our Lord confounded the Jews without speaking a word and when he was falsely accus'd before Pilate he open'd not his mouth to defend himself Now this writing free from the troublesomeness of praters borrows all its force from silence which is more eloquent then all the talk of Men but especially in respect of God whose praise saith the Psalmist is silence and with whom the lifting up of the Heart and mental prayer is more prevalent then all the voices and speeches in the world Such was that of Moses of whom it was said in Exod. that he pray'd in his Heart and yet God saith to him Wherefore cryest thou to me in this manner Such is the silence of true worshippers who worship in Spirit and Truth Moreover the Prophet Jeremy assures us That 't is a good thing to wait for the mercy of God in silence The Angel Gabriel began his combate against the Dragon with silence And Judith being upon the point to slay Holofernes made her prayers to God with tears and silence Besides 't is a signe of Humility and Modesty amongst Men. The Sixth said That to judge well of the Question we must recur to Nature who having given Man two Ears open for one Tongue shut up intimates plainly that he has more need of hearing and holding his peace then of speaking And because the wounds of the Tongue compar'd by the Royal Prophet to a sharp razor and to a consuming fire by the Apostle Saint James aresometimes more mortal then those of the Sword she is not contented to put a reine under it call'd Froenum Linguae to stop its intemperance but hath also surrounded it with strong barriers the two rows of Teeth besides those of the Lips But that which makes very much for silence is that Men oftner repent of having spoken then of having held their peace And 't is not said in the Holy Scripture that Men shall be blam'd for having been silent but that they shall give account even of the least idle words Speaking therefore is more graceful but silence is more safe speech is the property of Man but silence of the wise Man CONFERENCE LIV. I. Of Touch. II. Of Fortune I. Of the Touch WHat the Centre is in the Earth the Earth amongst the Elements a Star in Heaven Sovereignty in a State Faith in Religion Natural Motion in Physick Equity in Law Reason in Philosophy the Body in Man the Sense in a living Creature that the Touch is in all the other Senses that is to say 't is their foundation and the condition without which none of them can subsist For there are Animals which see not as Moles which hear not as the Asp and most Insects which have not Smelling as those who are troubled with rheume which have no Taste as most sick persons But if there be found any which hath not the Sense of Touching at the same time it ceases to be an Animal since it is not term'd such but inasmuch as it hath a sensitive life which consists in the knowledge of good and evil sensible by pleasure and pain the two symptoms of the Touch and which alone bear the sway and turn the balance in all the actions of Man the scope of all which is either to pursue good or to avoid evil The Second said That for this purpose as sensitive life is diffus'd throughout the Body so the Touch which is inseparable from that life hath not as the other Senses a particular and limited Organ but is extended into all the parts of the Body Because as among the objects of the Senses onely the tangible Qualities give being and constitute the Animal by their proportion and temperature so they alone destroy it by their excess and disproportion So that as onely a small part of the Body sees another hears another smells and another tasts if there had been but one part of the Body that could by touching have discern'd the quality of its object it would have hapned that whilst this part were delighted with one of those objects the excess of some other might have destroy'd all the rest of the Animal without its perceiving the same and so it would have perish'd without knowing and consequently being able to avoid the same which is the principal end of the Senses which for this reason represent death to themselves so terrible to the end that the horrour thereof might oblige them to a greater care of their preservation The Third said That as Man is surpass'd in other senses by brutes so he excells them in Touching which he hath most exquisite and perfect He alone of all creatures has Hands wherewith to touch and a smooth soft skin the better to judge of tangible qualities For being he was made to judge of things it was requisite that he should be provided of a faithful messenger as the touch is to make him a true report thereof And because he was design'd to more sublime actions then brutes therefore he needed a more perfect temperature of which the goodness of Touch is a most sure sign Hence the Physiognomist reckons the subtlety of this sense to a most certain token of that of the Mind as its contrary of stupidity an exquisite Touch denoting the softness and tenderness of the flesh upon which consequently tangible Qualities easily make their impression and this tenderness denotes the good temper of the Body which is followed by sutable actions of the Mind Hence it is that great wits have commonly weak and delicate bodies but the stupid and dull the most robust and brawny Therefore as the Touch distinguishes Men from brutes so it does Men from one another But the Sight and the other Senses do not so for on the contrary it frequently comes to pass that great spirits have the shortest sight and the other Senses less exquisite The Fourth said That the Touch is not only the most necessary in all Animals since it serves them for a specifical difference sensibility which distinguishes them from Plants being commonly taken for the faculty of Touching witness our vulgar phrase which calls one man more sensible then another when he is more easily affected by the tactile qualities but 't is the sole sense of many Animals especially Zoophytes or Plant-animals such as Spunge Coral and all kind of Oysters The first of which hears not sees not smells not and tastes not its nourishment but only dilates it self to receive it and contracts it self to retain it as soon as it feels it neer The second by the relation of divers who fetch it from under the water averts it self by bowing the contrary way as soon as it feels the touch of their instruments The last have no Organical parts and if they had the same would be useless to them because they are destitute of local motion and of every other sense except that of Touching by which they open and shut themselves And which Nature has given as gross as it is for a supplement to
onely unprofitable but contrary to humanity since their End is the destruction of Man That among the rest the Gun invented by a Monk nam'd Bertol in the year 1380. hath caus'd the death of too many persons not to be in horrour to the living from which the most valiant cannot secure himself And if they be compar'd to the studies of humanity they are so far distant from them that the Beginning of the one is the End of the other The clashing of Armes as Sylla said hindring attenion to Lawes And comparing them together that French Hercules who drew men to him with chains of Gold subdu'd them much better winning their Bodies and their Hearts then that other subduer of Monsters whose victory extended but to the one half That Archimedes defending Syracuse by his skill against the Army of Marcellus seemes to void the Question But on the other side since the point of Wit wins not the Victory now a dayes unless it be joyn'd with that of the Sword And that on the contrary Armes command over all it is certain that a City full of Philosophers that knew not how to help themselves with Armes would be taken by a Regiment of Souldiers ignorant of Letters and that of all the Lawes there is none more peremptory then the Gun Which is signifi'd by that Devise which our Cannons of the new casting have graven upon them Ratio ultima Regum Moreover we see that the Turks whose Political Maximes are as good for the preservation and increasing of their Empire as their Religion is bad for the attaining to that of Heaven excepting what little needs to instruct the few Fryers they have in their Mosquees and less the Judges in their Tribunals scorn all Learning and teach their people no other Science but Obedience and Contempt of Death While the Greeks and the Romans did the same each of them got and kept a Monarchy As on the contrary their declining hapned when their skilfulness in all Sciences was risen to the highest point Having ceas'd to do well when they addicted themselves too much to speak well So greatly doth Literature intenerate and soften Hearts effeminating those that apply themselves thereto whether by their Charm or by the too great dissipation of Spirits requir'd by the assiduity of Study and Contemplation which almost draws the Soul out of the Body and notably weakneth its ordinary functions Whence it comes to pass that studious Men have not onely their Sight and all other Senses but also the Members of their Body more weak how good soever their natural temper be which is strengthened by the exercise to which they are oblig'd who practise other Arts and especially that of War an Enemy to Sedentary Life Nevertheless coming to consider the Advantages which Alexander drew from the precepts of Aristotle Caesar from his own Eloquence and the Mathematicks for the making of Speeches to his Souldiers building of Bridges and besieging of places That without Astrology which inabled Christopher Columbus to foresee an Eclipse of the Moon in the year 1492. whereof he made use to frighten the Americans extremely his Enterprize had perish'd In brief that that brave King of Sweden Conquerour during his Life and after his Death so happily joyned Letters to Armes I conclude for their Conjunction authoriz'd by that excellent Sentence That the Nations are happy whose Philosophers are Kings or whose Kings are Philosophers and confirm'd by the Example which the admirable Government of this Kingdom affordeth The Next said That if it behoveth to marry the Sciences to Armes it must be because Learning maketh the Souldier either more honest or more valiant and couragious or more dextrous and warlike Now they have none of these Effects not the former For on the contrary the most favourable Sentence that can be pass'd upon Learning is to say that it is neither good nor bad of it self but leaves the Will of the possessor in the same posture that it found it The most moderate Detractors alledge that Knowledge puffeth up Now Presumption conduceth not much to the Amendment of Life Others go so far as to maintain That Simplicity and sweetness of Manners is not found usually with great Learning according to that Sentence which the Company will permit me to alledge in its own Language Postquam docti prodierunt boni desunt Moreover S. Paul disswades us as much as possible from Philosophy which he calls vain adding that such as would know too much must be rejected from the Church And as the Shoo-makers are commonly the worst shod and the richest the most covetous so they that know the most good are willing to do the least Now if this be true in persons of the highest form is it to be hop'd that a Souldier whose inclinations are usually not too devout should become an honester Man after he has studied But besides he will become as little valiant and couragious thereby Reason requiring that the more a Man knows dangers and inconveniences the more shy and backward he is to venture amongst them And Experience shewing that the softness of studies is incompatible with the warlike ardour and martial humour Of which Marius and other Roman Captains not ignorant no more then those at present did not go to the Schooles to choose their Souldiers but into the Shops and Villages Which caus'd Licinius and Valentinian Emperours of Rome to say That their State had no Poyson more dangerous then Learning The Greeks by being too much addicted thereunto were easily subdu'd by the Goths who understood nothing but to kill and burn and yet were not so ignorant as to take from the Greeks overcome by them the use of Learning for fear lest coming to themselves they might easily shake off their yoke They left them their Libraries entire to continue their exercise therein peaceably So long as the Spartans flourish'd they had no other Academies but of Valour Prudence and Justice The Persians had no other Schooles but the practice of Vertue whereof onely the name and definition is known in ours which afford nothing but unprofitable tattle Lastly Study as 't is vulgarly practis'd at this day instead of rendring a Man better behav'd imprints upon him the manners of the Colledge insupportable to all the world and rendring the name of Scholar odious Few people have less discretion then they most beggars ask Almes in Latine and this Language is more common to Bedlam then to any other place The multitude and earnestness of those who vigorously maintain'd the Cause of Learning hindred the distinct Recollection of all their Reasons but they may be reduc'd to these Armes destitute of Letters have more of the Brute then of the Man the ignorance of danger not deserving the Name of Valour but that onely which sees the danger and despises it in comparison of the honour which it expects from victory What a glory would be added to the Gown if in imitation of those brave Roman Consuls and Senatours a
it is now straitned and takes less room then before Whence Water freezing in Vessels well stopp'd the same break for the avoidance of Vacuum Moreover Humidity is not one of its essential proprieties because it may be separated from it as we see in frozen water which is less humid then when it was cold It followes then that Second Qualities being Tokens of the First and the goodness of Water requiring that it have the least weight that can be as also that it have neither Taste nor Smell the most pure i. e. the Elementary of which we are speaking is without First Qualities having been created by God onely to be the band or tye of the other parts of a mixt body The Fifth said That the Scripture divideth the Waters into those which are above the Heavens and those upon the Earth as if to teach us that Water is the Centre the Middle and the end of the Universe Which agrees with the opinion of those who establish it for the Sole Principle of all things Those Supercoelestial Waters are prov'd by the Etymology of the word for Heavens Schamaim which signifies in Hebrew There are Waters Because 't is said that God divided the Waters from the Waters and placed them above the Firmament Which Supercoelestial Waters are also invited by the Psalmist to bless the Lord And lastly because it is said that at the time of the Deluge the windows of Heaven were opened The Sixth said That the gravity of those Supercoelestial Waters would not suffer them to remain long out of the place destinated to that Element which is below the Air And therefore it were better to take the word Heaven in those places for the Air as 't is elsewhere in the Scripture which mentioneth the Dew and the Birds of Heaven Since also the Hebrew word which there signifies Firmament is also taken for the Expansion of the Air and those Supercoelestial Waters for Rain II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers Upon the Second Point it was said That if we speak of Wine moderately taken the Sacred Text voids the Question saying that it rejoyceth the Heart Which it performeth by supplying ample matter to the Influent Spirits which the Heart by the Arteries transmitteth to all the parts and which joyning themselves to the private Spirits strengthen them and labour in common with them And so the Souldier entring into fight with a cheerful Heart is half victorious Yea the greatest exploits of War are atchieved by the Spirits which constitute Courage the Blood heated by them over-powring the coldness of Melancholy and Phlegme which cause backwardness and slowness of Action For it is with the Virtues as with Medicines which become not active and pass not from power into act but by help of the natural faculties So the Virtues do not produce their effects but by the Spirits But Wine taken in excess is wholly prejudicial to the Valour of a Souldier who hath need of a double strength One of Mind to lead him on valiantly to dangers and keep him undaunted at dreadful occurrences The other of Body to undergo the long toiles of War and not draw back in fight Now Wine destroyes both of these For as for the former Valour or Fortitude is a Moral Virtue which as all other Virtues its companions acteth under the conduct of Prudence which alone ruleth and employeth them and knoweth where and how they ought to act So that what assists Prudence assists Valour too and that which hureth the one hurteth the other also Now excessive Wine hurteth the former very much For by its immoderate heat it causeth a tumult and disorder in the humours it maketh the Brain boyle and work and consequently embroyleth and confoundeth the Phantasines which are imprinted in it as it happeneth in sleep or in the Phrensie and by its gross vapour it obstructeth all its passages So that the Understanding cannot take its Survey there having no free access to come and form its judgements and conclusions upon the Ideas and Phantasmes And although it should have its Avenues free yet the Phantasmes being in confusion like Images in stirred waters it would be impossible for it to judge aright and prudently to discern what fear or what eagerness ought to be check'd and repel'd For all Fear is not to be rejected no more then 't is to be follow'd nor is the bridle to be let loose at all adventures nor alwayes restrain'd The strength of the Body is also impaird by Wine For though Galen and others will have it Hot and Dry yet it being so but potentially 't is as subject to deceive us as that Dutchman was who hearing that Cresses were hot commanded his Man to fill his Boots therewith to warm him For the truth is Wine is moist and vapourous and that to such a degree that by reason of its extreme humidity it cannot be corrupted with a total corruption For this happeneth when the external heat hath wholly drawn out the moisture of the corrupted Body and so dissolved the Union of all the dry parts which moisture keeps together So that the Elements flying away there remains nothing to be seen but Earth alone Which cannot come to pass in Wine by reason of the little dry substance in it and of its great humidity which cannot be wholly separated In which regard it is never corrupted but in part viz. when the external heat draws away the more pure substance and the better Spirits as we see when it grows sour thick or turbid Being then humid to such a degree and our parts partaking of the nature of their food if Souldiers nourish their Bodies excessively with Wine they must retain the qualities thereof viz. softness and weakness which follow humidity Whence possibly came the word Dissolute for such as addict themselves to this debauchery and the other which follow it Therefore the Souldier would be more robust if he never drank Wine because he would eat the more and produce the more solid substance which would make him more vigorous less subject to diseases and more fit to indure in sight and undergo the other toils of War The Second said That it belongs to the prudent States-man to weigh the benefit and the mischief which may arise from his orders So that he alwayes propose to himself that he hath to do with imperfect men and who incline rather to the abuse then the right use of things This holds principally in War Souldiers willingly aiming at nothing else but pleasure and profit Even in this Age wherein we are past the Apprentisage of War except some constant Regiments Souldiers are tumultuously chosen almost alwayes out of the dregs of the people of whom to require the exercise of Temperance in the use of that which ordinarily costs them nothing were to seek an impossibility Such is Wine that though it makes the Souldier sturdy yet it makes him unfit to govern himself much less others Whereunto notwithstanding he oftentimes
Mind or the Body being moderate and indifferently temper'd with each of those Liquors may be supported by Men Pleasure and Good as the more natural much more easily then Evil and Pain which are destructive to Nature But when both of them are extreme and the sweetness of Pleasures and contentments is not abated by some little gall nor the bitterness of displeasures sweetned by some little Honey then Men cannot rellish this Potion because they are not accustom'd to things pure and sincere but to confusion and mixture and cannot bear the excess of Grief or Joy the extremities of which are found to be fatal As first for Grief Licinius finding himself condemn'd for the crime of Cheating the publick dy'd with regret Q. Fabius because he was cited before the Tribunes of the People for violating the Law of Nations Caesar's Daughter at the sight of the bloody garments of her Husband Pompey And in the last Age one of the Sons of Gilbert Duke of Montpensier going into Italy dy'd with resentment at Puzzole upon the Sepulchre of his Father whom he went thither to see Then for Joy Diagoras Rhodius seeing his three Sons victorious in one day at the Olympick Games dy'd with Joy The same Fate befell Chilo the Lacedemonian upon the same victory of one of his Sons Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily and the Poet Sophocles having heard that they had won the bayes for Tragedies dy'd both immediately And so did the Poet Philippides upon winning that for Comedies The Painter Zeuxis having made the portraiture of an old woman very odly dy'd with laughing at it To which Paulus Jovins produces two like examples of later date one of Sinas General of the Turk's Gallies upon the recovery of his onely Son whom he accounted lost and the other of Leo X. upon the taking of Milain which he had passionately desir'd both of which dy'd for Joy Thus each of these Passions have great resemblance in their excesses They equally transport a Man beyond the bounds of Reason The one by its pleasingness makes him forget himself the other by its bitterness leads him to despair Grief destroyes Life either by the violent agitation of the Spirits or by their condensation which stopping the passages hinders respiration From whence follows suffocation and death Pleasure and Joy produce the same effect by contrary causes namely by too great a dilatation of the Spirits which causes weakness and that weakness death It may be doubted under which rank they ought to be plac'd who dye for Love But the sweetness of this kind of death is too much extoll'd by the Poets that being to choose said he I should prefer it before the others The Second said They who dye for Joy are of a soft temper and rare contexture and their Hearts being too easily dilated and expanded by it the Spirits evaporating leave the same destitute of strength and so the Ventricles close together and they perish under this Passion On the contrary they who dye with grief and sadness have the Pores more closed but are of a very hot temper which requires room and freedom for the dilatation of the Heart which becoming compress'd by sadness which like Fear stops and refrigerates and renders the Spirits too much throng'd ad condens'd among themselves the Spirits having their avenues obstructed and their commerce with the Air hindred stifle the Heart That nevertheless the Passions of Joy are much less then those of Grief because Evil more vehemently moves the Appetite then Good For Grief destroyes the simple and absolute Existence of a thing Pleasure brings onely a transient and casual effect and is but a redundancy or surplusage An Animal hath its perfect essence without it but Grief puts its Being into evident danger and changes it essentially II. The preservation of an Animal for which Nature endu'd it with the Passion of Grief is the highest internal end whereunto also Pleasure is ordain'd as a means the pleasure of the Taste for the preservation of the Individual that of the Touch for the preservation of the species In fine Delectation is a Female Passion or rather but half a Passion for when its Object is present it is languid and asswag'd and hath no more but a bare union with the Object that is the present Good which is rather a Rest then a Motion of the Sensitive Appetite Whereas Grief which respects a present Evil is not onely redoubled by the presence of the same but summons all the other Passions to its Relief Anger Audacity Courage and all the Faculties to revenge it self The Third said That if we consider these two Passions as streams running within their ordinary channels and do not respect their inundations then Grief seemes to be more powerful then Joy for it causeth us to break through all difficulties that might stop us it rallies the Forces of Nature when there needs any extraordinary performance gives Armes to extremities and renders Necessity the Mistress of Fortune On the contrary Pleasure and Joy abate the greatness of the Courage enfeeble a Man by exhausting his Spirits and emptying his Heart too much thereof The Fourth said Pleasure and Grief are two Passions of the Concupiscible Appetite the former of which is the perception of an agreeable Object the latter of a displeasing one For all Sensation is made by a Mutation and that either from Good to Evil whence ariseth Grief and if it persisteth Sadness or from Evil to Good whence springeth Pleasure which if it be lasting causeth Joy which are to be carefully distinguish'd They easily succeed set off and give conspicuousness one to the other Socrates would never have found pleasure in scratching the place where his fetters fastned his Legs if he had not borne those shackles a long time in Prison Their vehemence hath commonly reference to the Temper Pleasure hath more dominion over the Sanguine The Melancholy Man makes more reflexion upon Grief But considering them absolutely it seemes to me more difficult to support Ease then Disease Joy then Sadness Pleasure then Grief First because Hope the harbinger of good and contentment hath greater effects then Fear which fore-runs Evil and causeth to undertake greater things for all glorious and Heroical Actions have Hope for their impulsive cause whereras commonly Fear produceth none but servile Actions Secondly a Passion is term'd strong or violent when by the impression of the species of the Object first upon the Senses and then upon the Phancy it becometh so much Mistress of Reason that it hinders the Man from freely exercising the functions of knowing aright and doing aright Now Pleasures and Contentments cause Men not to know themselves but to forget God and run into Vices whereas Grief and Afflictions usually retain them within their duty in the Fear of God and in the exercise of the Virtues of Patience Obedience and Humility Many persons have bravely and couragiously resisted torments and yet yielded to Pleasure And that Emperour of whom Saint
follow For in such cases there are instances of great forgetfulness or Folly as Gaza forgot even his own Name It is divided into Deliration Phrensie Melancholy and Madness Though the word Deliration be taken for all sorts of Folly yet it more strictly signifies that which is caus'd by rising of the hot humours and vapours to the Brain and frequently accompanies Fevers and Inflammations of the internal parts Phrensie is an Inflammation of the membranes of the Brain caus'd by the bilious blood or humour usually with a Fever and a languid Pulfe in regard such phrenctick persons are intent upon other things whereby their respiration is less frequent Melancholy both the Ideopathical which is in the Vessels of the Brain and the Sympathetical or Hypochondrical which ariseth from the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery ariseth from that humour troubling the Brain and by its blackness making the patients sad and timerous or as Averroes will have it by its coldness because Heat emboldens and Cold makes fearful as we see in Women As this humour causeth Prudence and Wisedom when it is in its natural quality so when it is corrupted it produceth Folly there being as little distance between the one and the other as between the string of a Lute stretch'd up to the highest pitch and the same when it is broken Which made Montaigne say That there is but one turn of a peg between Wisedom and Folly If this Melancholy humour be moveable and bilious it will cause imaginations of various absurd things like to those of Dreams Wherefore Aristotle compares the fame to waters in motion which alwayes represent objects ill If it be more fix'd it causeth insuperable Opiniastry As is observ'd in those who phancy themselves Pitchers Cocks Geese Hens Glass Criminals Dead Damned and so in infinitum according to the diversity of Phancies Conditions and Inclinations The Folly of Love is of this kind which hath caus'd desperation and death to many Lastly Mania or Madness is an alienation of the Mind not mingled with fear and sadness as Melancholy is but with boldness and fury caus'd by the igneous and boyling Spirits of the other Choler which possessing the Brain and at times the whole Body by their immoderate heat render Men foolish furious and daring Such a heat that they are insensible of cold in mid Winter though stark naked sometimes so excessive that it degenerates into Lycanthropy rage and many other furious diseases By the induction of all which species of Folly it appears that whence soever the matter which causeth Folly ariseth it makes its impression in the Brain For though the Soul be as much in the heel as the head yet it is improper to place Wisedom in the heel but it may reasonably be assign'd to the Brain Yet to circumscribe it to a certain place excluding any other me-thinks ought no more to be done then to assign some particular corner of a Chamber to an Intelligence of the Nature of which the Soul participates The Third said Melancholy is the cause of Prudence onely by accident hindring by its dryness the too great mobility of the Blood and by its coldness checking the too impetuous sallies of the Spirits but it is by it self the cause of Folly and also of the two other Syncopies Eclipses and Alienations of the Judgement which are observ'd in the Apoplexy and the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness If Melancholy abound in the Brain it either possesses its ventricles or predominates over its temper If it be in the ventricles it either molests them by its malignity and acrimony and causeth the Epilepsie or else it fills them and causeth the Apoplexy For as we put Oyl upon a piece of Wine that is prone to decay and sowre which Oyl being aerious and consequently humid by its subtile and unctuous humidity keeps its particles so united that the Spirits of the Wine cannot penetrate through it and so being cover'd by it they are restrain'd and tarry in the Wine In like manner Melancholy by its tenacious and glutinous viscosity like black shining pitch keeps its particles so conjoyn'd that the Spirit contain'd in the ventricles cannot issue forth into the Nerves to serve for voluntary motion and the functions of sense whence followes their cessation But if the Melancholy Humour presseth the ventricles by its troublesome weight then they retire and by their retiring cause that universal contraction of the Nerves If this Humour prevail over its temper then it causeth deliration or Dotage and that in two manners For if it exceed in dryness which is a quality that admits degrees then by that dryness which is symbolical and a kin to heat it attracts the Spirits to it self as it were to make them revolt from their Prince and to debauch them from their duty employes them to fury and rage and causes madness making them follow its own motions which are wholly opposite to Nature For being cold dry black gloomy an enemy to light society and peace it aims at nothing but what is destructive to Man But if the cold in this humour exceed the dry then it will cause the disease called Melancholly which is pure Folly and makes the timerous trembling sad fools for cold not onely compresseth and incloseth the Spirits in the Brain and stupifies them so as to become unactive but hath also a back blow upon the Heart the reflux of its infection exhaling even to that seat of life and streightning it into it self whereby its Spirits become half mortifi'd Moreover this Humour sometimes piercing through the Brain comes about with a circumference and lodges amongst the Humours of the Eye placing it self before the pupil and the Crystalline under the Tunicles which cover it by which means the Melancholy persons seem to behold dreadful Objects abroad but it is within his Eye that he sees them As for the same reason they who have the beginning of a suffusion imagine that flyes flocks of wool or little hairs because of the Humour contain'd there which if it be Blood they seem red if Choler yellow if Melancholy black But in all the cases hitherto alledg'd me-thinks the Seat of Folly is the same with that of Imagination which is the Brain and not any of the ventricles in particular for since the Intellect acteth upon the phantasmes of the Imagination this upon the report of the Common Sense and this upon the information of the External Senses which are diffus'd throughout all the Brain and each possesseth a part of it the whole Brain must necessarily contribute to Ratiocination II. Whether Women or Men are more inclin'd to Love Upon the Second Point the First said Women are of a more amorous complexion then Men. For the Spirits of Women being more subtile according to Aristotle's Maxime That such as have more tender flesh have more subtile Spirits they are carri'd with more violence to amiable Objects And Love being according to Plato the off-spring of Plenty and Indigence that of Women
Hope which is by the testimony of Aristotle a species of Love contemnes and surmounts all difficulties which hinder its attaining to its Good Here one objecting That Anger which arises from Hatred and inward Grief hath more violent effects then Hope and the other Passions It was answer'd that Anger consists of a mixture of Love and Hatred therefore Homer sayes that to be angry is a thing more sweet then Honey For Anger tends to Revenge and ceaseth when we are reveng'd for the wrong we apprehend done to us Now Revenge seemes a Good and delectable thing to the person that seeks it and therefore all the great Ebullitions and Commotions observ'd in Anger ought to be referr'd to the Love and Desire of Revenge Besides the Motions which attend Hatred are Motions of Flight as those which accompany Love are Motions of Pursuit and Anger being rather a Pursuit and seeking of Revenge then a Flight from any evil it is more reasonably to be rank'd under Love then under Hatred Again we see amorous persons are more easily put into heat then even those which are drawn up in battalia and ready to kill one another In fine if Hatred and all the Passions attending it have any force and violence Love is the prime cause thereof we hate no thing but because we love some thing and that more or less proportionably as we love Wherefore the Philosophers who would introduce an Apathy and banish all the Passions should have done well rather to extinguish Love For he who loves no thing hates no thing and when we have lost any thing our sadness and resentment is proportionable to the Love we had for it He that loves no thing fears no thing and if it be possible that he do's not love his own life he do's not fear death It is not therefore to be inquir'd which excites the greatest Commotions Love or Hatred since even those which Hatred excites proceed from Love The Third said That the Acts or Motions of the Appetite are called Passions because they make the Body suffer and cause an alteration in the Heart and Pulse Such as aim at Pleasure enervate the Motion of Contraction because they dilate the Spirits and augment that of Dilatation Whereas on the contrary those which belong to Sadness diminish the Motion of Dilatation because they further that of Contraction We may consider the Passions either materially or formally the former consideration denotes the Impression which they make upon the Body the latter the relation to their Object So Anger consider'd materially is defin'd An Ebullition and Fervour of the Blood about the Heart and formally A Desire of Revenge This being premiz'd I affirm That Hatred is much more powerful then Love if we consider them materially not as alone but as leaders of a party viz. Love with all the train of Passions that follow the same towards Good and Hatred with all its adherents in reference to Evil. For either of them taken apart and by it self make very little impression and alteration in the Heart Love is a bare acknowledgement of and complacency in good and goeth no further as Love Hatred is nothing else but a bare rejection disavowing and aversion of Evil. In verification of which conception of the Nature of those Passions it is evident that the Effects ascrib'd to Love as Extasie Languishing are the Effects not of Love but of Hope weary and fainting through its own duration Now these Passions being thus taken Love causeth less alteration upon the Body then Hatred For its highest pitch is Delight which is materially an expansion of the Spirits of the Heart towards the parts of the whole Body wherein appeareth rather a cessation from Action then any violence But Hatred which terminates in Anger makes a furious havock It dauseth the Blood to boyle about the Heart and calls to its aid the same Passions that are subservient to Love as Hope and Boldness conceiving it a Good to be reveng'd on the present Evil. The Case is the same also if they be consider'd according to their formality For the Object of Love is a Good not absolute but according to some consideration seeing the good of an Animal is its preservation to which that kind which is called Delectable Good or the Good of Delight is ordain'd as a means to the end But the Object of Hatred is the Evil which destroyes an Absolute and Essential being of an Animal For which reason it moves more powerfully then Good The Fourth said That for the better judging of the Question we must suppose that these two Passions are two Agents which tend each to their different End For the end of Love is a good Being That of Hatred which repels what destroyes our Being is the preservation of Being simply Now Being is much more perfect naturally then better being though morally it is not so perfect and the preservation of Being is of the same dignity with Being On the other side it is true that Love is the cause of Hatred and that we hate nothing but because we love Yet it doth not follow that Hatred is not more powerful then Love seeing many times the Daughter is more strong and fair then the Mother Now if they are brutish Passions they must be measur'd by the standard of Brutes But we see a Dog leave his Meat to follow a Beast against which he hath a natural animosity And Antipathies are more powerful then Sympathies for the former kill and the latter never give life Nevertheless sometimes Love prevailes over Hatred For a Man that loves the Daughter passionately and hates the Father as much will not cease to do good to the Father for the Daughters sake The shortness of the dayes and the enlargements upon this Subject having in this and some of the former Conferences left no room for Inventions every one was entrealed to prepare himself for the future and these two Points were chosen for the next day seven-night CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather than any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick I. Of the severall fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour THe First said That the greatest part of Man-kind excepting some Barbarians lamented the death of their friends and express'd their sadness by external Mourning which is nothing but the change of Habit. Now they are observ'd to be of six sorts The Violet is for Princes The weeds of Virgins are white in reference to purity Sky-colour is in use with the people of Syria Cappadocia and Armenia to denote the place which they wish to the dead namely Heaven The Yellow or Feuille-morte among those of Aegypt to shew say they that as Herbs being faded become yellow so Death is the end of Humane Hope The Grey is worne by the Aethiopians because it denotes the colour of the Earth which receives
or seen some ridiculous thing we many times laugh at it though the Object be not present 'T is also Disproportion that makes us laugh for we do not so when we behold a great Beauty but we do so when we look upon some odd ill-contriv'd countenance or when we find little sutableness between the Objects which are represented to us as an Old-man making Love a huge Hat upon a small Head one intending to make a graceful Reverence or cut a fine caper and falling all along in brief every thing that is said or done incongruously besides our expectation especially if no other more violent Passion interpose as Fear Respect and Pity which suppress Laughter We laugh at a Man that falls down but should he break his neck with the fall our Laughter would give place to Compassion In fine it appears that there is made a retraction of the Nerves during Laughter for we see a Convulsion causeth the same motion of the Muscles of the Face that Laughter doth whence cometh that malady which is called Risus Sardonicus in which by the retraction of the Nerves towards their Original the Patient seemes to laugh as he dyes The Third said He knew not whether of the two had most reason Democritus the Laugher or Heraclitus the Weeper For though the Faculty of Laughing be peculiar to Man and inseparable from Reason yet immoderate Laughter is as unacceptable as continual Tears And whereas we read in the Holy Scripture that our Lord sometimes wept but not that he ever laught this may be resolv'd That nothing was new to him The same being recorded of Heathens so stay'd and reserv'd that they were never seen to laugh as Crassus Cato the Censor Phocion and some others There is more difficulty in stating the Cause of Laughter Aristotle attributes it to the Diaphragme which is dilated by heat But seeing we laugh less in a Fever when the Diaphragme is most heated it is certain either that every heat of the Diaphragme doth not produce this effect or some other cause must be joyned with it Which I conceive to be an impression made in our Senses and by them in our Phancy of some agreeable unusual and un-foreseen Object when the same slips into it unawares Which Object exciting Joy in us by the Dilatation of the Spirits which is made first in the Arteries of the Brain and thereby insinuated into these of the Heart which opens to that Joy those dilated Spirits swell the Blood in the Veins which accompanies them so that not being containable in their own place the Veins and Arteries swell till they make a reflux in the Brain Diaphragme Lungs Face and all the parts of the Body where they cause the concussion and agitation observ'd in excessive Laughter and sometimes Tears by the compression of the Brain whilst it is not possible for any to check the eruption what ever respect be presented to them yea sometimes the Spirits are so rarifi'd that they evaporate whence follows sudden death as it befell Chrysippus of old who seeing an Ass eat figgs at the end of his table fell into so vehement Laughter that he dy'd immediately The Fourth said Laughter is a motion of the Body which follows that of the Soul Its Object is a sudden Joy surprizing us as a pleasant word after a serious discourse The scorn we make of any one causeth Laughter likewise because Contempt is a kind of Anger made up of Pleasure and Grief When the Pleasure happens to be greater then the Grief as it happens when our Enemy is so weak that we can be reveng'd on him when we list this contentment causeth us to laugh And hence it is that Sleighting is more offensive then Hatred alone Joubertus thinks Laughter is excited when Pleasure expands the Heart which by that dilatation gives motion to the Diaphragme and this consequently draws the Muscles of the Lipps Aristotle saith that by tickling a motion is caused in the Spirits which go and come to the place where the Man feels the Pleasure which Spirits passing and repassing light upon the Nerves who being too sensible and sollicited by the continual motion and agitation thereof endeavour to drive the same away and to that purpose contract themselves and draw unto themselves the parts into which they are inserted Hence in a great Laughter a Man is forc'd to compress himself and the sides ake with much laughing by reason of the tension of the Muscles and Nerves which are most agitated in that place Wherefore in my judgement Laughter is caus'd in this sort The sudden Pleasure or Titillation excites a motion of the Spirits which being very subtile are easily carry'd up to the Head there their agitation and motion importunes the Nerves and the Brain so that in the midst of this Pleasure there is caus'd a kind of Convulsive Motion And for that this agitation is chiefly inward therefore the internal parts first feel the effects of that gentle Convulsion the Diaphragme being more pliant and receiving more Nerves of the sixth Conjugation is agitated the most vehemently In profuse Laughter the Nerves of the whole Body sympathize with this disposition of the Brain their Common Original which being importun'd by those Spirits who though but natural are yet able to incommode the same by their too great agitation it contracts it self to be discharged of them attracting the Nerves to it self as much as it can whence proceeds this kind of Convulsion The Fifth said That the cause of Laughter is two-fold namely its Object which is of great latitude as good news unexpected joy which it is impossible to receive without laughing and its Subject which is indeed the Diaphragme for they who are wounded in that part seem to dye laughing as Hippocrates in the seventh of his Epidemicks observes to have befallen one Plychon for the same cause And this is no otherwise then as a certain kind of Ranunculus an Herb we call Crowfoot being eaten causeth loss of the Spirits and by the contraction of the Lips represents the Convulsion which is made during Laughter CONFERENCE XXV I. Of the Diversity of Countenances II. Whether Man or Woman be the more noble I. Of the Diversity of Countenances IDentity is so disagreeable that in all the objects of the Senses it displeases us Our Taste is glutted with alwayes eating the same Bread The most excellent Odour at length causeth the Head-ake To look too wistly upon the same object or to be too long together beheld by the same Eye fixed upon us is troublesome The Ear is tyr'd with twice hearing the same Tune and being continually struck upon by one and the same discourse how excellent soever it be The Touch the grossest of all the Senses is weary of one and the same temper of Air whence is drawn a certain consequence That the people under the Equinoctial or other Climate alwayes like to it self are sooner weary of living then others who have not leasure to be
consequent of a servile spirit Hence the Persians were not contented to cause the children of their Kings to be instructed above all things always to speak the truth but they erected Temples and Altars to this Vertue as to a Deity and ador'd it under the name of Oromagdes which signifies the God of Truth And therefore 't is my judgement that truth ought always to be spoken although it be to one's own damage The Second said If it be necessary always to speak truth and that it be the conformity of our words with our thoughts mine is that it is not always to be spoken This Nature teaches us whilest she discovers to us only the surface of the earth but hath hid all the treasures of it as all the parts of man especially the more noble are conceal'd under the skin That which vilifies mysteries is the publishing of them call'd Prophanation That which hinders the effect of State-Counsels whereof secrecy is the soul is the letting of them be discover'd which is Treason That which takes away the credit from all arts and professions is the rendring them common And Physick amongst others knows the advantage of concealment whilst the welfare of the Patient many times depends upon his ignorance Would you see what difference there is between a wise man and a fool a Civil Man and a Clown it do's not consist in knowledge for they oftentimes have the same thoughts and inclinations but the Fool speaks all that he thinks the Wise man doth not as the Clown will declare by Gesture and if he can do every thing that comes into his phancie but the better bred man uses restraint upon himself The Comoedian therefore wanted not reason to say that Truth begets Hatred and the Scripture teaches us that God built houses for the wise Egyptian women who ly'd to Pharaoh when they were commanded to murther the Hebrew children at the birth but obey'd not For though some hold that God pardon'd them the lye in regard of the good office which they render'd to his Church and that 't was for this good office that God dealt well with them yet leaving this subtilety to the Schoolmen 't is evident that their dissimulation was approv'd in this case The Third said There 's great difference between Lying and not speaking all the truth which is expected from us the former being vicious the other not whence S. Athanasius being ask'd by the Arrians who pursu'd him whether he had seen Athanasius told them that he went that way a little while since but did not tell them that himself was the person And S. Francis being ask'd whether he did not see a robber pass by shew'd his sleeve and said that he did not pass that way The Fourth said As only weak and distemper'd eyes are unable to bear the light of the Sun so none but weak and sickly minds cannot suffer the lustre of truth All men are oblig'd to speak it but particularly that which is dictated from God's mouth and we ought rather to choose Martyrdom then renounce the belief of it Less ought they to conceal it who are bound to it by their condition as Preachers and Witnesses provided they have regard to place time and persons Without which circumstances 'tis as inacceptable and absur'd as to carry a Queen to an Ale-house Yet in two cases particularly the telling of truth may be dispens'd with I. when the safety of the Prince or good of the State is concern'd for which Plato in his Commonwealth saith it is lawful to lye sometimes and the Angel Raphael told Tobias that 't is good to hide the secrets of Kings II. When our own life is concern'd or that of our Father Mother and Kindred against whom although we certainly know them guilty of a Crime we are not oblig'd to declare it provided nevertheless that it be with the respect due to the Magistrate and that we beware of speaking lyes whilst we intend onely to decline discovery of the Truth 'T is the opinion of the Civilians and amongst others of Paulus in l. 9. ff de Test. that a Father cannot be constrain'd to bear witness against his Son nor a Son against his Father except in the case of High Treason The Fifth said That these three things must not be confounded To lye To speak or tell a lye and to do or act one To lye is to go against our own meaning as when I know a thing and not onely conceal it but speak the contrary This action according to some is alwayes evil inasmuch say they as 't is never lawful to do evil that good may come of it According to others 't is qualifi'd according to the diversity of its end For he who tells a lye to save a Traveller's life who is pursu'd by Thieves seemes to do better then if he expos'd him to their Cruelty by his discovery The Physitian who dissembles to his Patient the danger of his disease and thinks it enough to acquaint his domesticks therewith do's better then if he cast him into despair by a down-right dismal prognostication and when he chears him up in fitting time and place by some pleasant made Story what he speaks can scarce be reckon'd amongst idle words But he who lyes for his Profit as most Trades-men do sins proportionably to the deceit which he thereby causes but he is most culpable who lyes to the Magistrate One may tell or speak a lye without lying namely when one speaks a false thing conceiving it to be true To do or speak a lye is to lead a life contrary to ones profession as he who preaches well and lives ill Whence I conclude that many precautions are requisite to lye without committing an offence that a lye is to be spoken as little as possible and never to be done or acted at all CONFERENCE XXXVIII I. Of the Period called Fits of Fevers II. Of Friendship I. Of the Fits of Agues A Fever is a Heat contrary to Nature kindled in the Heart and from thence sent by the Arteries and Veins into the whole Body with a manifest laesion or disturbance of the action It is so inseparable from the Heart in case of any injury that being we cannot dye without the Heart be mis-affected therefore many have thought that we cannot dye without a Fever though 't were of a violent death And for that there are three subjects which receive this Heat viz. the Parts the Humours and the Spirits thence ariseth the distinction of Fevers into three kinds the Hectick the Humoral and the Ephemera or One-day Fever The first is in the solid parts and is call'd Hectick or Habitual because it resides in the whole habit of the Body and is of very long continuance yea ordinarily lasts till Death The second call'd Humoral is when the Humours are enflam'd either through a bare excess of Heat without other alteration in their substance or with corruption and putrefaction which happens most frequently The third
seem to have been refractory to him ever since his sin yet the most part still acknowledge in him some tokens of their ancient Lord. The otherwise most unruly Horse suffers himself to be manag'd by him and a troop of Oxen is driven by a Child The most furious Animals become gentle and tremble at the occurse of Man's Countenance because they find therein the characters of Divinity But as 't is natural to other Animals to obey Man more perfect then themselves so it seemes to Man a thing against Nature for the more perfect to obey the less The Seventh said That the desire of commanding hath not place in all nor at all times The Master of the Ship willingly resignes the management of the helm to an experienc'd Pilot and disbanded Souldiers readily suffer themselves to be rally'd and conducted by those whom they judge the most worthy to command them Others farr from this desire submit and tye themselves by natural inclination to the pleasure of an other Moreover some Virtues are so heroical and eminent that they win hearts as it were by violence and constrain the most refractory and ambitious to confess that they ought to be obey'd By this means a multinous multude impatient of all command hath been brought to lay down their Armes But we see some Spirits so free that nothing can reduce them to obedience neither Promisings nor threatnings They have so high and extraordinary a genius that they will prefer poverty and misery yea beggary and torments themselves before obedience and never stoop to the pleasure and will of any other although they be but little befriended by Fortune or Nature Whence is this Why sometimes from greatness of Spirit and oftentimes from a disorderliness of Mind which breaks forth and is not capable of restraint The Eighth said That in the whole Universe the more noble commands the less the more potent quality predominates over the rest In Animals the Soul commands the Body as the Master his servant makes it move and act as it pleases and Man exercises sovereignty over beasts amongst Men Reason commands the Appetite in Oeconomy the Male as the more perfect commands the Female and generally the wise learned and virtuous ought to have the command over the foolish ignorant and vicious For I speak of things as they ought to be But 't is otherwise if we consider things as they are Many times the Appetite over-masters Reason usually fools and ignorants are the strongest Wherefore if there be found any one amongst Men that differs as much from others as the Soul from the Body Man from beast Reason from the Appetite the Male from the Female he ought to command For according to Aristotle Every Man who commands must be of a different Nature from him who obeyes And as the Shepherd is of another and more excellent Nature then his flock so he that commands over Men ought to be a God or at least a Heroe And can you wonder now that every one would have a good opinion had of himself and be accounted a Heroe or a God CONFERENCE XLI I. Of Comets II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge I. Of Comets THe deceitfulness of our senses causes the difficulty of understanding the nature of Comets For as some Colours so some Lights are true others apparent Who would not affirm at a distance that Gloe-wormes some kind of rotten wood the scales of certain Fishes and the eyes of Cats are real fire And to get to further then Heaven who would not believe that the Moon and other Planets have a true light were it not for the reasons of Astronomy Nevertheless Experience convinces us of the contrary on Earth as well as Reason doth in Heaven Yet because in doubtful matters 't is best to keep to the common opinion I concur with that which holds a Comet to be a hot and dry Exhalation inflam'd in the highest Region of the Air if the Heaven be solid and amongst the coelestial orbes in case they be liquid which Exhalation resembles the unctuosity of a torch newly extinguish'd which serving for fewel to the fire which the reflection of the Sun-beams or the violence of motion excites there represents the figure according to which the matter is dispos'd to burn and appears so long to us till its matter be consum'd unless more be carry'd up which is proper to succeed it The Second said There is little probability that so thin and subtile matter as the afore-mention'd can burn for several moneths together Considering that the fires of our furnaces consume themselves in less then a day unless they be recruited with new matter and that the vast bulk of these Meteors allows us not to imagine that enough can be found for the sustenance of so great a flame For that which appear'd in this City in November 1618. occupied forty degrees of the Firmament notwithstanding its remoteness from our sight which alwayes makes things appear less then themselves And the matter which should be lifted up from the Earth to succeed that which is first consumed would not be inflamed because it could not arrive to the burning Comet in its first place by reason of its circular motion contrary to that of Exhalations which is made in a strait line Nor is this opinion less inconsistent with the place which they assign namely the Heaven inasmuch as many have been above the Planets as is evidenc'd by their Parallax For the Heavens being incorruptible 't is impossible to phancy any corruption in them since that which is Eternal cannot but be incompetible with that which is corruptible Now that they are Eternal the regularity of their motions domonstrates And although the Apogees and Perigees of the Planets which are the points of their greatest and least distance from the Earth are according to the affirmation of some Astrologers chang'd above twenty six degrees since Ptolomy's time yet this permutation of place induces no mutation of substance Nor can a Comet be the reflexion or occurrence of the light of some Planets as those Meteors are which we call la Rose and le Soldat for then no Comet could last longer then such occurse which is but momentaneous by reason of the continual motion of the Planets besides that they might be as certainly prognosticated as Eclipses But forasmuch as there are some things which we know no further then by negation I conceive it more easie to say what a Comet is not then to determine what it is The Third said A Comet is onely an appearing not a real light and 't is produc'd by the darting of the Sun-beams through an Exhalation which is fit for this purpose by its substance somewhat thin in the surface for intromitting the beams and dense within for reflecting them and giving them the colour of fire like as when the Sun casting his rayes upon the clouds at Morning or Evening gives them a ruddy colour And according as those are united or compacted enlighned
this charge comes to may be taken for profit upon the Pawn and added to the principal but the remainder restor'd to the owner And nothing above this is to be suffer'd CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly I. How Minerals grow UNder Minerals are comprehended Metals Stones and all sorts of Fossilia or things dig'd out of the earth The causes of their growing or augmentation are here inquir'd All the world agrees that they grow excepting those who hold that God created them at the beginning together with the earth But they who have kept a stone in water for a long time and find the same increas'd in bigness will confute that opinion by this experiment as also the experience of Miners doth who having exhausted a Mine of its Metal find more in it after some years and when they discover Mines as yet imperfect they cover the same again with earth and after some space of time find them fit to be wrought upon and as it were arriv'd to their maturity This is also verifi'd by that Chymical operation call'd vegetable Gold and pieces of Cinnabar or Quick-silver mingled with Sulphur melted and put amongst the filings of Silver being set over a furnace in a well luted Vessel produceth pure Silver though of less profit then curiosity For this visible artifice seems to prove the invisible one of nature according to the opinion of Philosophers who hold that all Metals are made of Quick-silver and Sulphur So that we must not seek other causes of their generation and increasing then a new accession of that matter either gliding along the veins of the earth or reduc'd first into vapour by heat and then condens'd by cold The Second said That he was of Cardan's opinion who assigns a particular vegetative soul to all Minerals as well as to all Plants whereunto they have great resemblance not only in that they have some virtues and faculties alike yea far more excellent which cannot come but from a principle of life since action is the indication of life but also because they grow according to all their dimensions as Plants do have a conformation and configuration which is common to Plants with them attract retain and concoct the nourishment which they receive from the earth by their veins and passages and have also an expulsive faculty which is not in Plants casting forth their dross and exhaling their superfluous vapours They have also roots and barks as Trees have their substance is of parts organical and really dissimilar though in appearance some of them seem to be similar and homogeneous and Lead out of which are extracted Salt or Sugar Quick-silver and Sulphur is no more a similar body then Ebeny Box and Milk out of which such different substances are drawn The Third said That before we can know whether Minerals live we must first understand how life is caus'd in man who is to be as the rule of all living things It consists but in one sole action to wit that of Heat upon Humidity which it rarefies and subtilizes causing the same to ascend by little and little out of the intestines through the Mesentery to the Liver Heart and Brain in each of which it casting off its excrementitious parts it acquires a new perfection the utmost in the Brain where it becomes a very thin spirit capable of receiving any form even that of light as appears by the internal splendor of our sight and that brightness which is sometimes seen outwardly upon some Bodies In Plants are found the like cavities destinated to receive and prepare their nourishment which heat attracts into them and their knots are so many repositories wherein that heat is re-united and takes new strength till being arriv'd at the top of the Plant according to the rectitude of the fibres it circulates the matter so carried up that it spreads into branches leaves and fruit For as humidity is of it self immoveable and incapable of any action so being accompani'd with heat it moves every way and there is no need of admitting an attractive faculty in each part since it is carried thereunto sufficiently of it self Natural heat indeed drives it upwards but all unusual heat makes it break out collaterally as is seen in sweat for no eruption of humidity is caus'd but by the excess of some strange heat not proper or natural Now we may observe these tokens of life in the production of Minerals their vaporous matter being first sublim'd and purifi'd by heat and then incorporated with themselves But because all Natures works are occult and the instrument she uses to wit natural heat is imperceptible 't is no wonder if it be hard to know truly how Minerals hid in the earth grow since we are ignorant how the accretion of Plants expos'd to our view is made we perceive them to have grown but not to grow as the shadow on on the Dyal is observ'd to have gone its round yet appears not to move at all Nevertheless the Arborists would have us except the Plant of Aloes out of this number whose flower and trunk at a certain time shoot forth so high and so speedily that the motion thereof is perceptible to the eye The Fourth said That the generation of some Minerals is effected by heat and of others by cold the former by coction and the latter by concretion or co-agulation which two agents are discover'd by the dissolution of Metals For such as are made by cold are melted by its contrary Heat as Lead Silver and other Metals and those which are made by heat dissolve in water as all Salts provided neither the one nor the other be so compact and close that they admit not the qualities of their contraries for which reason Glass which is concocted by fire is not dissolv'd in water and the Diamond Marble and some other stones congealed by cold are not melted by fire But their accretion is not made by any vital principle but only by a new apposition of matter Moreover they have no sign of inward life as nutrition equal and uniform augmentation in all their parts which should be distinct and organiz'd certain constant terms and limits of magnitude and resemblance of figure and conformation both internal and external between all individuals of the same species For Minerals having no cavities cannot receive aliment inwardly They grow as long as matter is supply'd to them and that inequally Their figure is indeterminate and various according to the casual application of their matter in the veins of the earth and their parts are all alike The barks roots and veins attributed to them have nothing but the shape of those things not the use no more then the paps of men Nor do they bear flowers fruits or seeds nor produce or multiply themselves any other way as Plants do The Fifth said We give appellations or names to things from their external form because
made for man the greatest happiness that can befall them is to serve him in something though by the loss of their lives But this is rather a fair excuse to cover our cruelty and luxury seeing Animals are no more proper then Plants to nourish man Witness our first Fathers before the flood who were so long-liv'd although they liv'd not of flesh Whence 't is inferr'd too that inanimate things may nourish us better then Plants For the taste is an ill judge in this cause the Eele amongst animals and the Peach amongst fruits affording the worst nourishment though they rellish most deliciously The Similitude of substance is of little consideration for Animals live not of their like and the Cannibals are ordinarily all Leprous That a thing may be food 't is sufficient that it have an humidity or substance proportionate to ours in what order of things soever it be found And nature has had no less care of nourishing an animal then of healing it but she has endu'd all sublunary bodies with properties medicinal to man Lastly we cannot reckon among Plants those excrescenses which we call Truffes and are held to be produc'd by thunder in some kinds of earth whence they are gather'd and yet they nourish extremely The Sixth said When that which enters into the Stomack is alter'd by it 't is call'd aliment for heat is the chief Agent by which it is united and assimulated whence it comes to pass that according to the diversity of this heat Hemlock serves for nourishment to the Starlings but kills man Now to judge whether that which hath had life be more proper for nutrition then that which hath not we need only consider upon which of the two the natural faculty which disperses this heat acts most powerfully which no doubt it doth upon that which hath had life since it hath the conditions requisite to food being in some sort like as having been alive and also qualifi'd to become so again because when a form forsakes its subject it leaves dispositions in it for a like form to ensue 't is also in some sort unlike being actually destitute of life Wherefore as that which hath life really cannot nourish a living thing because of its total resemblance and there is no action between things alike otherwise a thing might act against it self since nothing is more like to any thing then it self So that which never had life cannot nourish an animal by reason of its intire dissimilitude and because between things wholly unlike there is no action II. Of Courage Upon the second Point If 't is worthy admiration that amongst Animals a little dog gives chase to a multitude of Oxen whence the Hebrews call a Dog Cheleb that is to say All heart in regard of his courage 't is more to be wonder'd that amongst men who are of the same species and fram'd after the same manner one puts to flight three others greater stronger and oftentimes more dextrous then himself The cause hereof is attributed to heat but besides that we see many sufficiently heated in every other action but cold when it comes to fighting as they say there are good Grey-hounds of all sizes so there are great courages of all tempers and although the hair complexion stature and habit of body are the most sure witnesses yet every body knows that there are valiant men found of all hairs and statures yea of all Ages the seeds of courage being manifest in children and the remainders in old men It seems therefore that courage proceeds from the fitting and well proportion'd temper and structure of the heart and arteries for when these are too large the spirits are more languid and the actions less vigorous either to repell present dangers or meet those which are future Yet the Cholerick are naturally more dispos'd to magnanimity the Phlegmatick and Melancholy less and the Sanguine are between both Education also and custom are of great moment as we see Rope-dancers and Climbers perform strange feats with inimitable boldness because they have been us'd to walk upon Ropes and climb the Spires of Churches from their youth So a child that has been accustom'd to dangers from his infancy will not fear any Moreover Honour and Anger are great spurs to valour especially when the latter is sharpned by the desire of revenge which is excited by injury derision or ingratitude Exhortations too are very effectual And therefore when ever Caesar's Souldiers did not behave themselves well he observes that he had not had time to make a speech to them Nor is Necessity and the consideration of present danger to be omitted for the greatest cowards oftentimes give proofs of courage upon urgent occasions when there 's no hope of flight and one of the best wiles of a General is to take from his Souldiers all hope of retreat and safety otherwise then in victory Example also prevails much both as to flying and to fighting Wherefore those that run first ought to be punish'd without mercy as they who first enter a breach or are farthest engag'd amongst the enemies deserve great acknowledgement of their vertue But particularly amongst persons acquainted and mutually affectionate courage is redoubled by the presence of the thing belov'd witness the sacred Legion of the Thebans But the desire of honour and hope of reward are the most powerful incitements to valour Upon which account the King's presence is always counted equivalent as all his Troops together The Second said Courage is a vertue plac'd between boldness and fear Yet it is chiefly conversant in moderating fear which is an expectation of evil Amongst the evils and adversities which cause terrour to men some are to be fear'd by all and cannot be slighted by a vertuous man as ignominy punishment for a crime or other infamy Others may be fear'd or despis'd without blame if our selves be not the causes of them as Poverty Exile and Sickness And yet a man is never the more couragious for not fearing them For a Prodigal is not couragious for not fearing Poverty an impudent fellow that hath lost all shame may easily despise banishment as Diogenes did and a Sot will be insensible of an incurable disease which a wise man supports patiently Lastly some evils are to be contemn'd as all dangers and misfortunes which necessarily come to pass in life and death it self in the despising of which the greatness of courage principally appears especially in that which happens in the wars fighting for one's Prince and Country as being the most honourable and glorious of all The Third said No vertue can keep us from fearing death which gave so great apprehension to the most wise and to our Lord himself and which Aristotle deservedly calls the most terrible of terribles the same Philosopher also teaching us that a vertuous man infinitely desires to live and ought to fear death because he accounts himself worthy of long life during which he may do service to others and he knows
natural Thirst 't is not necessary there should be any to produce Thirst which I account more or less supportable according to the several habits of Body to the fat Thirst and Hunger to the lean II. Whether a General of an Army should endanger his person Upon the Second Point That the value which Men put upon Valour which is nothing else but a contempt of dangers shews that those who would partake most of honour must also have the greatest share in the danger according to the Proverb None triumphs without fighting and if we take the opinion of Souldiers who are the best judges in this case they never so willingly resign themselves to any Leader as to him that freely ventures his life with them it being no less incompetible for a General to advance himself and get credit and Reputation in Armes without indangering his person then for a Pilot to saile well upon the Sea without incurring the hazard of shipwrack So that we may say of war what is commonly said of the Sea He that fears danger must not go to it The Civilians have the same meaning when they commit the charge of guardianships to those that are most qualifi'd to succeed and there can be no honour without a charge whence the words are promiscuously us'd in our Language Moreover as no Sermon is more eloquent then the exemplary life of the Preacher so no Military Oration is so perswasive or so well receiv'd by an Army as the example of its General when they see him strike the first blow as on the contrary if he testifies any fear every one taking his actions for a rule and conforming thereunto will do the same he will not be obey'd but with regret and through a servile fear of punishment not out of a gallant sense of honour because he that is most honor'd in the Army is most remote from blows at least the other Leaders and Officers will do as much and all the Souldiers in imitation of them In brief we need but consider how not only the Marcelli the Camilli the Scipio's Hannibal and many other Generals of Armies but Alexander Caesar and in our time Henry the Great and the King of Sweden all Sovereign Princes were sufficiently venturous of their persons and that it was not by not taking part in dangers that they triumph'd over their enemies The Second said That to know how to command well and how to execute well are two several Talents and depend upon several abilities they who are born to command being unfit to execute and on the contrary they who are proper to obey being incapable of commanding Wherefore the Head of an Army who gives Orders and Commands must cause them to be executed by others So the Judge pronounces the Sentence and appoints Serjeants to put it in execution the Physitian commands his Patient who obeys his prescriptions the Pilot the Officers of the Ship but himself Steers not But that which should most restrain a General from acting in person is that he cannot in this occurrence preserve the prudence which is absolutely necessary to him For the heat of Courage heightned by that of the Charge and the Encounter being wholly contrary to the coldness of Prudence which is inconsistent with the violent motions caus'd by the ardour of fury commonly attending Valour renders him precipitate inconstant and incapable for the time to deliberate of fit means to chuse them and cause them to be executed Moreover the General being the Chieftain of the Army ought to resemble the Head which derives sense and motion to the parts yet stirs not for their defence but on the contrary employs them for its own So the prime Captain ought to sway and manage the body of his Army by his Counsels and Orders but not put his own person in danger because upon his safety depends that of all the rest who being destitute of a Chieftain remains like a body without a head and an unprofitable trunk Therefore Generals of Armies are compar'd to the heads of Cypress-Trees which being once lop'd off the stem never thrives afterwards The Third said The highest point of judgement is to distinguish appearence from truth and in all professions 't is very dangerous though in appearence more honorable to be carri'd to extreams but especially in War where there is not room for many mistakes The General who exposes his life cannot be excus'd from ambition or imprudence from the former if he do's it without necessity from the latter if for want of having rightly order'd his affairs he sees himself reduc'd to that point Whereas as in Artificial Engines the piece which gives motion to the rest is immoveable so the General who gives order to the main of the Army ought to have the like influence upon it as the heart in the middle of the body and the brain in the middle of the head to transmit life and spirits to the whole body and to occur to accidents both foreseen and unexpected Otherwise should the principal parts not be contented to follow the body but change their natural situation all the parts would be doubly inconvenienc'd both because they would not know where to find them when they needed their direction and because the least offence of the nobler parts being mortal their hurt would redound not only to themselves but also to the rest of the body Moreover if the General act the Souldier who shall act the Captain how will the Corporal and common Souldier do They will all think themselves become equal to their superiors they will no longer do any thing but in their company and 't will be no wonder if disorder slides into all the member when it has begun at the head If they be blam'd for not knowing how to obey their excuse will be ready That they have to do with Leaders who know not how to command Besides the General hath the same relation to his Army that the First President hath to a Parliament Now what would you say if the First President should manage the cause and undertake to plead it although the Advocates acquitted themselves ill Even Domestick Government may serve for a rule in this case the head of a Family losing his credit among his servants when he sets himself to do their work For whereas almost all the affairs of men depend upon opinion when the respect which arises from the authority of the superior over his inferiors is once shaken as it is by the too great familiarity which the society of dangers begets contempt will be apt to justle out duty And the common Souldier looks upon his General but as another man when he sees him partake of the same hardships with him Upon this account were invented the Diadems Scepters Crowns and other ornaments of Sovereigns and their Magistrates the meanest of which instructed by experience are jealous of their authority which they keep up by separating themselves from the commerce of the vulgar but lose it
them by the underminings of the wicked and envious who are the greatest number then obtain new by performing as much good as he will either because they who are able to reward him are not always well inform'd thereof or because they want both the means and the will to do it Therefore although God would have us hope for Paradise yet he requires that we serve him in fear and draw neer to him with trembling So that the thing we most hope for eternal life mixing our hope with fear 't is not credible that any other thing is exempt from it Yet there are some fears without any hope Now the passion which acts powerfully alone is stronger then that which acts onely in the company of another The Second said That if the greatness of causes is to be judg'd by that of their effects that Passion must be strongest which leads us to the greatest attempts And so Hope will carry it above Fear since 't is that which makes a Souldier run up a breach and which hath induc'd so many illustrious men both ancient and modern to generous actions whereas Fear by its coldness chilling the spirits and penning them within renders them incapable of any action For all our actions depending on the dispositions of the spirits the instruments of all motions both Internal and External if these spirits be heated active and nimble as they are render'd by Hope then the Mind is boldly carry'd to the most difficult actions On the contrary if they be cool'd and fix'd by Fear then the soul finding her self enfeebled can do nothing but what is mean and pusillanimous The Third said To examine the power of Hope and Fear aright we must look upon them as two Champions who are to encounter But Fear already shews by the paleness of its Countenance that it wants Heart and yields to Hope which animates it self to the pursuite of the good it aims at by driving away all sort of Fear which would cause apprehension of obstacles and crosses opposing the enjoyment of that good Moreover Fear is contemptible and not found but in abject spirits whereas Hope resides in sublime souls where it produces actions worthy of its grandeur and original which is Heaven towards which men naturally lift their eyes in their adversities as Fear derives its original from below towards which it depresses the bodies and minds of those whom it possesses So that to compare Hope with Fear is to put Heaven in parallel with Earth The Fourth said That both these Passions belong to the Irascible Appetite both of them look to the future and are employ'd to surmount the difficulties which are presented to the Concupiscible Appetite Hope is the expectation of a good hard to be obtain'd yet apprehended possible It is found most frequently in young men because they live onely upon the future and 't is the Anchor of all unfortunate persons none of which are out of Hope of being deliver'd from their miseries 'T is Physick to all our evils never abandoning the most desperately sick so long as they breathe Yea 't is the refuge of all man-kind of what sex age or condition soever herein the more miserable in that being destitute of real good there remains no more for them but imaginary and phantastick Hence the Hebrews denote Hope and Folly by the same word Chesel The truth is as if the evils that oppress us were not numerous enough our souls frame and phancy infinite more through Fear which dreads as well that which is not as that which is being properly the Expectation of an approaching evil which gives horrour to our senses and cannot easily be avoided For men fear not the greatest evils but those which are most contrary to their nature Whence it is that they more apprehend the halter the gallies or infamy then falling into vices or losing the Grace of God For although these be the greatest evils of the world yet men do not acknowledge them such but by a reflection of the Understanding Hence also the wicked fear the wheel more then Hell because Gods punishments of sin are accounted slow and those of men speedy But to judge of the strength of Hope and Fear by their proper essence we must consider that Good being much less delightful to Nature then Evil is painful and sensible because Good onely gives a better being Evil absolutely destroyes being Fear which is the expectation of this Evil is much more powerful then Hope which is the expectation of that Good Which appears further by its effects far more violent then those of Hope for it makes the Hair stand an end and hath sometimes turn'd it white in one night it makes the Countenance pale the whole body quake and tremble the Heart beat and not onely alters the whole habit of it but perverts Reason abolishes Reason and Memory intercepts the use of Speech and of all the Senses so that it hath caus'd sudden death to divers persons But Hope never gave life to any Fear adds wings wherewith to avoid an Evil Hope barely excites to move towards Good In a word Fear needs sometimes the whole strength of all the Virtues to repress its violence and check its disorders CONFERENCE LXV I. Of the Intellect II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humour I. Of the Intellect THe Intellect is a Faculty of the Soul whereby we understand For of the Faculties some are without knowledge as the natural common to man and inanimate bodies and the vegetative which he hath in common with plants namely the powers of Nutrition Accretion and Generation others are with the knowledge And these again are either exercis'd without the use of Reason as the Internal and External Senses or else stand in need of Reason as the Intellect and the Rational Appetite which is the Will the former to distinguish true from false the latter good from evil Now as the Understanding acquires its notions from the inferior powers so it imitates their manner of perception and as sensible perception is passion so is intellectual and the intelligible species are receiv'd in the Intellect after the same manner that the sensible are in the organs of the outward senses For as their organs must be free from all the qualities whereof they are to judge so must the Understanding which is to judge of every thing be from all intelligible species yea more then the organs of the Senses For the Crystalline humour of the Eye hath tangible qualities the hand visible because the former is not destinated to touch withall nor the latter to see But the Intellect being to understand every thing because every thing is intelligible must be wholly clear of all Anticipations contrary to Plato's opinion who admitting a Transmigration of souls conceiv'd that entring into other bodies they carryed with them the species of things which they had known before but darkn'd and veil'd with the clouds and humidities of the bodies which recloth'd them
The contact above spoken of hath no difficulty nor yet the objection why other wounded persons residing in some intermediate place between the anointed Instrument and the Patient are not rather cur'd then he considering that the same thing is observ'd in the Load-stone which draws not the wood or stone laid neer it but the Iron beyond them and the Sun heats not the Sphere of the Moon and the other Heavens nor yet the two higher Regions of the air but only ours cross that vast interval of cold and humid air because he finds no congruency thereunto besides the not reflexion of his beams Wherefore the contact of the anointed Javelin and the Wound may as well be call'd Physical as that of the Sun and us which never stirs from his Sphere Besides that we have examples of many contacts made without manifest mediums as those of pestilential and contagious Fevers of blear'd-eyes of the Wolfes aspect causing hoarsness and the killing looks of the Basilisk And indeed if you take away all cures that are wrought by occult and inexplicable means there will be nothing admirable in Physick The Fourth said That in assigning the reason of effects men ordinarily mistake that for a cause which is not so The Rose is not cold because it is white for the Red-rose is so too Spurge is not hot because it hath a milky juice for so have Lettice Eudive c. which are cold Aloes is not hot because it is bitter for Opium which kills through its coldness is of the same taste They also erroneously attribute the cure of diseases to sympathy to the power of characters words images numbers celestial figures and such other things which have no activity at all and most extraordinary cures are effects of the strength of the Mind which is such that where it believes any thing firmly it operates what it believes and that with efficacy provided the subject on which it acts do not repugne But if it comes to have a firm belief of the effect then it follows far more easily For if the understanding is identifi'd with what it knows why shall it not make things like to it self To which firm belief I refer the magnetick cure of wounds and not to that sympathy of the blood on the weapon with that in the veins since if two parts of the same body be wounded the healing of the one will not suffice to the healing of the other and yet there 's more sympathy between the parts of the same body animated with the same form then they have with a little extravasated blood which hath lost all the dispositions that it had like the whole mass II. Of Anger Upon the second Point it was said That Nature has so provided for the contentment of animals that she has given them not only an appetite to pursue good and avoid evil when both may be done without difficulty but also a different one to give courage to the former and to surmount the difficulties occurring in the pursuite of that good and the eschewance of that evil term'd the Irascible appetite from anger the strongest of its passions which serves to check the pungency of grief as fear and boldness come to the assistance of flight and desire is guarded with hope and despair This is the opinion of Plato who makes three sorts of souls one which reasons another which covets and the third which is displeas'd the former of which he places in the Brain the second in the Liver and the last in the Heart Anger then is a passion of the Irascible Appetite caus'd by the apprehension of a present evil which may be repell'd but with some difficulty It s principle is the soul its instrument the spirits its matter the blood its seat the heart not the will as Cardan erroneously conceiv'd for the actions of the will not being organical make no impressions or footsteps upon the body It proceeds either from a temper of body hot and dry and easie to be inflam'd or from the diversity of seasons times ages and sexes Hence the cholerick and young persons are more inclin'd to it then the phlegmatick and aged because they have a temper more proper to this passion Women and children are easily displeas'd through weakness of spirit as 't is a sign of a sublime spirit not to be troubled at any thing but to believe that as every thing is below it self so nothing is capable to hurt it Which reason Aristotle made use of to appease the choler of Alexander telling him that he ought never to be incens'd against his inferiors but only against his equals or superiors and there being none that could equal much less surpass him he had no cause to fall into anger The Second said That the Faculties extending to contraries the eye beholding both white and black and the ear hearing all sort of sounds only the sensitive appetite is carri'd both to good and evil whether accompani'd with difficulties or not as the will alone is carri'd towards all kind of good and evil And as the same gravity inclines the stone towards its centre and makes it divide the air and water which hinder it from arriving thither so the sensitive appetite by one and the same action is carri'd to good flees evil and rises against the difficulties occurring in either Thus anger and grief are in one sole appetite yea anger is nothing but grief for an evil which may be repell'd For it hath no place when the offender is so potent that there is no hope of revenge upon him although 't is rare that a man esteems so low of himself as not to be able to get reason for a wrong done him or apprehended to be done him this passion as all others being excited by causes purely imaginary Thus a single gesture interpreted a contempt offends more then a thrust with a sword by inadvertency And this the more if the contemners be our inferiors or oblig'd to respect us upon other accounts Which makes the enmities between relations or friends irreconcileable For as a good not foreseen rejoyces more so the injury of a friend displeases us far above one done us by our enemies against whom he seem'd to have some reason who implor'd not so often the aid of Heaven because he said Nature taught him to beware of them as against his friends because he did not distrust them The Third said Anger may be consider'd two ways either according to its matter or its form In the former way 't is defin'd an Ebullition of the blood about the Heart In the latter a desire with grief to be reveng'd for an injury done to himself or his friends whom a man is oblig'd to uphold especially if they be too weak to avenge themselves Injury consists either in deeds or words or gestures The first is the most evident and oftimes least sensible for words offend more because being the image of thoughts they shew us the little esteem made of us
And as gesture is more expressive then words so á contempt signifi'd by it touches more to the quick then any other because he that contemns us with a simple gesture accounts us unworthy of all the rest Now if this contempt be offer'd in the presence of those that honour us or by whom we desire to be valu'd and admir'd it excites our choler the more if it be truth which always displeases us when it tells our defects especially by the mouth of our enemy But none are so soon provok'd as they that are desirous of some good For then the least things incense because desire being of an absent good cannot subsist with the least present evil the object of anger because of their contrariety importuning the actions of the soul which is troubled in the pursute of good by the presence of evil Whence saith Aristotle there needs but a small matter to anger Lovers sick people indigent those that miscarry in their affairs and are excruciated with hunger or thirst 'T is therefore an error to say that choler is the cause of anger and 't is vain to purge this humour in order to remedy this passion since the cause is external not internal and is form'd first in the brain by the imagination of an injury receiv'd after which the Soul desirous of revenge stirs the motive power this the blood and spirits which cause all the disorders observ'd in angry persons The Fourth said That disorders caus'd by Anger are not to be wonder'd at since 't is compos'd of the most unruly passions love hatred grief pleasure hope and boldnesse For the source of anger is self-love we hate him that doth the injury we are troubled at the offence and receive contentment in the hope of being reveng'd and this hope gives boldnesse Now Anger is one of the most deform'd and monstrous passions so violent that it enervates not onely the contractive motion of the Heart by dilating it too much and sending forth the blood and spirits which cause an extraordinary heat and force in all the members and sometimes a Fever but also that of dilation by shutting it too much in case the grief for the evil present be great and there be hopes of revenging it The Countenance looks pale afterwards red the Eye sparkles the Voice trembles the Pulse beats with violence the Hair becomes stiff the Mouth foams the Teeth clash the Hand cannot hold the Mind is no longer in its own power but is besides it self for some time Anger not differing from Rage but in duration Which made a Philosopher tell his servant That he would chastise him were he not in Anger And the Emperor Theodosius commanded his Officers never to execute any by his command till after three dayes and the Philosophers Xenodorus to counsel Augustus not to execute any thing when he found himself in choler till after he had repeated softly the twenty four letters of the Greek Alphabet The truth is if this passion be not repress'd it transports a man so out of himself that he is incens'd not against men onely but even against beasts plants and inanimate things such was Ctesiphon who in great fury fell to kicking with a mule and Xerxes who scourg'd the Sea Yea it reduces men to such brutality that they fear not to lose themselves for ever so they may but be reveng'd of those that have offended them as Porphyrie and Tertullian did the former renouncing Christianity and the other embracing Montanus's Heresie to revenge themselves of some wrong which they conceiv'd they had receiv'd from the Catholicks And our damnable Duels caus'd by this passion have oftentimes to satisfie the revenge of one destroy'd two Body and Soul CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting I. Of Life THe more common a thing is the more difficult it is to speak well of it witnesse sensible objects the nature whereof is much in the dark to us although they alwayes present themselves to our senses Thus nothing is more easie then to discern what is alive from what is not and yet nothing is more difficult then to explicate the nature of Life well because 't is the union of a most perfect form with its matter into which the mind of man sees not a jot even that of accidents with their subject being unknown although it be not so difficult to conceive as the first Some have thought that the form which gives life is not substantial but onely accidental because all except the rational arise from the Elementary Qualities and accidents can produce nothing but accidents But they are mistaken since whereas nothing acts beyond its strength if those forms were accidents they could not be the causes of such marvellous and different effects as to make the fruits of the Vine Fig-tree c. and blood in Animals to attract retain concoct expell and exercise all the functions of the Soul which cannot proceed from heat alone or any other material quality Besides if the forms of animated bodies were accidents it will follow that substance which is compounded of Form as well as of Matter is made of accidents and consequently of that which is not substance contrary to the receiv'd Axiom Therefore Vital Forms are substances though incomplete whose original is Heaven the Author of Life and all sublunary actions The Second said That the Soul being the principle of Life according to the three sorts of Souls there are three sorts of Life namely the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational differing according to several sublimations of the matter For the actions of attracting and assimilating food and the others belonging to Plants being above those of stones and other inanimate things argue in them a principle of those actions which is the Vegetative Soul Those of moving perceiving imagining and remembring yet nobler then the former flow from the Sensitive Soul But because the actions of the Intellect and the Will are not onely above the matter but are not so much as in the matter as those of Plants and Animals being immanent and preserv'd by the same powers that produc'd them they acknowledge for their principle a form more noble then the rest which is the Rational Soul the life of which is more perfect And as the Plantal Life is the first and commonest so it gives the most infallible vital tokens which are nutrition growth and generation Now that all three be in all living bodies For Mushrooms live but propagate not as some things propagate yet are not alive so bulls blood buried in a dung-hill produces worms others are nourish'd but grow not as most Animals when they have attain'd their just stature yea not every thing that lives is nourish'd for House-leek continues a whole year in its verdure and vivacity being hung at the seeling Nor dos every thing grow alike for we see Dodder which resembles Epithymum clinging to a bunch of grapes or other fruit hanging in the Air grows prodigiously without drawing any nourishment from it
blemish Cato's reputation by making him appear 46 times in full Senate to justifie himself from the accusations Envy had charg'd upon him made him more famous And the poyson which it made Socrates drink kill'd his body indeed but render'd his memory immortal The truth is if the Greek Proverb hold good which calls a life without envy unhappy Envy seems in some manner necessary to beatitude it self Whence Themistocles told one who would needs flatter him with commendations of his brave actions that he had yet done nothing remarkable since he had no enviers The Fourth said 'T is such an irregular passion that it seems to aim at subverting the establish'd order of nature and making other laws after its own phancy yea so monstrous that 't is not a bare grief for another's good or a hatred of choler or such other passion but a monster compos'd of all vicious passions and consequently the most mischievous and odious of all CONFERENCE LXXIV I. Whence comes trembling in men II. Of Navigation and Longitudes I. Whence comes trembling in men THe correspondence of the great to the little world requir'd that after the tremblings of the earth those should be spoken which happen to men some of which seize but one part of the body as the head lips hands or legs some the whole body with such violence sometimes that Cardan relates of a woman taken with such a trembling that three strong persons could not hold her 'T is a symptom of motion hurt in which the part is otherwise mov'd then it ought being sometimes lifted up and sometimes cast down For in trembling there are two contrary motions One proceeds from the motive faculty endeavouring to lift up the member which is done by retraction of the muscles towards their original which by shortning themselves draw their tail to the head and at the same time what is annex'd thereunto This motive power serves also to retain the elevated member in the posture wherein we would have it continue the abbreviation of the Muscles not suffering it to return to its first situation The other motion is contrary to the will and to that of the motive power the member being depress'd by its own gravity From which contrariety and perpetual war of these two motions arises trembling one of them carrying the part as the will guides it and the other resisting thereunto which is done more speedily then the pulse and with such short intervals that the senses cannot distinguish any middle and makes us doubt whether there be two motions or but one as a ball sometimes returns so suddenly towards him that struck it that the point of its reflexion is not perceiv'd The causes are very different as amongst others the debility of the part and of the animal faculty as in decrepit old men impotent persons and such as are recovering out of long and dangerous diseases or who have fasted long the weakness of the Nerve the instrument of the animal spirits its obstruction contraction or relaxation the coarctation of the Arteries which send the vital spirits to the Brain there to be made animal spirits and proper for motion as in fear which puts the whole body into an involuntary trembling An Ague also do's the same the natural heat which resides in the arterial being carri'd to the relief of the labouring heart and so the outward parts particularly the nerves whose nature is cold and dry becoming refrigerated and less capable of exercising voluntary motion The Second said That the actions of the motive faculty as of all others may be hurt three ways being either abolish'd diminish'd or deprav'd They are abolish'd in a Palsie which is a total privation of voluntary motion They are diminish'd in Lassitude caus'd either by sharp humors within or by tension of the muscles and tendons or by dissipation of the spirits They are deprav'd in trembling convulsion horror and rigor or shivering Convulsion is a contraction of the muscles towards their original caus'd either by repletion or inanition Rigor shaking and concussion of all the muscles of the body accompani'd with coldness and pain is caus'd according to Galen by the reciprocal motion of natural heat and its encounter with cold in the parts which it endeavours to expell or according to some others by any sharp mordicant and troublesome matter which incommoding the muscles and sensitive parts the expulsive faculty attempts to reject by this commotion Horror differs not from Rigor but in degrees this being in the muscles and that only in the skin produc'd by some matter less sharp and in less quantity But trembling being a depravation and perversion of motion cannot be known but by comparison with that which is regular Now that voluntary motion may be rightly perform'd the brain must be of a due temper for supplying animal spirits and the nerves and parts rightly dispos'd Hence the cause of tremblings is either the distemper of the brain or the defect of animal spirits or the defect of animal spirits or the bad disposition of the nerves and parts A fitting temper being the first condition requisite to action every intemperature of the brain but especially the cold is the cause it cannot elaborate spirits enough to move all the parts But this defect of spirits comes not always from such bad temper but also from want of vital spirits which are sent from the heart to the brain by the arteries to serve for matter to the animal spirits These vital spirits are deficient either when they are not generated in the ventricles of the heart through the fault either of matter or of the generative faculty or are carri'd elsewhere then to the brain by reason of their concentration or effusion As in all violent passions these spirits are either concentred in the heart as in fear and grief or diffus'd from the centre to the circumference as in joy and not sent to the brain and in these cases the motive faculty remains weakned and uncapable of well exercising its motions Lastly the nerves being ill dispos'd by some distemper caus'd either by external cold or other internal causes or else being shrunk or stop'd by some gross humors not totally for then there would be no motion at all they cause tremblings which are imperfect motions like those of Porters who endeavouring to move a greater burthen then they are able to carry the weight which draws downwards and the weakness of their faculty which supports it causes in them a motion like to those that tremble The Third said That to these causes Mercury Hellebore Henbane Wine and Women must be added For they who deal with Quick-silver who have super-purgations use stupefactives and things extreamly cold and Venery in excess and Drunkards have all these tremblings according to the diversity of which causes the remedies are also different Gold is an Antidote against Mercury which will adhere to it Repletion against the second Heat Continence and Sobriety against the rest Galen saith that blood
Jeremy Constantine saw S. Peter and S. Paul and according to the opinion of many Samuel appear'd to Saul and foretold him of things which were to befall him though others conceive 't was a corporeal apparition which also is much more certain because souls either appear with their true bodies although this is very rare too yea and unbecoming happy souls to rejoyn themselves to putrifi'd carcases or most commonly assume bodies of air The cause of which apparitions is ascrib'd to the union which is between the soul of the dead person and that of the surviving to whom it appears whether the same proceed from consanguinity or identity of manners great familiarity and friendship which seems to make but one soul of those of two friends so that the soul finding it self in pain either through present or future evils especially when it sees it self oblig'd to the performance of some vow neglected during life God for his own glory the ease of his creature and the conversion of sinners permits it to manifest it self by ways most convenient CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling Sickness THe vulgar Maxime is not always true That a disease throughly known is half cur'd For this disease though known to the most ignorant is of very difficult cure and therefore was call'd by antiquity the Herculean disease that is to say unconquerable the Sacred disease because of its dreadful symptoms and Lunatick because those who are born either in the Full or New Moon or during its Eclipse are troubled with this malady which hath great correspondence with the motions of the Planet 't was also call'd Morbus caducus or Falling Sickness by reason that it makes the person fall to the ground and Comitialis because it interrupted Assemblies lastly 't is call'd Epilepsie because it intercepts the functions of the mind and senses 'T is defin'd the cessation of the principal actions and of sense and voluntary motion with convulsion which is not continual but by internals The true and proximate cause of it is either a vapour or an humour pricking the membranes of the brain which endeavouring to discharge the same contracts it self attracts the nerves to it these the muscles and parts into which they are implanted causing hereby those convulsive and violent agitations of the Epilepticks Sneezing and the hickcock have some resemblance of it the latter being caus'd by a sharp vapour sent from the stomack or other place by sympathy to its upper orifice which it goadeth with its acrimony and thereby forces it to contract it self in order to expell the same the former call'd by Avicenna the lesser Epilepsie differing not from the greater saving in duration is also caus'd by some vapours pricking the former part of the brain which contracts it self to expell the same by the nostrils The Second said That the unexpectedness of this malady and the Patient 's quick recovery may justifie the vulgar for thinking that there is something divine in it Since nothing amazes us more then sudden uncomprehended alterations Therefore in Hippocrates days they us'd to make expiations and incantations for this disease which he derides saying that the bad Physitians promoted this false conceit that they might get the more honour for the cure or be more excusable for not effecting the same The Third said That the Epilepsie and Apoplexie differ onely in degree both having the same cause namely abundance of gross humours either phlegmatick or melancholy which if it wholly fills the brains ventricles and makes a total obstruction so that the Animal Spirits the instruments of voluntary motion and sense be obstructed it causes an apoplexie which is a total abolition of sense and motion in the whole body with laesion of the rational faculty The Heart continues its pulse for some time till the consumption of what Animal Spirits were in the Nerves serving to the Muscles for respiration But if the obstruction be not perfect and the crass humour over-loads the ventricles then they contract themselves and all the Nerves which depend upon them whence comes that universal contraction of the limbs as one cover'd in bed with too many clothes pulls up his legs bends and lifts up his knees to have more air and room under the load which presses him The Fourth said That as the brain is the moistest of all the parts so it abounds most in excrements the thinnest of which transpire by the sutures pores but the grosser meeting in great quantity in the brain melt its substance into water which coming to stop the Veins and Arteries hinder the commerce of the spirits whether this pituitous matter be deriv'd from the paternal or maternal geniture or whether the part of seed which makes the brain happen not to be well purg'd in the womb where the rudiments of this malady are first laid or whether the brain purge not it self afterwards sufficiently by its emunctories and the scabs usual to Children Hippocrates saith this malady cannot begin after twenty years of age when the constitution of body is become more hot and dry and many Children are cur'd of it onely by the desiccation caus'd by the alteration of age seasons and manner of dyet The Fifth said That a gross humour cannot be the cause of those quick and violent motions of the Epilepsie nor be collected and dissipated in so short a time as the duration of a Paroxisme Therefore the cause of it must be some biting and very subtile matter for no such gross obstructive matter is found in the brain of those that dye of this malady but onely some traces or signes of some malignant vapour or acrimonious humour as black spots a swarthy frothy liquor an Impostume in the brain some portion of the Meninx putrifi'd corrosion of the bone and such other things evidencing rather the pricking of the brain then stopping of its passages The Sixth said That were the Epilepsie produc'd by obstruction it would follow that as a total one in an Apoplexie abolishes all sense and motion so the incomplete one of the Epilepsie should onely diminish not deprave motion as it doth So that the Epilepsie should be a symptom like the Palsie or Lethargy from which nevertheless 't is wholly different Nor can it be simply the mordacity or malignity of an humour since malignant and pestilential Fevers hot and dry Aliments as spices mustard salt garlick onyons and the lke biting things cause not this Evil. The truth is there is a specifical occult quality of the humours particularly disposing to this disease the Chymists call it a Mercurial Vapour that is an acid penetrating and subtile spirit a Vitriolike Spirit a biting and corrosive salt which makes not men onely but Quailes Dogs Sheep and Goats subject to it And as some things beget this malady by an occult Epileptical quality as Smallage Parsly a goats liver roasted and stinking smells as horn pitch
sign so neither is an effect to be infer'd from one line so and so but from many together although they are commonly fallacious too unless the inclinations likewise be known by Physiognomy and Astrology The Fifth said All effects are either natural or free those come from a necessary and infallible which hath no affinity with the lines of the hand erroneously alledg'd to signifie the same and these being from the Will cannot be caus'd by a concurrence of lines differing either fortuitously or according to the various situations of the bones or several foldings of the child's hands in his mothers belly or by different exercises and variety of Climates they of hot Countries having scorch'd skins and more lines otherwise configurated then Northern people and Artisans then Courtiers and idle people And so there would need different rules of Palmistry according to Countries and qualities which is absurd The truth is if any thing may be conjectur'd 't is from the parts which contribute something to what they are signes of So a large fore-head may be the note of good capacity because it shews that the Ventricles of the Brain are large and a bony and sinewy man is with reason judg'd strong But the hand can afford no indication if you except its largenesse or thicknesse by proportion of which with the other parts that are not seen one may judge of its strength 'T is therefore a fallacious Art which takes that for a cause and a sign which is nothing lesse The sixth said Chiromancy is of two sorts Physical or Astrological The former is grounded upon the same principles with Physiognomy and is a part of it discovering by the several accidents of the hand it s own temper with that of the whole body and consequently the manners and inclinations Hence the Chiromancers affirm with great probability that those that have thick hands have the other parts which are unseen alike and consequently a dull wit and so on the contrary But that which is purely Astrological and is founded upon imaginary principles seems not only faulty but very ridiculous yea and pernitious too and therefore is prohibited by Laws both Humane and Divine II. Which is the noblest part of the Body Upon the Second Point 't was said That man's body being a structure compos'd of many parts not onely similary as in plants and stones but organical destinated to each action which being their end will also be the measure and standard of their noblenesse as Officers and Ministers of State or Family are esteem'd according to their imployment Now an Animals noblest action is Life and therefore the Heart the author thereof and source of heat and spirits is the noblest of all parts Moreover Aristotle sayes it lives first and dyes last and is in the little world what the Sun is in the great imparting light and motion to all the parts of the body as the Heavens do to all sublunary things Therefore many Animals want other parts but none a heart which is so absolutely necessary that its least wound is mortall The Second said Whether Nobility betaken from Antiquity or necessity the Liver is the noblest of all For the Animal at first lives the life of a Plant and so needed nourishment first the supplying of which being the Livers office it is therefore form'd before any of the entrails Nor could we exercise our senses or reasonable actions if we were not nourish'd the functions of all faculties ceasing as soon as the Livers provision is spent Yea no animal action can be perform'd without spirits the matter of which is blood elaborated in the Liver Which as 't is the cause of the four humours and consequently of Health or Sicknesse so 't is the seat of Love the noblest of all the passions The Third said As much nobler as the species is then the Individual comprehended under it so much are the parts serving to its conservation nobler then others which conserve onely the particular Therefore Galen reckons them among the principal parts They serve to enliven the body whose temper colour beauty voice and other qualities their deprivation not only destroys but also changes the manners of the Mind and extinguishes Courage as appears in cocks when castrated Add hereunto that they are hardest to be tam'd and therefore most noble The Fourth said That Generation being common to men not onely with beasts but also with plants being an action of the natural faculty it cannot be the noblest action of man but rather the Understanding which being exercis'd in the brain the seat of the Rational Soul this without dispute is the noblest of all whence 't is call'd Heaven by Homer a divine member by Plato and generally accounted the mansion of wisdom and temple of divinity which appears chiefly in the structure of its rete mirabile labyrinth and ventricles Moreover all the parts were made for the brain For man was born to understand and the intellectual faculty holds its seat in the brain To understand well it needed phantasmes and species which were to be receiv'd by the senses plac'd for that purpose in the head and to judge of the diversity of sensible objects it ought to have local motion and in order thereunto muscles tendons nerves and bones These actions of the Understanding are perform'd by help of the Animal Spirits the matter whereof are the vital of the Heart as the matter of these are the natural whence learned men are commonly lean and unhealthy because their natural spirits go to the brain instead of being carry'd to the parts in order to nutrition The Fifth said That to omit Aesop's opinion who prefer'd the tongue before any other part and found it most powerful to do either good or evil the hand seem'd to him as much more excellent then the brain as the active is to be estimated above the contemplative Therefore Aristotle calls it the Organ of Organs and 't is the symbol of faith strength and civility whence remain still the termes of kissing the hands CONFERENCE LXXXII I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature THe power of Nature and Art cannot be better judg'd then by their opposition yet how should any be between them whilst Art can do nothing without Nature For if the hand be off of Industry 't was Nature that made it a hand If the Sword be valued for the Art which fashion'd it and brought it into a condition to give Law to him that hath none 't is to the Iron produc'd by Nature in the Mines that it owes its matter And thus making the same induction through all disciplines 't will be found that they cannot be imagin'd without Nature not Logick without natural reason nor Grammar without speech nor Speech without a tongue nor writing without ink and paper nor these without the matter whereof they are made no more then a
of the Island of Tenos can endure wine CONFERENCE LXXXIII I. Of Baths II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife I. Of Baths 'T Is not in vain that Physitians examine the nature of the places wherein man's body is contain'd For the ambient air water or earth as in Dropsies hath great influence upon the same Now Baths are either total for the whole body or partial for some members such as the Half-bath where the head breast and arms are remaining out of the water fomentations pumpings and the like This Bath was in such request among the Romans that their Emperors were at great care and charge in building them not only at Rome but even in this City of Paris where the Emperor Julian made one Its benefits are great when us'd in due time and place and its effects different according to its divers composition For it always moistens more or less but it heats cools or tempers according as 't is hot cold or temperate It opens the pores by removing the scurfe which stop'd them and dilating them by its heat whereby it insinuates into the inward parts especially the muscles which by this means it swells up and by colliquating the humour corrects their dryness and repairs the emptiness introduc'd thereinto by lassitude Whence us'd moderately it takes away weariness and repairs strength but continu'd too long and being hot it draws forth the strength of the party too much and causes faintings a cold Bath cools the parts it touches but by accident and consequence heats them by obstructing the pores and passages of the spirits Hence they that come out of this Bath are very hungry and Hippocrates saith that the Convulsion is cur'd by casting cold water upon the shoulders which moves nature to expell its enemy So in fainting nothing recovers the spirits and revives the heart more then cold water cast on the face where the skin is thinnest and the spirits abound most The Second said That those at Rome anciently pass'd through three places In the first where the air was well warm'd like the Stoves of Germany they put off their clothes In the second a little more heated by fire underneath or on the sides they sweat the water which steam'd from the heated vessels sticking to their naked bodies and being thence gently wip'd off all the filth was brought off with Curry-combs of Ivory Here also they were anointed with Oyle either before the Bath of warm water when they would not relax the pores nor evaporate the spirits as in those that newly recover a sickness or are exhausted by labour or after the Bath to hinder the sweat which follows For the oyl stops the pores of the skin and so hinders transpiration In the third place was the water luke-warm or something more where they bath'd themselves afterwards plung'd into cold water or a little less hot which was on the side of the same place to fortifie the relaxed members Lastly they return'd to the second place there to sweat and be rub'd repassing by the first to avoid the sudden mutation from hot air to cold the danger of which Alexander found when being too hot he went into a river falling into shiverings and convulsions wherewith he had perish'd had it not been for his Physitian Philip. Whereby it appears that a Bath profits or hurts according as it is well or ill administred and that our wise Ancestors were more circumspect in it then we which possibly is the cause why it was in so frequent use that Galen speaks of divers of his time who commonly bath'd themselves twice a day the good which we receive from any thing being the inducement to the frequent practice of it The Third said That unless upon urgent necessity and a medicinal account bathing is not only superfluous but very hurtful to men For besides that 't is unnatural not water but air being man's element it opens the body and makes it susceptible of any bad qualities of the air for which reason 't is forbidden in time of pestilence For as Oke lasts longer then Fig-tree because 't is more solid so soft bodies are more unhealthy and short-liv'd then firme as those of peasants are who arrive to ages without experience of any of those delicacies For so many conditions are requisite to a Bath that 't is commonly more hurtful then profitable It must be vari'd according to the diversity of seasons and complexions which Galen confesses he understood not And one and the same day will be of different temper as it happens in Autumn so that one and the same Bath will be proper and not proper Besides 't is prescrib'd to be as hot as milk from the Cow which it cannot be for two moments but is immediately alter'd by the ambient air If it be said that the body suffers well the same variations of the air I answer that it is not expos'd naked to the air whose excessive qualities are abated by our clothes Otherwise every one would be inconvenienc'd therewith unless he were accustom'd to it from his birth as the Savages are Besides the air adheres not to the skin and so makes but a transient impression It must be us'd after digestion we know not when this is ended the body being purg'd which it seldom is as it ought otherwise it excites fluxions in such as are full-bodied and subject to catarrhs It fills the head with vapours it relaxes the nerves and ligaments so that some have never felt the Gout but after bathing It kills the infant in the womb even when it is too hot 'T is an enemy to those that have Tetters or Erysipelas to fat and full bodi'd persons and generally to all that are not accustom'd to it as if this element were not innocent but as the most mischievous things are when made familiar by custom As for bathing in rivers those that swim therein as most do strain themselves more then do's them good besides the incommodities which they receive from the air whereunto they are expos'd So that if you add the loss of time to the rich the charge to the poor and incommodity to all you will not wonder that most men abstain from them and that Seneca chose no fitter place to dye in then a Bath The Fourth said That a Bath being one of the things call'd by the Physitians not-natural that is whose right or ill use hurts or do's good no more distinction need be us'd in it then there is in eating drinking sleeping waking and such other things But the advantages of a Bath rightly us'd have none equal to them First it cleanses the body and gives a man a new skin opens the pores to let out the fumes and steams of the vessels which also are temper'd by the water 's sweet and mild quality It corrects dryness the enemy of life which consists in humidity reducing the same to a just temper whence lean and hectical persons
receive more benefit from it then any others Moreover Nature hath provided for other habits and complexions by the various mixtures of mineral-waters having compos'd hot baths of Salt Bitumen Sulphur and other Minerals through which they pass which strengthen the nerves and joynts cure Palsies as sea-water doth scabs But bathing chiefly regards fresh water It takes away weariness tempers the heat of weather causes sleep and is one of the most innocent pleasures of life But he that would know all the commodities of it must have try'd what ease it gives in the greatest pains especially in Colicks of all sorts whence 't is call'd Paradise by those that are tormented therewith Wherefore to take away bathing is to reject one of the best remedies in Physick and one of the greatest benefits of life The Fifth said That the Ancients having not yet the use of linen to free themselves from the soil contracted upon their bodies chiefly in wrastling and exercising naked upon the sand were oblig'd to the use of Bathes which became so easie and of so little cost to the multitude that they paid but a farthing a time whence Seneca calls the Bath rem quadrantariam And it cost them nothing after Antoninus Pius had caus'd a stately Bath to be built for the publick as Capitolinus reports But at length their use grew into abuse after women came to bathe themselves with men the Censors were fain to forbid them under penalty of Divorce and loss of Dowry II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Upon the second Point it was said That the Poet of our time who said that he would marry his Mistress that so he might love her less imply'd thereby that we less love what is already obtain'd But he determines not the Question who is soonest weary of loving or who loves most the Husband or the Wife where love must be distinguish'd from friendship being a passion of the Concupiscible appetite tending towards sensible good apprehended such by the Phancy whereas friendship is a most perfect vertue leading the will to honest good known such by the Understanding the former many times being opposite to the latter inasmuch as the Passions of the Appetite disturb Reason and by excess rise up to jealousie whereas the latter can have no excess for the more it is excessive the more it deserves the name of friendship 'T is therefore necessary that the woman whose phancy is stronger and intellect less perfect have more love and less friendship the husband on the contrary more friendship and less love Which extends also to children whom the mothers love with more passion and tendernss but the fathers more solidly which affection may serve for a proof and evidence of that in question The Second said That the praise of constancy in love is due to man whose mind is more perfect and consequently less mutable And whereas love proceeds from knowledge it will follow that men who understand more do also love more And want of affection would be more blameable in the man then in the woman as presupposing his defect of judgement in being mistaken in his choice men usually chusing their wives and the wives only accepting of the husbands who address to them For there 's great difference between the liberty our will hath to be carried to what object it pleases and only the turn of approving or rejecting what is offer'd to it So that the woman who loves not her husband may say that she was mistaken but in one point namely in accepting what she should have refus'd but the husband in as many as he had objects in the world capable of his friendship Besides 't would be shameful to the husband the head and master of the family to be inferior to his wife in the essential point which renders their marriage happy or unfortunate And Gracchus's choosing death that his wife Cornelia might live having slain the male of two Serpents whom he found together upon the Augur's assuring him of the said effect as it came to pass shews that we want not examples for proof of this truth as that of Semiramis who having the supream authority committed to her but for one day caus'd her husband who had granted the same and been indulgent to her all his life to be put to death and the 49 daughters of Danaus who all slew their husbands in one night prove the same The Third said That amity being begotten and encreased by necessity the woman as the weaker hath more need of support and protection from the man and so is more oblig'd to love him and therefore nature hath providently implanted in her a greater tenderness and inclination to love because all her happiness depends on her husbands good or ill treatment of her which is commonly according to her love to him To which end also the woman is endu'd with beauty and a more delicate body and consequently more apt to give and receive love then men whose exercises require a temper more hot and dry whereby to undergo the travels of life And if examples be needful the contest of the Indian wives who should cast her self into her husband's funeral fire together with whatever most precious thing she hath in testimony of greatest love suffices to prove this conclusion no men having ever been seen to burn for love of their wives Yea when anciently one man had abundance of wives a custom still practis'd amongst the Turks 't was impossible for the husband to have as much love for his wives as they had for him being in all ages contented with one alone and consecrating to him their whole affection which the more common it is is so much the less strong CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences I. Of Respiration ALthough our natural heat be of a degree more eminent then the elementary yet 't is preserv'd after the same manner namely by addition of new matter and emission of fuliginous vapours ever resulting from the action of heat upon humidity both which are done by the means of respiration which is the attraction of air by the mouth or nostrils into the Lungs and from thence into the Heart where the purest part of this air is chang'd into vital spirits which are also refresh'd and ventilated by it For though as much goes forth by exspiration as is taken in by inspirations yet the air we breathe is nevertheless turn'd into our spirits for that which issues forth is not air alone but 't is accompani'd with hot gross vapours streaming from the heart the furnace of our heat And as respiration is proper to perfect animals so the imperfect have only transpiration which is when the same air is attracted by the imperceptible pores of the body Which is sufficient for animals whose heat is languid as Insects the Child in the womb and hysterical women in whom also hereupon the pulse ceases for