Barrel in which was the meal but more especially that which is called a pitcher and so more frequently it is used This word both the Greeks and the Latines take unto themselves only varying the Termination as is most proper to each Language and that in the very same signification Now the proper containing Vessel for the bloud is the Veins there the bloud is as I may say at home in its own place while it is in the heart it is preparing enlivening and enobling while it is in the Lungs and all the other Parenchymous parts of the bowels it is depurating and cleansing while it is in the Arteries it is by force journeying while it is in the Porosities of the fleshy parts it is communicating of life and nourishing but while it is in the Veins it hath no force upon it at all nor is it doing any thing of general use to the Body only consulting its own good and tending in its own natural course to its proper Center as milk is in the breasts and marrow in the bones so is bloud in the veins and therefore these are the Pitcher here intended This Pitcher also hath its Ear which is usually called Auricula Cordis which notwithstanding its name as if it most properly appertained to the heart yet we must know doth rather belong to the vein and is indeed a part thereof and not only a part but the principal and primary part thereof from whence all other parts and branches do arise as from their original and whereunto all the bloud of the body by the Compressive motion of the Veins doth naturally tend as to its ultimate hold and whence-from it will in no wise depart but by force and therefore this head-spring of the veins being dilated by the continual afflux of bloud is necessitated to ease it self by Contraction and so conveniently forceth out a due proportion of bloud into the Fountain whereunto it is annexed Now the Fountain can be no other than the right Ventricle of the heart for this is yet more strictly the fountain of life and forge of the vital spirits and it doth sensibly live before and dye after the other parts even of the heart it self Moreover here it is that the matter of our nourishment receiveth its first enlivening for our food being received from the stomack and guts into the common passage of Chyle is thence-from carried directly into the subclavial branch of the Vena Cava where being mixed with bloud it yet remains lifeless and heartless till being carried along that vein it is at last brought into the right Ventricle of the heart wherein the heat motion and ferment set the active principles thereof at a perfect freedom and so instantly endow it with plenty both of life and spirit Thus richly fraught doth the bloud pass out of its fountain and by the waies before described it is brought to all the parts of the body where parting with much of its lading for their sustentation and being refrigerated by the coldness of the extremities and the ambient air it would soon be coagulated and altogether barren did it not return again to the right Ventricle of the heart as unto its own fountain to recover its former perfection This part therefore that doth at the first give life to that which enliveneth the whole man and doth as often as it returns thither impraegnate it anew with the same must needs be the fountain here intended And to this the Original word gives an extraordinary clearness implying not only the Signum but the Signatum not the Hieroglyphick only but the part thereby deciphered signifying in the first place Fons a Fountain and secondarily Scaturigo Venarum the spring or original from whence the Veins arise and this is so clear that made ancient Commentators interpret the Fountain here unto the Liver Now had they been right in their natural knowledge that is had they known that the Veins do not arise from the Liver as from their first original but from the right Ventricle of the heart as all knowing men now confess they do they had without all doubt by the guidance of this most significant word pitched upon the true meaning of the place These Vessels being throughly understood we must farther know that so long as man remains in perfect health and strength they are uncellantly and carefully performing all those offices unto which they are appointed but this natural Course doth not continue for ever for this Pitcher is but an earthen Vessel and doth not so often go to the Fountain but at last it comes broken home This breaking of the Pitcher here which is the Symptome of old age just upon the point of death is the failing of the Veins their ceasing from their natural action and use when they can no longer carry back nor conveniently pass into the heart that liquor which they properly contain That little bloud that remains in the cold body of man near his end is soon Coagulated and stagnating in the Veins the motion and circulation thereof is hindered and so it becomes thick like unto the pith of Elder And because it cannot return to the fountain for a redintegration of its life and spirit it dyeth in the veins and so all the extream parts of the body become spiritless and cold which is the Symptome here intended Frigiditas extremorum is acknowledged by all that have considered that subject as one of the most certain signs of approaching death And our great Master of Prognosticks in that compleat and yet compendious book of his Aphorisms doth once and again not out of forgetfulness but out of earnestness that it may more especially be taken notice of give us that famous Maxime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wheel broken at the Cistern The Symptome last spoken of had reference to the Instruments of the vital Faculty which serve for importation and reception of the bloud and spirits this that we are now speaking to hath reference to those which serve for exportation and rejection of the same The bloud as was before observed naturally of its own accord tends in the veins unto the heart but it returns not from the heart into the parts of the body but by force Thus all the Rivers in the Land naturally ebb into the Sea but they flow not thence-from any farther than the violence and impulse of the Sea extends The bloud being once forced from the heart is presently received into the Trunk of the great Artery called the Aorta and by the branches thereof is carried to all the parts of the body This therefore being the chief and principal instrument of Rotation or Circulation of the bloud is most aptly intimated unto us by a Wheel For what is a Wheel but an instrument of Circulation And what can a Wheel be an Hieroglyphick of but of something that goes or makes the round And this is so obvious to every one that all that have ever Commented upon this place
have been still hammering at some such thing Some therefore have interpreted this place to the life of man which passeth as in a Ring according to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Others have interpreted it to the death of man when his compounding parts shall revert into the first beings Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terram c. And so they make this expression explained at large in the following verse The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God that gave it Others interpret it to the reciprocal Communications between the heart and the head the heart continually sending to the head bloud and vital spirits and the head again returning them to the heart sublimed instruments of animality Lastly There are that ingeniously interpret it to Respiration which is performed by a circular motion Inspiration and Expiration continually succeeding one another in their Courses All these Archers have shot exceeding well and have hit the But while many others have shot at Rovers yet these not being able to discern the White have not touched that principal Mark. I mean the grand Circulation in mans body not being known to these ancient Commentators they have done the best that could be in the second place What this grand Circulation is and how performed hath been already described and those vessels that are inward bound which bring home the noble Travellour the encompassour of the little World were described in the Explanation of the foregoing Symbole but those which are outward bound which carry him forth with all his wealth and substance to accomplish his intended end are here intimated unto us by the Wheel That the great Artery with all its branches throughout the whole body is here principally pointed at hath been already said and may be farther confirmed first in that it answers so directly to the vein signified in the last Symptome by the Pitcher Secondly In that it is to us the most apparent Pulsor we can feel the bloud to be forced along its Cavity in the Wrists the Temples and divers other parts of the body Lastly in that it is so appositely placed at the Cock of the Cistern as you shall hear hereafter Yet we must not so limit this Wheel to the Arteries as to exclude the very substance and Parenchymous part of the heart it self For upon whatsoever Instruments the pulsifick faculty is exercising it self they are all here intended by the Wheel for they are they and they only that carry off the bloud from the fountain and force it from the Center of the body to the Circumference Water may easily be conveyed in Trunks or Pipes by its own natural tendency only unto all those places that are beneath or level with the Spring from whence it first comes but if you would have it of a farther use to serve those places that are higher than the spring you must then fetch it up with violence by a Wheel or some such Instrument of force as is to be seen in our Water-houses and all such ingenious Inventions of publick good Thus all the bloud in mans body is in certain Pipes and Trunks by its own natural tendency only brought home to the heart but it will in no wise go farther to be of a more general use to the whole body till it have some Instrument of force to compel it thence-from The Pulsifick faculty is the mover and the Instruments of Pulsation the Wheel that performs this work that is of so publick a concern to the whole The Cistern from whence this Wheel forceth that liquor which afterwards it conveyeth throughout all the parts is the left Ventricle of the heart for hereunto it is that the great Artery is annexed and from hence it doth arise A Cistern is a Vessel made on purpose to receive a due proportion of water and to contain it till the time of use and then conveniently to pass it into those other vessels that are appointed to receive it thence-from And thus the left Ventricle of the heart doth in its Diastole receive that bloud that is brought unto it by the Arteria Venosa of the Lungs and having retained it a little it doth in its Systole conveniently pass a due proportion thereof into the Aorta to be dispensed as was spoken before And this is the true and only use of the left Ventricle For the bloud being enobled and enlivened in the right Ventricle and refrigerated and cleansed from its fuliginous vapours in the Lungs it is now in all things accomplished for its ultimate use and remains only to be sent into those several parts it is to quicken which it cannot conveniently be unless it be first received into this Cistern and afterwards by the Pulsifick Faculty and Instruments be disposed of to that appointed end and we cannot but here remind those portals that are placed both at the entrance into and passage from the vessel we are now speaking of namely the Valvulae tricuspides sigmoideae which as the Cocks to let in and let out do by their opening or shutting give convenient passage or absolute stoppage to that liquor which continually runs that way It cannot but by this time be acknowledged by all those that have gone along with us and taken special notice of the aptness of these two expressions viz. The Pitcher at the Fountain and the Wheel at the Cistern to symbolize unto us the circulation of the bloud and the use and action of the heart and the parts belonging thereunto that the Doctrine which is now justly called Harvaean was at first Solomonian For as it pleased God in these latter daies to give in this certain and most useful knowledge to the industrious and indefatigable endeavours of the Learned Dr. Harvey so did he of old give in the same unto King Solomon in the lump together with all other natural knowledge as a superabundant answer to his fervent and effectual Prayer which great truth being confirmed by the powerful reasons and ocular demonstrations of the one and by this divine testimony of the other let it not be for the future in the least measure doubted or questioned but let it be greatly prized and so much the rather because while many others of great importance wherein these two Worthies doubtless agreed have perished by the way this only from them both hath escaped safe to our hands It remains now that I only name unto you that Symptome of Old Age at the time of death that is here signified unto us by the Wheel broken at the Cistern which cannot but be understood to be the ceasing of the Pulse the Instruments of Pulsation decay and can no longer perform that work which must necessarily be continued for the preservation of life It came to pass when the Lord had a purpose immediately to destroy the Host of the Aegyptians that he looked upon them and troubled them and took off their Charet
and â—eaviness of the spirits and the impotency of the members renders a man most obnoxious unto fear the spirits being of a strong quick and subtile motien are the principal instruments of inâ—er course between the soul and the body and do consequently bring in the greatest aid and assistance against this passion but in age they are benummed as it were and congealed so that they cease much what from their operation and motion and can administer little or no courage at all Nor is it thus onely with the Spirits but the Organical parts also of the Body are in this state made unfit for their Functions and altogether unserviceable to resist the very appearance of danger and stand as I may so say ready prepared for the entertainment of fear The great consequences whereof such as whiteness and stiffness of the hair trembling of the joynts and heart impotency of speech failing of the eyes and astonishment paleness of the face horrour gnashing of the Teeth involuntary Emission of Excrements are very easily produced in this condition nay they are most of them already there to be found without an object to effect them therefore no wonder if those things which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the strong Man prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the decrâ—pit These things were known to be true without an Instance yet I cannot but take notice of Jacob who while young and strong did exceed most Men we read of for Courage and Boldness with what audacity did he manage the two great Enterprizes of obtaining both the Birth-right and the Blessing and that while he was yet very young with what Courage did he undertake and go through with a long and lonesome journey and hard and a deceitful Service but when he was old he was of a more timorous spirit it was fear let fall that passage If I am bereaved I am bereaved Such newes as one would have thought would have refreshed his heart when he was old overcame it for when it was said Joseph is yet alive and he is Governour over all the Land of Aegypt Jacobs heart fainted Fear was a passion so ready at the door that it stept in first and had almost over-born him and left no place for joy to enter in God Eli when he was very old was very fearful he timorously reproves the outragious wickedness of his lewd Sons and after this black and dreadful enemy had once taken possession of him it followed him continually and dogg'd him till he died When the Israelites and Philistines were about to joyn Battel he sate in a fearful posture and it is said his bea rt trembled and when the issue was told him he fell from off his seat backward and his Neck brake that he died and the reason is added for he was an old Man and heavy I will not here be so bold as those that say building their opinion upon the original word his falling down backward and dying was from a voluntary Principle but I dare say it was from an inward one his Age had so enfeebled him that he was not able to bear the newes of a defeat especially such an one wherein the Ark of God was taken but his darksome inward foe taking advantage hereupon strikes him surely under the fifth rib that he died The Objects of old Mens fears are here presented unto us under a double notion First those things which are high Excelsa timebunt aut de excelso They shall be afraid of that which is high Secondly those things which are lower more plain and obvious even in the way Consternati in via vel formidabunt in viis Fears shall be in the may Consternation and Fearfulness do not surprize Men and overthrow them all at once Nemo repente â—it timidissimus but they come on by degrees and first those things that have more of dread in them become the objects of their fear High things high either in respect of place as steep and emineut Wayes Hills and Mountains Steeples and Towers which formerly they could without fear ascend and walk upon or high in respect of the Air as Fiery Meteors Strange Apparitions Thunder and Lightning and such like or high in respect of abstrusness or mysteriousness as the deep and subtile points in Divinity about the Escence of God and the duration of Eternity about the Immortality of the Soul and changes of the Body and many other things which while young they could better have born the Discourse of or high in respect of Hardship or Difficult those great Enterprises and hazardous Undertakings which while strong they durst with boldness have ventered on do now become a terror to them even in the thought of them but as Age comes on and their feares increase upon them not onely those things which are high but even plain and easie things becom the objects of their fear Pavores in via Mole-hills are now as dreadful as Mountains were before every thing that is near them and about them every thing that is plain and obvious every matter that is facile and easily attainable bears it self with terror towards them they are afraid of every thing they are doing they walk in fear sometime least peradventure they should dash their foot against a Stone sometime least that other People heedlessly passing by should rush upon them and injure them being conscious to themselves of their own impotency it makes them most obnoxious to this terrible passion which is the great change that is made upon the Mind in the time of Age. The Almond Tree shall flourish The Symptome last treated of was in reference to the great change that is made upon the Mind of Man those which follow have reference to the Body And that we may accurately observe the Wise Mans Method we must premise one common distinction of the parts of the body for we must know that these are not independent sayings cast forth at a venture but a most exact and methodical Treatise of the symptomes of Age as it influenceth and altereth all the parts of a Man Now the parts of the Body as the word is taken in the largest signification are either Animate or Inanimate either such as participate of the life of the whole and are nourished by the intra-susception of enlivened aliment or such as have no life at all from the Body or in themselves and are nourished only by the juxta-position of an excrement Of the first of these there are very many in the Body of Man which are treated of in the following words of the latter of these there are very few as the nails and the Hair and of these the hair receiveth the most notorious alteration in Age which is here signifyed unto us by these words The Almond Tree shall flourish The word which is here translated an Almond Tree is from the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 advigilavit to watch or wake as it is used in that place The
to bewail their own loss of their Godly Friend Natural Affection and the Fleshly part of Man ought something to be indulged in this respect but the loss of a great and a long Example of Piety whose presence hath been a continued blessing both to persons and places ought most seriously and sadly to affect the inward man and therefore they are sharply reproved by the Prophet who are negligent in this duty The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart the merciful men are taken away none considering c. And it is to be observed that the Saints of God though never so old and brought never so low through the miseries attending them when they changed this life for a better were still buried with great lamentation Abel-mizraim was a place never to be forgot either by the Egyptians or the Canaanites and not Jacob only but Moses and Aaron and Samuel were buried by the assembly of the people of Israel and very great publick mournings was made for them all Verse 6. Or ever the silver Cord be loosed or the golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the fountain or the Wheel broken at the Cistern THus far the King hath been treating of all those Symptomes that accompany a man all along his decrepit state which may appear upon him while yet he may have some space given him to remain in the Land of the living These that follow in this verse are such that immediately forerun his dissolution which when they once appear there remains nothing but a present preparation for his Funeral And they may serve as indications not only in this weak and spent condition of age but in whatsoever other condition of mans life by the violence of a disease they are joyntly found they give a most certain Prognostick of approaching death In the Explication whereof there is very much variety of opinions so that it would be exceeding tedious and troublesome to follow them all but I shall spare all that pains and take notice of none of them but what I judge to be nearest the intentention of the Wise man forasmuch as most of the other carry their own refutations in their faces and if I may be directed to find out any thing of truth contained in them that also will bear its own evidence along with it and may serve for eviction of whatsoever is contrary thereunto Forasmuch as rectum est index sui obliqui Death which is the fruit of old age and the unavoidable receptacle of all living is descried to be just at the door by those Symptomes that belong to the instruments either of the animal faculty or of the vitall as for those that belong unto the Natural they have very little or no certainty in this Case Those that belong to the animal have reference unto the brain and the parts arising from it either as they are continued without the Cranium Or ever the silver Cord be loosed or else as they are contained within the Cranium The golden Bowl be broken Those Symptomes that belong to the vital faculty have reference unto the heart and the parts arising from it as they serve either for importation of the bloud and spirits The Pitcher broken at the Fountain or for exportation of the same The Wheel broken at the Cistern Now of all these in their Order Or ever the silver Cord be loosed The first thing that we must here make enquiry into is what we are to understand by the Cord and we must be sure here also as in all other parts of the description to keep within compass of the Allegory and find out those parts of a man that are hereby represented For he it is that hath hitherto been described unto us as an old house greatly decayed and ruinated but yet standing by all the foregoing Symptomes but now as an house falling down which must no longer remain by this Symtome and those three which immediately follow in this verse And therefore these may very well be called quatuor mortis Concomitantia the four attendants upon dying man The Scripture maketh mention of the Cords of a man which although they are there to be taken in a Moral sense and so excentricall to what we are now about yet they are a Metaphor taken from the natural cords of a man and may give some light thereunto for as love in all bodies politick and consequently mystical doth both draw and unite so in all bodies natural the self-same offices are performed by those parts of which we are about to speak for we must know that all the several parts of man are not kept and bound fast together by spels nor are his several members moved several waies as it were by Magick Art the soul of man doth not by a bare jubeo cause the representation of outward objects or the variation of the position of the several limbs without the help of instruments but by the apt frame of the whole body and the pliableness of the several parts and the convenient position of all the Cords and Pulleys towards their appointed ends we perceive outward objects and move our selves at pleasure so as that an artificial man could there be in it the same organs and the same disposition of them all together with an active power to put them in execution would have a like sense and motion with our selves The Chaldee Paraphrase doth interpret this Cord to the Ligula linguae the string of the tongue others interpret it to the Spinalis medulla the marrow of the back others to the Nerves others to the outward Tunicle of the Nerves and marrow which they have proper to themselves for their own strength beside the other two which they receive from the brain All these have offered exceeding well and without doubt have hit the truth and being put together may seem to make the whole of what is here intended which is the whole instrument of sense and motion after it hath proceeded out of the Scull and as it is distributed throughout the body with all its Coats and Tunicles with all its divisions and separations I mean not only the spinal marrow is here to be understood as principally it ought to be but all the Nerves arising thence from both those seven pair be they more or less that proceed from it before it hath attained any of the spines and those thirty pair that proceed from the several Vertebrae of the neck the back the loyns and the Os Sacrum and also the Filaments and Fibers and Tendons that proceed from all those Nerves The Nerves and Fibers must in no wise be here left out forasmuch as they do more apparently both unite and draw than any other of the parts whatsoever Job saith Thou hast fenced me with bones and with sinews I compare these fences of a man to those of an hedge where the bones answer to the stakes in the hedge making the substantial
depuâ—ation and defaecation and consequently the highest exaltation of the blood and vital spirits is performed herein And though it pleaseth the most worthy and most learned Author of the Anatomy of the Brain to give the honour of making the animal spirits to the Substantia Corticalis Cerebri yet if you well weigh the Doctrine there delivered you will find it clearly evinced that the greater work is done before And that the Substantia Corticalis doth but Midwife that into the World which the Pia Mater conceives in its own bowels Portio sanguinis subtilior nempe talis facta in vasis hujus Membranae hic nempe in substantia Corticali rude donata in spiritus animales facessit Now whether the purification and spiritualization or the manu-mission or liberation be the most noble work I think it no hard matter to determine It is called the Golden Bowl for the self-same reasons for which the other was called the Silver Cord. First In respect of the Colour not only because that most precious and deep coloured liquor of life is abundantly contained in the Vessels of this Membrane but chiefly because the Membrane it self is somewhat of a flavous Colour and tends more towards that of Gold than any other part whatsoever Again as there is a place for Gold where they find it so there is an hidden secret and well defended place where this precious part hath its natural residence much industry must be used for the finding out yet much more for the following of it and tracing it into all those secret Caverns into which it doth most mysteriously diffuse its branches but chiefly it is so called from its excellency and its universal use The instrument that doth depurate the best of bloud and defaecate and exalt the vital spirits and so prepare them for animality can be likened in this lower world to nothing but that most absolute and perfect that best concocted and most exalted Mineral of Gold When the Lord God had made the whole Creation he in the last place makes him for whom all the rest were made And he took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it This place of all the earth was the meetest receptacle for so noble an Inhabitant for it had in it a River which was divided into four heads The name of the first is Pison which encompasseth the whole Land of Havilah where there is Gold and all the other are there reckoned up by their names when the Lord God had made this noble Inhabitant of the dust of the earth he in like manner in the last place breathed into him that more noble part of him for which all the rest were made And the soul of man which is to rule and guide him hath he placed in this most convenient seat which is watered by a River that is parted and becomes four heads which are all known by name where also there is Gold Arteriarum quadriga ad quatuor distinct as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plagas evehitur the two Carotidal and the two Vertebral Arteries are this golden quaternion whose streams make glad that City wherein the breath of God hath its principal abode There is yet another thing wherein this part we are now treating of and Gold have a very great resemblance and that is in the ductility of them both Gold of all Metals is the most ductile and may be drawn out at the greatest length this only makes good that Maxime in Philosophy Quantitativum est divisibile in semper divisibilia No man can draw Gold so thin but a better Artist can yet make it thinner it is the nature of this Solar Mineral to be endless in purity how pure fine the Pia mater Cerebri is none can express and none but the diligent observer of it who hath often endeavoured its separation from the parts to which it is annexed can possibly understand This as so much leaf-gold drawn out to a very great thinness doth securely tenderly and universally wrap up all those little hills and valleys those convex or concavous parts that are within the compass of its own Circumference This golden Bowl so long as man remains in his strength is firmly knit unto it self in all its parts but in the extremity of extream old age when he is just giving up the Ghost it can no longer continue its continuity but by reason either of its natural driness shriveling into it self or preternatural moysture imbibing excrementitious humours till it is over-full it often snaps asunder and so recurs into it self as the word properly signifieth from whence the brain must necessarily subside and all the parts serving in any wise to animality must be suddenly and irrecoverably smitten and cease from their several uses and moreover immediately hereupon followeth a change of the whole Countenance the Nose appears very sharp the eyes sink in the head the Temples are pinched in the ears become cold and contracted and the Fibers thereof inverted the skin about the forehead hard intense and dry and the colour of the whole face livid and black and in all things perfectly representing that ultimum vaele known among Physicians by the name of Facies Hippocratica and so consequently the man doth immediately dye Apoplectical according to that of Job Thou changest his Countenance and what followeth immediately thereupon Thou sendest him away So that the Symptome hereby intended is Repentina omnium operationum Cerebri motus viz. sensus aliarum functionum animalium tam principalium quam minus principalium abolitio cum facie Hippocratica It cannot but here upon this occasion be remembred that an Apoplex was mentioned before in the Explication of the second verse and that as a disease of old age which might surprize a man and yet not immediately kill him and of which there might possibly be a removal at least for a season that there might some space be given him to recover a little strength before he go hence and be no more seen how therefore comes it to pass that it is here accounted as one of the immediate Harbingers of death For answer hereunto we must know that an Apoplex falls under a double consideration either as it is a disease or as it is a Symptome In the first consideration it is Morbus Conformationis respectu meatuum when by reason of some preternatural matter in or about the Vessels there become an obstruction constipation or compression of them so that either the vital Spirits cannot be received or the animal spirits cannot be exercised or distributed as they ought to be This matter may sometime possibly be discussed or carried off for a season or change its seat and so the Apoplex degenerate into the Palsie however it is not an infallible sign of instant departure and under this Consideration it was handled in the second verse But in the second Consideration it is Symptoma morbi nempe solutae unitatis when
of the animal spirits is hindered onely from those parts of the Body to which that doth immediately tend and so those parts become wholly deprived both of sense and motion Death hath already taken possession of a Leg oâ— an Arm or the half of that Man that is so far paralytick hardly or never more to be dispossessed and therefore in our language it is well stiled the Dead Palsy Sometime it hapneth to the head of the spinal Marrow and so hindreth the influence of the spirits upon the whole Silver Cord and consequently takes away all sense and motion from all the subjected parts and this causeth Paralysis universalis which at all times and upon all occasions gives a very probable Prognostick but in the decrepit Age of Man a most certain and infallible one of immediate Death Or the Golden Bowl be broken The Symptome last treated of had reference to the rivulets of animality this we are now speaking of relates to the fountain For we must know that the Soul of Man the Queen Regent of all his operations makes the Head the Royal Palace of her residence from whence she gives forth all her Precepts Edicts and Commands for the regulating and actuating all the subjected parts of the Body Now the parts of the Head are of two sorts either the containing or the contained parts thereof The last of these namely the encompassed or contained parts are the cerebrum the cerebellum and the medulla with all those several smaller parts which curious observers have found out to belong to any of them which I shall not so much as mention because they are not so directly pointed at in this place And I do here as I have done all along industriously avoid all things especially all termes of Art or second intentions that do not immediately conduce to the understanding of the symptome under hand but we must not so exclude these parts as to judge them not all concerned in this expression for upon the breaking of the Golden Bowl the brain it self with all the contained parts appertaining thereunto doth immediately cease from all its operations And if we shall take the Original word in its plain signification and as it is often used in Scripture too for fâ—ns or scaturigo a Fountain or Spring it would seem most properly and primarily to intend this most noble part the first spring of animality the original fountain of all sense and motion But because I find the word otherwise translated and that upon very good grounds by all that have undertaken that charge I shall in no wise dissent from them for indeed the Mystical and Metaphorical sense of Words ought still to be preferred all along the Allegory And I would not by any meanes break a firm well set and a lasting Hedge if there be any the least reason for the standing of it The root from which this word is derived is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 volvit circumvolvit complicavit circumduxit Sometime it is translated to rowl or to rowl together sometimes to rowl away or to rowl back sometime to rowl over wrap up or encompass so that the word in the Text is sometime translated â—ecythus a Pot or Bowl to hold any liquid substance in sometime lenticula a Chrismatory or Cruet or Vessel to contain Oyl sometime orbis a Sphaerical Body encompassing others The vulgar Latine removes the Metaphor once again and brings it home to its own door vitta aurea the Golden Headband for vitta signifieth a Veil a Coyâ—e a Garland or whatsoever else may circle or encompass the head the LXX hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the repository of the Braines by all these we understand that Interpreters do uno ore with full consent render the Word to the involving circumscribing encompassing containing parts Which also are of two sorts either the external containing parts of the head or the internal The external beside those common Vestments that appertain to other parts of the body also as the Cuticula Cutis c. which cannot be here understood are only two the Perieranium and the Cranium it self now although these are not chiefly intended in this place yet surely they will put in for a share of this Elogie for as much as these do environ defend and suspend all the inward parts and do consequently exceedingly conduce towards all animal operations And the Chaldee Paraphrase doth directly interpret this word hereunto when it saith Et ne sit Confractus vertex capitis tui The Crown of thy head be not broken beside the Hebrew word for the scull as it is used in that place with many others where it is said when they went to bury her they found no more of her then the Scull and the Feet and the Palmes of her Hands is very neer a kin to the word here in the Text they lie both together in a belly and are derived from the same stock And that famous word which is a medly of the Oriental Languages being partly Syriac partly Chaldee and partly Hebrew is also neerly related hereunto I mean the word Golgotha that is to say the place of a Scull The internal containing parts are also two those two Membranes namely a thicker and an harder a thinner and a finer that do yet more immediately encompass the brain which to the Graecians are known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Latines by the name of Matres which title they took from the Arabians intimating thereby unto us not onely that they do give a being to all the other Membranes of the body as unto their own natural off-spring but chiefly and that which is most to our present purpose that they do Maternâ curâ cerebro prospicere With a Motherly care and tenderness over-see and over-rule all the actions of the brain but yet more particularly the most inward of these two that doth by immediate contract encircle the very substance of the brain doth seem to me to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence the golden bowl here intended This is that part which deeply insinuates it self into all the anfractuous passages of the brain and being firmly annexed thereunto keeps every part thereof in its proper place and due texture so that whatsoever is performed within the whole compass of the brain whether the making of the animal spirits their exercise therein or their distribution thencefrom is done principally by the help of this Membrane Therefore the Ancients from that reverence they had for it have justly honoured it with the name of Pia mater And if we do but throughly consider the innumerable branches of the veines but especially of the Arteries that are hereinto inserted and their several wonderful interchasings and intermixtures and insertions not onely one into another but even among themselves which is not found in any other part of the body we shall surely be induced to believe that the greatest