would yield no Nourishment for there is a great difference between the Appetite and the Stomack Others their Appetites are so sharp and their Stomacks so weak as it digests not the third part of what it receives But he that loves Pleasure more than Health and Life let him follow Epicures and they that think the Severity of the Body is the way to Eternal Life let them turn Anchorets but they that think they may use all things that are lawfull without 2 prejudice to the Soul and would have Health and Life to use them long let them follow Observation and Moderation The Reason why one and the same Quantity of Physick shall purge some to Death and others it shall never move or at least not to that degree THE Reason is That one and the same Quality and Quantity of Purging Medicines works so different in several Bodies and at several Times in one and the same Body is caused by the Validity and Solidity of the Humour for the Bodies of Animals are like to several Grounds some Dusty and Dry some Stony and Hard some Tuff and Clammy as Clay some Muddy and Dirty others Washy and Wet which causeth Husbandmen to yoke more Oxen or Harness more Horses to adde Strength not onely when their Draughts are heavily laden but when the Waies are ill and uneasy to travel in for in some Waies ten Horses will not draw so easy as one in other Waies or in Winter as in Summer but are forced to whip and lash to tug and pull so are Bodies where Physick like Horses or Oxen doth pull and gripe the Guts to draw out clammy Flegm where in Light and Sanguine Bodies the Physick runs fast and the Humours follow easily or in Melancholy and Dry Waies where the Humour is so hard as the Physick rather beats upon it than penetrates or divides it and at last becomes Lame and Weak as Horses which are foundred but Cholerick Bodies are like Sandy Waies where the Humours like Dust fly about But there must be several sorts of Physick given to several Constitutions as Husbandmen sow several sorts of Grain as some Humours must be digged up with Penetrating Medicines other Humours plowed up with Fomenting Medicines some Humours harrowed with Extenuating Medicines others raked as with Drawing and Attractive Medicines some must be watered with Solable and Sucking Medicines others must be manured and nourished with fine Light-Meats and Gelly Broths others must be comforted with the hot Sun of Cordials Thus if Bodies be not husbanded according to the Nature Constitution of the Soyl they will never have a sufficient Stock of Health to pay Life their Land lord his Rent and Death will seize upon their Lease as forfeited to him before the Rent-day Of Purging Drugs ALL Purging Drugs have more of the penetrating or subdividing Quality than attractive or drawing for it is not the gathering together the Humours that casts forth or purgeth forth but the cutting or dividing them which loosens them and dissolves and the Cause of Fluxes in Bodies is that Nature hath bred a Drug in the Body which is a penetrating and subdividing Humour Of Opium Opium works upon the Spirits as Drugs do upon the Liver in the Body it is good in Feavers for in all Feavers the Spirits are like Wanton Bodies which run and play so much untill they have put themselves into a Fiery Heat But dull Opium corrects them like a grave Tutor wherefore Opium should be good for Mad-men moderately taken Of Animal Spirits THE Animal Spirits are the Radical Vapour in the Body produced from the Natural Heat and Radical Moysture but Obstruction which comes by Superfluity stops the Natural Heat hindring the Extenuating Faculty and Corruption which is caused by Superfluous Moysture and Unnatural Heat damps the Natural and drowns the Radical Moysture by which the Animal Spirits become weak This is the reason that those Diseases that come by Obstruction or Corrupted Humours make the Body faint and lazy and the Mind dull and melancholy Of Heat and Cold. HEat and Cold produce many times one and the same Effect for as Cold draws all Spirits inward so Heat thrusts all Spirits outwards for Cold is like a Hook to pull Heat inward and Heat like a Spear or a Staff to thrust outward As for example From Wine is distilled Aqua vitae or the like which are Spirits by the means of Fire and Wine in a Barrel if it be much frozen will cause all the Spirits in the Barrel to gather together in the midst and no Spirits are left in that which is frozen as likewise in extreme Fear all Spirits will be drawn to the Heart as the Center insomuch as all the rest of the Members will have none left to support them as they become useless and in great Heats the Spirits go to the Outward Parts and leave the Inward Parts so voyd as they become saint and exhausted for want of their help The Difference of Heat and Cold in the Spring and Autumn THE Face of the Earth is like the Hearth of a Chimney and the Sun as the Fire that lyeth thereon that is the reason that the Spring is not so warm as the Autumn or the Autumn so cold as the Spring because the Sun is not so hot in the Winter to heat the Earth as in the Summer for as the Hearth of a Chimney will require some time to be heated after the Fire is laid thereon so it will retain a Heat sometimes after the Fire is taken therefrom Likewise this is the reason that it is coldest just before the break of Day because at that time the Sun hath been longest absent for there is some Heat in the Night though but weak not but that the Night may be hot when the Day hath been cold but then that Heat proceeds rather from the Bowels of the Earth than the Beams of the Sun for though the Sun may have a Constant Heat yet his Beams have not as we may observe some Summer Daies are much colder than others for some Daies may be hotter when the Sun is Oblick than when it is Perpendicular over our Heads by reason that cold and moyst Vapours may arise from the Earth and as it were quench the Violent Heat in the Beams of the Sun and Wind may cool the Heat also or Clouds may obstruct the Heat as a Skreen set before the Fire yet neither Wind nor Vapour nor Clouds can alter the Heat inherent in the Sun c. Diseases curable and uncurable THere are some sorts of Dropsies that are caused by Obstruction and some sorts of Consumptions caused by Evil Digestion and so Diseases of all sorts that are curable but if any Vital Part be perished it is not Physick nor good Diet nor change of Air nor any Evacuation or Restoratives that can make that part whole again that is perished no not Nature it self for when her Work is finished she cannot mend it for if she makes
chiefly in the head so their like and dislike to most things proceeds from thence for the brain will be so weary with one and the same motion as the leggs with running and the violenter the senses are the sooner tired they be but there are two chief sortes of pleasure the one wholy dwelling in the senses which is fading the other lasts as long as life and hath a desire to last longer these are those things or thoughts as lie not wholy in the senses but onely found out by them and kept and nourished by the minde in this the senses follow the minde and where the minde leades the senses it walkes them with so moderate a pace and rules them with so equal motions as they are never weary But when the senses lead and rule the minde it is alwayes out of order and is tired in following the uneven strange and violent wayes not knowing where to rest but the reason why displeasure lasts longer then pleasure is because displeasure is of the nature of death For though motion doth not cease as in death yet it is slow and dull and pleasure which is of the nature of life is full of motion bot and violent the one is like a long and tedious sicknes the other like a hot and burning fever that destroyes soon The nature of Man IT is the nature of mankinde to run into extreams for their mindes are as their bodies are for most commonly there is a predominate passion in the one as a predominat humor in the other so that dispositions of men are governed more by passion then by reason as the body is governed more by appetite then by conveniencies The Power of the Senses THe body hath power over the will for the appetite of the five senses draws the will forcibly although reason helps to defend it The appetite is more delighted by degrees then with a full gust But one would think that every several sense did strike but upon one string or nerve for the minde is often moved to one and the same passion by the several senses and again one would think that every several object or subject did strike upon a several nerve although to the pleasure or pain but of one sense and the minde receives several pleasures or griefes from those varieties The happy Farmer THe Farmer and his wife sons daughters and servants are happier then the Kings Nobles or Gentry for a king hath more cares to govern his kingdom then he receives pleasure in the enjoyment The Farmers care is onely to pay his rent which he must have a very hard bargain or be a very ill husband if he cannot do it he takes more pleasure in his labour then the Nobility in their ease his labour gets a good stomack digests his meat provokes sleep quickens his spirits maintains health prolongs life and grows rich into the bargain The Nobility or Gentry their disease of idlenesse deads their stomacks decayes their health shortens their lives besides makes them of inconstant natures and empty purses and their queasy bodies make them desirevariety of wines meats and women and idlenesse wearieth their spirits which makes them wander to several places company games or sports yet ease and riots make finer wits for riots make many vapours and idlenesse breeds thoughts which heates the braine and heat is active and so refines the wit and fires the spirits and hot spirits make ambition ambition wel disposeth mindes produceth worthy actions and honourable reports and not onely fills them with courage but gives them curiosity civility justice and the like but ambition to depraved mindes makes them slaves to base actions as flattering cheating or betraying or any unworthinesse to compasse their ends The vastness of desires THere are few but desires to be absolute in the world as to be the singular work of nature and to have the power over all her other workes although they may be more happy with lesse but nature hath given men those vast desires as they can keep in no limits yet they begin low and humble as for example a man that is very poor and in great wants desires onely to have so much as will serve meer necessity and when he hath that then he desireth conveniences then for decency after for curiosity and so for glory state reputation and fame and though desire runs several wayes yet they aym all at one end If any end there were which is to imbrace all but some say the minde is the measure of happinesse which is impossible unlesse the minde were reasonable for the minde is not satisfied though it had all but requires more so the minde is like eternity alwayes running but never comes to an end Of the Vain Uselesse and unprofitable Wishes I Perceive if men could have their wish of nature or fortune they would wish that which was admired and esteemed by others and not what he received for man seems to build his happinesse in the opinion of others as the chiefest injoyment of pleasure in himself Of desires and fears SOme say that it is a miserable state of minde to have few things to desire and many things to fear but surely the misery lieth onely in the many feares not in the few desires and if desires are pleasing in the birth yet it puts the minde in great pain when they are strangled with the string of impossibilities or at least made sick and faint with improbabilities for if hopes give them life despair gives them death and where one desires enjoyes a possession many thousands are beaten back for desire seldom keeps rank but flies beyond compasse yet many times desires are helped by their grateful servants patience and industry For industry is a kinde of witch-craft for wise industry will bring that to passe as one would think it were impossible but without all doubt that minde that hath the ferest wishes is in the happiest condition for it is as if it had a fruition of all things What desires a man may have to make him happy THe desires for happines are not in the favour of Princes nor in being Princes to have favourites or to be popular nor in the conquering of many nations and men nor in having vast possessions or to be Emperours of the whole world or in the revenge of enemies or to enjoy their beloved or to have many Lovers nor in beauty art wit nor strength but to have health so as to enjoy life and peace to guard it to be praised and not flattered admired but not lusted after to be envyed but not hated to be beloved without ends to love without jealousie to learn without labour to have wise experience without losse to live quietly without fear to be an enemy to none to have pleasure without pain honour and riches without trouble and time to wait on them which every prudent man makes it to do but these are not easily to be had so that the best way to be happy is
abroad whereof they have better at home and the unsatiable Desire of Mankind makes them search for what is never to be found But where Nature gives a Satisfactory Mind she gives a Happy Life and what can we imagin the Joys of Heaven but a stint to our wandring Desires therefore those that are most fixt are nearer Heaven and he is the Wisest that is nearest to Unity and those that are most united are likest to a God But where Discord happens Hell is resemb'ed and harsh haughty and not insulting Natures are composed like Devils and Caesar shewed himself a Fool in nothing but in quitting his Guard and not hearkning to his Wife which was to shew his Courage and to let the World see he durst go unarmed singly alone as it were and his freedom from the chains of fond Affection thus quitting Prudence and Love he dyed too violent a Death And Seianus quitting the Affection towards his Wife and placing it upon Julian raised such a Jealousie in Tyberius as it cost him his Life otherwise he might have ruled the Empire and so the most part of the World Thus Anthony's leaving his Wife for the love of Cleopatra lost him the third part of the World Neither are the Counsels of a Wife alwaies to be despised if all were honest nor to be lockt from the private Affairs of her Husband Portia was able to keep a Secret and was of Brutus her Husbands Confedenacy though not Actually yet Concealing And if Caesar had condescended to his Wives Perswasion he had not gone to the Senate that day and who knows but the next might have discovered the Conspiracy and numberless of the like Examples might be given Besides it is to be observed where the Husband and Wife disagree their Family is in disorder their Estates go to decay Jealousies arise which cause Discords from whence proceeds a discontented and unhappy Life And where the Husband and Wife are united in Minds as well as in Body all prospers and most commonly Ease and Plenty crown that Family Industry is their Recreation Peace is their Joy Love is their Happiness for a kind Husband makes an obedient Wife dutifull Children faithfull Servants for a Wise Man rules his Family with gentle kind and seasonable Perswasions with honest and sincere Actions with gratefull and just Rewards and Kindness and Constant Natures work hard and obeisant Natures to be more pliant and facile for Kindness melts hardest Hearts and makes them flexible to form them as they please where Cruelty or Severity hardens them so much as they will rather break than bend And if the Rational part of the World would but consider what Felicity there is in peacefull Prosperity they would never wander so much out of the way Of Men and Women SOme say a Man is a Nobler Creature than a Woman because our Saviour took upon him the Body of Man and another that Man was made first But these two Reasons are weak for the Holy Spirit took upon him the shape of a Dove which Creature is of less esteem than Mankind and for the Preheminency in Creation the Devil was made before Man Nature in the Composure of Men and Women IT is not so great a Fault in Nature for a Woman to be Masculine as for a Man to be Effeminat for it is a Defect in Nature to decline as to see Men like Women but to see a Masculine Woman is but onely as if Nature had mistook and had placed a Mans Spirit in a Womans Body but Nature hath both her Mistakes and Weaknesses but when she works perfectly she gives Man a gentle and sweet Disposition a generous Mind a valiant Heart a wife Head a voluble Tongue a healthfull Body and strong and active Limbs To Woman she gives a chast Mind a sober Disposition a silent Tongue a fair and modest Face a neat Shape and a gracefull Motion The Nature of Man MAN is more apt to take Dislikes at all things than to delight in any thing but Nature hath given us no Pleasure but what ends in Pain for the end of Pleasure is Grief for Cruel Nature curbs us in with Fear and yet spurs us on with Desires for she hath made Mans mind to hunt more after Varieties by Desire than she hath made Varieties to satisfie the Desires Of Painting THere be some that condemn the Art of Painting in Women others that defend it for say they as Nature hath made one World so Art another and that Art is become the Mistris of Nature neither is it against Nature to help the Defects Besides those that find out new Arts are esteemed so that they become as Petty Gods whether they become Advantageous to Man or no as the Memory of those that found out the Art of Gunpowder Guns Swords and all Engins of War for Mischief and shall they be more praised and commended than those that find out Arts and Adornments as Painting Curling and other Dressings for the one destroyes Mankind this increaseth it the one brings Love the other begets Hate But some will say those Arts defend their Lives but where they once use them to defend their Lives they use them ten times to destroy Life and though it is no Fault in the Inventer but in the User no more is Painting when it is used for a good intent as to keep or increase lawfull Affection But say they it is a dissembling to make that appear otherwise than it is ' Tisanswer'd No more than to keep warm in Winter for Cold is Natural so is the sense of it in Winter but Clothes to keep it out are Artificial and the true use of the Art of Painting is to keep warm a Lawfull Affection Besides If we must use no more than what Nature hath given us we must go naked and those that have a bald Head must not wear a Peruick or Cap to cover it and those that are born with one Leg shorter than the other must not wear a high Shoe to make them even nor indeed wear any Shoes at all especially with Heels because they make them seem higher but go with the Feet bare and those that are Crooked must wear no Bombast and many such Examples may be brought But say some it is a Bawd to entice in begetting evil Desires It is answered No more a Bawd than Nature is in making a handsome Creature but if they must do nothing for fear of Enticing then Mankind must neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails nor shave their Beards nor wash their selves which would be very slovenly for fear they should appear so handsome as they may perswade and entice the Lookers on to evil Desires which if so let them be like Swine and wallow in Mire but it is to be feared that the Mire will be too hard for the evil Desires so as there may be more brought in defence of Painting than can be said against it Wherefore say they it is lawfull both in Maids and
Wives the one to get a good Husband the other to keep her Husband from coveting his Neighbours Wife for it is an Honour for Maids to get good Husbands because it is a kind of Reproach to live unmarried for Marriage is Honourable and gives a Respect to Women unless they be incloystered which all Constitutions will not agree withall and an honest Wifes care is to please her Husband if she can when she hath him for Marriage is the end of an honest Mind to all but Widows for they when they marry again do as it were Cuckold their dead Husband and their living Besides if they have Children they make a Distraction and Division in their Families and most commonly to the ruine of the first Husbands Estate having so great a share and so much power according to our Laws And though they should not marther themselves as the Custome hath been in other Countryes but contrary rather to preserve their Health and to dry their Eyes after a while of those Obsequies of Tears which are Sacrifices to the Dead yet to live a retired Life to shew their unalterable Affections for though it be fit for a Widow to put off her violent Passion of Sorrow as well as she can yet there is no Humour becomes that Condition better than Sadness for Sadness which is a moderate Grief looks full of Fortitude and is Humble Modest Gracefull and so far from dis composing any part as it gives a setled and majestical Face So Painting is most disallowable in Widows for they should take the example of Judith where it is said when she went to Holofernes she anointed her self as she did usually in her Husband Manassas time which it seems she used not after he was dead before this time for as they have none to Displease so ought they not to Allure But some will say that their Poverty is such as they know not how to live and they may be presented to such a Fortune as may make them live happy and free from the Misery that Poverty compels them to It is answered that Nature is satisfied with a little if their Ambition be not great but if not they must make use of the old Proverb which is that Necessity hath no Law in case they present not their Necessity to be greater than it is But to return to Beauty it is pleasing either Natural or Artificial and both to be admired for if Art be Commendable why not in the Face as well as in the Feet in dancing Measures or as in the Hand upon Musick Instruments or in the Voyce or in the Art of Oratory and Poetry which will sooner increase Desires yet this is allowed of in all places and times not onely in Temporal Society but in Spiritual Unions where David the Beloved of God was a great Master in the Knowledge and Practice of them And if these Arts be Commendable and are Graces to all parts of the Body shall it be condemned onely for Colour in the Face And as Beauty is the Adornment of Nature so is Art the Adornment of Beauty and this saith the Defendant against the Plaintiff But all Opinions have or most of them Sides and Factions but my Opinion is so far with the Defendant as I believe all Adotnments of Beauty are lawfull for Women if the Intention be good Yet I am utterly against the Art of Painting out of three respects The first is Dangerous for most Paintings are mixed with Mercury wherein is much Quicksilver which is of so subtil a malignant nature as it will fall from the Head to the Lungs and cause Consumptions and is the Cause of swelling about the Neck and Throat The next is that it is so far from Adorning as it Dis-figures for it will rot the Teeth dim the Eyes and take away both the Life and Youth of a Face which is the grea'est Beauty Thirdly and lastly the Sluttishness of it and especially in the Preparatives as Masks of Sear-Clothes which are not onely horrid to look upon in that they seem as Dead Bodies embowelled or embalmed but the Stink is Offensive Then the Pomatum and Pultis which are very uneasy to lye in wet and greasy and very unsavoury for all the while they have it on it presents to their Nose a Chandlers Shop or a greasy Dripping-pan so as all the time they fry as it were in Grease neither will their Perfumes mend it and their Oils And though I cannot say they live in Purgatory because they shun all hot places for they cannot have the comfortable heat of the Fire and shun the Natural heat of the Sun as they must live alwaies as if they were at the North Pole for fear the Heat should melt away their Oil and Oily Drops can be no grace to their Face Dry Painting shrivels up the Skin so as it imprints Age in their Face in filling it full of Wrinkles wherefore Paintings are both Dangerous Ill-favoured and Sluttish besides the troublesome pains But for other Adornments in Women they are to be commended as Curling Powdring Powncing Cloathing and all the Varieties of Accoutrement in that they have none of the said former Qualities but give a gracefull advantage to the Person Besides Dressing is the Poetry of Women in shewing the Fancyes and is the cause of imploying the greater part of a Commonwealth for in four parts three of them are in the Arts of Adornments for it is not onely Tailers Imbroyderers Perfumers Milleners Feather-makers Jewellers Mercers Silkmen Semsters Shoemakers Tiremen and many many more but every one of these Trades have many Trades belong to them as for example How many Trades belong from the Silk-worm to the Ladies Gown and from the Golden Mine to the Lace that is laid upon it and so in order to all other things which is the cause of keeping a Commonwealth in Union in busying and imploying their Minds which keeps them from Factious Thoughts and Designs Besides it distributes and spreads the Maintenance of the Kingdome for without particular Commerce and Trasick a Commonwealth cannot stand and subsist for though many a Commonwealth may subsist without the help of their Neighbours yet it cannot live without their own Imployment and Dividement among themselves for as some share in Lands so others in Offices and the rest in Trades wherein all trasick from the one to the other so that every Man lives by his Neighbour and not altogether upon himself Of Paleness and Blushing WHen a sudden Paleness seizeth the Face it shews a Guiltiness or some great Fear but a Blush will come into the Face many times when there is no occasion to raise it for it oftner proceeds from the Constitution of the Body than from a Guiltiness of the Mind for when the Blood is thin and the Spirits are hot they are apt to run up to the Face without the Minds consent or knowledge but when Blushing is raised by the Mind it is commonly from a Noble Suspicion that is
the Planets which move by degrees in their several Orbes some slower and some faster Ignorance is the total Eclips and violent Passions as dark Clouds that Viel the face thereof which is only seen by the shadowes but not in its full Glory Allegory 8. THE World is a Shopp which sells all manner of Commodities to the Soul and Senses the price are Good Actions and Bad for which they have Salvation or Damnation Peace or War Pleasure or Pain Delight or Grief Allegory 9. THE Earth is the great Merchant of the World trafficking with the Sun and the rest of the Planets whose Store-Houses are the several Regions from whence she fetches in Ships of attraction her several Commodities Heat and Moisture whereof she makes Life and sells it to several Creatures who pay her Death for the same Allegory 10. THE World is like the Sea and Life and Death the flowing and ebbing thereof Warrs are the Stormes that make it rough in Billows of Faction and the Tongues of Men by their loud Reports are as the Roating thereof but Peace is the Calm which makes it so smooth that the face of Tranquillity is seen therein Prosperity is the Sun which throwes its Beams of Plenty thereon but Adversity is as dark Clouds which hang full of Discontent and oft times fall in Showers of Desolation and Destruction Of the World Allegory 11. THE World is like a great City wherein is much Commerce through which runs a great Navigable River of Ambition Ebbing and Flowing with Hope and Doubt having Barks of Self-conceit floating thereon filled with Pride and Scorn and Merchants of Faction setting forth Ships of Trouble to bring in Power and Authority which Ships by the Storms of Warr are oft times rackt where all Happiness and Peace is drown'd in the Waves of Misery and Discontent but Silver Vows Gilded Promises and Golden Expectations make a glorious shew like a Goldsmiths Shop and though the Substance doth not waste yet it is often melted by cross accidents and forgetfullness and the fashions alter according to the Humours of the time Hard Hearts bold Faces feared Consciences and rash Actions are the Brass and Iron that make the Instruments of War Of Fortune Allegory 12. FOrtune is a Mountebank cozening and cheating Mankind acting upon the Stage of the World where Prosperity plaies the part of a Fool to allure the Multitude inticeing them to buy her Druggs of Follies and Vanities or Antidotes of Experience against her poysons of Miseries which Poysons are many times so strong that they kill having no remedy but she cares not so her Ware be sold whether they live or dye A man is like a Cabinet of Toies wherin are some false Drawers of deceit which none can discover to the view of the World but Prosperity and Adversity The Tongue is a Key which unlocks the door of the Ears and lets in Flattery as those that steal Affection from the Heart The Heart of a man is the Church of Controversie and the Tongue is the Sophisterian-Pricst which preacheth false Doctrin Allegory 13. IN the Head of man was a Diet call'd and Wit chosen Emperour he was an active Prince and so ingenious that he had Trade and Traffick not only with every kingdome but he made his advantage upon every Thing besides he kept his Kingdom in Peace setting his Subjects Thoughts on work lest they should become idle and so grow factious for want of imployment and somtimes to recreate them he makes Maskques and Plaies Balls and Songs to which they dance upon the feet of Numbers but if this Emperour did chance to make War upon his Neighbours he never went forth himself but sent his satyrical Jests out which march'd upon grounds of white paper arm'd with black ink and sighting with sharp words where most commonly they rout his Enemies with Scorn or kill them with Reproach and bury them with Infamy Allegory 14. THE several Brains of men are like to several Governments or Kingdomes the Monarchical Brain is where Reason rules as sole King and is inthron'd in the Chair of Wisedom which keeps the Vulgar Thoughts in Peace and Obedience not daring to rise up in Rebellious Passions but the Aristocratical Brain is where some Few but strong Opinions govern all the Thoughts these Governors most commonly are Tyrannical executing their Authority by Obstinacy but in the Republike Brain there is no certain Government nor setled Governour for the Power lies among the Vulgar Thoughts who are alwaies Placing and Displacing one while a vain Imagination is carried in the Chair of Ignorance and cryed up with applause by the idle and loose Thoughts and in a short time after thrown out with Accusation and Exclamation and afterwards executed upon the Block of Stupidity and so Conceptions of all sorts are most commonly served with the same sauce and if by chance they set up Reason or Truth they fare no better for the inconstant Multitude of Rude and Illiterate Thoughts displaces them again and off-times executes them upon the Scaffold of Injustice with the sword of Falshood Allegory 15. THE Head of Man is like a Wilderness where Thoughts as several Creatures live therein 25 Coveting Thoughs which hunt after our Appetites which never leave feeding untill their desires are satisfied or indeed they are glutted others so fearfull that every Object is apt to startle them and others so dull and slow like crawling Worms others so elevated like Birds they fly in Aery Imaginations and many above all possibility Allegory 16. MAN and the World do resemble much The Heart is like the Torrid Zone and the slame blazes there as the Sun which sends forth Raies through the Eyes that draw in Affections where some Objects are like the gross Vapours which gather into Clouds of Melancholy which darkens the resplendent lights of Joy quashes the natural Heat and nourisheth Humours wherewith the Health is impaired and the body becomes lean barren and cold but when the Heat of the Heart dissipates those Vapours it either turns into windy Throbs or Showers of Tears or thundring Grones or else it rarifies into a Christalline Tranquillity Allegory 17. THE Spirit Travells in Ships of Medium from the Kingdome of the Brain hoisting up the Sails of the eye-lids being well ballanced with clear sight puts forth from the Optick Port through the Haven of the round circle in the Ball and when it is full freighted with Objects returns and paies knowledge for Custome to the Soul its King whereby the Kingdome growes rich in Understanding besides the curiosity of Fancy But withall it fills the Kingdome full of vain Opinions which are able to Rebell with the Pride of Self-conceit Allegory 18. THE Brain is like a Perspective-glass and the Understanding is the Eye to discover the Truth Follies and Falshood in the World The Brain is like a Forest and the Thoughts as Passengers that travell therein making Inrodes and beating out Paths And when the Brain is very dry
feed on Melancholy Of Translation Essay 138. WE are given much in this latter Age to Translation and though Translation is a good Work because it doth not only divulge good Authors but distributes Knowledge to the unlearned in Languages yet Translators are but like those that shew the Tombs at Westminster or the Lyons at the Tower which is but to be an Informer not the Owner of them Essay 139. ALthough Accidents give the Ground to some Arts yet they are rude and uneasy untill the Brain hath polished them over True it is the Senses most commonly give the Brain the matter to work on yet the Brain forms and figures those Materials and disperses them abroad to the use of the World by the Senses again for as they came in at the Ear and the Eye or the Taste Sent and Touch so they are delivered out by the Tongue and Hands Essay 140. IT is worthy the Observation to regard the odd Humours of Mankind how they talk of Reason and follow the way thereof so seldome for men may as easily set Rules to Eternity as to themselves for the Mind is so intricate and subtil that we may as soon measure Eternity as It. Of Dilation and Retention Essay 141. A Dilation causeth as much weakness as Contraction Dilation causeth weakness by the Disuniting the United Forces and setting them at too great a Distance and Contraction binds them up too hard not giving as we vulgarly say Elbow room The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART III. Of the Britains THE Britains of England were a Valiant People but that they had not skill of Arms answerable to their Courage as the Romans had yet Caesar and all the Emperours could not conquer that Island in so short a time as Alexander had conquered most part of the World therefore it seems their Courage was great since their Skill was less and could make it to the Romans so difficult a Work For Britain was like a Body dis joynted or rather separated Limb from Limb for it was not joyned in one Body but divided amongst many Petty Kings which made it weak for being not united the Body hath little power without the Legs do uphold and the Eyes do direct and the Arms do defend it is an easy thing to throw down a Criple but it was a sign the Spirit was strong in this Criple that could resist so long against a Giant as the Romans were Therefore Britain was worthy of Praise since their Courages defended them so long Of King James KIng James was so great a Lover of Peace that rather than he would lose the Delights of Peace he would lye under the Infamy of being thought Timorous for in that it was thought he had more Craft than Fear Of Queen Elizabeth QUeen Elizabeth reigned long and happy and though she cloathed her self in a Sheeps skin yet she had a Lions paw and a Foxes head she strokes the Cheeks of her Subjects with Flattery whilst she picks their Purses and though she seemed loth yet she never failed to crush to death those that disturbed her waies Her Favourites for Sport she would be various to sometimes in Favour and sometimes out of Favour as Essex Leicester Ralegh Hatton and the like But she stuck close to her old Counsellors and Favourites Burleigh Walsingham and the rest Neither did the first Favourites get so much as the last Ralegh got not so much as Burleigh did some may say because they spent more they laid up less but vain Favourites get more Enemies to themselves and Hatred to their Princes than Profit to themselves for the sight of their Vanities makes the People remember their Taxes and think that their Prince hath posed from their Purses to maintain their Vanities and their Prince thinks they have given them more because they shew what they have and many times more than they have But the Wisest save and lay it up till the Envy is past and the Tax forgot But Queen Elizabeth maintained more forein Wars at one time than any of her Predecessors before her and yet without the Grievance of the People for it was not so much out of their Purses as the Prizes she got by Sea for though the King of Spain had the Honour of being Master of the Indies yet the Queen of England had the Honour of being Mistris of the Sea so her Ships were her Mines to maintain her War against him Of King Henry the Eighth KIng Henry the Eighth was a Politick Prince for as Favourites make use of their Prince so he made use of his Favourites for when they could do him no more service he turned them over to the Hangman to satisfie his People and those that he favoured had the blame with the punishment and he received the profit He was not like Edward the Second for his Favourites cost him his Crown and Life I observe that soft natures are apt to be crusht and very hard natures are apt to be broken in governing therefore severe but not cruel mercifull or kind but not credulous reign happiest But Henry the Eighth spent great Sums of Money as that which his Father left him and that which he had out of France then the vast Sums he raised out of Monasteries yet no great advantage redounded to his Kingdome But his Expence was much to keep Peace abroad by making Friends in those Kingdomes that were fallen out But most commonly those that strive to make Peace amongst others bring War to themselves although I cannot say he had much War Of pulling down of the Monasteries in Henry the Eighths time SOme wonder that Henry the Eighth did pull down and destroy so many Monasteries as were in England which had stood so long without Opposition but it was likely that the Opposition could not be great for first the People were perswaded in some part by the Doctrine of Luther to dislike the Tyrannie of the Pope for first it eased their Purses and their Persons the one from Peter-pence and the like and the other from hard Penance the next the Gentry and the Nobles thought of the gaining of the Houses and Lands and Liberty the King for the bulk of their Wealth so the King Nobility and Commons and all had ends in it and where the King follows the Commons an Innovation is easy or I may say an Innovation is easy where the King follows the People Of Justice in Commonwealths IT is to be observed that there is little Piety or Justice in Cities or Countryes or Nations that are overgrown with Prosperity or oppressed with Adversity for Prosperity makes them so proud as they are as it were above Justice and Adversity doth so deject them as they grow careless of Justice so that either way they grow into Barbarism But as Virtue is a Mean betwixt two Extremes so it keeps in the Mean in all Estates the Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance and the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude Of Henry the Seventh IT was
were carried many hundred miles let them be but loose and at their Liberty and they will return to their first Habitation wherefore they are forced to muffle many Creatures that they may not see which way they go because they should not know how to return Then that they are not Sociable nor delight in Society but we see they will play and sport with one another and Sheep love Company so well that they will not thrive nor grow but where there are great Flocks of them together Then that they have not Fancy but we see that Nightingales have great Fancy in the variety of their Tones and Notes and their Invention in many things beyond the Invention of Man Thus there is no Virtue nor Vice as Men call them but may be found in other Creatures as well as man but only we give our Knowledge proper Names and those none Again they say there is no War nor Tyranny in other Creatures or Animals but man yet certain there are many other Animals more Tyrannical Cruell even to their own kind than man and will take as heavy a Revenge one upon another and love Superiority and Power will not the Cocks fight as fiercely and cruelly one with another for Preheminency as men so Bulls against Bulls They say men have Command over Beasts but it is as some men have Command over others that is when they have more Power as Strength of Body or advantage of help either of Numbers Place or Time The Actions of Beasts THough Beasts be apter for some Actions than Men yet they are not made capable to exercise all in general as Running Leaping Jumping Drawing Driving Heaving Holding Staying Darting Digging Striking Grasping Cutting Peircing Diving Rowling Wreathing or Twisting Backwards Forwards Sideway Upward Downward turning their Joints any way as man can do Besides what curious Motions can Man move his Fingers to and what subtill Measures his Feer which no other Creature can do the like Thus every Member of Man is prompt ready and fitted for Action which makes him so industrious and inventive as he becomes so proud thereby that he thinks himself a petty God and yet all his Excellency lies in his Outward Shape which is not compleat but all his Inward is like to Beasts Wherefore Beasts might have been as capable as man if his outward Shape had been according so that one may almost think that the Soul is the outward Figure of a mans Body Of Birds ALL Birds are full of Spirit and have more ingenious Fancies than Beasts as we may see by their curious building of their Nests in providing for their Young in avoiding great Storms in choosing the best Seasons as by shifting their Habitation and in their flying in a pointed Figure which cuts or peirceth the Air which makes the Passage easy and so in many other things of the like Nature But the Reason seems to be because the chief Region they live in which is Air is pure and serene when Beasts live altogether on the Earth where the Air about is more Grosse by reason of continual thick Vapours that issue out but the Region wherein Birds fly is clarified by the Sun which makes the spirits of Birds more refined subtill and more lively or chearfull For all Beasts are heavy and dull in comparison of Birds having not Wings to fly into the serene Air But Beasts seem to have as much solid Judgement as clear Understandings as Birds and as providently carefull of their Subsistence and safty both for their Young and themselves as Birds But Birds have more Curiosity Fancy and Chearfullness than Beasts or indeed than Men for they are alwaies chirping and singing hopping and flying about but Beasts are like Grave Formal and Solid Common-Wealths-men and Birds like elevated Poets Of the Wooing of Beasts and Birds IT is not only the Spring time that makes Birds sing and chatter but it is their Wooing and striving to please their Mistrisses and Lovers for most Creatures keep a Noise and Dance when they Wooe as striving to express their Affections for the Noise of other Creatures is as much as making Verses by Men to their Mistrisses for those Noises are the several Languages to expresse themselves whereby they understand one another as Men. Of Passions THE Passions of the Mind are like the Humours of the Body for all Bodies have Choler Melancholy and Flegm nor could it be nourished without them so the Mind hath many Passions which without would be like a Stone so that there is no Humour of the Body or Passion of the Mind but is good if moderately bounded and properly placed but it is the Excess of the Humours and Passion that destroies the Body and Mind but the equal Ingredients of Humours make a strong Body and an equal Composure of Passions makes a Happy and a Noble Mind Of Appetite and Passion ALL natural Appetites are within Limits and all unnatural Appetites are without Limit and there is nothing more against Nature than Violence wherefore Man is the greatest Enemy to Nature for natural Passion or Action or Appetite are not Violent Violence being Artificial or Extravagant not Natural which is caused by Imagination Opinions Examples and Conversation which perswade Man to those Appetites which Violence doth work upon Of Like and Dislike WEE receive Like and Dislike as soon as we receive our Senses which is Life for when a Child is quick in the Womb Pain grieves it and Ease pleaseth it but Like and Dislike are not perfect Passions for though they are the Foundation of Love and Hate from which all Passions spring by the old Opinions yet are they not perfect Love or Hate Besides there is a difference betwixt Love Liking and Fondness for although Love hath a liking and is fond of what it placeth it self upon yet Liking and Fondness have not alwaies Love for true Love is unalterable when the other two are subject to Variety for true Love is lead by Reason and strengthened by Virtue Of Self-Love SElf love is the ground from whence springs all Indeavours and Industry Noble Qualities Honorable Actions Friendships Charity and Piety and is the cause of all Passions Affections Vices and Virtues for we do nothing or think not of any thing but hath a reference to our selves in one kind or other either in things Divine Humane or Natural for if we part with Life which is the chiefest good to Mankind it is because we think in Death there is lesse Pain than in Life without that we part with Life for and if we endure Torment which is worse than Death for any Thing or Opinion it is because our Delight of what we suffer for is beyond all Pains which Delight proceeds from Self-Love and Self-Love is the strongest Motion of the Mind for it strives to attract all Delight and gathers together like the Sun Beams in one Point as with a Glass wherewith it sets all one fire So Self-Love infires the Mind
Nature should perfectly understand and absolutely know her self because she is Infinite much less can any of her Works know her yet it doth not follow that nothing can be known As for example There are several parts of the World discovered yet it is most likely not all nor may be never shall be yet most think that all the World is found because Drake and Cavendish went in a Circular Line untill they came to that place from whence they set out at first and I am confident that most of all Writers thought all the World was known unto them before the West-Indies were discovered and the Man that discovered it in his Brain before he travelled on the Navigable Sea and offered it to King Henry the Seventh was slighted by him as a Foolish Fellow nor his Intelligence believ'd and no question there were many that laugh'd at him as a Vain Fool others pity'd him as thinking him Mad and others scorned him as a Cheating Fellow that would have cosened the King of England of a Sum of Money but the Spanish Queen being then wiser than the rest imployed him and adventured a great Sum of Money to set him forth in his Voyage which when the Success was according to the Mans Ingenious Brain and he had brought the Queen the discovery of the Golden and Silver Mines for the Spanish Pistols Then other Nations envyed the King of Spain and like a Company of Dogs which fought for a Bone went together by the Ears to share with him So the Bishop that declared his opinion of the Antipodes was not onely cryed down and exclaimed against by the Vulgar which hate all Ingenuity but Learned Sages stood up against him and the Great and Grave Magistrates condemned him as an Atheist for that Opinion and for that reason put him from his Bishoprick and thought he had Favour in that his Life was spared which Opinion hath since been found true by Navigators But the Ignorant Unpracticed Brains think all Impossible that is not known unto them But put the Case that many went to find that which can never be found as they say Natural Philosophy is yet they might find in the search that they did not seek nor expect which might prove very beneficial to them Or put the case ten thousand should go so many waies to seek for a Cabinet of pretious Jewels and all should miss of it but one shall that one be scorn'd and laugh'd at for his Good Fortune or Industry this were a great Injustice But Ignorance and Envy strive to take off the gloss of Truth if they cannot wholly overthrow it But I and those that write must arm our selves with Negligence against Censure for my part I do for I verily believe that Ignorance and present Envy will slight my Book yet I make no question when Envy is worn out by Time but Understanding will remember me in after Ages when I am changed from this Life But I had rather live in a General Remembrance than in a Particular Life The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART II. Of Philosophy THere have been of all Nations that have troubled their Heads and spent the whole time of their Lives in the study of Philosophy as Natural and Moral the first is of little or no use onely to exercise their Opinions at the guessing at the Causes of Things for know them they cannot the last is a Rule to a strict Life which is soon learned but not so soon practiced as they have made it in the dividing it into so many and numerous parts having but four chief Principles as Justice Prudence or Providence Fortitude and Temperance Justice is but to consider what one would willingly have another to do to him the same to do to another which is the beginning of a Commonwealth Prudence or Providence is to observe the Effect of Things and to compare the past with the present as to guess and so to provide for the Future Fortitude is to suffer with as little Grief as one can and to act with as little Fear Now Temperance is something harder as to abate the Appetites and moderate our Passions for though there are but two principal ones as Love and Hate yet there are abstracted from them so many as would take up a Long Life to know them after the strict Rules of Temperance But indeed it is as impossible to be justly Temperate as to know the first Causes of all Things as for example A Man loseth a Friend and the Loser must grieve so much as the merit of the Loss deserves and yet no more than will stand with his Constitution which in many is impossible For some their Constitution is so weak that the least Grief destroys them so that of Necessity he must needs be Intemperate one way either for the not sufficient Grief for the merit of his Friend or too little care for himself So for Anger a Man must be no more angry than the Affront or any Cause of his Anger doth deserve and who shall be Judge since there is no Cause or Act that hath not some Partiality on its side and so in all Passions and Appetites there may be said the like Therefore he that can keep himself from Extravagancy is temperate enough But there are none that are more intemperate than Philosophers first in their vain Imaginations of Nature next in the difficult and nice Rules of Morality So that this kind of Study kils all the Industrious Inventions that are beneficial and Easy for the Life of Man and makes one sit onely to dye and not to live But this kind of Study is not wholly to be neglected but used so much as to ballance a Man though not to fix him for Natural Philosophy is to be used as a Delight and Recreation in Mens Studies as Poetry is since they are both but Fictions and not a Labour in Mans Life But many Men make their Study their Graves and bury themselves before they are dead As for Moral Philosophy I mean onely that part that belongs to every particular Person not the Politick that goeth to the framing of Commonwealths as to make one Man live by another in Peace without which no Man can enjoy any thing or call any thing his own for they would run into Hostility though Community of Men will close into a Commonwealth for the Safety of each as Bees and other Creatures do that understand not Moral Philosophy nor have they Grave and Learned Heads to frame their Commonwealths NAture is the great Chymist of the World drawing out of the Chaos several Forms and extracted Substances the gross and thicker part goeth to the forming of Solid Bodies the Fume to Air and Water the thinnest part to Fire and Light the Sense or Spirits to Life Of Naturalists NAturalists that search and seek for hidden Causes are like Chymists that search for the Philosophers Stone wherein they find many excellent and profitable Medicines but not the Elixar So Naturalists
the thinnest Air be so hard and so solidly froze as water which is of a grosser Body Man and Beast would be smothered for want of Breath as Fishes are in great Frosts yet many Creatures of the Earth are frozen to death not only by having their Limbs Conjealed Benummed and Dead destroying the Natural Motions therin for surely the thinnest Air being congealed they can get none to serve for Breath that is there is none fit to move the Lungs for though some Creatures Lungs require grosser Air than others and some a finer yet Man and Beast I observe require a middle temper or mixture for too thin Air is as unusefull as too grosse so for the Temper too hot is as hurtfull as too cold the one scalds or burns the Lungs the Brain and the rest of the inward parts or sets the Spirits on fire the other benumbs and stupifies them at least obstructs them but when the Air is putrified and corrupted it mingles with the thinner Parts as the Humours the Blood and the like causing corrupted Diseases and putrifyed Limbs but as I said the Spring Vapour which is the rising Vapour is like the Beesting Milk so the Vapour in Autumn which is the falling Vapour is like Cheese that is ill prest or too moist kept which corrupts and breeds Maggots so Vapour being not well clarified or concocted by the Sun becomes Malignant Of several sorts of Vapour THere are many sorts of Vapours according to the several tempets of those parts of the Earth they are drawn from but when they are drawn to such a height they all mix yet seldom so but that some sort may predominate whether salt Vapour sharp Oil bitumenous waterish or grosse and Earthy as dull and heavy or more light and Aery Thus the Sun as I say draws and mixes boils and clarifies Vapours but if there be more than his Heat can overcome they corrupt and fall back and that which is thinnest and purest it turns into serene Air the Crude and Flatuous part it turns into Wind the Watery part into Rain the Bitumenous part into Thunder the Oily part into Lightning or Meteors the Scum into Clouds which servs as wicks of Candles to take Light the corrupted part insensibly falls back to the Earth again But when the Malignity of the Earth and the corruption of the Air and the distempered Humours of Bodies join together it causeth great and horrible Plagues making a general Malignity and untill this Malignity hath spent its strength with struggling and striving with the strength of Life it never ceaseth and at the last it grows fainter and fainter untill it hath no Power The several Degrees or several sorts of Vapour AS there is a natural Heat and a natural Moisture proper and inherent in every animal Body so there is a natural Vapour that is produced therefrom as a right and natural begotten Child Or like Chymistrie where Fire extracts from grosser Bodies several degrees of Matter as Smoak Oil Essence Water Salt and Incipid Dreggs so the Natural Heat on Food received extracts Vapour Fat Blood Spirits Sweat Humours and Excrements Now if the Heat be of an equal temper and the Limbeck which is the Stomach free from Defects the Digestion is good which makes the Extraction pure and effectual now the thinnest but strongest Extractions are the Animal or Vital Spirits the next thinnest and most powerfull is the Vapour which Vapour is that which reposeth the Senses and feedeth the Brain nourishing Imagination Conception and Understanding and the like and is the Creator of Fancy and Phantasms the Grosser part of Vapour is a Smoak that continually issueth out through the Pores and the like open passages which Smoak is a superfluity that serves for no use but may do Mischief if it be stopt choaking and smothering Life or at least causeth such Distempers as may disorder the whole Body but the Animal spirit indeed is a Vapour which proceeds from the Radical Heat and Moisture of the Body wherin if the Heat be too violent or the Moisture too gross Quenches or Burns them up and the Reposing Vapour proceeds from the Natural digesting Heat and Moisture that is in the Body and the Superfluous Vapour or Smoak proceeds from the actual Heat or Moisture put into the Body by violent Motions or hot Weather or hot Meats or moist Meats or much Meat or Drink When these Vapours join to the Natural Vapours of Repose they cause as it were dead sleeps as we see by those that have out Eat or Drank their Natural Temper for though much eating will many times hinder Sleep by reason it makes the Vapour so gross that it cannot easily flow yet much Drinking never fails for a drunken man will be so strongly asleep that he cannot be awaked but indeed the Senses will be drunk as well as the Brain which causeth them to be as if they were asleep but are not only their Strength is for a time taken away as being Slack'd or rather as it were drown'd but when strong sleep is produced by overmuch eating it is rather an Epilepsie than a natural Sleep the Brain being as it were almost sinothered with the thick and full Smoak and the Senses choaked or strangled therewith and so will the Senses be in these Distempers untill they are dispersed or rarified either by Time Motion or natural Heat but Temperance causeth sweet natural and healthfull Sleeps being a Vapour that ariseth from a good Digestion caused by a Natural Heat and Moisture for when the Stomach is too empty it hinders Sleep as much as when it is too full Of Thunder AS Winds make the Cloudes in the Air and the Waves of the Sea to War and make a Noise by the beating thereon so it makes Thunder for Thunder is nothing in my apprehension but Winds beating upon Christling Drops which is Water congealed in the middle Region for Cold knits the Porous Body into a more Solid and Winds that are made by Rarification give it Motion which motion makes it powerfull and when this Wind is got above the lower Region and flies about it it drives those Christling Drops against one another and makes such a Noise as the Roaring of the Sea only it is a harder Noise if we observe which is because the Water is Christling in the middle Region and not in the Sea and if we observe the harder the Thunder-Claps are the less it rains and the more it rains the lesser are the Claps and according as the heat of the Sun melts and dissolves the Christling Bodies more or less it rains Of the Motions of the Planets THE Spherical Planets are the Wheels to draw up Vapours from the Earth and the Sun as a thirsty Throat is refreshed thereby Besides every particular Planet feeds upon each other though not Corporally as many other Creatures do but draw and suck as from each others Breast Of Thunder some little difference to the former THE reason why it'doth not
Night piece for it wants the Sun of Rhetorick to make it a Glorious Day The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART III. Much Praise makes a Physician think himself Learned IT is a strange thing to see into what great Errours Men will run as suppose a Person shall find out or have it by Receipt a rare Medicine as to cure one Disease which is curable and for the Fame of this one Medicine shall have a whole Country flock to him for Medicines for their several Diseases and shall not be perswaded from it and at last perswade him as Self-love is easily perswaded to practice that he hath no skill in and so kill more by his Ignorance than his Medicine can qure by its Virtue Of Physicians IT is almost impossible for all Physicians to know all Diseases and their Remedies as they prosess to do by their general Practices for we find to learn a mean Art it is the study and service of seven Years and certainly it is much more difficulty to know Diseases which are like Faces not any one alike Besides Diseases lye so hid in the Body of an Animal as they are never perfectly known but guess'd at and to know the Cure of a Disease is as hard as to know the Disease and indeed we can never know a perfect Cure unless we could know the undoubted Cause But Physicians should watch as Philosophers the Stars with Observations and in time they may guess so well as seldom to fail of a Remedy Wherfore it were good that every particular Physician should be bound by a Law to study onely a single Disease and the Cure thereof and not to confound their Brains with tearms and names of Diseases and to kill the Patient by being ignorant of the Cause But let every Disease go to a proper Physician for though there be a multitude of Diseases yet there are more Physicians but such is the sad Condition that they rather adventure to Chance or Luck than Skill for Diseases are like several Countenances in Faces though there be one and the same kinds of Faces as Man-kind Horse-kind and Cow-kind yet every Horse-face is not alike nor every Mans Face is not alike so Diseases as Pox-kind and Plague-kind and Feaver-kind yet all Feavers are not alike nor Plagues nor Pox for they are different in degrees wherefore one and the same Medicine will not cure one kind of Disease but the Medicine must differ as the Disease for as the Countenance of the Disease changeth so must the Medicine But it is harder to take the degrees of Diseases than to draw a Picture to the Life for it is hard to know in what Degree a Disease is in But the Second Part of my Philosophical Fancies will treat more at large of Diseases and their Cures The Motion of the Blood THE most Renowned and most Learned Physician Doctor Harvey hath found out the Circulation of the Blood by his industrious study so methinks it should be very beneficial towards the health of Man to find out the Motion of the Blood as it runs whether it hath one intermixing Motion as it runs or whether the Blood doth not do as the Water seems to do which going in a swift source where the following Drops are as great Strangers to the leading Drops as the situation of either Pole for though the hinder Drops press forwards and drive on the former like Crouds of People one shuffling another yet they do not seem to intermix or incorporate but rather seem to break and divide into parts for if they should intermix and incorporate one drop into another their intermixing Motion would hinder their running Motion so much as it would be scarce perceivable how it went forward and if the Blood do not intermix then some Veins may have foul and corrupted Blood and some very pure Blood which we many times see which makes me think it doth not intermix if so we may take out our good Blood and leave our bad behind us not knowing where the Corrupted Blood lyeth and this Corrupted Blood may infect the Vital Parts as it runs along This makes some that when they let Blood in Feavers they are never the better because that Vein was not open where it lay so that Physicians had better strike two or three Veins and venture the loss of Good Blood than miss the Bad for it may corrupt all the rest though not by intermixing yet by corrupting the Liver as it floweth Of letting Blood THere are more Diseases come in having too much Blood than too little for when the Veins are too full the Blood hath no liberty to run out and for want of Motion corrupts which Corruption bursts out into Small-Pox Fistaloes Kings Evils and many such like Diseases But if the Humour thrusts not Outwards it corrupts the Inward Parts as the Liver the Lungs or else breeds Imposthumes and many such Diseases But if there be much Blood and thin then by the agitation it grows hot or else by the many Spirits in much Blood it begets too much Motion Motion Heat and Heat and Motion fires the Blood and inflames the Spirits which causeth Feavers of all sorts Frenzies and Consumptions for there may be as well too much Motion in the Body as too little But when the Parts of the Body are congeal'd or tyed up with Cold then the Blood cannot run nor the Spirits work but Motion ceaseth and the ceasing of Natural Motion is Death Or if the Blood run too fast about and the Spirits work too hard by reason of too much Heat they wast out themselves by reason of too much Labour and so are worn out like the Wheels of a Clock for the Clock ceaseth to go when the Wheels are broken Of Diet. THere is nothing preserves Health more and lengthens Life than due and just proportion of Diet according to the strength of the Stomack for one should eat so that the Body should feed upon the Meat and not the Meat to feed upon the Body as it doth with those that eat more than they can digest for the Superfluity makes Slough and Slime in the Body which Slime drowns the Spirits slackens the Nerves corrupts the Blood and weakens the Body besides it bringeth many Diseases Neither should one eat so little as to let the Body feed upon it self for much Fasting dryes the Blood heats the Body and fires the Spirits which Fire once getting into the Arteries is seldome or never cured being a Hective Feaver But it is as hard to know a just proportion to the strength of the Stomack as to keep it when they know it This Knowledge comes by observing the Stomack for at some times the Stomack requires more than at other times although the Appetite may be less when the Stomack is empty or it is requirable to give it more for some have such weak Appetites as they sterve their Bodies because they would not displease their Tast or else eat such things as
it Imperfect it will continue so for Nature is like a Clay Potter that if his Pot be made awry if once confirmed and hardened with Heat he cannot alter it Of the Sickness in the Spring THE Reason there are more sick in the Spring than in the Winter is that the Pores of the Body being closer shut in Winter by the Contraction of the Cold than in any other Season keeps in the Fire the Smoke and Vapour that should and would if it could issue out But the Parts being stopp'd having not a sufficient Vent to transport a proportionable Quantity it lyes and corrupts for want of Agitation the Quantity increasing it overcharges the Body that by such time the Spring is arrived the Body is so distempered as it falls sick the Corruption having bred a Malignity that infects the Noble Parts For the Body having more Vapour than the Natural Heat can digest makes it not onely corrupt for want of a sufficient Heat to purifie it but that Corruption quenches out the Natural Heat which causeth Agues and begets an Unnatural Heat which causeth Feavers and the like Diseases and the Corruption causeth the Small-Pox Meazels Imposthumes Soar Throats and many such kinds of Diseases But when this Distemper of the Body is joyned to the like Corrupted Vapours drawn from the Earth it is most commonly deadly and produceth great Plagues the Summer following the Body being then like Rotten Wood which is quickly set on Fire and soon burnt out But if the Body hath a Sufficiency of Natural Heat to clarifie the Vapour that arises from the Stomack and Bowels and to dry up the Superfluous Moysture the Body is safe from Danger but if the Body have more Heat than Moysture it feeds upon the Noble Parts and causeth Hective Feavers But Hective Feavers are seldome cured by the stoppage of the Pores for the Natural Heat in the Body is like External Fire which is extinguished if it be stopp'd and hath not Vent But there are several sorts or kinds or manners of Unnatural Heat caused by Obstructions and other Accidents as there is a Smothering Heat in the Body caused by Obstructions and there is a Smoking Heat of the Body caused by too violent External Motions or such Meats that actually heat also a Fiery Heat in the Body caused by too much and too strong Interior Motion but these Heats that are Moyst Heats and Unnatural cause Corruption Of the Sickness in Autumn THE Reason there is more Sickness in Autumn than in Summer is that the Powers of the Sun abating let fall by degrees all the Dregs and Dross of that Vapour it drew up from the Earth when it was in its full Strength which having more power to draw than to digest the Superfluity corrupts which Corruption falls back upon the Earth infecting the Air also the Bodies of Men and many times Beasts yet the Infection is received or infects according as the Bodies are tempted For if the Bodies are full of Humours and the Blood corrupt the Air is apt to catch hold as having a Sympathy each to other for as the old Proverb is Like will to like and those Bodies and also those Meats that are moyst are most apt to corrupt for Heat and Moysture are said to be the Father and Mother to Curruption which causeth those that eat much Fruits and Herbs in the Summer time to fall into Fluxes and Feavers and the like Diseases in the Autumn for those Humours that are bred in the Summer the Body strives to cast forth in Autumn like a Child birth for when the Humours are come to such a Growth the Body is in travel with painfull Throbs and strives to be delivered where some are soon delivered of their Burthen others dye in their Labour Diseases of the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter THE Diseases in the Spring are Agues Small-Pox Meazels Imposthumes and the beginning of Plagues for all the Malignity that was tunn'd up in the Body in the Winter is set abroch in the Spring by the returning Sun whose Beams though weak yet peirce like small Gimlets or Spiggots all the Pores of the Earth and the Creatures thereon The Diseases in the Summer are Phrenzies by reason the Heat burns and inflames the Spirits and Plagues by reason the Heat inflames those Malignant and Corrupted Humours that the Winter hath bred by Obstructions like Houses that are musty and fusty and smoky and foul for want of Air to sweeten them and full of Spiders and Cobwebs and Flyes and Moths bred from the dusty dirty Filth therein for want of Vent to purge them for the Winter shuts up all the Windows and Dores which are the Pores likewise the Blood corrupts and the Body is apt to rot like Linnen that is laid up damp or in a moyst place for the Rheums that are subject to be in the Winter corrupt and rot the Lungs and the Vital Parts of the Body likewise Sweatings and Faintings are Summer-diseases by reason the Natural Moysture is rarified so thin and the Pores open so wide as it evaporates all out even the Radical Moysture and the Vital Spirits issue out therewith The Diseases of Autumn are Fluxes by reason the Summer breeds sharp Humours with the Heat and the Drought besides the Diets of Men are crude and raw in that Season as eating of Fruits Roots Herbs and the like Also this Season is subject to Meagrums and Feavers which are also caused by sharp Humours likewise Head-akes and Vomitings caused by sharp Chorerick Humours which the Summer Diet breeds likewise Plurisies that are caused by burnt or corrupted Blood which is bred by too much Heat or an Unnatural Heat and a Supersluity of Moysture also Collicks by reason the Summer rarifies the Vapours into Wind which causeth not onely in the Bodies of Men great Collicks but in the Bowels of the Earth which causeth Earthquakes and great Tempestuous Winds in the Air for in this Season of the Year there are greater Winds than in any Season and hold the longest for though in March when the Pores of the Earth are first opened as I may say by the returning Sun whereupon the thinnest Matter will first fly out yet those Winds are neither so strong so long nor so frequent as those in Autumn The Diseases of the Winter are Coughs and Rheums by reason the Pores being closer drawn and the Air grosser and thicker in Winter it doth as it were daub rather up like Morter upon a Wall that hath Holes and Crevises than enter in which causeth a closer Stoppage which Stoppage causeth Dew and Distillations for the Heat and Moysture stewing together the Body becomes like a Still or rather like a Pot or Vessel that is close covered which hath Meat or some Liquid Substance in it where by Heat the Moysture thereof is rarified into Vapour and ascending to the Cover and at the Top as the Cover thereon finding a Depress straight gathers into a Dew and so into Drops then
falls having a sufficient Vent like Showers of Rain where some run through the Pipes of the Nostrils othersome through the Gutter of the Throat and some fall streight down on the Stomack as the Earth for as it is the Nature of Vapour to spread and to ascend as being Light and Thin so it is the Nature of Water to descend or to run streight forth by reason it is more Solid and Weightier likewise Likewise Coughs are Followers and Attendants of Rheums which by tickling those Parts where it falls or trickles along causeth a straining and so a coughing though many times Wind produceth the same Effect by a tickling touch Also Sneezing is an Attendant to Rheum and Wind and causing a tickling on the Brain or in the Nose for indeed Sneezing is nothing but a Cough through the Nose as through the Throat Likewise Tooth-aches are caused by Rheums for the Rheum falling thereon rots the Bones or makes Holes therein like as Water continually dropping on a hard Stone works a Passage thorow Also Soar Throats are caused by Rheums but that is when the Rheum is sharp or salt Then Winter is subject to cause Apoplexies Lethargies numb Palsies and Gangrenes that are caused by the stoppage of the Pores which as I said are not only drawn closer by Cold which makes the Skin thicker and harder but by the gross and thin Air which is contracted into a more Solid Body by Cold. Thus the breathing Passages of the Body being stopp'd there flyes up so much grosser Vapours to the Head as choaks the Brain and smothers the Vital Spirits there and the Body having less Vent in Winter than in Summer grows so full of Humours as obstructs the Nerves and Muscles with cold clammy or hard baked Flegm as they cannot stir with a sensible Motion for in the Nerves and Muscles doth the Sense of Touching live and where they cease from moving those Parts are dead and numm'd Gangrenes are produc'd by the benumming of the Spirits as when the Spirits are congeal'd to Ice which causeth in very cold Countryes as Russia or the like to have their Noses and Fingers fall off from their Faces and Hands Likewise if the Spirits are quenched out with too much Moysture or their Motions hindered by some Obstruction or as it were corrupted by some Blow Bruise or Wound those Parts for want of Lifes Motion gangrene and so rot off Likewise Fistaloes are subject to this Season because this Season being subject to breed Rheums of all Sorts and Natures according as the Humours are in the Body so it breeds that sharp Rheum which makes Fistaloes for that Humour is as sharp as Vitriol or Aqua fortis and it doth in the Body as Vitriol and Aqua fortis doth on Metal running about and eating holes quite thorow Also this Season is subject to hard white Swellings bred by cold clammy or tough Humours The Stone and the Gout reign in every Season but not in every Age for though Children have the Stone many times yet seldome or never the Got But the Gout although it s not the Stone in the Toe yet it is an Humour which is of the Nature of Lime which is somewhat of a Brimstony Hard Dry Bitumenous Humour Of Cold and Hot Diseases A Cold Disease is apter for Cure than a Hot for Cold Diseases are like Raw Flesh that the Frost hath gotten hold of and makes it unlike it self by reason of the Ice hardning of it but Warmness dissolves it and then it comes to it self again but by Excessive Heat it is as if one should boyl or rost a piece of Flesh for when a piece of Flesh is boyled rosted baked or the like one shall never make it as it was which is to be raw again Of Apoplexies and the like AN Apoplexy is a dead Palsie in the Brain and a Lethargy a numb Palsie in the Brain And the reason many times why dead and numb Palsies when it takes them on one Side ruin the Legs or Arms and yet live is because it hath not touched the Vital Parts which is caused by some Obstruction in the Veins or some of the Nerves which either is by gross and thick Blood or hard and crusted Flegm or cold and clammy Flegm But if it be in the Head which we call Apoplexies it is either caused by a Cold Humour in the Brain which doth as it were congeal and freez up the Spirits or by a Malignant Vapour proceeding from the Stomack or Bowels which Vapour choaks or smothers up the Spirits And indeed the greatest Enemy to the Brain is the Vapour that proceeds from the Ill-affected Bowels or Stomack for Vapour being Smoke ascends upward to the Head which is the Chimney of the Body where the Smoke vents out for the Bowels may be compared to the Hearth the Stomack to the Pot or Furnace the Meat to the Fuel the Heart to the Fire or Flame which is fed by the Liver or Oily Substance the Lungs the Bollows to keep it alive the Head as I said the Chimney to gather up the Smoke the Nose Mouth and Ears the Tunnels from whence it issues out for if the Nose and Mouth be stopped the Fire of Life goeth out and not having Reviving Air it is choked with its own Smoke for though the Pores of the Body do evaporate some of the Smoke yet that is onely the thin and subtiller Part but if the Pores of the Body be stopped by a Cold the Body shall grow Feaverish with it so that many times it sets the House on Fire and when the Head is Idle and Frantick it is because the Head which is the Chimney-top is set on Fire by the Feaver but the Vapour that ascends to the Head is either a great Friend or Enemy to the Wit for a Gross Vapour chokes the Wit a Thin Sharp Vapour quickens it a Cold Vapour congeals it a Hot Vapour inflames it and several sorts of Vapour make variety of Wit and the several Figures and Works and Forms that that Vapour which is a Smoke raiseth up cause several Imaginations and Fancies by giveng several Motions to the Brain Of a Feaver A Feaver is like a Stack of Hay that is laid up half wet and half dry This Moysture and Drought being met together strive for Preheminency the Drought would drink up the Moysture and the Moysture would dissolve the Drought and if their Strength be equal and the Strife be without intermission the Stack is set on Fire caused by an equal swift continuated Motion which consumes all if it be not quenched out by a fresh Recruit of Moysture for Drought takes the part of Fire being the Child of Heat which Heat is the Child of Fire and so is the Grandmother of Drought Thus a Feaver is caused by the Humours of the Body which being not well tempered sets the Barn which is the Body on Fire by the Corruption therein for Heat and Moysture are the Parents to
Nose which causeth Coughs for Sneezing is but a Cough thorow the Nose but when Wind riseth thorow the Wind-pipe it causeth a Chine-cough for as long as the Wind ascends the Patient cannot draw in Air but coughs so long without drawing in of the Breath till they are black in the Face being as it were choak'd or strangled or rather smothered almost to Death As for Remedies those Coughs that proceed from a Supersluity of Moysture or from Corrupted Humours there must be applyed purging Medicines and letting of Blood but for Coughs that proceed from Decayed Parts there is no help for them for when the Intrals are corrupted and wasted they cannot be restored again nor made as they were before nor can they be healed up if they be ulcerated as the Outward Parts of the Body can for we cannot come so easily to lay Plasters and Pultesses to draw out the Corruption and Putrified Humour from the Sounder Parts that are not corrupted yet there may be given or taken such Medicines as may prolong or retard the hasty Wast which Medicines must be cooling and clensing as Julips made of Burrage-water Plantain-water with Sirrop of Suckery and Sirrop of Burrage and Bugloss and the like Also Broths with Cooling Herbs as Strawberry-leaves Violet Suckery and the like But no Hot Sirrops nor no Sharp Herbs as Sorrel and the like nor no Hot Herbs as Thyme Rosemary Winter-Savery Marjerum or the like Also I should think Almond-milk should be very good for the French barley that is boyled in the Water is both cooling and clensing and quenches out the Fiery Heat and Almonds are healing and smothering But in these Diseases Physicians do most commonly give those Medicines which are very pernicious as Mithridate Brimstone Saffron Licquerish and Hot Cordials those Hot Medicines instead of comforting those Decayed Parts rather inflame them and the Heat therein dissolves and melts them more hastily away But those Medicines are more proper for those that are stopped in their Stomack or Head by Cold which hath congealed the Vapour into Icy Contraction Hot Medicines rarifie it thin again although many times Cold causeth an Unnatural Heat by stopping by Contraction the Pores of the Flesh keeping in and hindring the Smoke of the Body from breathing forth which Smoke smothers the Inward Parts causing thereby a Suffocating Stoppage whereupon Cold Medicines give the Patient more ease than Hot as it hath been found by Experience But for those Coughs that proceed from a tickling Rheum from the Head the best Remedies are Issues the next is letting a little Blood the third to give the Patient Cooling Medicines such as I named before especially Almond-milk for it doth not onely quench the Unnatural Heat but it allayes and tempers the salt and sharp Vitriols that are most commonly mixed in those Rheums Yet there must alwaies be a care that they do not weaken the Stomack by over-cooling Drinks wherefore they must drink but a little at a time and at certain times as not upon a full Stomack but when the Stomack is most empty for then it works better Effects and hinders not Digestion Likewise in Consumptive-coughs the Patient must not use any Violent Exercise so as to heat the Body but must use Moderate Exercises Likewise their Meats must be light of Digestion and rather to eat Boyl'd-meat than rosted and rather Flesh-meat than Spoon-meat provided that they be Fine Meats as Pullet Chicken young Turkyes Partridges and the like young Rabbits are also good and Pigs Lamb and the like but not to eat too much at one time nor to eat untill they feel the Meat digested for Ill Digestion causeth an Unnatural Heat and breeds the Body full of sharp Humours As for Chine-coughs those Medicines must be applyed as do expell Wind and to purge away the raw and unconcocted Humour that produce Wind. Of the Disease called the Small-Pox SMall Pox or the like Diseases are caused either by Superfluity of Humours for the Body having more than it can discharge it lyes and corrupts Or else by an Evil Diet or an Ill Digestion which breeds more Humours than Good Nourishment or by great Heats or sudden Colds Of this Disease many dye that would otherwise live if they were rightly ordered in their Sickness unless the Corruption hath taken hold on the Noble Parts before it begins to break forth and then there is no Cure Otherwise I believe it is as easy a Cure as any Disease if Moderation be used for those that strive hastily to throw out the Corruption by forcible Medicines as those Medicines that are hot do like those that take out Dirt out of a Ditch not taking time to sling it far enough and to disperse it several waies throw it on a high Heap on the Verge or Edge of the Ditch and being too great a Quantity to consist in one Body or to keep one place falls back again carrying some part of the Bank or Earth it lay on along with it So in the Diseases of the Small-Pox striving to cast out the Corruption it falls with greater Violence and deadly Effects back again Besides most commonly this Disease is accompanied with a Feaver and all hot Medicines increase a Feaver and many times it is a Feaver that kils and not the Pox And it is to be observed that where one lives that hath very Hot Medicines applyed to him ten will dye But in these Diseases there must be applyed gentle dilating Medicines and those that are smoothing and healing as Possets made with very small Alc with Figs Rasins and Lickerish boyled therein Also a little letting Blood is very good especially if they be Feaverish although some account it deadly but certainly it is a safe Remedy As for Purging Medicines they are very dangerous for drawing in the Humour but a Vomit is not amiss for that doth rather cast forth than draw inward neither must they keep them too hot in their Beds nor too cold but of a temperate heat Gargarizing is also very good in this Disease for it doth not onely purge the Head of Corrupted Humours where it is most commonly over-charged but it keeps the Throat safe and clear from Scabs or at least mollifies them Of Violent Actions ALL Dry Bodies may use more Violent Exercises with less Danger than Moyst where Heat and Moysture produceth Corruption where to Dry Bodies the Heat onely makes it more dry but not corrupts The onely Danger is Violent Exercise to Dry Bodies may wast the Radical Moysture or inflame the Spirits which produceth Frantick Feavers But when a Moyst Body is over-heated the Blood is apt to putrisie the Humours to corrupt the Fat to melt Vapours to arise this produceth Small-Pox Meazels Plurisies Collicks and very often Consumptions by disordering or melting the Noble Parts in the Body but especially if a sudden Cold be taken upon a great Heat for the sudden Cold strikes the Heat so violently inward as Extraordinary Motion doth either
set the Body on Fire or melts it as Metal in a Furnace producing an Unnatural Heat in the Arteries and inflames the Vital Spirits therein which produceth incurable Hectick Feavers The Effects of Sickness SIckness will destroy that in one Week that Time will not do in twenty Years for Sickness will make Youth look Old and Decrepid when Health makes Age look Young and Spritly Sickness burns up the Body Time wears out the Body and Riot tears out the Body Of the Senses AS all Objects and Sounds that go through the Eye and Ear must first strike and make such a Motion in the Brain before the Mind is sensible thereof so any thing that toucheth the Body goeth first thorow the Pores of the Skin and Flesh and strikes upon the Nerves which Nerves are little Strings or Pipes full of Brain those spread all over the Body and when those are moved as the Brain is in the Skull then the Body is sensible And that is the reason that when the Flesh is bound or press'd up hard close it is numb and hath no feeling because those Pores where it was bound or press'd are stopped and are no more sensible of touch than the Eye or Ear or Nose when they are stopped are sensible of Outward Objects or Sound or Sent. Thus stoppinig the Pores of the Body is as it were Blind or Deaf Sensless and Tastless and this is the reason that when any one is sick or distempered they cannot eat their Meat because the Pores of the Spungie Tongue are stopped either by Weakness Cold or Drought The Senses of the Body equalized with the Senses of the Soul AS the Body hath five Senses Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting and Touching so hath the Soul for Knowledge is as the Sense of Touch Memory as the Sense of Sight Reason as the Sense of Hearing Understanding as the Sense of Tast and Imagination as the Sense of Smelling as being the most Acry Sense Of Objects THere are three Imperfections in Sight as the Dimness of Age or Weakness Purblind and Squint Age makes all things look misty as if there were a Veil before their Eyes and Purblind makes all things look level or plain without the distinction of Parts a Squint makes all things look double But to look perfect and clear is that the two Eyes make a Triangular Point upon the Object or else the Eyes are like Burning-Glasses which draw all the Lines of Objects to a Point making themselves the Center Of Touch. ALL Pleasure and Pain is Touch and every several part of the Body hath a several Touch for not onely the various Outward Causes give several Touches but every several part receives a several Touch and as the General Sense throughout the whole Body is Touch so every Particular Sense as all Objects touch the Eyes all Sounds touch the Ears all Sent toucheth the Nose all Meat toucheth the Tongue and all those strike and move and so touch the Brain And though all Touches are Motions yet all are several Motions according to the several Parts for all Pain comes by cross and perturbant Motions all Pleasure by even and regular Motions and every particular Sense may receive Pleasure or Pain without affecting or disaffecting or indeed a notice to the rest of the Senses for the particular Senses take no notice of each other And as I said every several part of an Animal hath a several Touch and a several Tast the Loyn doth not tast like the Breast nor the Breast like the Loyn nor the Shoulder like the Breast nor the Neck like the Shoulder nor the Head like the Neck So in Vegetables the Fruit not like the Leaves nor the Leaves like the Rind Thus the Objects as well as the Senses are different Of Pleasure and Pain THere are onely two General Pleasures and two General Pains all the rest are according to Delectation or Reluctation the two General Pleasures are Quiet in the Mind and Ease in the Body the two General Maladies are Trouble in Mind and Pain in the Body But Slavery can be no Bondage if the Mind can be content withall yet the Mind cannot be pleased if the Body be in Pain it may be Patient but not Content for Content is when the Mind desires not change of the Condition of the Life The Cause of Tears and Laughter ANY Extraordinary Motion in the Spirits causeth Tears for all Motions heat according to their Degrees and Heat doth rarifie and separate the thinnest Substance from the thickest as Chymists know right well and all very thin Bodies are fluent and as I may say agil and all that are fluent and agil seek passage and vent So as a Man in this may be similiz'd to a Still as the Atteries for the Furnace of the Still where the Fire which is Motion is put in the Heart the Pan of the Still where the several Passions as several Herbs are put in the Head the Cover of the Still where the Vapour of herby Passions ascends the Eyes the Spout where it runs or drops forth Laughter is produced as Tears are by Extraordinary Motions by which Extreme Laughter will cause Tears Of Tears SOme say Tears are the Juice of the Mind pressed with Grief But Tears proceed from Joy as well as from Sorrow and they are increased by the Moysture of the Brain in some the Spring is dryed But all Passions are apt to pump out Tears as Extreme Sorrow which contracts and congeals by drawing all inward and the reason why Tears be salt is because the Head is a Limbeck which extracts the thinner part from the thicker which thicker is purged by the Nose and Mouth But Tears which are the Essence of Spirits become a kind of a Vitriol Of Musicians being sometimes Mad. THE reason why Musicians are so often Mad is not alwaies Pride bred by the conceit of their rare Art and Skill but by the Motion of the Musick which is swifter than the ordinary Motion of the Brain and by that reason distempers the Brain by increasing the Motion of the Brain to the Motion of the Fiddle which puts the Brain so out of tune as it is very seldom tuneable again and as a Ship is swallowed by a Whirlpit in the Sea so is Reason drown'd in the Whirlpit of the Brain Comparing the Spleen to a Loadstone THE Spleen is like a Loadstone which draws Steel unto it and as the Loadstone is as it were nourished by Steel so the Spleen is opened and clensed Of Physick THE reason why most Men are addicted to the taking of much Physick is out of love to Life thinking that Physick prolongs it I Am about to publish an Additional Part to joyn with my Book of Philosophical Fancies which by reason some part treats of Diseases I recommend to Physicians I mean not Empiricks or Mountebanks such as take the Name and never studied the Science whose Practice is rather to kill than to cure which disgraceth that Noble Profession But
I mean those that are Studious and Learned such as have been bred in the Famous Universities and have received the Honour of Learning as Batchellers and Masters of Art or Doctors by which Honourable Title they are allow'd to practice as having arrived to the height of that Science To these Honourable and Learned Persons I offer up that Work to their Grave Judgements knowing from them it shall never receive Injury nor Affronts of Scorn nor Rudeness for those that are Learned and Understanding are Just and Civil not wresting the words crookedly nor reading them impatiently but weighing the Rational Probabilities justly measuring the Sense rightly applying the Use aptly esteeming the Owners respectfully and commending them civilly When those that are Ignorant condemn and cry down all they understand not and the rudely spightfull or the spightfully rude strive to detract and disgrace all those they think worthy of Praise or Commendation Of Fruits MOST are of Opinion that Fruits are cold which we find contrary by the Effect for Wine which is made of Fruits is hot as of Grapes Rasberies Cherries StrawberrieWine and Sider and Perry which are made of Apples and Pears is hot like Wine too for it will make a man drunk if he drink enough of it as well as Grape-wine or of any other Fruit but some will say it is the spirits that are prest out which are in the Liquor and by lying the spirits grow stronger and so become hot which otherwise were not but I answer to that that the pressing with the Teeth makes the Liquor not less hot than another Press doth and for the Age it may grow the hotter for being sharpened but we find that it is very hot in the Press or Vat for the very Steam where they are prest will make men drunk and they will go into the Liquor new prest finding a benefit in curing cold Diseases but no question some Fruits are hotter than others though none are cold by having more or less spirits but all spirits have a sufficiency of spirits to heat and the spirits lye in the Liquor not in the Solid parts for all spirits dwell in the thinnest Bodies or Parts and are the subtillest in Operation now may the solid part of Fruit be cooling when the spirits which are the thinnest Juice are hot as being baked roasted or boiled where the effect of the Fire hath evapourated that Heat But this Opinion is begot by seeing many women which eat much Fruit become pale and sickly so men by drinking much Wine will become pale and full of Diseases and many times will have the contrary operation of Complexions and become very Red though the inward cause is all one for in some it soaks and dries up all the Blood or rarifies too thin which makes the Face pale and in others it burns and crusts the Blood which makes the Face Red and Pimpled so that it dries the Body by the Vitriol Humour and burns the Body by the unnatural Heat therein Another Opinion why they hold them cold is by the often Surfets many fall into by the much eating of it and the reason they give is because it is so cold it cannot digest I answer that Surfets are caused by the Quantity and not so much by the Quality for there are many that surfet of strong Wines by over-charging their Stomacks therewith and so in all Meats which otherwise are good and wholsome if not immoderately taken but according to their digesting Stomacks for some will surfet of that Quantity as others shall not with ten times more such difference is in the Natures and Constitutions of Men. There are many things by the effect cooling by being applyed outwardly which applying inwardly work the contrary for Vinegar cooleth outward Inslammations but shal increase an inward one being too tender for so sharp a Medicine and all things that corrode make too much Motion and all Motion heats All Limmons Citrons Oranges Pomegranates Barberies Currans and the like are accounted very cooling being inwardly taken and also very wholsome which may be very good and effectual being applyed to such Diseases as require a sharp Medicin thogh not cooling But if they were cooling by their nature as there is no great reason to believe it having as much Spirits as other Fruits have by reason of their fulness of Liquor though I do not say that all sorts of Liquor are full of Spirits but such Liquors of such Natures yet by the effect inwardly it heats for the very corroding Quality inflames the Blood more than the Nature can cool for all things that are sharp have an ingraving Quality or Faculty not onely to cut away Rotten and Superfluous Humours but to eat upon the Noble Parts Of Roots ROots are more nourishing than Fruits by reason they have in a degree as much moysture as Fruit and have not that acuteness which Fruits have which cause not so many Spirits but are soberer in their operations and firmer for whatsoever hath much Spirits can never nourish much because it grows too near the nature of Fire but it fits and prepares for Nourishment knitting clensing and strengthening the Digestive Parts but those things nourish most where Heat and Moysture are equally mix'd which Roots come nearer to than Fruits Of Herbs ONE would think there should be but little nourishment in Herbs by reason they are so much inclining to the nature of the Earth which is of a drying Quality but we find it otherwise by the feeding and fatning of Beasts which live upon the Herbs of the Field But some may say that that which will nourish Beasts will starve Men as Hay and the Leaves of Trees and the like But I answer It is onely Custome which hath made it not agreeable with the Stomacks of Men and by that reason maketh ill digestion and so nourisheth not But it is not alwaies the Meat that causeth ill or no nourishment but sometimes the Stomack for an Ill Stomack shall corrupt Wholsome Meats and a Good digestive-Stomack shall convert Unwholsome Meat to Good Nourishment but may endanger the Stomack in using it often not being accustomed to it before But of all Vegetables there are none that have so many and so excellent Qualities as Herbs not onely for curing both inward and outward Diseases but in preventing Diseases besides the nourishment of Men and Beasts But there are many that will choose places for their Habitations to live in for the Air though they be incommoded much otherwise and want the Varieties of Pleasures to entertain their Lives withall for many think Long-life though it be spent dully Pleasure enough But the Trouble and Care to keep Health and the Fear to lose it makes the Life not onely dull having their Thoughts onely imployed upon that but troublesome and full of vexation with barring themselves of those things that otherwise they would willingly enjoy Thus we make Life worse than Death if truly considered for Death frights more than
hurts But some will say that may be if Death would come before Sickness but it is to avoyd Pain not to prolong Life But I answer The troublesome care of keeping't is worse than the Disease it self for the Disease of the Body will take away the Pain in a short time but a Disease of the Mind dwels with a Man his whole Life Of Situation for Healths THose that would choose a Situation for Health the Soyl is more to be considered than the Air though Ill Air is bad but Unwholsome Air comes from Unwholsome Grounds by the Vapours that arise from the Earth and the Sun many times clarifies the Air but in part for many times in Moorish places the Vapours may be too hard for the Sun and if the Sun cannot be alwaies sufficient to clarisie the Air how should it purifie the Earth that is so solid unless you will say the Sun is a Chymist to draw Spirits and those Spirits subtil to the hurt of the Body but when the Sun hath that power as to make the Spirit of Air as I may call it being refined to that degree as it becomes a Cordial and a Refresher of the Spirits of all things But when it hath onely so much power as to draw up Vapour which is the thin and watrish part of the Earth or as I may say the Sweat of the Earth which is sometimes hot and sometimes cold having not the power of purifying but condenseth it and makes it thicker and so becomes the Shadow of another Earth and makes us as if we lived between two Earths onely the upper is thinner than the undermost for although the Sun is the Life to all things out and upon the Earth by his Light and Heat yet he is not so to the Bowels of the Earth for we find by experience that a thin Wall will keep out the light of the Sun and the depth of a Cellar shall keep out the heat of the Sun for in the hottest Day if one go down into a Vault he shall be so cold as he will desire to come into the Sun again so as we plainly find that the Sun doth not make Heat in the Earth but that the Earth hath Heat of her own and her own Heat with the moyst Veins that are in her produceth those numerous Varieties which some she casts forth and some she keeps in for those Varieties she casts forth are more of a nature than those she keeps within for those she bars forth are Fruits and Plants and the like which onely lye skin-deep as one may say but those she keeps within her Bowels are more solid and firm for by experience of Gold and other Metals we find that she is hottest in her Bowels for they are alwaies found deep and low certainly it must be a great Heat that must purifie a Metal to that degree that Gold is So that Gold other Metals and whatsoever else lyes deep within her are not beholding to the Sun for their Maturities as Fruits and Plants are And we see those things cast forth are sickly and fading and those she keeps in are lasting and durable which would make one think the Earth hath a more powerfull Heat than the Sun because her Effects are greater than the Suns setting his Light aside The Sun ripens the Fruit of the Face of the Earth it agitates and lightens the Air whereby we see and breath but the Earth is the Mother of all Vegetables Animals and Minerals and could produce a sufficiency of her self without the Heat of the Sun But as I was saying before it is the Nature of the Soyl that not onely causeth Ill Airs but Ill Nourishment I mean not Ill in it self but being wrongly applyed for a Thick Air to a Sharp Constitution is wholsomer than a Subtiller and Thinner Air is so a Glutenous is to a Sharp Constitution better than a Salt and Penetrating Soyl is So as you may compare the Natures of several Soyls to the Natures of several Humours and Constitutions as there are some Soyls apt to breed Melancholy others Choler some Flegmatick and Gross Humors and some Sanguin I mean not only dwelling upon such Soyls but eating of the Fruits and Meats thereof for the Sun doth not alwaies mature the Fruits of the Earth to such a degree as to make them wholsom especially when there is a Vicious Nature bred in the Earth for some Ground is apt to breed the Rot to some kind of Cattel others the Murrain and so several Diseases and as we see in Low Places all their Fruit is waterish and their Meat spungier than in the High-land Country though the Sun be in equal degrees and in Islands it is more apt to be than in the Continents and therefore some parts of the Earth require much more Heat of the Sun than others do And again in some places the Earth hardly requires the Sun at all unless it be to see the Fruits and this alteration is not onely in several Regions of the World but in Neighbouring Patches also as we shall see one Field very Fruit full and the next Field to it very Barren as some Stony some Clayey some Chalky and so sundry others some are fit to bear Wheat others Barley some onely Rye or Oats some Tares Branck and Hemp some again so barren as they will bear nothing but Broom and Brakes some Grounds feed great fat and firm Cattle others great but spungie some lean and little and several feedings will give several tasts to one and the same kind of Cattel and Fruit so as they may be distinguished in what Grounds they grew or were fed in But some Cattel or Plants will not thrive upon every Soyl though rich and good being not proper to their Natures or to their Breedings so it is with Men for Custome may make that wholsome which otherwise would shorten Life and that is good for one Constitution which would be pernicious to another so as they must match Grounds to Bodies Of Favorites to Princes or Princes particular Privy Counsellers A Prince that hath a particular Favourite or Privy Counseller spins out the life of his Heroick Fame with his Favours for what Errours soever are committed in Government the Faults are laid to the Princes charge as the chief Head and Ruler and all the Good Actions are attributed to the Favorites wise Counselling for if Money and Arms be raised they will say it is the Favorites popularity not the Princes power If Armies march orderly pitch methodically fight succesfully they will say it is the Favourites conduct not the Princes prudence skill nor courage If good and beneficial Laws be made they will say they were propounded by the Favorite and onely enacted by the Prince that they come from the Favorites head not the Princes heart If the Virtuous be rewarded and Offenders reprieved or pardoned they will say it is the Favorites policy not the Princes bounty or clemency In short Nothing shall be
whisperings or private Conference that her Actions might have sufficient Witnesse and her Discourses a generall Audience Item That none shall marry against their own liking or free choice lest they make their Marriage an excuse for Adultery Item It shall be allowed for Maids to entertain all Honorable as Matrimonial Suters untill such time as she hath made choice of one of them to settle her Affections upon for it is good reason one should take time and observe Humors before they bind themselves in Wedlock Bonds for when once bound nothing but Death can part them but when they are once married their Ears to be sealed from all Loves pleadings protestings Vows making high praises and Complementall phrases Item That none shall keep a Mistris above halfe a year but change lest she grow more imporious than a Wife made of a Widow Item All Lovers shall be licensed to bragg or speak well of themselves to their Mistris when they have done no meritorious Actions to speak for them Item All those that have Beauty enough to make a Lover if they have not wit to keep a Lover shall be accounted no better than a senseless Statue Item It shall not be as it is in these Daies accounted a prise or purchase amongst Ladies to get either by their Wit or Beauty admiring Servants especially if they be of amorous natures for then Nature drives them to her Beauty or Wit more than her Wit or Beauty draws them to it Item All those that are proud without a cause it shall be a sufficient cause to be scorned Item Eloquence shall not be imployed nor pleaded in Amorous Discourses nor to make Falshood to appear like Truth but to dress and adorn Vertue that she may be accepted and entertained by those that will refuse and shun her acquaintance if she be clad in plain Garments Item There shall none condemn another Language nor account another to be better if it be Significant Copious and Eloquent such as the English Tongue is Item All passionate Speeches or Speeches to move passion shall be expressed in Number Item That all Natural Poets shall be honored with Title esteemed with Respect or enriched for the Civilizing of a Nation more than Contracts Laws or Punishments by Soft Numbers and pleasing Phansics and also guard a Kingdom more than Walls or Bulworks by creating Heroick Spirits with Illustrious Praises inflaming the Mind with Noble Ambition Noble Souls and Strong Bodies THough Noble Souls and great Wits dwell not constantly nor are allwaies created in Strong Bodies yet if Nature did choose her Materials match her Works and order her Creatures rightly and Sympathetically Strong Bodies should have noble Souls large Capacities and great Wits for Weak Bodies many times are a defect in Nature as much as shallow Wits or irrational Souls But surely if the chief and first Nature would work methodically and not seem as if she wrought at randome and to produce by Chance as she doth if Education and Custome which is a second Nature had not such a prevalent power to disturb and obstruct her and though Education and Custome may and doth somtimes rectify some Defects and help Life yet it doth more often puzzle Life and incumber Natures Works putting Nature out of the right ways with False Principles Foolish Customes and ill Education this is the reason natural Wits are many times lost not having time or leasure to exercise them or use them as I may say or for want of variety of Subjects or Objects to better them or dull'd by tedious and unprofitable Studies or quenched out by base Servitude or Subjection Also clear Understandings are darkened sound and strong Judgments weakened and false Judgments given and vain Conceptions and erroneous Opinions Maintaind or Believed for want of the True and the Right Waies Likewise the streught of the Body oftimes is weakened and effeminated by Luxurie Curiosity and Idleness which causeth Noble Souls Large Capacities Clear Understandings Fine Fancies and Quick Wits to dwell many times nay most commonly in weak Bodies for the better sort have most commonly more Plenty than Health the one devouring the other when the Meaner sort have meager Souls and barren Brains Rude Dispositions and Rough Natures have strong Limbs strengthned by Exercise and maintained by Labour healthfull bodies kept in repair by Temperance caused by scarcity and Poverty contented minds bred by Low Fortunes and Humble Desires when Wealth and Dignity create Vain Glory and Pride yet many times small Fortunes and great Wits agree best together but Noble Minds and Great Estates do the most good But in this Age although it be the Iron Age yet those men that have Effeminate Bodies as tender Youth loose Limbs smooth Skins fair Complexions fantastical Garbs affected Phrases strained Complements factious Natures detracting Tongues mischievous Actions and the like are admired and commended more or thought wiser than those that have Cenerous Souls Heroick Spirits Ingenuous Wits prudent Fore-cast Experienced Years Manly Forms Gracefull Garbes Edifying Discourses Temperate Lives Sober Actions Noble Natures and Honest Hearts but in former years it was otherwaies for Heroick Spirits in Masculine Forms had double praise as is expressed in the Grecian and Trojan Warrs and Princes were bred to labour as much as Pesants for though their Labour might be different the one being Servile the other Free yet the Burthen and pains-taking might be Equal though they carried not Pedlars Packs nor Porters Burthens yet they carried thick and heavy Arms and if they handled not the Sithe Pitch-Fork and Flail yet they handled the Sword the Spear the Dart the Bow the Sling and the like and if they knew not how to Mow to Reap and to Thrash yet they knew how to Assault to Defend and to Fight and though they digged not the Gold out of the Mines yet they digged Fortisications out of the Earth and if they set not Flowers on Banks or sowed Seeds in Furrows or ingrafted Slips or planted Trees to grow yet they set Armies in battail Array and sowed Lives in Adventures ingrafted Honor to the Stock of their Predeceslors and planted Fame to grow high in after Ages and though they drive not the Asses yet they mannage the Horses and if they want the Art to Yoak Oxen they want not the wisdome to Yoak the Vulgar with strickt Laws and if they will not drive a Flock of Sheep to the Fold they can lead a Number of Men to the Warrs and if they cannot build a House yet they can storm a City Thus galiant labours may strengthen the Bodies of Honorable Breed and Noble Minds freely and industriously without a Bondage or Slavery nay they may Row in Gallies yet not be subject to the Whip or Chains But as Masculine Bodies and Heroick Souls had a double esteem so Effeminate Bodies and timorous Spirits or rather Natures had a double despising as witness Paris of Troy but most Nations in those Ages spent their time in usefull Arts not
in vain Dressings they wore Horse-Tails in Head-pieces for Terrour not Light Feathers for Shew their Pride lay in their Arms not in their Clothes in their Strength not in their Beauty in their Victories not in their Dancings in their Prudence not in their Vanities their Wealth was spent in Hospitality not in Prodigality their Discourse was to Instruct not to make Sport neither in former years was Old-ages counsel refused for Youths Advice Age was accounted an Honour and respect was given to the Silver Hairs Youth an Effeminacy pittying their Follies And Youth in former Ages learnt with Patience what Age taught with Judgement and with Pains what Skill taught with Industry As to drive Charriots ride Horses bear Arms hold Shields throw Darts to Fence to wrastle to Skirmish to train Men to pitch Camps to set Armies to guide Ships Not to Dance to Sing to Fiddle to paint to powder as many men do now adaies Youth did then listen with attention to Grave Instructions and receive reproofs with Submission kept silence with sober Countenance obeyed with willing hearts and ready hands where now adaies Youth is bold and rude talks loud speaks Nonsence slights Age scorns Councels laug's at Reproofes glories in Vices and hates Virtue T is true many will go into the War and kill one another though many times they run away but it is rather Rashnes that sights than true Valour where Fortune gives the Victory and not Pallas or rather Time for those that run first away lose the day Thus in former Ages were Bodies and Minds matcht but I speak of Stength to shew that Women that are bred tender idle and ignorant as I have been are not likely to have much Wit nor is it fit they should be bred up to Masculine Actions yet it were very fit and requisit they should be bred up to Masculine Understandings it is not fit for Women to practice the behaviour of Men yet it is fit that Women should practice the Fortitude of Men But Women now adaies affecting a Masculincy as despising their own Sex practise the behaviour of Men not the spirits of Men nor their Herroick Behaviour but their Wilde Loose Rude Rough or foolish attected Behaviour they practise the Masculine Confidency or Boldness and forget the Esseminate Modesty the Masculine Vice and forget the Esseminate Virtues as to talke Impudently to Swagger to Swear to Game to Drink to Revell to make Factions but they practice not Silence Sobriety Reservedness Abstinency Patience or the like they practice the Masculine Cruelty quitting their tender and gentle Natures their sweet and pleasing Dispositions But these Actions and Humours are so far from preferring our Sex to a higher Degree that they do debase and make us worse than other Creatures be but I beseech my Readers to believe I speak not of Envy or Spight for I am guilty of neither but out of a grieved love to my own Sex nor of any particular Nations but of the World in general I mean as much as I have heard of likewise that my Readers will not mistake me as to think I belive that great Giantly Bodies or strong course Clowns have the greatest Wit and deepest Understanding for we see to the contrary most commonly they being the most Ignorant Fools and Cowardly spirits but I mean that if they had large strong healthfull bodies which might be obtained by Heroick Labours and Exersises and if their spirits were answerable to their bodies which might be infused by good Education they might have a double or treble Portion of Rational Understanding but most commonly large Bodies are like populated Kingdomes that are Barren for want of Cultivating and becomes defensless and open to an Enemy for want of Fortification which is Fortitude for Fortitude is an Overflow or a Superabounding of Spirits when Fear is a Scarcity or Contracting thereof the like of Wit and Understanding for from the Quantity and Agilness of the spirits in the Brain produceth Wit and from the Quantity and Strength of the Spirits in the Brain produceth Understanding But if I were to choose a Sex I had rather be a Pigmy stuft with rational spirits than a Giant empty thereof but a Middle Stature is most becoming a Little the most Agil and a Great the most Dreadfull like a private Family for a small Family hath the least Expence a Great Family the most Disorder a Competent Family the best Governed Or like Marriage a Beautifull Wife Delights most a Witty Wife pleaseth best a Chast Wife makes a man the Happiest So a Valiant Husband is most Esteemed a Wise Husband best beloved and an Honest Husband makes a Wife the happiest when a Coward is scorned a Fool despised and an Inconstant Husband hated The like is a Cholerick Wife an Unconstant Wife and a Sluttish Wife IT is strange to observe the forgetfulness or the boldness or the foolishness of many men in the World that will not only take Learned Mens Opinions and Arguments and discourse of them as if they were their own to the very Authors themselves word for word which shews Ridiculous and Mad but most times they will gravely write them as if they were never writ or divulged before by which Actions one would think they were of Kin to the Jackanapes Others are as Base as those are Ridiculously Foolish which will bribe the Printer or Bookseller to let them see such Copies and so will steal out their best Phansies or Opinions or Arguments and print them before the others come out wherefore it is just in the Readers to examine the Grounds for if any have done so unworthy an Act the Theft will be as easily seen for it will appear in the Face lying but skin-deep but never come neer the Fundamental parts wherefore all Writers that Strike Justle or Imbraee one another and that are published or Printed in a short space of time of one another are to be examined to find out the Right and Truth and to condemn the Thief and punish the Crime with Reproach and Infamy But I would have this Monarchy I make To have a Judge * that will good Counsel take One that is wise to govern and to see What Faults to mend and what the Errors be Making the Common-wealth his only Minion Striving for to enlarge his own Dominion To love his People with a tender Care To wink at Frailties which in Nature are And Just to punish Crimes as hatingill Yet sorry for the Malefactor still Glad to reward and Virtue to advance In real Favours not in Countenance Not to pay Merits with good Words and Smiles Dissembling Promises poor Men beguiles Nor yet good Services are done long past Ungratefull Souls will in Oblivion cast But have the Eye of Memory so clear The least good Service shall to him appear Nor would I have one idly to neglect His Peoples safety but for to protect Their Lives and Goods with all the care he can And upright Justice to the
her and had rather die in the arms of danger then live in the arms of peace Why men write Bookes SOme say men write bookes not so much to benefit the world as out of love to Fame thinking to gain them honour of reputation but surely men are so delighted with their own conceits especially fine and new ones that were it a sin or infamie they would write them to see their beauty and enjoy them and so become unlawful Lovers Besides thoughts would be lost if not put into writing for writing is the picture of thoughts which shadows last longer then men but surely men would commit secret Idolatry to their own wit if they had not Applause to satisfie them and examples to humble them for every several man if wit were not discovered would think not any had it but he for men take pleasure first in their own fancies and after seek to gain the approving opinions of others which opinions are like womens dressings for some will get such advantage in putting on their cloaths who although they have ill faces and not so exact bodies will make a better shew then those that are well favoured and neatly shaped with disordered attire wherein some men are so happy in their language and delivery as it beautisies and adorns their wit which without it would be like an unpolished Diamond but such difference there is between that to create a fancy is the nature of a God but to make neat and new words is the nature of a Tailour Of several writings WRitings that are set forth in books and other wayes are of several and different natures For some as Magistrates and Fathers do reprove and endeavor to reclaim the world and men as moral Philosophers others as Atturnies do inform them as Historians some as Lawyers do plead in the behalf of some former writings and acts against others as contraversers some as Ambitious Tyrants that would kill all that stood in their way as Casuists some as Challengers as Logicians some as Scouts as natural Philosophers But they bring not alwayes true intelligence Some like hang-men as the Scepticks that strive to strangle not onely all opinions but all knowledge Some like Embassadours that are sent to condole and congratulate as bookes of Humiliation and thanksgiving Some as Merchants as translatours which traffick out of one Language into another Some as painted faces as Oratory some as Jubilies as to recreate rejoyce and delight the spirits of men as Poetry some as Bawds to intice the mindes as Amorous Romancy Some as pits that one must go many Fathoms deep to finde the bottom neither do they alwayes reach it as those that are called strong lines some as Conjurers that fright with their threatning prophesies some as Cut-purses that steal from the writings of others some as Juglers that would have falshood appear for truth some like Mountibanks that deceive and give more words then matter some as Echoes which commonly answer to anothers voice some like Buffons that laugh and jest at all and some like Flatterers that praise all and some like Malecontents that complain against all and some like God that is full of truth and gives a due to all deservers and some like devils that slauder all Of the motion of the thoughts in speaking and Writing THose that have very quick thoughts shall speak readier then Write because in speaking they are not tied to any stile or number besides in speaking thoughts lie close and carelesse but in writing they are gathered up and are like the water in a cup that the mouth is held downward for every drop striving to be out first stops the passage or like the common people in an uproar that runs without any order and disperses without successe when slow and strong thoughts come well armed and in good order discharges with courage and goeth off with honour The motion of Poets thoughts THe thoughts of poets must be quick yet so as they must go even without justling strong without striving nimble without stumbling for their thoughts must be as an instrument well strung and justly tuned to Harmony Great schollars are not excellent Poets SCholars are never good Poets for they incorporate too much into other men which makes them become lesse themselves in which great scholars are Metamorphos'd or transmigrated into as many several shapes as they read Authors which makes them monstrous and their head is nothing but a lumber stuft with old commodities so it is worse to be a learned Poet then a Poet unlearned but that which makes a good Poet is that which makes a good Privie Councellor which is observation and experience got by time and company Wit mistaken THey are not mistaken that think all Poets wits but those are mistaken that think there is no other wit but in Poets or to think wit lies in meer jests or onely in words or Method or scholastical knowledge for many may be very wise and knowing yet have not much wit not but wit may be in every one of these before mentioned for wit makes vse of althings but wit is the purest element and swiftest motion of the braine it is the essence of thoughts it incircles all things and a true wit is like the Elixer that keeps nature alwayes fresh and young Some thinks wit no wit when it is not understood but surely a fool makes not the wit the lesse although it loseth its aime if none knows it but the Author A comparison betwixt learning and Wit IT is a great mistake in some who think that great Stcholars are great wits because great Scholars but there is as great a difference as betwixt a natural inheritance that is intailed and cannot be sold and a Tenant that makes use of the land and payes the rent which is due to the Land-lord which is the Author or in another comparison a Scholar is like a great Merchant that trafficks in most Countries for transportable Commodities and his head is the ware-house to lay those goods in now may some say they are become his own since he bought them it is true they are so to keep them or make use of them or to sell and traffick with them by imparting them to pettie Merchants which are young students and Scholars but otherwise they are no more his then when they were in the Authours head before it was published but onely by retaile for wit is the childe of nature neither hath she made any thing so like her self as it Nay she hath made it to out-do her self for though nature hath not onely made this world but may be thought by reason to have made many others and so a world of worlds yet wit creats in its imaginations not only worlds but Heavens and Hells Gods and Devils onely it wants the materials to put them in body and give them a figure and colour The advanaage of Poetry and History POets make us see errours as what we should follow and what we
should shun it revives the spirits it animates the minde it creats wit in the readers brain it is a shop of curious varieties where every one may see for their love and buy for their paines but a true Poet is like a Spider that spins all out of her own bowels And though the web be Artificial yet that art is naturall not exemplary but as Poets make us finde our own errours so History shews us the errours of others and gives us advantage by inabling us to look back to former times for it increaseth and strengthens mens courage by reading their battles it begets patience in reading their miseries it humbles the minde in perceiving the changes of fortune Witty in reading their orations Civil in knowing their Ceremonies so that History is a repetition of things past and is bound to write nothing but what have been done and Poetrie is a recreation for times present which is neither bound to line nor level The difference between Poesy and History THere is as much difference betwixt a Poets stile and an Historians as a French galliard and a Spanish pavinne besides Poetry is most fiction and History should be truth Poesy may be phantastical History must be grave Poesy is to move passions History is to confirm truth History draws the minde to look back Poesy to look right forth Poesy is simulising History is repetition Poesy is beautiful and spritely History is brown and lovely Poesy goeth upon his own ground but History goeth upon the ground of others Of Historians and Poets TRuth should be the guide of an Historian yet the truth of History should not be drest in Poetical fancies but with grave Rethorick Truth should be delivered civilly not rudely it should be ushered in with eloquence for truth should be delivered smoothly comly sweet and Harmoniously not rudely roughly basely fantastically nor contemptibly but a Poet will never make a good Historian because he is too full of fancy and invention which may disturb his way for a Poet though he useth numbers yet he keeps no reckoning where an Historian makes an exact account but as a Historians brain is too slow for a Poets so a Poets brain is too quick for an Historians A Poet the best General Judge A Natural Philosopher may judge well the motions of the Elements and a moral of the dividing or dissecting of passions or framing of Common-wealths but there is much division amongst them of the way So a Divine may judge well of the mystery of Religion although there is as much contradiction amongst them as with the Philosophers So Historians may judge of some particulars being conversant in the action of times but Logicians seldom for if judgement is the last act of reasoning as it is or it is not in which Logicians seldome come to a conclusion nor Mathematitians if their chief study be Arithmetick for then they are too much addicted to multiply and diminish Most of these afore mentioned are too hard set in intricate studies and dwel too long upon them at least these particular judgements had need be good for their time will not give them leave to consider of many things but Poet are quick of invention easie to conceive ready in executing and flies over all the world yet not so swiftly but they take a strickt notice of all things and knowes perfectly the laws and wayes which inables them to judge more uprightly and having an universal knowledg joyned to his natural wit makes him the best general judge For a good Poet hath distinguishment which is judgement as well as similising which is fancy I mean not those Poets which can only rime but those Poets which can reason not those that have most art but those that have most nature for he is not a good Poet that is not born one The difference of Poetry POets most usually put their fancies into verse or scenes and verse is numbred fancy and scenes are distinguishing of humours the scenes are most commonly acted upon Theaters for action is the life of humour besides it clears the understanding and makes a deeper impression in the minde of the spectatours then when they are onely read and these expressions of humours not onely shews errours that are past or those that may come but vices that are to be shunned and vertues that are to be followed besides it begets hate to the one by discovering the deformities and love to the other by the expresing of her beautie which is beneficial and a good instruction to the ignorant lives of men but the meaner and smaller Poets if they may have the honourable name of Poets do more harm then good for their scenes are rather Romancical tales then the expressions of mens natures in which they onely teach effeminate men and foolish women to be whining lovers and there be others although they be good Poets yet they are ill natured ones and so crabbed as they corrode both the eare and the minde in which they seem to observe the ill humours more then the good as if they lay to watch to steal and intrap mens vices and take them up by little parcels to sell them out by whole sale and seeme glad that men have vices for them to divulge But those sorts of Poets correct too much and incourage too little but again some are so flattering and insinuating as they become parasits to mens humours Of Verses IT is not every Poet that can make a good copy of verses nor proper scenes neither is a particular copy or scene enough for an applause but a life full and the spring must be naturally and flow easy not forced by pipes from other mens wit for those are but watry braines that have neither oyl nor fire which make their fancy so dull as their conceits are inchanted and some flie so high as if they would rend the wings of their brain which wearie others braines to finde them out and when they finde them they are not worth their paines were taken for them for what writing soever is darkned or obscured either in the sence or by hard and unusual words grows troublesome and unpleasant to the readers again some are so long and tedious upon a subject as they lose their wit for wit never dwels long upon one thing other Poets their verses are untunable they do not strike upon the strings of the soul for the excellency of Poetical wit is to move passion it is true numbers without wit will move passion but they cannot keep or make passion stay and it may strike upon a passion but it cannot raise one yet wit appears best when it is drawn in triumph in the golden Chariot of numbers The comparison of Poets A Poet may be compared to a musitian that playes upon four and twenty strings so Poets strike upon four and twenty letters for a Poet will tune his readers voice to his own passions as tomake the voices to go by numbers rise and fall by their