Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
spirit_n blood_n body_n heart_n 5,603 5 5.0093 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30653 The history of Eriander composed by John Burton. Burton, John, 1629 or 30-1699. 1661 (1661) Wing B6180; ESTC R2615 75,262 220

There are 9 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

occluso orificio arcte amplexatur Ipsum vero semen in utero non diu adeo mor as ducit quin quam primum effluviis quibusdam subtilissimis plasticam ei virtutem indiderit contagio seu fermentatione impraegnaverit illico vel evanescit vel in vas a uteri seminalia abripitur unde brevi spatio vel ipsum semen vel humor quidam albugineus in uterum transudat in massam quandam liquidam coagulatur in cujus ipsissimo centro punctum quoddam sanguineum sen bullula saliens conspicitur quod calore nativo sensim anctum dilatatum instar vermiculi seu pusillae teredinis se motitat Divers smal Filaments or Strings which are appointed for the Veins stream from that red spot and at the end of some of them a knot of liquid matter being the rude or original draught of the head and out of that again three distinct Orbicular parts bubble forth designed to be the Brain and Eyes all these by the power of heat are still rarified and dilated afterward the main Trunk or Fabrick of the Body in which the Ribs and other Bones appear at first but as small white lines next to these the Inward parts the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen and Bowels these at first appear but as small Protuberancies or Excrescencies of the Veins and as it were hang out of the Body not yet covered with skin but at last are drawn into and rest in their particular Regions or Receptacles appointed for them by Nature The last which appear are such parts as serve only for Ornament or Defence as Skin Nails Hair and the rest The gross and less useful part of that liquid matter is thrust outward by the plastick Vertue and constitutes the Membranes wherein the Embroy is inwrapped within these Membranes is contained a certain humour transmitted into them by the umbilical Arteries of the Mother not excrementitious but nutritive for the Umbilical or Navil-veins of the Infant convey it into the hollow vein by the branches whereof it is distributed into every part of the body Now when the Infant is exactly shaped there is produced a lump of glandulous flesh which serves to prepare and concoct Nutriment for him which in all probability he sucks in at his mouth as may be conjectured by his being so exact at sucking as soon as he is born When the Members and Parts of the Infant become somwhat stiff and solid when the Brain Nerves and Organs of the Sences are finished he begins to move and tumble with some perceptible strength and then Women say they are quickned whereas before he enjoyed only a trepidation or little frisking not discernable and waxing by degrees great and strong advances himself to seek a larger Room Cujus gratia mira divini numinis providentia ossium commissurae nempe coxendicis ossis sacri synchondrosis item coccygis synneurosis ad recludendum ampliandumque uteri orificium relaxantur The Infant by calcitration and strangling many times pulls asunder the Membranes which infetter him but Eriander was found involved in them firm and entire which I record not as a Foundation whereon to build any superstitious prediction of his future Fortune but as an Argument of vivacity conceiving that such a kinde of Birth is most mature and agreeable to Natures Intention which having given maturity to her Works causes them not to be torn away but to drop off with ease from their Stem or Mother as we see in the Fruits of Trees but is often defeated by the weakness of the Mother not correspondent to the strength of the Child the confirmation of the parts or the like reasons and not seldome by the over-much expedition of busie Midwives who to accelerate as they pretend the Birth and put an end to the Torments they perceive the Mother to endure use some indecent violence that proves noxious to both the ordinary period to perfect the formation of the Infant is about forty dayes the usual time of bringing forth is about forty weeks or ten months notwithstanding the strength or weakness of the Mother or Childe may either accelerate or prolong the birth and fix an exception to this general Rule And now let the Reader allow himself a little leisure to consider upon how slender a foundation the wonderful Fabrick of this little World is erected from how pitiful yet admirable Original the greatest Grandees of the World that swell so big in their own and other mens estimation are extracted the wonderfulness of it rebates the sharpness of all Eloquence and puts it beyond the ability of expression and this may partly be the cause of that vain carelesness whereof we all have a spice we seldome take the pains to look into our selves nothing earnestly affects us but what comes under the notion of Novelty Custome and Familiarity with things blunts the edge of our Admiration The intricate and curious contrivance of our own Bodies is a work surpassing all the Mechanical Inventions in the world yet either because we are lazy and dull in our speculations or because they are not offered to us under the notion of Novelty we take no great notice of them but are more affected with a pretty piece of Clock-work Carving Painting or the like we are transported with wonder at the sight of a strange Beast and are the greatest strangers to our selves The scope of this story as I have designed it obliges me to say somewhat concerning this subject before I proceed any further because many things which are to follow cannot otherwise be well understood by Vulgar Readers to the Learned I shall not need to write any thing concerning Man who are ordinarily no such strangers to themselves Man consists of a Body and a Soul an Invisible part and a Visible by the purity and energy of the Soul he is enabled to discern and know himself and things different from himself the gross composure of the body renders him an object of Sense and both together make him sociable So he fals under a three-fold consideration viz. that of the body alone the Soul alone and both together The first is managed by Philosophers and Physicians the second by Divines and Philosophers and the third by Moralists Divines Historyans Writers of policy in whose elaborate writings may be found ample discoveryes of what I shall only glance at The body consists of parts either contayned which being tenuious and fluid are therefore bounded and kept in by such as are more tough compacted such are all the humors of the body Blood Choler Melancholy and Flegme with the spirits which are nothing else but the purer part of the blood as the other humors are the grosse and sedimentary part of it so as the various humors in the body are no more but blood diversifyed or somewhat percolated from the blood as Urine Sweat Choler Melancholy and all serose humors The parts contayning which limit and confine others are either similar of like nature and composure as flesh veins nerves arteries and bones or dissimilar made up of other particles of a different nature such are the Brain Heart Liver
Lungs Kidneys Spleen c. and all Muscles for in these there is a mixture of flesh Veins Arteries Blood and spirits or thin agile particles according as the office of every member requires The Soul as it resides in the body for in that state alone it shall be considered here exercises divers faculties as Vegetation whereby the body lives is nourished and augmented and the species propagated by generation to accomplish which the meat and drink we receive being masticated and reduced into small parts in the mouth is conveyed downe into the stomach where a certain sharp and hot humor piercing into it reduces it into smaller parts and makes it slippery so that it may easily slide into the small whitish veines called from their colour Lacteal these lacteal veins intercepting the purest and juicyest part of it convey it into the hollow vein in which passage it receives much transmutation the excrementitious and lesse useful parts by vertue of certain glandulous substances which make an attrition upon it and sever the purest part from the lesse pure are conveyed to their proper receptacles For that which we call Choler is conveyed into a little bag called the Gall hanging at the Liver Urine is conveyed by the Kidneyes to the Bladder the grosser excremements slip through the entrals or Guts That which passeth through the veins staies not till it arrive at the heart where it receives a more perfect concoction and purifying and from the heart part of it is carried from the right Ventricle of the heart through a vein called the arterial vain to the Lungs whence it returnes through the venal Artery into the left Ventricle of the heart thence with the rest of the blood for so it is by this time it flowes into a great Artery called by Anatomists Aorta This Artery spreading it self into many branches distributs it to every part of the body that it may nourish enliven move every member Testiculi interim nesi omissi quasi castrati e nostra microcrosmi historiola exulent partem dicti alimenti allicientes in spumosum semen digerunt in usum peculiarem recondunt The blood by its motion through the Arteries is rarified made more hot subtil and vivid for it doth not rest or stagnate in the arteries but emptyed out of the utmost twigs of the Arteries into the veines returnes by a circular motion to the heart in its passage communicating influence vigor activity nourishment to every member and augmentation too so long as there is need but that bears date no longer than till such time as the body arrives at its Aime and consistence which is when the bones the main supporters of and rules of dimension for it are grown so hard that they are not capable of any further extention for then the rest of the parts refuse the superaddition of new matter more than what serves to repair that that decayes by continual motion and is requisite to assist them in their motions and operations As all parts of our body participate of this kind and active influence of the blood so the Brain seemes to ingrosse the purest portion of it the thicker part cannot arrive there by reason of the narrow passages through which it is percolated the Brain digests it into a thin substance called animal spirits which are dispersed in the nerves contributing sense and motion to the whole body The most remarkable motion and of most absolute necessity is respiration and is thus accomplished The animal spirits which take their way to the Muscles of the Brest through the nerves that are branched thither move and dilate the great Muscle called Diaphragma which by consequence extends the parts of the Brest whereupon the Lungs which accomodate themselves to the motion of the brest are also dilated as a pair of bellowes so is also the sharp Artery and the contagious aire which is ready to fill any concave or fistular body that hath nothing else to fill it is protruded one part rejecting the other till that next to the mouth and Nose enters but after a little pause the Lungs contracting themselves when the Diaphragma is erected in a convex figure and presses upon them send it forth and instantly receive a new supply This alternate motion is of manifold use for the intromission of cool and fresh aire and it serves to refresh the heart Lungs and Stomach in case they be too hot so especially it contributes to the production of vital spirits which participate of an aiery nature and may probaly somewhat assist the heart in that motion whereby it conveyes the blood into the Arteries and in this respect is of absolute necessity of preserve life The emission of it serves as to express our several passions so likewise to frame our speech when we sigh thereby giving a hint of some close grief we emit our breath through the artery being open not resisting or g●ving any collision to it with a deep and laborious breathing When we would cry loud we cause it to break forth with a smart violence and vociferation when we laugh the ●●●od j●rking nimbly from the H●a●● to the lungs huffe them up 〈◊〉 ●nly and by turns so as they 〈◊〉 the aire to go forth at the sharp artery with a kind of trepidation or interrupted motion and with all twitch the Muscles of the Diaphragma Brest and Face which causeth a quavering motion discernible in the countenance and a warbling inarticulate sound But in speaking there are more little engines set on work the sharp Artery alternately dilates contracts its self the larynx or upper part or lid of it intercepts or gives free passage to the aire the parts that constitute the orb of the mouth the Tongue Teeth Palat and Lips make various stops dashes and callisions upon it the various extention of the sharp Artery contributes to the diversifying of our voice into shrill or low acute or flat for if the artery be much streightned and compressed the voice becomes flat if freely dilated it proves accute the larynx by its motion serves to make the stops or distances between our words the organs of the mouth make it articulate and significative For as in a Pipe the sound extending its self in a right line would be uniform and of one tone did not the artist intercept it so would our breath cause an uniform and uselesse noise if it should freely convey its self in a direct progresse but encountering the Mouthes cavity it is obliged to assume various figures and conform its self to the configuration of the mouth The five vowels a e i o u seem to be made only by the different emission of the breath and require not any observeable action of the parts of the mouth but seem to be accomplished by the different extentions of the sharp
to snatch their thoughts from that which troubled them and fix them upon some other thing never to let their thoughts be too closly confined but as it were scattered and at liberty by which means they would not receive so considerable annoyance if their calamity were the product of their own errour or wickednesse no remedy he told them but repentance and a wary resolution against the like miscarriage for the future if it proceeded from poverty exile losse of freedom and the like whereunto they were not conscious that any remarkable miscarriage of their own contributed occasion he conceived it expedient for them to put off their present grievances with the hope of better adventures though hope it selfe be but a kind of pain yet it 's more gentle than despair It is not impossible for a man so to model and order his will that it shall buckle and comply with any condition the will can of its self act either way will or refuse chuse or reject without the impulsion of exterior objects A man if he will labour about it may curb his appetite with a repetition of past delights or antedate and forestal future pleasures and what felicity his condition denies frame it for himself It 's confest this may seem but a pittiful shift to be put off with an immaginary delight a feigned and supposed contentment yet it may serve to avocate the minde at the present from worse meditations and prevent despair He that will take the pains to observe may find that the mind is sometimes willing to deceive its self by framing a false and fantastical subject though against its own conceit rather than not be busy at all The Architect contrives an house the Lutanist tunes his Instrument and orders the notes in his brain when the one is not building nor the other playing on a Lute Some talk discourse about matters of importance travel into strange countries go to war and return victorious marry rich and beautiful Wives dispose of lands and great revenues manage estates which they never had nor do they themselves ever think to have them they build stately houses make pleasant Gardens and entertain their friends at delicious banquets a thousand such fancies and wakeing dreames will accompany men even against their wills and if so what hurt is it if the mind and will it self makes some use thereof by catching an opportunity of present content and since such thoughts will be stirring to solace themselves with the pleasantnesse of them I fore-see the Reader will smile at this narrative of Charinus's imaginary and conceited happinesse I have told him it is so but in good earnest joy and sorrow are but artificial devices and atcheivable by industry they are the products of our will it is not prosperity alone can make men joyful and happy but a confidence to believe that they are so Nor can adversity alone make a man miserable misery its self is no misery but a man imagins it to be so There 's neither infelicity no felicity in things but only as we entertain them with a misguided or rectified opinion But besides this Stoical resolutenesse let a man in adversity assure himself of the undoubted good successe which will at last result from honest indeavours and further consider that adversity tries him as the furnace tries mettals not to consune but refine and clear It makes men look into themselves puts them upon action unfolds many clandestine distempers which in a firme and setled condition lurked and were not noted like tempestuous weather it clears and purges the aire and as the Sun is most welcome after it hath broke through the clouds and mists that smothered his beauty from the world so is that joy most welcom which succeeds a tedious infelicity And the recollection of sorrowes amplifies the present joy nothing is here permanent not only particular men but families Cities and Countries have their vicissitudes and returns of prosperity and adversity sicknesse and health peace and war Some turbu●ent fellow after a long peace being designed for the scourge and plague of the age he lives in puts all into a combustion for a time kindles a whole Nation into a flame offers up the lives and estates of many thousands to the Idol of his own ambition in which grand commotions the several humors and tempers of men reveal themselves with much perspicuity some vex torment themselves for the miseries they see ready to befal themselves and the country some wast and pine away through a tedious consideration of their loss some storm and rage like bedlams others run along with the croud and right or wrong side with the prevailing party some curse execrate their enemies others cry up every hasty and mad-brain design as a pure zealous and religious work others flout and jeer at them for their egredious mistakes In the mean time a wise man is greived indeed for the miseries of his country and friends but waites with patience till these mad disturbances be sedated gathers usefull notions and observations to improve his wisdom assures himself that peace when it comes will be most welcome after the miseries of War Joy is that which every one seeks and aims at and thinks he can never have too much of it yet at some times there is need of more prudence in the managing of it than men conjecture for if it be excessive and sudden it transports a man beyond himself a man is rather oppressed than relieved by a sudden encounter of felicity as the fire is often extinguished for want of fewell so is it stifled and choaked by too much the heart is not onely oppressed by grief when the bloud and spirits are chill and stagnant and flow not freely to it but also by the impetuous agitations of joy when they flow with such violence that the heart is not able to transmit them so fast into the Arteries so that they choak and damp its natural heat which they would preserve if they flowed in a convenient quantity In such a case as this he found it conducible to meditate on the inconstancy of humane felicity and that Adversity may suddenly happen to skirmish and exercise himself with a veli●ation with sorrow with lusory and rebated hardship He easily removed that restless self-tormenting passion Envy by considering how many thousands were inferiour to him Poor men Slaves Vagabonds Exiles Prisoners despicable creatures and not suffering the Potentates Grandees and Nobles to stand in his light There is hardly a man to be found so wretched but his condition may administer some matter of content and that of his superiours is not so absolute as to be excused from all inconveniencies the scale of Providence stands at a more even counter-poise than the querulous World would set it we cannot be all Great Honour is distributed to one Riches to another Wisdome to another to some all these and to others none at all who yet in respect of their secure sedate
the choice of his study or particular faculty to which he should be designed it was now thought fit to consider of it provide that he should apply himself to such a course as was most agreeable to his disposition not forced upon that from which he might seem averse It is true a man of good parts rare ingenuity may by diligence attain a competent insight into any Science so far at least as concerns the Theory and to give a rational account of most Sciences is expected in a Schollar yet there is a peculiar Genius or propensity of mind in every man whereby he is more vigorously inclined to one Science than to another and an infinite variety there is in mens wits and natural faculties the principal causes whereof are these 1. The appointment and designation of God who having placed men in a world adorned with variety of objects distributes to them diversity of notions and conceits to apprehend different humors and affections to desire some one thing some another thereby to maintain a general intercourse among them But in regard that God works by second subordinate causes which fall more evidently under our observation and many of them are manageable by us We must secondly consider the positions and aspects of the Stars For experience the only rule in these matters seem to make it appear that at the instant of a childs birth or rather more powerful at his conception he receives an influence from the Planets or other Coelestial bodies which at that juncture of time have dominion over the place where the conception or birth is made Such then as have Jupiter for the Lord of their genitures shall be quick-witted merry and of a gentle nature Where Mercury is Lord of the horoscope his influence produces they say a quick wit but versatile and unconstant Mars causeth fierceness and temerity Saturn makes men slow but commonly sure The Sun and Moon according to their various aspects produce several alterations in our bodies in our sensitive faculties and accidentally in the understanding which often conforms its selfe to the sensitive part is clear by dayly experience and it is probable that the other Coelestial bodies may in their degree produce divers admirable effects though they be not so obvious and apparent 3. The temper of the body hath a remarkable influence upon the operations of the mind for as water sliding through a Mine grates off some part of the matter through which it slides dissolves it into its self and so admits a tincture and tast of the Mineral or as rain-water which is of its self of an uniform tast and savour is diversified when sucked into plants of a different temper in Rue it is bitter in Sorrel sowre and sweet in Glycyrrize so the Soul necessitated to move and act in a body full of several humors although it receives no substantial alteration yet by its operations it clearly discovers an alliance contracted with those humors especially the arterial blood and spirit which are the Souls chief instruments so that men of a hot temper agreeable to the nature of that quality are active spritely of a ready conceit quick dispatch if the heat exceed peevish or frantick The cold are slow reserved tenatious and if the quality exceed disposed to Melancholy sadnesse and despair Moisture if conveniently temper'd causes a good remembrance if otherwise it makes men dull heavy and sottish A clear drinesse makes men discreet of a clear wit to discern or illuminate things Next to this 4. the different habitude and proporiton of the body may be of some force for such as are of an immence stature through the diffusion of the spirits are observed to be for the most part dul and heavy in the exercises of the mind the little through the combining and close uniting of the natuarl heat peevish fierce and froward and the middle stature is most commendable But 5. a more remarkable and immediate cause may be derived from the various faculties of the soul of which all men have not an equal share some enjoy a good memory and those are fittest to deal with such Arts wherein are many names words and rules Such as have strong fancies quick imaginations are fittest for such Professions in which there is required quaintnesse of discourse handsome contrivances symmetry or proportion They who excel in depth of understanding are best able to search out the nature and causes of things to determine doubts and decide controversies to make choice and judge of things to make subtil and deep inquiries and are therefore best qualified for such Sciences as are guided by these exercises of the mind And to this Triplicity I find all variety of wits reduced by those that have formerly written concerning them and not inconveniently because these three faculties are of such remarkable effecacy in the gaining of learning But in these faculties there is much variety which deserves our remark for if we look upon the judgement or understanding-faculty we find this man quick the other slow in the exercises of it one man reserved and close another free open and communicative And the like differences appear in such as excel in the faculty of imagination some are nimble others deliberate some of a recluse others of a dilated genius And as for the memory some are readiest in remembring of words some soonest remember places others the names of men but most mens memories soonest retain sentences orderly placed few hath such vast memories as to recollect a multitude of indigested unconnexed words neither would it be a thing of any great use but words duly ordered and comprized contribute a great advantage to the memory this variety which is discovered in these three faculties shall be taken notice of in due place 6. The different passions and several ends to which mens appetites lead them are to be considered a covetous man usually applies himself to some lucrative Art an ambitious man to such as is most in esteem and may further his promotion and is content to be a stranger in the rest which are not subservient to his design 7. And lastly Education for the mind as it receives an impression from those objects it hath been most acquainted with in youth retains them very firmely by degrees falls in love with them by consequence with such Arts as have relation to them These are the principal reasons of that variety which is found in men in relation to the gaining of Arts there are divers other which because they have power to alter their complexion humor and inclination may occasionally dispose them to such Sciences as be most agreeable to the temper they have contracted As 1. the Lawes and 2. the Customes of Nations which if good and wholsome dispose people to industry and honesty if corrupt deprave their minds blind the eyes of many men silence the voice of nature and raze the dictates of reason out of their affections so as the
most pernicious vice being tolerated by custom will soon be approved and beloved by men and gain the reputation of a kind of Vertue Wantonnesse will be accounted Good-breeding and Licentiousnesse a generous Liberty Intemperance Liberality Impudence Courage valour Drunkeness will usurp the less-distastful name of Good-fellowship Adultery lose its lesse-pleasing name under the title of Courtship nay Incest its selfe and other unnatural vices have through the prevalency of a corrupt custom passed without control among some whole Nations On the contrary Vertue is often traduced and good qualities defamed by odious names Modesty is accounted sillinesse or want of wit and breeding Temperance called covetousnesse gravity and thrift clownishnesse 3. Somthing may be attributed to the different forms of government men live under in an Aristocracie we may observe the fervor arrogance and ambition of the Grandees their engines and intricate contrivances to raise monyes to advance their families to purchase great Titles to live in splendor to subvert their equals and keep under their inferiors the publick concernments alwaies pretended but never regarded publick Revenues horded up in private Coffers Vertue is discountenanced discipline neglected wealthy men in great power the inferior people slavish beggarly hence proceed factions and animosities treacherous attempts against great men and the like In a popular government the rich slavishly court the people in order to the acquiring of power the people grow insolent and conceited True and cordial Honesty is condemned airy and frothy opinions of knowledge altogether in fashion with a vaunting bravery concerning their own and contempt of former times a general licentiousness and toleration of all enormities prevails youth is given over to all voluptuousness and debauchery which they miscal a free and generous liberty and this the great men many times smoothly and closly connive at because thereby an advantage is offered them of engrossing the Estates of young Prodigals Such mischeifes may and do happen in the best government but in this they seem more naturally to grow up Through this general toleration and liberty every man begins to have a good conceit of himself esteemes himself not inferior to any but as good as the best Inferior persons arise by degrees to such a height of insolence that they contemn their superiors servants prove disrespective to their Masters and children to their Parents youth growes imperious and stubborn factions and disorders prevail among the people who wanting means to secure their own quiet and lay these disorders which they have conjured up some cunning popular Grandee peradventure offers himself or is made choice of to be their Guardian and Protector who to carry on his design with lesse suspition salutes and courts the silly multitude is their servant and will sacrifice his Interest his life and all to promote theirs but once advanced beyond their reach makes a prey of them keeps them poor that so if they have the will yet they may not have the power to resist him To all men who are eminent either for Wealth Wisdom or Courage he is in a manner necessitated to be an Enemy and it shall go hard but he will charge them with some crime that he may have some color to destroy them but none sooner tast of his fury than such as have been instrumental to his advancment if as it commonly happens they once begin to grumble at his greatnesse And this is the original and nature of a Tyranny which if we believe Plato ever arises out of a Democracy But in a well setled Monarchy the fore-mentioned disorders and corruptions of manners are not so often occasioned Arts are more encouraged and esteemed obedience and order punctually observed men better restrained from naughtynesse and not so much inclined to pernitious Arts. Among other causes we may 4. reckon Company and 5. Example especially of great men whose practice is thought a sufficient warrant for inferiors to do the like vulgar persons readily comply with the humors of great men as little Wheels are regulated by the motion of the greater Besides 6. men incur manifest alterations by Age not only in body but in mind too young men are generally frolick and kind hearted old men morose and tenacious a covetous young man they say is a Monster in nature and as these humors prevail in men so do they accordingly bend their studies to such things as suit best with their humors 7. Dyet is of no smal importance whether we respect the quantity or the quallity of it for although our Stomach macerate the meat and turns it into the very substance of our body yet doth it not so subvert the qualities of it but that of cold meats viz meats of a cold quality cold blood and humors are generated so that our blood and spirits by help of which we exercise all the operations of life sense and understanding are varied according to the diversity of meats we feed upon light and tenuious meats sparingly feed upon cannot but convey some perspicuity to the Brain and a full and grosse diet cloud and dull the Spirits 8. The Countrey administers much alteration and produces manifest differences in this particular Northerly people through the density of their blood and spirits are stern stout and fierce The Southern having more thin evanid spirits become hereby more active Islanders because of that influence a mixt and unconstant Ayr hath upon their humors are observed to be more unsetled in matters of Religion and government than such as inhabit the Continent 9. Also particular scituations in the same Countrey are to be noted For people that live by the Sea-side are more generally disposed to traffick than they of the Inland-countrey such as border upon ill neighbours give their minds to quarreling either in Suits of Law or open War And 10. the nature of the Soil or rather the Ayr altered by the Soil as we see that people who live in Mountanous and dry places with a pure and clear Ayr are for the most part not alwayes some powerful cause may intervene more acute and pregnant than such as live in Fenny and Morish places where they suck in a grosse and concrete Ayr. 11. The Genius of the Age is not to be omitted for sometimes seem peculiarly bent to feats of Armes in another age learning flourishes and of the parts of learning sometimes one kind seems to be in fashion and in the next Age another 12. And lastly the success and event of things much alters the minds and affections of men especially the common sort who are easily cheated into a beliefe that whatsoever hath obtained successe is lawful and to be practised So that if any wicked design for example Rebellion obtains successe in a Countrey it will soon acquire reputation among the vulgar a vein of rebellion will diffuse it self into servants and all sorts of inferiour people encouraging them to shake off the yoke of Authority On the contrary many men are restrained from
endeavours check'd and controlled by variety of passions and distempers divers intervening circumstances of persons times and places the strange obliquity of mens manners the unobserved contingency of humane things commonly called Fortune which is ever observed to raise some countermine against the best endeavours these all or some of them interposing in his way cannot but interrupt his proceeding and disinherit him of his expectation It is honour enough for a wise man that he never loses all but couragiously opposing himself against these Adversaries arrives at so much perfection as is attainable by humane industry While I have briefly recorded the vertues of renowned Charinus nothing hath been said concerning his passions and vitious inclinations I mean not to abuse the Reader into a belief that he was free from these certainly he was free from these certainly he was not unconcerned in the ordinary failings and miscariages of men but haveing omitted the particular recitation of his best actions it were unhandsome to goe about to gratifie you with a relation of his worst I shall therefore omit them and as a more lovely and useful advertisement tell you by what meanes he rescued himself from the tyranny of disordered passions and though I cannot say they were so forcible as totally to subdue them yet they preserved him from being subdued by them It will be easily granted that the certainest preservative against vice is not to be acquainted with it not so much as know the very name of it too soon to have the mind habituated to piety in the youth which Charinus's was and besides being of a brave couragious spirit and such are generally most free from base vices he considered the dignity and prerogative of his soul which he scorned to debase by putting it under the wardship of usurping vices Without doubt a serious and solid consideration of our selves as it would elevate our thoughts to a due contemplation of our Maker the main end of our being so would it intice the mind to much resolution i● vertuous actions and retract our desires from pursuing such trivial delights as result from things inferior to our natures but this must not be an idle and carelesse meditation such as men ordinarily entertain when receiving some sublime dictates of reason suggested to them by their own thoughts or the writings or discourses of learned men they write them in the sand give them a short applause in their thoughts whereas if they were entertained with serious resolutions to act according to them they might leave a deep impression upon their judgement and will and by practice become as it were natural to them were the mind so industrious as to improve them to their utmost extent and latitude Besides this a serious converse with our selves would contribute no small assistance to the discovery of real and solid truth refined from the superfluities of so many distinctions formalities and nice criticismes as rather obscure than illustrate it We need not suffer our thoughts to range into such extravagancies as usually we do especially in such sciences as may be digested into axioms and aphorisms a few clear principles naturally deduced from reason would state our mindes in the handling and managing of them without that multitude of curious questions and vain niceties which like to brambles intricately perplex us but afford no fruit Admired Critic whose laborious quill Takes the dimensions of th' Armenian Hill Surveyes the Lybian desarts to inquire Whether mount Atlas or those hils be higher Return fond Pilgrim know thy self and rest In the close confines of thy native brest In the next place we must take notice that he was not indulgent to or inamored of his own passions but desired and resolved to subdue them without a prejudice against them all faint indeavours are ineffectual He avoided the company of such men as were subject to those passions he attempted to subdue and abstracted himself from the interview of provoking objects Objects that tempt incite our affections resemble an eccho the further one drawes himselfe from them the lesse repercussion they make If we expose them to our view and behold them with content the reflection which the present object darts as it were upon us insnares our mind presently but vanisheth and loseth its self by a little absence and though at first to absent our selves from a beloved object be a perplexing torment if we have but patience and resolve to endure the time will come when it will be a pleasure To prevent anger he was alwaies cautelous lest he should by any means make other men his enemies he would not willingly disoblige the meanest person lest he should provoke them to offer indignities and so he might be provoked to revenge he also avoided much earnest businesse and excessive study wherein if one be interrupted that usually procureth some vexation curiosity also and costly things the one as it may now and then find out somewhat that pleases so it often encounters with discontents the losse of the other ordinarily procures vexation If he were at any time surprized by this churlish passion he did not undertake of a sudden totally to suppresse it but by degrees averted his thoughts from that which displeased him till time gently allaid the commotion which was raised in the blood and spirits Drunkennesse the bane of many a man of great parts and prodigious wits which as they have an advantage for the attainment of vertue so are they inclined to the greatest vices he avoided by sometimes changing his seat binding himself by a solemn vow and resolution for a short time at first and afterwards for a longer setting himselfe to perform some task and till that were finished resolved upon a retired course by these honest cheats he defrauded his appetite of that bewitching thing called company-keeping and for his paines found a most sincere pleasure in abstinence to the utter disparagement of voluptuousnesse There is a restlesse and lingring passion called love I never heard he was surprized at least not baffled by it but to such as were he principally disswaded them from solitude and reclusenesse which cause ones thoughts to be pertinaciously fixt upon that he loves advised them to frequent and visit their friends and be sure to impart their thoughts and open their distemper to some prudent and discreet person whose counsel and perswasion they should find marvellously efficatious in such an occasion Sadnesse Melencholy and dejection of spirit are very incident to vertuous and ingenious men who at the emergency of crosse accidents more earnestly ruminate upon their sorrowes use a kind of skill in tormenting themselves and though company imployment and such divertisments may somewhat allay the distemper for a time yet their minds are very acute in retriving their grievances and amplifying their sorrowes by a tedious and irksome remembrance To such men he recommended what he had with good success experimented such directions as these to avoid solitarinesse vigorously
wickednesse more by observing the ill event that attends it than out of any inclination to goodnesse many incouraged to vertue and wisdome Arts and Sciences only by the reputation and esteem they carry in the World the good successe and profit that attends them To these causes I should have annexed our Parents and Nurses the four Elements and some other but their efficacy is discernable by what hath be said concerning the rest As for the four humors and Complexions to which all men are usually reduced it is sufficient to say that the Sanguin are spritely and active in the exercises of the mind except there be a superfluity of blood for that makes men dul and heavy The Cholerick are prompt and hasty The Flegmatick lazy and unready The Melancholick reserved and commonly understand more than they can readily utter To put every one upon that imployment he most affects and to which his particular Genius inclines him which was designed and much promoted by Euphorbus the President of Entaphia is a work very beneficial for it cannot be convenient for a Nation either that persons unfit should be designed to serve their Country as Schollars or that one man should engrosse divers employments and undertake the practick part of several Arts which perhaps have no alliance with or dependance upon one another Common observation discovers what mischeifes arise in a state what disgrace accrues to learning when divers empty shallow fellowes drive a trade in the most noble Sciences which might have been more serviceable to their Country in inferior Trades all which are useful in their degree and accordingly to be respected but because they fall within the reach of every ordinary capacity and fittest for such as aim only at mean and contemptible designes the purchasing of wealth and their private content that care not for the improving the faculties of the soul and raising it above the pitch of sense For Mechanical Professions and Manufactures he commonly advised that the Son should be brought up to his Fathers profession if nothing had occasioned him to dislike it But if Parents had resolved before hand upon a profession for their Child wherein all Parents think themselves wise enough to be their own guides then he gave order that occasion should be taken to acquaint him with some passages tending that way so as the frequent meditation of them might beget a liking and prepare him by degrees for it The exterior visage afforded but smal help to this discovery of Childrens wits being oftentimes no sufficient surety to warrant the ingenuity of the mind it is confest that the perturbations and affections of our minds are discovered with some probability by certaine extant motions and obvious representations which they make in the Veines and Muscles of the countenance so that it is easy to discerne when one is angry by the sudden commotion of the blood and distortion of the countenance when he is merry by the pleasant diffusion of the blood and erection of the countenance when sad by the reduction and retyring of the blood and spirits and dejection of the face unlesse a man deeply dissemble the inner motions as some can do so as no remakable type of them shall appear outwardly Further some by comparing the various Figures and Postures of mens countenances with those of Beasts thence conclude an alliance in their natures and dispositions thus a broad Brest great Shoulders Sterne look hair curled towards the end and glaring eyes argue a man fierce and hardy as a Lyon and it 's usual to say of such a one he looks like a Lyon he that hath a demiss countenance and fixt eyes with the ball of the eye somwhat broad we call him a Sheeps-head as being of a tame and humble nature One that reins in his neck going with an erect and lofty head we probably conclude him to be proud stately and contemptuous as the horse a prying sharp countenance argues one wily and subtil as a Fox especially if there be also a resemblance in the Eyes which give the surest judgement concerning the affections of the mind and are cheefly to be regarded in these conjectures But to discover by the countenance mens manners is a thing that cannot be done with any certainty much lesse their aptness or ineptitude to learning least of all their particular propensities to this or that Art because many bely their Phisiognomy cancel those promises to which nature hath set her hand in their countenances so that as the proverb saies their good faces were ill bestowed on them others whose rude and ill favoured lineaments of body might presage some obliquity in manners or dulnesse of capacity by education study conversing with wise men wash away the spots and stains naturally incident to their temper For whereas three things conduce to the making of a man compleat Nature Instruction and Example where the first is deficient the other may fix deep impressions of vertue upon the mind to which if practice be added it produces a real habit and custome becomes a second nature But from the manners and behaviour of Children pregnant conjectures may be raised concerning their wits therefore he earnestly observed whether a Boy were courteous or morose honest or given to cheating just or partial which may be discovered by putting him into an Office though but Monitor in a School in these particulars notwithstanding he cautelously discerned whether they proceeded from nature or were acquired especially he observed how one behaved himself when angry nature irritated will bewray it self in the most recluse minds In their studies he observed whether they were vigorous or remiss cheerful or drowsie speedy or slow In their carriage whether they were bold or modest in their apparel whether spruce or carelesse and lastly in their play whether they expressed a dexterity and ingenuity in it or were blunt and unready from all which put together many useful motions may be collected though many men cannot obtain of themselves so much humility as to condescend to the observation of such mean things To learn a Language in a short space to remember Stories and Tales to be ready in answering questions which one hath been formerly acquainted with are arguments of a good memory They which excel in the faculty of Imagination soon learn to write fairly no draw intricate flourishes and Pictures are cunning in childish Architectures and Carving play readily at any game delight in sprucenesse love to be praised and are soon surprised with admiration But to resolve a strange and new question to render a pertinent reason to delight in serious matters to love Meditation Solitude and Retiredness are probable instances of a solid judgment Such are likewise modest carelesse in wearing their apparrel at least not fantastical in it and commonly appear very unready at play and Toyes But two things he chiefly used whereby to assist his discovery 1. When a Child was advanced to some competent discretion he demanded of him
curbing my passions intemperances that I may not be deprived of the use of reason These Rules by what hath been said will easily appear to be not onely consistent with the Law of self-interest and preservation but so interwoven with it that without these that cannot be in force and though these Rules be general yet from them may be derived punctual directions to guide men in the carrying on of all particular affairs for if the Understanding be rightly seasoned with these the Inclinations and Motions of the Will presently become tractable and obedient The knowledge of right and wrong is natural to all men it is as regent over all our actions I grant it is very often usurped upon by factious passions by corrupt opinions which men unwarily admit and suffer themselves to be governed by them Yet I believe that he that is professedly wicked if he allows himself any leisure to consider what he doth cannot commit an evil action without some dissatisfaction and reluctancy but his unhappiness is that being transported and prepossest with a corrupt passion or opinion he furiously pursues that which his appetite desires and admits not any leisurable arguing or deliberation as the vertuous man doth who when any thing reducible to practice holds his mind in suspence and incumbers it with difficulty frames in his thoughts the contradictory to it making two practical propositions this is lawfull It is not lawfull which being contradictory cannot both be true he examines them judiciously and warily distinguishes which is to be asserted which rejected Or as some observe there is a Syllogism contrived in mens thoughts All vice is to be avoided This is a vice Then it is to be avoided A vertuous man concedes the whole Argument An incontinent or wavering man grants the major but being placed in a middle state between virtue and vice is unresolved in the minor A desperately wicked man regards neither his furious appetite prevents all the conclusions his reason would collect from the premisses Although I made a supposition that the principles of morality were to be found most sincere among the simple and illiterate yet relating the qualifications of an exact morall man one shall be that he be of good parts well bred and have a solid judgment for such a one will manage his actons according to the rules of Reason more dexterously and judiciously and improve them with more advantage and splendor 2. Then it is required that he have a command over himself be able to subdue his passions and make them stoop to his Lure Freedome from all passions is a state of mind not attainable and if it could be attained useless and unserviceable Passions are of themselves things indifferent unrestrained they disturb the operations of the mind and put men out of course by representing various objects under the notion of good or bad pleasant or unpleasant the soul upon the apprehension thereof is ready to move the bloud and spirits rashly and disorderly insomuch as the light of Reason is obstructed and disturbed and the Actions of the Understanding become irregular As Vapours in a full stomach fume into the head disorder the visive spirits and produce error in the sight but prudently managed they become serviceable and advantagious Anger may make a man heroick valiant and hardy Joy adds speed and resolution and inforces a man oft-times to go beyond himself in dispatch of business Fear and grief though they seem to be sluggish and unactive may sometimes do a Curtesie by making men circumspect and wary Sometimes a kind of fear arises from an insuperable necessity or huge danger that wings the Resolution and begets courage necessity of action quickens the sluggish spirits enforces a man to volour and eloquence and makes him ready to attempt any enterprize Meer necessity makes some men active and Despair its self begets Hope Love widens and inlarges the minde inclines men to do favours and kindnesses from which flowes the greatest pleasure that can be Ambition and love of honour though often extravagant in compassing its ends inclines men to gallantry of spirit to hate baseness to be mercifull to Suppliants The Law of Nature is a Rule resulting from the light of Reason and directs men in the managing of their actions especially as they are Members of a Common-wealth and being written with indelible characters in their mindes invites them to correspond with such positive humane constitutions as are agreeable to it Politick and municipial Laws are but as a Commentary upon this original Law and the more conformable they are to that the more free reception they meet with among men It commands 1. Self-conservation and 2. Multiplication of the kind 3. Equality to be allowed among men 4. That God is to be worshipped 5. Good to be chosen evil to be avoided 6. A greater good to be chosen before a less 7. Parents to be honoured 8. That we ought to deal by others as we desire to be dealt by 9. That we restore things committed to our trust And 10. Desire peace and rest 11. That we usurp not the privilege of being our own Judges 12. That we be ready to pardon And divers other Rules which a man may collect by Meditation There is in the mindes of all men not brutish a Rule of Reason which avouches what is good what bad what is right and wrong for Humane Laws do not define or decree that neither can they A Tyrant may constrain men by perverse Laws to do that which is unjust but he cannot constrain them to judge and esteem that which is unjust to be just that freedom they will have in dispite of him Could this law of nature be universally received and observed it might sufficiently secure the Peace and welfare of men but in regard that passion and error oversway reason and wrest the dictates of natures Law forcing them to serve base ends and so long as men are what they are men these corruptions and exorbitances cannot but obtain Lest some men under a pretence of the law of Nature should incroach upon too great a power to the prejudice of others who could be content with a calmnesse and moderation to be ruled by reason Therefore to secure the general quiet men put themselves under the protection of humane Lawes which as occasion serves abridge and restrain the law of Nature For Example whereas Nature teaches and commands self-preservation and propagation of the kind If one man goes about under a colour of sufficiency and provision for himself to defraud and destroy others it is thought fit to consult for the good of the whole body politick by cutting off such a dangerous member Nature teacheth us to do no lesse in the natural body Nature allowes equality among men but they have found it convenient and necessary to decline from this rule and for their more commodious cohabitation and government to be content that one man should be invested with a greater share of
Musick or singing The intent of Musick is to improve the sound or quality of words by some sweet notes of voice or instrument with a due regard had to measure time and prolation Sound proceeds from motion therfore according to the celerity or tardity of the motion it is either sharp or flat according to the concord or discord of the Notes it is harmonious or disharmonious according to the speedy returnes or distances of time which prepare and dispose the eare to receive the subsequent notes it is said to consist of short or long time We may observe that men to expresse several passions emit their breath by various degrees making divers manners of eruption and tune their voice to several keyes in imitation whereof Musick may seem to have been invented and the kinds of it in old time distinguished according to mens several passions and as a silent eloquence was used to raise or allay them in the hearers Anciently the Dorick Musick which had a grave and solemn strain was thought to excite men to prudent and Heroick actions and to restrain them from loosnesse and effeminate wantonnesse the Jonick measures were contrived to promote mirth and jollity and the Lydean accommodated to sadness and mourning for we must know the Ayr smitten and modulated by voice or instrument moves and affects the contiguous Ayr this the next till by a continued succession it arrives at the organ of hearing insinuates and mingles its self with the spirits of the Nerves and so is trajected to the heart where entring calmly and gently it sedates and allaies the stirring Spirits or briskly and with vehemence it exsuscitates them There are some not only men but Children which expresse a particular kind of acutenesse in imitating the speeches and gestures of others These whosoever will take the paines to observe it will be found generally apt to learn Musick for that being as was said but a kind of imitation carries an alliance with their Genius Poetry illustrates the matter about which it is conversant by words duly measured and aptly joyned together the original of it was only the casting of a company of words into a kind of form and proportion as indeed all Arts at first were but mean trivial things Painting no more at the first but the circumscribing the exterior limites of a body with single lines as the shadow thereof was projected on a Wall The skil of illustrating one part or making it more clear by the thinnesse of the lines another more darke by casting a deep shadow on it the dexterity of causing some parts to appear at a distance by depressing and extenuating the lines others at hand above the ground of the table by making the lines eminent and bearing out these knacks were added aftewards And its probable Poetry at its nativity only pratled out some harsh incomposed verses in a rude method and plaine measure with some kind of consonancy to please the eare And we see that many illiterate persons and ordinary country clowns by studying of consonancies and cadencies of words accomplish thus much you may imagine some jolly poeticall swaine in the spring-time dedicating this morning Carol to his Amaryllis Now that the sable curtains of the night Are drawn aside and Titan's welcome Light Renewes the day come Amaryllis see The Queen of Earth in all her Bravery Flora with chaplets and rich garlands crown'd The bounteous Off-spring of the fruitfull ground Adornes her waving tresses viewes her face At Titan's bright and radiant Looking-glass Whiles every Wood and Landskip opes his store To deck their Queen and make her glory more The chrystall streames in yonder valley seene Each flowry laune and far-extended greene Those rising Mounts where Tityrus doth sing His Past'r all sonnets at the bubling spring All pay their tribute to her ev'ry bower Offers at least the homage of a flower Such radiant beauty Sol himselfe admires And jealous of those lesser Puny fires Dispells his rivall Phosphorus and all Those twinkling lights below the spacious ball The spring is come and winter for a time Must suffer exile in a forreigne clime From watery Pisces Titan lately came To take his lodging at the golden Ram. By whose indulgent heat the flowers do creep With the chill Dormouse from their winter sleep The chirping Choristers Heavens quire do sing In their green chappells anthems to the spring The Hyblean chymists ranging from their bowers Extract pure Nectar from the new-born flowers The nimble Hindes do play the frisking lambs With gratefull gestures court their tender dams A Poem they say is a vocal picture the meer designe of it is to represent to the Readers fancy a lively Idea or picture of the thing in cleare expressions flowrishing elegancies a copious and luxuriant stile adventurous and lofty language to present every person in his proper colours with such speeches passions humors and carriages as becomes his age state condition and temper The Art of Poetry so far depends upon the strength of a quick naturall wit that according to the true maxime a Poet is born not made he that is born a Poet may be much mended and improved by study he that is not born with a genius fitted for it wil never be made one To deliver in few words a peculiar and distinguishing character of a poeticall wit He must enioy a quick and ranging fancy which contrives antique fictions imaginary Chimera's perplexed fables unexpected encounters leads the reader into inchanted groves and gardens builds imaginary castles palaces and a thousand such devices he is usually sublimed up with a confident selfe-admiring imagination A Poet is first highly inamored of his owne ingenious conceits and that gives him the confidence to publish them presuming that others will be as much taken with them as himself which if it happen as in all probability some that are of the same humor and Genius will extoll and applaud them then he thinks himself a happy man and this applause if it be not the onely reward he aimes at yet it is commonly the richest he can catch The axioms which are generally admitted in naturall Philosophy are chiefly these 1. That all bodies substances and motions are produced by some efficient cause or primary agent whereupon the common people who have more truth in their notions than every one observes but want skill to discover it compendiously resolve themselves concerning all the effects in nature by saying that such a thing happens according to the providence and appointment of God which is true and as much as need be expected from them and a kind of arguing more allowable than if they should attribute things to fortune chance or such kind of nothings but a Philosopher who thinks himselfe obliged to give a more immediate reason of things grants this to be right as being assured that he which layes not such a foundation in his method of Philosophy will find himself miserably puzled about many apparances Yet makes not this