as they partake more or lesse of this heate which is the Architect that mouldeth and frameth them all Vndoubtedly this can be none other but the hart whose motion and manner of working euidently appeareth in the twinckling of the first red spotte which is the first change in the egge and in the first matter of other liuing creatures Yet I do not intend to say that the hart is perfectly framed and completely made vp with all its partes and instruments before any other part be begunne to be made but only the most vertuous part and as it were the marrow of it which serueth as a shoppe or a hoat forge to mould spirits in from whence they are dispersed abroad to forme and nourish other partes that stand in neede of them to that effect The shootings or litle red stringes that streame out from it must surely be arteries through which the bloud issuing from the hart and there made and imbued with the nature of the seede doth runne till encountring with fitt matter it engrosseth it selfe into braine liuer lightes c. From the braine cheifely groweth the marrow and by consequent the bones containing it which seeme to be originally but the outward part of the marrow baked and hardened into a strong cruste by the great heate that is kept in as also the sinnewes which are the next principall bodies of strength after the bones The marrow being very hoat dryeth the bones and yet with its actuall moysture it humecteth and nourisheth them too in some sort The spirits that are sent from the braine do the like to the sinewes And lastly the arteries and veines by their bloud to cherish and bedew the flesh And thus the whole liuing creature is begunne framed and made vp THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How a Plant or Animal cometh to that figure it hath BVt before we goe any further and search into the operations of this animall a wonderfull effect calleth our consideration vnto it which is how a plant or animal cometh by the figure it hath both in the whole and in euery part of it Aristotle after he had beaten his thoughts as farre as he could vpon this question pronunced that this effect could not possibly be wrought by the vertue of the first qualites but that it sprung from a more diuine origine And most of the contemplators of nature since him do seeme to agree that no cause can be rendered of it but that it is to be referred meerely to the specificall nature of the thing Neyther do we intend to derogate from eyther of these causes since that both diuine prouidence is eminently shewne in contriuing all circumstances necessary for this worke and likewise the first temperament that is in the seede must needes be the principall immediate cause of this admirable effect This latter then being supposed our labour and endeauour will be to vnfold as farre as so weake and dimme eyes can reach the excellency and exactnesse of Gods prouidence which can not be enough adored when it is reflected vpon and marked in the apt laying of adequate causes to produce such a figure out of such a mixture first layed From them so artificially ranged we shall see this miracle of nature to proceed and not from an immediate working of God or nature without conuenient and ordinary instruments to mediate and effect this configuration through the force and vertue of their owne particular natures Such a necessity to interest the cheife workeman att euery turne in particular effects would argue him of want of skill and prouidence in the first laying of the foundations of his designed machine he were an improuident clockemaker that should haue cast his worke so as when it were wound vp and going it would require the masters hand att euery houre to make the hammer strike vpon the bell Lett vs not then too familiarly and irreuerently ingage the Almighty Architect his immediate handy worke in euery particular effect of nature Tali non est dignus vindice nodus But lett vs take principles within our owne kenning and consider how a body hath of its owne nature three dimensions as Mathematicians vse to demonstrate and that the variety which we see of figures in bodies proceedeth out of the defect of some of these dimensions in proportion to the rest As for example that a thing be in the forme of a square tablette is for that the cause which gaue it length and breadth could not also giue it thickenesse in the same proportion for had it beene able to giue profundity as well as the other two it had made a cube instead of a tablette In like manner the forme of a lamine or very long square is occasioned by some accident which hindereth the cause from giuing breadth and thickenesse proportionable to the length And so other figures are made by reason that their causes are somewayes bound to giue more of some dimension to one part then to an other As for example when water falleth out of the skye it hath all the litle corners or extancies of its body grated of by the ayre as it rouleth and tumbleth downe in it so that it becometh round and continueth in that forme vntill that settling vpon some flatt body as grasse or a leafe it receiueth a litle plainenesse to the proportion of its weight mastering the continuity of it And therefore if the droppe be great vpon that plaine body it seemeth to be halfe a sphere or some lesse portion of one but if it be a litle droppe then the flatt part of it which is that next vnto the grasse is very litle and vndiscernable because it hath not weight enough to presse it much and spread it broad vpon the grasse and so the whole seemeth in a manner to be a sphere but if the externe causes had pressed vpon this droppe only broadwayes and thickewayes as when a turner maketh a round pillar of a square one then it would haue proued a cylinder nothing working vpon it to grate off any of its length but only the corners of the breadth and thickenesse of it And thus you see how the fundamentall figures vpon which all the rest are grounded are contriued by nature not by the worke of any particular Agent that immediately imprinteth a determinate figure into a particular body as though it wrought it there att once according to a foreconceiued designe or intelligent ayme of producing such a figure in such a body but by the concurrence of seuerall accidentall causes that do all of them ioyne in bringing the body they file and worke vpon into such a shape Only we had like to haue forgotten the reason and cause of the concaue figure in some partes of plantes which in the ordinary course of nature we shall find to grow from hence that a round outside being filled with some liquor which maketh it grow higher and higher it happeneth that the succeeding causes do contract this liquor and do
in for a pretty while without any extreme preiudice But these difficulties are easily answered for whether beasts harts do lye directly horizontally or whether the basis be fastened some what higher then the tippe reacheth and so maketh their hart hang inclining downewardes still the motion of grauity hath its effect in them As wee may perceiue in the hart of a viper lying vpon a plate and in any other thing that of it selfe swelleth vp and straight againe sinketh downe in which we can not doubt but that the grauity fighting against the heate maketh the eleuated partes to fall as the heate maketh them rise And as for the latter it is euident that men can not stay long in that posture without violent accidents and in any litle while we see that the bloud cometh into their face and other partes which naturally are situated higher but by this position become lower then the hart and much time is not required to haue them quite disordered and suffocated the bloud passing through the hart with too much quickenesse and not receiuing due concoction there and falling thence in too great aboundance into places that can not with conueniency entertayne it But you will insist and aske whether in that posture the hart doth moue or no and how And to speake by guesse in a thing I haue not yet made experiences enough to be throughly informed in I conceiue without any great scrupule that it doth moue And that it happeneth thus that the hart hanging somwhat loose must needes tūble ouer and the tippe of it leane downewardes some way or other and so lye in part like the hart of a beast though not so conueniently accommodated and then the heate which maketh the viscous bloud that is in the substance of the hart to ferment will not faile of raising it vp wherevpon the weight of that side of the hart that is lifted vp will presently presse it downe againe And thus by the alternatiue operations of these causes the hart will be made to open and shutt it selfe as much as is necessary for admitting and thrusting out that litle and disorderly coming bloud which maketh its course through it for that litle space wherein the man continueth in that position Now from these effects wrought in the hart by the moystening of the fibers two other effects do proceed the one is that the bloud is pushed out of euery corner of the hart with an impetuousnesse or velocity The other is that by this motion the spirits which are in the ventricles of the hart and in the bloud that is euen then heated there are more and deeper pressed into the substance of the hart so that you see the hart imbibeth fresh vigour and is strengthned with new spirits whiles it seemeth to reiect that which should strengthen it Againe two other effects follow this violent eiection of the bloud out of the hart The one is that for the present the hart is entirely cleansed of all remainders of bloud none being permitted to fall backe to annoy it The other is that the hart finding it selfe dry the fibers do relent presently into their naturall positiō and extensiō and the valuulae that open inwardes fall flatt to the sides of the ventricles and consequently new bloud droppeth in So that in conclusiō we see the motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by the bloud and not from the force of the vapour as Monsieur des Cartes supposeth This motion of the hart driueth the bloud which is warmed and spiritualised by being boyled in this furnace through due passages into the arteries which frō thē runneth into the veines and is a maine cause of making and nourishing other partes as the liuer the lūgs the braines and whatsoeuer else dependeth of those veines and arteries through which the bloud goeth Which being euer freshly heated and receiuing the tincture of the harts nature by passing through the hart wheresoeuer it stayeth and curdleth it groweth into a substance of a nature conformable to the hart though euery one of such substances be of exceeding different conditions in themselues the very grossest excrements not being excluded from some participation of that nature But if you desire to follow the bloud all along euery steppe in its progresse from the hart round about the body till it returne backe againe to its center Doctor Haruey who most acutely teacheth this doctrine must be your guide He will shew you how it issueth from the hart by the arteries from whence it goeth on warming the flesh vntill it arriue some of the extremities of the body and by then it is growne so coole by long absence from the fountaine of its heate and by euaporating its owne stocke of spirits without any new supply that it hath neede of being warmed a new it findeth it selfe returned backe againe to the heart and is there heated againe which returne is made by the veines as its going forwardes is performed only by the arteries And were it not for this continuall circulation of the bloud and this new heating it in its proper cauldron the hart it could not be auoyded but that the extreme partes of the body would soone grow cold and dye For flesh being of it selfe of a cold nature as is apparent in dead flesh and being kept warme meerely by the bloud that bedeweth it and the bloud likewise being of a nature that soone groweth cold and congealeath vnlesse it be preserued in due temper by actuall heate working vpon it how can we imagine that they two singly without any other assistance should keepe one an other warme especially in those partes that are farre distant from the hart by only being together Surely we must allow the bloud which is a substance fitt for motion to haue recourse backe to the hart where only it can be supplyed with new heate and spirits and from thence be driuen out againe by its pulses or stroakes which are his shuttinges And as fast as it flyeth out like a reeking thicke steame which riseth from perfumed water falling vpon a heated panne that which is next before it must fly yet further on to make way for it and new arteriall blould still issuing forth att euery pulse it must still driue on what issued thence the last precedent pulse and that part must presse on what is next before it And thus it fareth with the whole masse of blould which hauing no other course but in the body it must att length runne round and by new vessels which are the veines returne backe vnto the place from whence it issued first and by that time it cometh thither it is growne coole and thicke and needeth a vigorous restauration of spirits and a new rarifying that then it may warme the flesh it passeth againe through without which it would soddainely grow stone cold as is manifest if by tying or cutting the arteries you intercept the blould which is to nourish any part for then
they are Lett vs then in the next place consider what will follow in the rest of the body out of these varieties of passions once raysed in the hart and sent into the braine It is euidēt that according to the nature and quality of these motions the hart must needes in euery one of them voyde out of it selfe into the arteries a greater or lesser quantity of bloud and that in diuers fashions and the arteries which lye fittest to receiue these suddaine egestions of bloud are those which goe into the braine whose course being directly vpwardes we can not doubt but that it is the hoatest and subtilest part of the bloud and the fullest of spirits that flyeth that way These spirits then running a lōg and perplexed iourney vp and downe in the braine by various meanders and anfractuosities are there mingled with the humide steame of the braine it selfe and are therewith cooled and do come at the last to smoake at liberty in the hollow ventricles of the braine by reeking out of the little arteriall branches that do weaue the plexus choroides or nette we spoke of ere while and they being now growne heauy do fall by their naturall course into that part or processe of the braine which is called medulla spinalis or the marrow of the backe bone which being all besett by the nerues that runne through the body it can not happen otherwise but that these thickened and descending spirits must eyther fall themselues into those nerues or else presse into them other spirits which are before them that without such new force to driue them violently forwardes would haue slided downe more leisurely Now this motion being downewardes and meeting with no obstacle till it arriue vnto its vtmost periode that way the lowest nerues are those which naturally do feele the communication of these spirits first But it is true if the flowing tide of them be great and plentifull all the other nerues will also be so suddainely filled vpon the filling of the lowermost that the succession of their swellings will hardly be perceptible as a suddaine and violent inundation of water seemeth to rise on the sides of the channell as it doth at the milldamme though reason assureth vs it must beginne there because there it is first stopped On the contrary side if the spirits be few they may be in such a proportion as to fill only the lower nerues and to cōmunicate little of thēselues to any of the others And this is the case in the passion of feare which being stored with fewer spirits thē any other passiō that causeth a motiō in the body it moueth the legges most and so carryeth the animal that is affrayd with violence from the obiect that affrighteth him Although in truth it is a faint hope of escaping mingled with feare which begetteth this motion for when feare is single and at its height it stoppeth all motion by contracting the spirits and thence is called stupor as well as griefe for the same reason and accordingly we see extreme cowardes in the extremity of their feare haue not the courage to runne away no more then to defend or helpe themselues by any other motions But if there be more aboundance of spirits then the vpper partes are also moued as well as the legges whose motion contributeth to defense but the braine it selfe and the senses which are in the head being the first in the course of this flood of spirits that is sent from the hart to the head it is impossible but that some part of them should be pressed into the nerues of those senses and so will make the animal vigilant and attentiue to the cause of its feare or griefe But if the feare be so great that it contracteth all the spirits and quite hindereth their motion as in the case we touched aboue then it leaueth also the nerues of the senses destitute of spirits and so by too strong apprehension of a danger the animall neyther seeth nor apprehendeth it but as easily precipitateth it selfe into it as it happeneth to auoyde it being meerely gouerned by chance and may peraduenture seeme valiant through extremity of feare And thus you see in common how all the naturall operations of the body do follow by naturall consequence out of the passions of the mind without needing to attribute discourse or reason eyther to men or beastes to performe them Although at the first sight some of them may appeare vnto those that looke not into their principles and true causes to flow from a source of intelligence whereas it is euident by what wee haue layed open they all proceed from the due ranging and ordering of quantitatiue partes so or so proportioned by rarity and density And there is no doubt but who would follow this search deepely might certainly retriue the reasons of all those externall motions which wee see vse to accompany the seuerall passions in men and Beastes But for our intent wee haue said enough to shew by what kind or order and course of nature they may be effected without confining our selues ouer scrupulously to euery circumstance that we haue touched and to giue a hinte whereby others that will make this inquiry their taske may compile an intire and well grounded and intelligible doctrine of this matter Only we will adde one aduertissement more which is that these externall motions caused by passion are of two kindes for some of them are as it were the beginnings of the actions which nature intendeth to haue follow out of the passions that cause them but others are only bare signes of the passions that produce them and are made by the cōnexion of partes vnnecessary for the maine action that is to follow out of the passion with other partes that by the passion are necessarily moued as for example when an hungry mans mouth watereth at the sight of good meate it is a kind of beginning of eating or of preparation for eating for when we eate nature draweth a moysture into our mouth to humectate our meate and to conuey the tast of it into the nerues of the tongue which are to make report of it vnto the braine but when we laugh the motion of our face aymeth at no further end and followeth only by the connexion of those muscles which draw the face in such a sort vnto some inward partes that are moued by the passion out of which laughing proceedeth But we must not leaue this subiect without some mention of the diaphragma into which the other branch of those nerues that are called of the sixth coniugation doth come for the first branch we haue said goeth into the hart and carryeth thither the obiects that come into the braine and this we shall find carryeth backe to the braine the passion or motion which by the obiect is raysed in the hart Concerning this part of our body you are to note that it is a muscolous membrane which in the middle of it hath a
and temper him The streames of water as we haue said must runne through the whole fabrike of this triformed plant and because it is not a simple water but warme in a good degree and as it were a middle substance betwixt water and ayre by reason of the ardent volatile spiritt that is with it it is of a fitt nature to swell as ayre doth and yet withall to resist violence in a conuenient degree as water doth Therefore if from its source nature sendeth aboundance into any one part that part must swell and grow thicker and shorter and so must be contracted that way which nature hath ordered it Whence we perceiue a meanes by which nature may draw any part of the outward fabrike which way soeuer she is pleased by sett instruments for such an effect But when there is no motion or but litle in these pipes the standing streame that is in a very litle though long channell must needes be troubled in its whole body if any one part of it be pressed vpon so as to receiue thereby any impression and therefore whatsoeuer is done vpon it though att the very furthest end of it maketh a commotion and sendeth an impression vp to its very source Which appearing by our former discourse to be the origine of particular and occasionall motions it is obuious to conceiue how it is apt to be moued and wrought by such an impression to sett on foote the beginning of any motion which by natures prouidence is conuenient for the plant when such an impression is made vpon it And thus you see this plant hath the vertue both of sense or feeling that is of being moued and affected by externe obiects lightly striking vpon it as also of mouing it selfe to or from such an obiect according as nature shall haue ordained Which in summe is that this plant is a sensitiue creature composed of three sources the heart the braine and the liuer whose offspringes are the arteries the nerues and the veines which are filled with vitall spirits with animal spirits and with blood and by these the animal is heated nourished and made partaker of sense and motion Now referring the particular motions of liuing creatures to an other time we may obserue that both kindes of them as well vegetables as animals do agree in the nature of sustaining themselues in the three common actions of generation nutrition and augmentation which are the beginning the progresse and the conseruing of life Vnto which three we may adde the not so much action as passion of death and of sicknesse or decay which is the way to death THE FOVRE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER A more particular suruay of the generation of Animals in which is discouered what part of the animal is first generated TO beginne then with examining how liuing creatures are ingendered our maine question shall be whether they be framed entirely att once or successiuely one part after an other And if this later way which part first Vpon the discussion of which all that concerneth generation will be explicated as much as concerneth our purpose in hand To deduce this from its origine we may remember how our Masters tell vs that when any liuing creature is passed the heate of its augmentation or growing the superfluous nourishment settleth it selfe in some appoynted place of the body to serue for the production of some other Now it is euident that this superfluity cometh from all partes of the body and may be said to containe in it after some sort the perfection of the whole liuing creature Be it how it will it is manifest that the liuing creature is made of this superfluous moysture of the parent which according to the opinion of some being compounded of seuerall partes deriued from the seuerall limbes of the parent those partes when they come to be fermented in conuenient heate and moysture do take their posture and situation according to the posture and disposition of partes that the liuing creature had from whence they issued and then they growing dayly greater and solider the effects of moysture and of heate do att the length become such a creature as that was from whence they had their origine Which an accident that I remember seemeth much to confirme It was of a catt that had its tayle cutt of when it was very yong which catt happening afterwardes to haue yong ones halfe the kittlinges proued without tayles and the other halfe had them in an ordinary manner as if nature could supply but on the partners side not on both And an other particular that I saw when I was att Argiers maketh to this purpose which was of a woman that hauing two thumbes vpon the left hand foure daugthers that she had did all resemble her in the same accident and so did a litle child a girle of her eldest daugthers but none of her sonnes Whiles I was there I had a particular curiosity to see them all and though it be not easily permitted vnto Christians to speake familiarly with Mahometan women yet the condition I was in there and the ciuility of the Bassha gaue me the opportunity of full view and discourse with them and the old woman told me that her mother and Grandmother had beene in the same manner But for them it resteth vpon her creditt the others I saw my self But the opinion which these accidents seeme to support though att the first view it seemeth smoothly to satisfy our inquiry and fairely to compasse the making of a liuing creature yet looking further into it we shall find it fall exceeding short of its promising and meete with such difficulties as it can not ouercome For first lett vs cast about how this compound of seuerall partes that serueth for the generation of a new liuing creature can be gathered from euery part and member of the parent so to carry with it in litle the complete nature of it The meaning hereof must be that this superfluous aliment eyther passeth through all and euery litle part and particle of the parents body and in its passage receiueth something from them or else that it receiueth only from all similar and great partes The former seemeth impossible for how can one imagine that such iuice should circulate the whole body of an animall and visit euery atome of it and retire to the reserue where it is kept for generatiō and no part of it remaine absolutely hehind sticking to the flesh or bones that it bedeaweth but that still some part returneth backe from euery part of the animall Besides consider how those partes that are most remote from the channels which conuey this iuice when they are fuller of nourishment then they neede the iuice which ouerfloweth from them cometh to the next part and settling there and seruing it for its due nourishment driueth backe into the channell that which was betwixt the channell and it selfe so that here there is no returne att all from some of the remote pattes
as soone as the mastering violence leaueth them at liberty Pleasure therefore must be contrary to this and consist in a moderate dilatation for an immoderate one would cause a compression in some adherent partes and there would become paine And conformable to this we experience that generally they are hard thinges which breed paine vnto vs and that these which breed pleasure are oyly and soft as meates and odours which are sweete to the taste and smell and soft substances which are gratefull to the touch the excesse of all which proueth offensiue and painefull so that from the extremity of pleasure one entereth presently vpon the confines of paine Now then lett vs consider how the little similitudes of bodies which from without do come into the fantasy must of necessity worke there according to their little power effects proportionable to what they wrought first in the outward senses from whence they were conueyed to the braine for the senses that is the nerues and the Septum Lucidum hauing both of them their origine from the very substance of the braine and differing only in degrees of purity and refinement the same obiect must needes workelike effects in both compressing or dilating them proportionably to one an other which compression or dilatation is not paine or pleasure as it is in the outward sense but as it is reported to the hart and that being the seate of all paines or pleasures wrought in other partes and that as it were dyeth them into those qualities is not capable of feeling eyther it selfe so that the stroakes of any little similitudes vpon the fantasy do make only compressions or dilatations there not paines or pleasures Now their bodies or similitudes if they be reuerberated from the fantasy or septum Lucidum vpon the little rootes of the nerues of the sixt couple which goe to the hart they must needes worke there a proportionable impression to what they wrought vpon the fansy eyther compressing or dilating it and the hart being extremely passiue by reason of its exceeding tendernesse and heate can not choose but change its motion at the least in part if not in whole and this with relation to two causes the one the disposition of the hart it selfe the other the vehemency of the stroake This change of motion and different beating of the hart is that which properly is called passion and is euer accompanyed with pleasure or with griefe according to the nature of the impression that eyther contracteth or dilateth the hart and the spirirs about it and is discouered by the beating of the arteries and of the pulse Conformable wherevnto Physitians do tell vs that euery passion hath a distinct pulse These pulses are diuided in common by aboundance or by want of spirits yet in both kinds they may haue common differencies for in aboundance the pulse may be quicke or slow regular or irregular equall or vnequall and the like may happen in defect of spirits according to the motions of the hart which are their causes Againe the obiect by being present or absent neerer or further off maketh the stroake greater or lesser and accordingly varyeth the motion of the hart Lett vs then call to mind how we haue formerly declared that life consisteth in heate and humidity and that these two ioyned together do make a thing great and we may conclude that of necessity the motion which is most liuely must haue a great full and large stroake like the euē rolling waues of a wyde and smooth sea and not too quicke or smart like the breaches of a narrow Fretum agitated by tempestuous windes From this other motions may vary eyther by excesse or by deficiency the first maketh the stroake become smart violent and thicke the other slackeneth it and maketh it grow little slow weake and thinne or seldome And if we looke into the motions of our hart we shall see these three differencies of them follow three seuerall chiefe passions The first followeth the passion of ioy the second the passion of anger and the third the passion of griefe Nor neede we looke any further into the causes of these seuerall motions for we see that ioy and griefe following the stroake of sense the one of them must consist in an oyly dilatation that is the spirits about the hart must be dilated by a gentle large great and sweete motion in a moderation between velocity and slownesse the other contrarywise following the stroake of sense in paine as the first did in pleasure must contract the spirits and consequently make their motion or stroake become little and deficient from all the properties we haue aboue sett downe As for anger the motion following that passion is when the aboundance of spirits in the hart is a little checked by the contrary stroake of sense but presently ouercometh that opposition and then as we see a hindered water or a man that suddainely or forcibly breake through what withstood their motion go on with a greater violence then they did and as it were precipitately so the hart hauing ouercome the contraction which the sense made in it dilateth it selfe with a fury and maketh its motion smart and vehement Whence also it followeth that the spirits grow hoater then they were and accordingly it is often seene that in the scoulding of a woman and in the irritation of a dogg if euer now and then one thwart them and interpose a little opposition their fury will be so sharpened and heightened that the woman will be transported beyond all limits of reason and the dogg will be made madde with nothing else done to him but angring him at conuenient times and some men likewise haue by sleight oppositions iterated speedily vpon them before their spirits could relent their vehement motion and therefore must still encrease it beene angred into feauers This passion of anger seemeth almost to be solitary on the side of excesse beyond ioy which is as it were the standard and perfection of all passions as light or whitenesse is of all colours but on the otherside of deficiency there are seuerall middle passions which participate more or lesse of ioy and griefe as particularly those two famous ones which gouerne mans life Hope and Feare Concerning which Physitians tell vs that the pulse or beating of feare is quicke hard and vnequall vnto which I conceiue we may safely adde that it must also be small and feeble the perfection of ioy decreasing in it on one side to witt from greatnesse and largenesse but not intirely so that a kind of quicknesse supplyeth in part the other defect Hope on the other side is in such sort defectiue from ioy that neuerthelesse it hath a kind of constancy and moderate quantity and regularity in its motion and therefore is accounted to be the least hurtfull of all the passions and that which most prolongeth mans life And thus you see how those motions which we call passions are engendred in the hart and what