Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	34,804	5	5.7811	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18903	A true and admirable historie, of a mayden of Confolens, in the prouince of Poictiers that for the space of three yeeres and more hath liued, and yet doth, vvithout receiuing either meate or drinke. Of whom, his Maiestie in person hath had the view, and, (by his commaund) his best and chiefest phisitians, haue tryed all meanes, to find, whether this fast & abstinence be by deceit or no. In this historie is also discoursed, whether a man may liue many dayes, moneths or yeeres, without receiuing any sustenance. Published by the Kings especiall priuiledge.; Abstinens Confolentanea. English	Citois, François, 1572-1652.; Munday, Anthony, 1553-1633.; Coeffeteau, Nicolas, 1574-1623, attributed name.	1603 (1603)	STC 5326; ESTC S118585	35,171	122

son cours N' Aesculape son fils car si c'est maladie Le defaut d' alimens eut son ame rauie Mais sans boire manger celuy cy vit tousiours Viure ainsi n'est ce pas vn prodige bien rare Ce viure dementant la Nature ses lois Qui veulent qu'à momens nostre corps se repare Mass vn effect plus beau faict ton liure Citoys Repa●ssant nos esprits d'vn si precieus viure Qu'il fournit d' alimens pour en mourant reuiur● FIN The French Sonnet thus Englished A Miracle begets thy rich discourse Disputing If consumption doe ensue On want of feeding Or if lifes right due Be in a body life-lesse-liuing Since t is true Foode is the soule which dooth support lifes course ●●oebus nere saw the like in all his race Nor yet his Phisick Sonne for in disease Life fayles if nourishment doe not appease Yet without meate or drinke life heere holds place Ist not a wonder then one thus should liue Nature heere takes the lie and those decrees That euery moment as the bellies fees Bids fill the gut or else our health we leese Citoys to vs a further rule doth giue Feeding our spirits with a precious food Maintayning life in death more pure more good FINIS PEllegis hoc scriptum suffundere lurco rubor● Ni subis infensi pallidus ora Dei Ah tum te miserum iudex cúm venerit ille● Viuere neglectis qu●m potes vsque cibis I. MOR●AV O● LE MESME ROugiventre glouton à l' abord de ce liur● Si tu ne veux pallir au iugement de Dieu Que feras tu chetif en ce terrible lieu Puss qu'on peut icy has long temps viure sans viure● ❀ The French thus Englished BLush belly-glutton to behold this booke Gods iudgements if they here thee not affright vvhat wilt thou do wretch in more dreadful plight On one long liuing foodlesse thou maist looke FINIS LE MESME I Ecroyois en la foy d'vn erreur populaire Que de ce corps mortel le foible bastiment Priuè du fort soustien d'vn solide aliment Caduc en peu de temps viendroit à se deffaire Mais le nouueau lab●ur de tes doctes escrits Plein de l'air animé d' vne belle parole Qui preuue le contraire m'enuoye â l'escol● Du choc de ses raisons estonna mes esprits Puis le naïf raport d'vne recente histoire Con●it an doux nectar de ton mielleux discours Puissant de me nourrir sans manger plusieurs iours Renuersant ma creance establit ta victoire FIN The same French Sonnet thus Englished A Populare errour long time me misse-led That the weake building of this bodies frame Robd of foodes strong support would shrinke the same And in short while deliuer it for dead But this fresh labour of thy flowing wit Full of the soule-breath of most pleasing words Approues the contrary and to me affords Schoole-p●ines againe so powerfull is thy writ A ●ecent History so sprightly told Sweetned with Nectar of thy honny-phrase Foodlesse ●eedes me for many many dayes And now to change h●leefe I may be bold FINIS HI● liber hu●●ns d●m tollit corporis escam Ingenio dulc●ns quis neget esse cibum Pasch Le Coq M. D. FOelix hoc praeco●e tuae virguncula vita I am non to siccus succus vt ante ●ouet Ipse sed aternam vitam dat accipit autor Incertum tu illi an debeat ille tibi A. CITOYS Frater in Curia Patronus LE MESME VNE humeur dans ce corps estroictement enclose Depuis vn si long temps ceste fille entretient Vne meilleure vie en ce liure luy vient Car ce liure la vie est vne mesme chose F J N. The French thus Englished AN humour in the body strictly closde Hath so long time this Maydens life supplyed A better life this booke hath her proposde For this booke and her life are neere allyed FINIS ❧ A MONSIEVR LESCARBOT SVR LA TRADVCTION DE cette histoire L'Autheur qui premier a enfanté cette histoire Sembloit auoir au peuple en●ié ce bonheur De cogno●stre scanoir par son docte labeur Ce prodige nouueau d'immortelle memoire Toy Lescarbot emeu non d'vne vaine gloire Ma●s d'vne affection digne d'vn noble coeur As supple ' au defaut de ce premier autheur Rendant son noble escrit à tous Francois notoire Si le nom de Citoys merite estre immortel Pour a●oir aus h●mains descouuert des mer●●illes Qui leur vont rauissant l'esprit les oreilles Ton nom certamement merite d'estre tel Qui par ton bean discours fais que la mesme chose Ore est commune à ce●s à qui elle estoit close I. DE LA ROQVE To Monsieur Lescarbot vpon the traducing of this history ⸫ THE Authour that first infanted this Booke Seem'd enuious of the peoples happines Loth that in his learnd labour they might looke On matter of such wondrous worthines Yet thou Lescarbot moou'd by no vaine-glory But in th' affection of a noble mind The first mans fault hast quitted in true kind And made all Fraunce acquainted with the story If Citoys name immortally deserue For opening such a meruaile to vs men As both their cares mindes may sweetly serue They name as worthily may merit then Thy queint discourse imparts the selfe same right In common now which he kept out of sight FINIS To his good friend A M. WOnder bee dumb And now no more prefer Like to some selfe lou'd boasting Trauailer Thy past Aduentures for an Age is borne Vpon whose forhead caracters are worne So strangely that ee'ne Admiration stands Amazde to read them with ●eau'd eyes and hands Times oldest Chronicle proues it most cleere England neere spent such a miraculous ye●re And Fraunce thy maiden child-birth goes by far Beyond all those bred in thy ciuill warre The wonder being by thus much greater growne Last day she spake no language but her owne Yet now shee 's vnderstood by Englishmen Such Magick waites deere friend vpon thy pen. Tho. Dekker ¶ A true and meruailous Historie of a Maiden of Poictou who for the space of three yeeres and more hath liued without either meate or drinke EVripides desired that either wee might line as dumbe in perpetuall silence or that dumbe thinges vvithout any ambiguitie of words might speake to vs. As for my selfe I could wish that either we were of those Indian people called Astomi whom Plinie Lib. 7. cap. 1. describeth to liue without mouthes or else contented like them with the sole benefit of ayre without eating or drinking wee might heere spend our time For by this meanes it might come to passe that our spirit which with a firme eye cannot cōtemplate things naturall no more then the Owle looke on the rayes

of of the Sun beeing freed from those mistes thicke vapours occasioned by the vse of meats would comprehend with a perfect regard the Ideas and formes of things nakedlie and according as they are indeede Heracl Chrisippus then should not neede to take Helleborus with such obseruāce for the purging of his vnderstanding to the end he might the more subtilly see the strength of his arguments Our soule against her nature would be no heauie burden at all vnto vs shee should not neede to serue herselfe with the salt of our bodies to keepe her from corrupting but rather shee would be like vnto a Phar●s which in our diuine nauigation would discouer the way for our attayning to the land of heauen But in regard that our life is maintained by the nourishing of the bodie and that by one mutuall assistance both together doe conserue thēselues euen while we our selues doe studie how to support this life by continuall care for furnishing it with ●oodes it ensueth that wee altogether abase cast downe to the earth that part of the soule which otherwise of her selfe would couet nothing els then to eleuate her selfe to high and heauenly things Notwithstanding Plato holdeth that In his Timeus man is pouruayed of store of repletion and cloying for the intestines to shewe that God hath created him a soule full of reason councell with out which as the plants are euermore fastened to their rootes for their feeding so would hee likewise alwaies haue meate in his mouth or else as the beasts his minde would be perpetually labouring in seeking after nothing but fresh pasture You may see the same thus while the meate dooth conuay it selfe by the passages of the belli● the spirit naturally sends his strength vegetatiue nutritiue thorow the bodie and by this commixture life the motion of the bodie is maintained and as this more sublime part of nature passeth on further still to shewe the effects of his force and vertue so after foode hath sustained the bodie the spirit is called too the desire of new viandes constrainde to yeeld it selfe subject to the bellies appetite Lib. 26. cap. 8. For there is nothing saith Plinie that is more painefull to a man then his bellie for the content whereof the most part of men imploy their whole life time This importuning vessell of the bodie euermore is at hand with vs like a greedie creditour summoning vs many times in the day but he is not to be listened to alwayes when he calls if hee haue had his dutie paide him No more then one vnder age who would not allow his tutour or guardian the expences for his nourishing as though he had liued with him onlie vppon winde and yet continually hath bin Tit. De alim pup praest C. by him and fed with his pursse but whosoeuer shall or doth deale so the Emperour hath iudged him not receiueable except he can proue he hath had his feeding elswhere The necessitie of the bellie is alwayes in such rigour with vs that the Stoicks themselues who were excluded in themselues from all sense of man constrainedly did yet listen to the bellies murmuring and did eate but how to the end they might shunne eating Quite contrarie to certaine gourmandes and gluttons who vsed then and yet doe to eate and drinke only to encrease their eating and drinking hauing no other God but their bellie wheron they bestowe whatsoeuer serues to excite luxurie for which the Seas are trauersed euen so farre as to the Riuer Phasis ransacking her entrailes for contentation agreeing with their insatiable appetites And this is that part wherein we come neerest vnto brute beastes who by their proper nature are led to desire whatsoeuer their bellie demaundes and with whom we make cōmon this necessitie of eating and drinking For nature hath giuen to all creatures one instrument of life which is naturall heate that euen as our wood in the fire hath his seate in the triple substaunce of our bodie to ●it the solide humorall and spirituous parts which without ceassing he ruinates and consumeth so that in very small while all would bee wasted if it were not maintained by a fresh supply of meates and drinkes neither more or lesse then as the flame of a Lampe which is extinct so soone as the Oyle is consumed if no more be put thereinto for longer lasting And heereupon Hippocrates Lib. 1. Aph. 14. the Prince of Phisitians sayd that the bodies of young men haue neede of more nourishment then others because they haue much more heate then they for otherwise saith hee their bodies would consume themselues Contrariwise the bodies of olde men because they haue but little store of heate they haue neede but of as little nourishing Aph. 13. Hence may we draw a confirmed atgument by this which Hippocrates himselfe hath said that old men easilie endure fasting but next thē such as are in the strength of theyr age yet lesse then young men infants least of all other but especially such as are liueliest and readiest in theyr bodily functions For the littlenes of heate the tenacitie of the primitiue humour and the densitie or thicknes of the body impeacheth old● men that this triple substance canno● wast it selfe at all whence proceedeth that they haue nothing at all such neede of meates and the desire or appetite after thē if so I may say which is hunger in them is much languishing As cōtrariwise in young men it is so much the more ardent as the heat naturall is aboundant the 〈◊〉 more fluxible and the composition of the body more thin and lesse heaped together VVhich three things as they cause the foode receiued to consume so by little and little they repaire any defect there arising For as it should be thus that the substance of euery creature dissolues it selfe by the pores of the skin into the ayre which enuirons it 1. De sym●om caus 7. saith Galen so followes it of necessitie that the very neerest parts of the skin should be first destitute of nouriture that by their propper strength vertue they might draw the nourishment from the other neighbouring parts onely to repaire that which through default of sustentation is become worst those there from the veines these heere from the liuer the liuer frō the intestines ventricle by the mesenterie veines calling what is most familiar and conuenable to his nature Then the ventricle seeing her selfe emptie by a naturall vnderstanding which she hath of that which is wanting to her shee is incited to desire meate wherwith she may be sustained But if some body be presented which hath but small store of heate and much more naturall moysture whereto the pores and respiracles of of the skin doe giue place there is no great euacuation made of this triple substance and so consequentlie there is no neede at all of much nourishment Neither is it altogether necessarie as Galen witnesseth

little is in such maner grown leane and dried vp in her as downe from her sides and so along to her nauill there remaineth nothing of the belly which shee had before There is only in this place or in sted thereof to wit vnder the auncient belly where we may say it hath bin a Cartilage or gristle hanging pointed down from * That part of the breast where the ribs meete and ioyne together thorax or sternu●● after the maner of an eaues or penthouse which throwes off from the building all the water that falls on the top or couerture Here-hence frō the points of these bastard-sides the skinne vnderneath dooth suffer great paine and feeling both of extension and diu●lsion as may easily be perceiued by the moanes which the Maide herselfe maketh From thence comes it that all the muscles intestines bowels other parts of the belly being withdrawne and annihiled by want of foode one would iudge that they had bin rackt or rent away at least there remaineth nothing but the lappings silaments for all the ●leshie substance which filled those parts there are perished and gon As concerning the other parts of her bodie it behoueth much more that there should be an aunswerable diminution yet she hath a large breast the paps pretie and round her armes thighes fleshie her face also indifferent round but brownish her lippes somewhat red her tongue indeed drawne inward a little but yet her words prompt and readie her head couered with haire of good length for her nailes and haire they do encrease in each meet part of the body There comes not any excrement from her her belly yeelds no ordure neither doth any vrine at all passe from her bladder or is the matrixe impeached by her menstruall flowers Her head is not charged with filth or dandriffe but shewes it selfe verie sound and well as well in the exteriour part of the 〈…〉 as in the inward organes of 〈◊〉 for neither dooth her nose or 〈◊〉 render any excrements onlie frō her mouth comes a little spettle and sometimes from her eyes issues a few teares The whole body ouer yeelds no sweat at all but we and such as haue touched her doe find all her skinne to be colde and dry and not heated or chafed by any moouing except the arme-pits those parts which neighbor neer to the hart yet doth shee trauaile about the house goe to the market for victuals sweepe the house spinne at her wheele reele off her quill and giues herselfe as any other to all seruiceable offices in a familie seemes as if shee were not defectiue in any part of sence or mouing of her bodie By all which things we may gather the raritie and meruailous noueltie of this example for the accident happeneth in such an age whē as the body receiues increasing And those things which increase haue need of good store of nouriture but especially in bodies of such constitution as this Maidens is slender thin cold where the internall parts are accustomed to be most hot Hence comes it that our auncients haue said that in VVinter our bellies are Lib. 1. Aph. 15. more hot then at other times which causeth a much readier concoction and an appetite lesse tollerable especially when it is prouoked by exercises whereof this Mayden maketh no spare especially such as her age is capable of the ayre and soyle also wherein she liues affoords the people to be very hungry All which occasions of appetite and hunger were taken frō her by the accident of her continuall Feauer and in the end all her naturall functions became asswaged and seazed on by a kinde of dead Palsie And nowe to begin with the first principall the little belly or maw which otherwise is the receptacle of foode and the officer for the first concoction being lagde rent by the ordure of crude raw humors hath languished in such sort as it had no power either to retaine the meates therin enclosed or to receiue in any other Euen so in Hippocrates Hermocrates being surprized with an extreame burning Feauer did euermore cast the foode hee receiued because this facultie had lost his strength and that was quenched in him saith Galen in the same place Com. 1. whereof the office was to feele lack in health and to desire what was familiar for him Many would attribute the cause of this Symptome or passion ensuing sicknesse to some bad power in an Apple which an olde woman had giuen to this young Maiden two or three months before because when she had eaten it she had a distaste of her meats and felt some alteration of her spirits But in regard that besides this nothing hath happened to her which outwardly hath impeached her health neither her naturall functions vntill she became surprized by the Feauer before mentioned I see no reason at all that yeelds any subiect to belieue how the euill power in the Apple could remaine so long time hidden without yeelding any effect Her vomiting ceassing she became dumbe by reason of those nerues resolution which wee call recurrent vvhich hapned to her soone after through all her body the fleame cold raw beeing liquefied by the heate of the Feauer which by this meanes wrought a debilitie in the braine caused that shee could not be sound and wel in spirit Here-hence it hath necessarily followed that she must needs loose the sence of tast sucking and likewise the vse of swallowing meat and drinke which onely hath procured the abolition of the animall appetite and by little little it hath bin followed by a totall priuation of the appetite naturall which Hippocrates noteth by these words Genestai de ouc edunato if we may giue credit to his most graue interpreter Galen VVhich casts the cause of this passion vpon the blame of the liuer who being the vegetant and naturall soule so soone as she is wounded she is constraind that the auxiliarie or succouring faculties to wit attraction retention assimiliation or comparison and expulsion in whom lies all the power of nourishing must needs sinck fall and so consequently the appetite which cannot be compleat perfect but by attraction The same Authour gathers it to be the sicknes of the liuer in Hermocrates by this 1. Epid. sect 3. that the sixt day of his sicknesse he was seene to looke yellow notwithstanding in all the course of his disease which was for 27. dayes this yellownes neuer left him as it had done in Heraclides to whō the selfe same passion happened and on the same day neither by sweating neither by the voyding of much choller nor by the conuoye of the bellie nor by vrine nor yet by vomitting And therefore it was easie to be seene that the naturall facultic whereof the liuer is the fountaine in very strange manner was ouerthrowne VVhich being so all the 5. De lo● aff Chap. 1. strength of appetite doth become so weakened saith

of wood to be burned among others Lib. 11. Cap. 54. he was found aliue As for Plinie he is not perswaded that thorowe lack of eating a man should be compeld to yeeld too death at the seauenth dayes end Diogenes Laertius reciteth by the testemonie of Dicearchus that Pytha●or as the cheefe maister of abstinence continued fortie dayes together without drinking by whose doctrine also Apollonius Thyaneus learned by a long vse and custome to endure fasting for many dayes Lib. 7. Cap. 18. Plinie assures vs that drought or thirst may be surmounted by a constant perseuerance and that the Romaine noble Knight Iulius Viator hauing had warning by Phisitians in his younger yeares not to drinke any water at all by reason of a certaine indisposition in him leaning to the dropsie he turned the custome of nature in such sort as he passed his age without drinking Fresh yet in our memory and all Fraunce hath seene the same in the person of my Lord Marquesse of Pisani who is a man of such merit as the King himselfe imployes his seruice in matters of great importaunce There are many bookes of deuoute enstructions which doo recounte meruailes of diuers frequent and voluntarie abstinences as of P. Alcantara a Monke in Spayne and that for eight dayes and more in euerie moneth But beyond all others there is an historie very famous of a certaine Maiden named Catharine being in the soyle of Colherberg who hath bin knowne to liue seauen yeares together without drinking or eating any thing whatsoeuer She was carefully tended by Henry Smetius at this present Professour in Heildeberge and Ioh● Iac. Theod. Phisitians The 24. of Nouember 1584. by the commandement of Iohn Casimir Counte Palatine and since also to the same effect foure Matrones were appointed to keepe her companie as well by night as by day who with the Phisitians haue also acknowledged this abstinence to be most true Three yeares after this historie was traduced into French Printed at Francford by Iohn VVechel in the yeare 1587. with an aduertisement in the end that the Maiden as yet then liued in that manner without drinking eating sleeping or deliuering any excrements Besides all these Ioubert concerning this argument hath set downe such pregnant necessary reasons as I cannot thinke that any one needs to make doubt thereof Neuerthelesse being my selfe afterward to discourse on the same subiect I happened being in a Booke-sellers shop letting mine eyes wander ouer the bookes to be presented at my very entrance with a litle book bearing in the fore-head this title Fieri non posse vt quis sine cibo et pot● plures dies et annos transigat At the same instant I tooke the Booke which in regard it was written by I. Haruet a Doctour of Phisick and of the same condition with vs and as we are I read it very seriouslie frō one end to the other But comming to the place where he argues on the negligence of the Authours of so Pag. 74 many notable examples who he saith haue bin somewhat deceiued by the inueterate beleefe of this extraordinarie fasting I thought it good that he should be satisfied in this poynt and passed my promise thereon in the name of our Maide of Confolans albeit during so many moneths yeares I could not giue my selfe to consider all het actions and motions neuerthelesse it is very likelie by that which is sayd in all places of her concerning the three yeares fast now in question And yet such as haue seene her naked as vve haue done haue thought no otherwise if she be not changed since the last time I saw her which was in the month of Iuly last 1602. Some say that she is now a little more full of flesh yet she hath neuer receiued any foode at all that could possibly be knowne Beside this truth ought to receiue credit generally by the faithfull report of so many persons of honour and good qualitie who for trials sake haue kept her in their houses among their Maides children some for three others for foure months and more If any one be further desirous and would willingly see her hee hath free libertie the Maiden herselfe will not contradict what other proofes hee or any can make of her But in my mind Ioubert would haue receiued no meane contentment by the sight of an accident so strange for if to so many pertinent reasons hee could haue had but an eye-experience he should not haue had now perhaps Haruet for his aduersarie VVho being in the humor to combat against both sence and reason it may be it would then be the harder for him to vndergoe the demonstrations of Ioubert for they are vnderpropped with principles soundly assured and drawn from the oracles euen of the great Dictatour of Nature Lib de vita et mor. et resp Aristotle instructs vs that all kinds of creatures haue in them a certaine naturall heat which is combined to the soule with so strict a bond as the one cannot be without the other and that those creatures while they liue haue this hea● but death comming they are cold immediatly And Lib. ● de gen an Cap. 3. in another place there is saith hee in the seed of all creatures the thing that causeth facunditie and that is it which we call heat And further he saith in the earth and in the waters the creatures and plants doe ingender because in the earth there is a moisture in the moisture is a spirit and in this great substance is the animall heat to the end that all things should be somewhat full of soule Thus dooth he hold that all things are made by heat and that all functions are performed thereby Lib. ● ad Glauc Lib. ● de vsu par Galen is also of the same oppinion and saith that heat is either the substance of the faculties or at least the chiefe and most necessarie instrument of them It is no maruell then if Haruet thinks it to be strange that Ioubert saith according to Aristotle that life dependeth vpon heat only For that it must needes be so life is nothing els but an abiding or attendance of the soule with the heat according to the same Aristotles iudgment Lib. de resp and we cannot in this obscuritie of things find any more assured instance of this present life then by the functions thereof of all vvhich heat as the especiall instrument and without other meanes is the authour the cause motiue and effecter And Ioubert to no small purpose hath defined life by heat in that Aristotle hath consigned death by the extinctiō of the same heat for Ioubert groundeth on this axiome that of two contraries the consequents are contraries And Galen himselfe 1. De san tu who holdeth death to arriue then when heat being weakned and broken by frequent action becomes faint and that the temper of the elementary qualities which are in vs being out of square