the name of mad then valiant The Fifth said That they who have had recourse to death to deliver themselves from their miseries as Brutus Cato his daughter Portia and some others have
And as gesture is more expressive then words so á contempt signifi'd by it touches more to the quick then any other because he that contemns us with a simple gesture accounts us unworthy of all the rest Now if this contempt be offer'd in the presence of those that honour us or by whom we desire to be valu'd and admir'd it excites our choler the more if it be truth which always displeases us when it tells our defects especially by the mouth of our enemy But none are so soon provok'd as they that are desirous of some good For then the least things incense because desire being of an absent good cannot subsist with the least present evil the object of anger because of their contrariety importuning the actions of the soul which is troubled in the pursute of good by the presence of evil Whence saith Aristotle there needs but a small matter to anger Lovers sick people indigent those that miscarry in their affairs and are excruciated with hunger or thirst 'T is therefore an error to say that choler is the cause of anger and 't is vain to purge this humour in order to remedy this passion since the cause is external not internal and is form'd first in the brain by the imagination of an injury receiv'd after which the Soul desirous of revenge stirs the motive power this the blood and spirits which cause all the disorders observ'd in angry persons The Fourth said That disorders caus'd by Anger are not to be wonder'd at since 't is compos'd of the most unruly passions love hatred grief pleasure hope and boldnesse For the source of anger is self-love we hate him that doth the injury we are troubled at the offence and receive contentment in the hope of being reveng'd and this hope gives boldnesse Now Anger is one of the most deform'd and monstrous passions so violent that it enervates not onely the contractive motion of the Heart by dilating it too much and sending forth the blood and spirits which cause an extraordinary heat and force in all the members and sometimes a Fever but also that of dilation by shutting it too much in case the grief for the evil present be great and there be hopes of revenging it The Countenance looks pale afterwards red the Eye sparkles the Voice trembles the Pulse beats with violence the Hair becomes stiff the Mouth foams the Teeth clash the Hand cannot hold the Mind is no longer in its own power but is besides it self for some time Anger not differing from Rage but in duration Which made a Philosopher tell his servant That he would chastise him were he not in Anger And the Emperor Theodosius commanded his Officers never to execute any by his command till after three dayes and the Philosophers Xenodorus to counsel Augustus not to execute any thing when he found himself in choler till after he had repeated softly the twenty four letters of the Greek Alphabet The truth is if this passion be not repress'd it transports a man so out of himself that he is incens'd not against men onely but even against beasts plants and inanimate things such was Ctesiphon who in great fury fell to kicking with a mule and Xerxes who scourg'd the Sea Yea it reduces men to such brutality that they fear not to lose themselves for ever so they may but be reveng'd of those that have offended them as Porphyrie and Tertullian did the former renouncing Christianity and the other embracing Montanus's Heresie to revenge themselves of some wrong which they conceiv'd they had receiv'd from the Catholicks And our damnable Duels caus'd by this passion have oftentimes to satisfie the revenge of one destroy'd two Body and Soul CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting I. Of Life THe more common a thing is the more difficult it is to speak well of it witnesse sensible objects the nature whereof is much in the dark to us although they alwayes present themselves to our senses Thus nothing is more easie then to discern what is alive from what is not and yet nothing is more difficult then to explicate the nature of Life well because 't is the union of a most perfect form with its matter into which the mind of man sees not a jot even that of accidents with their subject being unknown although it be not so difficult to conceive as the first Some have thought that the form which gives life is not substantial but onely accidental because all except the rational arise from the Elementary Qualities and accidents can produce nothing but accidents But they are mistaken since whereas nothing acts beyond its strength if those forms were accidents they could not be the causes of such marvellous and different effects as to make the fruits of the Vine Fig-tree c. and blood in Animals to attract retain concoct expell and exercise all the functions of the Soul which cannot proceed from heat alone or any other material quality Besides if the forms of animated bodies were accidents it will follow that substance which is compounded of Form as well as of Matter is made of accidents and consequently of that which is not substance contrary to the receiv'd Axiom Therefore Vital Forms are substances though incomplete whose original is Heaven the Author of Life and all sublunary actions The Second said That the Soul being the principle of Life according to the three sorts of Souls there are three sorts of Life namely the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational differing according to several sublimations of the matter For the actions of attracting and assimilating food and the others belonging to Plants being above those of stones and other inanimate things argue in them a principle of those actions which is the Vegetative Soul Those of moving perceiving imagining and remembring yet nobler then the former flow from the Sensitive Soul But because the actions of the Intellect and the Will are not onely above the matter but are not so much as in the matter as those of Plants and Animals being immanent and preserv'd by the same powers that produc'd them they acknowledge for their principle a form more noble then the rest which is the Rational Soul the life of which is more perfect And as the Plantal Life is the first and commonest so it gives the most infallible vital tokens which are nutrition growth and generation Now that all three be in all living bodies For Mushrooms live but propagate not as some things propagate yet are not alive so bulls blood buried in a dung-hill produces worms others are nourish'd but grow not as most Animals when they have attain'd their just stature yea not every thing that lives is nourish'd for House-leek continues a whole year in its verdure and vivacity being hung at the seeling Nor dos every thing grow alike for we see Dodder which resembles Epithymum clinging to a bunch of grapes or other fruit hanging in the Air grows prodigiously without drawing any nourishment from it
or elsewhere Whereby it appears that there is no Rule but has its exception since Nature which gives the same to all things oftentimes dispenses with her self The Third said The Soul is the act of an Organnical Body endu'd with Life and the principle of vegetation sense and motion according to Aristotle an Intellective or continual motion according to Plato a Number moving it And consequently Life is nothing but motion and a thing may be said to be alive when it is able to move it self by any kind of motion whether of generation or corruption accretion or diminution local motion or alteration For the most evident sign of Life is self-motion Whence we call such Living Waters which flow and those dead which stand still although improperly because this motion is extrinsical to them namely from their source and the declivity of the earth The Pythagoreans therefore believ'd the Heaven animated because it is mov'd according to all the differences of place and that this Animal is nourish'd with the Air which it draws out of the spaces which we call Imaginary Now as powers are known so they are distinguish'd by their actions So that the perfecter the motion is which denotes Life the perfecter the Life is Therefore as Oysters and other imperfect Animals endu'd with sense enjoy a nobler life then plants which onely vegetate so they are inferior to other perfect Animals which besides sense have progressive motion and these again the slower and more impedite their motion is the more they yield in dignity to others as the Snail to the Dog and Hare In brief these are lesse noble then Man whose Soul is mov'd after a more admirable manner and who hath the faculty of Understanding the most perfect of all which being found in God in a far higher degree beause it constitutes his whole essence being and Understanding being in him one and the same thing he hath the most perfect life of all Which is the cause why our Lord saith that he is the Life Moreover as the First Matter which is the lowest of all things that are if it may be said to be hath need iof all so the sublimest of all things God hath need of nothing but includes in himself all perfections the chiefest of which is Life which all Creatures enjoy onely by participation from him The Fourth said Life is a continual action of Heat upon humidity the periods whereof are distinguish'd by the several effects of this heat to wit the alterations of temper and diversity of ages For 't is Physically as well as Morally true which Job saith that our life is a warfare upon the earth since a thing is not accounted living unless so far as it acts Death being the privation of actions and there is no action but between contrary qualities of which heat and moisture are the foundation of life as cold and siccity are the concomitants of death old age which leads us thither being also cold and dry Hence they are the longest liv'd who have most heat as Males then Females terrestrial animals then Fish those which have blood then those which have not As also those that abound with this humidity live long provided it have the qualities requisite namely be fat aerious and not aqueous or excrementitious because otherwise it easily cools and congeals and by that means incongruous to life The Fifth said That heat being the most noble and active of all qualities executes all the functions of life when it meets with organs and dispositions sutable thereunto This heat must be in act and not only in power such as that of Lime and Pepper is And though it be not so sensible in plants yet it ceases not to be actually in them so long as they are alive and to digest and assimilate the aliments which it draws for them out of the earth ready prepar'd whence they have no excrements as animals have With whom nevertheless they have so great resemblance that Plato in his Timaeus saith that Plants are tanquam animala and Pythagoras conceiv'd them to be inform'd with the souls of some men who having liv'd in the world without exercising other actions then those of the vegetative life addicting themselves to nothing but to feed and generate are condemn'd to pass into the bodies of Plants as the souls of those who have lead a brutish life are relegated into those of Swine Tygres Lyons and other brutes whose manners they had imitated Empedocles and Anaxagoras as Aristotle reports attributed to Plants a perception of pain and pleasure Moreover they have not only their maladies old age and death as animals have but some too have differences of sex and local motion as 't is observ'd of certain Palmes which bend towards one another and of divers other Plants which recoil from those that are contrary to them and grow best neer others The Sixth said Life is nothing but the union of the soul with the body which requires a fitting temperature and conformation from whence afterwards proceed all actions and motions both internal and external Wherefore life is not an action of an action which is absurd but hath its own actions Nor is it the action of the soul for then the body could not be said to live But 't is the act of the soul in the body which being finite and terminated as heat its principal instrument is this is the cause that all living bodies have the terms or bounds of their quantity both as to greatness and smallness but bodies inanimate have not so because they acquire their quantity only by the approximation and apposition of their matter and not by receiving the same inwardly and because they have no organs which require a certain conformation and magnitude which they never exceed II. Of Fasting Upon the second Point it was said That there are many sorts of corporal Fasts not to speak of the spiritual which is abstinence from sin There is one of necessity and the most intolerable of all which made the ancient Poets declaim against Poverty saying that it was to be cast into the sea against the rocks and which made so few Cynicks in respect of so many other Sects of Philosophers Against which evil there is no other remedy but to make that voluntary which cannot be avoided There are fasts of thrift for the Covetous and others of Policy observ'd in many States to good purpose lest the Country be desolated of Cattle and would be should men eat egges and flesh in the beginning of the Spring when Fowls hatch and Beasts engender at which time the flesh of animals is unwholsome because they begin then to enter into heat There is a fast of Health ordain'd by Physitians to such as are full-bodied and abound with ill humours this is the best lik'd of all nothing being undertaken so willingly as for health whereunto moderate fasting greatly conduces as well to preserve it according to the Proverb that Gormandise hath slain more
others and the Apostle saith Widows in deed are worthy of double honour The Conjugal hath also made Penelope renown'd and hath for example the Etnaean fish of which the male and female never part The Second said Virgineal Chastity is not absolutely vertuous of it self having been practis'd by Pagans and Idolaters who devoted themselves to their false gods and being found in children newly born which cannot be said of vertues which are acquir'd by precepts and good manners not by nature Moreover it may be lost without sin as in Virgins violated or those that are married yea sometimes with merit as when Hosea the Prophet took a Harlot to wife by God's express command And being once lost it cannot be repair'd by repentance as other vertues may Whence S. Jerome writing to Eustochium saith that God who is able to do all things yet cannot restore virginity 'T is therefore commendable so far as it is referr'd to God in which case 't is a most admirable thing and the more because 't is above nature which by Marriage peoples the Earth but Virginity peoples Heaven where there shall be no marrying but we shall be as the Angels of God who being a pure Spirit loves purity above all things The Third said That Virginity is wholly contrary to the nature of man who desires nothing so much as immortality which being not attainable in his own person he seeks in his successors who are part of himself Yea it seems to have somewhat of insensibility the vicious excess of temperance since it wholly abstains from all pleasures some of which are lawful Therefore Plato sacrific'd to Nature as if to make her satisfaction for his having continu'd a virgin all his life and the Romans laid great fines upon such as would not marry as on the other side they granted immunities to those that brought children into the world whence remains at this day the right of three four and five children observ'd still amongst us those that have five children being exempted from Wardships Yea among the Jews it could not be without reproach since sterility was ignominious among them and was accounted the greatest curse Moreover Marriage not only supplies Labourers Artisans Souldiers and Citizens to the State but Kings and Princes to the People Prelates and Pastors to the Church and a Nursery to Paradise which would not be peopled with Virgins did not the married give them being Whence S. Austustin justly makes a Question Who merited most before God Abraham in Marriage or S. John Baptist in the Virgineal State The Fourth said That being things are term'd vertuous when they are according to right reason which requires that we make use of means proportionately to their end therefore Virginity is a vertue and the more sublime in that it is in order to the most excellent end namely the contemplation of Divine Mysteries For amongst the goods of men some are external as riches others of the body as health others of the soul amongst which those of the contemplative life are more excellent then those of the active As therefore 't is according to right reason that external goods are made subservient to those of the body and these to the goods of the soul so is the denying the pleasures of the body the better to intend the actions of the contemplative life as Virginity do's which freeing us from carnal thoughts affords us more convenience to mind the things of God and to be pure in body and spirit 'T is therefore the end which makes Virginity to be vertuous Whence those Roman Vestals and the Brachmans among the Indians who abstain'd wholly from Marriage nevertheless deserve the name of Virgins And Spurina mention'd by Valerius Maximus so chaste that perceiving himself as much lov'd by the Thuscan Ladies as he was hated by their Husbands disfigur'd his face with voluntary wounds had indeed some shadow but not the body of this vertue The invention of Gaila and Papa Daughters of Gisuphe Duke of Friuli was much more ingenious who at the sacking of their City beholding the chastity of their sex prostituted to the lust of the Souldiers fill'd their laps with stinking flesh whose bad smell kept those from them who would have attempted their honour The fifth said That the excellence of Virgineal Chastity is such that it hath no vitious excess for the more we abstain from pleasures the more pure we are And as it is blemish'd many wayes so it is preserv'd by many others Amongst which is first Employment or Business whence Cupid in Lucian excuses himself to his Mother that he could not wound Minerva because he never found her idle Modesty is also the Guardian of it as to appear seldome in publick whence the Hebrews call'd their Virgins Almach which signifies Recluses Moreover dishonest gestures words and looks are to be avoided And amongst corporeal means Abstinence and Maceration of the body are very effectual as amongst Aliments such as are cold as Nenuphar or Water-lilly call'd therefore Nymphaea and Lettice which the Pythagoreans for this reason Eunuch and under which upon the same account the Poets feign Venus to have hid Adonis As likewise the leaves of Willows bruised the ashes of Tamarisk and the flowers of Agnus Castus which is a sort of Ozier so call'd by the Greeks because the Athenian Ladies lay upon them during the festivals of Ceres to represse the ardour of Love whereof they say such are not sensible as have drunk wine wherein the fish nam'd Trigla is suffocated or who have eaten Rue But because these remedies are not infallible Origen took another course making himself actually an Eunuch for fear of losing that rare treasure of Virginity whose loss is both inestimable and irreparable CONFERENCE LXXII I. Of Thunder II. Which of all the Arts is the most necessary I. Of Thunder AS Water and Earth are the grossest of the Elements so they receive most sensibly the actions of the Celestial Bodies chiefly the Sun's heat which exhaling and drawing up their purer parts vapours from the Water and exhalations from the Earth forms meteors of them And as the cold and moist vapours make tempests dew and frost in the lower Region and in the middle clouds rain hail snow Exhalations if fat and unctuous cause Comets in the higher Region and in the lower the two Ignes Fatui if dry and subtile they make Earth-quakes in the bowels of the Earth in its surface winds and tempests in the middle Region of the Air Lightning Fulgur or the Thunder-bolts and Thunder For these three commonly follow and produce one another Lightning is the coruscation or flashing of the matter inflam'd And though produc'd by Thunder yet is sooner perceiv'd then the other heard because the Sight is quicker then the Hearing by reason its object the visible species are mov'd in an instant but sound successively because of the resistance of the Air its medium Thunder is the noise excited by the shock and shattering of the
the soul corporeal there would be a penetration of dimensions in its union with the body consequently 't is no Element nor any Compound of them as Empedocles and Plato phanci'd upon this ground that the soul being to judge of all things should therefore have all their principles and elements in it self Which is absurd for it knows divers things not compos'd of the Elements as the Angels and Heavens So that the soul must be concluded in the number of those things which 't is easier to affirm what they are not then what they are The Fifth said That the soul is a fire whose centre is Heaven and God the source who is call'd by the name of fire in the Holy Text. Hence life an effect of the soul is nothing else but heat and death cold Moreover as fire makes bodies lighter so living bodies are less heavy then dead And the Hebrews call man Isch from the word Esch fire as the Greeks do Phôs which signifies light which is a species of fire lucid but not ardent which light appears upon bodies whilst living and dis-aspears as soon as they are dead Now the different sorts of souls are produc'd of different lights Those of Plants are form'd of that of the air whence they have no sensible heat as the sensitive have which are generated of the Sun which also gives them local motion rational souls are beams diffus'd from God who inhabits light inaccessible And as waters ascend as high as their springs so the souls of Plants exalt themselves into the air whose mutations they follow those of Beasts return into the Sun and those of men are reflected towards God having this common with light that they perish not but return to the place of their nativity Agreeably whereunto Solomon saith That there is nothing new under the Sun since even the forms of things are not new but only appear in their turn one after another as when light forsakes our Hemisphere it no more perishes then shadow but they both make a continual circle which follows that of the Sun II. Of the Apparition of Spirits Upon the second Point it was said That the perfection of the Universe requires the existence of Intellectual Creatures such as Angels and Rational Souls A truth acknowledg'd by Aristotle who assigns nine Spirits subservient to the First Mover according to the number of heavens which they are to move although Mercurius Trismegistus acknowledges but two which hold the Arctick and Antarctick Poles Which Avicenna also denoted by his Chain of Intelligences Amongst these Spirits some are destinated for the preservation of men as Guardian Angels call'd by the Apostle ministring Spirits which were the Genii of the ancients by which they made their greatest Oathes Others have continual war with mankind as the Devils Others animate bodies as Rational Souls which after the bodies dissolution are happy or miserable according as they have done good or evil As for Angels and Demons History both sacred and prophane testifies their frequent apparition to men Daily experience proves the same of the souls of the dead though some question it But besides that 't is presumption to dis-believe all antiquity which tells us of a Ghost which spoke to Brutus one which shew'd a Sceleton in chains to Athenodorus the Philosopher and that of Cleonice which tormented Pausanias who had slain her as long as he liv'd as also the Ghost of Agrippina did her son Nero. The authority of Holy Scripture instructs us of the return of Samuel Moses and Elias and the same reason which makes the soul loath to part from its body argues it desirous to visit the same or the places and persons wherewith it was most delighted Nor is it more difficult to conceive how a separated soul can move it self then how it moves the body which it animates the one and the other being equally incomprehensible The Second said Spectres exist not saving in the Phancy those who think they see them conceding that they are not palpable nor beheld alike of all by standers and men being prone to acquiesce in their own imaginations though misguided by the passions of fear hope love desire especially children and women who are more susceptible of all impressions because their phancies are so weak as to be no less mov'd with its own fictions then real external representations by the Senses But strong minds are not subject to such delusions The Third said He is too sensual who believes nought but what he sees for according to this account nothing but accidents which alone fall under the cognizance of sense should be admitted So the Saduces and all Libertines deny spirits whilst they appeal only to Sense Although it be an universal Doctrine of all sober antiquity that there are spirits and that they appear oftentimes to men in cases of necessity wherewith according to Aristotle himself the souls of the dead friends are affected a manifest argument of the soul's immortality which he believ'd only by the light of nature As Apuleius reports the Platonists make three sorts of Spirits First Demons or Genii which are souls whilst they animate bodies Second Lares or Penates the souls of such as had liv'd well and after death were accounted tutelary gods of the houses which they had inhabited Third Lemures or Hobgoblins the souls of the wicked given to do mischief or folly after death as they did during their life Some others especially the Poets conceiv'd man compos'd of three parts Body Soul and Shadow which latter appeared after dissolution of the two former the body returning into its elements and the soul going either to Heaven or Hell as the shadow did into the Elysian fields from whence it had no liberty to return but only wander'd up and down so long as the body wanted burial The Fourth said We must distinguish between Vision and Apparition The former is when we think we behold a thing which afterwards comes accordingly to pass as it appear'd the latter is when some visible forms present themselves to us either waking or asleep and 't is of three sorts intellectual imaginary and corporeal The intellectual is when separated substances insinuate themselves into the mind without borrowing any external shape The imaginary is when they imprint some strange forms or species in the phancy and by this means make themselves known to us The corporeal is when they present themselves to our outward senses To omit the first which is rare and an image of the Beatifical Vision the imaginary apparition of souls is caus'd when Angels or Demons according to the quality of the souls pourtray in our phancy the species and signs of their countenance and personage which they had during life which appears sad cover'd with black whilst they yet indure the punishments of their sins but cheerful and in white habit when they are deliver'd from the same And although this apparition is imaginary yet 't is real too Thus Judas Maccabaeus knew Onias and
or triple The Second said That every thing that is mortal and corruptible is such in that it hath in it self some cause of this corruption All mortal bodies being compos'd of contrary ingredients have in themselves the principle of corruption from which as well simple bodies as the Elements and Heavens as Spirits and separate intelligences are free because a thing simple in its own nature cannot act upon it self by a destructive action though even those Spirits have but an arbitrary existence from their first cause on whom they depend But in the first sence and of their own nature they are absolutely incorruptible for were they corruptible then must some new substance be generated out of that which is corrupted which is absurd because they are simple and free from composition and consequently from corruption Now were reasonable Souls which are part of man who is compounded of matter and form again compounded of matter and form there would be a progression to infinity in causes which is contrary to natural reason Moreover nothing is corrupted but by its contrary and therefore that which hath no contrary is free from corruption But such is the rational soul which is so far from having any contrary that the most contrary things in Nature as habits and their privations being receiv'd in the Understanding are no longer opposites or enemies but friends and of the same nature whence the reason of contraries is alike and there is but one Science of them The Third said That such as a thing is such is its action A corporeal and material substance cannot produce an action which is not corporeal and an immaterial action owns no other principle but what is immaterial and incorruptible Hence the same reasons which prove the souls of brutes mortal because their operations exceed not the bounds of the body and tend onely to self-preservation and sensible good conclude also though by a contrary sense for the immortality of the rational soul whose operations are spiritual and abstracted from the body For nutrition concoction assimilation sense motion and other such actions being corporeal because terminated upon sensible and corporeal objects must consequently be produc'd by a faculty of the same nature corporeal and material But the reasonable soul besides those actions which are common to it with those of beasts hath some peculiar and much more sublime as by the Intellect to understand eternal truths to affirm deny suspend its judgement compare things together abstract them from matter time place and all other sensible accidents by the will to love and embrace vertue in spight of the contrary inclinations of the sensitive appetite to do good actions though difficult to avoid the evil which flatters the senses and the like which actions being above the body and material objects cannot be produc'd but by an immaterial and incorruptible substance such as the reasonable soul is Moreover since the soul can know all sorts of bodies it must consequently be exempt from all corporeal entity as the tongue to judge aright of sapours must have none and the eye to discern colours well The Fourth said That Nature which makes nothing in vain hath imprinted in every thing a desire of its end whereof it is capable as appears by induction of all created Beings Now the greatest desire of man is immortality whereunto he directs all his actions and intentions and therefore he must be capable of it But since he cannot accomplish this end in this life as all other things do it must be in another without which not only good men would be more unhappy then wicked but in general the condition of men would be worse then that of beasts if after having endur'd so many infelicities which brutes experience not the haven of our miseries were the annihilation of the noblest part of our selves Yea if the soul could not subsist without the body its supream good should be in this life and in the pleasures of the body and its chiefest misery in afflictions and the exercises of vertue which is absurd For whereas 't is commonly objected that the soul cannot exercise its noblest functions but by help of corporeal organs rightly dispos'd and that when it is separated from those organs it can act no longer and consequently shall exist no more action and subsistence being convertible this is to take that for granted which is in controversie namely that the soul cannot act without the organs of the body when it is separated from the same since it operates sometimes more perfectly when 't is freest from the senses as in Extasies burning Fevers in the night time and in old age The Fifth said As in Architecture the principal piece of a building is the Foundation so the most necessary of a Science is to lay good Principles without which first establish'd all our Sciences are but conjectures and our knowledge but opinion Now in order to judge whether the souls immortality be demonstrable by natural reasons 't is to be enquir'd whether we can find the principles of this truth whose terms being known may be naturally clear and granted by all The most ordinary are these 1. Every thing which is spiritual is incorruptible 2. That which is material is mortal 3. That which is immaterial is immortal 4. That which God will preserve eternally is immortal 5. A thing acts inasmuch as it exists and some other principles by which this so important verity seems but ill supported For the first is not absolutely true since habits of grace and natural habits which are spiritual are annihilated and corrupted those by sin these by intermission of the actions which produc'd them Then for the second 't is notoriously false since not only the forms of the Elements which are material and the Elements themselves consider'd according to their whole extent but also the first matter are incorruptible and eternal and according to the opinion of many Doctors of the Church 't is not an article of faith that the Angels are incorporeal although it be de fide that they are immortal to say nothing of igneous aerious demons and other corporeal genii of the Platonists As for the third the actions of the understanding and the will are immaterial and nevertheless perish as soon as they are conceiv'd and the intentional species are not incorruptible though not compos'd either of matter or form on the contrary the Heavens which are so compos'd are yet incorruptible Whereby it appears that immortality depends on something else As for the fourth 't is as difficult to prove that God will eternally preserve reasonable souls as that they are immortal And for the last 't is certain that many things act above their reach and the condition of their nature since that which exists not as the end nevertheless acts by exciting the efficient cause motion begets heat which it self hath not and light a corporeal quality is mov'd in an instant which is the property of incorporeal substances as also
necessary Page 431 CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earth-quake II. Of Envy Page 437 CONFERENCE LXXIV I. Whence comes trembling in men II. Of Navigation and Longitudes Page 441 CONFERENCE LXXV I. Of the Leprosie why it is not so common in this Age as formerly II. Of the ways to render a place populous Page 447 CONFERENCE LXXVI I. Of Madness II. Of Community of Goods Page 452 CONFERENCE LXXVII I. Of Sorcerers II. Of Erotick or Amorous Madness Page 457 CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man Page 461 CONFERENCE LXXIX I. What the Soul is II. Of the apparition of Spirits Page 466 CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination Page 471 CONFERENCE LXXXI I. Of Chiromancy II. Which is the noblest part of the Body Page 475 CONFERENCE LXXXII I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer Page 480 CONFERENCE LXXXIII I. Of Baths II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Page 485 CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences Page 489 CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews Page 495 CONFERENCE LXXXVI I. Of the Dog-days II. Of the Mechanicks Page 500 CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenious Man Page 505 CONFERENCE LXXXVIII I. Which is the best sect of Philosophers II. Whence comes the diversity of proper Names Page 512 CONFERENCE LXXXIX I. Of Genii II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable Page 517 CONFERENCE XC I. Of Hunting II. Which is to be preferr'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Page 522 CONFERENCE XCI I. Whether heat or cold be more tolerable II. Who are most happy in this World Wise Men or Fools Page 527 CONFERENCE XCII I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness II. Which is to be preferr'd the Contemplative Life or the Active Page 531 CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents Page 536 CONFERENCE XCIV I. Of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon II. Whether all Sciences may be profitably reduc'd to one Page 544 CONFERENCE XCV I. Of the diversity of Wits II. Of New-years Gifts Page 548 CONFERENCE XCVI I. Of Place II. Of Hieroglyphicks Page 554 CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Cravity II. Of Coat-Armour Page 559 CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing Page 566 CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs Page 571 CONFERENCE C I. Of the Green-sickness II. Of Hermaphrodites Page 575 THE First Conference I. Of Method II. Of Entity I. Of Method EVery one being seated in the great Hall of the Bureau Report was made That the Resolve of the last Conference was to Print the Matters which should be propos'd henceforward and the Disquisitions upon them which deserv'd it As also that for the bringing in of all the most excellent Subjects that are found in the Sciences and for the doing it orderly the Method requisite to be observ'd therein should this day be taken into consideration The practice of which Method was likewise thought fit to be begun upon the most Universal Subject which is Entity Wherefore every one was intreated to set cheerfully about opening the way in this so pleasant and profitable an Enterprize The first Speaker defin'd Method The succinct order of things which are to be handled in Arts and Sciences and said that it is of two sorts One of Composition which proceedeth from the Parts to the Whole and is observ'd in Speculative Disciplines The other of Resolution which descendeth from the whole to the parts and hath place in Practical disciplines He said also that hereunto might be added the Method of Definition which is a way of defining a thing first and then explicating the parts of its definition but it participateth of both the former The second said That besides those two general Methods there is a particular one which is observ'd when some particular Subject is handled according to which it behoveth to begin with the Name or Word Distinguish the same by its divers acceptations then give the Definition assign its Principles and Causes deduce its Proprieties and end with its Species or Parts After this some dilated upon the Method of Cabalists which they begin with the Archetypal World or Divine Idea thence descend to the World Intellectual or Intelligences and lastly to the Elementary which is Physicks or Natural Philosophy That of Raymond Lullie follow'd next And here the Difference of humane judgements came to be wonder'd at Most other Nations could never fancy this Art which he calls Great and Wonderful and yet the Spaniards profess it publickly at Majorca in a manner ingrossing it from all other places He maketh the same to consist in thirteen Parts The first of which he calleth the Alphabet from B to K to each of whose Letters he assigneth 1. a Transcendent after his mode 2. a Comparison 3. a Question 4. a Substance 5. a Virtue and 6. a Vice as to B 1. Goodness 2. Difference 3. Whether a thing is 4. Deity 5. Justice 6. Covetousness To C 1. Greatness 2. Agreement 3. What it is 4. Angel 5. Prudence 6. Gluttony and so of the rest The Second Part containes 4. Figures The Third Definitions Then follow Rules Tables containing the several combinations of Letters The Evacuation Multiplication and mixture of Figures The 9. Subjects The Application The Questions The custome and manner of teaching which I should deduce more largely unto you but that they require at least a whole Conference In brief such it is that he promiseth his disciples that they shall be thereby enabled to answer ex tempore yet pertinently to all questions propounded unto them The fifth said That there was no need of recurring to other means then those of the Ordinary Philosophy which maketh two sorts of Order namely one of Invention and another of Disposition or Doctrine which latter is the same thing with the Method above defined And as for the Order of Invention it is observed when some Science is invented in which we proceed from Singulars to Universals As after many experiences that the Earth interpos'd between the Sun and the Moon caus'd a Lunar Eclipse this Vniversal Conclusion hath been framed That every Lunar Eclipse is made by the interposition of the Earth between the Sun and the Moon An other alledg'd that Method might well be call'd a Fourth Operation of the Mind For the First is the bare knowledge of things without affirmation or negation The Second is a Connexion of those naked Notices
must be such Now the Matter is not contrary to the Form Therefore Privation must That every Cause is not an Element is clear by the Final and the Efficient both of them being extrinsical to the Thing And nevertheless an Element is the least part of the Thing in which it is in Act or in Power It is also manifest that an Element is not a Principle for it is compounded and corporeal which a Principle is not Particular Principles are as various as there are several things in the world So the Principle of Divinity is the Faith Of Physick to preserve the Man and destroy the disease Of Law that which is according to Nature Reason and Custome The Principle of Understanding is Natural Evidence those of Oeconomy lawful acquisition and use of Goods Of Politicks Policy Prudence applyed to right Government Of Prudence that which is expedient to do or avoid The Principles of Mathematicks are its Axiomes As if of two equal tfiings you take away from one as much as from the other the remainder shall be equal The Principles of History are Experience and Humane Faith Of other Arts and Disciplines their Rules and Precepts The Principles of Man as Man are the Body and the Soul as a mixt Substance the Four Elements as a Natural the Liver as Vital the Heart as an Animal or Sensitive the Brain as Reasonable the Intellect The Principles of an Argument are the Major and the Minor The End is the Principle of rational Actions as the Matter in things Natural and the Idea in Artificial II. Of the End of all Things The Second Hour was imploy'd in discourse touching the End concerning which it was said First that End may be taken as many wayes as Beginning Improperly for the corruption of some thing therefore saith Aristotle Death is not an End but a terme Properly 't is the Good whereunto all things tend and 't is either first as to make a medicine or last as to cure Things which can tend to this End are divided into four Classes Some are furnish'd with Reason but not with Sense as the Angels or Intelligences Others have Reason and Sense as Man Others have Sense without Reason as Brutes Others have neither Sense nor Reason as all the rest of the Creatures Onely the two former Agents namely Angel and Man act formally for some End because they alone have the four conditions requisite for so doing viz. 1. Knowledge of the End 2. Knowledge of the Means which conduce thereunto 3. A Will to attain it And 4. Election or Choice of those Means Others act indeed for it but improperly as the Spider and the Swallow though they frame onely by a natural Instinct the one its Web the other its Neast yet attain their End and the Stone is carried by its own weight to its Centre which is its Good but without the above-mention'd conditions The Second went about to prove that some of those Animals which we account void of Reason Act formally for their End For said he not to mention the Elephant recorded by Plutarch who divided his Oates in his Master's presence as to shew him that he had but half his allowance usually given him or that other who carried his Kettle to the River and fill'd it with water to try whether it had not a hole in it Nor the Ox who never went beyond the number of buckets of water which he was wont to draw Nor the Fox which layes his Ear to the Ice to listen whether the water moves still underneath before he trust himself upon it Nor the Hart of Crete which runs to the Dittany and as they say with that herb draws the Arrow out of his flesh Is it not for the good of its young that the Swallow distills into their Eyes the juice of Celandine with which she recovers their sight From whence Men have learnt to make use of that herb against the filme of the Eye Have we not Horses which let themselves blood Ha's not the Dog election of all the wayes whereof he chooses onely that which his Master went who with all the goodly prerogatives that he ascribes to himself above him cannot do so much as his Dog And though the Example be familiar do we not see Domestick Animals whom the Apprehension of beating keeps often from doing the mischief to which their natural inclination leads them Which is not onely to know an End but amongst many to choose the best The Third reply'd That these Examples evidence the dexterity of Man's wit who knows how to apply them to his own purposes But in reality it belongs not to a Brute what ever advantage it may get by commerce with Man to know its End as an End Because the End is that which measures the Means a Mean Medium being not the better for that it is greater but for that it is fitter proportion'd to its End So when Hippocrates cures the Cramp with cold water the Cure is not less excellent then if he did it with potable Gold Now this Comparing and Measuring is a work of the Understanding The Fourth said As all other Lights disappear at the Sun 's so all the other Ends must give place to the Last which is the Supreme Good or Felicity Which being either Natural or Supernatural and this latter inexpressible It seems that the present Exercise ought to terminate in the former namely Natural Felicity This Beatitude in what ever thing it is found for Saint Augustine reckons above eight hundred Opinions about it and yet more may be added to the number consists in the most excellent Action of Man which cannot depend but upon the noblest Faculties the Understanding and the Will The Action of the former is to Vnderstand That of the Latter is to Will The Felicity then of Man consists in Vnderstanding well and in Willing well or Loving For the pleasure of Enjoyment is but the relishing of this Felicity not the Felicity it self as some have thought with Epicurus who is to be blam'd onely in this regard For it is neither true nor credible that a Philosopher could so much forget himself as the vulgar imputes to him to place the Supreme Good in Pleasures even the foulest and grossest The Fifth maintain'd That it was unprofitable to speak of a Thing which is not Meaning that pretended worldly Felicity which Men onely fancy and to that Induction which Solomon makes of all the things in which Men seek their contentment in vain he added Authorities holy and profane to shew that there is nothing happy on all sides and that Solon had reason to say That Felicity is not to be found in this Life The Sixth reply'd That what is said of the Miseries of this corruptible Life compar'd with the beatitude of the other eternal ought not to be confounded and taken absolutely That the contentments of the one cannot be too much vilifi'd in respect to the ravishments of the other of which the Pagans
after The Fourth reply'd That this Motion seemed to him impossible to find not for its being unprofitable for it would be one of the greatest helps that Art could afford Man to ease him in his labours but because there is in all Arts some thing of impossibility as the Quadrature of the Circle in Geometry in Rhetorick the perfect Orator the Philosophers Stone in Chymistry the Common-wealth of Plato in Polity and in the Mechanicks Perpetual Motion And whereas it is said that a less weight or less strength can lift up a greater this is to be understood in more time So that what is gotten in strength is lost in time which comes all to one For Example one Man or one hundred weight shall raise as high in one hour as much weight as four Men or 400. weights shall raise in a quarter of an hour by any Mechanick Invention whatsoever The Last Hour was imployed in the mentioning of some Engines which had some likelihood of moving themselves endlesly And amongst others it was propos'd That a Wind-mill having a large wing which the wind should alwayes drive behind as it doth weather-cocks and by that means alwayes present its four ordinary sails to the wind might lift up so weighty a burthen whilst the wind blows that the same burden coming to descend while the wind ceaseth would cause a Motion of Continual Duration Which also may be more easily practis'd in a Perpetual Fountain by help of a Great Reservor which should be fill'd by help of the wind and be emptying it self all the time that it bloweth not One Demanded Whence it cometh that some are inclin'd to Mechanicks others onely to Contemplation and Literature It was answer'd that this proceeds from the Resemblance which their Mind hath with the Things which they affect The time being past for this Conference this Question afforded the Subject to the next for the first point concerning Resemblance and chiefly that of kinred one to another And for the Second Whether Letters ought to be joyn'd with Armes CONFERENCE V. I. Of Resemblance II. Whether it behoveth to joyn Armes to Letters I. Of Resemblance UPon the First It was said That there are Three Sorts of Resemblance viz. Of Species of Sex and of Aspect The Resemblance of Species comes from the Univocal Cause determined to produce an Effect like to it self That of Sex comes from the Predominancy either of the Masculine or Feminine Geniture or from the weakness of both The End of Nature being alwayes to make a perfect work viz. a Male to which if she cannot attain she maketh a Female The Resemblance of Aspect or individual which is that we are speaking of comes from the Formative Virtue inherent in the Geniture which being like a Quintessence or Extract not onely of all the parts which contribute to its Generation but also of the Spirits which accompany move and inform it in some manner it is not to be wonder'd if what is produc'd thereof bear their image and likeness as the Visible Species representeth the luminous or coloured Thing from whence it proceedeth To which if the Imagination also concur it sends still to the Faetus more Spirits then there were before which being the Principal Artificers in Formation imprint a shape or figure upon it like the Body from whence they streamed and of which themselves partake in some sort As the Water which issueth out of Pipes though it spout far retaineth the form thereof The strength of which Imagination is too great to doubt of being such as it is able to change the colour of a Child and to cause some to be born all hairy by the sight of the like Objects Of which the marks which are imprinted on the Bodies of Infants in the womb of their Mothers through some such Imagination are sufficient proofs and that in Brutes too The Second said That indeed this is an Effect of the Imagination seeing Galen having caus'd the picture of a white Child to be hang'd at the beds-feet of a Moor-Lady she brought forth a Child of the same colour And besides the Example of Lahan's sheep which brought forth streaked young by reason of the Rods of that colour plac'd in their drinking-troughs Experience of Hens who bring forth white Chickens if they be cover'd with Linnen while they brood verifieth the same The way that that Faculty produceth such an Effect is thus The Animal Spirits which reside in the Brain slide thence into the whole Body but especially into the Matrice by reason of the near Sympathy which is between them by the Nerves of the Sixth Conjugation which unite them and render Women subject to so many several accidents whereof the field of Nature is too fertile The Spirits then imprinting their qualities into that solid part it serves as a mould for the forming of the tender Embryo Which is not to be understood of Simple Imagination but of those upon which the Mind maketh a vehement and constant reflexion The Third said That if the Imagination contributed any Thing to the Resemblance we should see no unhandsome Children For could a Man beget what he would he would alwayes make it resemble some fair Idea in his Imagination Besides this Faculty can have no influence saving at the moment of the Act or during the bearing Not in the former for nothing acts upon that which is not Now the Parts exist not yet during that Act. Not the latter for the parts are then already form'd It will then be demanded in what time of the bearing this Imagination hath power If it be said in the former part it is held that the parts expos'd to our view are not then form'd and yet 't is in those that Resemblance is observ'd But in those first dayes onely the Principal pars viz. The Liver the Heart and the Brain are form'd If you will have it to be in the latter dayes the Soul being by that time introduc'd which is its true form and imprints upon the body the traces of the Inclinations it cannot thence forward be susceptible of alterations by a meer fancy Now that the manners of the Soul follow the External Form of the Body appears by Physiogmony wholly founded upon that Principle The Fourth argued that the Geniture is the superfluous aliment of the Third Concoction which proceeding from all the parts of the Body retaines the Characters of the same and imprints them upon the Body of the Embryo And hence come hereditary diseases as also the usual Resemblance of Twins And such is the Law of Nature that Children resemble their Fathers and Mothers just as Plants do the Plants which produce them As for the unlikness it comes usually from the diversity of the Genitures of Father and Mother which make a Third Temperament as of the colours yellow and blew mingled together is made a green The Fifth attributed the Cause to the divers Constellations because seeing all the alterations which happen here below cannot said he
proceed but from Heaven or the Elements there is no probability in attributing them to these latter otherwise they would be both Agents and Patients together And besides if the Elements were the Efficient Cause of the Mutations which come to pass in Nature there would be nothing regular by reason of their continual Generation and Corruption Wherefore 't is to the Heavens that it ought to be ascrib'd And as the same Letters put together in the same order make alwayes the same word So as often as the principal Planets meet in the same Aspect and the same Coelestial Configuration the Men that are born under such Constellations are found alike Nor is it material to say though 't is true that the Heavenly Bodies are never twice in the same scituation because if this should happen it would not be Resemblance longer but Identity such as Plato promised in his great Revolution after six and forty thousand years Besides there is no one so like to another but there is alwayes found more difference then conformity The Sixth affirm'd That the same Cause which produceth the likeness of Bodies is also that which rendreth the inclinations of Souls alike seeing the one is the Index of the other Thus we see oftimes the manners of Children so expresly imitate those of their Parents of both Sexes that the same may be more rightfully alledged for an Argument of their Legitimacy then the External Resemblance alone which consists onely in colour and figure This makes it doubtful whether we may attribute that Resemblance to the Formative Virtue Otherwise being connex'd as they are it would be to assign an Immaterial Effect as all the operations of the Rational Soul are to a Material Cause The Seventh ascrib'd it to the sole vigour or weakness of the Formative Virtue which is nothing else but the Spirits inherent in the Geniture and constituting the more pure part of it The rest serving those Spirits for Matter upon which they act for the organizing it and framing a Body thereof Now every Individual proposing to himself to make his like he arrives to his End when the Matter is suted and possess'd with an Active Virtue sufficiently vigorous and then this likeness will be not onely according to the Specifical Nature and the Essence but also according to the Individual Nature and the Accidents which accompany the same This seems perhaps manifest enough in that First Degree of Children to Fathers but the difficulty is not small how a later Son that hath no Features of his Fathers Countenance comes to resemble his Grand-father or Great Grand-father The Cause in my Judgement may be assign'd thus Though the Geniture of the Ancestor was provided with sufficient Spirits to form a Son like himself yet it met with a Feminine Geniture abounding with qualities contrary to its own which infring'd its formative vertue and check'd the Action thereof hindring the Exuberance of its Spirits from attaining to frame such lineaments of the Countenance as Nature intended or else it met with a Matrice out of due temper by some casual cold though otherwise both the Genitures were laudably elaborated For when those Spirits or Formative Virtue become chil'd and num'd they shrink and retire into their mass as he that is cold to his bed and wanting heat in which their Activity consists they remain in a manner buried and without Action in reference to this Resemblance And nevertheless there is left enough to make a Male like to the Father as to the species This Son thus form'd comes to Age to Generate and meeting with a Feminine Geniture proportion'd to his own in vigour and strength and a Matrice proper to receive them those Spirits of his Father which till then lay dormant are awaken'd to Action and concurring from all parts of the Body suddenly impregnate the Geniture of the Immediate Father having by their long residence in the corporeal mass been recruited refined and elaborated And as old Wine surpasseth new in strength and vigour of Spirits because it hath less Phlegme so those Spirits of the Grand-father having digested all the superfluous Phlegm wherewith those of the Father abound are more strong then they and win possession in the Geniture for the forming and organizing of it according to the shape of the Body from whence they first issued The Eighth said That he was very backward to believe that any Thing of our Great Grand-fathers remaineth in us seeing it is doubted upon probable grounds whether there remaineth in our Old Age any thing of our Child-hood and that the Body of Man by the continual deperdition of its Three-fold Substance Spirits Humours and solid parts is like the ship Argo which by the successive addition of new matter was the same and not the same That he conceiv'd not yet how the Geniture can proceed from all the parts seeing Anatomy teacheth us that the Spermatick Veines derive it immediately from the Trunk of the Hollow Vein Vena Cava and the Emulgent and the Arteries from the great Artery Aorta conveying it to be elaborated in the Glandules call'd Prostatae from whence it is set on work by Nature The solid Parts can have no Influence upon it for what humour or juice is brought to them for their nourishment goeth not away naturally but by sweat insensible transpiration and the production of hair The Spirits are too subtle and dissipable to preserve in themselves a Character and imprint the same upon any Subject That Resemblance in my Judgement proceedeth from the natural heat which elaborateth and delineateth the Body of the Geniture and by it the Embryo First with the general Idea of its species and then with the accidents which it hath and which it borroweth from the Matrice from the menstruous blood and the other Circumstances requisite to Generation and when chance pleaseth there is found a likeness to the Father Mother or others Which Circumstances being alike in the Formation of Twinns cause them to resemble one another unless when the Particles of the Geniture which is sufficient for two are of unlike Natures and are unequally sever'd by the natural heat So that for Example the milder and more temperate Particles are shar'd on one side and on the other the more rough and bilious As it hapned in Jacob and Esau the former of whom was of a sweet and the other of a savage humour and then Bodies as different as their Manners One the contrary many resemble one another in Countenance who are nothing at all related as Augustus and that young Man who being ask'd by the Emperour whether his Mother had never been at Rome answer'd No but his Father had And the true and false Martin Guerre who put a Parliament their Wife and all their kinred to a hard task to distinguish them II. Whether Letters ought to be joyned with Armes The Second Hour design'd for treating of the Conjunction of Armes and Letters began with this discourse That Armes seem not
as big which greatness seemes to proceed from an Oedema or Inflation occasion'd by the posture of his head which is alwayes pendulous and supine and this defluxion of humours joyn'd with his Brother's negligence hath caus'd some sores upon him He hath the countenance of a Man but a most dreadful one by the disproportion of all its parts He is deaf blind dumb having great teeth in his mouth by which he casts forth spittle and breathes very strongly rather then by the nose which is close stop'd within His mouth is otherwise useless having never drunk nor eaten nor hath he any place for evacuation of excrements His eyes are alwayes shut and there appears no pupil in them He hath but one thigh one leg and one foot extremely ill shap'd and not reaching to the knee of the other But he hath two armes very lean and disproportionate to the rest of the body and at the end of each of them instead of hands a thumb and two fingers very deformed too At the bottome of his belly there is a little membranous appendix without a passage His pulse is manifest in either arm as also the beating of his heart though the external figure of his breast and the divarication of his jugular veines have very little of the ordinary structure and situation Whereby it appears that each of them hath a brain heart and lungs distinct but they have both but one liver one stomack and one set of Intestines For one of them sleepes sometimes while the other is awake one hath been sick while the other hath been in health The greater hath been blooded above twenty times in three grievous diseases but no Physitian hath ventur'd to purge him lest the purgative medicament passing through those unusual windings should produce unusual effects to his prejudice He lives after the common manner exercising all his rational vital and natural faculties in perfection And they who have been to see him in this City as almost every one runs to see this Wonder of Nature may judge of his management and conduct of his affairs Yet the negligence of the greater in supporting the less and holding him in a convenient posture is not to be pass'd over without notice for though he breathes as I said above yet he alwayes keeps his head cover'd with a double linnen cloth and his cloak and although by his great weight he continually stretches the skin of his belly yet he endeavours not to ease either his Brother or himself Yea the custome of carrying this load hath render'd it so light to him that he performes all ordinary exercises and playes at Tennis like another Man All which consider'd it seemes this Monster is one of the most notable Errours of Nature that hath appear'd in this Age and perhaps in any preceding Besides the causes alledg'd above some extraordinary conjunction of the Stars happening at the time of his conception may have had some influence in this irregular production Moreover it appears that the less draweth nourishment from the greater by the Anastomosis or Insertion of his Vessels with those of his Brother as the Child sucks the Maternal Blood by the Vmbilical Vein there being in both but one principle of sanguification But it is otherwise as to Life Motion and Feeling which being distinct in them cannot proceed from one and the same principle The Fourth said That it may be doubted whether this be a Monster or no their union being not sufficient for that denomination For we frequently see two trees grow together in the middle and otherwise separate Nor is the deficiency of parts in the one any more monstrous then if one single man should be born without Armes and Legs Moreover he inherited the same from his Father which doth not come to pass in Monsters The Fifth said That according to Plato the case is the same with Nature as with Virtue All that exceeds their ordinary rules is called monstrous As deformity of the Mind is Vice so is also that of Nature That the cause of this instance is like that of an Egg with a double yelk out of which the pellicles being broken that separated them are produc'd two Chickens joyn'd together or else one with four wings four feet or other such irregularities So these Twins having been divided in the Womb at the place where they co-here either by the acrimony of humours or some other violent cause Nature which loves nothing so much as Union forthwith assembled its spirits and humours to unite that which was separated Which design of Nature is apparent in the cure of wounds and burnes the fingers and other parts uniting together one to the other contrary to its first intention the figure and use of the same parts But the difficulty is whether there be two Souls in these two Bodies For my part considering that they have two Brains wherein the Soul is held to reside and the external humane shape they may be rightly call'd two Men who consequently have two Souls Now if that which is in the less doth not exercise its functions the reason is because the Organs are not fitly dispos'd and proportion'd no more then those of little Children Ideots and Mad men and through this Nature's having been hinder'd by the rebellion of the Matter to receive such dispositions from the Agents which are Heat and the Spirits which also being too languishing have not been able to impart to their subject all the degrees of necessary perfection The Sixth said That he compar'd the framing of this Monster to the Workmanship of a piece of Tapistry upon which two persons are imploy'd The more diligent of the two finishes his task first the more slothful finding all the material spent is constrain'd to leave his business imperfect and fasten it to the other as well as he can So the spirits being in too great abundance to attend the fabricating of one single Child undertook two and began each from the Head The more vigorous had done first and the other finding no more stuff made but half a Man who by reason of the continuity of the Matter became connected to the first Now whereas it may be said that the Definition of Monsters brought by the Civilians doth not appertain to it the answer is That the same thing may be a Monster Physically inasmuch as it deflecteth from the Laws of Nature as this doth though it be not one Politically in that it is capable to make a Will Inherit Contract and to do all other Actions civil The Hour of Inventions was spent in Replies and Comparisons of other Monsters particularly that of mention'd by Buchanan in the fifteenth Book of his History born in Northumberland with two heads four armes two breasts and onely two leggs It was instructed in Musick so that each head sung its part melodiously and discours'd together pertinently They dy'd one fifteen dayes before the other the latter by the putrefaction of his inseparable Companion At length
an Inter-regnum wherein Crimes are not punish'd with a conjuncture wherein no persons are rewarded this latter indeed will discontent those that have a good opinion of their own merit but the former will be so destructive that no Man can be secure of his Goods Honour or Life On the contrary phancy a State willing to reward all that do well it cannot be done by Honours but the same will be vilifi'd by their multitude nor by money without ruining some to enrich others Wherefore Reward is much less necessary then Punishment Which I affirm in behalf of truth and not in complyance with my particular opinion being no more void of Appetite then others but the experience of the ancient Greeks and Romans and of the Spaniards and Portugals the former of which had all the spoils of other Nations and the latter all the Gold discover'd in the Indies shews us that Reward doth not hinder discontents and revolts Yea it is found that the Reward given to one unless it be accounted just by all the world which is a rare thing contents less and for a less time him that receives it then it excites discontents in all others that cannot get as much Like a Mistress who for one favourite makes a thousand jealous and desperate Whereas the Punishment of one single person serves for an example and powerful lesson to all others Add hereunto that Reward being the sweetest when it is least expected good people who alone deserve it are forward to believe and to publish that they meant none at all CONFERENCE XIV I. Of the Seat of Folly II. Whether a Man or Woman be most inclin'd to Love I. Of the Seat of Folly HE that began upon the first point said That this Question is not unprofitable because it concernes the original and place of the greatest evil that can befall the more noble part of Man The decision of which will teach us to avoid the assaults of this Enemy the more easily when we know where it is lodg'd Nor is it new for the Abderites having sent for Hippocrates to cure Democritus of the Folly which they impertinently conceiv'd him guilty of sound him busier after this inquiry by the dissection of many Animals But it is very difficult to comprehend for a thing ought to be introduc'd into our Phancy that we may reason upon it and Folly is a perversion of that Ratiocination Now Folly is taken either relatively or absolutely In the first acception he that doth any thing contrary to the common opinion is call'd a fool So 't is proverbially said Chacun à sa marotte Every one hath his bable One is accounted foolish for being too much addicted to meddals another to Pictures Flowers or some such thing of more curiosity then benefit Yea one and the same person will sometimes say I am a great fool for having done this or that That which seemes Wisedom to one is oftentimes Folly to others Thus ought that to be understood which S. Paul saith The Wisedom of Men is Folly before God Absolute Folly is Absurdness consisting in the privation and depravation of the action of reasoning So that me-thinks it may be answer'd to the present Question touching the seat of Folly that the laesion or abolition of any action being in the same organ in which it is exercis'd well as blindness in that part wherewith we see the seat of Folly must be the same with that of Reason which is therefore to be inquired by us But because Ratiocination cannot injure it self for the Intellect useth no Corporeal Organ to understand but onely the Memory the Imagination and the Common Sense without which it cannot apprehend nor they without the Corporeal Organs which are in the Brain some have held that the Soul performeth not its reasoning with one single Organ but with many together Others have ventur'd to assign some particular place thereunto The former opinion is founded I. Upon the Maxime That the whole Soul is in the whole Body and the whole Soul is in every part and consequently she perform es her actions in the whole Body II. That 't is the temperature of the Humours which are throughout the whole Body that serves for an instrument to the Soul III. That the animal spirits are made of the natural and the vital and so all the parts together contribute to Ratiocination and not the Animal alone Consequently also the whole Body and not the Brain alone IV. That the Brain in other Animals is perfectly like in structure to that of Man having the same membranes and medullous substance the same sinuosities ventricles and veins yet he differs from a Beast in the whole form and figure and therefore must be consider'd intire and not in one part alone Lastly that as God is most eminently in Heaven yet acts no less upon Earth So Reason which is his image discovers it self best in the Brain yet ceaseth not to display it self in the Heart and other parts which are not moved and perform not most of their actions but by Reason and the Will which is subject to it The Second Opinion is That the Judgement is made in one of the four ventricles of the Brain which most account to be the third as the fourth is attributed to Memory and the two first or interior to the Imagination Whence it is that we scratch the hinder part of the head as if to chafe it when we would remember any thing that we lift up the head when we are about to imagine and hold it in a middle situation when we reason Which is further confirmed for that they are wounded or hurt in those places respectively have those faculties impaired or abolish'd Now to find the causes of such Laesion of the faculties we must consider what is necessary for the exercising of them Three things are so the Agent the Organ and the Object The Soul which is the Agent admitting neither magis nor minus no degrees being immortal and in no wise susceptible of alteration cannot be hurt The Brain which is the Organ being well or ill dispos'd either by distemper or ill conformation or solution of continuity may help or hinder the Memory and the Imagination The Object also may be fallacious and represent to us that which is not The Second said Folly comes either from the Nativity as some are born deaf and dumb or after the birth From the Nativity when the natural heat is deficient as in small heads which have too little quantity of Brain or those that are flat-headed or of some other bad figure containing less then the round and discomposing the Organs Or on the contrary in great heads which are said to have little Wit because the Spirits are too much dispers'd and humid as we see in Children After the Birth as it happens to decripet Old Men to such as live in a thick Air or through watchings fastings excessive afflictions diseases falls or blows especially if an Impostume
in the Tuilleries justifies him Yet Art finds a greater facility in this matter near Lakes Hills and Woods naturally dispos'd for such a re-percussion But which increases the wonder of the Echo is its reduplication which is multiply'd in some places seven times and more the reason whereof seemes to be the same with that of multiplication of Images in Mirrors For as there are Mirrors which not onely receive the species on their surface so plainly as our Eye beholds but cannot see the same in the Air though they are no less there then in the Mirror so there are some that cast forth the species into the Air so that stretching out your arm you see another arm as it were coming out of the Mirror to meet yours In like manner it is with the voice And as a second and a third Mirror rightly situated double and trebble the same species so other Angles and Concavities opposite to the first cause the voice to bound and by their sending it from one to another multiply it as many times as there are several Angles but indeed weaker in the end then in the beginning because all Reaction is less then the First Action CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred I. How Spirits act upon Bodies IT is requisite to understand the Nature of ordinary and sensible actions that we may judge of others as in all Sciences a known Term is laid down to serve for a rule to those which are inquir'd So Architects have a Level and a Square whereby to discern perpendicular Lines and Angles Now in Natural Actions between two Bodies there is an Agent a Patient a Contact either Physical or Mathematical or compounded of both a Proportion of Nature and Place and a Reaction Moreover Action is onely between Contraries so that Substances and Bodies having no contraries act not one against the other saving by their qualities Which nevertheless inhering in the subjects which support them cause Philosophers to say that Actions proceed from Supposita Now that which causeth the difficulty in the Question is not that which results from the Agent for the Spirit is not onely a perpetual Agent but also a pure Act nor that which proceedeth from the Patient for Matter which predominates in Bodies is of its own Nature purely Passive But 't is from the want of Contact For it seemeth not possible for a Physical Contact to be between any but two complete substances And if we speak of the Soul which informes the Body it is not complete because it hath an essence ordinated and relative to the Body If we speak of Angels or Daemons there is no proportion of Nature between them and Bodies and much less resemblance as to the manner of being in a place For Angels are in a place onely definitively and Bodies are circumscrib'd with the internal surface of their place How then can they act one upon the other Nor can there be reaction between them For Spirits cannot part from Bodies But on the other side since Action is onely between Contraries and Contraries are under the same next Genus and Substance is divided into Spiritual and Corporeal there ought to be no more true Action then between the Soul and the Body both Contraries not onely according to the acception of Divines who constantly oppose the Body to the Spirit and make them fight one with the other but speaking naturally it is evident that the proprieties of the one being diametrically opposite to those of the other cause a perpetual conflict with them which is the same that we call Action Contact is no more necessary between the Soul and the Body to infer their action then it is between the Iron and the Load-stone which attracts it What Proportion can be found greater then between Act and Power the Form and the Matter the Soul and the Body which are in the same place As for Reaction supposing it to be necessary whereof yet we see no effect in the Sun nor the other Coelestial Bodies which no Man will say suffer any thing from our Eye upon which nevertheless they act making themselves seen by us And Lovers are not wholly without reason when they say a subject makes them suffer remaining it self unmoveable It is certain that our Soul suffers little less then our Body as is seen in griefs and corporal maladies which alter the free functions of the Mind caus'd by the influence of the Soul upon the Body through Anger Fear Hope and the other Passions The Soul then acts upon the Body over which it is accustom'd to exercise Dominion from the time of our Formation in our Mothers womb it governs and inures it to obey in the same manner as a good Rider doth a Horse whom he hath manag'd from his youth and rides upon every day Their common contentment facilitates this obedience the instruments the Soul makes use of are the Spirits which are of a middle nature between it and the Body Not that I fancy them half spiritual and half corporeal as some would suppose but by reason they are of so subtile a Nature that they vanish together with the Soul So that the Arteries Ventricles and other parts which contain them are found wholly empty immediately after death The Second said That if we would judge aright what ways the Soul takes to act upon the Body we need onely seek what the Body takes to act upon the Soul For the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal to those from the circumference to the centre Now the course which it holds towards the Soul is thus The Objects imprint their species in the Organ of the outward Sense this carries the same to the Common Sense and this to the Phancy The Memory at the same time presents to the Judgement the fore-past Experiences which she hath kept in her Treasury The Judgement by comparing them with the knowledge newly arriv'd to it by its Phantasmes together with its natural habit of first principles draws from the same a conclusion which the Will approves as soon as Reason acquiesseth therein According to the same order the Will consignes the Phantasmes in the Memory and the Phancy this to the Common Sense and this to the Organs of the Senses For Example as soon as my Judgement hath approv'd the discourse which I make to you and my Will hath agreed thereunto she consign'd the species to my Memory that it might remember to reduce them into this order according to which my Memory distributed them to my Imagination this to my Common Sense this to the Nerves appointed for the Motion of my Tongue and the other Organs of Speech to recite the same and now into those of my hand to write them down to you The Third said That the clearing of the Question propounded depended upon two others First what link or union there may be between a Spiritual and a Corporeal thing Secondly supposing
that of the six sorts of Motion the Spirits can act onely by the Local how they can touch a Body to remove it locally since there is no Contact but between Bodies To the first I answer that there is no need of union such as that which joynes the Soul to the Body for joyning the Act with its true Power if there be any in us it must be that which we see is necessary for the communion of Action For when Actions cannot be exercis'd but by two parties of different Nature there is found an Union between those different Natures which is very natural and founded upon the necessity of such Action Wherefore I am so far from thinking the union of the Soul with the Body a strange thing that I should wonder more if there were none For the better understanding whereof it is to be observ'd that our Soul hath two sorts of Actions one peculiar to it self as to Will and to understand the other common with the Body as to See Hear Feel c. These latter are as much natural as the former And as if it were in a State in which it could not exercise the former that State would be violent to it and contrary to its Nature so it is equally troublesome to her while she cannot exercise the latter Since therefore it is a part of the Nature of the Soul to be able to exercise its functions it is consequently natural to it to be united to the Body seeing without such union it cannot exercise those functions Now I am no more solicitous to know what this union is then to understand what that is which unites one part of an essence with the other since the Body is in some manner the essence of the Soul making one suppositum and individual with it and the Soul hath not its Nature intire saving when it is united with the Body I pass to the Second and say that supposing two sorts of Contact one of a suppositum the other of Virtue the Spirits touch the Body which they move locally by a Contact of Virtue by impressing the force of their motive faculty upon the Body which they will move as my hand impresseth its motive virtue upon the ball which I fling which virtue though extrinsecal persists in the ball as long as it moves even when it is distant from my hand And although there is some disparity inasmuch as the hand and the ball are both corporeal which a Spirit and a Body are not yet since our Soul applyes its motive virtue to the Body which it animates it is probable there are many qualities common both to Spiritual and Corporeal Substances as is the power of acquiring habits And it is also likely that the power of moving from one place to another which is in a Spirit is not different in specie from that which is in a Horse although their Subjects differ If therefore the motive faculty of Bodies is that of the same species with that of Spirits why should we account it strange that that of a Spirit should be communicated to a Body The Fourth said That the Example of our Lord carried by the Devil to the top of a Mountain and of a pinnacle of a Temple shews sufficiently that Daemons can act upon Bodies and that all natural things falling under the cognisance of Sense are moveable in their activity yet not at once and in gross but one thing after another For an Angel not being an Informing Form ty'd and connected to any particular sensible Nature as the Rational Soul is but an Assisting Form that is an External Agent which moves and agitates it to pleasure it is indifferent and can determine to move what Body it pleases But sensible things are not subject to Spirits saving so far as Local Motion For the Devil acts either upon the Body or upon the Soul as it is in its Organs If upon the Body he either doth it alone or by the intervention of another Agent If the latter then there must be a Local Motion to apply the same to the Body upon which he causeth it to act for the tormenting or moving of it If he doth it by himself immediately and causeth pain in the parts it is either by solution of continuity or by distention of those parts or by compression of them All which is no more but dislocating them and moving them out of their right situation If he causes a Fever it is either by collecting the humours from all the parts For Example Choler which congregated together in too great quantity distempers the Body or else by restraining the perspiration of the fuliginous vapour which is the excrement of the third Concoction and being with-held within causeth the putrefaction of the humours and all this is local motion too By which also he produceth all the diseases which he is able to cause inspiring a putrid Air which like Leven sowers and corrupts the humours If he acts upon the Senses and the Passions he doth it either outwardly by some mutation of the Object or inwardly by some alteration of the Faculty If the former it is because by a Local Motion he formes a Body heaping together uniting and adjusting the materials necessary thereunto as the Air an aqueous vapour a terrene and unctuous exhalation and the heat of the Sun or some other which he employes artificially according to the experience which he hath acquired throughout so many Ages till he make them correspond to the Idea of the Body which he designes to form All the Actions of Men are perform'd in like manner by putting together conjoyning or retrenching or separating things In one word by apposition or separation If he acts internally upon the Faculty 't is either upon the Phancy or the Appetite or the External Sense Upon the Phancy either by compounding one Phantasm of many as it happens in sleeping or else by acting upon a single one to make it appear more handsome or ugly More handsome by the concourse of many pure clear refin'd Spirits which enliven and embellish that Phantasm as we see a thing appear more handsome in the Sun More ugly by the arrival of certain gloomy and dark Spirits which usually arise from the humour of Melancholy In the Appetite if he excites Love there 't is by the motion of dilatation expanding the Spirits and making them take up more room If Hatred or Sadness it is coarcting the same Spirits by compression He can also cause a subtile mutation in the outward Senses internally especially upon the sight As we see those that have a suffusion beginning imagine that they see Pismires and Flyes which others besides themselves behold not Moreover Melancholy persons often terrifi'd with various frightful representations the cause whereof is an humour extravasated between the Tunicles of the Eye under the Cornea before the Crystalline which disturbs the sight with various shapes by reason of its mobility as the Clouds appear to us of several figures
Thus and more easily can the Devil trasfer the humours and managing them at his pleasure make them put on what figure he will to cause delusion In fine all this is perform'd by the Local Motion of the parts humours or Spirits The Fifth said That the foundation of doubting is that there is requir'd proportion between the Agent and the Patient Which is prov'd because it is requisite that the patient which is in Power be determin'd by the form receiv'd and it seemeth that a spiritual thing cannot produce a form that may determine a material thing That it produceth nothing material is evident because the action and the product are of the same Nature Now the action of a Spiritual Entity cannot be material to speak naturally Yet it is certain that God acts in corporeal things though he is a pure Spirit But it may be answered That an Infinite Power is not oblig'd to the Rules of Creatures Besides that his Ubiquitary Presence sufficeth to impart Motion to all as also that he containing all things eminently is able to produce all things But if to contain eminently is to have a more perfect Being capable to do what the lesser cannot this is not satisfactory For the Question is How that more perfect Immaterial Being can produce that which Material Beings produce To which the saying that it is a more perfect Being doth not satisfie For then an Angel should be naturally able to produce all the perfections which are inferior to him which is absurd It followes therefore that the Cause must contain the Effect that it may be able to produce it and that since a spiritual Being doth not contain material things either those which we call Immaterial are not so at all or else God immediately produceth in them the effects which we attribute to them For I see not how immateriality is infer'd from immortality since there may be an incorruptible matter such as that of the Heavens is Which nevertheless is spoken rather to make way for some better thought then that I hold it as my own The Sixth said That there may be some Medium serving for the union between the Body and the Soul beside the Animal Vital and Natural Spirits to which Medium the many wonderful effects which we are constrain'd to ascribe to Occult Qualities ought to be referd'd For as they who know not that the Ring which Juglers make to skip upon a Table according to the motion of their fingers is fasten'd to them by the long Hair of a Woman attribute that Motion to the Devil So they who cannot comprehend the subtility of the Medium uniting not onely the Body with the Soul which informes it but also the other Spirits with the Body which they agitate find no proportion therein and are constrain'd to let experience cross their reason Now to understand the Nature of this uniting Medium I conceive is as difficult as to give an account of the Sympathies and Antipathies of things II. Which is more powerfull Love or Hatred Upon the Second Point the First said That Eâ—pedocles had reason to constitute Love and Hatred for the two Principles of Nature which though Aristotle endeavours to confute yet is he constrain'd to acknowledge the same thing though disguis'd under other words For when he saith that two of his Principles are contraries and enemies namely Form and Privation and nevertheless that they are united in one common Subject which is the Matter what is it else but to confess that all things are made and compos'd by the means of Love and Hatred They who own no other Principles but the Four Elements are of the same opinion when they say that all Mixt Bodies are made with a discording concord and a concording discord For as the Elements united together will never compose an Animal unless they be reduc'd to a just proportion and animated by rebatement of some little of the vigor of their active qualities so if there be no kind of War and Amity between them if the Hot act not against the Humid the Animal will never live since Life is nothing but the action of Heat upon Humidity However Amity hath something more noble and excites greater effects then Enmity For the former is the cause of the Generation and Preservation of Mixt Bodies and the latter of their dissolution and corruption Now it is much more noble to give and preserve Being then to destroy it Whence God himself found such perfection in his Creation and was so pleas'd with his Divine Work that though it frequently deserves by its crimes to be annihilated yet his Punishments have not hitherto proceeded so far This is no less true in Spiritual and Intellectual Substances then in Natural Gods Love hath more noble effects then his Hatred For to leave to Divines the consideration of that Love which had the power to draw the Second Person of the Trinity from Heaven with that which produces the Third as also to leave them to proclaim that God loves Good Actions and that the effect of this Love is Eternal Bliss that he hates Sins and that the effects of this hatred are the punishments of Hell that it is manifest that the glory of Paradise is much greater then of those Chastisements since what ever penalties God inflicts upon Man for his mis-deeds he renders Justice to him and do's not reduce him into a state inferior to or against his Nature but when he rewards with Eternal Glory he exalts our Nature infinitely higher then it could aspire let us consider Love and Hatred in Men and particularly as Passions according as the Question propounded seemes principally to be understood and no doubt Love will be found more violent then Hatred To judge the better whereof we must not consider them nakedly and simply as Love is nothing else but an inclination towards Good and Hatred an Aversion from Evil nor yet as such Good or Evil is present For in these two manners they have no violence nor any Motions since according to the receiv'd Maxime When the End is present all Motion and Action ceaseth But to know which of these two passions acts with most force and violence for the attaining of its end we must contemplate them with all the train and attendance of the other Passions which accompany them not as the one is an inclination to Good and the other an Aversion from Evil present For in this sense no doubt a Present Evil which causeth Grief is more sensible and violent then a Present Good which causeth Pleasure but as the one is a Desire of the Absent Good which is propos'd and the other a Flight from an Absent Evil which is fear'd I conceive the Passions excited by an Absent Evil have no great violence but rather partake of heaviness and stupidity as Fear and Sadness which render us rather unmoveable and insensible then active and violent in our Motions The Passions which lead towards an Absent Good are otherwise For
and imperfect and so is a second in Musick Three is the first Male and the first degree of perfection hence a Third is agreeable to the Ear. The Fourth is so likewise because it makes up the Ten. Add 1 2 3 and 4 and you have the grand Number of Ten the Father of all others Also a Fifth pleases the Ear wonderfully because it is an Abridgement of the grand Number and the marriage of the Male and the first Female The other Numbers are useless except the Eighth because Musitians call it Identity or Unity which is a Divine Number or rather no Number nor is the Eighth as delightful as it is accounted by Musitians amongst their Concords The Fourth said That the Reason why some Notes are agreeable and other unpleasing in Musick is because the former move the Faculty of the Soul after a manner sutable to it and the latter do not as we see an Example of it in Ballads and Dances where when the Violin or Minstrel hath sounded a braul which goes well to the cadence not onely the Members of the Dancers comply therewith and follow the same readily but also the Souls seemes to dance with the Bodies so great Sympathy have they with that Harmony But if on the contrary the power of the Soul be otherwise agitated at the same time that Harmony how regular soever will displease us Witness the displeasure taken at cheerful aires by those who are in Mourning to whom doleful notes better agree which on the other side are disagreeable to such as are merrily dispos'd Add hereunto the humour of the Phancy which hath an aversion to some sounds as well as to some smells For as for Discords janglings and other troublesome sounds no other cause of their general inacceptableness ought to be sought then that disproportion and deformity which is sound in things Natural and Artificial the former being more intollerable then the latter because the Eye is not struck with the visible species as the Ear is with sound and can turn away from the Object which displeaseth it which the Ear cannot and is clos'd with much more difficulty CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition I. Of the Original of Winds THere is more resemblance then one would imagine between these two poynts The Wind of the Air and that of Ambition to which the discontent of Men with their condition is commonly ascribed As for the First Some have held that all Wind even that which blows upon the Sea comes from the Earth and that the first conjecture which was entertain'd of the Region of the West Indies was taken from the Wind perceiv'd to come from that quarter But the History of Christopher Columbus attributing the discovery to Chance thereof cannot consist with that opinion There is no Meteor whose effects have more of Miracle which is defin'd An Effect whereof no Natural Cause is seen For even the Lightning is seen by the brightness of the fire which accompanies it But the effects of this aim at the highest things which it overthrows and you neither see the Agent nor understand it Yet the Sagacity of Humane Wit is admirable Sins have serv'd to clear Cases of Conscience Arsenick Sublimate and other poysons are converted by Physick into Cauteries and other profitable remedies The Civil Law hath by occasion of evil manners receiv'd addition of good Laws The Winds which drown Ships are so managed by the Art of Navigation which divides them first into four principal North East South West and then into eight by the addition of four half points and hath at length subdivided them into 32. that by their help Men sail upon the main Sea and provide forreign remedies for Physick Sugar and spices for Kitchins and employments for many other professions The Second said That though many causes may agitate the Air yet all of them are not sufficient to raise a Wind but the Air must be agitated by some Fume which is raised either from the Earth and is called an Exhalation or from the Water and is called a Vapour either of which partakes of the Nature of the Element from whence it proceeds A Vapour is moist an Exhalation dry An extrinsecal Heat which predominates in them gives them all their motions and makes them mount on high And because it is the property of Heat alwayes to move and act therefore these Fumes are so long in action as the Heat lasts They arise in company together and are carry'd upwards but are presently separated For the moisture of the Vapour quencheth the Heat which animated it so that the sole absence of the Sun or the occurse of the least Cold depriving the Vapour of the little Heat which was left in it and made it still ascend upwards it becomes more condens'd and falls down in Rain But an Exhalation hath a greater degree of Heat which is render'd more active by the driness and tenacity of the matter Therefore it ascends till it meets with the Air of the Middle Region which is thick and congeal'd by which being hinder'd â—o pass further it seeks a passage on one side or the other Many times when it strives to rise higher it becomes engag'd among Clouds which inclose it on all sides Being thus inclos'd and straitned it becomes united together and thereupon being inflam'd breaks the Clouds and causes Thunder or if it â—ind less resistance towards the Earth it descends with violence to the place from whence it arose and makes Whirl-winds But if such Exhalation have not time enough to mount as far as the Middle Region as it happens most frequently but as soon as it is drawn up be hinder'd and inclos'd by the Vapour turn'd into thick and cold Air in the Lower Region of the Air then Winds are produc'd in this manner This Exhalation being unable to mount upwards because the whole Region is full of thick Air which resists it it must go either on one side or other wherefore it tends that way where it meets least resistance And whereas there are certain seasons wherein the Air is sometimes less thick towards the South others wherein it is so towards the North and the other quarters of Heaven thence it is that the Winds blow there most usually Moreover the reason why the Wind hath a kind of whistling is because the Exhalation clasheth with violence against that thick Air. Hence also it is that Winds are more ordinary in the Night and about Evening because in those times the Vapour looseth its Heat through the Suns absence and so being become a thick Air better incloseth the Exhalation and resisteth the same with more force But as the Air which issueth out of our Lungs is hot yet if it be sent forth with some little violence it becometh cold So though the Exhalation which causeth Wind be never without Heat yet we never feel the Wind hot Not that the Air loseth its Heat by motion
that evil is the cause that we are never contented therewith I add further If it were possible to heap all the goods of the world into one condition and all kind of evils were banish'd from the same yet could it not fill the Appetite of our Soul which being capable of an infinite Good if she receive any thing below infinite she is not fill'd nor contented therewith Nevertheless this dissatisfaction doth not proceed from the infirmity and ignorance of the Humane Soul but rather from her great perfection and knowledge whereby she judging all the goods of the world less then her self the goods intermingled with miseries serve her for so many admonitions that she ought not to stay there but aspire to other goods more pure and solid Besides these I have two natural reasons thereof First Every Good being of it self desirable every one in particular may desire all the goods which all Men together possess Yet it is not possible for him to obtain them wherefore every one may desire more then he can possess Whence there must alwayes be frustrated desires and discontents Secondly The Desires of Men cannot be contented but by giving them the enjoyment of what they desire Now they cannot be dealt withall butas a bad Physitian doth with his Patients in whom for one disease that he cures he causeth three more dangerous For satisfie one Desire and you raise many others The poor hungry person asketh onely Bread give it him and then he is thirsty and when he is provided for the present he is sollicitous for the future If he hath money he is troubled both how to keep it and how to spend it Which caus'd Solomon after he had deny'd his Soul nothing that it desir'd to pronounce That All is vanity and vexation of Spirit The Third conceiv'd That the Cause of this Dissatisfaction is for that the conditions of others seem more suitable to us and for that our Election dependeth on the Imagination which incessantly proposeth new Objects to the Soul which she beholding afar off esteemes highly afterwards considering them nearer sees as the Fable saith that what she accounted a treasure is but a bottle of Hay The Fourth said That because every thing which we possess gives us some ground of disgust and we do not yet perceive the inconvenience of the thing we desire therefore we are weary of the present and hope to find less in the future Whence we despise the one and desire the other The Fifth added That Man being compos'd of two parts Body and Soul which love change it is necessary that he love it too Choose the best posture and the best food you will it will weary you in a little time Let the most Eloquent Orator entertain you with the most excellent Subject suppose God himself you will count his Sermon too long if it exceed two hours or perhaps less Is it a wonder then if the Whole be of the same Nature with the Parts The Sixth attributed the Cause of this Discontent to the comparison which every one makes of his own State with that of others For as a Man of middle stature seemes low near a Gyant so a Man of moderate fortune comparing his own with the greater of another becomes discontented therewith Wherefore as long as there are different conditions they of the lowest will always endeavour to rise to the greatest and for the taking away of this Displeasure Lycurgus's Law must be introduc'd who made all the people of Sparta of equal condition If it be reply'd that nevertheless they of the highest condition will be contented I answer that our Mind being infinite will rather fancy to it self Epicurus's plurality of worlds as Alexander did then be contented with the possession of a single one and so 't will be sufficient to discontent us not that there is but that there may be some more contented then our selves The Seventh said That the Cause hereof is the desire of attaining perfection which in Bodies is Light whence they are alwayes chang'd till they become transparent as Glass and in Spirits their satisfaction which is impossible For Man having two principles of his Actions which alone are capable of being contented namely the Vnderstanding and the Will he cannot satiate either of them One truth known makes him desire another The sign of a moderate Mind is to be contented with it self whereas that of a great Mind is to have alwayes an insatiable appetite of knowing Whence proceedeth this It is for that it knows that God created every thing in the world for it and that it cannot make use thereof unless it have an exact and particular knowledge of the virtues and properties of all things It knows also that it self was created for God and the knowledge of the Creatures is nothing but a means to guide it to that of God So that if it take those means which lead it to the end for the end it self it deceives it self and finds not the contentment which it seeks and will never find the same till it be united to its First Principle which is God who alone can content the Vnderstanding His Will is also hard to be satifi'd The more goods it hath the more it desires It can love nothing but what is perfect It finds nothing absolutely perfect but goodness it self For the Light and knowledge wherewith the Understanding supplieth it discover to it so many imperfections and impurities in the particular goods it possesseth that it distasts and despises them as unworthy to have entertainment in it Wherefore it is not to be wonder'd if Man can never be contented in this world since he cannot attain his utmost End in it either for Body or Soul CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour I. Of the Flux of the Sea THe First said That if there be any other cause of this Flux then the heaping together of the Waters from the beginning under the Aequinoctial by Gods Command whence they descend again by their natural gravity and are again driven thither by the obedience which they owe to that Command which is so evident that they who sail under the Aequator perceive them selves lifted up so high by the currents that are usually there that they are many times terrifi'd thereat there is none more probable then the Moon which hath dominon overall moist Bodies and augments or diminishes this Flux according as she is in the increase or the wane The Second said That the Moon indeed makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea greater or less yea she governes and rules it because being at the Full she causeth a Rarefaction of its Waters But this doth not argue that she is the Efficient Cause of the said Flux The Sea rises at the shore when the Moon riseth in the Heaven and retires again when the Moon is going down their motions are indeed correspondent one to the other yet I know not how
that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
which the Eagle had laid in his lap that is by thinking to repel a small Blame they incur a greater and oftentimes with the prejudice of another As it is manifest in the rage and wildness of Duels when for the repelling of a small injury a Man engages the life of a Second who usually becomes involv'd in the same destruction with himself It is not my purpose to declaim further here against that Madness for the Folly of Men is come to such excess that they who go most unwillingly to the field considering that they are going possibly to destroy both their Bodies and their Souls yet dare not seem to obey the injunctions and prohibitions against the same by the Laws both of God and Men. A brutishness worthy of Admiration as it would be of Pity were it not voluntary among those who value themselves above others But to leave them to themselves let us onely consider what a strange Power the Point of Honour hath which is able to carry before it all the torrent of Arguments and Reasons which disswade a furious Resolution Now it is as various as the Humours and Conditions of Men. Not that I think it imaginary but as there are actions of themselves honest or dishonest which are the real foundation of this Point of Honour so it is of the same Nature And although Diogenes accounted nothing dishonest i.e. unbecoming which is lawfull yet it cannot be believ'd by any but a Diogenes So that the Ingenuous Youth upon whose shoulder that Cynick laid a flitch of Bacon and lead him about the City in that equipage to accustome him to put off all shame obey'd Reason and not his Caprichio when he cast the same down and ran away When the Executioner causeth a Criminal to make an honourable amends by which understand a most ignominious punishment inflicted upon an extreme Offender who must go through the streets bare-foot and bare-headed with a burning link in his hand unto the seat of Justice or some such publick place and there confess his Offence and ask forgiveness of the party he hath wrong'd he many times endures no other evil but that of shame and yet I would not blame him that should prefer a natural death before such a dishonour It may be said that the Point of Honour reacheth not so far but is onely an image and shadow since words are but the images of things and that a Man will fight a Duel when another hath reproach'd him for a fault either of his own or of some other for whom he is concern'd But I answer that Men fight oftner for actions and bad offices then for words And although they commonly reflect thus what will people say of me if I put up this Yet the truth is 't is out of fear lest one contempt making way for another might give occasion to effects not onely prejudicial to our Reputation but also to our Fortune which we know in these dayes depends upon our Reputation A Captain known for a Coward will be cashier'd A Souldier that doth not defend himself will be beaten A Gentleman that doth not swagger when he is affronted he will be abus'd not onely in his Honour but also in his goods by all his Neighbours So that the Point of Honour is not so little real as it is imagin'd since it hath an influence not onely upon a Mans Honour but likewise upon his goods and life In brief we may consult those who deny the Point of Honour to be a real thing by all this Honourable Assembly and especially by the many excellent Wits who are excited by Honour to appear therein and acquire what they may justly expect the commendation which is due to their merits The Second said That he found some difference between being an Honest Man and a Man of Honour for that to be an Honest Man it is requisite onely to possess the Honest Good Bonum Honestum which is Virtue But to be a Man of Honour besides that the world must know that we possess the same and give us the reputation of being virtuous For 't is stupidity not to care what opinion Men have of us Which caus'd the Wise-man to pronounce a Curse against those who neglect a good Fame which is so natural and so neerly alli'd to Virtue that she seems not to have her utmost perfection when she is separated from it and a Prudent Man desires equally to be virtuous and to be esteemed such Now if Honour consist in the possession of Virtue thus accompani'd the Point of Honour will be the Point of Virtue that is the perfection thereof or rather Virtue most perfect accompani'd with a compleat Reputation This perfection in my Judgement is the War-like Virtue call'd by the Greeks by way of excellence The Virtue of Man and so esteemed by all the world that no people however otherwise barbarous ever deny'd it the Title of Nobleness It is not then to be wonder'd if Men of Courage think that the Point of Honour consists in preserving to themselves the Reputation of being Valiant and endeavour by all means to make it appear to every one that they are endew'd with this War-like Virtue Whence most Quarrels are occasion'd by Mens accusing one another of want of Courage or other appurtenances of that Virtue The Third said That which we call the Point of Honour is nothing else in my Judgement but the desire of being esteem'd more honest persons then we are For Man being the greatest dissembler of all Creatures endeavours to make himself thought what he is not because it being essential to him to desire Good and his perverse Inclination not leading him to the true therefore at least he desires the apparent This is seen in all his actions which aim onely at three kinds of Good namely the Honest the Profitable and the Delightful Now of these three onely the Honest is called the Good of Man because the two latter usually corrupt him the former preserves him And nevertheless many addict themselves to Pleasures more run after Profit but very few comparatively follow the Honest Good for its own sake unless it be joyn'd with one of the other In the mean time there is none but would perswade others that he is passionately in love with the latter and not anxious for Honour But I conceive we may know persons of Honour by the little account they make of injuries which seem to tend to their disparagement especially when they think the same do not belong unto them and they who are worthy of Honour seek it least and are not troubled so much as others at the injury which any one thinks he doth them So we see a Prince will not be so sollicitous to employ his qualities in a publick act as a Man of low condition newly exalted An Honest Woman will not be so much troubled at an injury offer'd to her Honour as she that is of an evil Life because the former hath true Honour which
Inclinations of the Soul cannot be ascrib'd to a corporeal cause such as the Stars are For if all were govern'd by their influences we should see nothing but what were good as being regulated by so good causes I acknowledge but two virtues in the Heavens Motion and Light by which alone and not by any influences of occult qualities they produce corporeal effects Thus ought Aristotle to be understood when he referreth the cause of the continual Generation of Inferior things to the diversity of the Motions of the First Moveable and the Zodiack And Hippocrates when he foretelleth the events of Diseases by the several Houses of the Moon The Fourth said It is impossible to make an Art of predicting by the Celoestial Motions for five reasons besides the dominion which our Will hath over Effects without which it were free 1. The Connexion that is between the Celoestial Bodies and the Sublunary is unknown to Men. 2. The diversity of the Celoestial Motions causeth that the Heaven is never in the same posture as it ought to be for the making of a sure and certain Art grounded upon many repeated Experiments according to which like Effects are to be referr'd to like Causes 3. The extreme rapid and violent turning about of the Heavens doth not afford to find the precise minute of a Nativity for drawing the Theme or Figure of the true state of Heaven which they say is necessary 4. As of sixteen Consonants joyn'd with five Vowels are made words without number so of a thousand and twenty two Stars and more with seven Planets may be made Conjunctions and Combinations to infinity which surpass the comprehension of humane wit there being no Art of things infinite 5. Two persons or more born at the same time under the same Elevation of the Pole and disposition of the Heavens as they speak yea two Twins as Jacob and Esau are found oftentimes different in visage complexion inclination condition and end But is it probable that a hundred Pioneers stifled in the same Mine or ten thousand Men dying at the same battle have one and the same influence The Fifth said God having from all eternlty numbred the hairs of our Heads that is to say foreseen even the least Accidents which ought or may befall Men he hath establish'd an order for them in the Heavens disposing the course aspects and various influences of the Stars to draw out of Nothing those accidents at the time that they are to happen to Men whom they incline to meet the same yet so as to leave it in the power of their Free-will to avoid or expose themselves unto them without any constraint This truth is sufficiently confirm'd by the exact and admirable correspondence which is found between the most signal accidents of our lives and the hour of our Nativities so that Astrologers not onely conjecture by the time of the Nativity what is to come to pass but they also come to the knowledge of the true minute of the Nativity by the time at which accidents arrive and take this course to correct Horoscopes and Figures ill drawn And although long Experience may attest the certainty of this Art yet I confess since the faculties and qualities of the Stars are not perfectly known to us and we cannot alwayes precisely know the disposition of Heaven much less all the combinations of the Stars Astrology in respect of us is very uncertain and difficult but not therefore the less true and admirable in it self It is like a great Book printed in Hebrew Letters without points which is cast aside and sleighted by the ignorant and admir'd by the more intelligent So the Heavens being enamel'd by Gods Hand with Stars and Planets as with bright Characters which by their Combinations figure the various accidents which are to befall Men are never consider'd by the ignorant to dive into their Mysteries but onely by the Learned who themselves many times commit mistakes when they go about to read them because those shining Characters have no other Vowels or rather no other voice but that of God who is the true Intelligence thereof The Sixth said Three sorts of persons err touching the credit which is to be given to Astrological Predictions Some believe them not at all others believe them too little and others too much As for the first since they cannot deny that the Stars are universal causes of sublunary effects that such causes are of different natures and virtues and that their action and virtue is dispens'd by the motion which is successive and known they must of necessity confess that knowing the disposition of sublunary subjects the nature of the Stars and their motion many natural effects may be fore-seen and fore-told from them The Devil himself knows no future things certainly but by foreseeing the effects of particular causes in their universal causes which are the Stars They who believe too little confess that the Stars act upon the Elements and mixt Bodies for very Peasants know thus much besides many particular effects of the Moon But as for Man whose Soul of it self is not dependent upon any natural cause but free and Mistress of its own actions they cannot or for Religion's sake dare not affirm that it is subject to Coelestial Influences at least in reference to manners Yet it is no greater absurdity to say that the Soul is subject to the Stars then to say with Aristotle and Galen that it is subject to the Temperament of the Body which also is caus'd by the Starrs from the influence and action whereof the Soul cannot exempt its Body nor the Temperament thereof by which she acts Lastly they who give too much credit to the Stars hold that all things are guided by a fatal and irrevocable order of Nature contrary to Reason which admits the Author to be the Master of his own work and to Experience which assures us of the standing still of the Sun for Joshuah of his going backward for Hezechiah and of his Eclipse at full Moon during the Passion The Fourth Opinion is certain that there is truth in Astrological Predictions but it behoveth to believe them onely in a due measure since the Science of it self is but conjectural II. Whether is less blameable Avarice or Prodigality Upon the Second Point it was said That Avarice is less blameable then Prodigality For the latter is more fertile in bad actions then the former which though otherwise vicious yet refrains from the pleasures and debaucheries in which the Prodigal usually swims The Holy Scripture intending to set forth an example of Infinite Mercy relates that of the Prodigal Son who obtain'd pardon of the sin which is least worthy of it Moreover Prodigality doth far less good then Covetousness for this always looks at its own profit and takes care for its own benefit and the preservation of its dependents so that it exerciseth at least the first fundamental of Charity which is to do well to those who are nearest
us On the contrary Prodigality ruines and perverts the Laws of Nature leading a Man to the destruction of his relatives and the undoing of himself like Saturn and Time it devours its own issue and consumes it self to the damage of the Common-wealth whose interest it is that every Man use well what belongs to him Therefore all Laws have enacted penalties against Prodigals depriving them of the administration of their own Estates and the most Sacred Edicts of our Kings aim at the correcting of the Luxury of Prodigality But never were any Laws Punishments or inflictions ordained against Covetousness because Prodigality causeth the down-fall and destruction of the most Illustrious Houses which cannot be attributed to Covetousness for this seemes rather to have built them The Second said That according to Aristotle amongst all the virtuous none wins more Love then the Liberal because there is alwayes something to be gotten by him as amongst all the vicious none is more hated and shun'd by all the world then the covetous who doth not onely not give any thing but draws to himself the most he can from every one and from the publick in which he accounts himself so little concern'd that he considers it no farther then how he may make his profit of it He is so loath to part with his treasures when he dyes that he would gladly be his own Heir as Hermocrates appointed himself by his Testament or else he would swallow down his Crowns as that other Miser did whom Athenaeus mentions But the Prodigal free from that self-interest which causes so great troubles in the world gives all to the publick and keeps nothing for himself Whence according to Aristotle the Prodigal is not so remote from Virtue as the Covetous it being easier to make the former Liberal then the latter The Third said These two Vices are equally oppos'd to Liberality and consequently one as distant from it as the other For as the Covetous is Vicious in that he receives too much and gives nothing so is the Prodigal in that he gives too much and receives nothing at all or receives onely to give But Covetousness hath this priviledge that it finds a Virtue from which it is very little distant namely Frugality or Parsimony to which Prodigality is diametrically oppos'd Nor is it of little advantage to it that it is ordinarily found in Old Men whom we account wiser then others for having learn't by the experience of many years that all friends have fail'd them in time of need and that their surest refuge hath been their own Purse they do not willingly part with what they have taken pains to gather together which is another reason in favour of Covetousness For Virtue and Difficulty seem in a manner reciprocal But Prodigality is very easie and usual to foolish Youth which thinking never to find the bottome of the barrel draws forth incessantly and gives so freely that being over-taken with necessity it is constraind to have recourse to Covetousness which sets it upon its leggs again Nor ever was there a Father that counsel'd his Son to be prodigal but rather to be thrifty and close-handed And yet the Gospel and Experience shew that Fathers give and advise what is most expedient to their Children The Fourth said As Rashness is much less blameable then Cowardice so is Prodigality then Avarice For the Prodigal holding it ignominious to receive and glorious alwayes to give likes rather to deprive and devest himself of his goods then to deny any one whatsoever On the other side the Covetous doth nothing but receive on all hands and never gives any thing but with hope to receive more Now it is much more noble to give then to receive for Giving supposes Having The Prodigal knowing well that goods and riches are given by God onely to serve for necessary instruments to the living more commodiously and that they are not riches if they be not made use of employes them and accommodates himself and others therewith but the Covetous doth not so much as make use of them for himself and so destroyes their end The Fifth said If the Question did not oblige us to compare these two Vices together I should follow Demosthenes's sentence which he gave in the quarrel of two Thieves that accus'd one another which was that the one should be banish'd Athens and the other should run after him I should no less drive out of a well-policy'd State the Covetous and the Prodigal The first is Aesop's Dogg who keeps the Ox from eating the hay whereof himself tasts not like the Bears who hinder Men from approaching Mines of Gold and yet make no use thereof The other is like those Fruit-trees which grow in Precipices of which onely Crows and Birds of prey eat the Fruit vicious persons alone ordinarily get benefit by them But yet this latter Vice seemes to me more pernicious then the other For whether you consider them in particular The Covetous raises an Estate which many times serves to educate and support better Men then himself But Prodigality is the certain ruine of their Fortunes who are addicted to it and carries them further to all other Vices to which Necessity serves more truly for a cause then reasonably for an excuse or whether you consider them in general 't is the most ordinary overthrow of States And possibly he that should seek the true cause of publick Inconveniences would sooner find it in Luxury and Prodigality then in any thing else Therefore Solons's Law declar'd Prodigals infamous and gave power to their Creditors to dis-member them and cut them in pieces Our Ordinances in imitation of the Roman Law which ranks them under the predicament of Mad-men forbids and deprives them of the administration of their own goods as not knowing how to use them The Sixth said Avarice is like those Gulfes that swallow up Ships and never disgorge them again and Prodigality like a Rock that causes shipwracks the ruines whereof are cast upon the coasts of Barbarians and therefore both of them ought to be banish'd and I have no Vote for either Yet Prodigality seemes to me more fair and Covetousness more severe CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory I. Of Physiognomy THeophrastus accusing Nature for not having made a window to the Heart perhaps meant to the Soul For though the Heart were seen naked yet would not the intentions be visible they reside in another apartment The Countenance and amongst its other parts the Eye seemes to be the most faithfull messenger thereof It doth not onely intimate sickness and health it shews also hatred and love anger and fear joy and sadness In short 't is the true mirror of the Body and the Soul unless when the Visage puts on the mask of Hypocrisie against which we read indeed some experiences as when Vlysses discover'd the dissimulation of Achilles disguis'd in the dress of a Damsel by the gracefullness wherewith he saw him wield
a sword but there are no rules or maximes against it and never less then in this Age of counterseits in which he that is not deceiv'd well deserves the name of Master For security from it some ingenious persons have invented Rules whereby the inclinations of every one may be discern'd as Masons applying the Rule Square and Level upon a stone judge whether it incline more to one side then the other For you see there are many different species of Animals every one whereof is again subdivided into many others as is observ'd in Doggs and Horses but there are more different sorts of Men. Whence the Philosophers of old took up the opinion of Metempsychoses or Transanimations imagining there could not but be for example the Soul of a Fox in those whom they found very crafty and that the Soul which delighted to plunge it self in filthiness and impurity must needs have been heretofore in the Body of a swine And though the outward shape of Man puts a vail upon all those differences yet they are visible through the same to those who have a good sight as we may distinguish Ladies through the Cypress with which they vail themselves at this day it we take good heed otherwise we may be mistaken We must therefore inquire here whether through the external figure common to all Men what every one hath peculiar be not the sign of his inclinations either as the Effect or as the Cause of the same As redness of the Cheeks is usually an argument of the disposition of the Lungs Nor is it material to know why it is a sign it sufficeth to me to know that it is so To which the variety of Bodies and especially of Faces affords great probability because Nature hath made nothing in vain and why this variety unless to serve for a sign since it serves to distinguish them The Second said Physiognomy is the knowledge of the inside by the outside that is of the affections and inclinations of the Mind by external and sensible signes as colour and Figure It is grounded upon the correspondence of the Soul with the Body which is such that they manifestly participate the affections one of the other If the Body be sick the Soul is alter'd in its operations as we see in high Fevers On the contrary let the Soul be sad or joyful the Body is so too Therefore the Sophisters of old purg'd themselves with Hellebor when they would dispute best For though in its essence the Soul depends not on the corporeal Organs yet it depends upon the same in its operations which are different according to the divers structure of the Organs which if they were alike dispos'd their actions would be alike in all and at all times Whence saith Aristotle an old man would see as clear as a young man if he had the Eyes of a young man The Third said To make a certain judgement upon external signes heed must be taken that they be natural For 't is possible for one of a Sanguine Constitution to have a pale and whitish colour either through fear sickness study or some other accident The Phlegmatick when he hath drunk to excess been at a good fire is in anger or asham'd of something will have a red Face And yet he that should argue from these signes would be mistaken The Fourth said Since Physiognomists grant that their Rules are not to be apply'd but to Men void of all Passions which so change the Body that it seemes another from it self I conceive this Art is altogether impossible For I would know in what moment we are to be taken without Sadness Joy Hatred Love Anger in short without any of those Passions so inseparable from our Life that Xanthus found no better way to be reveng'd on Aesop then to ask him for a Man that car'd for nothing such as he would be that should have no Passions What then will become of the goodly Rules of Physiognomy after that Education of Youth hath corrected perverse inclinations that Philosophy hath given the lie to the Physiognomists of this Age as it did heretofore to Zopyrus when he pronounc'd his opinion upon Socrates or that Piety as is seen in so many holy personages hath reform'd the Will evil habits and Nature it self The Fifth said As there is nothing more wonderful then to judge of a Man's manners at the first sight so there is nothing more difficult It is endeavour'd four wayes First By the structure of each part of the Body So the great Head and square Fore-head denote Prudence and good judgement the small Head shews that there is little brain and narrow room for the exercise of the internal senses the sharp Head denotes impudence The Second way is by the Temperament So the ruddy countenance yellow hair and other signes of the Sanguine Humour shew an indifferent Spirit pleasant and inclin'd to Love A pale complexion fat Body clear voice slow gate which are the characters of Phlegme denote cowardice and sloth Soft and tender flesh is a token of subtlety of the Senses and consequently of the wit hard flesh of dulness Whence Man the wisest of all Animals hath a more delicate flesh then any of them The Third way is by comparing the external signes of every one with those which are observ'd in Men when they are in Passion So because he that is in Choler hath sparkling Eyes hoarse voice and the jugular veins turgid we conclude that he who hath all these signes naturally is naturally inclin'd to that Passion But as for the Fourth and last which is by comparing Man with other Animals heed must be taken how we credit such a sign alone For as a single letter doth not make a discourse so an external similitude alone with an Animal doth not infer the resemblance of our Nature to that of that Animal There must be a concurrence of many of these signes together As if I see a Man with a neck moderately fleshy a large breast and the other parts in proportion as the Lyon hath harsh hair as the Bear a strong sight as the Eagle I shall conclude that this Man is strong and courageous The Sixth said That the reason why Physiognomists choose irrational creatures to signifie the inclinations and manners of Men rather then Men themselves is because Man is a variable Animal and most commonly useth dissimulation in his actions Whereas Animals void of Reason less conceal from us the inclinations of their Nature by which they permit themselves to be guided So we see the same person will sometimes do an act of Courage sometime another of Cowardice sometimes he will be merciful at another time cruel But other Animals are uniform in all their actions The Lyon is alwayes generous the Hare ever cowardly the Tyger cruel the Fox crafty the Sheep harmless So that a certain judgement may be pass'd upon these but not upon Men. The Seventh said That as the accidents superven'd to our Bodies
Memory to make it better then to procure a good Judgement in him which wants it The Fifth saith He conceiv'd it no less difficult to remember the Places Images and odd precepts of this Art and apply them to the subject then to learn by heart at first the things themselves or their words which also when learnt by this Art are soon lost as being found upon chimeraes of which the Mind cannot alwayes so thorowly clear it self but there will be left some Idea thereof more apt to trouble the Memory then to assist it alwayes However I had rather learn a little labouronsly with the profit and impression ordinarily accompanying my pains then feed upon those vain pictures Wherefore I am prone to think that either there is no Art of Memory or else that it is unprofitable or mischievous and as such to be rejected by all the world The Sixth said Since where ever there is defect there is need of some Art to correct the same and remove from the Faculties the obstacles which they meet with in the exercise of their Offices why should Memory alone be destitute of this succour Considering it hath wayes so various that not onely words which signifie something but those which signifie nothing are of use to the Memory Therefore Aristotle saith He who would remember must make barbarismes And to six a name or word in the Mind a Man will utter many which come near it But as this Art is not to be despis'd so neither is it alwayes to be made use of much less in things which have some order of themselves as Anatomy Geography Chronology and History or in which a good natural Memory can contrive any They who have this Faculty vigorous from their birth or made it such by exercise wrong themselves in employing the precepts of this Art for that purpose as a Man of five and twenty years old should do if he made use of spectacles having no need thereof But it is onely fit for those who having a weak Memory would remember many barbarous names or some coats and numbers the variety whereof many times breeds confusion for the recollecting of which this Art teaches to remember certain shapes figures or species sometimes the most uncouth that can be excogitated to the end the Phancy may be more effectually moved by the same CONFERENCE XXIV I. Which of the Five Senses is the most noble II. Of Laughter I. Which of the five Senses is the most Noble AS he who hath the present sense of any Disease accounts that the greatest so they who exercise some one of their Senses more then the rest who get profit by it or are delighted in it willingly award the preceedence to the same Take the judgement of a Perfumer he values nothing but Odors and the smell which judgeth thereof He will tell you that if we had the perfect knowledge of Aromatical Compositions they would ravish all our Senses that Perfume must needs have something Divine in it because God so lov'd it that he particularly reserv'd it to himself and forbad all others to use a certain Composition under pain of death The same is also argu'd from the offence we take at the evil scent of any stinking thing that so the very name of it passing onely through our ears displeases us in such sort as to disparage the truth of the Proverb that Words do not stink as on the contrary the name alone of the Rose Violet and Jasmin seemes to recreate the smelling by the Ear. Poets and Lovers will be for the Eyes and the Touch. They who understand Opticks will hold that 't is the seeing which affordeth the greatest wonders Whence Comical Representations move so powerfully and Sight hath more influence upon us then Hear-say If you will take the judgement of Musitians the Hearing shall carry the Bell from the other senses and this Position is back'd with the experience of Melody Perswasion and the Art of Oratory which caus'd Antiquity to feign two sorts of Hercules the one who subdu'd monsters with the blows of his club and the other who captivated his Auditors with chains of Gold reaching from his Tongue to their Ears Philoxenus who wish'd a Crane's neck and they who live onely to drink and eat whereas we drink and eat to live will give the preheminence to the Taste Wherefore in my Opinion this Question is hard to be decided because it requires impartial Judges whose number is very small The Second said That for the right judging of the Cause all parties ought to be heard As for the Sight the fabrick of its Organ so artificially compos'd of Humours and Tunicles and guarded with Eye-lids and Brows as so many ramparts for its preservation sufficiently plead its excellence But that of the six Couple of Nerves for so many onely there are in the Brain the first and the second are peculiarly destinated to the Eyes this shews how highly Nature tenders them above all other parts Moreover Vision is perform'd in an Instant and makes present to us those things which are as remote from us as Heaven is from Earth and this by spiritual qualities for the Actions of Bodies are not expedited but in Time this is an other argument of its Excellence Further since nothing is more goodly then Light it seemes to follow that nothing is more excellent then the Sight whose Object it is Whence some Philosophers conceiv'd the Soul to have chosen the Eyes for its Mansion Next then for Hearing this Sense seemes to feed the Soul or rather to give it birth For if the Soul be consider'd naturally its food and life is to understand reason and discourse to which purposes the Hearing alone is serviceable being for this cause term'd the Sense of Discipline If the Soul be consider'd as it enjoyes a life more noble then the natural namely that of Grace the Sense of Hearing seemes the Author of this Life For the Just lives by Faith saith the Holy Scripture Now this Faith comes from Hearing as the Apostle testifies and not from Seeing For it is the evidence of things not seen and where we see there is no longer Faith As for the Smelling indeed good Odors recreate the Brain repair the Animal Spirits purifie and fit them to assist the Soul when it exerciseth its most noble operations but the weak Title of this Sense seemes to need a better Advocate then all the rest The Senses of Tasting and Touching remain but both in the same degree because one proceeds from the other Gustation being a sort of Contact In considering of these two Senses me-thinks I hear them complain of the ingratitude of Men for placing them in the lowest form notwithstanding their great service in the birth of Mankind by Generation which is a kind of Touching and in the subsequent preservation thereof incessantly by the Sense of Tasting And yet since all the commendation of an Instrument is to be measur'd by its end and benefit as the
praise of a Knife is to cut well therefore of the Senses which are the Instruments of the Body and the Soul the most beneficial as the Touch and Taste are must be the most noble For they are absolutely necessary to our Being but the other three onely to our Well-being and that we may live more pleasantly Moreover Nature hath so highly esteemed the Sense of Touching and its actions that she hath found none of them bad or useless as there is in the other Senses Pain it self which seemes the chief Enemy of it is so necessary that without the same Animals as Aristotle testifies would perish like Plants for it is like a Sentinel taking heed that no mischief befall them The Third stood up for the Hearing Sounds said he are of that efficacy and power that amongst the Objects of the Senses they alone make the Soul take as many different postures as themselves are various The sound of the Trumpet or a warlike Song animates and puts us into fury change the Tune and you make the weapons fall out of the hands of the most outragious Devotion is enkindled by it Mirth increas'd briefly nothing is impossible to it It s action is so noble that by it we receive the notices of all things in which regard the Ear is particularly dedicated to the Memory Hence also speech is more efficacious and makes greater impression upon the Mind then converse onely with dumb Masters or the contemplation of things by help of the Sight And the structure of its Organ both internal and external contriv'd with so many Labyrinths a Drumb a Stirrup an Anvil a Hammer Membranes Arteries and Nerves and so many other parts fortifi'd with strong battlements of Bones is a sufficient evidence of its nobleness The Fourth fell into commendation of the Eyes which are the windows at which the Soul most manifestly shews her self and is made most to admire her Creator but he added that many times they serve for an in-let at which the Devil steals the Soul which a great person complains that he lost by his Eyes I should therefore attribute said he the preeminence to the Touch as more exquisite in Man then in any Animal and consequently most noble because found in the most noble substance For 't is probable Nature gave Man by way of preeminence the most noble Faculties not onely in the Soul but also in the Body Now other Animals excell us in the other Senses the Dog in Smelling the Ape in Tasting the Hart in Hearing and the Eagle in Seeing The Fifth argu'd in favour of Hearing alledging that a Man may attain Knowledge without Sight and that upon observation Blind people have better Memories and Judgements then others because their Souls being less taken up with external actions become more vigorous in internal operations for that their Spirits are less dissipated Upon which consideration a certain Philosopher thought fit to pull out his own Eyes that so he might be more free for contemplation and the study of Wisedom But without the Hearing it is impossible to have the least degree of Knowledge in the world not even so much as that of talking familiarly to little Children For one deaf by Nature is likewise dumb and by consequence altogether useless to humane society yea if we take Aristotle's word for it he is less then Man For Man saith he deserves not that name but inasmuch as he is sociable and such he is not if he be unable to express his conceptions which cannot be done without speech Of which speech the Hearing being the cause the same is also the cause that he is capable of the denomination of Man And being thereby differenced from Brutes it follows that it is the most noble piece of his accoutrements The Sixth said If Nobility be taken for Antiquity the Touch will be the noblest of the Senses because it appears the first and the last in an Animal Moreover it is design'd for the noblest End to wit Propagation by which the individual makes it self eternal and which is more it comprehends under it the Taste the Hearing and the Smelling For we cannot Taste Hear or Smell unless the species actually touch the Tongue the Drum of the Ear and the Mammillary Processes Add hereunto that Utility being the Note of Excellency as is seen in State Policy and the Art Military the Touch must be the most excellent since it serves for Eyes not onely to the Blind who guide themselves by groping but also to some Animals as Snails Moles and also all Insects who make use of their hornes and feet as dextrously as others of their Eyes II. Of Laughter Upon the Second Point it was said We here wanted some Priests of that God of Laughter to whom as Apulieus in his Golden Ass relates the Inhabitants of the City of Hypate celebrated yearly a Feast at which himself was made a Victim There are few but have read what Laughter he caus'd when defending himself against the charge of Murther he found that the three Men whom he thought he had slain were three leathern bottles and for his reward he receiv'd this promise That all should succeed to his advantage Indeed Fortune seems to favour Laughers whereas here accusers and male-contents readily find new causes of dissatisfaction and complaint Whence possibly arose the Proverb which saith That when things go well with a Man He hath the Laughers on his side This Goddess Fortune seems to be of the Humour of Women in whose shape she is pourtray'd who rather love merry persons then severe Yea generally all prefer a jolly Humour and a smilling Face before the solemness and wrinkled brow of the Melancholy which you may daily observe from Children who avoid the latter and readily run to the former as it were by instinct of Nature The Latin Distick saith That the Spleen causeth Laughter possibly because it serves for the receptacle of Melancholy which hinders it just as white Wine having more lee or sediment at the bottome then Claret retaineth less thereof in its substance and is consequently more diuretical The second said That the first rise of laughter is in the Phancy which figuring to it selfsome species not well according together represents a disproportion to the Intellect not wholly disagreeable for then it would displease but absurd new and unordinary Then the Judgement coming to conjoyn those disproportionate species makes a compound thereof which not agreeing with what was expected from them the Judgement cannot wholly approve of the same by reason of the disproportion nor yet wholly reject it by reason of something which pleases it within From this contest ariseth a sally of the Faculty which during this contrariety causeth contraction of the Nerves Which if it be but small it produceth onely smiling but if it be violent then by the confluence of the Spirits it causeth loud laughter Now that Laughter is seated in the Imagination appears hence that if we have heard
or seen some ridiculous thing we many times laugh at it though the Object be not present 'T is also Disproportion that makes us laugh for we do not so when we behold a great Beauty but we do so when we look upon some odd ill-contriv'd countenance or when we find little sutableness between the Objects which are represented to us as an Old-man making Love a huge Hat upon a small Head one intending to make a graceful Reverence or cut a fine caper and falling all along in brief every thing that is said or done incongruously besides our expectation especially if no other more violent Passion interpose as Fear Respect and Pity which suppress Laughter We laugh at a Man that falls down but should he break his neck with the fall our Laughter would give place to Compassion In fine it appears that there is made a retraction of the Nerves during Laughter for we see a Convulsion causeth the same motion of the Muscles of the Face that Laughter doth whence cometh that malady which is called Risus Sardonicus in which by the retraction of the Nerves towards their Original the Patient seemes to laugh as he dyes The Third said He knew not whether of the two had most reason Democritus the Laugher or Heraclitus the Weeper For though the Faculty of Laughing be peculiar to Man and inseparable from Reason yet immoderate Laughter is as unacceptable as continual Tears And whereas we read in the Holy Scripture that our Lord sometimes wept but not that he ever laught this may be resolv'd That nothing was new to him The same being recorded of Heathens so stay'd and reserv'd that they were never seen to laugh as Crassus Cato the Censor Phocion and some others There is more difficulty in stating the Cause of Laughter Aristotle attributes it to the Diaphragme which is dilated by heat But seeing we laugh less in a Fever when the Diaphragme is most heated it is certain either that every heat of the Diaphragme doth not produce this effect or some other cause must be joyned with it Which I conceive to be an impression made in our Senses and by them in our Phancy of some agreeable unusual and un-foreseen Object when the same slips into it unawares Which Object exciting Joy in us by the Dilatation of the Spirits which is made first in the Arteries of the Brain and thereby insinuated into these of the Heart which opens to that Joy those dilated Spirits swell the Blood in the Veins which accompanies them so that not being containable in their own place the Veins and Arteries swell till they make a reflux in the Brain Diaphragme Lungs Face and all the parts of the Body where they cause the concussion and agitation observ'd in excessive Laughter and sometimes Tears by the compression of the Brain whilst it is not possible for any to check the eruption what ever respect be presented to them yea sometimes the Spirits are so rarifi'd that they evaporate whence follows sudden death as it befell Chrysippus of old who seeing an Ass eat figgs at the end of his table fell into so vehement Laughter that he dy'd immediately The Fourth said Laughter is a motion of the Body which follows that of the Soul Its Object is a sudden Joy surprizing us as a pleasant word after a serious discourse The scorn we make of any one causeth Laughter likewise because Contempt is a kind of Anger made up of Pleasure and Grief When the Pleasure happens to be greater then the Grief as it happens when our Enemy is so weak that we can be reveng'd on him when we list this contentment causeth us to laugh And hence it is that Sleighting is more offensive then Hatred alone Joubertus thinks Laughter is excited when Pleasure expands the Heart which by that dilatation gives motion to the Diaphragme and this consequently draws the Muscles of the Lipps Aristotle saith that by tickling a motion is caused in the Spirits which go and come to the place where the Man feels the Pleasure which Spirits passing and repassing light upon the Nerves who being too sensible and sollicited by the continual motion and agitation thereof endeavour to drive the same away and to that purpose contract themselves and draw unto themselves the parts into which they are inserted Hence in a great Laughter a Man is forc'd to compress himself and the sides ake with much laughing by reason of the tension of the Muscles and Nerves which are most agitated in that place Wherefore in my judgement Laughter is caus'd in this sort The sudden Pleasure or Titillation excites a motion of the Spirits which being very subtile are easily carry'd up to the Head there their agitation and motion importunes the Nerves and the Brain so that in the midst of this Pleasure there is caus'd a kind of Convulsive Motion And for that this agitation is chiefly inward therefore the internal parts first feel the effects of that gentle Convulsion the Diaphragme being more pliant and receiving more Nerves of the sixth Conjugation is agitated the most vehemently In profuse Laughter the Nerves of the whole Body sympathize with this disposition of the Brain their Common Original which being importun'd by those Spirits who though but natural are yet able to incommode the same by their too great agitation it contracts it self to be discharged of them attracting the Nerves to it self as much as it can whence proceeds this kind of Convulsion The Fifth said That the cause of Laughter is two-fold namely its Object which is of great latitude as good news unexpected joy which it is impossible to receive without laughing and its Subject which is indeed the Diaphragme for they who are wounded in that part seem to dye laughing as Hippocrates in the seventh of his Epidemicks observes to have befallen one Plychon for the same cause And this is no otherwise then as a certain kind of Ranunculus an Herb we call Crowfoot being eaten causeth loss of the Spirits and by the contraction of the Lips represents the Convulsion which is made during Laughter CONFERENCE XXV I. Of the Diversity of Countenances II. Whether Man or Woman be the more noble I. Of the Diversity of Countenances IDentity is so disagreeable that in all the objects of the Senses it displeases us Our Taste is glutted with alwayes eating the same Bread The most excellent Odour at length causeth the Head-ake To look too wistly upon the same object or to be too long together beheld by the same Eye fixed upon us is troublesome The Ear is tyr'd with twice hearing the same Tune and being continually struck upon by one and the same discourse how excellent soever it be The Touch the grossest of all the Senses is weary of one and the same temper of Air whence is drawn a certain consequence That the people under the Equinoctial or other Climate alwayes like to it self are sooner weary of living then others who have not leasure to be
men have phancied to themselves Prototypes and Parallels to serve instead of patterns and models in Policy an accomplish'd Commonwealth such as Plato Sir Thomas More and some others have delineated in Physick a Temperament most perfect and exquisite to a grain call'd temperamentum ad pondus in Eloquence a perfect Orator so they who have undertaken to speak of Beauty have imagin'd a perfect one which leaving women to set down the conditions which they require in handsome men we will make to consist as to them in thirty one particulars which go to the making up of a handsome woman The 1. of those Points is Youth which renders even the coursest animals agreeable The 2. is a Stature neither too large nor too small 3. A middle size of corpulency because too fat or too lean are counted amongst imperfections 4. Symetrie and proportion of all the parts 5. Long fair and fine hair 6. A skin soft and smooth through which appear small veins 7. A lively whiteness of Lillies blended with Roses 8. A smooth forehead pleasingly arched and always serene 9. Temples not hollow 10. Two black lines arch-wise in stead of Eye-brows Two blew eyes well set in the head well open'd and fix'd with a sweet glance 12. A nose well shap'd and rightly set on 13. Cheeks a little rounded making a dimple 14. A graceful smile 15. Two lips of Coral 16. A little mouth 17. Small Pearls smooth and well ajusted in stead of teeth 18. A sweet breath 19. A well tun'd voice 20. A chin dimpled somewhat round and fleshy 21. Ears small ruddy and well joyn'd to the head 22. A neck of Ivory 23. A bosome of Alabaster 24. Two snow-balls 25. A hand white something long and plump 26. Fingers ending by little in a Pyramide 27. Nails of mother of Pearl turn'd into an oval 28. A gesture free and not affected 29. Soft and smooth flesh 30. A modest gate The last point may be more easily imagin'd then honestly nam'd The second said that Beauty hath no more but an imaginary Being or at least is more in the phansie then in Nature Which they acknowledge who set conditions for it never to be found in any subject whatever Moreover every real Entity if it fall under the cognisance of the Senses is conceiv'd in the same manner by all people in the earth when the Organ is not hurt the medium alike and the distance equal and all other circumstances are found the same Thus Honey is every where acknowledg'd by the same sweetness and the Sun by the same light But one and the same Beauty is not conceiv'd in the same fashion nor esteemed such by all the people of the world for the judgements thereof are found different not only according to the diversity of Nations but also in reference to the same people yea the same person at several times Our ancient Gaules wore large foreheads because in those days they accounted the same handsomest and we see also to this day old Pictures representing handsome women in that sort whence arose the reproachful word Effrons Frontless denoting one that hath no forehead or shame At this day women think they cannot have too little they take so much pains to hide the same with their head-tire and men after their example Much hair is at present recommendable in many places especially in France The handsomest of the Pagan Deities was call'd Intonsus Apollo And the Scripture principally sets forth the beauty of women by their long hair without which the comeliest would be terrible Nevertheless in the latter ages in France 't was a shameful thing for men to have much hair In New France the greatest past of the people wear no hair but on one side The women of Camboya cut off theirs close to their ears The Perusians have none but a lock on the top of the head and the Romans of old ador'd Venus Calva Our Ladies shape their Eye-brows into arches The Africans paint theirs into the figure of a Triangle Some like an Aquiline and rising Nose yet the flattest are counted most graceful amongst the Abyssines Here eyes pretty prominent and of a middle size are esteem'd in China little eyes are most priz'd The Lybians love a large mouth and lips turn'd backwards here little ones are the most commendable 'T is one of the most agreeable parts that our Ladies shew and yet the Arabians esteeming the same indecorous cover it as carefully as their backside The Japonnois black their teeth and every where else the whitest are most valued Our Virgins streighten their bosomes the most they can on the contrary the Aethiopian women account those the most graceful breasts which they can cast over their shoulders Youth is elsewhere lov'd yet in the West Indies the oldest women are the handsomest In Aethiopia and many other places the blackest are counted the handsomest and in painting a Devil they make him all white as we do black In brief there is not one of the assigned Characters of Beauty which is not controverted by some Nation and therefore there is no reality in it but it depends upon our Phancie as Fashions do What is beauty then 'T is in my judgements what pleases us For whatever deformity or defect there be in the thing we love yet we account it handsome Et quae Balbinum delectat Polypus Agnae The third said 'T is too great a disparagement to the Goods of Nature to say that Beauty which is the most excellent of them is only imaginary its admirable effects being such that it perswades whatever it pleases 't is the surest commendatory Letter and hath influence not only upon rational souls but even Elephants are transported with joy as Aelian saith when they meet a fair woman And reason tells us that every thing which is goodly is good because it is desirable which is the essential qualification of good things The beauty of the body is not only the token of that of the soul which seems to be ill lodg'd when it is found in an ugly body but 't is also a sign of the body's health and good constitution Yea the very beholding of Beauty conduceth to health and continues it whence it is that handsome Nurses and Governesses are assigned to Children because the soul even from the cradle being a Forreigner and retaining in it self the idea of its Creator's beauty is marvellously pleas'd at the sight of every thing that approaches that beauty and harmony and rejoyces at its meeting acknowledging it her kindred and alley Moreover Plato saith that Beauty is produc'd when the Forme predominates over the Matter which is of it self foul and deformed Which he affirmeth to have place also in the beauty of the soul which he makes to consist in the advantage of the Intellectual part which holdeth the place of Forme in man over the Sensitive which correspondeth to Matter Aristotle will not allow it possible for Felicity to be perfect without the beauty of the Body
the greatest benefit from it in this perhaps more unhappy then others that having more knowledge by experience of what is pass'd it is harder to delight them Pleasure most easily arising from novelty Since therefore all sorts of conditions and ages sacrifice to Joy and Philosophers have judg'd nothing more proper to Man then Laughter I conceive 't is a kind of inhumanity to forbid commerce to this inseparable companion of Man and although some may abuse it yet it would be worse to interdict it then to take away the use of Wine under pretext that some people sometimes take too much of it The Third said Some contentments belong to the Mind others to the Body Not that the Body is capable of any Passion without the Minds help nor that the Soul while it informes the Body can apprehend any without its corporeal organs but they borrow their name from the part which they chiefly affect Thus I can neither love nor hate without having seen or heard the subject of my hatred or love and yet 't is the Soul not the Body which loves or hates The Body can neither drink nor eat without the Soul and nevertheless 't is not the Soul that drinks or eats 't is the Body This suppos'd me-thinks the greatest delight of the humane Mind consists in being lov'd and this is the end of all its actions Whence those words Let Men hate me provided they fear me were taken to be rather the voice of a savage beast then of a Man This appears because all from the highest to the lowest endeavour to gain the good-will of every one 'T is this which makes Men so desirous of Praise because the same renders them amiable one for the excellence of his Mind another for the beauty of his Body Moreover compare the misery of a Timon hated by all the world with the contentment of a Titus Vespatians Son surnamed the Delight of Mankind and you will see that to be lov'd surpasses all the Pleasures of the world as much as 't is unpleasing to be hated For the love which is borne towards us supposes some perfection in us which being known esteem'd and prefer'd above that of others produces the great contentments which we find therein But as for those of the Body Pani and all Greece too well found the ill consequence of adjudging the golden apple to the Goddess whom Luxury made him prefer before the others to encourage us to follow his example Demosthenes had reason when he refus'd to buy at too dear a rate the repentance which ordinarily follows this Pleasure the corners which it seeks and the shame which accompanies it together with its little duration allow it not to be equall'd with other Passions compatible with Honour and practis'd in the sight of all the world as feasts dances shews sports merry words and the like all which I conceive ought to be added together to make perfect Delight But since 't is requisite to prefer one and punctually satisfie the question I shall affirm according to the liberty allow'd in this company that nothing seemes to me more capable to delight a Man then Good Cheer there 's no better friendship then that which is acquir'd by cracking the glass friendships proceeding from sympathy of humours and this from the same viands And in brief if this receipt did not serve better to exhilarate Men then any other you should not see it so diligently practis'd in these dayes by all the world Alexander the Great and the Famous Marius took no greater pleasure then in drinking great draughts And the tediously-severe humour of the Catoes was not sweetned but at the table where they ordinarily continu'd seven or eight hours Moreover Old-age which we ought to follow for its great experience after having pass'd through all the pleasures of life fixes at last upon that of the Table as the surest and most lasting others sliding away so fast that they give not our Senses time to taste them which word testifies that 't is the Taste which ought to judge And if it be said that their bodies are not capable of other contentments I answer that the Organs of all the faculties are in them equally debilitated II. Of Cuckoldry Upon the Second Point it was said That to judge well of it it is requisite to understand all the cases which make Men Cuckolds Some are so and know nothing of it Some think they are but are not and these are more miserable then if they were and knew it not If we believe Histories some are so without their Wives fault who have mistaken others for their own Husbands Some are so and half see it yet believe nothing of it by reason of the good opinion which they have of their Wives Further some know they are so but do all they can to hinder it Such was P. Cornelius and Corn. Tacitus In fine some know it and suffer it not being able to hinder it And I account these alone infamous The Second said That the word Cuckold deriv'd from Cuckow is Ironically us'd for this Bird layes her eggs in the neast of others or else because they who frequent other Mens Wives are oftentimes serv'd in the same manner or else for the reason upon which Pliny saith Vine-dressers were anciently called Cuckows that is to say slothful who deferr'd cutting their Vines till the Cuckow began to sing which was a fortnight later then the right time And thus the same name may have been given to those who by their negligence or sloth give their Wives so much liberty that they abuse it Unless we had rather say that this Bird being as Aristotle saith cold and moist of its own nature and yet so prudent as knowing it self unable to defend and feed its own young it puts them into the neasts of other Birds who nourish them as if they were their own thus timerous soft and weak Men have been call'd Cuckolds because not being able to support their own families they cause the same to be maintain'd by others with the loss of their credit They who derive it from the Greek word Coccyx which signifies the rump are not much out of the way In brief some go so far as to derive it from the Latine word Coquus because those people lodging and feeding their Wives and taking care of their Children do like Cooks who trust out victuals to others The Third said That Cuckoldry was but an imaginary thing that the unchastity of the Wife could not dishonour the Husband considering that what is out of us and our power do's not any wayes concern us and it being impossible for the wisest Man in the world by the consent of all to hinder the lubricity of an incontinent Woman Now no body is oblig'd to what is impossible and as a vicious action ought to be onely imputed to its author so ought the shame and dishonour which follows it and 't is as absurd to reflect it upon him who
afforded before God had curs'd it and so inseparably connected man's labour with those fruits that now a days to express a hundred acres of Land we commonly say A hundred acres of Labour And as a place ceases to be the Court when the King is no longer in it so the Divine Benediction withdrawn from the Earth it ceas'd to be Paradise Yea Adam having ceas'd to be King of it and by his sin lost the Dominion which he had over all even the fiercest Creatures the Earth became no longer a Paradise to him But if I be requir'd to assign a particular place to this Paradise leaving the description of places which I never saw to the belief of Geographers I find none more fit for it then France Its Climate is temperate especially towards the East and South It hath four Rivers which bring into it Gold and all the other Commodities attributed unto Paradise by the first Historian It so abounds with all sorts of flowers that it hath taken three Lillies for its Arms And with fruits that it hath for it self and its Neighbours yea above any other it produces every Tree fair to look upon and good for food to use the Scripture-words One interpos'd That he should think 't was Normandie so fruitful of goodly Apples were it not that no Vines grow there whose fruit is so pleasant to behold The fourth said As there is no great certainty in the consequences drawn from Allegories so neither are Allegories very successfully drawn from Histories and substituted in their places I know not what History is if that of our first Father be not nor where to stop if people will subtilize upon the first circumstance of his Creation and what he did afterwards But if we find difficulty in according the Geographical Tables of the present time with the truth of that why do not we likewise make Allegories of the Creation and all its sequels which are so many Miracles If we see no Angel that guards the access to it no more did Balaam see that which stood in his way though visible to his Asse And being the space of the Garden of Eden is not determinately set down nothing hinders but that it might be of very vast extent and this takes away the scruple of those who object the distance which is between all those great Rivers Besides being Enoch and Elias were since Adam's fall transported into this Paradise where they must be till the coming of Antichrist 't is a certain Argument of its real subsistence II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Upon the second point it was said That the Ancients were much more careful then we not only to preserve the Images of their Fore-fathers but also to keep their Bodies which they variously embalmed The Grecians wash'd them in Wine mingled with warm Water and then put them them into oyl of Olives Honey or Wax The Aethyopians first salted them and then put them into Vessels of Glass In the Canary Islands they season them in the Sea and afterwards dry them in the Sun The Scythians place them upon Mountains cover'd with snow or in the coolest Caves Indeed every one knows there is a Cave at Tholouze which hath a particular virtue to preserve carkasses from corruption and in which is seen at this day the entire body of the fair Saint Baume and many others dead above 200 years ago The Indians cover'd them with ashes The Aegyptians conceiving that bodies corrupted rose not again and that the Soul was sensible of the Bodies corruption did not yield to any people in curiosity of preserving them they fill'd with Myrrhe Cinamon and other Spices or with Oyl of Cedar then they salted them with Nitre whose aerimony consumes all the superfluous humidities which cause putrifaction 'T is from these bodies that we have that excellent Mummie whose admirable effects I ascribe to sympathy But concerning what is affirm'd that being transported by Sea they cause tempests and strange agitations in the Ship 't is an effect which is to be attributed to a more occult cause The Second said Man is so admirable an Edifice that even his Ruines have their use His Fat is one of the most excellent Anodynes His Skull serves against the Epilepsic This liquor which is drawn from his Tomb hath several vertues and the reasons of the great and admirable effects imputed to it as the healing of inwards Ulcers and Contusions of Blood arriving to such as have fallen from on high seem to me imputable to three Causes a Spiritual a Celestial and an Elementary The first ariseth hence that so perfect a Form as the reasonable Soul having inform'd part of this Compositum which by the mixture of some Ingredients as Myrrhe and Aloes hath been preserv'd from corruption the same thing arrives to it which the Chymists say doth to their white Gold when they have extracted its Sulphur and Tincture For being re-joyn'd to other Gold it easily resumes the same form and is sooner and more inseparably combin'd with it then any other thing as having been of the same species So when you put Mummie into a body of the same species it takes part with the nature whence it proceeded and siding with it incounters the disease and its symptomes like Succour coming to relieve a besieged City with provisions and ammunition The Celestial cause is drawn from the Heavens for that the light and influence of superiour bodies act upon all the sublunary but by the consent of all none is so susceptible of their actions as man and if his soul be not subject thereunto yet his body is undoubtedly to each part of which each part of Heaven not only answers as some hold but the whole to all Whence is seen the diversity of disposition inclinations and manners such and so great that 't is a palpable mistake to attribute the same to the meer mixture of the Elements Now Mummie having receiv'd not only while it was animated but afterwards all the influences whereof the humane body is susceptible it becomes as it were the abstract of all the Celestial powers and better then Talismanical figures communicates the same to him that uses it The last reason drawn from the mixture of the Elements and their qualities might suffice alone without the preceding For Man being the abridgement of the world ought also to contain all the faculties of it and his Mummie being inanimate but having liv'd the life of a plant an animal and a man it contains all these natures eminently The Third said That Man affecting nothing so much as immortality because he fears nothing more then death and being unable to secure himself from it do's all that he can to perpetuate himself in some fashion since he cannot wholly The desire of supporting his Individual person and defending it from all inconveniences which may abridge his life makes him count nothing difficult In Propagation he seeks the eternity of his species And though he is assur'd by Reason of
Tranquility of Mind the scope and end of Moral Philosophy is of three sorts The I. is call'd Alaraxic and is in the Understanding whose judgement it suspends and is not mov'd with any thing which was the end of the Scepticks The II. is in the Reason which regulates the Passions of the Sensitive Appetite and is term'd Metriopathy or moderation of the Passions The III. is the Apathy of the Stoicks in which they constituted their supreme Good which is an Insensibility Indolence and want of Passions attributed by the envious to a Melancholy Humour or to Ambition and Cynicall Hypocrisie For the Melancholy Man seeking solitude as the Aliment of his Phancy and the Element of his black Humour which is the step-dame of Virtues by thinking to avoid external Passions remains under the Tyranny of internal which he dares not vent but covers like Fire under ashes This mask'd Sect shuts the fore-door indeed to the Passions but opens the postern They passionately desire to shew themselves without Passion And their vanity appears in that they affect to appear unlike the rest of Men by casting off humane sentiments and affections as Charity and Compassion which they account vitious But instead of raising themselves above Men they degrade themselves below beasts by depriving themselves of the indifferent actions which are common to us with them Actions which Reason ought to regulate indeed but not wholly reject And as the supreme Region of the Air receives Exhalations to inflame them and make shining Comets but is free from Hail Thunder Winds Rains and other Meteors which are made in the Middle Region so Reason ought to receive the notices of the Sensitive Appetite which are called Passions to make use of them but 't is to moderate them and hinder the disorder caus'd by them in the Sensitive Appetite which is the Middle Faculty of the Soul In fine as Eagles and Dolphins which are in the tempests of the Winds and Sea are yet more to be esteem'd then Moles Wormes and other creeping things which live in holes so he who is agitated with Passions much surpasses him who hath none at all Nor is there any body but desires rather to be froward then stupid and insensible And if Insensibility be a Virtue then stocks and stones and inanimate bodies would be more happy then we The Second said Since Passion is an irregular motion of the Sensitive Appetite call'd therefore Perturbation it alters the state of the Soul Whence Anger and Fear hinder us from perceiving what is visible and Hatred or Love pervert the Judgement for which reason we desire that a good Judge be without Passion What a disease is to the Body whose actions it hurteth that are the Passions to the Soul Wherefore to ask whether the Soul is happiest without Passion is to question whether the Body is most at ease without sickness and to moderate instead of extirpating them is to palliate a disease instead of curing it and to inquire of a Pilot whether a Tempest be more proper for Navigation then a Calm Moreover the happiest condition of Man is that which comes nearest Eternal Bliss in which we shall have no Passions the superior and rational part having subdu'd the inferior or sensitive And Aristotle holds that the Heroes or Demi-gods are exempted from them The Third said 'T is to derogate from our Senses to say with the Stoicks that the Passions which we feele proceed onely from the depravation of our judgements For what they call diseases of the Mind is meant of those which are inordinate and not of those which are moderate and fram'd by the level of Reason 'T is therefore expedient to moderate them but not wholly extinguish them though it were possible Now that it is impossible appears because they are appurtenances of our Nature and the actions of the Sensitive Faculty which is part of our selves And our Lord not having renounc'd these appendances of our Humanity hath thereby manifested that they are not vicious Besides the first motions are not in our power and therefore 't is impossible totally to extirpate them But though we could we ought not because they are altogether necessary as appears in that I. Without the Passions there would be no Virtues for the Passions are the Objects of Virtues Thus Temperance moderates Pleasure and Pain Fortitude regulates Boldness and Fear II. They sharpen them Thus Anger serves to heighten Courage and Fear augments Prudence III. They preserve an Animal Thus Pleasure incites Animals to feed and generate and Grief makes them avoid what is noxious and recur to remedies even in spiritual distempers in which to be insensible of Grief is to be desperate The Fourth said If Men were void of Passions they might be lead to Virtue with much more success and less trouble For they would not be averted from it by the contrary motions of their Passions which hurry them with so great violence that all that the most virtuous endeavour to do is to swim against the Torrent and repress its impetuous course Upon which they unfruitfully spend their time which might be farr better employ'd in performing virtuous actions when the rebated Passions introducing an agreeable evenness in their Humours with a firm Constancy in their Manners accompany'd with a laudable indifference in their Desires would allow reason more means to incite them to the exercise of Virtues For Men having their Eyes unvail'd of the sundry affections which blind them would more perfectly know the True Good and consequently pursue it by a shorter and surer way And though they were not lead to Sensible Good with so much ardour nor decline Evil with so much horrour yet they would do both with more reason So that what Men do now by a motion of the Sensitive Appetite they would do then by a principle of Virtue For the difficulty found in attaining a total privation of Passions seemes indeed to surpass our strength yet thereby sets forth the excellence of the Atchievement The Fifth said He that were exempt from all Passions would be as unhappy as he that should always endeavour to bridle them But the former is impossible and the latter no less difficult then to walk upon a rope where the least false step procures a dangerous fall For we quit our passions but they quit not us as the thought of young maidens follow'd a good father even into his Hermitage And he that goes about to tame them is the true Sisyphus upon whom the stone which he thrusts away incessantly revolves The first would be without joy without which nevertheless a man cannot be happy The second would be without rest because he would be in perpetual combat and inquietude wherewith felicity cannot consist I conceive therefore morally speaking there 's more felicity in gently giving the bridle to one's passions and following his inclinations although this opinion may well consist with Christian Philosophy in good-natur'd persons or such as have acquir'd a good temper by
temper a great quantity of subtile and brisk spirits quickness of wit a habit custom of doing some action as the Postilion who sadled bridled and rid his horse asleep and after making some careers brought him back to the Stable The Second said Though according to Aristotle in the 5. Book of the Generation of Animals there is some difference between a dream and this affection which causes men to walk in their sleep because saith he a dream is when the sleeper takes that for true which is presented to him though it be not so But when one dreams that he is in a place and is there indeed and doth really that which he imagines 't is rather a vision then a dream Nevertheless methinks their extraordinary motions may as well be referr'd to dreams as any other motions which are made in sleep considering that they come from the same cause are made by the same organs and differ not but in degree The one being made by a bare representation of the species and the other by a strong impression So that 't is no more wonder to see a man rise out of his bed walk get upon the ridge of a house climb a tree and do other like things without waking then 't is so see another dreamer speak in his sleep laugh cry stir his arms and legs both of them being led thereunto by the same means The Third said He wonder'd not so much to see a man walk in his sleep considering that 't is ordinary enough to those which travel provided they walk in a plain and even way as Galen records to have hapned to himself he having gone almost a league in that manner and not waking till he stumbled at the foot of a tree But he wonder'd indeed how they perform'd their actions better in the night then in the day and with more courage and wake not during those violent motions and stirrings The cause whereof is as I conceive that being awake they have a Reason which contradicts their Imagination and Appetite and which having an eye over all their actions the same are not so sure because they are less free in sleep at which time the faculties of the Understanding being as 't were consopited the others are carried towards their objects with more certainty then when they are controll'd and restrain'd by that superior faculty as we see servants are more brisk in their motions when they are out of their masters presence They act also with more boldness because having no knowledge of the present dangers they do not apprehend the same Which is observ'd in fools and children who do themselves less hurt in dangers because they apprehend them less Lastly the cause why they wake not during those great motions although they swim over rivers proceeds from the great quantity of those thick and glutinous vapours which stop the pores serving to the commerce of the spirits during the long time that they are dissipating according as 't is observ'd in drunkards or those that have taken somniferous medicaments who by reason of the excessive vapours of the wine or drugs awake not whatever be done to them Whence the melancholy temper is most prone to this affection because black choler which hath the consistence of pitch sends its gross vapours up to the brain and they are the most difficult to be resolv'd The Fourth said If men left themselves to be conducted by their natural inclination without making so many reviews and reflections upon what they do their actions would be much better and surer For as where two Masters are neither is obey'd so both the superior and inferior appetite striving to command in man neither the one nor the other is perfectly master Besides 't is an establish'd order of nature that things which have most proprieties and faculties have less certainty those which have most certainty have fewest proprieties Thus the Swallow makes its nest with more certainty then the Architect doth a house The Vine more assuredly makes the Grape then the Swallow its nest the stone more infallibly descends towards its centre then the Vine-makes the Grape because a stone hath only the first step of being the Vine besides hath a Vegetative being and the Swallow a Sensitive but Man who besides all these degrees hath Reason endeavours to make use of all these several Utensils and consequently makes use of none imperfection as he who is skill'd in sundry Crafts discharges not any so well as he who addicts himself but to one Now whilst a man is awake the variety of objects and of the powers which are mov'd in him hinder him from performing so perfect an action as when all the other faculties are bound up by sleep the sensitive alone remains mistress The Fifth said As there is but one straight line and infinite crooked so there is but one right manner of acting and infinite oblique The right line is that a man perform all his animal functions only awake the vital and natural as well asleep as awake Deviation from this rule happens a thousand several ways One is asleep when he should wake another is unquiet when he should sleep In a third inquietudes are only in the spirits the body remaining asleep In some both the spirits and the body are agitated only the judgement and reason are bound up Some Morbifick causes go so far as to inflame the spirits whence comes the Ephemera others more vehement alter and corrupt the humours whence the diversity of Fevers and amongst them Phrensies in which you see bodies scarce able to turn in the bed cast themselves out at a window run through the streets and hard to be restrain'd by the strongest So great a force hath the soul when she gets the head of Reason which serv'd as Bit and Cavesson to her Indeed if Naturalists say true that a spirit is able to move not only a Celestial Sphere but the whole world it self were it not restrain'd by a greater power 't is no wonder if the same spirit have a great power over a body which it informs when it hath shaken off the dominion of Reason as it happens in sleep-walkers The Sixth said 'T is probable that the more causes contribute to one and the same effect the more perfectly it is done Man being awake hath not only the action of all his parts but that of all his senses strengthned by the concourse of spirits renders his parts much more strong and vigorous then when his is asleep Reason assisted by daily experience avoucheth that he acts better waking then sleeping and yet we see the contrary in the persons under consideration Wherefore their agitation cannot be attributed to the soul alone which informs the body but to some spirit good or bad whether such as they call aerial Hob-goblins or others which insinuating into the body as into a ship whose Pilot is asleep governs and guides it at pleasure and as a thing abandon'd to the first occupant carries
Christ-mass day exercise many cruelties even upon little children and those who in our time confess that they have put on the shapes of Wolves Lyons Dogs and other Animals that they might exercise their cruelty upon Men with impunity For I am not of their mind who think such transformation is made by natural causes To which neither can that be attributed which the Scripture relates of Nebuchadonozor K. of Babylon who became an Ox and ate the grass of the field for the space of nine years and afterwards resum'd his former shape that the rods of the Aegyptian Magicians were turn'd into Serpents as well as that of Moses that Lot's Wife was chang'd into a Statue of Salt no more then the most fabulous metamorphoses of Niobe into stone Lycaon Demarchus and Moeris into Wolves the companions of Vlysses into sundry Animals by the Enchantress Circe those of Diomedes into Birds Apuleius into an Ass that an Aegyptian Lady became a Mare and was restor'd into her former shape by S. Macarius the Hermite as the Historian Vincent reports in his 18. Book Seeing a Rational Soul can not naturally animate the Body of a Wolf The least distemper of our Brain suffices to hinder the Soul from exercising its functions and can it exercise them in that of a Beast 'T is more credible that some evil Spirit supplies the place and acts the part of the Sorcerer who is soundly asleep in his Bed or in some other place apart from the commerce of Men. As it happen'd to the Father of Praestantius mention'd by St. Augustine in his Book De Civitate Dei who awaking out of a long and deep sleep imagin'd himself to have been turn'd into a Horse and carry'd provisions upon his back to Soulders which he obstinately believ'd though his Son assur'd him that he had not stirr'd out of bed Nevertheless the thing was verifi'd by witnesses but it was done by an evil Spirit who on the one side personated him abroad and on the other so strongly impressed those species upon his Phancy that he could not be disswaded from the error For otherwise how should the Sorcerer reduce his Body into so small a volumn as the form of a Rat Mouse Toad and other such Animals into which it sometimes is turn'd Now if it happens that the wound which the Devil receives under that form is found upon the same part of the Sorcerers Body this may be attributed to the action of the same evil Spirit who can easily leave his blow upon such part as he pleases of the Body which he possesses For want of which possession all his designes upon those whom he would injure become ineffectual notwithstanding the imposture of all their waxen Images But if 't is the Sorcerer himself that hath the form of a Wolf either he clothes himself in a Wolf's skin or else the Devil frames a like Body of Vapours and Exhalations and other materials which he knows how to choose and can gather together with which he involves the Sorcerer's Body and fits the same in such manner that the Eye of the Beast answers to that of the Man and so the other parts according to the measure requisite to represent a Wolf Or else that subtile Spirit deludes our Eyes The Second said If the Proverb be true That one Man is oftentimes a Wolf to another we need not recur to extraordinary causes to find Men-wolves Now the word Wolf is here taken for mischievous because the wealth of the first Ages consisting in Cattle they fear'd nothing so much as the Wolf As for the causes of this brutish malady whereby a Man imagines himself a Wolf or is so indeed they are of three sorts the biting of a mad Wolf the atrabilarious humour or the Imagination perverted It seemes at first very strange that a drop of foam entring into the flesh of a Man at an orifice made by the point of a tooth should have the power to convert all the humours into its own nature But seeing the stroke of a Scorpion which is not perceivable to the sight kills the strongest person that admiration ceases at the comparison of a thing no less marvellous For 't is no more wonder that the humour which issues from an Animal imprints its Image other where then that it kills an other When the foam drop'd from a mad Wolf produces its like with its furious spirits it doth nothing but what other animate bodies with other circumstances do Thus the kernel of the Pear or Apple which subverts our Senses call'd therefore malum insanum so well containes in power the Pear or Apple-tree which produc'd it that it reproduces another wholly alike yea the salt of Sage Marjoram Baum and some others being sown produces the like Plants without slip or seed The atrabilarious humour sending up black and glutinous fumes into the brains of melancholy people not onely make them to believe that the species represented thereby to them are as true as what they see indeed but impresse an invincible obstinacy in their Minds which is proof against all reasons to the contrary because Reason finds the Organs no longer rightly dispos'd to receive its dictates And if he who sees a stick bow'd in the water can hardly rectifie that crooked species in his Common Sense by reasons drawn from the Opticks which tell him that the visual ray seemes crooked by reason of the diversity of the medium how can he whose Reason is not free be undeceiv'd and believe that he is not a Wolf according to the species which are in his Phancy But can the Phancy alone do all this He who feign'd and frequently pretended that he was one-ey'd by the power of Imagination became so indeed and many others whom Phancy alone makes sick and the fear of dying kills sufficiently shew its power which causes that these distracted people perswading themselves that they are Wolves do the actions of Wolves tearing Men and Beasts and roaming about chiefly in the night which symbolizes with their Humours Not but that a fourth cause namely evil spirits interposes sometimes with those natural causes and particularly with that gloomy black Humuor which for that reason Saint Jerome calls Satan's bath The Third said That besides those causes the food taken from some parts of Aliments contributes much to hurt the Imagination of Men in such sort that they account themselves really brutes Thus a Maid of Breslaw in Silesia having eaten the brain of a Cat so strongly conceited her self a Cat that she ran after every Mouse that appear'd before her A Spaniard having eaten the brain of a Bear thought himself to be one Another that had very often drunk Goats milk fed upon grass like that Animal Another who had liv'd long upon Swines blood rowl'd himself in the mire as if he had been truly a Hogg And 't is held that especially the arterial blood of Animals as containing the purest of their Spirits produces such an effect But to believe
Heroe illustrious in vertue of a vicious man or a wise man of a fool Nor doth it arise from riches which though the ornament yet are not the cause of Nobility For whereas a rich Yeoman is admitted to publick Offices rather then a poor Gentleman 't is because the former having more to lose then the latter hath also more interest in the preservation of the common good and consequently is presum'd more careful that all go well with it Ease and occupation are of no more moment For our first Father from whom we derive our Nobility and his Children were Labourers Noah was a Vine-dresser Saul and David Kings of Israel Shepherds and at Venice Florence Genua Luca and other places of Italy the Nobles are for the most part Merchants though in other Countries that imployment is derogatory to Nobility For as 't is not in our power to be born either of noble or mean Parents so ought not either be imputed to us as commendable or blame-worthy since praise and dishonour are rightly attributed to us only for what lyes in our ability as our good or evil actions do For being 't is no advantage to a blind man to have quick-sighted parents or to a gouty son to have a father of sound limbs why should it be any to a wicked son to have an honest man to his father on the contrary it ought to turn to his reproach that he hath not follow'd the way which he found already beaten For as good wheat is oftentimes chang'd into Darnel so the children of illustrious men are ordinarily lewd slip-strings witness the children of Cicero Aesop Cimon Socrates and Alcibiades On the contrary many times the greatest personages are the issues of the most infamous and abject Wherefore the seeds of Nobility namely our actions being in our selves the most certain way of acquiring is to do such as are good and vertuous True it is those of war are most in esteem because most persons are capable of them Yet excellent civil actions ought to be accompani'd with the good hap which may make them known and recommendable to the Prince otherwise they are as a light hid under a bushel But if all these conditions meet in any one whom the vertue of his Ancestors hath dignifi'd to be of an illustrious Family this excellency of descent renders his vertue more acceptable and this Gentleman's condition is like that of a child upon a Gyant 's shoulders who sees all that the Gyant sees and also over his head He hath all the Nobility of his Fore-fathers and besides that which is properly his own To conclude if the blood of our Ancestors is the body of Nobility our vertue is the soul of it CONFERENCE XXXV I. Of feigned Diseases II. Of regulating the Poor I. Of feign'd Diseases AS man is the most wilie of all creatures so he best knows how to dissemble and represent another personage then what he is indeed But external signs accompany and follow their effects as necessarily as they are preceded by their causes he cannot so artificially cover his duplicity but it will appear and his retentions betray themselves It is as difficult to him to dissemble fear anger hatred envy and the other passions when they are real as to counterfeit them when they are not The same may be said of Diseases as of the passions of the body As 't is almost impossible to dissemble a true Gout or a Fever so 't is very hard to feign a Disease when one is in perfect health They who counterfeit the same are of two sorts People of quality and Beggars Of the first order are many Generals of Armies who have feign'd themselves sick that they might surprize their enemies who supposed them in bed and such as cover with malady that of cowardize or do it to avoid being present at Assemblies Thus Demosthenes pretended a Quinzy that he might not plead against one accus'd of Defrauding the State by whom he was corrupted with presents Of the second sort are they who to avoid the labour common to others or to cause themselves to be pitied make semblance of having one a Leprosie another the Falling-sickness a third the Jaundies and infinite other maladies which they have not or having some light ones amplifie and continue the same Such was the invention of an Italian Souldier of late years who feign'd himself troubled with certain fits caus'd by the biting of a Tarantula crying out of extraordinary pain except when the Musitians play'd for then he fell to dancing after the same manner as he had heard those use to do who have been hurt by that creature Physick to which alone pertains the discerning of these feign'd Diseases imploys to that end this maxime of Geometry that a right line serves for a measure not only of straight things but also of oblique So the perfect knowledge of real Diseases enables us to find out counterfeit 'T was by this means Galen discover'd the imposture of a Slave who to excuse himself from following his Master in a long Voyage because he was loath to leave his Mistress who was at Rome made his cheeks swell with the root of Thapsia and pale with the fume of Cummin For Galen seeing no other signs agree with these two cur'd him only with a Refrigerative whereas a true defluxion requir'd other remedies The Second said Maladies of body or mind are feign'd by people to decline some burdensome charge and commission or some evident danger Thus Vlysses counterfeited himself foolish to avoid going to the Trojan war and David being pursu'd by Saul made himself appear distracted to King Achish The young wife mention'd by Martial being married to an old man counterfeited the Hysterical Passions which she found a way to deceive her jealous husband Such pretences are sometimes us'd to retard an execution of death or else in a civil matter to be freed from prison and many times those things which afford signs to the Physitians are so exquisitely order'd that the most subtle are over-reached One makes his Urine black with Ink or red with Oker or yellow with Saffron another applies the root of Ranunculus to his groyn or some other Emunctory to counterfeit a Carbuncle another provokes vomiting by some Emetick which by that means will cause extraordinary agitation in his Pulse and give appearences of a pestilential Fever or else make so streight a ligature on the upper part of his arm that his Pulse will not beat at all as Matthiolus reports an ancient Physitian serv'd to confirm the fraud of a Mountebank who us'd that trick to make people believe that being almost dead he was revived by his Antidote But the most ordinary impostures of this kind are those of Beggars some of whom fume their faces with Brimstone that they may appear pale Others rub themselves with the flower of Broom or the seed of Carthamus to seem yellow or else black themselves with Oyl and Soot to appear struck with
not attribute this impediment of generation to charms and enchantments but rather to the power of the Imagination which is of great moment in this case as we see also in Love or Hatred which though by several ways render a man incapable of this action For if one be sollicited by a woman whom he thinks unhandsome and hates he cannot satisfie her because sadness makes his spirits to retire Another being surpriz'd with the enjoyment of some rare beauty becomes alike impotent because joy dissipates the same spirits The desire of doing well and the fear of failing are also frequently obstacles to it witness the impotence of Ovid Regnier the man mention'd in Petronius the Count spoken of by Montague and many others Now these passions making an impression in the Phancie disturb and hinder it from moving the Appetite and consequently the motive faculties depriving them by this means of their ordinary functions The Third said There are two sorts of Impotence one natural and the other supernatural The first happens two ways either through want of matter which is the geniture and spirits or through defect of emission The former not to mention the parts serving to generation happens through the extinction of virility and that by reason of old age sickness violent exercises aliments or medicaments cold and dry and generally by all causes which dissolve the strength and dissipate the spirits and flatuosities as Rue according to Aristotle The second defect proceeds from the obstruction of the Vessels or from a Resolution or Palsie befalling the foresaid parts That which is supernatural is acknowledg'd according to the Canon by the practise of the Church which ordains the two parties to be unmarried if at the end of three years they cannot undo this Gordian knot in the presence of seven witnesses It is made by Sorceries and charms which indeed have no action of themselves yet when men make use of them the Devil according to a compact either tacite or express acts with them imploying to that end the natural things whereof he hath perfect knowledge and hinders generation in two manners either by disturbing the phancie with some images and species of hatred and aversion or else by suspending the generative faculty by the dissipation of flatuosities retention of spirits and concretion of the geniture Now natural impotence is discern'd from supernatural because the first is alwayes alike towards all sort of persons but the second is onely in reference to some particular Woman the Man being well enough dispos'd for all others But change is to no purpose when the impotence is natural The Fourth said That Ligature is a subverting of the order establish'd in order by which all things are destinated to some particular action and are lead to what is sutable for them 'T is an impediment whereby the actions of agents as it were repress'd and restrain'd and 't is either Physical or Magical The former proceeds from a particular Antipathy between two Agents the stronger whereof by some occult contrary property extinguishes and mortifies the virtue of the weaker Thus Garlick or a Diamond hinder the Loadstone from attracting Iron Oyle keeps Amber from drawing straw and the spirits of the Basilisk fix those of a Man The second of which kind is the tying of the Point is done by Magick which thereunto employes certain words images circles characters rings sounds numbers ointments philtres charmes imprecations sacrifices points and other such diabolical inventions but especially barbarous names without signification yea sometimes to that degree of impiety as to make use of sacred things as the divine appellations prayers and verses taken out of the Holy Scripture which it prophanes in its charmes and fascinations Because as Saint Augustine saith the Devils cannot deceive Christians and therefore cover their poyson with a little honey to the end that the bitterness being disguis'd by the sweetness it may be the more easily swallow'd to their ruine These Magical Ligatures if we may credit those who treat of them are almost infinite For there are some particularly against Thieves restraining them from carrying away any thing out of the house others that hinder Merchants from buying or selling in certain Faires and retain ships in the Port so that they cannot get out to sea either by wind or oars or keep a mill from grinding the fire from burning the water from wetting the Earth from producing fruits and upholding buildings swords and all sorts of weapons and even lightning it self from doing mischief dogs from biting or barking the most swift and savage beasts from stirring or committing hurt and the blood of a wound from flowing Yea if we believe Virgil there are some which draw down the Moon to the Earth and effect other like wonders by means for the most part ridiculous or prophane Which nevertheless I conceive are to be referr'd either to natural causes or to the credulity of those who make use of them or to the illusions of the Devil or to the hidden pleasure of God sometimes permitting such impostures to deceive our senses for the punishing of the over-great curiosity of Men and chastising of the wicked For I see not what power of action there is in a number even or odd a barbarous word pronounc'd lowdly or softly and in a certain order a figure square or triangular and such other things which being onely quantities have not any virtue power or action for these belong onely to Qualities The Fifth said That we ought not to do as the vulgar do who refer almost every thing to supernatural causes If they behold a Tempest or Lightning fall down upon any place they cry the Devil is broke loose As for effects which are attributed to Occult Properties 't is Sorcery as they say to doubt that the same are other then the works of Sorcerers But we must rather imitate true Philosophers who never recurr to Occult Properties but where reasons fail them much less to supernatural causes so long as they can find any in nature how abstruse soever they may be Those of this knot or impotence are of three sorts Some proceed from the want of due Temper as from too great cold or heat either of the whole constitution or of the parts serving to generation For a good Temperature being requisite to this action which is the most perfect of any Animal immoderate heat prejudices the same as much as cold because it dries the Body and instead of producing consumes the Spirits The Second Cause is in the Mind for the Body is of it self immoveable unless it be agitated by the Soul which doth the same office to it that a Piper doth to his instrument which speaks not a jot if he blow not into it Now the Phancy may be carri'd away else where or prepossess'd with fear or some other predominant passion Whence he that imagines himself impotent and becomes so indeed and the first fault serves for a preparatory to the second Hereupon
by the Sun or regard several quarters of the world so the Comets have different shapes or figures which ought no more to astonish us then these of the Clouds which according to their conjunction together represent innumerable formes or at least then those of other fiery Meteors variously figur'd according to the casual occurrence of the matter which composes them Therefore Scaliger in his Exercitations holds that Comets are neither signes nor causes of the events which follow them and derides those who believe that they fore-shew the death of Great Persons or that destruction of Nations and Kingdomes alledging that many great Great Men have dy'd yea many Illustrious Families and States been destroy'd without the appearance of any Comet and on the contrary that many Comets have appear'd and no such accidents ensu'd The Fourth said That Comets are certain Stars whose motion is unknown to us and who being rais'd very high in their Apogaeum remain for a long time invisible This is of no unfrequent observation in Mars who as many Astrologers affirm is at some times lower then the Sun and at other times so high above the rest of the Planets superior to his sphere that his body remains hid when his opposition to the Sun ought to render it most conspicuous In like sort those Stars which God reserves as instruments of the greatest events which he hath fore-ordain'd to come to pass in the Universe remain a long time elevated in their Apogaeum till they come at length to descend towards the Earth from whence as soon as they begin to manifest themselves they attract great quantity of vapours which receiving the light variously according to the nature of the places whence they were rais'd represent to us sundry shapes of hairy and bearded Stars or in form of a Dart Sword Dish Tub Horns Lamps Torches Axes Rods and such others as it falls out And although those Stars incessantly act yet coming to be produc'd anew and being nearer the Earth their effects are augmented and become more sensible As the Fish ceases neither to be nor to move when it is in the bottome of the Sea yet it appears not to us to have either existence or motion unless when it comes near the surface of the Water The Fifth said that Comets must needs be some extraordinary things since they alwayes presignifie strange events especially in Religion Histories observe that of sixty six Comets which have appear'd since the Resurrection of our Saviour there is not one but hath been immediately follow'd by some disorder or division in the Church caus'd by Persecutions Schismes or Heresies That which Josephus relates to have appear'd over the Temple of Jerusalem and lasted a year contrary to the custom of others which exceed not sixty days was follow'd by the ruine of Judaism That of which Seneca speaks to have appear'd in Nero's time was the forerunner of the Heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion That of the year 1440 foreshew'd the Heresie of Nestorius That of the year 1200 the division caus'd by the Waldenses and Albingenses And lastly those which have been seen since the year 1330 have sufficiently manifested the truth of this effect by the multiplicity of Sects wherewith Christendom abounds at this day But especially the thirty Comets which have appear'd in France since the year 1556 four of which were in the same year namely in the year 1560 but too well witness the verity of their presignifications which as S. Augustine saith are ordinarily fulfill'd before the same are known by men The Sixth said That as in all things else so in Comets the magnitude demonstrates the vehemence and considerableness of the future event The colour signifies the nature of the Planet under whose dominion it is The splendor or brightness shews the quick and effectual activity thereof as its less lively colour testifies the contrary The Form is a Celestial character or hicroglyphick denoting an effect in the earth as if God spoke to us by signs or writ to us after the mode of China where the figures of things stand for letters not contenting himself to destinate to this purpose the combinations of the Planets with the other Stars which are the next causes of all natural effects here below The place of the Air or of Heaven namely the sign of the Zodiack wherein the Comet is serves to design the Country which is threatned by it and if it be in a falling House it signifies sudden death It s motion from West to East indicates some forreign enemy whose coming is to be fear'd If it move not at all 't is a sign that the enemy shall be of the same Land upon which the Meteor stops so likewise if it goes in twenty four hours from East to West because this motion is imputed to the first mover which hurries along withall the other Celestial Bodies Their effects also belong to the places towards which their hairs or tails incline Those which appear at day-break and continue long have their effects more sudden those of the evening and of less continuance later They are especially of great importance when they are found with any Eclipse and the Precept which Ptolomy and his Interpreters enjoyn principally to observe is that those are deceiv'd who believe that every Comet signifies the death of some great person but they only hold that as when the fiery Planets rise at day-break as so many attendants on the Sun he that is then born shall be a King so when a Comet is the fore-runner of the Sun at day-break it signifies the death of some great person The Seventh said That Comets do not so much foretel as cause Dearths and Famines Wars and Seditions burning Fevers and other diseases by the inflammation which they impress upon the Air and by it upon all other bodies and most easily upon our spirits For seeing twinkling and falling Stars are signs of great drought and impetuous winds when they shoot from several parts of Heaven how much more are those great fiery Meteors which we contemplate with such sollicitude and which act no less by conceit upon our souls then by their qualities upon our bodies Which being found to have place in those of delicate constitutions as great persons are occasion'd the opinion that those grand causes exercise their effects most powerfully upon people of high rank besides that the accidents which befall such persons are much more taken notice of then those of the vulgar But herein there is found less of demonstration then of conjecture II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Upon the second Point it was said That there is none but prizes an action of clemency and forgiveness more then an action of vengeance But all the difficulty is to distinguish what is done through fear from what proceeds from greatness of mind Thus when a Lyon vouchsafes not to rise for a Cat or little Dog that comes neer him but employs his strength only against some more stout creature
seen in our days a dumb man who answer'd pertinently to all that was spoken to him only by beholding the motion of the speaker's lips which is also the reason why blind men attending only to improve the sense of Hearing best observe all differences of speech Whence I draw this consequence that the same may be practis'd in all other things which signifie by humane institution and so there may be an universal Language But the easiness every one finds in making himself understood by the Language and Writing which is familiar to him renders men careless of advancing this excellent Design which would be a means to spare the best time which our youth spends in learning the words of strange Tongues instead of applying themselves solely to the knowledge of things The Fourth said That the possibility of this Project appears in that there is an order in nature or at least consequent to the very nature of things according to which we may place next after the Creator the created spiritual substances then the corporeal one after another according to their dignity particularly the corporeal according to their place as the Heavens first and in them the Stars according to their dignity the Earth and its Animals the Sea and its Fishes the Plants according to their magnitudes those which are equal therein according to their vertues and other accidents doing the same with Metals Minerals bodies perfectly and imperfectly compounded by nature and by art and with the Elements then we may come to the Categories of accidents to which every thing in the world may be reduc'd and put in its right place Whereby it is evident that not only all things have their order but also that he who learns them according to this order easily avoids confusion the mother of ignorance It remains now to find out an order of words too which answers to that of things the first to the first and the second to the second which order is so natural to them that children make use of it to find out every thing which they seek in Dictionaries and Lexicons according to the order of the Alphabet And I know not whether we ought not to begin this handsome gradation and situation of all things in their rank correspondent to the order of the letters with the style that God gives himself Alpha and Omega But it cannot but be admir'd that the first combination of the letters makes Ab and Aba which signifies Father the first place being due to the Author and Father of all things II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great Stature or a small Upon the second Point it was said That largeness of body seems to be preferrable as well because the word Magnitude or Grandeur always includes some perfection in it self as because the Gods were anciently represented of a size exceeding the ordinary Which made Aristotle say that not only the greatness of the Heroes render'd them famous of old but that their Figures and Statues are venerable at this day Moreover we see that Saul the first King chosen by God for his own people was taller by the head then all the rest of the Israelites And amongst the conditions of Beauty magnitude so universally holds the first place that women advance themselves upon high Shooes and Patins that they may seem the handsomer How well shap'd soever a little man be he is never of so majestical a presence as one that is taller Whence you see little men affect to seem greater but never any tall men desire to be less Now the same Proportion which is between a Man and his habitation is found between the soul and the body which is its Mansion For as he who hath the largest house will be accounted to be better lodg'd then he who dwells in a Cottage though they be persons otherwise of equal condition so 't is probable that souls which are all equal find themselves better lodg'd in a great body then in a small and exercise all their functions with much more freedom The Second said That if magnitude put the value upon men the same should hold in animals nevertheless the Elephant yields to the Fox yea to the Pismire the Estrich to the Nightingale and the Whale is the most stupid of all Fishes Moreover nothing hinders the divine operations of the soul but the load of the body whereby the imperfection of our nature places us below the wholly incorporeal Intelligences and therefore the less the body is the neerer we approach the Angelical nature and our spirit is less impeded by the matter Hence little men are not only the most quick-witted but also the most active and nimble for that the strength is more united in them and diffus'd and dissipated in others Great and robust bodies as being fitter for labour were made to obey the small and tender which have more spirit then flesh Whence the Romans gave the Civil and Military charges to little men and sent the greater to guard the Baggage as those who gave the enemies more aim then the less Nor are the greater more proper for other Arts which made the Poet say as a thing impossible Sambucam potiùs caloni aptaveris alto And Samuel was reprov'd by God for offering to prefer the tall Stature of the eldest son of Jesse before the small size of David his youngest as if the Israelites had been displeas'd with the large body of Saul The Poets could not represent an enraged Cyclops and furious Ajax but under great bodies as on the contrary they made Vlysses very small And indeed natural Reasons agree well herein For amongst the causes of the bodie 's growth the material is a slimy or viscous humidity whence Fish grow most and in shortest time This Humidity is as it were Glew or Bird-lime to the soul hindring it from exercising its functions freely and therefore women being more humid have less wit then men and Fish are less disciplinable then the rest of animals The efficient is a very gentle heat for were it too great it would consume the matter in stead of dilating and fashioning it and dry the solid parts too much upon the increasing of which depends that of the rest of the body This is the reason why all gelt animals grow most and amongst Birds of prey the females are always greater then the males the excess of their heat being temper'd by the humidity of their Sex and young persons are found to have grown extraordinarily after Quotidian Agues which are caus'd by Phlegme so that it is not hard for such pernicious causes to produce a good effect The Third said That every thing is to be commended and esteem'd according to the use for which it is appointed Now Man being born for Reason and the functions of the Mind and having receiv'd a Body to be an instrument to him of Knowledg by making a faithfull report to him of what passes without by means of the species convey'd through the senses into
naturally keep up above the water yet by enclosing it in some sort of vessel you may violently make it continue under the water II. Of the capricious or extravagant humours of women Upon the second Point it was said It is not here pronounc'd that all women are capricious but only the reason inquir'd of those that are such and why they are more so then men To alledge the difference of souls and suppose that as there is an order in the Celestial Hierarchies whereby the Archangels are plac'd above Angels so the spirits of men are more perfect then those of women were to fetch a reason too far off and prove one obscure thing by another more so Nor is the cause to be found in their bodies taken in particular for then the handsome would be free from this vice the actions which borrow grace from their subject appearing to us of the same nature and consequently their vertues would seem more perfect and their defects more excusable whereas for the most part the fairest are the most culpable We must therefore recur to the correspondence and proportion of the body and the soul. For sometimes a soul lights upon a body so well fram'd and organs so commodious for the exercise of its faculties that there seems more of a God then of a man in its actions whence some persons of either Sex attract the admiration of all world On the contrary other souls are so ill lodg'd that their actions have less of man then of brute And because there 's more women then men found whose spirits are ill quarter'd and faculties deprav'd hence comes their capricious and peevish humour For as melancholy persons whose blood is more heavy are with good reason accounted the more wise so those whose blood and consequently spirits are more agile and moveable must have a less degree of wisdom and their minds sooner off the hooks The irregular motions of the organ which distinguishes their Sex and which is call'd an animal within an animal many times have an influence in the business and increase the mobility of the humours Whence the health of their minds as well as that of their bodies many times suffers alteration A woman fallen into a fit of the Mother becomes oftentimes enrag'd weeps laughs and has such irregular motions as not only torment her body and mind but also that of the Physitian to assign the true cause of them Moreover the manner of living whereunto the Laws and Customs subject women contributes much to their defects For leading a sedentary life wherein they have always the same objects before their eyes and their minds being not diverted by civil actions as those of men are they make a thousand reflections upon their present condition comparing it with those whereof they account themselves worthy this puts their modesty to the rack and oftentimes carries them beyond the respect and bounds which they propos'd to themselves Especially if a woman of good wit sees her self marri'd to a weak husband and is ambitious of shewing her self Another judging her self to merit more then her rival not knowing to whom to complain of her unhappiness does every thing in despight And indeed they are the less culpable inasmuch as they always have the principles of this vice within themselves and frequently find occasions abroad The Second said that the word Caprichio is us'd to signifie the extravagant humour of most women because there is no animal to which they more resemble then a Goat whose motions are so irregular that prendre la chevre signifies to take snuffe without cause and to change a resolution unexpectedly For such as have search'd into the nature of this animal find that its blood is so sharp and spirits so ardent that it is always in a Fever and hence it is that being agitated with this heat which is natural to it it leaps as soon as it comes into the world Now the cause of this temper is the conformation of the Brain which they say is like that of a woman the Ventricles of which being very little are easily fill'd with sharp and biting vapours which cannot evaporate as Aristotle affirms because their Sutures are closer then those of men those vapours prick the Nerves and Membranes and so cause those extraordinary and capricious motions Hence it is that women are more subject to the Meagrim and other diseases of the head then men And if those that sell a Goat never warrant it sound as they do other animals there is no less excuse in reference to women Which caus'd the Emperour Aurelius to say that his Father in law Antoninus who had done so much good to others had done him mischief enough in giving him his daughter because he found so much bone to pick in a little flesh Moreover the Naturalists say that the Goat is an enemy to the Olive-tree especially which is a symbol of peace whereunto women are not over-well affected For not to mention the first divorce which woman caus'd between God and man by her lickorishness her talking her ambition her luxury her obstinacy and other vices are the most common causes of all the quarrels which arise in families and in civil life If you would have a troop of Goats pass over any difficult place you need force but one to do it and all the rest will follow So women are naturally envious and no sooner see a new fashion but they must follow it And Gard'ners compare women and girles to a flock of Goats who roam and browse incessantly holding nothing inaccessible to their curiosity There is but one considerable difference between them the Goat wears horns and the woman makes others wear them The Third said There is more correspondence between a woman and a Mule then between a woman and a Goat for leaving the Etymology of Mulier to Grammarians the Mule is the most teasty and capricious of all beasts fearing the shadow of a man or a Tree overturn'd more then the spur of the rider So a woman fears every thing but what she ought to fear The obstinacy of the Mule which is so great that it has grown into a Proverb is inseparable from the whole Sex most of them being gifted with a spirit of contradiction Mules delight to go in companies so do women the bells and muzzles of the one have some correspondence with the earings and masks of the other and both love priority The more quiet you allow a Mule it becomes the more resty so women become more vitious in idleness neither of them willingly admits the bridle between their teeth The Mule is so untoward that it kicks in the night time while 't is asleep so women are oftner laid then quiet Lastly the Mule that hath seem'd most tractable all its time one day or other pays his master with a kick and the woman that has seem'd most discreet at one time or other commits some notorious folly The Fourth said That those who invented the little
Medals representing the upper part of a woman and the lower of a Mule commend this Sex whilst they think to blame it For there is nothing more healthy strong patient of hunger and the injuries of seasons or that carries more and is more serviceable then a Mule Nature shews that she is not satisfi'd with her other productions whilst she makes other animals propagate by generation but when she has made a Mule she stops there as having found what she sought Now if certain actions of women seem full of perverseness and capricio to some possibly others will account them to proceed from vivacity of spirit and greatness of courage And as the Poet in great commendation of his black Mistress chanted her cheeks of Jet and bosom of Ebeny so whatever some people's mistake may say to the contrary the most capricious woman is the most becoming Nor is this humour unprofitable to them for as people are not forward to provoke a Mule for fear of kicks so we are more shie of women then otherwise we should be for fear of capricioes well understanding the difference which the Proverb puts between the van of the one and the rear of the other Yet some hold that this capriciousness of women follows the Moon no less then their menstruosities do Others that the flower of beans contributes very much to it The Fifth said That if credit is to be given to experience Solomon who had experience of a thousand women compares an ill capricious woman to a Tygress and a Lyoness Such were Medea Xantippe and many others Moreover the Poets say that the Gods intending to punish Prometheus for having stoln the celestial fire gave him a wife And when Satan afflicted Job he depriv'd him of his flocks of his houses and of his children but had a care not to take his wife from him knowing that this was the onely way to make him desperate as it would have done without God's special grace The Rabbins say three sorts of persons were exempted from publick charges and could not be call'd into judgement to wit the Poor the Nephritick and he that had a bad wife because they had business enough at home without needing any abroad The Laws likewise exempted new marry'd men from going to the wars the first year of their marriage allowing them this time which is the roughest and most important to repress their quarrelsomeness and reduce their fierce Spouses to duty Which if the Husbands could not effect a little bill of Divorce appointed by God and the Laws for putting an end to the poor Man's miseries did the business Though the Chaldeans us'd not so much formality but onely extinguish'd the domestick fire which the Priest kindled at the marriage Yet the priviledge was not reciprocal neither Divine nor Humane Laws having ever allow'd women to relinquish their Husbands for then being as capricious and inconstant as they are they would have chang'd every day For the same reason the Laws have alwayes prohibited to women the administration of publick affairs And the Religion of the Mahumetan Arabians assignes them a Paradise apart because say they if the women should come into that of the men they would disturb all the Feast CONFERENCE XLVII I. Of the Virtue of Numbers II. Of the Visible Species I. Of the Virtue of Numbers THe Mind of Man resembles those who make the point of their tools so small that they spoil them with too much sharpning and in the contemplation of natural causes there is more then enough to satisfie his desire of knowledge were it not that he will attempt every thing Hence it is that the causes of different effects here below are sought in things the most remote and no otherwise appertaining to them then that as accidents and circumstances Of these accidents some have action as Quality others have none as Quantity under which are comprehended Number Figure Lines Surface and its other species which are consider'd either in some matter or else abstracted from it in the former of these wayes they have some virtue in regard of their matter but not in the latter An Army of fifty thousand Men is potent but the number of fifty thousand can do nothing yea is nothing if taken abstractedly Wherefore as reasonable as it is to seek the virtues of simple and compound bodies in their qualities and to say e. g. that Pepper bites and alters the Tongue because it is hot and dry so absurd it seemes to think that five or seven leaves of Sage apply'd to the Wrist have more virtue then six or eight The Second said Nothing includes more wonders in it self then Number and if our Reason cannot penetrate their cause they ought to be the more esteem'd for being unknown This is the universal opinion of all Antiquity both Jewish and Pagan which otherwise would not have made so much adoe with them Yea there 's divine authority for it contain'd in the eleventh Chapter of Wisedom God made all things in number weight and measure Experience justifies their Energy teaching us that certain numbers are to be observ'd in cases where we would have the like effects which possibly is the canse why the operations of one and the same remedy are found so frequently different We see Nature so religious in this observation in all her works that she never produces an Animal but the proportion of seeds is adjusted most exactly that in Plants their grains and all other parts have the same taste colour and virtue whence it is that simple medicaments are alwayes more certain then compound because Nature either produces them not at all or makes them with the same number weight and measure of matter and qualities 'T is through the virtue of number that such a Plant as Coloquintida is mortal when it grows alone and medicinal when many of them grow together The Third said The Pythagoreans and Platonists ascrib'd so great power to numbers that they thought all things were compos'd of them and more or less active according to their several proportion Of which they made four sorts First the Poetical or Musical the virtue whereof is such that it gave occasion to the Fable of Orpheus who is said to have drawn even beasts trees and rocks by the harmonious sound of his Harp 'T was by the cadence of the like numbers that David chas'd away Saul's evil spirit and Poetry which differs from Prose onely by its numbers hence derives the power it hath over mens souls The Second sort is the Natural and is found in the composition of all mixt bodies The Third is Rational peculiar to Man whose soul they term'd a moving number the connexion whereof with the body they said continu'd so long as the numbers which link'd them remain'd united together The Fourth Divine upon which and the Natural the Cabalists and Magicians have founded their profoundest secrets and Agrippa his Occult Philosophy But above all others they particularly esteem'd the odd number styling
like Which is no less wonderful then the first Creation the power of which God seemes by this productive virtue to have communicated to Creatures But that which surpasses all admiration is that even the most gross and material things incessantly emit out of themselves infinite species which are so many pourtraitures and resemblances more exquisite and excellent then their Original And being every thing ha's its sphere of activity these species are diffus'd in the Air and other diaphanous mediums to a certain distance unless they meet with opake and terminated bodies which hinder them from passing further and interrupt their continuity with their source either reflecting them as it happens when the opposite body is so exactly polish'd that it equally sends back all the parts of the species without mutilation or onely stopping them as all other bodies do Our Sight goes not to seek Objects but they insinuate themselves into it by their species whence it is that in a Looking-glass we behold a person that stands behind us Moreover all Sensation being a Passion according to Aristotle as Hearing is made by the reception of sounds so must Seeing by the reception of the Visible Species nor must this sense be in a worse condition then the rest who are not at the trouble to go to seek their Objects but onely to receive them An undoubted proof whereof is administred by the great conformity which is between the Seeing Hearing and Smelling especially between the two former The Second said That the Visible Species are a reflection of light which is various according to the different colour and figure of the Objects Whence it is that a Concave glass reflects not onely the species but also light and heat augmented by the union of their scatter'd rayes into a point Now these Species are carry'd into the Eye and as one nayle drives another and the agitated Water or Air thrusts that which is next it so the tunicles and humours of the Eye being struck by the Species the Spirits are stirr'd by the same means and take the form of the Species according as they arrive as when the Air is inclos'd in a rock is struck by the Species of some sound it puts on the form of the Species of this sound and issuing forth of its cavity with this borrow'd form makes the voice which we call an Echo These Species being receiv'd by the Spirits are by them carry'd to the Common Sense and the Imagination and then after the example of this Faculty the Intellect formes the like in it self which are more spiritual and incorporeal then the first and which at length it commits to the custody of the Memory to make use of the same in fitting time and place The Third said That the greatest difficulty arising about these Visible Species is how those of each different object of the same place can fill it all and nevertheless all these Species together not fill it more yea not confound and hinder one the other from being as well seen as if there were but one Object 'T is otherwise in sounds and smells which being various give not a distinct perception of any one but a medley of all Now the reason hereof seemes to be because the Visible Species alter not the Air as odours which are corporeal do as appears in that they make us healthy and sick and 't is not needful for the Eye to paint them anew as the Ear new frames all sounds which cannot be done but successively the deep tone for example being constrain'd to attend at the portal of the Ear till the shrill be new form'd in it Whence ariseth the confusion of sounds The Fourth said As the Visible Species are not mix'd together in a Looking-glass but all appear distinctly although the dimensions of the glass be very small in respect of the extent and number of the objects because the Species concur there in a direct line and are terminated as in a point which is capable to lodge them being they are immaterial So it is with the same Species in reference to the Air through the least part whereof 't is a less wonder that many of them pass without penetration then to observe the actions of our Memory in one point of which infinite Species not onely visible but those introduc'd by all other senses remain for a long time yea during all our lives notwithstanding their society seem very incompatible But although Objects send their Images towards the Sight yet the Eye emits the most subtile and active Spirits to receive them which it hath for this purpose Hence it is that to see a thing distinctly we contract our Eyes or shut one of them to the end the visual beams may be more strengthened by being more united 'T is through the dissipation of these spirits that the Eye grows weary with seeing and old men those who watch read or addict themselves to women too much see not very clear and on the contrary young persons and the cholerick whose spirits are more subtile have a very sharp Sight But if Sight were performed without any Emission the Basilisk should not kill by its aspect the Wolf perceiving a man first should not make him hoarse women should not infect Looking-glasses at certain times those who have sore Eyes should not communicate their infirmity to others by beholding them or being beheld by them Lastly old hags could not bewitch Children by the Sight and Lambs too by the report of Virgil if the visual spirits which they send forth were not corrupted The Fifth said If the Eye send any thing towards the Object it must be either a substance or an accident An incorporal substance it cannot be for then a man should emit his Soul or part of it which is absurd besides that of other Animals whose Souls are confessedly corporeal some see better then we Nor can it be a body for no body is mov'd in an instant and yet as soon as we open our Eyes we behold the Stars yea we see much sooner then we hear and behold the Lightning before we hear the Thunder which preceded it Nor is it any of the Animal Spirits that issues forth from whence should such a quantity be produc'd as to reach as far as the Firmament Neither is it an accident since 't is against Nature for an accident to go from one subject to another Now this difficulty may serve for an excuse to Cardinal Perron when before Henry III he was gravel'd with this Riddle I am a man and no man I have neither body nor soul I am neither shadow nor picture and yet I am seen by which was meant the species of a man beholding himself in a glass Lastly either these visual rayes return back to their quarters after they have been abroad to receive the Visible Species and then Nature should labour in vain by going to seek that which comes of its own accord or else they return not and so the vision should
well that death will deprive him of all the goods of this world since well-being presupposes being Therefore courage do's not wholly take away the fear of death no more then the sense of pain which is natural otherwise a couragious man ought to be insensible and stupid But he governs this fear in such sort that it do's not hinder him from overcoming his enemy although it render him more prudent and circumspect in seeking fit means to attain thereunto Herein he differs from the rash person who casting himself into dangers without having foreseen and maturely consider'd them becomes faint-hearted in the chiefest of the brunt The Fourth said A couragious man is known by what he attempts without rashness and accomplishes without fear for he always represents to himself the danger greater then it is to the end to arm himself with strong resolutions which once taken 't is impossible to make him retract His courage proceeds neither from experience nor necessity nor desire of gain ignorance or stupidity but having well consider'd the danger and judg'd it honourable to resist it he doth so upon the sole account of vertue and shews himself indefatigable in undergoing toils and invincible even in death 'T is not enough that his cause be good he will end it by lawful means and had rather lose his right then attempt such as are unjustifiable and displeasing to his Prince Therefore our Duellists must conclude that they abandon solid honour to follow its shadow since honourable and just are inseparable The sword is his last remedy and he uses it more to defend then to assault but always with some kind of constraint and yet none wields it with more sureness and grace fear not causing him to make unseemly gestures He hates nothing so much as vice He speaks little but acts much liking rather to be seen then heard He chuses not the kind of death but receives that which is offer'd in which nothing troubles him saving that it deprives him of the means to do his King and Country more service If his ill fate make him a slave he will not employ death to deliver himself from servitude as Cato of Vtica did shewing thereby a figure of cowardize rather then of courage but he will so deport himself as to seem free in his bondage yea to have dominion over those who command him In fine whether he be conqueror or conquer'd he loses nothing of his magnanimity but remains always like himself firm in his resolutions To attain to which greatness of spirit 't is not enough that the structure of the body be large or the heat of temper as great as that of Leonidas the Spartane Matthias the Emperour or the Pirate burnt alive at Gradisca by the Venetians the hearts of which three were found hairy there must be moreover an heroick soul informing this body The Fifth alledg'd that the Original of courage is to be sought in the nobleness of extraction whether it be known or not For though there seem to be some intervals in illustrious families proceeding from malignant influences or other impediment yet there is observ'd generally no less resemblance of children with their Ancestors in mind then in body Eagles never producing Doves nor Doves Eagles CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease MEn in imitation of Nature always seek the shortest way For which purpose they have thought fit to make maximes of every thing whereas to speak truth there is no maxime of any thing since by the most certain rule of all there is none so general but hath some exception yea some have so many exceptions that 't is dubious on which side to make the rule Nevertheless the minde of man forbears not to make axiomes in all Sciences especially in Physick whose Office being to govern Nature it involves in certain general laws all diseases with their causes symptomes and remedies although as in the Law so in Physick two Cases are never alike But when these rules come to be apply'd to practice every one confesses that he finds them not wholly correspondent to what he expected Now this is chiefly to be understood of particular Diseases and Specificks as the Pleurisie Cataract or Gout For geral Infirmities as simple Intemperatures may be cur'd by general Remedies endu'd with contrary qualities The Second said Specifick is that which is determin'd to some one thing and hath above it the Generick and below the Individual It is demanded here whether there be Remedies so determined to one species or sort of disease as that they sute to that alone I conceive that since there are diseases of all forms as Pestilential Venomous and Malignant there are also Remedies so too and experience shews in many admirable Cures that there are Remedies whose effects depend not on the first Qualities as that Rheubarb purges that Mugwort is good for the Mother and Bezoar a Cordial comes not from heat and dryness in such a degree for then every thing that hath the same temperament should be likewise purgative hysterical and cordial which is not true But nothing hinders but a Remedy may be specifical to one particular Distemper by its occult qualities and yet profitable and sutable to others by its manifest qualities as the same thing may be both food and physick The Third said That this Question depends upon another namely whether mixt bodies act only by their temperature and first qualities or by their substantial forms or specifick vertues For if the action of every thing depends not on the various mixture of its qualities but on its whole form and substance Medicines will never cure as they are hot or cold but by a particular specifick vertue arising from their form wholly contrary to that of the disease For understanding whereof 't is to be observ'd that as the natural constitution of every mixt body consists in a perfect mixture of the four Elementary Qualities in the good disposition of the matter and in the integrity of the form so the same may suffer mutation in either of these three manners either according to its temperature or according to its matter or according to its form Whence it follows that every mixt body as medicaments are may act upon our Nature by its first second and third faculties The first proceed from the sole commixtion of the four Qualities according to the diversity whereof the compound is either Hot as Pepper or Cold as Mandrakes or Moist as Oyle or Dry as Bole Armenick not in act but in power And by this First Faculty alone which follows the Temperament a Medicament acts chiefly upon the Temperament of Bodies Their Second Faculty arises from the various mixture of the same Qualities with the Matter For a Hot Temperament joyn'd to a matter dispos'd according to the degree of Heat will be opening cutting corrosive or caustick and so the rest
obstruction hinders the afflux of the spirits to it as in a Gutta Serena there is no vision made An Evidence that seeing is an action of both and consequently the Senses are as many as the several Organs which determine and specificate the same But the Taste being comprehended under the Touch by the Philosophers definition must be a species thereof and therefore there are but four Senses as four Elements the Taste and the Touch which it comprehends being exercis'd in the earth gross as themselves the Sight in Water in which its Organ swims and of which it almost wholly consists the Smelling by the Fire which awakens odours and reduces them out of power into act and the Hearing in the Air which is found naturally implanted in the Ear and is the sole medium of this sense according to Aristotle the hearing of Fishes being particular to them in the Water and very obscure The Third said He was of Scaliger's mind who reckons Titillation for the sixth sense For if the Taste though comprehended under the Touching as was said constitutes a distinct sense why not Titillation which is a species of Touching too considering that it represents things otherwise then the ordinary Touch doth and hath its particular Organs as the soles of the Feet the palmes of the Hands the Flanks the Arm-pits and some other places Yea Touching may be accounted the Genus of the Senses since all partake thereof The Fourth said That those actions which some Animals perform more perfectly then we as the Dog exceeds us in Smelling the Spider in Touching the Eagle in Seeing and many in presaging the seasons and weather seem'd to be the effects of 6 7 or 8 Senses there being no proportion between such great extraordinary effects and their Organes the structure whereof is the same with those of other Animals which come not near the same Yea that 't is by some supernumerary sense found in each Animal that they have knowledge of what is serviceable or hurtful to them in particular For example who teaches the Dog the virtue of Grass the Hart of Dittany their ordinary Senses cannot Nor is it likely that so many occult properties have been produc'd by Nature to remain unknown But they cannot be understood unless by some Sense which is not vulgar considering that all the Senses together understand not their substance The Fifth said There are five external Senses neither more nor less because there needs so many and no more to perceive and apprehend all external objects And as when one of our Senses is deprav'd or abolish'd another cannot repair it nor succeed it in all its functions so if there were more then five the over-plus would be useless there being no accident but falls under the cognisance of these five Senses And although each of them is not sufficient thereunto severally yet they serve well enough all together as in the perception of motion rest number magnitude and figure which are common objects to divers Senses Now if there were need of more then five Senses 't would be to judge of objects wherein the others fail So that the supernumeraries being unprofitable 't is not necessary to establish more then five And as for substance 't is not consistent with its Nature to be known by the external Senses The Sixth said Man being compos'd of three Pieces a Soul a Body and Spirits of a middle Nature between both the five Senses suffice to the perfection and support of these three parts Knowledge which is the sole Good of the Soul is acquir'd by invention and discipline for which we have Eyes and Ears Good Odours recreate and repair the Spirits The Touch and Taste are the Bodie 's guards the first by preserving it from hurtfull qualities which invade it from without and the second from such as enter and are taken in by the mouth And therefore 't is in vain to establish more The Seventh said Since according to the Philosophers Sense is a passive quality and Sensation is made when the Organ is alter'd by the object there must be as many several Senses as there are different objects which variously alter the Organs Now amongst Colours Odours and other sensible objects there are many different species and the qualities perceiv'd by the Touch are almost infinite Nor is it material to say that they all proceed from the first qualities since Colors Odours and Tasts are likewise second qualities arising from those first and nevertheless make different Senses The Eighth said Although it be true that Faculties are determin'd by objects yet must not these Faculties be therefore multiply'd according to the multitude of objects So though White and Black are different nevertheless because they both act after the same manner namely by sending their intentional species through the same medium to the same Organ the Sight alone sufficeth for judging of their difference The Ninth said Since four things are requisite to Sensation to wit the Faculty the Organ the Medium and the Object 't is by them that the number of Senses is determin'd The Object cannot do it otherwise there would not be five Senses but infinitely more Nor can the Faculty do it being inseparable from the Soul or rather the Soul it self and consequently but one and to say that there is but one Sense is erroneously to make an external Sense of the Common Sense Much less can the Medium do it since one and the same Medium serves to many Senses and one and the same Sense is exercis'd in several Mediums as the Sight in the Air and the Water It remains therefore that the diversity proceed from that of the Organs which being but five make the like number of Senses II. Whether is better to be silent or to speak Upon the Second Point it was said 'T is a greater difficulty and consequently more a virtue to hold one's peace then to speak the latter being natural to Man and very easie when he has once got the habit of it but the former is a constrain'd Action and to practise which handsomely the Mind must be disciplin'd to do violence to the itch of declaring it self every one conceiving it his interest that the truth be known And there are fewer examples of those that have sav'd themselves by speaking then of those that have lost themselves by not keeping Secrecie justly term'd the Soul of the State and of affairs which once vented of easie become impossible Whence arose the name of Secretaries for principal Ministers and Officers of States and great Houses and indeed 't is at this day a title affected by the meanest Clerks testifying thereby in what esteem they have Silence And the unworthiest of all Vices Treachery ordinarily takes advantage of this defect of Secrecie which renders Men full of chinks and like a sieve so that many can more easily keep a coal in their mouths then a secret On the contrary Silence is so much reverenc'd that the wisest persons when they are
Cannons and see the field strow'd with Carcases and so in all other subjects which he treats Wherefore to be a good Poet one must know every thing in perfection which makes Poetry so difficult and consequently so rare and admirable that few succeed well in it For there are many Versifiers but few Poets The Third said There need no other Judges to condemn Poetry then Poets themselves who call their highest conceits Fury that is to say Folly whether it arrive to them from their fabulous gods or more truly from the fumes of Wine which cause them to make the best Verses as they tell of Ennius the frequentation of which is one of the greatest crimes that Cato imputed to Marcus Nobilior in the survey that he made of his Province and 't is observ'd that there is so great affinity between Poetry and Folly that the best Poets have very odd actions and postures while they are making their works and retain something thereof in their ordinary carriage The Fourth said Variety of Wit has not appear'd in any Science more then in Poetry For it has not only different laws according to the diversity of Nations which makes it doubted what sort of Verses those of Job are considering that they have no resemblance with the Greek and Latine no more then these have with ours But neither were ours which consist of certain numbers of feet and consonances or rithmes such as those in Caesar's time in which he reports that the Gauls versifi'd and within a thousand years that our rithme began in imitation of the Prose of the Church French Poetry hath been so often diversifi'd that the Poets of one age would not be so in another And yet sometimes under the name of Rithmers sometimes under that of Devisers and Poets they have been always very acceptable to great persons And Charle magne prefer'd the Poems containing the exploits of his Predecessors before their Histories The Fifth said That Plato and sundry other Politicians accounted Poety not only so useless but so hurtful to their Common-wealth that they utterly banish'd it from thence because Poets by their shameful relations of the vices of the gods intic'd men to commit the like conceiving they did not offend when they had the example of a god and for that Verses are more proper for loose loves then the Sciences of which the confinements of Poetry are not capable besides that the enthusiasm of Poets cannot consist with the gravity of Philosophy seldom with the probity of manners and never with a setled judgement the Italian Proverb being almost always found true Di buona terra cattiva Gente Di buon Poeta cattiva mente Whence Aristophanes saith that when Bacchus desir'd to find Euripedes or some other good Poet he went down to Hell because he could not any in Heaven Moreover their too great liberty of Satyrical detraction made them sometimes be driven out of Rome Their dangerous doctrine has caus'd the reading of them to be forbidden to Christians by the Canons and render'd them so infamous that Philip the first Christian Emperour in the third Law at the title of Professors and Physitians in the Cade grants no immunity to them as he doth to all others Indeed one may get his living in all professions with honour except in Poetry and if it always less fills the Poets Purses with Crowns then their heads with presumption so as it happens in all other Conceits or Pastimes it may be found sometimes proper for the divertisement of those few that have leisure to read them but 't is most unprofitable to the Authors for few or none are advanc'd by it but rather many have been hindred by this art of versifying from making their fortune otherwise Yea their profession is so vile and abject that whereas others count it an honour to be styl'd Physitians Advocates or the like these are offended with the name of Poet. And that with good reason considering that of all other Arts Poetry alone glories in disguising the truth For which cause it begins to be banish'd even from Theatres to which alone it was destinated and Prose is come in request in sundry places being preferr'd for gracefulness and naturalness by which means this Art is in danger to be confin'd to the corners of streets to serve only for Songs and Balladâ— Hence it was that Ovid was so severely punish'd by his father to make him leave off this Art which prov'd so unlucky to him that for writing his Book of the Art of Loving he became of a rich Roman Knight a miserable exile amongst Barbarians The Sixth said 'T is to be a sworn enemy of excellent things or rather as Scaliger saith to renounce being man to think of banishing Poetry out of States which is slighted only by the ignorant and hated by those that have irregular minds For melody is natural not only to man but to all things in the world which God hath created in number and measure Which made the Pythagoreans say that not only the Celestial Bodies make a most agreeable consort but also the Plants by their proportions and the beasts by their motions chant measured Odes in praise of their Creator Therefore with more reason must man whose soul is a number moving of it self be delighted with numerous language which is Poetry the most sensible effect of that divine Harmony which is infus'd into his body And we may make the same judgement of good from vulgar wits by their delight or disaffection to Poetry as by the recreation which they take in Musick Indeed if a wise man ought to be regular in all his actions why not in his words the image of his Reason as Reason is of his soul. As if you should say that the well regulated dance of a Ball ought to be less priz'd then the ordinary walk or a Country dance Moreover Poetry hath such power over mens minds Tyrtaeus animated his Souldiers to fight by the rehearsal of his Verses which was also the custom of the Germans when they were to charge their enemies Moses David and many other Prophets accounted nothing more worthy then Poetry to sing the praises of God And the first Poets as Musaeus Orpheus and Linus were the Divines of Paganisme Yea the gods of antiquity affected to deliver their Oracles in Verse and so did Legislators their Laws to render them more venerable Besides they greatly help the memory their cadence or measure serving as a rule to the mind to keep it from being at a loss Poetry alone amongst all the Arts supplies praise to vertue the rampant stile of Rhetorical discourse though it borrow its fairest flowers and square periods from Poetry being not comparable to that of Poetry which is far more sublime and consequently more fit to immortalize the memory of Heroick actions Upon which account the Muses were believ'd the Daughters of Mnemosyne or Memory Now if Poets have been sometimes expell'd out of States so have Philosophers Physitians
cannot do this office because its extreme humidity would diminish the virtue of Odours The Third said As the Nose the instrument of Smelling is plac'd in the middle of all the rest so this Sense is of a middle nature between them For 't is more material then the Hearing and the sight but more subtile then the Touch and Taste although it hath a great affinity with this latter by which it perceives its object namely Odours which are distinguish'd by help of Sapours and are divided according to their number agreable and disagreeable being onely its general differences For there are as many particular differences as several subjects Moreover Sapour and Odour are compos'd of the same matter and produc'd by the same heat they are both qualities of food whose good and evil faculties are discern'd by smell as well as by taste Yet they differ in this that some Odours are not of food but of delight as that of Roses with which kind of Odour Man alone is pleas'd amongst all Animals who are not delighted with Odours further then they signifie to them the goodness of their food that which is said of the Panther that all other Animals run after its smell being accounted fabulous They have also this peculiar that Odours come from an igneous and subtile siccity predominant over humidity whereas Sapours reside in humidity Hence it is that flowers have more smell then leaves because they are made of the more tenuious parts of the Plant among Flowers those that grow amidst bushes and in other dry places are more odoriferous and Roses smell sweeter about Noon when they are dry'd by the heat of the Sun then in the Morning when they are bedew'd with the humidity of the Night The Fourth said Most Animals have a bad Odour and Man the most imperfect Smelling partly because Nature hath thought fit to give this Sense in a more exquisite degree to Animals that live by prey as to the Dog and Vulture and Man was to hunt otherwise then by the Nose and partly by reason of the situation of the Mammillary processes near the Brain more cold and moist and large in Man then in any other creature Whence it is that Men know not the differences of Odours as they do those of the other objects of the Senses Yet as there are Animals which are driven away by certain bad smells Flyes by that of Brimstone Serpents by that of Galbanum and generally all by the steam of the carcases of their own kind so some Odours not onely drive away Men as the fume of an Indian pepper but are accounted mortal not by reason of the smell but of the hurtful Body which it introduces into the Ventricles of the Brain As on the contrary there are Odours which recreate so much that they are thought to nourish for they who are conversant among the smells of meat eat less and the sole Odour of new Wine inebriates The Fifth said Odour is a fumous exhalation excited by heat either internal or external Therefore Gold is inodorous its perfect mixtion hindring it from exhaling and things chaf'd or heated have a stronger smell because the heat draws outwards those subtile parts which cold incloses and keeps from exexpanding themselves and odoriferous are diminish'd in time through the evaporation of their more subtile parts So Wine unless well stop'd loses with its Odour its virtue and goodness as if its strength consisted in its smell and Camphire exhales utterly if it be not kept close And Perfumes have a more agreeable smell a far off then near hand because the subtiler parts are scented at distance and the grosser hard by II. Of Eloquence Upon the Second Point the First said That if we cannot evince the Excellence of Eloquence above all other Humane Actions we must confess that we have no Eloquence for this is the golden chain which our ancient Gaules fastned to the Tongue of their Hercules and made him draw all his Auditors by the Ears Moreover since 't is the way to perswade and perswasion is the way to do any thing whatever there is no power that can equal it Which to prove by Examples would require the transcription of all Histories It hath disarmed Anger and Justice too a hundred times obtain'd the Generalship to Demosthenes notwithstanding his Cowardice and inexperience in the matter of War the Consulship to Cicero bent Caesar's heart for him which the forces of the Romane Empire could not bend when he so ravish'd him as to make him let the book fall which he held in his hands so well can this Art of well speaking master Bodies as well as Souls Therefore Conquerours authorize their Cannon shots with reasons and employ so many Orators to justifie their exploits and make their government acceptable and the Romans though they became masters of all the world never drew a sword out of the scabbard till they had first charg'd the fault by their manifestoes upon those whom they declar'd their Enemies Which seems to be the onely difference between regular wars and pirates at Sea or robbers on land 'T is hence also that the greatest concussions of States and revolutions of Monarchies have proceeded from Religion which hath also lay'd the foundation of some bringing the Body into subjection by perswading the Soul whereas when open force subdues the former it loses the affection of the latter nor matters it whether the Religion be true or false provided the people be perswaded of it For being none are constrain'd to believe as Theodosius the Emperour said if the inward part be not won people pay nothing but countenances like bad servants and Man is so govern'd by phancy that good seems bad to him if it please him not and bad good when he affects it Indeed all actions that a Man exercises by constraint are of the Animal but those which he doth voluntarily are of the Man distinguish'd for this cause from beasts by Intellect and Will the former of which serving for a foundation to the latter this Will is govern'd by Reasons as a Horse by a bridle This is the true Magick of which so many Impostors falsely boast whose admirable effects appear in all conditions sexes and ages Is any thing dearer to an old man then his Crowns Yet discourse entraps them some under one pretext some under another and which is most strange such a one shall bereave him of his wealth whilst he makes shew of encreasing them Is there any thing more precious to a Woman then her Honour yet insinuation oftentimes prevailes upon her we love nothing more then life and yet a well animated Oration will make people expose it to apparent danger In brief there is no kind of profession and mysterie but owes what it hath most profitable to Eloquence Preachers and Advocates lay the main stress upon it Physitians who seem to have less need of it acknowledge its usefulness in their counsels which were of small credit and authority without
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
the Stoicks call a god others a divine member and the Luminary of the little World Theophrastus Beauty because it resides principally in the Eyes the most charming part of a handsome face Their colour twinkling fixedness and other dispositions serve the Physiognomists for certain indications of the inclinations of the soul which all antiquity believ'd to have its seat in the eyes in which you read pride humility anger mildness joy sadness love hatred and the other humane affections And as the inclinations and actions of men are more various then those of other creatures so their eyes alone are variously colour'd whereas the eyes of all beasts of the same species are alike Yea the eyes are no less eloquent then the tongue since they express our conceptions by a dumb but very emphatical language and a twinkle of the eye many times moves more to obedience then speech Plato being unable to conceive the admirable effects of the Sight without somewhat of divinity believ'd there was a celestial light in the eye which issuing forth to receive the outward light brought the same to the soul to be judg'd of which nevertheless we perceive not in the dark because then the internal streaming forth into the obscure air which is unlike to it self is alter'd and corrupted by it Indeed if it be true that there is a natural implanted sound in the ear why may there not be a natural light in the eye considering too that the Organs ought to have a similitude and agreement with their objects And hence it is that the eyes sometimes flash like lightning in the night as Cardan saith his did and Suetonious relates the same of Tiberius and that those that are in a Phrensy imagine that they see lightning For it seems to me more rational to refer this Phaenomenon to the lucid and igneous spirits of the sight which being unable to penetrate the crystalline or vitreous humour by reason of some gross vapours reflect back into the eye and make those flashes then to the smoothness of the eye or to attrition of the spirits or as Galen holds to an exhalation caus'd by the blood which is carri'd to the head though this latter may sometimes be a joynt cause The Third said The Eye is compos'd of six Muscles as many Tunicles three Humours two pair of Nerves and abundance of small Veins and Arteries its object is every thing that is visible as colour light and splendor light in the Celestial Bodies wherein the object and the medium are the same thing since the light of the Sun is seen by it self colour in inferiour bodies where the object and the medium are two for colour cannot be seen without light splendor in the scales of Fishes rotten wood the eyes of some animals Gloe-worms and the like for it is different from their natural colour It s Organ is the Eye so regarded by Nature that she hath fortifi'd it on all sides for its safety with the bone of the Forehead the Eye-brows the Eye-lids the hair thereof the Nose the rising of the Cheeks and the Hands to ward off outward injuries and if Galen may be believ'd the Brain it self the noblest part of the body was made only for the eyes whence Anaxagoras conceiv'd that men were created only to see or contemplate The Eyes are dearer to us then any other part because saith Aristotle they are the instruments of most exact knowledge and so serve not only for the body but the soul whose food is the knowledge which the eye supplies call'd for this reason the Sense of Invention as the Ear is that of discipline 'T is of an aqueous nature because it was requisite that it should be diaphanous to receive the visible species and light for if it had been of a terrestrial matter it would have been opake and dark if aerious or igneous it could not have long retain'd the species air and fire being thin diaphanous bodies which receive well but retain not for though the air be full of the species of objects which move through it from all parts yet they are not visible in it by reason of its rarity It was fit therefore that the Eye should be of a pellucid and dense substance that it might both receive and retain the visible species which kind of substance is proper to water as appears by the images which it represents Moreover the Eye being neer and conjoyn'd to the Brain by the Nerves of the first and second conjugation and to the membranes thereof by its Tunicles could not be of an igneous nature perfectly contrary to that of the Brain as Plato held it to be because of its agility lucidity and orbicular figure like that of fire as he said and because the Eye is never tense or stiff as all the other parts all which he conceiv'd could not be but from fire For the Eyes agility or nimbleness of motion is from its Muscles and its lubricity its brightness from the external light its round figure rather denotes water whose least particles are so then fire whose figure is pyramidal 'T is never stiff because of the fat wherewith it is stuff'd and because it is destitute of flesh II. Of Painting Upon the second Point it was said That Painting is a sort of writing by which many times that is express'd which cannot be spoken witness the story of Progne and Philomel and as the latter represents things by letters so doth the former by their natural figure so perfectly that it is understood by the most ignorant because it exhibits in their proper colour bigness proportion and other natural accidents whereas Writing makes use of characters and figures which have no affinity with the things denoted by them but only signifie the same by the institution of men who therefore differ in Writing but all agree in painting Both the one and the other like all Arts whose scope is imitation as Oratory Statuary Sculpture Architecture and many others depend upon the strength of the Imagination and that Painter succeeds bests who hath in his mind the most perfect idea of his work And because a Painter is to imitate every thing 't is requir'd to his being a Master that he be ignorant of nothing particularly he must know both the natural and artificial proportions and agreements of things with their several modes and uses And where there are three ways of representing the first in surfaces by flat painting the other in bodies themselves which belongs to Statuary and the Plastick Art the third between both as Graving and Carving Painting is the most difficult and consequently the most noble For it must so deceive the sight as to make cavities folds and bosses appear in a flat surface by the help of shadows which although a meer nothing because but a privation of light yet they gave all the gracefulness and value to Pictures For the way of painting without shadows us'd in China being nothing but a simple delineation without hatchment
as it is very excellent so 't is exceeding rare and being not us'd amongst us cannot come into comparison with the rest Whereas Sculpture and Statuary consisting only in paring away the overplus of matter or if the matter be fusible in casting it into a mould made from the original as the moulds of Plaster are from the faces of persons newly deceas'd need less industry The Second said Although Painting be sensible and visible yet it belongs to very few persons to judge well of it witness Alexander who going to see Appelles and offering to talk concerning Painting he spoke so ill that the Apprentices of that Artist could not forbear laughing Indeed Painting is one of the noblest parts of the Mechanicks and ought as well to be rank'd amongst the Mathematicks as Astronomy For if the reason of the Celestial motions gave cause for accounting this Science amongst the Mathematicks more justly may the reason of the motions and proportions of mans body the object of Painting more admirable and of which more certain and real knowledge may be had then of those remote bodies deserves to be of that rank considering that it makes use of the same Mathematical Rules Proportions whose Rules are so infallible that seven excellent Statuaries very distant one from the other being employ'd to make a brazen Colossus perform'd their tasks by the precepts of their Art and the parts which each of them made severally being put together represented a well proportion'd man According to which proportion a mans body must be eight lengths of his head from the less corner of the eye to the tip of the Ear is to be twice the length of the Eye the Feet and Hands stretch'd forth equally distant from the Navil and such other remarks The Third said The reason of the measures and proportions observ'd in Painting consists principally in four points viz. in the form and figure of the thing represented which is taken from the visual rays in the shadow which is to be taken from the rays of light in colour which is to imitate the natural and in the handsome posture or situation of the thing painted For Painting is the imitation of the affections of bodies with reference to the light made upon a solid Plane Hence a face is otherwise represented under the water then bare distant then neer in the Sun-shine then in the shadow by Candle-light or Moon-light And though the Painter represents also the dispositions of the soul as anger or sadness yet he doth it always by the features and qualities of the body The Fourth said They who blame Painting and Statuary because they represent unfitting objects and gave occasion to the Idolatry of antiquity may as justly blame beauty because 't is sometimes the occasion of sinning Painting hath this preeminence above all Arts that it imitates God more perfectly then they for God was the first Painter when he made man the goodliest piece of the world after his own image and likeness and all the bless'd spirits are but contracted copies of so perfect an original 'T is that which frees the body from the tombe and like a second table after shipwrack preserves the memory of virtuous men renders present those who are absent and makes almost as strong impressions upon our Soul as the thing it self witnesse the friendships of the greatest personages of the world contracted by its means And as if the desire of pourtraying it self were natural to all things there is no body but incessantly produces its own image which flies and wanders in the Air till it meet with some solid and smooth body whereon to represent it self as we see in Looking-glasses and polish'd marble where the images are much more exact then those which Art draws with a pencil yea then their own originals of whose corporeal matter they are wholly divested And as the beginning of all Arts are rude this of Painting is attributed to the Daughter of Belus who observing her Fathers shadow upon a wall delineated it with a coal For Pourtraiture invented by Philocles the Aegyptian is ancienter then Painting invented either by Gyges the Lydian in Aegypt according to Pliny or by Pyrhus Cousin to Daedalus according to Aristotle The Fifth said That in Painting as in other disciplines Ignorance of the principles is the cause that so few succeed well in it These principles are the methodical proportion of Mans Body Perspective the reason of shadows Natural Colours Designing and History all which must be found in a good Piece and the defect of some of them as it frequently happens causes us to wonder though we know not the reason that there is commonly something in all draughts that does not satisfie our Minds For oftentimes when all the rest is good Perspective hath not been well observ'd or the Design is nought or the History ill follow'd But as things are the more to be esteem'd which are the most simple so there is more of wonder in Painting to the life with a coal as Appelles did before Ptolomy to denote a person to him whom he could not name then with colours the least part of Painting which consists properly onely in proportion and this being the most divine action of Understanding 't is no wonder if there be so few good Painters For they are mistaken who place the excellence of painting in the smallness of the strokes because they fancy that Appelles was discover'd to Protogenes by having made a smaller line then he For on the contrary the most excellent strokes of Masters are many times the grossest and that this proportion may be exact it must imitate not onely particular subjects but generally the species of every thing Which Michel Caravague neglecting to do about 90. years since and instead of following Durer's excellent Rules addicting himself to draw onely after the life hath lead the way to all his successors who care not for his Rules but give themselves onely to imitation and this is the cause of the defects of painting at this day CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. I. Of Light I Conceive with a learned Physitian of the most worthy Chancellor that France ever had in his Treatise of this subject that Light is of two sorts one radical and essential which is found perfectly in the Stars the fire and some other subjects but imperfectly in colour'd bodies because Colour is a species of Light The other secondary and derivative which is found in bodies illuminated by the Light Both are made in Transparent Bodies those of the Stars in the Heaven and that of flame and bodies ignited in the fire whiteness in the Air and blackness in the Water But these transparent bodies must be condens'd that those Lights and Colours may appear and therefore the principle of Light is in transparence alone whereof neither purity rarity tenuity nor equality of surfaces are the causes but they all proceed from the quantity of matter some bodies having more matter then others
not by rarity alone or local extension but by formal extension or internal quantity and consequently that a little matter under a great internal quantity is the principle cause of tenuity rarity and transparence to which the evenness of surfaces is also requisite in gross bodies So that Light consists in a proportion between the quantity and the matter of its subject and Light is great when the matter is little under a great quantity as in the Heavens on the contrary the body is dark when a very small quantity is joyn'd to a great deal of matter as is seen in the Earth To prove this you must observe that all simple bodies are luminous excepting the Earth which is opake and we find Light in sundry animated bodies as in the Eyes of Cats and of those Indian Snailes which shine like torches and in our Gloe-wormes whose Light proceeds from their Spirits which being of a middle nature between the Body and the Soul are the least material thing in the world Whence it follows that Light is a form with the most of essence amongst sensible formes as obscurity hath the least The Second said The wonder of Marsilius Ficinus was with reason how 't was possible that nothing should be so obscure as Light For if Transparence be the subject of it why doth Crystal heated red hot in the fire come forth more luminous and less transparent then it was The same may be said of Rarity for we see that Air and Aqua Vitae are well rarify'd by the fire which inflames them but cease to be transparent as soon as they are made more rare and luminous which is an evident sign that rarity and transparence are not causes nor yet conditions of Light So the whole remainder of Heaven is lucid but onely the less rare parts and such as you might call vapours in respect of the pure Air. And the light which proceeds from the Sun the most luminous of all those celestial bodies would never be visible but be depriv'd of all its effects which are heating and enlightning if it were not reflected by some solid body Then it not onely appears but exerts its activity And if things be produc'd by the same causes which preserve and multiply them the solidity of burning mirrors made of Steel the hardest of all metals which make the Sun-beams do more then their own nature empowers them to shews sufficiently that their Light cannot arise from a rare and diaphanous cause Nor may the Light of rotten wood be assign'd to its rarity alone since many other bodies of greater rarity shine not at all nor that of Gloe-worms and Cats Eyes to their spirits since the flesh of some animals shines after their death as 't is affirm'd of Oxen that have frequently eaten a sort of Moon-wort and not onely the scales of divers fishes shine after separation from their bodies but sparkles of fire issue from the hair of some persons in great droughts whereunto the spirits contribute nothing Which would perswade me to believe that Light is a Form to the introduction whereof several conditions are requisite according to the diversity of subjects just as we see the Souls of some irrational creatures need great dispositions for their reception a Brain a Heart and a Liver with their dependances whereas others as Insects require lesse and are contented with something that may supply this defect some are generated in an instant without any apparent preparation as Frogs in a summer showre and therefore to assign the cause of Light is to seek the reason of Formes which is unknown to us Which similitude the vulgar speech confirmes for the people say The Candle is dead when it is extinguish'd presupposing that it had life before as an Animal hath so long as its form is conjoyn'd with its body Moreover Fire hath a Locall Motion as Animals have to obtain its food The Third said Light is a substance for it was created by God but 't is a Sixth Essence more subtile then that of Heaven which is call'd a Quintessence in respect of the Four Elements A substance which subsisted before the Sun having been created three dayes before it and nothing hinders but it may be communicated in a moment from Heaven to Earth since the intentional species of visible things is so Indeed whereunto shall we attribute the effect of Light which heats at distance and blinds being too great which colours and gives ornament to the Universe if it be not a substance And the Penetration of Dimension objected hereunto is salv'd by saying that it hath no more place here then when an Iron is red hot with the Fire which yet none will affirm to be an accident and neverthelesse it enters into the whole substance of the Iron and Light with it for 't is transparent and luminous at its centre when 't is throughly heated in the Fire The Fourth said The excellence of Light appears in that nothing hath greater resemblance with the Deity Which made some Heathen Philosophers say that Light is Gods Body and Truth his Soul Moreover the Scripture teaches us that God dwells in inaccessible Light And the blessed Spirits are stil'd Angels of Light as Daemons Spirits of darknesse Light enlivens and animates all things it rejoyces all Creatures by its presence Birds begin to sing and even flowers to display their beauties at its arrival And because Nothing gives what it hath not therefore some have conceiv'd that Light the enlivener of all the world is it self indu'd with life and that 't is the Universal Spirit and the Soul of the whole world Whence Plato in his timaeus brings no other argument to prove that Fire is an Animal but that it is luminous And in the sixth Book of his Common-wealth he makes the Sun who is the known Father of all living things the son of Light without which Pythagoras forbad to do any thing Moreover it hath no contrary Darkness being oppos'd to it onely privatively For its being is so excellent that Nature found not her self so able to make any thing that might be equall'd with it that might alter and corrupt it as the nature of Contraries require whereas all Qualities have each their particular enemy And 't is upon this very reason that Light acts in an instant because having no contrary quality to expel from its subject it needs no time or successive motion which is necessary to other qualities as to heat to warm cold water The Fifth said Light is a real form produc'd in the medium by a luminous body Aristotle calls it the act of the Perspicuum as it is Perspicuum This Form is accidental and falls under the head of Patible Qualities because 't is sensible by it self which is the property of accidents alone whereas substance is not sensible that is falls not under the perception of sense but by means of accidents and as it is the principle of action which belongs onely to a Quality For it cannot
and their duration is their age the second are successive whose duration is time For duration follows the existence of every thing as necessarily as existence follows essence Existence is the term of production Duration is the term of conservation So that to doubt whether there be such a real thing in Nature as Time is to doubt of the duration and existence of every thing although the Scripture should not assure us that God made the day and the night which are parts of time Moreover the contrary reasons prove nothing saving that time is not of the nature of continuous beings but of successive which consists in having no parts really present This Time is defin'd by the Philosopher The Number of Motion according to its prior and posterior parts that is to say by means of time we know how long the motion lasted when it begun and when it ended For being Number may serve for Measure and Measure for number therefore they are both taken for one and the same thing Indeed when a thing is mov'd 't is over some space whose first parts answer to the first parts of motion and the latter parts of the space to the latter parts of the motion and from this succession of the latter parts of the motion to the former ariseth a duration which is time long or short according to the slowness or quickness of this motion And because by means of this duration we number and measure that of motions and of all our actions therefore it is call'd Number or Measure although it be onely a Propriety of Time to serve for a Measure and no ways of its essence The Fourth said That to understand time 't is requisite to understand the motion and two moments one whereof was at the beginning of that motion and the other at the end and then to imagine the middle or distance between those two extreams which middle is Time Therefore man alone being able to make comparison of those two extreams only he of all animals understands and computes time Hence they who wake out of a deep and long sleep think it but a small while since they first lay down to rest because they took no notice of the intermediate motions and think the moment wherein they fell asleep and that wherein they wak'd is but one single moment The same also happens to those who are so intent upon any action or contemplation that they heed not the duration of motions Now not only the motions of the body but those of the mind are measured by time Therefore in the dark he that should perceive no outward motion not even in his own body might yet conceive time by the duration of his soul's actions his thoughts desires and other spiritual motion And as Time is the Measure of Motion so it is likewise of rest since the reason of contraries is the same And consequently motion and rest being the causes of all things time which is their duration is also their universal cause The Fifth said That 't is ordinary to men to attribute the effects whereof they know not the causes to other known causes though indeed they be nothing less so they attribute misfortunes losses death oblivion and such other things to Heaven to Time or to place although they cannot be the causes thereof Hence some certain days have been superstitiously accounted fortunate or unfortunate as by the Persians the third and sixth of August in regard of the losses which they had suffer'd upon those days the first of April by Darius and the Carthaginians because upon the same day he had lost a Battle to Alexander and these were driven out of Sicily by Timoleon who was always observ'd to have had some good fortune upon his birth day Moreover the Genethliacks affirm that the day of Nativity is always discriminated by some remarkable accident for which they alledge the example of Charles V. whose birth day the 24th of February was made remarkable to him by his election to the Empire and the taking of Francis I. before Pavia Such was also that day afterwards solemniz'd in which Philip of Macedon receiv'd his three good tidings But as there is no hour much less day but is signaliz'd by some strange accidents so there is not any but hath been both fortunate and unfortunate As was that of Alexander's birth who saw Diana's Temple at Ephesus burnt by Herostratus and the Persians put wholly to the rout Yet the same Alexander as likewise Attalus Pompey and many others dy'd upon the day of their Nativity so did Augustus upon that of his Inauguration Wherefore 't is no less ridiculous to refer all these accidents to Time then to attribute to it the mutation oblivion and death of all things whereof it is not the cause although for this purpose Saturn was painted with a sickle in his hand with which he hew'd every thing down and devour'd his own children For Time as well as Place being quantities which are no ways active they cannot be the causes of any things The Sixth said Time is diversly taken and distinguish'd according to the diversity of Professions Historians divide it into the four Monarchies of the Medes the Persians the Greeks and the Romans and the States and Empires which have succeeded them The Church into Working-days and Festivals the Lawyers into Terms and Vacations the Naturalists consider them simply as a property of natural body Astronomers as an effect of Heaven Physitians as one of the principal circumstances of Diseases which they divide into most acute acute and chronical or long which exceed 40 days and each of them into their beginning augmentation state and declination as distinguish'd by the common indicatory and critical days II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Upon the second Point it was said That Force being that which first caus'd obedience and admiration in the world the strongest having ever over-mastered others it cannot enter into comparison with a thing that passes for a Vice and even amongst Women as sleight and and subtlety doth and crafts in any action otherwise glorious greatly diminisheth its lustre So Hercules is more esteem'd for having slain the Nemaean Lion with his club then Lysimachus for having taken away the life of another by dextrously thrusting his hand wrap'd up in a piece of cloth into his open'd throat and so strangling him of which no other reason can be given but that the former kil'd him by his cunning and the other by plain strength Moreover General things are made of Particular duels and single fights are little pictures of battles Now every one knows what difference there is between him that overcomes his Enemy without any foul play and another that makes use of some invention or artisice to get advantage of him For though Duels are justly odious to all good men yet he that hath behav'd himself gallantly therein even when he is overcome gains more Honour then he that by some fraud
hath gotten the life of his Enemy Indeed the word Virtue coming from the Latine which signifies Man implyes that to be virtuous 't is requir'd to overcome as a Man and leave tricks sleights and subtleties to Women to supply their weakness and yet Women too when they see the masculine vigorous deportment and feats of Arms of a Cavalier that has won the victory over his Enemy will prefer him before an other who hath had the same advantage without striking a blow Whence it appears that in all sort of Minds Generosity and Courage finds more favour then subtlety The Second said That the Emblem of the Wind and the Sun trying which should make the Traveller quit his Cloak attributing the mastery to the Sun above the Wind shews that Force is not alwayes the most efficacious For he who aimes to overcome must accomplish it by the most facile way which being ordinarily the gentlest because it finds least resistance brings about its designes more easily then violence which giving the Alarm makes every one stand upon his guard and renders all enterprizes dangerous Therefore the wise General who commits his affairs to Chance as little as he can assayes all other means before he comes to open force imitating a discreet Master of a Family who never falls to blows either in his house or out of it so long as he hath any hope from wayes of gentleness Moreover the means which peculiarly belong to Man ought to be prefer'd before those which are common to him with brutes yea in which they go beyond him And you see that they are not the most strong and robust that command in Monarchies and States but the most wise and prudent whose bodies are commonly more weak through their great watchings and toils and because these delicate bodies are more easie to be govern'd by the powers of the Soul which consequently are more worthily exercis'd therein The Third said That Philip of Macedon had reason to compare subtlety to the Foxes skin as force to the Lion's saying that the former was to be made use of when the latter hapened to be too short For he who employes subtlety in war thereby acknowledges his weaknesse which made an old Captain say when he was advis'd to set upon his Enemy in the night That he would win not steal a Victory For he that is vanquish'd onely by stratagem does not acknowledge himself worsted and they who make use of wiles when they think they have done they are alwayes to begin again as the Barretors who by some subtlety have procur'd a Verdict are never secure against new Sutes So a little man skill'd in wrastling may haply trip up his more sturdy Antagonist and so be counted more dextrous or nimble but not more strong then he Moreover since all actions take their rule from Justice which cannot consist with fraud he is not to be reputed a Conqueror that hath gotten a Victory unjustly The Fourth said That if we receive the judgement of the vanquish'd the Victors are alwayes faulty Therefore it matters not by what means we defeat our Enemies provided those means be lawful and transgress not the maxime of Divines That evil is not to be done to the end good may come of it This premiz'd 't is not onely lawfull for the chief of an Army but perfectly his duty to deprive his Enemies of all advantages before the fight in it and afterward besieging places defending them or giving them relief So Joshuah to encourage the Israelites to make an invasion into the land of Canaan caus'd Grapes of prodigious greatness which grew in that Country to be shew'd them in the Desart Cato to animate the Romans to the Carthaginian War let fall in the Senate some of the large African Figgs crying that there were but three days sail from the place where they grew An other by letting loose a Hare from the walls of Thebes thereby assur'd his Souldiers that they had to do onely with cowards since they suffer'd those Animals to come amongst them M. Antonius to exasperate the Romans against the murtherers of Caesar display'd his shirt to them all bloody And Augustus to convince them of ingratitude publish'd his Testament true or fictitious whereby he made those very murtherers his heirs Others of whom Examples are infinite by continual Alarms oblige their Enemies to watch and stand for some dayes in armes before the fight to the end to tire them out by those toiles they weaken them by delights cut off their provisions hinder their relief raise false reports and intercept Letters on purpose to abate their Courage or that of their Allies In the fight they strive to give their Enemies the disadvantage of the wind dust smoak and Sun in their faces they possess the highest and most advantagious places and drive them upon precipices ditches bogs and other incommodious places they let loose mad beasts upon them as Elephants of old to break their ranks and strike terror into them which others do also by their cryes words armes engines and other uncouth inventions the strangeness whereof making a great impression in their Minds puts them into disorder They make shew of assailing them on one side whilst on the other where they are weakest they give an assault in good earnest Some have overcome them by their celerity surprizing them asleep feasting playing or wearied others by a contrary stratagem get the better of them by patience undermining and consuming them by little and little After the fight when the Enemies are defeated they hinder them from getting together again in a body In brief all the sleight and artifice that humane invention can imagine to confound the counsels and dissipate the forces of the Enemy hath been in all times employ'd to that end and they who have best practis'd the same have gotten the name of great Captains Therefore Virgil had reason to say That it was not to be consider'd whether fraud or force were to be us'd against an Enemy but to conclude both are succesfully joyn'd together CONFERENCE LXIII I. Of Motion II. Of Custome I. Of Motion MOtion is consider'd variously in the Sciences By Metaphysicks inasmuch as Entity is divided into Moveable and Immoveable By Natural Philosophy as 't is an internal propriety of a Natural Body By Logick so far as 't is inseparable from Contrariety whereof it treats amongst the Opposites By Physick as being comprehended amongst the six things not-natural By Astronomy as it is annex'd to the Heavens and by them is the cause of all those here below By the Mechanicks as 't is the Agent of all their Engines And 't were to be wish'd for the perfection of the Mathematicks that as some of them treat of continuous Quantity permanent as Geometry others of discrete Quantity as Arithmetick considering them abstracted from their matter so there were some that treated purely of the nature and properties of continuous Quantity successive which is Motion For the doctrine of Motion
of action as neglect of a salutation makes men go to the field Yea all the professions of the world borrow their praise or their blame from Phancy And who is there amongst us but would account it a grievance and make great complaints if that were impos'd upon him by command which his phancy makes him extreamly approve The studious person rises in the night to study the amorous spends it in giving serenades In brief the Proverb that saith None are happy or unhappy but they who think themselves so abundantly evidences the power of Imagination The Fourth said All Animals that have outward senses have also Imagination which is a faculty of the sensitive soul enabling them to discriminate things agreeable from the contrary Therefore those Philosophers who deny'd this power to Worms Flyes and other insects which they affirm'd to be carried towards their good by chance and not by any knowledge of it besides their derogating from divine providence were ignorant that the smallest animals cease not to have the same faculties as others at least confused as their Organs are which contain the more marvels in that they serve to more several uses Moreover Experience shews us that they well distinguish what is fit for them from what is not yea they have their passions too for choler leads the Bee to pursue the enemy that hath pillag'd its hive their providence or fore-cast since both that and the Pismire lay in their provisions and observe a kind of policy among them the former acknowledging a King which they could not do without the help of Imagination although the same be not so strong in them as in perfect animals among whom even such as have no eyes or want the use of them as the Mole are much inferior to others in Imagination which is chiefly employ'd about the Images whence it takes its name whereof the sight supplies a greater quantity then all the other Senses So that every animal being naturally lead to its own good needs an Imagination to conceive it such but all have not Memory which being given only to enable animals to find their abode again which they are oblig'd to quit for some time in quest of food those who change not their residence as Oysters or which carry it with them as Snails and Tortoises have no need of it The Fifth said That the Imagination is a cognition different from that of sense for it knows that which is not but the Sense doth not from Science and Intelligence because these are always true but that is sometimes true sometimes false Nevertheless 't is not opinion because opinion produces a belief in us which presupposes perswasion and this is an effect of Reason whereof brutes are not possest although all of them have more or less some Imagination It s object is of so great latitude that it goes beyond that of entity since that which is not as well as that which is the false as well as the true are under its jurisdiction for it composes divides and runs over all nature and what is out of nature herein almost like the Intellect which owes all its highest notions to it since it can know nothing without the phantasmes of the Imagination which on the contrary depends not any ways upon the Understanding in its operations The Sixth said The Imagination although very active and carri'd in a moment from the lowest stage of the world to its highest stories and to those spaces which it phansies above the heavens yet cannot comprehend where it self is lodg'd But the quality of the Brain most proper for it is heat For besides its great activity whereby it is necessarily alli'd to fire the phanciful persons are most subject to burning Fevers the cholerick excel in this faculty of which on the contrary the phlegmatick are worst provided Whence perhaps Poets who owe their best Verses to the Phancy heighten the heat of their Brain by drinking the best liquors Moreover 't is the strongest of all the Souls Faculties and involves every thing here below It disorders and quiets Nations making them undertake wars and desire peace it awakens and stills our passions and as if nature were not powerful enough to produce all things necessary to the perfection of the world it daily frames new ideas and makes other worlds to its curiosity 'T is this that blinded him of whom Pliny speaks who having dream'd in the night that he had lost his sight found himself blind when he wak'd 't is this that gave a voice to Croesus's son which nature had deny'd him which chang'd L. Cossutius from a woman into a man which made horns grow out of the forehead of Cippus after his dreaming of the Oxen whom he had seen fighting all the day before In brief 't is this that made Gallus Vibius become foolish by having mus'd too much upon the causes of folly But it acts not only within both upon the body and the soul it diffuses its power beyond its own mansion For to it is attributed that wonder of the Tortoises and Estriches which hatch their egges by the sight as also that of Hens which breed Chickens according to the colours laid neer their Nests and sometimes of the shape of a Kite if they have been frighted by that bird whilst they were hatching 'T is also to the power of Imagination that what my Lord Bacon affirms is to be referr'd namely That it is dangerous to be beheld by our enviers in extream joy as 't is reported that certain Scythian women murder'd only with a single aspect and possibly to this cause better then to any other the bleeding of a murder'd body in the murderer's presence may be imputed as also that the most vigorous have been found cold and impotent and other effects the cause whereof may be better referr'd to this Imagination and the connexion and coherence of this cause with those effects demonstrated II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear Upon the second Point it was said That fear being of two sorts one filial mix'd with respect proper to the ingenuous the other servile arising only from the consideration of punishment it appears hence that fear is more effectual then hope which is not often found but in good persons whereas fear is found both in the wicked and the good The Laws seem also to decide this question there being none that encourages vertue to hope for any thing but all infuse an abhorrence of crimes by the fear of punishments Moreover both the Indies would not suffice the least Commonwealth if profitable rewards were to be given to every good action perform'd in it and honorable recompences being valu'd only for their rarity would be no longer so if they came to be common Therefore there is but one Treasurer of the Exchequer in office but Judges Counsellors Archers and Serjeants innumerable Moreover there is always more to be fear'd then hop'd For he who hath an estate and honour may more easily lose
and these being dissipated by age the species put forth themselves by little and little as Characters engraven on wood or stone cover'd over with wax appear proportionably as it melts off And therefore he term'd all our knowledge a remembrance but although he err'd herein yet reason'd better then Aristotle who admitted the Metempsychosis but deny'd the Reminiscence both which are necessary consequents one of the other The Second said That the operations of the Intellect are so divine that not being able to believe the same could proceed from it self it refers them to superiors For it invents disposes meditates examines and considers the least differences it compounds and divides every thing apprehends simple termes conjoynes the subject and the attribute affirms denyes suspends its judgements and alone of all the Faculties reflects upon it self yea by an action wholly divine produces a word For as in speaking a word is produc'd by the mouth so in understanding is form'd the word of the Mind Yet with this difference that the former is a corporeal patible quality imprinted in the Air and not the latter for intellection is an immanent operation Hence some have thought that all these divine actions were perform'd by God himself whom they affirm'd to be that Agent Intellect which irradiating the phantasmes produces out of them the intelligible species which it presents to our Intellect Others ascrib'd them to an Assisting Intelligence Some to a particular genius But as I deny not that in supernatural cognitions God gives Faith Hope and Charity and other supernatural gifts in which case God may be said to be an Agent Intellect I conceive also that in natural and ordinary knowledge of which alone we speak now no concourse of God other then universal is to be imagin'd whereby he preserves natural causes in their being and do's not desert them in their actions ' This then the Understanding it self which performes what ever it thinks surpasses its strength which it knows not sufficiently and the Agent and Patient Intellect are but one being distinguish'd onely by reason As it formes that species 't is call'd Agent as it keeps and preserves them Patient For as the Light causes colours to be actually visible by illuminating them together with the Air with their medium so the Agent Intellect renders all things capable of being known by illustrating the phantasmes separating them from the grosness of the matter whereof they have some what when they are in the Imagination and forming intelligible species of them Otherwise if these phantasmes remain'd still in their materiality the Understanding being spiritual could know nothing since that which is sensible and material remaining such cannot act upon what is spiritual and immaterial Besides the species of the Phancy representing to us onely the accidents of things it was requisite that the Intellect by its active virtue subliming and elevating those species to a more noble degree of being should make them representative species of their own essence Which it doth by abstraction of the individual properties of their subject from which it formes universal conceptions which action is proper to the Intellect This supreme Faculty being so noble that it ennobles all beings rendring them like to it self The Third said That the Intellect is to the Soul such as the Soul is to the body which it perfectionates And as it knows all corporeal things by the senses so it knows incorporeal by it self This Faculty serves for a medium and link uniting all things to their first cause and 't is Homer's golden chain or Jacob's ladder which reaches from Earth to Heaven by which the Angels that is the species and most spiritual notions ascend to the heaven of man which is his brain to inform him and cause the spirits to descend from thence to reduce into practice the excellent inventions of the Understanding Now as Reason discriminates men from brutes so doth this Intellect men amongst themselves And if we believe Trismegistus in his Pimander God has given to all men ratiocination but not Understanding which he proposes for a reward to his favourites Aristotle saith 't is the knowledge of indemonstrable principles and immaterial forms Plato calls it Truth Philo the Jew the chief part and torch of the Soul the Master of the little world as God is of the great both the one and the other being diffus'd through the whole without being mix'd or comprehended in any part of it The fourth said That the humane is a substance wholly divine and immortal since it hath no principle of corruption in it self being most simple and having no contrary out of it self Eternal since 't is not in time but above time Infinite since its nature is no-wise limited and is every thing that it understands changing it self thereinto not by a substantial mutation but as the First Matter is united with the formes remaining alwayes the same Matter the wax remaining entire receives all sort of figures So the intellect is not really turn'd into the things which it understands but only receives their species wherewith it is united so closely that it is therefore said to be like to them As likewise though it be call'd Patient when it receives them 't is not to be inferr'd that it is material since these species are material and acting upon the Intellect alter it not but perfectionate it Moreover it hath this peculiarity that the more excellent these species are the more perfect it is render'd whence after the highest things it can as easily comprehend the less An assured token of its incorruptibility and difference from the senses which are destroy'd by the excellence of their objects But as the soul being freed from the body hath nothing to do with sensitive knowledg because then it ratiocinates no more but beholds effects in their proper causes commanding and obeying it self most perfectly exempted from the importunity of the sensitive appetite so while it is entangled in the body it receives some impressions resulting from the parts humours and spirits destinated to its service being in some sort render'd like to them So the soul of one born blind is ignorant of colours the cholerick are subject to frowardness and the melancholy timerous by reason of the blackness of that humour The Fifth said All actions of men depending on the temper those of the Understanding so long as it is entangled in the bonds of the body are not free from it For as that of Plants gives them the qualities proper to attract concoct and convert their aliments and generate their like and beasts having a temper sutable to their nature are lead as soon as they come into the world to what is convenient for them without instruction So men are lead of their own accord to divers things according as their souls meet dispositions proper to certain actions yea they are learned without ever having learn'd any thing as appears in many phrantick and distracted persons amongst whom some although ignorant
have been seen to make good Verses others to discourse learnedly of the sublimest matters some to speak languages and tell things to come Which may naturally proceed from the souls being capable of it self to know every thing the past by help of the memory the present by all the senses and the future by the Understanding and meeting with a brain whose temperature is by disease render'd proper for such actions the same being possible to befall it by such accidents as happens by age which changing the temper of the body is also the cause of the diversity of actions Therefore children cannot perform the functions of the reasonable soul because they are of a hot and moist temper unapt for the actions of the actions of the Understanding as on the contrary very fit for the actions of the vegetative and sensitive soul. So that if men were born cold and dry they would come into the world perfectly wise and judicious but because they acquire this temperature of brain only with time therefore they are not knowing but with time II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humor Upon the second Point it was said That it might be handled either physically or morally If it be demanded upon the former principles whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same temper 't is answer'd that as Nature hath distinguish'd the Sex so she hath assign'd to either its peculiar temperament if a woman which should be cold and moist be hot and dry she is unapt for generation as the husband also is when being ill qualifi'd with hot and dry he falls within the Law de Frigidis But if it be question'd morally whether conformity of manners be more requisite to Matrimony then their diversity and difference then since diversity of actions is necessary in a family the office of the husband being other then that of the wife it seems they ought to be as different in manners as they are in the temper which produces such manners and these the inclinations and actions The Second said Those Philosophers who held that the Male and Female were each but one part of man which name is common to both would have concluded for resemblance of humours and manners for they said that either sought his other half till they found it Which made the friendships so boasted of in pass'd ages and so rare in this and likewise marriages of which they that take more notice find that but few married couples have no resemblance even in their countenance Moreover marriages being made in heaven and the most considerable accidents of life the same influence which makes the marriage of the husband must also make that of the wife and if all actions here below borrow their force from the heavens as Astrologers hold the husband and wife having the same universal cause of so great and notable a change whereon depends almost all the welfare and misery of either cannot but resemble one another And therefore those who resemble one another most will agree best with their universal cause and consequently the Stars will find less resistance to produce their effects upon them and so they will live more sweetly then if by contrariety of manners they should do as the Traveller at sea who walks in the ship contrary to its course or who attempts to sail against wind and tyde or rather like those that draw several ways whereby the cord is sooner broken then any advancement made of the load so during this contrariety of manners nothing can go forward in the management of domestick affairs Hence the Proverb that we must eat many a bushel of Salt with a man before we chuse him for a friend is interpreted that by semblance of food a similitude of manners with him must be acquir'd which if requisite between two friends how much more between two married persons who ought not to have greater friends then they are one to the other being in society of all the goods and all the evils of this life Imagine one of a pleasant the other of a melancholy humour one loving company the other solitude the opposition of these contrary inclinations will render the presence of the one as insupportable to the other as Musick and Dancing are displeasing to a sad man or tedious complaints for one dead are to him that is dispos'd to mirth For by this disproportion the mind receives a check which is very disagreeable to it If one be young and the other old one handsome the other deformed one of an amorous complexion and the other not the mischiefs which follow thereupon are too common to be enumerated If one be nimble and the other slow the actions of the one will displease the other whereas that which pleases being or appearing good and nothing next our selves being so acceptable to us as what resembles us two persons who shall agree to do something or not to do it shall have peace and tranquillity of mind The Third said That in Oeconomy as well as Policy there ought to be a harmony which consists in diversity and not in unisonance or identity which is every where disagreeable and dull This made Aristotle desire that the man were at least ten years elder then the woman the disparity of age causing that of humours and this makes the difference which is found between individuals one of the greatest wonders of the world Therefore the husband and wife ought to be unlike in their manners and actions to the end either may keep their station the one above the other below one command the other obey Moreover the husband and wife that always agreed would have no matter to talk of Be the man a great talker and the woman too the house will be always full of noise on the contrary the silence of the one will give place to the other's talkativeness and excuse it If both be knowing or skilful they will not esteem one another but if one admire the other there will be greater love between them If both be prodigal they will quickly see the bottom of the bag whereas the thriftiness of the one will make amends for the expensiveness of the other If one be sad the other being pleasant will divert him if not they will both fall into the excess either of sadness or joy If one be prophane the party that is devout will convert him by good example In brief if one be severe 't is good that the other be gentle if one be passionate that the other be patient otherwise the house will be always in an uproar The Fourth said If Justinian or rather his Wife Theodora had not abolish'd the laudable custom of divorcing wives introduc'd by Spurius Carrilius to abate their pride and malice or at least if the wives of these times were of the humour of those Roman women who having displeas'd their husbands ask'd them pardon in the Temple of a Goddess call'd for that reason Viriplaca it would not
require so much care to consider the conditions requisite to a happy wedlock In which 't is to be observ'd that both in nature and manners there are tempers of body and habits of soul absolutely good others absolutely evil and others indifferent as the passions The husband or wife whose body is of a perfect temper should seek for the like For temperate added to temperate changeth not its temperature Otherwise 't is fit that the defect of the one be amended by the excess of the other For the production of man being the noblest of all actions requires a most perfect temperature of the four Elements in the seed of the two parents which would not be if both of them be hot and dry or cold and moist The vertuous must seek his like the vicious his unlike for there 's no friendship among the wicked the converse of Thieves not deserving that name As for the passions and the manners commonly following them 't is fit that the husband have such as nature has most commonly given to men and consequently that he be unlike to the wife and she to her husband CONFERENCE LXVI I. Of Drunkenness II. Of Dancing I. Of Drunkenness THe common saying That the more excellent a thing is the more pernicious is its abuse is verifi'd chiefly in Wine which is not only the best of all aliments turning soonest into our substance making fewest excrements and most spirits with which it hath great affinity but also the most excellent and benigne of all medicaments For it so cheers and fortifies the heart that so long as a man is cup-shot he is never invaded by the Pestilence the Wine being his antidote and preservative It tempers the natural coldness of the Brain helps digestion begets laudable blood opens obstructions attenuates gross humours and gives a good habit to the whole body But taken in excess it produces mischiefs without number as the Palsy Apoplexie Epilepsie Convulsions Catarrhes and such other cold Diseases the natural heat being unable to overcome the actual coldness of the Wine in regard of its great quantity Yet this were not much if its disorders did not reach the soul subverting its government and clouding its beauty defacing the character which it bears of the Deity and hindring those excellent functions of the Intellect and the Will So that Mnesitheus the Physitian with good reason term'd Wine the greatest benefit and the greatest mischief of man And therefore as the Philosopher counsell'd such as were apt to fall into choler to behold themselves in a Looking-glass for so the deformity of their aspect would avert them from that vice so he that is subject to be overcome with Wine must like the Lacedemonians behold the turpitude of this vice in others and so abhor it for behold it in himself he cannot because drunkenness prohibits him the use of the Senses The Second said Man being the most intemperate of all creatures has need of vertues to moderate his irregular appetites of nutrition and generation which nature has season'd with pleasure as well as the other animal actions whereof as the moderate use is agreeable to nature so the excess is contrary to reason which not enduring those gross and material pleasures of the Touch and Taste employs Temperance to repress the former by Chastity and the latter by Abstinence and Sobriety the one as the rule for the eating and the other for drinking both of them plac'd between two extreams although their defect be so rare that it hath not yet found a name amongst Philosophers But the excess of eating is call'd Gluttony that of Wine Drunkenness Now habitual Drunkenness Ebriosity is never to be tolerated but Ebriety may sometimes for health's sake be allow'd yea every moneth according to the Arabian Physitians who maintain that it strengthens all the faculties which a regular life renders drooping and languid Whence also Hippocrates pronounces in the end of his third Book of Diet and elsewhere that too exquisite a regiment of living is most dangerous those that are accustom'd to it being less able to endure any errors which they may occasionally commit in their course of Diet. The Third said Drunkenness is a Laesion of the Animal Faculty caus'd by the vapours of some alimentary liquor For medicaments or poysons swallow'd down cannot be said the cause of drunkenness none ever having conceiv'd that Socrates dy'd drunk when he had taken the potion of Hemlock though he had all the same symptomes which a drunken person hath nor is every Laesion of the nobler faculties Drunkenness otherwise the Phrenetick Vertiginous and such as are troubled with tremulation of their members ought to be accounted drunk their Reason Memory Imagination and Motion being either deprav'd or abolish'd like theirs who are intoxicated But such Laesion is not caus'd by the fumes of Wine which alone properly cause drunkenness it deserves rather to be term'd Alienation of the Mind which may be caus'd by other vapours either internal or external as by the smoke of Tobacco the steam of a Cellar or any place where new Wine is boil'd as also that of Char-coal which kill'd the Emperour Jovinian The Oyl of Henbane-seed as Pliny reports being drop'd into the ears causes the same trouble of judgement Matslack and Opium cause the same disorder in the Turks that Darnel mingled with bread doth in our Peasants and Baume Frankincense and the fruit call'd Anacardium mingled with food Among Beasts the Ass is inebriated with Hemlock the Swine with Henbane or the husks of Grapes all Fish with baits made of Oak-bark coque de Levant a small medicinal shell call'd Vnguis odoratus yea Aristotle saith that Flyes are inebriated with the smell of perfumes which therefore they abhor so much that the laying of some neer their resort is enough to drive them away Now drunkenness properly taken is caus'd by the hot and moist vapours of Wine rais'd by the natural heat into the Brain whose temperature they destroy by their heat which renders the motions of the soul violent spoil its structure by repletion of the Ventricles distention of the membranes humectation and obstruction of its Nerves For Wine being hot and moist and inebriating by those two qualities 't is therefore more uneasily born by hot or moist Brains Hence the cholerick children women and old men are less able to withstand its violence and are sooner overcome with it then those whose Brain is of a middle temper between hot and moist who are therefore said to have good Brains For which reason stout drinking hath been so much esteem'd by some Nations and Cyrus found no better argument to evince himself worthier of command then his brother Artaxerxes then that he was a better drinker Moreover Philip Alexander and Mithridates counted it a glory to drink well but Socrates Plato Xenocrates and many other Sages of Antiquity disdain'd not to carouse sometimes And Homer speaking of the wise Hector seldom forgets his great goblet The Athenians
shew'd thereby that death is not the most terrible thing since they embrac'd it as a remedy to their misfortunes But that which renders our experience as well as our reasoning weak in this matter is that none can give account of it either before or after trial for while we live it is not yet and when it is we are no longer Nevertheless Plato in his Timaeus affirms that violent death caus'd by diseases or wounds is painful but not that which comes of old age which he saith happens by dissolution of the triangles which retain the Soul in the Body For the former being against nature is as troublesome to it as the other which following the course of nature is agreeable to it because the soul having finish'd its task begins now to resent some foretastes of beatitude and hence it begins also to have some knowledge of future things At least this sort of death is very little sensible being caus'd slowly and equally and by consequence without pain Yea if it be true that the Heart is the last part that dyes the brain losing sense before the Heart cannot communicate the same to the whole body which consequently feels not the pains of death but those which lead to it and which make their pangs more felt by those that bear up against them by reason of the resistance of their strength then when the strength is overcome and fails whence those that have Apoplexies endure no pain during the course of their malady And such as have been taken down half dead from the Gallows agree that they endur'd nothing but fear For which cause this kind of death is accounted very easie and without any sense the brain being depriv'd thereof by compression of the Carotides Arteries which carry the spirits to it and become apoplectical by the quantity of blood which is included in it as also the heart being stifl'd falls into deliquium and the principal parts are depriv'd of sense by the constriction of the Nerves of the sixth pair Those whom a Gangrene in the leg or arm parts more sensible then those within brings to their end affirm that oftentimes death comes upon them without pain Indeed since life ends as it begins and the soul goes out of the body after the same manner that it enter'd into it therefore as at its entrance it first exercises the vegetative operations afterwards the sensitive so the vegetative faculty remains last subsists in the dying creature when all the rest are extinct and is lost without sense in the same manner as in Plants For the convulsive motions of dying persons argue not their having of sense since those that are in an Epileptical fit suffer much greater without pain II. Of the Will Upon the second Point it was said That every created thing having a tendency towards its chief natural good hath also faculties whereby to attain the same This chief good is the supream perfection of its being And because that of man consists in knowing truth loving good and being united by enjoyment to both the one and the other he hath been likewise furnish'd with powers for this end two wherewith to know and as many to love according to the two sorts of goods whereof he is capable as compos'd of a sensitive part and an intellectual He knows sensible good by help of the Senses which gust the same in its whole latitude and honest good by the Understanding He loves sensible good by the sensitive appetite and honest good by the Will which is a rational desire of good For it loves not any good which hath not first been judg'd such by reason which serves it in stead of eyes being a blind faculty of it self that is without knowledge whence they say knowing must go before loving And 't is not necessary that this good be truly such of its own nature if it be apprehended as such this is sufficient to render it the object of our will Nevertheless being good but in appearance it only takes the will for a while but do's not satiate it as honest good doth towards which we have a natural inclination Whence it is that such as have deviated from it as soon as their understanding is rectifi'd resent an inward grief thereupon which is that dictate of Reason call'd Synteresis The Second said That the Will is the mistress of all the animal powers which it causes to operate and forbear as it pleases exercising its dominion too over the Understanding which it commands to take notice of and contemplate one object rather then another Nevertheless as the pores subject to it are disserent so is the empire distinct which it exercises over them For that which it hath over the loco-motive faculty is a despotical empire such as a Master hath over his servant that which it hath over the sensitive appetite and other faculties is Political like that of a Magistrate over his fellow Citizens who obey him so that yet they forbear not to do many things without him and even against his will The motions of the sensitive appetite being herein like those of the Celestial Spheres which follow that of their superior Sphere and nevertheless have a contrary one of their own And this Appetite is carri'd not only to its particular object without the command of the Will but also towards things wholly contrary to it and this for punishment of the sin whereby the will rebelling against God deserv'd that the appetite at first subject to it should become rebellious to it destroying the agreeable harmony which appear'd in the state of innocence Which contrariety is the greater in as much as the object of the will is honest which is commonly difficult and that of the sensitive appetite delectable which two being opposite draw it several ways and hence arise the conflicts of the flesh against the spirit yea the same man at the same time and for the same thing feels contrary motions in himself a certain evidence of their real difference The Third said 'T is the Will alone that makes us happy or unhappy since it makes us good or bad and nothing is such unless it be voluntary and free Hence it hath so great a power that it alone over-rules the Stars which govern all being capable of having inclinations contrary to theirs It is known as other faculties are by its actions which are either extrinsecal as commanding the animal faculties or within it self as willing or not willing pursuing or aversion joying or grieving For the property of man being to know his end as such if this end be good he wills it if evil he wills it not if absent he pursues it if present he enjoys it if the evil be absent he averts from it if present he is afflicted by it But before the will attain this end it proposes consults and deliberates of the means to arrive thereunto which it compares together in order to find which is most expedient and is carri'd to the
then the Sword as recover it according to the advice of the Arabians and other Physitians who all acknowledge intemperance for their best friend and are wont to prescribe Diet in the first place to which belong primarily Fasting then Medicaments and lastly Cauteries There is also a moral fast which is a vertue which in eating observes a measure sutable to nature and right reason for the taming of the sensual appetite and encreasing the vigour of mind which is enervated by plenty of meats A vertue which S. Austin calls the keeper of the memory and Judgement Mistress of the Mind Nurse of Learning and Knowledge But the Fast of Religion is the most excellent of all because it refers immediately to God who by this means is satisfi'd for sins because it abates the lust of the flesh and raises the spirit to contemplation of sublime things purifying the soul and subduing the flesh to the spirit but particularly that of Lent whose sutableness is manifest in that this time is the tenth part of the year which we offer to God as from all antiquity the tenths of every thing were dedicated to him Moreover 't is observ'd that Moses and Elias who fasted forty days the longest fast mention'd in Scripture merited to be present at our Lord's Transfiguration The Second said Fasting is an abstinence from food as to quantity or quality As to the first some have abstain'd long from all kind of food as Histories assure us and Pliny tells of the Astomi a people of India neer the River Ganges who have no mouths but live only upon smells But 't is abstinence too when we eat little and soberly and only so much as is needful for support of life such as were the abstinences of the Persians and the Lacedemonians with whom it was a shameful thing to belch or blow the Nose these being signs of having taken more food then nature is able to digest The Gymnosophists Magi and Brachmans rigorously observ'd these fasts In quality we abstain from some certain meats Thus the Jews abstain'd from all animals except such as chew'd the Cud and were cloven hoof'd And amongst them the Nazarites were forbidden by God to drink Wine or any inebriating liquor as the Essceans a Sect of Monasticks besides Wine abstain'd from flesh and women Pythagoras abhorr'd Beans as much as he lov'd Figs either because the first were us'd in condemning criminals or because they excited lust by their flatuosity None of this Sect touch'd fish out of reverence to the silence of this animal and they made conscience of killing other creatures in regard of their resemblance with us which was also observ'd by the first men before the Flood for 2000 years together the Law of Nature which then bore sway making the same abhor'd But this fast is much harder in our diversity of fare then when only Acorns serv'd for food to our first Fathers when the Athenians liv'd of Figs alone the Argians and Tirynthians of pears the Medes of Almonds the Aethiopians of Shrimps and the fruits of Reeds the Persians of Cardamomes the Babylonians of Dates the Egyptians of Lote as the Icthyophagi of Fish of which dry'd and ground to powder many Barbarians make bread at this day and their meat of the fresh For in those days people liv'd not to eat as many do in these luxurious times but eat to live The Third said That fasting is as contrary to the health of the body as conducive to that of the mind The best temper which is hot and moist is an enemy to the souls operations which require a temper cold and dry which is acquir'd by fasting hence choler being hot and dry gives dexterity and vivacity blood hot and moist renders men foolish and stupid and the cold and dry melancholy humour is the cause of prudence But this is to be understood of fasting whereby less food is taken then nature is able to assimilate not of that which observes a mediocrity always commendable and good for health Moreover the right end of fasting is to afflict and macerate that body by abstaining from the aliments which it naturally desires But as in drinking and eating so in abstinence from either there is no certain rule but regard must be had to the nature of the aliments some of which are more nutritive then others to that of the body to the season custom exercises and other circumstances so they who eat plentifully of ill-nourishing meats or whose stomacks and livers are very large and hot or who are accustom'd to eat much will fast longer then those that eat little but of good juice or who have not much heat and use but little exercise Growing persons as children though plentiful feeders yet oftentimes will fast more then those that eat less In Winter and Spring when the bowels are hotter and sleep longer fasting is more insupportable because the natural heat being now stronger then in Summer and Autumn consumes more nourishment Wherefore only discretion can prescribe rules for fasting If it be for health so much must be given Nature as she requires and no more the first precept of Hippocrates for health being Never to satiate one's self with food If 't is intended to purge the soul then 't is requisite to deny something to nature the sucking which is felt in the stomack serving to admonish reason of the right use of abstinence For temperance must not be turn'd into murder and fasting only macerate not destroy the body The Fourth said That by fasting Socrates preserv'd himself from the Plague against which we are erroneously taught to make repletion an Antidote when 't is manifest man's fasting spittle is found to be an enemy to poysons to kill Vipers and mortifie Quick-silver Moreover we may impute the false consequence which is drawn from the true Aphorisme of Hippocrates That Eunuchs Women and Children never have the Gout and the production of so many modern diseases to gluttony and the frequency of meals our fore-fathers being so well satisfi'd with one that Plato wonder'd how the Sicilians could eat twice a day CONFERENCE LXX I. Of Climacterical Years II. Of Shame I. Of Climacterical Years MAn's life is a Comedy whereof the Theatre or Stage is the World Men the Actors and God the Moderator who ends the Play and draws the Curtain when it seems good to him When 't is play'd to the end it hath five Acts Infancy or Childhood Adolescence Virility or Manhood consisting of middle age and old age each of 14 years which multiply'd by 5 make 70 years the term assign'd to humane life by the Royal Prophet These acts are divided into two Scenes of as many septenaries in either of which considerable alterations both in body goods and mind also are observ'd to come to pass For seeing many persons incur great accidents at one certain number of years rather then another and if they scape death fall again into other dangers at certain times and so from one degree
that two Spheres may be so contiguous as the Celestial are that there can be no air between them yet they might nevertheless be mov'd and heated yea much more then if there were air interpos'd between them The Third said As a form cannot be receiv'd into any subject without previous dispositions so when they are present they suddenly snatch the form to themselves Those of fire are rarity lightness and dryness of which the more bodies partake the more they will be susceptible of the nature of fire Therefore what is capable of being heated by motion must be dry not moist whence fire is never produced by water any more then of air agitated by reason of their excessive humidity perfectly contrary to the dryness of fire But that which is extreamly dry is half fire needing no more but to become hot as happens necessarily when it is rarefi'd and attenuated by motion and consequently inflam'd every substance extreamly tenuious and dry being igneous since in the order of nature all matter necessarily receives the form whereof it hath all the dispositions For there being a separation and divulsion of parts made in every sort of motion as is seen in water when it falls from on high it follows that they are render'd more rare and capable of being converted into fire The Fourth said That motion rarity and heat ordinarily follow and are the causes one of another Thus the Heavens by their rapid motion excite heat in all sublunary bodies and this heat as 't is its property opening the parts rarefies the whole Water receiving the rayes of the Sun is mov'd and agitated by them this motion produces rarity this heat which makes the subtilest parts ascend upwards as on the contrary heat being the most active quality is the cause of motion this of rarity by collision attenuating the mov'd parts So that motion is not more the cause of heat then this is of motion The Fifth said That heat and fire which is only an excess of heat are produc'd four ways by propagation union putrefaction and motion In the first way one way generates another fire a thing common to it with all other bodies in nature which is so fruitful that even the least things produce their like In the second manner when the Sun-beams are reflected by bellow glasses they burn in the point of union provided the matter be not white because whitenesse takes away the reason upon which they burn which is their uniting whereas white disunites and disgregates the rayes To which manner that of antiperistasis is also to be referr'd when external cold causes such a union of the degrees of heat that it becomes inflam'd The third cause of heat is putrefaction proceeding from disunion of the Elements amongst which fire being the most active becomes becomes also more sensible to us The last is motion by which bodies rub'd or clash'd one against another take fire by reason of the Sulphur contain'd in them which alone is inflamable as we see Marble and Free-stone yield not fire as Flints do whose smell after the blew seems sulphureous For if only the air be fir'd whence comes it that in striking the steel the sparkles of fire fall downwards contrary to the nature of fire which ascends besides the air would be turn'd into flames not into sparkles and two stones rub'd one against the other would cause as much fire as steel and the flint or other stones out of whose substance these igneous particles are struck Whence according to their differences they make different sparkles If the stones be hard and struck strongly they render a sprightly fire if soft they either render none at all or such as is less vigorous Moreover the observations of fire issuing forth upon the rubbing of a Lyon's bones as also Laurel and Ivy and Crystal with Chalcedon and that which comes from stroking the back of a Cat in the dark and from the casting a drop of rectifi'd oyl of Vitriol into cold water evidence that this fire is produc'd out of the bosom of the matter which is more dispos'd thereunto then any other not from the encompassing air But that which serves most to shew that 't is from the matter this fire of motion comes is the duration of the Heavens which being in all probability solid would have been set on fire were it not that they are not of a combustible matter nor apt to conceive fire for how little soever that heat were there would be more neer the Sphere of the Moon then at the Centre of the Earth and nevertheless the air is frozen while heat causes corruptions and generations upon the earth and at the centre of it and this heat having been always encreasing as is that of the motion would be insupportable II. Of Chastity Upon the second Point it was said That Reason regulates the inclinations of the appetite by the vertues amongst which temperance serves to moderate that of eating by abstinence and of drinking by sobriety as also the concupiscence of the flesh by chastity which is more excellent then the two former in that its business lies with more powerful adversaries which assail it without as well as within by so many avenues as there are senses amongst which the hearing and sight receiving the poyson of glances and words cause chastity to stagger and languish but it receives the deadly blow when the touch surrenders it self to the inchantment of kisses and the other delights which follow them Moreover the necessity of natural actions being the standard of pleasure and generation which concerns the general being more necessary then nutrition which relates only to the particular it hath also more pleasure and consequently being more hard to withstand chastity which surmounts it not only deserves Palmes and Triumphs in the other world but also in this hath been rewarded by God with the gift of Prophecy in the Sibyls and is honour'd by all even the most wicked for its rarity which made the Poet say that there was none in his time chaste but she that had not been tempted Now Chastity is of three sorts Virgineal Conjugal and that of Widows to which the Fathers attribute what is said of the grains of Corn which brought forth one a hundred other thirty and other sixty For Virgineal Chastity in either sex consisting in integrity of body and purity of soul and in a firm purpose to abstain from all sort of carnal pleasures the better to attend divine service is more worthy then the other two and prefer'd before any other condition by S. Paul who counsels every one to desire to be like him in this point Hence the Church hath chosen it and is so immutably affected to it to the end souls freed from worldly care might be more at leisure for divine things from which Matrimony extreamly diverts The chastity of Widows hath for pattern the Turtle and the Raven who having lost their mates live nine ages of men without coupling with
several species of Leprosie according to the humour by adustion whereof that black choler is generated whether blood melancholy yellow choler and salt phlegm The first being less malignant makes red Leprosie and the blood having acquir'd excessive acrimony by adustion amongst other effects corrodes the root of the hair and makes baldness The second caus'd by torrefying of melancholy makes black green or livid Leprosie which is call'd Elephantiasis because it renders the skin rough like that of Elephants The third produced of yellow choler burnt makes yellow Lepers and is call'd Leonine from the terrible aspect of those that are tainted with it or from the lips and forehead which it makes them elevate like Lyons The last caus'd by salt phlegm makes white Lepers The Third said That the material cause of Leprosie being any gross humour and the efficient a vehement heat when both these causes meet in a sufficient degree Leprosie is contracted by the ill habit of the body Hence men are more obnoxious to it then women who have less heat for want of which Eunuchs are also free from it and many have voluntarily made themselves such to avoid it Men of perfect age as between 35 and 48 years hot and dry fall most easily into this disease And of these Southern people more then Northern Whence Alexandria yea all Egypt and Judea were most pester'd with it but especially the latter where even the walls and vessels contracted leprosie Which Interpreters more admire then comprehend and gave occasion to Manetho the Historian who is refuted by Josephus to say that this Leprosie forc'd the Egyptians to drive the Jews out of their Country On the contrary Germany knew it not for a long time nor Italy before Pompey in whose time his Souldiers brought it from Egypt the Kings whereof as Pliny relates were wont to asswage the malignity by an inhumane and abominable remedy a bath of little childrens blood But the Scythians were always free from it as well by reason of the coldness of their climate as the familiar use of milk whose thin and wheyie part hinders the generation of melancholy and the other parts moisten and temper heat 'T is also produc'd by food of gross and glutinous juice as Swines flesh for this cause forbidden to the Jews by the Hemorrhoids stop'd and other suppressions of blood Now 't is not so frequent in these days as of old first because being brought hither by strangers it appear'd upon them and some of their descents but could not long consist with the mildness of our air and so became extinct of it self by the separation of such as were most infected with it as Peaches are poyson in Persia but delicious fruits amongst us Secondly because it being ignominious to be separated from all society the few Lepers that remain'd would not appear unless they were forc'd whilst in the mean time the revenues of Hospitals design'd for their support have been seiz'd by such as favour'd their concealment the better to enjoy the same The Fourth said The decreasing of this disease as well as of other Epidemical diseases is to be attributed to certain Constellations Besides perhaps the ignorance of former times took the Pox for the Leprosie and so not knowing how to cure the Pox so well as at this day it was communicated to more persons The accidents of these two diseases are almost the same both are cur'd with Mercury whose excessive coldness and humidity corrects the heat and dryness of the Leprosie and by its extream tenuity penetrating the more solid parts wherein the Leprosie lies more successfully encounters this atrabilarious venome then Mithridate and Vipers do although much commended by Galen who relates five stories of such as were cur'd therewith but we have experiences to the contrary in these latter ages refrigerating and humecting Medecines having been found more profitable then drying as Vipers are which whether our climate or some other unknown cause occasion the alteration rather increase then diminish this evil Nevertheless what is reported of the means to cure the Leprosie especially if hereditary or inveterate must be understood of a palliative or preservative not of a perfect cure which is difficult in the beginning of this malady when only the bowels are tainted very difficult in its increase when the signs begin to appear outwardly impossible in its State when the members come to be ulcerated and desperate in its declination when they begin to drop off Although Paracelsus by his great work promises to cure not onely men but also all imperfect metals which he termes leprous II. Of the wayes to render a place populous Upon the Second Point it was said All our great designes aim at Eternity and among the means of attaining thereunto Princes have found none more magnificient and correspondent to their grandeur then to build Cities after their own names Such was that of Alexander in the founding of Alexandria of Constantine in that of Constantinople of the Caesars in so many Cities of their names and in our time of the King of Sweden in Gustavousburg of the King of Spain in Philippa of the Duke of Nevers in Charle-ville and of some others But to accomplish this great design 't is to be consider'd that the business is to be done with men who are drawn by as many wayes as they consist of parts to wit Body and Soul And because most men are sensual therefore things relating to corporeal conveniences are most attractive Amongst which regard is principally to be had to the Air as that which we breathe incessantly to meat and drink which are of daily necessity Hence we see few healthful and fertile places desert whereas barren and desert places what ever care be taken alwayes return to their first nature If those conveniencies be wanting in the place they they must at least be near hand and attainable by commerce of Seas and Rivers which also are advantageous for the vent of home-bred commodities But the most necessary condition of all is safety which hath render'd Holland the Adriatick Gulph and almost all Islands populous as it sometimes assembled many out-laws and miserable persons at the first building of Rome the same course being also practis'd by Timoleon to populate Syracuse For Man being naturally a sociable creature the cause of their assembling together was not the casual concourse of atoms as Epicurus feign'd nor the wonder of fire as Vitruvius saith nor their meeting near pits and springs much less Musick Eloquence or Philosophy but onely their natural inclination to preserve themselves and be secure first against wild beasts and then against their enemies who were kept off with walls Yet as a fortress needs a strong bulwark so a frontier Town cannot easily become populous the guarding of it diverting its inhabitants from attending more necessary Arts as Agriculture Manufacture and Trade For most Cities are render'd populous by some Manufactures both buyers and sellers resorting to such places where there
foal'd whence it must be taken betimes else the Mare bites it off and if she be deceiv'd of it never affects the foal afterwards and therefore 't is call'd by Virgil Matri praereptus Amor. The same effect is attributed to the seed of Mares to a plant call'd Hippomanes and by Pliny to the hair of a Wolfs tail the fish Remora the brain of a Cat and a Lizard and by Wierus to Swallows starv'd to death in an earthen pot the bones of a green Frog excarnated by Pismires the right parts of which he saith conciliate Love and the left hatred But to shew the vanity and impurity of these inventions most Philtres are taken from Animals generated of corruption excrements and other filthy and abominable things and commonly all rather excite Fury then Love as appears by many to whom Cantharides have been given and Caligula who was render'd mad by a drink of his wife Cesonia one Frederick of Austria and the Poet Lucretius by a Philtre given him by his Wife Lucilia Love is free and fixes not by constraint 't is not taken in at the mouth but the eyes the graces of the body being the most powerful charm as Olympia Wife of Philip of Macedon acknowledg'd when being jealous that her Husband lov'd a young Lady that was said to have given him amorous potions the Queen sent for her and having beheld her great Beauty said that she had those Philtres in her self Now if these gifts of the body be accompany'd with those of the mind and the party endu'd therewith testifie Love to another 't is impossible but the affection will become mutual Love being the parent of Love whence the Poets feign'd two Cupids Eros and Anteros and Ovid an intelligent person in this matter knew no surer course then this Vt ameris amabilis esto The Fourth said Love is a spiritual thing and consequently produc'd by means of the same nature Hence an ill report which is a thing not onely incorporeal but commonly phantastical and imaginary extinguishes all Love for a person otherwise lovely as to the graces of the body And the choice between equal Beauties shews that Love is not founded upon the outside Wherefore they take the wisest course to get themselves lov'd who use inductions and perswasions which are the common means to make marriages By all which it appears that Amorous Madness is a distemper of the mind and as such to be cur'd CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason APpetite is an inclination of every thing to what is good for it self There are three sorts in Man First the Natural which is in plants who attract their nourishment and also in some inanimate things as the Load-stone and Iron yea in the Elements as the dry earth covets water and all heavy bodies tend to their centre 'T is without Knowledge and Will even in Man for all natural actions are perform'd best in sleep Secondly the Sensitive common to Man and Beast which some erroneously deny to be a humane faculty because 't is the seat of the Passions the enemies of Reason which constitutes Man But the encounter of it with Reason argues their distinction Thirdly the Rational call'd the Will which is Mistress of the former two and besides makes use of Reason for the knowing of one or more things And because desire cannot be without knowledge therefore the Sensitive Appetite presupposes the knowledge of the Imagination and the Will that of the Understanding but the Natural Appetite depends on that of a First Cause which directs every natural form to its particular good though it know not the same Now 't is demanded how the Mistresse comes to obey the Servants notwithstanding the Maxime That the Will tends to nothing but what is good which cannot be without truth and this is not such unless it be approv'd by the Intellect It seems to me improper to say that the Sensitive Appetite prevails over Reason but rather hinders it by its disturbance from pronouncing sentence as a brawling Lawyer doth a Judge by his noise The Second said That Reason is alwayes Mistress For Men govern themselves according to Nature the universal rule of all things and this nature being rational they cannot be guided otherwise then the motions of Reason But some find Reason where other finds none The Thief accounts riches ill divided and therefore he may justly possess himself of what he wants and however he sees evil in the action yet he conceives more in his necessity which his Reason makes him account the greatest of all evils So that comparing them together he concludes the less evil to be good and wittingly attempts the crime not owning it for such whilst he commits it The same may be said of all other sins wherein the present sweetness exceeds the fear of future punishment If Conscience interpose they either extinguish it or else wholly forbear the action Unless the Mind happen to be balanc'd and then they are in confusion like the Ass which dy'd of hunger between two measures of corn not knowing which to go to For 't is impossible for the Will to be carry'd to one thing rather then another unless it find the one better and more convenient The Third said 'T is congruous to nature for the Inferior to receive Law from the Superior So Man commands over beasts and amongst Men some are born Masters and others slaves the Male hath dominion over the Female the Father over his Children the Prince over his Subjects the Body receives Law from the Soul the Matter from its Form the Angels of Inferior Hierarchies receive their intelligence from the Superior and the lower Heavens the rule of their motions from the higher the Elements are subject to the influences of those celestial bodies and in all mixts one quality predominates over the rest Since therefore the Sensitive Appetite is as much below Reason as a beast below a Man and the Imagination below the Intellect according to the same order establish'd in Nature Reason ought alwayes to have the command over it because having more knowledge 't is capable to direct it to its end But through the perversity of our Nature we more willingly follow the dictates of Sense then Reason of the Flesh then the Spirit because the former being more familiar and ordinary touch us nearer then Reason whose wholsome counsels move not our Will so much which being Mistress of all the faculties according to its natural liberty may sometimes command a virtuous action of whose goodnesse Reason hath inform'd it sometimes a vitious one by the suggestion of the Sensitive Appetite which makes it taste the present sweetness and delight whose attraction is greater then that of future rewards promis'd by virtue to her followers Hence the Law of the members so prevails over the law of the mind as sometimes wholly to eclipse the
and use specially by the hearing whnce people deaf by nature are also dumb yea 't is very peculiare to man Wherefore Speech is improperly figuratively artificially or else miraculously ascrib'd to other things as when The Heavens are said to declare the glory of God one deep to call on another c. When Balaams Ass spoke 't was by Miracle But when Magus's dog spoke to Saint Peter 't was by operation of the Devil as also what is reported of the two Pigeons the Oke at Achilles's Horse the keel of Argo and that Elm of the Gymnosophists mention'd by Philostratus to have saluted Apollonius at his arrival as the River Causus bid Pythagoras good-morrow But Speech properly belongs onely to man other creatures are incapable of it both because they want Reason which is the principle of it and organs which are a tongue a palate teeth and lipps all rightly proportionated for the articulation of voice for man's tongue alone is soft large moveable and loose to which qualities those of Pies and Parrots come nearest The Third said A natural thing is either born with us as sense and motion or comes afterwards of it self as laughter or whereof we are naturally capable and inclin'd to as Arts and Sciences In the first and second signification speech is not natural to man who could not speak without learning whence the two children caus'd by Psammetichus King of Egypt to be nurs'd in a Desart by two dumb Nurses pronounc'd no other word but Bec which they had heard of the Goats But in the last signification 't is peculiar to man who is so inclin'd to it that were children let alone from their Cradle they would in time make some language by signs or words 'T is to be understood too that 't is articulate speech such as may be written that is peculiar to man not inarticulate which though a natural sign of the affections within yet cannot properly be called speech because found also in beasts whose jargon Apollonius and some others are said to have understood for hearing the chattering of a Swallow to her companions he told those that were present that this bird advertis'd the others of a sack of Wheat fallen off an Asse's back neer the City which upon trial was found to be true CONFERENCE LXXIX I. What the Soul is II. Of the apparition of Spirits I. What the Soul is THe difference of inanimate living and dead bodies manifestly evince the existence of a soul. But its essence is so unknown that Philosophers doubt in what degree of Category to put it For 't is of that kind of things which are not known by themselves but only by their effects as local motion and substance which is not perceptible but by its accidents So the outward shape of animated bodies acquaints us with their inward form For the soul shapes all the external parts after the same manner as Plants and Animals of the same species have commonly their leaves and members of the same external figure whereas you scarce find two stones or other inanimate bodies of the same shape The Second said That the soul according to Aristotle is the first act of a natural body organiz'd having life in power or potentially Meaning by act perfection which he expresses by the word Entellechie which signifies to be in its end and form which two are the same in natural things 'T is call'd Form upon account of its beauty and divine from heaven its original and 't is the first of all other second acts which are produc'd by it such as all vital actions are For as in the most imperfect of beings Matter there is a First or remote power as in water to become fire another second or next as in the same water to become air by rarefaction so in the nature of Forms the noblest created Beings there is a First act the source of all vital actions and a Second comprehending the faculties and functions Now this Soul is not a pure act as God and Angels are but an act of the Body on whom it depends either in its being and preservation or else only in operation Hence Sensitive and Vegetable Souls cease to be upon the change of the dispositions which produc'd and supported them The reasonable Soul too in some manner depends upon the Bodies disposition as to its operation not as to its being and preservation being immaterial and immortal 'T is call'd an act of a natural Body to distinguish it from Machines or Engines which move artificial and inanimate Bodies organical because Organs are requisite to its action It must also have life in power that is be able to exercise the vital functions For want of which a carcase though organiz'd yet cannot be said to be animated no more then Egges and Seed for want of Organs although they have life in power The Third said He was of Pythagoras's opinion who call'd it a number there being nothing in the world wherewith it hath more correspondence and proportion 'T is one in its essence it makes the binary which is the first number by its conjunction with the body and division of its Faculties into the Intellect and Will the ternary by its three species of soul Vegetative Sensitive Rational the quaternary by the four qualities constituting the temper requisite to its introduction into the body of which four numbers put together is form'd the number ten whence all others proceed as from simple Apprehension Enuntiation Argumentation and Method which are the four operations of the reasonable soul whence all its notions proceed The Fourth said 'T is not enough to say with the Philosopher that the soul is an act or perfection or that by whose means we live it must be shewn what this act is whether Substance or Accident Pythagoras by calling the soul a number moving it self reduces it under Quantity According to Galen who acknowledges no other Soul but the Temper 't is a Quality as also according to Clearchus who defines it harmony Of those who believ'd the soul a substance some have call'd it the purest part of some Element as Heraclitus of fire Anaximenes of air and Thales of water none of earth in regard of its gross matter Critelaus said 't was a Quintessence Democritus a substance compos'd of round Atoms and therefore easily movable Now the soul is a substance not an accident because it composes a substance making with the body a total by it self Nor is it Quantity because Quantity is not active much less a self-moving number because number is an Entity of Reason and nothing is mov'd of it self but of some other Nor is it any of the four qualities which being indifferent of themselves must be determin'd by some form much less a temper which is found in all mixts of which some are inanimate nor a harmony for this is compos'd of contrarieties but the soul is simple and consequently not susceptible of contraries 'T is therefore an incorporeal substance otherwise were
Jeremy Constantine saw S. Peter and S. Paul and according to the opinion of many Samuel appear'd to Saul and foretold him of things which were to befall him though others conceive 't was a corporeal apparition which also is much more certain because souls either appear with their true bodies although this is very rare too yea and unbecoming happy souls to rejoyn themselves to putrifi'd carcases or most commonly assume bodies of air The cause of which apparitions is ascrib'd to the union which is between the soul of the dead person and that of the surviving to whom it appears whether the same proceed from consanguinity or identity of manners great familiarity and friendship which seems to make but one soul of those of two friends so that the soul finding it self in pain either through present or future evils especially when it sees it self oblig'd to the performance of some vow neglected during life God for his own glory the ease of his creature and the conversion of sinners permits it to manifest it self by ways most convenient CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness THe vulgar Maxime is not always true That a disease throughly known is half cur'd For this disease though known to the most ignorant is of very difficult cure and therefore was call'd by antiquity the Herculean disease that is to say unconquerable the Sacred disease because of its dreadful symptoms and Lunatick because those who are born either in the Full or New Moon or during its Eclipse are troubled with this malady which hath great correspondence with the motions of the Planet 't was also call'd Morbus caducus or Falling Sickness by reason that it makes the person fall to the ground and Comitialis because it interrupted Assemblies lastly 't is call'd Epilepsie because it intercepts the functions of the mind and senses 'T is defin'd the cessation of the principal actions and of sense and voluntary motion with convulsion which is not continual but by internals The true and proximate cause of it is either a vapour or an humour pricking the membranes of the brain which endeavouring to discharge the same contracts it self attracts the nerves to it these the muscles and parts into which they are implanted causing hereby those convulsive and violent agitations of the Epilepticks Sneezing and the hickcock have some resemblance of it the latter being caus'd by a sharp vapour sent from the stomack or other place by sympathy to its upper orifice which it goadeth with its acrimony and thereby forces it to contract it self in order to expell the same the former call'd by Avicenna the lesser Epilepsie differing not from the greater saving in duration is also caus'd by some vapours pricking the former part of the brain which contracts it self to expell the same by the nostrils The Second said That the unexpectedness of this malady and the Patient 's quick recovery may justifie the vulgar for thinking that there is something divine in it Since nothing amazes us more then sudden uncomprehended alterations Therefore in Hippocrates days they us'd to make expiations and incantations for this disease which he derides saying that the bad Physitians promoted this false conceit that they might get the more honour for the cure or be more excusable for not effecting the same The Third said That the Epilepsie and Apoplexie differ onely in degree both having the same cause namely abundance of gross humours either phlegmatick or melancholy which if it wholly fills the brains ventricles and makes a total obstruction so that the Animal Spirits the instruments of voluntary motion and sense be obstructed it causes an apoplexie which is a total abolition of sense and motion in the whole body with laesion of the rational faculty The Heart continues its pulse for some time till the consumption of what Animal Spirits were in the Nerves serving to the Muscles for respiration But if the obstruction be not perfect and the crass humour over-loads the ventricles then they contract themselves and all the Nerves which depend upon them whence comes that universal contraction of the limbs as one cover'd in bed with too many clothes pulls up his legs bends and lifts up his knees to have more air and room under the load which presses him The Fourth said That as the brain is the moistest of all the parts so it abounds most in excrements the thinnest of which transpire by the sutures pores but the grosser meeting in great quantity in the brain melt its substance into water which coming to stop the Veins and Arteries hinder the commerce of the spirits whether this pituitous matter be deriv'd from the paternal or maternal geniture or whether the part of seed which makes the brain happen not to be well purg'd in the womb where the rudiments of this malady are first laid or whether the brain purge not it self afterwards sufficiently by its emunctories and the scabs usual to Children Hippocrates saith this malady cannot begin after twenty years of age when the constitution of body is become more hot and dry and many Children are cur'd of it onely by the desiccation caus'd by the alteration of age seasons and manner of dyet The Fifth said That a gross humour cannot be the cause of those quick and violent motions of the Epilepsie nor be collected and dissipated in so short a time as the duration of a Paroxisme Therefore the cause of it must be some biting and very subtile matter for no such gross obstructive matter is found in the brain of those that dye of this malady but onely some traces or signes of some malignant vapour or acrimonious humour as black spots a swarthy frothy liquor an Impostume in the brain some portion of the Meninx putrifi'd corrosion of the bone and such other things evidencing rather the pricking of the brain then stopping of its passages The Sixth said That were the Epilepsie produc'd by obstruction it would follow that as a total one in an Apoplexie abolishes all sense and motion so the incomplete one of the Epilepsie should onely diminish not deprave motion as it doth So that the Epilepsie should be a symptom like the Palsie or Lethargy from which nevertheless 't is wholly different Nor can it be simply the mordacity or malignity of an humour since malignant and pestilential Fevers hot and dry Aliments as spices mustard salt garlick onyons and the lke biting things cause not this Evil. The truth is there is a specifical occult quality of the humours particularly disposing to this disease the Chymists call it a Mercurial Vapour that is an acid penetrating and subtile spirit a Vitriolike Spirit a biting and corrosive salt which makes not men onely but Quailes Dogs Sheep and Goats subject to it And as some things beget this malady by an occult Epileptical quality as Smallage Parsly a goats liver roasted and stinking smells as horn pitch
no other discipline but Logick and Geometry in regard of the certainty of their principles which are so clear that they are alike known by all even the most ignorant who need only understand their terms to assent to their truth Such as these are every thing which is said of the Genus is also said of the Species and what is not said of the Genus is not said of the Species which they call Dictum de omni de nulle If to equal things you add equal things the remainder will be equal And if to unequal things you add unequal things the remainder will be unequal For whereas beasts have a natural faculty which is the common sense or estimative faculty whereby they judge of the convenience or inconvenience of objects the first time the same are presented to them Man beyond this natural power enabling him to judge of sensible objects hath a peculiar one which is the Intellectual by means whereof he is said to be every thing in power because it enables him to know every thing and to judge of the truth or falshood of universal things which are Principles And as the eye beholding white or black judges sufficiently what colour it is without seeking reasons thereof elsewhere then within it self so the Intellect discerns the truth of principles by it self without the help of any other faculty yea without the habit of any Science because these principles being before the Science whereof they are principles must be more clear and known then it whence Intelligence is defin'd the habit or knowledge of such first Principles Thus ask a Geometrician why the whole is greater then its part he can give you no other reason but that 't is a principle known of its own nature The Third said That Geometry being the knowledge of eternal truths by infallible principles is most certain And 't is an evidence of its certainty that it neither proposes nor demonstrates why a thing is such but only that it is such As 't is propos'd and demonstrated that in the same segment of a circle all the angles are equal but not why they are so because 't is a truth which comes to our knowledge by certain principles and propositions formerly demonstrated as certain as the principles themselves Hence this truth is demonstrated which nevertheless hath not any cause of its existence as frail and perishing things have no material being abstracted from all matter nor efficient for the agent is not any way consider'd therein nor formal an angle being of its own nature only the inclination of lines nor yet final this being not made to any intention In like manner 't is demonstrated that four numbers or four lines being proportional that is when there is such reason of the first to the second as of the third to the fourth the square of the two extreams is equal to the square of the two middlemost but not why 't is so this question occurring only in dubious things The Fourth said That knowledge being desir'd by all men who for this end are endu'd with an Intellect capable of all sorts of notions it must needs be found in some subjects otherwise nature should have given us a general desire of a thing which is not And since there are causes of every thing there must be a Science of those causes But the multitude of apparent causes is the reason that we are oftentimes ignorant of the right and take one for another the shadow for the body and apparence for truth Which argues not that there is no knowledge but rather few knowing persons For Socrates who said he knew nothing but that he knew nothing and the Pyrrhonians who doubted of every thing had even a knowledge of their ignorance Moreover the exact knowledge men have by the senses of particular things necessarily carries them to that of universals wherein Science consists As he that often experienc'd in divers persons that Sena purg'd their melancholy acquires of himself this general Notion that all Sena purges melancholy And on the contrary he who understands a general proportion in gross may of himself apply the same to all particulars so great a connexion there is between things universal and particular in which the fruit of Science consists The Fifth said Since all knowledge depends upon another prenotion which is what they call principles those which compose the Sciences must also distinguish the same Wherefore Sciences are to be term'd certain or uncertain according as the pre-existent notions whereupon they are founded are certain or not Now amongst those principles some are universal common to all Sciences as those of Metaphysicks in all things either the affirmative or the negative is true that which is not hath no propriety Besides which 't is necessary to have particular one 's proper to the Science which are true first immediate causes of the Conclusion preceding and more known then it The six conditions requisite to principles in order to a demonstration They must be true not false for that which is false exists not that which exists not cannot be a cause of that which exists nor consequently a false principle be the cause of a true demonstration First that is not proveable by others immediate so enjoyn'd with the attribute that there is nothing between them two to joyn them more neerly causes of the conclusion that is this principle must be the necessary cause of this truth and consequently precede and be more known then it As taking this for a principle that the interposition of an opake body between light and a body illuminated causes a shadow upon this body we conclude that as often as the earth is found interpos'd between the Sun which is the light and the Moon which is the body illuminated it will necessarily come to pass that there will be a shadow upon the body of the Moon which is its Eclipse The Sixth said 'T was the errour of Socrates that observing our Sciences depending on other preceding notions he apprehended that we learned nothing new but that Science was nothing but the remembrance of what the soul formerly knew before its being inclos'd in this body not considering that the knowledge of principles and notions is confus'd and not distinct and that the knowledge of them in gross is not sufficient to denominate a person knowing but that we must first draw universal conclusions from them then apply the same to particulars without which application those principles would be unprofitable and not produce any Science Thus the Divine applies this general principle that that which is contrary to the Law of God is evil to particular conclusions as to murder theft and perjury The Physitian who holds for a Principle that Contraries are cur'd by their Contraries draws these other conclusions from it that a cold distemper is cur'd by hot medicaments a hot by refrigerating obstruction by openers which he applies again to particular subjects The States-man from this general Principle
That every thing that disturbs the publick quiet is to be repress'd concludes that the Seditious are to be punish'd So 't is not enough for a Mathematician to know that equal things added to equal things are likewise equal unless he apply this universal principle to particular lines surfaces and bodies Which is done either by the Synthetical or by the Analytical way which nevertheless must be follow'd by the Synthetical Now 't is in the application of these general rules to particulars that errour is committed even in the most certain Sciences The Seventh said That there are few Sciences because there are few Principles and Proposition's demonstrable as the contingent and the absolute are not Whence it is that the future is not demonstrable and hence follows the incertainty of Politicks Wherefore only necessary Propositions whereof the truth is permanent and eternal are demonstrable and all these are necessarily demonstrable because they have infallible principles yet only such of these whose principles are known by men are demonstrable by men So 't is certain that the Inundation of Nilus and the flux and reflux of the Sea are not demonstrable because men know not the principles are not known Whereby it appears how ridiculous they are who undertake to demonstrate every thing CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body THe extream variety of men's actions and manners cannot proceed from the diversity of their souls which are accounted all equal but from that of the bodies wherein according to the various tempers thereof the soul produces that variety of manners And as in natural and animal actions one and the same Soul digests in the stomack makes blood in the Liver and Veins sees by the Eyes and reasons in the Brain so likewise it is sometimes sad when the melancholy humour predominates in the body sometimes cheerful when blood abounds and sometimes also froward or angry when the choler is agitated The Second said That the soul being the form as the body is the matter it must be the cause of all humane actions not the body which receives them since the soul informs and perfectionates the body and begets in it the habit which produces the manners and actions As the horse governs not the rider but the contrary and 't is to the rider that the honour or blame of the course is to be imputed And were the soul but a quality as the most prophane have ventur'd to affirm yet the same priviledge must be reserv'd to it which is allow'd to the predominant quality in every compound which gives it not only the denomination but also the action as in compound medicaments the most active simple carries the credit from the rest Besides if the body and the humours thereof were the author and cause of manners an ignorant person could never become learned and a single Lecture of Xenocrates had never made a Drunkard cast off his chaplet of flowers and turn a Philosopher The examples of many grand personages sufficiently ill furnish'd with graces of the body evidence what certainty there is in arguing from the out-side of the corporeal structure to the furniture of the soul and that the signs of malice remark'd in some as in Zoilus from his having a red beard a black mouth and being lame and one-ey'd of Thersites and Irus from their having sharp heads rather shew the malice or ignorance of such as make these remarks then prove that these dispositions of body are the true cause of malice we see people of the same temper hair stature features and other circumstances very different in their manners and inclinations And the same is observ'd in horses For since the Stars the most powerful agents do not constrain but only incline certainly the humours cannot do more True it is their inclination is so strong that no less grace of Heaven is needful to resist the same then strength to retain a man that is rolling down the declivity of a hill Yet Socrates remaining unmov'd by the embraces of a Curtezan whom his Scholars contriv'd into his bed to try him although he was naturally very prone to vice justifies that how hard soever it be to stop the slipping foot when it is once going yet 't is not impossible and therefore the manners of the soul do not always follow the constitution of the body Not considering the power which the fear of God hath over our wills the effects whereof I here meddle not with as being supernatural since they have sometimes destroy'd all the maximes of nature witness those that give themselves to be burnt for the faith The Third said That the body must needs contribute to the soul's actions as being its instrument But it contributes only what it hath namely its temperament and other proprieties Therefore 't is from this temperament that the same are diversifi'd The soul sees no longer when the eyes are shut or blinded 't is wise in a well temper'd brain not only in a dry as Plato in his Timaeus conceiv'd because he saw children grow more prudent as their brain was desiccated 't is stupid in a too moist brain and foolish or furious in one inflam'd as in deliration or madness 'T is also forc'd to leave its body when a violent Fever hath so deprav'd the humours thereof that there remains not the temper necessary to its reception Therefore it follows the temper of the humours Thus because we see fire introduc'd into any combustible subject and extinguish'd when the same is consum'd we say fire follows combustible matter and becomes of the same nature quantity and other qualities Moreover Hippocrates saith Nations are warlike or cowardly laborious or not of good or bad nature according to the diversity of climates and soils they inhabit which render them diversly temper'd Hence in Asia where the air is temperate and less subject to changes then Europe and Africa men are more healthy and handsome their manners more equal and laudable on the contrary in Countries more cold or hot the inhabitants are either more cruel or more boisterous more hardy or more timerous and Mountaineers are more industrious as on the contrary those who live in a fertile soil are commonly more slothful Hence amongst the Greeks the Thebans and all the Baeotians whose Country was rich and the air very thick were very dull and the Athenians very subtle which was the cause that 't was said people were born Philosophers at Athens on the contrary 't was a prodigious thing to see one wise Anacharsis among the Scythians Hippocrates addes the seasons too according to the change whereof men's manners are also found divers But all these cannot act upon the soul but by the organ of the body changing its humours and introducing new qualities into the parts thereof The Fourth said Even sucking children give some tokens to what their
constitution inclines them before the contraction of any habit vertuous or vicious some of courage others of timidity some of modesty others of impudence and as soon as they begin to speak some are lyers others love truth And of two children taught by the same Master the hardest student is many times a less prosicient then the other who hath a temper proper for learning and is as inclin'd to it as another is to Merchandize Mechanicks Travel War or this will be quarrelsome the other respectful and discreet one is born to servitude and the other prefers his liberty before a Kingdom So that not only the moral actions of the will but also those of the understanding absolutely depend on the body the soul being of a spiritual nature which of it self can never produce any sensible effect without the mediation of some body not so much as exercise its proper actions of Willing and Understanding both which depend on the phantasms which are intellectual species fabricated by the agent intellect in the Patient upon the model of those that were brought by the senses into the imagination hence if these be alter'd or deprav'd by the spirits or humous flowing to the brain reasoning becomes either diminish'd or deprav'd or else wholly abolish'd the spirits so confounding these phantasms that the intellect cannot make its reviews nor compose or divide them in order to elicite its conclusions and frame its notions For souls differ only by the spirits the tenuity and lucidity whereof is proper for contemplation their abundance makes a man bold their inflammation renders him frantick their defect causeth sloth and cowardize and being design'd to serve equally to the actions of the soul and body they were made of a middle nature between body and spirit whence they are called spiritual bodies and are the cause of union between them and mutual communication of their passions and affections So the bodies diseases affect the soul and disturb its operations the spirits abandoning the brain to succour the grieved parts the bilious humour in the ventricles of the brain or a tumour and a Sphacelus cause madness the blood overheated causeth simple folly accompani'd with laughter melancholy produceth serious folly In like manner the body resents the passions of the soul fear causeth trembling and paleness shame blushing anger foaming and all this by the spirits The Fifth said If manners depended on tempers vertues might be easily acquir'd by the course of diet which seems ridiculous For then the divine faculties of the soul should depend not only upon meats but upon all other things not natural which would be to subject the Queen to her servants to enslave the will and take away its liberty which makes it to be what it is Besides Theology cannot consist with this conclusion which would acquit persons of blame and lay it upon nature as its author For he that should commit some evil cholerick action or other sin could not avoid it being lead thereunto by the bilious humour produc'd by nature whereunto 't is almost impossible to resist and so he would seem innocent and unjustly punish'd for what he committed not voluntarily though without the will there is no sin Moreover men would not be variable but always the same the bilious always angry the sanguine ever in love c. and yet we see men exercise all sorts of virtues and capable of all vices Many beasts have not only the same constitution of brain but also external shape like that of man as Apes whose bones are so like those of men that in Galen's time Anatomists consider'd only their Sceletons yea the same temper and all internal parts alike as Swine and there 's little or no difference between the brain of man and a calf and yet none of these animals have actions like those of men which being purely spiritual and intellectual must depend upon another cause the rational soul whose actions are not any way organical for then it should be corporeal because proceeding from the body and consequently mortal II. Of Sights or Shews Upon the second Point 't was said That the communication of the ills and goods of the soul and body has put men upon searching what may relieve the languishing strength of either And as the soul is delighted by bodily pleasures so it also in gratitude returns the like pleasure to the body by the contentment which it receives in acquiring knowledge the least laborious of which is that most recreative as that is which is convey'd by the sight For the hearing makes us know things only one after another but the sight shewing them all at once more fully satisfies our natural desire of knowing Hence all people from the highest to the lowest are so delighted with shews or spectacles that the Romans kept Actors and Comedians with publick pensions and Cicero publickly commended Roscius who alone had 12000 crowns for a stipend from the Roman people They employ'd the incomes of the woods about Rome dedicated to their gods for the maintaining of Theatres Amphitheatres Cirques and other places destinated to shews wherein the Senators and Knights had the fourteen first ranks or seats for whose conveniency Q. Catulus cover'd the Scene with veils of sine linen Lucius and Cinna made a versatile or shifting Scene P. Claudius was the first that adorn'd it with pictures and tables C. Antonius cover'd it with silver Murena made one of pure silver Trebonius one guilded others inlay'd with Ivory Nero sprinkled all the place of the Cirque where the horses run with gold-sand and cover'd it with veils beset with stars in form of a sky Heliogabalus made an Euripus of wine at the Circensian plays in which he caus'd a Naval Battle to be represented as if the wickedest Princes could not have cover'd their enormities with a more specious liberality or more agreeable to the people These spectacles were likewise us'd at the funerals of great Princes and made part of their service of the gods They divert the great make the miserable forget their affliction are the true physick of the soul the book of the ignorant and the only way truly to revive the transactions of former ages The Second said Nothing is so destructive to good manners as the frequentation of Theatres and most other spectacles which is the most dangerous for that things represented to the eyes make deeper impression in the mind then by any other sense Which made Aristotle advise the prohibiting of Comedies and S. Augustin declare them contrary to piety and honesty The same is the opinion of all the Fathers particularly Tertullian who in an express treatise blames all sort of spectacles as proceeding from the superstition of Paganism causing troubles and quarrels yea rendring men capable of all sort of wickedness by the impression of their examples For the sights of Mimes and Pantomimes are ridiculous Rope-dancers unprofitable Farces or Enterludes dangerous and enemies to purity Comedy the least dangerous of all sights
which makes water ascend in the Pneumaticks whereof Hero writ a Treatise rendring the same melodious and resembling the singing of birds in the Hydraulicks It makes use of the four Elements which are the causes of the motions of engines as of Fire in Granadoes Air in Artificial Fountains both Fire and Air by their compression which water not admitting since we see a vessel full of water can contain nothing more its violence consists in its gravity when it descends from high places The Earth is also the cause of motion by its gravity when 't is out of Aequilibrium as also of rest when 't is equally poiz'd as is seen in weights The Second said The wit of Man could never preserve the dominion given him by God over other creatures without help of the Mechanicks but by this art he hath brought the most savage and rebellious Animals to his service Moreover by help of mechanical inventions the four Elements are his slaves and as it were at his pay to do his works Thus we see by means of the Hydraulicks or engines moving by water wheels and pumps are set continually at work the Wind is made to turn a Mill manag'd by the admirable Art of Navigation or employ'd to other uses by Aealipila's Fire the noblest of all Elements becomes the vassal of the meanest Artisans or serves to delight the sight by the pleasant inventions of some Ingineer or employes its violence to arm our thunders more powerfully then the ancient machines of Demetrius The Earth is the Theatre of all these inventions and Archimedes boasted he could move that too had he place where to fix his engine By its means the Sun descends to the Earth and by the artificial union of his rayes is enabled to effect more then he can do in his own sphere The curiosity of man hath carry'd him even to Heaven by his Astrological Instrumens so that nothing is now done in that republick of the stars but what he knows and keeps in record The Third said That since Arts need Instruments to perform their works they owe all they can do to the Mechanicks which supply them with utensils and inventions 'T was the Mechanicks which furnish'd the Smith with a hammer and an anvil the Carpenter with a saw and a wedge the Architect with a rule the Mason with a square the Geometrician with a compass the Astronomer with an astrolabe the Souldier with sword and musket in brief they have in a manner given man other hands Hence came paper writing printing the mariner's box the gun in these latter ages and in the preceding the Helepoles or takecities flying bridges ambulatory towers rams and other engines of war which gives law to the world Hence Archimedes easily drew a ship to him which all the strength of Sicily could not stir fram'd a heaven of glass in which all the celestial motions were to be seen according to which model the representation of the sphere remains to us at this day Hence he burnt the Roman ships even in their harbour defended the City of Syracuse for a long time against the Roman Army conducted by the brave Marcellus And indeed I wonder not that this great Archimedes was in so high in Reputaion For if men be valued according to their strength is it not a miracle that one single man by help of mechanicks could lift as much as ten a hundred yea a thousand others And his pretension to move the whole Earth were a poynt given him out of it where to stand will not seem presumptuous though the supposition be impossible to such as know his screw without-end or of wheels plac'd one above another for by addition of new wheels the strength of the same might be so multiply'd that no humane power could resist it yea a child might by this means displace the whole City of Paris and France it self were it upon a moveable plane But the greatest wonder is the simplicity of the means employ'd by this Queen of Arts to produce such excellent effects For Aristotle who writ a book of mechanicks assignes no other principles thereof but the Lever its Hypomoclion or Support and a balance it being certain that of these three multiply'd proceed all Machines both Automata and such as are mov'd by force of wind fire water or animals as wind-mills water-mills horse-mills a turn-broch by smoak and as many other inventions as things in the world CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenuous Man I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons NAtural Philosophy considers natural bodies as they are subject to alteration and treats not of the Soul but so far as it informes the Body and either partakes or is the cause of such alteration And therefore they are injust who require this Science to prove supernatural things as the Soul's Immortality is Although its admirable effects the vast extent of its thoughts even beyond the imaginary spaces its manner of acting and vigor in old age the terrors of future judgement the satisfaction or remorse of Conscience and Gods Justice which not punishing all sins in this life presupposes another are sufficiently valid testimonies thereof should not the universal consent of heathens themselves some of which have hastned their deaths to enjoy this immortality and man 's particular external shape infer the particular excellence of his internal form So that by the Philosophical Maxime which requires that there be contraries in every species of things if the souls of beasts joyn'd to bodies die there must be others joyn'd to other bodies free from death when separated from the same And the Harmony of the world which permits not things to pass from on extreme to another without some mean requires as that there are pure spirits and intelligences which are immortal and substances corporeal and mortal so there be a middle nature between these two Man call'd by the Platonists upon this account the horizon of the Universe because he serves for a link and medium uniting the hemisphere of the Angelical Nature with the inferior hemisphere of corporeal nature But there is difference between that which is and that which may be demonstrated by Humane Reason which falls short in proving the most sensible things as the specifical proprieties of things and much less can it prove what it sees not or demonstrate the attribute of a subject which it sees not For to prove the Immortality of the Soul 't is requisite at least to know the two termes of this proportion The Soul is immortal But neither of them is known to natural reason not immortality for it denotes a thing which shall never have end but infinitie surpasses the reach of humane wit which is finite And the term Soul is so obscure that no Philosophy hath yet been able to determine truly whether it be a Spirit or something corporeal a substance or an accident single
the Sun which is inanimate produces animals more excellent then it self Whereby it appears that the Principle which saith that the essence of every thing is discover'd by its operations is not universally true no more then all the rest which are propos'd without explication and before defining the terms under which they are compriz'd For as 't were ridiculous in a Geometrician to require any one to grant to him that a right line may be drawn from a point given to another point and a circle describ'd from any centre at any distance whatsoever or to receive for a principle that all right angles are equal unless he have before-hand explicated what he means by these terms of point line centre circle right angle and distance So they are ridiculous who propose it for a principle that every spiritual or immaterial thing is incorruptible and immortal before having defin'd as they cannot do what is spiritual immaterial and immortal Yea should these principles be granted to them 't would lye upon them to shew by natural reasons that the rational soul is spiritual immaterial independent on the body in essence and not to suppose these things as true And though it were granted them which is very questionable that the actions of men are of a higher degree then those of brutes it would not follow from thence that the reasonable soul is immortal and wholly abstracted from matter but only that 't is of a superior and more sublime order as the phancy is a corporeal power as well as the sight though its actions are much more excellent in comparison of this external sense then the actions of the reasonable soul are in respect of the phancy which yields not much to it in its manner of acting And yet they who write of the immortality of the soul take this for a ground and prove it by handsome congruities and probabilities but do not demonstrate it because 't is a truth which though most certain is withall very obscure and may indeed be comprehended by faith which hath reveal'd it to us but is too remote from our senses to be demonstrated by natural and sensible reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an ingenuous man Upon the second Point 't was said That man is naturally as much delighted with motion as he is an enemy to rest Because Being which he most desires consists in action which is a motion whereas rest is the cessation of actions and consequently an enemy of Being 'T is no wonder then that men are so desirous to travel which is a sort of motion since they are lead thereunto not only by the principles of their Being which they have common with other animals amongst which the most disciplin'd as Elephants Storks Cranes Swallows and Bees change their climate from time to time but also by the reason of their end and supream good which they find in travels For since man's felicity in this life consists in knowledge as appears by the desire every one hath to know and to appear knowing and since the sight alone supplies more notions to the understanding then all the senses together which were all given to man in order to knowledge there is no more sure means of acquiring this supream good then by furnishing the sight continually with various species as travels do wherein new objects always occur which recreate the mind as much as like things disgust those that stir not from the same place the understanding like a consuming fire languishing when it wants new objects for its food Hence the sight of the same place wearies us and the Civilians reckon it the first degree of servitude to hinder one's neighbour the sight of one's house Indeed the soul is a perpetual motion as the heavenly intelligences are never in the same place but the earth the most worthless element remaining unmoveable is the emblem of souls like plants fastned to the same spot of ground where they took birth Wherein they seem to derogate from the advantage attributed by the Stoicks to man when they say that he is a Citizen of the world whence Seneca saith Epist. 28. I was not born to abide in one corner of the earth the whole world is my Country The holy Scripture calls man's life a Pilgrimage whereas he who stirs not from one place sets up his habitation in it whom he ought to seek elsewhere God would not have so much recommended strangers and travellers in the old Law which he not only forbids to use ill but also enjoyns to love as one's self Exod. 22. 21. Levit. 19. 33. Nor would the Church have reckon'd the entertaining of Pilgrims and travellers among works of mercy but only the more to animate men to this honest and holy exercise Wherefore not only with Pythagoras Travellers are in the guard of some God and amongst the most barbarous Nations under the publick faith and protection but also all Pagan Antiquity put them in the safe-guard of Jupiter the greatest of their Gods whom they call Hospitable The Second said That travels are necessary either because they improve our knowledge or our virtues But both these are very rare Man's life is short objects of knowledge are many and we must rely upon the unanimous testimony of others for many things And if men became more vertuous by frequenting with sundry Nations then the ancient Hermits took a wrong course in hiding themselves in Desarts and Cloisters to find virtue there For as for moral Prudence motion and change of place is wholly contrary to it as rest is the cause of it and the cube was sometimes the Hieroglyphick of it Moreover since the inclinations follow the temper which is also diversifi'd by various climates they who never stay in one Country but continually change climates acquire habits and manners become inconstant flitting and imprudent were they not oblig'd to live after the fashion of the Country they reside in at Rome as they do at Rome and because our nature is more inclinable to evil then to good they suffer themselves more easily to be carri'd to vice then to virtue of which they meet but few examples Which mov'd Lycurgus to forbid his Citizens to travel or retain strangers above 24 hours in their City for fear the contagion of vice should come to corrupt the good manners of the Lacedemonians as happen'd a long time after when forgetting his precepts they gave entrance to barbarians and other Nations who infected and corrupted their City And the Laws deny strangers the power of making wills and bequests and such other priviledges which they seem also to have renounc'd by separating themselves from the community of their Country-men Yea if we believe the Philosopher they are no longer men being separated from humane society as a part separated from the body is no longer a part of it And the ingratitude of these wanderers to their own Country is justly punishable since they frustrate it of those services which they are
but one life to lose yet this action could not pass for a virtue since Fortitude appears principally in sufferings and miseries which to avoid by death is rather cowardize and madness then true courage Wherefore the Poet justly blames Ajax for that after he had overcome Hector despis'd fire and flames yet he could not subdue his own choler to which he sacrific'd himself And Lucretia much blemish'd the lustre of her chastity by her own murder for if she was not consenting to Tarquin's crime why did she pollute her hands with the blood of an innocent and for the fault which another had committed punishments as well as offences being personal He who kills himself only through weariness of living is ingrateful for the benefits of nature of which life is the chief if he be a good man he wrongs his Country by depriving it of one and of the services which he owes to it as he wrongs Justice if he be a wicked person that hath committed some crime making himself his own witness Judge and Executioner Therefore the Prince of Poets places those in hell who kill'd themselves and all Laws have establish'd punishments against them depriving them of sepulture because saith Egesippus he that goes out of the world without his father's leave deserves not to be receiv'd into the bosom of his mother the earth I conclude therefore that the ignorant dreads death the timerous fears it the fool procures it to himself and the mad man executes it but the wise attends it The Third said That the generous resolution of those great men of antiquity ought rather to have the approbation then the scorn of a reasonable mind and 't is proper to low spirits to censure the examples which they cannot imitate 'T is not meet because we are soft to blame the courage of a Cato who as he was tearing his own bowels could not forbear laughing even while his soul was upon his lips for joy of his approaching deliverance nor the constancy of a Socrates who to shew with what contentedness he received death convers'd with it and digested what others call its bitterness without any trouble the space of forty days Sextius and Cleanthes the Philosopher follow'd almost the same course Only they had the more honour for that their deaths were purely voluntary For the will forc'd by an extrinsecal cause performs nothing above the vulgar who can obey the laws of necessity but when nothing forces us to dye but our selves and we have good cause for it this death is the most gallant and glorious Nor is it injust as is pretended any more then the Laws which suffer a man to cut off his leg for avoiding a Gangrene Why should not the Jugular Vein be as well at our choice as the Median For as I transgress not the Laws against Thieves when I cut my own Purse nor those against Incendiaries when I burn my own wood so neither am I within the Laws made against murtherers by depriving my self of life 't is my own good which I abandon the thred which I cut is my own And what is said that we are more the publick's then our own hath no ground but in our pride which makes us take our selves for such necessary pieces of the world as not to be dismember'd from it without a noble loss to that great body Besides were we so usefull to the world yet our own turn must be first serv'd Let us live then first for our selves if it be expedient next for others but when life becomes worse then death let us quit it as we do an inconvenient or unbecoming garment Is it not a sign of generosity to make Gouts Stones Aches and all other Plagues of life yield to the stroke of a victorious hand which alone blow puts an end to more maladies then all the simples of Galen and the Antidotes of Avicenna The Fourth said He could not approve the determination of the Stoicks who say that vulgar souls live as long as they can those of the wise as long as 't is fit departing out of life as we do from the table or from play when we are weary That the examples of Priseia who accompani'd her husband in death of Piso who dy'd to save his children of Sextus's daughter who kill'd her self for her father of Zeno who did as much to avoid the incommodities of old age which made it pass for piety at Rome a long time to cast decrepit old men head-long from a Bridge into Tiber are as culpable as he who surrenders a place when he is able to defend it For whereas Plato exempts such from the punishment against sui-cides who committed it to avoid infamy or intolerable necessity and what Pliny saith that nature hath for this end produc'd so many poysonous Plants for five or six sorts of Corn that there is but one way to enter into the world but infinite to go out of it the imputing it to stupidity not to go out of a prison when one hath the key adding that 't is lawful to execute that which 't is lawful to desire as S. Paul did his own death yea the example which is alledged of Sampson of Razias and of eleven thousand Virgins who precipitated themselves into the sea to save their chastity in the Church are effects of a particular inspiration not to be drawn into consequence and out of it examples of rage and despair disguis'd with the mask of true fortitude and magnanimity which consists chiefly in supporting evils as the presidents of so many religious souls attest to us CONFERENCE XC I. Of Hunting II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus I. Of Hunting IF the least of goods hath its attractions 't is no wonder if Hunting wherein are comprehended the three sorts of good honest profitable and delightful have a great interest in our affection being undoubtely preferrable before any other exercise either of body or mind For Play Women Wine and all the pleasure which Luxury can phancy in superfluity of Clothes Pictures Flowers Medals and such other passions not unfitly nam'd diseases of the soul are divertisements either so shameful or so weak that they cannot enter into comparison with hunting so honest that it hath been always the recreation of great persons whose martial courage us'd to be judg'd of by their inclination to this sport which Xenophon calls the apprentisage of War and recommends so much to Cyrus in his Institution as Julius Pollux doth to the Emperour Commodus It s profitableness is chiefly discern'd in that it renders the body dextrous and active preserves health and by inuring it to labour makes a firm constitution hindring it from being delicate consumes the superfluous humours the seeds of most diseases Lastly the pleasure of Hunting must needs be great since it makes the Hunters think light of all their pains and incommodities The mind has its pleasure in it by hope of the prey in such as
hunt for profit and by the contentment of possessing what they sought besides the consideration of the subtilty of the Fox and Wolf the trouble which the Hare gives her displeas'd pursuers The Second said 'T is the only pleasure which does wrong to no person but delivers Countries from the injuries and depredations of beasts And though 't is the most laborious of all pleasures yet 't is least follow'd by repentance and instead of wearying those that are once addicted to it makes them love it in excess for which reason 't is prohibited to the meaner sort of people All the Heroes are represented under the form of Hunters as Perseus who first hunted the wild Goat Castor who taught the management of the horse before wild to chase the Stag Pollux who first trac'd beasts with Lime-hounds Meleager who invented the Spears to assault the Boar Hyppolytus Toyles Hayes and Nets Orion Kennels and Leashes which were so admir'd in his age that the Poets translated him into Heaven where he makes a glorious sign as they put Castor and Pollux among the Gods and feign'd a Diana the Goddess of Hunters Moreover the holy Scripture gives Nimrod the first King in the world no greater title then that of Mighty Hunter And the good man Isaac would not give his blessing to his son Esau till after he had brought him of his Venison The Third said That Man being since the loss of his dominion over the beasts by his sin oblig'd to defend himself against their invasion this gave rise to hunting which is consequently as ancient as the world There are three sorts of it according to the three sorts of animals which it pursues in the air on the earth and in the waters namely Hawking Hunting properly so call'd and Fishing Hawking is the pursuit of Birds by Birds and it s of divers kinds according to the diversity of Hawks and quarries Hunting is the chase of four-footed beasts which are either great as Lyons Bears Stags Boars or small as Wolves Foxes Badgers and Hares Both the one and the other is perform'd by Dogs of which there are good of all sizes and colours and some peculiar to one sort of Game Fishing is the venation of Fishes whereof Plato makes two kinds one by the Line and the other by Nets the more recommendable in that 't was practis'd by the Apostles and our Lord himself who was figur'd by the first Christians under the Hieroglyphicks of a Fish with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they explicated thus by the first Letters of that Language Jesus Christ God our Saviour The Fourth said That Hunting being as various as men's conditions its variety makes it as agreeable as necessary gunning which is the least instructs the Souldier to shoot exactly to be patient and fits him for war especially the hunting of the Badger who makes head in his entries then fights from trench to trench and at length retreats to his last fort where he practises all the sleights of war usual in besieg'd Cities till he be taken by the undermining of the Pioneers For Pythagoras his prohibition to kill animals is no less light then his Metempsychosis or his reason to forbear fishing or eating of fish out of respect to their silence The objection that God permitted our first Parents to eat the fruits of the earth not the flesh of animals and that during two thousand years none was eaten concludes nothing from a Negative Authority and Abel spar'd not the life of the Lamb of his flock which he offer'd to God then God had done that of the beasts of whose skins he made Coats for Adam and Eve And God's prohibition to the Jews to eat any thing taken by a beast as Dogs or Birds being abolish'd together with other ceremonies Moreover all animals being made for man they have no reason to complain if they be apply'd to that end but especially the hunting of mischievous beasts is profitable II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Upon the second Point 't was said That in this Question to justifie weeping we have the example of our Lord whom we read not ever to have been seen laughing not even at the marriage feast whereat he was present but he lamented the death of Lazarus though he knew that himself was going to raise him up again And he compares the entrance into Paradise to the gate of a Judge which a good woman cannot get open nor move the Judge to do her justice but by many complaints and tears and he pronounceth the house of mourning blessed saying that GOD abides there on the contrary laughter and rejoycing not onely were the forerunners of the Deluge but at present occasion a thousand offences against God our Neighbour and our Selves Moreover all the Exhortations and Sermons of Preachers tend only to move tears of contrition and some observe in the trial of Witches and Conjurers that they never weep which is a certain argument of an ill nature especially in women and children And Dido speaking of the ingrateful Aeneas more resents his not weeping when he bid her adieu then all the rest For we are naturally inclin'd to weeping as being the most humid of all animals and nature seems to have made the brain only for the eyes which being always moist have also a glandule in the greater corner call'd from its office Lachrymalis which is a spungy flesh full of little holes serving to attract the moisture of the brain which furnishes the matter of tears and disperses it drop by drop lest falling too much together the brain should be left dry which is a temper contrary to its natural one Now as for objects without us 't is evident there is more cause of weeping then of laughter For if we look under our feet there the ground presents it self which sooner then every one hopes is to bury every on 's ambition and afford him but six foot of earth if on each side of us there appear so many miseries that the Spaniards who are accustom'd thereunto say proverbially that they who are afflicted with the miseries of others bear the whole world upon their shoulders If upwards what a cause of sadness is it to see that so great and vast a Kingdom is at this day in less esteem then the meanest part of this valley of tears the earth and to see God dishonour'd so many ways Come we down to our selves the infirmities of the body the afflictions of the mind all the passions of the soul and the crosses of fortune have made those that have most tasted the pleasures of this life acknowledge that it is nothing but thorns and miseries and with the wise man nothing but vanity of which not to speak a word were to be insensible to laugh impiety and to imitate Aesop's Snails who laugh'd at their cost It remains therefore that 't is wisdom to bewail them The Second said There is a time
by expulsion of the noxious humours Moreover humidity revives Plants and Animals and Man Nature's perfectest work abounds most with it to which cause Cardan refers his greater sagacity And being life is nothing else but the Prime Humidity thence thirst comes to be the greatest bodily inconvenience and diseases caus'd by a dry intemperature are generally incurable Rheum is not so dangerous as an Hectick Fever and experience shews us that land too moist may be render'd fertile but there 's no remedy for the droughts of Africa humane Art being puzled to preserve a Garden during those of Summer Lastly Physick takes the opportunity of moist weather for purgations as most convenient for health The Third said That all the first qualities are active but heat and moisture more then the other two whence the air being imbu'd with humidity alters our bodies more sensibly then when 't is charg'd with dry exhalations For our radical moisture is aerious oyly and benigne and the extraneous moisture is aqueous maligne and pernicious a capital enemy to that balsame of life as extraneous heat is to our vital heat which is suffocated by abundance of excrements collected by humidity which stops the pores but dissipated by dryness which opens them Which made the Prince of Physick say Aph. 15. Sect. 3. that of the seasons of the year droughts are more healthy and less fatal then rainy and moist weather in which happen long Fevers Fluxes Epilepsies Apoplexies and divers others putrid maladies Though 't is impossible to determine the question absolutely because 't would be requisite to consider siccity and humidity separate from other qualities and in their own nature wherein they are not to be found being never separated from cold or heat which render their natures and consequently their effects various The Fourth said That the pleasure we take in a thing is the surest evidence of the good or hurt it does us Hence rain is always more grateful to us in droughts then the contrary Besides Death and old age which leads to it is nothing but a desiccation and dry diseases are most perillous because they are either conjoyn'd with heat which encreases them and makes them very acute or with cold which generates Schirrusses and other maladies accompani'd with obstruction which are not cur'd but by humectation Summer and Autumn are the sickliest and dryest seasons of the year but we are more healthy in Winter and the Spring And do's not the humidity of the night repair the loss caus'd by the siccity and actions of the day as in the morning the most humid part of the day our minds are more serene then all the rest of the day whence it was call'd the friend of the Muses The Brain the mansion of the soul and its divinest faculties is not only most humid but the seat of humidity as choler melancholy fear and all other passions common to us with beasts have their seat in the Gall the Spleen and the heart which are dry parts But although humidity seems more a friend to nature then siccity yet the question must be voided by the distinction of temperaments of which the melancholy and the bilious especially receive very great incommodity from droughts and benefit from moist seasons which on the contrary much torment the phlegmatick II. Which is to be preferr'd the contemplative life or the active Upon the second Point 't was said That man being born to live in society and employment the contemplative life seems incongruous to this end and our first Parent was plac'd in the earth to Till it and eat his bread in the sweat of his countenance not to live idly and look about him Moreover the end is more noble then the means which tend to it but we generally contemplate only in order to act In Divinity we consider God's Commandments in order to perform them In Mathematicks Lines Surfaces Solids Numbers and Motions to make use thereof for Fortifications Carpentry and the Mechanicks In Natural Philosophy its Principles and Causes to refer the same to Medicine In Law Right to apply it to Fact In Morality the Virtues in order to exercise them Consider what difference there is between the contemplation of an empty brain and solid action that is to say between theory and practice you will find the former only a chimera and the other a reality as excellent and profitable as the first is useless except to feed the phancy with vain imaginations and fill the mind with presumption there being none but thinks himself a greater master then others before he hath set his hand to the work and yet 't is by their works that our Lord tells us we shall know every one and not by their discourses which are as much below them as effects and things are more then words The Second said Contemplation is as much more excellent then action as the soul is then the body and to compare them together is to equal the servant with her mistress For not to speak of the raptures of an extasi'd soul nor of eternal blisse which consisting in contemplation that of this world must do the like in reference to natural things Nature alone teaches us that things which are for themselves are more excellent then those which are for others But the contemplation and knowledge of truth hath no other end but it self action the common uses of life Whence contemplation less needs external things then action which requires the help of Riches Honours Friends and a thousand other circumstances which hinder a contemplative person more then they help him who therefore delights most in Desarts and Solitudes Moreover the end is to be prefer'd before the means and the end of active life is to bring us rest as the military life is in order to establish and the civil to preserve peace therefore the rest of the contemplative life being the end of the turbulent active life it is much more noble then its means As appears also by its duration which is greater then that of transient and transitory action but contemplation is durable and permanent which is a sign of the Divinity of the Intellect that produces it infinitely more excellent then all the other inferior powers the principles of actions Contemplation being abstracted from matter and earthly things wearies not the body as actions do which require corporeal organs and therefore the pleasure of it is most pure and simple and constant in regard of its object those sublime things which wisdom contemplates whereas that of action is never intire by reason of the inconstancy of its object which are political things continually mutable The contemplative man finds full satisfaction in himself without going abroad to beg approbation and rewards from men without which virtues languish and are imperfect Moreover the pleasure of contemplation is peculiar to men and not competent to brutes who have not only external actions as well as we as Speaking Singing Dancing Fighting Spinning Building and other Works
incessantly assault it And if we compare it to other Sciences it overthrows most of their Principles by establishing the Mysteries of Faith This is it which made the wisest of men and who perfectly understood all Sciences to say That they were but vanity And were this union possible he hath so highly recommended sobriety of knowing that 't would be a kind of intemperance to desire to know every thing no less presumptuous by exceeding the bounds set by God to each of our capacities then ridiculous by attempting to make a necessary and infallible thing of many contingent and uncertain and not yet agreed upon The Third said That Unity which is one of the Transcendents co-eternal and co-essential to Good ought to be the attribute of all good things and consequently of Discipline which likewise being the good of the Understanding which is one cannot be comprehended by it but by their becoming conformable the one to the other If any reply That 't is enough that things enter into it successively and so need not be one which would be inconsistent with their nature I answer That the series and order which is found in those things belongs to one single Science otherwise they would have no conection together and by this means could not be made use of to purpose And since all our Notions depend one of another our Discourse being but a continual Syllogism whose Conclusions depend upon the Premises it follows That the Syllogism being the subject but of one Science they all pertain but to one Science whence Philosophy is defin'd the knowledge of things divine and humane that is to say of every thing Indeed since all moral Virtues are so connected together that 't is impossible to possess one without possessing all the Sciences which are the intellectual virtues must be streightly united likewise and the more for that they have but one most simple subject to wit the Uderstanding And since the means of Being are the same with those of Knowing every thing that is in the world having the same Principles of existence must also have the same principles of knowledg and so make one sole Science because Sciences differ only by reason of their principle all which too depend upon one Metaphysical principle namely That one and the same thing cannot be and not be which proves all others and therefore it follows That there must be one sole Science general comprehending all the rest For to say That every several manner of handling a thing makes a distinct Science is to imitate him who would make an Art of every Simple Lastly Nature would not have given us a desire of knowing every thing if this desire could not be accomplished But it is impossible to be so whilst the Sciences remain so diffuse as they are at present CONFERENCE XCV I. Of the diversity of Wits II. Of New-years Gifts I. Of the diversity of Wits DIversity is found in all things but no where more remarkably then in man for not to speak now of Bodies that of Minds is so great that none have been ever found to have the same inclinations or motions or that have been so much as like to themselves the Mind being an indefatigable Agent varying postures every moment according to the several occurrences of new objects to which it becomes like But though the division of Wits be so unequal and disadvantageous to some that there 's observ'd as great difference between one man and another as between some men and a brute yet all are well pleas'd with their lot and every one thinks he hath enough to spare and to govern and instruct others so conceited are we of what belongs to our selves Now the cause of this diversity of Spirits and Inclinations seems to be the various constitution of bodies whose temper the motions and inclinations of the Soul follow and this temper being incessantly mutable by causes internal and external not only in the four seasons of the year but also in the four parts of the day hence ariseth the diversity of the actions and inclinations of the Mind which is so great that the same thing pleases and displeases us in a little space of time The Second said That the Faculty which they call Ingenium or Genius cannot proceed meerly from the temperament of the four qualities For we see those that come nearest the temperament of man are the most stupid and Ages Seasons and Aliments changing those qualities continually should also incessantly change mans wits But 't is a quality or ray of the Reasonable Soul which finding the four qualities variously mix'd in every one makes use thereof in different operations and so this difference is only accidental not essential Moreover we see that whatever difference be conceiv'd in Minds yet their fundamental inclinations are alike the hatred and aversion of evil things and the desire and prosecution of good if the means imploy'd to these purposes be different this proceeds from a particular imagination caus'd by the constitution of the humours which makes this difference appear as through a colour'd glass So the choler of the Souldier puts him upon seeking honour and profit in Arms the Advocate is mov'd to seek them in the Sciences either by his more moderate temper or by the example and pleasure of his Ancestors Yet this Proportion cannot change the essence of Wits but only the appearance as a Painter out of the mixture of four or five colours makes infinite others which differ only in shew The Third said There are many partial causes of this variety and they may be various to infinity according to the various haps they meet with like the letters of the Alphabet diversly combin'd yet they may be referr'd to three principal Nature Art and Fortune The Nature of Man is the Soul and the Body Souls cannot differ specifically as some hold for then a species should be part of an individual since the Soul makes a part of man which is absurd because the species must be predicated of many individuals Yet I think there is some individual difference between our Souls not wholly depending upon the conformation of the organs or the temper of humours because excellent Souls have been found to lodg in ill-made Bodies as those of Socrates and Aesop and the contrary Art may also contribute much to this diversity especially in Youth when wits are more flexible some very dull ones having been incredibly improved by study So also may Fortune and Occasion amongst others the place of residence as the fertility of Palestine in Pasturage made the Jews Shepherds and the plains of Aegypt fitted for tillage by the inundation of Nilus made the Aegyptians Plow-men Those that inhabit the coasts of the Sea are Merchants in regard of the conveniency of transportation And necessity which forces our wits upon sundry things makes the Arabians who live in an unfertile soil for the most part Thieves as sterility has constrain'd others to make war upon their
That the three sorts of goods being found in the reception of presents sent us by friends for they testifie the honour which they do us the least present brings some profit to the receiver and no benefit is receiv'd without some pleasure 't is no wonder if men who have from all time assign'd some day to every thing which they esteem'd good have also thought fit to solemnize the Feast of Presents or Benefits and to testifie their esteem thereof have made the Year begin by it for good augury Indeed nothing is so powerful as Presents because they make and reconcile amity the greatest Gift which God hath given to men They pierce the best-guarded Gates as Philip of Macedon said and Jupiter found nothing so fitting as a Golden-showre whereby to convey himself into Danae's lap Homer with his Muses is thrust out by the shoulders if he brings nothing with him whereas a course Varlet laden with booty is admitted even into the Closet Whereof men are so perswaded that there was never a Religion but had its offerings And God forbids any to come before him with empty hands Especially gifts are agreeable when the proportion of the receiver with the giver is observ'd So the poverty of the Greek Epigrammatist made Augustus well pleas'd with the peny which he presented to him But the price of a thing or in defect thereof its novelty or the excellence of the work-man-ship the place and time is most considerable this latter making such things as would have no acceptance at another season pass for courtesies in the beginning of the year CONFERENCE XCVI I. Of Place II. Of Hieroglyphicks I. Of Place ALL created things having a finite and circumscrib'd essence have also a proper place which serves for a bound to their nature which is the principle of their motions and actions which cannot be but in some place the six differences whereof namely above below before behind the right side and the left sufficiently prove its existence since differences presuppose a genus But its nature and essence is no less hard to be known then its existence is plain To omit the sundry considerations of its several Sciences here we understand by place that which contains things plac'd and 't is either common to more or proper to one alone this either external or internal and generally 't is either Physical or Mathematical or rather the same sometimes provided and sometimes devested of accidents in its pure dimensions This place cannot be the space of every body because space is nothing else but a vacuum which is wholly opposite to place which being an affection ' of body must be something of reality 'T is therefore well defin'd the first internal and unmoveable surface of the ambient body First that is immediate and proximate because it must be equal to the body which it contains internal for if it were the external surface it would be greater as vessels are larger then what they contain Lastly it must be immoveable which is not to be understood of the real place or real surface environing the body because this surface changes when the body changes place or whilst the body remains unmov'd the ambient air is chang'd every moment but of that place or imaginary surface which encompasses the body on all sides remaining always immoveable Which is more satisfactory then to say as some do that the place of bodies is immoveable although they and their surfaces change place because from thence to the centre and principal parts of the world there is always the same distance and respect The Second said That Aristotle shew'd more subtilety then truth when in stead of defining place internally corresponding to the extension of the parts he defin'd it by an outward circumference by which account Souls Angels and other spiritual substances should not be contain'd in a place as 't is certain they are though definitively not circumscriptively in regard they move from one place to another Yea the whole world should not have a place since it cannot be contain'd by any thing but contains all 'T is also incongruous to say with some that the place of the world is its centre which is too small to design the place of so great a body and if a point were the place of the world the place of a Pismire should be greater then that of the world What others say That place is only the extension of things cannot consist with the place of spiritual forms which yet have a distinct extension as other corporeal forms have and we change place every moment although we have always the same extension I conceive therefore the place being relative to the thing plac'd ought to be defin'd by it according to the nature of relatives and so place is nothing but the space occupi'd by the body plac'd which is that long broad and deep interval which receives the same Moreover space which would be void if one body did not succeed another hath all the conditions requisite to the nature of place For first 't is nothing of the thing plac'd being a pure nothing 2. 'T is immoveable being of it self incapable of motion 3. 'T is equal to the body plac'd the whole space answering to the whole body and every part to every part 4. It receives sometimes one body and sometimes another And lastly two equal spaces contain as much the one as the other The Third said That place defin'd the immoveable surface of an ambient body cannot agree to the air because its surface is not immoveable But if this immobility be meant of the whole body of the air this inconvenience will follow that the external surface of the air is not proportionate to the quantity of the particular body which it encompasseth The defining of place to be the space occupi'd by the body plac'd explicates the place of bodies but not of incorporeal things as the Soul and Angels which having no extension should have no space and consequently be in no place Wherefore I conceive that place being an external affection of figure and quantity must not be taken in the concave superficies of the body which touches it but in the convex of that which is contain'd And so this superficies will be immoveable since the quantity of the body remains the same and always equal to the body contain'd without penetration because it hath no profundity Likewise every body will be likewise in its own place And as for things incorruptible and incorporeal the Angels and the Heavens their place will be always the extremity of their substance The Fourth said That if there were any place in nature which receives bodies it must either be a body it self or a vacuum A body it cannot be for then two absurdities will follow namely penetration of dimensions one body being within another and a progress to infinity for place being a body it must be in another place this in a third this third in a fourth and so to