from the Intellect to sensible things and corporeall cares But so perfect are these Celestiall Souls that they can discharge both Functions rule the Body yet not be taken off from Contemplation of Superiours These the Poets signifie by Ianus with two faces one looking forward upon Sensible things the other on intelligible lesse perfect Souls have but one face and when they turn that to the Body cannot see the Intellect being depriv'd of their contemplation when to the Intellect cannot see the Body neglecting the Care thereof Hence those Souls that must forsake the Intellect to apply themselves to Corporeall Government are by Divine Providence confin'd to caduque corruptible Bodies loosed from which they may in a short time if they fail not themselves return to their Intellectuall felicity Other Soules not hindred from Speculation are tyed to eternall incorruptible Bodies Celestial Souls then design'd by Ianus as the Principles of Time motion intervening behold the Ideal Beauty in the Intellect to love it perpetually and inferiour sensible things not to desire their Beauty but to communicate this other to them Our Souls before united to the Body are in like manner double-fac'd but are then as it were cleft asunder retaining but one which as they turn to either object Sensuall or Intellectuall is deprived of the other Thus is vulgar love inconsistent with the Celestiall and many ravish'd at the sight of Intellectuall Beauty become blinde to sensible imply'd by Callimachus Hymn 5. in the Fable of Tyresias who viewing Pallas naked lost his sight yet by her was made a Prophet closing the eyes of his Body she open'd those of his Minde by which he beheld both the Present and Future The Ghost of Achilles which inspir'd Homer with all Intellectuall Contemplations in Poetry deprived him of corporeal sight Though Celestiall Love liveth eternally in the Intellect of every Soul yet only those few make use of it who declining the Care of the Body can with Saint Paul say Whether in the Body or out of the Body they know not To which state a Man sometimes arrives but continues there but a while as we see in Extasies Sect. XXII THus in our Soul naturally indifferent to sensible or intelligible Beauty there may be three Loves one in the Intellect Angelicall the second Human the third Sensuall the two latter are conversant about the same object Corporeall Beauty the sensuall fixeth its Intention wholly in it the human separates it from matter The greater part of mankind go no further then these two but they whose understandings are purified by Philosophy knowing sensible Beauty to be but the Image of another more perfect leave it and desire to see the Celestial of which they have already a Tast in their Remembrance if they persevere in this Mental Elevation they finally obtain it and recover that which though in them from the beginning yet they were not sensible of being diverted by other Objects The Sonnet I. LOve whose hand guides my Hearts strict Reins Nor though he govern it disdains To feed the fire with pious care Which first himself enkindled there Commands my backward Soul to tell What Flames within her Bosom dwell Fear would perswade her to decline The charge of such a high design But all her weak reluctance fails 'Gainst greater Force no Force avails Love to advance her flight will lend Those wings by which he did descend Into my Heart where he to rest For ever long since built his Nest I what from thence he dictates write And draw him thus by his own Light II. LOve flowing from the sacred spring Of uncreated Good I sing When born how Heaven he moves the soul Informs and doth the World controwl How closely lurking in the heart With his sharp weapons subtle art From heavy earth he Man unites Enforcing him to reach the skies How kindled how he flames how burns By what laws guided now he turns To Heaven now to the Earth descends Now rests 'twixt both to neither bends Apollo Thee I invocate Bowing beneath so great a weight Love guide me through this dark design And imp my shorter wings with thine III. WHen from true Heav'n the sacred Sun Into th' Angelick Mind did run And with enliv'ned Leaves adorn Bestowing form on his first-born Enflamed by innate Desires She to her chiefest good aspires By which reversion her rich Brest With various Figures is imprest And by this love exalted turns Into the Sun for whom she burns This flame rais'd by the Light that shin'd From Heav'n into th' Angelick Mind Is eldest Loves religious Ray By Wealth and Want begot that Day When Heav'n brought forth the Queen whose Hand The Cyprian Scepter doth Command IV. THis born in amorous Cypris arms The Sun of her bright Beauty warms From this our first desire accrues Which in new fetters caught pursues The honourable path that guides Where our eternall good resides By this the fire through whose fair beams Life from above to Mankind streams Is kindled in our hearts which glow Dying yet dying greater grow By this th' immortal Fountain flows Which all Heaven forms below bestows By this descends that shower of light Which upwards doth our minds invite By this th' Eternall Sun inspires And souls with sacred lustre fires V. AS God doth to the Mind dispence Its Being Life Intelligence So doth the Mind the soul acquaint How't understand to move to paint She thus prepar'd the Sun that shines In the Eternal Breast designs And here what she includes diffuses Exciting every thing that uses Motion and sense beneath her state To live to know to operate Inferiour Venus hence took Birth Who shines in heav'n but lives on earth And o're the world her shadow spreads The elder in the Suns Glass reads Her Face through the confused skreen Of a dark shade obscurely seen She Lustre from the Sun receives And to the Other Lustre gives Celestiall Love on this depends The younger vulgar Love attends VI. FOrm'd by th' eternal Look of God From the Suns most sublime abode The Soul descends into Mans Heart Imprinting there with wondrous Art What worth she borowed of her star And brought in her Celestiall Carre As well as humane Matter yields She thus her curious Mansion builds Yet all those fames from the divine Impression differently decline The Sun who 's figu'rd here his Beams Into anothers Bosom streams In whose agreeing soul he staies And guilds it with its virtuous Raies The heart in which Affection 's bred Is thus by pleasing Errour fed VII THe heart where pleasing Errour raigns This object as her Child maintains By the fair light that in her shines A rare Celestiall Gift refines And by degrees at last doth bring To her first splendours sacred spring From this divine Look one Sun passes Through three refulgent Burning-glasses Kindling all Beauty which the Spirit The Body and the Mind inherit These rich spoiles by th' eye first caught Are to the Souls next Handmaid brought Who
there resides She to the brest Sends them reform'd but not exprest The heart from Matter Beauty takes Of many one Conception makes And what were meant by Natures Laws Distinct She in one Picture draws VIII THe heart by Love allur'd to see Within her self her Progeny This like the Suns reflecting Rayes Upon the Waters face survaies Yet some divine though clouded light Seems here to twinckle and invite The pious Soul a Beauty more Sublime and perfect to adore Who sees no longer his dim shade Upon the earths vast Globe display'd But certain Lustre of the true Suns truest Image now in view The Soul thus entring in the Mind There such uncertainty doth find That she to clearer Light applies Her aimes and near the first Sun flies She by his splendour beautious grows By loving whom all Beauty flows Upon the Mind Soul World and All Included in this spacious Ball. IX BUt hold Love stops the forward Course That me beyond my scope would force Great Power if any Soul appears Who not alone the blossoms wears But of the rich Fruit is possest Lend him thy Light deny the rest The Third PART TO treat of both Loves belongs to different Scienences Vulgar Love to Naturall or Morall Philosophy Divine to Theology or Metaphysicks Solomon discourseth excellently of the first in Ecclesiastes as a Naturall Philosopher in his Proverbs as a Morall Of the second in his Canticles esteemed the most Divine of all the Songs in Scripture Sâ—anza I. The chief order established by Divine Wisdom in created things is that every inferiour Nature be immediately governed by the superiour whom whilst it obeys it is guarded from all ill and lead without any obstruction to its determinate felicity but if through too much affection to its own liberty and desire to prefer the licentious life before the profitable it rebell from the superiour Nature it falls into a double inconvenience First like a Ship given over by the Pilot it lights sometimes on one Rock sometimes on another without hope of reaching the Port. Secondly it loseth the command it had over the Natures subjected to it as it hath deprived its superiour of his Irrationall Nature is ruled by another unâ—it for its Imperfection to rule any God by his ineffable Excellence provides for every thing himselfe needs not the providence of any other Betwixt the two extreams God and Bruits are Angells and Rationall Souls governing others and governed by others The first Hierarchy of Angells immediately illuminated by God enlighten the next under them the last by Platonists termed Daemons by the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Guardians of Men are set over us as We over Irrationalls So Psalm 8. Whilest the Angells continued subject to the Divine Power they retained their Authority over other Creatures but when Luciser and his Companions through inordinate love of their own Excellence aspir'd to be equall with God and to be conserved as He by their own strength they fell from Glory to extream Misery and when they lost the Priviledge they had over others seeing us freed from their Empire enviovsly every hour insidiate our good The same order is in the lâ—sser World our Soul the inferiour faculties are directed by the superiour whom following they erre not The imaginative corrects the mistakes of outward sense Reason is illuminated by the Intellect nor do we at any time miscarry but when the Imaginative will not give credit to Reason or Reason confident of it selfe resists the Intellect In the desiderative the Appetite is govern'd by the Rationall the Rationall by the Intellectuall which our Poet implies saying Love whose hand guides my hearts strict reins The cognoscitive powers are seated in the Head the desiderative in the Heart In every well order'd Soul the Appetite is govern'd by Intellectuall Love implyed by the Metaphor of Reins borrowed from Plato in his Phaedrus Love to advance my flight will lend The wings by which he did ascend Into my heart When any superiour vertue is said to descend we imply not that it leaves its own height to come down to us but drawes us up to it selfe its descending to us is our ascending to it otherwise such conjuction would be the imperfection of the vertue not the perfection of him who receives it II. Love â—lowing from the sacred Spring Of uncreated good From the Fountain of divine goodnesse into our Souls in which that influx is terminated When born c. The order participation conversion of Ideas see Part 2. Sect. how Heaven he moves the Soul Informs and doth the World controul Of these three properties Love is not the efficient God produceth the Ideas in the Angelick Minde the Minde illustrates the Soul with Ideal Beauty Heaven is moved by its proper Soul But without Love these principles do not operate He is cause of the Mindes conversion to God and of the Souls to the Minde without which the Ideas would not descend into the one nor the Specifick reasons into the other the Soul not illuminated by these could not elicite this sensible form out of matter by the motion of Heaven III. WHen the â—irst emanation from God the plenty of Ideas descended into the Angelick Minde she desiring their perfection reverts to God obtaining of him what she covets which the more fully she possesseth the more fervently she loves This desire Celestiall Love born of the obscure Minde and Ideas is explain'd in this Stanza true Heaven God who includes all created beings as Heaven all sensible lib. 2. Sect. Only Spirituall things according to Platonists are true and reall the rest but shadowes and images of these the sacred Sun The light of Ideas streaming from God enlivened leaves The Metaphore of Leaves relates to the Orchard of Iupiter where these Ideas were planted 2. 10. Enlivened as having in themselves the principle of their operation Intellection the noblest life as the Psalmist Give me understanding and I shall live So the Cabalist to the second Sephirah which is Wisdome attributes the name of Life adorn bestowing form To adorn denotes no more then accidentall perfection but Ideas are the Substance of the Minde and therefore he adds bestowing form which though they come to her from without she receives not as accidents but as her first intrinsecall act which our Author implies terming her desires innate And by this love exalted turns Into the Sun for whom she burns Love transformes the Lover into the thing loved Wealth and Want Porus and Penia 2. 10. IV. The properties of Celestiall Love are in this Stanza discovered in new fetters caught The Soul being opprest by the Body her desire of Intellectuall Beauty sleeps but awakened by Love is by the sensible Beauty of the body led at last to their Fountain God which glow Dying yet glowing greater grow Motion and Operation are the signes of life their privation of death in him who applies himselfe to the Intellectuall part the rationall and the sensitive fail by the Rationall
reâ—ulgent Burning-glasses One Light flowing from God beautifies the Angelick the Rational Nature and the Sensible World the Souls next Hand-maid The Imaginative to the Breast The Breast and Heart here taken for the Soul because her nearest Lodging the Fountain of Life and Heat reform'd but not exprest Reform'd by the Imagination form the deformity of Matter yet not reduc'd to perfect Immateriality without which true Beauty is not Exprest SPVSIPPVS SPEVSIPPVS CHAP. I. His Life SPEUSIPPUS was an Athenian born at Myrrhinus which belonged to the Pandionian Tribe his Father named Eurymedon his Mother Poâ—one Sister to Plato He was brought up in the domestick documents of his Uncle Plato who as he used to say reformed Speusippus's life after the pattern of his own Plato had foure Kins-women Daughters of his Neeces the eldest of these he married to Speusippus with a small portion thirty Minae which Dionysius had sent him To this summe Chio glad of the occasion added a Talent which Speusippus earnestly refused untill at last he was overcome by the just importunities of the other to receive it alledging that he gave it not as mony but as kindnesse that such gifts were to be entertained for they encreased honour the rest were dishonourable that he ought to accept of the good-will though he despised the mony The rest of those Virgins were Married richly to Athenians only Speusippus who best deserved was poor With these arguments Speusippus was induced to accept of Chio's gift whereat Chio much congratulated his own good fortune as having laid hold of an occasion such as perhaps saith he I shall not meet again in all my life When Dion came to Athens Speusippus was continually in company with him more then any other friend there by Plato's advice to soften and divert Dion's humour with a facile companion such as he knew Speusippus to be and that withall he knew discreetly how to observe time and place in his mirth whence Timon in Sillis calls him a good Ieaster The last time that Plato upon the importunity of Dionysius went to Sicily Speusippus accompany'd him Whilest they lived at Syracuse Speusippus kept more company with the Citizens then Plato did and insinuating more into their mindes at first they were afraid to speak freely to him mistrusting him to be one of Dionysius's spies But within a while they began to conâ—ide in him and all agreed in this to pray Dion to come to them and not to take care for ships men or horses but to hire a ship for his own passage for the Sicilians desired no more then that he would lend them his name and person against the Tyrant Speusippus at his return to Athens perswaded Dion to warre against Dionysius and deliver Sicily from the bondage of Tyranny assuring him the Country would receive him gladly Dion upon this information received such encouragement that he began secretly to levie men The Philosophers much advanced his designe When he went to Sicily he bestowed a Country-house which he had purchased since his comming to Athens upon Speusippus CHAP. II. His profession of Philosophy PLato dying in the first year of the 108th Olympiad Theophilus being Archon Speusippus succeeded him in the School of the Academy whom he followed also in his Doctrine He first as Theodorus affirmes looked into the community and mutuall assistance of Mathematicall Disciplines as Plato did into that of the Philosophicall He first according to Cenaeus declared those things which Isocrates conceived not to be divulged the same perhaps which Cicero calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Isocrates He affirmed that the minde was not the same either with Good or One but of a peculiar nature proper to it selfe He set up in the School which Plato had built the Images of the Graces He exacted mony of his Disciples contrary to the custome of Plato The two Women who were Plato's Auditors Lasthenia the Mantinean and Axiothea the Phliasian heard Speusippus likewise Having continued Master of the School eight years he at last by reason of his infirm disposition much debilitated by the Palsie sent to Xenocrates desiring him to come and take from him the government of the School which Xenocrates did CHAP. III. His wrrtings HE wrote many things chiefly in Philosophy Commentaries and Dialogues of which were Aristippus the Cyrenaick Of Riches 1. Of Pleasure 1. Of Iustice 1. Of Philosophy 1. Of Friendship 1. Of the Gods 1. The Philosopher 1. To Cephalus 1. Cephalus 1. Clinomachus or Lysias 1. The Cittizen 1. Of the Soul 1. To Gryllus 1. Aristippus 1. The confutation of Arts 1. Commentary Dialogues Artificiall 1. Dialogues of likenesse in things 10. Divisions and arguments to things like Of the genus's and species of Examples To Amartyrus Encomium of Plato Epistles to Dion Dionysius Philip. Of Law The Mathematician Mandrobulus Lysias Deâ—â—nâ—tions of all these writings the only extant Orders of Commentaries Verses Phavorinus in the second of his Commentaries saith that Aristotle paid three Talents for his Books CHAP. IV. His Death HE was as Timotheus saith very infirme of body insomuch that he was fain to be carried up and down the Academy in a kinde of a running chair Riding in this manner he one day met Diogenes whom saluting he said Joy be with you But not with you answered Diogenes who can endure to live being in that condition At length he dyed willingly through griefe as Laertius affirmes who elsewhere citing Plutarch in the lives of Lysander and Scylla saith he dyed of the Phthiriasis but there is no such thing extant in Plutarch Though he followed Plato in his opinions yet he did not imitate his temper for he was austeer cholerick and had not so great command over his pleasures In anger he threw a Dog into a Well and indulging to pleasure he went to the marriage of Cassander in Macedonia He was also so great a Lover of mony that some Poems which he had written not very good he sung publickly for gain for which vices Dionysius writing to him thus derides him And we may learn Philosophy from our Arcadian she-Scholler Plato took no mony of his Schollers you exact it whether they are willing or not Athenaeus cites the same Epistle after he had reproached him for avarice and voluptuousnesse he objects his collections of mony from many persons his love to Lasthenia the Sardian Curtezan after all this adding Why do you accuse us of avarice who your selfe omit not any sordid way of gain Did not you after Hermias's debt was satisfied make collections in his name amongst his friends to your own use To a rich man in love with a deformed person What need you her saith he for ten Talents you may have a handsomer To him Simonides wrot Histories wherein he related the actions of Dion and Bion. There was another Speusippus a Physitian of Alexandria XENOCRATES CHAP. I. His Country
who assoon as he had read it was so disaffected to life that he threw himselfe from a high wall into the Sea upon whom thus Callimachus Cleombrotus cries out farewell this light And headlong throwes himselfe int'endlesse night Not that he ought had done deserving death But Plato read and weary grew of breath The Dialogues generally noted as spurious not to say any thing of his Epinomis though some ascribe it to Philippus the Opuntian are these Midon or the Horse-courser Erixias or Erasistratus Alcyon Acephali or the Sisyphi Axiochus Phaeaces Demodochus Chelidon The seventh Epimenides Of these Alcion is ascribed by Phavorinus to Leon. His stile Aristotle saith is betwixt Prose and Verse He useth variety of names that his work may not easily be understood by the unlearned He conceiveth wisdome properly to be of intellectuall things Knowledge of reall Beings conversant about God and the soul separate from the body Properly he calleth Philosophy Wisdome being the appetition of divine Knowledge but commonly he calleth all skill knowledge as an Artificer a wise man He likewise used the same names in divers significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies Evill he useth for Simple as Euripides in his Lycimnius of Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same word Plato sometimes takes for honest sometimes for little He likewise useth 〈◊〉 names to signifie the same thing Idaea he useth both for species and genus Exemplar both principle and cause Sometimes he useth contrary expressions to signifie the same thing Sensible he calleth a being and no being a being as having been produced no being in respect of its continuall mutation Idaea neither moveable nor permanent the same both one and many The like he useth often in other things The method of his discourse is three-fold first to declare what that is which is taught then for what reason it is asserted whether as a principall cause or as a comparison and whether to defend the Tenent or oppugne the contrary Thirdly whether it be rightly said The marks which he usually affixed to his writtings are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes Platonick words and figures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines and opinions proper to Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Choice expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corrections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things superfluous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Double signification or use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophicall institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agreement of opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Improbation Hitherto Laertius There are two Epistles under Plato's name besides those in his works already mentioned one in Laertius his life of Architas Plato to Architas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THe Commentaries which came from you we received with extraordinary content infinitely admiring the writer who appears to us a person worthy of those antient predecessors for those men are said to be Myraeans of those Trojans which were banished in the time of Laomedon good men as Tradition speaks them Those Commentaries of mine concerning which you write are not yet polished however as they are I have sent them to you in the keeping of them we agree both so as I nâ—ed not give you any directions Farewell Another published by Leo Allatius amongst the Socratick Epistles I had not any of those things to send to Syracuse which Archytas desired to receive by you as soon as possible I will send to you Philosophy hath wrought in me I know not whether good or bad a hatred of conversing with many persons justly I think since they erre in all kind of folly as well in private as publick affairs but if unjustly yet know I can hardly live and breath otherwise For this reason I have fled out of the City as out of a Den of wild Beasts living not far from the Ephestiades and the places thereabouts I now see that Timon hated not men he could not affect Beasts therefore lived â— alone by himself perhaps not without danger Take this as you please my resolution is to live far from the City now and for ever hereafter as long as God shall grant me life In Poesy he writ Dithyrambs An Epick Poem Four Tragedies all which as we said he burned The Atlantick story of which thus Plutarch Solon begun the Atlantick story which he had learnt of the Priests of Sais very proper for the Athenians but gave it over by reason of his old age and the largenesse of the work Plato took the same argument as a wast piece of fertile ground fallen to him by hereditary right He manured it refined it enclosed it with large Walls Porches and Galleries such as never any Fable or Poem had before but because he undertook it late he was prevented by Death The more things written delight the more their not being perfected is For as the Athenian City left the Temple of Jupiter so Plato's Wisdom amongst many exâ—â—llent writings left the Atlantick argument alone imperfect Epigrams of which these are extant in Laertius and the Anthologie Upon one named After The Stars my Star thou view'st Heav'n I would be That I with thousand eyes might gaze on Thee Upon his Death A Phosphor 'mongst the living late wert thou But shin'st among the dead a Hesper now Epitaph on Dion engrav'd on his Tomb at Siracuse Old Hecuba the Trojan Matron's years Were interwoven by the Fates with Tears But thee with blooming hopes my Dion deckt Gods did a Trophy of their pow'r erect Thy honour'd reliques in their Country rest Ah Dion whose love rages in my breast On Alexis Fair is Alexis I no sooner said When every one his eyes that way convey'd My soul as when some dog a bone we show Who snatcheth it lost we not Phaedrus so On Archaeanassa To Archae'nassa on whose furrow'd brow Love sits in triumph I my service vow If her declining Graces shine so bright What flames felt you who saw her noon of light On Agathon My Soul when I kiss'd Agathon did start Up to my lip just ready to depart To Xantippe An Apple I Love's emblem at the throw Thou in exchange thy virgin-Virgin-zone bestow If thou refuse my suite yet read in this How short thy years how frail thy Beauty is I cast the apple loving those love thee Xantippe yeeld for soon both old will be On the Eretrians vanquish'd by the Persians We in Eubaea born Eretrians are Buried in Susa from our Country far Venus and the Muses Virgins said Venus to the Muses pay Homage to us or Love shall wound your Hearts The Muses answer'd take these toyes away Our Breasts are proof against his childish darts Fortune exchang'd One finding Gold in change the halter quits Missing his Gold 'tother the halter knits On Sappho He who believes the Muses Nine mistakes For Lesbian Sappho ten their number makes Time Time all things bring to passe a change creates In Names in Formes in Nations and
he is Man by the Intellectuall communicates with Angels As Man he dies reviv'd an Angell Thus the Heart dies in the flames of Intellectuall Love yet consumes not but by this death growes greater receives a new and more sublime life See in Plato the Fables of Alcestes and Orpheus V. This Stanza is a description of sensible Beauty The elder in the Suns glasse reads Her face through the confused skreen Of a dark shade obscurely seen Sensible light is the act and efficacy of Corporeall spirituall light of Intelligible Beauty Ideas in their descent into the inform Angelick Minde were as colours and figures in the Night As he who by Moon-light seeth some fair object desires to view and enjoy it more fully in the day so the Minde weakly beholding in her selfe the Ideal Beauty dim and opacous whch our Author calls the skreen of a dark shade by reason of the Night of her imperfection turns like the Moon to the eternall Sun to perfect her Beauty by him to whom addressing her selfe she becomes Intelligible light clearing the Beauty of Celestiall Venus and rendring it visible to the eye of the first Minde In sensible Beauty we consider first the object in it selfe the same at Midnight as at Moon Secondly the light in a manner the Soul thereof the Author supposeth that as the first part of sensible Beauty corporeall forms proceeds from the first part of Intellectual Beauty Ideal forms so sensible light flowes from the intelligible descending upon Ideas VI. VII VIII Corporeall Beauty implies first the materiall disposition of the Body consisting of quantity in the proportion and distance of parts of quality in figure and colour Secondly a certain quality which cannot be exprest by any term better then Gracefulnesse shining in all that is fair This is properly Venus Beauty which kindles the fire of Love in Mankinde They who affirm it results from the disposition of the Body the sight figure and colour of features are easily confuted by experience We sâ—e many persons exact and unaccustomable in every part destitute of this grace and comlinesse others lesse perfect in those particular conditions excellently gracefull and comely Thus Catullus Many think Quintia beauâ—ious fair and tall And sâ—reight she is apart I grant her all But altogether beautious I deny For not one grace doth that large shape supply He grants her perfection of quality figure and quantity yet not allowes her handsome as wanting this Grace This then must by consequence be ascribed to the Soul which when perfect and lucid transfuseth even into the Body some Beams of its Splendour When Moses came from the divine Vision in the Mount his face did shine so exceedingly that the people could not behold it unlesse vail'd Porphyrius relates that when Plotinus his soul was elevated by divine Contemplation an extraordinary brightnesse appeared in his looks plotinus himselfe averres that there was never any beautifull Person wicked that this Gracefulnesse in the Body is a certain sign of perfection in the Soul Proverbs 17. 24. Wisdome shineth in the countenance of the Wise. From materiall beauty wee ascend to the first Fountain by six Degrees the Soule through the sight represents to her self the Beauty of some particular person inclines to it is pleased with it and while she rests here is in the first the most imperfect material degree 2. She reforms by her imagination the Image she hath received making it more perfect as more spirituall and separating it from Matter brings it a little nearer Ideal Beauty 3. By the light of the agent Intellect abstracting this Form from all singularity she considers the universall Nature of Corporeal Beauty by it self This is the highest degree the Soul can reach whilst she goes no further then Sense 4. Reflecting upon her own Operation the knowledge of universall Beauty and considering that every thing founded in matter is particular shee concludes this universality proceeds not from the outward Object but her Intrinsecal Power and reasons thus If in the dimme Glasse of Materiall Phantasmes this Beauty is represented by vertue of my Light it follows that beholding it in the clear Mirrour of my substance divested of those Clouds it will appear more perspicuous thus turning into her self shee findes the Image of Ideal Beauty communicated to her by the Intellect the Object of Celestiall Love 5. Shee ascends from this Idea in her self to the place where Celestiall Venus is in her proper form Who in fulness of her beauty not being comprehensible by any particular Intellect she as much as in her lies endeavours to be united to the first Mind the chiefest of Creatures and general Habitation of Ideal Beauty obtaining this she terminates and sixeth her journey this is the sixt and last degree They are all imply'd in the 6 7 and 8 Stanza's Form'd by th' Eternal look c. Platonists affirm some Souls are of the nature of Saturn others of Iupiter or some other Planet meaning one Soul hath more Conformity in its Nature with the Soul of the Heaven of Saturn then with that of Iupiter and so on the contrary of which there can be no internal Cause assigned the External is God who as Plato in his Timâ—eus Soweth and scattereth Souls some in the Moon others in other Planets and Stars the Instruments of Time Many imagine the Rational Soul descending from her Star in her Vehiculum Coeleste of her self forms the Body to which by that Medium she is united Our Author upon these grounds supposeth that into the Vehiculum of the Soul by her endued with Power to form the Body is infused from her Star a particular formative vertue distinct according to that Star thus the aspect of one is Saturnine of another Joviall c. in their looks wee read the nature of their Souls But because inferiour matter is not ever obedient to the Stamp the vertue of the Soul is not alwaies equally exprest in the visible Effigies hence it happens that two of the same Nature are unlike like the matter whereof the one consists being lesse disposed to receive that Figure then the other what in that is compleat is in this imperfect our Author infers that the figures of two Bodies being formed by vertue of the same Star this Conformity begets Love From the Suns most sulime aboad The Tropick of Cancer by which Soules according to Platonists descend ascending by Capricorn Cancer is the House of the Moon who predominates over the vitall parts Capricorn of Saturn presiding over Contemplation The Heart in which affection 's bred Is thus by pleasing Errour fed Frequently if not alwaies the Lover believes that which hee loves more beautious then it is he beholds it in the Image his Soul hath formed of it so much fairer as more separate from Matter the Principle of Deformity besides the Soul is more Indulgent in her Affection to this Species considering it is her own Child produc'd in her Imagination one Sun passes Through three
Blood and the like what they are and to what end their matter and reason but especially whence they have their motion next to proceed to dissimilar parts and lastly to speak of those which consist therof as men Plants and the like Hence Patricius conjectures that his Books of the parts of living Creatures did immediately succeed those of the Meteors wherein he treateth as he proposeth of Similar parts unto the tenth Chapter of the second Book and from thence of the dissimilar But to reduce his Books of living Creatures to this method is the lesse certain for as much as many of these besides those which treated particularly of Anatomy have been lost of which perhaps were some which might better have cleared the series for in the Books themselves concerning Animals there is nothing to ground it upon For the same reason it is uncertain where his Books of Plants ought to have been placed which are lost Perhaps they might precede those of Animals for he asserts that Plants have souls contrary to the Stoicks endued with vegetative power that they live even though cut asunder as insects whereby two or more are made of one that the substance they receive by aliment and the ambient air is sufficient for the preservation of their naturall heat As concerning Animals we have Of their Going one Book Of their History ten Books Of their parts four Books Of their Generation five Books So exquisitely hath he treated upon this subject as cannot well be expressed by an abridgement and therefore we shall omit it the rather because little or nothing was done herein by the Academicks or Stoicks a collation with whom is the principall design of this summary CHAP. XIV Of the Soul THe knowledge of the Soul conduceth much to all Truth and especially to Physick for the Soul is as it were the principle of animate things Animate things differ from inanimate chiefly by motion and sense Whence the antient Philosophers defined the Soul by these Democritus the Pythagoreans Anaxagoras by motion Empedocles and Plato by knowledge others by both others by incorporeity or a rare body Thales something that moveth Diogenes air Heraclitus exhalation an immortall substance Hippo water Critias blood The soule doth not move it selfe as Democritus held for whatsoever is moved is moved by another Again if the soul were moved perse it would be in place and it were capable of being moved violently and it would be of the same nature with the body and might return into the body after the separation Neither is the soul moved by it selfe but from its objects for if it were moved essentially it might recede from its essence The soul therefore is not moved perse but by accident only according to the motion of the body The soul is not Harmony a proportionate mixture of contraries for then there must be more souls in the same body according to the different constitution of its parts But though we commonly say the soul grieveth hopeth feareth c. we are not to understand that the soul is moved but only that these are from the soul in the body that is moved some by locall motion of the Organs others by alteration of them To say the soul is angry is no more proper then to say she builds for it is the man that is angry by the soul otherwise the soul were liable to age decay and infirmity as well as the organs of the body Neither is the soul a rare body consisting of elements for then it would understand nothing more then the elements themselves neither is there a soul diffused through all things as Thales held for we see there are many things inanimate Some from the different functions of the soul argue that there are more souls then one in man or that the soul is divisible the supream intellectuall part placed in the head the irascible in the heart concupiscible in the liver But this is false for the Intellect is not confined to any part of the body as not being corporeall nor organicall but immateriall and immortall The soul is the first intelechie of a naturall organicall body having life potentially First Entelechie Entelechie is two-fold the first is the principle of operation as Science the second the Act it selfe Of a Naturall not of an artificiall body as a Tower or Ship Organicall body that is endued with instruments for operation as the eye for seeing the ear for hearing even plants have simple Organs Having life potentially as it were in it selfe for potentially is lesse then actually actually as in him that wakes potentially as in him that is asleep The soul is otherwise defined that by which we first live feel and understand whence appeareth there are three faculties of the soul nutritive sensitive intellective the inferiour comprehended by the superiour potentially as a triangle by a quadrangle CHAP. XV. Of the Nutritive faculty THe first and most common faculty of the Soul is the Nutritive by which life is in all things the acts and operation thereof are to be generated and to take nourishment Nutriment is received either towards Nutrition or augmentation Nutrition is the operation of the Nutritive faculty conducing to the substance it self of the animate being Augmentation is the operation of the Nutritive faculty whereby the animate body encreaseth to perfect Magnitude In nutrition are considered the Soul nourishing the body nourished and the food by which the nourishment is made hereto is required a Naturall heat which is in all living creatures The aliment is both contrary or unlike and like to the body nourished as it is undigested we say nourishment is by the contrary as altered by digestion like is nourished by its like CHAP. XVI Of the Sensitive Faculty THE Sensitive faculty of the Soul is that by which sence is primarily in Animals Sense is a mutation in the Organ caused by some sensible Object It is not sensible of it self nor of its Organ not of any interiour thing To reduce it to act is requisite some externall sensible object for sense cannot move it self being a passive power as that which is combustible cannot burn it self Of sensible Objects there are three kinds proper which is perceived by one sense without errour as colour in respect of sight Common which is not proper to any one but perceived by all Accidentall which as such doth not affect the sense Sense is either Externall or Internall the externall are five Seeing Hearing Smelling Touching Tasting The object of Seeing is Colour and some thing without a name that glisters in the dark as the scales of fish glow-worms and the like Colour is the motive of that which is actually perspicuous nothing therefore is visible without light Perspicuous is that which is visible not by it self but by some other colour or light as Air Water Glasse Light is the act of a perspicuous thing as it is perspicuous It is not fire not