familiarity with all animals then it doth not seeme so unreasonable to grant it in its temper a complicate mixture or comprehensive nature and to comprehend the quality of other Plants inferiour to it selfe and in its owne perfection to obtaine a degree though not so high as in the more proper subject And thus is man the Epitome of the whole world How ever wee know these aforesaid qualities to bee in wine and may bee with as little contradiction as in Guiacum which doth by constringing evacuate and Rhubarb which doth bind by purging But still I spy more possibility then that which is only extracted out of a Simile and this is aliquid Catholicum or an incorruptible spirit in Wine more powerfull then in any other such thing And this moveth freely contracting or dilating its selfe in its spheare adde distance weaker or stronger according to the power of the forenamed agent and disposition of the Spheare wherein it moveth It may also be said to move thus from its materiall principles as by vertue of its fluent and fixt heate the one oleaginous continuating binding and uniting the parts together the other fluent attenuating the humours and loosening the belly or the body universally And thus it is possible to effect these contrary actions out of its owne naturall mixture And since it can doe thus there is a great deale of reason why it should be thus practised for there is no other vegetal or minerall so safe harmlesse and familiar in it selfe to humane constitutions as being naturally more pure and better concocted then any other juyce either of milke egges corne fruits or the like all of them more subject to putrefaction more onerous to nature in concoction by reason of their crudity the most of them breeding little bloud or vitious bloud or no bloud at all But wine especially Claret or red is sanguified before it be taken Nay the Ancients seeme to perswade mee when they call it the old mans milke that it hath received a concoction more then bloud as it is cited in Iecore For milke is bloud dealbated or thrice concocted This is the phisick which doth not dull but set a true edge upon nature after operation leaveth no venemous contact Sure I am this was ancient Phisick else what meant Avicenna Rhasis and Averroes to move the body twice every month with the same as it is familiar to Nature so they used it as familiarly As for my own experience though I have not lived yet so long as to love excesse yet have I seene such powerfull effects both on my selfe and others as if I could render no other reason they were enough to perswade me of its excellencie seeing extenuate withered bodies by it caused to be faire fresh plumpe and fat old and infirme to be young and sound when as water or small-beere-drinkers looke like Apes rather then men My eye now is converted to the vulgar and I see their hearts dance systole and diastole disorderly without observation of true time the heart being too much dilated with this report of preservation from death sicknesse and paine For naturall death or extreame old age suffereth dissolution without any paine and all these to bee affected by so familiar a medicament as Wine this surely verifieth the Proverb Every man now must bee a foole or a Physician But bee not deceived the application of this medicament to every temper age distemper with its circumstances of Sex and Clime will exercise the best Philosopher rightly to dispose and order and if disorderly applied or ignorantly advised the principles of Nature must suffer decay and in stead of being extended shall bee sweetly shortned how sweet then must extension bee Empericks here stand like Tantalus with apples at their mouth but cannot be the better for them They see this subject but can never reach it their Logick from a particular to an universall is of no force here nor in this course can any man have experience but he that knoweth what he doth in every one of these respects following which are not rightly to be apprehended by any Emperick quatenùs an Emperick Yet before I fall upon the foresaid respects give me leave since I see Plato to salute him amicus Plato magis amica veritas The prohibition he bringeth concerneth Kings Magistrates Souldiers Women and servants absolutely forbidding Wine at any time place or to any of these persons and confineth them altogether to water So that whether hee meant none but the Common-wealth of Schollers should enjoy this happinesse makes no matter for assuredly hee chiefly intended sobriety Yet reason is not satisfied nor is his politique rule or law so agreeable to reason as to bee received in any Republique except Platonicall First because it binds those from the use of Wine which are most capable of it in respect of judgement and reason which Princes and Iudges have above other people and therefore know how to use it rightly and being continually in services of trouble care and paine exhausting their spirits and courage stand in need of such a refreshment as shall exhilarate the mind and maintaine the principles of nature What panick feares doth Wine prevent in the Souldier subtilising their drooping spirits which before were quenched with puddle water and in time of famine how doth this cherish and defend their bodies against distempers which by other stinking vnsavoury meat and drinke might be generated As for servants this is meat for their masters but Physick for them upon just occasion And so I passe to the tempers of bodies in generall and the Wines generally agreeing with those tempers and then more directly to this or that individuall Temper it selfe being the reason of mixture or the harmony and consent of the prime qualities in elements and by the exuperancy of each simple quality these foure simple tempers are created as hot when the heate surpasseth the cold and yet of siccity and moisture remaineth an equality and so of the rest as cold and dry and moist Besides there are foure conjugate tempers which proceed from the exuperancy of the two first qualities as hot and moist hot and dry cold and moist cold and dry which are the foure compound tempers their fixation consisting in that oleaginous humour which wee call innatum calidum and this innate so praestantious so necessary as without it mixt bodyes cannot subsist 't is also fomented and cherished by influent heate contracted in the heart veines and arteries as their proper channels consisting of spirituall bloud lying hid in the heart as the middle of the body which by sympathie doth defend and maintaine innate heate and doth absolve and perfect the temperament with all the functions of the body even as the Sunne like a blazing Lampe inlighteneth the world so doth the heart ejaculate the influent spirit into the universall body besprinkling every part conserving life and excitating to particular functions so as in truth such as is this fluent spirit such
yet such a quantity as is not ad vasa as if Satiation were the Usher of diseases corruption and mortality which I suppose differeth very much from the sence of Galen that is to prescribe a pondus or streight weight and measure of nutriment to all tempers and such a weight not to be exceeded upon any occasion But if hee be understood to speake only to men in religious Orders and such as impoverish their bodies to elevate their mindes to pious thoughts and exercises then his Twelve ounces will bee better understood and little blamed but in a physicall sence cannot stand with the principles of art For Hippocrates and Galen both will tell him diseases are cured by contrarieties Inanition by fasting must bee cured by repletion in feeding and this inanition may bee extreame or not extreame and then no constant Pondus ought to be observed But if I understand those Worthies then thus I explicate their doctrine in this point and so will leave the Iefuite to his owne order As for the quality of aliment that it be Homogeneall pleasant and familiar to humane constitutions and tempers not only in generall but also to every individuall is a point that the Ancients were strict observers of and not without much discretion For the judgement of a Phisitian is most seene in his election of aliment in quality answering the temper of the body For though a disease must be cured by his contrary yet the temper of the body must be preserved by its own Simile as heate by heate and moisture by moisture but the degree whether more or lesse intense is judicated by nature and to be ordered by the Phisitian But this is a paradox to vulgar practicers who argue falsely upon a true ground for when Hippocrates saith Contraria contrarijs curantur they like an ignorant Iury will runne altogether upon contraries both in curing and also in nourishing according to my Simile making no difference betweene honesty and dishonesty or contrary and contrary 'T is true contrary remedies must be and are most rationally administred in affects of the body because a crooked sticke must bee bent as farre the other way to make it streight according to Aristotle But if contraries shall bee adhibited to a harmonious temper 't is the cause of discord and conflict in Nature As for example In a hot and moist temper to use a cold and dry dyet Therefore it appeareth plainly that the quality of aliment ought to bee most observed But for Quantity that is left to the free choice of Nature because naturall choice is never ultra capacitatem recipientis But to speake more fully to Lessius who in a religious way disputeth principally for temperance yet so severely that I must tell him as a Phisitian the Fathers of our Art preferre excesse so it be not in the highest degree of excesse before such temperance and of two evils the least For they lay it downe Canonically that all affects of plenitude or fulnesse are safer for the body then diseases of emptinesse And I apprehend much reason and variety of reasons in this axiome First because universall evacuation is sooner effected then repletion Secondly because accidents of various formes cannot be avoided for they are infinite and the least affliction falling upon an extenuate or lessiate body for want of a sufficiencie of excrementitious humours to move in giveth not only a dangerous assault to the radicall spirits but without sudden resistance of art must tyrannise nature before enfeebled and kept under cannot of it selfe resist to expell it Which meere resistance of nature or labour to expell noxious humours doth beget a Feaver and that only ex conatu natura according to Christophorus à vega naturall heate is fired and not otherwise by the ascent of putrid fuliginous vapours to the heart or if medicine be adhibited yet such a body must suffer from both and life be shortned Contrarily where there is a sufficient quantity of excrementitious humours for diseases to involve themselves in there are they reteyned with lesse danger or oppression to the radicall spirits and removed by medicine with as little offence as I shall demonstrate more Philosophically in this manner Alberius amongst other Philosophers doth constitute a twofold moisture in mixt bodies One which he calleth Humidum continuans and from this continuating humidity proceedeth an unction of parts for otherwise they would bee altogether dry and consequently disunited But there is no naturall body void of this humidity though never so hard or dry but hath a sufficient moisture to conjoyne their parts together inter se and every Alchymist proveth this truth by practice and daily extracting oyle out of the hardest and dryest bodies Therefore this humidity is rightly nominated by some Phisitians Oleaginosum Humidum oylie humidity consisting of ayrie and aqueous moisture The other humidity is Humidum quasi nutriens as it were the nourishing moisture and this is a watrish humidity in the mixt body nothing advantagious to the continuation of parts and is easily resolved because of its tenuity so is not the oleaginous because of its crassitude So that where a proportion of excrementitious humours by reason of a severe dyet is wanting in the body of man both disease and medicine must needs bee more powerfull over the fixed moisture and heate which is the ligament of life Contrarily where there is a second moisture to entertaine either effect or medicine doth lesse harme But I intend no controversie with Lessius therefore I will returne to my proper subject and shew how every temper may be preserved void of all distempers or such as arise out of the materiall principles of nature by the true use of wine and also pove it to be an excellent remedy applyed according to proper judication and may prove specificall in diseases of every nature arising out of the aforesaid principles passing as dilucidly and briefly as may bee through all the parts of this discourse Curiositie hath newly conceived and will now suffer abortion if a taste of this promised juyce be not suddenly presented whose nature and excellency is encomiastick sufficient so transcending all other nutriment as that just Noah makes it the first act of his husbandry and planted a Vineyard before either corne or any other graine as is affirmed by sacred testimony The reason if I should presume to offer Ne Sutor ultra crepidam I must expect from divines and justly if I should adventure to explicate any text of holy writ without qualification yet will I not so inthrall my fancy or suffocate such motions as may bee advantagious to a rationall man without prying into the Arke as not only to take notice of this plantation to be the first act of husbandry but especially of his age which was Nine hundred and fifty His age extended Twenty yeares beyond Adam in whom the principles of Nature were most firme and pure And no reason can argue otherwise but that in course of
either White Claret or Rhenish in their order observing the seasons with the inclination of celestiall orbes and the measure Iuventus being more hot and dry must also apply himselfe to these forenamed Wines somewhat more dilute which is easily effected by water Virile age holds out a cup of more rich Claret from 35 to 49. and goeth out with a draught of the smallest Sacke Which Senectus makes stronger by addition of Aligants and the richest Sacks and Muscadine and continueth them unto the last period of life Thus have I now applied it generally to every age and briefly cleered my proposition As for the Sex male or female betweene these I shall make no difference of temper Nor doe I give eare to some that make foule stirre de Lana Caprina or to prove divers temperaments of Sexes and that the procreation of women is more in the left then in the right side Ergo they must bee more cold and more weake But whatsoever they fancy this is only to bee observed without any further dispute That temperaments are not conflate out of heate more obtuse or vehement but depend on the perfusion and consent of the foure Elements Therefore having distinctly discoursed of temperaments I have also included Sexes As for the manner of using this subject Thus it is as followeth Hitherto I have taught the nature and use of Wine both Philosophically and medically and how familiar a nutriment it is to man and still say it must bee so both in respect of its substance and forme else I understand not Aristotle his alimentum simile and dissimile For although all aliment of what substance soever must receive forme of heate before it bee converted into bloud by which it doth nourish both fluent and fixt heate in us Yet such nor so apt is any substance for forme to sanguifie or nourish as Wine and if it be possible it will augment innate heate and moisture For 't is oyle not water that augments the flame a proportion observed else it puts it out so that it is the true Nectar by the use whereof Principles of life are augmented naturall humours multiplied spirits refreshed strength restored care expelled and bodies in youthfulnesse conserved To conclude 't is all in all to a naturall body For although in generall aliment is said to bee liquid airie and solid yet 't is humidity that nourisheth For medicament also I have proved it proper The Arabian Phisicians are of opinion that to take this liquor once every moneth in such a quantitie as shall be approved by the learned Phisicians is wholsome Phisicke it doth much recreate the Animal faculties reconcile sleep provoke urine and sweat dissolve superfluities and they affirme it to cure the Quartane with other diseases circumstances conducing to the profitable use of it after this manner which circumstances I obscure because I am desirous to entertaine time with substance only Custome is to be mentioned as somewhat substantiall for it over-ruleth the rest and the time generally most fit to receive Wine is with meate and then such Wine as best fitteth the temper of the Individuall But those that meane to use this subject rightly must not be without their Phisitian or out of their view for let their temper or distemper bee what it will so it be not some fatall stroke or wound by the wisdome of the Phisitian and his skill they may sinsibly perceive the prolongation of their life and by this meanes which is so pleasant to universall Nature The Chymist his best Rhetorick is exercised about the pleasantnesse of his extract smalnesse of quantitie But here I present a taste for pleasure beyond all mineralls forsafetie 't is incomparable either with them or Vegetals Excesse in this may be more easily repaired nor is the offence in nature of so great moment Now because there will be some difficultie in getting true naturall Wine without sophistication therefore I should thinke it fit were it so pleasing to Authority whereunto I humbly submit that as it hath beene heretofore with us and is still in other Countryes Apothecaries might have libertie to sell it and so by the direction of the Phisitian to make many medicate Wines fitted and in readinesse upon all occasions But that I may draw to a conclusion I will briefly lay downe or rather take up two maine objections one moved by Galen the other from the sacred Scripture apprehended erroniously both indeed at the first view or blast will seeme to shake both my foundation and edifice also Galen after all his ratiocination is raised out of his Urne and presents to me in his Commentary upon the Aphorismes these words Wine debilitateth as Venus and Frambesarius makes bold with his doctrine and delivereth it for a truth and in these words Vinum Venusque nocent eodem modo The objection I confesse is instar omnium and very materiall whether hee be taken to speake of the use or excesse of Wine In the first sence it doth oppose all that I have formerly taught and proved in the last a fit opposition to Avicenna Rhasis and Averrohes they advising wine once a moneth usque ad obrietatem Now if Galen bee not understood to speake of excesse then as I have said before neither Wine nor Venery can hurt debilitate and weaken the body for both rightly used are profitable the one to preserve the individual the other to propagate the species and venus as well as vinum both exhilarate the minde cheare the spirits refrigerate the body and cause sleepe So that at the first view Galen doth seeme to speake of excesse only or principally But that I may reconcile him with the Arabian Phisitians my part is now to explicate and render him in his owne proper sence and meaning This exception is not so much or principally against the quantity as the qualitie and misapplication both in respect of time and temper As when the quality of wine exceedeth in strength the temper of the body to which it is given and at a time unseasonable as upon a fasting stomacke and then to exercise the act of Venery intemperatly upon it and in this sence is Galen to bee conceived chiefly But I apprehend Plato and Ambrosius in another sence meerely distasting the nimium ebriety and intoxication in a voluptuous way and to speake truth after such manner abused 't is poyson both to mind and body inflameth the bloud debilitateth the nerves vexeth the head and to bee short is worse then any poyson For this cause Moses not only calleth it Venenum but the poyson of Dragons which admitteth of no cure Therefore Wine in this manner taken and according to this sence is more detestable for the strongest poyson of Animalls or minerals can but vulnerate the flesh but wine is powerfull to wound the soule Yet such is my candid censure of those Arabian Princes in Medicine that they never used it after this manner themselves or advised it in a voluptuous way to others