it selfe vvhatsoever it perceiveth that is too grosse and earthy in the bloud and by little veins sends it again into the entrals and by that means disburdens it selfe of that dreggy humour and last of all the gall attracteth those parts of the bloud that are too sharp and fiery vvhose little bag hangs at the liver and by strings sends them again mixt into the entrals whence the bitternesse and ill sent of dung XXI The vessels of membrification are 1 veins 2 every particular member 3 pores For the veins proceeding from the liver spread themselves over all the parts of the body like boughs and sending forth little branches every way end in strings that are most tenacious from which every member apart sucketh and by a slow agglutination assimilates it to it selfe so that the bloud flowing into the flesh becomes flesh that in the bones turns into bone in a gristle to a gristle in the brain to brains just after the same manner as the juice of a tree is changed into wood bark pith leaves fruits by meer assimilation The excrements of this third most subtle concoction are subtle also namely sweat and vapour which alwayes breaths out through the pores If any more grosse humour remains especially after the first and second concoction not well made it breeds scabs or ulcers or the dropsie XXII For the furthering of nourishment there is a spur added that is appetite or hunger and thirst which are nothing but a vellication of the fibres of the stomack arising from the sharp sucking of the Chylus For the members being destitute of the juice wherewith they are watered solicite the veins of bloud and the veins by the motion of continuity sollicite the liver the liver the Mesenterie that the entrals the entrals the stomack which if it have nothing to afford contracts and wrinkles it selfe and the strings of it are sucked dry from whence proceeds first a certain titillation and that we call appetite simply and afterward pain and this we call hunger and if solid meat be taken but dry because coction or vaporation cannot be made by reason of drinesse there is a desire that moisture should be poured on and this vve call thirst It appears then why motion provokes appetite and why the idle have but little appetite c. XXIII The whole body is nourished at once together by the motion of libration To vvit after the same manner as the root in a plant doth equally nourish both it selfe and the stock and all the boughes Therefore no member nourisheth it selfe alone but others vvith it selfe and so all preserved Otherwise if any member rob the rest of their nourishment or again refuseth it there follows a distemperature of the vvhole body and by and by corruption at length death XXIV A living creature being 〈◊〉 nourished is not onely vegetuted but also as long as his members are soft and extensive augmented the superficies of the members yielding by little and little and extending it selfe but as soon as the members are hardened after youth the living creature ceaseth to grow yet goes forward in solidity and strength so long as the three concoctions are rightly made But when the vessels of the concoctions begin to dry up also the living creatures begins to wither away and life grows feeble till it fail and be extinguished Of the vitall faculty XXV Life in a living creature is such a mixture of the spirits with the bloud and members that they are all warme have sense and move themselves Therefore the life of living creatures consists in heat sense and motion and it is plain for if any creature hath neither motion nor sense nor heat it lives not XXVI Therefore every living creature is full of heat sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker For every living creature is nourished How it appears out of that which went before the nourishment is not made but by concoction but reason teacheth that concoction is not made but by heat and fire It comes therefore to be explained whence a living creature hath heat and fire and by what means it is kindled kept alive and extinguished which the two following Aphorismes shall teach XXVII The heart is the forge of heat in a living creature burning with a perpetuall fire and begetting a little flame called the spirit of life which it communicates also to the whole body Hence the heart is said commonly to be the first that lives the last that dies XXVIII The vitall spirit in the heart hath for its matter bloud for bellowes the lungs for channels by which it communicates it selfe to the whole body the arteries Our hearth fire hath need of three things 1 matter or fuell and that fat 2 of blowing or fanning whereby the force of it is stirred up 3 free transpiration whereby it may diffuse it selfe the same three the maker of all things hath ordeined to be in every living creature For the heart seated a little above the liver drinketh in a most pure portion of bloud by a branch of the veins which being that it is spirituous and oily conceives a most soft flame and left this should be extinguished there lies near to the heart the lungs which like bellowes dilating and contracting it selfe blowes upon and fans that fire of the heart perpetually to prevent suffocation Now being that that inflammation of the heart is not without fume or vapour though very thin the said lungs by the same continuall inspiration exhaleth those vapours through the throat and drawing in cooler air instead thereof doth so temperate the flame of the heat whence the necessity of breathing appears and why a living creature is presently suffocated if respiration be denied it And that flame or attenuated and most hot bloud is called the spirit of life which diffusing it self through the arteries that accompany the veins every way cherisheth the heat both of the bloud that is in the veins and all the members throughout the whole body Now because it were dangerous to have this vitall spirit destroyed the arteries are hid below the veins only in two or three places they stand forth a little that so the beating of that spirit as well as of the heart it selfe when the hand is laid upon the breast may be noted and thence the state of the heart may be known Of the sensitive faculty XXIX Sense in a living creature is the perception of those things that are done within and without the living creature XXX That perception is done by virtue of a living spirit which being that it is most subtle in a living creature is called the Animall spirit XXXI That perceptive virtue consists in the tendernesse of the animall spirit for because it is presently affected with whatsoever thing it be wherewith it is touched For all sensation is by passion as shall appear hereafter XXXII The seat and shop of the animall spirits is the brain For in the brain there is not only greatest store of that spirit residing but
Wil◠and Conscience For by diligent attention it begets understanding of things by imagination or judging choise that is to will or nill by remembrance conscience XIII The understanding is a faculty of the reasonable soule gathering things unknown out of things known and out of things uncertain compared together drawing things certain by reasoning XIV To reason is to enquire the reasons and causes why any thing is or is not by thinking thereon For the mind or reason doth from the experiments of the senses gathered together first form to it selfe certain generall notions as when it seeth that the fire scorcheth all things it formes to it selfe this rule as it were All fire burneth c. Such kind of experimentall notions they call principles from which the understanding as occasion is offered frames discourse For example if gold melt with fire then it is hot also and burns when it is melted Whence follows this conclusion therefore if the Workman pour gold into his hand he is burnt therewith See here is understanding and that of a thing never seen to which a bruite cannot attain For they do not reason but stay simply upon experiments As if a dog be beaten with a staffe he runs away afterward at the sight of a staffe because his late suffering comes into his memory but that he should reason for example a staffe is hard and pain was caused me with a staffe therefore every hard thing struck against the body causeth pain this he cannot do therefore intelligere to understand is inter legere that is amongst many things to chuse and determine what is truly and what is not XV When ratiocination doth cohere with it selfe every way it begets verity if it gape any where errour XVI Promptnesse of reasoning is called Ingenuity solidity Judgement defect Dulnesse For he is Ingenious who perceives and discourseth readily he Judicious that with a certain naturall celerity giveth heed whether the reasoning cohere sufficiently every way He is dull that hath neither of them The two first are from the temperature of bloud and melancholy the last comes from abundance of flegme For melancholy understand not grosse and full of dregs but pure tempered with much bloud giveth a nimble wit but moistned with lesse a piercing and constant judgement which is made plaine by this similitude A glasse receiving and rendring shapes excellently is compounded of three exceedings exceeding hardnesse exceeding smoothnesse exceeding blacknesse for the smoothnesse receives shapes hardnesse reteins them the blacknesse underneath clears them Hence the best sort of glasses are of steel those of silver worse and of glasse better by reason of their greater smoothnesse and hardnesse under which some black thing is put or cast that it may adhere immediately For instance lead If it could be iron or steel it is certain that the images would be the brighter for blackness So the animall spirits receiving agility from pure bloud strength and constancy from Melancholy make men ingenious and when the prevailing melancholy clarifies the imagination Judicious too much flegme overflowing both makes men stupid Yellow choler conferreth nothing but mobility to the affections whence it is not without cause called the whetstone of wits XVII The understanding begins with universals but ends in singulars We have observed the same touching the senses upon the eighth Aphorisme For there is a like reason for both in as much as the intellect considering any object first knows that it is something and afterwards enquires by discoursing what it is and how it differs from other things and that alwayes more and more subtilely For universals are confused singulars distinct Therefore the understanding of God is most perfect because he knowes all singularities by most speciall differences Therefore he alone truly knoweth all things But a man by how many the more particulars he knows and sees how they depend upon their generals by so much the wiser he is Therefore Aristotle said not rightly That sense is of singulars but understanding of universals XVIII The will is a faculty of the reasonable soul inclining it to good fore-known and turning it away from evill fore-seen For the soule works that whereunto the will enclines and the will enclines whither the understanding leads it It follows this for its guides every where and erres not unlesse it erre As when a Christian chuseth drunkennesse rather then sobriety though he be taught otherwise he doth it because the intellect deceived by the sense judgeth it better to please the palate then to be tormented with thirst though perverse Therefore we must have a speciall care least the intellect should erre or be carried away with the inferiour appetite It appears also from thence that if all men understood alike they would also will and nill alike but the diversity of wils argues a diversity of understanding XIX If the will prudently follow things that are truly good and prudently avoid things that are truly bad it begets virtue if it do the contrary vice For virtue is nothing else but a prudent and constant and ardent shunning of evill and embracing of good vice on the contrary is nothing but a neglecting of good and embracing of evill XX The conscience of man is an intellectuall memory of those things which reason dictates either to be done or avoided and what the will hath done or not done according to this rule and what God hath denounced to those that doe them or doe them not Therefore the function of it in the soule is three-fold to warn testifie and judge of all things that are done or to be done See by the Wisdome of God an inward Monitor Witnesse and Judge and always standing by given to man woe be to him that neglects this Monitor contemnes this Witnesse throwes off the reverence of this Judge XXI It appears out of that which hath been said that man is well termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world Because 1 He is compounded of the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the great World is matter spirit light 2 He resembles the universe in the site of his members for as that is divided into three parts the Elementary the Coelestiall and the Supercoelestiall so a man hath three ventres or bellies the lowest which serves for nutrition the middle-most or the breast wherein is the work-house of life and the fountain of heat the highest or the head in which the animall spirits and in them reason the image of God inhabits 3 There is an analogy betwixt the parts of the world and the parts of the body For example Flesh represents the Earth Bones the Stones Bloud and other humours Waters Vapours of which the body is full the air the vitall spirit the Heaven and Stars the Haires Plants but the seven Planets are the seven vitall Members in our body for the Heart is in the place of the Sun the Brain of the Moon the Spleen of Saturn the Liver of Jupiter the Bag of Gall Mars
by reason of a dark superficies Every of these colours hath under it diverse degrees and species according to the various temperature thereof with the others which we leave to the speculation of Opticks and Painters XXIV There remains a quality which is perceived by two senses touch and sight namely FIGURE whereby one body is round another long another square c. but the consideration of this is resigned to the Mathematicks Of an occult quality XXV An occult quality is a force of operating upon any otber body which notwithstanding is not â—iscovered but by its effâ—ct For examp that the loadstone draws iron that poisons assaile and go about to extinguish nothing but the spirit in bodies that antidotes again resist poison and fortifie the spirit against them that some herbs are peculiarly good for the brain others for the heart others for the liver and such like Such kind of occult qualities as these God hath dispersed throughout all nature and they yet lie hid for the better part of them but they come immediately from the peculiar spirit infused into every creature For even as one and the same matter of the world by reason of its diverse texture hath gotten as it were infinite figures in stones metals plants and living creatures so one and the same spirit of the world is drawn out as it were into infinite formes by various and speciall virtues known to God and from these occult qualities sympathies and antipathies of things do properly arise CHAP. V. Of the mutations of things generation corruption c. FRom the contrarieties of the qualities especially of cold and heat For these two qualities are most active those mutations have their rise to which all things in the world are subject which we shall now see I Mutation is an accident of a body whereby its essence is changed Namely whither a thing passe from not being to being or from being to not being or from being thus to being otherwise II All bodies are liable to mutations The reason because they are all compounded of matter spirit and fire which three are variously mixed among themselves perpetually For both the matter is a fluid and a slipperie thing and the spirit restlesse always agitating it self and heat raised every where by light and motion doth eat into rent and pluck asunder the matter of things From thence it is I say that nothing can long be permanent in the same state All things grow up increase decrease and perish again Hence also the Scriptures affirm that the heavens wax old as doth a garment Psal. 10â— v. 27. III The mutation of a thing is either essentiall or accident all IV Essentiall mutation is when a thing begins to be or ceases to be the first is called generation the other corruption For example snow when it is formed of water is said to be generated when it is resolved again into water to be corrupted V An accident all mutation of a thing is when it increases or decreases or is changed in its qualities the first is called augmentation the next diminution the last alteration which we are now to view severally how they are done Of the generation of things VI Generation is the production of a thing so that what was not begins to be Thus every year yea every day infinite things are generated through all nature VII To generation three things are required Seed a Matrix and Moderate Heat These three things are necessary in the generation of living creatures plants metals stones and lastly of meteors as shall be seen in their place VIII Seed is a small portion of the matter having the spirit of life included in it For seed is corporall and visible therefore materiate and it is no seed except it contein in it the spirit of the species whose seed it should be For what should it be formed by therefore seeds out of which the spirit is exhaled are unprofitable to generation IX The Matrix is a convenient place to lay the seed that it may put forth its vertue Nothing is without a place neither is any thing generated without a convenient place because the actions of nature are hindred Now that place is convenient for generation which affordeth the seed 1 a soft site 2 circumclusion least the spirit should evaporate out of the seed being attenuated 3 veins of matter to flow from elsewhere N. W. And there are as many matrixes or laps as there are generations the aire is the matrix of meteors the earth of stones metals and plants the womb of living creatures X Heat is a motion raised in the seed which attenuating its matter makes it able to spread it self by swelling For the spirit beng stirred up by that occasion agitateth it self and as it were blowing asunder the attenuated parts of the matter disposeth them to the forme of its nature This is the perpetual processe of all generation and none other From whence hereafter under the doctrine of minerals living creatures plants many things will appear plainly of their own accord yet we must observe that some things grow without seed as grasse out of the earth and worms out of slime wood and flesh putrified yet that is done by the vertue of the spirit diffused through things which wheresoever it findeth fit matter as a matrix and is assisted by heat presently it attempts some new generation as it were the constitution of a new Kingdom But without heat whither it be of the sunne or of fire or the inward heatof a living creature it matters not so it be temperate there can be no generation because the matter cannot be prepared softned or dilated without heat Of the augmentation of things XI Everything that is generated increaseth and augmenteth it self as much as may be and that by attraction of matter and â—ssimilation of it to it self For wheresoever there is generation there is heat and where there is heat there is fire and where there is fire there is need and attraction of fewell For heat because it always attenuateth the parts of the matter which exhale seeks and attracts others wherewith it may sustein it self as we see it in a burning candle and a portion of matter being attracted and applyed to a body taketh its form by little and little and becomes like unto it and is made the same For by the force of heat of heterogeneous things become homogeneous the spirit of that body in the mean time attracting also to it self somewhat of the spirit of the universe and so multiplying it self also So stones minerals plants living creatures c. grow Of diminution XII Whatsoever hath increased doth at some time or other cease to increase and begin to decrease and that for and through the arefaction of the matter Namely for because the heat increased with the body increasing doth by little and little and little consume the thin and fat parts thereof and dry up the solid parts so that at last they are not able to
motion bodies were to be framed which might performe a free motion and these are called Animalia or Animantia living creatures from the soul which powerfully evidences life in them 2 Therefore mobility is in all living creatures but after divers manners For some move only by opening and shutting not stirring out of their place as oisters and cockles Others creep by little and little as snailes earth-wormes and other wormes some have a long body which creeps with winding it selfe about as snakes some have feet given them as lizards beasts birds but these last have wings also to flie through the air Which fishes do imitate in the water performing their motion by swimming III The moving principle in a living creature is the vitall soul which is nothing else but the spirit of life thick and strong mightily filling and powerfully governing the bodies which it inhabiteth IV Now because a voluntary and a light motion cannot be performed but in a subtle matter living creatures have bodies given them far more tender then plants but far more compound For they consist of spirit flesh blood membranes veins nerves gristles and lastly bones as it were props and pillars lest the frame should fall Understand this in perfect living creatures For more imperfect living creatures in which we contemplate onely the rudiments of nature have neither bones nor flesh nor bloud nor veins but onely a white humour covered with a skin or crust as it were with a sheath which the spirit included doth stir or move as it appears in worms snails oisters c. But to perfect living creatures 1 That they might have a more subtle spirit bloud and brains were given 2 And that these might not be dissipated they had vessels and channels given them veines arteries nerves 3 That a living creature might be erected bones were given him 4 And left the bones as also the veins arteries nerves should easily be hurt all was covered either with fat or flesh 5 And that the members might move tendons and muscles were interwoven throughout 6 And least in moving the bone the bones should wear one against another cause pain in the living creature a gristle which is a softer substance being as it were halfe flesh was put between the joints 7 And lastly that the frame might hang firmly together in its composure it was compassed with a hide or skin as also all the members with their membranes Therefore a living creature consists of more similar parts then a plant but of far more dissimular parts or members of which it followes V The bodies of living creatures were furnished with many members as with diverse organs for diverse actions The head indeed is the principall member of a living creature wherein the whole spirit hath its residence and shews all its force but because a living creature was intended for divers actions it had need of besides 1 Vivifying organs supplying the living creature with heat life and motion that is brains and heart 2 Moving organs that is feet wings feathers c. 3 And left one thing should run against another or fall into precipices it was necessary to furnish them with sight also with a quick hearing and touch Lastly because the earth was not to supply nutriment immediately to a living creature as to a plant fixed in the earth but it was left them to seek there was need of smelling and tasting that they might know what was convenient to their nature Hence eyes ears nostrils c. 4 Now because a living creature was not to be fixed in the ground with a root because of his free motion more perfect organs of nutrition were requisite for that cause there was given him a mouth teeth a stomack a liver a heart veins c. 5 And because they were not to spring out of the earth as plants by reason of the same motion to and fro Divers Sexes were given them to multiply themselves and distinct genitall members 6 And because living creatures were to be alwayes conversant with others of their own or of a divers kind they had need of some mutuall token even in the dark they had a tongue given them to form sounds 7 Lastly because it could not be but that a living creature should sometimes meet with contraries they had as it were shields and armes given them Hares bristles scales shels feathers likewise horns clawes teeth hoofs c. VI Therefore the whole treatise concerning a living creature is finished in the explication I Of the nutritive faculty II Of the vitall III Of the sensitive IV Of the loco-motive V Of the enuntiative VI Of the defensive VII And lastly of the generative For he that knoweth these seven knowes the whole mysterie of nature in living creatnres For whatsoever is in the body of a living creature serveth those faculties if it do not serve them it is in vain and maketh a monster It is to be observed also that the first three faculties are governed by so many spirits The nutritive faculty by the naturall spirit the vitall by the spirit of life the sensitive by the animall spirit the other four by those three spirits joyntly Of the nutritive Faculty VII Every living creature standeth in need of daily food to repair that which perisheth of the substance every day For life consists in heat And heat being that it is fire wants fuell which is moist spirituous and fat matter Heat in a living creature being destitute of this sets upon the solid parts and feeds on them And hence it is that a living creature as well as a plant without nourishment pines away and dies But if it be sparingly fed it therefore falls away because the heat feeds upon the very substance of the flesh VIII That nourishment is convenient for a living creature which supplies it with a spirit like its own spirit For seeing that life is from the spirit the matter of it selfe doth not nourish life but a spirituous matter And indeed the spirit of the nourishment must needs be like the spirit of the living creature Therefore we are not nourished with the elements as plants are for as much as they have only a naturall not a vitall spirit but we are nourished with plants or with the flesh of other â—iving creatures because those afford a vitall spirit Nay further there is a particular proportion of spirits by reason of which a â—orse chuseth oates a swine barley a wolfe flesh c. Nay an hog hath an appetite to mans excrements also because it yet findeth parts convenient for it IX Nourishment turneth into the substance â—f that which is nourished That appears 1 because he that feeds on dry meats is dry of complexion he that feeds on moist is flegmatick c. 2 because for the most part a man reteins the qualities of those living creatures on whose flesh he feeds as he that feeds on beefe is strong he that feeds on venison is nimble c. If any one have the brains
also the whole animall spirit is there progenerated XXXIII The animall spirits are begotten in the brain that is in bloud and vitall spirit 2 purified with the fanning of respiration 3 communicated to the whole body by Nerves The excrements of the brain are cast forth by the nostrils eares and eyes that is by flegme and â—ears For the strings of the veins and arteries running forth into the brains instill bloud and vitall spirit into them And the bloud that turns into the substance of the brains by assimilation but the vitall spirit being condensed by the coldnesse of the brain is turned into the Animall spirit which the air drawn in by inspiration and getting into the brain through the hollownesse of the nostrils and of the palate doth so purifie with fanning every moment that though it be something cold yet it is most moveable and runs through the nerves with inexplicable celerity Now the Nerves are branches or channels descending from the brain through the body For the marrow of the back bone is extended from the brain all along the back of every living creature and from thence divers little branches run forth conveying the animall spirit the architect of sense and motion to all the members in the whole body XXXIV To know the nature of the senses three things are pertinent 1 the things requisite 2 the manner 3 the effect XXXV The things requisite are 1 an object 2 an organ 3 a medium to conjoyn them Or Sensile Sensorium and the Copula XXXVI Objects are sensible qualities inhering in bodies Colour Sound Savour Tangor For nothing is seen touched c. of it selfe but by accidents wherewith it is clothed And if we would be accurate Philosophers N. W. of the three principles of things only light or fire is preceptible For matter and spirit are of themselves insensible the light then tempered with darknesse makes the matter visible Motion which is from light makes a sound but heat which is from motion stirs up and temperates the rest of the qualities odours savours tangors XXXVII The organs of the senses are parts of the body in which the animall spirit receives the objects that present themselves namely the eye the eare the nostrils the tongue and all that is nervie Nothing in all nature acts without organs therefore the animall spirit cannot do it neither XXXVIII The medium of conjoyning them is that which brings the object into the organ in sight the light in hearing the air moved with breaking in smels the air vapouring in taste the water melting in touch the quality it selfe inhering in the matter XXXIX The manner of sensation is the contact of the Organ with the object passion and action There is but one sense to speak generally and that 's the Touch. For nothing can be perceived but what toucheth us either at hand or at a distance There is no sense at all of things absent XL Therefore in every sensation the Animall spirit suffers by the thing sensible That there is no sensation but by passion is too evident For we do not perceive heat or cold unlesse we be hot or cold nor sweet and bitter unlesse we become sweet or bitter nor colour unlesse we be coloured therewith Our spirit I say residing in the organs is touched and affected Therefore those things which are like us are not perceived as heat like our heat doth not affect us But we must observe that the Organs that they may perceive any qualities of the objects want qualities of themselves as the apple of the eye colour the tongue savour c. XLI Yet in every sensation the animall spirit doth reach upon the thing sensible namely in receiving speculating laying up its species For the Animall spirit resident in the brain what ever sensorie it perceives to be affected conveys it selfe thither in a moment to know what it is and having perceived it returns forth with and carries back the image of that thing with it to the center of its work-house and there contemplates it what it is and of what sort and afterward layes it up for future uses hence the Ancients made three inward senses 1 The common sense or attention 2 The Phantasie or imagination 3 The memory or recordation But these are not really distinct but onely three distinct internall operations of the same spirit Now that those inward senses are in brutes it appears 1 Because if they do not give heed many things may and do usually slip by their ears eyes and nostrils 2 Because they are endued with the faculty of imagining or judging For doth not a dog barking at a stranger distinguish betwixt those whom he knowes and strangers yea sometimes a dog or a horse c. starts also out of his sleep which cannot be but by reason of some dream And what is a dream but an imagination 3 Because they remember also for a dog that hath been once beaten with a cudgell fears the like at the sight of every staffe or gesture c. And therefore it is certain that every living creature even flies and worms do imagine But of the inward senses more at large and more distinctly in the Chapter following XLII The effect of sensation is pleasure or grief Pleasure if the sense be affected gently and easily with a thing agreeable thereto with titillation griefe if with a thing that is contrary to it or suddenly with hurt to the Organ XLIII And that the Animall spirit alwayes occupied in the actions of sense may somtimes rest and be refresbed sleep was given to a living creature which is a gathering together of the animall spirits to the center of the brain and a stopping of the Organs in the mean time with the vapours ascending out of the ventricle Hence it appears 1 Why sleep most usually comes upon a man after meat or else after wearinesse when the members being chafed do exhale vapours 2 Why carefull thoughts disturb sleep that is because that when the spirit is stirred to and fro it cannot be gathered together and sit still 3 What it is to watch and how it is done namely when the spirit being strengthened in it selfe scatters the little cloud of vapours already attenuated and betakes it selfe to its Organs 4 Why too much watching is hurtfull because the sprits are too much wearied weakened consumed c. Thus much of the Senses in general somthing is to be said also of every one in particular XLIV The touch hath for its instrument the nervous skin as also all the nervous and membr anaceous parts of the body Therefore haires nailes bones do not feel c. though you cut or burn them because they have no nerves running through them Yet they feel in that part where they adjoyn to the flesh because they have a nervie substance for their gluten Hence the pain under the nailes and membranes of the bones is most acute Now being that the skin of the body is most glutinous and altogether nervie
to the eye by a second line for by the first line the light falls upon the object by the second from thence upon the eye Refracted is that whereby things are seen through a double medium and so by refracted lines as when an oare or pole seems broken in the water Also when a piece of mony in the bottome of a vessel full of water seemes bigger and nearer the superficies so that one may go back and see it Of the motive faculty LI. Motion was given to a living creature 1. To seek his food 2. For those actions to which every one is destinated 3. To preserve the vigour of life For a living creature being of a more tender constitution then a plant would more easily putrifie and perish if it were not quickned by most frequent motion Therefore the Creator hath most wisely provided for our good that we cannot so much as take our meat without labour and motion LII The moving principle is the animall spirit Therefore a body without life though never so well furnished with Organs moves not and when the braine the feat of the animall spirits is ill affected for example either with giddinesse or a surfet the members presently fall or at least stumble and totter And when the nerve of any member is stopped it is presently deprived both of motion and sense as may be seen in the palsie and apoplexie LIII Now the animall spirit moves either it self only or the vitall spirit with it or lastly the members of the body also LIV. The animall spirit moves it self perpetually sometimes more sometime lesse namely running out and into the Organs of the senses or howsoever stirriug it self in its work-house For from this inward motion of it are perpetual phantasies or imaginations even in sleep which then we call dreams LV. It carries the vitall spirit along with it when at the sense of something either pleasing or displeasing it conveyes it self to and fro through the body taking that with it as it were to aide it as it is in joy and sorrow hope and feare gratulation and repentance and last of all in anger For joy is a motion wherein the spirit poureth forth it self at the sense of a pleasant object as though it would couple it self with the thing that it desireth Thence that lively colour in the face of a joyful man from the vital spirit flowing thither with a most pure portion of the blood And this is the cause why moderate joy purifies the blood and is helpful to prolong life See Prov. 15. v. 13. 17. v. 22. Sorrow is a motion whereby the vitall spirit at the sense of an object that displeaseth it runnes to its centre the heart as it were feeling a hurtful thing thence palenesse in the face of those that are affrighted and stiffnesse of the skin and haires hence also danger of death if any one be often and greatly affected with sorrow the like motions are in hope and fear joy and sorrow that is in the sense of good or bad either present or past But anger is a mixt motion whereby the spirit for fear of injury flies to the center and thence poures forth it self again as it were in revenge Hence they that are angry are first pale and afterwards red c. N. W. All these motions commonly called affections or passions of the minde are common to all living creatures But according to more and lesse for Sanguine creatures are merry Melancholy sad Flegmatick faint Cholerick furious c. LVI The said Animall spirit moves the members but with the use of instruments Tendons and Muscles and the joynts of the bones The puppets wherewith Juglers a pleasant sight to children shew playes that they may turne themselves about as though they were alive must of necessity have 1 Joynts of the members that they may bow 2 Nerves or strings with which drawne to and fro they are bowed 3 Some living strength which may draw the nerves forward and backward which the neurospasta that is hid under the covering supplies Just so to the motion of a living creature there are requisite 1 Joynts or knuckles of bones For bones were given to a living creature that he might stand upright But that he might bend also his bones were not given him continued but divided with joynts of limbs 2. Certain ligaments fastned about the bones wherewith attraction and relaxation might be made therefore certaine tendons were given them as it were cords being of a nervy and half gristly substance which growing out of the head of one bone and running along the side of another bone grow to the lower head thereof and when the tendon is drawne the following bone is drawne so as to bend it self Now it is to be noted that these tendons about the joynts of the bones are bare on both sides but about the middle of them they are extended into a kinde of a membranceous purse stuffed up with flesh Which flesh or fleshy purse they call a muscle of which every member hath many not only least that the tendons when they are drawne should depart out of their place or the bones or tendons be hurt with oft rubbing against one another or for the shape of a living creature only for what a body would that be which consisted of meer bones veins nerves and tendons a Sceleton but because there can be no motion at all without muscles as it shall forthwith appear 3. The neurospasta or invisible mover is the animal sqirit which as it can at the pleasure of the phantasie convey it self into the belly of this or that muscle so it stretches or dilates it as it vvere a paire of bellowes and drawes in that vvhich is opposite from whence nothing can follow but the bending of that member Thence it appears 1. That the animall spirit can move nothing without an Organ For why doth no man bend his knees before because there wants a knuckle above Why doth no man move his ear because that member wants muscles c. 2. It appeares also That by how many the more muscles are given to any member by so much the nimbler it is unto motion by how much the bigger so much the stronger For example in the hands and feet that they might be sufficiently able to undergo the variety of labours and going It appeares also why they that are musculy or brawnie are strong but those that are thin are weak 3. It appeares also that the animal spirit is most busie in motion running to and fro at the command of the phantasie most speedily through the nerves and arteries 4. That the motion of a living creature is compounded of an agitative expansive and contractive impulsive and continuative motion For the animal spirit coveys it self at the pleasure of the phantasie into this or that muscle and the muscle giving place to the spirit flowing in stretcheth forth it self then when the muscle is stretched forth in breadth the length of it must be
that either without pain as when it causeth yexing or belching in the ventricle panting in the heart giddinesse in the head when being prohibited to go any further it is carried in a round lazinesse and stretching in the whole body or else with pain as when it causeth aches in the bowels straightning the spirits that lie between in the Fibres and shurp or else blunt prickings in the muscles according as it is more grosse or subtile It is cured 1 by strong exercise that the vapour being attenuated may go out at the pores opened 2 by expurgation of the humours by which they are generated VIII Distillation is the condensation of crude vapours into rheume which is the cause of many evils For crude vapours gettting up to the head when as by reason of the abundance and grossenesse of them they cannot be expurgated by the ordinary passage they become rheume flowing severall wayes and rausing diverse diseases For 1 If they run abundantly and 〈◊〉 at the nose they cause the Murre or Pose 2 If the distillation fall into the jawes it causes the Catarrhe 3 If into the kernels of the jawes the Quinsie 4 If into the lungs difficulty of breathing and the Asthma 5 If the distillation be salt and sharp ulcerating the lungs it causes the Cough 6 Which if it be done oft and the lungs be filled with apostemes it causes the consumption For when the ulcerous lungs cannot with dexterity enough perform their office of cooling the heart the vitall spirit is generated more hot then it should be which doth not cherish but feed upon the flesh and bloud and at length burns out the very workhouse it self of the bloud which is the liver whence for want of bloud which is as it were the food followes the consumption of the whole body 7 If the distillation flow in abundance and grosse down the marrow of the back it causeth the Palsie by hindring the animall spirit that it cannot be distributed by the nerves springing from the back bone 8 If it fill the nerves of the muscles only it becomes the Spasma or Convulsions that is when the nerve is contracted like as a chord being wet and dried again is wont to be contracted and become shorter 9 If it flow subtle and penetrating the nerves it is at length gathered together in the extremities of the members and there raises sharp pains which in the feet are called the Gout in the hands Chiragra or the Hand-gout in any of the joynts of the bones Erthritica the running gout in the hip it is called Ischias or the Hip-gout commonly the Sciatica 10 Lastly if those kind of runnings stay in the head they procure divers diseases as when they are subtle the Head-ach 11 Too raw and flegmatick the Lethargie 12 Salt and cholerick the Phrensie 13 Grosse and mixt with a melancholy humour the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness when as the spirits diffused through the whole body making haste to relieve the spirits befieged in the brain make most vehement stirs and fight till they either overcome and repell the disease or else faint and are extinguished 14 But if the grosse phlegmatick humours have occupied all the vessels of the brain at once it becomes the apoplexie that is a privation of all sense and motion whence also the vitall fire in the heart is soon after extinguished All these diseases are both prevented and also if they go not too farre cured 1 by exercise 2 by rectification of the brain by good smels 3 by a thin hot and sulphury air 4 by thin light meat and drink But the peculiar cure of every disease is committo the physiciaus IX Obstruction is a stopping of the bowels by thickned flegme whence it comes to passe that they cannot execute their office For example when the entrals are stopt that they cannot void it is the Volvuls or wringing of the guts when the liver is stopt the dropsie For the Chylus being not turned into bloud flowes through the veins and members and is not turned into members When the bladder of gall is stopt the Yellow Jaundise when the Spleen the Black Jaundise For in the first the choler in the other the melancholy when it cannot be voided diffuseth it selfe through the bloud But when the urine pipes or the 〈◊〉 or the bladder are stopped that is by reason of the breeding of Tartar which they call the Stone which stopping the passages by its sharpnesse pains the Veins and Nerves The cure is 1 by purgations 2 by medicines attenuating or breaking cutting and driving out the grosse humours which Physicians know X Putrefaction is the corruption of some humour in the body namely either of flegme or of choler or of melancholy which putrifying either in or out of their vessels produce feavers or ulcers The cure is 1 Expurgation of the place affected 2 A good diet 3 Motion XI Inflamation is a burning of the vitall spirit N. vitall or of the bloud caused by too much motion either of the body by wearying it or of the mind by musing and anger or else by putrefaction or else by obstruction For it is known out of the physicks that motion doth heat even unto firing and that by obstruction doth 〈◊〉 an Antiperistasis exasperate the heat included even in these things that are watry and pâ—trid so that at length it breaks out violently hay laid up wet when it cannot get transpiration doth shew When the bloud is kindled within it becomes a feaver when under the skin S. Anthonies fire The generall cure is the opening of a vein and cooling But of feavers being that it is a most common disease and of divers kinds something more is to be said XII The feaver so called from its fervency or heat is of three kinds 1 The Ephemera 2 The Putrid 3 The Hectick The first burns the spirits the second the humours the third the solid parts The first like a raging hot wind scorching all it meets with the second like boiling water poured into a vessell which it heats with it selfe The third like unto a hot vessell heating the water poured into it with it selfe For the Hectick occupies the bones and membranes and eats and consumes them with an unnaturall heat by degrees almost insensibly till at length it causeth death It is very like the Consumption But the putrid or rotten feaver occupies the bloud and humours by which the whole body grows hot The Ephemera is a more subtle flame feeding upon the spirits only and therefore it scarce endures one or two days til the peccant cause be consumed by the spirit it self Hence either health or death usually follows within two or three dayes and therefore it is called the Ephemera or diary Feaver also the Maligne feaver Of which sort also is the pestilentiall infection for it comes after the same manner Putrid feavers are most usuall but with very much difference for when the humours putrifie within their vessels or workhouses especially
this Moses intimated adding touching animals XV And God said increase and multiply v. 22. by the virtue of which command and words let there be made let it produce let it put forth c. Things are made and endure hitherto and would remain if God would without end unto aeternity Gods omnipotency concurring no longer immediately unto particular things as before but nature it self always spreading forth her vertue through all things which thing derogates nothing from the Providence of God nay rather it renders his great power wisdome goodnes more illustrate for it comes from his great goodness that the greatest and the least things are so disposed to their ends that nothing can be or be made in vain from his wisdome that such an industry is put into nature to dispose all things to their eâ—ds so that it never happens to erre unlesse it be hindred lastly from his power that such an immutable durability can be put into the universe through such a changeable mutabilitie of particulars so that the World is as it were aeternall Therefore the veins of the strength artifice and order of this nature must be more throughly searched that those things which we have here in few words hinted out of Moses may be more illustrated by the constant testâ—mony of Scripture reason and senses and a way made to observe one thing out of another An Appendix to the first Chapter We have said that it may be gathered out of those words of Moses In the beginning God created the heaven that the invisible World was the beginning of the works of God that is the heaven of heavens with the Angels Now that by this heaven is to be understood the heaven of heavens and the Invisible or Angelicall World appeares plain I. Out of Scripture which 1 mentions the heaven of heavens every where but their production no where unlesse it be here 2 Moses testifies that the invisible heavens were stretched out the second day and the fourth day adorned with starres therefore another heaven must necessarily be understood in this place namely a heaven that was finished in the same moment for that the particle autem inferres hee created the heavens and the earth terra autem but the earth was without form c. III This reason evinces the same those things which are made by God are made in order now an orderly processe in operation is this that a progresse be made from more simple things to compound things therefore as the most compound creature man was last produced so the most simple and immateriall creatures Heaven and the Angels first of all III And what would we have more God himself testifies expresly that when he made the earth the Angels stood by him as spectators for so saith he to Job Where wast thou when I founded the earth when the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted Job 38. 4 7. calling the Angels morning starres because they were a spirituall beam and that newly risen sonnes of God because they were made after the image of God therefore when we hear that the earth was founded the first day it must needs be that the Angels were produced before the earth And if the Angels then certainly the dwellings of the Angels the heaven of heavens and that in full perfection with all their hosts as it were in one moment aud this is the cause why Moses speaks no more of that heaven but descends to the forming of the earth that is the visible World how the Creator took unto himself six dayes to digest it as we will also now descend CHAP. II. Of the visible Principles of the World matter spirit and light WE have seene God shewing us how the World arose out of the Abysse of nihilitie let us now see how it standeth that so by seeing we may learn to see and by feeling to feel the very truth of things And here are three principles of visible things held out unto us matter spirit and light that they were produced the first day as three great but rude Masses and out of those variously wrought came forth various kinds of creatures therefore we must enquire further whether these three principles of all bodies have a true being and be yet existent least any errour be perhaps committed at the very entrance by any negligence whatsoever but now seeing that no more doubts of matter and light this onely comes to be prooved that by that spirit which hovered upon the face of the waters a certain universall spirit of the world is to be understood which puts life and vigour into all things created for the newnesse of this opinion in physicks and the interpretation of that place by Divines with one consent of the person of the holy spirit give occasion of doubting But Chryâ—ostome as Aslacus cites him and Danaeus acknowledgeth that in this place a created spirit which is as it were the soul of the world is more rightly to be understood and it is proved strongly I By Scripture which testifieth that a certain vertue was infused by God through the whole world susteining and quickening all things and operating all things in all things which he calleth both a spirit and a soul and sometimes the spirit of God sometimes the spirit of the creatures For example Psal. 104. v. 29. 30. David saith thus when thou receivest their spirit that is the spirit of living creatures and of plants they die and return to their dust but when thou sendest forth thy spirit that is the Spirit of God again they are recreated and the face of the earth is renewed but Job 27. 3. says thus as long as my soul shall be in me and the spirit of God in my nostrils see the soul of man and the spirit of God are put for the same which place compared with the saying of Elihu the spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Omnipotent hath put life into me c. 33. v. 4. opens the true meaning of Moses namely that the spirit of God stirring upon the waters produced the spirit or soul of the world which puts life into all living things Now that this is disposed through all things appears out of Ezechiel where God promising the spirit of life unto the dry bones Ezech. 17. v. 5 14. which he cals his Spirit bids it to come from the four Winds v. 9 therefore Augustine lib. imperf sup Gen. ad lit and Basil in Hexamero call this spirit the soule of the world And Aristotle as Sennertus testifies says that the spirit of life is a living and genitall essence diffused through all things but the testimony of Elihu is most observable who speaks thus Who hath placed the whole World If he namely God should set his heart upon it and should gather unto himself the spirit thereof and the breath thereof or his spirit and his breath For the Hebrew affix is rendred both ways all flesh would die together and man would
of a cat oâ— a wolfe given him to eat he partakes the phantasies of those living creatures c. X Nutriment must needs be assimilated that it may turn into the substance of a living creature For a thing is neither applied well no cohereth commodiously with that which is unlike to it much lesse that one should turn it into the other Therefore flesh 〈◊〉 bone is not immediately made of meat 〈◊〉 drink but by many gradations as it shaâ— appear XI Assimulation is made by the transmitation of the nourishment taken so oft iteratâ— till it come to the liknesse of the substance noâ—â—rished It is well known out of the Metaphysickâ— that all action tends to this that the Paâ—â—â—ent may become like to the Agent whicâ— is every where evident in naturall thingâ— but especially in the nourishment of bodies For whatsoever is taken in of whatsoever colour or quality is wrought soâ—â— length that it becomes like to that which is nourished and is applyed to its substance which should be diligently marked in that which follows XII The principall transmutation of the nourishment is by progeneration of the four vitall humours bloud flegme yellow choler and black For the nourishment received being that it is tempered together as all the bodies of the world are of the four elements is resolved in the body of a living creature into four again the fattest part of it is turned into bloud a part into spittle or flegme a part into yellow choler or choler a part into black choler or melancholy melancholy by its grossenesse represents the earth flegme water bloud air choler fire But they differ in colour and in savour for melancholy is black and bitter flegme white and without taste bloud red and sweet choler yellow and bitter Now it is to be noted that amongst these four bloud is most copiously generated because it conteins the very substance of the nourishment to which yellow choler addes onely a more easie penetrating through all but black choler fixeth it again and applieth it to the members Lastly flegme tempers the acrimony of them both lest they should corrode with penetrating and fixing and gently agglutinates the bloud to the members And hence it is that Physicians also with the vulgar speak oft of the blood as if it were the only food of life XIII The progeneration of vitall humours is done by concoction For concoction doth alter the matter by the force of heat XIV Concoction in a living creature is done after the same manner as distillation in Alembicks namely by heating of the matter and resolution of it into vapours and mixing the said vapours together and by a new coagulation of them again For every living body is a very alembick full of perpetuall heat and vapours For life is heat and heat cannot but boile the matter that is put in and by attenuation turn it into vapours XV Now in every concoction there is a separation of the profitable parts from the unprofitable the first are digested and assimilated the other are voided and streined forth So in Alembicks the more subtle and profitable parts that is the more fat and spirituous being resolved into vapour are gathered again into drops and into a thick substance but the more grosse and impure parts called the dregs and excrements sink down and are afterwards cast out XVI Every concoction leaves behind it unprofitable dregs which are called excrements and drosse Thus we see it come to passe in the decoction of metals Now we must note that plants make little or no excrement because they are nourished with a simple and uniform juice which goes all of it into their nature or if any thing remain it sweats forth in gum But living creatures because they consist of very dissimular parts have need of a compound nutriment that is solid and soft dry and moist hot and cold c. that so the more solid parts may have nutriment also whence by assimulation evey part draws that which will profit its selfe the rest must of necessity be streined out Another reason is because plants are susteined with a little spirit and that which doth not evaporate but living creatures are full of spirit for otherwise so grosse a frame could not be susteined and weilded and that is continually attenuated and spent Therefore they have need of more spirit then matter for their nutriment and when that is extracted out of the spirituous parts they void forth the rest XVII The principall concoction in a living creature is threefold Chylification Sanguification and Membrification The first is made in the stomack the second in the liver and the last in all the members XVIII Every one of these concoctions hath three sorts of vessels 1 of ingestion 2 of digestion 3 of egestion XIX The vessels of Chylification were 1 the mouth and the throat 2 the stomack or ventricle 3 the guts and the arse-hole For the food being received at the mouth is chewed with the teeth or jawes and passed through the throat It is boiled in the stomack as it were in a close Alembick for some houres And from thence by evaporation it passeth into the entrals for the mouth of the ventricle towards the throat is shut up and becometh Chylus that is a certain ferment like pap or white broth For it takes a white colour from the stomack by assimilation The more subtle parts of this Chyle are attracted to the liver as a matter fit for bloud but the excrements of this first concoction are thick dregs which are driven out by the guts and the back part not by the simple motion of Cession but by the motion of Antipathy for the naturall spirits placed in the fibres of the guts sucking forth that which is profitable but turning themselves away from that which is unprofitable and hatefull to them contract the nerves of the guts and thrust forward those burdens towards the passage XX The vessels of Sanguification are 1 the Mesenterie 2 the Liver 3 the Vreteres the spleen and the gall For the Mesenterie encompassing the entrals vvith its strings which they call the Mesaraicall veins sucks the best part of the Chylus out of the entrals and carries them to the liver by the Vena Porta Now the liver concocts and separates that liquour again for it assimilates the sweeter parts in colour to it selfe and turns them to bloud swelling with naturall spirit with which neverthelesse there is flegme and yellow choler and black mixt The excrement of this second concoction is urine namely a wheaie and salt humour which floweth from the liver by the ureteres to the bladder whence by the channell of the genitall member it is sent forth But because the 2 d. concoction ought to be far more subtile then the first it is not sufficient that the bloud is purged from its serosity But both kinds of choler and flegme must of necessity also be purged from redundancy the spleen therefore by sympathie attracts to
contracted of necessity and the tendon followes the muscle contracting it self and drawes with it the head of the next bone by the motion of continuity all with inexplicable quicknesse 5. It appears also that this local motion either of the whole living creature or of some member is made about something immoveable with various enforcings 6. And because it is with enforcing it cannot be without wearinesse 7. And because it is vvith vvearinesse there is sometimes needs of rest vvhich is given in three kinds 1 Standing 2 Sitting 3. Lying Standing is a resting of the feet but with an inclination of the body to motion therefore it is done by libration Sitting is rest in the middest of the body whereby the other parts are the more easily preserved in Aequilibrio Lying is a total rest That is a prostrating of the body all along But as too much motion brings wearinesse so too much rest causeth tediousnesse because the spirit loves to stir it self And the same position of the members a long while together by rest is alike troublesome both for that the lower members are pressed with the vveight of the upper and also for that the spirit desires to move it self any way Hence it is in that vve turne us oft in our sleep Of the enuntiative faculty That a living creature might give knowledge of it self by a voice the animal spirit doth that at the direction of the phantasie but it hath these Organs the Lungs the rough Arterie and the Mouth LVII To every living creature fishes excepted there was given lungs to coole the heart with a gristly pipe called the rough arteterie Which notwithstanding serves withall to send forth a voice because that in the upper part of it it hath the forme of a pipe wherewith the aire being stricken may be divided and sent sounding forth LVIII And that the voice might be both raised and let fall that pipe is composed of gristly rings the lowest of which if it oppose it self to the aire as it passeth by there is a deep repercussion that is a grave voice but if the highest there is an high repercussion that is a shrill voice every one may make triall of that in himself LIX And that the sound may be articulate as in speech and the singing of some birds that the tongue beating the sound too and fro also the lips the teeth and nostrils and the throat performe Of the defensive faculty LX. The animall spirit if it perceive any hostile thing approach unto it hath presently recourse to its weapons whereby either to defend it self setting up its haires bristles scales prickles or to offend and hurt its enemies using its hornes nailes wings beak hands c. Which by vertue of what strength it is done may already be known out of what hath been said before Of the generative faculty Seeing that living creatures as well as plants are mortal entities they must of necessitie be multiplied for the conservation of their species touching which marke the Axiomes following LXI Because that the generation of living creatures by reason of the multitude and tendernesse of their members could not commodiously be performed in the bowels of the earth they had a different sex given them And it was ordained that the new living creature should be formed in the very body of the living creature it self As the sun by its heat doth beget plants in the wombe of the earth so it may also those living things whose formation is finished with in some few dayes as wormes mice and diverse insects which is done either by the seed of the same living creatures falling into an apt matter scattered or by the spirit of the universe falling into an apt matter But more perfect living creatures which consist of many and solide members and want much time for their formation as a man an horse an elephant it cannot beget For being that the Sun cannot stay so long in the same coast of heaven the young one would be spoiled before it could come to perfection I herefore the most wise Creatour of things appointed the place of formation to be not in the earth but in the living creature it self having formed two sexes that one might do the part of the plant bearing the seed the other of the earth cherishing and as it were hatching the seed This alone and none other is the end of different sexes in all living creatures Wo be to the rashnesse and madness of men which abuse them as no beast doth The members whereby the sexes differ are the same in number site and form and differ in nothing almost unless it be in regard of exterius and interius to wit the greater force of heat in the male thrusting the genitals outward but in the female by reason of the weaker heat the said members conteining themselves within which Anatomists know LXII The spirit is the directour of all generation like as in plants which being heated in the seed first formes it selfe a place of abode that is the brains and head and thence making excursions formes the rest of the members by little and little and gently and again retiring to its seat rests and operates by turns whence the original of waking and fleeping Therefore the formation of a living creature doth not begin from the heart as Aristotle thought but from the head for the head is as it were the whole living creature the rest of the body is nothing but a structure of organs for divers operations And that appears plain for some living creatures as fishes have no heart but none are without a head and brains Of the kinds of living creatures Thus much of a living creature in generall the kinds follow LXIII A living creature according to the difference of its motion is 1 Reptile 2 Gressile 3 Natatile 4 Volatile LXIV Reptile or a creeping thing is a living creature with a long body wanting feet yet compunded of joynts or gristly rings by the contraction and extension of which it windes up and reacheth out it selfe as are wormes and serpents LXV Gressile is that which hath feet two or more and goeth as a lizard a mouse a dog c. LXVI Natatile is that which passeth through the water by the help of finnes it is called a fish amongst which crabs also and divers sea-monsters are reckoned LXVII Volatile is that which moves it selfe through the air by the shaking of its wings and is called a bird The lightnesse of birds to flie is from their plumosity For every plume or feather not only in the stalk but through all its parts and particles of its parts is hollow and full of spirit and vapour And for this cause no birds pisse because all their moisture perpetually evaporates into feathers It is impossible therefore for a man to flie though he fit himselfe with wings because he wants feathers to raise him and those which he takes to him are dead and void of heat and spirit LXVIII Small living
things are by a speciall name called insects as flies wormes c. They are called insects from the incisions whereby their bodies are cut off round as it were These may be divided after the same manner For wormes are Reptile Lice Fleas Punies Spiders c. Gressile the water-spider and the horse-leech c. Natatile Flies and Gnats c. Volatile and all those with infinite differences so that here also there is not wanting a most clear glasse of the admirable wisdome of the Creatour and a schoole to man to learn virtues and forget vices of both which there are an expresse image in living creatures which the Scripture oft inculcates An Apendix Of the tenacious inherencie of the animall spirits in its matter WE shewed toward the end of the ninth Chap how fast the naturall and vitall spirit inhereth in its matter we are now to give notice of the like in the animall spirit how firmly it also abideth in its matter that is the bloud the understanding of which thing will also adde much light to those places of Scripture where it is said that the soule of every living creature is in the bloud thereof yea that the bloud of all flesh is the life thereof as Gen. 9. v. 4. Levit. 17. v. 11. and 14. Deut. 12. v. 23. And to certain secrets of nature which they are astonished at who are ignorant of the manner and reason of them I First then it is certain that the animall as well as the vitall spirit may be bound into its seed with the cold so as that for a time it cannot exercise its operation For as grains of corn kept all winter either in a garner or in the earth do bud neverthelesse so the eggs of fishes frogs pismires beetles scattered either upon the earth or waters do bring forth young the year following II In bodies already formed the same spirit compelled sometimes by some force forsakes the members and ceaseth from all operation yet conglobates it selfe to the center of the body and coucheth so close that for many dayes moneths years it lies as it were asleep yet at length it awakens again and diffuseth it self through the members and proceeds to execute vitall operations as it did before We find it so to be in Flies Spiders Frogs Swallowes c. which in winter lie as though they were dead in the chinks of wals or chaps of the earth or under the water yet when the Spring comes in they are alive again So flies choaked in water come to life again in warm cinders like as it is certain that men strangled have been brought to life again after some hours And besides there is an example commonly known of a boy killed with cold and found four dayes after and raised again with foments Trances continued for some dayes are ordinarily known hence some ready to be buried as though they had been dead indeed yea and buried too yet have lived again Some Geographers have written how that in the farthest parts of Moscovia men are frozen every year with extream cold and yet live again like swallows which notwithstanding as a thing uncertain we leave to its place III The third and the most strange is this that the spirit flowes out with the bloud that is shed and yet gives not over to maintain its consent with the spirit remaining within the body whither the greater part thereof remain or only the relicks which is most evidently gathered from divers sympathies and antipathies I will illustrate it with five examples 1 Whence is it I pray you that an oxe quakes and is madded and runs away at the presence of the butcher is it not because he smels the garments the hand the very breath of the butcher stained with the bloud and spirit of cattle of his own kind which is also most clear from the irreconcilable antipathy which is found to be betwixt dogs and dog-killers 2 Whence is it that the body of a slain man bleeds at the presence of the murderer and that after some dayes or months yea and years For it is manifest by a thousand trialls that it is so and at Itzenhow in Denmark Simeon Gulartius relates that the hand of a dead man cut off and hung up and dried in prison discovered the murderer full ten years after by bleeding as a thing confirmed by great witnesses and those of the Kings Counsell and certainly we are not to flie to miracles where nature it selfe by constant observation shewes her lawes It is very likely that the spirit of the man ready to be slain provoked with the injury when it is shed forth with the bloud pouring out it selfe as it were in revenge leaps upon the murderer and that after the same sort as we see a dog a wild beast or oxe when he is killed run furiously upon him that striketh him For if the spirit do so yet abiding in the body why not parted from it Therefore it is to be supposed that it leaps upon the murderer and seises on him Whence it comes to passe that when he comes near the body especially if he be commanded to touch it or look upon it look how much spirit is left in the body it hasteth to meet with its spirit with its chariot the bloud namely by sympathie Hence that Antipathie which more subtle natures find in themselves against murderers though unknown For they tremble at the very presence of murderers and nauseat if they do but eat or drink with them c. 3. The cunning of a most excellent Chirurgeon in Italy is well known who helpt one that had lost his nose carving him another out of his arme cut and bound to his face for the space of a moneth and the ridiculous chance that happened thereupon a little after is also known A certain Noble man having also had his nose cut off in a duell desired his help but being delicate and not willing to have his arme cut hired a poor countrey fellow who suffered himselfe to be bound to him and his arme to be made use of to repair his nose The cure succeeded but when as about some six years after or thereabouts the country man died the Noble mans nose rotted too and fell off What could be the cause of it I pray you but that the spirit and that locally separated doth maintain its spirituall unity Therefore when the spirit went out of the countrey mans carcasse as it rotted part of it also went out that the Noble mans nose and his nose by reason of the Noble mans spirit succeeded not into the place of it as being into the lump of anothers flesh rotted also and fell off 4 It is accounted amongst the secrets of nature that if friends about to part drink part one of anothers bloud and so addes a part of his spirit to his own it will come to passe that when one is sick or ill at ease though very far asunder the other also will find himselfe sad which
if it be true as it is most likely the reason is easie to be known 5 The Magneticall Medicine is very famous amongst Authours with which they do not cure the wound it selfe but the instrument wherewith he wound was given or the garment wood or earth besprinkled with the bloud of the wound is onely anointed and the wound closes and heals kindly Some deny that this is done naturally who do not sufficiently consider the secret strength of nature Yet examples shew that this kind of cure with an ointment made with most naturall things yea with nothing but the grease of the axeltree scraped off from a cart hath certain successe without using any superstition Wherefore it is credible that the spirit poured out of the body with the bloud that is shed adheres partly in the bloud partly to the instrument it self for it cannot abide without matter being forced thence with the fat that is applied returnes to its whole and supplies that and hereto perhaps that observation appertains concerning the venom of a snake viper or scorpion conveyed into a man with a bite For if the same beast or but the bloud or fat thereof be forthwith applied to the wound it sucks out the venom again because it returns to its own connaturall More of this kind might be observed by approved experiments 6 Last of all it is not unworthy of our observation that the animall spirit doth form living creatures of another kind rather then quite forsake the putrifying matter namely wormes and such like Now it is certain by experience that of living creatures that are dead and putrified those living creatures are especially bred on which they were wont to feed when they were alive For example of the flesh of storks serpents are bred of hens spiders of ducks frogs c. which that it will so come to passe if they be buried in dung John Poppus a distiller of Coburg hath taught after others It appears then that the animall spirit is every where and that very diligently busied about the animating of bodies CHAP. XI Of Man I A Man is a living creature endued with an immortall soule For the Creatour inspired a soul into him out of himselfe Gen. â— v. 7. which soul is called also the mind and reason in vvhich the image of God shineth II Therefore he is compounded of three things a body a spirit and a soule So the Apostle testifies 1 Thes. 5. 13. Let your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blamelesse And so 1 Cor 14. vers 14. He distinguisheth betwixt the spirit and the minde And indeed so it is vve have a body compounded of the Elements as vvell as bruits vve have a spirit from the spirit of the world as vvell as they but the soule or minde is from God The first vve bear about us mortall the second dissipable but the last enduring ever without the body as we are assured by faith Therefore when thou seest a man think that thou seest a King royally cloathed and sitting in his royall throne For the minde is a King his robe is the spirit his throne the body III The body is the Organ and habitation of the spirit but the spirit is the habitation and mansion of the soul. For as the spirit dwels in the body and guides it as the Pilot doth the ship so the soul dwels in the spirit and rules it And as body without a spirit neither moves it â—f nor hath any sense of any thing as it to be seen in a dead carcasse so the spirit vvithout the minde hath no reason nor understands any thing as we see in bruit beasts Therefore the soul useth the spirit for its chariot and instrument the spirit the body and the body the foresaid instruments IV As the spirit is affected by the body so is the minde by the spirit For as vvhen the body is diseased the spirit is presently sad or hindred from its action so vvhen the spirit is ill disposed the minde cannot performe its functions dextrously as vve may see in drunken melancholie mad-men c. Hence it is that the gifts of the minde follow the temperature of the body that one is more ingenious courteous chast courageous c then another Hence that fight within us which the Scripture so oft mentions and we our selves feel For the body and the soul being that they are extreams the one earthly the other heavenly the one bruit the other rational the one mortall the other immortall are alway contrary to one another in their inclinations Now the spirit which is placed betwixt them ought indeed to obey the superiour part and keep the lower part in order as its beck Yet neverthelesse it comes oft so to passe that is carried away of the flesh and becomes brutish V. Such a body was given to man as might fitly serve all the uses of his reasonable soule And therefore 1 Furnished with many Organs 2 Erect 3 Naked and unarmed that it might be free of it self and yet might be cloathed and armed any way as occasion required For the hand the instrument of instruments the most painful doer of all works vvas given to man only He only hath obteined an erect stature least he should live unmindful of his countrey Heaven Again he only was made naked and unarmed but both by the singular favours of God For living creatures whilest they always bear about them their garment haires feathers shels and their armes sharp prickles horns what do they bear about them but burdens and hindrances of divers actions The liberty granted to man and industry in providing fitting and laying up all things for his use and pleasure is something more divine VI. A more copious and pure spirit was given to man and therefore his inward operations are more excellent namely a quicker attention a stronger imagination a surer memory more vehement affections The first appears from the braine which is given in greater plenty to man then to any living creature considering the proportion of every ones body For all that round head and of so great capacity is filled up vvith brain to what end but that the spirit might have a more spacious vvorkhouse and palace The rest are known by experience as followeth VII Attention is a considerate receiving of the objects brought into the sensorie instruments We said in the former Chapter that it is commonly called the common sense This vvas given to man so much the quicker as it is destinated to more objects and more distinctly to be perceived VIII Imagination is the moving of things perceived by the sense within and an efformation of the like For the image of the thing seen heard or touched with attention presently gets into the brain which the spirit by contemplation judges of what it is and how it differs from this or that thing therefore it may well be called in this sense the judgment This imagination is stronger in a man then in any living creature
near the heart in the liver or the gall the spirit rises against them and kindles them and ceases not to assault them till it either expell the rottennesse being turned into soot or be extinguished it selfe and therefore this feaver is often deadly it is called the Continuall Feaver But if the humours rot out of their vessels that is in the veins or members it is an Intermitting Feaver For the spirit riseth up at certain times and opposeth that rottennesse with heat but because this battle is made further off from its Castle the heart when the fight is ended it returns home And if the putrifying humour be flegme it still returns to oppose it the next day hence the Quotidian Feaver If it be yellow choler then every third day Hence the Tertian If black choler the fourth day Hence the Quartan the cause of the inequality is because the flegme recollects it selfe soonest and makes new businesse for the spirits but is withall sooner dissipated Hence the Quotidian lasts not long Melancholy being that it is a dreggy humour doth not so soon recruit it selfe but because it is soft and viscous it is not so easily overcome hence the long continuance of Quartans In the Tertian because the spirit opposeth yellow choler which is hot of it selfe is made the hottest fight hence Tertians are called burning feavers They are sometimes changed one into another or one joyned with another according as one while one putrified humour another while another is to be opposed Hence it appears 1 why a feaver begins with cold because the vitall spirit being to oppose the rottennesse gathers heat as it were its aid from every part the outward members in the mean time being benu 〈◊〉 and quaking with cold For even in too much fear when the spirit gathers it selfe into the inward parts there is wont to follow a chilnesse of the outward members and a quaking with cold 2 Whence afterwards heat because the spirits after they are hotter with fight and motion return again to the members which being cold before do so much the worse endure the heat returning now hotter then ordinary 3 Why the feaver leaves faintnesse behind it because the spirit wearied with fight betakes it selfe to rest leaving the members destitute 4 Why food is hurtfull at the beginning of a feaver because when the spirit is preparing it selfe for the battell it hath another businesse put upon it to concoct the food But seeing that it is not able to do both it either assaults the disease more weakly or else leaves the food unconcocted or at least if it do both it weakens and tires out it selfe too much 5 Why it is dangerous to expell the feaver over soon because the feaver is of it selfe a benefit to nature driving away the rottennesse in time left it should at length prevaile and oppresse the heart Therefore that is no good cure of feavers which stayes the fits but that which ripens the rottennesse for expulsion And strengthens nature to oppose them which I leave to Physicians Let this be the sum of that which hath been said Crudity is the seed of all diseases For thence gross vapours arising cause Inflation the same condensed in the head cause Distillation in the other members Obstruction whence flowes either Rottennesse or Inflamation Therefore let him that prevents crudities believe this that he takes the best cours that may be for his whole body Now the way to prevent them is a temperate diet and daily exercises O the strange virtue of labour whereby we get both our bread and health which mistery if the slothfull understood they would not waste their lives with idlenesse Of the Diseases of the Mind I The Diseases of the mind are vices procuring either disquiet or griefe thereto II Diseases disquieting the mind are evill desires that is too much ardency 1 Of Living 2 Of Eating and Drinking 3 Of Multiplying it selfe 4 Of Knowing 5 Of Having 6 Of Excelling N. W. These are thus expressed by their proper names 1 Selfe-love 2 Intemperancy 3 Salacity 4 Curiosity 5 Covetousnesse 6 Ambition For they that are given to these itch and are disquieted continually III The diseases that cause griefe to the mind are immoderate affections that is violent alterations for those things which befall us according to our desires or contrary thereto but especially Sadnesse Angor and at Iâ—ksomnesse of life IV The remedies of the mind are held forth in the Ethicks The Sum where of comes to this Love the Golden Mean shun extreams like unto precipices Never desire to do more then thou canst Remember that thou art a man For that may befall every one that befalls any one There is a vicissitude of all things an unconquered mind overcomes all things c. Of the Diseases of the Soule I The Diseases of the Soule are Forgetfulnesse of God Torment of Conscience and Despair of Mercy II Forgetfulnesse of God is cured by the Fear of God Of I say that God who seeth all judgeth all rewardeth all to every one according to his works to avoid whose hand it is impossible For in him we move live and have our being but to endure it is intolerable For he is a consuming fire c. III Torment of conscience is healed by prayers and and study of innocency Psal. 26. 6. Eccl. 12. 13 14. For if our heart condemn us not we have full assurance c. 1 John 3. 21. IV Despair is healed by the bloud of that onely Lamb of God which purgeth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. and reconciles us to his Father Rom. 3. 25. and saves us Rom. 5. 9. and gives us eternall life Joh. 6. 54 In body sound amind as sound O God we pray thee give That here in peace in after blisse for ever we may live FINIS
the Reins Venus the Lungs Mercury c. Lastly certain creatures shew forth their virtues in certaine parts of the body For example some herbs cure the Lungs some the Liver c. which shews a certain analogy of the Microcosme to the Macrocosme though not well known to us XXII Also Man is not absurdly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the all because 1 He hath his body from the Elements his spirit from Heaven his mind from God and so in himselfe alone he represents the visible and the invisible world 2 Man is all because he is apt to be all that is either most excellent or very base For if he give himselfe to earthly things he becomes brutish and falls back again to nothing if to heavenly things he is in a manner deified and gets above all creatures CHAP. XII Of Angels WE joyn the treatise concerning Angels with the Physicks because they also are a part of the created World and in the scale of creatures next to man by whose nature the nature of Angels is the easier to be explained Therefore we will conclude it in some few Aphorismes I There are Angels Divine testimonies and apparitions testifiè that and also a three-fold reason 1 Vapours concretes plants living creatures are mixt of water and spirit Now there is matter without spirit the pure Element therefore there is spirit also without matter 2 As the matter of the world is divided into four kinds the four Elements so we see already the spirit of the world to be distinguished into the naturall vitall animall and mentall spirit Now the lowest degree is to be found alone as in concretes Therefore the highest may be found alone to wit in the Angels 3 Every creature is compounded of Entitie and Nihility For they were nothing before the creation but now they are something because the Cretour hath bestowed on them of his Entitie more or lesse by degrees By how much the more entitie any thing hath so much the further it is from nihility and on the contrary Seeing then then that there is the first degree from nihility that is a Chaos the rudiment of an Entitie without doubt there is the last also which comes nearest to a pure Entitie But man is not such because having matter admixt he partakes much of nihility Therefore of necessity there is a creature with which materiality being taken away all other perfections remain And that is an Angell II An Angell is an incorporeall man An Angell may be called a man in the same sense that man himselfe is called an animall and an animall a plant and a plant a concrete c. as we have set down in their definitions that is by reason of the forme of the precedent included with a new perfection only super-added For a man is a rationall creature made after the Image of God immortall so is an Angel but for more perfections sake free from a body Therefore an Angel is nothing but a man without a body A man is nothing but an Angel clothed with a body But that Angels are incorporous appears 1 Because although they be present they are not discerned neither by the sight or any other sense 2 Because they assume to themselves earthly watery aery fiery or mixt bodies as need requires and put them off again which they could not do if they had bodies of their own as we have Yet ordinarily they appear in an humane forme by reason of the likenesse of their natures as we have said III Angels were created before all visible things That was shewed in the Apendix of the first Chapter you may see it again if need be And Moses words are clear In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was void See the earth was in that first production emptie and void Therefore heaven was not void then it was filled with its host the Angels IV The Angels were created out of the Spirit of the world As Moses seems to comprehend the production of Angels under the name of Heaven so also the universall Spirit For he â—oth not say that this was created with the earth but he pronounceth abruptly after the creation of the earth that the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters intimating thus much that it was in being before We conclude therefore that the Angels were formed out of that Spirit so that part of that spirit was left in the invisible heaven and shaped into meer spirituall substances Angels and part sent down into the materiall world below After the same manner as the fire was afterward partly left in the Skie and fashioned into shining Globes and partly sunk into the bowels of the earth for the working of minerals and other uses That which follows makes this opinion probable if not demonstrable 1 Principles should not be multiplied without cause Seeing therefore that the Scripture doth not say that they were created out of nothing nor yet names any other principle why should we not be satisfied with those principles that Moses hath set down 2 Angels govern the bodies which they assume like as our spirit inhabiting the matter doth Therefore they are like to it 3 There is in Angels a sense of things as well as in our spirits For they see hear touch c. though they themselves be invisible and intangible Also they have a sense of pleasure and griefe for as much as joyes are said to be prepared for the Angels and fire for the divells into which wicked men are also to be cast Although therefore they perceive without Organs yet we must needs hold that they are not unlike to our spirit which perceiveth by organs V The Angels were created perfect That is finished in the same moment so that nothing is added to their essence by adventitious encrease For being that they are immateriall they are also free from the law of materiality that is when a thing tends to perfection to be condensed fixed to encrease and so to be augmented and become solid by certain accessions VI Angels are not begotten Men Animals and Plants are generated because the spirit included in the matter diffuseth it selfe with the matter and essayes to make new Entities But an Angel being that it is without matter and its essence cannot be dissipated hath not whether to transfuse it selfe Hence Christ saith that in Heaven we shall be as the Angels without generation or desire of generation Mat. 22. 30. VII Angels die not The spirit of Animals and of Plants perisheth because when the matter that is its chariot is dissipated it also is dissipated But an Angell having his essence compacted by it selfe without matter cannot be dissipated and therefore endures VIII The number of Angels is in a manner infinite See Job 25. v. 2 3. yet Daniel names thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads Dan. 7. 10. as also John Apoc. 5. 11. IX The habitation of the Angels is the Heaven of Heavens Mat. 18. v.